A .09-ACRE HOMESTEAD

(Page 4 of 4)

January/February 1985
 
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I also tanned several rabbit hides for the first time this year, following instructions given in MOTHER. [ EDITOR'S NOTE: "How to Tan Rabbit Hides," by Kathy Kellogg, appeared in issue 79, page 78.] The hides required more scraping than the article indicated, but they nonetheless provided me with a pair of homemade slippers lined with warm, soft rabbit fur.

RELATED CONTENT

Our impromptu chicken coop is in the garage. Bruce simply fenced around the legs of a workbench and built ramps that allow the hens to enter and exit their enclosure through a nearby window. We've found that a coop light on a timer keeps our six hens laying well during the winter. They consume most of our table scraps and produce about 140 dozen eggs a year. True, the eggs cost us about 90c a dozen, but that computation doesn't take into account the value of the fertilizer and slewing hens we also harvest (or the unbeatable quality of homegrown eggs!).

AN EYE TO THE FUTURE

As our children grow larger (and louder!), our minihomestead seems to shrink. Learning to make the most from this tiny piece of real estate has been a valuable education, though... one that we hope to put to good use very soon. We recently purchased a one-acre lot and plan to build our own (larger) passive solar house within the next few years. After nearly a decade of learning to produce much of our own food on .09 of an acre, we're really excited to imagine how productive our one-acre homestead will be!

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