Chicken Composting System
One of our big projects is the chicken composting system, inspired by Edible Acres. This is just the beginning of the base layer, I’ll keep adding layer upon layer, letting the chickens explore and spread out the heap naturally. My girls are beyond ecstatic with this new job, which they take very seriously. In the photo below, you can see the second layer of composting material, with ‘Spicy Chicken’ standing proudly front and center.
Over the compost heap, I have cattle panels draped in burlap. The burlap creates some shade so my chickens can enjoy the heap with a little less heat. It also keeps the sunlight from burning off moisture too quickly. The burlap allows rain into the compost system as well.
As you can probably see, the cattle panels need some straightening out and I need to pin down the burlap. However, this is all an aesthetic thing - the chickens certainly don’t mind if their run looks a little wonky.
The chicken compost project will expand into a food forest, starting spring of 2027. The chickens will have access to the food forest at certain times. Any young plants will need to be protected.
Not pictured here is the garden boarder that goes around the perimeter of the chicken run. Plants that require a lot of nutrients - such as pumpkin and squash - will be planted in these garden beds and allowed to grow up the cattle panel fencing.
There are lots of projects happening this fall and big plans for spring!
TreasuresWe love finding treasure that existed on the old farmstead. From what I gather, these old bottles that had been tossed in the woods date from the late 60s to early 70s. There’s a Coca-Cola bottle, 7-Up and Squirt bottles (the large green ones), and one that I’m pretty sure is a ketchup bottle. The smaller ones might be baby food bottles, as I found some old baby powder bottles nearby.
There’s a lot of old junk out there, too. Along an old, overgrown stone wall, pieces of old cars, beer cans, stanchions, mattress springs…you name it, can be found. The wall itself is beautiful, tucked into the woods, and covered in moss. Whenever we walk the stone wall, we always find some new treasure. This was our latest!
Part of what gets me excited about gardening is the feeling that I’m revitalizing part of this farmstead’s history. I feel connected to the people who lived on this land before me. And when I find these ‘treasures’ I can piece some of what their lives were like together…like I know they drank Old Milwaukee, raised a family here, and use Pond’s Cream for skincare. It’s these little things that make me feel the most connected.
Additionally, I found an old cast iron water stanchion or self-waterer for barns. It reminded me of when I was a kid, playing in the dairy barn, ‘helping’ the cows by filling up their waterers. Seeing that truly made me feel connected to this land and the people before me, through their discarded objects, trash, junk. They’d probably find it pretty silly if they knew that 50+ years in the future, some lady would be digging through their junk and calling it treasure, hauling it back to the house they discarded it from in the first place.