Crazy Days on the Farm

by Kelly
(Vancouver Island, BC Canada)

Kelly's garden cloches to lengthen the growing season.

I have always wanted to homestead, grow all my own food, and be more self-reliant. Almost two years ago, I finally took the plunge and bought my little 5 acre farm. Two weeks later, the company I worked for went bust. Suddenly, I had a huge mortgage, and no way to pay it. I decided I had worked too hard to get to where I was, and I would just find a way to make it work.

My two passions in life are gardening, and dogs. So, I tailored my life around that. I opened a dog boarding and doggy day care service to keep me going while I worked on getting a market garden up and running and profitable. I have now been in business for just over a year. I have worked like crazy, and the dog boarding is going gangbusters. I continually work on building my market garden, and have become a CSA farm. It will take me about 3-5 years for the gardens to make me enough money that I can cut down on the amount of dogs I care for, but I am loving each and every day.

I am raising chickens and turkeys for the first time in my life. I decided on doing heritage breeds, and have Dorking chickens (dual purpose) and Blue Slate turkeys. I am planting an orchard with cherries, apples, plums, pears and hazelnuts, as well as working on establishing a berry patch with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.

Managing a herd of dogs each day with the gardens can be sometimes amusing, and sometimes frustrating, but every day is an adventure, and there is always so much to learn!

My adventures are updated on my blog at www.crazydogfarm.blogspot.com. For anyone who has been told they 'can't' do it... my story says you can, if you want it bad enough. I look forward to each and everyday, and become closer and closer to living my dream of being self sustaining and self reliant.