Chicken Little

This morning, as I usually do, I woke right up at 7:30am. I promptly dressed and headed to the front door to slip on my muck boots. After assuring that the two sibling cats were content with their breakfast I headed to the chickens. Monté, the border collie, is just as enthusiastic and bounds up the hill ahead of me. Although it is still near freezing out, the chickens are all up and ready to be released into their paddock. The several ducks that that live with the chickens see Monté and sound off quacking. Monté has a chronic herding disorder and tries to herd our feathered friends through the fence. The creatures of habit know what time to expect me and become pushy if I'm much later. They also habitually run to the entrance of the paddock we closed off two days ago.

Aña and I just built a third paddock area hoping to rotate them through vegetated areas. The 24 or so chickens and six ducks can decimate a good size area in just a couple of weeks. They eat everything that is green and tear up the soil hunting for insects. Our goal is to reduce feed inputs while allowing the chickens to produce healthier eggs. Among other things, I'm sure, if the chickens are eating more green plants their eggs will be higher in omega three fatty acid. In our society's grain heavy diet it's good to up the omega three to six ratio any chance possible.

Letting the chickens out this morning brought back fond childhood memories. Somewhere around six to eight years old I was occasionally “baby sat” on a farm. The farm was only about a mile from where I grew up in the country of northern Wisconsin. Appropriately named “North Wind Farm” was and still is an organic farm that operates off the grid and strives for sustainable living practices. Of course, at that age I had no idea what the gird was nor what organic meant. I mainly just loved arriving on the farm and rushing to check for any eggs in the hen house. It was always like easter; finding a pink one here, a green one there, and some speckled ones hiding under the straw on a shelf higher up. The rare breeds of chickens and roosters on the farm all had original looks and personalities. I remember watching them at great lengths and playing with the chicks in tall cool grass on warm summer days.

Today it makes me laugh remembering how odd I thought the life style on that farm was. People not driving off in their cars to jobs. Not enough electricity for a television. Going to the bathroom in an adjoined outhouse with a pit. Eating weird “alternative” foods and even some stuff that was pulled right out of the ground to cook up. There were drying plant parts and seeds all over and clear homemade soda. Not understanding or being accustomed to that lifestyle made it seem foreign. Now, however, it has become the lifestyle that I'm seeking out.

Aña and I both are happy to have ended up on a wonderful organic farm in California. We found the farm through the W.W.O.O.F. network. It's the same network that many people used to find North Wind back when I was being taken care of there. It stands for world wide opportunities on organic farms. There are international branches for farms all over the world. The idea behind it is to unite farmers with people willing to work in exchange for learning and commonly room and board. After subscribing to a particular country or region you get a list of farms with their descriptions and contact information. Then it is up to you to contact the farms and work out the details.

W.W.O.O.F-ing together has been our dream for some time. We've just been held back for one reason or another. Either we wanted to be close to family, we were bitten by the travel bug, or felt we needed to earn money. Now, at last, it seems we could become professional wwoofers and travel the world living on farms. It also seems there are often ways to earn a little money with a little creativity. Much money isn't needed anyways. With room and board covered, no more student loans, no bills, a little bit goes a long ways. It's hard to complain when there is abundant organic food, clean spring water, and a remote country landscape. As David, another worker on the farm here said, “We might be poor, but we live like kings”. For me, it sure beats working a meaningless job and living in a toxic city. Besides, to end with another quote from Michael Franti, “Only a rat can win a rat race”.