Now (early August) that the vegetable and grain crops are mature and less susceptible to damage, I’m giving the laying hens free range access to half of the raised bed garden to forage all of their own food. They are quickly consuming all of the pests, chasing the chipmunks away from the grains and eating many of the weeds that I’ve allowed to grow in the garden specifically to feed to the chickens. Their favourite plants are by far the clover. They’re eating the plants down the ground which will kill part of the roots, releasing nitrogen into the soil. That, along with the manure they’re adding as they forage and a fall cover crop I’ll plant soon, will make these beds extremely fertile for next year’s growing season.
Welcome to our self reliant homestead! Join us, Shawn and Dervla, as we create a resilient, abundant and sustainable ecosystem that feeds our families from the land in Ontario Canada. Using permaculture as our guide, we strive to become independent in water, food, energy and shelter, focused on beauty in form and efficiency in function.
Our Self Reliance is a life of compromise between my two daughters and my wife’s preference for culture, comfort and formality, and I, with my love of chaotic and beautiful but challenging and often uncomfortable wilderness living. The resulting homesteads are an eclectic blend of modern with traditional, whimsical with practical, formal with informal, civilized with rustic.
Over the last five years, my wife and I designed and built our dream homesteads from scratch with very little outside help; from undeveloped, declining forest to a comfortable home and cabin with a prolific edible landscape for people and wildlife equally. For many years, we have strived to lessen our burden on others by taking full responsibility for the health and welfare of our immediate family while building a strong community around us, both online and offline. Now that the infrastructure is in place here, we will be spending more time working cooperatively with community members, including extended family, to collectively become more resilient while living a deeply satisfying and meaningful life. Thank you for being part of that!
#homestead #sustainability #farming #offgrid #selfreliance
48 Comments
Happy Chickens! 😁
Your very own bioculture established by virtue of your knowledge and your two hands. Now you can continually improve your bioculture.
CAN YOU SEE….ou can find a lot to do around ,you dont need to look for videos subject arownd
Lots f grubs or worms in your garn, Shawn? Chickens love them
Right now, here in Iowa, we will have to go to rat wire to prevent birds from bringing in the Birdflu. Do you like the Homesteading environment more by now?
merci JAMES
👍great video
That's a great decision! It's what they were made for when not laying eggs or getting eaten. Speaking of eggs, the ones you'll get from this bunch after they've cleaned the veggie garden will be superb!
I reckon you are now ruing the day you planted that comfrey! Judging by its size and numbers in this video it's been "a while" since you worked that area.
I was waiting for you to show us how you get the chickens back into their enclosure. Nope. Maybe show us another time?
Beautiful garden! I let some spring greens go to seed and I found the bees really like fennel flowers and yellow clover. Yellow clover is a bit of a huge plant but attracts so many bees. It usually reseeds itself in a useful place.
Do you not have air born predators? We used to let our chickens out like this until the hawks started to take them. We have sense confined them to a fences in area with hawk netting above to prevent the hawks from getting them. We love out chickens………….
Nice brother thanks for the video
Now those there, they are some happy critters. Lively, lovely garden.
cool !
Love hearing the chickens. After the growing season begins another busy time.
On another channel in the UK her comfrey was growing in abundance, she cut it back too. Speaking of clover, I learned that clover lawns are the landscaping trend that requires just 4 mowing per year. Can you imagine the savings?
Beautiful farm and garden. What type of portable fence is that? Where did you get that great looking hat? Peace and blessings…
Love hearing your wife's beautiful voice in the background!
Thank you for sharing this. I love watching the chickens.
Shawn..that was spectacular to watch.
I've tried for 4 years to grow comfrey and this year it finally worked! Can't wait to have your problem. I know people put it in the bottome of a water barrel and siphon off the fertilizer to water new little tender plants or to water struggling plants that need watering. I know the root is fantastic for healing humans but my one little plant i only 8" tall and I just keep hoping for the best. The drone fottage shows the bigness of your beautiful garden – it is a treasure and so informative. Thanks!
Your soil must have plenty of nutrients for the blueberry plants and others to grow so fast and tall. Have the chickens started laying eggs yet?
the fruits of your labor, huge sense of accomplishment
It’s so beautiful there Shawn, y’all are very blessed! 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🌱🌿🪴💯💯💯
absolutely incredible what you have done and are doing, true inspiration
Will you use the thinned out comfrey for some medicinal products and/or fertilizer?
lucky creatures
Chickens are so entertaining!
Your chickens look and sound very healthy, happy and contented.🦃🐓
They seem very pleased with the new garden access, was it hard to scoot them back into shelter, or will they return as light recedes ? I'm curious if you've noticed a change in taste color or consistency of eggs you're getting after diet enhancements ? You mentioned the Comfrey I think, was overwhelming blueberries and other plants ? Wondering if the liquid fertilizer is enabling this rapid growth ? Am thinking if you split a milk jug along handle vertically and trim top and bottom to fit best around blueberries you could fence in or confine the liquid fertilizer around them to exclusion of Comfrey nearby ?
Your stated goal in your venture? is very inspiring! and admirable. What you have created thus far, in your surroundings and homestead is incredible, and noteworthy. Thank you for sharing this awesome vision, and your current completion of same . . . best wished to you all in your continuing journey – to total self-reliance! A rare and enviable objective! :>)
watching chickens do there thing is some of the best enrichment humans can experience, yeah we may lose a few crops… but the chicken entertainment is worth it
Have a beautiful garden.
Have you ever used a gas powered weed wacker?
I'm pretty sure those chickens are happy! I miss your cooking 😅 but i love your gardens! 👍😎🇨🇦🌿🌾
You need more than yourself to tend to the garden!
Where is that portable fence to be purchased?
You have created a veritable jungle there Shawn. Watch out for the Comfrey, they may be Triffids.
Your garden overview is just Spectacular! All your hardwork is shows bright. Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us. Jesus loves you and so do I ❤🙏
So satisfy to clean up unwanted plants in d garden 😂
Thanks Shawn.
From Downunder
Fala de nós dois um pouco.
Wow, that was exciting.
i have gotten myself lost. you have 2 different homesteads? is the log cabin you built not on the same property as the garden with the chicken coop? if not, you have another home on that property? you mentioned in another video on this channel you 'periodically' spend time at the cabin? thats not where you live anymore? im lost, help me out.
I like those rice knives for chop and drop.
I love chicken. Just like rabbit that tastes like chicken 😂
SHAWN & OUR CALI !!! How is the rhubarb doing there??? Have been thinking of that !!! Your garden is so great there !!!
Could we have the Finnish text please.
I love to see chooks chooking 🙂
The more chlorophyll from green plants they consume,the more their egg yolks become thicker and orange