Heartiness Approach

May 4th, 2018

What is Heartiness?

Even though no one has asked we want to explain the word we have chosen for the lifestyle we have chosen. A little history first. When we decided that we needed to make big changes in how we lived, we searched for answers. Our searching quickly led us to multiple interrelated lifestyle choices that combined to cause the improvements we wanted. We realized that the lack of any of the changes jeopardized or compromised the others.

Knowing that a descriptive word or short phrase is preferred over a long explanation we sought the right word. Narrowing the word list down to a final choice was easy when we found Heartiness and it’s definition.

Heartiness – The condition of being sound in body. Fitness, health, healthiness, robustness, wellness, wholeness, wholesomeness. Related words are – Stamina, vigor, roughness, vigorousness, vitality, strength.

Like all of life, our seeking for Heartiness is a pursuit. We strive each day to Approach closer to Heartiness. We have said before that we will always practice.

A major part of the Heartiness Approach involves sharing and encouraging others. Along the way, we learn from others. We believe that as we all willingly and openly share what have gained, we all will benefit. This is a prime example of how the sum of the parts becomes greater than the whole.
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Read our blogs from last week and this week.

Connected

Homesteading in your 60s

What are we going to do?

Many of the questions and comments we get asked about our plans. We are somewhat like the car driving down a dark road at night. We can only see as far as the headlights shine. We have enough knowledge and experience to have confidence that we can succeed, but…

Sorting out what can be done here and combine with what we know and are willing to do is taking some time. Truth is, we are still working on the big picture. Because life is lived a day at a time, even minute by minute, we do our best to make the most of each moment. The long range, bit plan is necessary and we are working on that. In the meantime, we have immediate needs to take care of.

Eating and keeping our shelter livable are important to us. The house has a few livability issues which we will take care of as we can. We will show those projects as we take care of them. We started a small garden this last week. Once we get a load of compost we will finish that garden. We will put salad greens there plus microgreens. Growing microgreens is a new endeavor for us and one that we are excited to share.

Which animals are we getting?

We have many who have asked about our animals. We are starting with chickens. Our realtor has offered a few lay hens which we will gladly take. We are prepping the coup part of “Little Barn” before we go to Oregon so we can be ready for our return to start with chickens. Looking at Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace we are confident that we can get laying hens for reasonable prices. We want a flock of about ten to give us enough eggs to eat and share.

We will also purchase chicks to raise as layers. Starting them in late May means they will start laying just as the other flock slows down for molting and winter. We hope we have the timing right.

Although we are starting the first flock of ten in the coup of “Little Barn”, we will be creating two Chickshaws and purchasing electric poultry fence. We want to use these chickens to clean, till, and fertilize several patches around our zone 1 and perhaps zone 2. The flock of ten will get the first Chickshaw as the chicks are ready to move from the Ohio brooder to the “Little Barn” coup where they will begin learning about foraging outside. We hope to get a guard goose to grow up with the chicks.

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