Just up the road..

The road we live on is a silly road. Just about every time it crosses another street it seems to change names. If you go up the road, although you will still be in Salem, you will be in Roanoke County where agriculture is allowed. Keep going and you'll loop back into the City and back to Main Street. A nice little drive. Here are some of the things living just up the road:

The goats are one of my favorite sites to see, if only because I can always count on them being there & the baby goats really are "kids" ... they're a trip to watch as the romp and play.

There are three seperate fields along the way that have horses. This is one of our favorites to spot them, mainly because it is the easiest to see from the road. It had been raining for a while (several days more like), so no wonder these gals are muddy ... you would be too!

They were quite curious and eager to come over and say hello.

This one is harder to spot, and to be honest this is the first time we'd ever seen them, but I simply couldn't leave them out. Look closely in the center of the photo & you will see two pink pigs! Since taking this photo we've spotted the pigs several more times, much to Shannon's delight.

When I hopped out to take the photo of the pigs, I spotted this fella out in front of the house, strutting his stuff alongside the road.
There are also cows at another house, but I haven't been able to get a photo of them yet. Timing is everything, isn't it?

Last year we were yelled at and told how we need to be "out there" and "away". I was told "you just think you're so radical" in a movie-scene worthy sneer. And that's the thing: we don't think we're so radical, and we certainly don't need to be "out there" to live the way we do.
Much to everyone's delight, the Obama's have decided to plant a Victory Garden at the White House. This isn't something radical, it is something that was commonplace up until about the mid-40's. There were even sheep there, "mowing" the lawn, once upon a time!
Nothing about how we live is really that alternative, or radical. It may not be in-line with what suburbia-culture has come to deem as the norm over the last 50 years, but there is a very strong argument that that very suburbia-culture is .. faulty & misguided (to put it nicely).
Here is a quick look at our agendas for this weekend:
So far today Justin has mowed the yard, dug up some strawberry plants for transplanting, and is onto cleaning out the front flower bed along the fence. I've made butter, some fresh bread (using one of my specialty flours he got me for our anniversary -- he got me a "box of flours" ... YAY!!!!!!!! - I used some Kamut in this loaf of bread), and I've currently got some yogurt in the machine. I've fed and watered the guinea pigs. We got the compost from the kitchen into the bucket and started for some compost tea. I cleaned the fish filter (poop for tea!), and I've replanted the strawberry plants in their new location (after checking first to make sure they'll be ok with the other plants growing nearby). Hey, we've also managed to feed two boys two meals each, and have them down for naps at the moment!
After naps, we'll go pick up some fresh straw for the chickens. Once their straw storage bin is full, we'll put the rest in the garden for some deep mulch. We'll also give the chickens fresh straw in their nest box, collect eggs, and probably move them to a fresh spot in the yard. While we're out to pick up straw, we will drop our beer off for this month's Star City Brewer's Guild competition, and pick up our Beer of the Month.
Tomorrow is "brewing day." We'll be brewing up 10 gallons of our IPA and 10 gallons of our Back Porch Brown Ale. Justin has to get the starter ready for that tonight. We'll also have the smoker going, smoking most likely another pork shoulder, and then I've decided I want to cook a homemade pizza on there too. We expect people to be stopping by throughout the day, so there will be that mingling as well.
Hmm ... some other things forgotten: I'm still working on my knitting (Wal-mart now sells an eco-friendly yarn made from recycled soda bottles that is so soft ... I couldn't resist!), I'm planning on making up some homemade sausage gravy (I've got the sausage out thawing now) along with some biscuits to go with it, tonight's dinner is Crock-Pot beef stew, and of course more meals and snacks to round out the weekend. Playing with the kids, maybe doing some workbook-schoolwork with Shannon. Hanging out with the dogs. Laundry, dishes, general tidying up. Oh yea, we also have to go through our seeds this weekend, figure out what we need to order, and get some started in one of the seed trays. Maybe plant some lettuce outside, maybe some other greens too.

Well ... there you go. Now you know our agenda. You know what goes on inside such an alternative household. Anarchy reigning supreme. These type of things happen when you start focusing on growing your own, on trying to live sustainably, on trying to do things yourself. It is truly the downfall of decent, civilized society isn't it? We really should be locked up.