New Home

Winter

In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned that in the mid seventies I just about wore out the rental video called the Wilderness Family and its sequels. It was a story about a family of four that moved to a remote place in Colorado, built a log cabin and had a lot of wilderness adventures.

Right around the same time I checked into the Homestead Act at the library and found out it had just ended in 1976. It took me another thirty four years to fulfill that dream. In 2010, Laurie and I moved to the mountains of Eastern Washington State and created our little modern homestead.

We don’t live completely off the land and we don’t have a log cabin. We do however live off grid, grow and harvest most of our own food, and live a fairly independent lifestyle. We are both in our late fifties.

Canning on a wood fired stove.

Canned Goods

I just met a couple online who live just a few miles from us and they started their adventure in their mid sixties. We met another couple who are doing the same thing near here in their early thirties with three small children. I’m sure we all have our different circumstances that dictate when and how we do things.

I am contacted on a regular basis by people who want to do what we have done. They all seem to have a timeline based on their own life experiences and circumstances. We met Maya through our Off Grid Works website who worked on a cruise ship for many years until she had enough money saved up to start her own homestead in South Africa all by herself! We’ve met people from Canada, the East coast, the Missouri Ozarks and everywhere in between. They come in all ages, genders and backgrounds. All have a common dream of someday wanting to homestead.

Our First Garden

Chickens!

It has been painful at times to listen to the stories of people who want to homestead but have been stopped by personal tragedies – divorce, injuries, death of a partner. Our next door property owners started their lifestyle change here but had to stop due to a tragic accident their son had and now they are tasked with taking care of him for the rest of his life.

Anyone who lives this lifestyle knows it isn’t for everyone but if you have a desire to homestead I would urge you to re-examine all of the reasons that are keeping you from making your move. I had reasons for thirty four years. Looking back I can’t honestly say that it had to be the way it was. Sometimes you just have to re-prioritize and a healthy, productive, and meaningful lifestyle should always be at the top of your list. So when is it time to homestead? The answer is easy – as soon as possible.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

Three years ago we moved 250 miles away from home to the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. The only neighbors we see are lights shining at night on the next mountain over. We’ve kept busy learning how to live off grid, grow fresh food all year long (even in this harsh winter climate), raise chickens, maintain 3 miles of access road, and in short, learn how to survive in a whole new world. On top of that we are learning a new business we run from our home.

We average 8-10 hours per day seven days a week which leaves very little time for fun so you might imagine how excited we were when friends (Will and Gail) called and said they would like to come to our neck of the woods and bring their snowmobiles and go ice fishing! Ice fishing and snowmobiling were both something Laurie and I had never done before.

Five days before the “Big Day” I went to the Doctor for a routine checkup. That’s the only place I went. The next day I became violently ill. A few days later Laurie caught it as well. It turned out to be the Norovirus. That was by far the worst flu I ever had and worse yet, it was going to ruin our big day on the lake. Because we were still not feeling well, they had to go without us.

A month later our friends decided to try it again. Wouldn’t you know it? The night before the “Big Day” we had a storm and a lot of new snow. We were snowed in!
I got up at 5:00 and was out the door at first light to plow the road so we could get out of there and go have some fun. The plowing went well and we were down the mountain at 10:00 AM and headed for the lake. Finally!

We met our friendly tourist guides at the lakes resort. There was some kind of Snowmobile Poker Run that day and the place was jammed with snowmobiles and riders. They must have wondered who I was. I’ll bet I was the only one there who had a snowmobile suit from Montgomery Wards from 1985. I had purchased it to ride my new 4 wheeler in the winter way back then. Here I was 28 years later wearing it again and actually climbing onto the back of a snowmobile!

My friend Will took me out onto the lake to go scout for existing holes. We only had a hand auger to drill holes with. I got up to 40 miles per hour and that was fast enough for the first time. After finding a few holes we headed back to pick up the ladies and our gear.

We loaded fishing gear, a hand auger, and chairs for the four of us. Most of it was carried by hand by whoever was in the back riding double. Out on the ice we went and headed down the lake.
When we got to our spot, Will and I started auguring holes. The ice was 16” thick. It took about 8 minutes per hole except I used a couple of old holes and re-drilled them a little faster.

We baited our hooks and sat down to wait………………and wait………………and wait. Not much biting at first.  I finally caught the first fish after an hour or so. A 14” rainbow trout. I then caught a Kokanee trout (landlocked Sockeye salmon) but that was it.

We had a really nice visit with friends we hadn’t seen for a few months. The weather was beautiful and about 3:00 pm the fish attack began. We had three on at the same time! They were all Kokanee and ran about 12’ long. Beautiful thick bright fish. I was so busy baiting Laurie’s hook and taking care of her fish I finally pulled my line out of the water. It was fast and furious for over an hour. It never did end but we just had to get started for home because the horses and chickens needed to be fed and it’s best to go up our road in the daylight this time of year. We had caught 14 fish between the four of us.

We packed everything up and headed back to the resort. Once everything was put away we went inside the restaurant and treated ourselves to a rare meal out – Prime Rib Dip Sandwiches and an ice cold beer. The grill for the prime rib was located just outside the entrance door in the compacted snow. Inside the fireplace was going full bore with 3’ long logs. Our table looked out over the ice covered lake and the steep forested slopes beyond.

We finally headed back up the hill at dusk to our little homestead where we were greeted by the horses, chickens, dog and two cats. They were all very happy to see us.
After unloading our gear and taking care of the animals I built a fire in the masonry heater.  It wasn’t long before we had our own nice warm fire to enjoy and to help us reflect on what a wonderful time we had that day and how much we appreciated our friends for sharing their knowledge and time with us.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

I don’t really know if our chickens are like all chickens or if they are evolving into something so fantastic that we will be featured in agricultural textbooks for all time. Our chickens are becoming winterized.

We got these chickens fully grown a couple of years ago. Not being experienced we weren’t really sure what to expect. Our chickens are free range chickens. That means no one owns the property they graze on and whatever they find they get to keep for free. Horse pooh, dog pooh, crickets, and many other disgusting things.

Our chickens also have feathers so I figured we were good as far as winter goes. One of our friends told us they would be able to survive clear down to zero degrees. I was a little concerned because when I was a kid we had a Bantam Rooster called Popeye and one morning we woke up and ‘Ol Popeye was frozen solid in time never to thaw out again in our presence. We were told he was old and that’s why he froze. My sister and I never bought that one. Our parents were old and they never froze.

We live in the mountains at 4200’ and it does get pretty cold here but we also live off grid. That means no forced air furnace and hot water heater for the chicken coop. These guys were just going to have to tough it out. That’s the way I was raised and it worked for me and my sister, well it worked for me. Our parents would always say things like “just tough it out” and “quit whining” and we seemed to get through the winters okay with good parenting skills like that.

I did put insulation in the chicken coop and cover all the holes. We even had a freeze proof faucet nearby so we could get fresh water every day. Laurie made me get some sawdust for the coop floor. I guess I had to “cave” on something.

Fall came and I thought we were as ready as we were going to be for winter and right then all of the stupid chickens lost their stupid feathers when the stupid temperature got down to freezing at night. Well, how smart was that? All my life I had been told how “Mother Nature always gets it right”. Well apparently Mother Nature never had to live off grid. I just knew we were going to have to buy new chickens in the spring – ever y year.

Well it got down to minus 13 degrees Fahrenheit that winter for a couple of days. Our chickens really sucked it up. We were proud of them. The rooster had frostbite on his comb but he never really complained. I guess it’s easier to take care of now, kind of like being bald, and the hens seem to be attracted to him okay. Other than that they didn’t seem to be affected much.

The one thing I noticed that first year is that they never came out of the coop. I guess they didn’t have to. Laurie took them hot meals and warm water every day. Cooked rice, cooked oatmeal, and other things like that. I guess they would have to wait for summer for the disgusting things they like to eat.

We have a new generation of chickens who have grown up here and seem to be a little more used to the winters than the original gang. They still stupidly lose their feathers in the late fall but on a nice day they will venture out of the coop. I go out and shovel trails in the snow that lead to other areas I shovel and they do go out and scratch.

It’s hard getting used to snow. One hen shakes each foot after lifting her foot to take a step. She’s got it down though and does manage to go forward. It’s like a cadence – lift, shake, and step. Lift, shake, and step. We’ve also found that they can get bogged down in powder snow.  We’ve had to rescue more than one stranded in a snow drift. They act like a beached whale. Scientists are puzzled by the strange behavior.

Our original batch of chickens never left the coop. Our newer “evolved” chickens do. It wouldn’t surprise me to see their feet eventually develop webs like tiny snow shoes and their feathers turn white in the winter. I wonder if the government will give us a grant?

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

We live fairly high in the mountains. Just being three miles off the paved road with a 1000’ elevation gain will virtually assure that no one will come to visit you. We seem to have an average of 3’ of snow anywhere from October to March.
So what do we do in the late fall, winter, and early spring to pass the time?
Ed: I work on the website a lot, updating products, text, pictures, blogs, pricing, and shipping costs. There is always a lot of work to do.
I have to shovel snow by hand around the house and barn every time it snows. We have to keep a path to the chicken coops, solar panels, insulated cold frames, and hay stacks for the horses.
I plow the road. It is three miles long and takes anywhere from 3 hours to six hours depending on how much snow we get. This year it has been anywhere from once a week to three times in the same week. We’ve had wind storms that have caused the snow to drift and pile up to three feet high in the exposed places. I also hand shovel large areas under the trees for the chickens to scratch around in.
We shovel a lot of horse pooh in the winter. They have the run of about 15 acres but tend to stay on the plowed roads. I guess you might call them city type horses. I don’t want that stuff mixed in with the road gravel so we scoop it up in the Polaris and haul it to the garden where it gets spread every Spring when everything thaws and right before we rototill.
I do small indoor projects that we don’t have time to do in the summer. Small repairs, maintenance, and even some new ones.
I spend some time each day building two fires and hauling wood inside for them.
I plow about ½ mile of road that leads to the National forest from our house. We walk that and look at all of the different animal tracks. We snow shoe and this year we took turns skiing down our road and being pulled back up the hill by the Polaris. That was a lot of fun.
Last weekend we ventured down the hill to Lake Bonaparte and watched the snowmobile drag races.
In two weeks our friends are coming up from Oroville to that same lake and we will meet them there for ice fishing and a beer or two at the restaurant which sits right next to the lake and has a big old fashioned fireplace inside.
We are actually outdoors a lot. We’ve learned when to don long underwear and when to put on the insulated coveralls. When the snow gets compacted in the driveway or icy we even have to put our ice spikes on our boots so we don’t slip and fall.
It seems there is always something to do. It just changes with the seasons.
Laurie: I am always collecting things that look like they can be repurposed and made into something new. I have a room full of fabric, wool roving, yarn, buttons, ribbon, sewing machines, a large tapestry loom and that’s just a start. I always have projects that I have waiting to be started or finished, so I am never without something to do if I want. Quilting, rugs, felting, you name it. I’ll try it!
There are always the animals to be taken care of. Horses are fed and watered 3 times a day. I choose to not put out the large bales of round hay for the horses so they can eat free choice. My mustang would eat himself into oblivion if he had hay in front of him all day; he is the easiest keeper I have ever had. He gets fat just looking at hay. And then on the other hand we have our Quarter Horse who is always in need of a little more food, not such an easy keeper and is low man on the totem pole, so he can get pushed around. It’s a lot like trying to keep the peace in a house full of kids; you need to make sure they each get their share.
Because we are off-grid we don’t have the extra power for heaters for the water troughs for the horses and chickens. So when we get our really cold weather the water buckets have to be deiced and refilled at least 3 times a day. Horse pens are always in need of cleaning when I have a free minute, or want to get outside for a while.
And then, of course, there’s nothing better than a cup of tea and a really good book.
Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com and offgridworks.com.

I started blogging a year ago for Mother Earth News magazine. What and adventure! I had no idea it was going to go like it did.

It seems I had a lot to write about. Not many people get to experience our off grid lifestyle and are curious about all of it, even from a novice like me. I wasn’t sure how they would react at first but there have been many letters of thanks for sharing our experiences both good and bad.

I’ve written about planning our homestead, choices for energy efficient homes, living remote, living at higher altitudes, living off grid, gardening the year ‘round and even what an average day is like.

Many people wanted to contact me. Some just to say hi and others for advice. I decided to open another website for the blogs where everyone could comment and discuss the items that have been written about. I called it Off Grid Works.

From that blog site I have met people from all over the world. One couple kindly invited us to vacation in the mountains of Costa Rica at their Zen Retreat in exchange for solar design advice. We’ve met a single woman in South Africa who is going to build off the grid in that country and has to contend with leopards, giraffes and baboons in her garden. I was so intrigued by her story I’ve asked her to guest blog from time to time and share her adventure with us. Her photographs are incredible and she is a much better writer than I am.

Some of the readers’ questions have forced me to do even more research to make sure I was giving good advice. We’ve learned from our readers as well. We’ve received many suggestions on everything from how to kill a rodent to how to make your tomatoes grow faster.

Last June we had a booth at the Mother Earth News Fair. Now that was fun! We met a lot of people there. Some wanted to buy our products but many just wanted to share experiences and we have had several visitors to our home since then that we met at the fair. People who are following in our footsteps in the near future and wanted to see the things we have been talking about.

Our MEN Editor Heidi has shared with us that people like to read from someone like us who are not experts but learning as we go. It’s a good thing because we aren’t experts of anything. We’ve both had good backgrounds to help prepare us for this big change of ours but there is still a lot of learning and adjusting to do.

Thank you all for joining us this past season and thanks for the advice and encouragement! Laurie and I wish you all the best this Holiday Season and a Happy New Year to everyone.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their websites goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

Our winter lifestyle here is different from where we came from so we thought we should share what a typical day is like. When I say winter, I really mean sometime in October to sometime in April, that’s how long we have snow.

We typically have snow here that averages about 3’ deep once it builds up to that. We don’t usually get more than a few inches at a time. It settles and then snows a little more but it stays around 3’ deep.
Like summer time, Laurie and I work from 7AM to 5PM seven days a week.

Animals: Laurie does most of the animal work. She takes care of the dog, cats, chickens, and horses. The horses graze on our acreage in the summer but need hay in the winter. We have some beautiful and affordable river bottom hay from a friend of ours. Plus the water needs to have the ice broken twice a day so they can drink.
Laurie goes the extra mile for the chickens. You won’t believe what I’ve seen going out the door to feed them in their nice warm chicken coop. They get hot meals. I kid you not. Our chickens get rice dishes, heated leftovers, and the occasional hot cereal. Me – I just throw the door open and they can come out and eat mash or not on the frozen ground I have shoveled clean for them.
She takes care of them all twice a day no matter what the weather.

I get up in the morning and get the coffee and tea going. It’s also my job to fire up the masonry heater.  We burn it twice a day so bringing wood in from the woodshed is also one of the things I do daily.

We both work on the computer an average of four hours per day. Laurie handles most of the packaging and shipping, invoicing, book keeping, and deals with a few of our vendors. I get the rest of the vendors and handle all of the website operation which includes uploading and updating all of the products. I also do the product blogs on the website and blogging for Mother Earth News and therefore Off Grid Works as well. I handle all of the maintenance, advertising and SEO for the websites. We go to the Post Office / UPS shipping place three times a week. In the winter that can be a real challenge on our road.

As most of you know we grow fresh food in the winter. We started experimenting with our insulated cold frames last year. They are going full bore this winter. Inside the house Laurie has started on a new hydroponic system we are trying out. If it works we will add it to our “growing list of food growing products” on our web store Good Ideas For Life. We like to use the products we sell so we can answer any questions from customers. Because of that some of our time goes to experimentation.

Laurie handles most dinners and most housework. I love to cook breakfast and eat all the things we aren’t supposed to. We both clean up.
I take care of the garbage. It has to go 3 miles down the icy road every other week. I also take care of all of the generators, solar equipment, and battery charging and maintenance.
You might get the idea we are the Cleavers with traditional roles but the truth is that I’m pretty good with an apron on whether it be cooking or cleaning and when I get stuck mechanically or need some extra muscle with a shovel or wood cutting, I call my best mechanic, logger, and laborer – Laurie (mans best friend).

Laurie does craftwork. She makes things for people and for us. So far this winter she finished a quilt for her niece’s new baby and a wool rug for our living room. She also sews shopping bags for people to use that don’t prefer plastic.
I shovel most of the snow from around the house and barn and plow our property roads and the 3 mile long access road we use to get to the highway.
We both do odd jobs for other people to bring in extra money and stay busy.

We don’t leave much except to go to town for fresh supplies. We do manage to have some fun in the winters. We visit friends and even go ice fishing when it’s nice. We also go for walks from our house. We live next to National Forest land. When the snow gets  too deep we switch to snowshoes. It’s almost magical walking through a snow covered winter forest.

We like our winters but I’m sure we would both say they could be a little shorter.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

In 2010 we had to close our commercial masonry construction business due to a complete lack of work. What were we going to do? One could only guess as to how long the economy was going to be either slow or even nonexistent. We decided we needed to make a change and set about to research new options.

We made a lot of other changes as well. While we were in the process of closing the business down we were also building a new home on the other side of the state. We were going to live off grid in the mountains of Eastern Washington.

We had been looking at websites for sale online as a viable option for people living in a fairly remote setting and still needing income. Apparently someone forgot to tell the brokers there was a bad economy because the purchase prices were typical of a much better economy. We decided to build a new website instead of buying an existing one. After much research and consulting we launched Good Ideas For Life.

In all of our research we were able to look at quite a few sets of accounting books of online companies. It appeared that with good programming and a little creative code writing you could get ahead quickly, become “visible” to the search engines so that people could find you to buy your products. Unfortunately about the same time we launched, Google came out with a whole new set of rules and since they dominate the Search Market at this time you have to play by their rules. To this day no one knows what (if any) big secret lies in Googles new algorithm that might allow you to get ahead quickly.
I didn’t’ see the economy getting as bad as it did and I didn’t see this change from Google coming either. I can’t believe they didn’t consult with us before they turned the whole SEO (Search Engine Optimization) upside down with their new formula.

Bottom line was that it was going to take a lot longer time to become successful with an online store. It was going to take a lot of hard work and even more patience. What were we going to do in the meantime?

It’s been a struggle. We live too far (100 miles round trip) to travel to a full or part time job that pays less than $12.00 per hour. Jobs here average $9.00 to $12.00 per hour. When we chose our property to build on, gas was $1.50 per gallon, not $4.00 or $4.50 for diesel.

The gist of all of this was that we got caught without an income in spite of our research, hard work, and good intentions. Because of that we have been doing whatever we can to survive.

Our website is getting better but still has a long way to go. This past year we have done the following types of odd jobs to stay afloat:

Laurie has done custom sewing for paying customers.
I have done tractor work for neighbors.
We both worked for a moving company that needed extra help.
I’ve done contract work for a local Contractor that isn’t familiar with government paperwork and need some help bidding.
I’ve also done permit work for people who want to build here but live far away. I represent them in acquiring address’s, permits for sewer, water, and power and meeting all of the proper entities to get quotes for everything needed prior to actually building.
I helped construct a root cellar.
I helped install a new pump in a new well and set up the water system.
Sold products at the Mother Earth New Fair.
Sold products from our website.
We also make some money from our blog site Off Grid Works from Google Ads.
We even traded cleanup labor for free apples, pears, and pie cherries.

Whatever it takes is what you have to do. We’re hopeful that Good Ideas For Life will continue to grow but in the meantime if you need something done in the middle of nowhere, give us a call, we are available.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com and offgridworks.com .

We had a lot of company this summer. As many as 18 different people in one month. Some stayed and some just visited for a few hours.
Many are just curious about our lifestyle. Some came to see our home and design features and get ideas for their own new home. Most are curious about our solar power.

We live in an area that is considered a vacation paradise for most people. Camping, fishing, hiking, hunting, and gold panning. We also have snowmobiling, skiing, and ice fishing in the winter.

They stayed anywhere from a few hours to five days. We love our friends and family and we get excited when total strangers want to come and see what we have done with our house and property but 18 people in one month can be a challenge for us to keep up with all of our chores and work.

It takes a lot to run our little homestead. We have a big garden in the summer that gets hand watered in order to save water. When veggies are ready for canning then they are ready. They won’t wait for company to leave. Chickens, horses, dogs, and cats have to be fed every day. Cleanup after the same has to occur every day. Wood has to be cut and fences maintained. We maintain all of our equipment. We only have a certain window of opportunity to catch the kind of fish we need for canning. We monitor our solar charging and water pumping systems. It’s all a timing thing and won’t wait for company.
We used to go three blocks for food. Now any trip we make to town is anywhere from 50 to 100 mile round trip and one half to a whole day.

Add to that we own a full time business. Both Laurie and I work there. It is our website Good Ideas For Life located on a computer in our home. It is a new business and takes a lot of work to build it up. Between our work on the website and homestead chores, it is easily full time for both of us seven days a week and between 10 and 12 hours per day.

I’m writing this blog because I want something to show people who want to come and visit. I want them to understand that we love having them but at the same time we have a lot to do and can’t stop to entertain as much as we would like to. We really do want to visit with friends and family and we want them to understand that we are willing to make time for that but it isn’t always possible.

I guess that’s what happens when you live in a small corner of Paradise. Poor us!

Please do come to see us. Just understand we are limited in our hospitality by necessity, not by choice.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

The garden is done except carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. It’s time to rototill.

Our Mountain Salmon are spawning now but the smaller ones they planted in the spring are really nice size to eat.

It hasn’t rained here for three months. Nothing but dust. Rain is in the forecast next week. We are going to have to celebrate when it does.

Another water leak. We have over 1325’ of waterline and this time we don’t know where it is.
When we bought this place we inherited the existing well and pump. The pump was undersized. Because of that it hasn’t ever worked the way it should. It is drawing 44 Amps of solar power. The new one we are putting in will only draw 15 Amps and get the job done three times faster!

The hunters will be moving in this weekend for a week. Probably should paint the horses bright orange.

Almost done with the equipment maintenance. Checked the tire inflation pressure and changed oil and lubed all of the grease fittings. Getting ready for winter use.

Headed out to friends to cut free wood to bring home for next year. Part of the down trees from the July 20, 2012 Big Storm. We can always use more wood.

Winterized our outdoor sink this week. This time I remembered to dump RV antifreeze down the drain.

Pretty soon I will be up on the roof plugging vent holes before the real cold sets in.

We also need to get the insulated cold frames planted – SOON! We still have a few fresh veggies like spinach and Swiss chard in the garden but we need to plant those kinds of foods in the cold frame as well.

We’ve been heating our home this fall with our masonry kitchen stove but I will need to fire up the masonry heater in a week or so. We have to build a few small fires first to make sure all of the moisture is out of it so it doesn’t blow up from a steam explosion. I wonder what the odds of that happening really are?

Time to harvest a few chickens. No need to feed them all over the winter. We had a good batch of young ones this year. I may take some of them as well. Never a fun thing but it’s why we have them.

Made a trip to town to stock up for a while.

Last batch of tomatoes to can this week. One more batch of fish as well. Laurie has been grating zucchini for the freezer to be used in zucchini bread this winter.

On the way to cut wood tomorrow we will stop by a friend’s house and get some apples off his tree. That will be the last of the canning, freezing, and preserving for the year.

Our neighbors will all be moving their RV’s off the mountain for the winter. We probably won’t see them until next spring.

This is my favorite time of the year for some reason although I don’t look forward to the snows again. I wonder how much snow we will have?  I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as we have lots of wood to burn and food to eat.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their websites goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.

So you want to have fresh eggs and the more adventurous of you might even think you want fresh meat! Of course, to be totally in vogue these are going to have to be free range chickens or it’s just not cool.
Like most things there is another side to the story. This blog is about some of the less attractive side of free range chickens.

We currently have 15 free range chickens, all different varieties. Buff Orpingtons, Dominique’s, and Rhode Island Reds and some kind of cross in between those three breeds. We don’t just let them out in a tiny pen for an hour a day to qualify them as “free range” like so many commercial growers do. We let our chickens out of the coop at first light and they go back in at dusk. All day long they have the full run of our 40 acre property.

While most people might think that is the ultimate in chicken raising it isn’t all that clean of an issue. There are some problems that you should consider before you turn the little ones loose to do as they please.

This summer Laurie worked very hard to put a little flower bed next to our main entry door. She dug up local plants to display and even shopped around the woods for some decorative wood to put in the bed. She then wrapped the whole thing in chicken wire to keep the dog, chickens, and cats out to give the new plants a chance to get rooted and grow.
The fence was unsightly and we finally took it down last week. Within three days the chickens had destroyed the planter, turning it into a chicken spa to relax out of the sun and bath in its fine soil. I’ve shooed them and even sprayed them with water but they keep coming back.

One of my jobs outside is to keep all of our concrete slabs clean which I think helps keep the inside of the house clean. It was all easy enough to do until we got free range chickens. Now I have to scrape the concrete before I sweep it and even that doesn’t erase all of the little round markings. That also goes for anything outside they might sit or roost on during the day.

If that isn’t enough to make you question the whole free range concept let me add one more.  Free ranging chickens are going to look really good to a variety of predators. This past year we have had to deal with coyotes, weasels, and too many hawks to list.
Thanks to our Anatolian Shepherd livestock guardian dog and me we still have all 15 chickens but only just barely. The dog has chased coyotes, the weasel, and at least one hawk off the property. The hawk was 3’ above one of the chickens when the dog just exploded into action and chased it away. I took care of the rest. At times it seemed like a full time job, like when the family of hawks came to visit – mom, dad, and baby hawk. They were trying to teach the little one how to hunt and using our chickens to do it with.

They do keep the bugs down. We literally don’t have grasshoppers in our immediate area anymore and I have to admit our chickens seem to be very happy. They also can be very entertaining. All that being said they are fodder for any and all predators and very messy to boot.

We managed to keep our chickens safe this year but how are you going to feel if you let one predator slip in and steal one of your little bug pecking munchkins? Is it really in their best interest to free range if it also exposes them to being killed by any number of different predators? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I just want you to be able to make an informed decision.

We’re still free ranging here but I am considering a large pen with a wire lid on it for the future. The jury is still out. One thing that is encouraging is that with each generation of new ones they seem to be getting wilder and more wary than the original chickens we started with. Something else to consider.

Ed and Laurie Essex live off grid in the Okanogan Highlands of Washington State where they operate their website goodideasforlife.com  and offgridworks.com.