"Our farm is a piece of heaven."(story of moving to rural Ohio from the suburbs)

COUNTRYSIDE is our favorite magazine. One of the things that makes it so enjoyable is the varying opinions. If everyone agreed on everything wouldn't that make boring reading? I love reading the controversial letters and I try to understand each one's point of view as it is.

We have come a long way since we received our first issue of COUNTRYSIDE six years ago, and would like to share some insights with you.

We have 20 beautiful acres on northeast Ohio's high point. Good air flow, cold air sinks to Lake Erie 12 miles north, but it's very windy when the deciduous trees have no leaves. We are sort of remote although we would like to be more so. Very difficult in the midwest megalopolis. We both still commute to the city for jobs to help pay for our unnecessary conveniences that we've become unfortunately attached to (new house, barn and two 4x4s) Jim has 70 miles per day and I 90, although I only go two days per week.

We live on a dirt road in the heavy snow belt area. I guess if we didn't have to commute we wouldn't need the 4x4s and could get away with an old ordinary pickup.

Our farm is a piece of Heaven away from the rest of the world. It was very scary leaving our upper middleclass "subdivided neighborhood," but we quickly adjusted and are at much more peace now that we don't have to keep up with the Jones.

Some of our successes:

We raised Buff Rock chickens last year. They were supposed to be Barred Rocks, but the farm store goofed, and we were too inexperienced to know the difference until the chicks were all feathered out. We raised them in "chicken tractors" like the book by Andy Lee. They work fantastic. The tractors are moveable 4x10 pens that the chickens live in all summer and get moved to fresh grass and bugs every morning. The only problem we have had with the tractors is the strong wind can turn them upside-down. Poor chickens get kind of scared. Now we tie the tractors to a stake if high winds are predicted.

We butchered the cocks (except for one; we named him Cocky Doodle. He's very mean to the children, but we keep him for amusement and he protects the hens.) We kept the pullets for eggs. I sell the extra eggs at work. Those city co-workers are amazed by them.

We built winter housing for the chickens out of shipping pallets and scrap lumber from the barn. So far the house is critter proof, but the coons and 'possums have been trying to tear it up. Jim has shot several. Yes, this may be politically incorrect but there is a severe overinfestation of coons and 'possums in this area. There are no predators (besides us!). We know when the chickens are being attacked because we keep a baby monitoring device in the chicken coop. We have three children.

The only real chicken problem we have had has been cannibalism which started about three months after their forced confinement. We've had snow almost continuously since early November. I just separated the pecked ones out by putting them in a chicken tractor in the barn. Now that spring is here (or supposed to be--it snowed again today) I am trying to "desegregate" them by letting them out in the run all together. Vinegar and extra greens helped a little, but I think room to run is the best remedy for cannibalism.

We had a pullet named "Bluefeet" because she had blue feet. They always looked bruised. After she started laying eggs (which were frequently blood covered) she hemorrhaged to death one night. She must have either had an anomaly or bleeding disorder. Another chick was always smaller and slightly off-color. She never laid an egg and the other chickens hate her. Both of these would have made good fall culls. I just didn't realize these oddities made a difference.

This year we have one acre of vinifera grapes to plant. We hope to one day quit those city jobs and make a business out of organic wine. We planned 1/4 acre garden; three times last year's size. I also sell seedlings to co-workers and friends (organically grown of course). We will plant field corn and alfalfa to help feed the chickens and pig. We are going to try that portable pig pen we read about in issue 80/2. We really like the portable idea. It works great for leaving manure just were we need it like the vineyard, orchard or garden. We also grow about seven acres of hay. The previous owner mows and bales it for his dairy herd. We negotiated this with him to keep the price of the land down. When we get the equipment we will keep the hay ourselves and then keep a cow or steer, too.

This letter is starting to ramble so will close for now. Homesteading has just been so much fun (I did have previous experience as a child) that I can't shut up... like the old tractor we bought at auction or how we built our own barn...