On Friday afternoon I moved some of the wood that had been left to season. It is now in the woodshed and will be split and added to the the stash of firewood which we keep for the wood heater.
Once I disturbed the ground, I was surrounded by the chickens who were eager to feast on the grubs and other insects which were lurking under the wood. They had a wonderful time turning over the soil and looking for tasty morsels.
This weekend we have built 2 more raised garden beds. One of them is lined with heavy cardboard that I had been saving. Then we piled in a thick layer of dry leaf litter followed by some lawn clippings. We will add more soil, compost and probably some mushroom compost which we will buy locally. These 3 garden beds have been constructed entirely from leftover and salvaged materials.
I started to think about how we manage to use and recycle much of what is generated on our property.
The wood is from tree limbs that have fallen or been lopped on our block. These will be used to heat our home. The resulting ash is added to the garden beds, either directly or via the compost. Any charcoal is saved in a jar of kerosene to use as firelighters. We grow fruit and vegetables. The chickens provide us with eggs. The scraps and peels are fed to the chickens. The chicken manure is added to the garden beds. Leaf litter and lawn clippings are added to the compost.
It is all part of a never-ending cycle.
organised castle 
Hi Fairy. I hear you on this one. We are often surprised by what we can find around the place to use in construction, repairs etc. Many times we have decided to go to Bunnings and then had a look around the place first and found we no longer need to go. Our most recent incident was today. We have been invaded by mice and have caught 6 in the past week in traps. So today we searched around for entrance places for them and discovered a few holes in plaster, or around waste pipes etc. This meant we needed a piece of gyprock and some filler. But we did a search and found two small squares of plaster under the house and a nearly full tube of filler, so the need to spend money was avoided once more.
No need to buy any firewood, either, as to add to the tree we had to cut down last spring, our son just removed two very large spotted gums that were too close to his home. He saved the middle of the trunks to make timber slabs for an outdoor kitchen and we scored the rest. We have about 2.5 tons of timber, most of it split now, and drying out ready for winter. The firewood will save us over $100 on the winter power bill.
Wise words about checking to see what you have before rushing off to the hardware. A good bargain with the firewood – sounds like a win for everyone.
You have a great system going there.. I would like to have some chickens again soon too. The husband is almost talked into it. We had 100 meat hens a couple of years ago, but now I would like to try out some laying hens.
Thanks, Heidi. It generally works pretty well. 100 meat hens, wow!! Did you do the killing yourselves? If I had to kill my own meat I think I would be a vegetarian.