Mavis Mail – Tamara From Monroe, Washington Sends in Her Garden, Goat and Chicken Photos

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find unique ways to save, show off our chickens and have a rock star gardens. Keep them coming!

Hi Mavis!

I am one of your and Lucy’s biggest fans and have been following you guys since you started this blog. I wrote to you back in 2014 and you shared my garden photos and I thought I would write again to update you on all that is going on at our homestead since then!

Well, since then, I am only left with one kiddo at home who is in her senior year of high school. Which has left me with much more time on my hands! As a result, I have gotten more involved in gardening, the chickens have all become my project instead of the kids, the goats are still my DH’s deal, and I started a blog to document all the goings on here!

Here are some photos of the vegetable garden. I have been using a no-till gardening method for years now and am slowly moving over to a Back to Eden style garden. Basically, this means mulching heavily using arborist wood chips, or with whatever organic material you have on hand.

I often just use straw. It’s a wonderful system because it reduces time weeding and watering! This year what I enjoyed most, was adding many flowers to the vegetable garden! It helps the bees and looks pretty too!

Here are some photos of our side & back yard, showing our two different coop compounds. The first photo is our Goat Compound. It holds the goat shed and 5 chicken coops.

Next is our second compound that we call the Layer Coop Compound which also includes 5 chicken coops. We started with the original layer coop, and then chicken math happened! My kids were all involved in 4-H and my youngest is very involved with FFA, and each of us had different breeds we worked on with breeding, hence all the multiple coops.

In the back yard, is our fruit garden. We have about 40 blueberry bushes, two 30’ rows of raspberries, one 30’ row of grapes and a dozen apple trees. We have cherry, plum and pear trees scattered throughout the rest of our 2 ½ acres.

Too get my gardens off to a good start, I start many seeds starting in January. I love to use the Winter Sowing method for seed starting.

Basically, you use milk jugs as mini greenhouses. You can start everything from perennials, annuals and vegetables. Set them outside in the middle of winter and forget about them! Until you have a really warm day, then you may need to open them up so the baby plants don’t burn.

I also start lots of tomatoes and peppers and other veggies the traditional way, on a rack in the dining room.

I grow a LOT of food, and enjoy canning, dehydrating and freezing it, trying to have most of our fruit & veggies come from our own gardens.

And I have to share our animals! I have two Puggles who so love Miss Lucy! First, is Figgy Pudding. She is my heart dog and is such a love!

Her older brother is Toby and he is just a goof ball!  Aren’t they cute!

Then we have a tuxedo house cat named Pi who very much acts like a puppy and wants our attention all the time. (TRH-photo-16.jpg)

Then outside, we have our chickens and goats and our barn cat Otis. We have Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, Blue and Black Copper Marans, Blue Ameraucanas and Olive Eggers. The Wyandottes are my favorite breed though. They are pretty and docile and just all around great birds. Plus they are dual purpose birds, they are great for egg laying and for meat.

We do breed them and sell chicks and/or hatching eggs in the spring. The kids have also shown them at local poultry shows.

We chose these breeds for the nice variety of egg colors.

Here is Otis the barn cat, surveying his domain.

My DH is in charge of the goats. They are really just pets and they are fun to have on the homestead! We have 2 Pygmy goats and 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats. They always want a head scratch or to check your pockets for snacks!

When I am not gardening, usually winter time, I enjoy quilting or working on my blog or starting seeds. 😊 I am a lot like Mavis, a tea drinker who rarely sits still and always has 72 projects going on at once.

Winter time is great for slowing down and planning projects for the next year. Anyway, that is about it around these parts! To see more, please come check out my blog at www.thereidhomestead.com.

Thanks Mavis for letting me share!

~ Tamara from The Reid Homestead in Monroe, WA

Find More Mavis Mail Submissions HERE.

If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop, pantry or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:

• Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so,  show me some picture of how you are going about it.
• Your Pantry Pics – Submit at least 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures of your pantry/fridge/cabinets, as well as a short blurb {at the very least} about you and your food habits.
• Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
• Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
• Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
• Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.

You’ll need to send in a Minimum of 5 HIGH QUALITY pictures and the stories to go along with those pictures. Please do not send in a couple of grainy photos and a sentence about them. I can’t post that. It doesn’t make for an interesting or informative story.

If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com. You can send your submissions to me at onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {spaces removed}and be sure and put Mavis Mail in the subject line. Thank you. I’m looking forward to your submissions.

Go HERE for the official rules.