Jane M

Old Red Bricks

By Jane M.

From her home in South Charleston, Ohio, Jane M. plans to populate this blog with articles on small-scale homesteading, livestock and gardening, with a dash of humor about life on the homestead and what will always go wrong.

Currently she is “trying to raise a small flock of Welsh Harlequin ducks. I want to finish with a dozen egg laying hens and a couple of well- mannered drakes.” She is also in the process of building a well-protected and easy-to-clean structure for the ducks for colder temperatures.

Other projects on her to-do list include adding more fruit trees to her property, enlarging the garden, adding another bucket calf and raising mushrooms.

Jane says of her move to the country, “Both my husband and I enjoy the country life and couldn’t dream of living anywhere else. It is just a natural fit for us.”

She defines a homesteader as “someone interested in keeping the ‘old ways’ around and living a self-sufficient life style. It doesn’t have to just be raising livestock and gardening. Just leaving a smaller foot print.”

Her garden was planted as a way to save money, eat more healthful, and “we like watching things grow.” The garden currently contains popcorn, spaghetti squash, assorted cucumbers and tomatoes, cabbage, eggplant, cabbage, beets, garlic, assorted herbs, and peppers, potatoes, carrots.

A number of animals share Jane’s homestead: A Quarter horse,Aspen; two market hogs; 12 red comet laying hens; 21 Welsh Harlequin ducks; one cross-bred bucket calf named Crash; and Jak, a farm dog of mixed heritage.

“My strongest (country) skill is in animal husbandry. But I love canning, cooking and working in the garden. My husband is a master of carpentry and that is a big help because I can always come up with something for him to do,” Jane says.

And her philosophy of country life?

“Nothin better!”

You can contact Jane through her Facebook page.