Closing the Loop

This year, Alysia has put lots of energy into creating a small farm on our homestead. The presence of goats and chickens has permitted us to enjoy something people call “closing the loop.” Whenever we prune the grape arbor back, we toss the grape leaves into the goat pen. They eat them in a flash. She created a pond in the farm for the ducks. She put a couple of goldfish in for mosquito control and was amazed at how soon baby fish appeared. Lots of baby fish. One day she scooped some out with a net and put them in a

bucket to take to school. She came back 10 minutes later and found that the chickens had pecked every single fish out of the bucket into their stomachs. So now she periodically scoops the pond and feeds the chickens. Interesting to contemplate how sun on the pond transforms into eggs for us. In Alysia’s words, “It just tickles me to take my garbage and throw it over the fence and get eggs back.” Really good eggs, I might add.