So what am I talking about anyway?

I guess maybe I should explain what I mean by an accidental homestead, huh?
Well, to begin with, I never expected to be here, less than 3 miles from the house I grew up in.
When I was a kid I had the same dreams George Bailey (that's right, look him up) did. Basically to live the life of a Nat Geo photographer, the bush hat, the shoot me first vest, the old land rover, exotic locations, animals and women, the whole bit.

Growing up I wanted to be this guy.

Instead, I wound up with a degree that, these days, might have well been a major in full-contact mahjong. You see, about the time I proudly became the first college graduate in my family there was a big boom in this new thing called the internet. It was cool at first. But, if I'd known what it was going to do to the field of print journalism, I'd have stayed in school and picked up a second major in something that might still be useful.

Anyway, a rapid decline in decent papers, a total and complete unwillingness to work for Gannett, and a desire to raise a child anywhere but in a metro setting led me and my then expecting wife E back to my home town. We started a newspaper of our own. Just your average small-town newspaper. Our goal was to actually let people know what was going on.

Turns out we might should have stuck to obituaries and baseball. Because after six years I finally learned that when it comes to their own back yard, people don't want the truth. Instead, they want you to tell them the planter that they made out of old truck tires and that avocado-colored toilet they found by the road should be on the cover of Southern-Living.

We may get to more on that later.

Instead, I wound up doing this.

So, anyway, without more gory details of spectacular misdeeds, we wound up on 23 acres in the woods literally just a good walk from my childhood memories.

I'd always had a rather passive interest in what I called the "Mother-Earth News Lifestyle," but not much more than that. And while I'm not much of a deer hunter (I despise sitting in the cold) I learned to butcher and eat them (and about anything else with fur) with great efficiency at an early age. And, as I began paying more attention to commercial meat practices (and prices), decided I liked having so much control over my own food.
But, like I said, I'm not much of a hunter.

So after a great deal of discussion we decided to add some rabbits, just four to start with. We bought two New Zelands and two Satins from different breeders with the intent of raising our own meat rabbits. I also figured it would make some good teachable moments for our now eight-year-old little girl Z. (We will revisit this soon)

The bunny Hutch, when it was new.

Well, from there we figured "why not a couple of goats?"
(More to come there too)

Brownie 

And after much wailing and gnashing of teeth on my part we even brought a few chickens on board. You see, I despise chickens. I think it comes from traumatic incidents as a child when it was a fairly common occurrence for us to wind up stuck behind a truck load of the nasty little buggers on their way to the sale barn in town. Let me tell you, nothing endears you to an animal like having bits of it splatter on the windshield as your riding to school.
I despise chickens. But I hate ticks more. And I love eggs! So I gave in.

What the Hell is this?!
No, really, this is our rooster, Pigpen, but I have No Clue what breed he is.
Help.

So, in a little over a year now the North Reagan Municipal Building and Armory has become home to (and probably the final resting place for) 10 rabbits, 9 goats, four chickens, three or four cats that I refuse to feed more than twice a week.

(L-R) Momma cat, Joe-Joe(he travels a lot but sometimes he's home on weekends),
 Not-the momma cat, and Cleo (she hates the dog so she lives on the roof.)

And one brain damaged ACD pup named Ash.

All ears and legs, but no brains. And yes, as a matter of fact,
he IS named after Bruce Campbell's character in the Evil Dead movies.
In the late 90's we had two other Heelers named Brisco and Bowler. What of it?

So now that you know the backstory and have met most of the cast, we can start story development, next time.