In July I took possession of a full sized school bus that had just been de-commissioned by the Lecke Bus Company of Hackensack, NJ.  Susan and I are converting this bus to act as a rolling chicken coop for egg laying hens.  The coop will move the chickens to fresh pasture behind the cows and they will help with insect control, their scratching will help make the fields more fertile and the grass will grow better next time for the cows.  The chickens will require less feed as they are eating grass/legumes and insects all day and they will be outside all day except for sleeping in the coop at night and during egg laying.  We will also use solar panels to power any interior lights and the electric fence that will surround the bus and pasture area to protect them from predators.  To go a step further we will connect rain gutters to the sides and they will drain into a cistern that will feed gravity fed waterers for the birds.

This rolling coop will be as self contained as possible and will allow about 250 - 300 egg laying hens to live comfortably and because of their pastured lifestyle will result in the highest quality eggs available.

Susan and I at GrowingDirt.com hope to use the coop as a learning experience for children, we have an elementary school next to the farm and we would like to extend it to other schools wanting a class trip to the farm to learn about farming.  This will fully complete the circle... once the bus took kids to school and now it provides a new learning experience for kids in NJ that may never have seen a farm or a chicken.

We want to give a heart felt thank you to the Lecke Bus company and My Uncle Jules for helping make this idea become a reality.

Susan & Jeff,
GrowingDirt.com

Today Susan and I were at the Oradell, NJ Farmer's Market and a good friend came out to visit us.  He asked me, " so what have you learned from farming so far?"

I thought for a second and laughed and said..."whatever your daily ToDo List is when you wake up, you better be prepared to scrap it and start all over again and switch direction on a dime. 
 I think having a list is great, but the ability to adapt is most important.  Sometimes things happen.... often beyond our control.  Maybe the plants are cooking in the greenhouse and really need to be in the field, but then a calf gets under the wires and is roaming about.... so you turn the fan on, spray some water, take care of the calf situation and hope  that what you have done is enough to buy a little more time until things go a little more in your favor.
 
 I think  as humans, it is in our nature to try to control things, we even convince ourselves we can and do control things, but in the end we only control our reactions to what happens.... and stuff  does happen!

So what I have learned so far is to try to be pro-active, also to be adaptive to the stuff that inevitably happens while farming (or in life).  The weather dictates your farm life, and we do not control the weather,  or the calf that decides the grass is greener across the wire.  But I wake up and do it again each day, and I am loving it.

To boil it down, farming is about hope.  Faith in tomorrow.  When the vegetable sprout breaks through the ground and you discover it the next morning your work and your faith is rewarded and your hope is fulfilled.

Work.  Adapt.  Hope and Faith.
That is farming

~Jeff