Besides Chickening..

Lunachick

Chicken Slave
12 Years
Mar 19, 2007
6,579
27
271
Brick, NJ
Hi everyone, I was just wondering what everyone does for a living. Here we are with all this chicken stuff, but what do you all do? For instance my husband is a CPA and a CFP (certified financial planner) and I work with him managing the office, paying the office bills, scheduling appts, etc. and I can't wait to get home to be in the yard and garden and taking care of critters. So what do you all do? Or used to do, if you're retired. I was just interested in the diversity of lifestyles mixed in with chickens and stuff!!
 
What a great thread, and a great way to get to know each other a little better....here is our story..

My DH retired from the AF in 2000. We moved to Indiana to be closer to both his parents and mine. Our kids are grown, and starting families of thier own now. ( we have 5 grandsons...I want a grand daughter!) Anyways.....Hubby works I get to stay at home with the animals. We bought our small farm, 5 acres and are in the process of opening Heavens Door Acres...a Farm animal rescue. So far our only rescues have been 2 roosters, ( our first has sadly passed away), a fighting cock we found in the ditch in front of our home( he didnt make it either) and 6 muscovy ducks.( who are presently in laying mode) We hope to be open full blown ready to take in animals no later than 2010. ( earlier if possible)

Lets hear from the group!
 
DH and I are nearing our 30s, with two young children and a collection of various pets and critters, with MORE coming! lol

We are happily owned by a black lab, 2 house cats, 1 large parrot, 1 small parrot, 1 hamster, 1 gerbil, 1 hermit crab, and now 27 chicks (who are 8 weeks old on Tuesday- they will be our layer flock, and a few of our roos. Extra roos are sold, just waiting to join their new 'bigger' pals in their new homes.), 5 week old broiler chicks, and getting 10 more mixed pullet chicks (to keep as layers) and 10 more broiler chicks (uh, to go in the freezer...) this week.
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DH is a OTR (Over The Road) driver for Schnieder National Trucking and is gone 5-10 days in a stretch and then home for 1-4 days before going out again. I run a small daycare (I am licensed by the state so I could take in more kids legally, but choose not to over whelm myself.) and bring in my 'own' money while hub is away. I like being home because I am here to help our kids with projects, homework, reports, etc and I'm still able to feel good because I'm getting paid, too! It works alright for us.

The chickens are my CHEEP therapy. I use them to save a BUK here and there, and its worked out alright because I've had several wonderful BEAK-throughs!
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Seriously, during nap time, I am often outside watching the chicks roam the run with the baby monitor on my hip, enjoying the piece and quiet and sunshine. "Ah...breath deep children. Smells like sunshine and chicken poo. What could possibly be better than that?"

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I'm a mother/wife/daughter/full time Girl Scouts & school volunteer. I sold my soul to the medical field devil for years before finally realizing "I" mattered in this life. Quit my job, started having babies, and stayed home for 8 years. Went back into a medical office job on a 'temporary' basis for 4 years. I'm home again, taking care of my children, my mom, in-laws, Girl Scouts, a 4th grade class and middle school band. I'm one of the fortunate ones in that DH's job affords us the luxury of ME raising our kids, not a sitter.

Oh......and, let's not forget my 21 girls. Life spun out of control last year with illnesses with our parents, and my girls played a major role in preserving my sanity!

edited to add:
DH and I bought the 7 acres that he grew up on from his parents 2 years ago. 40-something year collection of 'stuff' we're still working on cleaning up. My hen house is the same one his mom used when she had chickens here all those years ago. We moved here from what was once a nice little neighborhood, but became wrought with drug dealers, a meth house, a convicted sex offender, and a man whose 35 year old wife mysteriously died of a massive heart attack. My opinion? It was an attack, alright, not necessarily her heart, though! Anyway.......we're in heaven! The horses and goats will come in due time!
 
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My husband has owned our business for 15 years, and I've been his office manager for the past 3 or 4 years. We do commercial water and wastewater treatment (not conditioning). In our area a lot of businesses are not tied to municipal drinking water or wastewater treatment plants, so they have to contract licensed operators to perform testing and make sure they are in compliance with EPA regs. That's us!
We are in the process of selling our business
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at which point we are planning on entering a semi-retirement phase. Our son graduates HS in 3 weeks (and he got a 75% scholarship to college - YEAH), and our daughter has one year left, so our school tuition payment is cutting in half. We'll pay off the house and trucks when the business sells, sell the mobile home to the people who are currently renting it, and sell our investment property in Wyoming. Pay everything off, be OUT OF DEBT!!!
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Hubby is learning how to manage a restaurant, working with a friend of ours, and we're getting kind of excited. I'm currently transitioning into a work-from-home mode, courtesy of a wonderful website called gotomypc.com, who has a 45 day free trial. The savings in gas, just for one week, would more than pay for a month of subscription. This is leaving me more time to spend with our puppy, with the chickens, with the fam, stay on top of laundry, keep the house cleaner, fix better suppers earlier. I'm loving it!
 
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We own a trucking business that DH works at full time which keeps him gone for several days at a stretch. I keep the books. I also work full time as an office manager in the oilfield industry. I homeschool my two kids (son,14 & daughter, 9). We live in the country (100 miles a day round trip to work for me
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) We have Labrador Retrievers and occasionally breed two of our best. I spend tons of time with my favorite girl, Glory, keeping her up on her training for when bird season comes around again and just basically being the best of pals. (Sappy, I know, but I just love that dog!) We have 4 horses that eat us out of house and home, a feral hog named Duck, 5 big goofy Labs, 13 chickens with 10 more to be shipped out Monday
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Boas, Pythons, and Rats. We have a 50' x 100' vegetable garden- all organic, and are trying to get as much on the self-sustaining track as possible. Aside from that...we enjoy hunting and fishing, camping, and someday we swear we are gonna catch up on this season of LOST!
 
Oh my gosh, I love this thread and getting to know everyone!
I'm a full time potter and artist, and a part time writer of a mystery series. My studio and office is in a refurbished 4 stall barn (love my commute!)
At the studio I hold two annual pottery sales, and generally go to two other craft shows per year. When I'm not in the studio working, I teach pottery workshops yearround, and, for about six weeks every summer I hold weeklong pottery clay camps for kids.
I have a little cottage in Maine where I spend the rest of my summer. Beachcombing is a favorite passtime!
We've got 17 chickens ranging from 2 wo to 4 yrs, 3 dogs: an Aussie, Corgi, and Border Collie mix, and 4 indoor cats.
Working, keeping up and maintaining the house and yard, and caring for my family, fills up my days.
Life is good and I am blessed, and grateful.
 
Hey all, I'm Matt and I'm from East Central Iowa. I am a xray tech and work nights so you'll see me on here @ all hours of the day. My wife and I have 3 kids 11, 8, and 3. We have 4 dogs, 4 cats, 5 horses, 20 laying hens, 2 roo's, 25 chicks don't know what they are yet lol, 5 bantams (4 hens and a roo) and 2 rabbits. We moved to our acereage in august after renting the pasture and barn for a number of years the people were moving and needed to sell it qwick so we jumped on it. living in the country sure is nice the closest neighbor is 1/2 mile away so we have alot of privacy.
 
I'm a junior in college studying Bioengineering and have no idea what I really want to do in life besides raise chickens and garden. Probably will go do a grad program, get a PhD in cell and molecular biology, go to Veterinary school to get a DMV, and when I am 30, have a 150-250K education and be a housewife raising chickens and milling about on a small farm. In reality, I will also have a day job working as a researcher or large animal vet.

As for now. I am a student living off parents and raise chickens to sell small quantities of meat and eggs.
 

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