"Wow!", I recall saying, "they grow fast. I better get the coup built since these chicks are outgrowing their box in the basement quickly!" So, up goes the chicken coup. Soon we were getting more eggs than we could scramble.

As I researched organic growing techniques, the methods used by nineteenth century market farmers looked like the right approach for us. Out goes the rototiller and in comes the raised beds, permanent pathways, larger compost mounds, and lots and lots of mulch. What happened? The garden started producing much more than we could preserve, roast, stir fry, or salad. "Hey, let's sell our extra produce at the farmers market!", I said. We still set up each Saturday from May through October at the Owosso Farmers Market.

Back at this time, we had some additional land being farmed conventionally by my brother-in-law. Since it was much more of a burden than profitable for him to farm it, I was looking for an alternative. "Hey, let's raise hay and turn the rest of our farm land into pasture" I said. "But, pasture for what?" Well, cattle are too big for me to push around, pigs root up the ground too much, goats eat cars, hmmm.

"Hey, sheep are the perfect choice -- low maintenance, easy to handle, and they mow the lawn and trim bushes too!" But, we needed a barn to store hay and a tractor to cut the hay. So, up goes the barn and in come the Icelandic Sheep.

Now, with the "hobby farm" going, I need to lose the away-from-home job. Then, we'll really have "the simple life". Fortunately, I was able to sell my business, davidsonsoftware.com. Since 2003 we are more or less full time hobby farmers. Is that an oxymoron?