What Has Charlie Been Up To?

So as a lot of you may have noticed, I've been spotty over the last couple of months in writing posts, and some of you may be wondering why. Well, I've recently started practicing what I've been preaching about providing multiple streams of income.

1. 1. BackyardChickenGuide.com – At the first of the year, Aaron, Laurie, and I started a new niche blog about raising backyard chickens. In January, we launched BackyardChickenGuide.com, which is a guide/blog on how to raise chickens in your backyard.We post weekly videos and blogs about helpful tips in raising backyard chickens, lessons learned, how to tips, recipes, and much more. I've been able to leverage the experiences I have with my 26 backyard chickens, and provide insights into the things we have learned.

1. Backyard Chicken Coops – After recently coming up with a chicken coop design that brings the farm to the city, my neighbor and I created a barnyard chicken coop. The coop is a barn design that is meant to represent the old style barns that allow chickens to move freely from the barn to the bottom area. The two top hay loft windows are meant to be removed to allow for increased air flow during the summer and the top ventilation duct can be removed during the winter. In addition, the coop has been built to allow it to be moved around the yard. If you haven't heard of a chicken tractor before, then check out this list of chicken tractor videos. Slowly we've been making a little money along the way in this venture, and we are now actively trying to sell them online.
2. Garage Sale – Recently our family has been attempting to declutter our home, and continue on our journey of minimalism. Just last week we completed our neighborhood garage sale, and made $450+ and got rid of a lot of excess clutter. The stuff we didn't sell we took directly to Goodwill, and got a nice tax deduction donation (which will help come tax season). My wife and I feel so much more freed by having less clutter to manage around our home, and it allows us to spend more quality time with our kids. It's amazing how freeing having less clutter feels! Ugh!
3. Chicken Eggs – Since we started raising chickens over a year and a half ago we have been actively selling eggs to our friends and neighbors for $3 per dozen. With each dozen sold I give one dollar to my 9 year old, 5 year old, and 4 year old for their participation in helping out with the chores. It has proved to be a big motivator to my kids who want to buy the latest Thomas the Train or want to buy a packet of football cards. In addition, we've taught our kids to save 40% and give 10% to the church to help the keep a balance of save, spend, and give.

So as you can see our family has been busy this summer. We have a big expense coming due at the end of the month, which is the painting of our house. All the garage sales, chicken coops, and niche chicken blogs are meant to help our family supplement our income and help pay for these types of large expenses.

In speaking of income streams, I recently got to visit the Sioux Falls, SD falls, and witness the power of this river. It was amazing at the power that the flowing water was creating. So much power that the falls were producing suds and bubbles. It got me thinking about my own multiple streams of income. In home any river starts with a small trickle, and slowly grows (all the while pick up momentum). Here is a short video of what I witnessed at the falls.

I'd be interested to hear  from some of our readers on how you are creating multiple streams of income this summer. Let us hear your ideas!

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