Recent Posts
Summer 2020
Summer has come and gone without a single post on this blog. That’s not too surprising, as summer is one of our busiest seasons and this summer seemed especially packed. We rearranged our business model, added in milk, took care of an elderly …Read More ...
Preparing Spring Beds
Despite being February and technically still winter, it is spring here on the farm. I love spring. All summer long I am busy making compost, in “cold” piles and with the chickens but as much as I work to make as much compost as I can there is never enough. Because of this and because […]Read More ...
Raspberry Fields
One of the projects we have been discussing and planning for almost forever has been a rather large raspberry patch. Ultimately we would like to run some sort of pick-your-own or selling shares of some sort, but to get to that point we have a lot of planning, planting and work to do. As we […]Read More ...
Meadow
When we moved to the farm almost seven years ago the area that we now call the “Orchard Meadow” was barren, except for tumble weeds, some cheat grass and burrs. It was pretty sad. Our efforts to reclaim the land, to restore and add fertility and productivity were really quite simple. All land will eventually […]Read More ...
Autumn
Autumn or Fall as some people refer to it is one of my favorite times of the year. To me it is like the Earth taking in a deep breath just before a long slumber. Even in a person most times indifferent to things around him they waken feelings the first winds of autumn — […]Read More ...
Front Yard Spring
This is one of the views you get when you travel the roads that lead to our little piece of heaven. To get to our farm, you have to drive on a gravel road. Being isolated like that gives has advantages and disadvantages. This year has been the year of replacements. We have replaced our […]Read More ...
Beans
I almost always plant a lot of green beans, they seems to grow well under any circumstance, and it seemed like this season it would be the same. Except it isn’t. Everything seemed to start off well, the beans popped right up and got big and strong at first, then they stalled a bit, and […]Read More ...
Goats on Pasture
The Goats are almost three months old now and fully weaned, its time they go to pasture and be trained on the line. Part of the purpose of our goats is weed control and sustainable grazing. Grazing animals can be very destructive to the land if their grazing isn’t focused and managed. On the flip […]Read More ...
Planting Permaculture Style
One of the hallmarks of permaculture is using deep mulch to build fertility, slow down weed growth and preserve moisture. We’ve spent many hours gathering yard waste, chipping and shredding it and spreading it in the garden beds. In some of the beds we already had plants growing, in those beds we piled the mulch […]Read More ...
Goats
Guest Post by Kit On May 28, we had some new additions to the farm, three little baby goats. At only a month old, they had never been away from their mother, we had to become their moms. First we named them, we took a family vote. We all decided on Dolly for the girl, she is the […]Read More ...
Books on Homesteading
[amazonjs asin=”1603421386″ locale=”US” tmpl=”Small” title=”The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!”]
[amazonjs asin=”1602399840″ locale=”US” tmpl=”Small” title=”Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre”]
[amazonjs asin=”1580172024″ locale=”US” tmpl=”Small” title=”Storey’s Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self”]
[amazonjs asin=”1570618402″ locale=”US” tmpl=”Small” title=”The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 40th Anniversary Edition: The Original Manual of Living Off the Land & Doing It Yourself”]