A diary, of sorts, to chronicle the similarities and differences of homesteading on a 1881 farm, in present day. Our farm is located in the Pacific Northwest near the Columbia River Gorge. Our goal is to be as self-sufficient as possible. We rotationally graze our beef cattle, use pigs to turn our compost and raise pastured turkeys. We raise most of our own food, use wood from our woodlot for heat, and maintain our own watershed, using a hydraulic rams for water delivery. Truly the best of both worlds!
While this blog may contain some humorous posts, we are dead serious about quality of the food we raise for our family and our meat customers. We just try to see the entertaining side of country living and farm life.
FARM STATS:
180 acres: 55 pasture, 125 forest
elevation: 1376 ft
annual rainfall: 90 to 110 inches
location: Cascade foothills, western slope
cattle breeds: beef – Hereford, dairy – Guernsey
dogs: Australian Shepherd
Things we’re interested in: living the simple life, Biodynamics, rotational grazing, permaculture, vegetable gardening, homeopathy, hydraulic rams, sustainable logging, self sufficiency, small scale organic farming, blacksmithing, hand quilting, hand embroidery, unschooling, and homesteading…
A heap o useless facts about us, in no particular order:
* Most of our meals are from “seed to table” or ”zero miles.”
* I love my dogs.
* I love my cattle.
* I’m an amateur local historian.
* I have lived on this farm all of my life (51 years.)
* I was imprinted in a hayfield and at the county fair.
* We’re redneck organic farmers. Is that possible??
* We are commonly asked, “Can’t you buy _______ that at the store?”
* Fill in the blank above: soap, meat, chicken, eggs, vegetables, milk, butter…
* My kid has never eaten boxed breakfast cereal.
* I hate trespassers (read wildcrafters)
* My parents both went to school in a school house that is still on our property.
* I wish we didn’t have a county road dissecting our property.
* Our farm is made up from land that both my parents grew up on.
* Everyone guards my French Press, they don’t want a day without me having my coffee.
* I’ll drink any kind of coffee!
* I like my canning jars.
* I like my quilting fabric, and embroidery floss. I hope to use it all someday.
* We lost some friends because we used cloth diapers.
*They were sure we were lunatics when we decided to homeschool. Oh well…
* My husband likes to blacksmith.
* My husband makes the best high brix hay in our county.
* My favorite “home appliance” is my shop vac – you know – dogs in the house…
* My maternal grandfather had a blacksmith shop where our corral is now.
* My grandparents were gone before I came along, I hope they can see me now.
* My paternal grandfather built our house.
* I hope my gardening mentors who gave me their seeds, know that they are safe with me.
* I hope the they know what a good student I was. I miss you, Walter and Veda and I’m crying as I write this.
* My favorite book as a child was: FARMER BOY, by Laura Ingalls Wilder
* My favorite book as an adult: THE AWAKENING LAND, by Conrad Richter
* We have two large vegetable gardens, and two greenhouses to grow our food in.
* We love to garden!
* We raise root crops for our family cow.
* Our animals get fed before we do.
* Did I say I love my dogs and cows?
* I love my husband and daughter – they allow me this life.
* I miss my brother – he died of cancer 19 years ago. He shared my passion for this land.
* He taught us many things before he died – but not nearly enough.
* We have International Harvester refrigerators and freezers.
* I like my kid – she’s the greatest!!
* I’m glad I only go to the grocery store occasionally. I don’t like to go to town.
* I was the nerd in high school who knitted all my years in 4-H.
* My fingernails are usually dirty.
* I usually smell like milk, cows, and food – my dogs love it!
* Some of my best friends have been dogs and cows.
* My best friend is my husband.
We have a lot in common too:) Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Dear Matronofhusbandry,
Do you have a name that you care to divulge? Only for ease of typing and to make you seem more real.
That’s silly actually. You’re very obviously real. And, real smart from the looks of things. I’ve just read your post about your daughter and would like to ask you a question about when she was younger, if you don’t mind.
See, we have a son who is two. We’re planning on un-schooling him and, ideally, getting to be fairly self-sustaining here on the farm. We’re far from it now, with a huge mortgage and a full time off farm job for my husband.
My question is about getting it all done. Did you manage to do a lot of ’self-sustaining farm-y type stuff’ when your daughter was small? Did you have to deal with someone working off the farm?
I’m taking up a lot of your space here. I apologize. I’m just looking for insight into how you got to where you’re at.
Cheers and thanks for any thoughts you have.
Colleen
Colleen – I’ve decided not to use my name on my site just for personal reasons, I’ve now realized how &^%*#% long that thing is to type!
On the un-schooling thing, we knew people who had, and were homeschooling and just like anything else, some were successful and others weren’t. We involved our daughter in everything – sometimes it took forever to get projects done! We are both very type A kind of people, but it was good for us to have to slow down to a childs pace. She has “helped” on every project that we have implemented. It’s easy to teach math, science and many other things when it right in front of your face. Critical thinking skills are hard to learn from a book, or in a classroom setting. My husband and I are also avid DIY’ers, so we are always doing something and seeing us complete projects, whether it’s a quilt or cutting down poles to build another shed, helps her feel confident in her own abilities.
Throughout the history of this homestead, someone has always worked off the farm. We actually scaled our business down last year and my husband took an off-farm job. It was scary to for him to enter the job market after 15 years, but now looking back, it was a good decision. We are actually using less fossil fuels with him going to work. We are moving to all grass based products, which for us means beef. The grain situation in our area is crazy. So this may be our last season for pigs and turkey. The interesting thing about my husband working off farm, is his increased awareness of the farm. Now he goes away and looks back, whereas before he would deliver eggs to town and be glad for the break from the farm.
A number of times while giving farm tours to groups, farmers would come and bring their children, they would listen to our daughter talk about her part of the farm, nod their heads and say they were sure their children would feel the same about their farms. But, the funny thing was, that all of these farmers had employees AND babysitters and were sending a different message about the role of the farmer and his family. Some of those kids are now old enough that we can see that they will just grow up to be another boss and having someone doing what they perceive as drudge work. These were also vegetable farms, so the kids may as well be getting their food from the store. If someone else is responsible for planting, harvesting and washing your food, it is hard to feel self-reliant. Having livestock also conditions you for life and death and teaches you that life is just a cycle.
Probably, the most important thing about being self-employed and having your kids home, is that they can experience all the ups and downs and if you are selling food to other people, your job and your place in the world is right there for your children to see. We started out selling at farmers markets and also having people coming to the farm. So socialization is not an issue. Our daughter can give a farm tour just a good as we can, because she has lived it. She’s comfortable with all ages and walks of life.
Oh and yes, it has just been the last 3 or 4 years that we can honestly say that we are eating more fresh food that is growing or in cool storage, instead of relying on the canning and freezer so much.
Which is actually a lot less work than putting up so much in the fall.
Don’t worry about the off – farm job thing, if it’s necessary, then it is necessary. My husband likes to do big projects all the way through, where I’m more detail oriented. That makes it OK for us. I can handle the day in – day out stuff and he can plan the big projects. So it will work – because you certainly have the inclination to make it happen! Best wishes.
Wow!!!! This is a great blog! I am going to read back through all the posts. Please tell me you have high speed internet.
Jamay – thanks! you are one of the reasons I started blogging. Yeah – we finally bit the bullet and got high (well, maybe medium) speed. Otherwise, I would still be uploading that first butter picture! Maybe add Warren Christie to my list…
You could always use the acronym of matronofhusbandry — Moh…
Also think you should look into putting all this in a book. Just finished reading “It’s a Long Road to a Tomato.” I think you could do a much better job. That, and would love it if you offered weekend workshops. How’s that for adding a few projects for ya.
AMWD, That’s a good idea. I hate calling myself a matron! It started as a joke because I’m a Granger, and that is a patron of husbandry.
I’ve had a fair response to the gardening class I’ve been offering, but it’s easier to garden than it is to teach!
Thanks for your kind thoughts – Moh
HI! Thanks for stopping by my blog. We have a lot in common. And I see I can learn a lot from you too. Keep in touch!
Cathy
[...] garden experiment this year is to work toward growing enough food to feed my family for the year. Matron of Husbandry over at Throwback at Trapper Creek was the one who inspired me. This year, I’ve more than [...]
I have enjoyed looking around your blog. I’ll be back soon to read more. I have just started blogging, but have been homesteading for 10+ years. We have: milk cow, 2 beef cows, abiut 30 chickens, 4 dogs, 5 cats, 7 kitten. No pigs this year, raised 2 last year. We have a big garden. I can, quilt, knit, sewing etc. Have a great day. Becky
Becky, thanks for stopping by, I’m new at blogging too. It’s amazing to be able to connect with like minded people from all around the world. A new sense of community that is lacking these days. Your homestead sounds like ours, a little of this and a little of that, but pretty much everything we need.
Matron.
I envy you.
I just found your blog and thoroughly enjoyed your posts. I’m a fellow Pacific Northwesterner, as well as a homeschooling parent. I really enjoyed your gardening posts, especially where you were identifying different plants! Great blog!
Paula, thanks for stopping by, I’ve been jealous reading southern blogs. The gardens are so far ahead of us here in the PNW. Sounds like we have a lot in common.
I grew up on 6,000 acres, homesteaded by my great grandparents. The year I graduated from High School, Farm Home took over the place and it is no longer ours.
Reading your post made my heart ache for the ranch. Even though we were in the northeast part of the state (used to drive by your neck of the woods on the way to P-town) and pretty arid by comparison, we still had a great garden that I can’t come close to replicating now that I’m in the high desert. (dang those summer freezes!)
Peace to you.
Meadowlark, I have to say first I like your avatar – I have never gotten a glimpse of a meadowlark. So sad.
Your family homestead sounds wonderful, I would like the solitude of 6000 acres. Northeastern Oregon is beautiful. Too bad about Farm Home, the latest thing around here is a wildlife deferral on farm land. I think it is just one more way for the government grab to ease in. Our neighbors love it, but soon the restrictions will follow. We are already restricted to homesites on 80 acres, and recently our property was rezoned to forestland. Now we have to reapply for our farm deferral since we are operating outside of the zoning. We haven’t changed a thing, but we are out of compliance by farming.
I can’t imagine the challenge of gardening in the high desert, it’s bad enough here with the 10′ feet of rain. When I was 9 or 10 some family friends took me on a trip to visit their relatives in South Dakota. I had never been east of Multnomah Falls, and when we got to The Dalles, I thought the world had come to an end, it was so dry. I had no idea just how different the landscape would be all the way to SD. I spent a month about 15 miles away from DeSmet, where Ma and Pa Ingalls finally settled. It was magical.
Thanks for stopping by.
MoH-
What’s MiG?
EctH
Emily, MiG is short for Management-intensive grazing, which is a system of rotational grazing that gives the land rest by moving the cows frequently. We move the cows every 24 hours.
I LOVE READING ABOUT YOU LIFE—-I AM A CITY GIRL (55 HAHA) WAITING TO LIVE ON A FARM—MY GRANDPARENTS ALWAYS HAD ANIMALS AND A LARGE GARDEN BUT AFTER THEY PASSED—HERE I AM STILL IN THE CITY—MAYBE SOON IF THE ECONOMY TURNS AROUND—-I LOVE TO CROCHET AND CROSS STITCH BUT I HAVEN’T QUILTED IN YEARS—-THANKS FOR THE STORIES—-I REALLY AM ENJOYING IT ALL JANET
Janet, thanks for stopping by my blog. You never know, you might get to your farm yet. I never could get the hang of crochet, but I like to look at it. Thanks again.
You LOST friends when you decided to cloth diaper?? I guess they weren’t really friends then, huh? Wow, cloth diapering is THE trendy thing to do now – you can buy some that cost $50 and up. I wrote a post about cloth diapers.
We have so much in common that it isn’t even funny. Farmer Boy is my favorite too – well, maybe it’s tied with These Happy Golden Years… I’m a romantic.
My brother died too – I don’t know if you saw that post or not. I hope it gets easier to handle… I don’t know though. I still go to buy gifts for my parents and think, “Hmmm… wonder if Michael wants to go in half on this?” before I can even catch myself.
And my husband is my best friend too. Makes life a lot easier, doesn’t it??
Cotton Wife, yeah you’re right about the friend thing, why would anyone care what kind of diaper anyone uses?
I guess I liked Farmer Boy the best, because of the farm routine, but I like them all, I have a book called Laura, where a Laura buff traced their whole story, including Almanzo’s family. Very interesting indeed, with some great pictures too.
I went back and read your post about your brother, I so sorry for your family. We still find ourselves thinking of my brother almost daily, and when we can’t make a decision, we dream about him, as if he is here.
On the best friend thing, it DOES make things much easier.
Hmmm…Have you seen this post?
http://aussieoklahoma.blogspot.com/2008/08/well-i-was-going-to-call-this-raining.html
Those swallows look AWFULLY familiar!
LatigoLiz, yeah I have seen it – it is my kid and she takes most of the photos – so I actually used the photo after she did. I did pick a different one though, so I wouldn’t actually be “scraping”. If I remember to take the camera with me I ususally forget something else, so she has been elected!
OK! Whew! There have been a few incidents of plagiarism of blogs that I have seen lately, just didn’t want yours to be one of them!!!
Just wondering… did you husband attend the recent blacksmithing conference in just-across-the-bridge Washington? (couldn’t remember where exactly). YoungSon went and had a wonderful time and met a lot of great people.
Meadowlark, he didn’t go but he would have like to. That’s great your son was able to attend and do some networking.
Hi!
I sure miss all of you guys. I just read your blog again, and it is just like being there with all of you, thank you.
I just spent January to September working for a seed company up here in BC (mostly OP, many heirloom, many OG, no treated or GMO), so your SOS blog was very familiar to me.
We planted a rocking garden (from seed), and I was hoping to save seed, but fate took a strange but good turn. We were evicted, but we bought a house, just moved in. Our next garden will be AMAZING!
My favorite plants were: calico popcorn (an unbelievably beautiful plant actually), baby green heirloom Italian summer squash (another beautiful plant), wrinkled crinkled curly cress, arugulas, and mixed sunflowers.
Our two beautiful hens are well, but illegal in the city we live in now, I have become an urban chicken activist, and am trying to get the by bylaws changed here. The boarder collies and cats are well too. Aaron is the best, of course.
We are buying a beef quarter from our old neighbors, grass fed. We wish it was coming from you though! So distressing thinking about your current processors retiring…
Well, I should probably cut this short, but I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading your blog. Please say hi to the whole family for us!
Heather
I just noticed you linked to my post on healthy meat – thank you! I love your blog and have a question for you: have you thought about adding a subscription link for email? (I don’t care for RSS.) If you add it, please email me so I can subscribe, thanks!
Kelly@Kellythekitchenkop.com
Wow! Just found your blog today and it will be a regular read for me. I grew up in Hood River and find myself wanting to go back and try some sort of small farm. Thanks for the inspiration!
I’m new to the official blogging world, but have kept a farm blog on my farm website for years.
I’m on the other side of the Cascades, up north of Bellingham on a horse farm but have raised a bit of everything over the years on our small farm.
I’ll enjoy following your writing–here is mine:
http://briarcroft.wordpress.com Barnstorming
Emily
Moh Just found your blog! Very cool!
You would get along great with me and my husband.
I love the dogs ( the cows too!) and he loves the cows ( our dogs too!)
LOL…I also have dirty fingernails but smell like a camel with a little wet llama mixed in! I would LOVE to live on that much acreage, we have just 10. I also homeschool although my 3 big ones are up and away at college, the little ones are still hanging around!
Glad to ‘meet’ another PNWesterner!
I have just discovered your blog from reading another. I share your views about many things. I would have loved to have been able t be self sufficient, but my first husband thought I was crazy and unfortunately by the time I remarried my present OH and myself could not afford to buy a house with enough land to become self sufficient.
We di have an allotment on which we grow as much of our fruit and vegetables as we can. I was brought up during the war my father was killed and my mother went home to live with my grandmother. My mother went out to work and my grandmother brought me up. It is to her that I owe much of my knowledge of simple living, sewing, knitting and growing vegetables. She also taught me to cook from scratch, something I have done ever since, and that I have brought my own chidlren to do.
I look forward to go back through your blog and read it all.
I gather you have had a massive fall of snow which has wrecked some of your greenhouses……..I do hope you are able to get them up and running again before the start of the growing season.
Hi! I just discovered YOU!! I’ll be going back to read your previous posts.
I find it strange that living off the grid or living “simply” in the 20th & 21st Centuries is looked down upon by so many people… yet their own grandparents or great-grandparents lived the very same way…. and it didn’t kill them! Ha!
I can relate a lot to what you wrote here… Lived on my family’s farm until I was 26, and my family’s been there since the 1600’s. I know live in a house that my husband, dad, father-in-law, brothers, brother-in-law, and grandfather all built, on my great-grandmother’s land. I love feeling connected to my home…
Oh, yeah, and my 20-something career gal friends think I’m nuts…
I’m so glad I found your blog. Now I know where to go to get my vicarious life! I’ve always wanted to do exactly what you are doing, and to some small extent I do. We spent four wonderful years in Sisters, a small town just on the other side of the Cascades from you. But now we are back in a southeastern “city” that bans animals other than dogs, cats and birds. (Should I tell them about my cavies, I wonder?) The Homeowner’s Association even bans gardening more than 10% of my total property for food. Of course, we won’t tell them about the “ornamental” kale or edible flowers.
But that’s okay. I’ve found sources for REAL milk, grassfed meats, pastured chickens and eggs and grow what I can on my back patio. My medium-sized (large by today’s standards) family also homeschools and practices home health care.
But I do miss waking up to snow on the mountains, stars in the sky, deer in the yard and birdsong.
saw a link from one of your posts coming to my blog thought I would stop over…you are definitely blessed. thanks for sharing some of your life w/ the rest of us! DM
I just found your blog via I don’t remember now that I’ve been over here reading so much.
Moh, I envy your life……. I so want to live back in the country and live the simple life. I grew up in a very rural area of Michigan and as a teenager just wanted to escape it……..Now 21 years later, I just want to go back! I am living the simple life – as simple as I can living in a small town on a lot and a half……..I just recently found out I can have chickens, so the hen house is being built next week and I will be having chickens for eggs and meat later on. I started a garden last year, and canned for the first time in my adult life……..my garden is being expanded this year, my seeds are started, and I found a large quantity of mason jars. I have always frozen foods I bought from the farmer market, but I am working on shutting down 1 freezer, just keeping 1 for the meat I get from my sister.
I’m sorry for my rambling, but this is where I am, and now I am off to read some more of your families knowledge on self-sustaining and living simply.
Thank you!
I’m intrigued by your blog format — especially the tabs at the top. Can you tell me more about what styles and features you are using with WordPress?
Thanks!
Suzanne, I’m using the Mistylook template, and the tabs are pages. Posts and pages are different things, and I believe there is no limit to either.
The themes are always listed at the bottom of a blog, so if you see one you like, keep that in mind. Sign up, and click on appearances and then you can view the available themes and they tell you what features are available. Column width and where your widgets are displayed make a difference so look at that and find one that suits your needs. They have a great FAQ and Forum section to answer most questions!!
I live out in Beaverton and I hate it. I live for a year over in the LA Grande area and I want to go back to a small town life. the only thing is the growing season is shorter there and there are a lot of things that will not do well there because of the hot months and very cold winter months. Ok I will get to the point now I go to school full time now and will for the next five or so years. I want to much to be all on my own. can you give me any pointers on how to do it on my own.
Thank you,Judy
Matron – I just found your blog and am so inspired! I grew up in Portland, but have been living out in Montana for the last 6 years. My boyfriend and I make the best of our yard by raising vegetables, chickens, and some fruit, as well as preserving/freezing as much food as possible. We hope to one day move to a larger piece of land and make the transition to farming. I’m guessing you get this question frequently, but do you have any advice for a budding farmer? I’ve read Joe Salatin’s book “You Can Farm” (where he basically says “just do something and stop saying you need land), and this year we’ve decided to start selling excess eggs. I also spent a summer working on a local farm (not that this makes me an expert). Any advice, comments or thoughts would be wonderful.
I love your blog and really enjoying reading it every day, thanks so much. Your dogs look so happy and like they really are a part of everything – do you have any tips or books to recommend about training farm dogs? I’m less worried about training a dog to herd etc, but more interested in how you get them used to other animals and not chasing or bothering those other animals. Thanks so much!
Lina, the only tip I can share about dogs and livestock is make sure you get a dog that is known for being comfortable around livestock. We do not herd our animals with the dogs at all, but the dogs are expected to be around the cattle, sheep, and chickens and not want to chase or kill them. We have always had Aussies here on the farm, and I have also had a German Shepherd, and my husband had a Chow and wolf hybrid. The Shepherd and wolf hybrid were good dogs and weren’t interested in chasing, but the Chow was a different story. He only wanted to kill livestock, but was a good dog otherwise. We kept him until he died of old age, but it was a trial.
It helps to get the dog as a pup, and start introducing them right away to the routine. Plus all the other basic obedience stuff that makes them listen to you and not their inner selves! LOL they all have selective hearing though I have noticed…
Love your blog! I think it’s great what you are doing up in Oregon! See you on the farmers’ forum. Beautiful pictures.
Thanks Kim!