Posted in agriculture, compost, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, lost skills, pastured poultry, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, butchering, farm dogs, farm life, homesteading, lost skills, pastured poultry, stocking up, winter stores on June 28, 2008 | 23 Comments »
WARNING - LOTS OF BLOOD AND BODY PARTS WILL BE SHOWN AFTER THE SERENE VIDEO and the first 5 pictures.
Last supper - really it is last lunch.
Here is what those adorable chicks I showed you 8 weeks ago, turned into. Grass and grain eating and pooping fertilizing fools. I’ve just moved them to fresh grass, [...]
Posted in compost, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, greenhouse, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, compost, composted animal manure, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, self-sufficiency, sustainability, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed on May 19, 2008 | 5 Comments »
It’s not the actual planting, it’s all the work beforehand and after, that takes so much time. Making compost, seeding, tending, irrigation planning, and soil preparation. This list could go on in more detail, but, it’s a long time and a lot of work from the idea of growing your own food, to get that food to the table. [...]
Posted in compost, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, sustainability, vegetables, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, sustainability, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on May 11, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Jetta: I’m still thinking Tuesday - but she is in Solitary (close to the barn in her own paddock).
I used to stick to all my self-imposed garden rules. This led me to many disappointments. Sometimes the weather just isn’t on the same page as the calendar!
I wanted to get my peas in this week, if [...]
Posted in compost, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, sustainability, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged composted animal manure, farm dogs, firewood, Salatin-style farming, sustainability, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on May 7, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Still waiting for Jetta… and the other cows too!
Taking advantage of the good (dry) weather last weekend, here are some pics of what the other people around here did!
Firewood.
Second growth Douglas Fir limb. Note the tight grain.
Can’t find your gloves, look for the puppy! “Are you looking for this?”
These fir limbs broke down in the winter [...]
Posted in cattle, compost, family cow, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, milk cow, sustainability, vegetables, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, composted animal manure, family cow, farm life, frugal living, milk cow training, sustainability, vegetable gardening on May 6, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Jetta Update: Still waiting…
Frozen colostrum, just is case something goes wrong.
Everything that happens here starts with a seed, part of the “master plan.” A seed can grow into a calf that may be a milk cow or beef, or a tree that makes firewood, lumber or that just makes us feel good by looking at it. These last [...]
Posted in compost, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, milk cow, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, composted animal manure, farm life, greenhouse, over-winter vegetables, vegetables, zero mile foodshed on April 28, 2008 | 6 Comments »
Despite my whining about the re-fencing, I was able to get some garden chores off of my list.
Hoping to accomplish by May 1st, weather permitting:
♣ Dig the last of the parsnips for the milk cow, and also cook some to check quality.
The cow thinks they are OK, the human thinks they look OK, despite 8″ of [...]
Posted in cattle, compost, farm life, food preservation, greenhouse, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged cattle, chickens, farm life, frugal living, grazing, greenhouse, scratch cooking on April 9, 2008 | 13 Comments »
There is so much to do, I don’t know where to start. A list helps a little, but at this time of year, a list just frustrates me. We are unsettled because our chore list has changed so much. We moved the cows out to pasture April 4th. So now the grazing season begins, and [...]
Posted in cattle, compost, family cow, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, milk cow, pastured poultry, redneck moments, zero mile foodshed, tagged family cow, farm life, pastured poultry on April 8, 2008 | 4 Comments »
My meat chicks are scheduled to arrive April 29th, so I had to order their food today. The feed mill that makes our chicken mash wanted 2 weeks notice. He is hanging on by a thread, with the current grain prices. Last year, our old feedmill went out of business, and sent us scrambling to [...]
Posted in compost, easily amused, farm life, wildlife, tagged Australian Shepherds, compost, weather on April 1, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Still snowing as of yesterday - today is clear with a temp of 23 deg F. But, once the sun is out I think it will warm considerably.
No Comment! Boys…
I’m outta here!
Add this to the What??
What a Master Gardener haughtily said to us after seeing our compost piles.
“You will HAVE to buy worms, you can’t [...]
Posted in cattle, compost, farm as desired, farm life, milk cow, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged biodynamics, cattle, composted animal manure, farm living on March 28, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Every idea which does not become your ideal, slays a force in your soul; every idea which becomes your ideal, creates within you life-forces.
Rudolph Steiner
Until we started raising chickens on a commercial scale, I assumed like everyone else that chicken manure was the porsche of animal based fertilizer. Higher N numbers, right? That’s all that matters, right? I always [...]
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), cattle, compost, family cow, farm as desired, farm life, zero mile foodshed, tagged composted animal manure, grassfed beef, raw milk on March 8, 2008 | 5 Comments »
No, there isn’t any free milk. But, I think I probably owe my family cow money! If your looking for dairy production information, you’ll need to look elsewhere. I hope to convey how a dairy cow fits in on our homesteading lifestyle, and sneak in a little rant.
It is hard for me to put into [...]
Posted in cattle, compost, farm as desired, farm life, greenhouse, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged beef cattle, compost, cover crop, holistic farming, Salatin-style farming, vegetable gardening on March 2, 2008 | 1 Comment »
We’ve had a glorious stretch of good weather this past week. The soil was dry enough to cultivate around the garlic, and it actually smelled like spring. My spring oat cover crop had winter-killed, so actually hoeing was easy, and I actually got a head start on those pesky, early germinating weed seeds. The winter [...]
Posted in compost, family cow, greenhouse, tagged compost, family cow, greenhouse, hydraulic ram pumps on February 14, 2008 | 1 Comment »
So much for warmer weather! It snowed off and on all day but didn’t stick around. So today was a good day to hang around in the greenhouse. The weatherman promises warm weather this weekend, but I’m not holding my breath. You can warm up fast turning a compost pile, so that’s what I did. [...]
Cinnabar moth larvae eating Tansy Ragwort