The swallow’s favorite vantage point. Every morning they land here on the shop roof, to warm up and plan their day. The recent rains have caused a flush of insects, so they have been busy. We counted 120+ of barn swallows and violet-green swallows. It’s not unusual to see 50 or so swooping around the [...]
Archive for the ‘frugal living’ Category
I guess it’s summer…
Posted in agriculture, biodynamic farming, cattle, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, recipes, scratch cooking, sustainability, vegetables, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, recipes, scratch cooking, wildlife on August 23, 2008 | 8 Comments »
Wang Dang, sweet fruit tang…
Posted in agriculture, canning, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, sustainability, woodstove cookery, zero mile foodshed, tagged canning, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed on August 19, 2008 | 13 Comments »
I’m dating myself again, I like Ted Nugent, too.
Ahhh, fruit what can I say? Everybody likes fruit in one form or another. We eat a lot of fruit. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, it seems like we never have enough. We buy extra fruit of different kinds that don’t grow well here, like apricots, nectarines and [...]
Vegetable tour - progess and notes
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm life, frugal farming, frugal living, greenhouse, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, feed yourself!, frugal farming, greenhouse, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed on August 16, 2008 | 12 Comments »
This post contains many pictures - dial-up beware!
Here’s what the gardens look like now in mid-August. The heat has been 102* for the last three days - I guess maybe it’s time for that mean, ol’ dry land gardener to drag out the sprinklers and soaker hoses!
We’re just been busy keeping everybody (except us) in [...]
Chestnuts and the $2.00 farm gate
Posted in agriculture, cattle, farm life, frugal farming, frugal living, lost skills, sustainability, tagged cattle, farm life, fencing, frugal farming, lost skills, sustainability on August 8, 2008 | 13 Comments »
Look around your property and find the tree that provides you with the most, for the least amount of inputs on your part. This tree doesn’t necessarily have to be something you paid a large sum of money for, nor does it have to be particularly showy. When you find this tree, plant as many of [...]
Who put the ape in apricot?
Posted in easily amused, farm life, frugal living, personal, recipes, redneck moments, tagged easily amused, farm life, personal, recipes on August 5, 2008 | 17 Comments »
When I was little, I was always impatient with Fred Flintstone because when the cat threw him out for the night, he pounded on the door to have Wilma let him in, when he could have easily climbed in the window, because there was NO GLASS! I always dreamed that I would marry someone like Roger [...]
Winter
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, sustainability, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, over-winter vegetables, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed on August 4, 2008 | 12 Comments »
We spend all summer harvesting sunlight, just so we can meter it out over the dark days of late fall, and winter, and then the lean spring while waiting for the new spring growth. Grass, firewood, hay, vegetables, meat, milk, seeds, fruit and suntans. It’s no wonder we worship the sun. We long for it, and [...]
Just shut up and can, can, can
Posted in canning, easily amused, farm as desired, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, lost skills, personal, redneck moments, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged canning, easily amused, farm life, frugal living, lost skills, redneck moments on August 2, 2008 | 16 Comments »
I love that song, Just Shut Up and Drive. I find that one in my head a lot. But, sometimes it has to be the homestead version… .
It’s no secret I like to can. Or put up food. It is comforting to me and I like the process. But, being a claustrophobic farmgirl tomboy, I [...]
I’m 8 today, according to Purina
Posted in agriculture, canning, early days, farm as desired, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, lost skills, personal, sustainability, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, canning, farm life, personal, vegetable gardening on August 1, 2008 | 17 Comments »
If I was a medium breed dog, that is. Today is my birthday, and I’m doing something that I have done on many birthdays before. I’m canning. My dogs are sleeping at my feet, (they are 15 and 49)waiting for a bit of apricot to fly off the cutting board, and it’s raining. If it [...]
Canning
Posted in canning, early days, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, lost skills, winter stores, tagged Australian Shepherds, canning, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, winter stores on July 20, 2008 | 15 Comments »
I spent all day Saturday, canning, well not really all day, just my “spare” time not allotted for regular chores. This isn’t a how-to post, just my reflections about food preservation.
Kerr canning jar manufactured in 1957, the year I was born.
Food preservation is part of my life everyday, as it has been since I was born. Not [...]
Not for the squeamish…
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, [...]
Water - harvesting, using, and protecting
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), agriculture, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, hydraulic ram, lost skills, sustainability, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, clean water, farm life, frugal living, hydraulic ram pumps, self-sufficiency on June 22, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Living in an area known for it’s abundant rainfall, and clean water, you might think we have a blasé attitude about water usage. We don’t. Maintaining our own watershed and water supply is perfect insurance that we work very hard to NOT waste water. Most of the hubbub in the news is about peak oil - [...]
Some gardening, finally…
Posted in agriculture, early days, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, lost skills, personal, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged early farm life, farm life, personal, seed saving, subsistence agriculture, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on June 20, 2008 | 12 Comments »
Sometimes I forget I why I garden. When someone says to me they garden, I automatically assume that they mean vegetables. Most of the time before this latest feeding frenzy brought on by current issues that I won’t go into in this post, they would mean flowers mostly. My gardening has evolved from 2/3 vegetables, [...]
some gardening, some canning
Posted in canning, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, seed saving, vegetable gardening, vegetables, winter stores, woodstove cookery, zero mile foodshed, tagged canning, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on June 11, 2008 | 10 Comments »
In spite of the weather, which is uncomfortable and aggravating but by no means as serious as the weather in the Midwest and East, the garden is slowly emerging.
Harris Model OP parsnips, roots for the dairy cow and for seed saving.
It’s hard to believe these little guys will be here feeding us, and the milk [...]
Biting off more than I can …
Posted in farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, farm life, greenhouse, grow your own food, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on June 5, 2008 | 11 Comments »
chew, weed, can, freeze - fill in the blank.
About this time of year, I get impatient. When I’m on the tractor tilling the garden, it looks too small. When I’m planting seeds, or weeding it looks way TOO big. I change my mind about things about 10 times a day at least. It always gets [...]
Grass
Posted in agriculture, cattle, electric fencing, family cow, frugal living, rotational grazing, sustainability, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, cattle, family cow, farm life, rotational grazing on June 4, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Since the pictures of the milk cows in tall grass prompted several comments, I thought maybe I should show a couple more pictures. Let me be clear, that area grows good grass! About half our pasture looks acceptable to me, as far as growth is concerned, and the other half is fair, down to poor. But, [...]
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