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 ‘sustainability’ 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Mad heifer disease
Posted in agriculture, cattle, farm as desired, farm life, redneck moments, rotational grazing, sustainability, tagged agriculture, beef cattle, cattle, farm life, redneck moments, rotational grazing on July 17, 2008 | 9 Comments »
This bruiser arrived by Bull Express on Tuesday. His name is Henry.
The steers like to hang out with bulls, and try to pick up a few pointers.
Henry will be here for 6 weeks, which will allow him to cover the cows through two heat cycles. If a cow doesn’t breed back in two heat cycles, [...]
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), agriculture, cattle, farm life, lost skills, sustainability, tagged agriculture, Belly Acres (rant), farm ecosystems, farm life, sustainability, wildlife on July 14, 2008 | 4 Comments »
This past week we did the hay at a friends farm about 10 miles away. We do this as a favor to our friends, who need the grass cut in their field to keep the land open and to alleviate the fire danger. The hay is on the light side, but on the plus side [...]
This last week in the garden - vegetables
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm life, greenhouse, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, greenhouse, seed saving, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed on July 5, 2008 | 10 Comments »
It’s always a struggle to get things in the gardens and greenhouse under control before we start haying. So far, we’re behind. While the guys were making noise yesterday, I snapped off all the garlic scapes for pesto, and the bolting tops on the multiplier onions, the weeds in the garlic I think I will [...]
High impact, low impact
Posted in agriculture, cattle, electric fencing, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, rotational grazing, sustainability, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, cattle, farm dogs, farm life, rotational grazing, Salatin-style farming, sustainability on July 1, 2008 | 8 Comments »
I want to leave a light effect on this land that I have had the great fortune to grow up on. To do that, I have to understand when I have to be hard and when I have to be soft. Usually, I have to do both at the same time. Finesse is required to [...]
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, [...]
Trying to avoid chore time burnout
Posted in agriculture, cattle, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, pastured poultry, rotational grazing, sustainability, zero mile foodshed, tagged pastured poultry, homesteading, farm life, sustainability, pigs, daily farm life, clean water for the farm, farm chores, chore savers on June 26, 2008 | 10 Comments »
Chores on the farm can seem never ending. Trying to decide where to take shortcuts involves many factors, depending on what the task is. Joel Salatin says to try to keep daily chores per person to less than 4 hours. That is hard to do - but that 4 hours does seem like the magic [...]
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 - [...]
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Cinnabar moth larvae eating Tansy Ragwort Categories
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agriculture Australian Shepherds beef cattle Belly Acres (rant) canning cattle chickens compost composted animal manure early farm life easily amused family cow farm dogs farm history farm life firewood food preservation frugal farming frugality frugal living grazing greenhouse haying heirloom fruit homeopathy homesteading lost skills milk cow training over-winter vegetables pastured poultry personal raw milk recipes redneck moments rotational grazing Salatin-style farming scratch cooking seed saving self-sufficiency sustainability vegetable gardening vegetables wildlife winter stores zero mile foodshed-
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