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 [...]
Posts Tagged ‘self-sufficiency’
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 »
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 - [...]
Sick as a dog
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, pastured poultry, rotational grazing, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, farm life, pastured poultry, rotational grazing, Salatin-style farming, self-sufficiency, sustainability, zero mile foodshed on June 18, 2008 | 16 Comments »
I have been sick - actually we have all been sick. DH and DD were sick with some kind of gastro trouble 2 weeks ago, and of course, me of cast iron stomach just scoffed. My turn came last Friday, and I have been sick ever since. Of course the weather breaks and I have [...]
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 greenhouse, vegetable gardening, zero mile foodshed, farm life, self-sufficiency, grow your own food, agriculture 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 [...]
Trying not to be wasteful
Posted in agriculture, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, greenhouse, lost skills, pastured poultry, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged greenhouse, Australian Shepherds, pastured poultry, vegetable gardening, seed saving, zero mile foodshed, farm dogs, farm life, frugal living, self-sufficiency, locavore on June 3, 2008 | 10 Comments »
I always feel guilty if I waste food. Whether from over planting, or being over zealous in my harvesting. I try to ask myself, “Is this better on the vine, in the ground, … , OR in the refrigerator?” The refrigerator is usually the most wasteful place for me, it costs money to run, and [...]
The hard part of farming
Posted in agriculture, family cow, farm life, milk cow, personal, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, family cow, farm life, personal, self-sufficiency on May 27, 2008 | 16 Comments »
Jetta’s calf was stillborn.
Sometimes, I think really hard about something and I think I may be jinxing it. Then I come to my senses and realize, even if I think about something, or worse yet, write about it, the outcome will be the same whether I had done either of those things.
I could make [...]
While waiting
Posted in agriculture, cattle, family cow, farm life, frugal living, milk cow, recipes, sustainability, winter stores, tagged family cow, farm life, recipes, frugal living, lost skills, self-sufficiency, herbal medicine on May 25, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Cajoling Jetta has become a weekly chore. I have tried new lead ropes, made by DH especially for her in her favorite color. New bridge washers on her cross ties, so she won’t hurt me herself fighting me as I try to milk her for the first time, etc. Nothing has worked. News today from [...]
Meat and potatoes
Posted in agriculture, early days, easily amused, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, lost skills, seed saving, sustainability, vegetable gardening, wildlife, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged agriculture, early farm life, family cow, farm life, frugality, grow your own food, over-winter vegetables, seed saving, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening on May 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
That is what our garden is - just your basic old vegetable garden. Full of workhorses and not too many gourmet delicacies. It feeds us year-round though, but you won’t find low performers in our garden more than a year, or two at most.
Before the rain on Tuesday, we planted 50# of potatoes. I plant the [...]
It’s not the planting
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. [...]
I’m worried
Posted in Belly Acres (rant), farm as desired, farm life, greenhouse, sustainability, wildlife, zero mile foodshed, tagged farm life, greenhouse, pollution, self-sufficiency, wildlife on May 16, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Not about Jetta, just about the world we live in, in general.
Last night, while working in the greenhouse, this was the only bee in there! We couldn’t keep our honey bees safe from black bears, so we quit trying to raise them, thinking native pollinators would do enough.
Living in a maritime climate, we have many cloudy, overcast [...]
New stuff, but no baby Jetta
Posted in cattle, farm as desired, farm life, frugal living, greenhouse, pastured poultry, sustainability, vegetable gardening, vegetables, zero mile foodshed, tagged beef cattle, farm life, greenhouse, pastured poultry, self-sufficiency, vegetable gardening, wildlife, zero mile foodshed on May 15, 2008 | 7 Comments »
We moved the cows from the Coyote (here we pronounce it Ki-yo-tee) field and through Cougar Heaven with no mishaps. One calf was born in the woods, but his mom bedded (told) him in the field we were moving them to. Smart Cow - she’s Jetta’s aunt, one of my mutts!
The road to Cougar Heaven.
I [...]
More rhubarb
Posted in canning, family cow, farm as desired, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, lost skills, recipes, scratch cooking, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged canning, family cow, farm cooking, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, homesteading, recipes, scratch cooking, self-sufficiency, zero on May 14, 2008 | 3 Comments »
While chained to the stove today, I was able to do other tasks that might come in handy if “someone” has her calf! Ooops - I’m talking about it!
♥ Boiled a kettle of potatoes in their jackets for hash browns, these will keep in the fridge for 4 or 5 days. Very handy, just saute [...]
Let the preserving begin
Posted in canning, farm as desired, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, heirloom fruit, recipes, scratch cooking, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged canning, farm dogs, farm living, food preservation, frugal living, healthy food, heirloom fruit, lost skills, preserving, recipes, self-sufficiency, winter stores, zero mile foodshed on May 13, 2008 | 8 Comments »
One of my favorite things is to lie in bed at night and listen for the “Kerr-plink” of my canning jars sealing. The rhubarb is starting to bolt, so it was fish or cut bait. A quick inventory told me that I still had rhubarb in the freezer from last year and canned rhubarb sauce [...]
First calf, not Jetta’s :), :(
Posted in canning, cattle, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, pastured poultry, recipes, sustainability, winter stores, zero mile foodshed, tagged Australian Shepherds, beef cattle, cattle, chickens, farm dogs, farm life, food preservation, frugal living, pastured poultry, scratch cooking, self-sufficiency on May 9, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Jetta update: Nothing! Next Tuesday???
First calf of the season.
I was glad to see this guy, he the first. This cow had twins last year, she did as good a job as possible, but they were considerably smaller than the singletons. When fall came I sold them at auction since they were smaller, and always hungry. Since [...]
-
Cinnabar moth larvae eating Tansy Ragwort Categories
- agriculture
- Belly Acres (rant)
- biodynamic farming
- canning
- cattle
- compost
- early days
- easily amused
- electric fencing
- family cow
- farm as desired
- farm dogs
- farm life
- food preservation
- frugal farming
- frugal living
- greenhouse
- haying
- heirloom fruit
- hydraulic ram
- lost skills
- milk cow
- next year…
- pastured poultry
- personal
- quilting
- recipes
- redneck moments
- rotational grazing
- scratch cooking
- seed saving
- sustainability
- Uncategorized
- vegetable gardening
- vegetables
- wildlife
- winter stores
- woodstove cookery
- zero mile foodshed
Tags
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-
Recent Posts
Archives
site meter
-
Spam Blocked
-
Top Posts
