Self-taught farmers confidently raising chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs. Our focus is on practices that are environmentally harmonious and respectful to our livestock. We appreciate the beauty around us, clean eating, fermenting, and responsibly utilizing the bounty of the land. If you like thinking for yourself, continuous learning, and connecting with the homesteader lifestyle, check us out.
It’s finally hatching day for the last Pilgrim eggs of the season! While hatching day is exciting regardless of when it occurs during the year, this hatch is particularly poignant because, after this, there will be no more goslings until next spring. That’s a long wait.
Continue reading “In The Incubator: Last Gosling Hatch Of 2021”
There is beauty before you, she said. Look for it. Gaston heard the words as he awoke from his dream. Who had said these words – almost whispered – as he floated in the twilight realm between sleep and wakefulness? He needed to find out. He shifted his shell and continued on.
Continue reading “Short Read: A Snail’s Search, Part V”
Gaston knew he had to hurry. It was searingly hot already, and it was only early morning. A small snail like him could become a dried husk in no time if he couldn’t get to a place of coolness and damp, so he sprinted – well, as much as a snail can sprint – toward what seemed to be a wet haven in the Green.
Continue reading “Short Read: A Snail’s Search, Part IV”
Beautiful red roses grow amok here in an area that clearly hints at having once been a well-tended terraced garden. I choose to let the vegetation grow wild – and have been rewarded with sumac berries, peonies, lemon balm, yucca, and other delightful flora. The roses, as with many of the other flowers here, aren’t just pretty faces – they’re edible. And wouldn’t they make a lovely wine?
Continue reading “Winecraft: Ruby Red Rose”
Integrations can be an exciting, but difficult, time: this is when young (or newly-added) animals join the resident group. For poultry, this can be a dangerous time, and it needs to be managed carefully. After weeks in tractors that were moved twice a day to fresh pasture, the goslings were finally ready to join the adult geese.
Continue reading “Around The Farm: The Great Gosling Integration”
It was a hot and humid day. The honeysuckle perfumed the muggy air with its seductive fragrance. I ventured out, dressed from head to toe (for sun and tick protection), to harvest honeysuckle blooms, many of which seemed to be intertwined with brambles. Soon, my nitrile gloves were ripped to shreds – but, sometimes, sacrifices must be made in the pursuit of the land’s wild bounty.
Continue reading “Winecraft: Heavenly Honeysuckle…And Blotto Bees”