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.
Our lovely ladies have been laying, reliably, so I was able to collect a dozen huge eggs in short order. With luck and lots of hand-turning (and misting and cooling), goslings will emerge in a few more weeks!
Continue reading “In The Incubator: The Year’s First Pilgrim Goose Eggs”
The vernal equinox has officially occurred, and it’s a sunny, warm, and exquisitely pleasant day. The daffodils knew – they suddenly burst from the sullen ground, their smiling faces beaming from the still-austere brown vegetation surrounding them. Trust the daffodils.
Continue reading “Spring Is Here: The Daffodils Know”
Just because someone dies, their presence doesn’t simply disappear – sometimes, loved ones may visit in dreams or appear in daydreams. I often “see” one particular soul, missed dearly, in manifestations of nature…I think of her daily, though she has not been here now for years. And I will think of her until I am no longer here.
Life is a dichotomy of joy and sorrow, each (unfortunately) seemingly in fairly equal measure, and not subject to our will. I will not avoid sorrow because doing so means I also avoid joy. I’ll hold fast to the joy and hope the sorrow simply crashes over me like waves at the shore: they may batter me, but I’ll get back up, shake the sand out of my suit, and be glad that I had the chance to swim in the glorious sea.
One of the surest signs (other than the fabulous uptick in laying by the poultry) of spring’s impending arrival is the sudden, almost magical, reappearance of the dependable day lilies. Though they die each season, leaving just the detritus of dry stems poking up from the ground, one day, tiny green shoots appear…and, soon, the reborn blooms will assert their fiery orange cheer on the world. I eagerly await their return!
A few days ago, it felt as if spring might never come…that the cold, wet, and gloom were here to stay, seeping into the very soul. The dour gray sky seemed to press downward with indifference for human discomfort.
With the return of the sun, however, the pall has lifted, and the atmosphere is celebratory: birds are singing and making nests, the grass is greening up, chickens and ducks are laying eggs, and Nature seems (like me) to be smiling today. Though it’s technically still winter, just the suggestion of brighter days is enough to encourage hope to rise like the sap in the silver maple tree. Think spring!
Lovely lichen, everywhere…but did you know it’s actually a symbiotic organism? (yes, Star Trek nerds, like the Trill – but different 🖖). It’s composed of fungi and algae, cooperating to improve their chances of survival.
Continue reading “Haiku: Magnificent Merger”