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”
It’s been raining. A lot. Though it’s stopped for now, it’s left behind sloppy, slippery mud. Everywhere. And that clay mud gets on everything, bogging down the wheels of the cart I use to convey feed to the animals, clogging up the tread of my boots…imagine walking in that same mud with now-treadless boots – good times.
Continue reading “Haiku: Maddening Mire”Many lives have been changed by the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic; some have argued that our lives will never be quite the same. Strangely, though, life here, now, hasn’t changed as much as it might otherwise have. Spring means new life, growth, and opportunities to learn.
It’s been busy – and productive – here on the farm. I’ve hatched lots of chicks this year, so it’s fun to focus on waterfowl for a while.
Continue reading “Haiku: Growing Gaggle”
Our all-girl gaggle of Pilgrim goslings is just over three weeks old and my, they have grown. And they’re mowers/weedeaters par excellence!
At times I wonder about the future of small-scale farming: with large farming operations buying up small farms and effectively putting smaller farmers out to pasture, why would someone voluntarily choose what is, at best, a hardscrabble lifestyle? It’s certainly not for the prestige, the ease, or the security (or the healthcare coverage)…but now that I’ve been a full-time farmer, I better understand why certain individuals still choose to farm.
Continue reading “Musings: Farming As Both Struggle And Inspiration”