They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
There are two main issues with keeping animals on pasture all year around here. One is the heat and dryness for 3 months every summer. The other is the cold and wetness for 9 months every winter. Other than that, it's a cinch. Since our pasture doesn't have any trees (yet) we are constructing mobile… Continue reading Mobile Shelters
Busy day on the farm yesterday. We decided on Sunday we need to re-arrange the barnyard better to be able to sort out livestock and direct them where we want them, and to be able to drive a truck into the laneway, or even just walk down the laneway without having to walk through gates… Continue reading The Measure of a (Little) Man
Quick update from last week, on Thursday afternoon after work we split forces. Mommy took the two older girls and got all of the grocery shopping done for the week. Daddy took the two younger ones and finished the last stretch of pasture fencing. It was cold, so Seppi borrowed my flannel. Winnie didn’t mind,… Continue reading The final stretch
The final corner of the field is the southeast fence. OUr friend Nicholas came over yesterday and helped stretch this, and thanks to his help we were able to make some great progress. Unfortunately, we had some setbacks and some upset tummies, so we didn't get it quite finished. As always, the first step was… Continue reading Stretching the southeast fence
Is more fun with family. At 5 AM I was out in the field tying down this inside corner. It was a tough job, getting all the thirteen longitudinal wires pulled back against the wood post. There was just too much tension, not all of them got pulled back. I will probably revisit this in… Continue reading Stretching the fence…
Thursday was the first day we tried to stretch the fence in the pasture. Got off to a good start, but ended up not going according to plan. The problem was that I actually have no idea how to stretch a woven wire fence, and had no idea how much stretch it would have. So… Continue reading Best laid plans
There are two things you must have in place before you can intensively rotate animals on pasture: Water Control With the plumbing finished, the yard hydrants connected and operating, and the trench filled in, the pasture set up moves into what we hope will be the final stage before we can put animals onto it:… Continue reading Building Fence Anchors.
We have been doing site prep for a water tank install for the last couple of weeks. It was supposed to Arrive on Good Friday, but had to be delayed until the following Tuesday. It was supposed to arrive at 8:00 AM but at 6:30 in the AM I got this picture from Adam. It's… Continue reading Installing the Water Tank
We have a tank coming tomorrow. Not an army tank, a rainwater catchment tank. So Ryan and Adam spent a good chunk of the afternoon planning out exactly how we were going to get a 700lb tank in place between the barn and the pole barn without damaging themselves or any other important infrastructure. All… Continue reading Prepping for Arrival
We officially finished the pasture water line project today. That is, we covered the last 80 feet of trench. The older girls earned a dollar each pulling up a rubbermade tote of shotweed. We managed to get it green, so this patch at least did not shoot seeds all over the place. Ellie fed some… Continue reading A project finished
Little Farm in the Big City 