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.
The last sheep were so easy to raise, and so tasty, that we decided to get some more sheep. This time, we want to get ewes so we can breed our own sheep instead of buying feeder rams every year. The initial expense is greater, but over the next 2 years they should pay for… Continue reading New Sheepies!
Edmund has another contract. This time for $40, For one post hole, minimum 42" deep, big enough to set a railroad tie exactly 16 feet from both corner posts at the gate to the chicken-yard and south pasture. This is the beginning of the next phase of pasture development, step one of dividing up the… Continue reading Subdividing the South Pasture, Part 1: Learning
One of the best things about butchering day... The big mess of fried heart the next day. In this case fried in butter with onion, pepper and garlic. Evie and Winnie are both fans of it. Seppi is not. Ellie thinks that it is about the worst thing that ever happened. The daikon radishes bolted… Continue reading Duck Confit and Prosciutto
The neighbor to the south is not really able to maintain his property anymore, so there is a little cottonwood forest grown up in it. That is, when you look at it from a distance it appears to be mostly cottonwood, but when you look at it up close... Before Boom! Poison hemlock. Not to… Continue reading Welcome to the Jungle
Caution. This post is about where food comes from. Proceed accordingly. The meat ducks reached a healthy (and hefty) 8 weeks old, averaging 8.4 Lbs (this might be a slight overestimation, as they sometimes bounce around in the bucket while being weighed). We ordered 20 ducks from Meyer hatchery, they shipped 21 on April 7th.… Continue reading Processing the Meat Ducks.
Grandma Ann sent it in the mail, for Seppi's birthday. He was so excited nothing would do but putting it together in his jammies, as soon as Daddy got home. First, hard hat on for safety! Fortunately he already knows all about how to use tools. Voila! Just like that! We have an excavator! Grandma… Continue reading How the Farm got an Excavator
Last Tuesday, we managed to get into the garden a little bit during the day. Winnie and Daddy put twine on the bean trellis. They beans are starting to come in quite nicely, but we actually ran out of twine with two trellises left to go. We have more twine now, but haven't gotten to… Continue reading Garden and Orchard work
Our egg ducklings are now three weeks old, and the weather is nice and warm. We are moving them out of the brooder! By the bucketload! They will be locked in the duck-mobile for the next couple of weeks, though. They are too small to be running around without overhead cover. They are just snack-sized… Continue reading Moving the Egg Ducks
Cows like to scratch. They will scratch themselves on anything available. If the only thing available is their mobile shade/shelter, they will scratch themselves on that. It that shelter is covered with a light duty tarp that hangs over the edge of the frame, they will eventually wear through tarp and shred it. Like this.… Continue reading Re-tarping the Shade Mobile
We are coming to the end of the radish season. Most of the ones we picked this week were woody and just starting to bolt. This bucket from late last week was the last good harvest, except for the Runder-schwarzers, which haven't really come into their own yet. Radishes are one of Daddy's favorite vegetables,… Continue reading Radish lacto-ferment
Little Farm in the Big City 