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 shade mobile we built had a door. This is because, eventually, we plan on enclosing it in chicken wire and putting chickens in it. However, this is not ideal for cows, as they can get stuck in the doorway and break it. So we made another shade mobile last Tuesday. Incidentally, Ryan had… Continue reading The Second Shade Mobile
It's amazing what we can accomplish with a few hours of work and some motivated helpers. Miss Winnie fits Seppi's old cowboy boots. Man work! Not quite big enough for Daddy's sunglasses. Ellie was sent to go get a roll of wire from the barn. Apparently she needed Seppi and a wheelbarrow to bring it… Continue reading The Sheep Shelter
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
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.
It was actually sunny outside yesterday, for part of the day. Daddy and the kids continued working on the garden gate/fence project. Of course this involved digging. Lots of digging. This took us through the coolest part of the morning, and by the time the air temperature was above 40 degrees we were ready to… Continue reading Dog by the Garden Gate
With so much to do outside, I wonder why I spend the few hours I have to work on the farm on a workbench in the shop. Well, the answer to that in the last couple weeks has been mostly circumstantial. It has been cold, wet and rainy, and the kids have had colds. When… Continue reading Work bench
Still working on putting a work bench in the shop. IT's kind of a nooks and crannies project, meaning something we can work at a few minutes here, a few minutes there, and the kids can help. With helpers like this, how could we not get work done? She's finally big enough for the pink… Continue reading Helpers
Yesterday was a busy day, with a little bit longer hours at work than usual for Daddy, and 4H in the evening. This made the already short afternoon farming window even shorter, but we still managed to get things done. A friend who is an electrician came by to evaluate the electrical panel for the… Continue reading Almost Ready…
We now have gates on the paddock that is going to be the pig yard starting on Saturday. Seppi was the first to run through it, just to make sure it worked. Winnie discovered dirt. It’s pretty fun stuff Almost as fun as loose hay. We had to work in the rain a little bit,… Continue reading Paddock Gates
Well, it seems no sooner do we get rid of one set of pegs, then we pick up another. This time we are picking up three weaned piglets of the Meishan breed, which we are interested in seeing if it will be a good fit for our farm. The Meishan breed is a heritage breed… Continue reading Getting ready for pigs
Little Farm in the Big City 