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.
Saturday morning, just like most mornings right about now, Daddy was digging a ditch, somewhere between 5 and 6 AM, and he looked at where the ditch started... And where the ditch was going... and realized that this is more or less the line where we want to build a gate across the driveway. This… Continue reading Squirrel!
It has been a busy week or two since coming back from National Guard. Busy in good ways, but not necessarily on the farm. Not, at any rate, projects that make good blog posts. A lot of our spare time has been spent doing things as a family as much as possible. But, looking through… Continue reading Catch Up Post
I bet you didn't know there was going to be a part deux. But there is! LAst time, when we put the thing together we didn't have a tarp to go on top, so, while it did cast some shade, it was very little, and in a grid pattern. Now we have a green/silver 12… Continue reading The Second Shade Mobile, Part II
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
Little Farm in the Big City 