One of my strongest pieces of advice to anyone looking to get into gardening is to start without a plan. Seriously, just put some seeds in the ground, and see what happens. This should be a relatively small piece of ground. Or a pot. In one growing season you will have opportunity to learn a… Continue reading Re-routing the Garden Fence
Tag: #KidsOnTheFarmstead
Subdividing the South Pasture: First two Fence Anchors
Lots of people (myself included) watch homesteaders on Youtube, and that show about early Victorian farms, and read John Seymour's "Self-Sufficient Life" and get all fired up about living the more simple life. Some even buy or rent or borrow some land and make a start at homesteading. But there is a dark side of… Continue reading Subdividing the South Pasture: First two Fence Anchors
Pioneer Winnie
When you need to go out and feed the animals, but you don’t feel like walking, and you are wearing your Rapunzel costume on top of your Cinderella costume with a side of little house on the Prairie.
Cutting back the blackberries by the shop
The small man is ready for anything. He has brand new red clippers. The snowball bushes between the shop and the carport have grown a bit out of control in the last two years. More to the point, they are overgrown (and undergrown, and through grown) with Himalayan blackberry. Earlier, the kids cut a tunnel… Continue reading Cutting back the blackberries by the shop
Happy Birthday, Winnie!
And other shenanigans. By Ellie Belle. (Translated and with editorial notes by Daddy.) evie is bring home eggs and cabbage ewwww!! the cabbage is foll of afedes (The cabbage is full of aphids. Dusty little gray bits that infest the spaces between leaves). the cabbageis roten (The cabbage is not actually rotten, just infested). we… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Winnie!
The Fort
The children have been hard at work building a fort in the straw bales under the car port. The farm is a dangerous place. Enemies attack us on a regular basis. Mostly Nazis and vermin hordes. Sometimes a budding young paratrooper can get shot in the ensuing war. She does her own moulage too! When… Continue reading The Fort
Sauerkraut!
What do you do with a 13 Lb red cabbage? This cabbage was one of the late planted cabbages from last year that didn't sprout in time for winter, but took off as soon as the ground started to warm up in the spring. It has been growing next to the pea trellis ever since.… Continue reading Sauerkraut!
Harvesting Wheat and Garlic
Tuesday was the day we got around to harvesting our wheat. It was a bit disappointing. If you look closely at the picture above you will see that a significant number of the wheat stalks are missing their seed head. In this section it was 50% or more, most other sections were not hit quite… Continue reading Harvesting Wheat and Garlic
Prepping garden beds
The radishes are done for the first half of the season, and we harvested the chiogga beets. Now it's time to replant the beds. But first... A mater! One beautiful little Heirloom Marriage, ripening right on the vine! I am so happy! Broccoli for lunch. Trust her, she is very skillful with that thing, and… Continue reading Prepping garden beds
Subdividing the North Pasture: Stretching the Fence.
We are getting into the final stretch (get it?) of our North Pasture fencing project. Our friend Vincent came over to help us stretch it. He has never done any fencing before, but that did not prevent him from learning quickly and being a great help. We anchored section one at the west end and… Continue reading Subdividing the North Pasture: Stretching the Fence.