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.
Maybe. The ultimate goal of getting our rotational grazing set up is to be able to move cows and sheep, +/- pigs, and poultry of some type around the pasture every single day, with less than one hour of work per day most days. We anticipate having seasonal ups and downs, e.g. planting and harvest… Continue reading So easy a child could do it
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
Allow me to introduce the newest critters on the farm: That's right, folks. We brought home two rams, from a farm a few miles south of here. They were born this year on Valentine's day. Their sire is a roughly 200 Lb's Navajo Churro ram (with four horns, very handsome feller) and their dam was… Continue reading Our First Sheep
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 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
We are still trying to get water run out to the pature before we get the fences set up. Joel Salatin (and the Dougherty's and basically every other rotational grazier on the planet) says to have water and fencing figured out and in place before you start bringing home animals. So Ryan is working on… Continue reading Digging in the Dirt
One of the major projects on the farm --- in fact, you might almost say the major project on the farm --- is finishing the perimeter fence around the pastures. This is the major project because without a perimeter fence there is no pasture. To do intensive rotational grazing there are two things you absolutely… Continue reading Racing the Sun
Finally got back out in the field with the two middlest kinder, and we were able to get the last of the main wooden posts in. This perimeter fence has been a work-in-various-stages-of-progress since we bought the place. We have been really pushing to get the perimeter fences fixed and finished, so that we can… Continue reading Last posts are in
Got a few hours in the pasture this afternoon after work. Cool day, with a fine, soft drizzle, just the sort to soak in slowly over the course of a night. Not ideal weather for setting fence posts, but when you have the time and the materials, you have to do the work. We drilled… Continue reading Setting fence posts
Little Farm in the Big City 