When you’re dreaming about farming or homesteading, it’s easy to be consumed with the exciting things. Baby chicks. Fresh eggs. Pulling the season’s first sun ripened tomato from the vine. Sun drenched fields of green on still summer days with cotton puff clouds softly floating by overhead. You know, the things we usually take pictures
There I was. Standing in the barn with both hands firmly wrapped around the legs of a squealing three week old male pig. I held it up as the vet made an incision across each testicle, beginning the castration process. And the first squeal sent Charlotte charging at us. I had dreaded the moment most
Let’s be real for a few moments. Can we? Because I’m going to come clean on something. When we brought the pigs home last May, I had good intentions on creating a separate space for Churchill, our boar. Because one boar with four gilts will eventually lead to…well, you know. But those good intentions are
Starting a market garden sounded like a good idea… Raspberries. Tomatoes. Broccoli. We would grow all the things and the people would rejoice! This may not be exactly what was on my mind when we first set out to grow produce for our community. But I can honestly say the picture I had in
We weren’t going to do it. At least not this soon. Adding pigs to the homestead was pretty low on the list of priorities. But then Facebook Marketplace happened. You know how that goes. A good deal too good to pass came along and…well… we decided to take a leap. We want to be a
How to be more efficient and effective
Well, spring arrived here in Iowa…and then it quickly slipped back into winter. The last couple days temps have plummeted back down to the high thirties. It was seventy-five last weekend, just to give you perspective. And while the rain is keeping us out of the fields, it is a necessary blessing. The radish, carrot
I’ve been thinking about ways we can extend our growing season. Why wait to plant in May when we can plant lettuce and other cold weather crops in March? And what about harvesting kale and Brussel sprouts in December or January? So I started building these cold frames that fit over the raised beds. They