Planting For The Pigs Of 2035

Planting For The Pigs Of 2035

We are rich with natural resources here at the farm. It’s almost as if food falls from the sky. In the orchards it actually does fall from the sky for a few months in Autumn, sweet fruit that delights us as well as the goats and the chickens and the ducks....
Big Leaf Maple: A Homestead Cornerstone

Big Leaf Maple: A Homestead Cornerstone

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are blessed with an amazing tree that has proven to be one of the cornerstones of our homesteading way of life. The Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) towers over the edges of the pastures, casting a deep shade in the summer months...
How To Milk Your Goats The Wrong Way

How To Milk Your Goats The Wrong Way

A few months ago I wrote about our goat milking trial….and oh what was a trial it was. There were curses and there were pails of spilled milk and there were tears. More tears than I care to remember. The girls were not cooperative and I was trying everything I...
Escape From The Chopping Block

Escape From The Chopping Block

We were down to just two ducks in the flock after the raccoons and the eagles got done helping themselves. And of course, as luck would have it, they left us with two hens that hadn’t laid a single egg in the past four months. And in creep those pesky moral...
Swine Time

Swine Time

     We have problems here on the farm. And when it comes time to remedy those problems, our land ethic guides us in the direction of biological and low input mechanical solutions. You could call us hippies, Luddites or just old-timey curmudgeons, and...