Work
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Cultured Home Dairy Products
This past week, with the help of friends, we made our first batch of cultured butter & buttermilk, sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese and whey, all using raw milk obtained from our own milk cow share. It was very empowering & freeing, especially given how good for us I know these cultured foods are. Many years ago I bought the book, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, and have only read portions of it thus far, but I refer to it often for a handful of recipes, and am seeking to systematically learn more about preparing & preserving food through alternate means. I knew when the time came for me…
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Freedom Scorecard
I came across this snazzy little tool presented by Tag at LifeDoneFree, which he calls a UGS Calculator. (“UGS” stands for “UnGovernable Score”.) Basically, it’s a gauge to determine how free you are based on what you deem is needed to be free. For a while now, I’ve been trying to keep tabs on taking care of our First- Things-First needs, and thensome, to get as free as we can be. And I really like how Tag has put this spreadsheet together to help monitor one’s progress on achieving freedom in the many aspects of our lives.
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Longing for Community
For many years we have longed for community. However, we weren’t interested in just any kind of community, because we’ve seen (& been a part of) a variety of communities over our lifetime that have left us feeling empty & stagnant. For us, given our concern for what we see going on around us & our passionate vision for the future (particularly for our kids!), we have desired to develop relationships with folks who are dedicated to actively cooperating their way out of the System. And then, naturally, we’d like to cooperate with them to achieve that in our own respective little worlds. So, beyond simply meeting & knowing people…
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My Freeze-Drying Future
Last fall, we planned on processing our ginormous (yes, that’s a real word) fence-jumping Black Angus steer. However, when the day came to load him onto the trailer to go meet his Maker, a series of unfortunate events took place, to include the mangling of several cattle panels and garden fencing. Therefore his ticket to ride went to two other smaller animals, and that beast lived to see another day. š Knowing this mammal needed to end up in our freezer, sooner than later, yet our freezer space would be limited given the other two animals, we had to come up with either another massive freezer or another plan to…
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Return to Print Publications
I was happy to read today that 2.9 Billion People are Still Offline. (Of course, I had to see that tidbit online because that’s the only way I’ve been able to get news regarding world events these days.)
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I’m Not a Cow Person
I’m not a cow person, but we have cows — a lot of them. In fact, we just had one born on the homestead last week. Check out this momma & her calf. If I had my druthers, I’d get rid of most of our herd because we have too many for our land to support them all. But my husband keeps reminding me that we need them because they are doing precious work for us that would otherwise take decades for us to do. They are bringing fertility to the land. A lot of it.
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Finally Answering the Call
Iāve been debating back and forth with myself over the past year as to how to best carry out my calling at this moment in time, particularly as it relates to this website. It seems the phone has been ringing for a while now, and I feel a sense of urgency welling up within me to answer it already. I believe those who have wakened in the last year (2020-2021) either to the wicked agenda of the powers-that-be, or to the realization that the powers-that-be shouldnāt even be, are likely going to need a bit of direction going forward. And, I believe, there are those who may have already been awake…
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What is a Food Forest Garden?
Here’s our personal definition of a food forest garden. Discussion and tour includes layer design, edible landscape, self sustaining, resilience, abundance, prosperity, creative mandate, land stewardship, hills and valleys, tips, free nitrogen, passive irrigation. How do you define a food forest?
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Unique Keyhole Beds Video
In today’s video we show part of our zone 7 garden design, inspired by keyhole beds, and also go into more detail as to why we recommend Rototilling as permaculturists. Included are some tips for bringing in pollinators, and our favorite tools and machinery for being the most efficient without causing harm to the land. Along with that, we discuss our method with using weeds, or wild edibles, as cover crops.
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Cow Gone Fishing
My husband decided to go fishing in our pond last week on his day off, and I thought a nice little picnic lunch would be in order. Evidently I wasn’t alone in that idea. I just brought us a few humble PB & J sandwiches, some potato chips & sour cream, and a rare bottle of apple juice. And our guest brought the entertainment. Then the bait bucket got overturned, and it was time to bid farewell to our neighborly beast. Homesteading on the land with a pond comes with its perks: Dinner and a Show, featuring Surf & Turf-in-the-making. Wish you were here.
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