Land
16+ acres of rolling hills
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A Quiet Revolution
Let’s face it. [Keeping It Real] Most of us were raised in an environment where our housing, utilities, food, energy, transportation, healthcare & communications were all provided for us in exchange for money. Very few of us, I think, inherited our housing. (I didn’t.) We more than likely had to acquire it with money. And then we all have to keep paying money to keep it. While some have their own well water & septic systems, most rely on municipalities for these services in exchange for money. And most buy the majority of their food and pay for electricity and/or gas/oil to power & heat their homes. And this is…
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Creating a Domain in the Real World
In recent years the Powers-That-Shouldn’t-Be in this world have been shoving us all into the virtual realm, whether we like it or not. And frankly, I don’t like it. I was already quite a bit behind the times, technologically speaking –– as I’m typing this post on a hard-wired desktop computer hooked up to a printer/copier/fax machine that’s nearly two decades old. (And my wired landline telephone is stationed just around the corner, with another extension linked to an answering machine.) While I was on the cutting edge of web-design-from-scratch and the blogosphere nearly twenty years ago, I have failed miserably at keeping up with the latest & greatest of…
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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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Shabbat Shalom, Y’all
In 2009, or thereabouts, I began researching & studying the US Constitution, and the course I was taking led me to read the book of Deuteronomy anew. (The course itself was not religious in nature — it just referenced the books of the Bible where the Ten Commandments were listed.) So, after a short while, having meditated on the chapter containing the Ten Commandments (chapter 6), I took to heart the instruction (verses 6-9) to teach these commandments diligently to the children & talk about them all the time, posting them at one’s gates and on the posts of one’s home. Thus began my Ten Commandments Campaign.
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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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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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We’ve Got Eggs!
It’s that time of year again when we are inundated with eggs — SPRING! And we are happy to share them with our neighbors out of our roadside homestead stand. Last spring our flock was very small — we just had enough to meet our own needs. This year is a different story. We hope to offer a variety of homestead-produced items in the stand this year. But for now, all we’ve got are eggs… For those of you in the local area: Come on down and get you some free-range, farm-fresh, pastured eggs!
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Our Greenhouse Patio
This year, we made great strides in remodeling the large greenhouse attached to our poultry house. While it is still under construction, with plans to create & use an aquaponic system in it, my husband thought a small patio area within it as well would make a nice respite, particularly in the winter months. And so far it has served us well. 🙂 With temperatures in the 40s and low 50s outside… We are able to enjoy some leisure while soaking in the sun and enjoying some free heat. What a blessing! We look forward to getting a lot of use out of our new outdoor, indoor living space. 🙂
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More Chickens!
In the winter of 2019/2020, sadly, we lost a lot of birds (chickens & quail) due to predators and feeding complications while we were away from home. Finding help in the spring enabled us to make some improvements on the property, to include our poultry housing. Improvements included redefining interior space, leveling the dirt floor, replacing insulation, sealing up holes where rats/snakes were getting in and fixing water leak issues. We were making ready to build up our flock of chickens again. As news spread concerning COVID19 in the spring, the demand for both birds & eggs in our area went up tremendously. So, we got busy renovating our brooding…
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A Walk in Our Woods
In early November I took a stroll through our woods to see the last remains of color on the trees. Here’s a brief tour of the highlights. I feel so blessed to be living in this place. What a beautiful world our Creator has made for us. Wouldn’t you say?
