Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Last year I wrote about creating a compost bed in my chicken yard. I dumped manure from the horses and chicken coop mixed with sawdust, leaves, cardboard, grass clippings, etc all summer and fall. I would toss a handful of grain in the bed a couple times a week to encourage the chickens to scratch around.
3 days ago I started to empty the bed and transport it to the garden’s raised beds. The chickens had done their job beautifully and the compost is nearly completely broken down. It will be read more...
Garden area
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Saturday, January 14, 2023
2023 is off to an interesting start.
I had the highest hopes for this year on January 1. This year was going to be The Year. The year when it all fell into place. When this farmstead was gonna see all the hard work of the past years come to fruition. Less than 2 weeks in and well, I’m having to rethink a lot of things.
Farming/Homesteading is like that tho isn’t it? Our entire day, season or year can derail in a blink of an eye. So much is dependent on weather, our health, the markets. S read more...
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Friday, December 9, 2022
Winter is fast approaching. Typically this is the time to get caught up on all the little things that one never has time to do during the rush of spring planting, summer gardens and fall harvests. It’s time to look at what worked, what didn’t and plan for the coming year. It’s time to reflect.
Why do I live this life? It would certainly be easier and sometimes cheaper, not to do so. My day job is stressful enough with plenty of long hours. It would be much easier to not harvest wood for the st read more...
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Thursday, November 24, 2022
Tom, marked Safe from today’s menu
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope all are enjoying their day and have plenty of good things to eat.
Once again I was blessed with being able to set my table with a large amount of food produced here on the farmstead. The turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans and eggs were all provided by my animals and my own two hands. God has blessed me with the ability and wherewithal to feed my friends that set their feet under the table here at the Broken H.
While all that food was being read more...
Young pullet
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Sunday, October 23, 2022
Well, it’s happened. The annual Barnyard Terrorists have stuck the farmstead. What are these Terrorists you ask? …. The latest litter of American Guinea Hog piglets that have found their way out of the pasture lot and are roaming the barnyard. They are everywhere! With 8 of them sometimes they move in a gang and sometimes in pairs. When you least expect them, like the dark of pre-dawn, there they are! Where you least expect them, like under the feed bin, they come bursting out to read more...
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Monday, October 10, 2022
7.5# sweet potato!
It’s that time of year again. Sigh. Fall is here and winter not far behind. The first frost, although light, occurred Saturday night, so growing is done.
I spent Saturday afternoon closing out the garden. Pulling sweet potato vines, digging potatoes and picking tomatoes to ripen off the vine. Got a bonus of a nice big strawberry too! Late for them, but no complaints here.
The pigs enthusiastically appreciated the vines and the miniature sweet potatoes I fed them. The garden yielded 50# of p read more...
Tomatoes needing to ripen
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Monday, September 19, 2022
This week has been a whirlwind! Ton of things happening here as summer winds down and fall says hello.
Last Sunday the farm welcomed the birth of 10 Guinea Hog piglets by a young gilt. As so often happens 2 did not survive the week, but we have 8 healthy and active babies as of today. They are ranging all over the pastured lot with momma promising to be good foragers and great additions to lucky farms.
I was blessed with the opportunity to glean all the sweet corn I wanted to gather by a lo read more...
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Saturday, September 10, 2022
The Bible talks about allowing the poor to glean the fields, picking up products left by the harvesters. This was once a significant way the poor, often women, willing to put in a little effort could feed themselves. It was a sacred Hebrew law and is central to the story of Ruth and Boaz. People were still significantly utilizing gleaning well into the middle of the 20th century in order to feed themselves. We don’t hear the term, Glean, much anymore in today’s time of mechanical read more...
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Sunday, August 21, 2022
Curd draining and ready to be formed
A few years back after the fiasco at one of the dairy farms highlighting the abuse of calves I decided to reduce, if not completely remove my use of commercial dairy products. I believe Strongly in the ethical treatment of our animal companions and seeing how they are treated by Big Ag sickened me.
I love cheese. A childhood friend joked that cheese was a side dish at my home growing up and it hasn't changed 30yrs later. So to reduce my dependence on commercial dairy, I had to figure out how read more...
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Monday, August 8, 2022
The long hours of tending the garden, orchards and fields is starting to pay off and the harvest is beginning. Tomatoes, sweet corn, blackberries and more are ready for the picking. Time to enjoy them immediately but also time to prepare for winter.
How are you preserving your excess? Here I utilize a variety of ways. Freezing, dehydrating and canning. To do each properly you need the tools and to follow the correct process.
A good canning book is essential to safely process “canned” goods f read more...
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