What’s to come.

I often get a little down this time of year.  Winter is not even yet a distant memory (3″ of snow this last weekend) and there seems to be more mud than grass.  Nothing is growing, and spring seems to be a million miles away.  It’s not all bad.  The goats & llama are deep bedded in their loafing shed (meaning we don’t pick up the dropped hay & poop all winter, sound gross?  It’s not, actually, their shed is warm (composting manure) and dry (the hay they don’t eat ends up on the floor for bedding.  There are two downsides.  First is what happens if you don’t clean it up in the spring- you end up with a compressed compost brick as big as the loafing shed, that is very hard to deal with, and the other issue is the headache.  Our loafing shed’s roof doesn’t automatically lift as the floor rises, so by the end of February it’s very ease to smack your head on an overhanging beam especially when feeding at night.  Ouch.

It would be nice if the horses did the same thing, but our mini eats anything she can (including turkey feathers) so they have to deal with dirt.

The garden is full of “promise” or in other words, manure.  I will have to till it in the spring to till it up and hopefully find some dirt to plant some seeds in.  The bees are also still, well, they are with us.  It’s kind of hard to tell with bees in the winter.  They are either there or not.  Hopefully there now mean there later and doing well.  I am down to one hive, and if it goes, I will probably take a hiatus for a year.  With the new little two legged indoor living ankle biter, we are putting a hold on any “additional” work/projects.  For now.

And that bring me around the the dahlias.  They were wonderful this last summer.  Although there were some that desperately needed to be dug up and divided, and I don’t see that happening.  I am keeping my fingers crossed as many of them never saw their winter mulch…  And we are still having freezing weather.  The other half are covered in about 18″ of horse fruit, I just hope it doesn’t burn them.

So that is what I will leave you with for now.  A shot of one of the dahlias from last summer, and the lupine…  Here’s hoping!

Care of the land…

I spotted this last night on one of the Conservation Districts quarterly newsletters.  We had one of the farm planners come out to walk through our place with us and help us work on a “farm plan”.  It’s kind of a term paper for what we are doing or want to do with our property.  Amanda was really helpful and we are excited to keep working on some of the goals Joscelyn and I have for our place.  So back to the newsletter, this is what I read that grabbed my attention.

“When we see land as a
community to which we
belong, we may begin to
use it with love and
respect”
– Aldo Leopold

I have not read a ton of A.L.’s writing but do remember the environmental stewardship thread that ran through most of what I do remember from college.  With the world seeming to fall in on itself financially, and socially it seems like many people are looking for a community.  Facebook, Church, Work, or something else is more important than ever (ok maby not facebook).  It’s the sense of security that a group of people who are in it together feel.

That’s part of what I am hoping this blog grows into.  I hope to have useful links and info, for full blown farmers, backyard farmers, and people who care about their food.  Also, to chronicle our journey down the path to leaving the little bit of earth that God has placed in our care in better shape than when we began our stewardship of it.

Here’s to the land

-Adam