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Category Archives: Farm
Curses! Foiled…
I’m in my annual battle with the house finches. They just love building their nests in the corners of our porch columns, soon to be followed by the barn swallows. I don’t mind them raising their families, but I take … Continue reading
Vortex at Bluestem Pond
The whole Midwest is suffering under this year’s polar vortex, and we are feeling it here for sure. The temperature at 11 am has risen from 17 to 10 … (oh, that’s negative Fahrenheit, in case you didn’t know!) I’ve … Continue reading
A Heavy, Icy Snow
We heard the blowing sleet hitting the house last night and the weather report said it would be a few inches by morning. Still, I was surprised to look out the morning window onto a prairie laid flat. Just yesterday, … Continue reading
One Big Flock
I think I now have the correct formula for growing my flock of chickens without creating a riot. It took a lot of patience. I had to keep the youngest generation protected in their box for a long time, or … Continue reading
Visitors
Big event, this weekend! Our son and his little family are visiting and we get to be “Grandparents: Live!” for a few days. Our little granddaughter has just mastered walking and in the last week started favoring it over crawling. … Continue reading
What’s This Geometry?
I saw this on the porch screen and was perplexed at the pattern until I looked closer. I guess I should have respected their privacy but it was so pretty! I actually hate these little triangular flies that follow me … Continue reading
Endless Improvements, Fun Projects
We just can’t leave well enough alone around here! I’ve been feeling irritated that I often have to disconnect the electric fence in order to enter the goat pasture to dump out the water bucket or the feeding trough. It … Continue reading
Playing God with the Pond
The pond (Bluestem Pond, we call it), has taught me the need for an ongoing tussle with Mother Nature, who wishes to make it into a cattail garden. Last year, I used a long-handled cutting rake to break them off … Continue reading
Healing Maple Trees
We planted three maple trees in front of the barn, back in 2010. The following Spring, the bark on the southwest sides was cracked and peeling with holes bored in by insects. It took a year or two of working … Continue reading
What’s New?
In a nutshell, we took an exciting vacation to Ireland and Denmark, came home to springtime sprung, a bout of viruses, and a gigantic backlog of repairs and out-of-control farm chores. I am happy to say that a month and … Continue reading
Shearing Day, 2018
It’s that time again, and I hardly slept last night anticipating the challenge of shearing the goats. I planned ahead and got my electric shearing machine repaired last week, then stayed up into the wee hours of the morning watching … Continue reading
Caught Up Carding
Before you can spin beautiful yarns out of raw fiber, you have to card it, meaning you comb all the fibers in one direction and roll it neatly into batts or little “rolags”. For big volumes of carding, I am fortunate … Continue reading
Field Day
Hooray, it’s that time of year again! Time to burn the prairie and mow down the old dry grass to open up the way for new green shoots to feel the spring sunshine. We divide up our prairie fields into … Continue reading
On and Off Snow
This late winter season has been quite erratic. We had days of deep snow last week, followed by a day in the 60’s and lots of rain in which all the snow melted. Now there are flood warnings and it … Continue reading
From Scratch – Goats to Sweater
A friend nudged me to get back in the habit of blogging. It is so easy to slip out of one habit and into another and before you know it, you are off on a new quest and forget all … Continue reading
Snow Comes Again
I am fond of snow this time of the year. (Ask me in March and you’ll hear a different story.) We finally got our first couple inches this week and all the animals are remembering what it’s like and what … Continue reading
Posted in Farm, Farm Animals, Fiber crafts
Tagged farm animals in winter, Fiber crafts, snow
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Our First Grape Harvest
This is the third summer since planting our little vineyard and this year we allowed the Concord grapes to form. Last week, I scrambled under a tight time window to get the first batch of ripe grapes turned into juice … Continue reading
