We’ll call this one a “learning experience.” (I generally hate those, by the way) If you’re wondering how to sell the wood from an old barn, if your old barn wood is worth any money, and how to handle the process… I hope you can learn from our experience. That is to say, selling our […]
Dabbling in Stewardship
Living intentionally, appreciating the things around us, practicing good stewardship of the land, leaving the earth in a better place than we found it… all big words and lofty, lofty goals they are. I know I’ve always held an appreciation for the land- I grew up gardening with my parents, splashing in mud puddles, and climbing […]
Homestead Monthly: November {barn demolition, butchering, and winter preparations}
Bye Bye Barn So, one really big thing happened this month that has taken a lot of our time, energy, and brain space. We essentially “sold” our old 100+ year old big beautiful barn to a reclaimed wood furniture company. The back of this barn started to cave in during the last month, so we […]
How to Get Started Collecting & Growing Rare Seeds
If you’ve only ever grown varieties like Big Boy tomatoes and Butternut squash… you’re in for a surprise, and a treat! As folks who take pleasure from sticking their hands in the dirt, who can’t wait to eat the first fresh green bean from the garden every summer, and who appreciate things like old mason […]
Homestead Monthly: November 2015
For it being one of the colder months… we really accomplished quite a bit on the homestead! On the blog I made vegetable stock powder, shared my no-cut way to cook a whole squash, recapped the best books for homesteaders, and wrote about weird chicken behavior during the molt. Hornet Nests and Honey Bees Karl was […]
The Homestead Monthly: August 2015
Total Tomato Disappointment This past March (as I do every year) I excitedly picked out my tomato varieties for this year’s garden, in April I lovingly started them from seed and nurtured them for two months in house, and in June my little tomato plants were tucked into their permanent home in our new garden. They grew big […]
The Homestead Monthly: December & January
With the holidays, and also because it is winter here- it has been pretty low key. We’ve been day dreaming about sunshine, all the fun spring projects ahead, where we’ll put the big garden, and how many sheep we’ll get. Here’s what’s happened lately: Dealing with Death We had our first adult chicken death in December. […]
Lard Bread & Boiled Flour: A Farm Story
A couple weekends ago we celebrated the spring season with Karl’s family. His Grandparents came over to the big city from their small farming town a couple hours away. As usual we had a meal and talked farming with Grandpa. No one can talk farming like an 85-year-old farmer! (That’s him, above in the picture.) Grandma and […]
10 Reasons Why We Love Our Old Farmhouse
We moved into our old farmhouse just four short months ago, and from day one it has just felt right being here. It suits us so well. (It should- we searched for three years before finding this place!) Our house was built sometime in the 1880s, but the couple who lived here for the past […]
Vintage 1962 Lettuce Seed
Buried underneath layers of homemade ice fishing lures in an old box, I rescued this treasure from Karl’s grandparent’s house. Grandpa chuckled at my enthusiasm for this vintage find and told me to take the seeds with me if I wanted. Yeah, I wanted. I know its only an old seed packet- and not even […]