For better or worse, the race to get projects done before the ground freezes is over, and I think we won. The temperatures around here have dropped. At the moment, it’s 17 degrees F outside, and a big snow dump is predicted today – the first serious snow of the […]
18 years ago I drove my shovel into the ground of my new yard in Libertyville IL and broke the blade off in that rock-hard clay. I replaced the shovel, and while I was at it I bought a big, black, plastic compost bin so I could compost urbanely. By […]
We reach Thanksgiving from a winding road through autumn and exit into winter. The time available to work outside on our land is truncated more with each passing day. Sunset comes earlier. Night lasts longer. And longer. That’s why of all the Christmas/Solstice traditions, I love trees the best. Our […]
In the background of this photo of our just finished hay stack, (see my post Stacking Hay) you can see our barn and the attached greenhouse. Having a greenhouse has been a dream all my life, and when we designed our barn, the attached greenhouse was on the drawing board […]
When we lived in the Netherlands, we often watched village-dwelling farmers wearing wooden shoes bike out to their well-tended fields carrying some long-handled tool over their shoulder (yes, really). The Netherlands is a food exporting country, demonstrating that monster-sized agribusiness is not the only productive game in town. Those […]
Shortly after we had taken charge of our 44 acres, I asked my husband what was his favorite thing about our land. Doug said, “That young red oak across from the house site.” I knew immediately which one he meant. It was about 15 years old — a robust, teenage […]
Our prairie remnant on a sunny, south-facing slope just off the top of a ridge had been farmed for years and then planted by the owner before us in rows of pine and spruce. Some of the trees were 5 years old. Some were nearer 15. The older trees were […]
One of the first plants I think I could identify as a child was milkweed. That was before I even associated its fireworks flowers with its flying fairy seeds. I was attracted to its dramatic pods that could be opened to reveal the precise rows of seeds sleeping with their […]
As we plan our farm, Doug and I often mull on whether it will include livestock. I’m not looking to keep animals for meat, but dairy seems so useful, sheep (to a knitter and spinner like me) just look right grazing on a hill. Chickens would be a great source […]
Because our little barn is a timber frame structure covered with slabs of oak weathering to a silvery patina, I like to think it looks like it belongs where it is. (See my post, Building our Timberframe Barn here . But when it was being built, the site looked like […]
Digging in the Driftless 