We found a little mouse in the barn!  He must be eating the spilled oats.  He (or she, I suppose) was so small.  It could jump shockingly high and tried to climb a tree to get away from us.  We let it go, of course, after we took a picture.  It was so cute.  I…

Whew, I’m so glad it’s Friday!  It’s been a tough week.  All our extended family has been unavailable lately and Ethan’s work was threatening to send him out of town for an unknown number of days.  It’s been so long since they asked him to travel, but it is always like that – not sure…

Summer is here, with all of the usual heat and humidity.  It’s still just early summer heat-and-humidity, of course, none of the late summer 95 degrees and 100% humidity that we can look forward to. I am excited about summer vacation.  Home schooling is a huge time and effort commitment, and I can’t wait to…

 We all had a blast at the Morning Meadow May Fair over the weekend.   It was at the Little Orange Creek park where Earthskills was this year.  It has become one of my very favorite parks.  There are beautiful oak trees every where, and an old cemetery from the 1800’s that the park is restoring. …

 This was a strange insect Ethan found inside of a gopher tortoise burrow that the darn dog tried to dig up.  The gopher tortoise is ok, don’t worry.  He just moved his residence.  The stupid dog, not so much — her paws were bleeding.  Now we have a huge 6-foot pit going across the path…

This is Meathead and Explorer trying to figure out who’s bigger and stronger. Explorer, our little Jersey/Devon bull, has been out with the girls for months now, but when someone’s in heat he usually tries to ignore it.  On the rare occasion he gets up the courage to try mounting, he is usually knocked off…

Mirin made this great circlet for the upcoming Mayfair out of grape vine, yarn and the golden velvety calyxes that are falling from the Magnolia grandiflora blossoms. My 30th birthday last week has brought up all sorts of thoughts of change.  The truth is, I am no longer a young mama with young children.  I…

Last year my friend and I took cuttings of many heirloom roses.  She showed me a great method of rooting cuttings.  I’ve since tried it with figs and mulberries, too.  It works incredibly well and is very easy and low-maintenance (a must around here!). All you need is a plastic ziploc bag and some potting…

Joining in with Soulemama today! {this moment} A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

I’ve just discovered this charming collection of tiny swords Mirin has carved to fit his wooden knight toys.  He had been very frustrated because the spears, axes and swords they had come with have largely been lost in the house vortex or have been broken – by Mirin himself in the heat of the battle,…

This story that I have at last decided to write about has some sad parts.  It also reveals how little we know about farming, and how gullible we were, unfortunately.  But I promise it has (at least for now) had a good ending. Last fall we bought a new Jersey cow.  The man who sold…

This was a beautiful sunset we saw while going to get another load of manure for the garden. You may have noticed that I’ve changed the blog title.  This is because I have been wanting to write more about other aspects of my life other than farming, but it felt strange having it be called…