We just finished our main season for harvesting animals, and someone asked me recently if it makes me sad to kill them. Most people, even meat eaters, can hardly imagine killing an animal themselves. After many years of growing both the meat and the vegetable part of our food, I have come to realize that…
Tag: Homesteading
10 Things I’m Profoundly Grateful For, And Some All-Local Recipes To Make Your Holiday Extra Special
This year was a difficult beginning. Ethan had been out of work for months, and no opportunities for a living wage seemed to present themselves. At times it felt as though darkness had swallowed up the happy life we had, and we were adrift, every day heading towards an uncertain future. In the midst of…
The Little Red Hen
My children got attached to one of the red Freedom Ranger hens from the last batch of meat birds. I’m not sure how it happened, because those chickens all looked almost exactly alike, and they were kept way out in the pasture where no one ever played with them. However it was, at harvest time…
Pig/Chicken Symbiosis
For years we couldn’t have our egg chickens be truly free-ranging because of predator problems, and (the biggest problem) our “livestock guardian dog” loved eating chickens. We tried having a special light-sensitive door that opened and closed automatically, and poultry netting, plastic owls, etc, but it never solved the walking-chicken-dinner problem. This year, we’ve been…
Large Pigs At Large; Piglets Behind Bars
Sooner or later, piglets all get to this stage – the stage where they bust through electric netting and go marauding on devilish and troublesome mischief adventures. In the midst of a busy gardening week, and on top of that a winter virus running through our milking herd and causing some anxiety (all the…
Welcoming Summer
This week brings some very, very busy days in the garden. Our garden is almost a full acre, but parts of it are always left fallow. The size of the garden/fallow area is up to how busy or ambitious I am during planting-time. This year we have plans to cultivate most of the garden space. There’s…
Chicks!
Our first spring chicks arrived safely last week in a scuttling, peeping cardboard box! The morning Ethan went to pick them up at the post office, the lady who has a strange phobia about handling birds was unfortunately working the desk. Somehow she’s always the one that ends up handing over the baby chicks. …
Mothers And Sisters
There were two more sows who were due to give birth last week – Bess and Bacon. Both of them looked enormously pregnant. Their swaying bellies nearly brushed the ground when they waddled to their food dishes. Star, who is Bess and Bacon’s mother, had her piglets a week ago. She was very aggressive towards…
Imbolc/Candlemas
Imbolc or Candlemas, the ancient celebration of mid-winter, approaches on February 2nd. It marks the middle of the time between the solstice and the equinox, between the time of long darkness and time of the day outlasting the night. Imbolc meant “in the belly,” as the sheep were about to begin their lambing season, and…
Forgetful Mothering
Over the years I have witnessed so many different mothering styles among the animals. Just like people, there’s a big difference between mothers, from over-bearing mothers, to those who take things easy. They can range from: Psychotic Killer Mother: We’ve never had any like this on our farm, but a friend of mine with expensive…
Barley And His Wives
This year turned out to be “The Year of the Rooster”. It had nothing to do with the Chinese zodiac, mind you. It was because everyone unloaded roosters on us. One day a neighbor showed up, shortly after the incident that led to the goats being jailed indefinitely behind permanent fencing (the neighbor to the…
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 