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Farm Photo:
Part farm journal, part spiritual journey, Touch the Earth Farm blog chronicles one family's adventure of living with the land.
Farm Photo:
Enter Summer
Intro:
We are a family of five: myself, my husband and our three children, ages 11, 10 and 9, homesteading on 5.25 acres in the Northwestern Mountain Region of Maryland (zone 6b). Our land is home to many creatures, and our goals are to farm sustainably, to preserve biodiversity by growing heirloom plants and raising rare breeds of livestock and poultry, and to foster native habitats. The kids and I run a small CSA, which keeps us busy learning and playing.
July:
- seed starts for fall √
- continue succession planting √
- transplant seedlings √
- weed market garden √
- sell calf
Post Perusal:
- Ahimsa, or the ethics of meat eating
- Confronting My Own Hypocrisy
- Crude Awakening, or Preparing for Peak Oil
- From Foodie to Farmer
- Please Pass the Bubblewrap
- Food Security Series:
- Part I, pantry
- Part II, freezer
- Part III, growing
- Part IV, seed saving
- Sustainability series:
- Consumption
- Food
- Gasoline
- Electricity
- Waste
- Water
- Low Carbon Diet:
- Dumping on Garbage
- Reducing Hot Water Usage
Nightstand Reading:
To Do 2009:
blurb blogsbuy CSA bags- buy buck
- buy ram
- community outreach
- composting toilet
- continue making more hard cheeses
- fence in yard
financials for 2008- finish basement rooms
- learn to graft fruit trees
- keep better records
- learn to make goat's milk soap
- learn to tan hides
- learn to make tinctures and infusions
- make Navajo spindles
order more beehive equipmentorder seeds- organize saved seeds
- pasture water source
- plan cover crop and garden rotation
plant front medicinal garden- ramp up piglet marketing
- save seeds
- shear sheep √
- start seeds
- upload and order photos
- well pump
Tools for 2009:
aquarain water filter- bike
- candle molds
- canoe
- compost tea bubbler
- dutch oven
- Foxfire series
- garden tools √
- generator
- hand-pump or solar well
kill-a-watt- incubator
- livestock trailer
- mortar and pestle
- Nutrimill grain mill
- sausage stuffer
- soap molds
- tanning tools and guides
Pipedreams:
- 100 acres
- Biodiesel: tractor and farm truck
Cookstove- Jim: work from home flextime
- Solar hot water heater
- Solar panels on south-facing barn
- Strawbale home
- Yurt
Index:
- awards (2)
- bees (2)
- book reviews (4)
- bread (1)
- cats (4)
- cheese (2)
- csa (16)
- dark days challenge (19)
- family cow (9)
- farm to table (37)
- food for thought (48)
- food security (5)
- garden (43)
- giveaways (2)
- goals (29)
- goats (5)
- hubris (2)
- independence days (21)
- kitchen (10)
- library (1)
- livestock (46)
- low carbon diet (2)
- miscellaneous (13)
- one local summer (12)
- ongoing education (8)
- pantry (3)
- pigs (5)
- recipes (12)
- sheep (5)
- sustainability (29)
- to do (4)
- weather (10)
Information:
Web Resources:
Email Lists:
Catalogs:
Blogroll:
- 12 Happy Chickens
- A Homesteading Neophyte
- Achorn Farm
- Adventures in Farming
- Amlo Farms
- Apifera Farm
- Are We There Yet?
- Barn-Raising
- Blue Skies Urban Farm
- Boulder Belt
- Casaubon's Book
- Children in the Corn
- Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
- Crunchy Chicken
- Crystal Organic Farm
- Dancing in a Field of Tansy
- Dirt Under My Nails
- Farm Dreams
- Farmgirl Fare
- Fast Grow the Weeds
- Free Range Living
- Going Whole Hog
- Green with a Gun
- Green, Blue, Brown
- Grow the Change
- Home Is...
- Homesteading Hickory Hills
- Ironwood Farm Project
- It Blows Here
- Kale for Sale
- Living the Frugal Life
- Living the Liquid Life
- Milk My Cow
- Mommymommyland
- Moon Meadow Farm
- Mountain Mama
- Naturally Natural
- No Impact Man
- Northview Diary
- Organic Schmorganic
- Pile of O'Melays
- Raining Sideways
- Riot 4 Austerity
- Savor Culture
- Small Meadow Farm
- Sugar Creek Farm
- Sugar Mountain Farm
- Thane's Neck Farm
- The Contrary Goddess
- The Ethicurean
- The Purloined Letter
- Throwback at Trapper Creek
- Tyler Farm Homestead
- Unusually Unusual Farmchick
- Urban Hennery
- Wisdom of the Trowel
- Woody's Rocky Ridge
Independence Days Blogs:
- Casaubon's Book
- Chile Chews
- Crunchy Chicken
- Dog's Little Acre
- Eat Close to Home
- Farm Dreams
- Golden Acre Lives On
- Happily Home
- Hedges Happenings
- Justice Desserts
- Kaleidescope Living
- Life in the Lost World
- Naturally Simple
- Perry Hill Farm
- Red State Green
- Seeking Simplicity
- Stepwise
- The Potager
- The Zahn Zone
- Waste Wear Daily
- Where's Your Line
Causes:
4 comments:
Danielle, I stumbled upon your blog tonight during my search re: lard rendering, of all things, and I feel like I'm home! Our family bought a nearly 3-acre dilapidated farm/ homestead (circa 1927) last winter and we've been experimenting and pipedreaming - and repairing - ever since. We hope to eventually buy the 20 surrounding acres,and for now are working to bring this place to life. Moving from the Phoenix metro area with a ridiculously busy career in PR/marketing, I didn't know until I came to this sleepy little northern Arizona town that I would feel my blood fairly hum through my veins as I drew closer and closer to the land. My husband and I and our 4 sweet kids are united in our love for this place and this life. We presently have two young hogs, a horse (darn it, he's sweet, but we'd definitely rethink that one if we had to do over again); and we had a beloved flock of chickens we unfortunately lost to coyotes in November while our little farm was empty during our son's recent lengthy hospital stay. With the economic downturn, my PR clients have dwindled and I've found that rather than drumming up new business, all I want is to keep at this wonderfully demanding farm life. It has been a warm educational experience. I've learned we have family green bean seeds that have been saved and passed down through generations of my family in Kentucky, of which I'm angling to secure a few; I've bonded with an aging aunt, mining her years of wisdom re: gardening and canning; I was able to give my dad a taste of his old country home with homemade apple butter I gave him as a Christmas gift this year, made from 2 boxes of apples given to us by the gruff owner of the local feed store, who wanted to do something for our young son who was just diagnosed with a serious kidney disease and whose diet now contains restrictions that frankly, are making us all healthier. I love this life and everything you've written resonates with me. I'm reading your blog by the light of the fireplace while my kiddos rest up for their first day back to school tomorrow. I look forward to drawing inspiration from your experiences and appreciate knowing that all of the exciting ideas and bursts of inspiration that keep me awake these dark winter nights have been successfully tried by another family wishing to live a little closer to the earth. While my hefty income is missed, I love the challenge of making do with what we've already stored and am gratified to learn there is resilience and strength and a pioneering spirit within me that I had no occasion before to test. This is a blessed lifestyle. Thanks for sharing your experiences - I can't wait to keep reading, and am glad I don't have high-powered clients to please tomorrow, so I can keep on reading into the wee hours! Warmest regards from the snowy Southwest, Teri
Teri, thank you so much for your kind words. I'm really pleased to hear that my posts have resonated for you.
I agree that the more I move into this lifestyle, the more "at home" I feel. I left my career path in academia to homeschool my kids—I never would've dreamed that I'd end up as an organic farmer!
Good luck and good health on your journey.
I love the new look! How'd you do that? I'll be picking your brain when you visit. Nicolas' farm web site awaits me...
Oh, I'm so not original. Both Tansy and Christy had new backgrounds from the Cutest Blog on the Block. I just tweaked my code a bit so the icon wasn't in my header. Oh, also, I needed to use the 3 column template so the decoration didn't get in the way of my text.
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