A wonderful article on the concept of living fences.

http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/Multifunctional+Living+Fences.html

Considerations of the waning summer.

Summers on a homestead are a blur, at best. Everything that must be done is crammed into a few short months sandwiched between winters. Few and far between are the moments when one is afforded time to pause and reflect on accomplishments.

Just this year alone, we took on 7 new bottle babies; 5 calves and 2 goats. We boarded 2 Horses, gained a flock of guineas, and watched hen after hen brood chick after chick. We ran miles of fencing, built coops, huts, houses and stalls, and made great gains toward our five year plan. That doesn't even begin to touch anything we did with plants.

I began a new method of cloning tomato plants this year, and the results were phenomenal. In fact, this method proved so successful as to put me nearly a month ahead of schedule, thus creating its own set of issues. I wasn't prepared in terms of space to have tomato plants of the size they became using this system. Chalk that up to the list of things that I've learned in this adventure. Sometimes, things can go a little TOO well.

In a similar vein, I have been working on a new sprout fodder system, also incorporating the same apple snails. The attempt here is to set up a naturally filtering feed system, growing sprouts, snails and bivalves. I hope to be able to replace oystershell calcium and offer a high protien feed additive to my poultry. I might even get some escargot for us. Fancy.

This year also saw the inception of our barn restoration project. The roof was replaced last fall, and we've begun the long process of cleaning out and rebuilding stalls and a new feed/tack room. A new building is being constructed from repurposed above-ground pool framing; the same materials used to make our brooder addition to the main laying coop and the A-frame duck house. I took a pair of truck cappers, and fabricated 2 small hutches of salvaged lumber from a housing demolition, perfect for mobile shelters to accommodate the aforementioned bottle babies, or whatever else may find need of them in the future.

I've been blessed enough to have been gifted a great many things this year, including IBC totes, barrels, lumber, pallets,  stone, canopy shelters and so much support. People are really starting to spread the word and get involved with what we're doing here, and the help we are receiving is really incredible, catapulting us toward our goal of developing a non-profit homesteading school. With a little more work on our infrastructure, we will be able to start offering formal workshops and really start to move forward with the educational focus of the Forgotten Forty.

One such infrastructure upgrade consists of renovating the existing mobile home on the property into a commercial kitchen to offer more indoor space to hold food preservation workshops. Another is to convert the silo on the barn into a food preservation tower. Install an unusual edibles arborsculpture and pleaching orchard. Build a covered bridge across the creek and begin construction on a cob home. Retrofit our current home for alternative energy. Erect an aquaponics greenhouse/methane digester unit. The list is exhaustive.

As autumn grants an extension of the warm season, and we batten down the hatches in preparation for winter's icy descent, the dreaming cycle begins anew. The farm drifts into a slumberous lull, and the knowledge gleaned from this years endeavors blends with the reflections on our accomplishments, and we can breathe new energy and possibilities into our aspirations, ever evolving as we head toward tomorrow.

These are vivid dreams; a brilliant future.

Mother Earth News Fair

I've written before that homesteading is a way of life. It encompasses areas of your day-to-day existence that are unexpected, and can lead a person on an adventure of self exploration ad infinitum. New ideas abound, and often take a farm or homesteading venture in a completely different direction than ever anticipated. Simple decisions change lives. The Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, PA certainly changed my trajectory.

Alternative technologies and methods are often met with staunch skepticism. Sometimes, it can seem like an uphill battle to break through tradition and spread outside knowledge of possibility. Sometimes, a person thirsts for new ideas, commonality, and a sense of being collective in the struggle. Sometimes you just really want someone to be as excited as you are about chicken nipples.  

With over 240 workshops, and more brilliant minds than you can shake a handmade broom at (thank you, John Holzwart) , Mother Earth News Fairs definitely deliver the goods. The Seven Springs Mountain Resort is an amazing venue, providing a serene background and plenty of clean, fresh air;  the perfect ambiance to share possibilities, ideas, and new knowledge on or approaches to age old quandaries. There's plenty of action to be had as well, lest you think this is some bland group of intellectuals, spouting droll rhetoric on the virtues of compost. What you are more likely to find are vibrant, young minds, regardless of physical age, eager to find new solutions, share experiences, and offer support for others who also have a mind for improving their quality of life, and the lives of those around them.  

Each of the fair's speakers hold a wealth of experience on various topics, and oftentimes show their diversity by speaking on multiple subjects. Presentations range from soapmaking, to swarm collection, and pasture management to alternative energy sources. One might check out the alternative energy car show on one side of the grounds, catch a demonstration on packing with llamas on the ALBC stage, and watch a portable sawmill demonstration on the other side of the grounds, all while enjoying some local delectables prepared by The Piper's Peck, or any of the other fine food vendors and exhibitors. No matter how much you cram in, there is bound to be something you wish you could've seen, tasted, or learned.  

Just breathe, and remind yourself there is always next year.  

Editors from the magazine can be spotted roaming the event, and are always excited to chat about any of the booths or workshops, which, combined with all the other friendly people both exhibiting and in attendance, creates an air of camaraderie that I haven't found at other events like this. It's surprising how many wonderful conversations are spawned simply by bumping into someone at the food court, or while watching a needle felting demonstration.  

With such a broad range of topics covered at the Mother Earth News Fair, there is absolutely bound to be something that will apply to your situation; be that finding information on raw milk, organic and heirloom seeds, heritage breeds of livestock, and solar energy, or an interest in picking up the latest innovatons in homesteading equipment, or natural home products. It really is an incredible array.   Or maybe you just get excited about automatic poultry watering systems... (It's okay, me too) to which I can only say....

Welcome home.

Roundwood timber framing for the love of trees

With a forest of Black Locust trees threatening to overtake the property, a cob house in the future planned, and a love of natural building, I was delighted to stumble upon this; http://www.tinyhousedesign.com/3-benefits-of-roundwood-timber-framing/

The green light at the end of the snowy tunnel

Starting as many tomatoes as we do can create some logistical conundrums concerning space for all 500+ seedlings. Thankfully, I'm also a fish geek. I plant 5 seeds of a varietal to a 4 inch pot, and transplant once to deepen any leggy starts, then allow them to bush up under indoor fluorescent wall units until they start suckering. At that point, I can snip all the suckers as they get large enough, tie loose bundles of like varieties and label them with waterproof plastic labels, and toss them into the fish tank to root under the plant lights. Once they have developed sufficient root systems, they can be transplanted into either pots for the greenhouse, or directly into the garden if provided with a shade screen and adequate water to help them get established. I love doing the clones like this, because it saves me a million transplantings per season, and saves me ABSURD amounts of space, allowing me a lot more time to do other things as well. I love nature. :)

Jump Start on the Season

We have been taken by surprise once again by mother nature... Spring is MONTHS ahead of schedule, and my usual schedule for this time of year has gone into overdrive. I have most of the varietals of tomatoes up about a foot in the greenhouse, and will have to transplant them once again before I can start taking cuttings to clone. Spinach is up outside, as are beets and peas. Basil and various other herbs are doing well in the greenhouse too, and I've been able to propagate cuttings of my African Blue basil already, so I'm well ahead of schedule on that.

The earlier loss of several of our laying hens and all of our large ducks to a neighbor's dog set us back significantly in terms of egg production, so I decided that a few more housing installations were in order. We had a full above-ground pool that had been sitting with no purpose for years behind the barn, so I took to the pile and repurposed and recycled it into a brooder house and an A-frame duck house. 30 chicks later, and I'm much closer to the numbers I should have been at to start with. I won't get any eggs out of these babies until August, but I'm hoping I can make up for it at market with mallard eggs.

I picked up some Barred Rocks and Ameraucanas for chickens so far, and am still looking for Cochin and Brahma pullets as well. For ducks, I lucked out and picked up 6 Ancona ducklings for a steal, and 6 Pekins to begin replacing the flock that was decimated. I'm still looking for Cayugas and Rouens to finish out the ducks. I'm waiting on my order of 8 Bourbon Red turkey poults, and have been working on remodeling the barn coop, and putting up fencing, getting them set up for brooding.

I really love this time of year.
-Anthony