Where has the time gone? We started Simply Fermenting classes with salsa and sauerkraut. Geese and ducks began free-ranging.
The pork project is off to a good start with construction of the “Oink Oven” and two pig roasts. I think we have the pig breeding under control and enough hogs to last a couple of seasons! Alex, the Elder Hog, continues to be patient and long suffering when waiting for his dinner! And Rachel is a sweetie Mom, taking in the strays with no question
The wash out on Husky left us almost inaccessible from Dunklin…a kind neighbor helped us out with his tractor. Thanks!!
We hatched fifty Red Star chicks and sold them all! And new to Blue Hen is the Tiny Tilly Tiny House…just the right size for a visitor! Who will it be?
In the orchard we have apples coming along, and bananas! We’ll be glad to have bananas of our own to avoid the ones from the store that are all GMO now-a-days!!
We hatched a flock of Call Ducks…they really do call whenever they see us come out of the house. What a racket! But they are friendly and personable.
Our Emma gave birth to twins. We found a great home for the boy, and will keep the girl. Welcome Sadie!
Early days yet, on our beautiful homestead. We’re still soil-building, or course, and that can be a slow, painful and complex process. But it has its moments.
I can’t remember that we ever purposely decided to adopt an organic lifestyle or to deliberately start a homestead. It just seemed to evolve. There are lots of bumps and setbacks. We still haven’t perfected much of our livestock raising or veggie growing. Relationships can still be a bit hairy at times, as we try to build community starting with our own family. But then, there are great successes and keen insights that make it all worth it.
One very important lesson we have learned is that wherever we are at the moment, we need to be able to recognize the things that are wrong and know how to deal with them, and we need to be able to recognize the things that are right and use those things to help our families and others. It’s true that that is not the way our society would have us do things. But have you noticed that our society is a mess? Do you think perhaps it’s because we have lost the ability to tell right from wrong?
The feeling here on Bent Pine is calm and restful, life is rich and it has value. We have recently had two different guests comment, “It’s so peaceful here.” Our animals are comfortable and content, very unlike the poor animals on the factory farms and feedlots that Tyson operates. Read Pollans’ book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” for a real eye-opener. The industrialized food system is a true dilemma…truly the wrong way of doing things, the wrong direction to go.
So, here we are…we’ve gone where we wanted to go and now we are, as the saying goes trying hard to “bloom where we are planted”.
