Easter weekend

Egg hunting in the morning

Then Easter lunch at grandma's, golfing lessons and some karate action too.

 Bo Staff

 Sparring with Ed, two on one (he can still kick their butt, but not for long...)

Peace

outside

this morning as i stepped outside, i found myself enveloped in warm, moist air. there was a faint smell of wood smoke, and all around, i heard birds singing. it was overcast, and with all the moisture in the air and diverse birdsong, it felt almost tropical out there. i consider myself lucky. my lifestyle allows me intimate contact with the natural world on a regular basis. i have to spend time outside every day, and over time, that contact nourishes something inside me, something that gives me strength and perspective and makes me feel at peace.

i worry about our kids. not just my kids, but our kids. many, too many of them, grow up in buildings. they are more connected to their electronic devices than other people or the natural world. they barely get to go outside; and even if they want to, often there's simply no time in their hurried day, as they get shuffled between school, different activities, and home. i worry for their physical and mental health, because i do believe that regular contact with the natural world is critical to their wellbeing. spending time outside, for many kids these days, is unusual rather than the norm. no other animal is as disconnected from their environment as we are raising our kids to be.

i hope that somehow, we, adults, turn this around, and give our kids the gift of being connected, less to electronic devices, and more to the natural environments they find themselves in. not asking to get rid of the electronics, i know that's unrealistic - just hoping for more balance.

this morning, i noticed tiny leaves starting to unfurl. the grass in noticeably greener too. before long, there will be an undeniable explosion of green all around.

peace

Fog, then snow, and sun again

Foggy morning a few days ago

 Yesterday morning, snow almost covered the crocuses

Now it's sunny again and the garlic is standing proud

Peace

More crocuses and Farm Newsletter

Some pictures of the girls with their crocuses and Midnight the cat. And a link to our latest farm newsletter.

Peace

Spring Peepers and Crocuses - The Earth is waking up!

The peepers started chorusing in the swamp near our house on Wednesday. The girls and I heard them, and were instantly happy - such a cheerful sound, and, peepers mean spring!

We went to the swamp to see if we could see them, but they were hard to spot.

Our field, currently in rye / pea / vetch cover crop, is starting to green up. In a few weeks we'll be moving the cows on it to mow it down. I'm sure they're looking forward to being on lush pasture again, after eating hay all winter.

The lettuce and spinach seedlings in the greenhouse are coming up and getting ready to go in the ground.

The cows at their winter residence - mama Jasmine with Jet and Oshi in the foreground.

Opal and Olive in the milking stanchion.

Aiyana got crocus bulbs last October for her birthday, and she and Sena planted them in the ground in late fall. This morning, they ran excitedly to the house to tell me that the crocuses were blooming, and the three of us ran outside to see,  smell and welcome them.

Peace

A sunny spring day

The sun is high up in the sky now, which means longer, warmer days. Today feels truly blissful - the temperature is warm and comfortable in the 70's, and the birds are singing merrily.

This past weekend I found out that the 20 year-old son of a woman I know committed suicide by hanging himself at home. He was on antidepressants, and I can't help but think about him, and about his mother and their whole family. It makes me so sad. I wish he had waited for this beautiful day, maybe it would've lifted his heart. But in today's toxic, competitive world, we made it hard for people to be happy with simple things, like a sunny day and bird song. We teach our kids to always be looking for more, for something new, something more exciting; we teach them to seek happiness in material things, social status and superficial relationships which will never make them happy. We raise them to have short attention spans and no connection with the natural world. I can't help but think of the mother of this young man and how she must suffer right now. I wish her peace.

Homeschooling

 Peace

This is what real eggs look like

It's not Easter yet, but our hens don't care about that. They give us a pretty assortment of eggs anyway - different colors, different sizes. The hens who laid these eggs live in the same coop, which means they generally live under the same conditions. But, as you can see by their eggs, their individuality is clearly asserted.

Peace

A little story I heard

The grandfather said: "Inside us, we each have two wolves. One wolf is full of anger, jealousy, greed, envy. The other one, is full of love and compassion, kindness and understanding."
The little grandson asked: "Which one wins, grandpa?".
"The one you feed the most", said the grandfather.

Peace

A woman that inspires me

Joann Grohman inspires me and I'd like to share this excerpt from her blog, heifer diary. I love how she writes and in particular how her experience, hands-on know-how, and love of her farm come through in these lines.
Joann is in her 80's now, and I first learned about her through her popular book "Keeping a Family Cow", which I read when we first got our cows. I've been following her blog on and off for the past few years, and I am always inspired by her energy, her outlook, and her love of life.

Enjoy this excerpt from her blog:

Friday, October 4, 2015
Apple Tree Recovery
This is how I saved my Wolf River Apple tree. I planted this Fedco tree about 1980 and failed to remove the wire tag. I then neglected it dismally for the next twenty years during which it grew up and nearly died of strangulation. I was struck by guilt for the poor thing about 2013. It had managed to put out a couple of wizened little apples much afflicted by codling moth. I looked up on the internet how to bring such a tree back to health with organic methods. All authorities agreed that without using pesticides it was going to be a slow process taking several years. I decided to invent my own method.
Here are the things that Sally and I employed. The first thing I did was train my free range chickens to come down to the tree and work over the ground so they would eat the codling moth larva. I did this by dribbling a trail of chicken feed about 150’ long which trail they followed, where they found additional grain scattered around the base of the tree out to the drip line. They came every day and scratched around. This was in the summer of 2013. I also tied scented drier papers in the tree to deter the moths. I also sprinkled generous amounts of diatomaceous earth all around on the branches and around on the ground and on the trunk. I also carried down whatever whey I could spare. I also tied little mesh bags of Irish Spring soap into the branches to deter deer. Later when snow was on the ground Sally took several cargo sled loads of composted sheep manure and put that around it, this was repeated in 2014. She also worked on pruning. No poisons were used at any time. The following summer of 2014 the tree rewarded me with a few clean apples. This year, 2015, the tree was loaded with hundreds of large perfect apples. Admittedly this was a big year for apples in Maine but the production of this tree was dramatic. I am thrilled with my crop of exceptionally large well-flavored fruit. We don’t know which of these strategies was most important to success- we think they all worked together