Natural Harvest Farm

we have had a bit of rain that has been clearing the snowpack. Can't remember being so happy to see a little mud. The goats were out along the fence line doing there job on left over noxious vines. This little mid-winter peak through the window toward spring seems to make me and all the animals perk up a bit.

We will be getting a few rolls of sheep and goat fence on Monday. That goes around the garden and along our public road frontage. The rest we are building five strands of electrified high tensile. I used the dozer to build roads up the hillsides. This will give us good equipment acess for fence construction as well as installing lines and tanks for our water system. It is our hope to put several little sheds in these fields to help make our rotational grazing plans work. The sheds will have several doors so as to make the rotational grazing work straight out of the sheds in the morning. we shed everything at night to lessen predator problems.

During our spring farm field days which we will schedule, visitors will see the growth of our dreams to return this run down and overgrown farm back into the sustainable farm that our ancestors were raising families on prior to the civil war. We will again be raising the freedom ranger style broilers on pasture. They are a far ranging and truly pastured bird. We will also be rotating the goats, sheep and rabbit pens on the same ground to be building the soils and vegetation. We will be doing sugar beets in one of the hog fields, the balance of which will be sheep pasture this year. We hope to fall pasture them and then lets the sows forage  them  after they are brought in from the woods for winter pasture. If this program works, it should greatly reduce our dependence on outside purchased corn. To be truly sustainable we try to minimize the outside commodies consumed over which we have little control.

We also hope to be planting our cane seed during the farm field days. The seeds are quite small and all steps in this process are done by hand. we wish to share all the steps as we prepare the soil, plant, weed and harvest our traditional sweet sorgum syrup in the fall. No weedkillers or artificial fertilizers. Just grown by the sweat of our browe and cooked over waste slabs from a sawmill while visiting with nieghbors and friends, many of which we are meeting for the first time. This was one of those normal fall activities in every community a hundred years ago, step back in time with us.

until we meet again in the pasture, farmers market or on line, we hope life treats you well and happiness guides you path.We will look after the animals.

Rodney