SlowMoneyFarm

The interesting thing about rural driving is you don't always know where you will end up  especially when unfamiliar with  the area. Life is like that and with a year of rebuilding it's looking to be a better year in 2016, with customers signing. We're busy putting together some new things. A quick stop here to share some updates and for local folks we have cinnamon basil seedlings for sale.

Tomatillo, tomatoes, peppers and a good selection of herbs is in the growing stages. Blackberries and raspberries are planted here now.

In the pursuit of staying debt free, we have to leverage much. This means sometimes we're busy growing animals and plants, preparing raised beds, planning, using social media to spread the word about what we're doing and a host of other things that makes 16 hour days common. 

We haven't done much with crowdsourcing, but are giving it a try. Our link shows several offers, presales if you will, rather than just expecting a handout, which we don't. Upgrading our projects is something we can take with us when we get land. Giving up is not an option - persisting in what we believe means keeping in motion.

We celebrate food choices. Hope you'll join us on the journey!

It's been a busy year with a bigger one ahead! We're working on expanding to our target area in Kentucky! We're actively putting together a meat co-op and some other ideas - see our website and contact us! We may deliver to Nashville TN and Louisville and Lexington as well as on visits home near Peoria IL.

 We've had some show success with our giant chinchillas and have added two new breeds, as well as a pair of Satins. We also added a pair of Californian does to cross with the chins for B10 meat rabbits.

Raised beds, chickens, starting seeds and other plans for 2011! [Read More]

The weeks fly by as it's been busy! Promotion efforts for holiday gifts are part of it to sell calendars and other items that promote the farm. Then there's also planting plans, and some other varieties of seed were ordered to expand the offering. 

 Then there's promotion of the new ventures to help during the 'slow' months - custom raised pullets. For those who want just a few pullets it's difficult to order small amounts and keep them alive. We'll order and start them in January/February and they're picked up in May shortly before they start laying. They're paid for now, offering a better price for the customer and a known market/deadline for us. Additionally the growth of the birds can be monitored via photos and video.

 Another new venture is an expansion  of the existing idea, with something for those who don't have time to set up a spring garden but want fresh produce. We will bring the raised bed to the customer. Again, an advanced order fee - we deliver the raised bed, soil, manure, seed and set up - the customer does watering, weeding, succession seeding and pest control.

A gift of a small video camera means we can now shoot some basic videos. That's another part of allowing people to see what we're doing. From both a customer and investor standpoint this is an important upgrade for us.

 We have several small ($100-200) projects being worked towards in stages as cash funds are available. Some of these include: a new hutch/pen out front, a totally enclosed tighter muscovy pen, setting up turkey paddocks, ordering turkeys, ordering ducks, ordering additional seed varieties for 2011 and a somewhat larger one of getting a proper running vehicle again. Getting feed in a sports car just doesn't work well!

We're looking  forward to 2011 and still working towards getting land to expand - the biggest prize.

A sensible approach every winter is looking at what worked and what didn't work this year. What worked - can we improve? What didn't work - can we fix it or is it better to chuck it altogether? 

Sometimes this isn't what we think the result will be - example was raising chicks outside - even with a protected area chain link/poultry netting/netting over top we lost far too many birds vs alternatives. A brooder will be constructed this winter and next year's birds will be under cover until several months old. 

Sometimes it's what went right - and the raised bed revision this year went right! There's always new ideas to try.

We're working on promotions and ideas for the new year...although it's a few months away to spring there's seed orders and other things being done and working towards expansions. This is in addition to the 'normal' holiday activities. It'll be a tight Christmas for us this year but we're blessed with what we have.

An introduction, highlights from our wordpress blog and another new beginning![Read More]