Moonmeadow Farm: Water!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Water!

The spring is running again, and (cross your fingers) it looks like it might be up for the winter! DH took the tank off his truck this morning, making us a two-car family again. It's raining right now, and there's rain in the forecast all week, so we may be home free.

This is interesting:

Taking Comfort in Small Joys

Pearl Buck once said: "Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness." In the state of her birth, the small joys of simple living add up to something infinitely more meaningful and lasting than any 'big happiness' I could imagine.

The Case for Working With Your Hands

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur — the hazards faced by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well to a basic human need of the one who does it? I take this to be the suggestion of Marge Piercy’s poem “To Be of Use,” which concludes with the lines “the pitcher longs for water to carry/and a person for work that is real.” Beneath our gratitude for the lineman may rest envy.

Chickens Are the Chic New Backyard Addition

The Conrads are at the vanguard of a resurgent interest in backyard chicken keeping, especially in distinctly nonrural settings. In cities across the United States, raising backyard poultry has suddenly become as chic as growing your own vegetables. It's all part of the back-to-the-land movement whose proponents want to save on grocery bills, take control of their food supply and reduce the carbon footprint of industrial agriculture

A 50-Year Farm Bill

Clearly, our present ways of agriculture are not sustainable, and so our food supply is not sustainable. We must restore ecological health to our agricultural landscapes, as well as economic and cultural stability to our rural communities.

Got Buttermilk?

Once a popular Southern drink, buttermilk had gradually been relegated to the ingredients column, starting in the 1940s. But with its tangy flavor, creamy consistency and golden flecks of butter, Cruze Farm’s buttermilk has the necessary charm for the artisanal generation.

Feta Cheese Made From Raw Milk Has Natural Anti-food-poisoning Properties

"We were able to isolate lactic acid bacteria found in raw sheep milk from small farms in Macedonia, northern Greece. Several of these friendly bacteria naturally produce antibiotics that killed off dangerous food-poisoning bacteria like Listeria," says Panagiotis Chanos, a researcher from the University of Lincoln. "Interestingly, we identified these friendly bacteria as enterococci, more commonly recognised as virulent and/or antibiotic resistant bacteria in hospitals. We found some strains could produce up to three different natural substances to fight different food pathogens."

The List

~~Finish shearing the sheep~~

~~Fence the garden~~

Build a chicken house

~~Start seeds: tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc.~~

Dig garden beds

~~Dig potato area, plant potatoes~~

Clean off front porch

~~Paint windows~~

~~Hang curtains back up~~

Butcher the rest of the gargantuan meat chickens

~~Butcher all drakes~~

Buy a new, unrelated drake
Put together a rainwater collection system
Catch and use grey water for garden
Clean out all barn stalls
Transport manure from barn to garden
Weed and mulch asparagus

~~Fence chickens out of flower beds~~

Lime and seed pasture
Seed front yard
Scrape, de-nail and paint porch ceiling
Remove vinyl siding from whole house
Scrape and paint house
Build a barn
Build an outhouse
Paint porch floor
Redo pasture fences
Sand and refinish floors in house

~~Hook up hoses for garden, GH, and sheep~~

Build a stanchion for cow milking

~~Clean up all the corn stalks~~

Level path to barn
Dig out bank behind house, put in rocks, landscape
Make a patio behind house
Install french doors

~~Dock and castrate lambs~~

~~Plant leeks~~

~~Paint front door~~
Wash windows

Moonmeadow Farm

Monday, December 15, 2008

Water!

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