Another year, more Ramps!

Another year, more Ramps!

Another spring and this year the ramps are even more prevalent than last year. While there are patches of them on both sides of our driveway, we are wary of over-harvesting so this year we ventured further into the property to…

Young keets in our collapsable pen

Keets

We got the keets a lot later this year, they did not arrive until mid-March. After only a few weeks of living in the house we have succesfully moved them outdoors. They are a lot more skittish this year than…

Collapsable guinea pen being tested on the dogs

Guinea Pens

We are getting guinea hens again this year. We are optimistic they will survive, but even if they don’t they are a worthwhile investment to keep the ticks at bay. However, this year we have a better approach to raising…

How-to: Black Walnut Dye

How-to: Black Walnut Dye

As we mentioned in a previous post, we found a Black Walnut tree on the farm and harvested the nuts. We prepared the nuts and saved the hulls to make dye and ink. There are a lot of ways to…

Blue Heron

Blue Heron

  One animal we never expected to find in our little pond is a Blue Heron. The pond is only about as wide in diameter as the heron is tall, so he looked a little ridiculous hanging out there. He…

Baby Possum

Baby Possum

Another creature for the menagerie. We were cleaning off the deck, and when I came around the corner I was surprised to see a little baby possum seated on our rain barrel. It was odd to see a possum out…

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper’s Hawk

Another new animal sighting, this time it was hard to miss. Amanda noticed a few mornings ago a young Coopers Hawk (at least that is what we think it was) perched on top of the remains of our gazebo. Its…

Arbor Day

Arbor Day

We’ve been busy with the holidays and haven’t been able to do much around the farm, and consequently haven’t been able to post much. However, we did manage to plant 20 trees, hopefully someday they will grow to replace the…

A tour of Crown Maple

A tour of Crown Maple

One of the benefits of being in the country is getting back in touch with our food sources. Towards that end we went on a couple of farm tours last week, courtesy of the Oblong Land Conservancy as part of…

How-to: Nasturtium Capers

How-to: Nasturtium Capers

Amanda was recently at Isa in Williamsburg and they served up what she thought were Wasabi peas, only to learn they were Nasturtium capers. Nasturtium are amazing, we planted them as companion plants next to our Kale and cucumbers. They…