2015

Our fifth year, seems like just yesterday when we first landed. The beauty of living on this farm evolves continuously as time passes. My impression these days of life here seems to be more of a community. We are the caretakers and all the other beings are part of a intricate symphony of life. From our tiniest members: the insects, birds, squirrels to our largest; our cows and us humans: we all play our role, trying to survive and maintain a life  as close to possible to what is natural to us. The longer we live here, the more poignant our interconnections reveal themselves. We often find ourselves talking out loud to the animals.

WINTER
Seemed like a slightly colder than usual one, remembering to frequently break out the ice in the animal watering tubs many mornings.

Our Dexter cows are an old breed originating in Ireland. They are hardy and grow a thick coat of hair during the winter. As long as they have food they can effortlessly with stand the cold and snow. They have a barn to get out of the wind, must most days they prefer being outside.

Our strawberries are planted in the fall and overwinter in a semi dormant state until spring. They have to tough out some hard freezes some nights. Here Kingsley is helping us prepare for one of those freezes by pulling straw up around the plants. (All but a couple made it through to produce the best crop ever)

Our collards after surviving a winter

Preparing our beds for upcoming Spring planting

This big event of course was the birth of our very first lambs. Our sheep are a breed brought here with the early Spaniards and escaped captivity and became wild in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Living on their own, they developed a tolerance for heat and humidity, hence the name of the breed; Gulf Coast Natives.

We had one ram and one ewe born. The babies had no trouble with feeding as this breed makes great mothers, (not all breeds do)

Soon after the lambs were born it was time to shear the sheep. County extension agent, Andy Burlingham did the shearing.

Daffodils are one of the first flowers to bloom in the Spring. They start in February.

In Spring the grass greens up quickly and the sheep are quick to appreciate it.

Our early Spring crops were our best since we started. Our soil has improved and the weather was accommodating. Some photos of the results.

SPRING

Silliness on Easter

By March, Spring planting is in full swing. Here we are setting up our corn rows with our specialized cultivating tractor.

As Spring morphs into Summer, we find another reason to use straw mulch around the plants. Not just for weed control, but also to keep the soil cool during the blazing sun. Sometimes it gets so hot that it is too hot to touch.

Kingsley continues to grow and we are happy to know that our farm has contributed to his sense and appreciation for our natural environment.

We sent the wool from our sheep to factory in upstate NY to have it spun into yarn. Later in the summer we visited in person. This is a picture taken there. (not our wool being spun)

SUMMER

It seems as if the construction on this farm never ceases. Our daughter and her family lives here and as they were expecting their second child, we had to build an addition to their house.

Our daughter Abigail, with her husband, Pietro and their daughter Leonie in Sicily where Pietro's family owns a restaurant on the Mediterranean.

This is flatland, one of the benefit of living here is the amount of sky to observe at sunset. This is one of the more dramatic ones.

We sent our lamb skins away to have them tanned. Here they are adorning our couch.

We do most of our work in the morning from 7:00 till noon, then from 4:00 till 6:00 pm, the coolest hours of the day. Here I am doing the animal feeding chores in the cool of the morning. These Muscovy Ducks are a recent addition and as far as I can tell, they're the closest thing we have to pets on the farm.

A sample of a shipment to our restaurant.

Susan began experimenting with growing and using plants for natural dying of the wool. She made this with Weld, a very old dye plant

This is an heirloom variety of squash that grows very well in the South. Can take the heat!

We grew Black Eye Peas. They did extremely well here, and we dried them for Winter storage.

One of our family activities is making steak sauce with the surplus tomatoes at the end of the season. We bottle it in recycled Grolsch beer bottles.

Our farm grandkids: enjoying playing with the sheep fleeces.

In the hayloft...

Some end of season produce from our garden

We had to buy some hay for the winter. These two brothers delivered the hay, (Two strapping young positive farmers. Exemplary....) Joey and Jeffrey Whitehurst.

Some Fall activities: making Pear Cider

We have a wood shop in our barn that doesn't get used too often, but I found some time to make some glass racks for the Cafe.

These are our two farm cats. They earn their way by keeping the mouse and mole population down. (Felix and Pickles)

We discovered that our chimney to the dining room fireplace was too short and created a smoky downdraft. We had to raise it by 6 feet and our trusted farmhand, Robbie Dow, raised it up and it works fine now.

Grinding corn for cornmeal.

We bought this sausage stuffer for making sausage from our beef and lamb. So far it has turned out some great links.

We had our first official farm tour. When this bus pulled up with students from the honors college we were a little intimidated, Everyone had a good time though. More to come.....

Autumn on the farm is quite beautiful in a more monochromatic way. Warm golden tones sweep the pastures.

FROST: Signals the end of the growing season, a time to move indoors, stoke the fires, bake bread and contemplate the year

Christmas Eve: it was a balmy unseasonable warm night and the whole family got together for a lobster dinner. A great time and a nice way tho end 2015!