Winter quiet brings a space for thinking that I never seem to have time for during the busier seasons, so I’ve been mulling about the meaning of family. If you come from a relatively small birth family like mine (no siblings), the word family has a little more flexible meaning than it might for other…
Here we are nearing the end of 2018. We are grateful for this year, and especially for YOU. We know it’s the time when lots of folks look around and find gratitude in the things they have, which is wonderful, and something we all should do much more of, and not just in the six…
I feel like a whole bunch of people I care about are hurting right now. All around, our community suffers from grief, confusion, aimlessness, emptiness, loss, and pain. Be patient, friends. Have faith. Have faith in each other, in our human community, and in the bright and beautiful future ahead. Ask for help, and trust…
Plenty of people love to eat meat, but are concerned that they shouldn’t, because of negative stories that they see about animal products. The environmental impacts of flooding manure lagoons; pictures of animals being treated poorly; the long distances food is trucked to get to our plates; and simply not knowing (or trusting) the companies…
There’s a little something extra special about Vermont in August. Maybe it’s the fact that things slow down a teeny bit (seems like everyone takes a few days off sometime in August!) or that we cling a little more tightly as the evening starts to arrive a little earlier. It could be I’m speaking a…
We bought the farm two years ago this week. It’s been quite a ride. This might sound pretty sappy, but our whole reason behind jumping down this rabbit hole has been about creating a place to treat the land, the animals, and people well. Seems kinda Pollyanna, huh? I started farming back in 2000 mainly…
Wow, what a whirlwind summer! I don’t know about you, but based on all the things I have scheduled in the next two months, I keep having to check the calendar to make sure it’s only July. 🙂 I’m guessing that your lists are just getting longer, too. It seems like we work harder and…
This weekend we harvested the first of our own pigs since 2013. Gosh I missed them. These piglets were born in Washington, Vermont, just about 30 miles away. They rode in a hay-lined truck to Randolph, and spent the rest of their lives rooting and snoozing and companionably sniping at each other over the food…
OK, I’ll own it. I’m a sucker for lambs. I wait every year to see what colors they’ll be and how many each ewe will have, and how strong and amazing they’ll be (they stand in minutes and often jump around within hours…it’s awe inspiring). Lambing season isn’t all sunshine and roses, despite the pictures…
It’s been more than eighteen months at the new farm, and there is much to share. After the emotional roller coaster of finding and making the right location happen, we spent the fall of 2016 rushing around to get ourselves and the animals settled before winter. And then we mostly collapsed. Most of our friends…