I spent the summer farming as much as possible, playing hooky from my consulting practice, limiting my volunteer work, squeezing out my writing, and ignoring my housekeeping. It was my fourth summer as the sole farmer on the farm. Finally I felt I perfected every mission critical task and process. I was gung ho to manage [...]
I harvested the last of the asparagus in my former vegetable garden before I turned the cows into the south pasture for the second time this season. It has been a three week streak of me doing farm work in every available hour, and I am feeling smug about my accomplishments. So many seasons past I [...]
With the appearance of tulips, spring morphs from pastels to jewel tones, and the grays and browns of winter are finally crowded from the landscape. My electric orange tulips are the mark of warm days on the farm. Before they arrived, when I needed to be reassured of the end of winter, I purchased a [...]
I am trying to go with the flow. I thought it would improve my technique to know the origin of the phrase. According to UrbanDictionary.com “go with the flow” was first known to be used by Marcus Aurelius who ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180. I remember my Grandma Best, a lifetime school [...]
Winter is coming. It’s not here yet, but she’s knocking at the door. I have the thermostat in the house set at 60. The upstairs rooms are closed for the season. The heat up there is turned off. I have moved my office to the table in front of the windows beside the wood-burning stove. [...]
It’s Monday morning, the sky is grey, and it smells like autumn. A patch of leaves here and there are going from green to peach and the tall summer weeds are getting woody. I have a conference call at 11:30, the washer and dryer are full and waiting, and there are dirty dishes in the [...]
I guess I’ve been depressed for a week or so. Now that it’s been going on for a while, I am starting to recognize it. My grandma died. She was 103. No one from our family was with her when she died because it wasn’t convenient for anyone, including me. It’s funny how life works. [...]
Trim the goat’s hooves, brush-hog the pastures, take out the compost, clean the barn, muck the holding pen, clean the nesting boxes, muck the chicken coop, get the broken hay ring out of the pasture, put the new hay ring together in the pasture, fix the fence in the south pasture, weed the vegetable garden, [...]
Each year a particular circle of friends produces a wild, foraged, and farmed dinner purely for our own indulgence. It’s a gracious competition where everyone eats the rewards. This year the menu included my own country veal pate, pickled wild ramps, creamed nettle soup, an exquisite homemade hard cider that was more like Prosecco, nettle [...]
It is the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, the second farmers market of the season, one of the loveliest days in May, the beginning of a three-day pajama party at the farm, and I am frazzled. All week long my consulting clients have been like a room full of crying babies. Each demands my immediate [...]