The farm is my lava lamp, always in mesmerizing motion. The chickens swish from one side of the yard to another, across the snow, looking for food, hiding from the hawks. The cows and the goats circle the hay feeder, wander over to the water trough, take a lick of salt, head-butt each other, and [...]
A friend who reads my blog commented recently “farming seems stressful,” as if to ask why I put myself through it, and another said, “Maybe you should stop farming,” as though it’s not good for me. I am finishing one of the most exhausting weeks I’ve ever been through on the farm, and so these [...]
It’s harvest time on the farm. Here’s how it works… Hello past Crazy Wife Farm beef customers, You have the first shot at buying beef this year since you are past customers. I am planning to process two cows this year, one very large and one smaller. The large animal will be sold as quarter [...]
I just finished reading the Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, as part of my continuing education about the history of food and agriculture. I wasn’t at all prepared for the ending. I like resolution. Toward the last few chapters of the book I was holding the paperback in my hands, a very thick slice [...]
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 [...]
When we started farming, one of the things Chet and I realized was how repetitious our life had become. We always wrote notes to ourselves. But on the farm, we found ourselves writing the same notes over and over again. So eventually we wrote permanent notes and kept them handy in the kitchen where they [...]
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, [...]
Moon is eleven months old and I am struggling to train him to come when I call him. If I have a pocket full of treats, he is very attentive. But if I don’t have a pocket full of treats, or if he is too far away from me to see that I do, he [...]
In the morning after chores I feed Moon, and while he is digesting his food, I meditate for twenty minutes. This morning as my brain was twinkling, the chickens screamed in panic, Moon barked and ran to the door, and I very reflexively jumped out of my meditation and ran to open the door for [...]
Memorial Day weekend I had a gathering of friends from the city who had all heard about Violet’s demise and wanted to visit her, so we went for a walk in the woods.