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Play
We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole. In my children’s memories, the adventures we’ve had together in nature will always exist. Richard Louv – Last Child in the Woods I…
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Beauty is its Own Reward
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for Being. Ralph Waldo Emerson – excerpt from The Rhodora “Is all this work on the farm worth the effort?” Jackson asked me over the weekend. I think he saw…
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Building Our Dreams
You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. C. S. Lewis Neither Christine nor I were born into the homesteading life. We are both products of late-20th century cities and suburban life. We grew up in a generation defined by MTV, convenience foods, and impatience. At some point though,…
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Size Matters
Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. Elanore Roosevelt Consider this a public service announcement. Not all chickens are the same. When we first began our chicken journey we started our small. Just a few chickens. Except that the few chickens became 17 chickens. Chicken math.…
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Worth a Thousand Words
One picture is worth a thousand words. Fred R. Barnard I have a confession. Some days I have no idea what to write about. This is especially true this time of year. We’ve got so much going on around the homestead that oftentimes I realize it is Tuesday and I haven’t even given a thought…
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When There’s Too Much Drama in the Coop
Many of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners still have some element of farm nostalgia in our family past, real or imagined: a secret longing for some connetion to a life where a rooster crows in the yard. Barbara Kingsolver Chickens. They’re like the gateway animal to homesteading and farming. At first you’re just a…
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Taking Inventory
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero We didn’t start out with a farm. In fact, when we first bought our land there wasn’t even a garden on site. Lake Township’s zoning classifies our property residential. There is no separate zoning classification for agriculture. In a historically rural…
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Springing Ahead
Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm. – John Muir Did you know that you’re more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or automobile accident on the first Monday following the spring time change? It’s true! Apparently we have a hard time adapting to that artificially influenced change in our schedule. It severely…
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Bloom Where You Are Planted
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. Herman Melville We often open these posts with an update on the weather. It’s sort of a thing. Maybe that’s because Ohio cannot seem to figure out which season it wants to be in at the moment (even more so…
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Protecting Our Investment (and a Snowy Day)
An egg today is better than a hen to-morrow. Benjamin Franklin Seasonal weather for NE Ohio returned this week with an unexpected snow storm on Sunday morning. While we only received 2- to 3-inches of snowfall during the event, the initial rate at which it came down surprised a lot of NE Ohioans. Winter storm…