Then & Now #6
This post is part of a monthly series, Then & Now, that uses photos to show the development and changes taking place on the farm.
Phew we have been busy! Our spring farm day got rescheduled for mid-June, having been cancelled in mid-May since I had the bat flu. It was a big success and we had a great day of hanging out with friends and selling pork shares!
I harvested turnips from my garden, boiled them, smashed them into fritters, fried them in olive oil and bacon fat, seasoned with salt, pepper, and chives, and melted some fresh shredded parmesan cheese on top. Was a real hit with farm day guests!
As you’ll see from the photo series below, June can be a wet or dry month for us here. This June was very dry, and it shows in the grass! Really goes to show there are no hard and fast rules for rotational grazing, other than to keep an eye on the pastures and move as-needed. We’re learning as we go.
Hope you enjoy this short photo-essay. Feel free to share Magpie Hollow Farm News with your friends and loved ones!
June 2020
In June of 2020 construction began on the chicken house in our back yard.
Note the giant pile of rotting logs with poison ivy growing on them in the last photo. Those were left presumably when they built the house. We spent the summer and fall cutting up that pile, and burned what we could for heat the first winter.
This shot, taken June 18, 2020, shows the beauty of the place along with the dilapidation and overgrowth.
We spent the first couple of months piling up junk that was strewn around. Then, the junk piles quickly became overgrown when the warm weather and rains of late spring early summer came.
The handful of goats and sheep we had in our “flock starter kit” of cast-offs from another farm were so small and cute.
Little Clarice is tiny in this photo!
Alabama and Clarice, w/Baxter and Daria in the background.
Lil Possum!
Exploring the refurbished shed we used for a barn all that year.
This shot shows the hunter’s shack (brown building in background) that we partially disassembled to recover the useable lumber, and partially converted into a barn over the winter of 2021-2022.
The tool shed was just getting cleaned out and a coat of paint.
Deck shot, late June 2020.
June 2021
Under-the-deck shot June 2021 - additional rooftop harvested rainwater storage capacity installed, check!
We processed (or, had processed by our local family-run abattoir) our first hog - a boar that had gotten too big for his britches.
Quite a haul!
An excellent blueberry crop last year…
Lot’s of cute hatchlings too, if I remember correctly...
And a major highlight-of-the-month for me: while I was away doing fieldwork in Mexico, the repairs were finally completed on my beloved ‘89 ‘yota, Lola and Rachael brought her home. Here’s Lola (the white one) next to her younger sister Tulsi (‘95).
June 2022
Beautiful blooms this June…
Rotational grazing in full swing…
The guineas run pasture cleanup, scavenging bugs (especially ticks!) and parasites, etc.
Major effort stockpiling firewood for this winter. In a huge windfall, we got just over 4 cords for nearly free. We spent hours stacking it!
And the garden is starting to get real exciting…
But of course, Rachael steals the show with the glow of a mama-to-be at about 18 weeks pregnant and just starting to show a baby bump!
Awesome stuff, looks like you guys are doing really well!
I recently listened to a book you suggested, The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry. It was apropos that I listened to it while working in the yard, sifting and removing rock by hand and replacing it with a drought tolerant prairie grass mixture. Best wishes, Rachael, with your baby-to-be!