Homestead Rebel at Primal Woods

Installing a soft-starter on a home AC unit, to protect at whole-house solar system from overload on compressor start-up

A small project to make the pigs more comfortable on pasture; they seem to be enjoying it!

The pigs on pasture, and rooting for the first time in their young lives

A big thunderstorm and we have a real water management problem. Management does not mean "get rid of it;" it means store it, slow it down, and make use of it.

The goats in the High Tunnel, another month indoors, maybe, until the shrubs leaf out. They will probably share the space with the 2023 pigs for a few weeks. Snowdrop in nearing delivery of kids.

The sights and sounds of the auction

We had almost an inch of rain Monday, and I have a lot of work to do with respect to water management on the property. Regardless, rain is showstopper for most outdoor work.

The Solar Array requires very substantial ground anchors to prevent the 41 foot by 14 ft solar panel array from literally blowing away. This video documents installation of those ground anchors.

Offloading the pigs at the butcher; bitter-sweet is I suppose one way of putting it.

Preparing the High Tunnel for the goats winter quarters

Picking up and loading round bales

Another first in this young farmer's experience; spreading manure on the pasture. No commercial fertilizers required, thank you very much.

Not without some anxiety, but a success nonetheless. And we are getting the paddocks laid out for next year.

Could be. Installation of polywire might do the trick. We will continue with the Vitamin and Mineral supplement because it's good the the animals.

This much I know, they come back on their own because they are hungry. The question is why do they leave. And I have a thought; it's because they are not getting the micronutrients they need.

Finally got around to burning this pile of branches and stumps from the pasture-clearing operation. I was a little anxious about it, but as it turns out there was no need for that anxiety.

The High Pasture is looking good, I'm very pleased. I've noticed that I now tend to temper my enthusiasm; setbacks are a part of farming. But, so far so good, and I'm grateful.

The first batch of meat birds is at the butcher; this is a brief at how they got there. As usual, it was an experiment, in some frustration, but on the good side we have a lot to improve.

You hear a lot about fertilizer shortages and/or price increases since the Ukraine war started. On a diversified farm fertilizer is not a problem, the animals are creating it every day. Fertilizer Gold, or as Gene Logsdon calls it, Holy Shit!

This is becoming habit, which is not good. We'll get a handle on it, sooner rather than later. It's the fencing, and the process, or lack thereof, of moving the animals from one paddock to another.

Some video of the storm, and the aftermath

We install our vegetable garden for 2022!

Emma and I completed the move of the He Goats to the woods today. It feels good to finally have them back in their natural environment.

All pigs escaped last Friday, and fortunately were recovered that same evening. They stayed together, and relatively close, thank God.

We seem to have reached something approaching a stead state; all is well on the chicken front.