FARM LIFE FARM

Homemade oil drum BBQ Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. It has been a while. Well I did just publish a greenhouse post, but prior to that I took a month-long hyatis. From the blog, not from the work. I have a friend and she has two boys; well men now. Ten years ago, her eldest took a welding class. We see our children grow and know that it will be hard to find quality time as they develop their independance. You cannot read your 19 year old son a bed time story.

West wall and doors The greenhouse build continues. We have made some serious progress since our last post. We have created a door of windows and a door of door. We wanted a way to get the bulk water tanks in and out as well as a way to have tractor bucket access when we need to clean out or add soil, etc. I imagined two swinging barn doors that followed the roof angle. I also needed a regular entry door on this side of the greenhouse as the opposite side will be fenced

Nothing exciting to report. Sarah remains at Scout camp. Phoebe and Harper are there with her. I continue through my busy work summer, and Colt is home caring for the farm.

2002 Gator 6x4 Gas It does not look like much, but it she is a beast! Three years ago, Sarah's father showed up with a wheeled horse ride on lawnmower and this gator. They came from the Abby where he has served as their mechanic for the last 45 years. At the time, we were not in a good place. We had recently moved to the farm but still owned our house and were desperate for a sale to happen. I had recently been relieved of the misery I called a career at Trinity EMS. Sar

Colt Having children is like shooting craps. So much of it is pure chance. Will they turn into useful, respectable humans? Will they be total shit bags or druggies? We don't know looking forward. There may be signs, but you cannot know for sure until you know for sure. This summer has turned into a lonely one. Sarah has taken on a role at the Scout Camp Workoeman. With all three kids active in scouts, we had to find a way to pay their way through all the summer camps a

Back Door Framing Yesterday, I had a few hours to work on the greenhouse. I focused on the back door hole framing. This will be a wood door seperating the greenhouse from the fish shed. There will be a hallway running along the back wall going to the shed. So walk out the back door, hard left turn, 3-5ft of hallway openning to the fish shed. I intend to build the west side wall and then start the framing for the shed. We will get there. That giant openning had to get sm

East side wall, doorway platform, and stairs I have never made stairs before. Phoebe hadn't either. Together we got them done. Sturdy and almost level. the step height is a bit narrow for my liking, but they do work and have even spacing. It is a nice flow going from the door, turning, and decending the stairs. We had a stack of planks out back. I cut them for the barn I thought we were building first. Going back to the mill, as I looked for a good log, I noticed the s

Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. As we continue to work on the greenhouse with every free moment, the progress is apparent. I cannot believe how long its been since I worked on a post. The persistent problem remains to be energy. At the end of a workday, whether teaching or building, I don't have the energy to type. Front face has windows...yes they open from the outside The last post ended with the completion of the flat roof deck. We have since covered it wit

Our First Garden Soil Customer plants potatoes in landscape fabric "buckets" We have been composting our farm manure and detritus for five years. It is ready to bring new life to your yard and garden. This is a mix of the following: Rabbit Manure Chicken manure and bedding Horse Manure Sheep Manure Duck manure and Bedding All the uneaten hay Yard leaves clippings and rakings Our children practiced their backhoe skills for the past several years mixing the pile.

At Farm Life Farm, we strive to coast more and flap less. The farm life is hard and expensive. We are constantly trying to recreate the wheel and make a better mouse trap. I have seen some really neat mowers made for trimming around field fence. They are expensive and not anywhere near our budget. Thinking about our options, I thought, maybe, we can just rotate the guard 180° and run the guard along the fence, under the electric. Oh yeah, I should mention the reason this

There is fantastic news on the farm! We have made progress on the greenhouse. King Beam is in place Over the winter of 2024-25, we began planning a greenhouse on the hill. Sunlight all day on a fairly flat piece of our ridgeline. We looked at all kinds of possibilities. Prefabricated, hoop house, PVC structure, Walipini's, etc. In the end we decided on a wood frame Walipini. The Walipini is a north American Native idea that date's back possibly thousands of years. We b

Warning: This post will describe Slaughter in graphic detail. If you do not want to know how your food gets to the table, pass this post. Another Pig hits the refrigerator. One of our last two remaining Kune Kune's has been processed. Last Friday I put it down with a distant shot from our Mini 14. I have discussed how pistol ammo has failed to penetrate past their fat layer. Kune's are lard pigs and have a thick fibrous fatty layer around their ears and the top of their

Farm Life Farmstand Spring has sprung at Farm Life Farm. Our Farmstand is open! Sarah built our stand and has outfitted it with eggs and soaps to start. So exciting to see it. Dogs and Sheep are shaved. Again, all Sarah. The yard has been swept and raked and the tons of winter manure in all pens has been hauled to the muck pile. The muck pile fencing has been moved so we have more room for the compost. We will be attaching the backhoe soon. Harper and Phoebe can get

As I sit in the SImsbury Ambulance Training room suffering through our Annual training, I thought how long its been since I wrote an update. It has been a challenging winter. We have had more snow and cold this year. Farming is hard. Farming in the cold is harder. Morning chores normally takes 20 minutes. With the added difficulty of the weather, it is taking almost an hour right now. Water has been the biggest challenge. Our hydrant froze a couple of weeks ago. We wr

We live in a ranch and Sarah and my bedroom is in the basement. The "garage' section is open to the rest of the basement and currently serves as our project room and workshop. Given how many projects we have going, it is common to not clean up one before beginning the other. With this situation, the walkways constantly get narrower. There comes a point where I feel so anxious and claustrophobic causing a compulsion to clean. We hit that point a few days ago. For the...

Though it pains me to admit it, the AI did a really good job writing this post. I don't imagine I will use it often, however it is interesting to see what it wrote. Butchering a sow can be a rewarding yet challenging process. After a recent butchering session, I ended up with 112 pounds of cuts, 30 pounds of grind scraps, and 40 pounds of fat. This experience opened my eyes to the importance of using every part of the animal efficiently. This post explores how to maximize th

Processing a pig is a rewarding challenge. Those of you raising pigs for meat sales, you must send your animal to USDA certified Slaughter and butcher houses. You are gonna pay around $5.00 per pound for them to do their thing. The only legal way to slaughter and butcher yourself and sell the meat is to have the customer take part. Ultimately, the customer is buying the live animal and you then assist them in the slaughter and butchering process. The theory is that as an

A few interesting details: Farm Life Farm is not just a farm. We have a mission to share knowledge with our neighbors and clients. We are an educational farm. If you are searching the internet considering raising any sort of livestock, we can teach you how. We can also help determine if this is right for you. So many people that are squeamish or nervous, develop the ability to feed themselves after just a few hours with us. As I typed away on the chicken day post, I tho

Raising livestock is an enjoyable task. Knowing that our family will have a self-sustaining food source is a powerful feeling. Knowing that the food they eat is nutritious and natural brings a great degree of accomplishment and pride to my soul. Part of raising your own food is transforming a living creature into food. This is a process that takes a lot of preparation and a touch of skill. Of course the goal is to cull the animal as quickly as possible. None of us want

There are a few little leaks and one big one. Our biggest issue is the easiest to fix. Neither of us paid any attention to the overall slope of the building. The center skylight (ridgecap) has a long length overlapping a short piece. We need to move the short piece above the long and that leak will be fixed. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I was fairly certain that the trusses I made would leak and they both do a little bit I will get up there with a tube of cau