As the annual fight between winter and spring commences here in southern Ohio. With temperatures going up and down daily we have been trying to use the nice days to our advantage. We have been planning to turn the majority of the back into an Urban farm. So after check city codes, making the necessary measurements, put in a string layout and waiting for the weather to cooperate we have…
As I have mentioned before I grew up in south central Montana. Where everyone had a wood stove and a snow shovel within arms reach at all times (well practically everyone). In fact the way the minute men readiness was explained to us as children by comparing, the colonists keeping their rifles ready at the door like we do snow shovels in November. Though the days were cold and the…
In the lead up to the holidays we had great plans for work on the urban farm, visits to friends and fellow veterans and some education courses we planned to attend. Unfortunately, life had other plans. Just as my children’s Christmas break began COVID struck our home and office with a great vengeance. You see, despite all the people we have known and places we have visited not a single…
We have been gladly working with Hope Grows Farms for almost 2 years now. We have learned great things from Mark’s experiences and had fun working with the animals he fosters. We have built buildings, provided care for various rare bird breeds and spent time with Mark helping and learning from him with his historical projects. One of our favorite things to do is learn and spend time with his…
As the winter rain comes tumbling down here in southern Ohio, I walked the nearby river reflecting on the last week. We spent our time writing, planning and disrupting. Writing our school primer for next years students, planning our planting cycle for next spring and disrupting Gus the donkey’s pasture to prepare for some horses moving in next week. Overall, the work is going well. The walk also reminded me…
As always, my family and I celebrated Thanksgiving this year. We did so with many of the usual traditions, my beloved wife’s from scratch homemade pumpkin pies, the slow cooked Turkey, the friends and extended family that came, the laughs, the odd food experiments and for me, the pondering of the words thanks and gratitude. Shortly into my first deployment, in 2006, I first began to really ponder these words…
As the weather continues to turn, I have not been able to work as much outside as I normally would like to. But when I do, I try and make the exercise worth it. This last week I went to help our friend Mark at Hope Grows Farm to build a winter animal shelter in his pasture. He is bringing on a few ponies to winter with his donkey Gus,…
This last week defiantly didn’t go as planned. We were suppose to get some livestock moved, some more ground prepped and our Operation Market Gardener (OMG) Primer first draft finished. Instead livestock shipping got cancelled for lack of equipment, my beloved and I couldn’t agree on the placement of our next bed and I identified some significant flaws in the OMG model layout. I did get the compost pile mixed…
I learned to love the cool but not cold days of autumn while serving in the military, especially in the morning. You see, growing up in Montana there were three seasons: Winter, Wet (due to the snow melting), and Dry following quickly by winter again. As a child I would watch Charlie Brown’s Halloween and Thanksgiving specials and wonder why the leaves were not buried under a few feet of…
The weather of winter is closing in upon us, with rains for most of the week and the prospect of the frost coming this week. You see, unlike the winters in Montana where the land can already be covered in snow, where it will remain for most of the winter. Ohio rains and freezes, off and on for most of the season, making the land muddy and roads slick with…
