While taking a rest day after a long stretch of working on projects, I thought I’d update y’all on what’s been going on here at the farm, so grab a mug of something warm and read on….
We’ve now been living in our old home for three-and-a-half years; the first three working 24/7 to stabilize, rebuild, and restore this home in a way that not only honors Daniel and Abigail, but to also create a place we want to live for the rest of our lives. Our focus and intent all along has been to preserve as much of the house’s history as possible, and to ensure it survives for the next generation. With the structure stabilized, secure, and protected, plus a few pretty things taken care of, we’re moving on to actually living here. We always wanted to “homestead”, or live as simply and as self-reliant as possible. We wanted to grow our own food, have an orchard, make maple syrup from our own trees, and for any meat we eat, we wanted to find a local farm to support. So how did we do towards achieving these goals? Read on, my friend.
Having all the heavy construction wrapped up around the farm for now, we could finally go ahead and begin building raised beds and gardens, and install fencing to keep out the deer, moose, bears, woodchucks, and all of the other critters that roam around here. We built five raised beds, as well as two large ground-level gardens for climbing plants. We were able to put up fencing, albeit temporary t-posts, and welded wire fencing. We studied and ordered from seed catalogs, as well as picked up seeds from friends and saved from veggies we liked, and in February, we started placing them into the dirt, keeping them warm near the wood stove. When it warmed up outside, we started moving them to the screen porch to acclimate during the day, moving them back inside at night. Once we planted everything, the work really started- thinning, watering, monitoring for pests, spraying neem oil, tying up, then finally, harvesting and processing.
Last spring, we received an order of six period heritage apple and pear trees, all appropriate for the age of the house. The apples are; “William’s Pride”, “Ashmead’s Kernel”, “Black Oxford”, “Hudson’s Golden Gem”, “Baldwin”, and the pear is “Dana Hovey.” We planted these in the hillside orchard, which also contains a very old existing apple tree (unknown variety) and an equally-aged Seckel pear tree. We planted a couple dozen raspberry canes given to us by a lady in town, along with blueberry, boysenberry, and strawberry plants. Within the electric fence surrounding the orchard, we also have foxglove, bloodroot, peonies, sedum, yucca, and many other wild, or long ago forgotten plantings that were just waiting for us to clear the overgrowth that covered this hillside. We’re hoping to start harvesting apples and pears within the next year or two, and we expect a HUGE crop of raspberries this year. This summer we also hope to expand the fenced area, and add gates for access- a pretty one to walk through, and a utilitarian one for a small tractor or mower.
We also built a pergola behind the house in order to grow grapes; four “Concord”(seedless), a blush “Niagara”, and a white “Somerset”- one for each post. For the pergola, we just ran to our local sawmill for some rough-cut hemlock- we built it strong enough not only to support the weight of the grapes and vines, but also a hammock!
This past spring, we extended the chicken run off the end of the coop after losing a couple hens to the local bobcats. We still let them out to free-range from time-to-time, but only when we can be out there with them to keep an eye out for the cats, bear, foxes, and whatever else wants a tasty chicken treat. Now the girls can hang out with plenty of space, sunshine, and safely watch the happenings in the yard from “the bleacher seats”. This summer, we’ll rake out as much of the surface rocks (left over from the jacking pads used to raise the barn to rebuild the foundation) as possible, then bring in some more dirt for them to kick around in. It would have been easier to do that before we built the run extension, but that’s just how we do things around here sometimes. It does add to the adventure though!
Outside of the gardens, our pets, the chickens, and the orchard, each spring we enjoy making maple syrup- nine gallons last year! With two wood stoves, the need for wood to boil down sap in our evaporator, and the occasional hearth fire, we also spend a lot of time cutting and splitting firewood. But we wouldn’t have it any other way!
This adventure has been far more than we expected, and we’re so thankful we had the opportunity. We still have some 426 things on our to-do list, but we’re enjoying every single day. Thanks for stopping by, and we hope to see you again soon!
We’ll leave you with some images of the house through the seasons…..
Be well, and God bless!
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