Grass Works Family Farm

Begin with the end in mind...I don't know exactly where this will END but within the next 5-7 years we would like to be living a very different lifestyle. This will be the home of our retirement, the homestead which we will bequeath to our children.

What are we hoping to find in the country? The first is space -both physical and emotional. To get away from such close proximity to the consumer rush, to watch the sun rise and set on land in our stewardship. Personally it is also a test; a way to gauge and build my grit and gumption. I have always been the smart one, good at reading, comprehending and taking tests. This has gotten me far in my life, but I wonder, do I have what it takes to thrive and persevere when things get tough? Take me out of the office- can I cut it? A measure of self sufficiency is important to us-food as well as power. That will certainly not happen in this home, we are too comfortable here with the status quo.

We plan to create the Grass Works Family Farm as a small business this spring. Admittedly the first years will be significantly in the red but that is part of the plan-the losses will help negate some of the (taxable) profits from my small business. We plan to market pasture raised meat chickens (Freedom Rangers). The first summer we will only be able to raise one run for immediate family; but by 2011 we should have some kinks worked out and be able to direct market (we have some ideas for that too).

We have been reading alot about rotational grazing this winter and it is our goal to stay within a permaculture model. Allow chickens to be chickens and cows to be cows, let them do the work! To get by with the least amount of physical struggle and capital investment. Instead of bullying the earth with equipment to use our minds and our creativity to achieve our desired outcome. Hence to farm name: Grass Works.

Nineteen acres of beautiful productive grass pasture for pastured meat and layer chickens, a dairy goat or two, the Norwegian Fjord horse. Field rows of native oak, crab apple and other food and cover for wildlife. A large garden from which we can feed ourselves, a garden for medicinal and culinary herbs. The orchard and small fruits, such as grapes and blueberries. All very idyllic, no? What about jobs, property taxes, health insurance, college saving for the kids, and let's not forget the 5 months of winter in wonderful Wisconsin!

For this story-book ending to happen we need to do a couple of things. In the next year or two one of us needs to stop working outside the home(stead). We are both pretty well paid professionals, we have a nice income but also alot of debt (student loans, loan for purchase of business). We need to pay down our debt to allow one of us to devote time to the farm business. If this is to be more than a hobby farm one of us will need to not be working outside the home. If worked full time I would have the higher income but DH has the health insurance. Is is a good problem to have in these times. We have so much to learn about food storage, gardening, livestock, real cooking, and oh how I could go on... it is exciting and a more than a little daunting, but it is REAL now, no longer a dream.

Hello Old Friends

I can feel the sunshine flowing through my veins, waking up my sleepy brain. I uderestimate the effects of the long dark winter on my psyche. My focus turns inward, to the bare necessities, and just placing one foot in front of the other. I am sitting in the east bay window letting the morning sun pour over my face, ahh, warmth and awakening.

Things are becoming REAL on the future farm front, we had a successful soil test performed last fall-for a mound septic system, the land was surveyed and the stacks of old ginseng rafters disposed of. The purchase contract is in the mail to us as I type.

We are buying 4 acres plus a 800' x 33' driveway easement for $3,000 an acre. This is a little higher than the $2,000 to 2,500 which seems to be average for farm land in this area-but it is adjacent to dad's 40 acres and that was important to us. We will also have a land contract for the remaining 15 acres of farmfield at the same price at 3% interest for 10 years, with the option to pay off early.

This is a little convoluted but the bank assessed the property at $2,000 an acre which meant to get a bank loan we would have needed to place %15 percent down PLUS the $19,000 dollar difference between assessed value and purchase price. We decided to buy the building site and driveway outright to make the bank happy when we do the construction loan and final mortgage, and Mr. Nice Farmer will finance the remaining 15 acres at a very NICE interest rate while allowing us full use of the acerage. Now all we have to do is live in our camper while the house is built, sell our current house and start the girls in a new school!


(Picture from last fall-view towards the south-the house will go about 100 feet down this south facing slope with a view of Dad's woods-to the left of this shot- and slough.)


More tomorrow about my ideas for the farm!

New Additions

The story goes like this...we have been experiencing a very frigid run of weather with wind chills in the minus twenties, when a delivery driver at DH's work told him about a pair of cats he was worried about. He typically parked his big truck and ate lunch in this vacant cul-de-sac between a wetland and a strip mall, and for the past few days he has been seeing these two cats. DH called me and asked if there was anything that could be done to prevent them from freezing to death. Well, of course! My mom and I drove out there with a plastic storage container and some lunch meat. It was cold! We could see the kitty prints in the snow and the sandwich the nice truck driver had left them, but no cats. Mom thought she heard a meow, so I go off walking in the field and there they were-curled up together on the south side of a snow drift. Friendly little things, or maybe just too cold to be cautious. We scooped them up and brought them home with every intention or taking them to the Humane Society.

We have been a pet-less family for more than 15 years (unless you count Oscar the iguana)because of DH's allergies and asthma. Our 7yr old also seems to be mildly allergic -getting red weepy eyes if she rubs her eyes with 'catty hands'. So when I called DH at work and half jokingly said 'Awww, can we keep them?', to my surprise 'yes' was the response-with a qualification about allergies.

The girls named them Shadow and Sunny and they are adjusting very well -I am sure they were house cats previously. So far no problems from my DH and only one episode of red eyes from Lizzy. It is strange having a cat to just pet and warm my lap-I don't have to poke or prod, or figure out why they are itching/vomiting/pooping in the laundry etc. They are pretty great little cats! Now to figure out what to do with them this summer when we are living in the middle of a field in our camper :)

Screwed

Yesterday the American public got fucked, how was it for you? I feel a little weird just typing the F-word, but there is no other way for me to really express how mad I am. You see, yesterday our supreme court ruled that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. It is 'a vindication of the First Amendment's most basic free speech principle'. Upholding free speech sounds very noble and good. Except corporations are not freaking people! Corporations do not have the guaranteed right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, they do not have opinions to express. Corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only-to make money. The idea that Kraft or BP has the right to free speech is so ludicrous I can't even believe this case made it to the highest court in our nation. If the entire board of Monsanto wants to give to an election campaign -that's great, if they wish to encourage their employees to do the same -go for it! But a corportation or union needing First Amendment protection-get real! Maybe we should just get it over with and sell naming rights for our federal buildings--we could have the ExxonMobile Capitol Building, and Citibank White House. Then we would at least have some of the much lauded transparency in politics.

Well, I feel a little better for ranting. The American public will know slick advertising when they see it and use their head to form their own opinions.... hmmm, on second thought- we really are screwed.

Icky Pictures of My Floor (or What I Did On My Day Off)

Nasty grout, eh? We have lived in this house for 7 years and while I wash the floors (fairly) frequently, I have NEVER really scrubbed them. Last week the kitchen 'zone' received some extra attention. I cleaned out the fridge and cleaned grout! I researched the grout part a bit and came up with using 'oxygen bleach' as a cleaner. I don't know how environmentaly safe it is but it's been 7 years, so I went with it. I picked up some OXY-Clean from the grocery store (the stuff you use in the laundry) dissolved 1/4 cup in a gallon of hot water and filled the grout channels with the solution. I did scrub a little with a stiff brush at 0min, 30 minutes and then a good scrub at 60 minutes. All the crap that came up was truely GROSS. Then a really wet mop to get all the dirt off the floors and into the sink. Voila! the kitchen floor looks great (now for the rest of the tiled floors... (entry, hall to the bedrooms, rest of kitchen to back door) I think I am going to just do the darkest stuff and try to 'blend' to the fairly clean edges of the less traveled portions of the floor!!