It’s the end of the first year for my asparagus bed and time to prepare it for winter. This first year I did not harvest any of the shoots and let them all grow into tall ferns. The first order of business is to let the asparagus grow until the frost starts knocking it back [...]

Posted on November 25th, 2009 by John
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It’s hard to believe how things change in a week. The asparagus is growing like crazy. Some stalks grew 8 inches in 7 days. Almost all of it has broken the ground by now. These stalks will keep growing and open up into some something like a fern. This first year we leave them alone [...]

Posted on May 11th, 2009 by John
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Thought I’d supply a little farming update. Lot’s of good things going on this week.

First off, we have a new addition around here. Moses the cat. He is the family cat but Abi got to pick him out and name him. We hope he becomes a heroic mouser. That’s the role we hired him to [...]

Posted on May 3rd, 2009 by John
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Here’s a little farming update for those of you keeping score at home. The first photo is of two fresh eggs. They were still warm when I picked them up.With only three chickens we get 2-3 eggs per day. Soon we’ll have 10-12 chickens and they should all be laying by September. An unfortunate accident [...]

Posted on April 25th, 2009 by John
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We have been adding to our food production as time, space, and money allow. We have been interested in apple trees but had not pursued it. On the property there is an area that is almost 1/2 an acre of pine beetle destruction. Pine trees laying everywhere and in some pretty dangerous angles. I have [...]

Posted on February 26th, 2009 by John
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My friend Michael had a chicken coup he built at a place he was renting. Since he had moved he wasn’t using it and he took it down and reconstructed it here at the house. It’s a great coup with four built in laying boxes, plenty of roosting space, and enough headroom where I can [...]

Posted on January 4th, 2009 by John
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Have been very excited the past few months about building a new shed. I’ve been very blessed to have my dad help me out a lot with it and my friend Michael pitched in some free labor as well. Phase 1 has turned out very nice. Stall width is 12 feet and depth is 14 [...]

Posted on January 4th, 2009 by John
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Am visiting Mandi’s dad, Sam, in Ketchum, Idaho. Most people know the area as Sun Valley because of the ski resort but the main town here is Ketchum. Not very big but since it’s a ski resort there is a lot of fun things to do here even if you don’t ski. We do enjoy [...]

Posted on December 21st, 2008 by John
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Here’s photo one of the chicken tractor. As you can see the ladies make themselves comfy. The tractor is 3′ x 8′. It’s not the most attractive thing you’ll ever see but it is sturdy and functional. The 1/2″ hardware cloth is there because I learned the hard way that 2″ x 3″ holes are [...]

Posted on February 4th, 2008 by John
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In our journey toward having a hobby farm we decided that plants would be easier than animals. Besides laying hens (which we don’t consider hard animals to raise) and the blueberries we already mentioned we also planted some strawberries.
We eat strawberries almost every morning. We make a very nice breakfast smoothie out of frozen strawberries, [...]

Posted on February 2nd, 2008 by John
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