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Category archives for farm stuff
Let the Cuteness Unfold!
Posted by Sharon Astyk on April 24, 2012 (Mina with Goneril and Cordelia – Regan is on the other side of her out of sight) No-drama Obama has nothing on No-drama Mina, who calmly gave us triplet doelings last night with no muss or fuss. Yes, that’s three little girls from her over-achieverness. And she politely waited until we were done with dinner,…
Make Your Own Hurdles
Posted by Sharon Astyk on January 18, 2012 No, not the kind used in track and field (although if you really want to jump over them I won’t stop you), I mean the sort used to keep livestock in without breaking the budget on fencing. They look cool, and now is the perfect time of year to prune out branches and hurdle making…
Storm Views and Supporting Northeastern Farmers
Posted by Sharon Astyk on August 30, 2011 Thought you might want to see what the storm looked like from here. Let me note that this is a pretty minor situation – the farms in the valley that we rely most heavily on lost *all* of their crops – the whole thing was swept away by the storm. Still, I admit, I broke…
CSAs, Deflation and Japan Relief
Posted by Sharon Astyk on March 15, 2011 Sundry stuff on a busy day – and a day when everyone is transfixed by world events. First, my colleage at Dean’s Corner has offered a good guide to high tech ways to donate money to Japan relief. There are 10,000 people in Japan who haven’t eaten since Friday by the best estimation, and events…
The Change
Posted by Sharon Astyk on February 11, 2011 “Did you look at the forecast?” “Is this it?” “Should we get them out?” My children keep asking, and I keep telling them that I think so, but that no one can know for sure. We are talking of the change in the weather, slated to begin today, warming us up from the last wave…
Scenes from the Farm in Winter
Posted by Sharon Astyk on February 3, 2011 These were taken before the 18 inches of snow that fell the other day, so you can actually see the ground, but the scene is still basically the same – white, with scattered critters. We’re all definitely starting to dream of spring! The creek in winter Asher at the Creek Isaiah, finding material to repair…
Tales from the Barnyard: The Sharks and the Jets
Posted by Sharon Astyk on June 15, 2010 The Sharks and the Jets are fighting over by the compost pile. Well, ok, maybe not quite, but it has that feel to it. You see, we have two street-gangs of ducks. The first ones, Pekins and one ratty looking Rouen who is shooting for the “oldest living duck record” have been around for a…
Rabbit-fed Pigs and Farmers as Teachers
Posted by Sharon Astyk on May 5, 2010 “It is funny, but not that funny.” Eric’s comment does not stop my uncontrollable giggling. My step-mother comes over to see why I’m hysterical. She agrees with Eric – it is funny, but not funny enough to explain why tears of laughter are literally coming out of my eyes. I’m reading a passage in Michael…
On Chores
Posted by Sharon Astyk on March 28, 2010 Chores sounds like such a dreary word, and until I moved to a farm, I would never have believed that I’d have anything positive to say about it. As a kid, I did chores around the house, and while I may have groused less about the dishes and cleaning gutters as an adult, I certainly…
Peep!
Posted by Sharon Astyk on March 12, 2010 Note: It hasn’t happened yet here, although we heard them down the hill in the valley yesterday. But we seem to be having an early spring, even though we’ve still got more than a foot of snow to melt off. I wrote this last year, and though the precise circumstances are different, the need for…