A few weeks ago, I found myself feeling strange. I felt unsettled... unsure.. and maybe even a little... bored? It’s a foreign feeling for me. So when it hit, I was caught off guard. It’s not that I don’t have anything to do… I’m gearing up for THE book launch, the charter school recently opened, and of course, there’s plenty of work in the garden. Yet, I was feeling a suspicious absence ...Continue Reading
Prepare or Push??
Our annual horsemanship clinic wrapped up a few weeks ago. It always takes me a while to process everything I learn from these. While there are many takeaways for me this year, one lesson stands above the rest: Sometimes action is the only cure. Forethought is advisable. Preparation is crucial. Mentorship is important. But there’s no substitute for just doing the thing. Case in ...Continue Reading
Top 10 Tips for Building a Chicken Tractor
I've become a huge fan of chicken tractors in recent years. A few years ago, I shared about how I've been changing my relationship with our chickens on the homestead. I've been shifting my viewpoint from seeing chickens as a chore and instead thinking about various ways to use the natural inclinations of a chicken to minimize our work load. One of the ways to use a chicken to minimize the work on a homestead is to use them as part ...Continue Reading
The Cost of Cheap Information
The call came early, as I was wiping the sleep from my eyes. “I need help!” my sister's voice was laced with excitement and concern. I could hear meowing in the background. Twelve hours prior, she’d taken in an orphaned kitten. The kitten’s eyes were open and she seemed healthy, but she didn’t want dry food. I offered her advice from our experience with orphans over the years: offer formula (it’s expensive, so get the ...Continue Reading
The Best Garden Trio for Building Healthy Soil
Stillness. As I sat down to write this, I was trying to think of a word to sum up the hours I spent in my greenhouse and garden over the weekend. That was all that came to mind. No grand revelations. No long-winded observations. Just blissful quiet. A peaceful, settled brain. It’s taken me a long time to get to this point with my garden. In years past, my growing seasons were defined by stress. Overwhelm. Never feeling ...Continue Reading