Our Tiny Farm During the Year of COVID

In December 2019 I wrote a post about how we were transitioning Our Tiny Farm for the next stage of our lives. I am still working full-time as a faculty member in the Department of Horticultural Science at  NC State University, but I am starting to think about what I want to do next. 

We also have an RV that we really enjoy exploring this beautiful country in. So raising cattle, garlic, and vegetables don't fit quite as easily into our lives and plans as they used to. 

We have decided that we will continue to raise our own donkeys and provide a temporary home for a few others. We enjoy them so very much. And when we travel, our very capable son, who lives on the farm, takes care of them for us. THAT is one of the keys to our being able to make this transition and keep the farm; having a young, strong son who enjoys living here with us. He gets free rent and we have built-in farm help.

These are our two donkeys. Chester is the brown miniature donkey on the left and Meadow is the small standard donkey on the right.

The farm behind us also raises donkeys and one summer day a baby was born right next to our fence line. This donkey is less than five minutes old!

We put up a nice supply of locally grown hay for our donkeys. We have a good relationship with our hay supplier and are assured that they use no persistent herbicides on their fields so we can safely use the manure on our gardens and provide it to others without risk to sensitive plants.

The plan for 2020 was to grow a small, manageable garden that would be easy to maintain and not put a guilt trip on us come harvest time. Well, old habits die hard and before I knew it, hubby had planted a sizeable garden. We enjoyed lots of fresh, homegrown tomatoes, beans, sweet corn, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes. 

We also froze and gave away much of what we grew. Now this big garden area, which we have managed following practices and using products approved by the National Organic Program, is sown in cover crops. Next spring our plan is to keep this area planted in soil building and pollinator friendly plants and build raised beds close to the kitchen!

We had a very special treat this summer. We had several elk from the Smoky Mountain National Park find their way into our community. People were posting pictures of them on social media from all over our area, and then late one afternoon, a big bull came to our area. Here he is just strolling across our farm. All the horses and donkeys just stood and stared. 

On a very sad note, we had to say good-bye to the most loving, wonderful dog in the world, Traveler. Traveler came to us from the Foothills Humane Society 12 years ago. He was our constant companion. He got along well (most of the time) with all the farm animals and the house cats. He is missed very, very much.

In addition to boarding donkeys, we will continue to be beekeepers and bottle honey.

It was an excellent honey year. Our friends and family will be enjoying this for a long time.

Easter night we had a terrible storm come through with high winds and a deluge of rain. Our Tiny Farm was hit particularly hard. We don't know if it was a micro-burst, straight line winds, or a tornado, but twenty VERY large trees were blown down in the middle of the night. We were so blessed. The only damage to the house was to the gutter on the corner of the porch.

Like many others, I became quite proficient at making many kinds of face masks for family and friends.

We till up the garden each spring using the Troy-Bilt rototiller that my mother, siblings, and I bought for my father when I was a teenager. They don't make them like that anymore!

Carpenter bees were making swiss cheese out of our barn, so we hung four of these traps on the barn this year. They really work!

These daffodils were here when we bought Our Tiny Farm in 1999. Who knows how long they were there before that!

We see beautiful sunrises and sunsets from our farm.

Our big excitement in January was going out to see the donkeys in the morning and finding that a bear had tried to push his, or her, way into the donkeys' paddock. Several years ago I had my husband reinforce the fencing on the paddock area where we confine our little donkeys each night. He moved the six-strand electric fencing to the outside and put woven wire fencing on the inside. The bear reached through the upper electric wires and pushed the woven wire fencing out of the big heavy staples on the corner post. We assume that as he/she pushed forward, he/she made contact with several of the electric wires and was shocked enough to give up (we keep that fence very hot). There was a footprint left in the mud that I asked some of my bear hunting friends to verify that it was indeed a bear (although, what else could have done that?). Since then, we have a trail cam mounted.

And that was our COVID year on Our Tiny Farm. Today I was planning for our very small Thanksgiving celebration later in the week. It will just be three of us this year but we are looking forward to Zoom video calls with parents, siblings, and my daughter and family. Aren't we fortunate to have such technology to get us through this pandemic. Stay safe.

 

Transitioning the Farm for Our Next Stage of Life

Putting up hay with our '54 Farmall Cub

When we first started Our Tiny Farm in 1999, we were finally living our dream of owning a small farm, raising a lot of our own food using organic methods, having farm animals, and homesteading on our own land. That was over 20 years ago. My husband and I were in our forties. our children were in elementary school, and the economy was good.

Our early vegetable gardens were diverse

We started out, as most gardeners do, growing vegetables. We grew a bit of everything including tomatoes, peppers, onions, peas, broccoli, potatoes, eggplants, beans, and summer squash. It was a new garden site so it took a lot of back breaking work to raise organic vegetables. We added so much organic matter and did so much weeding in those early years. It also didn't take us long to figure out that every other small farm in the region was growing exactly the same things that we were! Because of our small scale and doing everything by hand, we couldn't sell our vegetables at a price that would make us any money.

Our Japanese hulless popcorn was a big hit with our customers

So then we started experimenting with crops that we didn't see at the farmers' markets: heirloom popcorn, heirloom winter squash, kohlrabi, garlic, shallots, leeks, and herbs.

We started increasing the number of hives

Glen had been keeping bees as a hobby for several years but decided to expand the number of hives and do it as a small commercial operation. 

We had six heirloom breed chickens in a portable chicken tractor

Glen built the barn on the left, we fenced the property, and got a horse and donkey

Glen built a barn, workshop, equipment sheds, and other outbuildings. We got chickens, a donkey, and a horse. We were really living the farm life! It was a ton of work, but it was something my husband and I had always talked about doing together. But we still weren't making much money; certainly not enough to justify the amount of work we were putting into it.

Two young Black Angus steers. We just raised two at a time.

We shipped garlic all over the country for many years.

Boarding horses was lucrative and taught us a lot about contracts and horse owners.

So we started pasture raising a few Black Angus cattle, selling our garlic online, and boarding horses; and finally, our CPA informed us that we were making money! The winning combination for Our Tiny Farm was beef, honey, garlic, and horse boarding. 

Digging garlic was a family operation

And so that is what we did for a few years. We sold our farm products at the farmers' market, direct from the farm, and online. I held a fulltime job, but for most of that time my husband was fulltime on the farm and at home. 

Glen with the first two donkeys we boarded

And then the kids grew up. The old horse died. Digging garlic was really hard on Glen's back. And I was really tired of working 60+ hours a week at my regular job and then getting up at 5 am to go to market on Saturday morning. So we starting simplifying our farm. We now raise only donkeys. We've quit raising beef. We still raise bees and bottle honey.  

This past summer we took our grandson on his first camping trip

My husband and I are now in our 60s. We still love our little farm and I can't imagine life without the donkeys. But there are other things we would like to do, like travelling around this big, beautiful country, and now seems like the right time to start. We are fortunate to have our son living on the farm, great neighbors to help and watch over our place, and our daughter and her family nearby. So this coming year, the blog posts will be about what we can do on our small farm in our 60s, 70s, and 80s. How can we generate a little income but leave time and energy to travel and enjoy other activities. I hope you will follow along and share some of your experiences!

Heading into Fall on Our Tiny Farm

Currently we have five donkeys on Our Tiny Farm. Two of them, Chester and Meadow, are ours. The other three are visitors.  We have Faith, the mother,  Hope,  her yearling daughter,  and Corey Love, her son who was born just a few months ago. They make for a very happy,  and entertaining little herd.

We have Black Angus steer on the farm again. These two aren't ours. They belong to a friend,  but I missed having the big boys on the pasture so we are happy to give them a home.

We grew a small garden this year, mostly for the family. We have enjoyed delicious summer squash, lots of tomatoes, a wide variety of peppers, eggplant, sweet corn, and peas.

In late June,  for the first time, we had hay from our pasture cut and baled. We are very pleased with the quality and it will make for a good savings for us this winter. We plan to do a second cutting in October.

In May we received about 21 inches of rain in a two to three week period. This was bad timing for our garlic crops. We lost all of the elephant garlic. The hard necked garlics survived but the bulbs are small. We cured them and they taste good,  but because their quality is not what we like to provide to others.

We did have a great honey crop this year. Most of it was sold at the Obermiller Strawberry Farm nearby during their strawberry and blueberry seasons.

Thanks for checking in with Our Tiny Farm. And as always, you can buy a copy of my book at local and online book sellers.  Thanks! Jeanine

Our Tiny Farm is Going Through a Transition

I apologize for not posting anything since last January. It has been a busy year for us on Our Tiny Farm. We did a major remodeling of our house, which you all know causes all kinds of disruptions in a family.

We are also in the process of changing what we produce on Our Tiny Farm. In the past we have raised beef cattle, chickens, horses, donkeys, bees, garlic, popcorn, vegetables, and herbs. With the kids grown and gone (or mostly so), wanting time for other activities, and just wanting to try different things on the farm, we have downsized what we do.

Presently, we do not have any beef cattle or chickens on the farm and aren't sure if we will raise anymore. We are also not raising horses right now either.

We are still raising garlic and bees. The garlic is curing and we have hives full of honey.

We are only raising vegetables and herbs for our own family needs.

We are providing a temporary home for some donkeys. These were rescues and we are teaching the owners how to be good donkey parents. Meet Faith (the jenny) and Hope (her baby). This is a good fit for our farm.

Glen will continue to consult with folks interested in leading a lifestyle like we do.

And I will continue to teach at workshops and conferences, and consult out of state. I will also try to keep our website more up to date!! And of course, the book is available:

 

If you are serious about growing woodland medicinal herbs, whether for a business or your own personal enjoyment, this is the book to have. Written by two well-know authorities, the book is chock full of information and hundreds of pictures on how to grow ginseng, goldenseal, ramps, black cohosh, and many other native herbs.

How to Get a Copy of the Book: We suggest you order the book through the publisher, New Society Publishers, or your favorite local book store; that way the authors can receive their full royalties. It is available in bookstores where native plant gardening is popular. You can order the book through all the big on-line discount book sellers. Many sellers offer the book on Ebay. The book is also available as an ebook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, New Society Publishers, and elsewhere.

The book is a high-quality soft cover book with 508 pages. It has a center color photo section and black and white photos throughout. Here is detailed information about the book and a link to the table of contents.

It is harvest season and there is a hint of fall in the air!

It is mid-August and life has slowed down just a little bit on Our Tiny Farm. I noticed this week that there are some tree leaves on the ground, the late afternoon light is changing, and there is just a hint of fall in the air. I know we aren't even close yet, but change is in the air.

The garlic is dried and cured and hubby started the process of trimming and cleaning it today.

It is very beautiful garlic and we had a good yield. We will be offering it for sale soon at the Mills River Farmers' Market and on-line here and on Ebay.

Our very senior horse has put on weight and is looking good this summer. We feed him grain and soaked alfalfa twice a day. It is a lot of work, but we want his golden years to be comfortable.

And here is a picture of the absolute sweetest dog in the world. He is always smiling and gets along well with all the other animals on Our Tiny Farm.

The donkeys are very easy keepers and started to really put on weight this summer. So we now confine them to the paddock during the day and just put them on the pasture for the evening and overnight. As long as they can always see and touch noses with the horse, they seem okay with it.

And we will end this update with a shot of one of the gardens on the farm. In a few weeks I will provide an update on the honey, popcorn, and potato crops and where we will be selling them. We will also have an estimate on when we will have our pasture raised Black Angus beef for sale.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!