FarmStories

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Farm Stories

Earl (Draft Mule)
was a really big kid

Clair (Clarabelle) and Hannah
(Hannabelle) -- step-sisters

Mushy & Mavis (aka Bonky
Donkey & Donkey Oatie)

Apache (Appaloosa Mule)

Mother & Father
Goose (Nene)

Clair being served breakfast in bed on (un)Labor Day
(Earl wants to spoil her 'labors')

This was how Clair used to
greet us and visitors here

Clair & Henny Penny receive thousands of bits
of information as Marc and the bucket of water
make their way through the snow

Henny Penny would ride Clair's back
for the best vantage point to get any
bits of food Clair left in the snow

Bonky & Oatie get behind 'Mama' Clair to protect them from Phil, who's being
a pest. Marc explained to Phil that the girls were not comfortable with Phil's
behaviors, but to no avail; so Phil was sent to his corner for a 'time out.' Phil
eventually was returned to his former owner, and harmony was restored.

Earl and Mother Goose
dancing a beautiful minuet

Earl huffed and puffed at this young
moose who was happily checking out
the tender spring greens

Good thing it wasn't this Bull Moose
that Earl was challenging

These animals are masters of invisibility -- except for when they are
crossing at the "Moose Crossing" signs at the sides of Route 122
here. In warm weather you may see them around here.

These are moments of ecstatic trance states, where some of the magical
forces of nature can be glimpsed in peripheral vision, as well as head on.
I am head over heels in love with the sheer energies at play, even when
there is a daunting amount of gottas to do here (like the seeming futility
of fencing where the moose roam, or the two pigs work their way
through). But gratitude for all this is also a very natural force here.

The Odd Couple

Clair, often mistaken for a moose,
understood the spoken and
unspoken: Marc would THINK
about going down to brush her,
and she'd stick her head out the
barn and do a great imitation of a
fog horn. Her ears spoke
volumes. When she died, she
took a chunk of our hearts with
her.

We have taken as many longears out of harm's way as we could take responsibility for. A
number of them have been successfully placed with caring owners. Our consideration is to
give them a loving home as well as to keep them from the slaughterhouses. These are
some of All Our Relations...

Removed stumps cleared away
(upper North Pasture)

Stumps lined up along old logging road
for a fence (lower North Pasture)

Marc clearing
1000s of root
pieces, and
adding them to the
fence line

Stumps ready to be lined up (lower
North Pasture, along old logging road)

Fence Line -- Stephanie shown for scale

West Pasture: Cover crops of buckwheat, oats, black oil seed radish, forage
beets, and winter rye have been repeatedly grown and disc harrowed into the
land in the West Pasture -- part of the process of bringing the land back gently
and responsibly to be able to have healthy micro-organisms & earthworms,
attract pollinators, and grow REAL food.

North Pasture: The stump fence at the foot of the North Pasture successfully
protects our cultivated vegetable/pasture areas. We did not cut the trees -- the
previous owner did. The only trees we cut are those that have died & fallen.

De-stumping the North Pasture (2009)

Stumps over-wintering above ground to drop the soil from their roots back onto the land where top soil belongs

Antique Manure Spreader:
West Pasture

"The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always
right." -- John Muir