What a spring it has been. Temperatures in the 80s in mid-April in SE Michigan, followed by cool days that just didn’t seem to want to go away, keeping the bees inside. Finally, it is warm enough here to get serious about making splits, moving queens and a cohort of bees out of the original hive to …
Author Archives: Becky
If you don’t like the weather just wait….
Goat Housekeeping
When the goats first came home, I set up a routine of mucking out their living quarters about every 2 weeks, putting down a fresh bed of straw after each cleaning. While they were eating mostly milk, and then transitioned to grazing for most of the day in the field behind the house, that worked …
Another take on hawks
Last weekend I invited a friend of a friend, Selena, to bring her young red tailed hawk, Lofn, to hunt at Green Acres Farm. OK, so some of you are thinking I am a bit crazy inviting a falconer to bring her hawk hunting at the farm just a week after losing a third chicken …
Cheesemaking: Embracing imperfection
If you are a recovering perfectionist, and are looking for an activity that will support and encourage that recovery, cheese making just might be for you! I started my cheese making adventure in 2021 when our mama goat had filled our refrigerator to overflowing with milk. Even after I started making homemade yogurt, we just …
Chicken Hawk
When I look in my bird book there is actually no such bird as a chicken hawk, but according to Wikipedia it is an unofficial designation for three types of hawks: Cooper, Sharp Shinned and Redtail. Recent personal experience has given me a pretty good idea of how a hawk becomes designated a ‘chicken hawk’. …
Chicken Feathers
I have been taking every opportunity to be outside to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather this week. And given the number of chicken feathers decorating the yard I suspect that I am not the only one at the farm grateful for these warm days. In general, a pile of chicken feathers can be an ominous …
Home Grown
My mom grew up on a small family farm outside of Detroit at the end of the depression where she learned the value of local food production, eating what you can grow or find and putting up food during the plentiful summer and fall to help feed the family through the winter and spring. Those …
The smell of the end of summer
What smell would you bring to mind, if I asked you what the end of summer smells like? As we approach apple season, I can imagine you saying “warm apple pie”. Or if state fairs were a part of your growing up, “cotton candy”, or “hot funnel cake”. Or if canning is a family tradition, …
The wildlife is winning
When you live on a farm in the country, sharing your space with wild creatures comes with the territory, and for the most part that is a good thing, but this year, it sometimes feels like we are at war and the wild life is winning. I guess I should be pleased that the deer …