A poppy!! One of my favorite flowers.
Medicinal herbal sun tea.
I have been working on making the fruit trees more resilient. I added cardboard, compost and some wood chips.
Ah, the late nights began here. I am sad I didn’t stop to get photos of us with Nicholas Ferguson. This was the evening of July 4th and we sat on the porch and talked until midnight. The view was stunning and the conversation was wonderful.
I made quiche for breakfast and then we took Nick to Sleeping Bear Dunes so he could see the dunes and Lake Michigan. We walked the shores looking for cool rocks and had lots of long conversations. Nick also gave us some great ideas for our land as we move forward, build and start putting livestock on it.
Nick helping others put up trellises up at Baker’s Green Acres Thursday before the conference on Friday. I helped get things cleaned up by cleaning of course!
My little tent and home for four days. Of course due to my food issues I had to bring all my food with me.
Nick teaching. If you would like to see the video Baker’s will have it up on their site after it is edited.
This is tree hay for animals, not pot…lol
Morning view. So beautiful. I did hear the dogs take off after coyotes in the night. They are such great livestock guardians.
Free range Thanksgiving dinner roaming around.
This is Louie, he’s a big, big boy… He is also super sweet unless you’re a coyote or after the livestock.
Fog on the second morning…it was so beautiful. We stayed up so late each night talking around the fire.
I can’t even tell you how much fun I had, how much I learned and how thankful I am that Nick made the journey this far north. I learned so much and I can’t wait to implement it all.
These snowball bushes took a beating several years ago when heavy snow broke a lot of the top branches down and then the mice had a hay day all winter. They are finally back to their splendor. I love when they are blooming.
Last fall we decided to put a berm up by the road to combat the dust and gravel that gets tossed into the yard. The mound is full of many things, all of them are quite hardy. Daisy, Lilly of the Valley, Black Eyed Susan, Day Lily, Spider Wort and more. It turned out so much nicer than we thought it would.
Beets! I love beets and greens…so yummy.
The first pepper!
Let the jungle begin! These are only two weeks apart!
A vacant land update. This area was overtaken by raspberries. You couldn’t even walk and they were as tall as me. We brush hogged them and planted rye. The rye has done a really good job at holding back the wild blackberry and raspberry. Don’t worry I still have plenty for wild foraging!
The fruit trees at the vacant land are struggling due to drought so I have had to go back to hand watering them. You can see the signs of stress.
A little raspberry patch we have left. I will also grow some cultivated breeds in a patch.