My onions came up! Just when I had given up on them, we got a few warm sunny days and up they came. Now I have way too many onions. Not knowing any better I just poured seeds out in a line and now I have hundreds of little seedlings! I think I will be cooking with green onions for awhile.

Slugs, I think, ate all my little lettuces, so I replanted and it is starting to germinate - again. I am hoping since it is drier out now, that the slugs won't come again. I also sprinkled a…

This week's hour long podcast is now live. You can listen/subscribe directly here, or at itunes here. If you prefer to just hear this week's episode click here to listen right here, right now.…

The Aspiring Farmer Blog

Our goats are out in the pastures every day and every night. At least that’s the plan. It’s been tough to figure out a solution for portable shelter in case a storm rolls through, or to provide shade during the hot summer heat. Since we have large fields and we use managed rotational grazing we can’t always be sure that there are trees and/or bushes in each new paddock. Because of this, we need to provide…

Farm Fresh News- April 29, 2012

1. Got a heart warming or wrenching story and want to share it?  Watch what you say!  A North Carolina blogger is threatened with jail time by the state for sharing how he has fought diabetes with his Paleo diet and encouraging others to learn from his lifestyle.  Does this mean he's practicing…

Ten days ago, we had the opportunity to buy a house on 21 acres.  Today, I sit with the official loan papers on my desk.  They say yes, you can have your farm.

Suddenly it is all sinking in that we can do this and it is amazing.  My husband and I walked around hardware stores and farming stores today just looking at all the stuff we'll need soon.  It felt wonderful. 

Looking at floor and paint samples.  The prices of tools and what we'll really need as apposed to what…

Wild Wanderings Blog – April 26, 2012

Hello everyone! It’s been an incredibly wet week down here in the Smoky Mountains and throughout much of the East in general. The plants, wild and domestic are going crazy. We’re easily three weeks ahead of schedule with most plants. I’m not much of a grass cutter, but I’ve been forced to succumb and have officially fired up the weed-whacker. I eat my share of weeds, but even I can’t keep up with them without the fear of getting…

The Practical Prepper

You may have noticed that there have recently been more stories about Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) in the news lately. In some ways, they present a threat similar to an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). A main difference is that EMPs are manmade, whereas CMEs are a natural phenomenon and can occur at any time.…

I had to take a drive the other day which took me through many small towns, suburbs and then into the city.  It was a perfect spring day!  Temps were about 70's degrees and the sun was shining.  I was so happy to see everyone's flower beds blooming and tall grass had been cut.  It was the exact definition of spring.  Except, I was struck by the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon and there were no children outside.  

Where have all of the children gone?  When I was a child it would…

The Aspiring Farmer Blog

Dogs, after escaping, decide on a little nap near the well-house.

Before we got our LGDs we…

My first real post!

It is a beautiful and sunny day today, up in the 70s! Happy Earthday!

This was a great week in the garden. Lot's of clean-up got done, worked on my long-term homestead design, and did some more planting!

My Alma Paprika and Wenk's Yellow Hot Peppers are germinating well, but my Jimmy Nardello's are not. It's a good thing I planted additional seeds in each pot -I'll need them!…

This week's hour long podcast is now live. You can listen/subscribe directly here, or at itunes here. If you prefer to just hear this week's episode click here to listen right here, right now.…

Wild Wanderings Blog – April 19, 2012

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week enjoying this beautiful Spring! Wild plants are still popping up everywhere here in the mountains. I found Solomon’s seal and Jack in the pulpit the other day. Blue cohosh is emerging as well as numerous other rich cove plants. The Smoky Mountains are truly a botanists dream!

Last week I finished up with the amazing cattail plant. It’s a wonderful plant with many uses…

I had come to accept my current situation.  That buying a house was pricy, especially when you want acreage.  That a balcony garden was all I'd have for a year.  But one day, we would have our own bit of own land to garden, have goats and chickens.  Well the universe saw things differently.

While not seriously looking, my husband and I still check the housing market on that 'in case' moment.  The 'in case' has just put us into contract on 21 acres with a nice, and livable,…

The Practical Prepper

A big part of preparedness planning involves managing and maintaining a food supply. In fact, we talked a little about food storage as an early step in prepping just a couple of months ago. Of course, food storage is only part of the…

This week's hour long podcast is now live. You can listen/subscribe directly here, or at itunes here. If you prefer to just hear this week's episode click here to listen right here, right now.…

           What is a free-range egg from a "pastured hen" and why should you switch from conventional, store-bought eggs to the kind your great-grandmother used to collect in her backyard? For oh so many reasons, but primarily because they are better for your health, produced in a more humane way, and their production helps rather than hurts the environment.

There's just no other month like April!  The grass is green and everything is starting to bloom.  It's the time of year that I get busy picking plants for medicine.  I have been called a squirrel when people hear about me walking in the woods every day with my clippers and bags saying I'm going foraging! I come back with bags and pockets full and lots of leaves pressed into my field guides of things I want to look up.  Each plant has it's ideal time for harvesting depending on what part of…

The Aspiring Farmer Blog

Like everyone else that works a M-F job, I always look forward to the weekends. Back in the city it was a time to hangout with friends, go out to eat, get some beers and genuinely relax. I volunteered for a few charities and by most standards led a productive life. For some reason that drove me crazy. I felt extremely unproductive. The weekends were fun, in a way, but they weren't a good way to make up for a…

(3/3 catch-up post)

April 9th - lettuce just starting to peak through, 1 pea too!

April 11th - more peas!

April 12th - transplanted some raspberries

April 13th - planted 2nd group of peas and filled in a few gaps from first group of peas; divided and transplanted an old inherited rhubarb plant; planted cosmos in front flower bed; transplanted more strawberries.

April 14th - Planted broccoli and cauliflower inside in…