Blizzard aftermath.. no electricity this morning homesteading skills in effect!

Waking up this morning to no electricity... going to put our homesteading & survival skills to the test today! Getting the morning fire built up in the wood stove is priority #1... using our camping lantern for a bit of light to see by.

Next up... I will hunt down our old campfire coffeepot & brewsome morning coffee on the woodstove.

Feeling sorry for neighbors without woodburning stoves to keep warm... when the electricity goes out, furnaces don't work! Note to self to check in with my parents.

School is cancelled. Using my cell phone to blog as usual, later I hope to take the *real* camera outside for some pictures. Mother Nature's wrath can also be her greatest glory, looking out the farmhouse windows we see a breathtaking, beautiful winter wonderland.

Wood stove is fired up... fall is here to stay.

It's that time of year... wood stove is fired up & keeping the night chill from our farmhouse. Temps are forecast to drop into the 20s for the next few nights. There were a few tomatoes left (we had a frost 2 weeks ago), they were harvested yesterday for this weekend's CSA member shares. This is the last of the heat-loving crops... peppers were snatched yesterday as well. The fall crops are growing... not growing very well because we're still in a "severe" level of drought, but growing steadily. The trees are changing color, the farm is beautiful right now. I for one am glad to put this drought-ridden growing season behind me.

.

Row cover: another reason organic costs are higher

Ever wondered why organic fruits & vegetables cost more? The main reason is increased labor and more costly materials.

One reason shown here in picture. We have a problem in this part od the country with an insect pest called the "flea beetle". It's not really a flea. Anyway, it loves to eat the delicious leaves of brassica crops... think arugula, mustard greens, all the asian greens, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. On a conventional vegetable farm, a low-cost insecticide chemical would be sprayed, taking a few minutes, and that would be it. On an organic farm, we use no chemicals. Instead, we fight flea beetle attacks by using "floating row cover", which you see pictured. Costly to purchase, and takes a lot of time & labor to lay it over the beds.

Pictured is just one of many beds being covered now at Wishful Acres Farm.

www.WishfulAcresFarm.com

.

Logger

Sustainable heat :-)

Wood stove focal point

The wood stove was installed last fall here at our farmhouse. Since then it has been the focal point of our house. I wake up before the rest of the house, get ready, and have the fire going by the time everyone else is awake. The kids get dressed in front of the stove, lounge around it, do homework here, and my oldest son (age 8) cooks on top of it almost daily.
I would say this was our best purchase in rehabbing the farmhouse. We love it!
My husband's Christmas gift from us and my parents was a log splitter. He loves it, and now we're able to process our own firewood.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.