I work in a big office environment, where people tap away feverishly at keyboards for 8.5 hrs a day. It’s not quite an information services company, but IT impacts everything we do, and there’s not a single department in our building that doesn’t have a wishlist full of menial, tiresome tasks that could beContinue reading “Automation comes to Bellfern Homestead”
Tag Archives: scythe
Making Hay by Hand: Year 2
With a favorable forecast, a three day weekend, and hip-high grass in the pasture, it was time to make some hay. I got home from an 11 hour workday Thursday and busied myself peening the 85cm (33″+) scythe blade I’ve dubbed the haymaker. Peening is the process of hitting the very edge between a hammerContinue reading “Making Hay by Hand: Year 2”
Shoulder Season Hog Keeping
Back in the day, pigs used to be let loose in the nearby woods to forage and fend for themselves all year, then harvested in the fall/winter. They were referred to as “mortgage lifters” due to the low input to high output qualities. Our woods are far away and there’s a creek in there withContinue reading “Shoulder Season Hog Keeping”
Making Hay the Old Fashioned Way; A Scythe
By the time we got to so much as walk our pasture this year after moving in, the grass was knee high. A couple months later it had finished seeding out and begun to flop over in places susceptible to winds. Every now and then one of us would march out the weed-eater to keep the hot-wired fenceContinue reading “Making Hay the Old Fashioned Way; A Scythe”
The simplest solution is the best solution
There are numerous ways to solve almost any challenge, but the simplest approach involving the fewest steps and the least energy, materials, and time is always the most effective, long-term, viable solution. -Ben Falk, The Resilient Farm and Homestead Our neighbors invited us over for dinner last weekend, where we enjoyed a feast of theContinue reading “The simplest solution is the best solution”
Bellfern Homestead 