“It’s been awhile, Jen! Where ya been!?” Good question, All Who Ask! A good question indeed! After our sudden displacement from Montana (perhaps a good, long story for a podcast someday?), the Farm resided in Washington State for a bit (definitely worth a second season to afore mentioned podcast…!). Here in WA, my life, and the future of Desert Rose, started to take shape in a whole new way. A spectacular excursion to Norway in…
Category: Life & Perspective
My goal with sharing Life & Perspective posts is to do more than just tell stories. While surely there are some stories about life events, I also hope to share perspective, insight, thoughts, and observations about our journey through the world.
“Big Adventures in 2022”
Summer 2021 brought a radical and unexpected life change, leading me from remote reaches of Montana to the wet and warm West coast of Washington. Through many tribulations, the farm persisted and prevailed, and life continued much as usual. This winter concluded with the year’s trajectory looking quite predictable; goats, gardening, and foraging. A full plate of the familiar. I was a hair’s breadth from embarking on my falconry apprenticeship (a dream and goal 19…
“Today, Life is Good”
Yet another sunny, warm, perfect day idled by today. As I have been prone to doing lately, I took the goats on a pastoral hike in the cedar grove this morning. The boys wore their saddles and packs. The girls wore their ever-growing pregnant bellies. We meandered in a new direction today. I brought the saddle bags along in anticipation of a good foraging trip. If nothing else, I would fill the pack with swathes…
“Musings about Lichen”
It’s January, the sun is shining, the grass is green and growing, and the air is warm and still. Though I miss the snow of Montana, the sight of my goats browsing the meadow’s treeline fills the void nicely. Rüma and Tisl are now less than 60 days from kidding. The fresh forest browse is excellent for their health. I’m beginning to see kid bulges on their petite frames. I tame my excitement for kids…
“A Farm Update – New Beginnings”
Hello, friends. It’s been awhile since I made a blog post! While the reasons are many, and I may discuss them in depth as time progresses, I have moved my farm. Again. It’s been a difficult transition (moving a farm is never easy under the best of circumstances!), but with a new normality on the horizon, I am opening my shop back up. Folks can expect some new lower prices, but unfortunately I will not…
“A Post About Today, June 15th 2021”
With sunshine and warm weather abound now, it’s hard to find time and motivation to sit at the computer and write! As the wild world finally bursts forth with green, our first round of leafy greens in the greenhouses are already going to seed. So thinning the greens beds, drying greens, and replanting are high on the priority list. Now that the threat of frost has (theoretically) passed, i’s also time to plant squash and…
“A Post About Today: May 5th, 2021”
The thawing pond resembles a tiny glacial lake. It’s May now, and the days and nights are growing ever warmer. Sure, we’ll likely get a few more inches of snow before summer hits, but it won’t stick around for long! The roads are thawing and drying out. With such a rapid melt right now, water mitigation on the roads is vital to avoiding mushy, gooey roads and erosion. So every 2 or 3 days trenches…
“A Post About Today: April 16th, 2021”
It’s been a quiet and productive spring thus far. 2 of the 4 greenhouses are fully seeded/planted for the year. The upper greenhouse is about 1/3 planted, and only limited to that because we’ve only managed to create grow beds in 1/3 of the whole structure! Little sprouts are cropping everywhere. The currants are flowering, and the new kiwis are just putting out leaves. In another month or 2, the greenhouses will be stuffed full…
“A Post About Today: February 23rd, 2021”
The upper greenhouse just before the big melt and shed. Here Andy is movings some snow around below it whilst I standby listening for any indication that the snow may break loose and come down. With daytime high’s in the upper 30’s and 40’s, brisk winds, and bright sunshine, it’s hard to deny spring is here. Yesterday the upper greenhouse was 51º! Our 20 inches of fluffy white powder has melted into a semi-crusty…
“A Post About Today: February 6th, 2021”
I’m going to make my first attempt at adding some fun photos to the blog post. Does that make it a… plog?! :B Edit/update: since it seems to have worked and looks nice, I’ll work on adding photos to more of my previous posts. We recently got about 12″ of snow, and there’s still plenty more on the forecast. At last, the snow has come! We’ve hardly had 3 feet of cumulative snow up…
“The New Website”
If you’re reading this, Hello! Welcome to the fancy new website! Are you enjoying the shiny new blog feature? I hope so. I’m still trying to figure out what a blog is, so bear with me… This is my formal acknowledgement of the changes. I did it! I finally did it. I surrendered to the almighty website building technology! I must admit, the last time I tried to use a website builder was probably…
“Counting the 2020 Harvest”
There’s something very magical about producing your own food. I’m not the best at keeping records, but I do try. So here’s a peek at what we managed to produce in the 2020 season. Granted, the ‘season’ is not yet over. We’re still contending with foodstuffs grown last year. Our food and farming season will not begin anew until the spring! Canned Fruits: 79 gallons of apple, pear, huckleberry, aronia berry, and elderberry syrups, juices,…
“How Herbal Healing Became and Interest”
People: “How did you get into herbal medicine?” Me: “I cut my achilles tendon open.” Yeah, it was horrible. I hate that it happened. But it did. I should say, actually, “someone’s bicycle cut my achilles tendon open.”… So I had this cut into the back of my foot, parallel with the bottom of my foot, making a 1” flap of my heel, cut straight through, that could open up like a mouth. I was…
