After closing all of our online social accounts earlier this Summer, I guess it was inevitable that the blog would meet the proverbial hatchet next. It has been liberating. We will continue to move forward

After installing our second composting toilet and being a household that enjoys inviting people out to our small farmstead, I decided it was time to have some sort of signage printed out to explain how

In the online world of social media and blogs, it is always easy for the author to put their best side forward, conveniently hiding the, umm, not so pretty side... Well, I won't lie, it has been tough

Carrying a forest home on my bike on my 16 mile commute home from work. :)

Spring has decided to made its debut here in Minnesota! While the frost and a few sun deprived snow piles have yet to give out and the barn water is still frozen underground somewhere, the grass has made

Here is a quick timelapse of our grain bin disassembly. Myself and a group of five other gents took a Saturday to take two of these grain bins down. (The timelapse only captured one disassembly before

If you have ever traveled through the upper midwest (and it is probably true in many other rural parts of the country), then you've probably seen old grain bins scattered across the countryside, many of

It was bound to happen at some point, right? Well, it did. Last week, we experienced our first duck massacre. Not one.. Not two... Not three... ...but four of our female Khaki Campbell ducks, missing or

Over the last few weeks, I keep thinking of that line in Narnia, "always winter and never Christmas." That is sort of how it has felt around here this winter. Last year, our winter was mild and

Sweet syrup season is upon us! We have been tapping trees on our property for 2 years and have worked to gradually improve our processing routine. Here is my earlier post on tapping (although we are now

We (or should I say, Shelly) are milking three Nubian goats. Originally, we had planned on putting together a homemade milker (which we still plan to finish assembling at some point). But, after receiving

When I first started riding bike to work, my reasons for doing so were based on saving money and staying fit. While those are still motivating factors for me to get "in the saddle", they have

....although it is not quite fully functional yet.. Minor details... Had some generous help from a few friends that helped dig it out of the 3 foot snowdrift, pull it to the truck, and transport it!! Don't

This post is a bit personal, but it is close to my heart. Whether you like it or not, finances touch most every aspect of our lives. We have been completely debt-free, house and all, for a couple of years

The wind has calmed down a bit and the snow has tapered off. Now it's time to explore the updated winter landscape! Could this be one of those good-old fashioned winters our elders always talk about? I'll

Most of you may not know that I worked as a paid staff member on ISSAC, an imaging system currently installed in the International Space Station. Some of my work and code (and the work of many others)

After collecting dust for a few years through our transition from last house to current house, we have our solar panels once again producing energy for us! I installed the solar panels on our house roof

-15 deg F this morning and the forecast isn't looking too promising either. Looks like these three chaps get to hang out in the house a bit longer! We aren't really the kind of family that enjoys indoor

It has been an exhausting few days. Last Saturday, Anna, our goat, gave birth to three kids. This evening, Bella gave birth to two! So far it looks like she will be an excellent mother! Anna, not so much...

A county tree order form and gummy bear molds... How could they possibly relate to each other? Hang with me for a minute.. (if you already figured it out, I think we would get along grand!) It is that