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homesteading Archives - The Year of Mud

Jan 01
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Looking Back on 2021

By Food for thought, Homesteading, South Slope Farm

Well, here we are again. Another year (of mud, timber, gardening, challenging weather, the pandemic, parenting, life on earth) for the books. In many ways, 2021 was a continuation of 2020. So many ups and downs. So many glimmers of both hope and despair. We all need a collective pat on the back, unironically. It’s impossible to pretend that things are “normal”. It’s hard to know what to say after a while without repeating myself. And so this annual recap exercise takes on some new meaning.

Beyond the pandemic and the continuing torrent of challenges, there’s a host of things to remember and celebrate. I can fall prey to pessimism pretty easily these days, so this is good practice for me. Life is indeed full, and here’s a glimpse of some things worth remembering in 2021.

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Oct 04
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Homesteading Rules and Realities Part 2

By Natural Building Workshops, Homesteading, South Slope Farm

South Slope Farm rainbow

The number one rule of trying to maintain a homestead seems to be this: there’s always something else you could be doing. Even when there’s a lull, really, it’s just relative to the busier times… because it’s not that there’s nothing to do, it’s just that stuff won’t fall to bits if it doesn’t happen this second. Thankfully, April and I are getting better at not taking on too much at once, and having a toddler has certainly been helping us to hone that skill. We joke that we operate at 40% capacity with Hazel in tow. Well, it’s actually not a joke as much as it is the truth. Naturally, priorities are different now.

Where am I going with this? Well, in our second year on this land, the deeper realities of being a landowner/land steward/enter your preferred term here is definitely settling in. It’s a pendulum really. One moment I feel like there’s no way we can keep things up, and then the joy of even the smallest bit of progress washes my fears away… only to be repeated again and again.

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Aug 30
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Sustainable or Resilient?

By Homesteading, South Slope Farm

Sustainably or resilient?This is just a bit of a thought experiment. I’ve been pondering the differences between the words “sustainable” and “resilient” lately, and if either of them apply to how we’re trying to live. I used to throw around the word “sustainable” a lot more than I do now, and I’d like to try to explain why I feel more cautious these days.

In textbook terms, sustainability means “the ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely” (source). The key word here is “indefinitely”, which is defined as “lasting for an unknown or unstated length of time”. A synonym for indefinite is infinite. Practically speaking, what’s implied here is that if something is defined as sustainable, it means that it can be continued forever into the future.

Well, that’s a pretty heavy statement, huh? Going by this definition then, the phrases “more sustainably” or “less sustainably” don’t exactly make sense — there is only “sustainably”, since how can you do something “more infinitely” or “less infinitely”?

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Aug 04
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We are South Slope Farm

By Homesteading, South Slope Farm
South Slope Farm

We finally have a name for ourselves…

After many months of head scratching and deliberating, our little piece of hillside in the Kentucky foothills finally has a name: South Slope Farm. Not only that, we’re now incorporated, too. My dream of becoming a corporation is finally coming to fruition… now, isn’t that strange to say?

Actually, South Slope Farm is not just the name of our homestead, but our small egalitarian community in the making. This is more than just a place to hunker down and grow food and plant trees and build cool stuff. April, Jacob, and I have been actively planning to cultivate a small intentional community for a couple of years now, and getting incorporated is just one of the steps towards that goal.

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Jul 23
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Homesteading Realities

By Homesteading
tomatoes in the garden

Gardens + mountains in July

It is definitely high summer. The thermometer, garden, and lack of time to complete chores is a testament to this. Have you noticed this is my first update in a while? Well, needless to say, there’s been a lot going on.

This is our first summer at the new homestead. Which, by the way, we finally have a name for. In fact, getting our articles of incorporation and other paperwork in order has been another item we’ve been getting in order. I’ll save the announcement of our new farm name for the next post — that way you have something to look forward to, eh?

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May 07
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Spring Fever

By Homesteading
South Slope Homestead

Spring at the homestead… glorious morning hours.

Spring fever has struck. Workshop planning, income work, scything the grass, baby raising, gardening, figuring out 501d non-profit organization process, getting our woodworking shop set up once and for all… the list goes on. I’ve barely had time to touch the computer the last week. It’s important once in a while to step back and take the long view — like this one, from halfway up our property. This is the reason we do the things we do, including driving ourselves half-mad on occasion!

 

Mar 14
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Photos from Around the Homestead

By Photos, Homesteading

I take a lot of photos, and living at the new homestead provides even more opportunity to do so. I try not to flood this blog with too much non-natural building related stuff, as it can easily become a bit unfocused.

However, you can still get a little insight into our lives here in Kentucky — check out our new instagram feed to see more photos from around the homestead. Expect a lot of gardening, woodworking, mushroom and wild food, craft, and other current projects there. Be sure to connect with us to get regular updates!

[instagram-feed]

 

Mar 02
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The Season of Transition

By Homesteading

Changes are coming our way. April’s official due date is mere days away, the weather seems to be warming, and our focus on projects is (finally) slowly shifting away from remodeling stuff into other realms of life. Onion seedlings are sprouting away in the south window, and the garden is getting expanded and doused with manure bit by bit in preparation for a serious food growing year.

I’ve been up in the woods gathering firewood for next winter, and cutting logs for inoculating shiitake and golden oyster mushrooms this week. We’ve had a bunch of new woodworking tools show up from a grant we received last year, and the garage is slowly becoming filled with our collection of new equipment. The grass is barely but visibly growing. There is, in short, a lot happening right now.

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Feb 07
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The Light at the End of the Hallway

By Homesteading
Hallway with Shaker Pegs

We’re nearing the end… I think…

Life rule #327: everything always takes much longer than you think. Life rule #328: it’s terribly easy to forget how true rule #327 is every single time. Well, remodeling our house has been no exception. When we first acquired our new land (one of these days I’ll stop saying “new”), it was early summer, but we couldn’t relocate until September.

Once we showed up and moved in, we basically immediately starting remodeling the house, and we’ve been going at it more or less since then with the exception of a few diversions here and there. Yep, I thought we’d be completed much sooner than this. But finally… yes, I can see the light at the end of the hallway and we’re almost “done”. (Rule #2349: your house is never “done”.)

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Sep 30
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Autumn is for Remodeling

By Homesteading
New House in Kentucky

Our new home in Kentucky, very unlike our other homes

Last fall, we traveled back to our former home in Missouri to bring our straw bale & timber frame house to completion. It was six weeks of non-stop work, including finishing the interior clay plaster and exterior lime plaster, wiring the house for electric, loading the living roof with more topsoil to fill in some bare spots, shoring up our custom wood spiral staircase… all for the purposes of making the home more sellable.

This fall, we’re working on something a little bit different. We’re right in the middle of remodeling our new house here in Kentucky, a very different home from the one we had built from the ground up in Missouri. It’s a very conventional stick frame structure, with vinyl siding, an asphalt shingle roof, fiberglass insulation, and very thin walls…

It’s an odd feeling to own such a conventional home after living in my own natural homes for the past seven years. However, we’re taking a lot of time to personalize the space and give it a big boost in the aesthetics and functionality department. Things are shaping up nicely…

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