A tale of five farms....plus one.

In the last couple years we have been touring farms, reading about farms, produce, and livestock. We stepped up the study when we finally put our home on the market in September and suddenly, graciously, we received invitations to several farms. I meant to write about these visits when they happened, but alas.....

The first one, the home and garden of fellow unschooler Meg and her family. 3 acres right outside of town, nestled between neighbors, but far enough out to feel like a secret world. We tagged and let loose monarchs, roasted marshmallows, and picked white peaches by moonrise light. It was magical. I loved talking breastfeeding, unschooling, and history with Meg and her family. Her kiddos are older than Lil'Bug but they were all fast friends. What I came away with is that I aspire to be Meg. Her garden was overflowing and messy, her kids happy and curious, and she could count the stars if she wished.

The next farm we visited was 10 acres to the West of town. Close to a major road, lots of wide open space, a tree stand at the back. Lots of lawn, lots of wind. Their garden was overflowing as well. We shared a meal and talked gardening. Good time. What I came away with there was that the home is just as important and how your family lives inside and out must be comfortable and work for us. They built their own home and it is beautiful. We also got a feel for what our 10 acre minimum actually played out. We decided on the drive home that to make the farm do what we want, we'd need more than 10 and we wanted a water feature to draw wildlife.

Then we visited Sugar Creek Family farm. Another 10 acre farm, but this one is/was a working CSA. We toured her garden, and chicken set up. Ate amazing food and let Lil'Bug get messy. We went back later to learn how to butcher and pluck chickens. We added to our list of requirements good fencing and more distance from neighbors.

The next farm we visited was a 40 acre horse farm. They had a neglected apple tree to harvest, but also a pond, pasture, timber and nice out buildings. That farm was an hour and 45 minutes away from Des Moines. We adjusted how far we were willing to drive from home to work. Not quite that far. ;) We had a nice visit and tour, met some of the neighbors and our host's family. Picked so many apples!

Last year and this we attended the Farm Crawl. An unschooler from our local yahoo list posted the event and we toured and toured! This year I paid intense attention to the Blue Gate CSA because they farm like we intend to, on a property most like what we wanted, with many of the elements (like bees) that we have our hearts set on, AND our new home is nearby in the same county. This past Saturday we visited with Jill and Shaun again, without the busy chaos of a crowd! It was a delightful time. Lil'Bug harassed their cats a bit though. We are working on that with her, she just gets so excited about animals.

I'd like to add, Blue Gate's eggs.....we scrambled them up for breakfast and Dearest and Lil'Bug thought I had added cheddar cheese to them. I did no such thing. The yokes were orange and the flavour....cheesy! Wow. I can't wait to have fresh eggs of our own.

The plus one? Ours. We close either tomorrow or Thursday? Wahoo!

The Haunted Mansion

Cousin D. took this photo in October. Have I never posted a picture of the outside of our city home? Huh. Well, here it is!


This is what we woke up to this morning. Lovely, wet, slippery, sticky snow. It will be gone by Tuesday. Such is life in Iowa!

More of Our Week in Photos

Lil'Bug's first ceramic at art class. She was defiant and set on painting the owls feathers blue even though the project was supposed to use 7 different colors of brown for the feathers and belly. It was her first testing of the teacher, my guess. The teacher just smiled and complimented her creative color choice! Score. She's a keeper, someone who understands kids, and nurtures my kids creativity.

Thank you EC for stating somewhere on your photography site that better pictures of children could easily be had by setting the focus on their eyes. It just keeps on getting better! What you can't see in this photo is that her hair sticks about 6 inches straight up. I keep thinking that the longer it grows, the more likely it will get heavy enough to lay down. Nope. So we put a token bow in the upshoot and claim intention. Ha.

Aunt Deedle with Blueberry. We had such a good time with her. I wish she'd come more often.

The bread I made. We ate it with bean soup today. Not worth 24 hours worth of work. This week I am testing a 3 hour bread.

More Catching Up With Photos

This was our Halloween ensemble a la Lil'Bug. She wanted to be a spider. Then she wanted me to be the web and Blueberry to be the egg sack hanging on the web. It worked out pretty well I think. I used a Mei Tei for the egg sack, stretched webbing over a hula hoop and purchased a spider outfit for the tot.

We went roller skating soon after her birthday. She was not a fan, but had a pretty good time with friends anyway.

We've been building. Lil'Bug asked me to include this picture in the blog. She's just become aware of the blog and is excited, curious, and wants to participate in content. Cool.