We are taking care of 40 acres in SW Missouri for our grandkids. The original deed was signed in 1846 and the current house was built in 1906 by the Garret family.
Part of our income comes from raising dairy calves. In return for some outside work at the neighboring dairy we bring home their bull calves as soon as they are born.
It's then up to Susan to make their bottles and baby them till they are big enough to put out on grass where they become my responsibility. That's sorta how it works anyway...
We try to use a rotational grazing system to maximize the use of our small amount of land and keep it healthy at the same time.
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We try to grow a portion of our own food and are growing more in volume and variety every year. We use a sloppy raised bed set-up (no retaining walls) with beds higher/paths lower than the surrounding grade. We have kind of an earthen catchment system that directs rain water from a fairly large area to the garden paths.
The result is the raised beds dry and warm quickly in the spring and during the summer runoff keeps the subsoil moist reducing the need for irrigation.
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 We try to use resources as sparingly as possible – it's the right thing to do plus we've found life is a whole lot more enjoyable when you aren't spending all your time working to pay for things to save you time!
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Of course we could do more in the way of providing our own energy if we had lots of cash to throw around but just plugging up the drafts in the old house sucks up whatever extra egg money we come across! |
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