I used it for transplants this year. Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and squash. I plan on expanding it next year and plant seeds in it to. I’m not sure how I’m going to plant them. Everything that was planted by seed this year went in a plain old tilled soil garden.

Our primary focus is the dairy aspect of our homestead. We milk five cows now with a total of 14 head roaming around on less than seven acres. It is way toooo crowded. I am yearing for pasture for our cows. We could improve on using what we have around that is not fenced off for cows in gardening. We also have a hen house and free range chickens. The children are putting together a chicken tractor so they can raise pastured poultry. The cow lot is so eaten down we can’t run them behind the cows with much grass at all. We are going to run them on the property for now that is not fenced off for cows. If it goes well, they are talking of leasing 20 acres from our neighbor who has his cows on the pasture. I would love to lease some for our cows, but I don’t want to compete for space with his cows. It isn’t right for him. We are praying for some solution for our girls. Right now the big competitive edge is to have grass based dairy here. We don’t have that we bring in good quality hay for them right now.

Milkmaid - You can do quite a bit with 7 acres! There is a family in Pasedena, CA that grows 6000 lbs of fruit and vegetables a year in a suburban lot, along with raising ducks and chickens, and a lot more. Sometimes, less is more.

Jeff Schmidt

Milkmaid, I really enjoy y’alls blog too. Everyone needs encouragement, you’re no further behind than most of the rest of us, and further ahead of more than you probably realize.

We started milking with a couple of cows and an old 9 stall barn. The Lord lead through some mighty strange places and ordeals before we got to where we are now. Everything will work out, just wait and see. There are a lot of people that REALLY love your blog. You write some great stuff over there, keep it up. And Leah says Hi.

Matt

Look forward to meeting your friend! Before I go I’ll post a family photo so folks can spot me. Can’t wait to meet some of these guys. After Polyface we’re driving down to Bristol and we are going to finaly meet Rick from DHP in person.

GREAT article! It is very encouraging. Sorry to hear about the dog and congrats on the calf. That must be exciting.

A friend of mine will be at Polyface at the end of the week. I gave him your email in the hopes y’all (that’s suthun for you all) could meet. I figure there’ll be a lot of people, but just in case. He is like a kid in a candy store with anticipation! All on top of news that his wife is having twins! This will be their 7th and 8th blessings in one.

Milkmaid, I discovered your blog through this one and Farmer Buie last week. Your stories have been a huge blessing to my wife and I. Keep up the hard work. You are an encouragement to people like us who are following the same vision that you and the other agrarian bloggers are making happen. You are sowing seeds that you do not even know about yet, but they are there. You are glorifying your Father in Heaven and blessing others along the way that you may not even know about. Thank you, your husband and your children.