Old man winter is knocking at the door. Though I do not welcome him in, he imposes his presence anyhow with 2-3 inches of snow covering the ground this morning. Keeping the outdoor boiler chucked full of wood to heat the house. We hauled in a load of wood…

I filled in for Amy Saturday at the Abingdon Farmers Market. There was a line waiting when the market opened which only seemed to grow throughout the two hour span of the market. My apologies to those who patiently waited. Amy runs a tighter ship and is far more efficient at managing the market than I am. She’ll be back this Saturday. As overwhelming as the market was, I was far more overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude. Flashing back to several years ago…

Our egg laying hens are now producing more regularly. We’ve been collecting about 3 dozen a day. Two new baby calves arrived this week. Keeping the pigs fed and content. The pigs in the woods continue to prefer foraging from mother nature’s table…

Another beautiful week. I filled in for Amy at the Abingdon Farmers Market on Saturday while she was away taking a much needed and much deserved girls’ weekend away with some of her friends from college. Though out of my element, I really enjoyed the market. Meeting new folks and seeing faces I hadn’t seen in a while.

Quite possibly the most beautiful week of the year. Peak color in the mountain leaves. Crisp cool mornings warming into the 70’s throughout the day. Good living…

Multiple mornings of scrapping ice of the windshields. I guess it’s that time of year. Cool enough to get the outdoor wood stove fired up. We’ll be burning wood for the next 6-7 months. A little cutting and hauling firewood this week but…

No more meat birds. We emptied out the remaining chicken shelters for harvest early in the week. It feels good to complete the season. Only one shelter with growing egg layers left in the field to be moved daily. My chicken load is now much lighter. I tell myself that I’ll now have more time to focus on other parts of the farm, but daylight hours are disappearing

Helene was worse than we thought. Friday was a rough day. Not as rough for us as for many others. After making the rounds and nearly getting blown away Friday morning, I came back to the house content to hunker down and wait out the storm until the afternoon. My sweet wife, noticing trees falling down across the road both above and below the house, encouraged me to go out with the chainsaw...

First off, thanks again for you all’s continued trust and support of our farm. Amy stays on the go all the time. She’s a full-time mom, teacher, farmer, and everything else. She made multiple meat deliveries this week in addition to the Abingdon Farmers Market every Saturday. She always comes home exhausted, but she always comes home telling me the same thing. “We have the best customers,” ...

Chickens are not the most intelligent or durable birds in the world. I suppose that’s why we don’t see chickens running loose in the wild. They wouldn’t last long. Chickens raised right are good eating, but unfortunately we’re not the only ones that have acquired an appetite for our pasture raised birds...

We could use some rain. The water source for our whole farm is a developed spring back in the mountain. It’s slowing down. Other springs in the area have dried up. Makes me nervous...

Last week we emptied out the last of the meat birds from the chicken shelters. With chicks in the brooder ready to take their place in the field, we decided to leave them in the brooder a few more days in order to squeeze in a little vacation. With cows, pigs, and chickens to look after, there’s never an easy time to get away. But with...

Amy here this week. Has this summer been a whirlwind for anyone else? I feel like time moves so quickly and I just can’t keep up. We were back to summer weather and I’m soaking up all the sunshine I can...

It’s cooling down especially at night. I’m sure we have plenty of hot days left, but a hint of fall is in the air. Amy and the kids delivered meat to Knoxville families on Monday and came back to the valley Tuesday morning. 

We emptied out 4 more chicken shelters Tuesday evening for processing on Wednesday. Down to moving only 6 shelters through the field everyday now. Wednesday was the lightest processing crew we’ve had in a couple years, but...

Farming keeps us busy. Taking care of the animals and the land is a never ending job. We figured out several years ago, when we began selling our meats locally, that it takes about as much time and work on the retail and distribution side of the business as it does on the actual farm work itself. I could work full time just taking care of the farm. I could also work full time on the distribution side of the farm. It’s often hard to prioritize my time and figure out...

Our last batch of almost 1000 chicks arrived to the farm and got settled in the brooder this week. No chicken killing this week. We’ve harvested birds every week in July and most weeks in June. Instead of processing chickens, we spent that time sorting chicken inventory in the freezers. With only 3 or 4 harvest dates left

It’s Rich Valley Fair week. I remember as a kid circling fair week on the calendar and looking forward to it all year. The kids have been as excited about the fair as I was growing up. It’s been a good change to our summer rhythm…

Thankful for more rain. Twice this week we moved the chicken shelters during a rain shower. It felt good. Even the kids enjoyed it. It was nice to get the mower back out and see the grass coming back to life…

Let it rain, let it rain. Grateful for a couple more showers this week. Hopefully more to come in the days ahead. It was a busy week but nothing out of the ordinary. We put another couple hundred chickens in the freezers. Can’t say enough good things about the friends and family that come out to help on chicken processing days. They are a pleasure to work with…

Not much resting on Sunday. Amy helped move chickens before church. Afterwards we rounded up a herd of over 50 cows into the barn to sort out the biggest ones for this week’s trips to the processor. Getting cows into the barn requires moving them across the road which is always a little nerve racking…