Things are happening with WOTD, even though we've experienced some grey days and lots of snow!
Yvonne and Jason welcomed a new baby girl into this world on the 13th of Feb. She had her at home. Another WOTD in training!
Lexi is a WOTD who lives in Ennis, MT. She grows tomatoes. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Jenny's house one day and although I can't tell you a lot about her personally, she did offer up this to all of us!
I have been getting really desperate to garden. I waded through snowdrifts to finish mulching the hoop house, which may have been silly, but it made me feel better. I now have it all mulched for the coming season, which is the earliest I have ever done that.
I am now cleaning and organizing the insulated section. The hoop house is 20’ by 40’ and I have one section inside it approximately 9’ by 16’ that has the north and west walls made of wood and insulation, a top of double insulated glass panels, and the south and east walls are heavy plastic I roll up and down for temperature regulation.
As the insulated section is completely inside the hoop house I do not have to worry about the nearly constant wind blowing it apart or damaging the wee seedlings. I can open up the hoop house in the daytime if it gets too hot in the sun, and raise the plastic walls on the insulated section as needed. It works great.
It has a 4’ by 16’ hot frame in it where I start my seedlings, a bench over that, as well as two 8’ benches I bring inside for holding the plants when they come out of the hot frame. I heat it with a little electric heater from Charley’s Greenhouse.
I am forcing myself to wait until March to start my first tomatoes, due to the ridiculous possibility of below zero weather at any time and the cost of heating.
However, I thought I would share with anyone who is interested some photo tutorials I wrote for my blog, in case it might help someone else wanting a head start on the season. My goal is a ripe tomato before June. Last year I missed by a few days, but maybe this year…
Lexi
Various and assorted WOTD gathered yesterday at Jenny Sabo's in Harrison. It's always a great time and wonderful food. So many meat dishes yesterday and I was thrilled! I needed some protein.
Gathering with other women who have no agenda other than sharing things they know and asking questions about what they'd like to know all under the umbrella of "real" food, better living & health for all is so energizing. Sometimes there are two or three conversations going on at once, depending on how many are there. That's the only frustrating part becasue you're so afraid you might miss something important that someone has just shared. Our conversations are many and varied! Never dull.
Yvonne is hoping to NOT be at the next gathering and if she is there, she's hoping to have a new baby in a carrier and not still in the womb. She was late with both her others and is anticipating the same with this one. She will have a home birth with a midwife.
Jacy and Matt just closed on their property (finally) on Friday. It has been a long haul for them, but they are well on their way to their own little chunk of land. As luck would have it, I found them a barn in the newspaper with living quarters up above. They "only" have to have it moved to their property. We were discussing the hoops that a person has to jump through in this valley in order to buy raw land and establish a farm. It would be more than some people could take and others might just throw in the towel. It has taken almost a year for everything to get state or county approval for them, but they have hung in there and will be seeing their own fields green up sometime after the snow melts this spring!
Cherylin is pondering new ideas. A greenhouse & expanding the garden were two of the things on her mind. She's been burning the candle at both ends by making healthy crackers for sale. She does that when the kids are asleep!
Jenny was the effervescent Jenny. Always wide-eyed and full of information to share as well as gathering any new information to further her expanding knowledge of good living. She orders kelp in from the east coast by the truck load and allows any of us to purchase from her. My sheep, goats and chickens love it and I was able to take home 3 bags for them as well as 3 bags for a friend of Sarah's.
Katherine was pretty quiet. Almost too quiet. I may need to give her a call and see what's up. 
Becky shared some of her health concerns with us which opened up a lot of dialog about doctors and health care now. It was all so enlightening. We all live and learn. We cannot go back, but we can all go forward. With WOTD, we can go forward with much more knowledge and the security that we have each other beside us all the way.
I know there were others, Mona, Paula, Rebecca. They are the 3 quiet ones. You can tell they are drinking it all in. If I have forgotten anyone, I am sorry. I'll write about you next time.
What's new here with me? Not a lot. I've got a Nubian buck out there with my girls, so I will have baby goats in June. Chris bought a boar to breed the 2 Hereford cross gilts he kept last fall. We are hoping one is bred and that he will breed the other one soon. Baby pigs will be a first here and it's very exciting.
I have given up on finding someone to take over the garden or even part of it. I just figured if it was meant to be it would happen and it just hasn't happened, so I guess it will be put back into alfalfa for rotational pig/sheep pasture. I am ok with that, but I will miss the life that was there the past 5 years immensely. I am hoping to have a small garden plot myself. We will see what comes.
LaVonne
Where does the time go? It's was May when I last posted here and as with the seasons, things change!
Just a little WOTD upadte.
Peggy has moved on to presumably greener pastures in OK. That is up for debate, in more ways than one.
Susie has fallen off the face of the earth with marital problems.
On a lighter note, Yvonne & Jason are expecting child # 3, although it was a surprise! Living on a farm I thought they might have figured out by now how that happens! 
Jacy and her husband Matt are finishing up their last season here at our place. Since I've not written about them or myself, it probably means nothing to all of you. They have been good stewards of 5 acres here for 5 years now. They have found property of their own and will be moving to it sometime this fall. The process has begun (mostly just dialog) as to what to do with the land and who to have on it after they leave. I guess I've got some blogging to do to catch everyone up!
LaVonne
Yvonne lives on about 2 acres of her husband's family farm. They are well known potato growers here in the valley. His name is Jason and together they have two young sons. Jason and Yvonne utilize one acre of that land to grow organic potatoes, which she sells locally. Primarily the family farm raises potatoes and wheat.
Yvonne explains why they have chosen this life style. - A few years ago my husband's health (colitis) forced us to start looking at different ways to eat. The medical doctors had given up on us and nothing they did helped at all. That's when we realized that what we put in our bodies makes a difference in how we feel. After starting to eat better we realized that we better grow our food better also. What we put on our plants is what we put into our bodies.
Becky lives on 160 acres North of Bozeman with her husband, Dave. They raise sheep and cattle on their land to utilize the lush grass on their farm. Along with that they have a few bee hives as well as guard dogs and llamas. Her Border Collie is a constant companion and is Becky's favorite farm animal. We can't forget her farm cat too!
In addition to all of the above, Becky has turned her antique barn into a wool washing and processing shop. You can have your fiber washed, carded, made into quilt batts or roving or even spun into yarn right in her barn! There's a link to Becky's mill on the left. They sell and ship lamb, yarn, blankets, hats, handspinners fleeces, roving, batts. Becky and Dave have installed solar panels on the South side of the barn. They are used to heat the water for washing the wool. A tour of the barn is fascinating, to say the least. I love having a wool mill just 7 miles from my home!
Becky is living this lifestyle because, in her words, "I’m a little bit crazy, and because I want to know if small-scale agriculture can work, and because I’m only at home outdoors." She isn't passionate about just one thing on the farm, but several. "It's the puzzle of trying to fit the pieces together in a way that allows small-scale grass-farming connected to small-scale industry (wool processing) to survive without wrecking the neighborhood that’s interesting, she states. The world’s best meat and fiber and wildlife grow from grass, just grass, but we’ve spent the last half century eliminating grasslands....something to think about....!" She recommends these books. Why Grassfed is Best, The Unsettling of America & Farming With the Wild.
If you desire to live this kind of life and don't know where to begin, Becky suggests you read a lot and talk to many sources but don’t take anything as gospel;
things have to fit your microclimate, your land, your psyche, your family.
Becky's favorite quote is a Chinese Proverb and sums up what Becky is all about: “The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.”
Check out her website and don't forget to read the news section to learn more about their operation!
I am just sending out this message to my fellow WOTD to see if anyone is paying attention. I know it's fast approaching the busiest time of the year and then you'll have a legit excuse as to why you haven't answered my questionaire. I have several I'd LOVE to write about, but they haven't filled it out yet, so here I am begging them to get off the stick and send me your info! I think they are all pretty fascinating women and worth writing and reading about, If you don't I'll be forced to write about myself and everyone's totally bored with that.
This is a frequently asked question. Who are Women of the Dirt and what do you do? I've contemplated it for a while now and I've come up with this:
WOTD is a 12-step support group, meeting once a month to help reduce our dependence on the large food monopolies. It's for women who want healthier food choices for themselves and their families. Some of us grow enough for ourselves and some of us grow for lots of other people. It's really as simple and basic as having a backyard garden. Others take it a few steps further. We are promoting a disappearing lifestyle, one where we encourage you to know where your food comes from. Do you know your farmer?
I also get asked a lot, "What do you talk about?" It's so difficult to say. We talk about so many different things and depending on the amount of women at a gathering, there could be 6 or 7 different conversations going on. I've very frustrating because you really want to be a part of it all, like a living sponge, absorbing every bit you can.
Several of us have marveled in the fact that each month we come away with so much we've learned. Sarah always says it takes her 2 or 3 days to digest everything. It's true. We find ourselves pondering things for the full month afterwards and eagerly anticipating the next gathering. It's very rejuvenating for me.
LaVonne
I am a Tasha Tudor fan. There are a few other WOTD who are as well. I am always trying to enable others "in the direction of their dreams". I have been called many things and one of them is "enabler". I don't mind. My theory is to jump in a learn by doing. Don't read too much or you'll scare yourself right into not doing it. Have your books on hand for reference when something does go wrong, but above all, don't read the chapters on everything that COULD happen or you'd never try anything. I liken it to jumping in the deep end. Plug your nose and jump!
In that spirit I'd like to share with you one of Tasha Tudor's favorite quotes. She refers to it many times in her books an videos. If you don't know about Tasha, you can visit http://www.cellardoorbooks.com or her family web site http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com.
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau
Spring is arriving here and the birds are chirping. I laid in bed just listening to their chatter. There are times in the summer when the birds will wake us up at 4:00 am because they are so busy discussing their plans of the day. I always wonder what they find so interesting to talk about. Worms, bugs, thistles, who has the best bird bath around?
There's a Proverb that says, "Go to bed with the lamb and rise with the lark." It's lamb time here and our state bird is the Meadowlark. I thought that very fitting. The whole time change thing fits right in as well. This time change always gets the best of me!
One of the things I do in preparation of lambing is to shear my sheep. Not all shepherds do things in that order, but for me I find it much easier to actually see what's going on with the girls when all of that wool is off! It's also much easier for the lambs to find the "bottle" too!
If you'd like to read about my shearing this year, please see my personal blog: http://www.homesteadblogger.com/serenitysheep
LaVonne
With these past few days of sunshine, anticipation is a glorious thing!
One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns
The anticiaption of:
New growth in the garden, baby lambs, newborn calves and fresh, sweet milk, goat kids bounding about, shearing, birds chirping, geese honking, bees buzzing, mud, piglets, spring rain, Sandhill Cranes whooping....................
Go ahead, add some more!
The joy is in the journey.
LaVonne
Susie lives very close to the Headwaters of the
Their calving operation is currently in full swing, with about 50 Angus cows now giving birth. They have their own bulls (2) and a small flock of
Along with that menagerie come 7 horses, a miniature mule (actually a hinny) and a very talkative parrot. Of all of the animals, Susie’s Morgan horses are her favorite, especially her stallion, Isaiah. She’s had him for 15 years, since he was a foal. He is the love of her life.
Susie loves this lifestyle and is grateful for the sacrifices her parents made to give their own children a rural existence with livestock, hunting, gardening and horses. “I want that for my own children and it is a way of life I have always loved. Raising livestock, growing and canning my own food and hunting for big game has been a fulfilling and rewarding lifestyle for me”, she says.
Susie’s present focus on the farm is working on improving inputs to yield higher nutritional values in the end products. She states, “To me, one of the fabulous benefits of growing your own livestock is the ability to create strategies to enhance the nutritional quality of feedstuffs to generate meat, milk, and eggs that are healthier and higher in protein and in the beneficial fats such as OMEGA-3 fatty acids. (To That end, I am currently attempting to convince my husband to take a leap of faith in planting camelina).
My other passion is to enjoy each day that God gives me the privilege to spend on this beautiful piece of ground, watching the osprey bringing fish back to their nest each summer, the Sandhill cranes heralding spring in our pasture with their unique mating dances, photographing the antelope and bald eagles that live out my back door and hunting our Mulies and Whitetails. Unfortunately, my husband and his parents do not share my connection to the land. They see big dollar signs by chopping this ranch up into a riverfront subdivision. They had a few developers look at the property this past year. To me it would be a permanent tragedy to carve up this beautiful little wildlife haven with fertile ground and ancient water rights to generate more houses and cul-de-sacs. I have watched so many beautiful parcels in this valley go that way over the past 27 years and I dread the thought of it happening to my own home.”
Since Susie is a self-confessed bookaholic, it’s difficult for her to narrow it down, but her most indispensable volumes are The Holy Bible and The Merck Veterinary Manual.
Susie’s advice for anyone pursuing a homesteading lifestyle is to always research the answers to your questions. Don’t rely on one book, one philosophy, one person’s answer, or one Internet source. There’s so much anecdotal misinformation out there. She considers it vitally important to do your homework!
In closing, Susie has this to say about WOTD. “I love the Women of the Dirt! I have immensely enjoyed the opportunity to network with bright and capable women who have interests common to mine. I realized years ago that it was invaluable to listen to people who had pursued endeavors that interested me, and learn from them rather than re-inventing the wheel on my own. Conversely, it taught me to investigate the facts before accepting all advice at face value. I know that my politics and beliefs do not necessarily square with many of the women in our group, but fortunately they have not been about everyone being “politically correct”. This is an admirable group of women who support each other’s aspirations, offer their expertise and skills, advise each other, share each others burdens, encourage each other and enjoy intelligent debate on topics relevant to the objectives of the group. I consider myself so lucky to be a part of it!”
This comes from Kathryn:
BE THANKFUL
By Author Unknown
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes. They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary,
because it means you've made a difference.
It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who
are also thankful for the setbacks.
Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.
There’s a Ralph Waldo Emerson Quote that completely embodies Jenny Sabo. “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” That is Jenny in a nut shell. She is so enthusiastic and passionate about what she does and how’s she’s living that she just wants to share with the whole world! If you read the previous post by Cherilyn, you will read about Jenny sharing that enthusiasm with her Dirt Days. When you visit with Jenny, you can see those gears turning in her head, thinking of new ideas and pondering each word. If someone else is talking, Jenny is listening with wide eyes and she reminds me of the girl in school who can’t wait to answer, arm waving in the air, “Ew – ew – ew”! You can just see the enthusiasm about to spring forth, wound up like a 10¢ top. She spreads her enthusiasm among the WOTD like her sweet cream butter on a piece of toast. We all enjoy every little drop!
Jenny lives just outside
Jenny hasn’t always been a country girl. Up until 10 years ago, she admits she’d never grown as much as a carrot. She has chosen this lifestyle because she believes in independence from the corporate system and also for the pure joy of sharing this way of life and good health with her children and the community. Jenny’s mantra has been, “All health and illness is directly related to what we put in our mouths and absorb through our skin.” She encourages anyone who is interested in springing loose from mainstream food production to read Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman, You Can Farm by Joel Salatin and Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. There are others, but those are among the top books she recommends. Other advice Jenny gives is, “Start small and go for it! Don’t hesitate because you don’t know yet what you will learn.”
Jenny doesn't have email (we're working on that) but she can be reached at 406-685-3248 and will eagerly answer any questions you might have.
In closing I would like to share three of Jenny’s favorite quotes.
“You can destroy your now by worrying about tomorrow.” Janice Joplin
“The secret to happiness is not in getting more but in wanting less.” Elaine St. James
“For if there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.”
Albert Camus
Ruminate on those a bit!
Dirt Days is the brainchild of Jenny Sabo. She's actually the one who came up with the WOTD idea too. If an off-shoot, sprout if you will, from a group her Mother belongs to in Maine called "Ladies of the Dirt". Anyway, Cherilyn attended one of the Dirt Days held at Jenny's home and here is her report!
Three women of the dirt + 1 small pickup = a lot of laughs! Long story short, we went on a goat run! Sarah's herd just increased by 1 goat.
LaVonne
Yes! Sarah, Sally, Honey, whatever, she says! She's been called worse! Sarah is her birth name, Sally is what she has been called forever and SHE calls everyone Honey, so we have all dubbed her Sarah Sally Honey!
Sarah lives on 40 acres just outside of Toston, MT on land that is just 20 minutes from the land her grandparents (on both sides) homesteaded. She and her husband, Dennis, have been in their beautiful home for 11 years now. They took great pains and about 2 years to make sure the house was located on just the right spot on the land. Their gorgeous sunroom faces the South and in the winter the sun adds a lot of warmth to the home. During the summer the hot sun just passes right over the top. Their home was built on virgin soil. Sarah is most passionate about the fact that her land has never been chemically treated. It's exciting for Sarah to know that she's growing food and raising animals on land that has remained the same since the Indians walked on it. She has followed in their very footsteps, finding remnants of their inhabitants close by.
Sarah states that it's virtually impossible to live chemically free. "I swear it's as hard to be organic as it is to be a Christian", she says! It's something you always work at."
On the top of Sarah's "must have" list when they were building their home was a walk-in cellar. It's just awesome and the envy of all who see it. She doesn't even have to leave the comforts of home to go to the cellar! Awesome! The other thing she is most proud of, and rightly so, is the fact that it was their goal to move into the house debt free and they succeeded. Even if that meant living in a camper on the property for several years.
Sarah raises a variety of things on her farm and has raised just about anything you can think of that a farm might have. She currently has 2 milk cows, several milk goats, some calves, a few guineas and several hundred laying hens. She provides the Real Food store in Helena with fresh eggs weekly, and I am talking LOTS of them with 400 hens! Sarah also raises Canaries. She has a bird room that is alive with the sound of canaries. She gets a lot of enjoyment out of them and sells the males as song birds.
Of all the creatures on her place, she loves her milk cows the most. The goats come in a close second, but the cows rank first. It's a pleasure to watch Sarah with her cows. Their relationship is simply awe-inspiring. I never knew of the relationship between a woman and her cow(s) until I met Sarah. Now I get it!
Simply put, Sarah is the matriarch of the bunch. She continues to be an inspiration to us all and when she turned 60, she bought herself a chainsaw as a birthday gift.
Sarah makes goat's milk soap with her goat's milk and has it for sale on her website http://www.organicwaysoap.com. It's also listed in the links section on the left. She has a 3 bar minimum and you'll be happy you bought three bars! It's great stuff. She only uses pure ingredients along with her own goat's milk. Sarah is a stickler for quality and it shows. She also has eggs for sale locally.
If you have a desire to live off the land, Sarah suggests, " You just do it! Use a little elbow grease and take off and do it! Start out little and work up. Find someone who knows about what you want to learn and don't be afraid to ask questions."
Sarah is a true Montana treasure. She's been living this way all her life. She's never known any other way. Up until 15 years ago, Sarah only cooked with a wood stove. She did all of her canning, even in the summer on that same wood stove. She grows what she eats and knows what she eats. Just since the new home has she enjoyed some of the comforts of the 21st century. She's become a kitchen gadget junky and loves anything that will help make the process a little easier. Salad Shooter Sally! Yup, she's got one! I just laughed and said, "Leave it to you to shoot your salad with a gun!"
Sarah has a philosophy that goes like this, "I don't raise anything that costs me money. They all have to pay their own way. If I have extra milk, then I buy a calf or a couple of pigs. Nothing lives here without working for it!" And work they do, she and Dennis both! She also believes that if it can be bought, it can be made. "I like to depend on myself!" This "organic" lifestyle is hard work, but well worth it.
The crops Sarah is most proud of are her children. Her son Kevin lives in Portland and is the creator and owner of a landscaping company, http://www.bigskylandscaping.com. Her daughter lives not far from her and is doing the toughest job on earth, raising children. Sarah feels blessed to have at least two of her grandkids close by. She enjoys them as much as she can and that little Emily is a WOTD in her own right! She planted the entire garden last year with her pregnant momma by her side, and at 6 years old! All in all, Sarah has 7 beautiful grandkids and 1 great granddaughter. Along with her kids, they are her pride and joy.
One book she wouldn't want to live without is Carla Emery's "Encyclopedia of Country Living". It's a comprehensive reference book that she turns to again and again.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact her at organicwaysoap@aol.com, especially if you have questions about how the first homesteaders used to do things. She's got a lot of life-knowledge up there in that head of hers! She should write a book!
Here's a picture of Sarah and her cow, Little Bit. In Sarah's hand is a bull semen catalog. She and Little Bit are picking out a mail order husband!
There are lots of other WOTD to profile and since I need to talk with some of them first, a few days may pass with nothing added here. In those days I may just post a quote to ponder on. If you have a favorite quote to share, please send it along!
Today's quote is from Cherilyn.
"I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my pursuit after Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things." -Gandhi
First of all, for those of you reading this blog who don't know any of us personally, WOTD is a new group. We've only been meeting since Nov. of '04. Most of us didn't even know each other until coming together. It started as a "I know someone who knows someone" type of thing and here we are!
Today I'd like you ALL to meet Peggy. She was actually the first to respond to my email questionnaire. She is currently living on 21 acres with her Saanen Dairy Goats & Haflinger horses. For various reasons, they have had their home for sale and it has sold. She will need to find another place by March 30 and affordable, rural places have become a thing of the past here in
Peggy states, "I have raised Saanen Dairy Goats and practiced Small Animal Farming for 30 years now. As a WOTD, I feel this change in my life is just one of the things that we all face. I think Every woman will face changes, and by talking about it we can all benefit from it. My plans for the future are vague; however you can bet I will stay in the dirt somehow. I will try to keep it clean by still making soap and selling it at the markets. I had hoped to get a beginner goat club off the ground, but that did not happen. Perhaps we can have a goat sub group for WOTD. I have enjoyed the Knitting sub group so much I can hardly wait for the next one.
What I love about WOTD is that it is a get together of women to just talk, sort of a round table without structure. We share ideas, we help each other, we inspire."
I have been married for 40 years to a city raised man, who can not and will not even grow a vegetable. His idea of fixing dinner is ordering a pizza. He is a workaholic, and comes home to watch TV. A marriage made in Heaven. He is never in the way. He also needs me as if he did not marry me, he may have died years ago from Twinky and Oreo overdose." 
Peggy's most passionate about her goats and it shows. She takes excellent care of all of her animals. She says there are just too many goat books out there to recommend just one. If you're interested in living a simpler life, she suggests you go and learn from people who do it. Peggy knows from whence she speaks. Having lived this lifestyle for so long, she has a just little experience under her belt!
Peggy graduated from high school in 1966 with honors in Science and Music, fifth in a class of over three hundred. She then started college with a major in Science and minor in Music. As Peggy says, "One year later I got married, had three children, so much for my career." Years then passed and "I have my Masters in Small Animal Farming from WSU. I also completed a Sustainable Small Acreage Farming Course from WSU that was held over the winter months in the year 2000, by the Extension office under WSU. I am a licensed DHI (Dairy Herd Improvement) supervisor & tester under
Blow us all out of the water, Peggy! Who knew? That's what I love about this blog! We are all getting to know each other better by it as well as sharing with others.
As previously mentioned, Peggy makes soap from her goat's milk. She is willing to ship it and if you'd like to order any or discuss anything else with her, please send and email or comment through this blog and I will put you in touch with her.
Thanks for sharing, Peggy!
Today I'd like you to meet Cherilyn. It took some coaxing to convince her that people need to hear about her story too. As she stated, "I just live on 3 acres with 2 goats, a Shetland sheep and about 15 laying hens. What would people want to know about that?" Well, I am here to tell it! What she doesn't state is that she lives in the middle (or on the edge) of a subdivision. By all appearances, she lives in the middle of town. Now as we all know, subdivisions have covenants, so she is limited to what she can do, but not beyond pushing the envelope, gently, to see what she can do.
When I asked her why she was living this kind of life her response was, "Sheesh, where do I start? The short answer is so that I can be living my best life, which is healthy and authentic. Here’s the long answer. I was raised in the suburbs of the
I was going stick to urban homesteading (my passion) with a huge garden and chickens, and then Kathryn graciously invited me to this group. The wild and dangerous WOTD inspired me to try sheep and goats, and here I am, learning how much I don't know. It's one of the best women's groups I've been involved with, though. There's nothing like a group of smart, focused, funny women."
It's easy to see what Cherilyn is most passionate about raising, her sons, although goats are her favorite farm animal. She likes goats because they are cantankerous and keep her honest. Of her sons she says, "Seeing them get comfortable around livestock, snarf lettuce and basil straight from the garden, and live in concert with nature keeps me learning about sustainable living."
Cherilyn recommends "Four-Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman as a must-read! He makes growing your own food nearly year-round seem manageable and very appealing. And as another WOTD, Jenny, said, "There just aren't enough pictures in that book!"
In closing I asked Cherilyn if there was anything else she wanted the world to know about her. She said, "That rumor about me and Johnny Depp, completely false! He only wanted me for my produce."
Cherilyn welcomes email and she can be reached at tcm3crew@gmail.com.
Kathryn is another WOTD. She lives on 20 acres west of Bozeman with her husband Rick and two children, Deeanne and Tommy. They enjoy a large variety of animals and I dare say there's not much Kathryn doesn't have in that department. When I asked her about her animals, she responded with, "Oh good lord! Where do I begin? At the moment, 2 milk cows, a steer, 4 Nigerian Dwarf does, a Nubian doe, 2 Nigerian bucks, 30 someodd chickens(with too many roosters in the flock), 5 shetland sheep(thank you LaVonne!), and 2 horses at the moment. Seasonally we have pigs, roaster chickens and turkeys. Of course there are 7 cats for mouse population control and 4 dogs to let the coyotes know that we need them to respect our livestock."
Their land is not flat land. It's very hilly and you never know what's just over that hill! Down the hill in the "bottom" of the land is a new hoop house. Rick is also very adept at recycling pallets into barns and other structures for the animals. They also use them for their firewood source.
Their family lived in a camper on the land while they built their home. They started with raw land and are in the process of turning it into their own little oasis.
It's difficult for Kathryn to say which farm animal is her favorite, but she would have to pick her Nigerians and Shetlands. She does love piglets though and the turkeys are fascinating. Having a large range of different animals completes the circle and allows them to live the natural life they love. The animals all fit in with home schooling and the children each have their own responsibilities. For them there is no other way of life. Kathryn says, "Is there anything better? I call it authentic exercise. What better way to raise a family and contribute to the community than local sustainable agriculture."
Camp Creek Farm has products available locally only and she delivers to town once a week. Her weekly newsletter to customers is sent out via email telling them what's available and they can order what they want. Currently their greenhouse and hoophouse are planted and should have greens for sale at some point in March. At the moment she has eggs from our chickens who are fed food created from organic ingredients grown in Montana. She also has goat milk soap made with only organic ingredients and essential oils for their healing properties. Kathryn encourages you to find someone locally to supply your food. Kathryn and her family are passionate about living in Harmony with the Earth. It is all we have and we are part of it. when we harm the Earth, we harm ourselves.
She recommends any books by Eliot Coleman, Joel Salatin MaryJane Butters to help you on your journey. She also gives this advice if you don't know where to start. " Dive in and find a group of women to give you support-the church of each other."
Kathryn welcomes any questions and can be reached at hainsworthhouse@peoplepc.com