Lessons learned in year 3
September 14 is our big
anniversary --- three years after the day we moved to our farm!
Every fall, I take a bit of time to think
back over the year before, and every year I'm stunned by how far
we've come in a short twelve months. This navel-gazing lunchtime
series explores the top lessons we've learned this year on the
farm. I'll start where I left off last fall: "our trials and
tribulations --- fencing out deer, not enough hours in the day."
We've discovered that it is quite possible to keep
deer out of the garden without a fence! Last week, I
tentatively pulled the last protective row covers off our sweet
potatoes and strawberries, and still nary a nibble. Deer damage
was one of my hardest trials last year, and I can barely believe it's a
thing of the past. Pretty soon, we'll be rolling out a website
entirely devoted to helping other farmers and gardeners beat the deer
problem, so stay tuned.
As for not enough hours in the day --- well, some days I still feel
that way. But due to the wonders of taking weekends off,
I suddenly feel like I have more time. We've managed to pretty
much stay on top of the weeding and mowing and harvesting, and still
zip through some long term projects. Maybe by this time next
year, I will have forgotten feeling pressed for more daylight hours.
| This post is part of our Third Year of Homesteading lunchtime series.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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