Boy, am I glad that the silver maple trees decided to start flowering today. Yesterday the temperature hit 65 for the first time this year and the honey bees were out in force, looking for food. It was great to see the bees healthy and vigorous after the winter. Unfortunately, while the bees were out …
Author Archives: rpgreen61
Maple Syrup March
Isn’t it funny how certain childhood memories stick with you? Laura Ingalls Wilder’s description of maple sugaring in Little House in the Big Woods has stuck with me since my third grade teacher read the book to my class. I particularly remember the part about cooking the sap down far enough to be able to …
Goat Milking Hugs
Izzie is nearing the end of her first milking cycle. At her peak she was giving us a gallon of milk a day, but that is now down to a quart, and I expect it to continue to decline. Even if she is still producing, in 2 months I will stop taking milk and let …
Snow!
Those of you who have to clear your driveway, scrape off your car, and make your way to work on snowy winter mornings will probably roll your eyes when I say this, but I love the snow. Growing up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my winters included hours outside playing in the snow. With the freedom …
Field trips and fires
In 1974, when I was a freshman at Pioneer High School and my brother was a sophomore, my mother attended a school board meeting as an observer for The League of Women Voters. She found herself sitting next to Bill Browning, who was the head of the environmental education (EE) program with the Ann Arbor …
More goats????
Although my mom grew up on a small farm outside of Detroit and was returning to her roots when my parents bought Green Acres Farm, I grew up in Ann Arbor, and the closest thing to farming I ever did growing up was help a little with the large garden my mom maintained when I …
A beekeeper’s winter worries
Winter is my least favorite time to be a beekeeper. Don’t get me wrong. There is much to love about the lull that cold weather brings, the chance to catch ones breath, reflect on the year past and attend to planning and preparation for next year’s honey and garden season. But during the winter I …
A missing chicken
If you have never lived with chickens, you might think the concept of letting them free range seems a bit crazy. After all, chickens not closed into their coop at night are easy prey for nighttime predators like possums, raccoons, foxes and coyotes. Who wants to be responsible for rounding up chickens to put them …
Goat walks
While many people stranded at home by COVID took up hobbies like bread making, gardening or crafting, I got goats. In my defense, when the country shut down for COVID in March, 2020, we had only been on the farm for 7 months, and goats had been on my ‘to do” list even before we …
Chicken Hunter
When we moved to the farm, we could never have imagined that our sweet, shy, neurotic rescue dog, Bella, would find her passion here. Hunting. Don’t get me wrong. Our two golden doodles, Bear and Bella, are loveable house pets, who are outstanding at doing as they are told, except when they don’t want to, …