Don’t know whyThere’s those bees up in the skySwarmy weather… May is swarm season in Michigan, and swarm season can get a little crazy. This year it seems crazier than most. I spent the early part of May working hard to keep up with my bees, with the goal of managing swarming. If you want …
Category Archives: Farm stories
If you don’t like the weather just wait….
Another take on hawks
Last weekend I invited a friend of a friend, Selena, to bring her young red tailed hawk, Lofn, to hunt at Green Acres Farm. OK, so some of you are thinking I am a bit crazy inviting a falconer to bring her hawk hunting at the farm just a week after losing a third chicken …
Cheesemaking: Embracing imperfection
If you are a recovering perfectionist, and are looking for an activity that will support and encourage that recovery, cheese making just might be for you! I started my cheese making adventure in 2021 when our mama goat had filled our refrigerator to overflowing with milk. Even after I started making homemade yogurt, we just …
Home Grown
My mom grew up on a small family farm outside of Detroit at the end of the depression where she learned the value of local food production, eating what you can grow or find and putting up food during the plentiful summer and fall to help feed the family through the winter and spring. Those …
The wildlife is winning
When you live on a farm in the country, sharing your space with wild creatures comes with the territory, and for the most part that is a good thing, but this year, it sometimes feels like we are at war and the wild life is winning. I guess I should be pleased that the deer …
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 …
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 …
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, …