Farm Life Camp - 2015!!

Seriously now. We have so much fun at Farm Life Camp! 

This fun group was hands on from the moment they got here on day 1 learning about nutrition to grooming and yes, riding! As an added bonus for all, we keep our groups SMALL. Some camps think 30 is a small group and it may very well be for them, but for us, 9 is our max as it gives plenty of time for us to teach each of our kids as they learn best. That small number also allows us to take a large variety of ages with everyone still feeling fully involved. 

Horses, cattle, sheep, chickens ... what will we add this year? You'll have to come to find out. :) 

2014 camps sold out, so now is the time to get signed up! More information can be found at: www.willowsedgefarm.com/farm-life.html

Discing up the Sheep pen

Every now and then it just has to be done. We're not fans of discing up the land - and don't for our large hay fields, but this small area is hard & compacted and it just needs to be done. 

As a bonus, all that sheep poo in there will be a great fertilizer when it comes time to seed!

It's a Boy!

My oh my does time certainly fly! What a busy summer it has been, but more exciting than just about all of it is the addition of a new, little one. A baby calf born yesterday, 9/17/12 to one of our new cows, Lone Star Reba.

Now, he needs a name. Send in your suggestions and the winner will have bragging rights for life Being a purebred, registered (soon to be) Irish Dexter, his registered name has to start with Willows ...

Updates coming soon, including the one with the new GIRLS!!! Both horses and cows.

New Life Springs Forth

I love this time of year. New buds blossoming means new life. The plants that were in a dormant state all winter have shaken themselves awake and put forth huge energy to produce new life. Fruits and vegetables that will grace our table later in the year. As well as those less fortunate as well.

Pear trees are abundant already

We are going to challenge you: Plant something. Anything. When it's ready to harvest - whatever it is - donate a little bit to your local food bank to nourish those who are less fortunate than you and I. You will be rewarded beyond what you can imagine. And you'll be giving yourself and your family something too: health. Both physical and spiritual.

Organically raised strawberries

Blessings,
Corinne

Ever Have One of Those Weeks

WOW, has it been a busy week. Started off having to have our brand new mare tested and skin biopsied as her hair is falling out if tufts. We had one of the vets out early last week, but just didn't see any improvement at all. She has been diagnosed with Pemphigus Foliacious - an auto-immune disorder. Lovely. The vet said she has only seen a handful of cases in her 30 some years as a vet. Truly a disappointment and so sad to see her so miserable. We're working on a few paths simultaneously, but for now, she's on daily steroids.

On the positive side, we finally got a desk to fit in our house and start unpacking the office supplies, we built a couple dutch doors for the barn as well as finished supporting the barn in areas where it was really desperate for it. We celebrated 2 birthdays, Good Friday, Easter and some family movie time. We've also found a great little place here on the farm for our herb garden. It looks so nice and is a happy spot on the way to the barns.

We also built 4 of our raised beds this week and look forward to planting seeds this weekend. We also picked up 3 apple trees and 2 plums. Oh, how I can hardly wait for late summer! What is the most exciting part of both the herb garden as well as the garden/orchard, is that it will become a showpiece for teaching others about gardening and how little space really is needed.

It's funny how we hear so often from people about how they don't have room to grow anything. We're here to tell you - and show you - that YES, you can. It doesn't take nearly as much room as you would think. Tired of mowing your yard? Guess what? You can turn all that mowing time into weeding and harvesting time! And then go inside and truly enjoy the benefits of a little bit of work!

Enjoy the sunshine!

Farmers Market at Colonial Williamsburg

One of the few farmers markets that we've been able to attend this summer. It is so nice to talk with other farmers and hear their stories. It continues to build our desires and allows us to encourage them all the while.

This is a large and very active market. By the time we got there a couple hours after it opened, everyone who sold eggs, was sold out. We miss real eggs. I now know our eggs we were selling at $4 a dozen were a bargain.

Mother Earth New Fair, Seven Springs, PA

Last week we were privileged to win some tickets to the Mother Earth News Fair in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania. We missed the ones they held on the West coast as we were already traveling.

We were amazed at some of the workshops that they were offering ... as well as some of the speakers, including Ed Begley, Jr and Joel Salatin. Some really exciting workshops that we attended were:

Baking healthy bread in 5 minutes a day
Powering your homestead with Renewable Energy
DIY Residential Solar for $3 Per Watt
Fall and Winter Gardening: eat fresh from your garden all winter, as well as a few others. The boys enjoyed some of their own classes, directed to the kids attending, as well.

We have already started with the bread - yum! And who knew how simple (and little space) it would take to do this on a daily basis! One thing that truly surprised me, was how much maintenance there was with the renewable energy systems. I don't have any idea why I thought it, but I really did think that it was more of a "plug and play" deal. Set it up and it will run on it's own. Nope, no ma'am, that's not how it works. I'm re-thinking adding something that will add more maintenance to start a new farm up again. Needs some more thought and research.

But really, one of the most amazing things we experiences with the Fair, was not actually even at the fair. We were out driving around the back country roads of the area, turned down this one road and wham! There we were, in a small forest of Sugar Maple trees. And there are tap lines leading into larger lines, leading back to the main building where it is all processed. Why do I even mention this little side trip? Well, two reasons actually. We were just studying maple trees (in addition to many other trees) and learning about them in science. Also, as it turns out, they were exhibitors at the Fair. We stopped by to visit during a lull and find out a little more about how it all happens. We also got to sample some of their absolutely amazing, award winning maple treats. Yes, we had to bring home some REAL maple syrup, but we also couldn't leave without their maple cream, maple candy and as a little treat for the boys behaving well, they got some maple cotton candy while we were there.


Photo by Mike Bowler

I cannot tell you enough how much we are enjoying the maple cream on pancakes, french toast and - by suggestion - even salmon! Crazy yummy stuff. See them at: Paul Bunyans Maple Syrup. No we aren't getting anything from them, but we just really wanted to share with you, one of those truly amazing, family farms that we've met along the way. Yum!

First Signs of Spring

Flowering currant

I love to see the first signs of spring around the farm. This year, although it is very late, it is also a bittersweet feeling.

Chives getting ready to flower

Seeing things starting to bloom is a reminder of a budding future growing season and yet, we won't be here to see so many of the plants come to full bloom with our upcoming move. 

Perennial Pansies

And yet, here I am, sharing one of my loves with you. Seeing them bloom just can't be kept all to myself. I am taking pictures all around the farm so I will have a focus and drive for the next farm. Are yours blooming late too? What do you have in your yard?

Library Book History

Did you know you can look back at your library book checkout history? You ask, "what does this have to do with farm life?" Give me a minute and I'll share.

We have an amazing library system for King county and online, I stumbled onto an area where I can look up and see my book checkout history. It's funny to see the list because, just like our checkbooks show where our finances go, my library record show a true accounting of where my heart really is. Family, faith, homeschooling, business and ... farming. Agriculture to be a little more specific. I'm looking back as far as 2005 and see books on square foot gardening, raising beef cattle and more about chickens. Lots of books on farm living and the animals that come with it.

I realize that no matter how long I live, there will be a piece of my soul that has farming in it. All I have to do is take a little walk through history to know that it won't change. Mom. Grandpa. Great-grandpa. I'm researching now to see just how far this disease goes.

In the meantime, take a look here on the blog and you can see some of my latest favorite books (to the left).

In Search of Greener Pastures

One of our reasons for the big trip is searching for the next "Willows Edge Farm" location. We've grown so much and done a lot and so well where we are here in Bothell and yet we have a strong desire to grow and add more in the food department. Particularly grass fed beef that actually tastes good.

me at my home in Seattle with the folks

We, well actually, I, would really like a little more warmth and a little less rain. I am a Seattle girl from the beginning. I was born at the little Group Health hospital and taken home at 10 days old (in a cardboard box, might I add) to our home in north Seattle. I truly am a Seattle native. And yet part of me has always loved the sun and despised the rain.
Yes, I know the rain is what gives the great Pacific Northwest such lush beauty and green pastures. I really do understand that in my head.

My heart (and my arthritic back) though, longs for a warmer locale. A place with big oak trees to sit under and sip some lemonade. A place that has rolling, dry pastures that go on and on. A place for the horses to run with big, long strides. A place to watch our children grow, play and learn. A big red barn. I love those old, big, red barns.

Don't know where it is yet. Thought we had found it a couple times, but it has been elusive so far. This time though, we feel the urge to press on and truly move forward, and take that leap of faith. Spend some real, dedicated, quality time searching for the greener pastures.

Scott and Farming

When I met Scott a little over 14 years ago now, one of the things that he told me about that really woo'd me was that he grew up on a farm in the rural parts of Indiana. He even told me how he worked on a turkey farm there. WOW, I thought to myself ... a country boy. And he drove a truck. Bonus.

You can imagine my surprise to find out later on, that his parents rented a house that was on a farm, but they didn't do anything other than look out the windows while the farmers worked the fields and waved at them as they drove past and that it was just a short time before they moved back to city living. Hmph.

It was only a few years ago did Scott reveal part of the truth of the turkey farm when we were looking after a batch of baby chicks. So cute and so fragile, they are fun to watch. Truth was, he didn't do much there at that ol' turkey farm. Eh, OK, he's here now working with - and enjoying the farm life. Scott came totally clean with his turkey farm experience this last year though. On one of our chicken processing days, we were discussing raising the chickens and butchering. We wandered down the conversation path to turkeys and low and behold it came out. The full truth. Yes, he did work on a turkey farm. For a day. Actually not even a full day. Just a few hours. "Seriously?", I asked wondering to myself. Turns out he spent a couple hours cleaning up after the critters. That's it. No chasing them down, feeding, or butchering.

Scott and the boys building a barn

Ask him now what he thinks. Some days he will groan about not being able to sleep in (um, you're an early riser honey), some days he will complain that he does all the work (wait, you always wanted that "alone" time to yourself), but most days, he can't imagine doing anything else. Working on the farm, building things, being creative on a budget are all very rewarding themselves - and he will be the first to tell you so.

He can set fence posts like nobody's business and fencing, well, not only is it pretty, but it's functional and straight. That is until I run into them with the tractor.
Chase down an unruly pig? You bet. And with ease.

Funny, all this time, I was thinking to myself that I picked up a country boy. Turns out, I just helped to created one.

Happy New Year all!

Tweet, Tweet! We're on Twitter

Oh my goodness - so many people on Twitter, we just had to join in to the fun. Are you there? You can follow Scott's musings of the day ... life around the farm ... by finding WillowsEdgeFarm on Twitter.

Scott really did say, "my life isn't that exciting." On the contrary ... it's always an entertaining story from the barnyard when he comes inside. I laugh some days, tear up on others, but there is always a story. I thought it would be fun for him to share.

So check him out today! Pass him on to your friends. Always good for a little entertainment.

Is summer really only 6 months away?

Kids and interns learning horse anatomy with a game.

In looking at the calendar I realize I'm behind schedule. This time last year we already had our Farm Life Camp lesson dates set. Gosh, we had already started selling them as Christmas presents for a few amazing grandparents and aunts!

I'm not ready.
I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

OK, with that moment out of the way, we at least have been discussing it ... More or less than last year? What dates? What happens when the farm sells? What new activities do we add in and what do we drop? What will our pricing be? So many questions, but not a lot of answers yet. They are coming though ...

Did your kids attend last year? What was their favorite part? Least favorite?

It's so funny - we always have at least one kiddo everyday who says, "I don't want to clean stalls" and that is ALWAYS the child who tells us they would rather clean the stalls than clean their room (laundry, dishes, etc. whatever their chore at home is) when they are done. I think that some of them believe that is what we'll be doing it all day. Fortunately for them, it accounts for about 15 minutes of our day!

We know - we've got to kick it into high gear for those of you very organized parents. We had half our our camp filled by the end of February last year!

Comments?

Time ... where does it go?

I have days I wonder where the times goes. Last week in particular, when I was looking at the calender for a night that the Mr and I could go out for a date night. I found one - 3 weeks into the future. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE what we do, but there are days we just kind of look at each other and say, "Oh hi! It's you!" to each other.
We have been so blessed this year by all the wonderful folks who have made the farm their second home, even if only a day a week, but they have taken the farm to heart and loved it. We are in those final weeks of full on, farm life - it all ends October 30 for us and we can put the farm to bed, so to speak, for the winter. Yes, some of the riding lessons will continue, but even my student schedule is being put on a break from mid-November until the end of February. Yep. You heard it. Tammy will still be teaching, but I am taking a much needed break/vacation, to spend some time with the kids. Chelsea graduates this year. Actually, she was told she only has one math session to do and then she's done. Where in the world did 18 years go. Time. It has it's own little way of getting past us when we weren't looking.

Statistics on Farms and Farming

Back in January, I had the privilege to go to our state capital in Olympia to testify on a Senate Bill regarding farm internships (another story for another time). I've been talking with a few others lately about the statistics on farming and most people don't realize just how dire our food system will be in just a few years if we continue to do nothing.

Here is what I found out and in turn, presented to our state's Senators in the hearing...

• 308,500,000 = people living in the United States (us.census.org)
• 960,000 = population that calls farming their main source of income (epa.gov)
• 2,300,000 - population of the US prisons (physorg.com)

You may be wondering why I put in the prison population - it's OK, everyone asks me. If you have a chance to look at the larger numbers and graphs, there is an alarming trend that as blue collar labor - like farming - decreases, the population of the prisons increases. Interesting, eh? Now I'm not saying that everyone out there needs to go get physical labor jobs. What I am saying is that our kids - yours and mine - need to realize what a true hard day's labor really entails. Getting their hands dirty, breaking a sweat are actually good things. And I really do believe that most parents agree.

Here are some more statistics on farming:

• In 1935, the number of farms in the US peaked at 6.8 million as the population edged over 127 million citizens.
• In 1997 (62 years later), a mere 46,000 of the 2,000,000 farms in this country accounted for 50% of the sales of agricultural products. (USDA, 1997 Census of Agriculture Data).
• Less than 1% of our population claims farming as an occupation. 
• It has been estimated that living expenses for the average farm family exceeds $47,000 per year.
• Fewer than 1 in 4 of the farms this country produce gross revenues in excess of $50,000.
• The vast majority of farms in this country (90%) are owned and operated by individuals or families. 

The interesting thing about these numbers shows how many of the farms today would be labeled as either hobby farms or are farms where there is a second income providing for the family. For the average farm family to live on $47K a year with gross receipts of only $50K does not provide for our farmers most basic needs.

As the US farm population has continued to dwindle, the average age of farmers continues to rise. In fact, about 40% of the farmers in this country are 55 years old and older (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The graying of the farm population has led to concerns about the long-term health of family farms as an American institution.

So what can we all do? Buy from your local farms. Yes, sometimes it actually does cost more. For the most part though, you are buying what I call real food from real people. Not that large farms are not producing real food - gosh we have to have the big guys in Mexico, California and the mid-west to provide for our country's food demands. But buying from the small farm, helps keep the family farms alive. And hopefully the food you are buying from them is amazing. We know that we truly strive to grow the best possible food for our family and friends - we can't even imagine selling something that was less than top quality. We can taste the difference, both in the food we grow, as well as that food we buy from other local farms. Hopefully, the next generation will not be raised in poverty and will choose to continue on for another generation of farming.
Personally, I think that is a huge reason why we are not getting many 2nd or 3rd generations continuing to farm - they were raised in near poverty levels (or below), watched their parents scrimp and save their pennies to provide and still have to sell off major stakes to the conglomerates in order just to survive. If you were raised that way, would you be jumping up and down, saying, "Please, please let me have the family farm"?

The Future of Willows Edge Farm

We have spent a lot of time in the last few months discussing the farm's future. In the last weeks, we have spent some time putting it all down ... writing out what it is exactly that we are wanting to accomplish with the farm, where we want to go and how we'll get there.

From 2007-08 we saw our little farm grow by leaps and bounds - 1211% to be exact. 2008-09 saw triple digit growth of 266%. 2010 will be another growth year and we are expecting our numbers to hopefully double again. While the growth is good, we will be bursting at the seams come fall.  In this exciting year, we will be adding farm direct sales of pastured poultry as well as more fresh herbs. The first set of broilers have been ordered and will be ready for pick up in late April with the second set ready mid June.

Our parties and tours are already booking for spring and we are looking forward to large growth from these areas of our farm. Finding something new and different is always a great find for parents and we apparently have something they are looking for. It also falls in line with what we love to do: teach about the farm, animals and work with children.

We're also looking at adding one other of our dream livestock animals ... pigs. Don't laugh, they are gentle, kind and highly intelligent animals. They are also easier to raise on a small farm (easier than Corinne's other dream livestock: The Irish Dexter Cattle) and are good breeders. Pork is gaining popularity as a healthy meat protein; recent studies - in comparison to the "old" studies of the 1950's showing pork as highly fatty - show the new breeds as lean, mean working machines. Many studies compare them as BETTER than chicken in terms of fat AND protein! I will guess that they weren't comparing bacon to chicken breast though ;-)

Further into the future, Willows Edge Farm hopes to grow into a larger facility. We are actively searching for that perfect piece of property along with a few sponsors who want to see farming activities, like we offer, be expanded and grow in Western WA. Small family farms are rapidly disappearing - did you know there are more people in prison than farming in this country? We want to be one of those farms that is around for the long haul and continue on for generations to come!

The Vision - The past and present...this is a long one

We have had such a great few years sharing our farm, we thought we would share our process in how this all came to be. So far.
2007 ... our first Norwegian Fjord horses arrived in February! Brrr!! But they were everything I had dreamed of - and MORE. Tina and Elsie both arrived in foal and within a few months our numbers grew from zero, to 2 to 4. But wait. They were so amazing, how could we not have more of them? Along came the opportunity to buy our stallion Fair Acres Ole from Patti Jo Walter in Wisconsin. No waiting to purchase, but we had to wait for him to finish breeding all those mares back there before we could bring him home.
We had a few girls come out and learn a little about the Norwegian Fjord horses over the summer and that was the beginning of what would become our Summer Intern Program.
2008 ... our first breeding season with Ole, but no babies! HA!! I could not go a year without a foal. We bought 3 mares and one was in foal. Off the truck rolled Mina, Greta & Lena - along with Lena's newborn foal. We also offered our first ever farm life camp. It started out as a donation to our kids' school auction - why not offer to let one of the kids come spend the day "out on the farm". I still have that little flyer I made up for the auction. How fun! Word spread and spread quickly. I was being asked over and over if this was something we would do for others. But our first summer's Farm Life Camp was wildly popular and we began planning soon for the next summer. I also started offering riding lessons that summer and found out I had ways to pay for my little farm besides the sale of foals and breedings. We also bred our first mares to Ole. The excitement was almost unbearable...a whole year to wait!
2009 ... We grew our little farm into a full time business this year. Farm Camp dates were added and enlarged. We added extra positions to our intern program as well as created a few "Junior" internships. Starting early spring we had more and more phone calls from groups wanting to know if they could come and tour the farm. Really? Sure, we love to share what we have and teach people about caring for the animals as well as our land. Early summer came all the phone calls about birthday parties and about the third time I said "no, sorry we don't offer that", I realized we were missing a very important way to share our farm, horses and provide additional income to our ever growing farm enterprise. We started parties in mid September and again, another successful venture added.
2009 also brought us a little closer to our larger vision of the "large farm" with spectacular field trips for myself & Scott to go see the world famous Joel Salatin, of Polyface Farms in Virginia. What an inspiration to our dreams! With his un-technical strategies, farming - the natural way - has been gaining in popularity. Both by farmers/producers as well as consumers, farmer's markets, high end restaurants and even animal rights groups. It seems the only people who don't like him are the chemical companies, large --ahem--farms and some government agencies who don't seem to understand this desire to get back to natural movement. Anyway, getting to visit with and learn more about permaculture from him and the other farmers attending was adding fuel to our fire. We came home with more ideas, a larger vision and a burning desire to keep moving.
One other field trip we made was was to Nate Lewis & Melissa Barker's Homegrown Pastures in Olympia where we got to learn again - from the pro's - about processing pasture raised poultry. Something we plan on adding to our farm in 2010. We also got to meet with some other helpful people who really are just amazing to talk with and learn from including Colleen Donovan from Heifer International and Fred Berman from Washington State Dept. of Agriculture as well as other farmers interested in pursuing - or growing - their own pastured poultry farms.
We have been encouraged, motivated and forward in our plans for 2010 and beyond.

The "future" part of The Vision, will be coming soon.
Hope you all had a great Christmas & got to hug someone you love!