Big Dreams On A Tiny Farm

My first baby calf for 2012 and he’s a real beauty!

I am a non-conformist, a free-thinker, and a spiritual seeker – exactly the type of “disruptive force” our society would like to dummy down or set aside as an outcast. And the further I’ve separated myself from the generic, uniform, overly-consuming, discontent masses in order to find my own truths in life, the more appalling our society seems to be.

We got hit with our first blast of winter and everything seems in pretty good order. I have some loose ends to tie up before I’m completely ready for winter but none of it will be much of a concern. The animals are doing great, I’m doing great, and overall things have never been better for me which is saying a lot because my life has always been a blessing – right from day one.

I was thinking about the whole “primal instincts” thing. I’ve always been good at understanding people, but with a fundamental caveat – I could tell you ‘what’ people were going to do with their lives or in a specific situation, but I couldn’t make logical sense out of ‘why’ they would do it. Their behaviors [...]

The summer is going great, the animals all love eating lettuce, and a chicken escaped and wound up on the front porch!

Shadow is the first ever Ranch Dog of Aquila’s Homestead – a true warrior, a peaceful dignitary, and a truly irreplaceable and grand fellow. He recently thwarted an attack on one of the calves, and deserves all the accolades imaginable for his bravery.

Good gravy the inevitable happened yesterday – the steers got loose. Honestly, I let it happen on purpose because I really wanted to know what they were going to do and how they would react to being completely free. I also needed to test a method of stopping them and catching them once they did get loose – and I’d rather try it when they’re 150-175 pounds and two months old, not 750 pounds and a year old. This was a hysterical adventure!

Everyone is doing great! I tied the steers together to let them roam a bit more and the garden is coming along great.

Everything is coming along beautifully. My ma got a new camera so I ran around the yard taking a bunch of pictures of the animals and the garden. The weather has been absolutely amazing this spring and Memorial Weekend has been no different. Other than a few problems with some rabbits and crawly things getting at some of the young plants in the garden, everything is going perfectly for the plants. For the animals, everything is just perfect.

There has been an addition to the tiny Aquila Farm – Keisha, a nine-year-old German Shepherd. She’s exactly like any other German Shepherd I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with – super intelligent, incredibly easy to train, and a great companion. She fit right in beautifully from day one and everything just continues to flow along wonderfully.