What seemed like an uneventful week really got us there at the end. The projects have continued. And continued. And continued. I was lucky, on Tuesday, to finally finish the greenhouse floor. I’ve been slowly progressing one square foot tile at a time to stencil a pattern onto the concrete. With an infant to watch out for – this has meant …
Isai’s Calf Goes to the Vet
We’ve had a wild 24 hours at Crossley Farms. While I grew up on family farms in rural Kansas – I still have a lot to learn about being a farmer. Especially, when cattle are involved. Yesterday, Aaron went to visit a friend and help to get his garden up and running. That left me flying solo to keep the …
Day 34: Coronavirus Quarantine
The sunny warmth of last week has given way to cold, dreary gloom. Today, specifically, the window from our basement has nothing much to show beyond the bright green grass dulled by the dark gray skies. Hard winds pound at the doors all around the house. The rain falls heavy to the puddles outside the door. Generally – the entirely scene …
Master Bedroom Renovation Begins (Finally!)
Aaron and I have been working on plans for the farmhouse renovation since mid-December. Here we are, 4 months later, finally having the opportunity to get started. We’ve gone several circles with an architect to figure out how to remove walls and open the 1970s layout. Aaron sold our city house in a flash in January which finally gave us …
Our First Easter
Aaron and I are not over-the-top holiday celebrators. This is very strange considering I come from a family of top-of-the-line decorators, over-gifters and holiday extremists. In our time dating, married and now with a little one – our celebration style has gone relatively undefined. On our own birthdays, we do ridiculous things. On holidays, we swing through the family gatherings …
This Week on the Farm: April 6-12, 2020
Each week, I’m more and more amazed by the insanity of all of things happening. What’s more impressive: the progress. We have so many projects going on the farm right now. It’s invigorating, exhausting and extremely cool to see our ideas starting to take shape. The Greenhouse Floor is Gorgeous I’ve avoided sharing too many peeks at the greenhouse renovation. …
The Kids’ First Cows Are Growing
Since that first week where bottle calves were dropped at the farm one after another, we seem to have paused and leveled out at three. As Grandpa Dave says – “one for each of the boys.” Read more: Now We Have 3 ChucksRead more: Meet Chuck – Our First Moomaker The calves had their ears tagged with the boys’ initials so they …
Our Dogs Are Living Their Best Lives
Let’s be completely honest – we definitely bought the farm for the dogs. Our Kansas City yard was something spectacular. While tiny, it packed a punch. Shortly after moving in, we installed artificial turf so that the doggers would have green “grass” to run and play on year-round. Even with walks though, we couldn’t begin to burn enough of their …
It’s Spring! The Farm is Coming to Life
Even though it was a very mild Winter, moving to the farm in December left us dreaming of what could eventually exist. We bought the farm knowing it was a beautiful piece of property that held a ton of potential. But, you know, brown grass, dormant trees and gray skies often made it hard to envision just what we’d see …
The Potatoes Are Finally Planted
Sunday was an insanely busy day on the farm. Among the chaos of finishing the chicken coop and staking off the North garden, we also planted potatoes. The potatoes went into the southwest 100 sq. ft. of the garden. Inside of the 5′ by 20′ area we created 3 horizontal (East-West) rows. Each was allowed ample spacing. The rows are …