January has been quite the month, a hardship for sure but incredibly gratifying. The cold, the plumbing, the sleepless nights - all of it is coming to a close with today. At least, the January version. I am ending this month with the peace of mind that two huge hurdles have been jumped: The giant butcher bill from the pigs and a mortgage payment made. I am still behind, and owe January’s still, but 2021 is paid for. This life here is nothing if it isn’t working towards sighs

I realize I have introduced Ellie on social media but not on the blog! Ellie is a small falcon, a North American Kestrel. I started working with her in early December. How I came to work with this bird is a story for another time, and will be in the next book, but right now rest assured she is teaching me a lot about patience, persistence, and joy. I have never trained anything besides red tailed hawks, and so to move onto the world of micros was a new and slightly-challengin

Good morning from a very cold Cold Antler Farm. We’re in a deep freeze for the next week. Right now it’s 0 degrees and the high will be around 12. That means keeping both wood stoves going all day and night, with hopefully a few breaks to nap. I’m tired from last night. I didn’t get much sleep at all. I’m currently trying to defrost one frozen line into the bathroom and worried my wood supply isn’t going to last at the rate I am bringing in more and more loads. We’re here in

Since January started there have been a few hard nights. And by hard I mean deep cold. I feel like nothing is more arduous in my particular set of circumstances right now than deep cold. It makes all the outside work harder and more labor intensive. Several times a day I am outside bursting through the ice in water stations, or carrying buckets of hot water to melt them/swapping them with defrosted water containers. The mudroom wood stove becomes a station for wet socks and c

It's pitch dark out there, still, and outside the farm is quiet in this cold. Besides being outside a few moments to relieve the dogs and check the sheeps' water defroster—I have been doing indoor chores while waiting for sunrise. In here the fires in both wood stove are lit. If I'm diligent I'm hoping by 9AM I'll have the house at a comfortable temperature, but on days where the high doesn't leave the single digits - comfortable is relative. Realistically, this house will pr