Getting ready for next weekend's Farm Crawl!

Last August, we participated in our first Farm Crawl, which was an opportunity for people to visit our farm, as well as three others within a few miles of us. This year, we have a fifth farm joining us. If you want to know more about the other farms, you can visit the official Farm Crawl website. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, August 17.

And we are freaking out here on Antiquity Oaks. In case I haven't mentioned it enough lately, my children have had the nerve to grow up and move away, so now I understand how those people feel when their company downsizes and then you have to do your job, as well as the jobs of one or two other people!

So, Antiquity Oaks is not as spiffy as it has been in previous years -- and that's not saying much. I always have this Martha Stewart country estate in my mind, but it's never quite happened. And now we've taken a couple more steps farther away from that ideal. (Sorry, this is not supposed to be my annual panic post.)

Back to the Farm Crawl -- in addition to seeing all of the animals, visitors will also have the opportunity to buy our goat milk soap made with organic oils, Shetland wool roving, Shetland and llama yarn, raw Shetland fleeces, Old English Southdown wool batting, naturally colored sheepskins, books on raising livestock, gardening, homesteading, etc., including but not limited to the books I've written. We will also be doing the following demonstrations:

• 10:30 a.m. Scything
• 1:00 p.m. Goat milking
• 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. Spinning wool

In addition to cold, hard cash, we also accept credit cards. Admission to the Farm Crawl itself is free. We're looking forward to meeting you!

North to Alaska

In late May, as I was finishing up the edits on my manuscript for Raising Goats Naturally, which will be published this fall, I was racing against a different kind of deadline -- on May 25 we were supposed to board a cruise ship headed for Alaska -- and no one wants to take their work with them on vacation. As it turned out, I had a couple of final emails to handle as our vacation started, but it all worked out.

Mike and I at Mendenhall Glacier

I have wanted to go to Alaska for a very long time. When I was in college, I set a goal to visit all 50 states by the time I was 25. I almost made it. I had visited all of them except for Minnesota, Alaska, and Hawaii. We actually moved to Hawaii in 1990 when my husband was in the Navy, and in 1999 we drove through Minnesota on our way to Yellowstone for a family vacation, but Alaska had always eluded me.

Then last summer my mother-in-law was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and given six to twelve months to live, and I realized I needed to get moving on my Alaska goal! My in-laws had visited 44 countries, and I remember my mother-in-law telling me -- when she was about the age that I am now -- that she wanted to travel while she was still young enough and healthy enough to enjoy it. It didn't seem like that long ago, and yet here I am at the same age she was at when my husband and I got married. So, last August, we made reservations on a cruise to Alaska for this May.

Ice in the water as we cruised towards Sawyer Glacier

It was stunning and breath-taking and beautiful and every other adjective that means gorgeous and pristine, and I want to go back again because one day in each city was simply not enough time to see everything. And while I was there, something suddenly became crystal clear to me. So many people talk about vacationing to get away from their day-to-day life, and ever since moving to Antiquity Oaks, I haven't wanted to get away. I love my life here. But there are other places in the world that I want to see, such as Alaska ... and the Canary Islands and Spain and Scandinavia and even Africa and Australia. I used to feel sort of guilty for wanting to visit other places, but I'm over that now. I realize that wanting to see those places does not mean that I love Antiquity Oaks any less.

Our tour guide Aaron at Jewell Gardens

One reason I love to travel is because I want to learn how people do things in other parts of the world. While in Skagway, we visited Jewell Gardens, a CSA garden, restaurant, and glassblowing studio. Folks in Skagway have one grocery store and one natural food store, and both are stocked by the single supply ship that comes up once a week from Seattle, and it takes a few days to get there from Seattle, so you can imagine that the produce available in the grocery store is not what we would call fresh. Jewell Gardens provides a wonderful assortment of locally grown produce to its members. Visiting Jewell Gardens has really inspired me to do more with Antiquity Oaks. I love the way that they've combined the CSA garden with a display garden, restaurant, and glassblowing studio, and I've been thinking of how we can do something similar here ... probably not glassblowing, but maybe something with fiber arts?

I've been feeling mentally stuck for a few years, wondering where to go with our homestead. I knew I wanted to do more, but I wasn't sure what to do that would be doable because all of my ideas seemed big and expensive. However, after seeing Jewell Gardens, I see that we can do something more that would not be overwhelming, and I am really excited to get started.

If you want to see a few more of my Alaska photos, click here.

Open Farm and Field Day

We're getting ready for our first Open Farm and Field Day. We decided to schedule three of them, because everyone's schedule in summer is so crazy. We've got a lot of competition, and how can we really compete with graduation parties, weddings, and vacations to exotic places? To keep it simple, we've scheduled them on the third Saturday of July, August, and September, from noon to 5 p.m.

In July -- this Saturday -- we'll be doing a mozzarella cheese-making demonstration at 2:00 and scything at 3:00. The daylilies are also especially nice this time of year. We have more than two dozen varieties, but most of them will probably be done blooming by next month. In August and September, we'll have other demonstrations and unique things to see and do. We should have lots of fresh vegetables for sale from the garden in August, and perhaps we'll have a salsa making and canning demonstration. The big attraction in September will probably be newborn baby goats. Goat milking and soap making will also be offered on one of those days. We'll keep everyone updated through our Facebook page.

Of course, every month, visitors will be able to see the animals and the gardens and to buy our goat milk soap.

Now, we have to get ready for the sheep shearer who is coming today!

Garfield Farm Rare Breed Show

We spent today at Garfield Farm Museum's Annual Rare Breed Show. In the past we've taken sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, and turkeys. This year, we took our two lovely heifers, Molly and Bridget. As suspected, they were a huge hit because of their charming personalities and adorable faces. We heard, "How can you eat them?" more than once. And people were quite relieved when we told them that Molly and Bridget were going to be our milk cows. A few people did, however, say, "Well, aren't they a beef breed?" So, I explained that the definition of a milk cow in this country is a bit absurd. All cows give milk, and these little girls will give a gallon or two a day, which is plenty for most families. What family would want a cow that gives seven or eight gallons per milking?

We were in the 1842 barn, and in addition to showing off the girls, we also sold our goat milk soap. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hit the hay myself, because I'm exhausted, and tomorrow is another busy day.

Agritourism vs. working on the farm

Funny how I was just talking about requiring turkey customers to spend a day on our farm, and today I read this in the NY Times: Down on the Farm With Your Sleeves Rolled Up, an article about agritourism, where farms charge people to visit and sometimes work.

I really don't like the idea of agritourism, as I think people visiting farms for sleigh rides completely miss the point that most people need to understand -- it takes work to grow food in a way that is sustainable. I really don't think anyone learns much of importance by taking a sleigh ride in the country or feeding a baby animal for 10 minutes. In some ways it might even do more harm than good. Sleigh rides and baby animals are fun, and while that is part of farm life, it's only one tiny segment of it. When that is the only thing that people see, they get the idea that farm life is this Utopian existence. It's not. I love living out here, but not because it's perfect. Like Thoreau, I appreciate all parts of it, the joyful, the confusing, and the devastating. Learning to live with nature is a constant learning experience. One never knows all the answers, and each new day is filled with opportunities and surprises, some wonderful and some not.

Little of that knowledge is obtained in the few minutes it takes to feed a baby animal, and none of it during a sleigh ride. You might begin to get an appreciation of it in a day, but to really understand farm life, it would take at least a few days or a week. And it's not just any week. We're hibernating during winter, the garden is frozen over, and the animals are just hanging out too. There are some days in spring where I feel like I've lived a month in 12 hours. Summer is not too crazy, but as fall draws near, we're kicking into high gear again, trying to prepare for winter. Maybe this is why some people say I should write a book. I suppose this is my passion -- I really want people to understand where their food comes from.