Reset. It has been a year since I last posted in this blog. So much can happen in a year. So much has happened in a year and yet here we are still, slowly moving forward, step by step. It has been three years since we came to Brown Dog Farm. Since then mom and dad made the move from Camp Catlett in New Jersey to Wisconsin and completed building their home right on the hill, on the other side of the garden. Brown Dog Farm is now a family compound. Thanksgiving brought the whole clan to the new Camp Catlett on Brown Dog Farm and Christmas and New Years holidays brought more family for final approval.

Our house, the farm cottage, has been undergoing a three year renovation. Almost every room has been reworked. We have only one more room to go. We are headed for the home stretch and then on to the barns.

On the farm front we have transitioned all the land to perennial cover. The south twenty acres are now in a grass alfalfa hay field. We work with a great forage producer. Last year even with the wet season we managed to get 3 beautiful cuttings of hay. The proceeds from our hay harvests funded our fencing projects. Plans are moving forward to build a small sheep herd to graze and manage our pastures.

Ed has been very busy on the remodel, but his tools are waiting for the Workshop to fire up. He has a bit of cabinetry work outfitting Mom and Dads pantry and mudroom, and I have a short list of furniture requests, but as soon spring hits the long Workshop Barn will get his attention, then he will be open for business.

In the Studio at Brown Dog Farm, I have been busy working on a new commission and working through the Heritage Breed Series based on the Livestock Conservancy’s priority list. Of course I started with the horses, but soon the Chicken breeds will be underway. A calendar is in the works.

This past year we said goodbye to our dear labs Maxwell and Cody. Raleigh remains, steadfast as ever, and this weekend was joined by our new Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Ryder.

Sometimes life goes at such a pace, all you can do is hold on and see where it takes you. Things are at a place now where I can begin to sort it out and tell our story. I have been thinking about where this blog is going and who it is for.

I want to share what we are doing and why. I want to create a community of like minded souls who are committed to similar environmental goals. There is a whole world of people out there who know we are at a critical point in time in our environment. We have to make a change in the direction our planet is moving. I want to learn and I want to share with others so we can reach a tipping point and move forward environmentally. For us, that means creating healthy soils, living simply, growing as much as we can, stewarding heritage breeds to promote genetic diversity, and reminding ourselves and others that humans are ultimately creative beings.

I have always dreamed of being a farmer. This is the story of Brown Dog Farm, the place where we are learning to be the best farmers we can on this very special piece of land. We are committed to being responsible caretakers and learning what that means, caring for each other, our family and our animals. We are artists and makers. This blog will be for anyone who wants to share our journey, learn how to do what we do, and participate in the dream we are making come true.

In the future you can look for posts about gardening, our remodeling process, the building of Mom and Dad’s accessible home, orchard, cider and beer making, heritage breeds, chicken, sheep, goat and bee keeping, art, woodworking, eco tourism, and regenerative agriculture.

Come along on the journey, let me know what you are interested in, or if you have questions, leave them in the comments. Contact me if you are on a similar path. Let us connect and support each other. 2019 is going to be a great year ..let’s see what we can grow