Learning to farm

Neither Larry or I grew up on a farm.  So we need to start with square one, and teach ourselves. In 2011 we had a few chickens at Larry's parents house for 2 years. We lived down the street in an apartment, it was a pain walking down every morning and night to open and close the chicken door, and get them clean water. But we loved having chickens so it was totally worth it. Then we moved to the next town over...driving back and forth was not worth it. So we had to get rid of them. We attempted a garden also, but moving away we had to stop taking care of it.

So to get us prepared for the farming life, and so we can start as soon as we (hopefully)move to our new land/home, I bought some books. Most are for small scale farming and a book for farming in winter. Living in Vermont there is a lot of winter.

Click on the books to learn more*


I do like The Joy of Series, the chicken and root cellar ones were written by a local farm in Royalton, Vermont, a couple towns over from me now. And the goat and farm animal ones were written by a woman in Canada, near Vermont. So I know these authors go through about the same weather as me.  *the images/links are my amazon affiliate links I will receive profit it you click/buy from these links 

Boot cuff/Boot candy Knitting Pattern

Needles: set of US 8 dpns
Yarn: worsted weight
Other: tapestry needle, stitch marker, row counter
Skill: intermediate 

Definitions:
K2tog: knit two together
K3tog: knit three together
Yo: yarn over
Round 11 how to video: HERE

Pattern:
Using long tail cast on CO 48 sts, 12 sts on each needle.
Join.
Rnd 1-10: k2, p2 repeat around. May want to use stitch marker at beginning
Rnd 11: k1, (k3tog((keep those 3 sts on the left needle)), yo, k3tog in same st) repeat around.
Rnd 12: knit
Rnd 13-25: repeat rnd 11-12
Rnd 26-27: k2, p2 repeat around
Rnd 28: k2tog, p2 repeat around
Rnd 29-30: k1, p2 repeat around
Bind off: k2, pull first st over second st and off needle. k1 pull old st over new st and off needle. Repeat until you have one st left. Cut yarn and pull though last st.
Weave in ends
Now make another for the other leg!

I hope you enjoyed this pattern! It can be tricky, I hope to start doing youtube videos on how to do knit and crochet patterns. Do you prefer how to videos?

Enjoy! xo

Living Small

Our dream is to live sustainably, green, free, happy, simple, small. We want to have a small farm that we grow fruits and vegetables, raise chickens, goats, a pig and a cow or two. To be able to feed ourselves for most of the year. (we live in Vermont so the growing season is very short)

Our goal seems so far away. We don't have a house or land. We live in an apartment, in the center of town.

We are going to the bank very soon to see how much we can get for a home loan. I am so nervous. I know I have good credit, but I have a car loan and school loans. My boyfriend has newish credit, and has a car loan. I feel we make decent money for our education and current jobs. But I don't really know the whole mortgage process.

I hate the thought of money holding you back from your dreams. I know we live in a material world, and money is life, but I wish it wasn't so.

So how can we get around this? Living smaller. I have a few books on farming on a very small piece of land and being able to feed your family for the year. Also there is a place that builds modular homes at an affordable rate(so I've heard) and you can have it custom built. So why not live smaller. Build the house just as big as you need it. We don't need a huge livingroom to entertain. We don't have a ton of friends(only a few great ones) and we have a small family, on both sides. I like entertaining outside better anyways. We only plan on having two kids, so we need 3 small bedrooms.

Here are some small homes I have been pinning
They are all too small, but it gives us some ideas

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Do you live small? We want to hear about it!

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