Greetings!
Hello, beautiful people of the world, and welcome to our 3 Corners Farm and Homestead page! I am a little late in getting this monthly blog post out due to such business, but I am feeling blessed and inspired!
To those of you who are new here, we welcome you! Feel free to check out our "About Us" page to learn more about who we are, what we do, and what makes us unique.
I have been reflecting a bit on how much we have accomplished since moving to this small acreage in 2019 and it blows my mind away! Sometimes, I feel we don't give ourselves enough credit because we are always so busy looking ahead that we forget to take in how far we've come and be able to just enjoy being where we are right now. It's a beautiful feeling knowing that our work has paid off because we have created the perfect life to match our love of animals, nature, and purely natural foods.
I will share some links to some of my previous blog posts here if you would like to learn more about the details of how we started this small farming endeavor and Homestead lifestyle.
A Deeper Look Into Our Homestead and Farming
Farm Happenings and Building Our Business
Current farming work
So, down the nitty gritty of the here and now!
Travis has pretty much spent all his time prepping and getting ready for planting, which has officially begun. He is gone from sun up til late afternoon and when he returns home, he goes straight to our Homestead garden and then works on other jobs around here. I feel like I hardly see him, but believe it or not, Travis is in his element this time of year! So far, he has planted three rows of salad mix, a row of Arugula, and a row of kale on the acre lot that he leases in Odell. Here at the Homestead, he has planted a bit more of a variety of things, especially root vegetables.
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| Travis cleaning garlic beds |
He sells greens in bulk to restaurants and a local Co-op group because he can grow more in abundance that way while getting paid better with less work. His goals are to utilize land from others who have like-minded ideas and to not need to hire outside help, at least at this point in time. He grows various root vegetables here on the homestead for our use, but they are not usually sold because root vegetables require a lot of work with a small profit.
Our Farm produce is Certified Naturally Grown so it is all organic. If you would like to learn more about that, here is a link to Our Farming Business Growth And Certification that discusses it more in detail.
This month of May will be the beginning of harvesting season and planting, on repeat. So as far as farming information goes right now, that is the gist of it! Plant, harvest, repeat. Plant, harvest, repeat. In between is weeding and watering, and thankfully the Odell lot has irrigation rights, which is why he chose that location. An abundant water source is a must-have when growing produce in large quantities, especially in our rather dry climate.
April seemed a little slow to warm up and welcome us into spring, but now we are finally getting some agreeable weather for the produce to thrive! We even got up to around 80 degrees Fahrenheit last week, which was so wonderful! In the past few years, it seems there has been more cold than warmth in our area of the world so this warm-up is much appreciated.
Even just yesterday, we reached 80 degrees again and it was followed by an intense thunderstorm in the evening. Mother nature is just full of surprises and wonder!
Family
While Travis is contentedly busy getting his hands back in the dirt and gardening, I have been working behind the scenes as his support staff and glorified housewife, haha. I have been baking homemade loaves of bread and canning, especially my infamous "Dandelion Delight" as Travis calls it.
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| Homemade White Bread |
Did you know that you can make jelly out of dandelions and it is the most delicious sweetness on earth! Especially when it's spread on homemade bread. It is also beneficial to the liver because dandelions give the liver a much-needed cleanse.
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| Dandelion's ready to make jelly |
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| Dandelion Delight |
Let's not forget that we have three kids and my attention there has gone mostly to our son Blake, who is 18. If you are also a parent, then you must surely understand how the needs of each child fluctuate, and we can only pray that they don't all need attention at the same time!
Not only has Travis been helping Blake with his "Wookie's Paintball" group, but I have been helping him with getting his driver's license. It has been a long and slow process because we have to travel out of our area to get it done, and I finally found a place that is not booked out for months. I do not understand why this has become an issue, but I am grateful to make the drive to Hermiston Oregon next Friday, where with a fee of $75.00, Blake can take the test and hopefully become a licensed driver so that I will no longer need to ghost ride with him everywhere he goes.
Blake is graduating in June and I have so many mixed emotions about it! I am excited for him and his future, but I am sad that my little boy is gone, replaced by a young man, but God Bless the middle child! He is probably the most flexible and outgoing of our three kids.
Plus, Travis's mother has moved closer, from Boarman Oregon to here, so we have been helping her get set up and established. Family is important and sometimes must come first.
Turning my attention to the animals
So...onto the animals!
The farrier is paying us a visit tomorrow to trim the hooves of Willow the horse, Joe Joe the mini, and Clover the goat if he has time to squeeze in a goat trimming. (We have another goat, Nugget, but he is young and not in need of a trim at this time).
I must say, even though we schedule regular trims, the horses have been able to eat some of the fresh, spring-green grass, and their hooves have grown at least twice as fast as normal! Willow is having a bit of a harder time getting around due to the extra growth, but we will soon have her back on track.
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| Willow is ready for the Farrier! |
Once the farrier visit is complete, on Tuesday the vet is scheduled to come. Willow is 23 years old now and needs her teeth checked to make sure she can adequately chew hay and forage. She also has stomach ulcers that I have recently treated, again, but I would like the vet to follow up on that and know that it is cleared. She also has some swelling in her joints that may require X-rays in order to know how to treat it moving forward.
I will have the vet check Joe's teeth and his overall health too, but he seems to be doing well. He is now 22 years old, so not much younger than Willow, however, minis typically live roughly five to ten years longer than horses, so that makes him not quite as old as Willow.
I have been getting many requests from people to put the signage back out front on our property, next to the road where we have a 3 Corners Farm board that I used to share stories of the animals. People could stop to read the messages and follow along with their everyday life and silly stories. I stopped doing the board write-ups because I honestly didn't think many read the messages, and I also had to take Willow away from the road and place Joe's exercise run there. I decided to no longer offer treats for the animals because it was becoming too much in Willow's diet, and since getting Joe, I have discovered he is not the gentlest fellow at taking treats. I would not want a child or someone to be bit by him so I gave the board info a rest for a while.
Since so many really loved it, I am working on posting the picture and stories of each animal and sharing stories of their daily lives again. I will also add information about Travis's produce for sale because there are many who are into clean eating as much as we are, and much of those proceeds can go to the animals and Willow's special needs care needs. It's a win, win!
It takes a lot to type up the board information and have it laminated before taking it out to the road and stapling it onto the reader board, but I feel I have just enough time to accomplish it and be able to refresh it each week. It makes my heart happy to know that others love the animals and their stories as much as I do, and people also like to hear how they are cared for, and what care it requires to keep them at this safe sanctuary-type homestead with us.
Glorious Simple Living
While this all sounds like a lot, we love this lifestyle and feel so fortunate to live where we do and to live with the abundance and healing of nature. Taking in unwanted animals is one of our ways to give back to the world, and we thank those who have donated to them in the past. It is such a huge undertaking, but we have the space, knowledge, and ability to meet their needs every day so it just feels right!
To help myself live simply, and not get overwhelmed at times, here are the principles I live by:
a) Accumulate little
b) Eat simple foods
c) Dress simply
d) Live a simple, stress-free life (by doing what you love)
e) Let your life be your message
I hope these words of simplicity help others. We only need what we need. In this way, we can turn our time and attention to serving others.
I read the above steps a long time ago while listening to a self-help video on YouTube, and someone left these steps in the comments. I tried to go back and look in the comments section to find who wrote them to see if they had quoted anyone, but alas, it got lost in the shuffle somewhere. Thankfully I had written it down, as we writers so often do, and I have stored it in my heart and I put this wisdom to use every day since.
There is honestly more I could share here today, but I will be back as soon as I can with another blog update. Feel free to leave a comment about what you love hearing or learning from us! For example, here are some of the topics we share the most about:
-The tiny house project. (I still need to do another blog post and video update on that. I promise I will get to it!)
-The animals and/or rescue stories.
-The farming, and what about the farming such as the when, why, where, and how of planting, or the profit gained through small business farming.
-The future of hydroponics farming.
-As well as other topics like bread and jam recipes, canning recipes, or bees and making products from natural honey.
There are so many topics I am happy to share with anyone who is interested, and until next time, may you enjoy this spring season and be blessed.
Much love from,
Amy E. Darr
3 Corners Farm
Mosier Oregon, U.S.A.
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