Farm Homestead - Page 2 of 38 - The farm is our home.

07Apr 2018 by Melissa Hamler No Comments

Growing a bonsai nursery – Explore the hobby?

Many have bonsai propagation as a hobby. It is a pure investment of time, patience and creativity. Observing the growth and capturing every episode of the bonsai’s life is indeed a pleasure. Changing Bonsai pots periodically is like adding flavor to your desserts! Taking care of a bonsai nursery is a mere liking. Bonsai nursery is not a business but a preference Growing bonsai nursery can be a business for many, but for a few it is a hobby – an activity that offers a feeling of pleasure. What’s so fishy about bonsai plants and why are they close to the heart. The beauty of the bonsai is that it is an alluring plant and it changes every season. Watching it grow is like watching a baby grow in a…

01Apr 2018 by Farmer No Comments

Adding Fruit To Edible Landscape

Sustainable Landscaping

Small fruits are often easier to integrate into the edible landscape than fruit trees. Strawberries are excellent ground covers, often covering the surface much faster than ornamental ground covers. The foliage becomes an attractive red in the fall, and the fruit are a tasty bonus. Select varieties that will not require mulching in the winter as the straw could prove quite distracting in the front yard. [caption id="attachment_4975" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Strawberry plants make an excellent, edible ground cover![/caption] Anywhere you can grow azaleas will be equally suitable for blueberries. However, unless you are willing to view bird netting for much of the harvest season, plant enough to share with the birds. Several Berries Are Shrubs Blackberries, raspberries, or gooseberries could effectively substitute for a shrub border. They will undoubtedly help…

29Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

DIY Back Pain Solutions

Health

If you’re like most people, you want to avoid surgery if at all possible. That’s why you should try some DIY back pain solutions that have been known to work to ease the pain you may be experiencing. When you’re experiencing back pain, it can make you feel frustrated because it often limits what you can comfortably do. Back pain can make sleeping difficult, it can make walking painful and it can make doing the stuff you’d like to do an impossibility. Exercises That Can Help Ease Back Pain When it’s painful to move, the last thing you might imagine yourself doing is any kind of exercises - but strangely enough, it really does help. Avoiding as much movement as possible can actually make the pain worsen because it increases…

26Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

Awareness for Survival

Emergency Preparedness

While an unpleasant topic, never forget... "Chance favors the prepared." When it comes to dangerous situations where mass murders are more likely to occur, most people are completely unprepared. You’ll even hear news accounts where witnesses will remark that they never suspected or never saw the situation coming. But by having awareness, you can raise your odds of surviving such a disaster. Pay attention to your surroundings - but also pay attention to special days and anniversaries of events. Terrorists and mass shooters will often attack on the anniversary of something significant that happened, such as the 9/11 terrorist attack. Sometimes it’s a celebratory attack honoring a previous attack - and sometimes it’s revenge for something that happened to their side. School Shootings School shootings are on the list of…

23Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

How To Make and Use Dandelion Flower Infused Oil

Using Herbs

Dandelion flower infused oil is a "spring thing". Just be sure to leave some flowers for the bees! Dandelion flowers just grow anywhere and everywhere! For some inexplicable reason, people want them eradicated from their yard, I have never understood why. The broad sweeping green of lawn is simply uninteresting and bland without the presence of the dandelion's bright pop of yellow in the spring. The first food of the year for bees, dandelions emerge before the beginning of spring and bloom intensely all summer and into autumn making them, also, the last of the seasonal food for your local bees. That is enough to allow the hardy dandelion its place even if you do nothing but appreciate its tenacity and benevolence. When harvesting dandelion flowers in early spring, I…

21Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

Broadley Penitentiary

Homestead Stories

And, The past two day here at Broadley Penitentiary have been interesting to say the least and with the onset of yet another snow event, I am feeling the extra work with having the Frolicking Frisky Fat girls amongst the prisoners. The Little Nasties have gone on strike and not laid their little duckie eggs for two days, the Little Chicken Mafia have been practicing their own brand of payback and Peckerhead…well he’s just being a peckerhead. Everyone in the cells are protesting the crowded conditions… The Frolicking Frisky Fat girls are loving and fun and ohhhh so curious…nosing the other prisoners creating a flurry of quacks and squawks…outrage from the fluffy feathered fowl…they charge the door each time I enter, all sixty to seventy pounds of them trying to…

17Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

I Am Snow Fatigued

Homestead Stories

Another guest post from our ever humerous, Nancy Broadley. I have had only scant hints of snow all winter here in NE Oklahoma, but up North, it's a whole different story... And... I am snow fatigued. Yes, there is a condition in the North East that is snow fatigue and after three Nor’ Easters in the span of two weeks I’ve had enough. So on this morning hubby is out, bundled up in a snow suit, pushing the blasted white stuff out of the driveway…I am still in my pajama's and wrapped in my blue and white Eyore bathrobe. I can hear the prisoners squawking for breakfast and I dread the thought of slumping my way through two feet of snow, carrying a water pail, to feed and water the…

15Mar 2018 by Farmer No Comments

Katahdin Dorper Cross Ewe Lamb

Sheep

Born March 14 early in the morning mist. Norma Jean's first lamb, Emma Kate. If you'd like to know more about these breeds, I wrote a little bit more about the breeds and this cross at Katahdin Dorper Cross [caption id="attachment_4679" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Our newest little bundle of joy, Emma Kate[/caption]

10Mar 2018 by Melissa Hamler No Comments

Why is Indoor Plant Nursery a Boon to Health?

Indoor Gardening

Gone are the days when indoor plants would be treated as just another piece of furniture and left in a corner. Today, we are more open to the concept and the benefits of having an indoor plant nursery and their advantages simply outweigh the work involved. The most important aspect of keeping an indoor plant is the fact they lighten the mood of a room and add to the positive ambiance in your rooms. There are several types of indoor plants available in the market and you need to choose the best one for your home. When you choose the indoor plants, you need to choose some plants which will require minimum maintenance and watering. Apart from that, you need to prune these plants after stipulated time frame and you…

16Feb 2018 by Farmer No Comments

Let’s Go to Bed – I don’t like this day. I need a new one.

Homestead Stories

And... This morning I feel like a murderer…..I woke to the darkness and took my time out on the deck to enjoy the mornings peaceful and finally, warmer temps. Coffee in hand I could hear Peckerhead crowing his own greeting to what promises to be a nice day. The Little Chicken Mafia clucking away quietly, almost as if whispering. The Little Nasties, a bit louder with their demanding, rowdy quacks. I am coming out of a sleepless night….I am tired and groggy trying to dig deep to find any little scrap of energy that will carry me through the normal morning chores. My restless night started at about 1 a.m. Bumping under the kitchen floor, the dogs scrabbling across the room trying to get whatever it was that chose this…