Humble Pie Farm

Hello dear HPF friends! We're settling in to our new digs. We love our peaceful spot up on the ridge above Plum Creek, and the Eau Galle River. Nugget Lake Park is less than a mile away, a beautiful wooded Pierce County park with endangered Snow Trillium, and ramps in April as far as the eye can see. And, "thars gold in that there crick!" It's called Nugget Lake because thanks to an asteroid hitting the earth thousands of years ago, there has been gold found in the lake. You can still pan for it. Just another reason to come visit us in Wisco. You might just get rich!

Papa and Earl are getting things done around the farm in this late, late fall, and mama is bringing home the bacon. It's a big transition, and we're all doing our best to go slow, love each other up, sleep a lot, eat good fall food, and be present in the shortening days leading to winter. They say that this year's El Nino could be the strongest on record, and historically that means mild winters for Midwesterners. So far that's been true here, and we're grateful for the extra days to get the fields a little bit more ready for spring. It's wet and windy up here on our ridge, and it'll be interesting to see how our clay soil dries out in spring.

It's all so new, and there are so many variables. We were going to put up our greenhouse this fall, but decided to farm this land a year before we do anything semi-permanent. We need to know where the wind blows and the water flows, and what our new soil likes to grow. Mike has been pounding in stakes all week, and screwing in earth anchors, trying to get all the hardware in the ground for caterpillar tunnels to be anchored with PVC pipe, covered with plastic, and filled with flowers in spring.

We bought a new BCS walk behind tractor. It was a big, agonizing purchase, and it's a beauty despite a few weird quirks to begin. The bolts on the wheels weren't tightened in the factory, we guess, and both wheels pret' near fell off in the first few uses. It's humming along now, so we hope those days are behind us. 

Earl gathers soil for a soil test. I love his serious attention to detail. Greyjoy helped.

We have three new sibling rescue kitties, and they're so sweet. We're also dog-sitting Buddy for a few days while his mom, our friend Linda, is in Central America. Along with our thirteen chickens, we have a happy little human and animal family. We've also had lots of visitors and found our new co-op grocery in Menomonie, and the awesome library there, and a place for swimming lessons, etc. We're finding our community here, but mostly just finding each other after our busy year and of course, our new piece of ground. The biggest adjustment has been mama at off-farm work all day and papa and Earl keeping the home fires burning.

I love this photo because of the possibility it holds. As we embark on the week of celebrating giving thanks, and especially in light of the big reminders of the fragility of life on our beautiful, tumultuous globe, we reflect a bit more on all we have to be thankful for this season. Thanks so much for your support during our past season, and for joining us in the new chapter of our farm dream journey! We can't wait to fill this dirt with flowers, flowers and more flowers!

xoxo J,M+E