NowHere Farms

It's been a busy few weeks around NowHere.  We find ourselves in the crunch of the dreaded "tax time" and this being the first year we file taxes as a business, it has been a challenge.  We are pushing through and will get 'er done, but it is adding a bit more to the must-get-done priority list. The garden is keeping Cletus quite busy.  When he retired, a friend whose husband had retired from the same company mentioned to me, "we are wondering how in the world he ever had time to work!".  Even so, every day we are grateful for the retirement status and the fact that he is now busy doing what he loves and following his passion for homesteading.  It's a lot better than being the guy in the chair. There is no self-sustaining magic to do it; it is all hard work! When he is not busy in the garden, he is busy with quail; making sure the quail housing is sufficient for our numbers, the quail housing is clean , the quail watering system is flowing, the feed is ...

  We think winter is finally, really over.  We did have one last blast of winter right as our last batch of chicks hatched.  Since we have 110 eggs in the incubator right now, we are watching to see what the lows are looking like on our next hatch day.  That being said, we are not really expecting any more freezing temperatures.   I don't think I can even make banana chips out of these but we have new green shoots!! Poor satsuma.  We will get another at the plant sale in a few weeks The cherry tree is happy with the winter we had My bay tree.  Not healthy, but still alive The early potatoes we planted survived with a LOT of work and effort.      Unfortunately the yield was just enough for one pot of green beans and potatoes.  A small pot.  With one serving each.  Barely.  They were delicious!  (I did not bother taking pictures).  Our later potato plants are doing very well.   Lima beans to ...

Back in November we ordered and received some eggs from MyShire Farm .  I've written about MyShire before, but let me just mention again how much we appreciate Zack and Jenna Greene.  The quail who hatched out of these eggs are our primary breeding group now of 19 females and 4 males.  A usual day gives us 18 eggs from this group and the fertility rate is excellent.   We set eggs in two different incubators last month and unfortunately made some rookie mistakes (We know to check and make sure the turner is on.  We know their little legs cannot handle bare plastic floor).  Still, we have 38 healthy babies from those hatches and they are thriving in their condo. We heard from someone they used the quail rails (a device you put the eggs in and it turns them for you) in their Brinsea incubator and had a good hatch with a lot more eggs than just using the chicken rails, so we invested in some.   A little over two weeks ago we set NINETY-TWO eggs in our B...

 Good morning friends!  I hope you are all safe and sound after a crazy weather weekend.  We had a busy one in the Now and the Here. On Friday we had to go to Mobile ~ another trip through the Bankhead Tunnel (if you are local you understand).   It's a perfect can-opener for trucks over 12 feet After that trip we went to Fairhope, Alabama for their annual Arts and Crafts Festival. Oh what a Festival!  Downtown Fairhope shuts down and there are blocks and blocks and blocks of vendors of all kinds.  Our new friend from the Ballyhoo Festival ,  Royal Miree was there along with artists of all kinds.  As we were walking the main street I noticed a woman spinning fiber.  Of course I had to stop and ask if she were local because I have wanted to learn to spin since I was quite young.     Tammy Meissner is not local but she told me about some of the Fiber Festivals and the classes they offer (going to the Fiber Festival in Ashev...