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About Our Family

Family photo 2020 — Our family values include nonviolent communication, self-directed education and gentle parenting. We strive to implement permaculture principles in all areas of our lifestyle.

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. -Lao Tzu

Thyme and rustic scissors — We love thyme. With seemingly endless varieties of this aromatic, delicious, medicinal, flowering evergreen ground cover we can’t think of a better namesake for our farm.

Our Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry

Ameraucana ~ Bresse ~ Cream Legbar ~ Isbar ~ French Black Copper Marans ~ Lavender Orpington ~ Silkie ~ Olive Egger ~ Easter Egger

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Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Phone: 917-727-2039

Hours: By appointment only

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betterwiththyme

A month ago I had never heard of Zoom, but now via

A month ago I had never heard of Zoom, but now via Zoom I’ve been interviewed, attended multiple webinars and even attended a virtual birthday party. This morning our whole family enjoyed “Victory Living for Pandemic and Everything After” with Ben & Erica Falk @wholesystemsdesign. You can see the replay on their YouTube channel if you want to check it out.⁣
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⁣There was so much great information and it was hard for me to pick one takeaway to highlight, so here are a few of my favorite things:⁣
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⁣If you live in the northern hemisphere now is the time to get started; you can start growing some of your own food now.⁣
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⁣Grow what you love - doesn’t matter how nutrient dense it is if you don’t want to eat it.⁣
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⁣If you can only grow one plant, grow garlic. It’s easy to grow and very good food and medicine.⁣
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⁣If you only have a very small space (like a pot on a balcony), grow lots of salad greens.⁣
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⁣The photo above is one of a handful of garlic plants we thinned this week. The kids helped plant the garlic last fall and did a great job of not planting more than one clove per hole for the most part, but the few that I did pull were so delicious. I don’t think it’s necessary to thin garlic, but I wanted to see how they were doing under the soil and taste some along with some of our other early spring greens that I love, like chickweed and sorrel.⁣
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⁣#garlic #springgreens #springgarlic #growyourown #growyourownfood #growyourownmedicine #permaculture #permaculturegarden

The last week has been a bit disorienting for me.

The last week has been a bit disorienting for me. It seems everything has changed because of the virus pandemic, yet my daily experience has remained essentially the same - working from home, cooking, cleaning, gardening and caring for children and animals.

One thing that has changed is how acute our awareness of our reliance on external inputs has become.
One of our primary goals is to reduce external inputs to our farm over time and instead recycle yields from one area of the farm as inputs to another, but we aren’t there yet. Thinking about the potential of not being able to buy feed for chickens got us thinking about meat rabbits.

We have thought about it before but have never taken any steps toward raising them. We had primarily been thinking within the context of feeding our dogs economically while maintaining a species appropriate, raw diet.

Now we’re thinking in the context of being able to feed ourselves as well. One of the advantages of chicken over beef or lamb is the relative ease of homestead/on farm butchering.

Based on our experience raising our pet rabbit, we know feeding rabbits is much easier than feeding chickens without any external inputs and we could easily feed rabbits from our property.

BUT, we’d never eaten rabbit before and weren’t quite sure how we felt about it since it’s out of our comfort zone. We remembered Rose (Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter) once caught a rabbit and ended up loving the stew her mother made.

When we stopped by the Farmer’s Daughter (@farmersdaughterwv) last weekend and saw locally raised rabbit meat for sale we bought one and proceeded to search online for Paleo Rabbit Stew and “how to cut up a meat rabbit.” The latter page described one of the cuts as “bunny bacon,” which turned out to be quite true.

Next we found a Paleo Rabbit Stew recipe from @thepaleomom. When I saw that it began with two heads of roasted garlic, I knew it was going to be amazing, and it was. And we made rabbit broth with everything we didn’t eat.

Have you ever eaten rabbit? Would you try it?

#meatrabbits #rabbitstew #paleo #paleodiet #broth #coronavirus #immunityboost #foodasmedicine

This chicken has a pretty cool story. Last summer

This chicken has a pretty cool story.

Last summer one of our hens abandoned a clutch of eggs she had been sitting on for two weeks. We decided to put the eggs in an incubator in case any of them still had a chance of hatching. This girl is the only one that made it through and we started calling her “the friendly chick” because she thought of me as her mother and was very close with us. She’s the only chicken we’ve ever had that likes to sit on my shoulders/back - do you know how chicks hatched under a broody jump on their mom’s back?

Once she was old enough to move outside, we moved her in with our silkies first since they are gentle and low key about the pecking order. Early this spring she decided to start flying the silkie fence and join the rest of the flock. I assumed she was a half cream legbar/half black silkie since she hatched out of a blue egg and had black feathers, dark skin and five toes, but as she got older her black feathers changed to blue and she started growing copper hackle feathers like our FBC Marans.

Then the coolest thing happened… she started laying eggs that are the size of silkie eggs and darker brown than any of our other chickens besides our Marans and she lays TWO eggs every day. Seriously! No other chicken lays where she lays, or in the size/color combination that she lays.

Hope you enjoy this interesting chicken for #meetmychickenmonday @17chickensandcounting and @chickouttawater!

#marans #silkie #mixedbreed #twoeggsdaily #chicken #chickenbreeder #spoiledchickens ⁣#chickenfarm #chickenkeeping #chickenlife #chickenmama #chickens #chickensofig #chickensofinstagram #crazychickenlady #dailyfluff #farmfresh #homestead #homesteadinglife #lovemychickens #pastureraised #permaculture #permaculturechickens #petchickens

Today felt like a great day to focus on joy, rathe

Today felt like a great day to focus on joy, rather than fear.

We spent the majority of the day outdoors with many animals, including lots of baby animals and our future lambs! They are so precious and we had a lot of fun meeting them. Who can resist feeling joyful when they see the smiling face of a babydoll lamb?

When we got home in the evening we listened to a fantastic webinar with Chris Kresser. One of the best takeaways for me was that though the COVID-19 virus is spreading in an exponential pattern, we as individuals have the power to help slow the onset of new cases so that the healthcare system doesn’t become overwhelmed and people who do get sick can get the help they need. Swipe to the last photo for a graphic.

Sharing with @still_roost for #spreadthejoysaturday

#babydollsheep #oldenglishbabydollsouthdownsheep #babydolllamb #babydollsouthdown #babydollsouthdownsheep #lamb #springlamb

Man’s best friend, farm’s best protection. Ou

Man’s best friend, farm’s best protection.

Our males in particular seem to melt into us when we give them affection.

But since they are livestock guardians, moments like these sometimes end abruptly.

If a chicken makes a certain noise, this seemingly relaxed, half-asleep dog will be on his feet and gone before you even realize what he heard.

Thank you Beau for everything you give us.
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⁣Happy #farmpupfriday to @parallel45farm and all the other farm pup lovers.⁣
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#beauofbetterwiththyme #akcgreatpyrenees #farmdog #farmher #farmlifebestlife #greatpyr #greatpyrenees #greatpyreneeslife #greatpyreneesofig #greatpyreneesofinstagram #greatpyreneesoftheday #greatpyreneesofthehour #greatpyreneesofthemoment #homesteading #lgd #livestockguardian #livestockguardiandog

Introducing Laura, a blue Ameraucana pullet we hat

Introducing Laura, a blue Ameraucana pullet we hatched last summer, who has become besties with Lulu and Lacey (our American Guinea Hog gilts). Laura flies over whatever fences are in the way and spends the majority of her day hanging with the pigs.

She follows them around and sneaks in to gobble up worms (and whatever else catches her eye) when the pigs uproot them.

I love the unexpected connections that occur in a multi-species farm.

Happy #meetmychickenmonday @17chickensandcounting and @chickouttawater

#smartchicken #ameraucana #blueblacksplash #chickenbreeder #americanguineahog #permaculture #permaculturepigs #gardenprep #spring

We enjoyed a spring activity filled weekend, with

We enjoyed a spring activity filled weekend, with one activity that is typically reserved for the fall - planting flowering bulbs.⁣
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⁣After four missed fall planting seasons, I decided to try some “pre-chilled” bulbs of some of my favorite flowers that I really miss from our previous garden, like the Replete Daffodil in the photo.⁣
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⁣Have you ever tried planting bulbs in the spring? How did it go?⁣
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⁣#daffodils #repletedaffodil #spring #springiscoming #flowers #bulbflowers #springisintheair #flowerphotography #flowerstagram #flowersofinstagram #nature #naturephotography

Just hangin’ out, watchin’ over our birds. - M

Just hangin’ out, watchin’ over our birds. - Mint & Bria
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⁣Happy #farmpupfriday to @parallel45farm and all the other farm pup lovers.⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣#mintofbetterwiththyme ⁣⁣⁣#briaofbetterwiththyme #akcgreatpyrenees #farmdog #farmher #farmlifebestlife #giantpuppy #greatpyr #greatpyrenees #greatpyreneesfamily #greatpyreneeslife #greatpyreneesofig #greatpyreneesofinstagram #greatpyreneesoftheday #greatpyreneesofthehour #greatpyreneesofthemoment #greatpyreneespuppy #homesteading #instapuppy #lgd #livestockguardian #livestockguardiandog #pyreneespuppy #pyrpup

This morning I talked with Gloria Mancini of Farms

This morning I talked with Gloria Mancini of Farmsteadtalk @farmsteadtalk and represented West Virginia for her 50 state homesteader interview series.

Please check out her channel and subscribe! Gloria is a wonderful interviewer, a retired nurse, teacher and mentor who at this time in her life wants to give back and help others on their homesteading journeys.

Like us, Gloria believes that each one of us can make a positive impact on our planet.

Farmsteadtalk is about learning from each other, helping each other, befriending each other and embracing our commonalities.

If you get a chance to watch the interview, please feel free to ask any followup questions.

Thank you again Gloria, I really enjoyed it!

#interview #youtube #westvirginia #westvirginiafarmers #homesteading #homesteadinglife #offgrid #chickens #ducks #livestockguardiandogs #dairycow #babydollsheep #oldeenglishbabydollsouthdownsheep #foodallergies #fermentation #gardening #permaculture

March can be a “wildcard” here in WV but this

March can be a “wildcard” here in WV but this year it is all spring and the plants have known all along. After some rain yesterday and sun and warm temperatures this morning, the pasture has returned to more green than brown. Today the whole family was outside working and playing most of the day until an evening thunderstorm rolled in.⁣
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⁣Our willows will soon be ready for cutting back. I’m thinking about using the rods to begin to create pasture hedges (my goal is to continue rotational grazing mini-cattle and sheep without needing to move electric netting indefinitely.) I’m not sure if willow is a good candidate for this job so if anyone has thoughts, I’d love to know.⁣
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⁣We will have more willow rods than we need. If you’re interested, send me a pm. We have eight varieties, including “packing twine,” “golden curls” and a pink pussy willow.⁣
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⁣#salix #willow #plant #willowtree #garden #permaculture #permaculturegarden

Introducing some more new hatchlings for #meetmych

Introducing some more new hatchlings for #meetmychickenmonday with @17chickensandcounting and @chickouttawater

These little ones are blue, black and splash Isbar chicks.

There’s a puzzle too - how did we get a splash chick from a blue rooster over black hens? Anyone know?

#isbar #isbarchick #isbarchicks #isbarchicken #chickenbreeder #spoiledchickens #bwtisbars ⁣#babychicks #chicken #chickenfarm #chickenkeeping #chickenlife #chickenmama #chickens #chickensofig #chickensofinstagram #crazychickenlady #dailyfluff #farmfresh #homestead #homesteadinglife #lovemychickens #pastureraised #permaculture #permaculturechickens #petchickens

Some of our #leapday2020 hatchlings, being moved f

Some of our #leapday2020 hatchlings, being moved from the incubators to the brooder.⁣
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⁣Sharing with @lazy_b_acres for #silkiesnugglesunday.⁣
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⁣#silkie #silkiebreeder #silkiechick #silkiechicken #silkiechicks #silkies #silkiesofinstagram #spoiledchickens #bwtsilkies ⁣#babychicks #chicken #chickenfarm #chickenkeeping #chickenlife #chickenmama #chickens #chickensofig #chickensofinstagram #crazychickenlady #dailyfluff #farmfresh #homestead #homesteadinglife #lovemychickens #pastureraised #permaculture #permaculturechickens #petchickens

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