As any chicken keeper knows, the biggest mess in the chicken coop is below the roosting bars. Every night, the flock settles in on the roosting bars, and by morning the amount of manure that accumulates can be overwhelming. Especially if “just a few” hens become a flock with dozens of chickens! For years, I…
In this modern world, many people’s only recollection of a root cellar is from television. However, prior to modern refrigeration, root cellars were one of the ways that families could store food for the winter. Root cellars are underground structures that use the earth to provide a means to naturally cool, insulate and maintain proper…
Once the most important aspects of the driveway were complete, the other major project that we needed our bulldozer contractor to focus on was building the farm pond. Clinton and Ed Cockriel from Ed Cockriel & Son Dozer and Backhoe Services have years of experience in pond building in the Western Kentucky area. We appreciate…
Several months ago, Philip met with Clifton Cockriel of Ed Cockriel & Son Dozer and Backhoe Services to get an estimate to tackle a few of the larger tasks on the homestead. One of the biggest jobs we needed to complete was building a new driveway all the way to the building site of our…
As Philip and I continue the process of building the homestead infrastructure, our goal is to build completely off-grid. That will include solar electricity and possibly wind-generated power. For water, our initial plan was to install a well that we hoped to power with a windmill. However, after getting a sample of our neighbor’s water,…
We are absolutely thrilled to have added the Woodland Mills HM130 MAX sawmill to the homestead. Being able to mill our own lumber opens a world of possibilities. Our 68-acre property is approximately 80% wooded, so we have an abundance of raw material to work with. Harvesting timber from the property is part of healthy…
The first Winter Workcation of 2022 is in the books! Philip and I spent the end of February and the first week of March at the farm. I call them workcations because even though they are technically a vacation, I work much harder on the homestead than I do back at work! I have a…
As we prepare to make our move to the homestead permanent, Philip was thrilled to purchase a brand new Woodland Mills HM 130 MAX Portable Sawmill. After weeks of waiting and anticipation, Philip got the call in late December that the sawmill was en route to Kowalski Mountain. He packed up and headed to the…
Over the next year, we will be preparing and practicing for our biggest project likely of our lifetime. We will be building our own home from logs harvested right here on Kowalski Mountain. They say building a house is one of the biggest tests of a marriage, most people bicker over fixtures. We will literally…
As with all projects on the homestead, our workcations are shorter than the time it takes to do a large building project. So we chip away at them little by little until we get them done. Well, that’s the goal anyway. As I think about that statement, all of our big projects have lingering aspects…
