Diversify, diversify, diversify. That’s all us small farmers are told to do. And really it’s great advice, but maybe it’s bad advice too? Monoculture farming Throughout the country, there are giant farms with thousands and thousands of acres of ONE crop. Thousands of acres of corn or wheat or soy bean or alfalfa or almonds […]
This summer was fantastic. I spent nearly a month in Ireland touring around music festivals and of course….farms. How could I leave my own farm and not go to another one? Ok ok I’m obsessed. I ended up on Inis Mor, the biggest of the three Aran Islands, where my friend and I took a […]
DIY Countertops When our Airbnb guest house flooded, the insurance unsurprisingly gave us peanuts to redo it. Hiring someone else would have left us with crappy flooring, crappy fixtures and a crappy laminate countertop. We of course decided to just redo the house ourselves and put in quality work. To do it yourself or not […]
A Visit to the Vet Our poor puppy, Agatha, has had quite a tough life. She spent many weeks of her early life at the vet with a flu and now she’s back at the vet with possibly an autoimmune disease. She’s the sweetest dog ever, but that’s strange and worrisome in and of itself […]
Babies!!! Finally the baby season has started. Usually we have babies running around as early as January, but this year it seems everyone wanted to wait until the weather warmed up a bit. The long awaited baby of last year’s most adorable baby, Aurora, has finally been born. She’s so cute and tiny I can […]
I woke up early before the sun was up to get some beautiful pictures of the sky and enjoy the quiet of the desert before the farm animals wake up. I wish I’d had more time as the sunrise was extra beautiful and the weather extra perfect which is rare in the extreme desert. […]
It isn’t really the beginning of the new year here at Flip Flop Ranch until the Cotton Patch Geese begin to lay their eggs. They’re a little late this year as we usually get eggs around valentine’s day (great present isn’t it?), but the weather has been a little weird so maybe that’s why. We […]
I gave a farm tour today to some wonderful people from a homeschooling Waldorf group from Topanga Canyon, CA who are considering bringing their whole group here for a field trip. I love Waldorfers. It’s a style of teaching that is very hands on and very connected to nature and to doing REAL things. Very […]
I haven’t posted much about this even though we’ve been struggling with it since january. I was walking past the farmstay guest house and noticed water leaking out the walls. I ran inside and there was just inches of water covering the entire first floor. Disaster! I was so upset. The hot water heater’s […]
