More about Thor's Hammer Farm

I've received a few private emails asking for more information about my little "homestead".
Because of privacy issues, I won't go into too many personal details but I will share what I feel is "net safe". This blog will most often be one of willy-nilly thoughts and ramblings. There is no rhyme or reason to my posts - they just get posted as the thought hits.

I live in South Carolina on about 1 1/2 ares of danged hard red clay. I've been in my little corner of the world for almost 12 years. My area is rural/urban, which means look one way and you see farms, look the other way you see strip malls. Originally the plot of land I purchased was deed restricted - meaning nothing other than your typical neighborhood with picket fences and flower boxes. That changed very quickly. Covenants are no longer enforced (or held up in legal venues) and a good many places around here have been deeded back to agricultural tax bases.

What does that mean for me? Well, it means I can do what I wish as long as I am not a public nuisance. The most logical choice for me was to go more towards agriculture. Pull up in front of my house and you'd never know the back acreage contained a mini-farm in the works. That will change once the front portion is fenced and I rotate the eventual goat herd hither and yonder. My opening picture is of my one and only goat (for now) - a part pygmy nanny that found us to be suitable as a home.

We have built a small greenhouse. Inside houses a few tomato plants, some plants that are squash, pumpkin or watermelon - we won't know until they grow a bit - invaders from the compost heap, Basil and some flowers. It's an experiment. If it works and we are able to maintain through winter, then it will be expanded next year. It was built using old flexible fiberglass tent poles, bamboo, wire and sheet plastic.

This is the framework, minus the sheet plastic. The heating will be using buddy burners - small cans filled with corrugated cardboard and paraffin, lit like little bunsen burners. It's a small one - you have to stoop to enter but it seems to be doing well.

Summers here are hot as Hades so A/C is a necessity. I wish we had other alternatives because of the sheer cost. Winters verge on mild - we do get snow and ice from time to time but some years we never see a flake. Other years we get monstrous icestorms that knock the power out for a while. We heat mostly with the fireplace but back it up with the heat pump. Our firewood is gleaned from deadfall or free wood we find via word of mouth. Having a wooded section does provide some firewood. Below is our most unusual snowfall in March of '09.

We home school 2 children - a son - almost 14 and a daughter 11.  That's a journey all it's own. We started almost 7 years ago and it's definitely a work in progress. My son is set on a military career (it's in his genes and by osmosis - he comes from a military background - Dad Army, grandfathers Marines and Navy, great grandfather Navy, uncle's both Navy and Marines) and my daughter on a Culinary path (I guess she gets it from my scientific kitchen experiments). My daughter drives me to cook more, bake more and create new recipes. My son drives me to get up, get out and "do". Day by day is my mantra. Both children have a love of animals (we have 4 cats, 2 dogs, a goat, several wild cats that feed here, a raccoon and a possum) and family and enjoy the the way we live. That's my reward.

This is our classroom. Just the sit down area. The world is really our classroom.

I think that setting out on our journey is because of our children. Yearning to get back to basics and teaching them that the latest and greatest isn't always the greatest. I'll be content knowing my husband and I have set them on a path of self exploration, enjoying the basics that life has to offer and just looking around in nature to find something new to excite them.