The Blogging Farmer

A.k.a How Real Men (and Women) Move Snow

Clearing the driveway next morning is my least favorite part of any snowstorm. On the farm, we have a very convenient driveway that loops all the way around the house, making it really easy for multiple cars to get in and out. Easy, that is, unless it’s packed with about 20 tons of sticky, wet snow. This was the situation we awoke with this morning.

In the past, we’d moved snow the hard way with either a good old-fashioned shovel or a cheap, bad snow-blower (which actually saved no time or effort, as the thing is underpowered and clogs ALL THE TIME). Inspired by something I’d read on the TractorByNet forums, I decided to put our Kubota L4630 to good use. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s no surprising most Eastcoasters with massive snowfall this year after the series of blizzards that battered the Eastern seaboard over the past couple of months, but Central NY has been relatively left out of the party. The snowstorms that dumped feet of snow over places like Virginia and North Carolina gave us scant inches. I haven’t even been out cross-country skiing this year. Until, that is, today.

A good gauge of just how much snowfall we got: that car was clean last evening. In the picture, it has about 8 inches of snow on the bed cover. The snow is still falling as I write.  Read the rest of this entry »

I absolutely love beef jerky. Not only that, but it can be very good for you. Unfortunately, my family has been eating only organic beef for over a decade now (since 1997… at some point, I will probably explain our reasons). While the “organic revolution” has been making great strides recently, organic beef jerky is not yet really widely available, especially in backwater Upstate NY where we live. Armed with an Excalibur Deluxe Food Dehydrator, I set out on the quest for beef jerky. This is the method I worked out after a few trial runs.

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As you may have gathered from other posts on this blog, I’m pretty concerned with healthy eating. I also have a degree in biology, which makes me consider my opinions in this regard at least semi-intelligent. One of these opinions is that beef jerky is one of the healthiest things you can eat, bar none (provided it is made with organic beef, untreated with hormones or antibiotics). Read the rest of this entry »