Keyline Cowboy

Now here’s a family who’s really doing it! Friends of ours, Cliff and Jen, are raising their kids, homesteading, and running Spiral Ridge Permaculture.  We first visited their site in the spring of 2011 and I really admired Jen as she skillfully changed her daughter’s diaper in her lap while chatting with us in the greenhouse without skipping a beat – no changing table necessary. I was pregnant with our son at the time, so this stuck to my mother-to-be mind. Another thing that really stuck with me were the daylillies that Cliff fed me during a walk-through of his garden – they were so beautiful and tasty, and surprisingly meaty – they almost had the consistency of a mushroom! I was very impressed with their site and admired the sacrifices they made to live a completely off the grid self-sufficient lifestyle. Check out their site and follow their progress!

I came across this site when looking up the ingredients in my son’s sunscreen. The Environmental Working Group has a database of over 69,000 cosmetic products and product ingredients – just type in the name of a product or an ingredient and see a grade and an explanation of any dangers. Although it doesn’t directly relate to what we do, it does point out the perilous ingredients in many of the products that we routinely apply to ourselves and our children. Our vision is to create a community of people who live sustainable lives, grow nutrient dense food, and produce safe, non-toxic cosmetics, cleaning products, etc. My dream is for my son to grow up without having to worry that every product in his cabinet and his neighbors’ cabinets will increase his children’s risk of cancer or ADHD or who knows what else. I appreciate this site because it’s informative and easy to use (and no, I’m not getting paid to promote them – I’m just an appreciative consumer!) Thanks, EWG

We had a booth at the Charleston Springfest this past Saturday. The weather was beautiful, I got to pass out cards and brochures and talk about sustainable farming, and Garett got his first taste of cotton candy!

One of my big beefs with the organic meat labeling qualifications is that there is nothing in the standards about whether the animals were raised indoors or out. Translation: Big Ag growers raise “organic” turkeys, chickens, pigs, and cows in big row houses. Inside. It’s unnatural, it’s unhealthy for the animals, it’s unhealthy for the environment, and it’s unhealthy for the people who are eating the food produced from these animals. Organic is good, but it’s just not enough. I want to know that when I buy meat and dairy, the animal it came from was raised outside on pasture the way God and nature intended. Organic doesn’t tell me that, but a new label does. It’s called the Animal Welfare Approved label and I spoke with one of their reps at a booth they had at the SSAWG conference in Little Rock this January. Check out their website, request AWA products at your local grocery store, and spread the word to your friends and family. The more demand we create for high quality food, the more farmers will see the benefit of producing healthier safter food. The government isn’t concerned about your health, your kids’ health, or the health of the environment – the only way to ensure that we have access to healthy food raised without damaging the planet is to DEMAND it!

We attended the Southern SAWG (Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) in Little Rock in January and got some great info and met some wonderful people! We will be working with some people in the NRCS to help spread the word about Keyline Design and compost tea.

We also started a facebook page (I can’t believe we did it, but we figured it’d be a great networking tool) so if you’re into that, check us out and ‘like’ us – I think that’s the right lingo – I’m still learning!

Here is an article Albert Bates wrote which discusses some of work on The Farm. There’s even a picture of me about a week before delivering Garett out in the field marking the lines!