by Jon Stevens Last week we talked about the obligations living in the country carries…speech patterns, friendliness, and so forth. But there are a few more things to consider if a person is thinking they are hearing the call of the carrot and that it’s time to leave the safety of the cement. Hearing,...
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by Jon Stevens It is planting time again at The Open Gate Farm. We may get fooled by this warm weather, but it’s worth the risk! One fellow did thoughtfully remind us of the late March snowstorm a few years ago. Heck. We’re farmers. We know how to live on the edge of the...
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by Jon Stevens Scooter, our little tan and white Indian Runner duck, came up to us yesterday with a question. She knows Valentine’s Day is approaching and was wondering what to get her man, The Parson Dudley Brown. She said he did not need any more cuff links or socks and that his subscription...
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By Jon Stevens It is odd how news is always about change. There is the good news of a raise or the bad news of a job loss. We’ve all known people who are news junkies, up on the latest implication which a hangnail in Havana has for us. They feed upon change. So...
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by Jon Stevens The chickens are chuckling. Grandma Betty’s bunions got it right again. Right as rain. She called it…when would the snow stop and the rain start? And the girls are solvent once more. The ducks have been milling around the coop, cluttering the place up with their idleness, desperately tired and bored...
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by Jon Stevens The other day we drove for miles on a flat, straight road. Orange groves filled with ripe fruit hanging like bright Christmas balls from their trees lined our travels. Vineyards with huge bunches of ripe blue grapes drooping, waiting for the harvest flew past. Surrounded by tidy farms, with clear sunlight...
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by Jon Stevens This is a charming time of year. The hard holidays are behind us, the new year lies before us all clean and uncommitted. Dreams and ideas begin to bud on the branches of our lives and the chickens are handling the weeding this week. This is when we haul out big...
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by Jon Stevens Ben, our handsome red rooster, came up to the kitchen window the other day to have a talk. We were inside, keeping an eye on a load of cookies and well, you know the health department. They’re not keen on animals in the kitchen, so we chatted through the open window,...
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by Jon Stevens Have you ever come home from a journey? Have you ever arrived at the door a bit dusty and tired and ready to find rest in the routines of your regular life? While it is fun to taste fancy foods in faraway places and to see the Seven Wonders of the...
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by Jon Stevens We were sitting in the warm sunlight on the porch in front of our little office when the good Parson, Dudley Brown, our Indian Runner drake, came over. Seems he had a problem. He was stuck on what to say in his Christmas sermon to his little flock, come the 25th of...
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