Kara Ann

Such a famous painting, so many untold potential stories within it, and this:

Also.... with regard to appropriate and viable ground cover plants.... it looks like you are in Southern Maine. Is the location of the green drive also there? What growing zone?  That could help with selecting well matched green...

UMass Extension (Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment), Selection of Grasses for Turf — regional New England seed-mix recommendations, fine fescue included for low-input/high-stress turf areas: https://www.umass.edu/agriculture-food-environment/turf/fact-sheets/selection-of-grasses

Thanks for everyone chiming in here - this really is a quality-of-environment proposition, isn't it, to have stabilized ground, able to deal with the burden of some vehicle traffic, that is still beautiful and water absorbent?

For my farm, I have used geocell - both tiles and grid. It has been around since the 1950s, but gotten popular more recently. I posted an explanation and pictures here: https://permies.com/t/374015/Gravel-pad-foundation-concerns  (scroll down to the bottom of that thread to see).  I have used it as structure to establish green lanes for driving as well as footing under hoop house / greenhouse / shed.
It is a good consideration for a friendly green roadway area and other farm uses:  https://www.backyardbases.com/farms/?srsltid=AfmBOorvToLHJjKJJfGYlnJrNLVpW6DiOzwwsyg6ZDQw5f1vOF6HTyoR

You can stretch out the geo cell web, peg it and then fill with soil or shredded straw, deep litter bedding from chicken house, whatever compost you have around, shredded comfrey leaves mixed with shredded cardboard... I have used all of those... and then broadcast whatever type of seeds you like to generate a living surface.

Good luck with your project!!

Wow Tereza - LOVE your joie de vivre  and go-with-it approach to sourdough - thanks so much for sharing that!

Hey Sea - golly I have walked much the same path.  Both water kefir and sourdough starter have been uphill roads with many detours.

I have come to the conclusion that sourdough can be something to gradually sidle up to.... just getting the starter to be consistently happy, but not so exhuberant that it overflows, has been more like managing a bipolar lab creature than working with a reliable and welcome kitchen ingredient.  When it is unhappy, I end up refreshing it more often in my bumbling attempts to improve, and then I have sourdough discard, which can go to the chickens mixed in their fermented grains, but I like to make productive use of it.

My favorite use of the discard is to make crumpets  (here is an example https://www.scotchandscones.com/sourdough-crumpets/ )  especially currently, while I am glamping with very limited baking options while tiny home is in construction. Until I get the RMH oven finished and functional, I am really appreciating the capacity to make some version of bread on a cast iron skillet.

and in all honestly, as someone who lives solo, a perfect loaf is very seldom my objective.  It takes a while for one person to get through a full loaf of bread... honestly longer than it stays wonderful, and freezing then thawing does NOT provide the same eating experience.  

So maybe I am in sourdough kindergarten.... taking little steps!

Hi  all who are chiming in -  great to hear your desire and vision!  I was looking at property and figuring out $$ to finance it for 5 years, while I was studying permaculture, regen ag, and learning practical skills in a rented postage stamp permaculture plot.  And honestly now that I am on my purchased farm, and using the skills, I can't imagine getting through the work I am doing now without having so many books, lectures, and hands in the dirt and on the critters under my belt. And STILL SO MUCH TO LEARN.

While you are exploring and shepherding your vision for being 'landed', it can help you to use every minute of your time that you can to build your farm skill set!
You might want to explore Paul's brainchild of SKIP  (Skills to Inherit Property). Read the SKIP book, review all the posts in the SKIP form  (find it in the forum buttons on the left column), and begin doing the SKIP tasks. Becoming experienced and onboarding the skills you will need once you are on some property can tip the scales in your favor for any kind of special deal or connection with landowner.  Start now, with where you are, with any little step you can take...  "When you work for Mother Nature, you get paid by Father Time"

And cheers to those who are suggesting renting property.  My years on rental property, learning and practicing farm skills on a postage stamp plot were invaluable (though the transition to move 100+ plants and flocks and fluffles from there to the land I bought was darn hard.)  

Also there is HUGE VARIATION in the regulatory openness or oppression of county planning offices. There is a reason why Paul calls the regulatory and permitting processes of local property associations / city / county / state jurisdictions 'The Department of Making You Sad'.  You can read the dismal story of my first year's regulatory challenges in this post: https://permies.com/t/380043/acres-Western-WA-resilient-permaculture   It has been discouraging to have fully researched the Washington state regulations, for example composting toilets, and make plans based on the state regulations, and then learn that the county where I am located completely prohibits composting toilet, no possibilities, no negotiations, no debate. The regulatory environment within which any property sits is EQUALLY IMPORTANT to the land, the climate, the local vibe, the access to transportation and markets, affordability etc.

Just my two cents.... good luck!

Anne Miller wrote:I have read that before refrigeration, the leftovers from a meal were sealed into a thick crust and slow baked then would be ready so the men would take these for lunch.

The crust was called a coffin and sealed the contents so no air got in.

Ohhhhh a coffin for lunch, and here we are heading toward Halloween and All Hallows!  Anne you have an amazing breadth of info to share!!  Thanks  - this made me smile!

I grew up eating a german style meat pie known as a 'runza'.  My grandmother grew up on a farm in Iowa in a German/Swedish community, and these were a popular item at any community gathering.  

Here is a modern recipe from a Nebraska farmhouse recipe:
https://myfarmhousetable.com/nebraskas-homemade-runza/
She includes cheese as an option - and honestly I can't image my grandmother ever even considering that kind of alteration, but it would probably be delicious.

Not exactly the same type of pie crust meat pie, but it sure meets the criteria of a meal in the hand with a protein in the middle and a wrapping on the outside.
My grandmother's recipe was not shy with the butter, and that was the first taste to hit the tongue with a bite of it.... then the meat and cabbage and spices....

Carla Burke wrote:They have, indeed, been eaten. Every last one of them. It usually happens in early spring, when the chipmunks are noticing all the bulbs and corms coming to life, again...

Ohhhh Carla, I feel your pain on this one - mine also got eaten this summer, every last one of about 1000 bulbs in about 1 week. It was self inflicted - I had removed the chicken wire hoop covers over the beds in order to use them elsewhere for a week. Sigh. That was all it took. Bad idea.

I am planning to start again next year, planting in milk crates as suggested here: https://www.uvm.edu/~saffron/Old/Resources/Presentations/SaffronGoldOppNov72016.pdf
Having the plantings be protected and portable seems like an approach I want to try.  A few years ago when I started the planting, I had built up the bed with layers of compost and cardboard shredding and green matter over hardware cloth to prevent digging up from underneath, and then planted the saffron corms into that. Covered with a chicken wire hoop, it was workable  - but I think the milk crate approach has merit.

Is anyone else planting corms in milk crates? Any experience you want to share?

Will It Cook My Goose
by Bill Lindsay

I
just
noticed
that our oven
has a STOP TIME
button; it's probably
meant to be a STOP TIMER,
but I daren't touch it - just in case