Well, I thought it was time to give an update on the farm and not rant about Climate Change specifically. If anyone is reading this, you might recall that we moved up here from CA in Sept ’25. The first few months were spent cleaning out the barn of 100 yrs worth of ‘never throw anything away’ stuff plus getting the greenhouse and chicken coop built/ready for use. We got 10 laying chicks (2 days old and in a small box!) and they are now laying 8-10 eggs a day, most of which we give away. BTW, when you buy baby chicks, they ship them in units of 10 within 12hrs of their hatching! Anyway, all 10 are doing great and seem to be very happy here at CasaEarth.
Just a quick comment on how I am proceeding to learn to become a farmer from someone who’s career was running global operations technology for high tech (semiconductor) companies. I alway worked to develop units of volume that once established could then be replicated to meet demand. So here on the farm, as I learn this new set of skills, we are growing test batches of fruits, vegetables and livestock (tbd) with the then understood way to expand as needed. So far so good and pretty much on plan.
So back to the update; for the greenhouse, we built 6 large raised planter boxes so we could get an extended growing season (WA seasons are shorter than further south) and so far have harvested lettuce, peas, onions, kale, with peppers, tomatoes, beans, corn, wheat, soybeans, carrots and spices on the way. We have 2 (and recently a 3rd) beehives happily doing their thing with hopes of honey in the fall. Up in the orchard, we have 4 kinds of apples, peaches and cherry trees which will yield some fruit in their now second growing season. Finally, we have an abundance of native blackberry (for jams and pies) and added 4 blueberry bushes which grow well in this climate. Also, forgot that we will pull 1500 to 2000 bales of hay off the land that is currently not in use but reserved for expansion of soybeans, wheat and corn both if we need it and have mastered the art of volume growing.
Last month we put in a tiny home as a guest suite with views of the mountains and grazing elk when our guests wake up. It has been used several times now with rave reviews, so looking forward to more visitors as the summer progresses.
So, all in all, pretty much on plan. BTW, our large solar and battery system is running great and banking kW’s for winter with the local utility. We produce nearly 100 kW per day and use about 30, even with the greenhouse fans running most of the day.
Here’s some pics:
