Hacking the Homestead...Part Time

In this episode, we discuss the very first week of school on the farm! For those of you who have tuned in to previous episodes, you know that we have forged a partnership with the Wauhatchie Forrest School, which is a local outdoor school that embraces a variety of teaching approaches, including Montessori, Waldorf, and Reggieo-Emilia. The school hosts students from pre-K through 5th grade and is focused on instilling lifelong learning in students by rooting them in a foundational understanding of the natural world. In a world where kids are often connected to screens all day long, a kinetic educational approach that helps kids learn outside all day long is such a breath of fresh air. Rachel and I are so excited to not only be hosting this innovative school, but feel incredibly blessed that our boys will be able to benefit from this unique learning opportunity. My favorite part of their school is the response to the question, "What do they do when it's raining?" The answer, "wear a jacket". Similarly, when asked, "What do the kids do when it is cold and raining?" The answer, "Wear a heavier coat." As a recovering infantryman, Joe was sold on this mantra! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Spring has Sprung at Quail Run Farm! We're back to update you all on a busy few weeks here on the farm. In this episode, we take a slightly new approach to our updates and give you some of the highlights from the past few weeks on the farm. All things bees to piglets to momma cows on their hind legs.. just another couple of weeks on the farm. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the end of 2024 at Quail Run Farm! In an already busy festive season, Quail Run partners with Land To Table.. some new friends on the farm in form of turkeys, chicken and more pigs! One of our WWOOFers, Becca, joined us to cover this period. She is now buying her first piece of land from all she learnt here on the farm- go Becca! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A combined episode covering the weeks 26th Feb to 10th March. A busy two weeks for us on the farm covering some big projects.. working the cattle, getting the pigs ready for piglets and always the unexpected events of farm life! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we enter the Fall season, we begin to explore more ways to share our farm with the community. Juliette, who was one of our longest-serving WWOOFers, and a nanny for our boys, joins this episode to talk about her adventures on the farm. Juliette painted several murals on the barns, revamped our logo, designed an interactive farm map, and always kept folks laughing. During these months we prepped for our first Fall Harvest Festival, finished several infrastructure additions and renovations to the farm to welcome people to the farm. We also castrated hogs, birthed a wave of baby goats, finished the greenhouse, built outhouses, finished renovating our house, and recruited (and retired) our second livestock guardian dog for killing the chickens she was supposed to protect. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In "Who Run the Farm? Girls Do!" we have special guest, AJ, who joins us to talk about her adventures on the farm during this time. With Melissa, AJ, and Morgan, it truly was the Charley's Angels period of the farm! We are in the heat of summer, and I had convinced Rachel to let me break the species cap, first with meat chickens (broilers), then with ducks (fortunately we purchased duck life insurance), and guineas (a surprise from Tim). Morgan also imposed a new level of sophistication in marketing and project management when she wasn't caring for her child, Bucky, and AJ remembers her adventures with "pet cow" and "ghost eyes"! We will let you guess which one she preferred! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Melissa boots Joe from the podcast and has our South African WWOOFer, Liam, join to share his experience on the farm. Liam discusses all the fun he had rescuing a sick pig and cleaning the farrowing pens from last season...and many other fun adventures! Liam also regales us with his adventures herding ducks and chickens, and contemplates the beauty of the QRF bacon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Tim Woodlee joins to talk about the period after Roy left the farm. This was the era of the three Tims: Tim Copass, Tim Whitaker, and Tim Woodlee. We tell some of our favorite "Big Tim" stories, and talk about construction on the house, building out farrowing pens, our first piglets born on the farm, moving cattle, digging water lines, and the sort of Memorial Day drama that you can only get on the farm...complete with cut electrical lines, water spewing 20 feet in the air, and the mystery of the missing back pills... all as our weekend guests arrived! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on audience feedback, we are moving from bi-weekly to weekly updates. These are shorter in length (about 15 minutes on average). For this week, we discuss our trip to the Pick TN Conference, which brought together small scale farmers from across the state, particularly those working in the agritourism space. We met several new friends and walked away armed with all sorts of new ideas! We strongly encourage folks to find similar conferences or gatherings in their area. In addition to the conference, we also received our first chicks for the season, started prepping our new bee hive area, released the goats back out to free range, and worked to coral the pigs after their latest jail brake! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lots of calving. Some uneventful. We lost one, after trying to nurse back to health...in the kitchen. Another one was born with a nervous problem and couldn't stand, but we bottle fed her for several days and brought her back to health. Castrated and weaned piglets. Cut a lot of trees. Fought off some coyotes, and made lots of headway in preparing for the school to come to the farm! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.