Moving the farm to Chimacum - Updates
posted on
July 29, 2024
Did you see our Big News? We're moving the farm and the farmers to Chimacum!
(If you missed it, click here to get caught up on the back story of our exciting move.)
Here's the latest progress report...
Update 7/31/24 - Creating the landscape - "One Straw" Style
We did a very One Straw things this week, as part of our big farm move to Chimacum. But before I tell you about it, I’d better explain what the heck I’m talking about.
Did you ever wonder why we chose One Straw as our ranch name?
It’s not because we were down to our last straw.
We didn’t get there until AFTER we started farming and had three kids…
Just kidding.
Actually, it’s because of the power of one single straw.
Our name was inspired by The One Straw Revolution, the manifesto of Japanese farmer and natural philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka.
It’s a hope filled narrative about witnessing natural systems and learning how to live WITH the lands and IN the land, rather than ON the land. It presents a revolutionary form of agriculture that heals the earth and the human spirit.
Fukuoka affirms that any positive change, any revolution, is made possible one straw at a time.
This is the vision that each week brings you food that is not only nourishes your body but respects and cares for the earth.
I'd say that outlook is pretty much opposite of being down to your last straw.
One of the main themes running through the book is verdant abundance, and that’s the One Straw act we worked towards this week.
We have been told that Fukuoka himself visited Port Townsend many years ago, and he came scattering seed – daikon radish, I believe.
To achieve his vision of a healthy landscape, you plant thickly and diversely and let it all grow as it will.
He talks of wandering through his orchards and discovering vegetables to harvest for dinner, all mixed together and hidden in the grasses growing under the canopy of his citrus trees. No rows of monocrops here.
And that fruitful, lavish verdancy is our vision for the farm we are building around our new home in Chimacum.
Trees and pastures, livestock and vegetables, berries for us and some for the birds, too.
But that’s the long game, and right now we our hyper focused on finishing the house so we can get our certificate of occupancy. Which this week meant seeding our "lawn" so as not to have bare soil and so we can therefore pass final inspection.
The fact is, we really don’t like lawn in the traditional sense of the word. Farmer Martin is a Landscape Architect by training and he’s designing a lovely space that won’t involve much in the way of time pushing a mower.
But in the meantime, we need the greenlight to move in – and we’ve got to do something to keep all the construction site dust down anyway.
So, we seeded our “lawn” like good One Straw farmers.
We gathered together every bag of seed we could find on the farm, bits of this and smatterings of that, and scattered it all out to grow as it will.
Rye, vetch, orchardgrass, clover, fescue, sunn hemp, chickling vetch and many more.
Even tillage radish, in honor of Fukuoka’s visit to PT.
Each is a variety we have added to our diverse pastures, at various times, to create a tasty and nutritious landscape for our livestock to graze and achieve ultimate health and nutrient density.
And none of it is standard lawn seed. LOL
We can’t wait to see it sprout and grow wildly together.
The Farmhands had so much fun choosing various mixes for their little buckets before scattering it to the best of their abilities.
There might be some extra green patches where Farmhand Grace opted to simply dump her bucket over so she could go back and choose new seeds for the next mix.
Farmer Martin did make sure to actually cover the entire area using a seed spreader. Haha.
Update 6/19/24 - It's Here!
In the ongoing saga of our “home-for-the-farmers” journey, the most anticipated step was completed this week.
Our house arrived! It made the trek all in one piece (well, two pieces, actually), and everything went smoothly.
I have to say, it was a day full of apprehension and excitement, both vying for first place. Not to mention the worries and preparations in the many weeks leading up to this. Soooo many things could have gone wrong. From the farm road being too narrow, to the house being the wrong color, the list of things we fretted about was endless.
Ask Martin sometime about the nightmares he had in the days leading up to this… Some of them are actually quite comic (since they didn’t come true). But at the end of the long day watching our house being moved in and installed, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. And then took a deep breath of gratitude.
We’re not moved yet - there’s still much work to do – but we’re over the scariest hurdle. Our pretty new house is on the foundation and we love it.
As you can probably imagine, I snapped a few photos throughout the big day. You've been on this journey with us, and I thought you'd like to see how it all went down.
Farmhands Eli and Vera were front and center all through the day.
Farmhand Grace getting the first peek inside.
Quite a lot of prep work went into making sure our farm lane was wide enough for the house. Limbing of trees, relocating various bits of farm equipment, widening the road bed. And it all paid off, as the house passed between barns, fences and trees with even a bit of room to spare.
I found it fairly surreal to watch our house arrive. You have some land with no house. Then, presto - a house all in one day. Pretty cool.
The Farmhands totally cracked me up in this video, each with their own reaction to the excitement. I just had to share it with you.
So much activity to watch. It's a pretty amazing process to watch as the crew set up the equipment to slide it over onto the foundation. Amazing, but a bit tedious at times. Luckily we have huge dirt piles to climb on - and lots of snacks to help pass the time.
At last it's here, safely on the foundation. Work on the interior will begin in a few weeks after the house has time to settle into place.
Update 5/22/24 - Looking forward to being Home On The Farm.
On Sunday, after church, we all stopped at the Chimacum farm to meet the first calf of the year.
After we all piled out and got booted up to tromp down the hill and through the pastures, I noticed this tableau and had to snap a picture.
Because guess what…
We won’t be seeing that scene for much longer.
You see, we have always lived on Marrowstone and also farmed in Chimacum – so there’s always been chores to do scattered all over the county.
Which means that pretty much every time we’ve left the farm for the last 10 years, we’ve carted along a whole costume change.
Whether we’re going to church, family dinner, shopping, birthday party, out to dinner, you name it.
Farmer Martin is a master of the quick wardrobe change, I’ve done chores in pearls and rubber boots more times than I can count.
Never mind all the times I’ve begged in vain for the Farmhands not to dirty their clean clothes.
Farmhand Grace is the worst offender, but since I’ve given up on trying to keep her clean it doesn’t matter. And she only wears her rubber boots, no matter the occasion ;)
But all that’s about to change when we move to Chimacum and all our animals live where we live.
And you know what, I really don’t think I’m going to miss planning every outing around chores and muddy boots.
We got word this week that the construction is nearly done on our house. It’s sitting in the factory in Idaho, just waiting on a few last cupboard doors.
Looks like the days of carting along farm boots everywhere we go are about to come to an end.
Whew!
Which means it will soon be much easier to visit the brand new babies, enjoy the mystery of searching for them in the tall grass, and simply be more present.
Update 5/14/24 - The foundation is in!
The concrete trucks came last week, and we had a family picnic day watching all the activity.
The Farmhands are excited to be watching each step of the process, and being part of our future home from the ground up.
Now, with the stem walls in place, there’s a clear visual sign and it’s starting to feel more and more real.
This is actually happening and our new home in Chimacum is almost in sight. Yay!
