Autumn Reflections

I grew up in a modest home in a modest neighborhood in southern New Hampshire. We had tons of kids on the block and our street not only ended with a cul-de-sac, but also had a basketball hoop to boot. Read:idyllic childhood setting. We were known as the people with the animals on Terra Lane. And oh, did we have animals.

Perhaps it was because my mother, having been raised with non-pet friendly parents in a suburban New York neighborhood, felt the need to compensate. Perhaps it was because my father wanted my sister and I to want for nothing when it came to animal companions. Perhaps it was because we were all crazy. Whatever the reason, I grew up in a household where there were cats,dogs, rodents, birds and reptiles in abundance within the house and goats,ponies, poultry, sheep, llamas and swine in the backyard. I should note that we lived on an acre; as you can imagine, it was a bit busy at 13 Terra Lane.

Fast-forward two decades and here I am on my own small hobby farm; same state, different town. While I have significantly decreased the amount of creatures I care for, my roots remain in part true to my upbringing. I have hens, a ball python and one horse, and I’m considering a small flock of hardy sheep and perhaps a pair of peafowl in the near future. My land parcel is modest for the area, but more than enough for my interests. Sitting on just a bit more than seven acres, Sweet Birch Homestead is a growing hobby that just might turn into a part-time career.

I live in a cape with a huge unfinished basement (to my annoyance and dragging of the feet), an open concept main level, and a sunny upstairs that I rent. Without my renter I would struggle to finance this house and I plan on keeping a renter for as long as I live in this location. The land is not ideal but it sure is lovely to look at. Composed of hills and slopes and acting as a basin for the neighborhood it is a bog for the majority of the year until it freezes. I bought the property during a drought and while the seller was upfront about it being “wet” I never could have imagined just how wet it could be until this past year when New Hampshire broke historic rainfall records. To say the pastures are damp would be like saying the Dead Sea is a tad salty…

For now, the paddock is covered in several inches of snow, hiding the muddy sludge that was my glossy, green meadow back in June. Spring will be a struggle, for sure, but with hope, it will be a struggle that inspires improved drainage for the future of the homestead. Now I just have to figure out how to get an excavator down there without losing it to the bog…

Stay tuned to see how I utilize permaculture concepts to divert the water and mitigate the seasonal sludge. I’ve got some ideas, but if you have experience with wet farmland, do feel free to share!