Steven Orvis (Generic) Fall Colors and the Herd on Pasture The leaves have turned, and the herd is out on pasture under the red and orange trees. The grass is still green, and the herd looks right at home out there. We really just don't feed grain unless a co... Oct 31, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Free Wood Chips and the Mushrooms That Showed Up in Them We have several big piles of wood chips on the farm, many tons of them. A local tree service needed somewhere to dump, so they bring their chips here and drop them for free. I'm glad to take them. Chi... Oct 30, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Why We Traded Five Cattle for Three Murray Grey Cows We sold a horned cow with milk genetics, two bulls, and a steer. That paid for part of three bred Murray Grey cows. They're due to calve in March, April, and May. They came from a farm in East Pittsbu... Oct 29, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) The Chaos Garden: Six Crops, Wood Chips, and Almost No Weeding Start writing here...... Oct 28, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) 55 Bales and a Plan to Get the Herd Out of the Mud Every fall the tractor gets a workout. The year this photo was taken, I stacked about 55 round bales for winter, all cut from our own field. A neighbor makes hay on one of our fields, and part of the ... Oct 26, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Why Farmers Use Strip Cropping Strip cropping is a way to farm a hillside without losing the soil. Instead of planting one crop up and down the slope, the field is planted in strips that run across it, alternating a row crop like c... Oct 25, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Meet Raspberry, the First Calf Born on Our Farm Every herd has one cow everybody knows, and on our farm that's Raspberry. She was the very first calf ever born here, and today she's one of the oldest cows in the herd. Her mother was Moo Cow, a full... Oct 24, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) What the Goldenrod Taught Us About Our Pastures This time of year, a lot of our pastures turn yellow. Goldenrod has moved in thick, and the herd has been grazing right through it. We didn't plan it that way, but it's ended up teaching us a lot abou... Oct 23, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Planting Hickories, One Nut at a Time This fall we spent an afternoon as a family gathering hickory nuts off the ground. They aren't for snacking, though. We're taking them to plant somewhere new. Hickories are slow-growing, long-lived tr... Oct 21, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) Welcome to the Herd: Three New Calves It's been a busy few weeks on the farm! We've welcomed three new calves: two bull calves and one heifer. Every new calf is a reminder of why we do what we do. Our calves are born right out on pasture ... Oct 20, 2026
Steven Orvis (Generic) What Wood Chips Did for Our Garden This Year Take a look at this year's harvest: a whole pallet of pumpkins and squash, and then some. 🎃 A big part of the credit goes to something pretty humble, a thick layer of wood chips. Manure is full of nit... Oct 19, 2026
