Mountain View Homestead

06/20/2026

The new willows are coming along nicely but must not taste very good 🦌. There is plenty of evidence that the local whitetails have been feeding, including the poor maple stump in the video but few willows have a single bite off of them. Deer love to munch on tender tree seedlings and sprouts but it must be the tannin in willows that make them not as tasty. Tannin is a bitter compound produced by a variety of plants and, as the name implies, can be used to tan hides for leather. Any other guesses out there?

06/17/2026

🧶 Coming soon....

06/08/2026

Lamb zoomies >

06/05/2026

Silvopasture loading..... 📶 The mixed seeding this spring is taking where it can but garlic mustard and goldenrod are proving to be stiff competitors. We will probably try for a round of quick passes in early July.

06/05/2026

06/05/2026

Recovery. With an abundance of moisture and warm temps this sward of grass has made a quick recovery based on the sharp tips. The reduction of seed heads and stuff stems should improve the palatability of the hay even though we will end up with a bit less volume.

05/21/2026

Sheep doing sheep things as they move to their next paddock. We are currently using poly wire for temporary cross fencing as they get moved every two days. The video pans across the new paddock, old paddock, and previous paddock, which is already starting to recover with all the moisture. The goal here is to provide high quality grazing for the nursing mommas and allow the field to recover for a later "kind of" first cutting of hay.

05/18/2026

🌳 There isn't a lot of forest on the farm, but it felt like there should be some leeks around 🧅. Since they are yet to be found, we transplanted some from a local family property. There aren't a lot of people who plant them it feels like they belong on this site. We will see what can come from the start of 30 bulbs. 🤞

05/16/2026

Don't call it a comeback. Two surprises make me think that we should have taken a closer look at breeding dates 😶. Either way, another lamb, another blessing. A happy single ewe lamb 👍.