Naming our Farm and 1901 Plat Map

Ethan is very interested in Early American history, especially the 18th century. John Adams has been a man that he respects, and when he found his farm name to be Stoneyfield Farm, he thought that would be a good name for our farm as well. We did quite a few searches to make sure it was a unique name, and we didn't find any matches. So Stoneyfield we became.

Well, it has become apparent to us that we are not along. Since naming our farm, we have discovered another company with the same name, although spelled differently - the reason we didn't come across it at first. Stonyfield Farm, which makes organic yogurt, has been around for a bit now and has grown into a well respected business.

Because of this, we decided that this year we are going to change our name.

SO - we are brainstorming! Here are some of the things we hope a name could reflect:

1- Early American history, particularly the 18th century, founding fathers, and/or early American farming

2- Family farms

3- Farming naturally, or "old fashioned"

Some other things:

We are starting to focus on heritage breeds. We have had Dexter Cattle, but we are also starting to focus on Hereford hogs - a heritage breed originating from Iowa and Nebraska.

We have also pulled up a plat mat from 1901 in hopes of finding something that would spark an idea. Although not much was sparked, it was interesting to see nonetheless.

The yellow square is our 40 acres of land. It was once part of Noah Simpson's 80 acres, which is the additional orange square. The homestead was on the far east of his property.

To the north was another homestead. From seeing this map and others, we can be fairly confident that we are the first homestead on our land.

There were also 3 schools in the area (purple), 2 churches (green), and 1 cemetery (white).

The 2 original homestead cites listed and the cemetery are still being used. The churches and schools are no longer around or have visible remains.

We are going to continue to do some digging around and brainstorming, and hopefully we will have our new name by summer so we can continue setting up our business.

p.s. We also checked out George Washington's farm names: Muddy Hole Farm, Union Farm, Mansion House Farm, Dogue Run Farm, River Farm, and Little Huntg. Creek Farm. Struck out there as well, although Ethan was particularly fond of Muddy Hole Farm with all of the rains we have had since we bought this place . . . sure has made things tough to get going.

Cloth Napkins, Hankies, and Milk Jugs

I'm always looking for ways to cut down on spending. One of the things that I have tried to cut down on is household consumables. A few years back I decided to make some cloth napkins and hankies.

To do this, I went to Walmart, when they still had their fabric department, and bought some inexpensive flannel. I then surged around the outside to make squares. I ended up with stripped wash cloth napkins, pink hankies for Hannah, and blue hankies for Caleb.

These have worked out really well. The napkins are great for cleaning spaghetti stained faces, and the kids can keep their hankies in their pockets or on their dinner chairs. They can go through as many as they would like, and if one get's left around, there's no guessing as to who's germs it holds.

I've tweeked the laundering of the napkins and hankies a bit to keep laundry hampers from becoming musty and gross. I now have a milk jug (easy to toss when needs replacing) under the kitchen sink that these napkins get dropped in. I put a touch of vinegar in the water, which keeps the water a bit more fresh and have a drip protector under the jug in case the kids don't get a cloth in all of the way and it wicks water out.

I also have a post it note sticker on my warm wash cycle, so whenever I do a load of warms I remember to retrieve the milk jug.

This seems to work out great for our kids, and it has really cut down on the paper napkins and kleenexes that we buy.

Simple Joys on a Snowy Day

This afternoon, Ethan, my dad, and I went down to woods (while my mom played with the kids) to get some firewood for the next couple weeks of winter.

It was a beautiful day for being outside in the woods with the large fluffy snowflakes quietly floating down. The air was cool enough to keep me from overheating too much while carrying logs to the wagon, but not too cold to become uncomfortable if I would stop just to look around.

We were able to get a good number of trees cut and into the wagon today, hopefully enough for 2-3 weeks of heat if it doesn't get too frigid in February.

While I was working, I came across another reason why I love it here. Many times I find myself in wonder at the simple things that amuse and bring joy to my one year old. Often I wish to be that easily thrilled. Today, was one of those days where I felt just as amused and thrilled as Isaac: Taking in the beauty of the quite snowy woods, staring wide eyed while watching an 18 inch diameter log accidentally roll 30 feet down a hill - opposite the direction to the wagon, laughing as I tried to roll the log back up the woodsy hill and amused as it gathered the wet snow while becoming increasingly heavy but looking more and more like the bottom of Frosty the snowman, and also becoming confusingly excited over finding a large dead oak tree (where the snowman log originated from) that meant hotter fires and fewer loadings of the stove.

When we first started on this farming journey, there were a lot of romanticized thoughts about starting a small farm from scratch. Many days it has been anything but romantic, and even today brought its share of farm troubles. Cutting wood this afternoon, however, was one of the ways that the Lord not only refreshes me but also reminds me of the simple joys in life.