Longleaf Breeze

You probably already know that I have had a roaring case of composting toilet envy. I read everything I can find about them. This week, with my bride in California visiting our children, I decided to take the plunge and build us one. Who knows, my friend, where this journey will end? (more)

It was in late February when Amanda and I started setting the posts for our deer fence. This post is about how we did it. (more)

I was cleaning the video camera off yesterday because it was full, and I came across some old files from November. Great fun to see what we were doing then and how Veg Hill has changed. (more)

In general, the Farmers Borden look with skepticism on any modern gadgets and use them only when there’s no lower tech alternative. We made an exception when it came to what we have come to call lovingly “the Measuring Twins,” and we’re glad we did. (more)

Amanda and I are hard at work getting our deer fence installed. Trust me, you’ll hear all about it shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you a little nugget we’ve learned about using a transit. (more)

We have a terrific deer problem on our farm. Veg Hill, our 1/4 acre cultivation area, is conveniently located right next to the pole barn where we live and nestled in the woods. It’s a lovely place to live, work, and play, but it’s also a lovely place to be a deer. You can walk right up to that smorgasboard we’ve been growing without leaving the cover of the forest. To a deer, it must look for all the world like breakfast in bed.  (more)

It was my brother Dave Gray who first told me about longleaf pines. When I told him Amanda and I had our eye on a parcel of land just SW of Tallassee, his first question was “does it have longleafs?” (more)

Fruit trees are a big part of our subsistence strategy at Longleaf Breeze, so it was high time we started planting some. (more)

If you’ve spent much time on Longleaf Breeze, you already know that I hate stumps. So even though Amanda played me masterfully, she didn’t need to. She had me at “I wish there was something we could do about that stump.” (more)

Amanda and I are hanging out in our hotel room in Chattanooga on a Sunday morning. She’s madly working to get everything done that needs to happen on the Internet, because we’re about to be away from it for a couple of days. We’re basking in the glow of a wonderful conference of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. (more)