Early Morning

This day the early morning sunrise was a sight to behold. It was nearly 6 months ago, not the longest day of the year, but the shortest days of the winter. The sun rose slowly in the eastern sky, ran a low arc to the south and set early in the west. The trees sleep, tucked into their tight cold bark. If you havn't seen a sunrise lately, give it a try. The house is still dark as I walk past the sleeping kids. The blankets kicked down or pulled tight up. The dogs lift their heads, look at me and seem to say, "Are you crazy, it's still night". To the east the sky is beginning to show light. This time not from a distant city or truck stop, but from the first light of dawn. I step onto the back deck and listen. Quiet. The rooster is still sleeping. The goats are lying quietly, heads drooped as they sleep. The beef steer chewing his cud. Quiet. A car rumbled down the road. Someone is starting their trip to work. The snow lays on the old Farmall C. Awaiting his next call to service. Sleeping too in a way. The morning is such a quiet time. Good time to think. To think about what today holds. To think about the frozen ground. To think about the firewood for next year. To think about the upcoming maple sugar season. Just to think, in the quiet morning air.

Up to Camp - Working Vacation

Spring is racing by so fast as we say goodbye to May and welcome to June. We managed to make it to New Sweden last weekend to enjoy the clean air and beautiful views, and to work on the camp. Vacations for us are usually enjoyed best with busy hands. This weekend we insulated some more, installed some interior sheathing and built the porch deck. The kiddos were helpful and we are glad to have been able to spend a few days away. If all goes well we will have the camp ready for a winter visit this year.

Girls enjoy some quiet time in the camp loft.

Family enjoying the new porch deck.

This trip north we also delivered two of our spring lambs to our neighbor in Stockholm. The Small's 50 acres of grass fields will be a nice home for the lambs. The lambs will also enjoy the scenic views as they grow big and fat this summer.

Kidding and lambing season is almost over for the spring. We only have one more doe left to kid anytime now. So far this year has been filled with little buck kids. 7 bucks and only one doe. Brownie and Queenie's kids have been weaned, so we now have lots of milk for our use. Fresh homemade ice cream tonight, yum. The beef cow is now out to pasture at the homestead. We've spread manure on the back field, so we are really looking forward to the rain that is forecast. The "new" manure spreader worked like a charm behind Gideon's Allis Chalmer's C. Baseball and Softball season are keeping us busy right now, but we are still working hard on our off days. Keep in touch.

Maine Maple Sunday - Sugarhouse Open

Visitors Welcome - Maine Maple Sunday

Where: Juniper Hill Farm
Home of: Reuben & Angela Wheeler & family
693 West Road, Bowdoin, Maine

When: Sunday, March 25, 2012 - An Open House from 10 AM – 4 PM



What: We will have our small family run Sugar House up and running, as well as family and kid friendly activities. Sugar Houses across the State of Maine are open for folks to come and enjoy this sweet New England tradition.

On our growing and developing family farm, we produce food and goods for our family such as maple syrup, goats’ milk, eggs, meat and garden produce, seasonally. We always love to share with others who are interested in learning about how we provide natural food for our family and like to help encourage others to see how farming may fit their life.

What to expect on Maine Maple Sunday:
•Visit the Sugar House and learn how maple syrup is made.
•Take a walk on the Sugar Trail – learn to identity some Maine native trees and other scavenger hunt activities.
•Journey to the Barn and meet our newborn baby goats as well as our other barnyard animals. Learn how we care for our dairy goats. The first chicks of the spring should be hatched in our small incubator as well.
•Enjoy Homemade Ice cream, Sweet Treats, Maine Made Pottery and other Special tidbits.

Remember that it is mud season in Maine, so for a more enjoyable experience on the Trails and in the Barnyard, bring your mud boots, warm clothes, and maybe a change of clothes for the little ones.

We look forward to seeing you on Maine Maple Sunday!

The Farmer is Back

Hello folks. How are things in your corner of the globe? After a long layoff, the Farmer is back. Things are slowing in my day job, so now it's time to focus on the firewood for next year, getting ready for maple sugaring season and kidding time in the goat barn.

As the human children get bigger both the Farmer and Gatherer are continuing with our coaching duties in the softball, baseball and basketball programs here in town. It's fun to see our kids enjoying the benefits of growing up on a farm and getting the opportinities to play sports, a luxury for sure.

My latest project was installing a snow plow on my pickup truck. Back in 1996 I bought a 1964 International Scout with a plow for $50. It needed lots of work, but I had it running the first day, and it kept our driveway plowed for fifteen years. A good investment for sure. Last winter I decided it was time to enjoy power steering, a heater and brakes on my plow truck. So I traded the old Scout with another local farmer for a manure spreader. So it forced me to get a plow for my work truck, which I did. Let it snow.

I'll post some pics soon, so you can see the new sights here at Juniper Hill Farm.

Peanut Butter & Toilet Paper

The bounty of the growing season has been good. Potatoes stored in the dark corner of the cellar. The freezers full: corn, rhubarb, green beans and pork. The canning rack sags under the rows of maple syrup, applesauce, pickles and canned vegetables.

Now, more than ever before, we are enjoying home grown meals. A typical fall supper at our house might include new potatoes, fresh picked broccoli, baked kale, buttercup squash and fresh goat's milk. Only the salt and the butter came from the grocery store. This year the kids really enjoy a meal they helped to plant in the spring, weed through the summer and pick fresh for the supper table.

Pulling a sweet carrot right out of the dirt and eating it on the walk back from the garden is hard to beat. It makes you really appreciate how we humans come from dirt, spend most of our life eating from it and eventually become dirt again when we die. A real circle of life.

This year we have stored away more food than ever before. Mostly it is our growing kids that remind us of how important our natural food is. We got a great potatoe crop from the 8 shared rows of Kennebec potatoes we planted in some new ground at the Old Homestead. Grammie & Grampa Wheeler spent lots of hours vacuuming potatoe bugs off the tender plants. Thats one way to avoid sprays. The carrots really needed to be thinned a little more, so they didn't do quite as well as we had hoped. After a second planting of sweet corn, the crop came a little late, but continued into early October. The pumpkins did well enough and some of the squash did too. The cucumbers were unstoppable, in fact we just had some cucumber slices for lunch today on October 25th!

As with any family, no matter the generation, there are some things that we just haven't learned how to make for ourselves. Here at Juniper Hill Farm, when we are out of toilet paper and peanut butter it's time to take a little cash and stop by the local grocery store. Nearly everything else can wait.

Why don't we all set a goal for the coming year to do for ourselves, become more self-sufficient and enjoys the fruits of our labors all year long.

Good Luck.


"Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden." ~ O.S.Card

A country boy can Survive

"I'd like to spit some Beechnut in that dude's eye, or shoot him with my old 45" - Hank Williams, Jr.

Nicely said Bocephus, this is a real country boy anthem, "A Country Boy Can Survive". Now to all us out here, men or women, we have different ideas of what it means to survive. To some it means making it to payday with a few bucks left in their pocket. While others try to make it through work so they can stop for a six-pack of Bud Lite on the way home. Rambo was clearly a survivor, but he might have gone too far. That IS surviving, but that's not for me.

Now on the farm, survival is not guaranteed, just ask the rooster. He decided that he was the boss of the hen house and that the little girl collecting eggs was a threat to his position. In case your guessing, the rooster had about 5 seconds to consider his position before I showed him the way to the deep freeze. Just a note to all you other fathers and farmers out there, wait until the kids are gone, it will be easier that way. But make no mistake about it, I'M THE BOSS AROUND HERE. (I asked my wife if I could write that, and she said it was OK.)

Now as winter nears, I am proud to be able to grow vegetables for my family, put up six cord of hardwood for the winter heating season and to put meat on the table. I do the chores twice a day, every day, without complaint. At our farm, work is not a four letter word, instead, it is by hard work that we get the best reward.