Homestead Hopeful

[KMichelle]

Currently involved in a six month plus, Belgian draft horse internship in eastern Oregon. I have over 15 years experience with saddle horses, including owning my own horse for 11 of those years, and now I have finally broken into the draft horse scene! I look forward to starting my own team of Belgian mares this summer and returning to Vermont to homestead on 15 acres of open, but untouched land in the Saltash Moutnains (Plymouth). I have strong interests in organic/natural/biodynamic beekeeping, as I just finished a work/trade for a beekeeper in Eugene Oregon this winter, and look forward to installing several hives when I return Spring 2013.

Looking forward to using this network to develop some Vermont/New England draft relations ahead of myself and hopefully find a nice situation for myself and 3 horses when the work is done in Plymouth. (In the first year I only hope to plant some soil building/green manure pollinator crops and camp in my tent. Install a few beehives, plant some fruit trees, do some brush maintenance, theorize about building placement. Eventually I would like to save enough money in set-up a nice yurt so that I can live there year round.)

Tally-Ho!

[Andy Carson]

Welcome KMichelle! I think we share many interests, I also have bees (just two hives), planted many fruit and nut trees last year, and have been doing alot of building and fencing along with my farming and poultry projects. I will be very interested to hear your plans and how things progress. This is a great group with alot of really helpful people. In many ways, this is more of a community than a “normal” messageboard.

[near horse]

Welcome Michelle. Are you now working with the Maders in Halfway, Oregon or is it someone else? I know they take interns and have a pretty well known operation

New England has enough teamsters already – you need stay here and help populate the west : )

[KMichelle]

Geoff – You mean there aren’t a bunch of draft-horse farms in eastern Oregon that give away teams of horses?? 🙂 Yes, I am working for the Mader’s this summer and enjoying every minute! Oh, and don’t tell my mom I need to stay out here even one day longer then I already have… my “farm-lusting” has aged the poor lady. But I notice that I keep extending my stay in Oregon six months at a time…

Andy – I am always encouraged to hear more and more people having “just two hives”… “The answer is not one guy with 10,000 hives, it’s 10,000 people with one hive.” A qoute that I think sums up the solution of our global apicultural/agricultural/societal crisis.

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