In an earlier update I metioned that we purchased a 15-acre place. Well, we moved onto it and sold the 10-acre piece in Holt, Missouri, USA and this has allowed us to focus our attention on one location. We are now located in Kearney, Missouri, USA.

We've introduced 24 laying hens and have enjoyed the fruits for their labor for a while now. They have been dropping their little treasures of fertility all over the farm. We also have be busy planning our layout for Zone 1 and 2. We're basically starting from scratch to design this place except for the house, shop and barn are already in place. We added a very small solar system to our barn to provide lighting. We are nearly done with construction of our high tunnel (poly tunnel). We are in what is known here in the States as Hardiness Zone 5/6 so the high tunnel will really extend our growing seasons in the spring and fall. We'll be installing a solar-powered drip irrigation system. This spring (2017) we will be installing perimeter fencing so that we can run cross sections (movable electric wire) for mob rotational grazing of some steers we want to introduce into the system this summer. Oh, I'll drop in a photo of a mature apple tree that was on the property that had never been pruned and was wildly unwieldy. Here's what it looks like now. I could have pruned more, but I easily cut out half of its total canopy and 1/3 of its height.