Shady Lane Farm

Today I'm talking with Martin at Shady Lane Farm.

A Tiny Homestead Podcast is sponsored by Homegrowncollective.org.

 

Muck Boots 

Calendars.Com

If you'd like to support me in growing this podcast, like, share, subscribe or leave a comment. Or just buy me a coffee 

https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

00:00 You're listening to A Tiny Homestead, the podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters and topics adjacent. I'm your host, Mary Lewis.  A Tiny Homestead podcast is sponsored by Homegrown Collective, a free to use farm to table platform, emphasizing local connections with ability to sell online, buy, sell, trade in local garden groups and help us grow a new food system.  You can find them at homegrowncollective.org. Today I'm talking with Martin at Shady Lane  something.

00:29 and the computer just like blanked out your name, Shady Lane something  in Illinois. Martin, tell me the name of your place again.  It is Shady Lane Farm. Thank you.  Once I hit record, it like cuts off half the people's names of their places. And if I haven't memorized it, I don't know what it is. So thank you.

00:51 So what's the weather like in Illinois today, Mark? It  is cooler. It is only going to be 86 after about four days of  90s.  And we have occasional thunderstorms, but it's cloudy, not a bad day. We were out doing chores this morning. So not a horrible day to do chores. Yeah. Was the weekend rough on you guys? Cause it was really hot here in Minnesota. Yeah, it was. We...

01:19 Mostly because I made everybody get up early to do chores before it got too hot. So it was, it was pretty rough, but we got through it. Yeah. The secret to homesteading and farming is get everything done before 10 AM that you have to do outside. Yes. We had a triathlon that came through our neighborhood here on Sunday and it was a heat index over 100. Yeah, it was gross.

01:50 I think it's supposed to be 82 here today at like three, four o'clock and 82 is better than a heat indices of 105. Yes. So thankful times have come down. So tell me about what you do at your place. So what we do and we bought this five acre property in 2023, my wife, Lisa and I, I have been an urban homesteader.

02:18 for many years  and finally it got to a point where  I had rented all the garden plots I could from the local park district and they had started to take plots back from us, which I understood to  because more people wanted to vegetable garden after COVID, which I totally support. I had failed in an attempt to get chickens allowed in the city.

02:48 So  I went to Lisa and I said, you know, we just redid this beautiful colonial house here in Rockford. And we love it. Let's sell it and buy a rundown five acre  property  and do it all again  and  add animals and fencing  and  new garden and building all these scoops. And she said, okay. That's a good woman. And she had,  um,

03:18 There were farms in her past,  but she herself had no homesteading experience. I had just taught her the vegetable garden  and  she was completely interested in doing it.  And she took a year off from her second master's degree  and was the general contractor for all the work on the house  and has really adapted to it.

03:47 And now  is full on