Fall is ending and winter beckons. It’s hard to believe spring is still another season away in our true four-season climate in Northern Kentucky. It has been relatively warm and dry with just a few bitter cold days. The grass in the pastures still grows, compost piles are heating because when it did rain, they finally had the adequate moisture to kickstart, and the barebones view of late fall reveals the patterns of development ahead. The daily rhythms may shift but the quest for creating a dynamic space to be never ends.
Nursery update:
Our nursery has grown over the last few years, and we are now offering bareroot online sales for shipping and local pickup. The nursery is in our garden; an integrated orchard garden that features alley cropping cells of plant propagation. Lot of good berries this year and it’s still just beginning. https://treeyopermaculture.wordpress.com/edible-nursery/
We will continue to collect trees and edible plants for future propagation. By time spring planting season comes there will be 42 varieties of apples on the property. Some are maturing to the point already we can harvest scion wood for grafting.
Goat Update:
All the goats are bred and we may have not separated the young bucks from the mature females in time but such is life on a homestead from time to time. Our homestead hybrid goat breeding program of blending as many different logical breeds together continues. In fact we had a birth that is a great step forward because Geraldine is one of two goats on the property fathered by our old long hair toggenberg Carmelo. Geraldine was bred with our registered Nigerian dwarf doc and she had twins, a boy Guiseppe and girl Maria. As per usual they are bundles of joy with their own unique colorings and personality traits. She is stunning and he is friendly!
Sheep update:
We invested in a expensive ram to step up our sheep production. We have a hodgepodge of genetics currently, Katahdin, St. Croix, Finnish and honestly some of the ewes could be culled for poor performance. We have yet to do that and instead seeing what the offspring bring us. So Diego arrived to us through a client of our edible landscaping as his Neighbour raises Katahdin sheep. He is a sweet boy with a gentle demeanor and epic chest mane! We will have around 30 lambs dropping the week of March 7th. This will be the first time we have a mass birth event as it was always much more random before. We hope to market meat or live animals this coming year.
Courses:
As I pivot back to education center development, we are launching a plethora of courses this year beyond just the 2024 Winter Weekend PDC — Cincinnati Permaculture Institute. With the homestead growing, we wish to use this living laboratory as a resource for hosting and teaching. The first two of the year will be Maple syrup making and Sourdough beginners’ course. Many more courses will be published soon and feel free to reach out and ask about specific classes.
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Compost:
We intend to produce more food and more nursery plants next year which will definitely require a lot more compost. Our sandy soils require constant mulching and additions of organic inputs. We cycle as much as possible on farm or from local sources, like the hay that goats so wonderfully waste and manure on. We also sell Vermi compost, a product that takes about 6 to 9 months to produce through multiple steps. We first build windrow composts around 30 x 5 x 3 feet. They heat up to 120 to 140 Fahrenheit and we don’t turn them. It then is either used in the field as compost mulch or put into 250 gallon vermicompost bins. We currently are building numerous windrow composts, worm bins are full, and beds being prepped for 2024 planting. We do a lot of in place composting through mulching with manured bedding and woodchips. This last task is one of our most time-consuming activities this time of year. The payoff is next year’s gardens!
Next Year
Our enterprises and how we affect change positively will continue to evolve. Stay in touch, support local enterprise, and continue to grow.
TreeYo Permaculture 
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