Fields & Forest

A man and two horses logging in the forest

We manage 30 acres of hay fields, 15 acres of pasture, and 150 acres of forest using restorative practices.

In the forest this means working with a “worst first” philosophy.

This means we take out damaged trees first or trees that are competing for sunlight with more desirable species. This allows us to heat our home and business with wood from our land and increase the value of our remaining forest. The tress left behind are “released” to grow with better access to sunshine and nutrients.

Working with horses allows us to remove these low value trees without the expense of heavy machinery and diesel fuel and leaves very little impact on the forest ecosystem.

The horses also provide us with a lot of nutrients that we use in maintaining field soil fertility.

The manure they provide is spread onto our hay fields every spring, which helps us grow lots of wonderful hay, which we feed to horses and cows and use for pig bedding.

All the manure produced goes back to the field, and this cyclical system reduces our need to purchase external fertilizer for our farm, gives the horses good spring exercise, and provides us with the benefit of wonderful food.

What We Grow

Two brown horses pulling a cart with a person riding it in a rural outdoor setting with trees and a cloudy sky.

A person wearing a wide-brimmed hat and red shirt riding a tractor in a large grassy field, with a horse hitched to the tractor, set against a background of trees, mountains, and a blue sky with scattered clouds.

A horse pulling a large lot out of the forest

A horse harnessed to a set of logs outdoors in a wooded area with sunlight filtering through trees.

Person riding a horse-drawn cart on a dirt path in a green, wooded area on a sunny day.

Two brown horses pulling a equipment and farmer on a field with trees and mountains in the background.

A man with a white cap standing on a hay wagon hitched to a brown horse, surrounded by green trees and grass.