Comments on: Barnheart

By: Ellie

Ellie — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 22:26:31 +0000

Oh My Stars! I didn’t find this out until today as our internet has been down! I’m so excited! Thank you!

By: elaine

elaine — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:31:14 +0000

I will try again, I typed the comment out and then put in the wrong code and lost everything. My husband and I thought when we retired and bought one acre of land it would be enough. We have been visiting our local llama dealers and it has made us want more land.
We garden all ready with an above ground garden, veggies and herbs. I even grow greens in the winter here in Florida. We would like to have chickens, llamas for their wool, and goats (I am allergic to cows milk products). I make my own yogurt from goats milk. We love to landscape our property and we also have fruit trees. Our neighbors have some different fruit trees and we all barter and trade. We have health issues now I have heart problems and had breast cancer and my husband tends to get bouts of pancretitis so we have cut down on meat products and foods with preservatives in our food. I was a home ec teacher and canning is not a problem for us. This next year I am going to make orange marmalade from my over abundant orange tree.
We had thought an acre would be enough but we would like wide open spaces. My husband helped his uncle build a barn in Keystone Heights, Fl and has always wanted one like it.
We are in the early 70′s but looking for more adventure to our life.

By: Barnheart | Allen's Blog – P. Allen Smith Garden Home – How To Be Self Sufficient

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:39:26 +0000

[...] here: Barnheart | Allen's Blog – P. Allen Smith Garden Home ← Thoreau and He Is More Relevant Than Ever | the Self-Sufficient … Garden Farming [...]

By: Sherry Georg

Sherry Georg — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:49:25 +0000

Just, yesterday I was telling a customer of how when I was a young girl and riding for hours on the back of one of our work horses “Mac and Maude”, while my father was planting crops using them to pull the planter……The smell of those horses…”barnheart” priceless…

By: Jane Oetterer

Jane Oetterer — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:10:51 +0000

I am saving up for a grand raised patio that will be flush with my walk out patio doors. Numerous flower beds will be incorperated!

By: P. Allen Smith

P. Allen Smith — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:59:55 +0000

It’s going to be tough to pick the person with the worse case of Barnheart. Great comments!

By: Lisa B

Lisa B — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:17:33 +0000

Oh my–I feel a kindred spirit with Jenna. I do sit at a computer all day and deal with sick and unhappy people. To own a homestead where you can get up in the morning early and spend time doing what you love–caring for animals (who don’t care how you look but love you unconditionally), going out in a garden where there is dew on plants and picking them fresh from the vine, or even watching the sun rise would be such a dream!! I can only continue to hope that someday my dream will come true as her’s did!!

By: Stacy

Stacy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:12:40 +0000

Barnheart disease. Yes, my husband and I both have it. We were both raised in the city with several opportunities to visit family who had farms or ranches. There is nothing like spending your ENTIRE summer outdoors. We plan to live in the countryside somewhere with land when we’re done with school. I studied landscape mgt. and can’t get enough of the outdoors in any setting. Several acres with room for a huge garden, orchard, and animals would be PERFECT for us, and mountains are a must. We both think that’s where we’d like to raise our children.

By: sylvia garza

sylvia garza — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Very interesting! Any photos to share?

By: Jean Eckert

Jean Eckert — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:07:30 +0000

Allen, Good luck choosing one of these. I enjoyed reading them all–and I’m not a Barnheart!

By: julie

julie — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:58:12 +0000

My husband has always wanted a big farm with a big house where we could have our daughters come back home and bring their families and all live and work together raising everything from gardens to catfish, cows, sheep and grand babies! And always have fried chicken on Sunday afternoon -

By: pam

pam — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:56:21 +0000

I’m definetly a Barnheart kindred spirit…Right now its just limited vegetable gardening but I would/will have chickens someday! (hopefully, ducks, sheep, bees!) I read Jenna’s first book “Made from Scratch” and loved it so I would love to read “Barnheart”.

By: Carolyn Binder

Carolyn Binder — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:06:51 +0000

I have a serious case of barnheart.

By: Teresea

Teresea — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:13:20 +0000

My homesteading daydream would be to build a small home on my 17 acres. It would be called Chapel Hill Farm, as it would also be a wedding venue. It would have a pick-your-own blueberry farm. I would be known as the BBQueen (blueberry queen), a play on Memphis’ own BBKing. I would have a doggie day care/retreat center and also have horses, chickens, a donkey and goats. hhmmm, I think I need to add more acreage.

By: Melanie E.

Melanie E. — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:05:36 +0000

Oh how I miss the polliwogs and tadpoles,the crickets and the cicadas. I didn’t need a weather man I had Mother Nature singing the forecast. My parents had just bought a small brick house with well water on just over 10 acres of land. When my mom was pregnant with me she was out planting evergreen trees. They named me Melanie after the the character in Gone with the Wind. They may have named me wrong because I grew up with Terra in my blood. I learned to drive the tractor by 6 and cut about 3 -4 acres of grass and brush with a Mott’s mower hooked up to a Cub Cadet. I got a pony on my 5Th birthday who was nothing but curious trouble. We had geese, sheep, rabbits, Guinea hens, fish, dogs, barn cats and more horses to come. We were woken in the middle of the night to watch a new birth. I was always in awe but later I would always think that would be more time with the pitchfork out of the barn. I broke a lot of folds by getting in line on top of the dog house and riding the new colts to break them in. I have surfed a horse in the water and dove off a front loader into a pond. I spent my life no matter where it took me coming back to take care of homestead. I have been though a bad marriage with a city man and 3 rounds against cancer. My medicine has been having tomatoes , peas, beans and corn growing in the garden to sooth my nerves. I taken care of children and my brilliant mother possessed with Alzheimer’s. This home with animals and kids on a tire swing has gotten me through a lot. My dad died before I graduated high school and my 3 siblings never felt the same about the place. The everyday care fell on my shoulders. When my mother died they threw me and my step-dad out because I couldn’t afford the first rite of buying out my siblings. I had spent all my savings on heath care and basic house needs, and a house with land has a lot of needs. I wasn’t able to work due to the cancer and taking care of my mother with Alzheimer’s. I had to get a small place in the city; imagine me with sidewalks. First thing I did was dig up the back yard and put in dwarf fruit trees, raised beds with tomatoes, beans, peas and the makings for salad. My neighbors put up a fence and can’t understand worm composting. Around my family home was farm lands which have been bought up and is being turned into office parks. I have spoke at every town board meeting I could to have it done in a green way but it’s true you can’t fight city hall and win. I drive by my family home all the time and it breaks my heart I can’t get it back. It is still for sale by the estate who aren’t speaking to me. My dream would be to buy the land. I would fix the barn, fill it with animals and have a house full of foster kids running around chasing fireflies.

By: theresa rooney

theresa rooney — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:11:06 +0000

Yes, the diagnosis is correct, I have Barnheart disease. I have had it as long as I can remember, always preferring to be with my dog out in nature or reading a book about horses, then progressing to digging up plants from the mine dumps and re landscaping the family front yard (with out permission, ‘tho it looks pretty good even MANY years later). Then I progressed to the planting my balcony so full of flowers/herbs and veggies that I feared the soil weight may become an issue to choosing my home because there was actual SOIL for me to plant in. Then came the next phase, digging up ALL the turf (poor urban neighbors, they had no idea an ‘afflicted’ person had moved in) planting trees, shrubs anything to bring life and wildlife and food to the yard. Now my “Barnheart” has progressed to keeping chickens, dreaming about bees, permaculture, all things homesteading and of course increasing the gardening/homesteading library. Even at work I am entranced by anything growing/homesteading/crafting. It is often difficult to remain focused on the ‘job’. But I persevere, knowing that I will keep on gardening/keeping chickens/homesteading/learning skills till my evergrowing Barnheart stops beating.

By: Pam

Pam — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:05:02 +0000

Oh!! I never knew so many people had the same dream!! We live on 15 acres but at this time I am still working and not able to do the things I want to do. Hopefully in about 2 to 3 years I will be able to retire and stay home and fulfil the dreams. I want some chickens to have fresh eggs and to raise a lot of vegetables. We raise some now but not as much as I want to. I have been tryin to learn how to do things to be self-sufficient. I bake bread, grow herbs and I have made homemade laundry detergent. My son and husband make homemade wine. I want to teach our grandson all about being self-sufficient. I want us all to learn how to live better lives with less. Yes, I have barnheart, just never knew the name for it.

By: Kelly Mosley

Kelly Mosley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:34:33 +0000

My quest started over four years ago. I checked out a homesteading book from my library and got the bug. It took us almost two years to move out of town. Our patience got us a fabulous modular home on 2.5 acres. Starting out is so overwhelming you have so much you want to do. One thing I have learned is every little thing takes time. Our land is very hilly and the soil is clay and rocks, so even our small garden took tons of work. Gardening itself is quite the learning experience but the pride of your produce is worth it. My husband built our chicken coop over the summer, which was one of the hottest in OK. We have 4 chickens which I love dearly they just recently started laying and its so satisfying to be rewarded for caring for your animals. My husband built my compost bin for Christmas and thanks to bunny poo and chicken poo it is cooking up quite nicely I figured out seed starting last year which was awesome! I became a seed hoarder for awhile. We have built a hoop house to start the spring garden early this year. We are building our strawberry patch soon, and also plan on raising 15 meat birds this spring so a chicken tractor is in the plans. I absolutely love Jennas book, reading it reminded me of my journey to this life I love. She also inspired me to learn to play a mountain dulcimer. I don’t have one yet but it is my resolution for this year. Next summer, I will be sitting on the back porch with my dog and chickens playing the dulcimer and drinking homemade strawberry wine Happy homesteading to all!

By: Lynnanne

Lynnanne — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:09 +0000

I want to live in a shack… a small cabin of sorts, a shed. I don’t care if it has plywood walls. Wooden floor. No carpet. An indoor toilet of some sort, and an outhouse. Solar power. Remote. Sunlight for gardening. Chickens, a pig, goats… lots of goats. And a large window to watch the wildlife from. I want the less is more. But for now, I’ll settle for a barnheart-between-the-pages fix.

By: Rita Hopper

Rita Hopper — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:40:18 +0000

My “farm” is living in my back yard where I have such goodies as a Fuyu Persimmon tree, Litchee and space for a small garden where I have rosemary the year round as well as other fresh herbs as oregano and escaped mint! For such goodies as tomatoes, I use an old wash tub that we actually took baths in when I was a child living on a farm where my daad was a truck gardener and took the produce 53 miles downriver to Baker City to the Safeway warehouse.
One indulgence are blueberries including huckleberries of several varieties so they eating season is spread out over 2 – 3 months.
You can take the “girl” off the farm, but never the farm out of the girl or get the dirt out of her veins!