Posted by Howard Richman on June 29 2008 at 12:06:35:
An article by Phyllis Speidell in today´s Virginia Pilot focuses on the Wilson family and their nearly-self-sufficient 25 acre farm. Here is a selection:
Full Quiver Farm is home to a fresh-faced family that could have stepped out of a simpler, gentler place reminiscent of "Little House on the Prairie."...HowardCalves graze by the roadside, cows low in a back meadow and a rooster struts the barnyard, crowing loud and often. Towheaded children seem to be everywhere - the toddler pulling a homemade wagon, youngsters playing on a tree full of rope swings, teenaged girls in long skirts and straw hats milking cows.
For the past five years the Wilson family has led a largely self-sufficient life on their 25 acres in southern Suffolk. In January, Scott Wilson left his job to devote his full energy to farm and family....
A large vegetable garden grows on the ground the hogs rooted up as their pen is moved every few days....
A few beef calves live on the farm but the Wilsons graze more cattle on a friend´s farm....
The children tend the chickens, goats, cows and pigs, dividing the work into a milk team and a chicken team.
Madeline, 13, and Katie, 15, are the "cow whisperers," according to their mother.
"You can tell the cows´ moods by looking at them," Katie said as she demonstrated hand milking.
Madeline also tends a small herd of LaMancha dairy goats, a result of a home schooling project.
The youngest children gather eggs and help weed the garden. And, Scott Wilson said proudly, Morgan can run the whole chicken operation almost by herself.
Home-schooled by their parents, the Wilson crew is pretty much cloistered on the farm. But what about when the chores and lessons are done?
"We play on the tree swing," Morgan said, giggling with her sisters about their games of "crash."
Do they miss what other teens might be doing - shopping, movies, concerts?
"We don´t know what they´re doing," Katie said....
For more about Full Quiver Farm go to www.fullquiverfarm.com