Life at Ranch Srbsko




Driving into courtyard,
barn at the left,
house on the right

 At night the cave like darkness and silence is all consuming; morning slowly, silently creeps in shrinking the darkness, pursuing its recession until it is but multiple, cowering shadows.  Bird songs invade every nook and cranny cheering the light's quest as it rolls over spring's lime green velour.  It is only then, on the front porch that we will slurp our morning cappachino and enjoy the peacefulness and the beautiful surroundings.


Farm folk like Justin and his family are a strange lot, compelled to see if whilst working every morning, they can also view the sun rise.  To date, I'm told, the sun has not malingered.   We all have breakfast to the tunes of "crowing roosters" and that is not a Czech rock band.  This is followed by Sofia (4 yrs.), and Sarah (2 yrs.) accompanying mom (Michaela) to her Montessori school (more on that later), while Justin ceremoniously attends to the needs of the chickens, duck, turkey, rabbits and udder dragging goats seeking their itinerant milker.  Carol works to implement our "travel blog" about which she sometimes issues tender words of frustration like, "calculus proofs would be easier", and in the picture, Ralph, coffee cup in hand, is doing a study of how he might begin building new rabbit cages, the study took several days.





Front door and  enclosed patio

  

This is a close-up view of the house's front door and unique walled in porch where we often eat Justin and Michaela's five-star meals.  Notice the tan rectangles in the wall, these display emergency wood stored for winter's hearth.  The patio's floor is level with the bottom of the stored wood.  Wood adjacent to the front door prevents Justin from freezing his ass off while seeking fuel to keep his family warm in one of December's  minus twenty degree snow storms.  His parents didn't raise no dumb kid, and of course Carol snapped this nice picture before Ralph could return from moving the last of his new rabbit hutches from this area.






Looking from the patio
towards the village

    Sitting on the front porch after a hard day of watching other people work, this shot shows the front of the attached barn where hay and animals are overwintered, as well as, the unattached barn/workshop where tools and the beautiful, horse drawn, castle touring carriage is kept.  As the picture's artistically important center of interest, we see power saws, a block wall, and two rooftops. This was, of course, one of Ralph's compositions.


  


 Family Photo on the Pasture

 

 The picture to the right is taken at the intersection of the pasture and forest looking toward the back door of Justin and Michaela's home.  Moreover, it extends equally as far to the left and the right.  On a good year, Justin grows 3,000 bales of hay here (honestly) and you can cross the pasture by plane in just under four hours (okay, maybe that's a stretch) but truly it is big enough that we never want to be here when the hay is harvested and hand-packed into the barn.  That smallish looking figure in the middle of the picture: it's a 12 foot tall, 400 lb. Czech Yeti and his dog Spot both of which you can see if you come here and pay Justin and Michaela a little money or maybe it is Sofia & Sarah, who knows, it's another family photo Ralph took.






A sustainable permaculture
type home garden

  

Reverse!  This is looking out the backdoor across the pasture to the distant forest.  The greenhouse is at the left and the free range chickens' coop is centered beyond the hay mounds.  Behind the chicken condo are the goats' apartments all of which are surrounded by portable electro-net fences.  Justin designed both structures to be pulled by tractor to different areas of the pasture land (we assume so that the animals don't die of boredom in this land of goat's milk and honey...oh yeah, the three, triple tiered, bee hives [that Justin made Ralph put new frames into] are behind and beyond the greenhouse).  The garden is another of Justin's hair-brained schemes: He digs deep trenches, throws in all kinds of old wood (logs, branches, you name it), covers the wood with the dirt making mounds with walkways between the mounds, then covers everything in used "Stuff" off the stable floors.  The wood rots attracting worms and creating warmth, trace elements, and organic matter; you NEVER walk upon or turn the soil on the mounds; the hay prevents all weeds from growing; the soil becomes moist, friable, and rich; the grass-clover hay & "Stuff" rot adding nitrogen and other elements; the growing season is extended; and he only harvests 5,000 kilograms (well, maybe not that much) but a lot of fresh, diverse produce each summer much of which he stores in their basement that stays as cold as your refrigerator year around.  So, all that proves is that Justin don't know nothin' 'bout old fashioned agriculture and bein' a good-ol'-boy.

In fact he don't even have a rifle in the back window of his SUV. 





Future acreage for Justin's
Permaculture Food Forest
and agricultural education building

  

Justin is working with Czech and American agricultural extensions to be a locus for education.  Students arrive here and Justin gives extension classes in permaculture; this will be a 10-yr.+ project with Justin's food forest maturing more every year.  The food forest is based on a scientific, man-made, sustainable forest ecology that is totally-100% organic, as well as, highly and diversely productive -- (new, small scale, 21st century agriculture).  He began by making contoured swales (that trap and distribute rain water), then he rolls-out huge round bales of hay over the surface -- covering it with a layered mulch to kill all weeds, and he follows this by planting of legumes that range from ground covers to small shrubs and trees.  The process (permaculture) continues step-by-step from here until fruit and nut trees dominate species and under their canopies grow localized vegetables -- labor is minimal with maximal production -- an awesome new concept for small scale, organic,  agricultural endeavors...backyards maybe??? 







View fm: courtyard, across village,
 to forest on other side of the valley

  Standing on the front porch this view encompasses a couple of village house rooftops and  mountains on the far side of the valley.