As would-be farmers we love to read other farmer’s blogs. Not only is it a great way for us to learn through other people’s experiences (for free), but it also goes a long way in helping us visualize our future. We may not agree with everything (or anything) certain farmers do, but learning what we agree with and disagree with is all part of the process. We’re starting with a clean slate, so it pays to see, assess and digest as much of everything as possible.
So when a week or so ago I realized that Nature’s Harmony Farm’s blog was removed from their website I was sad to see it gone. It was one of the first blogs we started reading along our journey, so it held a special place. As we’ve written about before, we even went down to visit Tim and Liz. (To be clear, this was not an active blog that one day just went missing. Nature’s Harmony stopped updating and maintaining the actual blog a long time ago and switched to doing podcasts, which they still host on a regular basis.)
Tim Young and Nature's Harmony's heritage turkeys
Perhaps more important than the value a blog provides at the moment you read it is the value it provides from a referential standpoint. If you read a particularly insightful post describing a grazing practice, construction procedure or other interesting idea you would probably like to refer to that post at some point in the future when it suits your needs. Lots of posts are useful, but not always timely. Thus, I enjoyed referencing old posts on occasion and figured I’d need to reference a bunch more once we actually got started. Many of the newbie farmers that document their journey on a blog do a great job with stuff like that and I love it. Color pictures, detailed descriptions, a wide variety of topics, unedited emotions, snarky comments, and other real-life stuff that book publishers don’t (or can’t) allow.
At first when I realized the NHF blog was missing I didn’t really think too much of it. It was kind of sad, I guess, but oh well. Then I got to reading some of the earlier posts on Bruce King’s site at ebeyfarm.blogspot.com. As I clicked through his first couple years discussing pigs on pasture, hatching out turkey poults, hunting killer coyotes and other interesting experiences I came to realize just how much great information is out there, for free, on farmers’ blogs. Then it struck me that Nature’s Harmony’s blog was one of those resources and now it is gone and that is a bummer.
That’s why old farm blogs are important and that's why I’m said an old favorite bit the dust. To me the blogs are like an amalgamation of great books. Part memoir, part fantasy, part textbook.
I guess it's pretty symbolic of farm life in general. All good things come to an end.. too bad there wasn't a cooler full of meat at the end of this one!
Who knows, maybe they’ll resurrect it? Until then, if you’d like to find a semi-decent archive of Nature’s Harmony’s blog check out the Way Back Machine’s web archives.
There's still a bunch of good blogs out there, here's a list of a few of our favorites, new and old. NHF farm blog RIP.
