As Peter and I are getting our homestead more established with plants and critters, our intent is to share the experience with others.

Peter and I are in the midst of planning and preparing for our 2025 gardens. Let's call last years version Ricklig Strom 1.0. ..we...

This was a vermicompost harvesting weekend for Peter and me. Our not-so-little army of Gerards has been very busy making gorgeous black,...

Peter and I are dreaming of the day when we'll be able to add a farm dog, barn cats, chickens, goats, and even pigs to our little...

Weekends on the homestead are lovely, despite the blood, sweat, and tears - literally! We enjoy our time here, but this autumn, our...

Since fall is upon us, heralded by the passing of Labor Day and the arrival of the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, I feel it is...

Purple Flags With an eye toward expanding our vegetable and pollinator-friendly flower gardens in the spring, we must plant this fall. ...

Those who peruse our website or social media posts are aware that we kicked off our homestead adventure with worms--creatures lowest of...

It is possible that no one has ever put these words together in a sentence... At PETEnELLA, we aspire to be a multi-generational worm...

Accept that others may question your choices on how you spend your time and resources.  It might not seem to make much sense to poor out...

I had a sweet co-worker with whom I shared this oft-spoke statement, "I did a thing!" No matter the size or intricacy of the task, when...

May 14: Just ordered 2350 little critters for our little farm and growing garden project! If you had told me that before the chickens,...

Due to an unexpected apple tree delivery, Peter  and I made a quick trip down to Riklig Ström to get it in the ground and tend to the...

Weekend update from Riklig Ström... Tilda and Torvald the Toads are nowhere to be found. It was hot and dry for most of the week, and the...

Meet Tilda and Torvald, the Fowler Toads, who gave me a little jump early this morning when I was weeding our garden. Friends who know me...

Prepping worm grit for our Gerards. Baking egg shells at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, then crushing them as fine as I can make them. We...

It is still a work in progress and the grass is more like a hayfield in sections, but to look out our back door at our other house and...

How does our garden grow? With green beans, jalapeños, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, basil, chives,...

As of today, this cute little house in the woods in Spotsylvania County, not too far from Lake Anna, is ours! Our prayer is that this...

As a child on the High Plains, I associated the term ‘monsoon’ with the rainy season in tropical regions, specifically Southeast Asia....