The Farm

An aerial view of our farm, circa mid-1990s.

NHF is nestled on roughly 140 acres in northwestern Wisconsin. My husband grew up here, and now we are lucky to be stewards of this gorgeous piece of land. The farm has a bit of everything--pasture, forest, native prairie, and wetland. As someone who lived in a large city for 17 years, I still can't get over the beauty outside my door every day.

We believe in letting nature mostly do it's own thing. We don't use chemicals anywhere on the land, and take a gentle approach in our management practices. Our goal is to maintain (or maybe even increase!) the biodiversity of the land. We are lucky that beaver, foxes, deer, racoons, coyotes, black bear, snapping turtles, and countless species of rodents, birds and waterfowl also call this place home.

The Prairie

The farm has two prairies--one to the west of our pond, and one across the county road from the homestead. I plan to turn the latter one into a hayfield to sustain my animals through the winter. The prairie is at its most beautiful in autumn, when the big bluestem grass turns a dusky purple.

Me in the western prairie, mid-autumn

Small pond in the middle of the western prairie, late summer

The Pond

The pond is one of my favorite features of the farm. It is bordered by our driveway on the south, the county road on the east, and our prairie on the north and west. We mow a path through the prairie so we can walk around it. I love watching the wildlife on/in the pond, and how the pond itself changes season to season. The most exciting part this year has been watching the tamarack bog move around!

The tamarack bog on the pond, late autumn.

The moving bog!

More moving bog. You can see it's turned 180 degrees from the previous picture.

The Wetlands

The southernmost tip of our property is mostly a marshy swamp. It is fed by Lake Beautiful (through the trees on the west side of the farm) and in turn, feeds our pond through a small stream that runs under our driveway.

Blue-winged teal ducks in the wetland

Spring 2014 was much wetter than usual. This is our culvert area, completely overflowing. You can see the marsh in the distance, right before the trees.

The Forest

A little bit of forest borders our property on all sides. I have yet to explore most of these areas!