I just gotta share, so I was talking to a friend this morning to figure out a get together for coffee this week as I needed to head to her neck of the woods..
She informed me that she had in fact driven by my little farm last week, just to see things, now her point was in fall, she can’t tell what tree is what etc but she saw the sheep out in the pasture grazing and that was really it, otherwise, it seems quiet…
I was pleased to hear this! it means that I am doing something right, I work hard at figuring out ways that my little extra bits blend into the background of the farm, I can’t express properly just how happy this made me, given that she was truly “looking” as she drove by twice, it should mean that folks that are just driving by should see even less..
I work hard to figure out ways to store things so that when folks visit they don’t see the extra stores (or at least not all of them in the same place) I also store some of this here and some of that there, some in the house, some out of the house, my thinking if storms destroy part of the building and or only one building, I at least have some things in other areas to be able to get things to start over from..
So how are you doing on this? When folks drive by, are they seeing your projects, or do you practise hiding in plain sight? Do you do more outside? Do you do the same inside?
Let me give a easy example, on my guest beds when not in use, they tend to have extra blankets on them, sometimes two or three thick, this allows me to have extra blankets in the house if I ever needed them without having piles of blankets in storage that if someone looked at that they would think.. huh.. why so many?
Just another Day on the Farm 
I’m afraid I’ve developed a reputation for being “That lady who’s always cooking”. Our apartment is right in the main entry of the building and I generally have windows open because it overheats in here (a nice problem to have in the winter!). As I posted recently, the neighbours can usually figure out what we’re cooking by the smell. No one could come two feet into our place without knowing that we buy in season and stock up.
On the other hand, we tend not to have many people over.
Ah but being known as a good cook, does not a prepared person make.. If you don’t have lots of folks coming over and seeing what you have stored, then it would reasonable to think that they know you are trying to feed yourself an your little ones a high quaility diet..
Hmm. Very interesting post. I came to return the blog visit, and have to say this is a topic I think about a lot. I would love to be relatively invisible, but we live right outside of town, on a road that gets quite a bit of local traffic in the morning and after school/work. Problem is, we’re oddballs around here. Nobody else has goats, chickens, a big garden, or grew a field of corn in the back yard last summer. On top of that, I’m a very private person and often feel on display for passers by. Sometimes I have to force myself to go outside in the yard to work. I’ve decided that my focus needs to be on setting an example. If we can do it, maybe others will want to as well. In fact, when we first got our chickens our rooster was the only one crowing. Now, I hear two other roosters in the distance at times. Maybe folks are catching on(?)
I also think about our food storage and trying to diversify where everything is kept. I do have a nice big pantry, which makes it convenient. I sometimes worry that if SHTF does indeed happen suddenly, we’ll be overrun with people. Not sure what exactly to do about that, but it’s on my mind a lot.
Hi Leigh
Thanks for stopping by, I enjoyed reading your post on your final harvest tallies, I hear you about feeling like I am on display at times, I have learned when the road in front of our farm is the most quiet but none the less, I know that the little old ladies down the road love to crank their necks as they go by.
Its a running joke on that fact that folks can stop by and have a polite visit and I am certainly willing to trade and even give a helping hand but no ones gets past the front step unless invited, no drop by for coffee’s etc.
Thankfully most of the farms around me do have gardens, and critters so I do fit in that way, also glad that most of the folks are just as private as I am, we all play it close to the chest in many ways.
I hear you about the worry about being caught with alot of peaple, I am in the same boat, if something really happened, there would be a flood of folks coming from both the east and the west,thankfully I am off the main highway a fair bit but I am sure they would make their way here, even if its just because I am so close to a 3000 acre natural forest, and i am sure that some would think that a good place to go in pinch.
With all of the work you get done all day, every day, it’s a wonder there’s not a permanent little dust storm trailing behind you (visible from the road for all to see; ) xo D.
Oops, that didn’t print out right… (Supposed to look like this; )
ox D.
We’re lucky to live in a farming area where everyone has a big garden. Ours is probably the smallest (and untidiest) in the area. We are the only local people with goats and chickens, but many of the neighbors grew up on, or at one time kept, mixed farms, so while it’s a little old-fashioned (or hippy, depending who you ask), folks don’t think too much of it. In fact, now we’re the local dumping ground for granary sweepings and such, as I think the farmers felt guilty just throwing it out, but it was too little grain to bother cleaning – now our chickens eat for almost free! Or, rather, for jars of chokecherry jam, which we hand out as ‘thank you’ gifts.
I guess this is a long way of saying we don’t really stand out within our community. Folks know I am into canning (as many people around here are), but nobody has seen my pantry to know exactly how much jam we make. In our area, having an extra couple months’ worth of hay is just considered prudent, so our extra feed sits in plain sight without attracting any attention at all. The animals themselves are somewhat novel, but do not really attract a whole bunch of attention. Having tools and an extra jacket or two bought at an end-of-season sale is really what most folks do – people here are very frugal – so really, we’re on the same page as everyone else, even if we are doing a bit more than they are, sometimes.
The thing that really makes us ‘odd’ around here are the indoor dogs. However, they are a big security advantage, and also discourage company from coming inside the house, as one of the girls is very large and rather unfriendly. Convenient…
I really like this community, and believe that folks would really pull together in any emergency, so we also put extra by with the thought of contributing to the community (or sharing with our immediate neighbors) if it should ever be needed, as we are certain we would receive help if we ever needed it – people here are just ‘like that’, and we feel we’re very lucky to have found a place like this…
Hi JJ
Thanks for your reply, very interesting to hear about the difference in your area vs some of us on our little farms, I have to admit that it sounds great, wonderful on that free grain for the chickens and love the comment about the dog keeping the folks away from the house LOL, I have a watch turkey that does a great job on keeping folks from poking their noses around my barns. its kind of funny to see them get chased back.
Interesting about the house dog comment, everyone already me has house dogs, almost no one has a only outside farm dog, on the other hand, lots of them have a habit of putting out the dog when they leave for awhile, which is odd to me, put the dogs out while you can’t watch them?
Sounds like you have found a great place, very lucky indeed!
I’ve been thinking a lot about this this year. We really don’t stand out, being surrounded by farms, but I noticed that there are certain times of the year when the gardens can be seen from the main paved road, and I don’t like that. A project for next year is going to be installing a hedgerow to block it out, I’m thinking elderberries and sumac. I don’t think we would have a problem if something were to happen, we are so far away from anything close to a big population, but why lay out a welcome mat. And like JJ, I think I live in a community that would really pull together. We’ve all been neighbours for generations and helping each doesn’t come with a second thought. I’m really, really lucky that way.
Hi Daisy
I hear you on the hedge, I let a stripe of wild native grasses etc get 3 to 4 feet high this year in the front yard to help hide the garden, it worked well and gave me a large area to do lots of wild harvesting on the farm, I will have to keep stripes natural from the sheep otherwise, I won’t have the same wild harvesting ability on the farm, and while certain thing grow in the woods, I like keeping that area more wild not just for harvest but also to keep my very large and active firefly population alive and well.