There was a neglected area out behind one of the hay barns that needed some attention.  It had gotten overgrown with poison ivy and honey locust, two of the most nastiest plants on the planet.  Fortunately, I appear to be immune to the effects of poison ivy so I can get in and rip it out without too much fear.  Jennifer is so sensitive to poison ivy that she will probably break out just looking at the picture.  If we were both that sensitive to it, we would probably just have to take off and nuke the site from orbit (it's the only way to be sure), so I thank whatever fluke of genetics gave me that immunity.  

Now, if I could only become immune to the effects of honey locust thorns...

I spent last night teaching Jennifer how to use a spreadsheet to keep track of her calculations, rather than doing it all manually on paper.  She was so excited when she was able to have the computer automagically add column B to column C, and then divide it by column D.  I looked at her and sarcastically said "Welcome to the 1980s."  I was struck by how different, yet complimentary our skill sets are.  We have often said that she was supposed to have been born 100 years ago, and I was supposed to have been born 100 years in the future, but when we met in heaven we decided to split the difference and come down together.   Even now, I am working through some DNS and website issues while she is in the dairy making soap by hand.  I guess that is what a partnership is all about.  One of us knows all about HTML, and the other all about NaOH.

Welcome to the Global Headquarters of Bearden's Back Acre Farms.  This is where I spend the majority of my time when I am running the business side of the farm.  While I still have a day job that pays the bills, I am looking forward to the day when I can run the farm business full time. 

I think, instead of a farm, I am going to start a health club and call it Fencercize®.  That way I can get people to come over and build my fences and they would pay me to do it.


We are fencing in one of the pastures in front of the barns for the horses and goats.  Since this fence is out in the front of the property, we wanted something that looks nicer than the barbed wire we have around some of the back pastures.  I checked into vinyl fencing, but it was expensive and I heard that it didn't take abuse very well.  I found a place called Ramm Fencing that sells a high-tensile wire/vinyl fencing on rolls.  The cost to do it with Ramm was about the same as it would be to do it in wood, so I figured we would give it a try.  As you can see in the picture, I have set all of the posts and got them painted.  The next phase is to get the rails up.  

Who would have thought that having a farm would lead me back to teaching myself HTML again?  I played around briefly with HTML back in the mid 90's when I ran my own little webserver.  I didn't do anything else with it since then and have probably forgotten all that I once knew.  Now that I am bringing up this web site, I find that I have to step into the Wayback Machine and relearn all that I have forgotten.  And it seems like HTML has grown up and gotten more complex than I remember.    
I find myself dealing with HTML and CSS, when all I really want is EIEIO.

- Dan

Today marks the beginning of a new phase for our little farm.  At the beginning of 2012 we incorporated our business into an LLC and started selling our soaps through Farmers Markets and Craft Fairs.  We weren't sure what we were doing, but thanks to the other vendors we learned a lot and had a modestly successful year.  We continue to build our little business, and in response to many requests are now selling MommaBear's hand crafted soaps online.

Thank you for helping us be successful.