Common Ground Alaska Farmstead

12/23/2025

It’s 101 degrees warmer in the house vs. outside. 😳

12/22/2025

Life at 23 below:

Mabel will tell more about -23 in a bit. I’ll tell you this much, I just spent over an hour in the barn with the animals and not only am I wiped out, my mouth won’t work to talk and my legs feel like jello.

However, my feet were toasty the whole time!

Also, I was trying to get a cool closeup of Mabel’s eyelashes and my phone gave up from the cold.

But it’s calm and quiet and beautiful out there. Overall not a bad day. At least I’ll say that once I’m thawed out. 🤣

12/22/2025

These fresh milled biscuits turned out so good! Flaky, tender, and so yummy!

This morning I experimented with a new recipe. I’ve yet to be successful with fresh milled biscuits - until today.

Still need to do just a tweak or two for perfection but this is it - the perfect recipe for biscuits with FMF.

Be watching - I’ll share these later this week. I’d like to convert them to sourdough eventually but for now, I’ll just call this a win. Or maybe just sprout the grains and call it good. 🙂

12/22/2025

Discussion: Cold weather clothing - what do you wear to make being outside during sub-zero temps manageable?

A few of my favorites:
- my alpaca wool hat, socks, and gloves (I wear my gloves as liners and wear leather ones over top).
- I have an old knee-length wool skirt that I found for $5 at a thrift store that I wear over my leggings
- my new Royal Canadian insulated boots (these things were well worth the investment - my feet havent been cold in them one time)
- plus, of course, a good coat and a scarf to keep my neck and chin warm

I’ve found that this outfit keeps just about any weather at bay and keeps me comfortable while I spend time outside either working in the barn, hiking, or doing chores.

As a matter of fact, I often find I have to remove a layer or two if I am working very hard because I get too hot.

Synthetic materials are more popular but I’ve found wool is the best insulated against about any weather - even wind. And it lasts forever!

12/22/2025

So tempting! 🤣

12/20/2025

Awhile back I ordered some things from Keetna Farm Goods. They arrived right before vacation so I’m just now looking at the bread bags that were in the order.

I’m so excited about these! The quality, plus the adorable fabrics make me so happy!

I also got jar toppers for my kefir and sourdough - one of them has the cutest highland cows on it!

Just a plug for a local company that’s doing really good things!! No affiliate - just giving a shout out for a favorite local product. 🙂

12/20/2025

A tale of two breads (with a long meander):

The square bread is a long-fermented sourdough bread made from 100% fresh milled hard white wheat. I’m so proud of this one! It holds together perfectly for sandwiches without crumbling and it has excellent flavor.

The oblong slice is an einkorn sourdough boule - also long fermented. It is 1/2 fresh milled and 1/2 all purpose einkorn flour. Im learning to work with einkorn - so sticky! But it’s worth it because it is one of the original grains God created for mankind to consume.

Both of these loaves are at the peak of nutrient availability because they are long fermented but don’t be thinking this is a hard, tricky, expensive, or confusing process. It’s simple, super inexpensive, and so tasty!

When you consume either of these, especially if you chew slowly and let digestion happen at a proper pace, they will deliver nutrients most of us desperately need and arent getting.

I encourage you to learn to make these and other nutrient dense foods for your family. It’s so worth the time - and it could save everyone’s health! (Not a claim - more of a testimony).

A bit of my story: I have gone back and forth on nutrition and healing for years. I’m not healthy and havent been for several years but I am entirely confident there is a path to finding a healthy me. It does involve a rendition of the carnivore diet but it also includes very specific and limited grains (and a few other things that we will talk about another day).

Here’s one thing I know. For myself: I need these grains for my digestion. I’ve had digestion issues all of my life. Milk kefir, Dandelion tea, and a slice of good bread have completely solved the issue.

Also pictured is a glass of whole, raw milk. 🙂 Also key to healing for me.

I think I’ve found my path. It’s not any certain diet but simply a path back to real food, eaten the way God intended. It requires conscious effort but it’s worth it. And maybe someday, if we all do this together, real, whole food will become mainstream again and processed, chemically-laden food will become fringe. 🙂

12/20/2025

We have announced the winner over on Common Ground Bladesmith - better go check it out! Plus … there’s a surprise discount - check it out!

12/20/2025

Life at 15 below 0:

Today’s high got all the way up to 15 below. 🥶

Things change a bit when we get this cold.

We don’t heat our barn so we have to take measures to make sure everyone (primarily the chickens and turkeys) survive and to help them be the least amount of miserable.

First, we do a mid-day feeding. Mabel and Millie get a bit more grain and tons and tons of hay. The chickens get extra scratch with lots of sunflower seeds and alfalfa pellets mixed in. They also get all the milk kefir they can drink.

I’ve had people ask about giving them carbs because it could make them fat and they won’t lay as well but when our high is this extreme, I’m not at all worried about egg production. I just want to keep everyone alive and healthy. And I seriously doubt anyone is putting on fat this time of year.

We also keep their water heated - they go through so much water when it’s extra cold. Normally, we turn the heat off at night but when it’s this bitter cold, we prefer they have access to water 24/7.

We have to collect eggs just about every hour or they freeze.

We don’t blanket anyone but we do make sure there’s ample room for everyone to bed down that’s draft free and dry.

Around the house, we have a couple of rooms that get sealed off for the cold snap. We also run the wood stove a little hotter meaning we burn through quite a bit more wood. We plan for this and make sure there’s plenty before the season starts.

Finally, we make sure to bundle up and get outside when the sun shines. We get about 90 minutes where the sun is over the hills enough that we can see it. I think it’s super important for my healing journey to spend plenty of time soaking up red light from the fire during the dark hours but also getting whatever benefits I can from the sun while it’s up.

Final thought: I’d a million times rather be at 15 below and calm than 15 above with wind.

12/19/2025

Canning pantry is restocked!

My pantry holds about 500 jars and I have to store the rest in overflow shelving. I usually have about 1000 jars done up so it doesn’t quite all fit!

It feels so good to have most everything on the shelves and to have it full again. We still have a few pickles and quite a bit of bone broth in the overflow.

So so grateful for the garden and the animals that provided for this full pantry.

12/19/2025

If you could bring something back from the 80's, what would it be?

12/19/2025

Have you entered our giveaway? We are doing the drawing this afternoon so be sure to enter soon!

Also, it’s not too late to give a meaningful, useful, heirloom quality gift this season.

We also have several knives ready to go on the website. Shipping is free or you can come pick up your purchase right here on the farm.

These knives are made here on the farm from concept to completion. Gene designs them and creates everything for them (including shaping the blade, building the handles, and making the custom leather sheathes) - all right here on the farm. 🙂

Read the instructions below to be entered to win. And check out our website for available options right now: https://commongroundalaska.com/product-category/common-ground-bladesmith/

IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME! Who wants a FREE knife? We're going to give one away on Friday, December 19th. We made it super easy to enter.

Here are the steps:
1. Make sure you're following Common Ground Bladesmith on Facebook.

2. Share this post so others can see it and join the fun!

3. Fill out this form (you must fill out the form to be entered). The form will take 2 minutes or less - I promise! Link to form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3SYWLBR

It's that easy!

Terms and conditions: *Terms and Conditions - we keep things simple around here. If you fill out the form, you'll be entered to win the knife. If you follow us on FB, we'll give you another point for entry. If you share the post, we'll give you another point. We will use random.org to choose a number from the total entries on Friday, December 19th at 5 pm. Any entries received after that time will not be included in the drawing.
We are only giving away one knife. Yes, we can ship the knife but if you want it mailed, it won't arrive by Christmas. If you would like to buy a knife as a gift and have it arrive by Christmas, you will want to shop quickly here: https://commongroundalaska.com/product-category/common-ground-bladesmith/
Any knife purchased from our online store includes free priority shipping and can be shipped the day following the order. Special orders take time so those cannot be shipped right away as they are made upon order.

Knife value: $395