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BLACKHAMMER ACRES
Home Improvement, Sustainability, and Organic Gardening in Progress
What do you do when your only child goes off to college? You buy an old farmstead in the Driftless Area of Wisconsin, of course!
Rehabbing a farmhouse, gardening, and dabbling with sustainability is keeping us busy. Share our adventures through our writings and photos of the work in progress!








Picked Up Four Used Pallets For Chicken Tractor Build
Old Pickup Truck with Old Pallets We paid $5 per used pallet; I went and got them today. Ed wants to start building a chicken tractor...
Maggie
Mar 101 min read
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Starting To Get Ready for Spring (too soon I know...)
Chairs by a Firepit/Burn Pile It's only March 9th but it's over 60 F degrees. I couldn't help myself - I set the chairs we got from...
Maggie
Mar 91 min read
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Spring Cleaning and Organizing
Old Garden Shed Made of Tin Garage Side Porch - Screened In Much of what was in our garage side porch has been and will continue to be...
Maggie
Mar 91 min read
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Getting Ready for Baby Chicks
Tuff's Super-Duty 110 Gallon Stock Tank Last weekend we made a trip to Tractor Supply to see if we could find a better alternative to the...
Maggie
Mar 91 min read
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Gardening Season Starts Now
Although we had snow today, we have begun our garden for the year! One of the challenges of gardening year after year is that the chores...
Ed
Mar 52 min read
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Garden Expo 2025
A couple of weeks ago, Maggie and I attended the newly renamed "Garden and Green Living Expo" in Madison. As always, we enjoyed getting...
Ed
Mar 22 min read
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Garden Planning 2025
With the new year comes a new garden plan. We have reached the point where the scars, trials, and tribulations from last year's garden...
Ed
Jan 112 min read
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Mushroom Logs
Several years ago, we successfully grew shiitake mushrooms using oak logs. Ironwood is also used to grow these mushrooms, so 2 years ago...
Ed
Jan 111 min read
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Heel Balm
After years of harvesting honey, we have accumulated a considerable amount of beeswax. While looking through a bee supply catalogue, I...
Ed
Jan 112 min read
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Bathroom Progress
Among the gardening and other outdoor activities, we still have a house we are trying to update. We are slowly nearing the finish line,...
Ed
Nov 30, 20242 min read
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Dia De Muertos
One of the fun things about living in an area with many small communities, local businesses, and non-profits is that many host events to...
Ed
Nov 24, 20241 min read
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Pumpkin Pie - Made With Home Grown Pumpkin & Eggs
It's been tradition for as long as Ed and I have been married for Ed to make the pumpkin pie for his side of the family's Thanksgiving...
Maggie
Nov 20, 20241 min read
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Garden Put to Bed
We finally completed one of the hardest tasks of the year, which is getting the gardens ready for winter. Usually, we have this completed...
Ed
Nov 3, 20242 min read
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Trying To Develop Sustainably Via "Reusing"
While not always possible, we're trying to build out our remaining projects using recycled / repurposed items. Ed recently had a couple...
Maggie
Oct 27, 20241 min read
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The Year of Perennials In Review
We are at the mid-point of closing down the garden for winter. We are spreading a giant piles of woodchips across the beds, mucking out...
Ed
Oct 13, 20243 min read
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