2026 Prairie Roots Homesteading Summit

 We are on our way back from a great time in Watford City ND at the first Prairie Roots Homesteading Summit. Nicole and I were honored to be asked to speak on Keeping a Family Cow and Foundations of Fermentation.

It was great to hear from Justin and Rebecca Rhodes and meet Tim and Sophia Eng.

I also gave a talk with Janelle Anderson on Monetizing Your Homestead. 

Overall it was a great inspiration to continue the homestead production of food for ourselves. Which is why I decided to post about it on this blog — we are entering a new era of homesteading in the Bartlett Family 2.0.

I will plan to post more about what we work on for our own homestead here to reflect on as the years go by. 

Peter

The Crown of the Continent Part 2: Why I Love Experiencing Nature

It was Sunday evening and I just spent a few hours casting with my fly rod standing on a rock in the clear running water of a snow-melt fed spring on the south east side of the lake at Many Glacier Hotel.



I followed the trail back along the side of the lake headed for the vehicle, stopping every now and then to snap a photo. First of the sun gleaming through the pines, then of ducks sunning themselves on a rock in the sunny quiet shadow-streaked water. It was golden hour, the period of time where the sun's rays cast glowing yellow rays through the atmosphere with an enchanted splendor.

Part of me was torn between wanting to simply breathe in the surroundings of nature. The other part wanted to capture it on camera. A continual unsettling feeling plagued me as so many opportunities for post-card quality photos jumped at me from my path on the trail.

What is it? I wondered to myself. How can it be that I so enjoy being in this place, yet I continually choose to distract myself by trying to capture it on an electronic device? Surely there is something my soul is yearning for, and something for which I long to... and then it hit me! Worship.

There is no beauty in creation but that which is revealing the beauty of God. His revelation speaks of His glory. There is no mere material existence which stands alone. "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

The ache, the longing, the joy of experiencing the world, the underlying cause of why I immediately turned to my camera to take pictures was not because it was simply a new experience. It was not that I just happened by chance into a place that was photogenic.

It is because I am created to know God. It is because His creation is created to declare His glory! And the only fitting thing I can do when faced with the overwhelming feeling of majesty and beauty in nature is to worship God. To throw down any attempt to reduce it to mere chance, mere material existence separated from divine cause, and to simply and completely give up my soul in praise to the Lord almighty.

I made a note to this effect in my pocket journal which I carried with me for capturing reflections on my hikes.

The enjoying of God is the reason I enjoy experiencing nature. Nature belongs to God. And I belong to God. It is because He made me, and because He has given me faith by which I am united to Jesus Christ and adopted into His family that I see the world in a new light. I do not resist giving Him praise as so many fellow sinners do.

Turning back to the trail leading to the vehicle parked near the hotel, I could not but repeat the chorus,

"I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.
But “I know Whom I have believed
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day."

 

The Crown Of the Continent: Exploring Glacier National Park Part 1

Just recently I came across an article that explained how to avoid the feeling that time is flying at break-neck speed. The conclusion was to incorporate novelty into your life. Things out of the ordinary. Things unusual. By doing so, our mind logs more quantity of memories in succession which gives the impression that time has slowed down.

I experienced that feeling first-hand earlier this year on my trip to Glacier National Park. Before those memories fade, I want to take the time to write down what I remember and share it with you. By putting them in writing I can relive some of them in the process, and transfer a part of the experience to you so you can enjoy it with me.

I'm planning a series of at least 5 posts on this topic, so I invite you to grab your backpack, hiking boots and fly rod, and follow me to Glacier National Park!

By way of outline,

1. I'll first cover some reasons for my vacation and where I got the ideas.
2. Then I'll move on to the actual trip and show you what I discovered and how it blessed me. 
3. Finally, I'll wrap up with reflections on what I learned from the time away and how it refreshed and energized my life.

A favorite picture from Lake St. Mary's on Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park. Click here for the full photo.

Help! What can I do with my milk when I'm on vacation?

Summer is here and your well-deserved vacation is approaching! Maybe it's a road trip to relatives , or Disney Land or a trek to a far away place to enjoy yourselves. But what about deliveries? How do you keep your share and not worry about milk that's scheduled for delivery?

In this short post I'll explain what you need to do to make sure your family stays connected to nature's perfect food (raw milk from grass-based cows), and still gets to enjoy the vacation you've been waiting for.

Just skim the headings for the option that seems best for you. Then follow the action steps I've outlined below.

You have four options:

1) Donate your milk to a family in need. Here at the farm we believe in helping those who may be facing unexpected challenges leaving them in a place of need. As a part of our farm, we created a Real Food Sponsor program where you can donate to help a family in need.

Action Steps:
a. Contact Bartlett Farms to let us know you would like your milk to go to a Real Food Sponsor family. Email office@bartlettfarms.us
b, We will make known the availability of the resources to a needy family within our network.

2) Have a friend pick up your order or receive delivery instead of you. This is for you social people who have connections to healthy like-minded moms. Maybe they aren't financially able to get the milk they know is better for their family. Maybe they would just appreciate a treat! Why not pass off some of yours to them while you're away and be a blessing to them?

Action Steps:
a. Confirm with your friend that they will take and use the order.
b. Send an email to office@bartlettfarms.us to give Peter at the office your friend's address and any special delivery notes. We love to serve, and will do our best to get it to them without a hassle.

3) Have butter, yogurt, kefir, or some other more stable product crafted from your share of dairy products. Yes, you read that correctly. For no extra charge we will take your share of raw milk and transform it into a product that is more stable and will be usable for you when you return. Butter is the most stable option, next comes kefir and yogurt. You may even be able to get a double portion of fresh milk given to you on the next delivery. Be sure to mention your situation and we'll do our best to make it fit your needs.

Action Steps:
a. Email your vacation dates to me at office@bartlettfarms.us and let me know your preferences. We have five options: butter (which gives you access to buttermilk and skim milk if desired), yogurt, kefir, cream (plus skim milk), and chocolate milk.
b. Get your bonus order delivered at our next delivery after you're back.

4) Put your order on hold. This is great if you're gone temporarily and don't want to bother with any details. You can set your own vacation dates by logging into your account on www.bartlettfarms.us or send an email to office@bartlettfarms.us. We'll take care of it from there!

5) Temporarily discontinue. If you plan to be away for a year or more, you may find it simply better to cancel your shares altogether. You lose the investment you made at the beginning and would have to repurchase your shares to opt back in. This is a better option if you are in the military and don't know when you may be stationed back in the area again, or if the oil industry takes you out of state.

Action Steps:
a. Check with your boss to see how long your time away will really be.
b. Send an email to me at office@bartlettfarms.us and we'll erase the shares from your name.

Now before you forget, take action on one of those steps! I know how busy you are. Let me know how we can help you get the most out of your share while you enjoy your summer vacation!

How to Move A Cow

Cows don't speak english. But they do know what you're saying through body language. 

To move a cow you need to think of two things. Pressure and position.

Your body language determines your pressure. Slouch your shoulders, bend down, pick up a blade of grass -- this is low pressure. Stand tall, puff out your chest, wave your arms -- that's high pressure.

To make a cow go where you want, you use just enough pressure from the right position. 

The cow thinks through her eyes, so your position in relation to her head is what matters. It's pretty much like a game of pool from there. Position yourself in the right place and exert the right amount of pressure. She will move! Then adjust. 

That's about it.

Setting Goals

I love to be busy but sometimes I fail to set a goal for where I want to be by the end of the day, month, year and end up doing only "busy work." Work that gets little done and no substantial progress.

Setting and dwelling on goals is important because it gives me a high standard to aim for and an intentional attitude toward getting there.

A Temporary Need For Limited Liability

People are the image bearers of God. As such, we have moral responsibility and a duty to obey God in all that we do.

When we create an organization or a corporation, we create another entity that is an artificial person. This person isn't made in God's image.

What I take that to mean is that although the company is bound to conform to the moral responsibilities and obligations of holiness in God's world, the people in charge of the company are the ones given the great task of harnessing the company's actions in obedience to God's commands.

Today I became President of Bartlett Dairy, LLC.

I find it an honor and privilege to be in this position. I also know that limiting liability for the wrong reasons is sin. I must be careful to not allow the business interests to affect my moral judgement.

The way I see it, today's need for limiting liability is for protection from a corrupt judicial system.

There will probably be a day down the road where limiting liability will not be necescary because righteous judgement will protect upright people.

For now, it seems that LLCs provide the best government-approved protection from reckless lawsuits and help keep family businesses afloat.

Simple is Scalable: Real Beef Parcel

Since selling beef, we've only offered customers the ability to buy large amounts through a quarter, half, or whole beef, or various cuts.

The problem with this is that it's hard for busy people to choose what they want. 

The bulk order takes planning, the cuts take knowledge.

So we designed a product that solves that problem. It's not for every consumer, it's for learners.

It's the Real Beef Parcel. In the Standard option, you get a box of beef with a roast, four steaks, and and four pounds of ground beef. It's all you need to be able to say "I'm eating grass-fed beef."

The best part is that I think this model is scalable because it's simple.

Now the job is getting this into the hands of those who know they need it.

Photo Post May 16th

Prepping Garden Soil

Hi,

Went out today and loaded a couple wheelbarrows of composted manure and transported it 300 yards uphill to my mini garden bed. There's got to be a better arrangement for the cows in relation to the garden (think permaculture, here...)!

This small garden plot is one I've kept up with minimal labor over the past four years. I'm using Steve Solomon's technique; one wheelbarrow, one spade, one rake, and one hoe. By spacing plants apart more than normal, there's less need for supplemental water. There have been good to excellent yields each year so far, and I haven't watered once! I aim to keep it up as long as I can.

As I'm in the small little garden patch, its easy to think its tiny and insignificant compared to what could be done on a large scale. That's true, but I find I enjoy doing it for other reasons. It's not so much the harvest I care about, it's the experience of seeing the union of heaven and earth at work.

What I mean, is that by the fact of Jesus victory over sin, the earth and the elect of man which were alienated from God at the fall, are brought back into harmony by the redemption of Christ. The soil and plants are allowed to continue to bear fruit for man because God looks upon the earth through the work of Jesus and sees it cleansed from the effects of sin. Jesus has bought it all back from the curse, and though it now "groans and travails," it is (like we are) waiting expectantly for the renewal of the heavens and the earth at the end of time.

It's kind of funny then, the more I spend time in the garden the more I enjoy gardening as a philosophical and theological meditation period. :)

Peter

Cows This Evening

Quick photo on the way to milk!

The Cabin So Far

First layer in place

Dad helped me tack down the tarpaper on the cabin today. We're supposed to get a half inch of rain tonight, so getting that first layer in place is important. I don't think we've had rain yet this spring, only snow. 

Studebaker Solo

Here's a tune I learned from Kenny Smith's Acutab instructional DVD. Hadn't played it in a while, but really enjoyed getting back into it. Enjoy!

Tiny House: Interior Framing

Progress may be slow, but it's always exciting for me. A quick review of interior partitions I'm puttng in the 12' x 20' tiny house.

Sunny Morning

A great day to be alive! The spring weather we've been having makes me motivated to jumpstart some spring projects -- like fencing and barn mud management.

David said a year ago we had -50 temps, but today we have 30+ degrees! I'll take that.

Lily, a Jersey calf we had in the house is now stationed in the barn. I moved her out this morning.

Dad is off on a Grand Forks delivery today, so its just Mom, David and I at home. Andrew is filming a wedding about five hours north of us in Canada.

Hope you have a great weekend!

A Moment of Milk

The last bottle thudded into the cooler and I dropped the lid into place. Raising myself from a bent over position I reached for the handle of the sliding glass door on the cooler and maneuvered it open. Packing milk for the next morning's delivery had left one sole bottle, partially filled with creamy whole milk, sitting in the glass-front cooler awaiting my thirsty gaze.

A well-practiced flip of the cap and the bottle was traveling to my lips, soon coating my taste buds in a soothing delicious white fluid. Pure milk, nothing added, nothing taken away. Oh the joy of the thought! This thought. A thought you may well benefit to enjoy with me. The fruit of earth's riches. A bounty of heaven! The union of divine blessing on mere temporal creation -- in short -- God's promised daily bread that, whether asked for specifically or not, Jesus has imparted by grace to me.

That pure milk, coming from the healthy udders of cows I cared for since they were born, produced by cattle stimulated by solar energy converted into grasses, cut, dried and stowed away for winter's feeding. Milk, the fluid portion of which, mined from below the crust of earth, was drawn from reservoirs of filtered ocean water carried by clouds onto the mainland of America.

This thought, with others like it, raced through my head as I swallowed down the remaining milk and replaced the lid, turning back to my task at hand. Oh the glory of the riches of God ministered in this simple part of my day!

Thoughts On Thought and How God Wants Us To Think

From a battered, torn, folded manuscript scribbled on in the barn by Peter in July 2015. All errors are my own. Read at your own risk.

Thoughts On Thought and How God Wants Us To Think

A Christian is not simply a person carrying around a certain set of propositions that he believes are true. It is partly that, but thinking like a Christian involves knowing God and lovingly speaking on His behalf.

People today seem to have a different mode of thinking than people did back in Bible days. If you look at the children of Israel in Egypt and the pagan nations of Canaan, you notice a common fear of "the gods" by the pagans, or "The Lord God" of Israel, right? This fear someone higher than man is something that seems to have been bred out of us in modern days.

When someone talks about the weather, we don't usually credit it first of all to personal forces, right? Why is that? Is it because science has eliminated the need for God? No. It is only the common unbelieving frame of thought that we have caught in our age. Dr. Cornelius Van Til stresses the change that happened at the time of Immanuel Kant in modern philosophy. Kant wasn't the first to think this way, but his ideology caught on in popular philosophy.

For me, it helps to follow trains of thought back in history to see where they developed from and who is behind it. Van Til does just that in his books. Taking insights from "A Defense of the Faith," "The Case for Calvinism," and "A Christian Theory of Knowledge," Van Til has showed me how post-Kantian thought is drawing upon the same non-Christian method as Aristotle and Satan. Aristotle is known for his logical method, and was an early greek thinker. Aristotle's method of explaining God and the world drew upon two concepts that he assumed were eternal. This may be hard to grasp, but it's worth a try. Read on and give it some thought!

Basically, for Aristotle there are two abstract concepts; forms and contingencies. These concepts had existed forever and weren't necessarily created by God. The first was the concept of form. Pure form. Once you have heard the second you may be able to see where this is going. For now, just think of form all by itself.

The second concept Aristotle needed in his method was contingency. Pure contingency. Taking pure form and adding pure contingency, you get the possibility of what Van Til called, "brute fact." This may take time to sink in, but it is worth understanding so you can avoid the sin of thinking this as much as possible.

So with the possibility of brute fact, there was then the possibility of eternally existing principles which could be equally true for God and equally true for man. The way Van Til said it, "That which holds a finite man imperfectly, is one and the same with that which holds an infinite God perfectly." In other words, there was a blank space of abstract no man's land, where you could, as it were, pencil in God, and pencil in man. There was an environment surrounding God and man with certain laws that each may appeal to. This is where the ground gets shaky. Because of this no man's land that encompasses both God and man, the laws of that tract of land, such as logic, were eternally co-existing with God. God did not necessarily create the laws of logic, he has co-existed with logic as a little god beside Him. Logic then, was identical for God and man. And with logic being identical, then all knowledge too was identical for God and man, and man was lifted up into oneness of being with God.

This lifting up of man to be one with God in knowledge, means that he must also be a god, since you cannot separate knowledge from being. This train of thought leads right into Plato's scale of being, and fits into Roman Catholic theology and Armenianism.

Do you follow me? I know it is hard to grasp, especially for us living in times where modern post-Kantian philosophy is normal.

True Christianity denies all other gods and receives the personal revelation of God in scripture as the only special communication to man by God. There is no brute facts in God's world. No pure forms or contingencies. The world is beaming forth the personal Word of God. Nature speaks God's praise because it is in Him, of Him, and through Him. There isn't any truth that stands abstractly apart from personal covenantal communication. When we know the Truth, we are knowing Jesus Who is the Truth.

I hope you don't gloss over this and I'd encourage you to crack open a philosophy book by Van Til and start drinking in a dose of medicine for a mind that is infected with popular sin. The reward for a transformed sight and view of the world is worth it. It is not less than what God has commanded by our being born again and renewed in His image.

All for now,

Peter

Using Milk to Tenderize Beef

Hey!

I'm excited. We fried up our first Jersey steaks tonight. Those bull calves just jumped a lot in my estimation.

But we didn't just do steaks the "normal" way. We did an experiment.

Dad has a keen sense of what texture, taste and properties he wants to experience in the food that he sells to others. And he cares enough to dig into the processes that contribute to raising that food as well.

When a customer told Dad they learned that milk can tenderize beef, Dad knew this was something we had to try.

So we did.

This afternoon I grabbed our trusty kitchen guide to grass-fed cooking, Shannon Hayes' Grass-fed Gourmet cookbook, and flipped to a recipe for bison sirloin steak (pg 42).

Since Jersey beef is naturally lean, I thought it made sense to try a bison recipe. Cooking times might be longer. On top of the breed difference, the fact that the steer was harvested at a younger than prime size (700lb) could also make a difference.

Using the simple ingredients of basil, coarse salt, pepper, and olive oil, I slathered the first T-bone steak and rubbed in the seasonings.

Then I took the other steak out of the fridge. It was about 16 hours ago that I submerged the T-bone's twin from the package in a baking pan of creamy raw Jersey milk.

The milk dipped steak held the seasonings well, so I only rubbed in the mixture and prepared it just like the other steak.

As the recipe said to do, I let them sit for a bit. Then, drying them off, I seared them for 3 minutes per side on the stove in a bare skillet.

Mistake #1. Don't sear in a bare stainless skillet! The house looked like a chimney and smoke curled everywhere.

After the searing, both steaks were set on a baking sheet to slowly cook for a couple hours while I went out to milk.

Long story short, here's the response:

Written November 2015

[Video Post] Tiny House: Math Works

See how it's coming along!
(correction: I said geometry, it should be trigonometry:

"Trigonometry is about triangles, relation between their sides, opposite angles etc. sine, cosine and tangent are few of the trigonometric functions. Geometry is a broader term dealing with points, lines, surfaces, shapes etc." ref. google)






Any suggestions? Let me know your thoughts.