Happy Dancing Blog

Recently a small group of people gathered at Island Lake Farm on a cool fall evening to talk about Climate on the Farm. Sponsored by the Climate Land Leaders  and supported by Happy Dancing Turtle, the evening started with a history of the farm. We have been on our farm for thirty years and consider it to be a special place. With a half mile of shoreline on a natural wild rice lake and the headwaters for the Ripple River, we have kept conservation at the heart of our farm ope

Recently I had the opportunity to attend the 19th Biennial North American Agroforestry Conference. As part of the conference, the Working...

Doesn’t that title sound super impressive and knowledgeable? Don’t worry I just came up with it in the shower one day. Zero waste...

Based on the premise that adaptive grazing management is vital to mimicking the natural systems that build healthy soils and landscapes,...

Until embarrassingly recently, I had no clue that composting was even possible in the winter—especially in a cold, snowy, icy climate...

If you’ve heard an undercurrent of whining every time you step outdoors, that may have been my muttering carried on a brisk north wind to...

The numbers are sobering: According to the Environmental Defense Fund , 160 billion pounds of food goes uneaten every year in the United...

Sustainable agriculture gives me hope. What gives me hope is the knowledge that much of what ails us and the planet we are part of can be...

It is not news that we consume a horrific amount of plastic. As author Susan Freinkel (Plastic: A Toxic Love Story) famously shows on her...

Jim Chamberlin, Happy Dancing Turtle’s Conservation Technician, also operates a 109-acre diversified farm and forestry operation near...