Happy Dancing Blog

Happy Dancing Turtle’s Garden Team starts 10,000+ seeds on campus every year. They grow plants in many ways–using hoop houses, aquaponics, hydroponics and the beautiful traditional outdoor garden beds on Campus. The Garden Team uses soil blocks for seed starts and recently shared some of their recipes, tips and tricks that also apply to the home gardener.

Buying local beef is now even easier thanks to the online store from Headwaters Beef Cooperative.

Hydroponics, or growing withou traditional soil, can seem mysterious. A photo tour of HDT's aquaponics system shares how it works.

Jim Chamberlin gives a personal overview of homestead planning and resources.

When a favorite color has a dark side...

Prescribed burns, long practiced by indigenous cultures, are a means of reducing the risk of damage to natural resources by wildfire.

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

It can be tempting to cut everything down in the fall, but leaving some of your garden “messy” through winter is one of the best gifts you can give to birds, pollinators, and your soil.

I started going to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) over fifty years ago with my parents. Our trips began as one week...

On Air Quality Alert days, we are becoming more familiar with how to take precautions and still go about the work/fun of daily life. This...

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

My family tries our best to reduce the food waste in our kitchen–even just by doing things as simple as not peeling carrots, cucumbers,...

Planting trees has long been seen as an act of faith, action, and stewardship.  Trees provide numerous benefits. They protect the soil,...

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...

Rs for Resilient Living Series For most of us by this time of year, the idea of getting out to work in your yard, seeing the change of season first-hand, is a delicious dream that can’t come true soon enough. No question–being outside is good for all of us. But some of our go-to yard activities can be detrimental to beneficial insects if we jump into them before the weather has truly changed. Here are some tips: Hold off cutting down plant stems leftover from last season un

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...

Climate change is a hoax, or at least the notion that reducing carbon and other heat-trapping gasses in our atmosphere can stabilize our...

I grew up in the Central Valley of California during the start of the recycling revolution trend, but that doesn’t mean I understood it....

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