Greetings from MacAuley & Stone Family Farm!
We are a small farm in the sandy soils of northern Michigan. We are in the process of seeking out organic certification. In our second year, we are still focusing on establishing ourselves, and expanding. As of right now, we have 4 acres of field crops and produce being planted, and we own one recently acquired sort-of trained horse, Trick, two hogs, two sheep, a whole bunch of Buff Orpington chickens, several mutt ducks, and about a dozen meat rabbits. We have a side business, Huron Feeder Supply, that mainly involves breeding rodents and insects and selling them to pet stores and owners of exotic pets, such as snakes and lizards.
The property we acquired for the farm was 40 acres of undeveloped, mostly wooded hunting property in Harrisville, Michigan. Plans for this summer include finally getting a well drilled (we’ve bucketed water for the last year and a half) and getting solar electricity on the farm. We are living in temporary homes (translation: tiny, bare-bones, “gently” used housing structures) until construction can begin on our “real” homes.
Our goals with the farm are to tend the earth, tend ourselves and our animals, make some sort of profit, and have fun. All but the profit part have worked out wonderfully so far. If we can avoid a drought this year, the profit part should follow.
Cast of Characters:
Dawn MacAuley
One of the financial backers of MacAuley & Stone Family Farm, along with her husband, Brian. Additional farm labour when possible. Gardener extraordinaire, fibre enthusiast, and, along with Brian, responsible for instilling a love of nature, animals, and back-to-basics philosophy in their children. Retired child-raiser and hobby farmer. Dreamer.
Brian MacAuley
One of the financial backers of the farm. Physician’s Assistant, carpentry expert, counselor. Retired Navy. Additional farm labour when possible. Experience with farms from when he was a teenager, and hobby farms as an adult. Smart-ass.
Shanna Stone
Eldest child of Brian and Dawn MacAuley. Along with her husband, Greg, responsible for the labour and sales portion of the farm. Experience in marketing and sales, farm-hand work on smaller crop farms and ranches, and human wrangling. Plotter.
Greg Stone
Imported from farm country, Iowa. MacGyver incarnate. Experience with small and large commercial farms, livestock and animal husbandry of all sorts. As Gail Carriger says in her book Soulless, “He was the type of good farming stock that, when the oxen collapsed from exhaustion, picked up the plow, strapped himself to it, and finished tilling the fields by hand.” Smart-ass.
Colleen Stone
Youngest child of Dawn and Brian MacAuley. Experience as a farm-hand on a local farm, and growing up with a hobby farm. Newest member of the farm team, she is The Farm Hand.
Justin MacAuley
Second-oldest child of Brian and Dawn. Living in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he is enjoying city life, and very deliberately not farming.
-Shanna
MacAuley & Stone Family Farm 