Katie 16, and Maddie 13, moving hay.
(These round bales weigh roughly 600lbs. each)
Let no one tangle with the unstoppable duo of Katie and Maddie Wilson!
-Morgan
Thursday, January 29, 2009
The Baby Chicks are Here!
Our first batch of broiler chicks arrived today. Thus begins our 2009 growing season! Early this morning we got a call from the post office informing us that our chicks had arrived. Mom and Hannah went to pick them up while Dad, Katie, Will and I (Morgan) did last minute set up of the brooders, which includes setting up and filling the waters and feeders, turning on the heat lamps and securing any places where the cold air might seep in and make it too cold for them. (Earlier that week we had emptied the brooders of last years bedding and put in fresh sweet smelling pine shavings.) And when the chicks got here, Dad and William gently placed them in the brooder and closed the doors to keep the heat in. Instead of giving our chicks "bad for them, bad for us" antibiotics, for the first week we feed them raw milk from our own cows which helps them get off to a good start, is very good for their little digestive tracts, and protects them naturally from Coccidia. The chicks will stay in the brooders for four weeks (two weeks in the summer time) and then they will be moved out to pasture and live in our portable, open air, Hoop Houses, eating fresh grass, bugs and a non-medicated grain supplement which we have done at a local mill, and soaking up the sunshine until they are eight weeks old and ready to be processed. They start out at just a couple ounces and in eight weeks will dress out to average 3-3 1/2lbs!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Feeding The Calves
"Are those other two bottles ready yet?"
Friday, January 23, 2009
Farmers Notes
We are very thankful for all of the great customers who support our farm. But every now and then, one customer will somehow shine above the rest and go far above and far beyond the average and soar to the heights of super-heroism.
Farmers don't get out much. In fact, those with dairy animals usually don't get out at all! The cows must be milked twice a day, every day, rain or shine, cold or wet, never ceasing! But two weekends ago, Saturday, we made the effort as a family to attend the graduation of a dear friend of our family. It was a mid-day event, so we could be back in time for milking. So, we checked all of the critters feed and water, and set out for about a four hour journey. We pulled back in the driveway at about 5pm, just as the sun was setting. Then we noticed the curious site of one of our cow share customers waving a rather large stick in our back yard. About that time one of the children yelled, "The pigs are out!". And so we hurriedly jumped out in our Sunday finest and began chasing, herding, and shouting at our 16 hogs through the garden, mud, and backyard. Our customer had been at the farm for about two hours keeping the pigs out of the road, garden, and from terrorizing the goats! In the midst of the chaos another child yelled, "Gertie's had her calf!". It was pretty much dark by now and not a moment later Katie checked on another cow and proclaims, "Rosie's in labor!" About half of the pigs are back in their pen as Alison and our customer assist in the delivery, pulling the calf out by the front legs. All in the space of about one hour, things have settled down a bit, and both calves are doing fine. Whew!
I guess it goes to show that truly, farmers can never leave!
Thank you Dianne Miller for going WAY beyond the call of duty and saving the bacon!
Farmers don't get out much. In fact, those with dairy animals usually don't get out at all! The cows must be milked twice a day, every day, rain or shine, cold or wet, never ceasing! But two weekends ago, Saturday, we made the effort as a family to attend the graduation of a dear friend of our family. It was a mid-day event, so we could be back in time for milking. So, we checked all of the critters feed and water, and set out for about a four hour journey. We pulled back in the driveway at about 5pm, just as the sun was setting. Then we noticed the curious site of one of our cow share customers waving a rather large stick in our back yard. About that time one of the children yelled, "The pigs are out!". And so we hurriedly jumped out in our Sunday finest and began chasing, herding, and shouting at our 16 hogs through the garden, mud, and backyard. Our customer had been at the farm for about two hours keeping the pigs out of the road, garden, and from terrorizing the goats! In the midst of the chaos another child yelled, "Gertie's had her calf!". It was pretty much dark by now and not a moment later Katie checked on another cow and proclaims, "Rosie's in labor!" About half of the pigs are back in their pen as Alison and our customer assist in the delivery, pulling the calf out by the front legs. All in the space of about one hour, things have settled down a bit, and both calves are doing fine. Whew!
I guess it goes to show that truly, farmers can never leave!
Thank you Dianne Miller for going WAY beyond the call of duty and saving the bacon!
Farmers Notes
On the Horizon 2009 Dreaming…
I have a dream… hundreds of small, earth-animal-people-friendly family farms popping up all around and serving their communities with super fresh-local-seasonal food, packed with nutrition and void of toxic chemicals, and available close by your neighborhood…. Not much further than your local Wal-Mart. I do not see the answer being Wal-Mart and grocery stores buying from small local farmers, I see the answer being nearby local farms selling directly to the public where consumers can see and know and actually develop a relationship with the families that grow their food.
So why isn’t this possible? The main obstacles stopping entrepreneurs from launching into small farming opportunities is the paradigm that says, “nobody goes into farming anymore!”. Why do they say that? Because the bigger-is-better agribusiness mentality of both the USDA and most government policy has made most (not all, thank goodness) of today’s farms, some of the most toxic, noxious, anti-family-friendly places around. Most poultry farms have huge No Trespassing signs with bio-security warnings. They’re not the place you would want to take your kindergarten field trip.
But I think there is a glimmer of hope for the small family farm. I think people have an inner yearning for food purity. A yearning for basic simple nutrition that is so lacking in our industrial system. People are tired of eating sterilized embalmed dead stuff with a two year shelf-life. The pendulum is beginning to swing the other way. We can see it from the huge organic sections in the grocery stores today. I’m thankful that USDA ORGANIC usually means that vegetables are being grown for the most part without toxic pesticides. But even the ORGANIC label is deteriorating, especially when it comes to eggs and meat. I’m careful to point out the hypocrisy of a USDA ORGANIC label when big agribusiness gets involved and stamps USDA ORGANIC on milk from cows that have been raised in huge confinement feed-lots without one spec of pasture. The pretty picture on the milk carton shows contented cows grazing in a field. Eggs that are stamped Free-Range USDA ORGANIC that are crammed into a big metal building, not one spec of pasture, not one spec of sunshine, not one spec of green grass. The label shows happy hens, a beautiful farm house and red barn, and green rolling pastures. This is, in fact, the lie we tell ourselves about where our food comes from.
When you go to the local small family farm, you can look around and see how the animals are raised. If you have a question, you don’t call the 800 information line, you ask the farmer himself. You see where your food comes from and you can provide direct feedback to the person growing your food! You can see and taste the freshness in your food. The quality and taste is way beyond the USDA ORGANIC stamp. Not to mention you are supporting our local economy, protecting our streams and estuaries from pollutants and chemical run-offs, not ingesting toxic pesticide residues, and encouraging more small farms to pop up across the countryside. And one of the really big ones: It really, really tastes better! Wow, what a concept.
Thank you!
-Scott
I have a dream… hundreds of small, earth-animal-people-friendly family farms popping up all around and serving their communities with super fresh-local-seasonal food, packed with nutrition and void of toxic chemicals, and available close by your neighborhood…. Not much further than your local Wal-Mart. I do not see the answer being Wal-Mart and grocery stores buying from small local farmers, I see the answer being nearby local farms selling directly to the public where consumers can see and know and actually develop a relationship with the families that grow their food.
So why isn’t this possible? The main obstacles stopping entrepreneurs from launching into small farming opportunities is the paradigm that says, “nobody goes into farming anymore!”. Why do they say that? Because the bigger-is-better agribusiness mentality of both the USDA and most government policy has made most (not all, thank goodness) of today’s farms, some of the most toxic, noxious, anti-family-friendly places around. Most poultry farms have huge No Trespassing signs with bio-security warnings. They’re not the place you would want to take your kindergarten field trip.
But I think there is a glimmer of hope for the small family farm. I think people have an inner yearning for food purity. A yearning for basic simple nutrition that is so lacking in our industrial system. People are tired of eating sterilized embalmed dead stuff with a two year shelf-life. The pendulum is beginning to swing the other way. We can see it from the huge organic sections in the grocery stores today. I’m thankful that USDA ORGANIC usually means that vegetables are being grown for the most part without toxic pesticides. But even the ORGANIC label is deteriorating, especially when it comes to eggs and meat. I’m careful to point out the hypocrisy of a USDA ORGANIC label when big agribusiness gets involved and stamps USDA ORGANIC on milk from cows that have been raised in huge confinement feed-lots without one spec of pasture. The pretty picture on the milk carton shows contented cows grazing in a field. Eggs that are stamped Free-Range USDA ORGANIC that are crammed into a big metal building, not one spec of pasture, not one spec of sunshine, not one spec of green grass. The label shows happy hens, a beautiful farm house and red barn, and green rolling pastures. This is, in fact, the lie we tell ourselves about where our food comes from.
When you go to the local small family farm, you can look around and see how the animals are raised. If you have a question, you don’t call the 800 information line, you ask the farmer himself. You see where your food comes from and you can provide direct feedback to the person growing your food! You can see and taste the freshness in your food. The quality and taste is way beyond the USDA ORGANIC stamp. Not to mention you are supporting our local economy, protecting our streams and estuaries from pollutants and chemical run-offs, not ingesting toxic pesticide residues, and encouraging more small farms to pop up across the countryside. And one of the really big ones: It really, really tastes better! Wow, what a concept.
Thank you!
-Scott
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