Frosty Day
Mood:  cool

 

It was a frosty morning this morning. The crystals in the grass were shining like diamonds and John wore his Rocky squirrel hat. It was one of those mornings when a warm house feels like a huge blessing. Our only concern is for Buffalo Girl's calf--due any day now. I hope s/he waits for a toastier day!

Update
Mood:  chatty

I found the camera! The picture shows our herd, including Midge and Cocoa. Midge is in the forefront with Cocoa to her right. Cocoa is half lowline angus and half Murray Grey. Midge is half Dexter and half lowline angus. Midge will be a year old in January and Cocoa is about 5 months old. It is possible Midge was bred when we bought her but we hope not. Because the are both naturally polled (hornless), they will (hopefully) give us calves that do not need to be dehorned. We would have preferred to stay with purebred Dexters but both price and proximity made diversity a better approach.

Now that we are nearing the end of the year, this is a good time to look back and reflect as we move forward. For a while there, struggles with weather made me ready to give up on the farm. This past summer we had a great  crop in the garden and it looked like a good year for fruit. Then we had a severe drought followed by a flood that annihilated the garden. This was followed by a huge crop of caterpillars and other bugs. The cows were bedeviled by them. It seemed as if we would never make a profit on the farm! We both questioned the choices we had made.

However, the market is slowly changing. I feel more hopeful now. The ironic thing is that if times do continue to get tough, our local farm makes sense. It means that if times are good, our farm has value because someone will have money to buy it from us some day when we are too old to tend it. And, if times get bad, the food we grow on it becomes more valuable. Either way, our farm makes sense as an investment of time, love, and money. It feels great to be able to end the year on a positive note and to again take joy in what we do.

New members of the herd
Mood:  celebratory
Tomorrow we are picking up two additions to our herd--both cross-breeds. We had a line on some full-blood Dexters at a reasonable price but Bruce wanted to sell them as a group. This would have been too much for us--4 cow-calf pairs would have overwhelmed our little herd. However, because that didn't work out we met Jessica and her herd of mismatched (but much loved) assortment. We decided to purchase a Dexter/Lowline Angus mix (10 months old) and a Lowline/Murray Grey mix (4 months.) We are excited to add them to the herd--pictures are coming (as soon as I remember what I did with the camera!!)

Full Moon!
Mood:  bright
The weather is doing its annual October thing--a few cold days to kill off the lingering summer crops before a return to warm weather. So, we are trying to keep some of those lingering summer crops alive through the cold spell so we can reap their bounty for a bit longer! I'm hopeful about the zucchini and cucumbers but worried about the tomatoes and eggplant. I've moved the peppers to the hothouse. I'm crossing my fingers about the watermelon--if we can't eat them, the cows and chickens will. The cold should sweeten the grapefruits and oranges. It is looking hopeful. YEAH!

Fall
Mood:  not sure

Fall.

Such an interesting word for a time when things are slowing (growth of grass, speed of heat-loving reptiles), things are dying (butterflies, annuals, heat-loving veggies), and things are settling in for the cool, dark days.

It is easy to become morose and maudlin at times like this. It takes energy to get up and get moving. I love working at the school but at this time of year it is easy to feel I do not make a difference. It is hard to rise up against the fall.

 What sustains me is the knowledge that this too shall pass. So, for now I will just fall and prepare to rise again. 

Making hay while the sun shines...
Mood:  sharp

It was a good day today--we put up our first hay. We cut it with the bush hog, raked it with a rake we picked up at Faul's in Lake City, and then put it up loose. By not using a baler, it is a relatively inexpensive way to make hay.

While we were working on this project, I was thinking about equipment maintenance. I've noticed that some folks don't really believe in maintaining their equipment. They don't grease and oil things; they don't protect them from the rain; they don't fix broken parts and as a result, equipment beats itself to bits. That is what someone did to the rake we bought, It was beat up. The bearings are shot. However, it was worth every penny of the $400 we paid for it. And, we will take care of it. We are like Phaedrus in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance--we take joy in the hum of well-maintained equipment.

Hobby Farm?
Mood:  lyrical

Two weeks ago we had a flood that forced us to finally accept that times are not right for us to have a profitable farm. Although up until then we hadn't yet given up, a quick glance at our records and accounting would have shown what was in the cards.

 Up until two weeks ago were were still thinking we could make a go of this. John had completed our roadside stand; the chickens were producing eggs; the garden was going bonkers (we finally figured out a way to keep the chickens out of our veggies.) Then, we had 16 inches of rain in 27 hours. In that short time we lost most of our garden and our hope for sale-able produce. In addition, the chickens were traumatized and egg production went down the drain. In addition, animals driven by the rising waters to higher ground finished off the blueberries. The rains were too late to save the blackberries decimated by months without rain. It was too much too late.

However, this isn't the end of our farm. It is just a temporary stay in our efforts to be profitable. It is a switch to what the tax man calls "hobby farming." For now, we will put most of our energies into other endeavors--blacksmithing, teaching, yoga, and other projects.  Meanwhile, we will continue to experiment with sustainable methods and let the farm help us cut our food bill and provide us with heathier choices.

And, some day, it may be profitable to have a small farm. When that time comes, we will be here ready to begin again.

The Cycle
Mood:  vegas lucky

Wow! It has been nearly two months since I last blogged. How time does "fly".:-)

Today as we were working with our french drain compost piles, I was thinking about the cycles of the earth. With apologies to the Suwannee Bicycle Association, they are not the cycles I was thinking of. I was thinking of a question a friend asked a few weeks ago--how do we improve our soil. I tried to explain but he didn't seem to get it so I was considering how I could better explain.

I think the problem is that there is a simple, commonly accepted way to improve soil nutrients. Simply add 10-10-10 to the soil--what I call the "Git-ur-done" method of soil improvement. It is fast, easy, controllable so why wouldn't we want to do this? My reply was that while this is one way to insert nutrients into the cycle, a method used by many folks, we had chosen to move to a different point on the cycle to interject the nutrients. We interject them through our livestock (see the deer in the image.) It was in there somewhere that I felt I had not explained myself.

 Here's where we all agree--the nutrient cycle is a closed loop--nothing is created but only recycled. In order to improve the amount of nutrients available in the loop, some must be inserted. We agree but we insert the nutrients into the animals rather than directly into the soil. In other words, calcium deficient chicken raised on calcium deficient soil will lay calcium deficient (easily broken) eggs unless their diet is improved. (We use oyster shells.) If their diet is improved, excess calcium will be defecated which will improve the soil. Similarly, cattle raised on mineral-poor soil will lack minerals. If their diet is improved by adding to the grass they are eating (we use molasses), the extra minerals are defecated into the soil. Even better, if their bones are returned to the soil, the soil becomes even richer with all the vitamins and minerals which means the soil is more able to support the next generation without amendments. 

So, rather than feed our soil, we feed our animals. We feed alfalfa cubes and vitamin rich food wastes. We feed grain to our chickens. We feed them our neighbor's corn husks and cobs--corn that was fed by him. We then use the animal wastes to feed our soil which then feeds the plants our animals eat so that their diet is improved. That is the cycle I was thinking about this morning and that I tried to explain to our friend.

It is true this approach is slow. The soil is built up over years rather than days. But, this slow approach and cyclical thinking is central to sustainable farming and sustainable living. Perhaps our pace of life is an anachronism like our unwillingness to carry a cellphone everywhere we go or our willingness to live in an old small manufactured home. Perhaps it is because we are odd that it is hard to understand what we are seeing and doing. Regardless of the reason, I truly believe it is worth trying to explain--more and more folks are thinking oddly like us.

Fly Girl

Calfie (the last of our pregnant cows/heifers) had her baby Thursday. Calfie (Rosie's daughter) gave us our first girl calf. We named her "Fly" partly because she is so cool and partly because the mild winter did not kill all the stable flies so she is..."fly." Sorry, too much time at the farm will do that to you.

In this picture, Fly is about 25 minutes old. She is the first baby for Calfie (and she is a female) so she is not as large as the bulls were when they were born. She is also the first truly brown calf we have had. What a little cutie! 

It has been interesting watching her with the herd. They were SO excited when Hoppy was born and still very interested when Dusky joined the herd. However, little Fly's presence garnered interest only from the calves--everyone else has become quite blase'.

The politics of spring

When I logged on today, I saw that we are having record spring temperatures across the country. So, I expect most people who have been outside today experienced what I experienced--spring is in the air. One of our broody hen's chicks have been hatching. She started the day with one baby and is already up to 3. Our youngest heifer will have her calf any day now. The pears, blueberries, apples, and plums are in full bloom and the blackberries will join them soon.

So, as I was weeding and hoeing--preparing for the next rain and for planting seedlings next month--the feeling of spring across our country was on my mind. I was thinking, spring is a time when things look bright (literally and figuratively). It is a time when we think about growth and not weeds. It is a time when the future looks sunny, and we don't care to think about the potential of one more killing frost. Though we may know in our hearts it is still early and cannot yet last, it is a time when everything looks fresh and new and possible. And so, our nation's politicians should take note. This is not the time for the "I have a nightmare" speech. This is not the damp and dreary gray of winter. It is "I have a dream" time. Because, at least for today, I can once again envision a country that is full of the promises of spring. I hope you feel it too.