Follow along our adventure as we make the transition from corporate city life to the world of natural farming. Each day brings a new experience and brings us to a deeper understanding about the life and spirit that made America great. At our farm we do our best to give the animals we raise a natural, free, happy, stressfree lifestyle. Our mission is to learn and share how to manage a farming operation that is both profitable and humane.
Finally got a decent up close shot of the first piglets! Very cute. These are pure large blacks, well right now they aren't too large, but they will be!
All are looking great, and mom... Other than being a tad cranky and quite protective.... is doing perfect.
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| Its small, but Kaelyn is in the middle with the staff keeping watch over the flock |
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| Our little family gathering |
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| Hunter takes his turn at being a shephard |
Pig season has started! We found the first litter with mom this morning! Only 4 so far but we arent entirely sure she is done.
Babies and mom are doing great! She is nursing and all are up and walking around.
Hopefully there are more coming soon!
We all know the old saying... "dont cry over spilled milk" ....
But you know... When your up every day at 6am, and every evening at dinnertime milking the goats... Well.. This brings a tear to an old farmer's eye.
Yes, we are sad to report that we are now sold out of our beloved double smoked heritage pastured soy free nitrate free unflavored bacon. The last package is claimed and we are out of pork bellies.
Our condolences to the bacon lovers.
More will be available when the new hogs are older. A few months away.
Not everything works out according to plan on a farm... Especially when inventing new things on budget. This time (yes... I say "this time" because there have been so many times) I am referring to the new grain vacuum we are trying to build.
So... The story. We need an easy way to use the grain resting on our new grain bins. Buying a new piece of equipment is not possible right now... So we are improvising... Or trying to. We are trying to build grain vacuum. In theory it will allow a single person to suck grain out of the bin into plastic trash cans for use.
In theory
Test number one at the farm went very well... With only a few adjustments we had it filing buckets with oats quite well. We decided to make a few changes and try it on the real grain at the grain bins.
That was today.... Didnt go so well.
The longer pipes necessary to reach into the bin created more air resistance, and worse ... The wheat is heavy! Too much moisture. In fact... The bins are very humid when we opened them and grain is clumping together . We tried modifications to get more airflow, more suction, but after a couple hours.... Gave in.
Plan B: buckets ... When all else fails use buckets.
So we managed to bring back a thousand pounds of grain. The pigs are very happy tonight! But the vacuum... Needs more thought....
Great shot of the four pasture laying coops glowing on an early winter morning.... Oddly reminds me of a scene from M. A. S. H. But no.. Those arent army tents. They are just chickens hard at work feeding you fresh eggs everyday :)
Simple pleasure of farm life....
Watching the winter sunrise while listening to alan jackson version of "how great thou art" for morning milking.
Sometimes we just need to take a moment to contemplate this life we live, in all its beautiful glory.
Then.... Back to milking.....
A nice surprise.... Danielle had 2 beautiful furry babies today, one girl and one boy.
Valentine babies!
We are FINALLY seeing duck eggs around the farm! Its time to build an area with nesting boxes and start collecting eggs! We will be offering duck eggs for sale soon!
Here is a look at the first batch, already in a pan of our own lard, frying softly:) yum!
It has been a tougher than normal first week of lambing season. We have had a number of lambs that need a bit of assistance. Nevertheless, things are progressing. Right now we have 8 total healthy lambs running around, 1 was stillborn, 1 didnt make it, and 1 found a new home after being abandoned.
To help the herd get stronger we have increased the "hotter" feed. (oats, alfalfa). This will provide a bit more energy and help milk production.
The cutest one during lambing season is perhaps rainey the llama. We call him uncle rainey as he often fills in for the moms when they go eat... Attentively watching the little ones until mom is back.
Uncle rainey!
This month all of our members received the first ever official little sprouts newsletter! We have been searching for a labor light way to keep better communication going with members, especially as things change and expand rapidly this year.
We settled on a service called mail chimp, which automatically converts blog posts into a neatly formatted email newsletter. No extra labor! Once all set up.... All we do is keep blog posting the new news and automatically it is distributed to all members! Best part is... It's free at our usage level.
We started out thinking monthly, but are considering changing to weekly distribution to keep everyone more up to date. Any feedback here is much appreciated!
Soon I will post a link in the blog site so that blog readers who are not members can also subscribe to the service.
Stay tuned! Exciting year ahead!
Yesterday was momentous! Hunter personally delivered his first ever saved seed sale in deliveries! He was so pleased when he saw the seeds show up on the load report Saturday morning! Glowing with pride that he had done something all on his own, and sold it!
Seed saving really was totally his idea last season. He got interested in the idea through reading about it, joined a seed saving organization, bought a book or two, grew the plants, properly saved the mature seeds, and even packaged them, individually counting how many seeds went into each bag. In essence he launched a new little sprouts profit center all in his own!
We could not be more proud of him for his accomplishment.... At 10 he had not only the motivation but the interest, work ethic, perseverance, and ability to make this all happen in his own! How could a parent be more proud?
He is definitely motivated now to expand this project to a variety of seeds this year! The sky is the limit! It will be great fun to see where he takes this!
Ever have one of those moments where you suddenly realize that something you thought true and defended was.... Obviously and humorously false? Well... I have, and those moments always bring a smile of self realization.... And a warning about being too dogmatic about unconfirmed truth. Here is my most recent example of silly realizations....
We now have four chicken coops in the pasture with automatic solar powered lights. Cloudy Winter days do not provide enough solar power to charge the batteries so that ultimately every 2 to 4 days of consecutive cloudiness requires manual charging of batteries. This is critical since a sudden change of day length by a dead battery for more than 3 days can cause molting and loss of egg production for 2 months!
So.. In Winter I usually glance out our bedroom window every night between 2am and 5am to make sure all four coops are lighted. If not... Note to self to charge battery.
This week I glanced it the window, peaking between the shutter slats at about 3am as usual to see not one but all four coops were dark! That's odd... All 4 at once? Hmmm...
But then.. This week we have been off schedule suffering from a cold the whole family caught... So i went out milking later than usual and so couldn't verify the lights out on the way to milking after 7am. I also never made it out to fix the lights that day.
Next night, I check again at around 4am and sure enough, no lights on any coops. The night seemed unusually dark actually.... Pitch dark outside the shuttered window. I put on my glades and checked again... marveling at the depth of darkness outside ... Thinking it must be the no moon cycle. But again back to bed.
That afternoon after returned from deliveries tired and still half sick.. I realized that the lights were now an emergency. Facing 3 days of darkness could obliterate our winter egg supply. So I told brenda that, tired as I was, I had to go work on all 4 coops.
"But wait" she says.. "I saw two burning this morning at milking...."
How could that be? My mind was whirling, trying to find how they could be on at 6am if the batteries were dead at 3am? Could all 4 timers be off? Could all 4 be suffering from some universal problem? Doesn't seem possible.
We explored back and forth but brenda insisted that 2 coops were lit at 6am. I was baffled... "but that's impossible.... I looked out the window 2 nights in row and see no lights at all... Anywhere." I insisted.
A smile creeps across her face. "the bedroom window?"
"yes.. As I always do "
Silence.... For a moment....
" remember a couple days ago how you mentioned it was too bright in the bedroom for the young boys' afternoon nap? " My beautiful bride starts
" yes "
" remember suggesting that we should block of the window with anything to see if it helps them sleep? "
Realization starts to dawn somewhere deep in my thoughts... But no... Could it be?
" well.... " she continues " I fixed it two days ago.. With cardboard in the window "
Ummmm.. Really? I have been staring at a piece of cardboard in the window, inches from my eyes, marveling at the blackness of a starless night? Sure enough... I had.
The moral of this story? I dunno... Is there a moral? Maybe some times we are just silly trying to see things clearly when it's just not possible.... Maybe we need to be more careful trusting or own 5 senses... Maybe it's never as dark as it may appear....
Or maybe there is no moral but to laugh at ourselves and our silly realizations.
What a day! We started out rushing to finish the next 2 bins due to the rain headed our way. The rain that was originally due here friday night was now expected thursday night, cutting a day off. The reason is... This grain is still in the field! We bought a crop of grain that was originally scheduled to be disced under. The farmer agreed to cut it and give us the grain at a great price :) but..... The rain cometh....
So we rushed and finally decided to move the building to the new property and finish, so we could be there when the grain trucks showed up. Of course.... When we pull in.... It starts raining!
So there we are.... Working feverishly in the rain... Clock ticking.... And as usual in this business... The combine breaks. What is that joel salatin quote about machines only breaking when you need them? Well.. That cost another hour or so... More time to build, less time to harvest.
The assembly of the second bin went really fast and smooth! I must give credit where credit is due... My brother in law, bradley, was a real superman... Sticking with it in the cold rain and mud, even using electric power tools in the rain when necessary! (yes... There was a couple of shocking moments). Without bradleys expert carpentry help and willingness to get a job done... We would have never made it this far! (He is the one in the pictures on the first post)
So... To make a long wet cold muddy story short... At the end of the day we had 1 bin ready, another needing only a few bolts, and a third about half. But..... The rain cometh. Harvesting stopped and we only received a not full hopper of grain. So we paused the rest of the building. Threw together a quick improvised roof, and headed home.
The grain is ok, it will be cut another day when the field dries, and we will finish the bins. For now... Its rest and reflection time. Well, after chores and milking.....
It's here! Our first GAPS soup canned and ready for trial! We started with a basic vegetable in chicken stock with heritage chicken meat. Yum! (we hope).
This marks the beginning of this year's new project to produce a line of ready to eat soups that are GAPS LEGAL, and made with only the finest ingredients (organically raised, non gmo, soy free, heritage breed, pasture raised, humanely treated) with zero added chemicals. Our goal is to provide an easy way to experience the gaps intro diet for yourself.
For now we are doing internal testing for flavor, texture, aroma.... But we are happy to provide a sample to farm visitors interested in giving feedback.
What an exciting year this is!
We made a valuable purchase of organically non gmo grain for animal feed. Part of the list price is due to bulk delivery... No totes for storage. So... We needed to build a storage spot... A grain bin.... To hold about 40 tons of grain.
Hmmmm... What a challenge!
We decided to build 3 bins they are 4 feet deep, 16 long and 8 wide. The design is standard stud walls of 2x4 with 2x6 top and bottom plates, with the interior walls covered in plywood. The walls are through bolted together on the corners.
Time was shirt to start with, harvest being only a few days away. And then the weather shortened that even more with rain coming. So the we were last night generator purring thy o run lights saws and drinks to assemble the first bin to be filled in the morning. The remaining 2 bins will be assembled as the first one is being filled.
Let's hope this design holds... The clock is ticking and gain is coming... It would be a shame to lose a bin to collapse!
Tomorrow I hope to post an update with good news. For now here are some pics of the first evening events.
