Bulls Have Teats

Ever heard the expression, "about as useful as teats on a bull"? I'd heard it many times over the years particularly from the folks. Never thought twice about it though. Until now. I was so worried about our bull with these strange little things that were on his testicles. Come to find out, bulls DO have teats. I don't completely understand it yet, but do know that those little things are a telling sign of what his daughter's teats will look like. What do these ones say? I have no idea. You?

Project: Organization

I love when things are organized, don't you? It feels relaxed, clean and well, yes, organized. Before we hit the road, we stored most all of our household possessions in our two horse trailers. Problem is, we moved into a house with less than half the square footage.

We've unpacked a lot of our boxes right into our garage, which itself is huge compared to what we had, so that helps. But there was no organization and really, it was the last thing on our mind.

A mess of boxes and "stuff"

We have this very odd room in one of our barns ... used to be some sort of grain storage with a sloped floor in all directions. On the sides though, it had shelving. While we have no interest in walking on slanted floors we knew we could recycle and re-purpose those shelving units.

Old Grainary Room

It took us half a day, but we now have a corner of mostly organized storage. OK, boxes. But, I know what's in them. :-) As you can see, we still have tons of "stuff" not on the shelves, but we have more shelving to take out of the grainary room and we have committed to emptying 2 boxes a week every Sunday - we'll consolidate boxes and give stuff away that we just aren't going to need for a couple years. It's a little step but it feels good.

What organization projects are you working on?

Real Eggs, Wild Eggs

Most of you know that grocery store eggs are lacking in so much, and yes, I'll even add in the organic AND cage free eggs if they're coming from the grocery store. While we were living in our camper and traveling around the country we sometimes had limited choices for food - including our beloved, precious eggs.

Eggs found in the barn

Organic means that the hens were fed a diet of organic feed. That's it. They can still be packed into the chicken batteries that we've all seen photos of (if you haven't, Google chicken factories for the images). Cage free means only that all those hens are not put in those batteries, but in HUGE!!! covered buildings that will hold 100,000 plus hens and then can choose to jump up and lay their eggs in a "nest" but it's not what you're thinking, when you and I think of the meaning of cage free. Watery whites and flat, or simply easily broken yolks were standard fare way too much of the time from those eggs. Yuk.

I've often wondered what wild bird's eggs look like. What their white would be and what kind of color the yolks would be. Today, I had the opportunity to see first hand.

Going out to feed, I found a freshly laid set of 14 quail size eggs in the mornings hay. Momma would not be coming back and I had to feed. I scooped up the eggs with my seemingly once in a lifetime opportunity to truly see the inside of a wild bird's eggs. While it shouldn't have surprised me, they looked like miniature versions of our own pastured hen's eggs. Thick, firm whites and gorgeous, golden yolks that stand up nice and firm. WOW! While we do feed the hens commercially prepared feed, they also get to eat the grass in their enclosure. They get to scratch for bugs and peck at the natural minerals found in the ground. They are also doing their part to give back ... as they poop, they are fertilizing the ground that they will someday again feed on, only next time, it will be even better.

If you haven't yet found someone close by to you with a pastured flock or even a backyard flock, start one of your own. They are not hard, you don't need many and who knows, you may end up with a healthier backyard and a little income to boot!

Happy Birthday to the Most Amazing Man

Who else did you think I was talking about? Scott of course.


He is becoming that Renaissance man that were both my grandfather and my own dad. Yes, my mom married her father and I married mine. Dads: if you don't think you have an influence in your children's lives, you are sorely mistaken.













A man who can love like no one else.

A man who is not afraid to cook - or clean.

A man who has taught himself landscaping, carpentry and some plumbing and electrical to go with it. And shared his knowledge with his children.

Build a new whatever? OK, he's game.



Happy birthday, Scott.

New Life Springs Forth

I love this time of year. New buds blossoming means new life. The plants that were in a dormant state all winter have shaken themselves awake and put forth huge energy to produce new life. Fruits and vegetables that will grace our table later in the year. As well as those less fortunate as well.

Pear trees are abundant already

We are going to challenge you: Plant something. Anything. When it's ready to harvest - whatever it is - donate a little bit to your local food bank to nourish those who are less fortunate than you and I. You will be rewarded beyond what you can imagine. And you'll be giving yourself and your family something too: health. Both physical and spiritual.

Organically raised strawberries

Blessings,
Corinne

Farm Update III

I'm not sure what else to call it other than Farm Update III, but it's a little list of what we have accomplished over the last month (May). While some of you are in awe and others could care less. For me, it's motivation. I get to go back through my month and there is just something amazing about writing down all those things we've accomplished.

For those of you without a farm, I am guessing your days are filled chock full, just differently. We've definitely slacked on things like getting involved with groups - or really, even friends. While that may sound a little sad, there is definitely a "honeymoon" of sorts going on here. It's really the only way to describe the feelings of sheer joy and excitement when we think of something new to do here. Even more so when we complete a project. Which leads me to "The List"...

May saw the completion, finally, of the visiting barn. Not so much of a visiting barn right now, but that is what we have planned for it.
New paddocks

Krystall was weaned off all her medications and we're holding our breath to see what will happen.

We picked up Lochlann and Roxanne. What a whirlwind of a trip! Actually, it was my Mother's Day present; Scott made the trip there and back for me.

We pulled out about 3 miles of fencing. Barbed wire (a vets way to put their kids through college ;) ) and high tensile wire, both 2 and 3 strand wire. Oh my is that stuff hard to control.

Perimeter fencing

The main, large pasture (approx 6 acres) was mowed again and then we put the disc on it. We're going to try the more environmentally friendly way to take care of annual weed - keep tilling them under so the plants eventually don't get to seed stage and there will be nothing will grow back.

Looking into sheep breeds and importing from the UK. Unfortunately, you cannot bring live animals in...

We built a pastured poultry pen for our new hens. 

We have things growing in our garden.

Series: Local Food and Why It's Important 2

As promised, we're going on a little road trip to the country. Or the city. Farm stands are popping up everywhere and farmer's markets are growing. Here again, as the farmer's markets are growing in popularity - also called gross revenue - more and more of the sellers are not actual producers but have produce shipped in from distances unknown and are reselling them. YOU have to ask and do your homework.


Did you know: "60% of Farm Bill subsidies go to 10% of the largest corporate farms"?

Do you  know if the fruit, vegetables, dairy, meat and other foods you buy are grown or raised nearby on family farms? Or is your family's food grown thousands of miles away and then, using huge distribution networks, transported vast distances to local stores via ship, train, airplane and truck?

Right now you still have a choice, but what about tomorrow.

Cheap food is just that. Cheap. Quality will cost a little more, but you will gain health benefits, freshness as well as flavor. Real flavor. More so, you are ensuring a future of choice when you support small, regional farms.

We're also going to be giving you a few personal challenge. Didn't tell you that, did we?

CHALLENGE 1: We challenge you to find a couple large pots or a few square feet of un-used land (or seriously - in your landscaping!) and plant a few seeds to grow your own lettuce, radishes, peas or spinach. Do it today and in 4-8 weeks, you will have food that hasn't traveled more than a few feet to table.

OK, now tell us what you're planting this year. Inquiring minds want to know!




Data and information was used with permission from The Tilth Producers of WA.

We Actually Did Adopt Some Kittens

The ad read, "Momma came in the middle of the night and delivered a litter of kittens in our garage. Help." We were on it! We ended up taking the two least friendly kittens as they didn't think they would be adoptable by others. Perfect for a farm ... we don't need social kittens as much as we do ones who want to hunt for us. Which they - as small as they are still - have already done.

Kitties!

They are almost impossible to find, let alone see, but I did catch them "hiding" in one of the garage areas. They are absolutely adorable. I just wish maybe a tiny bit less skidish.