In an ideal year, all transplants would gradually be placed outdoors during April and May. Each week, one or two new things would be planted in the garden and only the pepper plants and sweet potatoes would remain to be planted at the beginning of June. This would leave plenty of time to put down plastic mulch, drip irrigation, and row covers gradually, as these items were needed.
This hasn’t exactly been an ideal year. I planted most everything during the one ten-day dry spell we’ve had. Because of my haste, the rows are not straight, and plastic mulch didn’t make it down under as many of the transplants as I’d have liked. All the rain has given the weeds ample time to germinate and I’m spending a lot of time hoeing, hand weeding, and wishing the rows were straighter so I could do a little more tractor cultivating. However, there haven’t been many days dry enough for that anyway.
But even when everything isn’t perfect, I still love it. Being out in the sun, rain, mosquitoes, and flies, pulling foxtail grass endlessly, sitting on thistles, dodging poison ivy, getting drip tape wrapped up in the rototiller tines, and standing on the hot pavement every Saturday morning bright and early are all parts of the best job in the world. I see the sun rise and set. I eat fruit warmed by the sun at the peak of ripeness. I watch hummingbirds, discover barn swallows, and am surprised by toads. Even weeds have pretty flowers sometimes. I am in the fresh air and obtain free exercise and a tan. I get to drive a tractor. I pick fruit and vegetables by the pint, quart, bucket, bunch, bushel, and hundredweight. I sleep a blessed, oblivious sleep on nights when I’ve been working in the field. There are always new problems to solve and interesting things to think about.
Besides the pure enjoyment of the outdoor physical labor, there is the satisfaction of doing something to make this little piece of ground better. Organic matter is being added to the soil. Erosion is slowing down, rain is being soaked down into the ground instead of running off. Zillions of microbes of every kind are coming to life and doing everything they do to support life. The ground is making a recovery from its deadening dependence on external inputs.
And as if this weren’t enough, people who care about what they eat are getting a chance to eat wonderful food that comes from 25 miles away from their home instead of the average grocery store food that travels something like 1200 miles. And I get to meet these people! I love this.
We had almost 2 inches of rain on Thursday.
The cows arrived on Friday. They were less than thrilled about the whole moving experience and within 10 minutes, three of the five cows had found the highest bit of electric wire and managed to get under it. Mr. B. and I took off after them. Mr. B. put our 2.5 year old in the “baby backpack” and high-tailed it across the very muddy adjoining fields. The cows were off our property, heading for who knows where. I was running across the field also.
Now I’m sure it was obvious to anyone who was watching that neither of us knew anything about cattle, and any time we tried to run or walk faster those cows would start running too. I have no idea where they were going, but the corn and beans around us are all still miniscule and so there wasn’t really anything for the cows to stop and eat. Since this is a family website, I won’t mention all the epithets for the cows that were going through my head at this point. The thought of the rather large amount of cash we had just shelled out for these creatures, the knowledge that two of them were still back there unsupervised and maybe getting out as well (we lowered the fence right away, but I had no idea how seriously they would try to join the herd) and the sight of large cow feet stomping through the mud and tearing up my neighbors’ crops were combining to make me totally miserable. Also there was the adrenalin rushing through my body as I tried as hard as I could not to lose my shoes in the mud. I remember praying, “PLEASE GOD HELP US CATCH THESE COWS!!”
In a feat of superhuman strength, running (or walking as fast as he could) through the mud, with an extra 30 lbs or so on his back, Mr. B. was able to get in front of the cows and get them to turn back.
We kept on our journey. The cows retraced their steps, went back into the pasture (but still outside the wire), into our yard, back across the street into the other neighbors’ soybeans, all over the place. A few times they tried to get back in and rejoin the two steers who had not escaped. A steer got back under the fence and rejoined his brothers, but the 2 heifers were too big and just got shocked by the fence and got even madder than they already were.
After about 2 hours of this delightful adventure, our 2.5 year old was ready for lunch and a nap. I brought him in the house and started calling everyone I could think of on the phone. My first call was to my farm mentor, who tipped us from the point of “thinking about cows” to “getting cows” this year. He gave me some suggestions of what not to do, and said if they were still out the next day we’d have to find someone with a rodeo hobby to come out and rope them. I called our neighbor with horses to see if he knew any rodeo types, but he wasn’t home. After that I figured I’d better call Farmer Y, who rents our land, since the cows were out there stomping on his crop.
Farmer Y and his family kindly agreed to help. I called Mr. B., who was still out in the field with the cows, and let him know they were on the way. The cows were more tired now and were back in our pasture eating the nice long grass, but were still *outside* of their electric fence. Farmer Y, his dad, and his grandfather came over with two trucks and a rope. I was in the house getting the child to take a nap at this point. Once he was asleep I went out to see what was going on and if I could be of help. The cows were still out with Mr B, Farmer Y, and Farmer Y Senior herding them around. Grandpa was keeping his distance and just watching everything unfold. They’d made one unsuccessful attempt to corner the recalcitrant heifers back into the fence, but had failed.
I went back inside and got on the phone to see if I could find more help. I won’t mention all the people I talked to, but I was on hold for the Animal Control officer when the men came back in and said they had gotten the cows back in. The cows had been out for a little more than 4 hours.
We had nice farmer chat and a drink out in the driveway afterwards, mostly about what a wet year this was. Grandpa said it wasn’t as bad as 1974, when he didn’t get his corn in until the end of June and then didn’t get anything for his effort. When talking to the three generations of family farmers, I noticed even more than usual what newcomers Mr. B. and I are to this area and to farming, and how different we are from the “normal” farmers in this area.
The cows are doing fine, and are staying in their fence, and are getting the hang of rotational grazing. We are doing our best to befriend them so that if they ever escape again it will be easier. Now that we’re not chasing them all over the county, the cattle are actually less work than chickens- they feed themselves!
The other day, several chickens were huddled in a corner of their pen. I don’t remember what the occasion was, whether it was raining, or if we were mowing, or what. Regardless, there were about three or four chickens packed into the corner between their house and the fence.
Dinner time was coming up, so I headed up to the house to start making dinner, and as I walked past the chickens’ area, I noticed three pullets pecking at something in the corner. It looked like there was some blood, so I rushed in to see what was going on.
The arrangement was like this: One araucana was laying down in the corner, apparently thinking that it was dead. A delaware was half-lying on top of it, with one of its feet caught in the fence, so its leg was stretched way out behind it. Three other pullets were busily attempting to help free the delaware from the fence. Their chosen method: amputation.
My investigation had stirred things up, so the pecking had stopped. I freed the delaware, and tried to pick her up, but she started pecking at me, so I put her down. I picked up the araucana and told her that she was still alive. She was pleased and ran off to join the flock.
The bloodied delaware had also tried to rejoin the flock, but one of the other pullets was chasing her around, trying to peck at her wound. So I had to be a chicken rescue squad to rescue the chicken from another chicken rescue squad.
Now the damaged delaware is isolated so she’ll have a chance to recover. She is quite dismayed at being separated from the rest of the chickens, and every evening at dusk she gets antsy, wanting to go get into the house with the rest of the pullets. And she’ll get her wish … in a week or so.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Check out this post on Sunflowers in my Kitchen. She was a great help in chicken processing this past weekend. There are before & after pictures, but don’t worry, no gross ones.
Today it was just barely dry enough to hoe the garlic by hand. 1 – 2 inches more rain predicted for tomorrow night, and the market starts May 30th. Eek! We’ll be there, with green garlic, maybe some peonies, a little lettuce & mint, and I don’t know what else. I dug around for the peas today and as I feared found only rotten seed. I will start looking around for some to buy for the CSA. I love peas myself and would hate for my CSA members to not have any.
The conventional farmers around here are just as antsy as I am. Today I saw a lime truck going through the field across the street, which is an extremely soggy piece of ground in weather like this. Maybe this will be the last big rain before the ground dries out.
In other possibly bad news, I plugged in my used walk-in cooler for the first time this weekend and it didn’t get cold. I’ve contacted the individual who sold it to me. I very much hope that they make good on the guarantee that it was in working order when I bought it.
In good news, we are working on putting up an electric fence. I hope to get it done this week, and to get some cows! I think we will get five of the ones we went to look at last week. The person selling them kindly offered to deliver them.
Warm weather came for a few days and we were very glad. The seed-starting house is overflowing, with trays and pots on the floor as well as the benches.
We planted the first brassicas outdoors, under plastic mulch, two weekends ago. The drip irrigation has been sort of shoved out into the field in a very disorderly fashion to water them. This weekend I made a few experimental passes with the cultivator. A few hundred onions made it into the field along with some salad greens and parsley.
The weeds are also getting off to a really healthy start. At the old place my main garden enemies were warm season grasses like crabgrass and nimblewill, lamb’s quarters, a few broadleaf perennial weeds like dandelions and plantain, and the hated bindweed. Here, the broadleaf weeds are less severe except for the unfortunate presence of Canada thistle, but in the annual weed department we have foxtail grass galore with a heavy dose of ragweed- at least two kinds. Someone with more soil science knowledge than I could likely give me some great soil insight based on this information, but I suspect that longtime use of herbicides has something to do with the difference.
I am using multiple approaches to weed pressure this year, based on what I learned from various talks at the MOSES farm conference. First, we are using a lot of transplants. Starting out with a larger plant should help to shade out competing weeds or keep them from germinating. Second, we have acquired cultivation equipment that should allow us to shallowly cultivate around the plants and in the rows in order to disturb newly-germinated weeds. The use of this equipment is largely dependent on the weather. Hand cultivation will still be used on some crops, but unlike last year it won’t be the *only* method of weed control. Third, the area of the garden where Indian corn and pumpkins will be planted is going to get a good “stale seed bed” prep, with multiple cultivations over the course of a few weeks in order to exhaust the weed seed bank in the top soil layer. Fourth, we will continue to use cover crops in unplanted areas both to suppress weeds and to enhance fertility. Buckwheat and oats will be used this year. Fifth, we hope to acquire some livestock to eat down the pastures and therefore reduce the number of weed seeds created in non-crop areas. Sixth, we are experimenting this year with black plastic mulch under certain crops, both for weed prevention and to keep the soil warm and moist. It’s under the brassicas now, and we plan to use it with tomatoes, melons, and at least some of the other cucurbits.
The chickens are prospering and enjoying the outdoor life. Our “old lady” hens have become free rangers now that they’ve proven they will still lay their eggs in their house and come home in the evening. We have a good system for the meat birds (a Salatin-style pen) but the pullet house is still awaiting additional revisions in order for the pullets to have good outdoor access.
We can now add spring chickens to our list of the signs of spring. We have 70 chicks under a heat lamp now. That’s up from 25 last year. There’s one breed that’s the same, and a couple that are different.
Some things that I’ve noticed this year:
Seventy chicks in a box are noisier than twenty-five chicks in a box. The ride home from the post office was … chirpier.
Seventy chicks are a lot crazier, when they’re out of the box. It’s kind of like kids… when there’s one or two, they’re usually pretty calm. But the more kids you put in the same room, the louder and crazier they get. The chicks moved around a lot more. They seemed to have fun running up the hills that lead to their water.
It’s a bit amusing to watch seventy chicks all stand up straight and turn their heads at the exact same instant when your toddler drops a loud something in the other corner of the room.
This morning, it was peaceful and calm watching the chicks all cuddled up with each other, sleeping. I’m glad their party wound down eventually last night, and they got some rest.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Last week I saw my first grain truck. This week, the crocuses are in bloom. And best of all, we have seedlings out in the seed starting greenhouse.
Onions and cabbage are up, broccoli and a few greens are next. I’m building a raised bed for the greenhouse and am going to try putting a few tomatoes in there. This is the first year I’ve used soil blocks. So far, so good, except that I made the mix too wet and they take a good bit of extra squeezing to get the water out of them. “Mud blocks” is more like it.
70 new chicks will be arriving in a few weeks, and so we’re scrambling to get their housing ready. Last year’s layers seem positively geriatric by now, but they are starting to lay a bit better again now that the days are lengthening. We’re still talking about beef cows as another form of revenue and as an excellent addition to our fertility program. So far it’s just talk…
Filed under: Mrs. B.
Well, it’s now 2009. Since I last posted, we have:
1. Planted the lily bulbs
2. Removed half of the deck on the back of the house
3. Cut down the largest pussy willow bush I had ever seen, also in the back of the house
4. Received the giant cold frame. It’s still in the box.
5. Insulated the chicken house for the winter
6. Completed three seed orders
7. Worked with someone on getting a cooler. Still working on it.
8. Got a few more CSA members, thanks to localharvest.org. Yay for free advertising!
A lot of other things have gotten done too, but those are some of the highlights. I doubt you want to know the details of the organic paperwork that I’ve been working on. The thing I’m most skeptical about actually getting done this winter is fixing the fences- it’s a huge, intimidating job.
Filed under: Mrs. B.
More than you’d expect!
We planted about 40 lbs of garlic and shallots during the end of October and early November. I just got some lily bulbs on clearance and need to prepare their area & get them in the ground this week. The garden area still has drip irrigation tubing that must be removed for the winter, and that area still needs to be mowed. Our hens are still laying eggs every day and still have to be moved. CSA applications for next year are being processed and deposits will be arriving soon.
The most important cold-weather work on a farm, though, is looking over last year’s records and planning for the future. We had a successful 2008 according to the criteria of our long-term plan. I’m trying to decide which farm improvements merit immediate attention for 2009.
The idea of a big cold frame (or small unheated greenhouse, if you want to think of it that way) has a lot of appeal. My seed-starting setup last year got the job done, but I was always out of room and I got really tired of hauling buckets of water up the stairs. The cold-house would allow more room for the seedlings, would get them out of the house earlier in the spring, would be easier to water, and would allow me to start a few early tomato plants for top dollar tomatoes earlier in the spring.
We certainly need more cold storage space. Last year, a lot of compromises were made with what got to go in the refrigerator and what didn’t. A walk-in cooler would be ideal, but I don’t have even a ballpark idea of what they cost. Two or three more refrigerators might get us by for another summer.
I am immensely happy already that we bought a tractor this fall. The plan is definitely to buy some type of cultivating attachment for it, in addition to the disk, plow, and mower that we already have. I am thrilled with the very idea of how much weeding time this will save.
Speaking of weeds and bugs, there is the issue of how much solar mulch, row cover, etc. to get. I didn’t make good use of these things in 2008, partially because of the early weather problems, the fact that I didn’t HAVE any solar mulch, and because of time constraints. It looks like grandma and grandpa might be around a little more in 2009, so hopefully I’ll have time to put row covers on and take them off when needed!
Another infrastructure-type improvement to the farm would be some fence mending. Neither of us have any experience fixing woven wire fencing, but the raw materials are all here (well, maybe some fence pliers will be acquired.) I am really interested in the potential fertility enhancements to my field that would be provided by a beef calf or two. Not to mention the beef!
The seed catalogs are arriving by the day, too, reminding me of the purgatory of washing seed starting containers that awaits me soon, and of all the things I haven’t tried growing yet. Happy November!
I first heard of Prop 2 from the local AM radio station this morning. (When I say “local”, I mean the one (only one?) in the county we live in.) It was during an ag-update, of which there are many on this station. It said that livestock producers were concerned about the passage of the proposition. Producers in the midwest see it as an opportunity — California’s production will obviously decrease because of proposition 2. Oh, sad, sad, day.
I took it upon myself to research this perilous new law. I was curious about what types of terrible regulations had been passed by those crazies on the west coast.
Mere seconds after typing “prop 2″ into a search box, I found the Yes on Prop 2 page. Obligingly, they have the text of the proposed (now passed) law in a PDF. The summary reads thusly:
“The purpose of this Act is to prohibit the cruel confinement of farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs.”
Hm. That doesn’t sound that catastrophic, or even unreasonable. Well, maybe there’s some scary stuff hiding behind such a simple summary…
“25990. Prohibitions.– … a person shall not tether or confine any covered animal, on a farm, for all or the majority of any day, in a manner that prevents such animal from:
(a) Lying down, standing up, and fully extending his or her limbs; and
(b) Turning around freely.”
Well, that sounds awfully similar to the summary. And that’s it, other than some definitions and exceptions.
In contrast to the tone of the local radio station’s report, our farm would not be hampered by a law like this. The chickens we have now, even when they’re cooped up for the night, have enough freedom of motion that we wouldn’t need to change if Indiana passed the same law. As we grow, our intent is to give our animals as much freedom as we can (while still keeping them healthy and safe from predators) and to raise what our land can support; in short, we plan to grow sustainably.
I think it is terrible that this type of law is required. But, I think it is hopeful that things seem to be changing in a more positive direction.
