Hey everybody!!!

Wow, how long has it been? Too much time has passed, I know, since I last updated anyone on our blog. The year that has passed since I finished graduate work has been filled with activity, productivity, and wonder. Not only on the farm, but in the lives of our whole family. Jenn is working on becoming a midwife, the children are all doing well with school, and Emma’s writing gets better and better. Of course, this is the farm blog, so I’ll stick to that subject, and leave the rest for later inquiry.

I don’t remember where I left off last season. I know nearly filled our projected share bounty, only falling a little short on pork, by delivering 36 pounds instead of forty. But all the chickens were delivered, all the turkeys drew rave reviews, and the eggs are always favorites. Everything went well for the season, with our only rough spot being the processing of the turkeys. Our work schedules interfered with our ability to harvest in a timely matter, so they were huge, and it became quite a struggle to lift a fifty pound bird out of a chicken tractor. We’ll do things a little differently this season. A little more planning perhaps?

Winter successes included the maturation of our second layer flock. We now have eggs taking over our fridge and counter space much of the time. We anticipated this, and are selling les expensive chicken and egg only shares. We should also have plenty of extras that will be sold pay for feed. We always give some away, or as we prefer to say, share.

Our new flock, or should I say, Rosa’s “pet” project, has been the sheep. We move the ewe’s over to a neighbors barn for the winter, and they were successfully mated. One lamb has been birthed already, without any problems. The lamb took to mom as our creator intended, and they can be seen in our front pasture together. Our other ewe looks as though she will lamb at anytime. Births on a farm are always special, whether it’s chicks or lambs.

Speaking of chicks, we averted disaster with the broilers. The day we received them, less than 24 hours old, we moved them directly to the brooder with heat lamps, in the garage and well protected from the wind. As we left for the farm store, all was right with the world. However, when we returned less than an hour later, every chick was near dead. In fact, they seemed about as dead as Lazarus. It seems that they had all decided to swim in the waterer I had provided, which was too large for chicks. Their down was soaked, and they lost body temperature. Against all hope, we piled the chicks into a box (it seemed kind of useless to be gentle), and brought them into the kitchen. We tired to towel dry them, but it was not working – at least not fast enough. So I drove to the dollar store because we have no hair dryer, and brought one home. And – it worked; perfectly. Out of seventy chicks, all but eight not only survived, but acted as though nothing had ever happened. They are all doing very well. Science may explain this event fairly easily, but only the language of miracles can provide an appropriate meaning. These are the life events that allow us to experience God, and incorporate such events into an ongoing narrative of faith as the major informant of day-to-day living.

I almost forgot, Micah, a Methodist preacher, and I, all drove to Sheridan and purchased to ram lambs. We will be turning those into meat, but have not decided if we will butcher in November, when the meat is tenderer, or in spring, when we can harvest more wool and just ground all of the lamb. We are also thinking of culling our breeding Ram, as he is eight years old, and we are not sure how much longer he will be able to sire. This, of course, means we will be looking for a new Corriedale ram over the summer.

We are slaughtering a yearling bull, hopefully this week, and will replace it with another dairy bull calf. We were going to give the bull a lot more time, but the castration band had broke without our knowing, and, well, the little guy is now a bull, and I am the only one who will go into the pen. I have a big stick!
Pigs will be here on June first, and who knows what else will come our way. I do know, that, only a month ago things seemed to be moving slow, and I was not eager for the season to begin. Yet, once we got started adding to the life of the farm, there is much more to take in, more to enjoy, and more relationships to be developed with those special creatures that do more than bring us comfort, they provide sustenance. We value this cycle, and that is why we treat our animals the best we can, even if everything gets pretty dirty, or, nasty sometimes, especially during the winter.

Lot’s of shares left to sell, and many more pictures that we will have to share. Hope that you will stop by and see us, scot and jenn and family.

The Brooder Works

The Brooder works, and our first batch of chicks are healthy as can be! I apologize for taking so long to post. Jenn and I are very busy with studies and internships and work schedules, but the farm will not suffer – only our blog. Anyway, we picked up the Black Australorp chicks that Jenn chose for layers this year. They may begin to lay as soon as 8th month, but more likely in 9th month. This means that we can predict more eggs per share next season, and have some extra for sale. But, to paraphrase an old adage, don’t count your eggs before they are laid.
We ordered a second shelter that was needed, this one came through ebay. We have been able to save significantly by using Craigslist and ebay, but be careful, at least of Craigslist. Some things are not always advertised as they should be, or are as they are advertised.
I mentioned chicks above, but one of the great things about kids and spring, and farming, and farm stores, is that the first shipment of chicks marks the beginning of the season. Micah and Rosa had been saving up for chicks of their own, apart from the regular layers. After meeting for worship on the 8th of this month, we had to stop at the farm store to pick up a few incidentals for the brooder. Jenn and I surprised the kids with the announcement that they could be the first to give the brooder a try, and they picked out five chicks of their own. Naturally, those first peepers ended up spending their first night in the house with the kids. That is a more pleasurable experience than brooding 50 broilers in a bedroom. (Yes, that has been done.)
We have also talked with sheep farmer Cary from Alma, and are getting ready to begin that purchase. First, we need to erect one of the new shelters and prepare it for livestock. We then need to erect new fencing. We have already seeded that pasture, and are now praying that God will water and grow what we have planted. However, the simple exchange of emails makes us feel like time is wasting away. The next few months are exciting times of the season, because we are getting new animals and building new projects, and there is always something to do or plan. Drudgery begins immediately in 5th month ; ).
As for shareholder news, we have been able to provide eggs already to those who have become early shareholders. Hopefully, this is a motivator for those who have not yet purchases. We hope to write again sooner next time, blessings, Scot and Jenn and the family.

Reading Materials

Before we started the farm, Jenn and I did a lot of dreaming about how it would look for us to be farmers, and how exactly we would go about it. As such, we read a lot of books and magazines that are dedicated to the type of farming we dreamt of, that being, small family farms. When we started looking for materials, we were surprised. There is a lot of literature dedicated to the vocation of small or family farming. At first, we picked up a lot of books at our local libraries that were pretty antiquated, but still address the critical issue – our dreams. One such book was “Five Acres and Independence” by M.G. Kains. We rarely refer to it now, but it was a great starter book. We gleaned a lot of good information about all kinds of livestock from the “Storey” guides, which are advertized in nearly every farming, homesteading, or specialty magazine (www.storey.com) . Also, there is a magazine called “Countryside and Small Stock Journal” (www.countrysidemag.com) that is always loaded with interesting ideas, though more from an “individualistic” homesteaders point of view than that of a CSA or community perspective.
When we visited our first CSA farm, and asked if there was any good literature that they could recommend, they insisted that “You Can Farm” by the legendary Joel Salatin would be the most inspiring book we could read. Inspiring does not necessarily translate in “how to” but it certainly gets one started in the confidence department. After reading Salatin’s story of success, you will feel that successful small farming is within your reach. Salatin has written numerous other books, he writes for Stockman Grass Journal, and does numerous workshops around the nation. His farm, Polyface, is also open to visitors. In fact, if you google Salatin, you will see that he is the author of many articles and books dedicated to issues ranging from starting your own farm to quasi-rants against government regulation. All of his work contains a lot of truth, and it is not a truth that he maintains between the lines. Sometimes, he can be a little tough to swallow for just that reason.
For basic backyard poultry, and more, find a copy of Andy Lee’s and Pat Foreman’s “Chicken Tractor: A Permaculture Guide to Happy Hens and Healthy Soil.” Even Salatin refers to this book as a classic in small farming “howtoitedness.” Undoubtedly, if you want to start with layer hens or meat chickens, there is an overwhelming amount of literature available, most all of it useful, and available through library systems.
As for magazines, other than Countryside, we read an occasional issue of Stockman Grass Farmer which has PDF’s available at www.stockmangrassfarmer.com, as well as a plethora of small farm and grazier related books for sale. SGF is highly informative, but for our needs, a little advanced, and targeted toward larger scale operations.
I highly recommend “Farming Magazine.” Jenn and I ran across our first issue of this magazine while attending Ohio Yearly Meeting in Barnseville, OH. We fell in love with it, as it is dedicated to exactly the same kind of farming and lifestyle that our family is. We forgot about it for a short time, then googled it and asked the publisher for a sample copy. We then felt we wanted a subscription, but put it off until yesterday, when we were visiting with some Amish friends. They also had a subscription, and loaned us a copy. I ordered our subscription today. It has articles from Gene Logsdon (google his name for some great titles), and has had many contributions from Wendell Berry. It is an Amish publication, but is not overwhelmingly (or even marginally) religious. It is just very simple, very well written, and very in-tune with those who see farming as a vocation. In fact, most every title I mentioned in this blog views farming as a family centered vocation, just as Jenn and I do. Find out more about “Farming Magazine” by getting basic information from a basic website, www.farmingmagazine.net.

January means it's time to start farming

Now it is January, and we are beginning to get excited about getting things going around the farm. We have asked a few folks to serve as board members, as we are going to submit paper work in order to gain Michigan non-profit status. This status won’t mean very much for this year’s work, but it may be important a few years down the road when we begin to expand and adjust our goals to meet more need in our community.
After the papers are filed, Jenn and I will suggest a share price, which right now looks to be about $425 for the whole season. We will provide eggs every two weeks, 60 pounds of pork, six chickens, and hopefully, new for this year, turkeys. We are hoping to sell twenty shares this season, an increase over the thirteen we sold last season.
What needs to be done in January, or , what we hope to accomplish if we get some early shares sold, is to make our new chicken tractors (a new design for this season), construct a brooder, and purchase seed in time to plant new pasture during the January thaw.
One of the things we have already done is to file a DBA (doing business as) form with Allegan County. This means that you will be able to write checks to Sandhill CSA as well as to Scot or Jenn. Last year, we had some problem cashing a few checks because of our failure to register as a business. What all of this means, is, we are a legitimate farming enterprise in the eyes of the state, and perhaps, more legitimate to potential shareholders who might be leery of writing a check to a person instead of a business.
As a point of interest, I thought I’d share some of the major points of our non-profit plans with you, so you get an idea of what direction we are presently taking the farm. These are the suggestions we will be taking to a board when it is established:

Article II
The purpose or purposes for which the corporation is organized
A. To foster strong relationships between urban and rural communities through non-profit community farming and healthy food.
B. To educate diverse populations about the importance of locally grown food, family farms, and personal relationships to the stability of local economies and healthy communities.
C. To develop a not for profit breeding program for heritage breed livestock.
D. To educate interested adults and children about the intricacies of micro-farming, and livestock and pasture management.
E. To provide a percentage of Sandhill CSA harvest to low income families or shelters.

Thanks for reading. Now that the holidays have past (The Quakers are not supposed to celebrate holidays), we will begin the work of preparation and be updating you all on the progress we are making as we draw closer to the fun of the farming season.

Wrestling hogs and other well-laid plans

After writing about the pig pen yesterday I was reminded of the first year we had hogs and the time came to transfer them from our barn to the butcher. This happened in the spring, and I figured that I could get the job done easily enough if I just had a truck to use. It just so happened that a friend from seminary owned a rather aging S-10 that looked as though it had been used to haul livestock regularly, even if that was not the case. Better yet, my seminary friend grew up on a farm, and I figured she might provide some support if things didn’t go the way I had planned.
Julie came over early in the morning, and I initiated the first of what would be many grand hog hauling schemes. I had refrained from feeding the hogs the night before, so they would be nice and hungry on butchering morning. I backed the truck into our barn, and opened the rear gate. I then poured an ample amount of food into one of the hogs’ feeding dishes, gave them a nice sniff of aromatic corn mash, and set it up in the bed of the truck. It was my expectation that both hogs would walk right up the ramp I had made especially for the occasion, and I would shut them in and drive them to meet the butcher. The hogs however, knew something very well that I did not. Hogs do not simply climb up ramps into the back of small trucks, not if they are a little hungry, and not if they are starved. Contrary to all I have heard, hogs are not so curious as to climb into the back of a truck either.
The next plan was to simply wrestle the hogs into submission, and lift them into the back of the truck. Of course, they weighed more than three hundred pounds apiece, so I accepted the fact that I might need Julie and Jenn’s help. Another thing that I did not know, was that when you try to wrestle hogs, they do not simply submit to practical wrestling holds, but the fight back. Indeed, if you know the hog well enough to have scratched behind its ears every day for the last –say – five months, they think you are playing and wrestle back. So, as soon as I attempted to wrestle one hog into submission – she sat on me, and then rolled around a little bit because she was enjoying the game of balancing herself on my own ample belly. It was like watching a medicine ball balance on another medicine ball. Time for plan C.
Plan C was to try and hog tie the animal, so we drove all the way into town for a rope, and drove back to put it to use. The problem was, neither Julie nor me, nor Jenn , knew anything about hog-tying a hog, or any other kind of livestock. I couldn’t have lassoed a hog if it were laying asleep and I had a net. Time for plan D.
Plan D involved calling Julie’s dad, who was a farmer back in New York, and he said it was pretty easy to lead a hog around if you just placed a five-gallon bucket over the hog’s head. I had plenty of five-gallon buckets around the farm, and we immediately retrieved one in hopes of guiding a blinded hog up a ramp into the back of a truck. The problem was that Julie’s dad must have either raised some very small hogs, or pulled ten-gallon hats down over their eyes, not five-gallon buckets. The buckets did not come anywhere close to sliding down over our hog’s head. Time for plan D.2.
We called a local hog farmer and asked how he loaded his hogs into the livestock truck. He told us to use a ramp, and I said we did. He said chase it up the ramp. I explained that the hog refused this opportunity. He asked if our ramp had sides to prevent the hog from turning from side to side. A-ha, I thought, this is the answer. However, we had nothing that could be used for sides to my homemade ramp, but the two graduate students on site decided we could certainly construct something similar to a ramp with sides. We got together and procured some t-posts, some barbed-wire, and an old automotive hood that had been laying around the farm because those are the kinds of things that farmers never throw away. We pulled the truck around to the back gate, and erected a barbed-wire corridor that led from the barn to the back of the truck, with the car hood leaned against the side of the barbed-wire as an additional deterrent to the hog’s desire for freedom. Believe it or not, the plan worked. At least, it initially worked. But as soon as we got close enough to the truck, the hog turned, forced its way through the barbed-wire, over the top of the car hood, and back into the pig pen where, once it was safe again, began to smile again as though she wanted to play more. Bruised and bloodied from the barbed-wire experience, Julie and I sat and muttered about how much we hated these hogs. Rosa was having a great time watching all the work, however, and she remained optimistic by singing “we’re having bacon tonight.” Since we could not come up with a plan E, Julie and I drove back into town to ask people at the grain co-op if they had any ideas.
Of course, the people at the grain co-op thought we were crazy. Why in the world didn’t we use the proper equipment like everyone else in the county. We tried to explain that we didn’t have the proper equipment, which naturally left them to wonder why in the world we had three hundred pound hogs, then. I felt stuck. I was at the point where I just wanted to shoot the hogs out of spite, but the butcher could only work with them if they were brought in under their own steam. Back to the drawing board.
While Julie and I were gone, Jenn had the bright idea of going next door to the vet to ask how he moved hogs from one point to another. They explained that they did it with a hog catcher. We wondered if this was Preble County’s cousin to a dog catcher, but as it turns out, there is a special tool designed to grab a hog by the snout so that it is more easily managed. Jenn borrowed the hog catcher, handed it over to me, and I commenced to catching the hog.
Funny thing about hogs is, once they are caught, and being moved to a place that is not where they would choose to go on their own, they intend to dig into the spring muck and howl. Now, there is no way to describe a hog scream, or howl, or whatever that noise is that is made by pigs in danger of being turned into pork, but I assure you that it is intense and deafening. And while I pulled at the hog’s snout, which was looped tight with the hog catcher apparatus, Jenn and Julie pushed it from behind. We moved that hog about fifty yards - an inch at a time - up the homemade ramp and into the back end of the S-10, which has just enough room for one three-hundred pound hog. Unfortunately, I was in the back of the truck with her, and she was not happy with me at all.
Of course, hogs don’t know that you should never corner a seminarian, because we can be vicious on our knees. Even Quaker’s pray, and when I started to pray that the Almighty would get me past the hog, the hog started fussing to get the hog catching apparatus off of her snout (it was still stuck there), and cleared a path to let me by and out of the truck, where Jenn and Julie promptly shut the hatch. The hog was ready for transport, and just as Julie had predicted, it tasted all that much better because of the epic battle that we fought to get it to the butcher. As for the other hog, we were too tired to move that one for another two months, and it loved us all the same – until butchering day number two came along, and plans F through K.3 were employed.