Farm Fodder

I know, it’s almost the end of spring. But there is another season for us here on the farm. It is one that we brought upon ourselves. it is called “CSA Season” –
We decided late summer last year that we should expand our gardening efforts and start providing wholesome, nutrient-rich, chemical-free foods for those in the greater Cincinnati area that wanted it.

Here it is the first week of June, and we will be passing out “shares” of food tomorrow, Saturday the 5th for the first of 20 weeks to come. We will also be passing out a few shares on Wednesday for those that can’t make Saturdays. The food comes from our own garden beds, which means that we’ll need to get up early and pick.

It has taken a lot of planning, purchasing, scheduling and lots of hours toiling in the gardens, orchard and everywhere else around here to get to this point. For some reason, I assumed that, once we got to this point in the adventure, I would be able to put my feet up for a spell and reflect on all of that hard work, time, money and planning to see how we have done. Unfortunately, the plants, weather and customers warrant more work, instead of allowing me that time of reflection. I suspect it won’t come until some late night in November, while I sit with my lovely wife in front of the wood burning stove – a peaceful, comfortable spot where we tend to stare at the flames and chat about things past, present and future.

As a good friend once said “it takes a lot of work to live simply…

–Pat

It’s that time of year again.
We are currently building raised garden beds, planting in the beds, building more beds, planting in the beds.

All the while, we are milking goats and milking the cow.
That of course, creates more work, since we have to make cheese, butter, sour cream, ice cream, yogurt and freeze milk.

And of course, we have to feed the animals 2 – 3 times a day and check their water. Plus, we have to feed the bees sugar syrup so that they will ramp up in numbers and make wax. And we have to feed them pollen so the queen will lay more eggs.

And we have to plant more bee-friendly trees, flowers, clover. Plus we have to prune the fruit trees (Sam and I have done most of them already), and repair the driveway, finish remodeling the porch, clean up and spruce up the house.

And on and on and on…

But we get to eat the honey, and the fruit, and the cheeses, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream, and drink the milk and eat the veggies, and berries.

And we get to share it with friends and family…

Kind of makes it all worth while…

Baby goats hopping all over, bees flying around the bee yard (apiary), cow and dairy goats in milk.
The list goes on, but these are the first signs of life after a long winter.

About 2 weeks ago, on a Sunday, my bees were flying all over trying to find food. I fed the hives and thought how wonderful spring will be… If the hives take off, we’ll have lots of honey. Of course, I have o do my fair share… I have to feed pollen patties and sugar water now, if I want that queen laying lots of eggs. And I want that queen laying lots of eggs NOW! In 2 months the honey flow will most likely be on, so I want a bunch of field bees out there collecting nectar for honey.

We had twins from a goat that weekend, and last week, we had 3 goats kid. So, we are up to 6 baby goats jumping and running all over the place. We have 2 more due in April, so that will bring us up to anywhere from 8 to 10 kids!

Although it is good news that Monsanto pulled this variant of GM (genetically Modified) corn, it is disturbing that it was done in secrecy.

All documentation was pulled by Monsanto, and there was no press release by wither the regulators or the “applicant” (Monsanto) and all evidence of testing has been pulled as well.  No paper trail of any kind left behind.

Also, you won’t find this on in the news bytes from any of the major US media moguls.

It seems that there is a “kiss and don’t tell” attitude where high-powered, mega-rich corporations are adored and catered to by the press (advertising revenue) at the sake of the safety and well being of the general public.  We truly live in a nation that now bows to the idols of fame, fortune and power at the expense of the rest of society.

You may read the entire article here:

http://www.gmfreecymru.org/news/Press_Notice9Nov2009.htm

Around 11:30 AM today, I asked Marilyn come out and check the cow because she had stuff “hanging out”.
I thought she was in the throws of calving, but a thorough inspection proved that she had already had her calf – and we found it frozen on the ground.
We spent the better part of 3 hours trying to warm her up and get her little heart going, but were unsuccessful.
We lost the little calf.

Fern, our cow seemed to be doing fine, but we’ll continue to watch her for the next couple of days.
We milked her out this afternoon and will start the milking regime in the morning.

We were taken by surprise, since we bought her in October and did not know for certain when she was due to calve, since she was already bred when we purchased her. The man we bought her from told us that the vet said she was due in February or March.
We always watch the breeding of our goats, so we know when they are due.

So, instead of a beautiful, bouncing little calf to play with, I dug a small grave and buried her.

We were all sad today, but hope springs eternal, with the anticipation of baby goats within the next 2 weeks. And as long as Fern is healthy, we will breed her for a fine calf next year.

–Pat