Introduction:
This Newsletter has its origins in the CSA Newsletter from the Summer of 2009. A lot of the CSA customers asked me to continue the newsletter. It's an informal dialogue of farm life, farm production information, and a farmer's perspective on past and present events impacting daily events and life on the farm.
Several folks have been added to the original CSA Mailing List because you have been a recent customer of the farm or you have expressed an interest in the events at the farm. If you don't want to receive it just send me an e-mail and let me know.
CSA News:
Everyone has been great about returning the coolers! Thanks! Several of you have asked if we plan to continue the CSA again next year. Yes we do but we're not sure of the delivery points because the market locations could change.
Farm Products Available:
We'll be at the Millwood Indoor Market 12-5 pm and at So. Perry 3-7 pm or until we freeze out as its supposed to get below freezing by sundown. This is the last time at S. Perry St. We will be moving to the Community Building next week at 24 W. Main from 11 to 5 pm.
This week we'll have : salad mix, swiss chard, carrots, beets, squash, eggs, beef, and chickens. Sorry we only have a little sausage left from the pork. Won't be able to re-stock utill December. Will have a beef carcass available next month. If no advance orders occur we plan to package it in split half quarters, as sales have been good in this size packages. A few turkeys still available for Thanksgiving.
Farm News:
Rain, rain, rain and more rain!!! The driveway turned into a small creek; solid water 10 foot wide for about 150 ft stretch. It was so muddy going up to the barn, had to use 4 wheel drive and splattered mud all over.. The tub in my feed Grinder - Mixer is like a big pot full of water. (Didn't expect all this.) Felt like a mud hog sloshing around in the lower pasture and in the dry lots; Huh! Did I say dry lots?. Every hole the pigs have made all Summer is filled with water. Mud wallow paradise for them! All our vehicles got a free car wash but if you used them it didn't last long. Grass started growing and the cows took off and left the hay for greener pastures' so to speak. Trouble is some didn't stop till they visited the neighbors.
Could have been the fault of hunters I heard firing out near my East fence where the cows got out. I don't know what they were hunting but sometimes it sounded like a gun battle with M-16 automatic rifle fire I used to hear in Vietnam. Still bothers me after all these years! I was a little worried about what could have happened to some of the missing cows until I located them. Well had a good time Sunday morning gathering them all up and bringing them home. It wasn't really that hard; as soon as they saw me they started bellowing and came running. Had to lead them back in through the gates in the pig pasture which also now has the goats. Strangely the pigs just stood by along with the goats and just watched the spectacle of the cows following me. That was a welcome surprise to me. Soon as I got them all joined up there was a feeding frenzy as all the calves got matched up with their Moma's again. Fun to watch! Well, the fresh cool wet day was just great!!! Loved it!!! Lord please send more of the rain! This farm is classified as a dry land farm. It relies on the storage of water in the soil for next years crops. Of course any rain we get in season is also a blessing.
Still working on the tractor. Fired off the engine yesterday and that was good until the hydraulic pressure build up and it started squirting and raining oil in several spots. We had to remove all the oil lines to separate the tractor for the clutch repair. A couple more leaks and we'll give it another try tomorrow. About now I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't better back in the days when I was a kid on a ranch in Montana where we used horses for about everything. At the time I thought it was great. My version of a kid's pony ride was sleeping on the back of a 2000lb plus work horse as it wandered home at the end of the days work. It wouldn't dare break down on the way home like a tractor or truck, or it would miss its feeding of oats. I wonder if that's why they never dumped me on the way home as well.
Went for a walk checking the pig fence after the wind storm that ripped through with the hardest rain. The older pigs are winter ranging in an area with timber and its common for a tree or limb to fall and knock out the fence. Well while I was going along I heard a pig or two barking and grunting calling each other. Soon the sound was closer and as I looked around behind me there was the strange site of a single file line of all the sows following me as I walked down the fence. Didn't know what else to do but just finished walking the fence as they all kept following me. Were they keeping me company, curious or just wanting to make sure they didn't miss out on any feed I might come up with? You be the judge!
We'll see what adventures are in store for next week! One of you said they liked my "Ranch Ramblings". Might be a good name for this newsletter.
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