Spring Weekly Farm Updates (transfered from CSA Newsletter)

May 11-12
Hello All,
Sure you all enjoyed these last few great Spring weather days. More to come next week, they say. We're in full swing with Spring work now and really busy with long days. Had a nice visit from the Redmond Family ( A current CSA Member.), last Saturday. Their timing was really good. Descent weather but not without a few freaky cloud burst with rain hail and snow all at the same time. . We just had a new batch of baby pigs born. The kids were amazed when they had a real baby pig held up to them to touch and actually seemed a little frightened by it. We had a new baby calf born early that morning and when I took them into the pasture to see it we were surprised to find another new born had just joined us as well so two in one morning. Took the little kids into the warm hoop house and the kids quickly discovered the strawberries that were just beginning to ripen. They didn't seem too interested in the other veggies like most kids. The warmer days are bringing up new growth of greens we planted last October for the Winter CSA but too late to avoid the deep freeze of the blizzard last Thanksgiving. Rhubarb popping up. Sorry that many of you are opting out of the Summer Produce CSA. You'll be missing out on a lot of the early veggies thanks to the work done to support the Winter Program. Sign ups for the Summer Program have been going well though. We now have 27 Members for the Summer and more pending. We will be going to the big Garden Show at the Spokane Community College this Saturday to introduce the Program to other folks. Stop by to visit if you come too.

May 4-5
Time to remind you of the next delivery. Nothing very event worthy here on the farm. Same ole things just working at planting the garden and fields between weather extremes. Like farmers everywhere the weather has delayed us by weeks. Every day after May 1st for planting worsens the prospects of crop success. If the weather cooperates we hope to do field planting by the end of next week. "SO" is busy filling every corner of the hoop houses and green house with a back log of potted plants to transplant soon as weather allows. We are also continuing to plant under low tunnel hoops as much as possible.
If you have decided to miss a delivery please let us know!

April 27-28
Would you believe this is the seventeenth week of the Winter-Extended Season CSA Program? For some Members the next five weeks of deliveries are optional if you haven't skipped any previously. *_We will continue to bring you a delivery unless you notify us not to._ * We had several drop outs during the Early Spring session which hurt a little but thank goodness new folks showed up to take the place of those that dropped out. Just last week 4 new Members signed up to save the Winter Program. Welcome and thanks go out to them and all the other Members who have kept the faith!!!! The Winter program ends the end of May. The new Summer program begins the first week of June. The Summer Meat Program is full up. We still have shares available for the Produce/Eggs Program. If you haven't sent in your Member Agreement yet please do so soon!

The news said yesterday that this is the coldest Spring in recorded history for this area. It's also been very wet. Good thing we've got more hoop houses to use thanks to the Winter Programs preparations... All of you who sponsored the Winter Program have provided a real boon for the Summer Program Members. Can't thank you enough!!!

We're doing our best at re-planting the outdoor garden between storms. About 20 60 foot rows planted so far. This is in addition to re-planting in the larger hoop houses. Stole one of the first winter grown strawberries today. We hope to get out a t least one serving to everyone by the end of the Winter program. There are even some tomato plants starting to blossom. Keeping my fingers crossed. Peas blossoming too. Fresh carrots this week. Beets not far off.

Had to stop field cultivation again, this time due to the mud from the soaking rain. Moved the cows to pasture the NE back 40 acres which is a forested parcel. Took most of the day to fix fences from tree Falls caused by those two heavy wind storms we had this Winter. Also moved Scrappy into the furrowing barn for another litter of piglets pretty soon. Egg production coming back up steadily; hope this heavy rain and cooling again doesn't stop the progress.

Curly's baby calf doing fine! We also added 5 more weaned calves I purchased from a friend of many years who raises beef the same way I do. They were heifers and we hope to keep them for breeding stock if the demand for beef not to high. Beef prices continue to be sky high and increasing. Local stocks are declining as many take advantage of the sky high record prices. Nearly all my Spring hogs already sold as well as all Spring-Summer beef. Meat for Fall can still be ordered but prices will be higher as the inflation continues. Those that ordered earlier will be getting a real bargain.

Poultry sales have been down. Visited Huckleberry's Natural/Organic Super Market on Monroe. Found chicken prices far less than last year under a different brand name. Also many brands of eggs lower price than last year but a few were hi9gher than us. I have to believe that compromises are being made on the feeds being used. I can't even come close to paying for the feed with the low prices they are asking. I don't believe people are getting something good for nothing! Consider that old quote; "You get what you pay for!" I believe as fuel prices increase more grains are being used to produce ethanol and bio diesel thus generating more Distilled Grain Bi-Products for a cheap source of feed. So real feed prices are going up cause of fuel use while the new plentiful supply of bi-product feeds from substitute oil processing is going down.

Thanks too many for responding to the ground beef survey. Had a complaint that worried me. Found out from you and my own trials that it was unfounded. Did learn that when you process a grass/forage only fed beef in the Winter, it is leaner and lacks some of the sweet grass taste quality but it is still a healthy and a superior ground beef product.

April 20-21
Sorry about late Newsletter. But here goes. Big Events here we're Curly, My wife's pet cow, had her calf yesterday morning (See attached Photo) Grand Daughters were here to visit for Spring Break and were able to witness the Blessed Event! Otherwise everyone’s been busy with Spring work between nice spring days and the regular regressions back to Winter. We are trying to plant all we can under small tunnel hoops and cover so we don't have a big loss to late frosts like last year. Last two days have been hard frost here.

April 13-14
Starting Spring work with intensity. Spring and Fall usually the busiest on most farms. Getting field equipment ready - servicing and last minute repairs; very costly. Rounding up garden seed and field seed ( Also very costly.). Cultivating and seeding fields and garden, repairing and constructing hoop houses and tunnels. Delousing pigs and cows for winter parasites, Checking and fixing fences. Clean up and spreading manure. Starting baby chicks, turkeys, duck and geese. Moving and sorting livestock. ETC!

Started about 50 turkeys this week. Will start more soon. Hope to process turkey earlier this year and delivery frozen at the end of the Summer CSA Season. Blizzard just before Thanksgiving last year made processing and delivery very risky. Have 350 Broilers already 3 weeks old. Taking beef to butcher next week so should have some steaks again soon. Had to wait two weeks to get scheduled. So later weekly delivery will have more beef to make up for weeks now when you’re getting more pork. Sorry Egg production on the increase. Lots of Pee Wees and small size from new layers.

April 6-7
Just returned late yesterday from our family visits on the West Coast. New Granddaughter 8lb1oz. Parents doing fine after a little drug reaction problem with the Mother which finally receded. Took older ( 11 & 12) Granddaughters to the Seattle Zoo, one was having a birthday. Zoo animals didn't cooperate very well because of the cold and rain. Survived the traffic nightmares of Seattle and went to Tacoma to visit my Brother who is recuperating from a sever stroke last Christmas. Doing well but still very weak, was unconscious or under sedation for nearly 14 days last December. On the way home picked up a couple more tons of ingredients for the pig and poultry feed. Things cost about twice what it was last year. Add this to the grain which is nearly three times the price of last year and it’s a little worrisome. Will probably offer less shares of Variety Meats CSA's this Summer. Still recovering physically from this trip. "SO" put in a Bionic Woman Day getting all the CSA orders ready and tending to the greenhouse plants and flats. Finished installing an automatic exhaust and ventilation system to control humidity and temp highs, just before we left. Seems it worked a little too good and dried some things out excessively.

Special Discounts offered for early orders and CSA Sign ups are over after this week. Sorry but I'm reeling from new prices and costs. Anyone thinking of ordering custom pork or beef carcasses for freezer meat should order soonest as orders have been coming in fast. Expect to be sold out by June even with pigs. May have some more pigs’ late Fall-Winter pigs available. Not many orders for poultry yet. Because of the high costs we don't order many birds without orders being received in advance. Just do enough for the CSA Members weekly deliveries and holiday turkey.

March 30-31
Been a busy week getting started in the garden outdoors between the continuing rain storms. We managed to plant about six of the 50' rows of new strawberry seedlings and cover them with low tunnel row covers. Also did six rows of shallots, spring garlic and onions, which were covered by tunnel hoops as well.. Re seeded about half the flats in the greenhouse with new greens and salad mixes.. Planted more lettuce, pok choi and leeks in the high tunnel hoop houses.
Grandson worked on installing the new automatic exhaust fan and shutters in the greenhouse for the soon to come sunny and warmer season (We hope!). Several of the greenhouse grow lights shorted out on us and fried their insides and blew bulbs. These light bulbs are $40 ea. The Light fixtures are about $350 each. Called the supplier and they didn't deny a problem and admitted getting reports of the same problem many places. They won't replace them but are sending substitutes which will require us to change our installation scheme. A big hassle. In case you’re wondering - "Made In China."! Also the light master timer went out of service mysteriously on Day Light Savings Day; it was supposed to adjust automatic. Supplier says relay switch burns out. You guessed it , also "Made In China".
Had to get the new supplement ingredients to mix more chicken feed and pig feed for the new season. Things like calcium, kelp, flax seed, minerals; etc. Have to buy them in pallet size lots over buy Moses Lake and haul them home for storage. About $3000 worth of stuff. Grandson Bryan spent several days recently mixing-grinding tons of new feed. Just when I think I'm getting ahead financially with the chickens and pigs, this operation cleans out my checking account. Have experienced major price increases just as with everything else. You might be interested to know that right now the auction commodity price for an old cull cow is as high as it was last year for a prime yearling . Don't even ask what a yearling is going for! Butcher pigs at auction have gone from 42 cents/lb last year to 88 cents now.
Sow had a nice batch of baby piglets recently who are doing well. Also had 50 baby ducks show up. Lost about a dozen the first few days. Doing fine now. Chicks we started last week doing well. Layer chicken egg production is creeping back up and two days ago the ducks started laying again. Since that last late blizzard we haven't been able to supply all our customers. Our young Japanese Wagyu Bull started chasing our older Bull all over the pasture until now the older Bull stays in the farthest corner all by himself. Guess the younger bull finally learned how to use his horns to be a bully. Older Angus bull has no horns. Not sure how this is going to work out!

March 16-17
Well it’s officially the first day of Spring! Time to get really busy around here! Heard someone say that the weather outlook for this Spring is supposed to be record rains till early June. We'll see but not such a bad thing.
Miss Piggy still hasn't had her baby piglets. Some of you have asked to visit them. I'll let you know. Friday 300 baby chicks arrived for meat birds. Their still cute for awhile! Now that the snow is all gone been trying to do Spring cleaning as much as the mud will let us. Those Winter windstorms blew an odd assortment of things all over. Plastic bags and balloons that land a real menace to baby calves and pigs when they try to eat them. I'm looking forward to my first day of driving tractor doing field work on a nice sunny day. SO is real anxious to get her hands in the dirt outside, complaining that there is no more room in the hoop houses and greenhouse.
March 9-10
Been a busy week as usual. My Son Jeff was in town to play several local clubs. He's a musician and visits Spokane to play about every three months. He's a good friend of the owner of ZOLA, Dan Spalding, who plays in his band when their in this area. I got him to promise today to play at our Farmer's Market this Summer. His whole band came down with a cold with our recent weather. Those guys from the W. Coast aren't as tough as us.
Meanwhile "So" has been transplanting more into the hoop houses from the greenhouse to replace what was harvested as well as planting more seed into flats. She got into such a hurry a few days ago that she decided to run on snow-ice with a bucket of eggs; went flying face forward on the snow and badly bruised her right side/ribs but managed to keep the eggs intact. She's amazingly tough but my sympathy is still expected often right now.
Had to mix the boars and open sows altogether with the moms and the piglets cause the water line to the adult pig pasture froze for a few days. Don't even think about trying to hand water a dozen adult pigs. So we now have pigs in a natural herd like I do the cows. It seems to be okay for awhile because the Berkshires are more Casanova then Brute and seem to enjoy the small piglets too. This isn't the case with some other domestic breeds. Later when the snow is gone we'll have to sort out again.
Meanwhile Bryan and I have been busy mixing up 10,000 pounds of chicken feed. So naturally it decided to rain and snow again and turn the area into a mud hole to work in. Had to get it done cause we ran out waiting for the road restrictions to be vacated. Finally had to just risk a ticket with the truck. I hate to burden you with the shock of new prices for feed stuff. I think something dramatic is going on but I'm no economist. I am old enough to remember the late 1970's when something similar went on. Hope we don't see gas station lines around the block , energy blackouts and double digit inflation again but I have to say it's already going on in Agriculture.
I have been very stressed about having to raising prices because I suffer from sticker shock all the time at my age. But I want to make sure, with your great support and help . that I stay in business and fulfill my agreements with you all. We're so pleased that 16 of last year’s Members have already told us they are renewing for the Summer Season. Last week we spent about $500 on seed for Spring planting and the support was sure a big help!
Well enough of the gloom and doom. Basically I am an optimist and don't give up early. "So" is an optimist too cause she just doesn't have any pessimism in her soul.

March 2-3
Hope you all remember to meet up with us for your delivery this week; the first one of the Early Spring segment. We'll be at Millwood Wed, 3-6PM and Perry Street, Thurs, 3-6 PM (Indoors across the street from" the Shop" coffee place). Please come to the same market as you did last delivery in Dec. We've had our ups and downs on our farm operations with the weather and the winter growing efforts but I think we'll do fairly well this Spring, if not as good as planned. This most recent blizzard was a real blow but not a disaster. Fortunately no piglets or calves decided to be born. during the cold.. Ducks and quite a few chickens went on strike but should have enough for the CSA deliveries. Not sure yet if the effects of the sudden cold shock (We had a 40 degree drop in temp. in one day down to 20 below zero) is just temporary for them or if it put them into early molt. You'll notice some other color eggs besides brown cause one batch of chickens we ordered came with mixed breeds of chickens.
Already had 6 members sign up for the Summer Program so that is very encouraging. From trends I have been seeing on the internet CSA's are becoming ever more popular so anticipate more demand this year. We are already at capacity so I'm holding space for all prior year Members till end of March. Most of SO's transplants to the three smaller hoop houses survived if they were in the low tunnels but not sure about some outside the tunnels. Was able to add a little heat just in time.

February 24
Thanks and nice to see you who came by at market last week. Wasn't it great? Almost like Spring but things sure changing fast now. Got the critters to the USDA Processor Monday just in time to beat the arctic cold blast projected to start tomorrow. Rounded up all our propane bottles and refilled them for heaters to protect the Winter Produce. Grandson hauled and mixed a few tons of feed to hold the pigs thru the storm that's supposed to come. Stock piling hay bales in the Winter pasture area for the cows in case were snowed in. Bedding all the huts tomorrow with fresh straw for the pigs and new calves.. .Did the same for the chickens yesterday, with the help of my Grandson Bryan. Hope the Weather people are wrong. Thankful that two cows had successful delivery of calves yesterday. Strange - looked at my records and the same two cows calved together last year . The bull must be a two timer.

If we don't get snowed in we'll be at market Thursday. This is the last week before we re-start the Winter CSA deliveries. Great news for us; we have already had two families sign up for the Summer CSA Program. We'll reserve March for all last year's Members to have first chance to sign up before we open to new members. We'll have beef, pork, chicken and eggs at Market as well as the last of the potatoes. Sorry all the extra carrots and squash are gone but we're saving some for the future CSA Deliveries. Some of the winter greens were about to get too mature so we'll have some fresh salad mix also. Don't forget about next week as we've been planning a generous delivery to kick things off again!
February 17
Hello All,
Sorry late with this letter. Been busy constructing Low Tunnel Hoops insider our other three hoop houses. SO transplanted young plants into them that were grown first in the Greenhouse to start them. If you plant inside a low tunnel inside of a hoop house that gives you an extra layer that's supposed to gain you a month growing time in the Spring or Fall. Have portable propane heaters ready just in case it gets super cold again.
Had another new calf born. Several more look close. We had enough hay this year that the cows have stayed in good shape all Winter and the yearling calves have done very well. Our first batch of new broiler chickens scheduled to arrive March 12. They cost about 50% more in price this year. We have 22 feeder pigs growing and most will be ready this Spring; some right now. Today they were playing their game of turn over every rock they could find around the fringes of the field. Must be finding some worms. Feed grain up to $210 /ton today from $72/ton last Fall. Export demand and hungry bio-diesel refineries?
February 10
Hello All;
Hard to believe it’s only 3 weeks more till the Early Spring part of the Winter - Extended Season CSA starts again on the first week of March. when we will begin going to Millwood on Wed and Perry St on Thursday again. Looking forward to it!
We have re-established our inventory of Beef, Pork and Chickens. Lamb and Goat are scheduled for processing on Feb 22nd so by 2d week of Feb should have some of that meat available as well.
Recently the growth rate of greens has been increasing. Must be those 40 degree days when the greenhouse and hoop house got into the 80's inside. Root crops like carrots and beets are growing but are slower to progress. Never fear; we still have good carrots and potatoes to go with the greens to start and of course the eggs.
Last week at Perry Street Market was great with so many of you visiting. For those of you who can't wait till March we will have: pork cuts, beef. cuts chicken and eggs. First bacon and ham not ready till next week. Also some salad mix from the green house as well as some carrots and potatoes at market this Thursday.

Winter - Extended Seasons CSA Report

The Winter Program ends in just 2 more weeks. Thought it would be a good time to report on our lessons learned , since this was our first try at growing through the Winter. We were able to try this because of the support of some very special CSA Members who decided to share the risk with us and provide the necessary financial support with their participation.
We started getting ready for the Winter program in October. This was our first mistake! We should have started much earlier. One reason was because we needed more time and money to build the necessary structures and make improvements to existing structures to support cold weather growing. With out the help of my grandson and some of his buddies we could never have done it. After building the structures we found out all the lights, heaters and fans needed, exceeded the power we had available in the existing garden shed. This was my first clue that we had taken on more then we bargained for. The last electrical circuit of three had the conduit and cable buried just the evening before our first blizzard and deep freeze around Thanksgiving, end of November. The ground froze that night. Meanwhile, "SO" was busy planting like crazy under the protection of all the new structures while still harvesting and storing the root crops like carrots, beets, potatoes and winter squash.
I ordered a book about growing for market through the Winter. It's supposed to be a Bible about what we had decided to do. Good thing I didn't read it earlier cause I would probably have had second thoughts and given up before we got started. This book taught me about my next big mistake. The title wasn't Winter Growing as I was thinking but rather "Winter Harvest". It took awhile but as the days turned darker and shorter along with snow covering all the hoop houses and the greenhouse; the light finally turned on in my brain and I realized I was approaching this all wrong! We had radishes that would only produce greens but no bulbs (A plant any little child can grow, right?) Same thing for beets, turnips and carrots and many other veggies behaved in a similar way. To grow these plants for Winter they must be planted in late August and September. Late October is too late. Luckily we still had plenty saved from Summer to last for awhile. Fortunately with a little artificial light and heat most spring greens will grow pretty well. We grew these during the Winter break in January thru February. We spent a lot of days clearing snow and digging paths through the snow to the garden structures. Every time it snowed we had to sweep the snow off all the hoop structures because we used plastic pipe for all of the bows. The third big mistake. Plastic pipe may do all right for Summer and warmer climates further south but not in the winters around here. We should have made metal bows. Now we know! We had a lot of our low tunnels collapse and the high hoops were damaged and needed constant attention to keep even a couple inches of snow swept off.
The book talked about low tunnels with hoops and row covers with wickets. Then there are high hoop houses and green houses. Now of these there are supposed to be cold houses, cool houses,warm houses and hot houses. All these are for different times and conditions. Didn't know what this was all about, but now we do and we have them all now.

Low tunnels are intended to cover plants growing outside and for holding them thru the cold. They are also used for early planting for an extended growing season and the low tunnels protect them till harvest time. Row covers on wickets (wire hoops) are similar, but for shorter periods as they are cheaper and faster to build, but not so durable. These are cold housing and hold plants into the Winter.


High Tunnels are similar, only they are big enough to stand in. We have several 12 feet wide of different lengths from 8 feet up to 66 feet long. Some of these are also Cold Houses which means no supplemental heat. You can start growing in them in late February.

Sometimes you can put small tunnels or row covers inside these high tunnels and provide limited heat inside the tunnels. These would be considered cool houses. Then you have high tunnels that have two layers of covering with an inflated air space between covers for insulation like a storm window. With these you can heat them and keep them warm enough to heat some in the coldest Winter months; these are known as Warm Houses.

Then there are the Hot Houses which are what most think of as a Green House. These are kept very warm to grow plants fast in the coldest conditions. I now know why they call them green houses even though the are white in color. Its because they take all your green (Money) paying the utility bills! My next big mistake! Not planning on utility bills that exceeded $800 a month. Having fresh salad greens to eat in the winter is nice but it is very expensive to grow them and not profitable in the coldest months.

Our Winter - Extended Season CSA Program included eggs and Variety Meats such as chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and some lamb and goat. We combined this with the Produce under the plan that if produce was sparse we would provide more meat. Which we wound up doing at great expense. But, the next mistake was not anticipating how hard it would be to get poultry and animals processed in the Winter. Also during winter, animals are stressed more by the cold, grow slower and lose quality. Also I never anticipated the extreme increases in feed and fuel we had during the Winter which made the meat more costly to supply. These were costly errors which will take some time to recover from.

In summary we learned a lot and now have far more capacity to grow earlier in the Spring and later in the Fall. We can also grow some veggies under cover we couldn't grow before. Summer CSA Members should benefit a lot from this. If we do this program again next winter the Produce will be separate from the Meat. Meat will not be offered unless it is already processed and in the freezer.

November, 11th, 2010

Introduction

Last week all went well at the Farm. We put up more shelves in the
green house and seedling plants are popping up everywhere. The grow
lights have been ordered for the deep winter days and am now rounding up the materials to add electric service for the winter lights, heat, and ventilation.
Repaired and recovered one of our bigger 12 x 36 ft hoop houses and as usual my wife had it planted with greens for spring before we finished buttoning
things up. The new inflation system is in the 12 x 60 ft hoop house and
working well. The outer and inner layers inflate like a balloon which
has the effect of a super insulated giant window.

We managed to put up all the carrots, beets and squash before the latest freeze. All the greens are still surviving and growing in the small hoop houses. If this seems like a lot to get done for one person, it is! My Grandson has been a super help and is showing the skill of being a jack of all trades which is so essential to being a farmer. If you haven't met him he will be our stand - in at the Downtown Community Bldg Indoor Market on Thursdays (11am - 2pm) starting this week.

*!!!!!!!!NOTICE!!!!!!!!!*

*_The Perry Street Farmer's Market will be returning to "The Spot" parking lot this week!

*As many of you know we were evicted from the Community Center last eek right in the middle of our first indoor market there. It seems the Fire Department Inspectors have a feud going on with the Evangel Church Center over the use of the Building for income purposes which they consider to include us. It seems to be kind of a throw back to the efforts of the city to tax churches for allowing farmer's markets to use church parking lots. You may know the state legislature passed a new law to permit markets at church parking lots after all. In fact most cities in Washington go to great length to support their local farmer's Markets and even provide facilities in addition to other support.

So last week they kicked us out of indoors to the parking lot in spite of the weather. So far our efforts to relocate to another building have been met by more bureaucratic delays. Seems every new location has issues. Hope you will support us while were out in the cold (Literally!) until this problem is re-solved. Expect some media tomorrow. We are resolved to continue the Winter Market even if we have to replace our canopy with an igloo and wear a Parka!

Farm News October 6th, 2010

Introduction

This has been absolutely the busiest season with the highest sales at the farm ever! We believe this is from the support of many repeat customers who have stayed with us over the years, combined with more offerings from the farm. We can't put in words how gratifying it has been to really feel that all the work and investment in the farm over the years has been recognized and appreciated!

Garden and Produce Challenges

With the CSA Orders more of the garden was planted then usual and we had the strangest weather ever. Things got off to about a month late start because of the alternating cold and hot Spring. The news said several records were broken! We spent many nights worrying about being able to meet the CSA deliveries promised. In spite of three hard frosts in late August most crops finally ripened although many weren't as productive. Mostly the long growing season veggies like corn, winter squash, string beans, corn, and tomatoes but much to our surprise they all did finally produce some yields.

We finally have a 12 x 48 foot hoop house full of tomatoes just as the season is ending. Much to my delight we finally got a lot of strawberries and "So" has been making sure I share with our CSA members. We harvested some corn and we may yet get more. We got little production from the beans, gave up on them, and didn't do the weeding but then to our surprise the weeds shielded them from the early frosts.

In addition to frequenting three farmer's markets the garden produced enough for about 35 more coolers full every week. My poor wife who is the Green Thumb was almost overwhelmed by it all but somehow managed to figure things out with out any fancy charts and graphs. Good thing days are long in the Summer. It makes the 12-14 hour days easier.

When the real hot weather set in the work became exhausting but thankfully from time to time we were able to round up some part time garden help. My 88 year old Mother In Law even helped! My youngest Grandson helped for the month of August and was a big relief to us. He really seems to enjoy marketing and even took over sales at the farmer's markets for a time. We also hired a few part time garden workers but none of them stayed with us very long. Somehow during the course of the Season things have become more efficient but we think we have reached the limit.

Poultry

It seems that no matter how many hens we have laying we never have enough eggs! We gather and process about 15-20 dozen eggs everyday using up a lot of time from every one of our evenings. We have a variety of egg colors, sizes, and shapes because we have a variety of types of chickens. I like the colorful diversity of the different breeds! Unfortunately so do the coyotes, Bald Eagles, Crows, Barn Owls, and Hawks which have become more plentiful since a nearby Bird Refuge for Eagles was established. Thankfully we have no Raccoons who have put many small poultry farms out of business.

We recently inherited a hen from a family flock of pet chickens. It was the last survivor of raccoon attacks. The children seemed very sad to give up the hen but the mom seemed overjoyed although she was careful to not let the kids know that. We now have a chicken fence that looks like it belongs around a prison, but it is only to keep critters out - not inside. No factory computer sorted and sized eggs here and so far no egg recalls from this half of the country!

We've also been raising 25 Geese, 50 Ducks (half are layers, half for meat), 1500 Cornish Broilers, and 125 Turkeys. One group was of 300 so called "slow growing natural" Cornish Broilers. "Slow" was right word; it took 16 weeks, twice as long as usual and caused us a shortage in the middle of the season. So for a time our regular customers like the CSA got small birds from us but later we made up for it with Broilers the size of some turkeys.

Feed, Hay and Critters

This is been one of the best years for hay and pasture in over 10 years thanks to the cool Spring and heavy early rains. A lot of people don't realize we have been in drought for over a decade. Until this year our local precipitation has been way down from what it was when we bought this farm. We used to have a 5 acre pond that is gone. The hay field once produced 180 tons per year. For several years it has been only about 30 tons and last year it was only 10 tons. This year with just the change in moisture it was up to 140 tons and that's after years of being organic and not using any synthetic fertilizer.

It was so muddy most of the Spring we couldn't even get all the Spring field work done. We left 40 acres unworked but the cows didn't mind gleaning it anyway. So, for similar reasons hay prices have fallen from over $200/ton to as low as $80/ton and grain fell from all time high down to the lowest in five years which made for an easier time feeding hogs and poultry. Unfortunately that's over now! Grain prices have risen about 45% in the last few months and I'm worried about the impact that will have on feed.

The hogs have been enjoying the freedom of the pasture all Summer. My wife kind of took over the pig nursery to incubate chicks so most of our baby pigs were born on range. I call them bush babies. Some of the sows were great range sows raising good sized litters out in the open. The same sows that didn't do so well farrowing in the barn during the Winter did poorly outside as well. Right now we have about 60 feeder pigs roaming around. Almost every evening they gather at a gate near the garden to see what goodies were tossed over the gate from the days gardening.

I found an abandoned baby pig about 2 weeks old almost dead on the range pasture so I took it to the house to see if my wife could revive it. Her Mother took over the job and for several days we didn't think the baby pig would make it. She kept the piglet at her side when sleeping and fed it milk with an eye dropper. After about a week the piglet started perking up. Soon it was a little terror chasing the dogs away till they hid in a closet and followed us around in the kitchen grunting for goodies. So now we have a pet pig. Had to explain that it must be moved outside as 600 pound pigs don't make good house pets but its still hanging out in our front yard and follows my wife around in the garden like a puppy.

I went to visit a nearby farm up north and noticed a friendly young horse wanting our attention while we were there so I asked about the horses status. The other farmer told me he wasn't worth much cause no one ever trained him. I asked if I could take him home. After some hesitation the other farmer said, "I'll make you a deal! See those two Llamas over there? If you take them too, you can take the horse." So I got the Llamas for nothing and now have them guarding the calves. The new horse, a fine young Arab gelding is now keeping our other lone remaining horse company. Now I'm thinking about how to find time to do some horse wrangling again. I'll let my Grandson be the Buckaroo!

What's Next? A Winter-Extended Season CSA Program

Winter Indoor Farmer's Markets are starting soon and we are rolling out a new Winter CSA!!! Never heard of such a thing? Well we haven't heard of one around here either. But we have heard of them in other places just as cold as our winter climate. Because of the great support from so many with the Summer Variety Meats and Produce/Eggs CSA Programs we decided to try to continue a CSA Program through the rest of the year. It will be a combination of Variety Meats, Veggies, and Eggs similar to what was offered separately during the Summer. Meat will be used to keep fair value when produce is more limited so the weather won't cause a loss of food quantity to the members. Hoop houses and a Modified Solar Greenhouse will be used to extend the season's produce and will be most plentiful at the beginning in early Fall and in late early Spring. To find out more and become a member please visit the web site and check out the CSA Programs.

Winter Indoor Markets??? Yes they exist and have been going on quietly for several years at the Main-street Community Building and at the Millwood Presbyterian Church Youth Center Building. This year the Thursday Market at Perry Street will start a new Winter Market at the Community Center. During the Winter we will deliver CSA Shares and market extra produce, eggs, and retail meat at Indoor Farmer's Markets. We'll also be delivering Turkeys to these locations for the Holidays.

Farm News June 1st

Sorry so long since the last news.

This is the busiest time of the year around the farm. The record breaking weather this Spring has kept us on our toes and caused some disruptions and delays. This is the first time since I started farming here in the dry land farming area that I've had to deal with delays due to mud and hurricane winds. Its been a mixed blessing.

Wanna Be Cowboy Stuff
We had 13 calves born this Spring including Curly's, and 5 others earlier in the year. So the calf crop has been great except for the one we lost to coyotes earlier. The heavy rains have been great for the cattle and they're already getting fat. In spite of this it didn't stop them from being impatient and thinking the grass was greener somewhere else.

While my wife and I had to visit the west coast on some family business they all decided to visit the neighbors. Its uncanny how this always seems to happen when we are away on a trip. Lucky for us my Grandson came out to check on things and discovered they were missing. Soon all the phone calls clued him in. A good neighbor tried to help and had tried to chase them back home. Unfortunately they went the wrong way and trampled the new lawn he had just seeded. My Grandson arrived and they all got exercise trying to chase the cows back home without success. I'm told they enjoyed returning to the new lawn and didn't mind that it had fresh young grass before they turned it into mud. Then my Grandson decided to deal with it like I do when leading the cows to new pasture.

He cut a hole in a perimeter fence like a gate and called them, "C'Mon Cows, C'Mon Cows!!!!" Soon the lead cow bellowed and came in his direction and the rest followed as he kept walking and they all followed him home. That's the best way to round up cows I know. It works on pigs as well.

Spring Hog Happenings:
All is going pretty well with the hogs and we have had several new litters of baby piglets. We have had a lot of Spring visitors this year and they always love to see baby pigs. One young boy was even brave enough to sit on my boar Rex like my Granddaughter did last time she was here for a visit. I've always noticed that horses, and now hogs are more tolerant of kids than us adults. I've seen a kid climb on a horses back and ride around without any tack or saddle and all was just fine. The next day a wrangler would try it and the same horse was a real handful to manage and staged a mini rodeo event. Thankfully the Berkshire breed is pretty tolerant to visitors. They've all been enjoying the spring pastures as well but they still keep putting away the feed grain. It kind of like teenagers eating you out of house and home.

The Garden and Produce/Eggs CSA Update:
Everyone has responded greatly and all shares are now spoken for. We're working hard to start the deliveries this coming week and we're in a panic making sure everything is ready. The weather has caused a lot of problems and several plantings have been frozen out requiring re-planting. In all we probably lost about a third of the potted plants ."SO" started back in late February when we had that predicted early warm and dry Spring weather. Then the volcanoes started blowing there tops in Iceland and all has been changing. At least that's my theory.

The extra homemade Hoop Houses we built have kept enough growing to meet minimum member deliveries. We want everyone to know we grow our garden organically the natural way. We actually grow plants in the dirt with compost fertilizers and allow unfiltered - untreated rain and well water irrigate plants that grow with real sunshine as has been done for thousands of years.

Something Unsettling:
A disturbing trend we have noticed lately is what seems to be a rise in the preferences for synthetically grown vegetables. These vegetables that look like they are cloned are grown in special chemical soups inside buildings similar to greenhouses but that are augmented with sophisticated computer climate-control cooling and heating systems along with massive special light fixtures substituting for good old fashioned sunlight. They call this "Hydroponic Farming"!

One of these factory style farms covering two acres costs about $250,000 as compared to two acres at our farm which cost roughly $800. Massive corporate advertising efforts would have us believe that this method of production is healthier, more nutritious, as well as a more environmentally friendly farming method. We are amazed that some health conscious consumers actually prefer this kind of produce to organic and naturally grown produce. The Hydroponic Industry considers this sterile test-tube-grown produce to be our best answer to producing food for the future. It's kind of like the promises of GMO and Livestock Factory farms.

Variety Meats CSA:
All is ready with fresh freezer wrapped meats I just picked up from the butcher last week. I am happy with the support for this program as well. The support we have received from our pre-order and CSA customers has kept this small farm business alive! Our customers have treated us way better than banks of the past that no longer exist to loan operating funds to independent small business or farmers. We would like everyone to consider this farm part theirs! We are very grateful!!!

KREM 2 Visit:
We had some special visitors from KREM 2 News. They did a story about processing and marketing local meat. Please go to our FaceBook for a link to the video. While the Camera Man was doing close ups of the pigs one came up so close it stuck it's nose into the camera lens and slimed it. Later while Jane McCarthy was doing the interview by the cattle my wife's pet Cow "Curly" decided the mic was a treat and kept sticking it's head between us and she had to keep pushing the head away. They didn't show these events. It was a good interview and should give folks some new insights.

Farmer's Markets:

• Millwood ( Wed, 3-7 PM)
• So. Perry Farmer's Markets (Thursday 3-7 PM).
  

We're also going to give another local Evening Market a try called "The Red Barn" Farmer's Market. It is just 2 mi's East of Davenport. We like evening markets because they give us a chance to harvest fresh that morning as well as time to our daily farm chores before we leave for market.

We look forward to seeing you all soon!

Gary

News Flash

Curly, my wife's pet heifer, had a baby boy born at 9:05 this evening, on Earthday. The calf is a boy about 86 Lb.'s. Really big for a first calf. She delivered it all by herself and is displaying all the traits of a good Mother.

As bonded as she is to my wife, and after quite a bit of my wife's investigating the calf, she finally had enough and put her head down and gently pushed my wife away; mooing at her in an irritated tone.

This will be our first American Kobe Beef calf. Gary

Farm News April 7th, 2010

Boy this has been a busy month! And what happened to our Globally Warmed early Spring? I guess we're getting payback now because of all the great weather we had while the rest of the nation was still in a deep freeze. We had to stop cultivating for a few days because the soil actually froze at night. Well, down to business with the news:

CSA Update:

Boy did we get a surprise! Soon as we went public with the two programs the response was just great! We now have 37 applicants for the Produce/Eggs CSA. As soon as a few remaining Members from last year, who indicated they'll be renewing, send in their renewals we'll be full up this season.

The new Meat - CSA offering I was worried about is also full up. It looks like this year we'll be busier than ever. Thank You All so much for your support!!! Knowing someone really wants your production and appreciates it makes such a tremendous difference to us and our outlook towards the farming work!

Wanna Be Cowboy Stuff:

I have been loving the evening and morning walks in the pasture to check on the potential new mother cows and was surprised last week by four calves born the same day. As I went out that morning I found two, then later that evening had to do a double take before I realized there we're two more of them, albeit completely different. All of them did great so I guess the coyotes were busy stalking the chickens.

Curly, the pet orphan calf from last year is still penned up as "SO" is wanting to supervise her delivery personally. It would be the end of the world around here if anything bad happened to this heifer who is practically a family member. She still thinks she's supposed to eat organic veggies from the garden with her hay and she has been getting our cull storage veggies all Winter from "SO's" daily visits. This critter actually comes running from far away when her name is called by my wife.

Good News and Tribulations with the Pig Operation:

Another Sow we call "Scrappy" had her second litter two days ago. This is the
second litter this month, and one of her sisters is sure to follow soon. The only big disaster happened the other day while I was cleaning and re-bedding a farrowing pen in the barn, which can be quite a chore in itself, and I made a big mistake. My wife came running into the house the next morning in a panic telling me there had been a flood and all the little pigs were drowning. Oh No!

My heart sank as I knew I must have left the water on all night. I rushed to the barn and found the indignant Sow standing in water over a foot deep and letting me know in some pretty distinctive grunts and desperate squeals that I was in big trouble! I couldn't see her little piglets anywhere so I sloshed thru the water looking and feeling everywhere for them with the Sow's continued scolding. The pen has a little raised platform in a warming box for when the piglets are first born during cold weather.. These piglets were much older but they had all crammed into the creep box for safety from the rising water. Happily they were all alive though a little wet.

I think they all learned to swim that night. They wouldn't leave the box and the Sow wouldn't leave them. I finally had to pick up each one individually and take them to safety with the mother scolding and threatening me each time till all eight were rescued. By that time I was more soaking wet than the pigs. The water had turned into some kind of pig soup slurry similar to sewage scum. I was cold and "So" wouldn't let me in the house until I took off all the scummy wet clothes leaving them outside . I was pretty cold by then but I guess I deserved it. That Sow is still scorning me and protesting every time she sees me.

Other Farm News and more Tribulations:

As you all know the weather has been a real challenge with a lot of extremes lately. Last week following a blast of heavy rain we had high winds also blast us. As I was walking back past the garden from feeding chickens a mini tornado came whipping-swirling buy and it hit two mini hoop houses (16 ft long by 4 ft high) and picked them up right beside me like kites and they flew about 50 feet before they dropped to the ground crashing to pieces. One of them just barely missed the new hoop house we built last year to help with the CSA. Amazing, but we lucked out except for two mini hoop house structures shattered into pieces. Freaky!

As I mentioned last time, my wife has potted plants growing everywhere around here by all the windows. When my Grandson and I finished building her a heated potting shed she just added more. In the bunkhouse, that we now use for a multipurpose building, she set up a couple tables for plants next to a large window facing the yard and morning sun. Well, following one of those rain storms my Grandson went inside to dry off with his border collie pup companion. Later when I called him out he left the dog inside to dry off and the next thing we knew the pup had jumped up onto the tables barking at us through the window as to not leave him. He jumped up and down on all the started plants and crushed all the jiffy peat pots scattering the potting soil all over the place. A real potted plants disaster!

When "SO" saw the mess she almost cried and I thought we were going to be enduring her wrath any minute. Well lucky for us my wife loves border collie dogs and they can do no harm! However we were scolded severely for not taking better care of the poor lonely puppy!

With that I better move on till next time. All this didn't happen on April Fool's Day but it should have! Pray for me!