Appreciating Animals

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This first appeared in The Chautauqua.

Appreciating Animals

“Animal appreciate, machines depreciate”

I may have quoted this here before but it is my favorite saying from Joel Salatin (farmer author and educator around grass-fed, integrated farm livestock systems).

As I look around our farm, I keep trying to find ways to work with our animals to reduce the work done by machine and to integrate the animals more fully into the farm operations. It means watching them and seeing how their normal behaviours and diet can be used to do work – work that I don't like doing myself. It may mean that I seem lazy but I don't find myself sitting around and lounging much so am not going to worry about that accusation.

Our latest example of this is the home we've given our three little pigs. Our two girls will become our mamas and our little boy, breakfast :) But for now – they are our garden clean-up crew and rototillers. As the garden was pulled in over the fall, we expanded their area and have watched them explore the plants left standing and dig for who-knows-what in the soil. They are breaking up and working in the organic matter we left in the garden all summer and are growing into happy, healthy pigs while doing so.

Their home is a house of bales, insulated panels and a rebar hoop house (that once held our tomatoes). As the story goes – building out of one material made the three little pigs' houses vulnerable so we figure the cooperation between these materials and structures will work better. They seem to like it – as the first snows are falling, they have been reluctant to come out of their straw bed for breakfast.

There is work involved in the animals but working with them makes for a more enjoyable day than working around them does. Stacking functions like this means that we just might find some more time to curl up with a book inside instead of managing two sets of chores: the pigs are doing one set for us. Plus, when they are done their job – instead of being parked in the 'old tractor graveyard' that every farm seems to have: they go into our freezer and onto our plate. They appreciate in value as time passes and we appreciate them.

Harvesting Abundance

My article in the August 3rd Chautauqua

Harvesting Abundance

The last week or so has come with a bit of anxiety around our garden because I haven't started to harvest much from our garden – my greens and herb are doing great but am still weeding and watching and waiting.

I go to the farmers markets and see others with heads of cauliflower, fresh peas, perfect sized beets and I have to ask them: when did you plant? Did you use transplants or seed? Any row covers or irrigation? I am comparing their system to mine to find out why I am 'behind.'

We did plant later than most people this year and when the weeks were very dry in May, we resisted watering because we didn't want the garden dependent on the water. After getting our straw mulch down, we did give the plants a couple good soaks, along with applying compost and compost tea.

The last weeks the rains and the heat have come and overall the garden has been coming along well. So well, I was contemplating taking some baskets of lettuce and herbs into the market as I have more than we can eat. Then came the hail which shredded my lettuce and dropped my confidence around the garden. I took a walk through our rows and saw the damage and anxiety returned. However I had my baskets with me and decided to harvest what I could as I walked along. Thirty minutes later I walked into the house with a basket full of basil for pesto; a basket with 5-6 other herbs which I will dry for use in cooking or tea; strawberries and raspberries; lettuce and chard; onions and radishes; a couple types of peppers, the first head of broccoli and some fresh new potatoes.

As I looked over this, I felt pretty good. It made me reflect on life in general. When I am busy with tasks and getting things done, it feels like the days slip past and unless I pause and reflect all that has happened: the tasks accomplished, lessons learned, laughs laughed, I miss the abundance that is around me.

So this week, I am sending a wish out to all:

May you enjoy the weeks ahead as we step into the highs of harvest and let each basket of food and jar of preserves remind you of the unseen blessings that surround you each day.

It's a Mess!

My thoughts on our garden set up, first published in The Chautauqua:

Our garden is a mess. From the distance of our kitchen window, it looks fairly normal. Long, brown rows where seedlings are starting to poke through, separated by yellow straw mulch that is holding in the moisture and keeping the weeds down.

Get closer though and you'll see last year's corn stalks and other dried plants still layered on the ground. 'Weeds' are poking up through the straw mulch and whole patches of lamb's quarters are being allowed to grow. Instead of tilling under the whole garden and then planting, we used a rake to move aside our mulch and only tilled exactly where we planned to plant. We did this in order to preserve the moisture in the soil that can be lost by tossing up the soil and letting the wind have access to it. We also are choosing to let the microorganisms in the soil live. The work of Dr. Elaine Ingham and others like her have revealed the complex web of life that live in our soil and that participate in order to have healthy soil and healthy plants. Most of these organisms live in the top inches of soil and tilling disrupts and kills them thus setting back the long term health of the soil. Our garden isn't at the point, yet, where we can eliminate tilling completely but we feel better knowing that we've left the majority of the soil intact and are letting the soil feed itself rather than applying external fertilizers.

This is also why we are a bit more relaxed when it comes to weeding. We are removing the plants that are coming up close to our seedlings so that there is not competition for our vegetables, but in the areas where we haven't planted, we are not planning to actively till or kill the 'weeds.' Recent research is showing that it is at the root tip of plants where a great deal of nutrient transfer and soil transformation takes place. Our teachers have impressed up on us that it is better to have roots in the soil, no matter whose roots they are. Thus our weed control will come in later, not allowing plants to go to seed and spread, but in the mean time we are not breaking our backs over hoes. We are letting our geese help out: they do enjoy the fresh sprouts of dandelions and grasses.

Because we didn't clean out our garden last fall, it also means we are finding some treasures as we let things grow. We have head lettuce that self-seeded and is weeks ahead of the lettuce I planted this spring. We've found garlic and onions sprouting – we expect that our fall help missed them or the stalks were broken and the bulbs left in the ground. I haven't had to put any new dill or cilantro in this year as I have nice patches coming up on their own.

Gardening this way is a big shift for me – I keep wondering what the neighbours must think when they drive by. But by the time I make it to the far end of my garden – having picked a few 'weeds' along with some herbs and leaves for supper and watched our geese travel between rows, snacking, I have a smile on my face and peace in my heart.

The Queen of our Coop

My latest entry in the Chautauqua

A few weeks ago I shared my concern over the ladies that our rooster was hanging out with. The crowd he tends to run with during the day aren't the hens we wanted his attention focused on. I wondered if I should get involved and pen them up together or if I should just trust that what I might not be seeing was still taking place. Yesterday I got my answer.

All winter long we'd been watching one of our hens bolt from the coop under crates, pallets and anywhere else we couldn't reach her. She's a regal-looking gal with black lacy feathers, sharp orange eyes, and an intelligence to match her fast feet. We named her Queen Victoria. She's the main reason we decided to get a rooster and when a neighbour offered us her spare, we offered him a home. So when they seemed to always be on opposite ends of the yard – I began to get worried. However my anxiety (and purchase of an incubator!) all seems pointless now.

Yesterday Queen Victoria showed up in the yard with 7 peeping chicks behind her. She's settled them into the coop and is the exemplary mother we hoped she would be.

We've recently christened our farm operations as “Earth Works Farm.” It's a reminder to us that the earth works: ecosystems and organisms know how to grow, produce and renew – without us trying to control or manipulate them. We participate in those systems but also try to stay out of the way, to trust and to learn from nature.

Queen Victoria has been one of our teachers in this realm and I am proud to say I am one of her students. She definitely is the queen of our coop and my hope now is that she will be as long-reigning as her namesake.

Spring Fever - My latest Chautauqua article

Below is my latest article in the local paper, The Chautauqua

Today's the first day of spring and there is definitely a touch of the fever around here.

As we move back into farming - we are trying to learn the skills related to each enterprise that would allow us to be able to be self-sustaining, if we need to be. This means learning how to start seeds and how to save them so that we are not dependent on other growers. It doesn't mean that we won't buy seeds or plants from others, but at least we know how to do these things if we want or need to. This is a principle we are also applying to our animal enterprises.

Last year we had very little involvement in the hatching of our ducklings. We had two females and when we were offered a drake - we added him to the clutch. A few weeks later the two girls were gone. As we had recently witnessed one of them learning to fly, we thought they must have taken a trip. After they had been gone for over a month - we began to think that we would not see them again. However a few weeks later they returned with 9 ducklings and took up home in our coop. Natural birthing indeed!

Of those nine - 5 were male, so late October saw us learning to butcher and we've enjoyed a dinner of roast duck a few times this winter. The 4 females joined Naomi and Wynonna (our two original ducks, mother and daughter) in the coop all winter.

This past weekend we brought home a new drake. He's come from a home that included lots of males competing for female attention so we figure that the 6:1 female to male ratio is in his favour and we're hoping nature will work in our favour again.

A few weeks ago we also introduced a rooster into our henhouse, hoping to get some fertile eggs to incubate in the upcoming weeks. We are not counting on our whole flock to come from eggs we are incubating ourselves. This year is about learning and experimenting with the new-to-us incubator we just bought.

What all this means is that I now feel a bit like a madam running a brothel. Two of our windows look directly across the yard to the coop so I can watch the goings ons during the day. I find myself observing the actions of our ducks and, as it seems they are getting along well, trying to rig up nest boxes that our ducks will like as it is still too cold for them to be taking off into the woods to nest.

I am also wondering what to do about the fact that our rooster is hanging out with the 'wrong' chickens: we would prefer he mated with our 4 heritage hens and not our Isa Browns. I am pondering locking him and his four girlfriends in a separate pen to ensure he pays proper attention to them but I don't know what may be going on inside the coop and perhaps this is unnecessary.

I know I shouldn't count my chickens before they hatch but I feel like I should do what I can to ensure the eggs are fertilised. So in the spirit of the spring equinox, this weekend I may just crank up the stereo, put on Louis Prima's “Just a Gigolo” and get to work on those nesting boxes.

The gent arrives

Our gals seem to be welcoming him

The first family photo