The year in review: 2012

This last year has been very trying and an excercise in perserverence.

I wrote this in early May. I realized how desperate I sounded:
Our winter was on the harsh side. No snow, but it started freezing in November and the temperature stayed cold until April, when the temps soared to the 100's. The animal's water stayed frozen throughout the day, my trees froze, I couldn't water due to the cold temps, the plants did not want to put forth much fruit/veg, the animals did not appreciate the cold(except Zuzu), it did not rain until March, and we almost ran out of firewood. All in all it was a new experience and a very daunting one with a new little man in the house. Having a baby in the house ends up kicking your butt and making you realize that you have other priorities. /End original post

I was unable to do many things around the farm, including milking animals while Ivan was young. I had the help of many friends to get to do these chores and to you friends I am eternally greatful.

We brought cow home in late winter and we've milked her ever since. She was bred in May (around the 21st) and we're looking forward to a baby calf at the end of this winter or early spring.

We had our goats grow up and we ate them. The male sheep grew and we ate them. In all there is a theme here, most animals grew up and we ate them. At the start of this year we still have some geese and some ducks to slaughter, but we'll see when we can get to them.

The goats did get out a few times and ate my trees, in particular my cherry trees but they had enough time to grow a bit before the hard frosts hit. Our other trees have grown and have gotten over the geese and goats. I think it's something with animals that start with the letter g; they are all just bastards. I'm looking forward to having the trees do a lot better for this upcoming year. Our peach tree grew a lot and it is starting to look like a full grown tree; my baby is growing up. I get to trim them soon to help determine their growth for this upcoming season. The willows and the ash have taken off as well. They provide enough shade to have all the poultry and fowl sit under them.

Projects were started, projects were abandoned or altered. The bread oven was destroyed and a new one was begun. I had my nephews come to stay with us, but I'm pretty sure that did not work out so well for us. Nothing was done around the house, but much food was consumed so in the end I think we ended up at a loss from that. I was at least able to milk cow, but we'll have to see what we can do in the future. If we do have another child Ivan will be my slave monkey and be in charge of any younger sibling.

Our plants out front had mixed results. The sorghum, buckwheat, early corn, pumpkins and cherry tomatoes did well. All other tomatoes and beans did not. We had enough tomatoes but the beans never seemed to take off. We had one late eggplant but no real produce from there. The strawberries did great, as did the apples, the berries, and the grapes. We'll see how the rest of the fruit do in this next year.

We keep on morphing the layout of the back yard and we alter and move things around in the front as we find out what does well and what needs to be altered to improve our production. Now to work on the goals for the backyard so that Jed can sleep better and the area near the house can become more productive.

There was very little rain and much heat. There was very little food and much desire to shoot every animal in the face. I think cutting back to just the necessary animals will help out a lot. As the year cycles through again we start to think of all the things we need to get to and all the things we would like to start with. I wrote up a list of goals I have for this next year, and I dearly hope to be able to accomplish them and more.

Over all, it was a very exhausting trying year and I'm glad it is done. We learned a lot with the birth of many of our animals as we had to help with a few of the deliveries and with the passing of some of the young. We learned that it is vital to stay with the sick young and to do all we can to keep the young alive. We learned that animals will kick out the young if they do not believe it can live and that all young animals (including humans) take up a lot of time and a lot of sleep is sacrificed for the sake of the animals. We learned that there are certain times of the year that work best for slaughters and that there are bad times that we should not. We learned that there are ways to preserve our meat and food while there are other ways that should not be used. I know we did not post much and we hope to post more frequently this year as it will help us keep track of what goes on in the farm and how we can learn from it.

I've recently read a few blogs from people that I love following and some of them have decided to sell off their animals and stop farming. I don't think I can go back. Who knows, I might think differently if something unexpected happens, but I value our way of life so much more through this process.

For those of you following and for those who wish to join in. Enjoy and we hope see you all at the farm in this coming year. Cheers!

The Breakfast Club

Sometimes I find it very difficult living in a house where everyone wants to wake up after 10am. There is something magical and comforting waking up to watch the sky lighten and the moon hide behind the clouds or sink down behind the trees. I think that coffee commercials build up the hype about drinking coffee in the morning before starting your day. Actually those commercials make me want to throw rocks at the fauxfarmers and the roosters on them. Jed has to have his coffee or tea in the morning, but if I was to do that I would not get started until way later than I needed to start. Sometimes I wish I could drink something hot, but a prepared meal is really what happens after your morning chores. For example the other morning I got to chase a pack of coyotes at 3:30am (with Zuzu) then finish cleaning up so that I can process more milk. I started more laundry and picked up after the little man. After that was watering of the plants in the front with picking of basil before the bees could get to the flowers. Mint and soapwort were picked for another batch of soap and I was able to pick up two dropped Braeburns and a couple of dropped almonds as my breakfast. I ate these while weeding and I was able to finish my morning chores in time for Ivan to wake up around 7am. All in time to get everything ready to go milk Cow and start the morning batch of milk processing.

Don't get me wrong, I usually get to come back inside and make scones or pancakes for the little man before we go milk Cow, but that is also on the run. I think I just prefer that quiet time before everything else wakes up and when it is just me and my plants getting to know each other. When I get to find the newest pumpkin growing or the fat strawberry that Ivan will eat later on. Or inspecting the poor grapes that Ivan has ravished (Ivan the Grapist?) the previous day or the apples to see what I can do to help the tree for next year. It seems a bit awesome to me to be out there even when it's just me and the fading light of the stars as the sun begins to peak. I just seems magical to me. Or maybe that's just the mommy in me getting a break and so everything seems magical.. or maybe it's just the lack of sleep. But in any case, I say if you get a chance go out into your garden in the morning hours before the sun begins to peak and take a look at your plants. The sights and smells will be completely different than what you see during the day. Just as in the evening, that transitional period of time makes the garden feel different see if you can sneak a chance in the morning to experience your plants as they begin to wake up as well.

Amused

Today had its good moments and its frustrating moments (all of which had to do with lame insurance). Luckily, all the amusing and good moments had to do with happy farm things.

I was woken up around 4 to loud chirping coming from the turkey room. I found that all three of the turkeys had escaped their box and were somewhere in the room. The room is currently filled with baby, turkey, and armour making items so to find three baby turkeys while only using the light of the heat lamp made for an interesting Where's Waldo sort of feel. I found the last one hiding under a spanish book about a hippo who can't find it's peanut butter sandwich.

After work I was able to drive down and pick up a scythe that a gentleman had posted on craigslist and of course we immediately started talking about gardening. Luckily, we both had time to kill so we spent some time talking about different plants we were trying out this year and how last year went with our crops.

I stopped by Jed's work to see if I could drop off food for him but he was out on a call so I ended up dropping off his food and was going to leave when I noticed that there was a bucket near the car. I walked over and it turned out to be the spent grains that his co-worker had used for his beer making. I took this over to the van and dumped the spent grains in the pig bucket to take home. (Yes, I actually carry a pig bucket almost everywhere I go... you never know when you'll find something very numy for the piggies to eat.)

At home I unloaded the pig bucket into the wheelbarrow and I took it out to the pigs. As soon as I started filling up their trough Squeaker jumped into the spent grain and starting eating enthusiastically while biting the snouts of the others if they tried to get near the beer grains. I couldn't help but laugh and wish that I had a camera on me to take a picture of my poor abused piggies. Aaron came out to help and ended up giving Squeaker her full name: Squeaker McSqueakums

When I came back in to the house I checked on the baby turkeys (actually called poults) again and found that one had escaped again. I couldn't figure out where it had gone and was following the faint peeps. I finally heard some scratching and figured that it wasn't in a box somewhere. It turned out that it had somehow jumped into the 25lb bag of chick food and was going through it with all the gusto a tiny chick could muster. It looked a bit disappointed when I placed it back with the others.

It's days like these that I really enjoy living where we live. =) I wouldn't trade it for anything else.