Farming is a passion - often unrequited

They say that farming is in your blood.  While I didn't have much of an opportunity to farm with my family when I was young - the last of the dairy farm was being put to bed when I arrived on this earth - the farm itself stayed in the family.  I played in the barn, I got under foot of the farm hands that were still haying, I played in the pastures with the heifers that remained here, I caught salamanders in the ponds, I made forts in between boulders and next to hand stacked stone walls, I slept on the floor of a handmade cabin at the south end of the lake and went potty in the woods, even in the rain.  Those are just a few of the things that are in my blood.

I have been homesteading and slowly growing a vegetable, livestock and Christmas tree farm on my families land for almost ten years.  I tried to fit in infrastructure projects, livestock care, weeding, watering, planting, baking, canning and farmers markets with a full time job, a terrible pregnancy which gave me the most wonderful Little man.  As he grows there are t-ball practices and games, soccer practices and games, cub scouts, etc.  The dream of farming has taken a side seat, a back seat or all too often gets relegated to the back of the trailer whose wheels are falling off.

Last summer I made the VERY difficult decision to leave a career that I loved, working with people that I both loved and admired and a profession whose dedication is unwavering, in order to spend more time on the farm.  I miss them terribly.  

The first few months were a huge adjustment.  Learning a new part time job, taking on a second part time job since the cut in pay was more than my budget could absorb but giving up much of that extra time that was supposed to be spent on the farm, and trying to sell summer piglets who were eating me out of house and home.  Then winter arrived far too early and best laid plans of erecting a high tunnel in November have become hoping to get it completed by the end of March.

Farming is a passion and in order to be successful, many things have to take a back seat.  We don't travel, we don't take family vacations more than a few miles away from the farm, it has been more than two years since I have bought myself a new pair of pants or even some desperately overdue new shoes.  Little man needs food, warmth, and clothing; the animals need bedding and feed; the car insurance and light bill need to be paid, the car needs fuel and perhaps if there is anything leftover then maybe we can grab a takeout pizza or sandwiches once every other month or so.  It has been a difficult winter, one which was not completely unexpected, but one that makes this farmer question - far too often - whether she made the right decision.

Spring is four days away - at least chronologically if not meteorologically.  The chicks are scheduled to hatch this weekend and this past weeks thaw proves that there is actually still grass under the white which has blanketed the ground for the past five months.  It will be lean, but this farmer will be working hard to make a go of it over the next nine months.

Prepping pigs for piles of snow

Snow, and lots of it.  That is what Mother Nature has in store for the farm for the next 12 - 24 hours.  Being prepared for storms is essential in all walks of life, but a little more so for folks who have livestock depending on them for their well-being.  Fortunately my off-farm job let us leave early as the road conditions deteriorated.  My 23 mile ride back to the farm took almost 45 minutes instead of the usual 25.  Just over two inches were on the ground when I arrived so I changed and went directly outside to complete chores, thankful that I could get them done before the worst of the storm arrived.  

Each pig hut received extra hay.  The pigs immediately set to work rearranging it, piles were moved to the front of each hut to ward off the snow which normally blows in from the North, but today is blowing in all directions.  Both houses have enough hay for the pigs to completely bury themselves with extra to spare.  I took a couple of flakes and tucked them into the north facing corners to ward off the worst of the forecasted wind.   

Back across the pen to their water bowls (sawed off bottoms of 55 gallon plastic barrels), the snow is falling harder and I am reminded why I bought a good pair of bibs when I moved back to Vermont, now if only I had put them on!  I attempted to turn each bowl over only to find them frozen to the ground.  I headed back across the yard to get some hot water only to forget the splitting maul.  The hot water works on Zeb's dish, but not on the girls'.  Back over to the garage, the hood of my jacket is little match for the blowing snow.  Splitting maul and one bucket of food in hand, I head back over to the pen.  Several whacks with the maul and a little more hot water and the girls' dish is emptied.  The rest of the hot water added to their dish and before I can rinse it out - they dive in.

Across the dooryard one last time for five more gallons of water and the second bucket of food for Zeb.  I notice my face turning pretty red and that my worn out jeans are no match for this weather.  Inside the heat washes over me as I fill the water bucket.  Once upon a time this girl might have said to heck with it and left the rest of the chores for later to enjoy being warm.  Back outside I went, pigs watered and fed, then back into the garage with my empty buckets and maul then onto the chickens.  Eggs were collected, more water was thawed and re-filled and their feed dish topped off.  I also let them out of their coop - if chickens could talk I would have gotten some choice words as the girls headed for the open garage door only to turn quickly and head back in the other direction.

Returning to the warm house, I was well aware that my choice of clothing did not protect me well from the weather.  When I moved back to Vermont ten years ago, I purchased a good quality jacket, some warm bibs (ski-pants), great boots and a good pair of gloves.  The gloves have since met their demise and the jacket has survived longer than any garment that has seen as much as it has, should.  I do not have a pair of farm/rain boots so my older shoes act as a non-waterproof version of farm shoes.  Each chore on the farm requires an appropriate tool or set of supplies and I have learned to be better prepared to complete those projects before they are even started.  The other thing that this farmer needs to learn is that she isn't going to be very successful in getting anything done if she is appropriately attired for the weather.  Good rain/muck boots have been added to the to-buy list for spring and a new jacket has been added to the list for fall.

For now all the animals, including the two-legged ones, are tucked in and nice and warm.  Snow totals are forecast between 14 and 24 inches.  Everyone will be checked twice more before we settle in for the evening and tomorrow morning will come earlier than normal as fences are checked, feed and water containers are dug out, the driveway is cleared and the storm heads out.  Little man is pretty excited to be able to go sledding again and mom will certainly join him!   

Weights and measures

In high school I hated Geometry - just despised it.  Worse even was trigonometry: sine and cosine and tangent.  Experiencing such a strong emotion for this discipline must have helped me retain something.  Each time I put a new roof onto a shed, coop or hut, I manage to figure out what angle the chop saw needs to be set at to accommodate my roof rafters.  It may not be perfectly square when I am done, but since I am not building any houses (yet), I am managing just fine.

Along with angles, weights also play an important role on the farm.  For example, it was time to worm Zeb this week.  This medicine is dosed by weight.  Last time I checked, a six to seven foot long pig doesn't fit on my bathroom scale.  There is also little chance that I would get him into a sling to measure him from a hanging scale.  Thankfully they make a formula (darn that algebra coming into play in adult life)!  Measuring squirming pigs isn't easy so I am certain that my weights came out a little heavy but they were close enough to ensure Zeb got enough medicine to combat any parasites.

Zeb - 750 lbs
Sally - 700 lbs
Little One - 250 lbs
Chicken - 6 - 15 lbs

Chickens you can put in a milk crate from a hanging scale - they are easy to weigh.  You can also step on a scale without a chicken in your arms and then back onto the scale with the chicken and the difference between the two is the weight of the chicken.  

Sunday I was pretty thankful that my girls are a little well-endowed.  The boys (two-legged ones) had settled in to watch the race and I went to write this blog post after my driver wrecked.  As I logged in, the squawking and crowing from the front yard immediately drew my attention.  I couldn't see what the rooster was upset about so I stepped out in my stocking feet.  (It is mud season here.)  At the corner of the house, the hawk had one of my newest layers pinned.  He wasn't the least bit deterred by my presence or my hollering.  I went back in to grab my shoes and the camera of course.  The second time the door opened he knew I meant business and flew away before I could even aim the camera.  I scooped up the bird, brought her inside, checked her all over and gave her a couple of treats for her ordeal.  She had lost a couple of feathers but otherwise wasn't much worse for wear.

Whether you choose to home school, un-school or go the traditional route - make sure you find some good old-fashioned math for your bag of tricks. 

Beautiful day and spring on the way

Mother Nature has blessed us the past couple of days with some early spring temperatures.  Gorgeous weather combined with a wonderful visit from family didn't do anything for my productivity.  As the length of daylight seems to grow so does the to-do list.  Sometimes you have to stop and enjoy family and playtime lest that piece of paper makes you its slave.  

Ignoring the mountain of items to do and while playing king/queen of the snow pile, you can't help but notice the air thick with the smell of boiling sap.  Two days of sunshine and warm temperatures have the sap running full bore.  There will be no boiling on this farm again this year.  An inexpensive, used and in-need-of-repair hobby rig and salvaged wood shed is in the plans for next year if only to supply us and our baked goods for market with that sweet gold.

Little man and his Pop (my father) played in the snow; I am not sure which one of them is more tired!  Pop also took a look at my oven/electrical problem.  Farmers market is looking a lot more promising now that the oven appears to be working again.  I have learned how to fix and build a lot in my years, but one thing I don't monkey with is electricity.  Replacing a light fixture or an outlet are not out of the question; changing out breakers in the main circuit panel - not by these two hands.  Thankfully Pop has more than my lifetime's worth of experience in that area.

With a couple of days away from the off-farm job, this weekend's list is especially ambitious.  After family departs tomorrow, there is hope that the kitchen wall project will finally come to conclusion.  Tomato starts, which are already a couple of weeks late, will finally see their place in pots, albeit inside the house for now.  Minor vehicle maintenance and perhaps some jams and jellies from that which was frozen at the peak of freshness will also be crossed off the list.  The incubator will be double checked, cleaned and fired up before weeks end.  Three or four dozen eggs into the incubator means three or four less in my refrigerator.

Warmer weather and melting snow have encouraged the chickens to venture further than the garage and across the dooryard.   Spring is fast approaching, this farm will be amazing this year and this woman is ready to make it happen!

My lists and lists and lists

After realizing that my to-do list didn't hold me accountable to times of year or weather, I went to visit the library and found a good guide to help me focus my plans to ensure that the mulch got added before it snowed and that the fruit trees didn't get pruned until after it had snowed.  This whole farm planning approach brought to light several things that we weren't getting accomplished that really should have taken a much higher priority.  It also showed me that I was focused too much on the little things and not making enough time for bigger things that would increase efficiency and save time in the long run.

Revisiting my whole farm lists at the turn of the calendar also helps me ask hard questions like - why should I keep the chickens if they aren't paying for themselves and is it a better business/lifestyle decision to breed piglets here on the farm or source feeder piglets each spring and perhaps take the winters off from swine related tasks.  Maple syrup has not been on our to-do list for the past couple of years as a direct result of this annual review.  My time in the spring has a much better return on investment if it is spent on vegetables and spring building tasks then it is watching sap boil.  It might be more fun to hang around the arch and visit while the sweet maple steam wafts out of the pan, but if I am going to achieve my goal of being home when Little man gets off the school bus, some things have to take a back seat.

Now I keep lists of many things: how many eggs the chickens lay each day, dates when the pigs come into heat, groceries needed, projects, stuff that we need for the farm, stuff that I need when I can find some extra cash, dates of birth for both pigs and poultry, expenses, seed inventories, projected harvest dates, etc.  I also compile a weekly list - well, actually it is three lists.  Little man's father cringes as the pen and papers are set next to my cup of coffee on Saturday morning. 

First is the grocery/errand list - we need to eat and so do the animals.  Groceries, feed, and supplies that I need to complete weekly chores go onto this list.

Second is the meal planning list - sometimes I am lucky enough to start this before Saturday.  The plan is to use up some of the oldest things in the refrigerator and freezer first, then supplement with groceries.  This time of year the freezer inventory is dwindling and shopping sales is more important than ever.  By completely emptying one of the freezers, I can consolidate, shut it down and clean it out before the first spring produce and broilers are harvested.  Many an argument has also been prevented with this list as neither one of us can say we didn't know what to make for supper or that we didn't have the ingredients to make it.

Third is the weekly to-do list.  I make a big list of everything that needs to get done during the coming week and include a project or three from the farm planning list.  Then each day I add two or four tasks to my daily planner that are related to the bigger list.  Some days I get two done, other days I get five or six done.  By the following Saturday the goal is to have better than two thirds of the previous weeks tasks crossed off.  This particular list also helps to ensure that my house is presentable when people stop by.

It turns out that my list making process is actually proven effective and written about by bloggers much more important than I.  This past weekend the fruit trees were pruned before we got 12 plus inches of snow on the farm.  Unfortunately, somewhere under that snow are the new supports for the greenhouse roof.  Maybe I should be planning a little more than one week out...

One bucket at a time!

I think Zeb is back there laughing at me!

Many of my posts this year have had to do with how much time and how many issues I have been having here on the farm.  While I don't want to scare someone away who is attempting to homestead, grow their own food, start a market garden, or simply start working towards self-sufficiency, I want to share my experiences so that you are prepared for the work and rewards ahead.  My expectations have changed a lot since I started this journey.  DH's haven't and that leads to a lot of arguments.  

I recently listened to a podcast from John Suscovitch where he let his listeners in on a day where he had crumbled.  Complete and total burnout ending with a meltdown at the kitchen table in the arms of his wife.  I can't tell you how much that resonated with me.  There are days that I just want to crawl under my bed and let the waterworks flow.  What keeps me keeping on is a dream and a sense of humor.  I am fiercely independent and VERY stubborn (don't tell my mother I actually admitted this!).  Each project that I take on on this farm comes with a valuable learning experience, often because I didn't ask for help in the first place.  

One very important thing I have learned - 

Do not start any repair or project 

which involves a necessary part of the household infrastructure 

when the hardware store is closed!

This week's lesson is - always build the door wider than you think you will need it.  In my newly reconstructed greenhouse, I built a people-door.  It works great for keeping out the drafts and keeping in the heat.  Little man and I can walk right through it without any problems.  It has shifted a little over the winter so it will need to be re-hung a little higher, but it works great... until you go to fill your raised beds with fresh soil and compost.  

The wheelbarrow doesn't fit through the door.  I also didn't leave myself any other access to get anything larger than a people through the door.  Now it is a shovel and a five gallon pail to move the yards and yards of dirt from outside, to inside the greenhouse.  The weather has been cooperating and I have managed to fill one raised bed and started mixing and filling my seed pots.  One more raised bed to go and MANY, MANY more cells for transplants.

If only cats were good at taping

One of the projects that was on the to-do list for this summer was to tear out and re-insulate the south wall in our kitchen.  Last year the frost built up on and around the windows and when the breezes came from the south we couldn't leave a candle burning near or on the window sill as it would not stay lit.

One weekend was allotted to complete the majority of this project, demolition, insulation and sheet rock.  In early August the plaster and lath was torn out from the wall and we discovered that the windows were installed without headers or sills - this does not make for very strong construction.  I build sturdy, but never seem to achieve square or plumb.  The headers and sills would have to wait until I had some help. 

Late in September, my father came to visit and he took one of his valuable vacation days to re-frame around the front door and the two south facing windows.   A friend and contractor was enlisted to install the sliding glass door.  Then the door was delayed.  Three to four days turned into weeks and bow-hunting season was looming, scheduled to start at the beginning of October.  The door arrived two days before he was headed into the woods.

Then it started to rain.  One thing that you generally try to avoid is having a huge hole in the side of your house when the rain is pouring in from the east.  It dried up slightly and between rain drops, even though it was hunting season, he came to the house and installed our new door.  Two days later the rain stopped long enough for him to return and repair the sheathing, install the flashing and trim out the door.  Sheet rock and insulation went in the day before my birthday and the first coat of taping was completed last week.  

The weather has turned damp and cold this week.  I was able to scrape enough money together to get a delivery of propane and the wall is closed up so that we can turn the heat on.  Our weekend project took the path of many of the projects that are tackled on this farm.  Now just over two months later there remains another coat of taping, priming, paint and re-installation of the trim boards.  But the house is warm for the time being and the rest will get done as time permits.  If only Patches could yield a putty knife as well as she holds the ladder still.

Picking up the pieces, moving forward and re-setting priority number one!

The unforeseen, abrupt, loss of an income HURTS A LOT, especially in the spring on a small farm.  You start looking for more ways to cut already tight budgets and find ways to bring in any little bit of income to carry you through and keep the utilities on.  Farmers market, which was supposed to be on hold for this year, was added back to the mix.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t planned on a market garden this year so vegetable starts wouldn’t be available for sale.  Butchering hadn’t been done so we didn’t have any rabbit meat for sale.  Jams and jellies were still in their juice stage in the freezer.  We reached out to our neighbors and through some bartering and collaboration, little man’s father has managed to make a table at market work.

Chicken being chased by a toddler
with a camera

At the beginning of June I tried to do what I had done last year, bake four to six pies, four loaves of yeast bread and several desserts each market day.  I would come home from my off farm job and little man would ask me to play but I would be too busy baking to play.  He would ask to help so I would let him add pre-measured ingredients and mix when it was appropriate.  Baking took much longer than it had in the past.  Then when I moved on to the next recipe, he would ask to play again.  We would stop for dinner then go put the animals to bed, put little man and his father to bed then I would stay up baking more for market.  Since it was spring/early summer, the following night I would be transplanting from the greenhouse into the garden or the flower beds and he would help wherever he could, but then he would ask to play again, and again the answer would be, ‘As soon as I am done doing…’  The following night I would be baking again for market.  The following night would be spent cleaning out the rabbits and chickens housing, again little man would get his shovel and do what he could to help.  It breaks your heart when you have to tell your little one that you can’t play because you have to try and make a living. 

After too many times seeing that beautiful boy walk away with THAT look of total and complete disappointment, I decided that I was done with working full-time and trying to keep up with farmers market too.  I wasn’t going to miss another whole summer of playing and watching little man grow, all the while arguing with his father about distribution of chores/responsibilities and who was going to get to use the tiny work space portion of the kitchen first, just to try and eek out what little our local farmers market was going to gain for us.  Little man is far too important!  I wasn’t going to do it again this summer.

Now I come home in the evening and do at least one chore/job/task, which most of the time, includes some portion of something that little man can help with.  Then there is play time.  Sometimes it is fifteen minutes while making dinner, sometimes it is an hour and a half while the excavation of a new garage and parking facility are planned underneath the pine tree for the a pickup truck carrying blocks and a horse trailer carrying cows and rocks.  Often it involves running around with bare feet, pausing only to scratch a sow behind the ears, upsetting the chickens as they have to get out of the way of a racing toddler in the backyard.

2014's first harvest of
yellow beans from the garden

The worries are far from gone as little man’s father remains unemployed, but, the freezer is full and the garden is providing every day.  Now we have fifty meat birds ready to go into the freezer, I wasn’t able to buy the fingers for the chicken plucker we are building AND the one we borrowed needs fingers too…

When Memorial Day throws you a curve ball!

2014 started relatively well considering all else. The plans were in place for a productive year, at least on paper anyway and we jumped in with both feet. This year would be better planned, we wouldn't take on too many projects, we would both be working full time jobs off the farm, the farmers market would be on hold for this year and we would focus on what we needed for the family, catch up on bills and get a decent financial foundation underneath us to start 2015 off with a deeper focus on the farm and earning at least one salary with what we can produce from the farm.

An older picture of the 'Rock' behind the fire pit

Plans were progressing, the year was moving forward, albeit behind schedule, but when has this farm ever adhered to a schedule – enter Memorial Day weekend. Historically, this weekend has hosted the impromptu annual family reunion down at camp. This year was no exception and the next generation, from 2 months to 5 years old, was present alongside those pushing into their late 70s to enjoy all that camp has meant to this family going on five generations now. Little man and I were no exception, visiting and enjoying the day with family. There was plenty to do at the farm, but this weekend has always been about spending time with those we only get to see once, maybe twice per year.

In the middle of a lovely conversation about the requirements instilled by my great-grandparents before you were allowed to take any boat out into the lake – you must be able to swim across three camp lots worth of lake shore before you could take out the row boat – you must be able to swim the distance from the shore to the island and back and pass the surprise you fell out of the boat with all your clothes on and make it back to shore with no life jacket test - before you could take out the motorboat; Little man’s father arrived at camp in a flurry of dust and flying gravel to inform me that he had just lost his job. I managed to politely inform him that no matter the issue at home – camp was no place spin tires and bring a cloud of dust. Then I took a deep breath and re-joined my family whose conversation had turned to the rock which borders the fire pit and the ‘rules’ about when you can and can’t sit on it.  All the while my mind racing – we were just barely getting our heads above water after five or six really lean years, we had just added Zeb, 50 meat birds, two batched of pullets through the incubator, Little man was still in diapers, we still have a car payment, Pig was pregnant and the restaurant where he worked supplied a lot of her food – WHAT THE HELL WERE WE GOING TO DO NOW??!?!?!?!?

Got milk? Not from this farm for a while!

I posted to Facebook yesterday about dairy goats - as I look at my grocery cart and see so much of my cart filled with diary products, I wonder if I should get a lactating animal to offset some of the costs of dairy at the store.  Being the thorough researcher that I am, its off to the library for books on the subject, talking to friends/neighbors/mentors, and perusing the internet reading stories and looking for advice before I take on such a big adventure.  Each time I think about adding a cow, (July 2012 and this week) I look back at the following answer which I found a couple of years ago.  As much as it could be valuable to our farm - until I am ready or able to make this kind of commitment- there will be no dairy cows/goats. 

The cow is not going to supply you with milk for less than you are paying at the grocery store.

Besides that, think about getting 3-5 gallons of milk a DAY from the cow....what are you going to do with all that milk?

As a little experiment, I sugest doing this. Buy yourself some books on home dairy cows, and buy yourself a little stuffed cow.

Do this for one month straight:

1. Go out every morning at 5AM, and get your stuffed cow out of the pasture. Lead your stuffed cow to where you are going to milk her. Now sit on a stool for 30 minutes with your stuffed cow, and read your books. This is the minimum amount of time a beginner would spend milking. It does not matter the weather, or if you are sick, or have an important meeting. NOTHING else happens before the cow is milked!
2. Now put your stuffed cow back in the pasture. Take your buckets of invisible milk (you didn't forget the buckets did you?) inside, and get them properly cooling. Just putting them into the fridge is not good enough. Your books will tell you all about how to properly handle the raw milk.
3. Now you can change clothes, shower, and get on with your day. Be sure you are home at 5pm sharp! Go out and get your stuffed cow again, and repete the entire process.

I'm sure you think I'm being a smart a$$, but I'm not. Honestly doing this is going to give you some idea what an impact on your life a cow is going to have. She needs to be milked twice a day, 12 hours appart, NO MATTER WHAT. You can be sick as death with the flu....cow still needs to be milked. Doing this exercise with your stuffed cow, is only going to give you a tiny fraction of the work a real cow will involve....but it will be a reality check, when you find out you cannot go on vacation, to a school function with your children, or work overtime....because the cow need to be milked.
 
I'm going to answer a couple of the questions you asked:

Vet care....you need to learn how to give shots, and worm the cow yourself, as well as trimming her hooves.

If you need a Vet present for the cows delivery, send her off to market to be butchered. No I'm not kidding, and no I'm not a cruel person. She is going to cost you WAY more time, money and trouble in the long run than she is worth, if she cannot deliver a calf all on her own.

A lot of family milking cows are only breed every two years. Milk production drops offf some in the second year, but you probably do not need 3-5 gallons of milk a day anyway.

A good family milk cow, who's well cared for will live 20-25 years. A commercial dairy cow is lucky to see her 5th birthday.

In all honesty, if you want milking animals, serriously consider looking into dairy goats. They will give a much more reasonible amount of milk. Another plus with dairy goats is they cannot kick your face off (yes, I mean the skin of your face clean off and laying on the ground).   I've seen (in person) a farriers face kicked clean off, and laying on the ground (by a horse). I've seen a woman who's lower jaw and cheek bone on one side were nearly gone (totally caved in) from a cow kick.

My Great Grandmother spent 12 hours in a manger, holding the horns of a formerly friendly cow, who very suddenly decided she wanted to kill her. It was 12 hours before some got home. Are you physically strong enough to do that?

By the way, you do not have to pasturize your milk like another poster stated. Raw milk is delicious, and very healthy for you. It must just be handled correctly, so bacteria does not grow in it.
 ~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Original post found here in the answer section

Seed swap, decluttering and waiting - IMpatiently

Spring on the farm is very slow in coming this year.  There is still plenty of snow on the ground.  The driveway is starting to melt, hinting at the mess of mud season yet to come.  The ground in the green house has thawed slightly allowing me to clean out the detritus from last years’ plants and move the dirt around, if only just a little.  Slightly more than the top inch has thawed, teasing me into thinking I could get all cleaned up and ready to plant this past weekend.  If the sun comes out as predicted this week, even though the temperatures are cool, I should be able to start turning in some compost and plant some cool season crops next week.  My original seed starting schedule had me sowing seeds during St. Patrick’s Day week – it is looking like they will be a full two weeks behind this year.

I was also hoping to be sharing pictures of baby piglets right about now…  Best laid plans… <said grumbling>.  Many of the farms in our county and all of the blogs I follow are showing off their brand new farm babies.  I am getting more than a little jealous.  But life gets in the way.  The plans are to still breed Pig.  I was a little worried about her farrowing in late June/early July, but her house is in the shade of a 150 year old maple tree and half of her pasture has some great overflow from the same spring that provides water to the farm house.  Pig is expected to go into heat the first weekend in April and I am proud to say that enough money has been set aside to buy the sperm and pay the vet.  The email arrived this weekend letting me know that the boar I hope to have as a companion to Pig’s farrows was born on the 6^th of March and is doing great – I should be able to bring him home right around Easter.

I purposely held off on putting eggs in the incubator in February as the almanac did predict a cooler than expected end to this month – I am certainly glad I waited.  The baby chickens will arrive the first full week of April.  That gives me another week and chance to get the brooder box cleaned off (as Little man’s father has taken to using the chicken wire covered top as a shelf), disinfected, the heat lamp located and tested, and the box ready to house new baby chicks.

The order for meat birds is due into the feed store shortly so talk this week turned to remodeling chicken coops and whether the parts to the old washing machine would work for the motor, belt and drive for the chicken plucker I am planning to make.  Unfortunately the door to the section of the barn where the old machine is stored is frozen shut and blocked by a snow pile still well over six feet tall.  In talking with my cousin yesterday, he is planning on milling some posts and beams for a barn my uncle is building – maybe there will be some left over material that I can salvage for the support structure of my plucker.

As the snow melts I am starting to pick up and clean up from everything that was left outside over the winter.  My old car (my favorite so far in all of them that I have owned) was carted off to the salvage yard today.  Little man’s father went out on Friday afternoon with the tractor and dug out around it then on Saturday afternoon attached the tow strap to it and yanked it free from the ice.  I miss that car!!  De-cluttering continues; perhaps there is a little more money to be made from clearing out the junk to put toward solar fence chargers, metal roofing, or hydraulic hoses.  My monthly project list is being held hostage by the weather and lack of snow melt right now. 

Tomorrow night I am headed to the first (annual I hope) seed swap in Enosburg to trade some seeds, meet some other like-minded folks and to drum up some business for the local farmers market.  Even though I might not be able to vend much this summer, I like the market and hope to get back to it soon.

With forecasted temperatures in the forties next week – here’s hoping for the beginning of a great season!

This journey

This journey began almost nine years ago as I arrived at a little trailer in Northwestern Vermont.  It was a cool, November day and the past weeks early snow was just beginning to melt.  Along with a new pair of snow mobile boots and a pair of ski pants, I was unwrapped, my tags removed and placed in the hallway to await cooler days ahead.   My first days in this beautiful countryside bore witness to a snow storm, a trip to the nursing home and bringing home an old black lab who had just had her person leave her for the third time in all too short memory.  My first injury occurred that night when the cat tore a hole in my sleeve as the dog was welcomed into the house for the first time.

That winter I went ice fishing on Lake Champlain, walked the Missisquoi Rail Trail, and went snowmobiling over Jay Peak to points east.  On one such trip over the mountain, this time in the passenger seat, we went to a little town on the New Hampshire border where we met her husband for the first time on a mild February day.  That spring I kept her warm as we watched tons of accumulated winter ice break loose on the river; the noise nothing short of a racing freight train.

Later that spring, and periodically through the summer, I was witness to several Native American Pow Wows from New Hampshire to Maine.  We met some wonderful people as I helped keep a tent from collapsing onto the radio equipment in a downpour, was loaned to a woman in her 70’s to keep her warm while finishing a pot luck dinner, and kept a lost child protected from the cool fall evening while her parents were located.  I even got to go fishing and relax by the campfire with some good friends, many still with us, but some that have since crossed over.

As November arrived, I reflected back on my first year, I had participated in a pretty exciting series of events, what would be next?  At the end of the month, I helped them move into the family farmhouse racing against the impending rain as the couch and bed were moved across two towns on the roof of the old conversion van.  I carried many boxes inside that fall and helped shovel and plow the snow that winter.  I don’t get to see much of the summers except from my perch by the back window.  Every once in a while I will get to come out when the weather is dark, dreary and wet – that is when I am happiest to know that she is warm and dry and I am protecting her from Mother Nature’s worst.  But for most of the summer I long to play outdoors with the dog, plant Christmas trees on the side hill, go for a ride in the boat, and help in the garden, but alas summer is not my season.  I wait patiently for when I will be needed again as the cooler weather approaches.

Since that first exciting year, I have been witness to so many wonderful and scary events in her life.  I have been first on scene of a snow machine accident and a motor vehicle roll-over in the town where she was an EMT.  I have carried firewood and boiled sap into maple syrup till the wee hours of the morning in the late winter months.  My pocket was full of nails, screws, door hinges and other various tools and parts as the first chicken coop was built in late December and the second, larger chicken coop in late February.  Other projects on the farm have taken their toll on me – running fence for the first livestock to be welcomed to the farm in over 40 years resulted in a few punctures.  I have been used to carry rocks, both while protection her from the weather and while used separately in the form of a basket.

I have watched a new relationship grow and was there on the two degree morning when a new life was brought home from the hospital for the first time.  I have been sledding with pre-teens and toddlers, played outside with dog and even helped her build snowmen when there were no children around to build them for.  Many a Memorial Day has been spent by the campfire with family and friends watching the next generation arrive here on the farm.  I have even kept baby bunnies warm as they were abandoned by their mom and waited to be housed with their foster mom.

I have traveled the New England states but missed the opportunity to go to Florida as the weather was too warm.  In my travels I have helped people move, laid in the wet snow while mechanical repairs were completed to not only our car but others who we helped along the way, I kept a small child warm on the side of the Interstate while his father was loaded into an ambulance after a terrible accident and we waited for his grandfather to arrive.

I have seen much in my short time with her.  My red is much more faded and dull than when I arrived almost nine years ago.  I have been torn by tree limbs, burnt by errant campfire ashes, melted against the side of a boiling sap vessel and each time repaired by her capable hands.  Two of my zippers are broken and the Velcro on my front flaps and around my sleeves barely holds closed anymore.  Still I am present for morning chores and sledding with the Little man.  Soon I will be relegated to my place inside next to the back window.  I may not have too many more years left as I am getting thin and dull and my fabric is getting to the stage where it will not be able to be repaired any longer.  Until then, I hope that she will keep me around for a couple more years so that I can be witness to more of this amazing life here in Northwestern Vermont.

I think I have been a pretty good jacket!

Finding the balance between useful future resource and pile of junk

When I moved back to Vermont a little over eight years ago, I brought with me ten years stuff accumulated from the life of an up–and-coming young executive.  The newest technology, a pretty decent wardrobe, stuff, stuff and more stuff.  I downsized substantially before I moved back to Vermont because I knew I was moving into a small mobile home without much storage, but there was still stuff.  Six months later my husband moved in with me and with him came two, full, SUV loads full of stuff.  A little less than five months later we moved into the fully furnished family farmhouse with a generation or two of my grandparents belongings.  Then I got married, more stuff.  Then we had a child, LOTS more stuff.

My organization focused goals for this year include going through, cleaning out and discarding or recycling some of this stuff.  Through this process decisions need to be made whether something should be retained because ‘it might come in handy someday’ or it has sentimental value or, or, or…

As a homesteader I am trying to keep things like nails, screws, bolts, tools, etc. which will be valuable when something breaks or new animal housing is required.  I am finding there are piles growing, both inside and out, of things that are still useful, but that won’t be used for a year, two or more.  Pallets can always be taken apart and recycled.  Hardware cloth and fencing are other valuable commodities.  Pieces of flat steel and other construction materials will be utilized, someday.  Little man’s father likes a good deal and loves the ‘free’ piles on the sides of the roads on Sunday afternoons – all that stuff that didn’t sell from the weekend tag sale.  How many pop-rivet tools does one family need? (I found five in the workshop last night, still in their packages.)

As Little man grows decisions need to be made on whether to keep some of his clothes for the remote possibility that we might have another child someday or consign it/give it away because that same possibility is so remote.  How many kids books does one little boy need?  For things like outdated technology and scraps of a possible future craft project, those decisions are easy. 

Old jeans have been stockpiled for a craft project I hope to complete someday.  Skeins of yarn occupy a corner of one of the upstairs bedrooms; it needs to be organized so that we can get the bed back, but yarn will always be useful for clothing and crafts.  Old sheets will be repurposed this week as cushion covers so the cushions in the kitchen chairs will last a bit longer.  Three entertainment centers have been collected over recent months – those will be sold or added to the burn pile.

As the winter clean-up continues I have managed to find a full-size table saw in the workshop which I seem to remember having been there when we moved in and the chop saw which I knew was there but haven’t been able to find in over six months.  My trash collector has been the recipient of an extra bag or two for the past month of items which cannot be salvaged.  My burn pile has grown exponentially as I scan needed documents into electronic format and can discard the paper (Wood/paper ash is great for traction on an icy driveway as well as good pest control in the garden); I only await a day with less wind so that I can actually burn.  Only one item has been listed for sale, I hope to get pictures of more and get them listed soon.  One large box of Little man’s clothes have been handed down to the next generation.

It is hard to find that balance especially when you consider a VERY tight budget and that replacing something – should I possibly need it again ever – costs money.  In the meantime we will sell what we can to catch up on our outstanding bills and work to develop a network of folks who would like to barter with us for needed items, tools, babysitting, farm labor, etc.

As January comes to a close I have reviewed my farm planning list and found almost everything crossed off for the month.  Those that didn’t are mostly outdoor chores; they will be added to February’s list which will be printed this weekend.  With temperatures predicted to be at or slightly above freezing it should be very productive!

 

Making progress

Winter is truly the time to hole in and do a lot of planning and organizing on the farm.  I am taking that to heart this year.  Revisions were made to my daily chores list and a new one has been posted to the refrigerator.  It still requires some tweaking but the house has stayed much more tidy this week as I endeavor to complete the basic tasks every night.  Many of the household chores were being neglected without something or someone to hold me accountable.  The month-to-month farm plan, while in its infancy, is also working well.  Spare minutes find me pulling it out and tackling a task to completion (like ordering my garden seeds for this year) or allocating time each weekend to ensure progress.  With an extra day on the farm this weekend I am hoping to knock out a couple of extra tasks weather permitting. 

In the past week:

• I have found the work bench in the back shop which was long ago buried under miscellaneous tools, associated scraps dropped there between one or ten quick fixes of various items, and any number of items left on the desk or kitchen table in the kitchen which were just dropped on the work bench as a place to get them out of the way before dinner.
• Two chickens were dispatched to the freezer to decrease our flock to a more manageable size.  New bedding was placed in the chicken coop. 
• Nest boxes were disinfected and placed in cages with two of the three rabbits which I bred this month.  Unfortunately one of the does discarded her entire litter a little more than a week early.  I am not sure exactly why as she appears very healthy but am thinking that she might have gotten scared or upset at something outside the garage.
• All of the pictures of Little man from birth to 24 months have been edited, cataloged and prints ordered.  There remain a few photographs taken by family members which I want to collect to complete a few photo collages, but otherwise, having gone through and edited over one thousand pictures is a pretty huge accomplishment for this girl!
• Garden seeds inventoried, old seed discarded, storage box cleaned out, list of seeds to order for our much smaller garden this year completed, online order placed for same, shipping notification received.  This past week of warm temperatures has tempted me to get outside and work in the yard or start seeds in flats in the basement, but it is still too early.  I resisted as temperatures are predicted to plunge back to the single digits and below zero over night next week.
• Semen located and ordering details ironed out and veterinarian lined up for the end of the month when, if my calculations are correct, pig will be ready to be bred.
• Progress has been made on the electronic filing which has backed up since our computer had hard-drive issues this summer.  Each night I have allocated fifteen minutes to catching up with all of this accumulated paper; at this rate I might be caught up by the end of May.

This weekend's goals include:

• Putting the plastic back on the hoop house as this past week's warm temperatures (for January) have loosened up the top layer of lawn providing access to the base of the greenhouse again
• Locating, cleaning, sharpening and oiling all of the tree pruning equipment and then finding a single location to store all of it so I can find it when I am ready to prune fruit and Christmas trees.
• Clean up and burning of the pine tree branches which are strewn around the back yard from the late December ice storm.
• Repair of the shed roof where Little man's father broke it while trying to get the tractor unstuck from the above mentioned ice.
• Repair of the roof on pig's house where a small leak has developed
• Thorough cleaning of the chicken coop and the rabbit cages.
• Complete the new chicken feeder which didn't get done last week as I got side tracked by an indoor house cleaning project.
• Making at least one batch of jam or jelly from juice which was frozen after harvesting berries this summer and fall.
• An hour or so to read a new book from the library
• Perhaps some time split between house cleaning and catching a glimpse or two of the NFL playoff games (a girl can hope).

If I can manage to stay on track and not get dissuaded by the big picture and continue focusing on this task based approach, I am confident that we will make progress this year.

Making memories

My stepson's first fish of the
weekend in 2007

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer for many people.  Summer homes are opened; campers, tents and RVs are awakened from their winter slumber and brought forth into the state parks and campgrounds all around the country.  Here in northwestern Vermont, this weekend marks our family's unofficial family re-union weekend.  Each year extended family returns to the farm and camps out in and around the family camp on the lakeshore.  No invitations are mailed, no reminder phone calls made, no grocery list or meal plan is set forth.  You show up, bring your own food and choice of adult beverage and have a wonderful time.

The same stories are re-told again about lobster boils with the freshest of catch only eight hours out of the ocean when it reached the farm, and new memories are made as the next generation hooks their first perch or cooks their first s'more at the campfire.  This year even the threat of snow didn't keep the family from returning.  No tents were erected on the soggy lawn and the campfire is struggling against the relentless rain, but the family is here making new memories.

As the years pass we remember the best of times and as family members pass, we remember them fondly and the way they always cooked perfect steak on the fire even in the pouring rain.  The newest members of the family play hard inside of camp out of the weather eating their meals sitting on the stairs like I used to do when I was a child.  Conversations of years past and a better way of life seem to pass across everyone's lips at some point throughout the weekend.  Older folks have given up waking in a chilly camp to stoke the wood stove for the necessary warmth and comfort of a hotel room.  The next generation opted for the hard floor and warmth inside of camp instead of braving the weather outside in a tent which may or may not be filled with water in the morning.

Currently Little man is snoozing through the clatter and squawk of the latest batch of chickens hatching in the incubator.  Once our afternoon/evening chores are done, we will return to camp and gather around the campfire, weather be darned, and tell stories - some new and some classic re-runs, enjoy a couple of adult beverages and check off another year of great memories.

Little man, his father and I continue to farm in northwestern Vermont.  I have been remiss, no downright absent - in sharing the goings on here.  Writing this blog is almost a guilty pleasure for me and with so much that needs to happen during the day, I don't make the time to write.  One of the older members of my family said to me this morning that he enjoys reading the goings on of the farm from his home 300 miles away.  Through my words he remembers making some of the same mistakes, cringes at the thought of us taking on another venture and wondering how we can keep up with it all and manage to raise such a wonderful son. 

I will work on sharing more of the story.  Even without my being here for the past month, you still come to visit.  I don't realize how many people's lives I touched by starting this blog.  It is wonderful to have you here with us.  I am back in the saddle!

Laundry soap

I don't know if it is all the spring projects and the seemingly never ending amount of cash that is diverted off the farm to fund them or that new ideas seem to hatch at this time of year in my brain; my thoughts turn to ways to reclaim some of that cash.  Last year at about this time I talked about my attempts at resourcefulness in crafting all manner of homemade items.

Inspired by a post from an online homesteaders magazine, From Scratch Magazine; I decided that $2.00 for five gallons of laundry soap was far better than the $4.69 per gallon I am spending now.  I looked in the cabinet and found I had two bars of Fels Naptha and I always have Borax and Washing Soda around.  So began my attempt at making laundry soap.

While Little man was having his lunch I sat at the kitchen table and began grating the Fels Naptha.  I could have tried the food processor to make faster work of it, but there are the simple pleasures in performing and completing a task by hand especially while entertaining a fourteen month old.  Careful to clean up after myself, as the original post advises the grated Fels Naptha seriously resembles cheddar cheese; the table was wiped down and my bucket of gratings moved to the kitchen counter adjacent my large pot.  The soap is added to warm water until dissolved, the powdered ingredients added along with more water and finally added to hot water in a five gallon bucket and then finally more hot water resulting in just shy of five gallons of viscous yellow liquid.  Finally, the mixture is left to set overnight.

My mistake, and I make several throughout my trial and error education, was carefully placing the bucket out of Little man's reach in the mud room to set overnight.  The temperature in this particular room is only slightly warmer than the outside temperature as it is insulated but there is no heat in there.  This beautiful bucket of soap congealed into a semi-solid, soap-like mass.  Tomorrow I will get out my largest canning pot, add the mixture to re-warm and dissolve the mass and then will carefully place it in the bathroom to set overnight.

I chose not to add any essential oils as the Fels Naptha does not carry with it an offending odor.  Our current bottle of laundry detergent should be about empty on Sunday - this weekend will determine whether I wasted my $2.00 or have found another cost savings thanks to the wonderful homesteading world on the Internet.

Woman on a mission!

One day, every other week, Little man goes to child care, his father goes to work and I don't have to work off the farm.  Two days out of the month, I compile a to-do list in my head which would humble even the best list makers and I set out to accomplish at least twenty-five percent of it.  It has finally stopped snowing in our corner of Northwestern Vermont and the temperature is forecast to be in the low forties.  A few outside projects occupy today's list and there are a few projects which require some good concentration when Jen's brain is fresh. 

Today's list includes:

• Feed and water all the animals - everyday chore but I add it to every list lest I get side tracked on a new project and forget to do the basics.
• Cleaning the rabbits
• Cleaning the chicken coop
• Putting the plastic on the greenhouse
• Melt all the snow inside the greenhouse and clean out any uncomposted chicken coop and rabbit pine shavings and move them to the outside compost pile
• Make laundry detergent
• Do laundry
• Vacuum
• Dishes
• Burn pile of scrap wood
• Find lid to third sap storage container, wash out & collect sap
• Assemble the new exercise bike I got on freecycle
• Make website edits
• Write a blog post - one down!
• Balance the checkbook and pay some bills
• Build a bookshelf for the cookbooks that have been sitting on the couch in the kitchen since before Christmas
• Wash the grime off at least two kitchen cabinets - beginning of my true spring cleaning
• Sort through the seed orders that came in this week and update my seed starting schedule
• Clean off at least two feet of the work bench in the work shop; it took me 20 minutes to find the drill bit I needed for the greenhouse project, it is time to get better organized around here.
• Patch leaking water pipe in the basement
• Check on the new baby rabbits which began arriving last night.  Three of five does have kindled, a fourth is feverishly pulling hair today.  They were due today so I will not worry about number five until this weekend.
• Clean the litter box, take out the garbage, make dinner, etc.

The list is long but the woman is determined!