August 27 - 31, 2018

This week. Not the best week on a personal level.

From a medical fiasco to a death in the family - we have been kind of going through the motions where our farm is concerned. Maybe that's just me. I haven't been able to focus on much this week and while I have spent some time working outside, I found that I had very little joy in my heart this week.

What did happen around the farm?

Well, I harvested a few itty-bitty tomatoes called Mexico Midget:

Probably the cutest tomatoes I have ever seen! This was earlier in the week, I plucked some off the vine lastnight as well. Ate them right away too...SO GOOD!

The Freedom Rangers are now 7 weeks old and getting chubby! We have been able to pick up a chick here and there to get them used to be held and to show them that we aren't that bad.

So far, so good we end the week with 16. They are doing really well and they are crazy crazy! Four weeks from today we'll have the equipment ready to set up and get started bright and early on Saturday the 22nd. Can't wait!

Now we have another broody hen. She was pretty mad at me yesterday when I was collecting the eggs and she was sitting on all of them in one box. Seriously - a little scary.

This was last weekend when there were two broodies. The day after this they both went into jail and fortunately for them they only got one days as it started raining and they had no roof.

Since then the hen on the right has changed her attitude and possibly the one on the left. However, the current angry broody hen might be the same as above. We really don't know.

Tomorrow she is going back into jail. It might take a couple of days to break her, but  it's her own fault for thinking she can sit on eggs and get chickies. I've got news for you lady...no rooster!

This week hasn't been that fulfilling for me. I feel down on top of frustrated. At least this weekend isn't all full of activity. I won't feel bad about being a little lazy at some point over the next three days.

Even though my heart wasn't 100% into the farm this week, Farm life is still the best.

There's always tomorrow.

The Hooligans

These Two

The Magpie squad would be lost without these two goofy waterfowl! Maybe not, but I think that the Magpie squad has helped to focus these two dudes. 

Ever since we combined all of the waterfowl, Lenny & Shelly have been keen on staying on property. They have free rein of the farm and they usually stick close to where there is water, go figure.

It seems like Lenny is keen on keeping an eye on the ducks and it's almost as if he tries to keep them away from trouble and somewhat safe. It could be because his pal, Shelly has connected with a couple of the girls.

He, Shell-Bell, seems pretty happy with the arrangement and I don't think that they miss being with the chickens one bit. 

Happy 16 Months Boys! Keep up the good work and keep those ducks in line!

The best shot that I could get of the dudes.s

This pic is more like it - together, but not. 

The waterfowl are the inspiration to Quacky Honker Farm blog. They are by far the noisiest critters here, except when the chickens have laid an egg or getting ready to lay an egg.

Cheers to the boys!

Mega Post #1 ~ August 20-24, 2018

MONDAY

The smoke/haze has returned. Actually it arrived on Sunday. SW Washington is now at the Unhealthy rating. Isn't that just the best?! Doesn't matter though, still gotta get out and take care of the critters.

I also had some time to get some soil blocks made and sowed an entire tray of Sweetheart Beets (free to Seed Savers Exchange members). I picture fermenting beets in my future :)

Now I have two trays started...let's see what will germinate!

During my daily walk through the garden I spied this for the first time:

To be honest, I wasn't expecting to get anything from the corn. I mean really, it was June 14 when we created the mounds and a day or two later when we planted the seeds. Not bad for a couple of months of growth!

Sunday evening I decided it was time to bring in some flowers to enjoy in the house:

Shaye Elliott of the Elliott Homestead recently post a video on putting together a flower bouquet. I've never been that great at arranging flowers in a vase, but I'm not terribly concerned about how things look a lot of times I guess I'm partial to the "organic" feel/look of things.

As I wandered through the few flower plants that I have in the garden, I decided to stick with the little things Yarrow and Globe Amaranth. I clipped a couple of Cosmos blooms and a sprig of Rosemary and some greenery from the Bachelor Buttons that have been topped off by a critter and therefore is not producing flowers.

My first thought was to use one of my small clear vases that are meant for place settings, but I must have gotten rid of those as I couldn't find them. So, while looking in my built-in where I keep my old Fiestaware I spied my itty-bitty Fiestaware pitcher - PERFECT! This little arrangement is on the windowsill in the kitchen and it brightens up the sink area. I love it!

Okay, so if you love gardening and hate cancer here is something for you. I follow Sustainable Seed Company on Instagram and this past weekend they had a post in regards to one of their employees who is fighting cancer. The company is offering a variety of "Cancer killing seed bundles" to help raise money for Juan. Check out the company and the goods HERE. I ordered a $40 bundle which no longer is available - there is a different $40 bundle in its place. Actually, there is more than one $40 bundle available...hmmm...I wonder what I'll be getting after all. Check it out and make a purchase, it's a good cause.

TUESDAY

Nothing terribly exciting happened today.

The little meat birds are getting quit hefty for their size and we still have a few weeks left until harvest weekend. They are pretty happy little birds right now and I believe that we are now over the premature death hump that we have been experiencing in the last couple of weeks.

The one chick that was looking a little sickly finally decided that it couldn't last any longer. Seriously, he/she was hunched over quite a bit and usually had her feathed puffed out whenever I saw her. This was in contrast with all of the others that were hopping around and scratching and at the ground and finding bugs to eat. Until Sunday afternoon I wondered if she would be the next one to die.

Planted another tray of seeds - Chard, Tatsoi and Spinach. Checked on the other two trays...and saw this:

Nearly all of the Romanesco and Kohlrabi seeds have germinated. We'll see how many seedlings I will have to transplant into the fall garden.

My plan is to sow some lettuce seeds into a tray on Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

The Air Quality in our area has not improved and I'm starting to feel the affects of being out in it everyday since the haze/smoke has returned. Therefore, I spent the morning indoors and Tom did the critter chores. I also did not do my regular Wednesday Walkabout. I'm a little sad.

After dinner I did get to go out and do some wandering through the garden and checking on the critters. My goose companion, Lenny, was happy to have me come out and give him and his pal (who had his little girlfriend nearby) some bread. After giving the chickens some scratch and getting the ducks some extra food I went out to the garden and explored a little.

What I found out...

That the mystery squash really isn't a squash afterall. I'm detecting a melon of some sort...looks cantaloupe-y to me.

I'm realizing now that I have a lot of russet potato plants! This year I didn't do anything with them. Everytime I thought I would get some soil to cover them up, it didn't happen. Then a few weeks ago, I didn't see the point. So now we'll see what kind of harvest we'll get. Seriously - there are a lot of plants! At least 20 - and every single one came up.

After messing around with tht Rangers

Thursday

Spent another morning inside. I actually had to use my inhaler this morning. So really, that's not too bad considering we have had the smoke/haze hanging around since Sunday.

OMG OMG OMG

I just looked outside and there is sunshine! We haven't seen sunshine in a few days...like really, no haze sunshine.

We are not guaranteed to have nice clears skies. I should know that by now, but oh my goodness...seeing bright light is sooooo nice!

The Rangers are officially 6 weeks old! 5 more weeks and it will be harvest day!

One more of the Freedom Rangers died over the weekend, but we have been holding steady so far this week. I'm confident that the 16 that are left will make it through the next 5 weeks to harvest day. They are all pretty feisty and active, so that's a positive.

Since the smoke and haze moved on I spent some more time outside with the critters and checking out the garden. The fresh air was needed and I was happy to not be cooped up inside.

We have had a couple of broody hens...again. It has been at least a week, maybe two since they started taking up residence in a couple of the nesting boxes. One of them is a Java and she is pretty serious about being broody. She starts to growl and squawk even when we are just walking by the egg cart. Nevermind taking a look at her...

This girl, she has an attitude!

Friday

Nothing special happened today other than being able to go out and spending more that 15-20 minutes outside. It's been a long week being at work in the office by myself - not totally by myself, but certainly the only office staff all week.

I did receive my order from Sustainable Seed Company yesterday, Thursday. SO EXCITED!

This seed bundle is a fundraiser for an employee at Sustainable Seed Company. There are still several bundles at different price levels for most budgets. The bundles are called Killing Cancer Seed Bundles - pretty clever huh. As a cancer survivor myself, I felt compelled to make a purchase.

This was from the original $40 offering which has fewer items than what the current bundles have. I love it though! I got 7 packages of seeds so that will be fun to try out next season. If you want to make a purchase there is still time. The goal is to raise $7,500.00 to help Juan Kick Cancer's Butt!

Even with all of the smoke from the wildfires this week, the week has been fairly good. I'm hopeful that we are past the smoke for the time being. It looks like we are back in the "yellow" which is moderate...but not by much. Hopefully there will be some wind soon to help blow things through the area and the number will go down.

No matter what...

Farm Life is the BEST Life!

Mega Post

Okay - Now I think I know what I will do. I'll work on a weekly update on a daily basis. A post of Monday - Friday and then do a supplemental post on the weekends.

Of course, since I am always thinking I just thought that up with this post - but this will be a intro to my mega post and I'll go ahead and start a new post for the end of the week.

Today the smoke/haze was back with a vengeance. Since I spend most of my work day indoors where we have AC and don't have to worry about the Air Quality, I had no idea what had happened since my lunch break.

As of this very moment - the Air Quality for our area is UNHEALTHY. For someone like me who has mild asthma that rating isn't that great. I can still do some stuff around the farm, but that first blast once I left the office at 5pm, yeah that was a little alarming. I didn't realize how thick it was and now I know. Unhealthy is not good.

So at 7:15-ish this is what our sunset looks like...

Insert Photo Here

Again, for the 2nd time in a row, my photo is not available on Prime Photos AND I uploaded it from my phone...AAACK! Maybe I'll post it in the Mega Post later this week.

Farm Life meets technical difficulties.

It's Fall Garden Time!

It's that time! Just when you thought that the gardening season was winding down, it's actually ramping up again!

For me it's all about seeing what crops will grow during our wet winters. In the first Fall/Winter garden most things grew and the BEST crop was the Pac Choi! I had several Flower Sprouts which grew, but I think it may have cross pollinated with the purple broccoli that was nearby. Oh, we had a few bunches of purple broccoli too...it was awesome! The one item that I was not happy with was the chinese cabbage - it was eaten up by some bug/worm pretty good. Of course most of the greens did great.

Last year didn't really go well. I don't even remember what I tried to grow. All I know is that not much worked. So I just gave up on it altogether.

This year I've chosen to grow a couple of new things - Kohlrabi and Romanesco and some root vegetables. Turnips for the pigs and Beets for fermenting. Greens and I think that should do it.

I'm a little behind with getting the seeds started - it's been blazing hot which makes the hoop house a super oven. So it was time to clear a spot in the garden garage to set up my soil and trays. It's temporary though...I hope to be done with all of the trays by the end of the month. Who knows, I may look for some more seeds in my inventory.

The Summer garden is just now coming around and starting to produce a couple of veggies. I really need to figure out when I got the potatoes in so I can have an idea how much longer I need to wait before I can start digging. I love growing potatoes!

You never know how many spuds you'll end up with.

Insert photo of garden here.

My photo wouldn't load. So you'll have to use your imagination. Good luck with that ;)

It's time to end this post and start my evening routine!

Farm Life!

August 18, 2018 Evening Chores

Did some chicken and pig chores after dinner and got some more video...this time I got the Freedom Rangers. They finally decided to use the bucket waterer after their evening snack.

I thought I would start using our old Canon Point and Shoot camera that is from I don't know how long ago. The pictures/videos are still good, so I might as well. I can't say that it will make a difference with my videography skills.

ANYWAY...

We put together the bucket waterer for the original chickens that we started with and they just could get used to it. So it sat in the garage until this past week. The rangers immediately started to mess around with it and got even more excited when they got water out of it! We had to let the traditional waterer go dry so they would go back to the bucket. Success!

Another thing that was a first (for me at least) was seeing the Hooligans allowing Little Miss Phylis to eat the meal worms with them. It was amazing - Lenny is so food-centric that he doesn't like having other ducks around. Perhaps he is happy that Mr. Shelly has a girlfriend and that he is no longer jumping on him and riding him like he's in the rodeo. 

It's been a pretty relaxing day and I'm happy to have stayed home most of the day to rest and relax. I still didn't nap, but at least I didn't over exert myself earlier today.

Here's to another great day on the farm!

Really Trying To Post Daily Now

This morning I was supposed to head over to a friend's house to help out with getting a tree cleared from her driveway (?) Anyway, I wasn't one of the original people that was asked to help out, but since Tom would be going I thought I would tag along.

I decided to stay home because...

Woke up around 3 am this morning (again) after another terrible night of sleep and had a awful dream about how we only had 9 or 10 Freedom Rangers left and how I thought in my dream that it wouldn't be worth it to rent the equipment - blah blah blah. I'm so tired and have had a headache this morning. BLAH.

Since I'm not one to just sit around, I did a little bit of work outside so I would at least feel like I accomplished something.

I'll be starting some seeds for the Fall garden soon. This is something that actually should have happened last month, but everything is behind this year - and I'm still working on the summer garden.  So I cleaned up the bench in the garden garage and got some supplies all put together to start that later today.

Also did a little video of my reason for watering the garden the way that I have not been a fan of before -

I apologize for the lack of steadiness...I'm a newb when it comes to doing videos along with narration. Could this possibly be Vlogging?! I hope to get better...we'll see.

This year I also decided to try planting Three Sisters - corn, squash and beans. While I should have started this experiment sooner it seems to be working out okay. I can only hope that our summer will last a little longer. If it does maybe I'll get a few beans off of the plants that have started to vine up the corn stalks.

This is what I have done so far today. I may post again later this evening. Enjoy the day wherever you are!

Farm Life is the Best Life!

End of the Week...YAY

A few weeks ago a friend of ours who had just stopped by our house reported to me that there was a bunny in the garden.

oh fine.

I had specifically gotten a short fence to go around the garden. For a while it was working just fine. No bunnies that I could tell. There were deer, but there wasn't much for them to feast on.

Now that we were aware of the bunny I started to realize that I really would like to have a green bean harvest. The beans were really the only thing that was being eaten. I'm not sure if the bunnies were doing the damage or the deer.

Hmmm...what should I do?

Solution: Use a few of the bamboo hoop things and use some netting to keep the bunnies out. Ran into a problem though, I ran out of netting after covering up 4 of the plants.

Well , dadgum.

Off to Parkrose! A bag of popcorn and $10 later I was back in business....got home and finished up my project.

This should do it! The netting doesn't show up, but it's there. In the week that since I got this done the beans have been looking really good. There might even be some beans to pick for dinner this weekend.

Tonight was a no outside project time for me. Had a couple of friends come over for games, but we ended up walking outside and doing a farm critter update. Then into the house the three of us went - Tom stayed outside and did some work.

We shared a big bottle of Two Towns Hard Cider - so good! And spent about an hour visiting. Didn't get to that game after all. It has been a while since we last were together to just connect. It's just what we all needed.

In other farm news...

The remaining 17 Rangers are doing well, there are a couple of little ones, but they will perk up soon enough. They may just be late bloomers. I am hopeful that we'll make it to 11 weeks with 17!

Oh, during my lunch break with Tom our neighbor from across the street happened to come into Starbucks. We visited for a couple of minutes before I mentioned that we wanted to talk to them about putting his older boys to work and having them take care of the pigs and poultry so we could get away for a night or two sometime. He said the boys would love it and that when they come back we could chat some more.

SCORE! It's time to plan a coast getaway!

What would life be like if I didn't have to go to work 40-hours a week.

Farm Life is the Best Life!!!

Mutant Sunflower

This Sunflower wanted to get noticed...it is at least 8 feet tall! Good ol' Seed Savers Exchange!

Dear Diary...

A day in the life...

I am terrible with keep track of just about anything! Even when I was growing up I tried to keep a diary/journal of sorts, but it never really lasted that long.

This year, I think I did alright for a little while. Pretty early this year I did buy a new planner to keep track of our daily activities which included feed purchases. Now that I have looked at it I see that my journaling didn't really start until March and even then it was hit and miss, but I did record a few days each week. Even have receipts for the items that we needed to build the Stress Free Chicken Tractor. It looks like my last regular entries were toward the end of July, actually the 21st and 22nd of July.

That's it. Nothing more because...

I got myself a nifty spiral notebook that has a pretty pattern on it and thought I might use it for daily updates, sort of. I made some note in it for some projects that we had done. Also used it for taking notes at the Mother Earth News Fair. Then I thought I would try out listing the things I did daily. I think I might have gotten a couple of days done.

Yeah, I am REALLY bad at keeping records. Seriously, how do I get through the day?!

So as I think about this, I think I just need to get into the habit of hopping on here in the evening and just doing a quick entry to record the happenings and photos of the day. If I want to look back on when something was planted, harvested and anything else, I need to look in one place.

Even if it's brief at least it will be recorded! 

I guess I neglect this space because as you know...

Farm Life is the Best Life!

Taking A Day Off

Earlier this week I decided to take Wednesday off. There is a method to this madness of course, my workmate will be off all next week so I need to have a day just to chill and not think about work. AND I didn't want to "waste" a Friday - not another one. Seriously Fridays are the best, there are three of us on this side of the building and the crew across the way. So yeah, it's pretty sweet. Funny how I tend to forget about #4 in the back wing...

Anyway...

Vacation days in the MIDDLE of the week are the BEST!

To start the day of right I got to stay in during the morning chores and hung out and enjoyed my coffee. Didn't even think about going outside...not right away anyway.

After a little while I decided to at least go out and say good morning to the waterfowl and this is how Mr. Lenny greeted me...

Did you feel the love there? Lenny knows what he likes and it isn't Tom letting them out for the morning.

I did get a few things done in the morning working in the garden and checking on the critters here and there.

Fiona!

It's been so hot the past few weeks that we have been trying to keep a little bit of a wallow for the Dynamic Duo. As soon as the hose comes out they know what's happening, but are patient enough and usually eating - so they wait until we are done getting their spa all muddy again.

Canada Thistle harvest

One of the most tenacious weeds out in the garden...the Canada Thistle. Ugh. These were coming up in the space that we revamped not too long ago where the apple trees and discount plants are -

The short apple trees and discount plants area

I was watching the canada thistle getting bigger and bigger and just was putting it off. I finally just went for it. It wasn't bad. However I did a search on google about these nasty weeds...not good - let's just save that for a different post. Just YUCK.

Love Lies Bleeding

I really need to make it a habit to read the seed packages further than how deep to sow the seeds and how far apart.  According to Seed Savers Exchange these are the characteristics of the flower:

• Annual plants grow to 3-4 feet tall
• Red seed-trusses ressemble ropelike flowers
• Sometimes grown as a grain
• Long lasting in ornamental gardens

It's the 3-4 feet tall part that I didn't catch before. Maybe I did, but that was a couple of months ago. Anyway, I'm glad that I decided to transplant the seedlings along the path and not in front of the flower portion of the garden. Such a pretty flower and interesting too.

The flowers are long and kind of rope like.

Three Sisters

My Three Sister experiment is coming along. The corn is nice and tall and the beans and squash have sprouted. I might get something from the corn and beans, we'll see. There's still time for some disaster to happen - I did spy a bunny hopping through the other day.

It was also Mr. Rexy's 5 month birthday yesterday...he got a fresh mud bath out of the deal...

Mainly my day away from work was spent doing what I love and relaxing as much as I wanted. That almost seems like a luxury while trying to grow up animals and a garden. I wouldn't trade our farm for anything else, but I do like to nap. Just sayin'

Farm Life is the Best Life!

REX

Today Mr. Rex is 5 months old! He and his lady friend have been with us for 3 months and oh my goodness...they are too much fun!

It's time for a mud bath!

Life and Death

The harsh reality of farm life.

Out of 25 Freedom Rangers we are now, nearly 6 weeks into this adventure, down to 17 eating machines.

Let's break this down. Of the 8 chicks that were "lost" one decided to fly the coop (for lack of a better explanation). That one was totally our bad.

To make going in and out of the chicken tractor easier on us during feeding time. I  suggested that a piece of fence be installed - kind of like when the Magpie Squad was living in the tractor.  Otherwise those tricksey little birds would get out and run around as they already had done on more than one occasion. Also, every now and then we let them get out and check out the courtyard - but only under our supervision.

Yeah, I'm a hardass.

Rightfully so, the Sunday before this last Sunday, when it was a bazillion degrees outside. We had gone out to check on the critters. I decided to open the tractor door to let them roam a little and then after a few minutes I decided I needed some AC time. Yep, the Rangers were still out.

When I remembered it must have been at least an hour later, maybe more...I immediately went out and shoo'd them back in and called it good.

Later on, while doing the evening chores, both of us at separate times tried to take a head count. Most of the time I landed on 24, but there were a couple of times that I came up with 25. When Tom gave them their food and their were somewhat stationary, he came up with 24.

DANG!

Oh well, I guess he/she wanted to live up to his/her name...Freedom Ranger.

We have been diligent since then with the time that they get to leave the safety of the tractor to the fenced courtyard right outside their door. They get to come out and forage a bit, but once the food goes in so do they.

On Thursday or Friday of last week Tom discovered that a couple of the Rangers had died.

Oh...hmmm...what happened?

Since then there were a couple more, but on Monday not only were there dead chicks there were a couple of sickly chicks. So we quickly took them away from the seemingly vibrant and healthy chicks and put them in the brooder overnight. They were no longer in the poo, but then they also were not doing well.

The next morning we were surprised to see that they made it through the night. That was short-lived as the more sickly one finally gave up in the morning and the not so sickly one late afternoon.

The remaining 17 are pretty lively though, so we have hope that they will make it to processing day let alone, 6 weeks. I knew that there would be loss, but 7 of them dying, that was surprising.

Oop...hold the press I just did a quick google search...

Evidently around the 5-6 week mark high protein feed diets start to catch up with the little stinkers. So in essence, we have overfed the birds and their little bodies couldn't keep up. I was kind of right then thinking that their little hearts could not keep up with the rate of their growth. Also, I had read in a couple of places where other folks had a problem and that they experienced loss at a time that didn't seem right.

So, I think what we'll need to do with the next round of chicks is start restricting feed around 4 weeks and only feeding during the day. With this batch we were allowing 24/7 feeding up until the deaths started happening. Now that it has been a few days of taking the feeder out, we have noticed that the stinkers are doing better.

This morning I was trying to decide if continuing to raise Freedom Rangers or even the Cornish Cross would still be the right thing to do. I even explored the heritage breeds, the slower growing chickens and decided on the Orpington. However, I think that we can still do the Freedom Rangers and still order from the hatchery that is not far from us. The Freedom Ranger has a grow out rate of 11-12 weeks, which is quite predictable. The Cornish Cross grow out in 8 weeks, but that's just too soon.

Yes, I am THAT confident that the next batch will be better.

Oh how I hate this type of learning experience. However, if we don't have a fail here and there, we'll never learn anything.

Despite the challenges that we have had the past week I am still convinced that this life is the best and I wouldn't want it any other way.

Love Connection?

Back in April we picked up our ducklings - and now they are pretty much all grown up. At what point do we stop calling them ducklings anyway?

A couple two three weeks ago we moved the girl Magpies closer to the chicken enclosure and the hooligans became aware that the 7 girls were here to stay - as if they didn't know it before. So once I figured out that they were kinda sorta interested in them I suggested that we let them co-exist in the same space. It was touch and go for the first week or so. Neither were in any great hurry to make friends.

Well, it has taken a couple of weeks, but I do believe that the girls and the hooligans are okay with being with each other and have figured out who is in charge - that would be Lenny, just by his size really, but we know that Shell-Bell is the one in charge.

THEN last week I was observing the ducks and Lenny together and was noticing that there was one duck hanging close to Shelly. Tom had already mentioned that Phylis (she has a crazy feather tuft) and Shell had been pal-ing around together. However this is the first time that I saw them together.

After a minute or two I watched as Shelly started to pick on Phyllis and kind of attack her. I wasn't really understanding what was happening until I saw him trying to mount her...

WHAAAAT?! She is only three months old!! I don't believe he was successful, but they do hang around each other. A LOT.

It must be her crazy feather tuft on her head.

Since then I have noticed that she will follow him around and not hang with the rest of the ducks. Not all the time, but more often than not. Even when it appears that he is ignoring her she'll stay near both him and Lenny. It's almost like Lenny is their chaperone.

Lenny, Shelly & Phyllis from L to R

This makes me happy, I'm glad that there has been a connection and that maybe in time there will be others being accepted by our little Romeo.

We have some time until the ducks start laying eggs. I think what I read was as early as 6 months, which would be October. If they don't lay at all, that would be fine with me. I'll have extra time to figure out a proper little area for them to lay eggs in. Maybe one day we'll have ducklings!

Farm Life is the BEST Life!

2018 Mother Earth News Fair - Oregon

Oh yeah...it was a good day in Albany!

There were three seminars we agreed would be good to sit in on and one extra just in case we wanted to stay a little longer.

Seminar #1 - Making Bacon at Home with Karen Solomon

We had a little bit of a theme this year...anything pig/pork. So when I saw this on the schedule and that it was early - at 10am...that was incentive to get to Albany as early as possible. Our chosen route these days to avoid going through Portland is to go via I-205 and not deal with any nonsense that might slow traffic down. It's a little longer, but at least traffic keeps rolling. Anyway, we arrived with about half an hour to spare.

Just like most fairs there were a variety of vendors, so I wasn't terribly interested in checking those out except for Bob's Red Mill. I love to stop by and just pick up the goodies that they are giving away.  We made our way to the Real Food Stage and selected our seats.

Once the presentation started I felt like maybe this presentation would be a little slow. The speaker was inexperienced at Mother Earth News Fair and there were a couple of technical issues - mainly with her mic. Her talk was fairly brief, but full of all sorts of information that will help us with making bacon once we  have pork with which to make bacon out of.

While the talk was interesting I was glad it was over and looking to move on to the next presentation...

Seminar #2 - Homegrown Pork and Getting Ready for Backyard Pigs with Jeannette Beranger, The Livestock Conservancy

Jeannette Beranger is an excellent speaker and we have sat in on her presentations the past two years which both were about chickens.

So this talk was mainly about how to set up for pigs and we did pretty good with setting up for them. Especially with the few items that we actually had.

• Shelter - check - The shelter can be elaborate or fairly simple. We went with simple. Free pallets from a neighbor down the street and a tarp. Tom slapped the pallets together and put up a piece of garden fabric to use as a curtain of sorts. They basically need to be sheltered from rain and wind. During the few days we have had that were rainy, the did spend a good amount of time in their shelter. I'm guessing that they were sleeping and only emerging when it was time to eat or to relieve themselves.
• Water - check - Since we only have the two pigs right now we are able to get away with using a Rubber Feed pan that we picked up at Pioneer. Once there are more (babies) we'll have to revisit the waterer and explore our options.
• Protection - check - We are currently using the Pig QuikFence. It's a nice set up, not terribly different than the poultry netting. This netting is 30" high and should work until Fiona has piglets. At that time we'll have to figure out how to modify what we have or get the Hog Net which is 24" tall and has strands of wire along the bottom which are spaced two inches apart and would be perfect to keep piglets in. We have some time to consider what to do once Fiona does have her first litter.

There were other tips and what not, but these were the most important. She also went over the different breeds of pigs that would work well for a backyard situation. 

I always enjoy The Livestock Conservancy presentations. I hope that there will be more talks in the years to come.

Seminar #3 - Whole Animal Butchery with Meredith Leigh

We both were looking forward to this presentation! For this demo she was using a half a hog! What the What?! When I saw the carcass being prepared, I started to get excited and couldn't way for things to get started. 

Not only did we learn a lot of the lingo - Primal, Sub-Primals and Retail cuts we learned a lot about how home butchery is the best way to go as far as the animal goes. Every part of the animal will be used in one way or another weather it is for human consumption or for amending the gardens or feeding to the animals - mainly chickens. Even the feathers can be composted which goes right back to the earth.  Every part of the animal has a use and those parts need to be used!

The thing that really struck me is how as a consumer we look for a specific cut (steak, roast, etc) whether it is considered the "best" cut or a lesser cut. What is thought to be a great cut - tenderloin - is actually not that great. While the cooking of the tenderloin is easy, it actually does not have that great of flavor. So to just take something like the tenderloin out would be to take away from another cut of meat that is considered a better cut. So to butcher for a specific cut can be wasteful and some of the parts are useful for better cuts of meat are used for things like All Meat hotdogs. Anything to make a buck right?

What?! 

Oh man! If this isn't compelling enough I don't know what would be. 

I know, most people do what is natural...go to the store and peruse the meat cases that are filled with all those supposedly tasty cuts of meat and make a selection of those steaks, roasts etc and plop into your shopping cart. 

What is happening is people are buying meat that has been factory farmed...and that's another issue altogether which I touched on a couple of posts ago. 

My solution for part of our meat purchases is using Butcher Box which has been great! They partner with farms that raise pastured animals - win! However, just as before we are still consuming specialty cuts of beef and pork. So, in a way it's also a non-win. Soon enough we'll be able to fill our freezer with our own pork and even sooner we'll be harvesting our chicken. 

This seminar was the best of the three and at some point I'll have to add Meredith Leigh's book to our library The Ethical Meat Handbook. 

Until then I'll be educating myself on factory farmed animals, the importance of whole animal consumption and learning how to butcher an animal myself.

After looking around at a couple of vendors and checking out the animals that were in one of the buildings we made our way out. Before heading home we visited the Historic Carousel and Museum that was featured on OPB a couple of months ago.

Each animal on this carousel is hand carved and painted by volunteers. People that had no experience or skill for carving were able to carve each of these with amazing skill. The story is pretty extensive, so it would be best to just go to the website HERE.

The next time we find ourselves in Albany we'll be going back to the carousel and taking a ride. At $2 per person that is cheap entertainment.

We have decided that attending both days of the fair would be the way to go. That way we could sit in on seminars that happen later in the day without feeling like we need to jet out of there at a certain time. 

For example, one of the last sessions at the 5 o'clock hour was Intro to Charcuterie with Meredith Leigh - now that would have been interesting to sit in on. Learning how to incorporate the parts of a pig that wouldn't normally be sold as a retail cut. Think Italian cold cuts aka Salumi.  The Sunday sessions included more Meredith Leigh presentations and another Karen Solomon session focusing on pickling. 

Next year we'll go both days...do AirBnB or the hotel next to the fairgrounds and do all things Mother Earth News "Bringing the magazine to life."

In other news: the swine have been with us for 3 months! The duo are doing well, growing a lot and getting older! Fiona is 5 months old and Mr. Rexy Pants is almost 5 months. They may reach breeding age in 3 more months at the earliest. If that is the case I'm not sure how we would know for sure that she is bred.

We still have some time so we'll just put those thoughts on hold for now.

It's has been a great day! We spent the day catching up on the things that we would normally do on Saturday and had a nice relaxing day at home. Next year I'll extend the weekend by a day maybe two to enjoy the weekend even more.

Farm Life is the Best Life!

Photo of the day:

I wanted a photo of the 4 girls...but Shell-Bell couldn't stand not being the center of attention.

Friday!

This week had to be the longest week ever! Maybe because I have been looking forward to this weekend! It's Mother Earth News Fair - Oregon this weekend :) YAY...

But first what happened this week?

Well, Miss Fiona is now 5 months old!

Fiona is still as sweet as ever and......hungry. I suppose that is never ending. This week we had a little bit  of  a situation. On Tuesday instead of having dinner and then going out to take care of the critters I had a Click List order ready at Freddy's. So I got home, Tom got into the car and we were off to pick up our groceries.

Well...for some reason ALL of the critters were extra hungry - don't know why. We got home, put the groceries away and ate some dinner. By the time we got out to feed everyone, it was much later than usual. I had already let the ducks and Lenny out...fortunately, they aren't a problem. They'll just forage until we feed them for real.

The problem was Missy pictured above...

I was in the garage getting food ready for them. They can totally see all of this going down, so they are squealing with hunger moreso than usual. I look out toward their enclosure and it's quiet and then I see Fiona and she is basically at the edge of the lawn and coming toward the garage. Guess who was a few steps behind...

Yep - Mr. Rexy decided that making a break for it was a good idea too. So he was trotting along behind Fiona.

It was a little shocking to see them NOT in their pen...but it was easy getting them back since they wanted FOOD!

At first Tom thought that they had broken part of the fence, but as it turns out they just popped the cap off the cornerpost and it was easy to put back together.

Lesson of the day....always, Always, ALWAYS turn the fence back ON.

AAAANNNNDD...

The Freedom Rangers are now FOUR weeks old!!

These littles are nearly feathered out now. They still are sporting a little bit of fuzz on their heads though. They were moved to a new spot in the yard and also have a "courtyard" area like the Magpies had. I had suggested that as a way to not have to chase them around after they escaped their house. Earlier this week Tom had to chase a couple of the chicks down - so the solution is a win. They are happy to pick at the fresh grass right outside of their door. Next time I think maybe a fence around the chicken tractor would give them the option to "play" on grass and scratch for bugs and other tasty items.

The mystery of Cleo - after more observation last night I still was not convinced of her supposed Rangerness. So I sent one of the photos to Jenks to get a final answer...

This morning I saw that there was a response and it said:

"I see your picture as attached, but I do not see which bird you are referring to. Could you please send me a         different photo?"

Ummmm...what? It's kinda obvious to me. Okay - so I sent this one:

REALLY? This isn't different enough?

After a couple of additional emails, I learned that there Cleo definitely is a Freedom Ranger. She just happened to develop some of the characteristics of the other breeds that were crossed to come up with the Freedom Ranger. Very interesting. He was appreciative of the photos and I am now a little smarter than before.

Lucky us huh...we are definitely going to keep Cleo. She doesn't necessarily like us coming after her, but once she is caught she settles down.

Our big thing this weekend is the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in Albany!!

This will be our third year going to this fair. A few weeks ago, I wasn't sure that I really wanted to go. I had looked at the different speakers and thought that maybe there wasn't anything that would be that interesting.

However, once I looked at a grid of the schedule when I could see ALL of the seminars I was able to see how we would be able to check out three different presentations starting at 10 AM and ending around 3 PM. Actually there would be time for another, we'll see how things shake out.

So much going well at home with the birds and pigs! The garden is doing well...flowers and veggies! I'll post photos soon.

But first...Mother Earth News fair!