50 Shades Of Grey ... Farm Style.

A Lovely View

I know it sounds a little ominous, but don't panic. Steve has not been naughty. You'll laugh when you see the photos. Steve got the first chicken and turkey tractors finished today while I was planting and getting the running around all done. After he was done I guess he looked at it and thought 'Hmm, that'd make a good work bench' so he built a second one above the first for use by the chickens. I couldn't resist taking photos. Maybe I just get a kick of seeing my husband behind bars. 

It's been a very productive day! Even Jordan got in a full days work despite being in a play at school and taking half the afternoon off for the final show. It was awesome.

We got some herbs in, half a dozen roses and a rhododendron are planted, 800 feet of potatoes, a hundred pumpkins plus we transplanted out the 4 giant pumpkins from the greenhouse. Mateo our wwoofer and the sister missionaries all he lped with the first rows of market crops in the green garden, the girls helped me plant chives and Meghan cut the grass. So it's slowly beginning to look like a house with a yard and garden instead of a trailer park after a tornado. I even cheated and ordered pizza for supper because I still don't have an oven and the time saved gives me more time to get the turkeys moved to their new home before it gets dark.

Caged Husband

Ok, my drink break is over. Time to get back to work. I think I've absorbed as much water as I'm going to for now.

(10pm Update)

W ell it's too dark to work so I'm inside now avoiding the bugs. All the animals are tucked away except the ducks who are out hunting for their new crunchy June bug treats. The wind has picked up so I popped out to give all my plants one last watering while the bugs were relatively light. I sprayed myself first and still got a few bites despite the wind. 

The turkeys are settled into their tractor (that's the name for a movable poultry pen) and are all roosting up on their perch. They look so cute! The chicks have moved from the dining room to the greenhouse where the turkeys used to live. We moved the feeders that they're used to out there and I'm trying to teach them how to drink out of the watering nipples. If they get that figured out it'll be lovely because I can set up a gravity fed watering system for them when they're ready to move outside in a few weeks. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks back we were worried about the turkeys getting too cold on those frosty nights where it dropped below freezing. Now the problem is the heat. The greenhouse topped out today at over 51 degrees Celsius, that's 124 Fahrenheit. Yikes! And that was with the main door top open. I quickly opened the back door and vented the whole place. The tomatoes are all ok and we'd moved the roses out to the garden at that point so the real worry was the turkeys. They were totally fine and had plenty of water while they lay in the shade. It took them a few minutes to adjust to going from their greenhouse box to the great outdoors and their new grassy run, but they have settled in and are having a very good time now. I was thinking I'd put a solar light in there to attract bugs for them to play with in the evenings. Turkeys love bugs.

It's an inside job

If the weather is wet tomorrow I'm going to build a display rack and pot up more tomatoes. I'm taking them over to the Co-Op Country Store in Middleton for sale so feel free to buy some :)  The basil should also be okay to get into the garden and some into pots. The oregano in the greenhouse isn't doing very well though so I'm going to make a nursery bed in the garden next week and plant it in a nice sandy spot. The weather is supposed to be gusty and wet tomorrow so I'm glad it'll water in my new veggies and give me a break from digging. Maybe I'll even sneak my radio and bench out to the greenhouse and commune with nature for a couple of hours after church. That's the thing about the weather, it dictates so much of what we do here at the farm and so we just have to always plan for a backup activity if the weather turns inclement.

Well, I'm off to shower and scrub off the layers of sunscreen and repellent. I have a lovely tan but I'm pretty sure it'll wash off too. Then I plan to collapse into bed and stay there. Have a lovely day guys. I probably won't have time to post tomorrow but if I can, I'll get some photos of the gardens as our 'before' shots.

Appreciate Your Local Farmers

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
                                                             -Robert A. Heinlein

How many people do you know that are really good at their job? I mean REALLY good. Often they've studied for years and dedicated both large amounts of money and time in accomplishing their goals of being top in their field. Generally speaking there's nothing wrong with finding out what you're good at and where your talents lie and then magnifying them. It's more efficient to have people do what they're good at for the benefit of society. You have the land and ability to raise animals, I like to raise vegetables, our friend Joe is good at healing people, and we all trade between ourselves and it works out. That's what makes communities, villages and whole societies work.   

The problems come when we have a society of people SO specialized that they have either an un-marketable skill or they are lacking the basic skills for everyday living. People who cannot clean a home, cook or take care of themselves. I don't mean the elderly or infirm, I'm talking about the computer programmer who understands the inner workings of everything digital who can't cook a baked potato in his microwave for 5 minutes. Or the researcher who can split atoms and never remember to by toilet paper for his apartment. If we're a society that thinks these things are important then we support them by paying large wages that allow them to hire people to run their lives for them as assistants and house keepers. They concentrate on the brain work and someone else keeps their home running smoothly. And that's where we're at right now. A small number of highly specialized people and an army of workers.

But wouldn't it be better for us as individuals if, in addition to our chosen profession, we had some other useful skills? What if there was a hurricane and we needed to board up our own windows and turn off the power because nobody was available to help us? What if we could use our gardening skills to help out a neighbour by trimming her trees and lawn? I'm not saying we have to be all things to all people, but developing some useful skills is never a waste of time. Even a brain surgeon can learn to grow herbs on his kitchen window sill.

Farmers are a great example of this. I would say that in the course of a year the average Canadian farmer does the following jobs to one degree or another:

mechanic
electrician
plumber
doctor
vet
therapist
structural engineer
bookkeeper
maid
cook
chauffer
wrangler
etc etc etc

Farmers can do a lot with bale twine, nails and a hammer, and the ingenuity that's born of necessity. Why? Because some love it, and because farmers are busy and independent people by nature I would say. They will for sure call the vet when it's needed and the electrician if it's a tricky job but otherwise they're pretty good at knowing what they can fix and what is above their level of understanding. They'll often give it a shot and aren't afraid to get underneath something to see if it's an obvious problem they can solve themselves.

People still often think of farmers as 60 year old white haired men sitting on tractors, leaning on fences, wearing coveralls, chewing stalks of hay and acting a little slow mentally but nothing could be further from the truth. They tend to be a practical and well rounded bunch of people who also know who is good at what so they can ask for help if needed. Farmers are almost a community within a community. Sure some are specialized producers of only one crop but many, especially small scale farmers are reasonably good at many different things both on and off the farm. They make good neighbours and are often willing to lend a hand.

Farmers deserve respect. Sure, their tractor driving down the road might make you 2 minutes late getting somewhere, they may believe that a good roll of duct tape is worth it's weight in gold, they may use electrical tape for a band-aid (if they use them at all). But they work hard to feed us and to provide many of the products we use every day. So if you get a chance this coming year, stop at a road side stand or farmers market and tell them how much you appreciate them.  I know that I for one would appreciate it  :)     

Famous Canadian Blogger

I was reading through the comments section of my blog this afternoon and there are a couple of recurring themes besides the whole 'please check out my website' requests. The first one is 'thanks for giving me some new ideas to think about' and the second one is 'this was great, you must be a really famous blogger'.

To which I have these replies:

1. You're welcome! I like to explore and study new things and having a blog just gives me an excuse to write about them and have a place I can look them up again. It's sort of like my good idea filing system.

2. Thanks, and no I'm not famous, lol. This is possibly the least read blog in Nova Scotia or Canada. And actually a good portion of my readers are international which is terrific. I guess people like it because my writing style is what I'd call conversational and is pretty much the way I speak in everyday life. You can just ask my friends. I like it. I don't know if that makes it more or less entertaining to read but it works for me. I'm not likely to ever be a famous blogger as I'm writing about family, farm, and community life and not something exciting like famous people, sex, money or music. But that's ok. If you get even one useful tip from reading my blog then I'm happy to have helped.

So thanks for reading and hanging out with me on the internet. I know I'm just a little blog in an ocean of online media, but I appreciate the more than 200,000 page views and hope that you'll stick with me as we get moved onto the farm full-time and the adventures continue!

The World According to Monsanto

"There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world" -Vandana Shiva, Physicist, New Delhi India

Food Sovereignty, or the right to keep our seed for use as food, future crops, and to preserve the genetic diversity in our staple foods, should be a right granted to all persons in the world. Contamination from GMO crops is adversely affecting the World's poorest people and subsistence farmers from South America, to India to the USA. Yes, there are farms in the US where people are struggling to be self-reliant in food so I've included them too. Our right to have ancient seed varieties of peas, beans, corn be preserved genetically is becoming harder and harder due to cross-pollination from Monsanto's genetically modified crops. Pollution from pesticides and fertilizers is literally killing people the world over.

And people tell me I'm crazy for wanting to be an organic grower.

I think you're crazy for NOT supporting local organic farms. So I am re-posting this movie which I will note was funded in part by the National Film Board of Canada. And I will stop complaining about Monsanto. Infact I'll leave off this post by telling you something wonderful about Monsanto who really are a chemical company and not the agriculture company many people think of, and holders of more than 15,000 patents. Did you know that Monsanto was the company that developed LED technology? I love LED's and find them very useful.

Our Gardens- Week 1. Nothing but dirt.

That's how a garden starts out...dirt. All the hours of tilling, raking, weeding, tilling and raking again and not much to show for it. Of course it's lovely to walk across it and sink in 4 inches to the cool moist fluffy soil below, but seeds have got to get planted! So here's a few pics of our garden as of today, June 15th 2012. Planted are potatoes, Provider green beans, Spanish Onions, Wisconsin pickling cukes, tomatoes, zucchini, Paris Island Cos (romaine lettuce), Detroit beets in the same row as french breakfast radishes (you pull out the radishes in 20 days and make room for the beets to grow, works well for carrot rows too), Laxton's progress peas and I think that's it so far. I'd have to check my map. Yes, I have to make a map so I remember planting dates and where everything is. While I'm planting I say to myself "Oh I'll remember that I planted beans here" and then I always forget. So having a map is good. It allows me to see what's going to be done where and to plan for fall plantings. But despite all the work the only things in the garden showing signs of growth are the chicks. It's taken a lot of work to get it all tilled but the planting of main crops should be finished this weekend. Then the greenhouse can be planted and the fun begins! Our first harvest of lettuces and radishes will be in 3 weeks and will be quickly followed by peas, beets and beans. I'll leave some row space for later plantings of all of these so that I get a continuous harvest but I did plant 2- 50ft rows of peas and beans just so that I could harvest lots at once for freezing.

At our home garden we've got smaller quantities of celery, lettuce, greens, peas, peppers, beans, corn and tomatoes growing. It's nice to walk outside and have fresh veggies and herbs for the table so I'll make sure I plant some new things each week. The 4 Jubilee (yellow) tomatoes I planted in manure by the garden shed are doing really well and are getting taller so I'm expecting good things from them. And the same for the small patio tomatoes that are in pots on my deck. The first flower clusters are out and if the bees do their magic we should get a good crop of tomatoes from them too. The biggest concern with them is keeping them watered as the small pots dry out easily. Sort of like the garden, it takes a lot of water to get it deeply watered. The main garden has soaker hose as seen in the pics and the home garden so far has overhead sprinklers. We'll see how that works as the garden grows.

I must say though that the petunias I grew have turned out to be fantastic so far! Definitely will try to keep seed and see if I can repeat them again next year.

The pics in this post are from top to bottom:

1. Our Main Garden with the soaker hoses along the rows.
2 & 3. Chris's bottom half and the meat birds, now 3 weeks old, enjoying some sunshine and a snack in their chicken yard.
4. The hen houses alongside the gardens(don't worry, we skipped planting potatoes right outside their door) are open for ventilation.
5. Some lettuces in the home garden.
6. Petunias on the front door step.

In pic 4. you'll notice that the hen houses have the sides open. The dryer the hen houses stay the healthier they are, so we open the side panels during good weather. They only need cleaning once a month because the hens are mostly outside and so the litter stays dry. You can see inside the hen house in the picture and it is still clean and fluffy after 2 weeks of use. We use wood shavings for the litter on the floor. To keep out the rain they are covered with a tarp and during the winter we'll be cleaning them out weekly to maintain a dry and healthy environment. I'm considering using peat for bedding too, it'll make great compost! We use diatomaceous earth in their litter and in their dust baths to prevent lice. The hens and Wyandottes go off into the woods for the day and return on their own at night. The meat chicks though are confined to an outdoor pen 25 feet by 25 feet with shade and grass. And if you're a chicken person you'll have noticed one buff orpington chicken with the meat birds. She's out chicken that got sick and is there to have a warmer and safer recuperation with higher protein feed and lots of fresh water.

Well that's the report on the garden for now. Hopefully it'll be looking a lot more green in the next few weeks with veggies and not weeds. Wish us luck! And yes...I remembered the sun screen today :)

It's Illegal to eat what you grow

Thank goodness, that's not actually true. Or is it? What if you hired a chef, had friends over for dinner and then a health inspector showed up, told you that your food wasn't fit to serve and called the police on you? This was food from your own farm/garden and these are your private guests? Sound far fetched? Well, it recently happened to an organic CSA farm in Nevada, USA (Land of the Free?) and it's not the first time I've heard of similar things happening.

Here's the story. in print, written as a letter from the farmer to her guests.

And here's the youtube video that was taken by some guests.



I'm all about following the rule of law and being accountable to public health regulations, but this is a situation that should never have happened.

Just because you grow your own organic food doesn't automatically make it unsafe to eat. Yikes! If this is how growers are treated it's no wonder so many self-sufficient people are doing it on the quiet. Less government interference and no seizure of equipment or fines for growing food. It's happening everywhere. This CSA, Compassion Farm in Lantzville, and many many others being bullied into quitting by local governments and regulations that support the factory farming model where only one giant supplier provides a product. Isn't that a monopoly? To beat the little guys out of business? It's not competition when the playing field isn't fair to all involved. People like to have alternatives such as great customer service, good warranties, organic and fair trade options, that's why little independent businesses can stay in business compared to the WalMarts of the world. But it's becoming harder and harder for farmers to make a decent living. Sigh. Just one more reason why being self-reliant is important I guess.