Looking Forward to Spring

March is the brownest month of the year on our farm. We literally wait for grass to grow! 

We're missing the green, now. For two more months we will wait, watching as the trees, and the fields, come to life. The mountains that our farm looks out at will first blush , pink, as the buds begin to form on the trees. One day, all of a sudden, the pink will turn to a barely perceptible skiff of electric green, which will deepen, and darken, into summer greens. March is the brownest, ugliest month of the year, and yet it is the most hopeful. We almost itch with the anticipation of a new growing season, new projects, and new green. 

Here are a few pictures from late spring/early summer 2016-

 they remind us that the brown of early spring gives  way to the greenest green. 

These photographs remind us why we live, and farm, here in the hills of New York State. 

Richard, the cat , planting onions. 

Laying Hens...again

Our hens

We started with 25 laying hens. It was fun. We knew each chicken's personality and quirks. We knew which chicken laid the biggest eggs, the spotty eggs, and which one was likely to lay eggs with double yolks. Our son was smitten, he played with the birds. We sold a few dozen eggs per week.

The next year we had 125 laying hens. It was fun too, but busier. Our son still played with the chickens. We sold tens of dozens of eggs per week. Our customers couldn't get enough.

For the next several years we kept 300-500 laying hens. It was crazy. They destroyed our garden. If we left the door open they would come in and (literally) poop on our kitchen table. It wasn't fun anymore. It was a job (but only marginally profitable). There were so many birds that our kids were scared to go in the fence with them alone.  We washed 450 eggs per day and sold what felt like billions of eggs per week. We had stacks of full egg cartons six feet tall. One of my messiest days (EVER!) was when the leaf on our table collapsed under the weight of 50 dozen eggs, breaking nearly all of the eggs. The floor flaked and peeled with egg whites for weeks, despite diligent and frequent mopping. Our customers were happy, but we weren't.

Around that time we took a Holistic Management class (look up HMI- it's awesome!). Unlike other business/ farming programs Holistic Management looks at what is best for your business, your land, and your family. It became clear to us that eggs weren't for us. They weren't fun anymore, washing all of those eggs was taking away time from our family, it was driving us crazy that the chickens were in our personal/family space (when they pooped on the table and ruined our garden). We went from 500 laying hens to 0. We bought eggs from other farming friends...and it was fantastic!

Eventually, we started missing having our own laying hens and our own eggs. We now have a dozen chickens. Our children play with the chickens, they are enjoying the responcibilities of caring for the birds and gathering eggs. Our daughter beams every time she does her chores- so proud of her chickens. She is learning to count by tallying up the eggs every day (a much more manageable task with about 10 eggs per day than with 450). Laying hens are fun again and we're happy to have them. Sometimes less really is more.

Spring!

After an impossibly long, cold, snowy winter we are gobbling up the colors and smells of spring.

Our first chicks were out on pasture at the beginning of May and are growing beautifully.

Farm Kids in the City

You can take a farm kid off the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the kid...

My kids and I recently visited family in NYC. I think it's very possible that their favorite parts of the trip were petting the goats at the childrens' zoo, and riding on the city bus. (The small one also ate previously- chewed gum off the subway platform- yuck!) It makes me feel really good that they like what they know (farm)!

Life and Death (warning: graphic photos of chicken slaughter + pictures of adoreable newborn calf)

For the last several months we have been helping students at a local boarding school, Darrow, to prepare for and raise chickens for a project that they are working on- in which they hope to create a McDonald's-like "Happy Meal" with sustainable materials. Last Wednesday was slaughter day. We've been curious to see how the students would react to killing and cleaning the chickens they helped to raise from newly hatched chicks. These kids are awesome! They handled the chickens' death with dignity, kindness and purpose.

 

A group of students came to our house to pack the chickens up and take them to the school for slaughter. We talked about how that moment, when you choose to take the animal off pasture and to turn a living being into food, is a privilege, and something that should be done with ceremony, respect and gratitude. It felt  good to see these chickens help teach these lessons. I was proud of the students, who we have been working with for the last five or so months- they have a lot left to learn (about farming, and life, and all the millions of things we all have left to learn), but this they did really well.

 

During the slaughter I re-fielded a question I often get "why doesn't it bother you when your animals are slaughtered?" It does. Its sad every time. These are living things (some of whom are extremely cute and/or animals that we have become close with) and we choose to kill them. When killing animals (that we care about) becomes nonchalant and fails to stir our emotions- then we will know that we need to stop raising animals for meat. We respect our animals in life and we are thankful for them in death.

 

 

Generally at the end of slaughter you are left with a bucket of intestines, other unpalatable organs,

and heads. This slaughter was different- the biology teacher who helped with this project gave a

running commentary of every organ and how it worked. She even found a chicken heart with fluid

and explained that the chicken might have been experiencing heart failure.This is what teenagers do

 with chicken heads...they discussed putting them on strings or sticks to use them as puppets for

 performance art. Love to see every piece of these chickens used and appreciated.



Standing!



While the cow labored some of the herd looks on.

After slaughter with the high-schoolers, our kids and I stopped by our friend Cynthia's farm. She had had two heifer (girl) calves born that morning, and when we arrived we learned that a third calf was on it's way. We watched from the car in the pouring rain with Cynthia as one of her Randall Cattle gave birth.  The cow grazed the fresh spring grass as she labored, occasionally arching her back or laying down to resituate the calf inside. We watched for about a half an hour before a bull calf was born into the pouring rain. The mother licked and cleaned the baby and the calf was up and walking (on wobbly legs) about a half an hour later. Birth, like death, is something that people don't see very often these days, in this culture. In a world so divorced from life and death, I feel lucky to see the almost magical segue between alive and dead, sometimes all in one day, and to feel my heart stir. It reminds me that I am alive.

 

That night four Great Blue Herons flew over our house in a perfect line. Somehow that felt important, but I'm not sure how. 

Wintery Piglets

Piglets! Tina gave birth to 15 piglets March 3rd. They were born outside on a 0 degree night onto a bed of hay (in a sea of snow) that they shared with their mother, father and grandmother. The piglets came sooner than expected, and would normally have had snugger accommodations (like the hut they are in in these pictures), but have done remarkably well.

Milk-gloo

 

We've got a LOT of frozen milk stockpiled at our place right now.

On these super cold days cases of milk often freeze in the time it takes to drive from our house, where we store the milk (a classy home décor) half a mile down the road to where the pigs are waiting to slurp it down. While we wait (months??) for the weather to warm, and the milk to thaw, our kids have found a good use for the solid ice blocks.

 Here you have the milk-gloo (igloo made of crates of frozen milk).