I will never have someone to help me down here on the farm that worked as hard or was as much fun to work with as you were. We rocked almost an acre of produce with just the two of us and a few hoes… A single plowing from a tractor, a couple of run overs with a tiller but no other machines to help with the constant weeding of the newly turned wilderness.

The funny thing is that as hard as we worked, the worst of the weeds were to come in August as it become wet and stayed rather temperate towards the end. Let me catch you up on all of the things we set in motion.

The pig set up we made worked perfectly and Wilma finally gave birth to a rather small liter of 4 piglets. I learned to castrate them and did 2 of the 3 males myself, you would have hated it. We now believe that both Betty and Blossom Dearie are pregnant and will farrow by the end of Sept. We bought 5 more sheep so as to have something to bring to market this Fall after our horrendous lambing this past Spring. The Turkeys are huge and half of them will be ready way before Thanksgiving. I finished the new Turkey tractor we had built and even painted it. None of the new chickens are going to work as broilers as the breed is not intended for such and they are far too small, we will add the hens to our laying flock and stew the roosters when the time comes. Egg production dropped during that hot spell when you watched the farm while we were away and we are only getting back our numbers now. I found suitable breeding rabbits to replace the ones that died during that heat and we now have 4 does and 2 bucks for a much accelerated rabbit breeding program, I really enjoy working with them as you recall.

We have not lost any more birds since the hot spell. Oh wait, we did lose a chicken to a fox attack, he actually came into the yard and ran off with the bird. I have set many more traps to no avail. New Dog cornered a Possum who had made it into the yard one night and I was able to dispatch the thief in the wee hours. A comical scene of me in my skivvies, cowboy boots and a head lamp armed with the Henry rifle, if only Lisa had been awake, yippee.  The ducks are not laying as well but they are still fun to have around. We took the rooster and the four like breed hens to the lower pen to see if we could hatch out a new brood of hens and I am happy to say we have a hen sitting on a large nest of eggs. It is the wrong time of year for this but we’ll see what happens.

As for the produce…

The tomatoes had been badly damaged by the extreme heat when I returned. I was able to harvest a few more weeks but the plants were caput really by the second week of August. The pear tomatoes and green tomatoes kept going through August. The second planting we began before I left did not take, it was too hot despite your and Carry’s faithful watering. I tilled the area and began again from which I have been able to raise a dozen or so broccoli plants, some beets and a row of cabbage. The Lima Beans took and are doing well. I have pulled out all the tomatoes now and have tilled the area, I will plant the lower half in winter wheat and the top part by the compost I hope to plant in Spinach and Garlic for the Spring.  I have compiled quite a gourd collection from the volunteer gourds that took over the hill and young asparagus bed. I don’t know what to do with them, perhaps Christmas gifts, keep an eye out for yours. The Basil is thriving. The hot peppers picked up some sort of soil disease, they are coming in ok, but they are small and will shrivel quickly if left on the vine, I’m staying on top of them and will get a decent harvest for sauces and powders.

As for the lower field, you would be terribly disappointed in me and astonished by how the weeds have just taken this field back to a state of chaotic nature. Half of the corn actually came in quite well, I harvested all of the popcorn and blue corn both of which suffered the most from worm damage. I dried the ears on the back porch and lost a few more there to the dogs, who’d of guessed? All in all I have a bushel of the blue meal corn and a peck of the popcorn that is almost dried and ready to be shucked off the cob. We are still harvesting plenty of sweet white corn, it is delicious and abundant but the ears are rather small. I am learning when to harvest so as to be ahead of the corn worm. I will be on top of it next year and will try all three varieties again.

The butternut and baby pumpkins came in well. I expected more but am happy with what we got, about 10 bushels of butternut and 5 of pumpkin. The size is medium and the flavor is great, especially on the pumpkins. The green beans came in nicely. The peas and beans came in really well and we have spent many an evening shelling them in front of the TV. We have several large jars full of black eyed peas and Red Rippers, we even got a few pounds of the random red bean we planted though the white beans never made.  The onions ended up doing alright, I got a full harvest of them even though they turned out small, we just finished drying them for storage as well. Adam and I harvested the Peanuts today. We ended up with a half bushel of good looking peanuts but I won’t know how we did until they are salted and roasted, the real test.

Last of all, and I hate to end on a bad note, but the potatoes did not make at all. I don’t know why. We spent the most time on them, gave them the most love and I just don’t know what happened. In the end they have been covered by weeds but the plants were not strong even prior to this. I dug a row out today and got a few handfuls of pearl to golf ball sized spuds. I just don’t know what to think. I will try again next year with less to get my bearings on growing them here, I have never had trouble with potatoes before.

I kept up our tradition of drinking a few cold beers at the end of each day. It was not the same without you so I had to drink a few for you also. When the weather became cooler I switched over to Campari and Soda and have been addicted to this drink ever since.

Anyway, that’s about it, remind me if I have forgotten anything. I miss you and Zoe but hope you are well up there in Yankee town. I am eager to put the farm in order and to bed this winter to begin again, lessons learned, next Spring.  Lisa is keeping the farm blog updated with pictures so you can see what I have been talking about. Keep in touch, much love to you guys.

-Will

I need a better Tomato trellis system, the post and cord method was fine but not great, I will try to make some cages, which is my favorite method but costly, I will also try a post and fence method.  Also try 2 distinct separate plantings, my first fruit appeared just before July and lasted until the end of July when blight ended the season. Next year do a full planting right at this time to secure fruit for August.  I had a good crop this season that spread the entire month of July but it was a lot in a short time. Do a wider variety of types also, include the German Johnson. Space tomatoes much further apart, we did about 3ft this year.

Plant more Arugula and Spring mix greens, spray the Arugula earlier to avoid flea beetle bites, an aesthetic problem though a few customers took note and were not pleased. Spring mix had no trouble, I used red romaine and oakleaf with young Arugula.

Plant English Peas earlier in March, plant potatoes earlier. Plant Watermelons earlier

Black Eyed Peas worked wonderfully. Plant many more Pea and Bean varieties for next year.

Butternut and Baby Sugar Pumpkins seem to be coming in perfectly. Plant more next year.

Peanuts seem to be coming in well, plant again and more.

Potatoes are struggling I believe due to late planting. Don’t forget to pull off all eyes but the strongest and plant it facing up. In clay soils do not trench deeply before planting. Spacing at 1 ft was perfect, mounding at a foot high is also well received.

Stick with one corn variety next season so as to not cross pollinate. Fertilize the soil better as the corn struggled this year due to lack of nitrogen.

Do 2 separate Cucumber plantings next year.

Less Kale, more Collards next year. 2 beds (2*25) of Collards was a lot so maybe go 3. 1 bed of each of the two types of Kale from this year will suffice, Dinosaur and Russian.

Get Spinach in earlier and plant the summer type.

Do not plant buttery leaf lettuces, look for head lettuces and thin properly.

Add Eggplant, Fennel and Okra next season. Do not mess with Onions until you are set up to do this with more attention to variety, soil and water as these are more needy than anything else we work with. The little onions are not worth it, plant and raise large onions or not at all.

Scallions and Basil did wonderfully and were helpful.

Plant more Jalapenos and plant in two stages. Spray peppers with copper based organic fungicide to prevent the spotty problem we had this season.

Plant more watermelon and cantaloupe and start earlier.

Spread out squashes more to prevent rot, allow air flow. We planted 3ft apart in rows 4 ft apart this year, increase to 4 by 4.

Choose a better red beet for larger size. Plant more Chiogas and Goldens.

Today I finished planting the first of three rows in what we are calling the Pond Field which is about a quarter of an acre.

Near the South end of this field I created another bed of 6 rows in which I planted English Peas, Radishes, Spinach, Kale, Arugula and Romaine. This is a partly shady area that stays cooler and so these plants seemed to be suited for it. When planting lettuce/arugula seed I cut the small furrow in the rows I want them and then sprinkle the seeds like salt into the row. I then tamp down the rows to cover and pack and then water. When the lettuces come up I will let them get a few inches high before thinning to use the thinned greens as baby lettuce. Arugula is always eaten as a baby lettuce but the Romaine will be thinned until a single head is allowed to form.

Between this bed and the one planted on the 7^th I have planted tomatoes which I had begun from seedlings. 60 Purple Cherokee plants, 32 green stripe, 8 red pear and 8 yellow pear. The green stripes where not doing so well and would have needed transplanting anyway and so I thought I would just go ahead and get them started. They were planted in two handfuls of composted manure. The Purple Cherokees where about 8 inches long and on their third leaf set.  All the tomatoes where planted lying sideways up to their leaf base as was my grandfather’s custom.

It turns out our soil is pretty acidic with low nutrients and so I have ordered some organic fertilizers from Countryside Organics.  I will spread these next week. To the Purple Cherokees, which were planted straight into the soil, I will add Crab meal to boost their calcium intake as prescribed.

I prefer not to use too much fertilizer. I am not concerned with every plant putting out rock star yields. I prefer to amend my soil over time with compost I am able to generate from within our holding. After 8 years in my old garden spot I had fantastic soil and almost never amended it. This is much more space and so I will use some organic and Biodynamic fertilizer in the first year or so until my composting has taken off a little further.

The plot 1  from 4/7 has already put up lettuce and collards, it is still hard to tell about the other veg as of yet.

Today I planted Yellow Chard, Chioga Beets, Collards and two types of lettuces. These were planted in beds that I tilled up a week ago in the area that the pigs spent their winter. The beds were 2 feet wide and 25 feet long in the Spin farming model. I did not use any special soil or fertilizers when putting the seeds in the ground.

Using a hand furrow digger I made small furrows the length of the beds, then I dropped the seeds into these furrows according to the spacing prescribed for each as best I could. I did no bury the seed but merely tamped down the earth with the back of my garden rake on top of each furrow as I have had good luck with this method of sowing in the past and am always worried about burying seeds too deeply. By simply tamping down each furrow I find the appropriate amount of dirt is knocked over the seed and the soil is packed nice and tight to keep everything in place.

The beets were given two rows per bed, the greens were given three rows per bed and the lettuces were given four rows per bed.

I then watered using a hose extension from our house as we have not found a suitable filter for our pond water. A very light spray until the soil became saturated, twice in a row to be sure.

Lisa suggested that I isolate the chicken in case it had something that could spread to the others. She also suggested giving it olive oil, a remedy for Chickens who are experiencing trouble popping out eggs. I have done all these things and the Chicken seems to be coming along pretty fine.

I believe this is the same Chicken I have found before soaked through by the rain and dazed and so I wonder if there is just something wrong with this Chicken. Time will tell but in the mean time we will do everything we can to keep it hearty.

Also this morning I am in need of catching all of our sheep in the sheep shed for possible shearing tomorrow.  My usual method is to tie a string to the gate, walk it down the hill into our house and wait until they are all in. Then I simply pull the string and voila.

This morning’s attempt did not go so smoothly. I intended to wait until later in the day but had set the string up anyway. When I looked up just moments ago I saw that they were all in and could not miss the chance. I pulled the string but had left too much slack so one of the sheep got out. I also stepped in the basic of freshly collected Duck eggs in the fumble smashing them all.

So now I need to figure out if I should let the others out in an attempt to catch them all again and risk them not going back for fear of a repeat containment. Or should I just stay with what I’ve got and try to shear the remaining sheep myself at a later time? I have heard that shearing is a fearful and bloody task for the uninitiated and am weary of this approach.

I suppose I will just wait for my wife to call me, she’s good about these things.

In better news I believe we have produced a litter of Rabbits just the night before last. I am not 100% certain as I do not want to disturb the brood to find out but it seems rather clear that there is some rustling in the well lined birthing box.

This is our first second generation on the farm and is very exciting for us here. Meanwhile we wait for the rains to end and the earth to dry out so we can turn the dirt and begin paying mind to the expansive produce production we have planned for this Summer.

Thank you all for your continued support of Revolutionary Soup. You are making my dream of a fully Farm to table every day dining experience a reality.

I was recounting some of our more recent setbacks to a friend the other day and she stopped me with a sad look and said, “Don’t get discouraged, you guys can do it.”  I thought to myself, ‘Of course we can do it, what do you mean discouraged?” But then I suppose when you look at the list all at once it could be read as discouraging.

Since Watson’s death a mere month ago, my wife wrecked her car, our Drake went missing and was probably eaten by a fox, we lost our only remaining brown Guinea Hen to what I think was an Owl, there has been a major illness and a major accident in my family, one of our sheep was chased by a dog and frantically smashed her face into a tree ripping off part of her lip and causing herself to go permanently blind, my car died and is unrecoverable, our local bank has decided not to extend us a line of credit for the farm (which we were counting on) and to top it all off my wife had a cancer scare just last week which wonderfully turned out to be false.

Perhaps I have grown a thicker skin since the original setbacks in our first few months but the French phrase, La Petite Mort (The Little Death) as applied to orgasms can only mean death in the sense of rebirth which is how our little deaths and set backs on the farm feel these days. When confronted by impediment I am filled with emotion, there is an expenditure of energy, a rush, beginning with a weakening and ending in a fortitude –a new energy and desire to pick up the fallen rubble and build the wall again and stronger.

It has occurred to me that these little deaths and the sense of rebirth they bring are somehow timely with Easter only a few months away.  It is a reminder that our sufferings are small and circumstantial, I mean we would not have any of these problems were we not endeavoring something so great.  I guess that’s why I was a little shocked to hear my friends’ encouragements, for we have lost nothing save paying the price of entry upon our new enterprise.

Things are good these days. Moving the pigs last week was a blast. I promised a post about this but my wife covered it so much better than I could have in her blog:

http://homegrowed.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/moving-day/

I am not saying we want more Farm Orgasms, just that they happen and when they do we are phased a bit, we lay there and smoke our cigarette but then we get up and move on refreshed and ready to try harder. And that’s just life on the Farm…at least so far.

Last of all I want to mark the passing of our pet dog Watson whom I just found out a few hours ago was hit by a car and killed. We are away at a wedding as I write this and I received the phone call from our house sitter during dinner this evening. I had to leave the restaurant in tears, Lisa was devastated.

We bought Watson from the SPCA just over 3 years ago as practice for having a child which we did only after a year of having the dog. Watson was both frustrating and mightily beloved. I worked hours and hours to train that dog and for a beagle he was one of the best trained I have ever seen. He did not like other dogs, which was a pain in the butt when trying to walk him in the city. We were commenting just yesterday how fortuitous this trait became as he has been an uncanny guard dog down on the farm. Everyone said he would run away, as Beagles get on a scent and will run until they are lost, but he did not.

Watson sat on our stoop every day from morning until just after we locked the last of the birds up at dusk. He roamed in the Guineas herds and did not nip at them, he shepherded the ducks into their gate with me when he saw I was struggling. He saved the Geese from a Pit bull attack and saved all the birds from who knows how many attacks from wild animals. It is as if he knew what we needed on the farm and despite his breed and traits became the every-dog that we didn’t even realize would be one of our finest blessings so far.

He was also our house dog. Alston, who does not know yet, loves him dearly, hugs him often and is content to be with him in a room as he only is with us. I do not know what to say to our son, the word death is not known by him, to say he is gone for our two year old would imply he may return and the only words I have for Alston that he will understand is  -Watson, my son , is broken.

Watson lay by the fire every night like a damned Rockwell painting and would crawl into his chair when he knew it was time for bed, ready to be out again in the morning to protect his new home. He smelled of red peanut skins and was soft and warm like lush velvet.  He was killed on Esmont Rd. in front of our house just before dusk this January 15th 2011. No one stepped up to explain the accident, he was merely found.

I want to hold gun sites on that road I am so ravaged.  I want to wreck and rage out all the dim, narrow lights that seem only to smolder so as to prod at the flash of those who intend to shine. But I am always making an adversary of the inevitable and in turn heaping mockery onto my own impotence. There is nothing I can blame here.

I never thought I would be so devastated by this occurrence. I loved that dog dearly, so precious in all his faults, ferocious in his loyalty to us as though we’d saved his life, not from the finality of death but from the living death, the deeper agony, despair. There was an urgency in his love for us that we never deserved but held sacred because it was given. I will miss him so dearly and utterly. Goodnight Watson, goodnight old boy, goodnight.

Surrounding the Poly covered chicken coop is an electric poultry fence which we move every few weeks to rotate the manuring and useful scratching of the birds. The electric has also provided a nice buffer for the dog to become used to the birds and come to think of them as objects of her protection and not play things that become suddenly lazy when you toss them by the neck. Scout is young and we are working on her desire to want to play with the sheep which sends them off running with great caution. I say caution because I think they are comfortable enough now to not fear her, we’re getting there.

My feelings are mixed about the Poly coop. We had set out to build it on skids so that we could move it around the yard at first. In frustration at figuring out how to set the dern thing up, however, we simply stationary mounted it. The minute we finished building, it became clear how we could have easily put it on skids, such is life. The directions for setting it up relied heavily on the fact that one already knew all of the unlisted and unexplained materials and methods one needs for setting up a hoop house. A call to the manufacture resulted in dialogues such as, “Well how do we attach the plastic to the frame?” / “You staple it to the furring strips.” / “What furring strips?” / “Well what I do is buy a 2*4 and cut it into furring strips on my table saw.” / “The directions don’t mention furring strips at all. Or the need for a table saw.” / “Oh yeah well that’s the best way to do it” / “What is the other way.” “Well no, I guess I mean that is the only way to do it.” / “But why wouldn’t you make mention of that in your directions?” / “Oh they’re old” / “ …?”

There were several more calls of this nature before we got the thing up.

The apparent benefits to the hoop house is the amount of day light it provides to the birds, the low cost and (now that I have done it) ease of assembly, it’s light weight should you want to mount it on skids, it’s ample wind protection, day time heating ability and night time heat holding ability. The draw backs are that the birds tear the plastic often (though easy to amend), the fact that we did stationary mount it (our own fault) and that deep down I have an extreme distaste for plastics and composite metals. Ok, so the draw backs are few, fixable and circumstantial. The problem is that our pasture in this area is probably only about 2 acres which doesn’t really meet the standards for a movable hen house. We are able to cover a nice rotation by simply moving the electric fence. We will worry about chicken tractors when we start doing broilers. The birds have their laying boxes and a nice big roost. We take turns turning their manure into the straw for decomposition, I with my pitch fork and them by working through for the scratch I throw over the area daily. Perhaps we will build another hoop house in another part of the acreage and rotate the birds with actual greenhouse use in the future.

We have discovered that our mystery bird (a cool little perk from ordering from Murry Mcmurry) is in fact a Rooster. Not just a Rooster but a crow for half an hour at 3am every night sort of Rooster. He then crows again at the right time around 6am but the one with the other still spells Coq au Vin. I worry what our neighbors must think with the dog and the rooster all night and the endless screech of Guineas by day. Personally I like it all, but one must consider community.

We do not wish to cross bread our chickens just yet. The Rooster we did order is a New Hampshire Red and he will be isolated with the 5 New Hampshire Red Hens in an attempt to breed our own stock this Spring, that should be an adventure. The only issue is that Captain 3am seems already to be quite the little Don Juan whereas our best boy has not yet shown any signs of a young mans yearning.

Do we keep the proven cock and throw pure breeding to the wind or hope the tyke gets his sea legs about him yet? As of today we are quartering mushrooms and blanching pearl onions for the braise but we’ll see.

Finally I come to some of the other concerns of farm life and business. I think that Lisa and I have decided to call the place Red Row Farm after the street that we live on. Of all the farm names I like best it is the ones with place that strike me the most. Red Row also evokes images of the red clay soil furrows that are so much a part of turning earth in Virginia. Other options were to call it by our surname as the Richey clan (a Sept of the MacIntosh) are some of the great Scots-Irish peoples to come early to America and settle the South, first in Virginia but finally in South Carolina (Now back to Virginia God bless us.) We also considered naming the farm after the restaurant whose food she will supply, Revolutionary Soup Farm, or simply, Rev Soup Farm. I am so excited to be able to provide a farm to table experience with my own labor, and that of my team, for everyday eating prices. It is done but usually in a fine dining setting, the movement I am proud to be a part of is putting sustainable food in the realm of daily life, not the high end splurge that local food pricing can create.

I am both terrified and giddy for the lambing that we hope will take place in the Spring. The only stories you hear are the troubled ones and that is all it becomes in your mind. I have no qualms with waking up at 2am to help a lamb give birth, I have no problems reaching into her to help the newborn out, I am only worried that my novice will cause injury to the mother or child and this would cause me great sorrow. But alas, I am learning and I have a long way to go and I must always remember the words of the poet, “things fall apart.” In the context of the original poem for these words they are far more grave then for so common a scene but I have other sorrow this evening.

The sheep are twofold also. We have them for meat finally and will begin to process when the timing is right for the second generation. We also have them to amend our pasture where we have already planted 18 heirloom variety apple trees. We have plans for berry rows and further apple tree plantings in this area and hope that the grazing sheep will live in harmony with this scheme. Apart from having to cage the young trees and bushes everything is working fine so far. Our pasture grasses do need improving however and I have much work to do in this regard. I will Lime this Spring and hope that with the sheep manure it will begin the way for a much healthier growth.

I am on my third batch of hay for the sheep and have learned a valuable lesson in cutting costs. As a farmer you are always to be mindful of cutting cost, it becomes tricky when you are attempting to be a rigorous sustainable agriculture farmer because there is a lot of cheap conventional animal crap out there from food to medicine. There are a lot of cheap ways to do what we are doing but I believe strongly that it is not good for the animal or the land to succumb to these conventional methods even though the majority of agriculture is being stewarded in that way. I am not doing this to simply do it, this is only a business after everything else. I am doing it because I believe in the interconnectedness of things and have found my place in it here amongst the very things that sustain my life. I want the land and the creatures that live off it to harmonize in a way that will continue long after I am here and that means stripping off the parts that require labs, factories or anything I could not emulate myself to make this system work. It is the labs and factories that have helped agriculture rise to its heights in this country by providing the food and medicines for animals at such low costs and in such great quantity. But we have come to learn that they have done harm and it does not take more than a thought and a glance to see the harm that such an unrealistic economy of agriculture has created. I have no interest in raising animals without every kick dust of the environment that this effects taken into account.

Where was I? Oh yes, hay. The first bales I bought for the gals were from the local Coop. The sheep would not eat them and they looked a little dry to me as well. I should have asked when I bought them if they were suitable for sheep. I did not. I assume that these bales are meant for some animal but I have to agree with the sheep that the animal would have to have some pretty low standards to go for it. These bales cost me $5 a piece which seemed high to me from what I had heard. Straw cost only $3. Now I had 5 bales of $5 straw. The second batch of hay was from a farmer near Afton whose hay came recommended as adequate for only $3 a bale. Yippee! …Not Yippee. These were much greener bales, I was happy but the sheep did not seem to be. They would hardly peck at it. I had the extension agent out (best farm thing I have come across for help and resources http://offices.ext.vt.edu/albemarle/), and I asked Carrie how much hay should they be eating. I told her they had been nibbling at the one bale for almost a month now. She told me a bale every three or four days was normal. Something was wrong. Turns out the hay had a grass in it known as fox tails which can cause soars in the mouths of sheep. Ten more bales of straw to line the chicken coop with and that’s only if I want to risk letting the fox tail exist on my property, a double party fowl on the bales. I can’t just burn the hay, my inner frugal farmer won’t let me, so I have decided to risk using it as chicken bedding with the idea of carefully moving it into my compost heap and cooking all the seed heads to death before they spread. This decision stands to be one of the most foolish I have made yet.

Zach to the rescue again. I have always known Zach for a bit of a hay geek. Often he has talked long about the subject of proper hay making to me. One stands in awe of how complex a procedure hay is. I mean it really is quite a matter of skill, nature luck and knowing to make a proper bale of hay, who knew? He offered to sell me 10 more bales at $6 a bale which now seemed cheap with the assurance of having some good hay at last. The girls are loving it, chomping quickly through the beautiful pale green stalks. Lesson learned: expect to pay a little more for the right quality, “you are never rich enough to buy cheap things.”

And why did $6 a bale seem cheap? Because all of our animals are being fed organic grains from one of the other coolest things about living in our area, Countryside Organics http://www.countrysidenatural.com/. Why pay almost a third more the price to feed our livestock? Cheesy answer: It is an investment in our future that seems more real to me than having insurance. Because the more people who buy organic, the more people will turn their giant Mid West farms over to organic methods and the less I have to worry about things I can’t pronounce or comprehend having anything to do with my life. I don’t want to be subject to the product of systems that have grown too large and complex for me to understand (we’ll talk government another time) what effect they are having or why they are having effects on aspects of the world that should not concern them. Or put more simply, buying my grain should have nothing to do with the health of stream trout and other wildlife effected by intense agriculture, the existence of agro-chemical plants (which themselves have unfathomable ramifications), genetic modification or anything else monstrous and unseen. But I digress, back to the farm. Supplementing large amounts of organic grain with some $6 a bale hay has really cut down on the grain intake and has been a bit nicer to the smoking credit card.

We are counting on the pigs to thoroughly root up and manure this area for planting in the Spring. So far they have done a tremendous job with the manuring but are having trouble with rooting in the frozen ground. I can’t blame them. Our ground is frozen at least half the day which leaves little time for them to work. Our goal with this is to stave off from buying a tractor for as long as we can. This is a twofold thinking. First off, we can’t really afford one as we began this venture with no start up money whatsoever and the credit cards are still smoking from the set up we have already accomplished. But also we are truly striving for a level of self sustainability that when idealized would have it so that our pigs would do all of our plowing for us and we would never need a tractor and would thus be able to lower our carbon footprint and the level of our reliance on outside sources for gas and mechanics or what have you. Pretty dreamy I know.

We are now struggling with how to breed our pigs. I have found a suitable Boar but we are questioning the cost of maintaining such an animal for the limited production we plan on doing. Pigs eat a lot and there is nothing one can do with an uncastrated Boar except to feed and mate him. Not a bad life eh? The other option is Artificial Insemination or AI as the old hands call it. This just seems not very self sustainable/permaculture/natural to me. I would prefer not to do it but I am not going to hinder my abilities by full submersion into my philosophy, I am satisfied to walk towards my goals.

We have also heard about the prospect of borrowing a Boar, renting one or taking our Gilt to one. No one seems to be into that in this area. It seems that current research has revealed that parasites and such that have remained dormant with your livestock on your farm can prosper unexpectedly on someone else’s farm. No one wants to risk diseases and I don’t blame them.

There has been a development of possible interest in our young Weaners (young pigs that have been weaned (I giggle every time I say it) that would justify the Boar option and a continual mating cycle for our gals. This strikes me as really interesting and I will be looking further into the possibility.

A final note on the pigs. Tamworths are the breed we have selected. We chose them for their renowned rooting ability but also because the meat I have had from these pigs is by far the finest pork meat I have ever tasted. They are known as tremendous Bacon pigs but every cut or chop from the carcass is extremely flavorful and well textured. I have not tried a cured ham from one yet but intend to cure both the hams from our first cull this Spring.