Progress of Pilgrims

The Market

2010-08-06T22:29:00.002-05:00

This was the big event of the year- Strawberry Festival and our first day to sell at the market. It was a fun family experience!!
John Deere Ice Cream!
What Flavor?

The Market Part 2

2010-08-06T22:13:00.008-05:00

Farm Managers
Spray bottle battle - we are so professional!
Customer
Going Home

Sheep Shearing

2010-08-06T16:30:00.004-05:00

Sherlock has been apprenticing under a sheep shearer. This new skill not only added to his income potential, but also enabled him to shear Percy and Benjamin.

Springtime on the Farm.....and off

2010-08-06T14:55:00.008-05:00

Nap on the swing Staining the new chicken coop
The Chicken Yard
Farm Fresh Eggs
Cuteness!
Happy 15th Birthday Smokestack!
Guntersville Lake

Father and Daughter Retreat March 2010

2010-08-06T13:32:00.005-05:00

Dusting off the blog and catching up on family memories.............

A Stonewall Minute

2010-04-12T14:04:00.004-05:00

LITTLE FEET
by Edgar A. Guest

There is no music quite so sweet
As patter of a baby’s feet.
Who never hears along the hall
The sound of tiny feet that fall
Upon the floor so soft and low
As eagerly they come or go,
Has missed, no matter who he be,
Life’s most inspiring symphony.

There is a music of the spheres
Too fine to ring in mortal ears,
Yet not more delicate and sweet
Than pattering of baby feet;
Where’er I hear that pit-a-pat
Which falls upon the velvet mat,
Out of my dreamy nap I start
And hear the echo in my heart.

‘Tis difficult to put in words
The music of the summer birds,
Yet far more difficult a thing—
A lyric for that pattering;
Here is a music telling me
Of golden joys that are to be;
Unheralded by horns and drums,
To me a regal caller comes.

Now on my couch I lie and hear
A little toddler coming near,
Coming right boldly to my place
To pull my hair and pat my face,
Undaunted by my age or size,
Nor caring that I am not wise—
A visitor devoid of sham
Who loves me just for what I am.

This soft low music tells to me
In just a minute I shall be
Made captive by a thousand charms,
Held fast by chubby little arms,
For there is one upon the way
Who thinks the world was made for play.
Oh, where’s the sound that’s half so sweet
As pattering of baby feet?

A Stonewall Minute

2010-04-01T11:29:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd sneak a minute in (since the blog has been dead so long). This is a poem we particularly like:

It Couldn't Be Done
by Edgar A. Guest

Somebody said it couldn't be done.

But he with a chuckle replied,

That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one

Who wouldn't say so 'till he'd tried.

So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin

On his face. If he worried, he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't be done. And he did.

Somebody scoffed, "Oh, you'll never do that

At least no one ever has done it."

But he took off his coat, and he took off his hat,

And the first thing we know, he'd begun it.

With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,

Without any doubting or "quit-it".

He started to sing as he tackled the thing

That couldn't done. And he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done.

There are thousands to prophesy failure.

There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,

The dangers that wait to assail you.

But just buckle in, with a bit of a grin;

Just take off your coat and go to it.

Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing

That cannot be done--and you'll do it!

Snowmen!

2010-02-20T18:04:00.014-06:00

(Headless Harry)

(Thomas the Tumbler)

(Sheriff Shane)

Happenings on the Farm

2009-12-15T15:43:00.005-06:00

An update on the farm, complete with pictures, is long overdue. I have been kept fairly busy with college courses, but we have made some progress over the past few months. I processed all of my chickens and turkeys before Thanksgiving, and we have begun preparations for next year's season. Now that I have completed my first college semester, I'm free to devote all of my attention to the farm. We have many plans that we are going to be working through this winter, and with God's blessing, we hope to make an appearance at our farmers' market next spring in order to begin serving the large customer base in our county.

I processed my first flock of turkeys a few days before Thanksgiving. Despite a few technical impediments, all of the turkeys were delivered on time. We learned that turkeys are quite different than chickens, particularly in size and strength, but we still look forward to growing more next year. ;)

On my birthday, we hired a trackhoe (and owner) to do some work in our fields. The machine weighs 30,000 pounds, which was quite enough heavy metal to dig out all of our stumps, as well as putting in a drainage trench along our very wet garden plot. Everything looks like a mess, at the moment... but progress can look messy at times.

SEC Champions 2009!

2009-12-05T19:27:00.003-06:00

32-13

ROLL TIDE!

Let it Snow!

2009-12-05T12:27:00.004-06:00

Snow makes this boy very happy. =) (Actually, he smiles whenever he sees a camera.)

This Is Why Teddy Is My Hero

2009-12-02T21:11:00.005-06:00

"In the last analysis a healthy state can exist only when the men and women who make it up lead clean, vigorous, healthy lives; when the children are so trained that they shall endeavor, not to shirk difficulties, but to overcome them; not to seek ease, but to know how to wrest triumph from toil and risk. The man must be glad to do a man's work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and to keep those dependent upon him. The woman must be the housewife, the helpmeet of the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy children. In one of Daudet's powerful and melancholy books he speaks of "the fear of maternity, the haunting terror of the young wife of the present day." When such words can be truthfully written of a nation, that nation is rotten to the heart's core. When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth, where they are fit subjects for the scorn of all men and women who are themselves strong and brave and high-minded."

Theodore Roosevelt, Speech Before the Hamilton Club

Chicago, April 10, 1899

Of Food, Inc.

2009-11-16T17:10:00.010-06:00

After a long, impatient wait- during which our curiosity was only allayed by 3-minute trailers and reviews by real-food lovers- our family has finally seen the documentary Food, Inc. I have been extremely excited that a movie taking the industrial food system head-on was receiving such publicity, and my hopes were very high. I was fully pleased by the movie's presentation of the industrial food process, from chickens to corn to lettuce; the chilling message reminded me of why I feel called to produce good food. On the other hand, the positive side of the film, which presented our alternatives to factory food, did not meet my expectations.

I knew that Food, Inc. would thoroughly expose the industrial system, simply by the fact that Eric Schlosser, Joel Salatin, and Michael Pollan all contributed to the film. I prefer a slightly more rational, and less emotional, presentation of even scary facts, so the horror music and emotional appeal weren't my favorite parts. On the other hand, it is important to take food safety to a personal level, and I believe that the story of the death of Kevin Kowalcyk (caused by E. Coli-contaminated hamburger) made the situation seem much more real and personal. The images of conventional poultry, pork, and cattle production were well contrasted by the Edenic appearance of Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm.

The scenes of poultry, pork, and beef processing were an honest representation and quite appalling. I was glad to see how broad a range of issues the film covered, from contamination of the meat to worker safety. I imagine that the average American consumer seeing this film would be very surprised to see how their meat is processed. The film also reveals just how secretive the food industry is. As Joel Salatin said in the film, (I paraphrase) "If all of the slaughterhouses in the United States were built with glass walls, people would change the way they eat in a heartbeat."

Food, Inc. does not stop by exposing the meat industry; no, that is mere child's play compared to the control of farmers by ~~seed companies~~ the seed company, Monsanto. This "axis of evil" in the agricultural world has not only cornered the seed market, but claims complete ownership of seeds which have been genetically modified to resist Monsanto herbicides and pesticides. The farmers interviewed in the film reveal the legal tactics that Monsanto uses to control their customers, such as filing lawsuits (on grounds of the slightest evidence) against farmers suspected of saving Monsanto seed, even in circumstances when Monsanto knows that they can't win. In one case, Monsanto filed suit against the owner of a seed cleaning business, claiming that he was encouraging farmers to violate patent laws.

The revelation that most of our food comes from corn is surprising for the average eater, I'm sure. The nutritional impact of such a monoculture in food is not discussed in detail in the film, but Michael Pollan goes into greater detail in Omnivore's Dilemma, for those who wish to learn more. In Defense of Food, another of Pollan's books, is also well worth reading; it presents a view of eating that is profound in its simplicity.

This negative information about our food was a very thorough exposé of industrial food processing and factory farms. The other half of the movie presents the positive side of food, the alternative. This is where I was disappointed in the film, as this message of hope is delivered in two very different ways, without ever reconciling them. The first alternative system is espoused and explained by Joel Salatin, who advocates the idea of a food system that is decentralized and comprised of thousands of small farms across the nation. These small farms serve their community with food grown in a sustainable fashion that is humane to both the animals and the farmer, beneficial for the soil, and much more transparent for the sake of the consumer.

The second alternative presented is actually quite different, though someone new to the world of organic food may not have noticed, and the film seemed to blend the two as if they are harmonious. This alternative is what Michael Pollan refers to as "Big Organic", or simply an indutrial system producing food organically. This is certainly superior to conventional industrial food, but if you have a disease, is it better to control the symptoms or remove the problem? The Big Organic side is presented by Gary Hirshbeg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm, who has a passion for organics, but believes that the food solution lies in business. His factories are run in the most environmentally conscious way possible, and his viewpoint is that every dollar in organic yogurt that Stonyfield sells is benefiting the earth. Stonyfield Farm yogurt is marketed to Wal-Mart, which Hirshberg sees as a breakthrough for organic food.

Thus, two views are presented: one advocates buying from local farmers and farmers' markets, while the other supports an organic reform of the industrial system. I had hoped that Joel Salatin's vision of a country filled with small farmers who could feed their communities- which, by the way, is also far more economically stable- would dominate the positive message of the film. "Industrial organic" is a compromise that will inevitably reduce quality and transparency, the two great goals of farmers such as Joel Salatin. The Big Organic industry may offer a solution which seems more probable, but it still sacrifices the food independence which farmers and activists are fighting for, it maintains the possibility of mass contamination, it is still highly centralized, and requires a great deal of energy (in the form of petroleum) for the processing and shipping of food.

Despite my disappointment with parts of the presentation, I think this film is a breakthrough in many ways. I highly recommend it to the consideration of a candid world.

~Sherlock

"Happy Birthday!"

2009-11-07T14:23:00.003-06:00

Neglected blogs populate the digital graveyards of the internet. Perhaps this is a beneficial problem; there are more than enough well written and edifying blogs to compensate for the failed experiments cluttering the world wide web, now orphaned and dusty. I can understand the reasons that the owners of these blogs might have used to convince themselves that quietly abandoning their sites was the most humane option; there is a certain point at which the embarrassment of reviving the blog outweighs any disappointment that the death of said blog may bring.

Not being easily embarrassed, however, I'm going to bring this blog back to life. I apologize for the long silence, and I hope to have some interesting posts rolling soon. If you are reading this, give yourself a pat on the back for being such a faithful reader. However, you must have been waiting for an update, and you probably need to find a hobby. ;)

~Sherlock

Elianna Grace

2009-08-24T10:10:00.004-05:00

With grateful hearts filled with joy, we praise God for the newest blessing he has added to our family:
Elianna Grace

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord hath given me my desire which I asked of him." 1 Samuel 1:27

A Stonewall Minute

2009-08-18T12:46:00.008-05:00

Well, the public school systems are underway and all of those children are learning the great Marxist and Socialist ideals that our country was founded upon. They'll be either explicitly or implicitly learning about man's creation in order to take God out of the equation: with science, it will be evolution instead of creation; with morality, it will be Fascism instead of Christianity. They'll be having a moment of silence every morning to meditate, recite the Koran, the pledge of allegiance to Obama, etc, etc.

Okay, maybe it's not all that bad, but if the current course continues we're well on the way. I'm reading a book by Jonah Goldberg called Liberal Fascism. One particular point jumped out at me in this book. Goldberg writes: "Crisis is routinely identified as a core mechanism of fascism because it short-circuits debate and democratic deliberation. Hence all fascistic movements commit considerable energy to prolonging a heightened state of emergency." The book points to World War I as giving birth to Fascism, and the American "progressives" as being descendants of the fascist way.

Now, here we are and all I hear from the media is that health care is broken and the swine flu is going to kill us all! This may not be the height of emergency that World Wars afforded others, but it's all the "Administration" has got to grasp for right now. There's no doubt that the swine flu will be an avenue for the "Administration" to attempt to force legislation, or at least coerce the people, all justified by "achieving the common good" (i.e., denying the people their individual rights to choose). It jumped out at me how both the past and current "Administrations" have taken advantage of states of emergency in order to circumvent democratic deliberation.

I just thought you'd like to know that your government is using these same fascist tactics on WE THE PEOPLE. Now with the kids congregating in all the public flu pool schools, keep an eye on how the government plays its "emergency" card. I think it will be very telling of how far we've gotten away from being a free republic, and how close we're leaning towards becoming a socialist state. Think about this the next time the "Administration" mentions the "common good".

Stonewall out

Farm Friday

2009-08-14T21:33:00.003-05:00

This week we have continued preparing the fields which we will plant in next year. We have almost finished building a fence to divide our fields from the rest of the pasture. The next step will be to grind all of the stumps and plant a cover crop.

I also planted some late tomatoes in our hoophouse this week. We hope that they will produce late into the fall, and I'm interested to see how long they will last. Some farmers I've talked to have used hoophouses to grow tomatoes right into January.

One of our heirloom sunflowers finally bloomed this week. It turned out to be much smaller than a typical sunflower, but still beautiful.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Cuckoo for Clunkers

2009-08-13T20:46:00.002-05:00

The Cash for Clunkers program appears to be very popular among the American public, despite a few complaints about the fate of all the poor clunkers. The program is yet another manifestation of the government giving back what it takes. It's easy to forget that any money the government spends was earned in taxes that Americans paid.

This article provides an interesting overview of the program, though it focuses only on the ~~traitorous~~ ~~absurd~~ comments of a "free market" Republican, Larry Kudlow.

College Decisions

2009-08-12T08:10:00.002-05:00

I will be beginning my online college courses next week, and that being the case I wanted to write a post explaining my journey from “not going to college” to “enrolling in an online college program”. It all started last October…

I wrote this post on August 21, 2006:

"I... don't plan on going to college… I plan to farm

“College is certainly thought of extremely highly now[a]days. I've discussed with my parents how people will either think that I'm dumb or that I'm wasting my intelligence (wouldn't that be a flattering opinion?). However, I think the wisest way to think about college is how we think of most things. If it looks like it will be beneficial, then invest in it; but it is a waste of alot of time and money to go to college simply to "go with the flow" if it doesn't seem to be beneficial. Therefore, I have decided to invest the time and money in building a business and beginning a family instead of going to college."

Such were my plans until November of last year. I had no intentions of taking even online courses, for a couple of reasons. The first was the time requirement; I wanted the four years that would be required for college studies to be devoted instead to building my farm business. The second reason was the expense. I saw no purpose in sinking at least $15,000 dollars or so into a degree that I might never need, when the same money could go so far if invested in the farm.

For some reason that I can’t recall, I took the ACT test in October. Shortly before my 18^th birthday we received my scores, which opened up some opportunities that we had not considered before. We slipped in an application to the University of Alabama (UA in the rest of this post) and another college or two, just before their deadlines, and waited to see what would happen.

It has been a wild ride from there. I was accepted to both UA and my local community college, and offered a full scholarship to either one. We knew that the program would have to be online, as we certainly were not considering college instead of farming, so we drove down to UA and talked to several contacts there. To our chagrin, we learned that the program we were considering (New College), though much more open than traditional programs, still required about half of the credits towards a degree to be taken on campus.

At that point we gave up on UA. We instead looked into a Business program at Wallace State, the community college just down the road from here, which was mostly online. Wallace is just a two-year college, so for the last two years I would have transferred to Athens State, which has an online General Business program but does not offer General Education courses. This would have required me to re-apply for a scholarship when I transferred and was much less appealing than the scholarship that UA had offered.

Our expectations were turned on their head again shortly after Thanksgiving. One evening I was browsing UA’s website and looked at their Business college. There I found a link that said “Online Program”. In that serendipitous way we discovered that UA does, indeed, have some online programs, one of which is General Business. The program is completely online, which seemed like a tailored fit to my situation, and I enrolled in the program. Ironically, not one of the 6 people that we talked to at UA, all of whom knew I wanted to earn a degree online, made any mention of the possibility of my doing so.

Once our need for an online program was met, we spent a few weeks working through the requirements for a scholarship. Scholarships are intended for on-campus students, so my case was presented to the Scholarship Committee. They agreed to grant me the scholarship despite my Distance Student designation; as far as we know, I am the first scholarship online student.

Those are the facts, but they don’t reveal the massive change that it took for my parents and I to decide that pursuing a college degree was the appropriate course for me. I wish to follow the Lord’s leading in all things, and we really felt that these opportunities were doors opened by God and should be utilized. Our decisions were made with much thought and prayer- and struggling, at times.

I plan to continue growing the farm during my years in college, and I hope that the farm is earning enough profit to support a family by the time I graduate. God has blessed me with a multitude of opportunities; my duty for the next few years is to work as hard as I can to make good use of them. As Theodore Roosevelt (one of my heroes) exhorted: “I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.” I expect the next few years of my life to be more strenuous than anything I have experienced, and I have worked to make them so.

Now that we have decided that I will pursue a college degree after all, we find ourselves more honored by some of our extended family. I mourn our culture’s perception of college as the determining factor in whether one is “smart” or successful. My circumstances could have easily led me along the path I expected, of building my farm exclusively. If I had pursued that course, I believe some of my family (having deemed me lost) would have immediately started talking to Smokestack about the importance of college.

At any rate, cultural acceptance played no part in making my college decisions. Our culture also looks down on large families, farming, and homeschooling, so I’ve plunged too far over the ideological cliff to make any peace with the culture, anyway.

I’d like to close with two quotes, both from a President of the United States. Both received a college education, but the latter had a far more rigorous and impressive college career than those seen today. Don't worry, the first quote had no influence upon my decision making, but it serves to illustrate our society's beliefs about college education:

"Education is the currency of the Information Age, no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success but a prerequisite." Barack Obama

The second quote: a Biblical view of knowledge which looks at education with a proper perspective.

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” Theodore Roosevelt

Wildflowers

2009-08-10T21:34:00.004-05:00

Farm Friday

2009-08-07T22:11:00.003-05:00

Our vegetables are at their peak production now, after a very moist July, so we're enjoying cucumbers, squash, a little okra, green beans, peppers, and tomatoes large and small. I measured our tallest corn plant this evening, and found that it is 10 feet and 7 inches from ground level to the tip of the tassel.

I have been presented a couple of new opportunities this week: hoophouse vegetable production this fall, for one. I may be able to grow some vegetables for Birmingham chefs in our hoophouse. I may also have an opportunity to raise poulet rouge (chickens), a French breed of chicken highly coveted by chefs, to some restaurants as well.

I'm afraid I have no pictures; it seems I exhausted my material last week. To compensate, I include a poem composed by master John Bunyan.

MEDITATIONS UPON AN EGG.

1.

he egg's no chick by falling from the hen;
Nor man a Christian, till he's born again.
The egg's at first contained in the shell;
Men, afore grace, in sins and darkness dwell.
The egg, when laid, by warmth is made a chicken,
And Christ, by grace, those dead in sin doth quicken.
The egg, when first a chick, the shell's its prison;
So's flesh to the soul, who yet with Christ is risen.
The shell doth crack, the chick doth chirp and peep,
The flesh decays, as men do pray and weep.
The shell doth break, the chick's at liberty,
The flesh falls off, the soul mounts up on high
But both do not enjoy the self-same plight;
The soul is safe, the chick now fears the kite.

2.

But chicks from rotten eggs do not proceed,
Nor is a hypocrite a saint indeed.
The rotten egg, though underneath the hen,
If crack'd, stinks, and is loathsome unto men.
Nor doth her warmth make what is rotten sound;
What's rotten, rotten will at last be found.
The hypocrite, sin has him in possession,
He is a rotten egg under profession.

3.

Some eggs bring cockatrices; and some men
Seem hatch'd and brooded in the viper's den.
Some eggs bring wild-fowls; and some men there be
As wild as are the wildest fowls that flee.
Some eggs bring spiders, and some men appear
More venom'd than the worst of spiders are.
Some eggs bring pisants, and some seem to me
As much for trifles as the pisants be.
Thus divers eggs do produce divers shapes,
As like some men as monkeys are like apes.
But this is but an egg, were it a chick,
Here had been legs, and wings, and bones to pick.

Make My Day!

2009-08-05T20:20:00.002-05:00

Farm Friday

2009-07-31T21:16:00.006-05:00

Without further delay, here is the promised Farm "Friday" post. I have tried to make up for my tardiness with a full update on farm life and more than a few pictures.

I started working for three days every week at Birdsong Community Farm in February, where I learned much about running a farm on both the production and marketing aspect. My time there also strengthened my friendship with Josh and family, which is a continuing blessing. I am working solely at our farm now, as Josh has decided to close his farm in order to devote more time to ministry. He hopes to transition his customers over to me, which will be enormously helpful to me as I grow our farm. I'm afraid that it will be a disappointment to our area's local eaters at first, as I am not ready to supply the amount of food that Birdsong has been producing, but hopefully I can catch up soon and provide the fans of fresh, natural, local produce with the food they love.

As if that opportunity was not enough for me, I was contacted a week or two ago by Mr. Hume, a man with another venue for my produce. I had met Mr. Hume at a farm conference in January, where he let me know that he was a friend or acquaintance of many of the chefs in Birmingham. He sells several particular products to fine restaurants (including those of Frank Stitt) and upscale markets, all of which are grown by farmers within 50 miles of Birmingham. When Mr. Hume heard that I was no longer working at Birdsong, he set up a meeting between us (before anyone else could get to me, as he put it :), where he offered to bring me in to the group of farmers that supply his markets.

Thus the Lord continues to bless our farm, and we're working hard to make good use of the opportunities which He has given to us. I have mapped out my fields for next year and we will soon begin to dig out stumps and sow cover crops. I hope to grow about half of an acre in vegetables next year, while continuing to grow chickens, keep layers, and establish a flock of sheep.

Meanwhile, there are 150 meat chickens, 15 turkeys, 30 hens, and 2 sheep on the pasture. Our garden continues to yield a bountiful harvest, in some cases a more bountiful harvest than we can manage. Now we are preparing to plant our fall crops, such as broccoli, lettuce, chard, turnip greens, rutabagas, kale and carrots.

Now for the pictorial tour of the farm. All of the pictures are clickable.

The turkeys should be ready to process soon. I'm going to weigh them tomorrow.

This is Percy, the movie star, with Benjamin (a.k.a. Big Ben) in the background.

I think this is a banana pepper. Many of our peppers lost their labels and were mixed up.

I planted Cucumber-Leafed Sunflowers, and they look like they will bloom soon.

You must click this picture to see what Smokestack is looking at.

This is the Goliath among our corn. We haven't measured it yet, but it's at least 10 feet tall. That's the nice thing about planting old heirloom varieties: you never know quite what you'll get. We planted Texas Honey June sweet corn.

These are Matt's Wild Cherry tomatoes. They have a very nice sweet-tart flavor and are extremely prolific.

Here's a random shot of the Matt's Wild cherry tomatoes to prove their prolificacy.

Not all of our tomatoes look like this, but this plant is loaded. These are Homestead tomatoes.

Acorn squash. We ate the first one with lunch today and were very pleased with the flavor and texture. The plants are running way out of their proper bounds and are covered in squash.

I think this is a pumpkin. We didn't plant pumpkins, but apparently some pumpkin seed slipped into the packet of acorn squash seeds.

Watermelon! This one's a Clay County Yellow Meat, developed in Clay County, Alabama.

This is a banana melon. It will turn yellow when it ripens and is supposed to taste somewhat like a banana, but with salmon-pink flesh.

Another watermelon. This one is a Moon and Stars.

This squash must have been missed more than once. I put my cell phone (the only available object) next to it for perspective. I think this is the biggest summer squash we've had.

There are cucumbers everywhere. We've made a gallon and a half of pickles already.

And finally, our Burgundy okra. I love the coloring, but they will turn green when cooked.

Have a great week,

Sherlock

Farm Friday

2009-07-10T23:08:00.005-05:00

After a two week hiatus, here is a real farm friday post. Our garden is filling out now and the squash and green beans are beginning to bear. The tomatoes have not ripened yet, but there are many green tomatoes on the vines. The rest of the plants are filling out and will hopefully bring their harvest soon.

I sold the goats on Wednesday, and although we still have our dairy goats, I am not having nearly as many problems while doing my chores now. They were good goats, and I hope they do well for their new owner.

Next week I will elaborate on our new chicken prospects; we must save something for later. For now, they are growing happily in the pasture. The turkeys are getting very large now as well, and are just beginning to gobble.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Independence Day

2009-07-04T21:29:00.002-05:00

On this day 233 years ago, the most important document up to its time in the history of the American colonies was read before the troops by General George Washington. I don't think that the impact of the Declaration of Independence is well understood today; our society rarely seems to consider history. When those 56 men signed the Declaration, they knew that the act would be branded as treason. They were marked for systematic persecution. I found a wonderful article about the terrible sufferings of many of the Signers.

Independence Day is my favorite holiday. It embodies the spirit of liberty and patriotism- not to the Government, but to the country- which inspired the founders of this country. It offers an opportunity to consider our own day, as we see our liberties eroding. If called upon, would I have the courage that these great men displayed: a courage that defied the greatest military power on Earth and scorned loss of property, torture, and death? I fear that the true Spirit of '76 is rarely found now.

God has used the United States mightily for the advancing of his kingdom. It is often said that America was founded as a "Christian nation". Some of the Signers of the Declaration do not appear to have been Christians; however, the culture was heavily influenced by true Christianity, so even the unbelieving Signers thought and wrote as the believers did. Without the Christian foundation that our country was founded on, liberty would have been meaningless , a vain concept. See the French Revolution- a bloodbath.

Much is made of John Locke's influence upon American Independence, but Locke borrowed his thinking from the Scottish worthy Samuel Rutherford. Rutherford penned the revolutionary tome Lex Rex in 1644, in which he stated that the King was ruled by the law and not superior to it. Rutherford's book was also considered treason at the time, and the principles outlined in it were embodied in the Declaration of Independence's list of the wrongs and injustices of King George III.

What a blessing it would be if our country was governed by statesmen which displayed the courage and understanding of the Signers. Instead, secular philosophies have displaced the ancient wisdom, and apathetic citizens watch as their government gratifies them with one hand while stealing their freedom with the other. Our nation has fallen away from its foundation on God's law and instead turns to man for guidance. It is steeped in sins of murder and idolatry. We must pray for repentance and reform for our land: otherwise we will never save the nation for which the Signers sacrificed so much.

Farm Friday

2009-07-03T23:13:00.003-05:00

Farm Friday

2009-06-26T22:46:00.002-05:00

This week has been much slower than previous weeks, due to the fact that we have finished all of our planting. Now we are simply keeping everything watered and weeded. Our green beans are beginning to produce, but otherwise there has been nothing of note.

Have a great weekend,
Sherlock

Farm Friday

2009-06-19T20:07:00.005-05:00

I'm happy to be blogging tonight after surviving the hottest week so far this year; the daytime temperatures this week were all in the mid-90s. With that said, the broiler chicks are very comfortable, and we're not having any more trouble with wet soil. In fact, I set up our drip irrigation system today.

Our garden consists of 8 60' rows that are 4 feet wide, with 2' paths in between. Drip irrigation makes watering the garden as simple as filling up a barrel. We have a 55 gallon barrel, uphill from our garden, which is fitted with a pipe, valve, and filter. Two header lines run out of the filter and along one side of the garden. At each bed the header is fitted with one or two 'T' fittings which allow us to connect the driplines. The driplines themselves are basically just hoses with holes in them, but they are designed to flow evenly and resist clogging. The lines run the length of the bed and are tied off at the ends. To water the garden we simply fill the barrel with water and open the valve, and we can calculate how much water we wish to apply.

In the pasture, we have planted popcorn and Southern peas inside a goat-resistant fence (I've learned not to say goat-proof, it's an oxymoron). We also have some buckwheat planted in the hoophouse as a cover crop and green manure.

This isn't exactly farm-related, but I noticed what seems to be a geological phenomenon in one of our ditches. This ditch is cut down to the stone underneath, which is sedimentary and really soft. Normally, the layers run horizontally, but as I was walking by today I noticed a section that is positioned vertically. I don't see an explanation, because there is horizontal layering on either side, but it's interesting. The first picture shows normal layers, and the second is an overhead shot of the vertical layers.

Tomorrow I'll be selling at the farmers' market for Birdsong Community Farm, so stop by if any of you are passing through. =)

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

$ 4 txting

2009-06-17T20:49:00.004-05:00

As I drove home tonight from a long day of hard, sweaty work in the fields, I was listening to NPR news, as is my wont. I know that it's liberal, but there isn't any music on the radio fit to listen to. The van was just beginning to cool down to a reasonable 90 degrees when I heard the story: a 15 year old girl has won $50,000 in the national texting championship. Now, I'm so far behind the technological curve that I can't even see the curve, so it is needless to say that I found it surprising that a championship exists for pressing phone buttons.

I get paid well for the work I put in, but I'm afraid I would have to work for quite some time before I earned 50 grand. When I first heard the story, I thought that perhaps I should take up texting as my new career. Then I remembered that I'm 18 and have only sent 5 text messages before, so I decided that we need to prevent discretion against luddites and create a new championship- one that I would have a chance at.

*drumroll*

I reveal here, for the first time ever, my plans for the National Tomato Planting Contest. I'm still looking for a sponsor to provide the $50K prize, but this contest could be BIG. Televised, even. The event would take place next spring, at select farms in our area, and would involve a few rounds of planting tomato transplants. The contestants must dig the holes, throw in some compost and lime, plant the tomatoes, and water them. Then, we wait a few weeks to check survivability, compare the survival rate and times, and narrow down the contestants with more rounds until there is a winner. After it's all over, the farmers provide our community with lots of tomatoes. Not only do we have fun wasting money and competing, but after it's over there is a useful result!

Farm Friday

2009-06-12T20:40:00.005-05:00

This week was a productive one here at the farm, with enough dry weather to get our work done and enough rain to help our seeds to germinate. Everything has been planted now, so we're (very optimistically) looking forward to some summer lettuce, corn, green beans, tomatoes, winter squash, melons, summer squash, cucumbers, peppers, okra, eggplant, popcorn, and black-eyed peas.

My second round of broiler chicks arrived this morning and have settled happily into the brooder.

They can be quite the gluttons 8)

I thought I would add a little education to this post, so I won't be offended if you fall asleep. A large part of the difficulty in creating new pasture is a natural process called ecological succession. Simply put, when land is abandoned, it reverts to it's natural state. Where we live, the land tries to revert to forest; all of this area was solid forest at one time. Thus, in order to create pasture we must move succession backwards, which is always time consuming. Our pasture was planted to crops at one time, then around 30 years ago it was in pasture. It was then abandoned and followed the normal succession for this area: grass>leafy weeds>woody brush>trees. All of these stages can be seen on our land, and even where we have grass there are still some weeds- but the sheep will take care of those.

Grass (a very nice patch, of course:)

Leafy Weeds

Woody Brush

The picture below is a good example of what our farm is like right now. You can see that the woody brush begins as soon as our garden ends; we are still very much in a pioneer stage of taming the land and making it useful. We plan on expanding the garden into that brushy area, which was part of the woods last fall.

I also wanted to mention a documentary (which we have been looking forward to for quite some time) called Food, Inc. The movie includes interviews and commentaries with real-food heroes like Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, and Eric Schlosser, and sets out to reveal the truth about our industrial food system. I look forward to seeing how widespread a reception it gets, as it brings a message which needs to be spread. It has now been released, unfortunately only in a few large cities. Tell everyone whom you know that eats!

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Goodbye Goats

2009-06-10T21:01:00.003-05:00

Our experience with goats here at Windy Creek Farm started before we even lived on this land. We used our brush goats to clear the pasture in order to clear it for planting to grass (and they do love brush), and to keep it clear as the grass grew. ~~Fortunately~~ Unfortunately, it is time for them to go. They have been causing problems and the pasture doesn't really need them anymore. It's not that I have a problem with goats in general, but lately my goats and I just haven't been able to get along.

The goats wander the whole pasture, including the areas where I move the chicken pens. Goats absolutely love chicken feed. This makes chores difficult, because as soon as I set a bucket down there are at least three goat heads stuck into it. They're even rude enough to stick their heads into the buckets while I'm carrying them. Now, that just gets my goat.

Besides that, they are rough on the chicken pens. Goats get itchy, and they love to rub against the chicken wire on the walls of the pens. As a result, the chicken wire often stretches and comes loose, making repairs necessary. Direct assaults have taken place as well; just a few days ago, the goats broke into the hen pen and ate the feed. The chickens got out, of course, and half of them were killed or eaten by an as yet unknown predator. This dropped my egg production from 12 to 4 per day.

Abigail, whom we bottlefed, was terribly spoiled as a child, and she shows it. She should have been named Nellie. She's small enough to jump out of the fence, and just today she found the garden delightful. She nibbled, more or less destructively, on the beans, corn, and lettuce. I'm sure that she will enjoy her new home at Pa Paw's house- he has a great goat fence.

Worms have been a constant worry with goats until this year. We lost all of last year's kid crop to barberpole worms, a particularly virulent type, but this year the goats have stayed healthy. We did lose one goat kid recently; somehow it strayed onto the county road and was run over.

These are the reasons for selling the goats. All of them will be sold as soon as the kids are weaned, except for our milk goats Patty and Dixie, whom I have not yet convinced my mother to sell. With the goats leaving, we plan to replace them with a more polite, refined animal: sheep. I hope they live up to their reputation.

My Graduation

2009-06-06T20:56:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago we celebrated my high school graduation with friends and family. I believe that the majority of this blog's readers were actually at the graduation, but I thought I would give a brief account with a few observations.

The ceremony was held at our church. My pastor delivered a message exhorting me to hold fast to Christ and Scripture despite the pressures of the world; not to simply "make it" through life safely, but to strive after God's will and become an instrument in His hands that can accomplish much for His glory. I pray that I achieve that goal, through God's grace, and make my pastor's day.

My father gave me my charge, which was summed up in three points. He exhorted me to become a man of valor, integrity, and vision. Valor, meaning "strength of mind or spirit that enables a person to encounter danger with firmness." In the face of a world that is hostile to biblical principle, this virtue will be a necessity. Integrity, without which no character can be developed. Vision, so that I have the foresight to think of future generations when I make decisions, in order that our family can continue to glorify God on earth.

I have adopted these three words as my motto, to remind me always of the charge which I was blessed to receive. Any good motto must be in Latin, of course:

Valerus, Integritas, Vides

Farm Friday

2009-06-05T20:25:00.006-05:00

This post is continuing a weekly "column" that you may remember from some time ago.

The past few weeks have been busy and exciting. Spring is the busy season for farmers, and this year has been unusually wet. As a result, planting has been delayed and some crops even lost, which means that things are still very busy. Almost all of our garden, which is wet even in a normal year, has been planted now. We still have a few things which we hope to plant tomorrow.

The garden stands in striking contrast to the wilderness of brush growing around it. The rain has caused enormous growth in the brush, and the weedeater has been busy just keeping the areas we walk and work on clear. These rows have just been planted to squash, melons, and cucumbers. (All of the pictures I took are either dark or blurred, due to the fact that I didn't get around to taking them until dusk. After all, I'm a farmer, not a photographer.)

The green beans are doing well, because green beans don't know what else to do.
We started our tomatoes from seed and planted them out while it was raining. I've found that rain doesn't actually hurt you.

The squash is just beginning to sprout.

Our corn is an heirloom variety called Texas Honey June, which is supposed to have a honey-like taste and good resistance to earworms. We didn't have very good germination, so I replanted some today. I also sowed white clover with the corn so that I will have a cover crop ready to turn under as soon as the corn is harvested.

I couldn't get a very good picture of the goat kids, but here is the best shot.

The pullets which I started in February should begin laying in a month.

The turkeys have done very well, and I just moved them out to pasture. I still have 17 out of the 20 which I ordered. They look and sound much different than chickens, especially with their extremely long necks.

Our two lambs, Percy and Benjamin, are getting along well. Both of them are growing faster than I would have expected- much faster than goat kids. Unfortunately, I took the pictures of the lambs last, so they're very dark.

These flowers caught my eye on my way in, so I thought I would include pictures of them. We have many hydrangeas growing wild along the edges of our woods.

Tomorrow we plan to continue our planting with more squash, cucumbers, peppers, and okra. We also hope to plant some popcorn to sell at the market next year, and some purple hull peas.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Government Motors

2009-06-03T22:32:00.002-05:00

This CNN article gives the facts on GM's bankruptcy. Does anyone else wonder if politicians feed their brains with twinkies and soda? The U.S. government poured $19.4 billion down the GM drain to save the company, and it went bankrupt anyway. None of this comes close to surprising me, but $30 billion more? It's so strange that I feel like I'm missing something. And stating that "the taxpayers" own 60% of the company just makes me laugh. The only taxpayers who will have any control of GM are politician taxpayers (those politicians who pay them, that is, not Obama's cabinet).

My favorite article about the GM bankruptcy came, surprisingly, from public radio. Marketplace aired a report on it. This is the best part:

"...it's difficult to find a public purpose behind this biggest industrial bailout in history. The goal can't be to preserve jobs because the Treasury has been telling GM to slim down; and the company plans to shut 11 factories and lay off 21,000 workers.

If the goal is a much smaller and leaner GM that might be profitable one day, that's something the private sector is better able to do than government -- through workouts or bankruptcies -- and there's no reason for public involvement.

If the goal is to create a prototype for a fuel-efficient car of the future, Congress has already appropriated money for that, and the Treasury says it doesn't want to tell the new GM what to produce anyway.

If the goal is to repay the public, there's no point in putting up the public's money to begin with.

So why exactly are we doing this? Maybe because the sudden dissolution of an American icon like GM would be a blow to the American psyche, further eroding confidence during this deep recession. Yet under normal bankruptcy the GM brand would likely live on, and GM's other valuable pieces would be bought up. Over the next decade or so, GM as we've known it will likely disappear in any event."

How encouraging! The government makes yet another wonderful investment to insure that future generations won't have any economic woes- and will drive Corvettes.

An Unpleasant Experience

2009-06-01T22:19:00.004-05:00

This is the result of my drive home from work last Thursday evening. It involved a ditch and some loose gravel, and Tater didn't come through so well. The accident resulted in a near 180, ending in the ditch; a bucket was thrown out of the back 20 feet uphill, and a crack developed across the windshield. We don't know the full extent of the damage, but something's wrong with the transmission-we had to drive him home in reverse. I was uninjured, and I am pleased to report that the seatbelts in this '84 Chevy work well (I had often wondered...).

The Lord worked things out, as He always does. First, of course, in that I wasn't injured. A volunteer firefighter also "happened" to drive by, and he stopped to direct traffic and pull Tater out with his big four-wheel drive. Despite the scare and the damage, this accident just offers another opportunity to glorify God for His preservation and care for us, though we have nothing to offer in return.

Earth Day

2009-04-22T18:46:00.004-05:00

Today marks the 29th occurrence of Earth Day, a "day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment" (quoted from the Wikipedia article). Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson due to his concern about dangers to the environment, particularly overpopulation, although it united advocates for many different aspects of environmental concern. These included extinction of animal species, herbicides and pesticides, and global cooling :).

The first Earth Day is considered to have been the beginning of the modern environmental movement. This movement is now composed largely of liberals and/or former hippies. Due to that unfortunate fact, the issues raised by these environmental groups are often dismissed offhand by Christian conservatives, despite their validity in some cases.

Of course, global cooling is no longer a concern raised on Earth Day; global warming has taken its place as the war cry of environmentalists. Global warming is too large a topic to discuss in one post, but I certainly don't agree with it, as I've seen no convincing evidence to prove that the Earth will indeed meet its fate in fiery temperatures that will soon force us into underground cave-homes.

Another huge topic among environmentalists is clean energy. Even if carbon emissions from the burning of petroleum products are not a concern, there are other reasons to pursue clean energy sources. First, these clean energy sources- such as wind, water, hydrogen, and electricity- are sustainable, while petroleum may become scarce at some point in the future. Secondly, these sources of energy are not tied to empires of wealth in the Middle East or the political situations in that region. Thus, while oil prices are prone to myriads of variables, the price for clean energy would be quite stable.

Christian Conservation

Stewardship of our environment is an important responsibility for all humans, but especially for Christians. As Christians we are to be an example to the world in all areas of life, and only Christians, or those influenced by Christian principles, can have a true understanding of good stewardship. Through scripture we know that:

God created the universe and all that is in it, out of nothing (Genesis Chapter 1).

Thus, God is Lord of all creation including mankind, but God has given mankind the responsibility of caring for the rest of creation (Genesis 1:28).

Christians should be ashamed that the environmental movement is so heavily populated by pantheists. It should have been Christians that spearheaded the movement towards environmental consciousness and stewardship, but instead they have largely remained silent. Therefore, instead of worshipping "Mother Earth" today, I praised God for the beauty of the earth, I planted tomatoes and squash, and I wrote this blog post.

As a farmer, stewardship of the environment is a daily task for me; in every decision I make, I choose farming methods that improve the land, rather than simply mining it. I hope that my children, if the Lord so blesses me, will build on my efforts and continue improving the piece of creation which God has given us to tend.

Note: My understanding of Christian stewardship was largely shaped by Francis Schaeffer's Pollution and the Death of Man, and I highly recommend it. Schaeffer breaks the issue down to basics, and then explains the importance of stewardship, in his clear, logical manner.

Turning in the Cover Crop

2009-04-21T18:44:00.005-05:00

We turned our cover crop under on Saturday, which is the biggest milestone of spring. First we mowed down the entire garden, then we used a 4' tiller to make beds, leaving 2' paths between the beds. We're trying to buy all of our tractor equipment in 4' widths so that we can use the same beds every year, thus confining compaction (from the tractor tires) to the paths. This will also allow us to improve the beds without wasting compost or minerals on the paths, which will never grow any food.

"Whew! Farming is hard work!"

Farm Friday Kickoff!

2009-04-17T22:58:00.005-05:00

Spring is here in full bloom! The trees are glowing in fresh green, the air is warm, and the birds are singing, so it's time to begin my Farm Friday posts for 2009. Spring is the busiest time of year for farmers, and the next two months will certainly be busy for us!

The poultry have already arrived at Windy Creek Farm. The pullets that I raised last year have finally begun laying, so they occupy one hoop coop moving over the pasture.

I started my first broilers about five weeks ago, so they are also on the pasture in a new, smaller hoop coop.

My modified Salatin-style pen holds 80 chickens, half of which should be pullets. These should start laying in July.

My very first flock of turkeys arrived yesterday. I ordered just 20 poults to start with, while I learn how to raise them. Turkeys are considered to be a very difficult animal to raise.

Smokestack wants to start a small hatchery, and he's building his flock of breeding hens. He is starting with Rhode Island Reds and Black Australorps, although the famous Buff Orpingtons Nelson and John Winthrop have joined his breeding program. I never thought that I'd meet chickens who could strike a pose for a photo.

Smokestack's rabbits are multiplying every day. Last time I counted he had 5 new bunnies, and thanks to some serious barricades and Cocoa, we haven't had any more trouble with dogs.

The bees are growing as quickly as the rabbits this spring. Smokestack and our Grandpa split our two hives, and then both hives swarmed, so now we're up to 6 hives- and there are four more hives coming in the mail! (It took a lot of courage to get this picture.)

A few weeks ago we acquired Benjamin, a Dorset ram. I am going to sell my goats and replace them with sheep this year, so he will be my breeding ram. He's cute now, but I'm told that in 6 months he should weigh 200 pounds.

The goats are doing well, as goats are supposed to do. That's a novel idea at our farm. They're happy as long as they can sneak a bite of chicken feed when I'm not looking.

I built a small impromptu greenhouse to hold our transplants. We've got four varieties of tomatoes, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, pimento peppers, several varieties of lettuce, some very late cabbage, and several types of flowers.

We've planted sugar snap peas in the garden, and tomorrow we'll be turning in our cover crop of cereal rye and crimson clover. After that we'll be putting in most of our vegetables in short order.

We have many plans for expanding our gardens as my farming goals have shifted to include more horticulture. We cleared some small trees to extend our current garden and we will be fencing part of the pasture in order to grow vegetables instead of grass. We also have a hoophouse in the process of construction.

Our mascots Cocoa and Abigail are doing their best to promote our farm, while Tiger just takes catnaps. Abigail will be kidding very soon, and judging by her girth we'll have two new mascots. ;)

Well, it's usually the cat who's napping. :D

On Wednesday we took a trip to BC Hunt Farms in Prattville to pick strawberries. I met the Hunts in November at the ASAN conference and visited their farm afterwards. They have a U-pick strawberry operation, and as far as I have seen they are the only commercial strawberry farm in the state that doesn't use any herbicides or pesticides. We brought home 10 gallons and probably ate two gallons in the field! I hadn't eaten any fresh strawberries since last spring, so eating my first strawberry of this season, with a palate unjaded by Californian strawberry-like-objects, was a wonderful experience.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

The Oak Tree

2009-04-04T21:23:00.016-05:00

Thursday night's storms brought down a big oak tree in our pasture. We were sad because it was the most beautiful tree we had in the pasture. However, we were thankful that no one, including our goats, and bees were hurt. (The tree was located close to each.) The only damage was to the fence, which could have been much worse and a metal gate in our catch-pen. The tree knocked both our power and phone lines down. It also fell across our road, so we were trapped in until morning, when Stonewall and his dad could start cutting it up. The power company did come out at 3:30 a.m. to fix the power. We got to listen to chains saws, in what seemed the middle of the night. Another adventure here on the farm!!

HR 875 and Food Safety

2009-03-31T09:38:00.003-05:00

I am sure that most of our readers are familiar with HR 875, a bill currently referred to committee in Congress. A cry has arisen from bloggers and concerned citizens, warning that this bill will “effectually criminalize organic farming” and could “technically make it illegal to grow a tomato in your backyard.” Those statements certainly sounded alarming to me; if they were true I would be out of business. They also sounded improbable: after all, the USDA has an entire Department devoted to regulating and collecting fees from organic farms, and it is physically impossible for an already undermanned USDA or Health Department to inspect every small farm and backyard to be sure that no illegal produce is being grown.

In order to find the truth of the matter, I looked up the text of the bill itself. It is titled “Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009.” The purpose of the bill is stated as being “To establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.” I thought that stating a purpose was unnecessary after reading the last bit.

The definitions come next. The legislators must be careful to define words with hazy meanings such as “food”. Of most importance are the terms “Food Establishment” and Food Production Facility”. The first term refers to any slaughterhouse, meat or vegetable processing facility, or warehouse (restaurants are not included.) Most of HR 875 concerns these establishments.

The term “Food Production Facility” refers to “any farm, ranch, orchard, vineyard, aquaculture facility, or confined animal-feeding operation.” In Section 206 we find the regulations regarding Food Production Facilities. If one reads through the several parts of this section, a few points will probably raise red flags.

First, the new Food Safety Administration is given authority for several actions, most of which can already take place in some form. I will list them one at a time and comment.

(1) visit and inspect food production facilities in the United States and in foreign countries to determine if they are operating in compliance with the requirements of the food safety law;

Inspectors can visit farms to make sure they comply with the standards which are listed later in the bill. Farm inspection already takes place; for example, to sell at our local farmers’ market, an inspector must see our farm and grant me a Grower’s Permit. If I wish to sell eggs at the Market, the Health Department must inspect the refrigerators in which they are kept. These inspections are friendly visits, and farmers who are routinely inspected often come to know their inspector personally.

(2) review food safety records as required to be kept by the Administrator under section 210 and for other food safety purposes;

The records mentioned are for the purpose of tracing food-borne illness back to the source. Section 210 does not specify exactly what must be recorded, but I suspect that records will only be required for commercial farmers. Farmers selling produce only to local consumers, either directly or through farmers’ markets, cannot cause widespread food-borne illness and are much harder to track.

(3) set good practice standards to protect the public and animal health and promote food safety;

This sounds like “Best Management Practices” (BMP), which are already in place. Currently, BMP's are designed to protect the environment, particularly the groundwater and waterways.

(4) conduct monitoring and surveillance of animals, plants, products, or the environment, as appropriate;

This seems very similar to point (1). Perhaps this point intends to allow frequent inspections, rather than a one time visit. This close monitoring could only be practiced on the larger farms (remember, it costs money to hire inspectors), or on farms which have previously shown cause for concern. A farmer who is held accountable to his customers undergoes much more thorough inspection than this.

(5) collect and maintain information relevant to public health and farm practices.

I would like to see consumers more informed about farm practices, but the truth about chicken grown on factory farms would hurt large corporations. The information which this clause intends to be collected and maintained would probably be far less useful.

Next we see everyone's favorite section, Regulations. Here is the text:

(c) Regulations- Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and representatives of State departments of agriculture, shall promulgate regulations to establish science-based minimum standards for the safe production of food by food production facilities. Such regulations shall--

(1) consider all relevant hazards, including those occurring naturally, and those that may be unintentionally or intentionally introduced;

(2) require each food production facility to have a written food safety plan that describes the likely hazards and preventive controls implemented to address those hazards;

(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertilizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;

(4) include, with respect to animals raised for food, minimum standards related to the animal’s health, feed, and environment which bear on the safety of food for human consumption;

(5) provide a reasonable period of time for compliance, taking into account the needs of small businesses for additional time to comply;

(6) provide for coordination of education and enforcement activities by State and local officials, as designated by the Governors of the respective States; and

(7) include a description of the variance process under subsection (d) and the types of permissible variances which the Administrator may grant under such process.

There are two parts of this that might sound problematic at first, namely point (3) and (4). I believe that this clause in point (3) may be leading to the statements about this bill outlawing organic farming: "minimum standards related to fertilizer use". Once again, pay attention to the grammar. It is not setting a minimum amount of fertilizer applied to crops (which any farmer would tell you is an absurd notion), but setting minimum standards for safe fertilizer use. This is more likely to limit how much, how often, or what kind of fertilizer may be applied.

The other parts of point (3) are already regulated under other laws to some extent. Again, regulations in these areas will be applied primarily to commercial growers (those selling to wholesale dealers and grocery stores), as smaller growers selling retail are too numerous to regulate so precisely. Point (4) calls for minimum standards in raising animals. These standards will undoubtedly fall far short of humane treatment, since that would outlaw most CAFO's.

It may seem at this point that I am in favor of the bill, but that is far from the truth. If you haven't already, please contact your representative and tell them to vote No on this bill if it makes it through Committee. The problem with HR 875 is not the part about farms; the problem is the rest of the bill, the parts that apply to the "Food Establishments". These regulations are framed in the same way as regulations on eggs and chicken processing. Just as the regulations make no distinction between a farmer growing and processing a few thousand chickens per year and a slaughterhouse moving 100,000 chickens through in a day, this bill makes no distinction between huge processing facilities owned by multi-national conglomerates and small, family-owned processing facilities. HR 875 could potentially put those small processing facilities out of business, so it needs to be voted down.

The purpose of HR 875 is to modernize and improve food safety, but can it really accomplish that? No matter how much information the FDA has to trace food to its source, it is useless until someone gets sick. Then, because of our massively centralized food system, many other people could become sick before the food is recalled. This reactionary policy may be the best tool that the FDA has, but it falls far short of solving our food safety problem.

With that said, I'm not the sort of person to give a question without answering it. I believe that we can assure food safety for our nation, but the answer won't be found in the government. The only way to keep food safe is to take a simple, but revolutionary, step. Encourage small farmers to supply the food to their local communities. This is not a step forward, but a step back in time. Such a step would decentralize our food network, create more sustainable communities, and provide a living for thousands of young people who would like to farm but see no way to make a living at it.

Once small farmers are feeding the nation, their farms can be inspected by their customers. Apparently the FDA and USDA think customers too stupid to assess the cleanliness of a farm, but this manner of inspection is more rigorous than anything that the government provides. The dirty farmers would be pushed out of business before you could say salmonella. You, the eater, hold the key to food safety in your hands. Vote for local agriculture with your food dollar: buy from your local farmers.

Edited to add: I forgot to mention another point against this bill. It mentions NAIS (the National Animal Identification System), a monstrosity which the USDA sponsors. NAIS would require every animal to be tracked from birth until death, but thankfully, NAIS has received widespread opposition and is not in effect. It is interesting to note that attempts to make NAIS compulsory in certain states have failed: the states ran over their budgets in legal fees. However, HR 875 relates to the FDA while NAIS relates to the USDA, so this bill is separate from and does not affect NAIS.

A Stonewall Minute

2009-02-20T08:40:00.003-06:00

Just a couple quotes for you to think about:

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." (Partly Attributed to Thomas Jefferson and others)

"if we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." - Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 29 November 1802

Understand of course all this is just "worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

"We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness." - Barack Hussein Obama

I forgo the scripture reference problem above for the sake of my time limit, but how do we determine which is our better history? Probably the history you agree with, right? Ignore the rest, right?--- And since when did God promise that all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness? Rick Warren must have whispered that in his ear. You'd think if this was a God-given promise that he'd given his own son the same chance, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief".

So to recap: reject historical truths, choose the history you like, rely on your own reasoning, make up your own promises that sound nice and make them sound holy by attributing them to God...

God have mercy on our land and please raise up God fearing patriots again to reform it, before it's too late.

I want my full measure of happiness! Rid me of this enormous, overbearing, debt ridden, irresponsible, short sighted, wicked, socialist monster of today's federal government. I want my God-given promise that you say I deserve. The best government is the smallest government, doing what God intended it to do, no more.
Stonewall

Chicks!

2009-02-18T11:13:00.008-06:00

My chicks arrived today at 6:30 in the morning. I got 9 Black Australorps and 9 Rhode Island Reds, as well as 9 Buff Orpingtons for Miss Poppins.

The red chick in this picture is a Rhode Island Red (unfortunately it wouldn't look at the camera).

The chick in the middle of this picture is one of Miss Poppins' Buff Orpingtons.

The black chicks in the middle of this picture are Black Australorps.

~ Smokestack

A Stonewall Minute

2009-02-03T09:00:00.003-06:00

Here's a bit for your blood pressure:

Having More Than 2 Kids Will Destroy Planet, Environmentalist Says
This is from a fox news article dated Monday, February 02, 2009 quoted from the Sunday Times in the UK.

Couples who have more than two children are being "irresponsible" by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the British government's green adviser warned.
Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government's Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming.
He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.
A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning.
"I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate," Porritt said.

Mr. Porritt, you will not be unapologetic when you stand before God in judgement for your murderous, selfish, greedy, and evil heart. You want others to kill their children so you can live and not worry about someone else using up your or your two children's space and fight this myth of global warming. Truly spoken of a "man" with the most cowardly streak of yellow running down his back. This is straight from the pit of Hell and still smells like smoke.
In case you want to comment to this "highly unintelligent, ignorant person" about his article here's his e-mail:

jonathon.porritt@sd-commission.org.uk
or
JPBlog@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Wonderfully and happily "irresponsible" (times 5),
Stonewall

The First Egg!

2009-02-01T20:24:00.002-06:00

Third Day

2009-01-23T20:52:00.002-06:00

Today was a great kick-off for the General Conference, which I started at the Trade Show. There are many organic gardening and farming suppliers, seed companies, local food organizations, and gardening/farming tool suppliers.

My first session was on mushrooms. Not only did we learn about mushrooms as a food crop, the instructor also taught us how mushrooms may be used as a filter for toxic chemicals, such as pesticides and herbicides, and "sponges" to soak up heavy metals like lead and mercury. Fungi mycelia act as "scissors" which cut substances into smaller molecules, which can often result in removing toxicity. Mushrooms can grow in pure motor oil, and will break it down into organic chemicals. Mushrooms can even render dioxins harmless- dioxins being the potent poison (causes severe health problems and birth defects) inherent in Agent Orange and any other 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T herbicides.

Next I went to a session called "Growing New Growers", which was about hiring help and, very often, assisting those employees to start their own farms. Labor has been a big topic at the conference; it seems that many farmers need help but don't think that they can afford to hire it.

My third session was on composting. It was very helpful, although I was familiar with most of the concepts. The section on vermiculture- worm growing and composting- was the most interesting to me. The instructor shared the story of a man who makes his living creating worm compost. He built a $90,000 worm bed building and payed it off in his first year of production.

Finally, I went to the Alabama Networking Session. This was extremely exciting and encouraging. There were over 100 people, both farmers and local food advocates. The sustainable/organic, fresh, local food movement is gathering steam in Alabama. We Cullman growers most likely have a market capable of supporting several more farms, and we're working on ways to cooperate and combine our abilities and resources in order to create a whole that is greater than its parts. We would love to provide all of the food for as many families as possible.

The rest of the family went to the Aquarium today. It sounded like they had lots of fun seeing sharks, penguins, otters, and butterflies. I told them to take pictures, but they were neglectful of our blog reader(s) and didn't do so. Sorry! I know that these posts are pretty boring without pictures, but I will try to make a nice post when we get home. Until tomorrow,

~Sherlock

Second Day

2009-01-22T15:28:00.002-06:00

After our day yesterday, we went to Panera Breads with Josh and family, who are also attending the conference. I would highly recommend the Asiago Roast Beef Sandwich and Jones' Cream Soda.

Today was about 20 degrees warmer than the arctic weather of yesterday- 53 degrees at noon. In fact, some of our family members are swimming right now (but I suspect the pool is indoors:). I finished the Organic Veggie class this morning, and motivated by the upbeat discussion and a Starbuck's Caffe Mocha, I'm all ready to go grow an acre of bountiful, healthy vegetables. Maybe a few years from now I'll reach that goal- it definitely takes time to build up soil, but now I have an idea of what I need to be doing. The instructors were very nice and answered hundreds of questions. In closing, they both gave us advice that they considered to be a critical part of successful farms. Start small and learn as you go, and, Diversify- it's good for you, your farm, and your customers.

After the short course and lunch, Smokestack and I watched 3 hours of videos, made by Southern SAWG, profiling farmers to demonstrate topics such as "Meat Goat Production" and "Pastured Turkey Production." I may be raising turkeys for Josh's customers, which could require anywhere from 50 to 100+ birds. The turkey video taught me a lot that I don't want to do- such as raising heritage breed turkeys that require 7 or 8 months to grow out and must have feed with 28% protein.

The General Conference starts tomorrow and lasts until Saturday evening. I found out that there will be an Alabama Networking session one evening, which sounds really exciting. Until tomorrow,

~Sherlock

First Day

2009-01-21T18:34:00.002-06:00

We arrived safely in Chattanooga last night. When we checked into our hotel (which is really nice, with a Starbucks inside. We got a great deal through a special conference price.), the valet said that the person that arrived before us was here for the conference from the Virgin Islands! I've also seen people from Maine and New Hampshire, so apparently there isn't a Northern SAWG.

I planned to post pictures each day, but forgot the picture downloading apparatus. Therefore, I'll just write about each day and post the pictures when we get home. Today, I started my short course on vegetable production. It was very helpful and I learned quite a bit, although it has been very basic. It has definitely been helpful in confirming many ideas that I was forming for this season.

The program for tomorrow looks really promising, as it includes the tillage portion. This class is taught by Ken Dawson (25 years experience) and Cathy Jones (18 years experience), both of North Carolina. Mr. Dawson looks exactly like Wyatt Earp, except that his mustachio is a little bit longer. They definitely know their business, and due to their experience, the class has a really down-to-earth, dirt-under-your-fingernails feel.

The rest of the family went to the Chattanooga Choo Choo today, and I'm told that they all really enjoyed it in spite of the cold, windy weather. An electric shuttle runs right in front of our hotel, and makes a loop from the aquarium to the choo choo, so thankfully we don't have to walk much in the cold.

~Sherlock

Happy Robert E. Lee Day!

2009-01-19T19:11:00.004-06:00

202 years ago today, one of the most virtuous, courageous men in the history of the United States was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He is certainly one of my heroes, and his example of Christian character stands out far more brightly even than his military genius, which rivalled that of Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. After he surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, General Lee encouraged his former soldiers to live patiently and peacefully during the following Reconstruction years. Lee was offered many lucrative offers for employment, but he turned them down to become President of Washington College. He felt that this position would allow him to help in the reconciliation of the United States and the former Confederacy, both through his own example, and in the education of Southerners. He contributed greatly to the future of the college and its students until his death five years later, in 1870. After his death, the college was renamed Washington and Lee University, an honor of which Lee would never have felt himself worthy, although it was fitting to link the names of the two most virtuous, noble men in the history of America- both of whom led a War for Independence.

Southern SAWG Conference

2009-01-19T15:57:00.014-06:00

We're heading up to Chattanooga on Tuesday evening to attend the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group's 18th Annual Practical Tools and Solutions for Sustaining Family Farms Conference. Elsewhere in this post, it will simply be referred to as "the conference".

On Wednesday and Thursday I am attending a pre-conference short course on beginning vegetable production. I had always planned to simply have a pasture-based farm selling chicken, eggs, beef, and maybe lamb, pork, and ostrich. I realized last year that vegetables are a good addition to any farm, because they are easy to market (i.e.: fewer tyrannical regulations) and produce a much higher profit per square foot. Customers who buy vegetables can then be introduced to chicken, eggs, and so forth. Unfortunately, I haven't studied vegetables nearly so much as I've studied chickens, and I'm hoping that this course will give me a good start.

The conference itself starts on Friday and wraps up on Saturday evening. The whole family is going, and will be visiting the Aquarium and Choo-choo. We should have a laptop and internet access, so we'll try to blog like we did in San Antonio.

After posting about the mushrooms, I found a few pictures of the flood that we had a few weeks ago. Both of our bridges were under water, and much of the pasture was flooded. Smokestack and I canoed across the whole pasture. You can see the flooded pasture in the background of the lower picture. (If you want to enlarge it, use a magnifying glass. I tried to make it clickable for 15 minutes.)

~Sherlock

Mushrooms, anyone?

2009-01-17T15:38:00.003-06:00

I had a good post waiting to be written last Saturday, but I was dead tired from carrying ~~trees~~ logs. Then, early Sunday morning I got sick, and wasn't sure if I'd live to see another day (I'm known to exaggerate just a little). Now that I've recuperated, here's the post.

Last Friday night, I went up to a meeting of our county's sustainable farmers (there are three of us- we met at Josh's house:) to discuss seeds. It was a great meeting and produced a lot of good ideas, which may or may not mean that I grow a lot of cucumbers and turkeys.

On Saturday, Josh came down to our farm and we spent the day inoculating mushroom logs. Josh had gone to a mushroom workshop at ASAN back in November, and we had all decided to try growing some. We cut 120 logs, and Josh inoculated 21 logs for us, in return for the rest of the logs. In nine months we should start getting beautiful Shitaake mushrooms.

First, we cut white oak or red oak trees into 30" logs, between 3" and 8" in diameter. Then we drilled holes 6" apart in rows 3" around the logs.

Next, we filled the holes with mushroom spawn, which looks gross but smells pretty good.

Finally, the ends of the log and each spawn-filled hole was covered with cheesewax, along with any imperfections. The result is a mushroom log, which will fruit 2 or 3 times a year for about 3 years. I plan to have mushrooms for sale ;).

~Sherlock

Pop Quiz

2009-01-15T13:48:00.002-06:00

Trac-Tor!

2009-01-05T19:17:00.002-06:00

Stonewall did a lot of tractor work while he was off "work", and the Littlest Boy learned a new favorite word- tractor! He's growing into a good little farmhand. Of course, he has always liked tractors:

I have decided...

2009-01-03T21:15:00.002-06:00

...that this blog is in sad need of an update. ;D Check back on Monday for a post about....well, something.

Classic Christmas Song

2008-12-10T15:48:00.002-06:00

36-0

2008-11-29T19:39:00.002-06:00

Roll Tide!

ASAN Conference

2008-11-15T14:58:00.004-06:00

Nothing of note took place on the farm this week, except that the goats got out. Smokestack did a great job of keeping everything going while I was at the 6th Annual Organic Production Conference, hosted by the Alabama Sustainable Agriculture Network (ASAN). The conference will be the subject of my post this week instead of Farm Friday.

I rode to the conference with Josh and another sustainable farmer whose farm is only 20 miles from me, but whom I had never met. We had great conversations on the way down and back, ranging from greenhouses to grassfed beef to Christian ecology.

I found that the most helpful part of the conference was the networking. I met and talked to many sustainable farmers from Alabama, all of whom were encouraging and imparted some wisdom. The food served was all local, and we had shrimp, roast beef, sausage, chicken salad, herb bread, biscuits, cider, and more. It was great.

Many of the sessions would not apply to my gardener friends, but I'm copying everything from my notes that I think would be helpful.

The first session I attended was also the most helpful: Pest and Disease Control

A good 1 season crop rotation:cover crop>potatoes>green beans>brassica>cover crop. This could be done on a small scale.
The speaker got a Reams' test from International Ag Labs to determine what to do for his soil, after a season filled with bugs and disease. He followed their recommendations and saw massive improvement in just one season.
He plants his summer crops (tomatoes, squash, eggplant, etc.) in his best soil.
Calcium is extremely important for plant immune health.
Both speakers really liked green manures for growing your own nitrogen and organic matter. Animal manure from an unknown source can cause problems
Maxicrop is a seaweed foliar fertilizer that one of the speakers used to prevent disease in crops growing in somewhat improved soil.
Wasps love to eat cabbage worms.
A new organic approved plant-based insecticide for fire ants, called Entrust, is supposed to work well. As always, any poison- even if it is approved for certified organic growers- should be used as a last resort when absolutely necessary.
Long rotations between crops are necessary to prevent pest and disease buildup. The longer the better.
Some herbs and flowers attract beneficial insects, such as echinacea, rosemary, basil, dill, and cilantro.
Most weeds, particularly bermudagrass, can be killed by discing in the fall to expose the roots to freezing temperatures. This takes years.
Neem oil and compost tea can be sprayed on cucurbits (cukes, squashes, melons) to prevent powdery mildew. I had a lot of trouble with that this year.
Compost tea can be made by mixing 1 pound of compost in a five gallon bucket full of water. Then place an aquarium aerator in the bottom of the bucket to aerate the mixture for 72 hours. Then strain and spray.
Powdery mildew can be treated with a mixture of 3 Tbsp baking soda, 1 tsp soap, and 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in 5 gallons of warm water.
Bordeaux mixture is useful in preventing most diseases. Bordeaux mix can be bought at online garden supply stores, but there's a chance that Meyer's might carry it.
Buckwheat makes a great, quick cover crop, only taking 30 days to grow.
BT's (Bacillus Thuringiensis) are a beneficial bacteria which can be used to control disease
Resources: http://www.gardeninsectvideo.com/; Garden Insects of North America by Whitney Cranshaw; Insect, Disease, and Weed I.D. Guide by Jill Cebenko and Deborah Martin; The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control by Barbara Ellis and Fern Bradley

I have just a little garden-relevant information concerning Small Fruit Production.

Mr. Rod Havens, owner of Blueberry Havens, a farm north of Auburn, has grown blueberries in soil that a pine tree would barely grow in. That is, blueberries don't require much in the way of soil quality.
The best time to plant blueberries is after Thanksgiving. The long winter rains help set the plant.

Now for a very interesting crop which anyone can grow: Mushrooms

Mushrooms grow in logs. Logs should be from a live tree (until you cut it, anyway). Cut each log to 30". Oak is the best wood, and the logs should be from 3" to 8" in diameter.
Soak these logs in water for 2 days, then drill holes 6" apart along the log and 2" apart around the log, in a diamond pattern
Mushroom spawn can be obtained from http://www.fieldforest.net/. I believe shitaake is supposed to be the easiest to grow.
If using loose spawn, measure the proper amount into the hole and seal with cheesewax. Seal the ends of the logs and any blemishes in cheesewax as well.
If using plug spawn, insert the tube and cap with the styrofoam end.
Keep the logs in the shade and keep moist, stacked in layers facing opposite directions. The logs can be covered with burlap to make watering less necessary. The logs will fruit in about nine months if proper moisture is maintained, and then will continue to fruit periodically for 3 years.
When the logs show signs of fruiting, lay them out by leaning them up against a vertical surface.

Other than a few miscellaneous ideas, that is all that applies to gardening. I really hope to attend a Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (Southern SAWG) Conference in January, which will be larger and have much more information. In addition, I hope to continue working with the other sustainable farmers I met this week.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Fall on the Farm

2008-11-08T16:26:00.006-06:00

My favorite season is in full swing, and although the trees here are past their prime, they still maintain some of their autumnal glory. Hunting and trapping seasons are just around the corner, and the cooler temperatures are glorious. We've processed all of the chickens, so now my farm work is mostly bigger projects. :)

When the chickens were still on the pasture, I concentrated them on an area where we intend to grow an old-fashioned colored variety of popcorn next year, among other things. On Thursday I sowed some rye and crimson clover there and in the garden as a green manure.

We also have winter vegetables, mostly greens, planted in the garden. We're trying out a low tunnel model used in France, kind of like a miniature greenhouse. All low tunnels use plastic stretched tight over hoops. This particular idea uses 9 gauge wire for the hoops and twine to secure the plastic. So far it seems to be another reason to dislike France.

Underneath the plastic, we are growing cold-tolerant and cold-loving plants. Since our winters are so mild and our winter sunlight is greater than more northern areas, we hope to be able to grow right through the winter. We're growing:

Carrots

Radishes

Beets

Kale

Lettuce

Leeks- what? You don't see anything? Oh, those didn't come up.

Rutabaga

Cabbage (there's also some spinach, but I didn't get a picture)

A Greens Mixture

Turnips (greens and roots, for the rabbits)

More Lettuce (We planted 8 varieties)

And, we have two squash plants that are desperately trying to set fruit.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I'm going to an organic production conference where I hope to meet other sustainable farmers from Alabama, as well as learning about some very good topics ranging from small fruits to field crops.

Oh, and Abigail told me to say hello.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Farm Friday- Chicken Pickin' Edition

2008-10-24T17:37:00.003-05:00

We've spent the last couple of exciting days processing chickens. Before I tell how that went, however, I must catch up for last week.

Last Monday we gave what I suppose was our first "official" farm tour, although it was with friends. It went very well. The kids listened to me talk about sustainable farming and relationship marketing, even though they thought it was boring, and I made up for it with a couple of hands-on activities-- digging sweet potatoes and drawing well water. Of course, that saved me a little work too.

This week I've been studying for my ACT test, building a plucker, and processing chickens, and I can honestly say that I'd rather butcher chickens than study for a big test. Last Saturday Stonewall and I built most of the plucker, and then we finished it up by Tuesday. Smokestack and I processed chickens on Wednesday and Thursday, and finished a total of 40 chickens. We were averaging five per hour alone, which is not bad considering the entire process of killing, scalding, plucking, and eviscerating. We are a little short of pictures, but mi madre, Esposa, took a good video of the plucker:

As a sidenote, if anyone ever wants a step-by-step guide to processing chickens, check out Herrick Kimball's informative site here. It has lots of pictures.

Have a Great Weekend,

Sherlock

Financial Fallout Friday

2008-10-10T21:15:00.004-05:00

Although I haven't posted anything on the "Bailout", it isn't because I've been sleeping. I have a keen interest in economics, and have studied Austrian economic theory for a few years. For anyone interested in studying economics, check out the Mises Institute. They offer a free newsletter, free daily articles on their website or by email, and a few blogs. The Mises Institute is the leading advocate of Austrian economic theory in the world.

With that said, I have been following the ongoing economic rescue very closely. I was assigned a (home)school current events report on the bailout, and just finished it up this evening. It's rather long, but it explains the current situation in a simple way.

The Great Bailout

On October 3, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill, which had previously been defeated, appropriating $700 Billion to the U.S. Treasury. This money was to be allotted over an extended period of time, for the purpose of rescuing large financial firms in danger of failing. President George W. Bush urged House members that the bill be passed quickly to avoid a crisis.

Such massive government spending in so short a time is unprecedented. The $700 billion plan would raise the federal debt to $11.3 trillion, assuming all of the money was borrowed. The yoke of paying that debt, or at least the interest, may just be passed on to taxpayers later.

Such massive government intervention has not been seen since the Great Depression in 1930. It is evident that such a perceived need for spending and intervention must be caused by huge events in the market. In order to understand the present situation, it is necessary to study its history.

A real estate bubble was the first cause of what has been termed the subprime mortgage crisis. A bubble is created when large amounts of money flow into one sector of the economy. The best explanation that I have seen of the real estate bubble is an article by Mark Thornton, The Housing Bubble in 4 Easy Steps.[link]

"1: The Federal Reserve cut interest rates to as low as 1% so that after inflation we had negative interest rates.

2: As a result, mortgage rates fell to an all time low.

3: Low rates caused borrowing and lending to explode, particularly in real estate. For example, commercial banks more than doubled the amount of real-estate loans they made.

4: All these low interest loans had to be extended to people with worse credit ratings and this increased the demand for homes and other real-estate assets. It should not be surprising that home prices skyrocketed."

Charts included in the article show that in 2001, the Fed began to cut interest rates, reaching a low of 1% in 2004. Mortgage rates show a similar slope downwards. Also in 2001, loans begin to skyrocket. The greater demand for loans came about because of the lower mortgage rate, and banks began making loans to borrowers who would previously have been considered unqualified. The reason for this was the rapidly rising price and demand for real estate, which made the banks confident that the homes could be sold easily for a profit. The borrowers were encouraged by low interest rates.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were Government Sponsored Entities at the time, bought these loans from the lender banks. This also encouraged the banks in making loans, as they could shift the responsibility off of their own shoulders.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were the catalysts for the subprime mortgage crisis. The purpose of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is to provide an opportunity for low-income Americans to acquire affordable mortgages. They would buy loans from the banks which made them, pool the loans together, and then sell these mortgage-backed securities to investors.

Mortgage-backed securities are considered a safe investment, because their cashflow (monthly dividend) is backed by the principal and interest payments of those to whom the loans are made. However, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed that their securities would be paid whether or not the mortgagee made their payments.

As the interest rate began rising in 2005, the demand for housing lessened and housing prices began to fall. The combination of these two factors resulted in a large amount of defaults and foreclosures. This began the subprime mortgage crisis.

Not surprisingly, commercial banks and mortgage companies who had been making unwise loans, or who issued mortgage-backed securities, began to show signs of failing. In June and July, 2007, it was found that funds issued by investment bank Bear Stearns and backed by subprime mortgages had nearly become worthless. This was due to the falling demand for subprime mortgages and a high rate of defaults due to rising interest rates. Legal action was taken against Bear Stearns for misrepresentation to investors. These problems eventually led to the government-encouraged weekend purchase of Bear Stearns by J.P. Morgan Chase.

Similar bankruptcies and takeovers occurred among other corporations involved in the subprime mortgage market. Government intervention prevented all involved except for Lehman Brothers from actually going bankrupt. Apparently, Lehman Brothers was allowed to go bankrupt as an "example" to other investment banks.

The fall in demand for mortgages and large amount of foreclosures led to huge losses by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and, to avoid collapse, they were placed into conservatorship of the Treasury on September 7, 2008.

As the crisis loomed large on the financial horizon, President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson proposed a "bailout" plan. Their proposal was that $700 billion dollars of troubled assets, such as mortgage-backed securities, be acquired by the Treasury.

In practical terms, this meant that the Treasury would issue Treasury bonds to buyers around the world, amounting up to $700 billion. This would, of course, raise the national debt by the same amount. Then, the Treasury would buy the assets which were at the root of the financial crisis, particularly mortgage-backed securities. The Treasury would then sort the assets with value from the assets with little to no value, and would resale any assets with value. The proceeds from this sale would then be used to buy back T-bonds, thus lowering the national debt again.

In theory, this plan sounds feasible and seems like it would be effective, but it has many weak points exposed by its critics. Should the plan work as intended, there would be no cost to the taxpayers.

The most effective arguments against the rescue plan come from economists of the Austrian school of economic theory. Austrian economics takes its name from the fact that most of its founders, or prominent members, come from Austria. Austrian economists believe that government intervention is not necessary for a market to function as it should.

Austrian economists were predicting the current recession as early as 2004. Now that the crisis has occurred, Austrian economists have argued that the government "bailout" will actually slow recovery. Here are some examples of the market solving its own problems in the current bailout, taken from The Rescue Package Will Delay Recovery [link] by an Austrian economist, Frank Shostak.

"The market's ability to make swift adjustments without much drama was vividly illustrated only a few weeks ago when the very large investment bank, Lehman Brothers, was allowed to go belly up."

"One could have made the case that when Lehman was on the brink it was too big to fail — assets of $639 billion and employing over 26,000 people. Yet in a few days the market, once allowed to do the job, reallocated the good pieces of Lehman to various buyers and the bad parts have vanished."

"Washington Mutual, the largest US saving and loan bank, was forced into liquidation" due to "heavy losses on its $227 billion book of real-estate loans, of which a large portion was in subprime mortgages."

There are also arguments against the feasibility of the bailout plan. First, the plan assumes that enough of the assets have enough value to pay back the lenders (those that purchase T-bonds) with interest. If these assets do have value, why are the investment banks holding them going bankrupt? Why are no private investors attempting to profit from these mortgage-backed assets?

Assuming that the assets have some value, the government must then manage the buying and selling process very efficiently to prevent over-spending or under-selling. The government doesn't have a very good track record of efficiency.

If the government fails to meet either one of these two contingencies, the consequence will be an increase in the federal debt, and thus a greater burden on taxpayers, or an inflation money supply, which would result in higher prices for the same taxpayers.

Austrian economists also dispute the idea that the principle of the bailout will work at all. Frank Shostak continues in The Rescue Package Will Delay Recovery:

"...Treasurer Paulson and the Fed chairman are of the view that once banks' bad assets are removed, the banks are likely to move ahead and start lending. We suggest that making the balance sheet look pretty is not going to alter the essence of the problem, which is the poor state of capital and savings to support such high lending activities.

The essence of a sound credit market is not lending money as such but lending the real stuff that people require by means of money. Without the real stuff — the preceding savings and subsequent productivity to fund the lending — no lending is possible.

Decades of nonproductive consumption (consumption that is not backed up by production) that emerged on the back of loose monetary and fiscal policies have severely damaged the store of wealth that serves as the foundation for credit markets."

President Bush urged that the rescue bill be passed quickly. The bill, HR 3997, was first voted on in the House of Representatives on September 29, 2008. The bill was defeated 228-205, a major legislative defeat for President Bush, and described by the Washington Post as "stunning." The fact that the Representatives were voting as their constituents wished was explained away by the fact that many of the representatives were running for re-election in just five weeks, and feared losing the votes of their constituents. Sadly, President Bush disregarded the overwhelming response of the people against the bill. After the bill was defeated, the President stated: "I’m disappointed in the vote by the United States Congress on the economic recovery plan."

HR 3997, The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, was desperately amended by the Senate to include several tax benefits, although it also raised the funds appropriated to the Treasury to $810 billion. The bill was passed by the House on October 3rd by 263-171.

The bailout of the financial industry is beginning. If everything goes as the government plans, the economy will pull through this crisis and recession quickly as the credit markets begin functioning freely again. If the Austrian economists are correct, the bailout will have little effect other than postponing the inevitable market adjustments. Are the Austrians right? We will know in a few years; in the meantime, I wouldn't recommend investing in mortgage backed securities.

Farm Friday

2008-10-03T22:16:00.004-05:00

After two Saturdays away from the farm, this week was quite busy. Most of the work was in the garden, replanting those stubborn winter vegetables. They are certainly much more difficult to grow from seed than are summer vegetables.

For the enjoyment of our reader(s), I took some pictures of the compost-pile building process of this week. Our materials: rabbit bedding, chicken bedding, straw, and weeds (for a high nitrogen green layer). We put these down in alternating layers, and also added some boughten finished compost as an inoculant.

You can see some of the layers here:

The finished pile:

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

House Passes Bailout Bill

2008-10-03T22:09:00.002-05:00

[link]

The Cause of Economic Depressions

2008-10-02T19:39:00.002-05:00

I highly recommend this article by the late Murray Rothbard, an American economist of the Austrian school. He explains Mises' theory of the business cycle in an easy-to-understand way. Of course, that's the only reason I understand it enough to recommend it. :)

First Birthday Friday!

2008-09-26T21:55:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe, but our Farmer Sam turned one year old today! He had a great day (the rest of us enjoyed it too) full of fun, popcorn, cake, and ice cream. I'll explain the popcorn in a minute ;0).

Smokestack and I saw an ad for a popcorn machine in the shopper's guide this week. We went to look at it and got an incredible deal on a nearly-new popper. We're going to try growing old-fashioned colored popcorn and selling it at the Farmer's Market, as well as selling regular popcorn at any event we can get into. We tried the popper out today and it worked like a charm.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Expressions From A Year Of Life

2008-09-26T14:49:00.018-05:00

Fair Friday

2008-09-19T20:44:00.007-05:00

We have a few things going on here at the farm, but no pictures. Therefore, today is Fair Friday, as our county fair was this week.

Smokestack entered some of his honey and won third place in the "Amber" category. That category totaled eight entries, which was a fairly large amount of competition compared to most agriculture categories (such as persimmons and fingershape eggplant:).

The winning giant pumpkin weighed 140 pounds.

Farmer Sam enjoyed his first ride on a merry-go-round. He had a little trouble staying astride his mount.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Lemon

2008-09-19T20:30:00.003-05:00

Farm Saturday

2008-09-13T20:51:00.003-05:00

I apologize for the lack of Farm Friday posts lately. I'll get back on track now.

We've planted carrots, radishes, beets, kale, lettuce, leeks, rutabagas, spinach, cabbage and mixed greens (turnip, mustard,spinach, kale, and collards) in our fall/winter garden. We're also planning to plant peas, broccoli, more varieties of lettuce, raddichio, arugula, claytonia, minutina, endive, and cornsalad. That sounds like a lot, but it's all planted so close that it doesn't really take up very much space.

I'm building a peaked roof on my first (Salatin-style) chicken pen, so it looks like a little house now. I'm not finished yet, but when I do I'll take pictures.

Last week we bush-hogged the pasture to beat the brush down. It looks pretty good now, but again, we don't have any pictures yet.

The Cullman County Fair is this week. Smokestack is going to enter some of his honey. If he wins, we might add "Award Winning" to the label. :)

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Green Beans Anyone?

2008-09-03T15:38:00.005-05:00

This morning (before it got hot) we picked a LOT of green beans at our Grandparents' garden.

We'll be snapping green beans for a while! I've got to go snap beans now or we'll be up until midnight.

~Smokestack

Introducing Cocoa

2008-09-02T19:26:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we added a mascot to our farm, meet Cocoa.

She is a six week old Australian shepherd puppy. Our Aunt and Uncle had unexpected puppys and they gave one of them to us. As you can see she has pretty bright blue eyes, which are fairly rare in most dogs, but evidently are common in Australian shepherds. The mother (Patches) has one blue eye and one brown eye.

~Smokestack

Farm Friday

2008-08-29T22:40:00.004-05:00

It rained this week. As a result I spent a great deal of time indoors. To keep myself from going insane, I started researching some interesting topics- alternative methods of raising pastured poultry, and open pollinated corn.

All of my greatest research discoveries (three, to be exact, all of which led to an epiphany) have included a research paper dating back to 1950 or before. One of these led me to find that Lactobacillus Acidolphus prevents pasted vent in chicks. Pasted vent ~~decimated~~ devastated my laying hen chicks. Another study started me on a search for open pollinated corn. This particular one was just a part of a 1936 USDA publication. It listed Open Pollinated (OP) corn varieties suitable to all of the corn growing states, including Alabama. In searching for the varieties listed for my state, I found that only one out of eight were available from seed companies, even from heirloom or preservation seed companies such as Seed Savers Exchange and Sandhill Preservation. I had already decided that I wanted to grow open pollinated corn from reading the Northern Farmer blog and seeing the work of Mr. Dave Christensen with his Painted Mountain corn, which is absolutely amazing. The fact that the varieties I wanted were rare just spurred me on. Since then I've found two more of those corn varieties, one from a man near Mobile, who advertised in the Farmer's Bulletin, and another from a local feed store(!).

The only problem with the idea of growing it was finding a use for it. You can only eat so much corn meal in a year. Then another research paper providentially showed up- this one about pastured poultry. A few weeks ago, my feed prices nearly hit breakeven. That is, the price of feed and of the chick that produces a chicken was nearly equal to my selling price. Since then it's dropped rapidly by a few dollars a bag, but this research paper opened a whole new dimension of pastured poultry production. This one, from 1949, was a favorable report about grazing chickens on Ladino (big white) clover and feeding only corn, which I could now try growing, and minerals. This would cut my costs drastically and actually makes pastured poultry look like a lucrative business again. It would also be a very sustainable production system completely independent of purchased inputs except for the minerals. I'm getting ready to try out the idea next year, and am praying that it will work.

Have a great holiday weekend, and don't labor too hard,

Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-08-22T21:39:00.003-05:00

This week was even less exciting than last week. We're planning our fall and winter garden, and starting to plant some of the earlier-planted crops like beets and cabbage. It seems all of the vegetables I don't like are the ones that grow in winter. I've been trying hard to make myself like tomatoes, however, so maybe by force-feeding myself boiled cabbage, steamed broccoli, radishes and spinach this winter I can come to tolerate them. My only ray of hope is that home grown or farmers' market vegetables always taste better than the grocery store version.

I thought I should post a picture of our farm mascots. They're big fans of siestas on hot days, so we often catch them napping. I'm not sure if we've ever blogged about these two, so I should probably introduce them. The cat is named Tiger and the goat is Abigail.

80 more Cornish Cross chickens arrived at our post office this morning and they've happily settled into the brooder. They're so cute when they're less than a week old.

I have to do a followup on my Optimistic World News, because corn (and thus chicken feed) has gone down even more, gas is even cheaper, and although the temperatures are a little warmer, it has been breezy. And over in Beijing, the U.S. is ahead of (communist) China in overall medals.

Farm Friday

2008-08-15T22:18:00.003-05:00

This week was fun, but we didn't do too much. On Monday we picked the apples from our grandparents' tree, which held about a bushel. We processed most of the apples into chunky applesauce today. After tasting the unsweetened applesauce from those apples, it makes you wonder just what that stuff called unsweetened applesauce at the grocery store really is. I'm hoping that the rest of the apples will be dried for use in fried pies.

On Tuesday we were blessed with a soaking rain for most of the day. The ditches were flowing and the creeks were rushing with all of the rain we got.

On Wednesday we took the last heifer to the stockyard, but I'm still waiting on the results. I'm out of the cattle business for a while now.

On Thursday I got the brooder ready for broiler chicks, which are scheduled to arrive next Friday, and that afternoon some good friends came for a visit.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Around the Farm

2008-08-09T20:37:00.003-05:00

Our newly graveled driveway.

Here are some of the laying hen chicks. About half are roosters, which will be ready for processing around the last week of September.

This is the hoop coop. I first learned of the design from Josh, who also uses it. I much prefer it to the Salatin-style pen.

Miss Beef will be off to the Stockyard on Thursday, Lord willing.

Farm Friday

2008-08-08T22:15:00.002-05:00

In case you've been wondering, I am still alive. Today was a good day to be alive, too, with much cooler temperatures that felt more like fall than the dog days of August.

After processing the chickens and selling two of my heifers, things have slowed down alot here. I ordered another batch of 80 Cornish Cross broilers today, however, so things will be getting busier.

I sold the red and white heifers last week, and found that one gained only 15 pounds and the other lost 20. I was expecting them both to have gained at least 90 pounds, so this was a revelation about the quality of our pasture, and also scuttled our grassfed beef plans. No gain=tough beef. I suspect that on the fresh spring grass with lots of clover the heifers gained weight, and then started losing weight after the first full grazing rotation, when our pasture must have been lower in quality than hay (!). It would have been best if I had sold the heifers in late May (only a month after I bought them), as the price of 400-weight heifers was highest at that time as well and slowly dropped afterwards. But hindsight is 20/20, so I'll just learn from that mistake and stick with goats for the rest of the year, and maybe next year, building up the quality of our pasture in the meantime.

I never seem to have pictures before I blog, so Lord willing I'll post some pictures tomorrow, one of which will show the laying hen chicks. I have about 60 of various breeds on the pasture in our hoop coop (which deserves a picture of it's own).

We've really been having fun eating our local, seasonal produce. When we first started going to our farmers' market there was little produce besides onions. Now everything is at the market and, best of all (in my opinion), the apples have started coming in. We discovered Moon and Stars watermelons last week, which are sweeter and more flavorful than any others I've tasted

Our grandparents' had a grape vine loaded with grapes that we picked yesterday, and we're in the process of making grape jelly. They also have a pear tree and a couple of apple trees that are loaded with fruit ready for making pear butter and preserves, apple butter, apple jelly, applesauce, apple juice, apple cider, and apple pie (I love apples). They also have crabapple trees and I'd like to try and make crabapple jelly. On Tuesday we tried our hand at making salsa, which turned out okay, but we learned how we might make it better next time. In Alabama summers, at least, eating locally is a rich life and we count it a blessing.

In closing, Optimistic World News courtesy of Sherlock:
Gas has gone down a little.
Corn has gone down a little.
The temperature has gone down alot.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

A Stonewall Minute....

2008-07-31T11:53:00.006-05:00

Well, I don't usually get the time to add many comments to the blog but I've got a minute. Therefore..Welcome to the Stonewall minute!
Lately on the farm we have had many trying events (to say the least) that I won't get into now, I'll let the boys give details later. Let's just say that as a result of good for nothing, varmint, thieving dogs I found myself looking up at the stars last night at 2 am during a varmint check. I was in old torn blue jeans, rubber boots (no socks), shirtless with pickup truck lights shining on our rabbit cages shouldering a Browning .270. Yes this is where I had the thought..
"Well, I've made it!"
"First class, USDA Grade A REDNECK."
You gotta laugh to keep from crying..

Stonewall out.

Farm...Saturday

2008-07-26T21:28:00.004-05:00

I'm sorry for the lack of Farm Friday posts for the past few weeks. I'll try to catch up now.

Our trip to Kentucky was wonderful. We really enjoyed seeing the Creation Museum- especially the zonkey. I can now say that I've petted a zonkey AND a zorse. The Bud Williams Marketing School was mind-blowing, very educational, and practical (i.e., I can actually use the method.)

Last Thursday I was going to load up two of my heifers and take them to the stockyard, but the Lord did not so dispose. I had them on the trailer twice but still managed to mess things up. Now I've learned from my mistakes and we're building some nice handling facilities so that, Lord willing, I can sell the heifers next week. Being a short-sighted creature with limited understanding and no knowledge of the future, I was disappointed that I couldn't get the cattle to the sale. (It was also embarrasing to take back the trailer we had borrowed without using it- we've done that twice now.) But God in his kind Providence worked out the situation to my good. The price for heifers the size of mine was down last week and bounced back up this week.

(This is a very disappointing picture. How could I get the cattle on the trailer and still mess up? I've been wondering that myself.)

Last Friday and Saturday we processed 28 chickens, using a borrowed Whizbang Chicken Plucker, invented by Herrick Kimball. Weak stomachs may not appreciate all of our photos, but I can show the fun part*. A chicken goes into the plucker and chicken comes out. Years of experience from skinning animals came in handy for processing chickens.

(No, I didn't think the chicken was gross. I just didn't want to get the hot scald water on me.)

The Lord has blessed us with lots of rain this year, so I've only used our drip irrigation setup two or three times. As a result, the garden has done very well, weeds and all. Oh, and if any of you from church want squash just leave your vehicle unlocked tomorrow.

Sherlock

Week Off

2008-07-11T21:04:00.002-05:00

I get a week off from Farm Friday this week, since I'm on vacation at a cattle marketing school in Kentucky. I realize that I missed last week, but that's because a tree broke our phone line; I hope to catch up on the many things that have happened lately next week.

Have a great weekend,
Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-06-27T21:03:00.003-05:00

This week was fun, exciting, and very busy. On Tuesday we helped a farmer friend, Josh, cut and thresh wheat by hand. It was a fun learning experience but very hard, slow, hot work. Hard, hot work is normal, but the "slow" part was too much of a setback, so Josh is going to borrow a mower and is looking into more mechanized methods of threshing. But if case you want to grow and thresh your own wheat by hand, here's how we did it.

In December, Josh planted soft white winter wheat. Spring wheats and hard wheats don't grow well in the South, which is why our ~~country~~ region is well known for biscuits, made with soft wheats, rather than yeast breads, which are made with hard wheats. After planting, he did nothing with it until harvest. It's a very low-maintenance crop.

To harvest, we first cut the wheat stalks. Some of the harvesters used giant clippers like you prune shrubs with, but I preferred to use a machete like a sickle, taking a bunch of wheat in my hand near the heads and then cutting it near the ground. Then we laid the wheat on a tarp with all of the heads facing in the same direction. When we had a big load, we slid it over to our threshing "floor". This was a tarp that was flat in the middle and rolled up on all sides but one, to keep the wheat from flying out. You can use a flail for the next step, which is basically two sticks with the ends tied together, one of which is long and round with the other being short and preferably flat. We just got on our knees and used two short sticks to beat a small bunch of wheat at a time, laid out on the middle of the tarp in front of us. We'd beat the heads with the sticks, occasionally rotating the bundle, until most of the wheat berries had been beaten out. Then the straw goes into a big pile and the wheat remains on the tarp until it is poured into a bucket for winnowing, which Josh did by simply pouring the wheat between two buckets in front of a fan. We brought some wheat home and ground it, and Esposa made some peach quick bread with it.

We harvested the first squash from our garden this week and some more beans, as well as a couple of banana peppers. Sorry, I still haven't got any pictures, but the garden just looks better as summer progresses, anyway.

On Wednesday, we helped Josh pick blueberries from a 20 year-old orchard of blueberry bushes. They were about 8 feet tall, and were loaded with berries. This was the early picking, so most were not ripe yet, but we picked about 6 and a half gallons. The man that owned the orchard was a friend of Josh's. He acts as Santa Claus and was formerly a firefighter. That's what he says anyway- if you saw him you'd agree that he is Santa Claus. ;)

Tuesday morning I'm picking up eighty laying hen chicks from a local hatchery, so I'll post pictures of them then, as well as pictures of some adorable little goat kids which Mocha finally had.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-06-20T21:43:00.004-05:00

First, an apology is in order. I never posted last week's Farm Friday, even when I said I'd put it off until Saturday or Monday. Sorry.

With that out of the way, things have been very busy here, and it will only get busier up until the trip we have planned in July, to these two places: [link] and [link]. Top priorities on the farm list are getting laying hens (chicks) started and out on pasture, setting up irrigation for our garden, and fencing in our hill, which is covered in scrumptious brush just waiting for hungry goats. We started building a brooder this week in preparation for the new chicks, and with the greatly appreciated help of Mr. Danny when he came with his family to visit, the brooder was built in a day (unlike Rome). There are two pieces of tin not yet in place, but that's just because we ran out. Notice the peaked door, so we don't have to duck going in; that's an idea too good for me to have figured out. Thank you Mr. Danny.

The garden is coming along handsomely (that's an old word that means "well"), but I'm an awful photographer and haven't got any good pictures yet. We have corn, tomatoes, peppers, green beans, okra, eggplant, zucchini, purple-hull peas, cucumbers, squash, and one potato. We planted about forty potatoes, but 39 drowned. Now that we can set up the irrigation we're going to lay plastic on some rows and plant pie pumpkins, with the drip tape irrigation under the plastic. The plastic should keep the pumpkins from rotting. I'm also planting some field pumpkins (a little coarser and not so sweet as pie pumpkins) with the corn, to feed to the hens. If you feed pumpkin to laying hens in the winter, it's supposed to keep their egg yolks bright orange.

There should have been some pictures of cute little goat kids in this post, but Mocha, the last pregnant momma goat, is still holding out- despite the fact that she looks like she'd pop if you poked her.

A few little happenings: the creeks have dried up because it stopped raining, we're milking Patty, our goat, and getting a pint a day (we'll post pictures of that sometime), and soon our pennies and nickels may be made out of steel. I might write a post on that last one, which should prove interesting.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-06-13T21:02:00.001-05:00

Farm Friday this week will be on Saturday. Or maybe Monday.

A Farmer's Two Cents

2008-06-11T10:20:00.005-05:00

With the salmonella tomato scare that's all over the press [link], the media is looking for someone or something to blame. This is understandable; because of the wide distribution inherent in our food system, such outbreaks are scary. Of course, the only conclusion has been a cry for more regulation, more funding for the FDA, and other such dull, ordinary solutions. I heard a lady interviewed on CNN state that at present, FDA officials are not allowed to go onto a farm's premises to test produce without the farmer's permission, and she said that this restriction should be removed to allow testing of potential problems before they reach the point of packaging and distribution. Is such an erosion of liberty a necessary (or practical) tactic to keep our food safe? I think there is a better solution.

Our food system has many inherent weak points. First and foremost, the customer has no knowledge of who grew their food or how it was grown. The farmer that grew the food has no accountability to his customers because he never sees them. Therefore, the customers must rely on the government to make sure that the food is safe. Would you trust the government to take care of your money? If not, can you trust it to keep your food safe?

Secondly, large amounts of produce are gathered and mixed at one point for distribution. Thus, even if 99% of the farmers growing the produce are using good management practices, the 1% who are taking shortcuts (or whose produce has been exposed to, say, chicken house runoff) can cause huge problems if their bad management results in dirty produce getting in with the rest, and one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. Related to this is the fact that good wholesale farmers may be seriously harmed by negligent wholesale farmers (who create a food scare) if they can't sell their produce.

Note that Whole Foods is pulling their tomatoes off the shelves as well, although they are doing so voluntarily. The spinach scare a couple of years ago involved both organic and conventional spinach. Thus it seems that "organic" is not the solution to food safety; it has some of the same problems as conventional produce does. This is not to say that organic produce isn't higher quality. I'm just saying that the organic industry doesn't have all the problems of conventional production solved.

I've posed alot of questions, but what is the answer? I believe that in order to get the highest quality, cleanest, safest food, you must buy locally. Local farmers selling through farmers' markets, a CSA, or roadside stands have their customers in mind as they grow the food. Odds are, they're growing it in the manner that they would want it to be grown for themselves, because they are growing it for themselves.

Buying from local farmers helps to build a local and regional economy, which is much more secure than a national economy. If local farmers disappeared because of their inability to compete with the large farm corporations, where could the food come from in the event of a crisis in the economy? Both conventional and organic produce relies on transportation over long distance, and so creates a dependence on fuel. This, besides inflation, is what causes food prices to rise along with fuel prices. Local, sustainable farms can improve the quality of the soil, slow urban sprawl, as well as providing good food and the farmer's income.

This is the reason for a CSA- Community Supported Agriculture. The customers pay the farmer up front for a share in his crops so that he can pay for his planting expenses. If the farmer has a bad year, the customers ensure that the farmer can try again next year, because if the farmer goes out of business, his customers lose their good food supply. We are looking into starting a CSA, and it seems like a really good idea for farmer and customer alike.

In short, as Joel Salatin has often emphasized, the only way for the U.S. to ensure a safe, healthy food supply is to localize it. A local food system is a partnership that benefits all involved.

~Sherlock

Pictures

2008-06-09T08:45:00.005-05:00

Here are the pictures from Thursday morning when we moved the chickens out to pasture. We carried them out in a round watering tub, so that the chicks wouldn't pile up and smother in the corners. Besides, poultry crates cost $75 each...

~Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-06-06T21:25:00.004-05:00

This was a very exciting week here on the farm. We toured another grass-based/organic/sustainable/Salatin-style farm near here on Tuesday. Call it what you will, it was an exciting visit. The farm is run by a young couple and is now in its second year of production. They sell chicken and eggs, as well as vegetables through CSA shares and the farmers market. They aren't worried at all about competition and are encouraging us in hopes that we can work together to help each other out and provide a more consistent supply of farm products to the local market. We went all day today to help process chickens and then to work in the gardens. It was wonderfully fun and educational, and we're really excited to get to know them.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I built the pen for the chickens and on Thursday we moved the chicks out to their new home on the pasture. They were three weeks old Tuesday, so they'll be on the pasture for five more weeks.

I'm having some technical difficulties so I'll upload pictures tomorrow.

Have a great weekend,

Sherlock

Farm Friday

2008-05-30T20:41:00.003-05:00

Earlier on in the week, Paw and I harvested our spring honey crop. We got three supers full of honey. We took off the supers (which are wooden boxes, that have racks in them for the honey) and smoked the bees out. This, however, would still leave a few bees, so we blew the remaining bees out with a leaf blower. We robbed three different hives, then we took them to be extracted. Below is a picture of our extractor, the racks fit down into a little metal thing that hangs down in the middle of the extractor. Then we put the lid on and spun the racks with a drill which slung the honey out of the racks. After we had spun all the racks in one super we would pour all the honey that was in the extractor in a big glass jar which we would pour in the bottler. Then we bottled the honey (through a spout in the bottom of the bottler) into glass jars.

We ended up with three different colors of honey out of the three different supers. We finished at about 11:00 PM.

~Smokestack

Farm Friday

2008-05-23T17:10:00.000-05:00

This week at Windy Creek Farm has been comparatively uneventful. Our milking supplies arrived, and I finally got a stanchion built. Smokestack demonstrates it's method of operation (and he's still out there;). We'll start training Patty to milk next week.

The chickens are growing fast and I've only lost one. They're getting their wing feathers now, and they're eating a copious amount of feed.

Smokestack sold the last of his bunnies early this week. There seems to be a huge demand for breeding rabbits here, so Smokestack bred two more. I'm starting to think I'm in the wrong business. :D

Out in the pasture, my goat herd is growing. Here are a few of them; it's hard to get them all together for a picture.

This little fella is only five weeks old, and he's as big as another kid that's five months old.

I cut this field for hay four weeks ago, and it's greening back up now. You can see the new green shoots and the white clover.

The cows are enjoying some fresh grass and getting fatter every day.

We went to a farm today and got a few gallons of raw milk from Jersey cows (the best), to make butter with. It's great milk. Our Grandpa found a real ceramic churn and we're letting the cream ripen until tomorrow.

We saw our second snake on the farm today. Momma was at the clothesline and nearly stepped on it. I walked out there with the hoe and saw that it was big, but not poisonous. I actually considered sparing it (I hate snakes, so that's incredible). Anyway, when I touched the snake with the hoe it struck towards it and started shaking it's tail. No snake shakes its tail at me and gets away with it. I found later that it had been a pine snake, a harmless albeit aggressive snake that mimics a rattlesnake.

Have a great weekend!

Sherlock

This Week on the Farm

2008-05-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

This is the first of a regular Friday column we're beginning in order to keep our friends updated.

Smokestack worked on catching two bee swarms that came from his hives early this week. The first one settled high up in a tree, so our grandpa cut it down and they put the bees in a new hive. It looks like we'll have a good first harvest of honey next week. You can see me to the right.

We got a good bit of rain this week, and the grass is green and growing. The white clover out in the pasture is coming on strong, and that should increase the palatability of the stand, which has been quite coarse, and increase the daily gain of my heifers. The heifers are getting ever fatter and the market has trended upwards tremendously since I bought them.

By far the most exciting happening this week, however, was getting our chickens! They came early yesterday morning (already two days old!) and have settled down very well. I haven't lost any at all yet. I praise God for the many blessings he has bestowed on our endeavors.

Cattle Adventure

2008-04-12T11:16:00.000-05:00

After years of reading books and attending conferences, on Thursday I began a practical venture that I've been particularly looking forward to- I have my own cattle! In the spirit of diversity I purchased three heifers-one black, one red, and one white. The poor little traumatized calves looked like wild horses as they bounded out of the trailer and mowed down my cross fence. They've set up camp in the far corner of the pasture. You need binoculars to get a good look at them, but here's a couple of pictures.

My first litter of rabbits

2008-04-01T17:41:00.000-05:00

Berri had her kitten's (baby rabbits), seven more rabbits! Now I have eighteen rabbits total.

They were born sunday morning, here is some pictures of them,

Momma rabbit pulled fur to make her nest, and keep the kittens warm. She had them in a disposable, cardboard nest box that I made.

The proud mommy.

In six weeks the baby's will be weaned, and in twelve weeks they will be big enough to sell.

~Smokestack

Six Months Old Today

2008-03-26T18:48:00.000-05:00

Added to the farm

2008-03-19T18:58:00.000-05:00

Amidst all the moving and packing, we added a new animal to our farm-Rabbits. Now, since we have managed to find our camera and take some pictures, we can blog about them.

This is a californian doe named Bonnie

This is a new zealand doe named Berri, she is due 3/26/08. Berri was bred to Dilly (below)

There is eleven rabbits in all, seven does and four bucks. Stay tuned for baby rabbits and more!

The Grave of Samuel McGowan

2008-03-19T16:28:00.001-05:00

Barack Obama Campaign Logo Refinement

2008-03-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

Excuses

2008-03-07T10:21:00.000-06:00

It's good to be back in blogland. It's very true that my blog dusting hasn't materialized, but I have a pretty good excuse. In the process of moving to the land (we're here now, more on that in a later post) our phone service was cut off too early, which caused us to lose internet service on Feb. 25. Even when they hooked the phone back up temporarily, our internet wouldn't work, and we just regained internet access yesterday. Lord willing, the blog dusting will begin without further ado later today. I've also been tagged for a meme, but I'll need a day to come up with seven random and weird facts about myself. I'm just not that weird. :)

~Sherlock

I'm it!

2008-03-07T09:41:00.000-06:00

I've been tagged by Lady Why of Where the Kudzu Grows to do a meme (of course, Lady Why, you're probably the only one that will read this :). Now that I've looked up the word meme I'm prepared to begin.

Here's the Rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Now for the random and weird facts. I've spent all day thinking about them.

I won the Presidential Physical Fitness award in third grade, after they let me redo the shuttle run.

I love cows.

In the spring of 2001 our family went to New York and stayed in the Rennaissance Hotel on Times Square, across the street from Broadway.

I skinned roadkill animals for years, and still do. Friends would even call and tell me if they saw a good specimen. So far I've skinned squirrels, a chipmunk, a raccoon, an otter, and a red fox. I nearly had a chance to skin a bobcat.

One year at Boy Scout summer camp, it rained for three days straight. One day, Tuesday, was a continual downpour. There was so much water that someone paddled a canoe down a trail and up to the door of the dining hall. I don't like rain (on me).

I can speak in 10 different accents and counting. Some of them need practice, so don't ask for a full demonstration.

I eat one food at a time. There are few foods that I like mixed, like gorp (good ol' raisins and peanuts).

This is where I'm supposed to tag 7 people, but I honestly don't know anyone to tag that is actively blogging (or that Lady Why didn't tag). I guess I don't have many blogger friends. :(

Knocking Off the Dust

2008-02-21T22:09:00.000-06:00

We, the Pilgrim family realize that it has been over a month since we last blogged, and we are all truly sorry that we haven't been updating our blog with entertaining posts for our reader(s?). Surely we can be excused, however; there just hasn't been anything to blog about! [insert incredulous laughter]

Maybe not. We do have a few more kids now, and we're bottle feeding a couple more. Oh, and we bought a mobile home and moved it onto the land and hooked up the electricity and water. And of course we've been building a fence, cutting a few big trees, planning a garden for spring, and getting things ready for cattle and chickens. Maybe we have missed a few good blog opportunities! Fear not, however; we will do our best to keep you updated with life on the farm from now on, and maybe we'll manage to catch up on a few things.

~Sherlock

Sherlock and the Seven Kids

2008-01-18T20:40:00.000-06:00

After expecting Swiss Miss to kid for quite some time now, we were excited to find her Saturday night with triplets! Please excuse the low-quality pictures. Swiss Miss isn't as tame as Heidi.

Today we were surprised again with two more (unexpected) kids! One had crawled underneath a wall in the barn and another had squeezed under the fence. Thankfully we found them both by their bleating.

Heidi's kids are growing at an amazing rate thanks to all the milk they want. Oh, and Miss Moo (now christened Betsy) is doing well.

~Sherlock

Snow!

2008-01-17T09:40:00.001-06:00

Farmer Sam

2008-01-01T21:57:00.000-06:00

We've been busy lately around the farm with fence posts and shed restoration projects, but we found time to take a break with the new farmer in the family. Farmer Sam.

He really likes sitting on the tractor with his daddy.

More Baby Pictures

2007-12-20T13:03:00.000-06:00

After five long months of waiting, Heidi kidded this morning! We expect Swiss Miss to kid very soon, so stay tuned.

In Case You Were Wondering...

2007-12-13T13:59:00.000-06:00

I have really decided on a breed of cattle, but it isn't the Watusi. I was just teasing them for their abnormally large horns.
Actually, the breed I've finally decided on is different than the breed I thought I had finally decided on last night. The breed I thought I had decided on last night was different from the one I decided on the day before, and so on. Now, however, I am certain that- within my finances- my choice of cattle will be the South Poll. It's characteristics and qualities fit my situation perfectly.

~Sherlock