a new year dawns

And so the new year dawns. I love the diversity of birds in my yard. Different sizes, colors and species. I have a sparrow with one leg and a female goldfinch with a damaged leg. And then there are the guinea fowl. They are very loud and frankly, kind of pushy. It feels like too many to me. The small wild birds jockey for the best spot in the puddle to bathe. Though our resident mallard couple have claimed the largest and are enjoying the "soft" water for now. I am still surprised by the brightness of the male cardinal. And so many woodpeckers. Such a busy place, our farm. Here in the winter, the time of respite.

Lessons from the Garden: Perspective

One of my favorite life lessons from the garden, filled me again yesterday, as I picked raspberries. We have a small patch that asserted itself into the garden. I let it in last year and got a couple handfuls. This season, It has already provided us with 6 or 7 pints of wonderful red sweetness. It has established itself along a fence line which was pulled down this spring, so no fence any more. It is wider than I would like so, a little hard to pick for the reaching. I will thin it out this fall and let it grow longer down the line for next year. In the mean time, picking is a little bit of a challenge. If you have ever picked raspberries or really any sort of veggie/fruit that is on a vine, in a tree or just generally not a single pluck from the ground, it is always a challenge. Some things are very straight forward, like a carrot or beet or onion. You see it right there in the ground and pop!, you pull it and it is yours. Then there are raspberries, peas, beans or cucumbers. At first, it seems quite simple, you see the ripe/ready fruit and you pick it. But then you realize you might have to move a branch or vine to find the treasure. So there you are all convinced you have it all, until you bend down or turn your head, changing your perspective. Hmmmmm....and lo and behold, more fruit. Then you pick from the other side of the row and wow! how many did you miss? Quite a bit, usually. But you were quite confident that you had them all. Amazing how perspective changes what you think you have. Looking at things from the other side, another place, another point of view, usually changes everything. You often end up with more. So, some times, things are very straightforward, like a carrot ready to be picked and sometimes things need many perspectives in order to be fully understood. So move about the garden, searching for new perspectives as they will surely make you a richer person.

What life smells like....

There is nothing that smells better than......sheets dried on the clothes line, fresh cut hay or lilacs. Oh, wait. Fresh picked strawberries.

gratitude

I was struck with gratitude this very morning. Sometimes it hits hard. I was on my way to the post office to pick up another one hundred chicks for our farm. Twenty-five are laying hens and the others are our roasting chickens. In three short weeks they will be out on pasture, picking bugs and eating green grasses and flowers. I am grateful that we can provide them with a very chickeny life. Our cats, Calvin and Hobbes, were off to the vet for their yearly checkup last week. They hate the drive in the carrier but are very healthy. I am grateful we can provide them with a great life. They live in the house but work, mostly at night, hunting. They eat healthy food and have a wonderful place to live and help out by keeping the mouse population low. Patou, our Great Pyrenees also works here. He is head of security. He, like the cats, sleeps all day but in the evening he keeps our farm and it's inhabitants safe. He loves to bark at possible intruders and spends most nights doing just that. I am grateful that we can provide him with a working life. We strive to let our animals here, live a good life. They all have a purpose. Our guinea fowl scours our property, ridding it of bugs. No ticks or fleas here. They also are part of the security team. Their loud calls keep everyone else alert to possible danger. Our daughters are emerging as wonderful young women. They are forging a place in the world, hoping to make a difference. They are compassionate and tolerant and very funny. I am grateful that we have and continue to provide a safe place for them to grow like the rest of the farm. I am further grateful that my husband loves this farm so much and that he is handy and can fix almost anything. And he likes to fix things. And he loves birds. I am grateful for everything that the universe has bestowed on our farm and how we all live and work together each day. This is the start to my sharing and hold a vision of sharing this with others who aren't/weren't as lucky as me. Wow, I am grateful.

water.

The plants in the garden are better for it. The ducks and geese are over-joyed with it. I am happy for the break it gives me. My husband will be disappointed that he cannot haul feed for the pigs because of it. A lot of the birds in the yard are happy for the worms it provides. Some like it, some not but all come from different perspectives. hmmmm....

Bloom

Two hundred fluffy chicks make a lot of noise. They are also fun to watch. They run around with their hidden agenda, stopping momentarily for a short nap every now and then, as if, a bell only they can hear, rings. It matters not where they are, be it standing on top of another chick, at a full scamper or sitting in the feeder. They stop and sleep. Then, when the nap bell rings again, they are off and running, as if late for an appointment.
The Muscovy ducklings are happy, now that the work of breaking out of their shells is done. They hide under their mom, vying for the best spot and trying their darndest not to get stepped on....by mom. Sometimes, after she has moved a little you can see some poor son or daughter tugging like crazy to free their little webbed foot that mom.s big webbed foot is on. Then the oblivious mom moves and no one even remembers there was a problem. The other mother/daughter who was setting on a clutch of eggs has decided that she wants to just be an Auntie. Mom moved into her laying box, kicked out most of the eggs and moved in with her new brood. When Tim tried to shoo them out and let the daughter set again, she just wandered off to keep her nieces and nephews warm. Apparently, motherhood was too intimidating for her, or her mother wasn't ready to be a grandmother. Whatever the reason, we have 14 Muscovy ducklings and a couple of eggs in the incubator with low expectations. Not many, if any, of her eggs were fertile. If they are and they hatch, we will try and sneak them under the "Moms" with the ten Pekin ducklings due tomorrow.

The plants continue to thrive in the dining room under the brilliant lights. In the evenings it is quite like the "night construction" lighting that blinds you as you try to drive by and stay on the road. I have taken to turning them off when I go to bed, so that the plants can rest with me. We all need rest so that we can store energy to use the next day. Sometimes we think we should just go, go, go. Stop and breathe. So you can bloom tomorrow.

The Illusion of Control

The 6 inches of snow that fell last night is already well on it's way to a new life as water. It will probably be gone by Friday night. It reminded me of why farming is such a challenging way of life. No amount of planning ahead stops late springs snowstorms or early frosts. That is why when you buy a share from a community supported agriculture farm, CSA, you are accepting the risk that those farmers live with. Hail, floods, heat, high winds, ice and snow are all possibilities on a farm. It is a very humbling reminder about what we have control over. It reminds me of a saying on a piece of art by the artist, Brian Andreas called Illusion of Control. It goes like this ,"If you hold on to the handle, she said, it's easier to maintain the illusion of control. But it's more fun if you let the wind carry you.". So when you wake up in the morning, enjoy what is here. I do have to mention that I found it very beautiful outside this morning. The lilac bushes we not so happy though, as they had so much snow on the branches they were touching the ground. Tim went out and released them with a good shaking.
The ducks have not hatched yet and we are excited to see them when they decide to arrive. I did order my first batch of broilers, 200 baby chicks. They will arrive early next week and go into the brooder. We are hoping to have them out on pasture by mid-May. I am more excited about all the piglets we are getting this spring. 10 of them. We are considering getting some breeding stock so we will be able to raise our own next year. Still to be decided.
Tim has been busy outside building new feeders for the pigs since the weather has been, as it is. But better than that he has been trying his hand at cheese making! So far he is aging a cheddar, we are eating a queso fresco and ricotta made from the by-product, whey. Lasagna tonight. Yum!