#61 Hang water gate.

Installing gates is easy; the only reason this gate has been waiting for over a year is because stretching the fence wire was a prerequisite. I could have installed the other gate at the same time, but I need to recharge my drill batteries first.

#59 Stretch back fence in main pasture.

It took a couple of days of work, but I finally got all of the remaining woven wire stretched and nailed down in the main pasture. I started building this span of fencing in the fall of 2007, so it's very nice to have finally finished it.

#44 Read Malabar Farm

I just finished reading Louis Bromfield's Malabar Farm. It was both inspiring and depressing. Inspiring because they achieved such amazing results on the worn-out farms they started with, but depressing because most of the problems that Bromfield saw in agriculture of the time were not solved and indeed continue to be even worse problems now. It was also depressing because some of the techniques that Bromfield was so enthusiastic about in the 1940s have turned out to cause even bigger problems than they solved. For example, Bromfield was a huge proponent of specialization, because it allowed for economy of scale and more efficient mechanization. Now that most agriculture in the United States is specialized, we can see how unstable a system it is.

Catching Up

I spent all of February either preparing to travel, traveling, or recovering from traveling. First I went to California for my grandmother's funeral, and then I went to Utah to visit my dad and step-mom. I actually have a fair bit to blog about, but it's sure hard to get back into the swing of it after a break.

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First off, I discovered that Queenacres has given me a blog award. It's always nice to meet other people who share a similar vision. Welcome, Queenacres, and make yourself at home. I guess I'm supposed to now pass the award on to my favorite blogs, but I feel kind of silly to be perpetuating a chain, so I'll just point out that my favorites are always listed on the right sidebar.

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February Egg Tally: 74 eggs, 97 for the year.

This count only includes full-sized chicken eggs. There were also a few bantam eggs and a bunch of duck eggs, but ducks don't lay their eggs in a nest box and so their eggs are far too dirty for human consumption. When it gets warmer I plan to separate the Pekins out and collect their eggs for hatching. At least one of the Australorp pullets has started laying, since a couple of the eggs have been small, pointed, and heavily speckled. I could be wrong about this, but speckled eggs seem to be mostly produced by young hens. I remember that when the Reds first started laying, many of the eggshells were speckled, but now they are all pretty uniformly colored.

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Kefir Reboot

I don't remember exactly what happened, but the last time I set up a jar of fresh milk for the kefir grains, I wasn't home to refrigerate it at the proper time so it overfermented. The jar has been sitting on the shelf for months now, but I couldn't ever work up the motivation to deal with it. Today I finally drained off all the fermented milk, gathered the kefir grains, rinsed them in filtered water, and fed them fresh milk. Some eight hours later, the milk is starting to ferment, which means that my grains are still alive and salvageable. It will probably take several changes of milk before they start producing good quality kefir again, but the animals will be perfectly happy to drink the less palatable stuff. I'm looking forward to drinking kefir again; I was starting to miss it.

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Progress on the 101 Goals

I've been working on reading Horticultural Enterprises, but I was disappointed to discover that the authors advocate for a very industrialized approach, with chemical fertilizers and pest sprays. This book was published in 1929 (first edition 1919), so it must have been one of the very first to take such an approach. It's certainly interesting to read from a historical perspective, but I don't wish to garden the way they teach. Therefore, although my goal list stated that I would answer all of the chapter questions, I will most likely only answer some. It's interesting to see the industrial agriculture mindset developing, but I have no desire to study it for my own use.

#5 Build Hay Feeder For Goats

This is something I've been meaning to build since two autumns ago. Last winter, since I hadn't built a feeder yet, I protected the hay with a cattle panel. It worked, but several of the goats would get their horns caught in it and have to be removed every day, so I decided not to use that plan this year. This year, we've just been putting the day's hay in a pile in the pen, but anyone who's ever had goats would know how well that works. They think that their dinner makes a wonderful bed, and a lot of the hay gets soiled and wasted that way.

So, I got to work planning out the feeder. I already had plenty of lumber lying around, from the time I attempted to build a Salatin-style poultry pen. The only things I needed to buy were two 10' lengths of electrical conduit, conduit straps to attach them to the wood, and a 6'X8' tarp. I wanted it to be big enough to put a full bale in at a time, although for the number of goats we have right now, half a bale is all that's necessary. The feeder itself is four feet long, two feet wide, and three feet tall. The roof adds another three feet or so to the height, so that hay can be easily added. I spent about five hours yesterday on it, and about another hour or two today to finish it up.


Once it has been transported out to the farm, I will be adding 2x4 runners to make it easier to move and also to help prevent the goats from tipping it over. I also intend to bolt their mineral feeder onto one of the short sides, to make it a complete mobile feeding station.

98 things to go.

#40 Become Certified to Compost Dead Livestock

Today I took the course to become certified to compost dead livestock in Ohio. Most of the material in the lecture was familiar to me from my own studies of composting, but it was good to have a refresher. I also got a manual that I plan to study in more depth. My official certificate will be coming by mail, but we also received unofficial ones at the class. With as few animals as we have, there aren't many mortalities, but it will be nice to be able to legally compost them on our farm.

One item down, 100 to go.

101 Things, 1001 Days

Yes, it's a meme, but it sounds like a useful one. You're supposed to come up with 101 goals to accomplish within 1001 days. I thought that sounded like a good way to quantify some of our plans for the farm, so here is my list. December 28, 2008 will be the starting date, and September 25, 2011 will be the ending date. There is a countdown widget in the right column of the blog, showing how much time we have left to complete the items.

Legend:
Not started
Started but not finished
Finished

Building Projects

1. Build pickup truck crate.
2. Build up driveway.
3. Put gravel on driveway.
4. Build hoop house (or other permanent house) for poultry.
5. Build hay feeder for goats. (1/30/09)
6. Build second hay stack.
7. Make a hay rake from on-farm wood.
8. Make a snath from on-farm wood.
9. Put water tank up on blocks.
10. Insulate goat water trough.
11. Build insulated battery box.
12. Build rabbit pen.
13. Harness water power from creek for something.
14. Build a barn.
15. Build a sledge.
16. Build a hay wagon.
17. Build a bridge over drainage ditch.
18. Build a monkey bridge over the creek.

Crafts

19. Spin a fleece of wool into yarn.
20. Process flax into fibers.
21. Complete a woven project.
22. Shear a sheep.

Crops

23. Grow open pollinated corn.
24. Grow flax.
25. Plant oats for winter forage.
26. Start apple seedlings.
27. Plant bramble fruits. (12/2009)
28. Produce all necessary hay.
29. Produce half of animals' grain on farm.
30. Plant at least two paw paw trees. (0/2)
    
31. Plant three varieties of eating apples. (0/3)
    
32. Plant three peach trees. (0/3)
33. Establish feasibility of planting blueberries. (1/24/09)
34. Plant at least 16 different herbs/spices in front yard. (0/16)

Culinary

35. Eat a goose.
36. Eat a capon.
37. Bake every bread in The Bread Baker's Apprentice at least once. (0/43)
    
38. Eat a paw paw.

Education

39. Take a welding class.
40. Become certified to compost dead livestock. (1/9/09)
    
41. Visit Polyface Farm.
42. Visit Malabar Farm.
43. Visit The Land Institute.
44. Read Malabar Farm. (3/29/09)
45. Read Agriculture Yearbook from 1924.
46. Read Agriculture Yearbook from 1935.
47. Read Agriculture Yearbook from 1936.
48. Acquire at least five more pre-1940 Agriculture Yearbooks. (1/5)
49. Read Pork Production.
50. Research Jersey cattle lineage.
51. Buy box of Jersey cattle registry books, if still available.
52. Read The New Agriculture and answer chapter questions.
53. Read Horticulture Enterprises and answer chapter questions. (1/21)
    
54. Complete ten field exercises from Horticulture Enterprises. (0/10)
    
55. Read a book on chicken genetics.
56. Establish a breeding plan for free range broilers.
57. Research sheep breeds and choose best. (Icelandics)
58. Attend a sustainable farming class or conference.

Fencing

59. Stretch back fence in main pasture. (4/24/09)
    
60. Hang forest gate.
61. Hang water gate. (4/28/09)
    
62. Plant hedge around pond pasture.
63. Plant hedge in forest along road.

Foraging

64. Pick five gallons of blueberries at Dolly Sods. (2/5)
65. Pick cranberries at Dolly Sods.
66. Pick 30 gallons of black raspberries. (1/30)
67. Pick 10 gallons of wild blackberries. (1/10)

Livestock

68. Buy a milk cow.
69. Buy at least ten female runner ducks. (0/10)
70. Buy a pair of geese. (3/2) (2009)
71. Fill our freezer with homegrown beef.
72. Successfully caponize a rooster.
73. Buy rabbits.
74. Buy turkeys.
75. Buy a sheep flock.
76. Acquire at least one potential ox.
77. Successfully incubate duck eggs.
78. Breed at least two generations towards free range broilers. (0/2)

Marketing

79. Find five regular customers for bread. (0/5)
80. Find ten regular customers for eggs. (2/10)
81. Get retail license.
82. Sell a fattened pig.
83. Sell produce at a farmer's market. (2009)
84. Update farm blog 300 times. (61/300)
85. Write three newsletters for our customers. (1/3)
86. Build a farm website with our own domain.
87. Have an online order form for our customers.
88. Sell 200 broilers. (0/200)

Pasture Management

89. Graze upstream field.
90. Within a growing season, mow entire main pasture at least once.
91. Get scythe for Paul.
92. Clear undergrowth from forest.

Processing

93. Make five gallons of maple syrup. (1/5)
94. Butcher a deer.
95. Buy a meat grinder.
96. Make butter.
97. Make apple cider.

Water Management

98. Dig pond.
99. Install water system in upstream field.
100. Expand drainage ditch to one foot wide entire length.
101. Expand drainage ditch to one foot deep entire length.