100 Mile Locavore Challange on TV

There is a new show on Discovery Channels Planet Green called "100 Mile Challange". This show is about local eating. The participants can only eat food grown within 100 miles of their home. Here is a link to the show. It is on on Monday nights. This is reality "Animal, Vegetable Miracle."- Kingsolvers book and memoir of being a "locavore" for one full year. Link:

planetgreen.discovery.com/tv/100-mile-challenge

October Update

October is going well, after a week of cold/ flu sickness everyone is up and back to normal. We have been cutting and splitting more firewood, we are actively using the wood stove nearly 24/7. Below is a view of cows in pasture during fall color.
The hogs are doing very well, growing well. Below is a photo me building their new hog house which is on skids so it can be pulled by a tractor to rotation graze.

Here is a photo of the new house in the pig pen (1/2 of our garden) where the pigs are harvesting the garden leftovers. And turning the soil. Below Jay watching his pigs (they're names are "Bacon"- that what he calls them).

Here is one of the calves which are being weaned in the barn and is currently for sale.

Tractor

Our son, covered in a dust of corn and soybean meal that he was supposed to feed to the pigs (not throw, LOL!) But he had fun, as you can see above. Below is a photo of our tractor. Concord Mommy took this picture or she would be in it too. It has worked well so far, and will be a great asset to the farm.

This week we almost finished up hay season. The picture below is Concord Son and I traveling home from raking hay. He came over to the fields to bring Dad some water and begged to ride back with me. We have also been working on putting more firewood inside the wood shed and cleaning out the other half of teh shed for the tractor (to be parked out of weather). Monday morning was first of many firewood cutting parties to be had through the winter. The parties usal consist of myself, Matt and Andrew. We cut, split and load all 3 of our trucks with wood; many hands make the work go fast.

The pigs are growing. I am hoping to expand there pen this week to enclose our entire garden which is almost done producing for this year.

August Photo Review

In July we took a great trip to Lake Erie to see Jay's Great Grandparents. What a great trip!

Family photo.

The camp set up, our camper.

Cayla Cooking on the fire
Family Campfire photo
Fresh Beets anybody? What a worker

Chris and the backhoe. Who said video games teach you nothing? He said, "I like this, its like a big video game." And hes pretty good at it too! Thanks to Chris for his hard work on the farm this week.

Work in progress, digging hole for water line. No more hooking the hose up inside the basement to water animals!!!!!!!!

Thanks to Andrew for his plumbing expertise and time spent. We now have a water spigot in the field.

Jay loved the rides at the Athens County Fair.

Ok, were tired now. LOL. Jay and I catching quality zzzzzz's.

PS: Feeder pigs in progress, they will be ready in February! More on them later. Thanks again, to Chris for all his help this week, we got lots of work done.

1st Place Bread and Butter Pickle!!!!!!

Yes we won, first place!!!! This year we entered some canned items in the Athens County Fair. 1st- Bread and Butter Pickles; unranked- Green Beans. This is our first time entering anything from our farm in a competition.

What a busy time of year, Athens County Fair is in full speed, over next week. I will post an update of this months events.

July

Summer is coming right along. First cut hay is done. Fence is in progress. Next to do: firewood and barn roof. We have canned some, and will be canning alot more as more tomatos ripen.

Jay playing on his toy "trac-sher" wearing my old work hat. He has so much fun on that tractor, it has seen and will see many more miles.

Here my wife worked on brush hogging the pasture which has been grazed early on in season, but before weeds go to seed and spread, we mow, to stop the seed spread and help pasture growth. What a great job she did!

Fence is an ongoing project. This will keep our bull Travis from wandering to the neighboring farm when their cows are in heat. The light weight electric that shocks @ 4,500 volts did nothing to stop him 4 times this week, thankfully they're understanding and very helpful. We have finally finished the east side of the perimeter fence; it has been built in stages. It consisits of 4 strand barb wire and cow panels for gates. Big thanks to Kyle for his help!!!

This is our newest family investment: a pop-up camper. We are so excited to use it, we have planned to camp the first weekend of August.

Summer Update

Times are busy as always! Since we are both working off them farm jobs and around the farm, days are long. Good news: all puppies have new homes; the garden is filling with fresh veggies (above picture) and we are late yet again splitting firewood but we have some done. There has been massive amounts of hay baled, stored and sold this season- possibly one for the record books. Everyone is doing well. Jay is growing by the day, its unbelievable; he got a pet Ki-Cat (kitten) for the garage/ barn/ outdoors... Mouse catcher... would be great for the feed storage area. Both calves are doing well putting on weight. adapting the pasture life.

Organic To Be

While searching for other books by Gene Logsdon, I found a blog that he regularly writes on. After reading The Contrary Farmer, then, Animal Vegetable Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver), I am currently reading Chasing Rainbows, my grandfathers book of memoirs. I am in search of the next books to read. Being such a great fan on Gene, an Ohio homestead type farmer, who has authored many books on such subjects as: small scale farming, organic gardening, homesteading and much more. Anyway back to topic the blog is Organic to be. Link to the blog: http://organictobe.org/ . Gene has his own section, using the tabs at the top click "Gene". Mr Logsdon is a true inspiration, his writing will draw you in and boggle your mind about the ways you do things and ways that they could be done differently. Check out some of his writing in these links (Click to view):
Books on Google (excerpts you can read) http://books.google.com/books?q=gene+logsdon&btnG=Search+Books ,
Books on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Logsdon/e/B000APL8F6/ref=ep_sprkl_at_B000APL8F6?pf_rd_p=479564851&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_i=gene%20logsdon&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10MGSCP1NH2EEV82TKM0

New life on the farm

The garden is doing well so far, Jay has been a big help, LOL. So far we have 4 kinds of tomatos, potatos, bell peppers, banana peppers, bush beans cuccumber, cantelope and corn, and a rash of herbs which will be in our new raised bed. (Later Post)

Morgan and Jake just had their final litter of puppies before the fix. (Yes they're getting fixed.) She gave birth to: 8 total= 6 live, 2 still born......... 4 male, 2 female.......... 4 black, 2 white with black. Everyone is fine and dandy and eating well. Taking requests on pups.

Sally finally had her calf!!!!! Yesterday Morning!!! Easy birth she pushed for a few minutes calf emerged, and fell right out. she immediately began cleaning it, etc... The normal mom stuff I guess. Its a heifer (female) and appears to be a red/dun color. The first calving I have witnessed!

With the weather cool and rainy we decided to pin them up in the barn for a day or so. Sally is not happy about being in the barn, as you may know she has been our trouble cow.... she is plain nuts! Below she is playing guard, no human contact allowed on her watch.

The dates dont line up, I know, but these pictures were all taken yesterday June 3.

Victory Garden? How about Recession Garden!

I found a great link from a fellow Blogger: The Beginning Farmer, I refer to his blog on a regular basis. This link is to Yeoman Lawyer / Farmers Blog. (He has 2 blogs, both very interesting). Yeoman wrote a short piece including photos of Victory Garden posters. These posters are from previous World Wars, in which extra food was needed for troops serving over seas. These posters are popular today, because of the current economy. Many of these are being reproduced to encourage families to grow a garden, to help themselves in this troubled time. Link: http://yeomanlawyer-yeoman.blogspot.com/2009/05/victory-gardens.html
Please Check the blog links of others as many are information filled.

Make Hay While The Sun Shines

The old sang "Make hay while the sun shines" is hold true this week. Wow how the seasons have changed, the hot sun is out and its hay season again. Andrew (neighbor) and I have been mowing hay this week preparing to bale. Above is Matt's tractor (neighbor and Andrews brother), that we have been using to mow the hay. Below is a close up picture of raked hay rows in the above pictured field. Make sense? Anyway, we have had frost 2 days this week so far, lost a few seedlings to it, but thankfully nothing else. We're gonna shoot for firewood hauling and fence building after all the fields have had the first cut of hay mowed off of them.We did get a chance to plant our new apple trees. They are doing well. No calf or calves yet! Is the Vet right? are we crazy? Both? We'll keep you updated. I was recently looking at Mother Earth News online and read an article about Athens, and it made me think Isnt Athens County such a beautiful place to live? Link to the article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Nature-Community/2006-08-01/Great-Places-Athens-Ohio.aspx

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Belated Mothers Day to all! sorry its late. Above are my 2 most favorite people, helping out, putting up temporary cow fence. Yes, on Mothers Day, LOL. What a great day it was for Mom: Breakfast in bed, Opening gifts from Jay, church, Home for lunch, then outside for the afternoon. We worked in the garden and moved cow fence.The cows are now a fresh piece of ground. If you know our farm its the field by the pine trees, which has never been grazed since we have had the farm. The cows are loving the cool shade of the pines. Sally, the cow that is due to calve anytime is getting closer. Her teets are beginning to swell with milk.

Grass fed beef. This type of beef is said to be superior to grain fed beef. The following is a quote from Consumer Reports: "Grass-fed steak can also have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which may help reduce heart-disease risk. Grass-fed ground beef usually has more conjugated linoleic acid, which might improve the immune system and help fight cancer, atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes, lab and animal studies show." here is a link to the article:

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/news/2008/03/grass-fed-beef-3-08/overview/grass-fed-beef-ov.htm?EXTKEY=SP72FD0&CMP=KNC-CROYPIFOOD&HBX_OU=51&HBX_PK=pi.

These are pictures of our cattle grazing one of the lush green pastures on our farm.

Sunny days

Jay is absolutely loving this weather! Easter was a big hit also with the egg decorating and throwing ( hahaha- lol- Jay). He also loves to feed his Chi-Chi s (Chickens). He got a sand box for Easter and plays in it alot. Below is his Easter picture, sorry its late.

We have planted our seeds, they are growing fast and will be put into the ground soon.

The haybine project is coming right along a little at a time. I bought some parts a week ago and will replace them soon, hopefully. Yesterday I painted it, pictures below. We sold the heifer calf tat we bought in January so that we can re-roof the barn (the roof leaks- alot!). We also hauled in 2 beef steers to the butcher on Wedsnesday- All beef (1/2's & 1/4's) are sold. To purchase pigs to raise for pork this week?? I havent decided yet.

We hope that everyone is enjoying spring as much as we are!

April Snows Brings May Flowers?

It is a little hard to tell but a good look at the above picture shows snow on the ground, this very morning! Crazy I know, LOL! Wow 2009 is moving along quick. We have gotten alot done so far this spring. Below are photos for the following tasks completed. Cayla, Jay and I finished the fence up through the woods, and tore down the old, expanding our pasture a little. Yes, it was done in reverse, because I wasn't sure that I would complete the new fence in time for grazing, I left the old fence so at the top pastures were usable.

We have also been painting on the dismantled hay mower, progress is slow, working as weather allows, for painting metal- conditions must be right. Jay even handled a paint brush and helped paint the red panels pictured and added his person touch to our garage (it hard to stay within the lines, lol).

Thanks to our neighbors we were able to barrow their tractor and plow the garden, in exchange for getting the plow in usable condition- that it was not. Our other neighbor Joe was passing by on his tractor a few days ago with a tiller on the back, after talking to him for a few, Joe said he would till our garden in exchange for help at a later date(freshly tilled garden- 4th picture). The country is great, we all help each other out! At least our garden is large and ready to plant- and the chickens are absolutely chowing down on worms. Last night we planted all of our seed starter cups. Enjoy- feel free to Comment.

Big shoes to fill! Jay in Dads boots.