Feeding Winter Hay

Pig Process Dates

The dates are set! Pigs are to go: 5 on February 25 and 4 on March 3. I will be contacting buyers soon. We will need to get paperwork completed. Thanks to all, there is a waiting list for pork and pigs in next batch, get your name on it today.

Also check us out on Facebook, search for: Concord Meadows Farm.

December 2009

We hope everyone had a joyful and safe holiday! Here are some December highlights:

The Deer hunting crew: Chris, Me, Kyle, Kevin.Cooking Chili on the wood stove... Our first power outage of the winter, at least we have heat!

Mamma, Jay, Santa (Papa)Jay's new bike (witha horn)- What a Happy Christmas Jay playing with gifts at grandmas.

A Day in the Life

A day in my life. For all farmers their regimen differs... each to their own.
My Typical Winter day:

08:00am Get off work
09:00am Get home
09:30am Chores (Feed- Water Animals)
10:00am Breakfast
11:00am- Various work (move firewood to porch, haul hay, fence, fix broken things, etc....)
12:30pm Lunch
Afternoon-More various work- Jay is usually with me, my little shadow.
6:00pm Dinner (My wife cooks great homemade food; usually all food raised by us!)
7:00pm Enjoy evening home
10:00pm Bed
1:30am-ish Stoke up wood Stove (usually once per night)
5:00am-ish Stoke up wood stove (*Really cold nights, twice*)
6:00am Wake up- check Wood Stove, watch Weather Channel...Coffee!
6:30am Chores (Feed- Water Animals)
7:00am Leave for work

As many know, my weekly schedule follows a constant rotation, here it is :

Day 1- 08 am- 08 am- 24 Hrs @ Station 2
Day 2- Off 08 am -03 pm; 3 pm Drive to GC; Firehouse 6pm- 8am
Day 3- OFF (Day above)
Day 4- 08 am- 08 am- 24 Hrs @ Station 2
Day 5- OFF- At home (Similar farm day schedule)
Day 6- OFF- At Home (Similar farm day schedule)
Day 7- Schedule Above starts over, with Day 1.... Predictable year round.

*Note: Chores and work change with seasons. IE: rotating grazing cows to new pasture; fixing/ preparing hay equipment; Haying (mowing, raking, baling, hauling, selling); Garden; etc...)*
*Picture is from last winter*

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.

Life without lights

The winter storm that swept through the Mid-West last week left us without electric. The storm left a blanket of snow 3-4" then approx 1/2"-3/4" ice, then another 1-2" of snow, the ice especially was terrible on trees and roads; even the local radio stations shut down. Just like earlier times in history we used our oil lamps for light, and of course our wood stove for heat, we stored food outside in the cold, heated water for dishes and washing on the wood stove, we cooked on the woodstove and white-gas camp stove. I was able to fashion a radio (we lack a battry powered radio!) out of an old car radio, a car battery, and two speakers. The outtage didnt seem to phase Jay, as he played like always. I quote my wife, "at least our house is warm and boring." Life went on as usual, went to work as usual, just closed off a few rooms to keep heat central, and ate great food, chores done the same, and played board and card games (below is a pic of our favorite new game). The electric ceased on Wednesday Jan. 28 and came back on early morning Monday Feb 2; though we borrowed a generator on Saturday the 31st, to run the refridgerator/ freezer. As much of a hassle or inconvenience as it may seem, it was a great vacation from these modern times. Mother Nature you are the boss!

Moving Bubba

The story of our lives: we have been really busy. Recently with the cold snap our lives have revolved around getting chores done, hauling firewood and staying warm. Last week the newest member of our Dexter Cattle herd was delivered, a 15 month old- born Oct 2007, black, dexter heifer, we named Autumn; we will have pictures of her on soon.

This week we borrowed a trailer to move Bubba our Angus Beef steer, to the neighbors farm where he finish growing out until butcher time. The story with Bubba: he was abandonded by his mom, and adopted by one of our dexter cows("Sassy Sally") that had a calf die. They are very attached to one another, he has been impossible to wean, he now towers over her by about 6-8 inches and is 9 months old and still trying suck off mom. We have to wean him, because his mom "Sassy Sally" is carrying a calf to be born this spring, the calf needs the nutrients to grow. He was tough to catch, we ran him into the barn, and then he entered the trailer easily, and unloaded at the Sayres easily. Pulling the full size stock trailer with a Toyota 4 cylinder truck in the snow is another story, LOL. Pictures following of: Farmer Jay and his new farvorite boots (can you tell he is mine?) and moving Bubba following.

Hay Day

This winter we have been feeding a combination of round bales of hay- available to cows all the time and small square bales- which we feed at night. The small square bales are of higher quality ( higher protein) and have been stored inside. This is one of my neighbors tractors, for green and yellow it gets the job done somewhat well. We also went to look at cows this weekend and have decided to purchase one- a yearling heifer, the other two- 2 y.o. cow and yearling bull are headed to the Sanders Farm, another local couple.