April Showers

The April sun is heating the soil in the garden as the seedlings are growing on the kitchen windowsill. The peppers are growing very slowly, as always, and the tomatoes have gotten their "true" leaf today. The peas have been in for about a week, probably none too early considering the warm weather we've had here lately. The onions, spinach, lettuce and swiss chard were planted just a day ago. I do the heavy working of the soil, adding compost, and running the tiller, while the Gatherer does most of the tedious planting.

In the barn, most of the young bottle fed goats and lambs are nearly weaned. They all will take drink of warm milk when it is offered, but they are eating hay and grain very well now. Our young doe, Elizabeth, had a single buckling Wednesday morning while we were all there to watch. What a wonderfully natural event after months of waiting. We'll let the little fellow drink from his mom and I'll milk the rest out each morning and night. It is sometimes a challenge to train a new milker, but Elizabeth seems to be learning quite quickly.

In the poultry side of things here, we have a new rooster in the hen house. He's a real pretty fellow from a neighbor's farm where he was just one of too many roosters. In our farmyard he is the boss now, waking us each morning and rounding the hens up each evening. If he gets too big for his britches I've got just the recipe for him. Our new laying chicks have arrived and are taking up space on the seedling stand in the kitchen. They like a warm place, but they begin to smell, so they won't be in the house for long. This year we've got a dozen Black Sexlinks, a cross between the Rhode Island Red and the Plymouth Rock. This a new breed for us, but isn't it fun to try new things?

Maple Sugar Season Photos

2010 was our first year with our new 2x4 W.F. Mason evaporator. Made right here in Maine, with real Maine craftsmanship.



The "local inspector" checks out the brick job on the new arch.


The sugar house is nearly set up and ready for the sap to start to run.



One our first boils, the little unit sure makes steam. We had a lot or fun this year and we are hoping for better sap seasons in the years to come.

Earning their keep

Several times a year here on the farm we have to decide which animals are good producers and which are not. With the hens, the best egg layers will avoid my axe, while the hens who are caught eating eggs will be first in line for Sunday dinner. Ugly roosters have long ago found their way to the supper table, with no remorse from the Farmer or the Gatherer. It's just a simple fact, on a farm we all need to earn our keep.

While it is true that we can afford to keep some "pets", the whole subsistence farm system works better if we have healthy and productive animals. If we find that a doe goat has given birth to a single kid, has given less than a good amount of milk, and fails to be bred back, it may be time to cull that animal. Now to most people the term "cull" is a dark and secretive word. I have imagined that a goat vanishes some night on the farm, where did she go? Did some wild dogs drag her off? Was she sold to some unsuspecting neighbor? No, she was culled. Very simply put, culling around here means that the animal probably became a meal for our family. I believe that an animal that is a poor producer should not be sold but should be put to their highest and best use, and that may mean slaughtering. I clearly don't mean to say that sick animals would be turned into food, but just those who, for some reason or another cannot earn their keep.

From our kids earliest days have tried to truthful with them about where our food comes from. With the vegetables that we grow or the apples that we pick there is a clear connection between the garden or the orchard and the table. While the idea of having some "meat for supper" is an American tradition, most families don't want to know where their Black Angus came from. Not us, we like to know that our beef was raised on our grass, drank clean water from our pond and was carefully prepared for our consumption. We have taught our kids that God put animals on this earth to be our helpers, maybe to haul a plow, maybe to provide us with milk, and yes sometimes to provide us with meat. You will be amazed how your kids will accept this fact of nature if you are honest and compassionate about your animals giving their life to sustain ours.