Sad day for the Hens - Farmer locks and loads

Well, not but a few weeks after my post about "free range hens" and "free range dogs", we have been hit hard. Our hens had been ranging around our farm for a few weeks, and on Saturday, after a brief trip to the lake with the kids, and our two dogs, we returned home to seven dead hens strewn about the farmyard and pasture. Whatever it was that killed the birds, it wasn't too hungry, most of the birds had no visible sign of trauma. The three layers and rooster that survived are now locked up for the forseeable future, too bad.

Now what do we do? Do we turn the other cheek? Do we "hate the sin, but love the sinner"? HELL NO, we get out the guns and go hunting. I may be out on a limb here, but this is my blog and I'm the Hunter, the Provider, and if anyone is killing anything around here, it's ME. If any dog is unlucky enough to be "wandering through" our pasture in the near future, it better have its will up to date. I did take a few hours to visit all my neighbors and let them know that I've got an itchy trigger finger. If their little pooch decides to come back for dessert, he won't be going home.

Now calm down PETA, ASPCA and all you other liberal groups. I believe in "innocent until proven guilty" and all those other rights that we have. But we are people, citizens of the United States. Dogs, foxes, bob cats and the like have the right to exist because we let them, and for no other reason. So steer clear Rover if you know what is good for you or my gun and hot lead will be your reward.

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.

Out like a Lamb

The warmer days of Spring are upon as as we say goodbye to March. The frogs are now in full chorus and the buds are leaping from their hard shells. The animals on the farm will eat their breakfast and lay in the warm sun as they wait for the green grass that is beginning to take over the pasture. Easter is but a few days away when the long eared fellow will make his rounds.

We will clean the sugarhouse this weekend and wait for next year to take another shot at making some more sweet maple syrup. The firewood pile in the basement has shrunk to nearly nothing, but April here, hooray.

I'll be breaking out the rototiller in a few days to have our first peas in by April 15th. We'll start some spinach and early lettuce very soon as well. The pepper seedling trays have been sprouting on top of the furnace and will be moving to the sunny corner of the kitchen in a day or two.

It seems that we have to sort of change gears to take on the tasks of each season. Always looking ahead, preparing now so we don't miss the opportunity to take best advantage of the short growing season.

Rainy day

The rain is falling hard today here on the farm. Only a little of our manure has been spread for the upcoming growing season. The field is still too wet to get on with the spreader. We like to have these steady rains to help wash the nutrients into the ground. We just don't need quite this much at one time.

A few sap buckets remain on the trees. We should have got them down this weekend, but "The Farmer" got a bum hip, probably from overdoing it at our baseball clinic. I'm feeling better now, I think I have got to get some herbs or something for my aging bones.

Maine Maple Sunday passed without ever going into our sugar house yesterday. We did visit a friend's operation, maybe we'll be open next year. Look for it.

Rain is expected for tomorrow, then maybe warm and sunny through til Easter. That would be real nice. The grass will be getting green soon. April is but a few hours away. Take Care.

Frogs are singing

The frogs in the pasture pond are waking up for the season. The lonely "peep-peep" of a single pond dweller could be heard last night as I came back from the barn. This spring has been somewhat typical in a strange sort of way. We've had days in the high 60's, in mid March after a mild February. The kids launched their raft in the pond and were nearly swimming yesterday. We've raked most of the lawns and there is not any snow to be found here in Bowdoin. This morning we awoke to a dusting of snow and a biting wind out of the northwest. The Canadian air still has some frost left in it to blow us back into winter. I guess this is what the weather has always been in Maine, unpredicatble at best.

The earliest settlers, of hardy stock, were always at the mercy of Mother Nature. Sheltered by rudimentary houses and eating only what they could grow, collect or kill, they were acutely aware of their environment at all times. How we have changed, with insulated houses, central heat and warm motor cars, we seem to have it easy. I think we all should get a little closer to the land, to gather what it offers, to grow when the season is right.