The Last Few Months

Sorry it has been so long since my last posting. Since last September, while I have been extremely busy with Marine related things, I have also been busy learning more about farming. visiting farms, experimenting etc.

Caden helping me pick and clean one of our harvests

Our very humble salad garden

    It was around my last post that we planted our fall salad garden comprised of spinach, arugula, bibb, and other lettuces. It has been extremely prolific as we planted it in a very mature and deep raised bed. The soil is comprised of 3 years of compost, rabbit manure and home to hundreds of night crawlers.  In addition, being in the part of the yard that gets the absolute least amount of sunlight, I put up radiant barrier insulation on the fence just to reflect more light onto the plants as the sun goes down. It has worked wonders. We have harvested 4 times now and usually get 11 stuffed gallon sized ziploc bags. It is ready for its 5th harvest and the broad leafed salads show no signs of slowing while the arugula is spent. The salad has a very peppery and nutty taste mostly thanks in part to the arugula. When bagged almost right away and put in the vegetable drawer of our fridge, the salad is lasting about 4 weeks! I have learned to not wash the salad before bagging as it leaves a filmy residue after about a week. Also, I can't plant the salad to close together or it becomes a thriving jungle sanctuary for bugs.


The picture to the right is our original ten tilapia. Most of them are between 5 and 6 inches I originally bought them thinking they were pure bred blue nile tilapia. Blue Nile are more desired because they have a lower water temperature tolerance around 55 degrees. 7 out of the ten adults are shades of pink and red which makes me think they are crossed with Mozambiques or Red Nile so their low temperate threshold should be moved up to 59 or 60 degrees.
In this picture they are 5 months old. They will be harvest size around 9 months and start reproducing at 7 months. We also bought 20 fry (baby fish) 2 months after buying these 10 and we have 17 left of them. The idea being I will using the two different "generations" of tilapia to breed to each other and thereby increase our gene pool resulting in faster growth and fewer deformities and health problems.

We have visited several farms to include Anne Bibb Ruble's farm and her beautiful Highland cattle. Highlands interest me because of their long hair coats and how winter hardy they are and hardy in general. Very parasite resistant and great grazers.

We have been starting to hone in on buying land and a house or just the land or renting the land. We are seriously looking at the West Union area of Adams County. And now, wanting a house and land, we have lowered our expectations of purchasing 50-100 acres to purchasing 20-50 acres. We have looked seriously at a few places and are looking at one now that is 23 acres, pasture, small barn, creek, and a bit run down 3 bed 1 bath old farmhouse.

Becca and I are currently enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. As I will be asking for friends and family to show they believe in me by asking directly and indirectly for their financial support, I want to prove that we are good with money. Progress so far: I am proud to say that other than our house we are completely debt free and we have a 6 month emergency fund and then some. We outright own our three vehicles and will be going down to just our van and the farm truck as we move up to Ohio. Even with all that, getting into farming, just being a small farm, in order to not take out any loans and outright buy your equipment, livestock, feed, fencing and shelter, it would cost about 80,000 even with buying used equipment. There are no grants available for someone like me because I haven't had it recorded on my taxes that I have been involved in any farm related enterprise and therefore I am not considered a beginning farmer or rancher. Those are the people who have been doing this for a minimum of 3 years (small livestock) to 5 years (large livestock). Makes sense, right?

The Interim...

The egg on the bottom left was our last fresh egg. The other two are the Eggland's best.

It pains me to say we have now sold all of our chickens and our ducks. We enter in to an interim period between suburban farmer and full time farmer. We are going to work on getting our backyard into something renters can easily handle and that will not bring us any lawsuits. We have used up all our own eggs... Store bought eggs are not the same at all... We bought some Eggland's best and even some "Cage Free Organic Eggs." I will go into it in much more detail but nothing compares to an egg laid in your own back yard by a chicken that actually saw sunlight and could clean itself in dirt and not feces.

    We do have 10 fingerling tilapia growing in our 20 gallon aquarium right now. We just revamped our garden to have a good sized fall salad garden with lettuces, spinach and carrots. Other than that, we are focusing our efforts on saving and raising money to buy the farm. In the meantime, we are working on skills useful for farm life. We are widening our cooking selections by trying new techniques and recipes. I made his and her scented soap last weekend and will work on building a cold frame soon. I will try to keep everyone informed on our progress about once a month amidst the farming and food related articles and posts.

Our Visit to Savannah River Farms

Everyone talks about the dangerous and disease ridden hogs that only machines can safely manage. This is the pork that ends up on the grocery shelves. When I mentioned I wanted to raise hogs, many in my family thought I was insane and literally feared for my safety. Granted, I am not claiming hogs as soft creatures that won't eat meat...But I knew there must be a better way of raising hogs than inside cramped barns that WREEEEAAAAKK  to the point of nausea if you get within a mile... Have you ever heard a hog barn? It sounds like something only the devil could create. Hogs in such confined spaces, underfed certain necessary things and over fed things they don't need just cause their cheap, lead to aggressive violent hogs.

     Our answer, like most everything that is going to be on our farm, is pasture raised hogs.I am not talking pasture like cow pasture. There is a time and a place for everything. I do not believe pigs need acres and acres of alfalfa, clover and timothy grass. Hogs, if you look to their ancestors the wild boar, love being in the woodlands. They root around for nuts and roots. They relish in the shade and go to open meadows upon their choosing. On our farm, they pigs will inhabit the land with trees on it. We may clear some of the trees out leaving trees like sugar maples so we can make some syrup on the same acreage. Point being, not all 50 acre farms have 50 acres of perfectly flat pasture. Why fight nature? If you have a 50 acre farm where 12 acres are wooded and full of hills, put the hogs there. They will love it.

      To see this kind of operation for myself and to answer my typical 100s of questions, we visited a farm about 2 hours from here called Savannah River Farms. They advertise they are a diversified pasture based meat farm. When we got there, the first thing I noticed was a lack of big machinery and a lack of bad odors... The air was light and country fresh.  They invited us in to their beautiful home which they built themselves. We talked for an hour or so while they gladly answered my questions. Then we toured their farm. To us it looked like they had between 200 and 300 hogs split between three large fields. They put our family on a motorized Mule and took us right into the hog pen. Trusting these people knew what they were doing, we had no concerns. She opened the gate, drove the mule in, and went back to close it. There wasn't a mad rush to escape their imprisonment. As we drove through that hog pasture, they probably had between 30 and 70 hogs. Most of them were adults. We eventually saw one of the boars.  Now, a market weight hog is generally accepted to be between 250 and 270 pounds. The massive boar in front of us was pushing 1100 pounds!! He wasn't fat, he wasn't agressive, he wasn't mounting every female he saw and the females weren't afraid of him. What a sight! The pigs didn't fight, smell, jump or screech. We looked one way and some pigs are laying on dry ground underneath a shade tree (it was 95 outside). In another spot, 10 pigs were playing in a mud hole. Some were coming from a more heavily wooded area. They hadn't destroyed the grass. There were butterflies and birds in the area of their pasture. It was quite a poetic sight. The pigs seemed so happy it was quite moving and inspiring. They also have grass-fed cattle and sheep and pasture based chicken. They were so kind, they gave us one of their whole frozen chickens. We noticed it was very "plump" and solid just by looking at it. The legs were very filled out and it wasn't all breast like so many of the supermarket chickens. We put it in the crock pot a few days later and it was amazing! It really made me realize the supermarket chicken we buy is very watered down, both in taste and weight. Literally... You pay for chicken by the pound and they can absorb up to 30% of their weight in water after being slaughtered and put in the chilling tanks.

   All this positive outlook on raising hogs really gives us hope. Over the last two months we have been diligently pursuing methods of funding our new farm. There exists no sorts of grants and the extremely low rate loans sponsored by the government for new farmers are only for "new" farmers that have 3-5 years of experience. That saga will have to be it's own post. For now, suffice it to say that cattle take a lot of initial capital investment that we won't have. Hogs are much cheaper to start and so we will put most of our eggs in that basket and grow from there.
  

History Repeats Itself for the Uneducated

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48076883/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times/#.T_biAfXkq7V

      Something tells me we as a nation just aren't learning or improving our practices. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was more a result of our abuse of the top soil layer that took thousands of years to build up. Instead of leaving every other field planted with grasses for hay or not, we planted every field with row crops as far as the eye could see. No mulch, no replenished top soil. Nothing to help crops last through a drought. The several years of drought destroyed the top soil and water reserves to the point nothing could be grown. Winds would come and sweep up the dried up manure and dirt, launching it into the air and all across the country.
   
      And we could face this again? How? We have moved animals and crops farther and farther away from each other. We spend millions "fertilizing" our fields with lab created Phosphorous, Potasium and Nitrogen. The fertilizer's main form is as a salt which ends up killing the living organisms that ironically make the top soil healthy. We have left the idea of crop rotations because we want more and more on less land. Manure that is dumped on crops hasn't had a chance to decompose. We can't rely on the already existing soil organisms to break it down because they were already killed off. So what happens? The manure dries up and ammonia is released into the air as a gas. What if another dust bowl were to happen? Same thing as 80 years ago...

    Fun fact of the day: 70% of corn grown in this country, and we do grow a lot of corn, is fed to animals who can't really digest it... Cows. What if we took all those acres and grew grass on them in order to feed those same cows what they should really be eating? Did you know the alfalfa plant has roots that can reach 20 feet down? Planting that not only would not only act as a hedge fund against drought but would help bring more nutrients to the top soil; that precious thing we so readily abuse. We would then be able to produce cattle so cheap that beef would surpass chicken and we may start seeing things like beef nuggets... gross concept but still. The beef would be much healthier than what is being produced on that same scale now. Even the environment would be improved by having cover crops on the land instead of seasonal plantings. Cover crops trap the dust and dirt, clean the air, and even lower the surrounding air temperature by a few degrees. If we plant a variety of grasses all together, we wouldn't spend so much on irrigation and maybe our lakes like Lake Mead and water tables could restore themselves. As the underground aquifers replenish, older trees then have a constant source of abundant water to tap. The hundreds of gallons of water a tree pumps into the air cools the temperatures down. The cooler temperatures again lead to less water use.

     I know 90% (not sure of accuracy) of America has watched the Lion King.  Life is a great circle and we are wrong to think we can do things individually. Support your local farmer who understands these ideals and in the end you will be supporting yourselves.

The First Egg!!! And the rest was history

Same breed of chickens, but two different looking eggs. Variety is the spice of life.

Before I broke these, the yolks stood up. Note the orange color especially in the right one indicating more Omega 3s.

My pile of purchased materials that eventually turned into a shabby first woodworking project/chicken coop.

Our first three chickens at 8 weeks. One buff Orgpington, Rhode Island Red and a Barred Rock.

Our old coop.

Too Reliant on Government

      While watching the news today, I noticed so many people are still without power. Various news channels were interviewing so many people, some of whom have been out of power for going on 6 days! That is a tragedy and while the electricity companies are private entities, I do think the government should step in and help out. And it is doing that by activating 1000s of National Guard members, having food trucked in, etc.

      But, I also heard people who were complaining that no one has come and cleaned up the fallen tree in their yard or their street. Grocery store shelves were completely empty. They showed pictures of American's walking dogs amidst the debris as if everything was kosher.

       When are we as a society going to wake up and stop accepting the status quo. Yes, the government is there in times of need. But who says you shouldn't try tracking down a chain saw and cut up that tree. Or talk to the farmer who not only has food but probably has a lot of tools to help clean things up. Our forefathers would scoff at our idleness. Did no one on any of these blocks think a generator would be a good idea? Hopefully, some people learned their lesson in all of this and will make changes to be better prepared for disaster.

        Harsh? Very. How can progress be made without constructive criticism and analyzing how we as a country do business? What if the local people in conjuction with volunteers were the runs to run the cleanup and the money saved by the Government goes towards working with the electric companies to put the lines underground? What if people didn't need to trust their food safety to hourly paid workers and inspectors employed by the Government? What if in-office presidents were made to do their job for all 4 years instead of only really work for 2 and campaigning the last 2? What the tax code was simplified in to a flat tax and at least 50% of the IRS would no longer be needed?

        Taxes would plummit. In essence we pay the goverment for our increasing lethargy towards self-responsibility. We as a country are too busy out having fun while our government mismanages us. Has anyone kept track of all the food contamination and recalls? I will give you a hint; it isn't normal. By the time the organization responsible for keeping us safe realizes the food is spoiled, it has already made it to 20 states and 1000s of stores... The USDA recently announced it is going to be laying off 1,000 inspectors at several chicken plants across the states. They are touting the move as a huge success in that the remaining inspectors will focus on food safety and detecting illnesses. Let's hope they are right. A related article can be found here:
http://foodct.com/2012/01/23/usda-poultry-inspections-could-get-streamlined-saving-95-million/

Ultimately though, the main inspectors then become the people working for companies just out to make an extra ten cents; people so removed from consumers the quality doesn't matter. I can assure you local farmers don't have the "could care less" attitude. They keep their farms clean knowing many people will be coming to pick their food up directly. They are a good people who care about the satisfaction of their customers. Word of mouth (or blog) is their marketing strategy and repeat customers is their goal and livelihood. They are a people who have been distanced from their consumer base so it would be easier for big industrial agriculture to profit. If we could just close the gap between local farmer and consumers in the city, the stereotypes and falsities would be destroyed. Optimistically speaking, as gas prices are increasing, so is the gas efficiency of vehicles. Either way, the internet has evolved as an instant link between farmer and consumer. Perfect example: http://www.localharvest.org/ Give it a shot. . Take food safety into your own hands. You won't regret it.

God's Great Design

     Long ago, buffalo roamed the wild plains in huge herds. They ate the grass and the grass "ate" their droppings. It was a win win. All that land covered in lush lush grass wasn't an accident. Grass and grazing animals go hand in hand. Without grass to hold the manure, the high amounts of ammonia and nitrogen are leached into the soil, down a stream into a lake, or in to the water table. Without large quantities of grass, the herds couldn't exist...The life of the Buffalo herd followed the grass seasons. Babies are born on the lushest pastures so that the mothers could have enough nutrition and calories to make milk and recouperate before being bred again. More nutrient rich milk meant the calves would grow faster and be healthier for the drought season and be given one more chance at a decent grass growth in the fall before the harsh winters came.

      So why on earth would man kind think it beautifully genius enough to separate cows from grass and raise beef cattle in massive feedlots? A feedlot is basically a large square lot devoid of any vegetation where cattle are squeezed in to and given access to feed troughs full of ... corn? Corn is the main ingredient in the grain diet of beef cattle in feed lots. No hay... "Where does the waste go? Wouldn't that attract a lot of disease? So wait, the cattle are wallowing in their own feces? But hold on, the package says USDA grade A or FDA inspected... I don't get it..." The scenario I painted above has none of these problems. This scenario is the monstrosity that has become modern agriculture. I am not exagerrating. These are not falsities. Americans, at least for the past few decades, have deemed things such as video games and cars more important than food. Food needs to be cheap. End of story.  Due to several horrific laws in place such as the inheritance tax and a few others, some small farms that were in families for 4 generations had to be sold just to pay the inheritance tax after the death of the patriarch or matriarch. As more and more people abandon country life and city population grows and grows, the race to grow more, cheaper continues on. People become more distanced from their food sources and hence become ingorant and even sometimes careless about what they consume. If after eating McDonald's ever day of the week means that mom can stay at work an hour longer to earn more so the family can go on a better vacation this year, then by all means. Who cares about the quality of the food.

     But what are we sacrificing? The scenario I listed above is extremely common, albeit an exacerbation for 90% of America. Let's examine the effects. Traditional family sit down dinners are almost a thing of the past. If you are still managing to get them in 4 days a week, great for you. Most families can't. Is it a wonder so many children are losing respect, manners, discipline and responsibility? Families have stoped spending that quality time at the dinner table where everyone discusses their day; where Dad asks about homework to the kids face instead of yelling upstairs while the child is on his own personal computer surfing the internet. We have become a society of bigger is better, more is better, cheaper is better, faster is better. We have the freedom to make those choices and making mistakes is the best way to learn. People are starting to wake up again and realize, as a whole, we have made a grave mistake getting away from the way things used to be so long ago. By always eating at fast food joints, our health declines faster than the length of Hollywood marriages. Our doctor bills go up and eventually our bodies begin telling us we have neglected them for too long. We then prop ourselves up with low dose steroids, chemicals, and pill after pill after pill. The family that works longer hours to earn more for a better vacation wonders why on that vacation the children seem so distant. A year's worth of long hours and neglected one on one time isn't worth that trip to Disney every year.  Ask your child and he or she will probably say the exact same thing. They just want time with us and we better give it to them before them become to old and realize the neglect we as parents have shown them.
  
     How about the beef itself? or the chicken? Man, some family must be making a killing off of McDonald's selling all those chickens. Not so. Those chickens are raised in barns whose families will net maybe $18,000 for operating 4 barns who hold 30,000 chickens each... I will go into much more detail in later posts. Who is the greatest controller of beef prices? The American consumer? Not quite. Mcdonald's is the largest purchaser of beef in the world. By the time the beef gets to the consumer, it has been through so many hands, machines, trucks and cleaners, who cares how the beef was raised.

   It is my deepest heartfelt desire that the American people begin caring again about their health and their land; this great land our forefather's fought for.Why should we be reactive when we could be proactive? As a country, we have become so careless about the things that really matter. "Oh, cigarette smoke in enclosed areas is bad? Ashes from cigarette trays are dangerous? Ok. Let's remove ash trays from cars and smokers can then just throw the butts out the window." HOW IS THAT ACCEPTABLE!!!! I deplore smokers and wish they would all quit. All that extra highway cleaning is raising our taxes, they pollute the air and smoking itself contributes nothing positive to the individuals health nor the health of those around them. The only reason smokers smoke after the first "taste" is the addiction. The calming effect, the weight loss effect are all merely placebo effects. Therefore, by and large it is a drug that should be banned. I am all about people making their own poor choices but when it soooo effect my family and I, I will get personally involved.

    I hope you all have a great and celebratory 4th. May your day be filled with colorful explosions and the appreciation of battles fought. May our future as a country brighten and may our land become rich once again.

Semper Fidelis.