Okay, so I'm back...

Wow, it's been a while hasn't it?

So keeping up kind of fell by the wayside this spring. Record-breaking/scary flooding (nearly two feet of rain over a couple of days) followed by record drought, plus a military deployment alert, and well, a lot of other stuff...and the blog kind of fell by the wayside.

But family, faith, and farm didn't and we've been steadily working on all three this year. Life's balanced and growing, and we're glad for it.

Carla (my wife) and several other people have been on me to fire the blog back up. I acquiesced when I met some random person in Kansas City, and they asked what had happened to the blog. I'll catch you up to speed over the next couple of weeks. Lots of cool things going on...I'll tell you about them soon.

New feed ration

So, we've switched our feed for our meatbirds to a better ration. We're getting our feed from a source a couple of counties over. The ration is ground on spot, in the grinder above. In addition, the most of the ration is (relatively) locally grown, being grown in North Central Arkansas in the Ozarks.
The best thing about this stuff is that it's 1oo% from nature. GMO free, but beyond that, the protein in it comes from fishmeal. By the way, did you know that Certified Organic Chicken feed typically uses a synthetic, powdered protein manufactured in a lab? Yeah...well, that's true for the stuff you buy from the major organic producers that use defunct conventional chickehouse at least...

The feed above smells so great...meaty, almost like a really thick beer. It smells wholesome and really nutritious. I'll have to raise our prices around 15-20 cents/lb, which I would have had to do anyways with the sky-rocketing corn prices. We're very happy with this move.

Not Getting Crushed by Barrels of Feed

We've switched rations for our meatbirds this year - we're going to a GMO free, locally grown blend of chicken feed that I can get two counties away, from a private mill tucked away in the Ozark Mtns around 70 miles away. That's a whole another story...but I get the feed loaded in 55 gal drums, and they weigh A LOT. Unloading drums out of the back of the truck with a dolly and a ramp, was pretty laborious and turned out to be really dangerous - a 350ish lb drum out or control down a ricketty ramp. I've learned if you do something dangerous enough times, at some point I'll get hurt.


At the same time, Carla was helping me, and we were both starting to get on each others' nerves, so we took a break from unloading, and each other. I happened to look over at two square bales, and well, one thing led to another and this is how we now unload heavy barrels of feed! Just roll the barrel out of the back of the truck onto the square bales. The hay cushions the barrels, and there's no opportunity to get crushed by anything round and metal. It's also really fast...sounds like a win to me.

Skunked

The combination of a ridiculously bright full moon and warmer spring-like temps have brought the polecats (skunks) out in force, at least the males. I've been seeing dead skunks all over the roads as of late.
This is what happens when a potential chicken-eating critter finds a way around or toughs his way through our electric fence. The Great Pyrenees made short work of this male skunk when he got into the pasture. Needless to say, the dogs got sprayed and are pretty rank, but they seem pretty proud of themselves and I'm definatley pleased.

One thing you can see is the special claws adapted for digging on this guy. I'd never seen a skunk up close before, so it was pretty neat to get to take a look at this one.

Still Spreading Hay

We've got severe storms moving in tomorrow, potentially all day long, so of course erosion's on my mind. I've been picking up old round bales of hay too far gone or too weedy for cheap, $5 bucks a pop. I finally picked up a little 12 ft trailer on craigslist for a decent price; the trailer even has a ramp, so loading the hay rounds is a lot easier. We haven't been able to get a tractor yet, so any loading of round bales has meant a strong back and luring a unsuspecting friend over for a little "help".

There was a spot in the pasture across the creek that was looking a little bald. So I took a small round bale of hay out there and patched it up.

The Boston Mtns are especially susceptible to soil erosion, and our holler definitely fits the mold when it comes to the good stuff washing down hill. The spot above is a shale out-cropping that I drive up to get to the middle and top bench. The soil's so fragile there because, well there never really was any. So plastering the area with hay not only helps to keep the soil there, but makes a great seed bed for some fescue and some hardy weeds. The best thing about using the round bales is that there's always a downhill to help spread the hay! I've been sowing ryegrass and clover and it's germinating well in the hay. The rain coming up should get the rest of the seeds jump started into germination.

By the way, if I ever cut hay off someone else's land, I'm thinking it'll be square bales!

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Crazy Weather Swings

Man, the past week or so has been crazy. The last spate of winter weather dropped over a foot of snow at our place and 20 miles north, over two feet of snow fell, breaking a state record for 24 hr snowfall amounts. The next morning, temps dropped to -20 F, and that's REALLY cold here.

Lately though, temps have been pushing into the 70s during the days and 5os into the night. The ground's even starting to dry out a little. Judging by critters, spring is coming. The spring peepers are out and the bees are finding pollen somewhere, as their pollen baskets are laden with the yellow stuff.

I think we've still got a cold snap or two in store, and judging by the year so far, I'd be suprised if we didn't have a snow or two on the horizon. It's been a rough winter here, really rough. It's been good to see though how rough things can get as we're eyeballing our surroundings are figuring out what and how we need to build. A record drought followed by record cold back to back helps in the planning.

Anyone else having an abnormal weather year?