Friday, January 18, 2013

Sunshine! Beautiful Sunshine! What an end to an incredible week!

Friday morning as the sun is coming up.  



I’m going to stray from the story of how our Dream came alive this week because it has been such an interesting week. As a farmer, you have to love rain.  Without it we would not be raising anything for very long. But rain can sometimes bring with it complications.  After that beautiful weekend of sunshine and 70 degree weather (in January!!  WOW), we started Monday with a little rain which continued on to Tuesday.  Tuesday was the day for the Animal Welfare Approved auditor to come.  And he did….  So we walked the wet and slushy pastures.   This time of year the rain just sits on top of the ground instead of being soaked up like it does in drier, warmer seasons.  The audit was uneventful and went well and the rain continued.
By the end of Tuesday, the goats were getting tired of it (the one thing goats absolutely do not like is rain.  They can handle most anything else, even snow but not rain) and the chickens were loving it (the chickens on the other hand love the rain.  They love to drink from the puddles and scratch around them finding who knows what, worms and other bug stuff I imagine).  Chickens are happy in almost any weather except the summer heat. 

Well the rain continued on into Wednesday.  By now things are starting to get really soggy.  And the rain was getting heavier.  It was starting to drain and run through a couple of the hen houses.  This is a weakness of pasture raising chickens.  The houses are open to the ground and when water starts running, it will run right through the chicken house.  For the hens, this is usually not a problem because they don’t spend much time in the houses except at night. And at night they are perched up off of the ground.  While the broilers can and some do perch, many of them don’t.  They sleep on the ground and are much quicker to take refuge in the house when the weather is not pleasant (You might say they are fair weather foragers).   At this point, their houses were still dry.  All was well….

Dry feet at last

Then Thursday came…. I get up and water is standing everywhere an inch deep or better.  It had rained a great deal during the night.  I go out to feed and all of the chicken houses are standing in water.  Chickens are standing in water.  And it was cold.  Now what am I going to do…  This is a problem we’ve never really had since we started raising chickens.   There was no dry ground for the chickens, inside or out.  The goats had their shelter that was dry and the pigs had their shelter that was dry but for the chickens, water was standing everywhere inside and outside of their houses. (They do have a barn, which is where their nesting boxes are but chickens don’t seem to stray from routine much so taking refuge in this barn was not a habit so it was not happening)   I went ahead and fed everyone to give them something to eat while I figured things out.  Then I started hauling hay, one wheel barrow at a time (it was so wet that the mower we use as a tractor could not get around).  It took many bales of hay and a few hours but I finally had all the chickens on dry hay.  Chickens always seem to be enjoying themselves no matter what they are doing. But on this cold and wet Thursday, even the chickens seemed miserable.   And the temps were supposed to drop and the rain was going to change to snow.  I went to bed feeling a bit defeated. 

Sunshine, beautiful sunsine!
But then, Friday morning came.  The sun was shining.  Could there be anything more beautiful.  The chickens are out foraging through the snow (well most of them.  We have some newer chickens that have not seen the snow before and they are a little hesitant), the goats are out trying to find some grass in the snow (don’t worry, they have access to hay whenever they want it throughout the winter, they would just rather be foraging rather than standing at a feeder).  And the pigs, well the pigs acted like they’d been around snow all of their life. 


  The moral of this story for me is… sometimes it’s difficult to really see the beauty in things unless we first experience some of the challenges.   I have to say I’ve never had more appreciation for the sun shining in my face than I did when I was out this morning.  And, everyone and everything is doing just fine.  What a beautiful day….  What an incredible week….


I have to interject a cool pig story here.  Yesterday while hauling hay to all the chicken houses I hauled some to the pigs as well, to give them a little extra protection because the temps were supposed to drop and we were supposed to have snow.  I took a bale of hay and just spread it out against the wall of their shelter thinking it would be a good wind block for any wind coming through the bottom of the wall.  Well, the pigs have a big hole that they have burrowed into the ground in the shelter.  Sometime in the night the pigs managed to move all of the hay I’d put along the wall, lined their burrowed hole and built a hay wall around it as well.  It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen.  The pigs never seize to amaze me.



Until next week…..
Ranell

Friday, January 11, 2013

The dream becomes reality

The story continues….. 

 Prior to buying the farm, we visited it a couple of times while the previous owners were still living here.  Grazing on the pastures were Dexter cattle.  These cows and bulls kept the pastures looking mowed and clean.  But three and a half months later, once we closed on the farm, the pastures looked quite different.  They were full of something called ‘pig weed’ or ‘spiny amaranth’ (I’ll have much to say about this at a later writing).  My first thought was “goats”. “We’re going to need some goats to help take care of this weed problem”.  So, I immediately did what anyone in today’s world would do.  I picked up my computer, got on the internet and started learning about goats.  I quickly determined that we did not want dairy goats because they would require milking twice a day (although I would love to have the milk) and neither Gary nor I would have time for that.  We both had full time jobs with long hours.  This is when I learned about meat goats.  I honestly did not realize that there were breeds of goats that were bred specifically for meat.  Did you know that something like 70% of the population outside of the United States eats goat meat?  I had no idea.
 
In North Carolina, Boer Goats, the most popular breed of meat goat, were easy to find.  So, after doing my internet research and visiting with the Agricultural Extension Agent here in Franklin County (who raises Boer goats) (she assured me the goats would eat the pigweed), we bought 12 goats.  Fortunately the farm had great fencing and shelters so we did not have much to do to prepare for them.  There were even sufficient grasses for grazing on the pasture so we did not have to worry much about feed.  So, here we were, goat owners.  Now what?  Over the next several weeks and months I spent a good deal of time reading books and searching on the internet learning about goats, what to do, and what not to do.  To my surprise, there is a large amount of valuable goat information on the web.  I also learned that the goat business could be a good business to get into.  So, the doors were opening on our first potential farm venture.



Within the first month of moving to the farm we attended the 4 County 4-H Poultry Show and Sale here in Franklin County.  There were lots of 4-H kids showing Silver Laced Wyandottes and another breed of chicken for which I don’t remember.  After the show the chickens were auctioned off.  We ended up buying 3 Silver Laced Wyandottes.  Again, we did not know a thing about raising chickens.  We carried the hens home in a cardboard box and stopped at Southern States to pick up some feed, feeders, and waterers for them.  We also looked for a book on chickens on the way home but were unable to find one.  So, when we got home I was back on the internet.  On the farm we had this big metal barn that didn’t really look like it was made for chickens but we decided we could make it work and the chickens should be safe in it.  We also had an extra big dog kennel (we have 3 big dogs and a small one that you’ll also get acquainted with along the way) so we decided it would be good to put the hens in the dog kennel inside the barn for a day or so.  We decided to let the hens outdoors after the first night and to our surprise, they went back into the barn and into the kennel every night after that until we built perches and removed the kennel.


We so enjoyed these three ladies (who kept eggs on our table all winter long) that four months later we had 25 pullets (this is what you call a young female chicken that has not started laying eggs).  And we enjoyed them so much that by May (3 months later) we had another 100 pullet chicks (yea, I think we were a little crazy).  The next potential farm venture in the making.  We had no idea what we would do with the eggs, and in that moment, it didn't really matter.  We bought a farm and now we had chickens and goats.  How exciting is that.  I spent the next several months on the phone with clients while I stared out my back window in total awe and amazement watching them. 

The goats were amazing.  They would spend the entire day roaming the pastures (covering what seemed like every inch of 6 or 7 acres at least 3 times per day), spending as much time at the fence line trying to get to the other side as they would grazing the pastures inside the fences.  During the first year they found every weakness the fences had and created some new ones.  We spent at least 3 or 4 days a month rounding up goats, mending fences (often securing them with a piece of cattle panel), and rigging gates so the goats could not slip by or under them.  Oh, and they loved to push their heads through the fence.  But, they had these fairly long horns that would get caught and they could not pull their head back.  I spent many mornings, breaks, lunches and evenings freeing goats from the fence.  I really began to understand why I had heard so many horror stories about why people could not keep goats.  After about a year and a half we borrowed a buck from a friend to breed the does.  This seemed to settle them down.  While they continue to challenge us from time to time in other ways (more stories for the future), the fencing seems to be holding them.  Three years later, I am still in awe when I look out the window and watch them grazing and roaming the pastures.
And then there are all those chickens.  This was back yard chickens at its grandest.   I had 100 chickens (pullets) in my back yard.  What a treat!  It was like watching a playground full of grade school children.  Only these girls were playing all day long.  They would spend the day digging in the soil, sometimes for bugs and worms, sometime for dirt bathing and who know what else.  They would run and flutter (sort of fly but not really) and hide in the weeds (we seldom mow to keep brush for the chickens and browse for the goats) and just appeared to be having a grand time.  But it was the socialization that really amazed me.  They would break up into groups, appear to have their little cliques, get into occasional fights.  It really did look like watching kids on a playground.

Well, as things would have it, by December 2010 I was no longer working at my consulting job.  While I’d spent years dreaming of having a farm, I’m not sure that I expected it to become a reality quite this soon.  So, I had to decide whether or not I was ready to be a full time farmer and more importantly, whether I REALLY WANTED to be a farmer, a full time farmer.   I could not imagine making any other decision.  And down the rabbit hole we went.  All I can say is, it’s a good thing I like learning “how” to do things and that I’m pretty good at the discovery process and figuring things out and that I have a really patient husband who is loving this as much as I do.  And it’s awesome the way other small farmers are willing to share their experiences and help along the way.  I’m not sure we would be where we are today without the help of good friends and the local small farm community.  I assure you I am not a seasoned or wise farmer (I have sooooooooo much to learn), but a farmer I am and I’m loving every moment of the journey.

Until next week…..
Ranell

Friday, January 4, 2013

The dream…


I have always been a dreamer and promoted the idea that we should all follow our dreams.  Dreams are what keep me moving through life and a dream is what made Two Bridges Farm a reality.  As part of the new year I’d like to start blogging about the farm.  We are asked a lot of questions at the Farmer’s Markets and elsewhere and I felt this would be a great opportunity to open our doors and give you a peek at how we got here, what it is that we do, and why we do what we do.  In this blog we’ll be sharing what we do, i.e., how we raise our livestock and crops; why we've made many of the decisions we have; some of the challenges we face; and most importantly, the awesome successes we have along the way.  It is my hope that this will be a joyful journey for me and for you as the process unfolds.

And what better place to start then at the beginning where dreams really do come true…..

For several years my husband, Gary, and I dream't of having a small farm as part of our retirement.  We were a little vague about what we would do with this farm but definitely knew we wanted to live in the country, raise some sort of livestock and (being an avid gardener) have lots of gardens, both flower and vegetable. 

Back about three and a half years ago I received an email about a small farm in Louisburg, NC that was for sale.  I read the email, almost in disbelief, realizing that this was it, the farm we'd been dreaming of, and  something we could do now.  I showed the email to Gary and then quickly dismissed it as I was working from home as a consultant and needed high speed internet to do my job.  I was not sure I could get the internet speed I needed in the country.  Gary convinced me that it would be fun to take a look.  And so we did.  As we walked the property with the Realtor  I had a list of “requirements” that had to be met in order for us to pursue this venture, this dream, and  one by one the “requirements” were met.  WOW! Now we really had to decide on whether we would make this dream a reality, a bit earlier in our life that we originally thought.

Well…. We decided to go for it.  We made an offer on the farm (conditional of course on the sale of our home in Raleigh).  This was in 2008 when the housing market was slow but we were convinced we’d be able to sell our home and within 2 months we did.  Another WOW!  We were able to meet the conditions of our offer on the farm.  And off to the farm we went, hardly looking back...

At the time, we both had planned to keep our day jobs for a few years. Gary works at NC State and commutes daily, and I had my "work from home" consulting job.  This would give us time to do our homework, decide exactly what we wanted to raise, how to raise it, and what we wanted to do with what we raised.  In other words, how we wanted to move forward.

Well, as things would have it, things moved a little faster that we originally planned.  Next week I’ll talk a bit about how the leap to full time farming became a reality quicker than planned and how we've stumbled our way into full time farming.

Please forgive any grammatical, spelling or typing errors.  It’s never been my strength in writing or speaking and this is for my (and your) joy and entertainment so I’ll try not to let it get in our way.

Until next week…..
Ranell