Pajama Farmer

I KNEW IT!!

2011-03-16T17:51:00.003-05:00

I looked outside and guess what I saw?!?! 4 Red-Breasted Robins!!

SO it is official. It is SPRING!!

The Signs This year of Spring

2011-03-16T15:28:00.010-05:00

So even though there is still an average of a foot of snow every where in our yard. There are Still some Sure signs that spring is actually here.

1. The sure smell that spring is here... .Skunk! Yep, the poor skunks are coming out of hibernation and in their sleepy hazy filled brains are not avoiding the cars. So we have on more then one occasion had the privilege of smelling skunk.

1A. The Smell of spring! There has been in the air that very distinguishable smell of spring. Hard to pin down but Anyone who has lived more then a couple years with winter turning into spring knows that smell. It can smell different depending on if you are in the city or country side, but it is there nonetheless.

2. The sounds of spring such birds chirping me awake. This is something that I actually don't mind being awaken by. And today I heard a crane! Yes a crane!! (I also saw one flying) SO That means they are back and spring is here!

There is also the Awesome sound of snow melting and water

3. The Sight of Spring!! I Saw a bald Eagle!! Yes a Bald Eagle and I saw it like 3 or 4 weeks ago. I expect to see a Red Breasted Robin hopping around Any Time Now lol

4. The Temperature of Spring! It is 50 degrees outside and in the spring that means shorts and sandals :D (In the fall that means sweat pants and layers)

Trinity will now go outside and spend 2 or 3 hours outside before she gets cold. I am thinking of sitting on the deck to drink my morning coffee... Yep, it getting warmer outside.

5. The taste of spring is Very similar to the smell of spring... you can't quite put your finger on it, but everything just tastes better. Of course it could be because we just happier in general.

6. And last but not least is the work of spring. We laid out some chicken manure on the lower garden. Stirred the compost pile and started our first seedlings! Cherry tomatoes first in the hopes that they will come first and we can enjoy them before the large tomatoes. Also started the peppers with the longest growing season. Daryl set up a Great lil "green house" in the basement. Basically he wrapped plastic on around a table with 2 lamps in the basement. It 4 sides and a roof. Plastic goes all the way to the floor. Heat pad under the seedlings to keep the roots warm and a small heater inside the plastic to help keep the humidity up. It perfect for small seedlings.

LONG winters

2011-01-29T10:36:00.006-06:00

As the end of Jan draws near I realize that I am SICK of winter.... :(

The other day there was a tiny warm up.. the snow was melting a bit, there was sunshine & I heard that wonderful sound of melting snow! I look forward to the real melt & promise of spring. In the mean time...

Trinity still bundles up everyday to go out and play with the "Chicken Kittens" as we call them, Daisy & Iris. I have made an "executive" decision to name all our future cats a plant or flower name in honor of my cat Flower, who died here tragically on the farm our 1st spring. Pretty flower names for the girls and fun names like, Dandelion or Thistle for the boy kitties...

Daisy & Iris were free kittens that came from an “unwanted” litter. They were tiny lil cats and SO friendly. We put them in the back part of the chicken coop separated from the chickens. There was lots of space to explore, run around and this way the chickens could also get used to them without pecking their eyes out. Our rooster jumped high to watch these new invaders. After a day or two, he decided they were no threat to him nor his hens.

The kittens were allowed to go outside after about 4 days. They went into the yard we use in the spring time for the meat birds. After a few days it didn’t take long before the kittens found ways out of that yard. They were exploring their new world.

We locked them up in the coop every night to protect them from the wild tom cats that roam the area and would see the new kittens as a threat to their territory. We also let the kittens roam freely among the chickens when they were about 2 months old. Every once in a while you would hear a funny sort of “Bah Boock” from a hen as a kitten rubbed up against them.

They caught their first mouse while Trinity watched. She proudly brought it to the house to show us!! We explained that the next time she should just leave the mouse for the cats to eat and NOT pick it up. :D

Since they have arrived, they have been a source of great entertainment for Trinity. They have done their job. Caught mice & given us all laughs as they play in the snow. They like to chase us around when sledding and the greet any & all who come to our house. We were SO fortunate to get such Great tempered cats. Here is to a LONG healthy & happy life.

For now they are still sleeping in the coop at night and fed 2 times a day. Spring time will bring a lil change for them, less food from us & they will be allowed to roam at night. Oh.. and since they both girls, a spading is in their future...

Here are some more pics of our kittens ~ Enjoy

Butchering Time

2011-01-19T19:31:00.016-06:00

First I would like to apologize for how long it has taken to get another post up. I am officially taking over so it shouldn't be so long between posts.

This post is about butchering egglayers. The 2 other times we butchered chickens, they were meat birds. They were younger, bigger and tender. These were about a year old Rhode Island Reds. We gave them a good life, feed them good food and Trinity gave them lots of love.

This time we had some help from 3 friends. There were only 11 birds to do. Next spring we will be ordering 24 meat bird and hopefully have more friends help. The hardest part is the plucking! But ironically the feathers on these birds came off rather easy so that helped the process along.

Of the 5 of us doing the work, 3 of us were amazed at the whole biology of the bird. We took apart the gizzard, liver and anything else that took our fancy. One of the things I found facinating was the development of the eggs. I guess it makes sense, but I never thought about it before, but the egg is created yolk first in a tiny lil orange dot that grows large, then is surrounded with the egg white. Lastly the egg shell is developed over it all. We found that each chicken had varying stages of egg development from the tiny bit of orange to an almost fully completed egg.

2 members of our party thought we were crazy and just wanted to get the job done!! After all was said and done, everyone went home with chicken meat. We found that the meat, though flavorful, it was a lil tough to eat baked. In chicken soup though, it is Very yummy!

Thanks to Aaron, Kristopher & Holly for helping us! Here are the pics from that day.

Holly is taking pics... She wasn't too sure about helping with the gross part.

I am showing Aaron the gizzard and Kristopher and I couldn't help but poke at the egg yolk we found.

I am instructing Aaron & Kristopher on how to butcher... Not sure what I'm pointing out here. The ironic thing is, all I know is what I figured out the first 2 times we did this. I really have NO idea what I'm doing and think I need to find a class on how to butcher.

Here are the different stages of egg...

Proof that Holly actually Touched a dead bird! Arron & Daryl are getting down to the last part.

2010-04-29T19:54:00.013-05:00

"There comes a point in the spring when winter is finally over and one can dream of things to come. Making plans for the garden, ordering seeds, the spring air is refreshing, birds are singing announcing to all who will listen that there are good things to come, warmer weather, spring rains & flower blossoms. Here the often caprices and unpredictable Mother Nature has sworn an oath to thoughtless alliance with those who are best able to serve her. They apply themselves year after year, to extract the perfection from the potential which she provides.” ~
Haut-Brion The Film

This means having the patience and wisdom to wait when others are planting, tilling & fertilizing. Knowing when is the right time for you and your land. Even more important is being ready to act when the time is right.

The warmer weather in early April brought a relief and a opportunity to get some soil prep work done much earlier than last year. We have started our seedlings at this time and have had some good results so far. Mostly tomatoes and peppers as seedlings but I’ve already planted some peas and potato. They went into the ground after lots of amending to the soil.

I’ve tilled the ground after the frost was over. Then added manure and tilled again. Added compost and tilled again. And just to make sure I’ve tilled the gardens about a dozen times. We get our manure from a great farm that uses the manure to fuel their methane powered farm. The manure is cooked at such a high degree that virtually all the weed seeds are destroyed.

The plan for this year is not much different than last year. To put it simply, the idea is to grow organically & healthy food and preserve as much food as possible by either freezing or canning. Oh and this year we plan on installing a windmill for “homemade” electric energy.

This year we will be more prepared for the apple & pear harvest. (At least that is our hope) We plan on making apple cider in addition to apple/pear sauce, jams & jelly's, pies and anything else my lovely wife comes up with.

The Signs of Spring

2010-03-16T16:01:00.012-05:00

Well 2 weeks ago our farm looked like this...

Snow and muck and then mud...

Frost in the morning. You cold still see your breath and we were (ok I was. Trinity was just as happy to go out and make a snowman or snow angels as she always ways) REALLY really REALLY ready for spring.

Now... the snow has melted and I'm seeing the signs that spring is here.

First sign that spring is here...

A caterpillar crawling across the brown grass.

Another sign that spring is here is that the snow for the most part has melted. Looking out over our land there is only a few spots of snow left. Last week we had 40 degree weather that was continual over a week. The fog was like pea soup and the mud was gross, but it sure melted the snow in a hurry.

You can see a bit of white in the background.. it is an area that doesn't get much due to the trees.

BUT more exciting is that I can see the garden. We are already planning on this summer's crop.

In fact we have a few seedlings started in the basement already!

Another sign of spring...

Tulips are starting to shoot out. (hope it doesn't snow a foot next week)

One SURE fire way to predict that Spring is TRULY here and not just a quick thaw before we get walloped again.. the birds. I heard the red-wing blackbird today and then I saw it!!

The One thing that makes my heart soar!

The robin!! Not only did I see one, I saw 3!!! I was only able to photograph one, but trust me on this, there was THREE!!

Yep they wouldn't be back unless spring was here to stay.

And one of my favorite things about this year's spring is our rooster Boo-Boo Chicken.

He just loves struting his stuff for the hens in the sunshine and crowing up a storm.

A surprise for us this spring was Bunny. Who is bunny you ask?

Well bunny was a beautiful chicken. We ordered a special breed that lays colored eggs and not the brown you are thinking,,, but they lay greenish or blueish eggs. We hopeed to have a dozen ready by Easter. WELL... she turned out to be a he.

YEP! Bunny is a rooster and he is as twidderpated as the next rooster.

So Trinity asked me why is Bunny jumping on that chicken. I replied that Bunny wanted a piggyback ride. To which she replied... "Well it isn't a very fun piggyback ride. That chicken isn't moving... "

It's ALL my Fault!!

2010-02-24T12:26:00.012-06:00

So... last night at about 10:30 pm, Daryl asked me how the babies were.
The "babies" are the newest batch of egg layers that we received about 3 weeks ago. Of course when we got them the weather was pretty darn cold, so we made a makeshift area for them in the basement. Both Trinity & Blossom (our cat) thought that was the neatest thing EVER!!

Trinity would check on them every day. And talked to them constantly, "Baby Chickens it is time to go to bed now!" or "The baby chickens are making noise because they are happy I am home now." Or my favorite, "Baby Chickens stop making all that noise I'm trying to eat my lunch!!" All yelled down the stairs from the kitchen.

Blossom would just sit in the basement watching the little fluff balls and thinking "cat thoughts". She never bothered them, but I'm sure if one had gotten out and started running she would have pounced!

Sunday we cleaned the coop. We took all the nasty sawdust out. Screened it for poop to add to the compost pile and disposed of all the sawdust to be used later this spring after the snow melts. It was a smelly, dusty and icky job (as usual...). Then with the nice new area set up we moved the babies to the coop. They were a little freaked out and I think are still huddled in the corner.

The Rhode Island Reds adjusted to the cleaning of the coop with no problem, but of course this isn't their first time. The Barred Rocks didn't want to come back in the coop. They didn't know what was happening so we had to chase them in. They had been out in the yard and their poor feet were covered with cold mud.

This is Boo-Boo Chicken! He is named after Donald Duck's chicken on the new Micky Mouse Clubhouse cartoon. He is our only rooster at this time. Beautiful isn't he...

Darn hard to catch too. Need to get a "chicken catching tool..." I have no idea what that might be, but I'm sure there is something out there. :-D

SO... back to last night. When Daryl asked me how the babies were I realized that I hadn't been out to the coop all day. (It had been a very busy & stressful day). And I also realized that meant no one had closed up the coop for the night. Now this is not the first time that has happened, but nothing bad has happened before....

Daryl comes back to the house and says, "Kris get your boots on and come out. We have a problem!!" I grabbed my camera and this is what we found in the coop.

Yep a Redtail hawk! Beautiful isn't it?!? The thing didn't make a noise. I went in with a shovel to push or steer it towards the door so it could escape (and YES, Daryl wanted to shoot it first, but I talked him out of it). I approached the bird and it just sat there with its wings expanded. And when I touched it with the shovel.... well... it fell over. Yep, just fell over and lay on its back. We think the bird is young and just over stuffed it self on our chicken.

Daryl came in and picked it up and we carried it outside. Thing never made a noise, but it did poise nicely for the pictures!! We actually set it by the garage first on some bricks. But then we were afraid that if it was their when our house guest returned home, it might get run over. So we put it on the deck and there it stayed all night till this morning when it finally flew away. It flew off when Daryl looked out the door at it.

SO the moral of this story.... Close up the coop at night and hawks (and other predators) can't get in and eat your chickens. But it is still cool. The only thing that would have been cooler... finding a Bald Eagle or an Owl in the coop.

All things organic are NOT created equal!!

2010-02-18T08:46:00.002-06:00

If you have been following our blog, you will know that we found a place to buy organic chicken feed, but the drive time is 4 hrs (round trip). SO in an effort to save money, gas and time Daryl has been researching and calling feed mills that are closer to us. Well we found one.

Yeah!! It is only 40 min round trip and the price is actually a little cheaper. It is a win-win situation... Right? Well.. not so much. As soon as we opened the bag we could see that the quality was not as good. And the list of ingredients... "Organic Plant Material" What?!?! Organic plant material? Heck I could grind up grass and say that.

We also noticed a decrease in egg production. Now we did expect some drop in egg production due to the winter lack of light. (Chickens need like 12 hrs of light to help them produce eggs), but even the lack of sun light didn't fully explain the lack of eggs. We went from getting 12 eggs a day from our 12 birds to 7 or 8 eggs a day (and sometimes less).

Our theory is that the feed mill realized that people were asking for organic feed, but really didn't understand the what and why of that request. They probably looked around for something that was similar in price, not realizing that those of us that are serious about organic and natural food are willing to pay more for better quality. So, back to driving 4 hrs for food. We are going to go to this close mill though and see if we can get them to order from the same place as our other guy.
The list of ingredients on the good stuff:
Organic grain, Organic corn, organic soy, etc... Each item listed out

What we learned our first year on the farm

2009-12-07T19:18:00.012-06:00

Weather rules your life here. So many things depend on the weather its frustrating when the weather does not do what you want, when you want it! October was very rainy and cold. The late harvest of tomatoes did not work; they just never ripened due to the cold.

The best laid plans can result in nothing. For example my idea of growing my own chicken feed did not work too well. Some of the plants I did grow did not grow well and the ones that did were next to impossible to harvest and use.

My sunflowers turned out good but im’ not sure if I like feeding that to my chickens with the shells on. I'm going to try again next year, but I think I need to go back to do more research. Anybody can plant a seed and make it grow, it's harvesting, drying and storing that is the hard part. I hung a bunch of sunflowers in the work shed to dry and the mice got to them and ate most of it, so the chickens didn’t get most of them.

Our carrots from the garden were great!! I wish we had grown 16 times more of them. So next year we are planting a whole bed of them at different intervals so that we can harvest them through out the year and still have plenty to freeze and use in the winter.

Our compost pile is now doing well. It's 5 ft by 6 ft with some fencing around it. We are sifting thru the bedding in the chicken coop for manure every 5 weeks to keep it active. Chicken poop is one of the best manures you can use, but you can’t put it on the plants directly or it will burn. So using it in the compost is the perfect solution. It is high in nitrates that plants love.

We harvested our last bunch of chickens for meat with a grand total of 11. That was very rewarding, but I’m glad to get it over with. It was getting cold and they were eating a lot of money oh I mean feed every day (little piggies). So it quickly gets to a point where keeping then any longer is just costing money and they aren’t growing any bigger. SO… off with their heads. Next year the plan is to get 24 (enough for the year) all at once and butcher them before it gets cold.

Our canning supply is holding out well. We gave some away for Christmas, but barely put a dent in it. Kris is tired of pear/apple sauce, but I still love it. I have got a good supply of jars already saved and will be keeping a eye out at the thrift stores all winter. I mostly want blue Ball jars. I just love them..

My lovely wife is looking forward to a better tomato harvest and sugar snap peas. We think (hope) that there will be fewer weeds in the garden. And we hope to be more prepared for the apples and pears that we were overwhelmed with this fall I’m sure she will have many wonderful ideas on pies, jams, ect…

EGGS we have EGGS!!!!!!

2009-10-20T19:24:00.008-05:00

They eggs have arrived! The eggs have arrived! The whole family was full of excitement when we found our first tiny little brown egg. We were so excited, we scrambled up that tiny egg and shared it between the 3 of us.

So, after 20 weeks of care giving, my chicks have all grown into mature Hens and their finally giving back eggs. They started out really small, but after a few weeks they are starting to get to normal size.
We're collecting about 4 a day now and soon it will be more and they are the best eggs we've ever tasted!!

Every morning after they eat they will settle into the nesting box I made and by 1:00pm there are eggs. It's magical.....LOL
I think were going on the 5th doz. now WOW...Going to start selling to friends soon. $2.75 for 1 doz. $5 for 2doz. That's cheaper that anyone around for fresh Organic eggs even Wal-Mart.. some place close to here are getting $4 per doz.

We’re all done canning for this year. Out last batch of grape jelly was made last week. I'm starting to collect jars for next year so we will be ready for the canning season. Maybe next year we will really go crazy with it.

We learned a lot this year from our gardening and our chickens. Sadly, our tomatoes did not do so good "stupid weather". It got cold early and I had a late start on tomatoes so a lot of green tomatoes got frosted to death sooo sad. I salvaged what I could and put some in freezer. We are going to thaw some out in mid winter and feed to chickens, they love tomatoes...only a few at a time as a treat.

My organic feed guy, Joe, is still my suppler for feed. What a nice guy he is. He will put out feed for me even when he is going to be closed on the day I'm coming to pick-up feed. I just drop a check in his mail box, grab my feed and off I go.

I got the garden plots almost all done for the winter. Got the compost down & the soil worked up. Tomato cages and hoses are put away for the winter and the Hot Box (or cold frame) is getting fixed up to start the next crop of seedlings.

We are going to do a few things different next year, but I got a long winter to thing about the changes I would like to try and to mull over what worked and what didn’t.

The Internet is like our new best friend now. We do not get out much and when we do it's not all that interesting, but it’s a price I'm willing to pay so that my daughter can spend her day picking flowers, eating apples & pears from the our trees and chasing chickens around the yard. Not to worry about her getting hit by a stray bullet from some drive-by shooting. That happened to some kids 1 block away from my old house in North Minneapolis and 2 kids were killed. Yep, the life here is better than I imagined and I have no regrets.

Harvest Time

2009-09-23T21:09:00.012-05:00

So we have finished canning pears off the Bartlet pear tree last week. Now there is an even bigger pear tree that has been patiently holding on to its fruit for the last three weeks.... now their falling on the ground and we can’t keep up.

I also need to buy more canning jars... Note to self... stock -up on jars all year long so you do not have to go several stores just to find the all the jars left are half-pints.

We have filled something close to 150 jars of various sizes filled with all manner of yummy things. (And we are not done.) My lovely wife has taken to our new found hobby quite well, and has come up with some interesting ideas for jams and jellies. So far we have Rhubarb-Orange jam ~ Pear, Apple, Peach jam ~ Concord Jelly ~ Peach Pear Jam ~ Raspberry Apple Jam ~ Raspberry Pear Jam (and more to come I’m sure).

During this time of canning, I discovered the world of antique BALL jar collecting. I only have a few so far, but next year at this time, I should have many more. Just last week I canned a jar of pear juice in a blue Ball jar from the early mechanization period 1895-1910 with 3L transition embossing. “Translation” that’s means its old and rare to all non-jar collectors out there...LOL
(I crack myself up. If I don't who will?)

We have been told of a place close by that has an apple press. We’re going to bring in 150lbs at least and have all our apples pressed into cider. This is a very exciting time, even if it is busy.

Our second shipment of chickens arrived last week 12 Barred rocks and 12 Cornish x Rocks and 1 Rooster (his name is Boo-Boo chicken (after Donald Duck’s pet chicken on the Mickey Mouse Club house show).

Boo-Boo Chicken will hopefully become the pet that our daughter can grow attached to and he won’t go “missing” after a few weeks.

They are SO cute. You know your life has change when you spending your money on chicken feed and canning jars. Last year at this time I was going to wine tastings on a regular basis and seeing Phantom of the Opera and enjoying the city nightlife. Now its all about chicken poop, compost and growing your own food.

I have to say with the help of dear wife we’re on track for a fairly successful first year on the farm. There is still a lot of work to do yet, its going to be a busy but rewarding fall harvest.

Our Vistor

2009-09-13T22:00:00.003-05:00

Today we had a visit from a warty old toad. He had great color and a fat belly.
My daughter was intrigued by the little toad, but not quite willing to hold it, so mommy held Mr. Toad instead. Since amphibians are one of the first creatures to show mutation in an unhealthy environment, it was wonderful to see such a healthy guy.
Here he is in the Toad House.

Rendezvous

2009-09-08T14:55:00.011-05:00

You might think that living in the country would make us sick of nature and camping would be the last thing on our minds, well if you thought that, you'd be wrong. We love camping and not just any old time of camping, but Rendezvous camping.

What's that you say, well Rendezvous camping is a celebration of the Pioneer Fur Trade Era (Pre-1840).

It's camping early 1800's style. Camp fire cooking, black powder rifle shooting, tomahawk/knife throwing contest, bow & arrow shooting, trading goods, all kinds of things to do or just relax around the camp fire drinking the finest coffee ever percolated over a fire. We camp with very few modern day luxuries such as a cooler with food and cots to rest our weary and aging bones. The rest is mostly period correct, usually nothing later than 1840.

It's nice to wake up in the morning knowing all I have to do today is forage for berries, make coffee and fry up some pancakes.

For example this weekend my daughter and I went into the woods and picked a big bowl of wild black berries, then made blackberry pancakes with them yummy.

The kids who come have such a good time. They can just be kids, play ring-around-the-rosie, throw hay, play tag till dusk and be safe no matter which campsite they are in. Everyone looks out for everyone elses kids and a good time is had by all.
My wife Kris and my mother in-law won 2nd and 3rd place in a pie baking contest.

Kris also won first in women’s tomahawk throw, 3rd in a frying pan toss, and 3rd in a fire starting contest (and she was the only female). The fire starting contest is where you start a camp fire without matches or lighters just your flint and steel. Yep she's a keeper alright...

Me, well I’m not very competitive, but I do enjoy many of the activities. Though usually relaxing by the fire or in my period correct canvas tent (that is 12x14) is more my style.

The weather was nice this year 77 degrees by day and low 50's at night.

Next year we hope to do a little more camping , maybe not in the fall because right now were up to our elbows in apples and pears and tomatoes.......

Soy

2009-09-04T16:58:00.003-05:00

Confused About Soy?--Soy Dangers Summarized
Here is a brief outline of what why we are trying to find soyfree chicken feed, because remember if the chickens eat it and then we eat the chickens then we are eating soy too.

High levels of phytic acid in soy reduce assimilation of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc.

Phytic acid in soy is not neutralized by ordinary preparation methods such as soaking, sprouting and long, slow cooking. High phytate diets have caused growth problems in children.

Trypsin inhibitors in soy interfere with protein digestion and may cause pancreatic disorders. In test animals soy containing trypsin inhibitors caused stunted growth.

Soy phytoestrogens disrupt endocrine function and have the potential to cause infertility and to promote breast cancer in adult women.

Soy phytoestrogens are potent antithyroid agents that cause hypothyroidism and may cause thyroid cancer. In infants, consumption of soy formula has been linked to autoimmune thyroid disease.

Vitamin B12 analogs in soy are not absorbed and actually increase the body's requirement for B12.

Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D.

Fragile proteins are denatured during high temperature processing to make soy protein isolate and textured vegetable protein.

Processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines.

Free glutamic acid or MSG, a potent neurotoxin, is formed during soy food processing and additional amounts are added to many soy foods.

Soy foods contain high levels of aluminum which is toxic to the nervous system and the kidneys.

All this information can be found at http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
They also have a great tri-fold brochure you can print out and hand out.

Here are the Truths & Myths about soy.

NOTE: These Myths & Truths as well as our summary of soy dangers are provided on our Soy Alert! trifold brochure (PDF). You may print this at home or at a copy store for mass distribution.

Myth: Use of soy as a food dates back many thousands of years.
Truth: Soy was first used as a food during the late Chou dynasty (1134-246 BC), only after the Chinese learned to ferment soy beans to make foods like tempeh, natto and tamari.

Myth: Asians consume large amounts of soy foods.
Truth: Average consumption of soy foods in Japan and China is 10 grams (about 2 teaspoons) per day. Asians consume soy foods in small amounts as a condiment, and not as a replacement for animal foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods confer the same health benefits as traditionally fermented soy foods.
Truth: Most modern soy foods are not fermented to neutralize toxins in soybeans, and are processed in a way that denatures proteins and increases levels of carcinogens.

Myth: Soy foods provide complete protein.
Truth: Like all legumes, soy beans are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. In addition, modern processing denatures fragile lysine.

Myth: Fermented soy foods can provide vitamin B12 in vegetarian diets.
Truth: The compound that resembles vitamin B12 in soy cannot be used by the human body; in fact, soy foods cause the body to require more B12

Myth: Soy formula is safe for infants.
Truth: Soy foods contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders. Soy foods increase the body's requirement for vitamin D, needed for strong bones and normal growth. Phytic acid in soy foods results in reduced bioavailabilty of iron and zinc which are required for the health and development of the brain and nervous system. Soy also lacks cholesterol, likewise essential for the development of the brain and nervous system. Megadoses of phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys.

Myth: Soy foods can prevent osteoporosis.
Truth: Soy foods can cause deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, both needed for healthy bones. Calcium from bone broths and vitamin D from seafood, lard and organ meats prevent osteoporosis in Asian countries-not soy foods.

Myth: Modern soy foods protect against many types of cancer.
Truth: A British government report concluded that there is little evidence that soy foods protect against breast cancer or any other forms of cancer. In fact, soy foods may result in an increased risk of cancer.

Myth: Soy foods protect against heart disease.
Truth: In some people, consumption of soy foods will lower cholesterol, but there is no evidence that lowering cholesterol improves one's risk of having heart disease.

Myth: Soy estrogens (isoflavones) are good for you.
Truth: Soy isoflavones are phyto-endocrine disrupters. At dietary levels, they can prevent ovulation and stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Eating as little as 30 grams (about 4 tablespoons) of soy per day can result in hypothyroidism with symptoms of lethargy, constipation, weight gain and fatigue.

Myth: Soy foods are safe and beneficial for women to use in their postmenopausal years.
Truth: Soy foods can stimulate the growth of estrogen-dependent tumors and cause thyroid problems. Low thyroid function is associated with difficulties in menopause.

Myth: Phytoestrogens in soy foods can enhance mental ability.
Truth: A recent study found that women with the highest levels of estrogen in their blood had the lowest levels of cognitive function; In Japanese Americans tofu consumption in mid-life is associated with the occurrence of Alzheimer's disease in later life.

Myth: Soy isoflavones and soy protein isolate have GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status.
Truth: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) recently withdrew its application to the FDA for GRAS status for soy isoflavones following an outpouring of protest from the scientific community. The FDA never approved GRAS status for soy protein isolate because of concern regarding the presence of toxins and carcinogens in processed soy.

Myth: Soy foods are good for your sex life.
Truth: Numerous animal studies show that soy foods cause infertility in animals. Soy consumption enhances hair growth in middle-aged men, indicating lowered testosterone levels. Japanese housewives feed tofu to their husbands frequently when they want to reduce his virility.

Myth: Soy beans are good for the environment.
Truth: Most soy beans grown in the US are genetically engineered to allow farmers to use large amounts of herbicides.

Myth: Soy beans are good for developing nations.
Truth: In third world countries, soybeans replace traditional crops and transfer the value-added of processing from the local population to multinational corporations.

City vs Country

2009-08-29T10:40:00.028-05:00

(Wife of PJ Farmer Here )

Just some of the difference I've noticed between city living and country living...

In the city when you run into traffic it usually means that rush hour has commenced.

In the country when you run into traffic it usually means there is a big a@@ piece of farm equipment blocking the whole road and shoulder and no one can get around the big boy.

In the city driving 15 -20 miles seems like nothing. In fact you almost don’t get in your car to go less than that.

In the country 15 miles seems like FOREVER. Without the buildings going by and only cows to count it seems so much longer.

In the city a traffic accident usually involves other vehicles.

In the country a traffic accident usually involves one car and a ditch.

In the city the street lights come on and light up the night.

In the country the stars come out and light up the sky.

In the city there are planned flower gardens and containers.

In the country there are wild flowers along the road.

In the city a kid might point out a cow.

In the country a kid will not only tell you it is a cow, but the type of breed.

In the city you get so excited when you see a deer. You call your friends and say, “I just saw a deer!”

In the country you drive down the middle of the road praying the deer stay in the ditch and leave you the heck alone.

In the city there is always somewhere you can go in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep.

In the country everything closes up by dusk.

In the city you expect a certain amount of professionalism and customer service.

In the country it is seat yourself and we will get to you when we finish catching up on the local gossip.

In the city if you hear gunfire in your neighborhood you watch the news expecting to have them mention it.

In the country if you hear gunfire, it is just your neighbor Clem doing a little target practice.

In the city when someone waves at you, it is most likely the one-finger wave.

In the country people wave because they know we are all neighbors.

In the city you get up hurry up make your coffe e and run out the door to your fast paced life.

In the country you slow down and enjoy the coffee from the deck while listening to the birds sing.

The price of organic

2009-08-24T22:06:00.001-05:00

In doing my research of all things organic for our farm, I have come to realize that there are some things that the everyday person or "non-greene" person probably does not think about much.

The biggest complaint heard about organic food is how expensive it is. And if it doesn’t have all those bad chemicals then why does it cost so much more? Producing anything organic is more labor intensive, involves morality testing, is time consuming, very expensive and it is a very risky business venture as well.

On our hobby farm we have the luxury of not having to make a profit. I looked into the process involved to become a certified organic farm and quickly realized we were not there yet and may not ever be. There are a lot of certification fees (which are very expensive) and application fees and record keeping going back 3 years and just when you think you are done you still have to pay fees to stay organic. So I decided that my customers who buy from me, whatever product they choose, whether it is eggs, garden produce or cut flowers, will know me on a personal level and know the great lengths we have gone to "be organic".

So I’m not really in need of the official U.S.D.A Organic seal. There is risk involved in growing organic because if my crops are infested with some bug or mold I must find natural ways to deal with the problem.

I have recently been reading about viticulture (grape growing) in France. Some vineyards are attempting to go organic and that is really changing the way it has been done for hundreds of years. But the change away from synthetic pesticides and fertilizer has lead to a loss of millions of dollars in grapes. Even so many are committed to the new way of growing knowing there is a learning curve. Many simply cannot become “certified” because they want to use synthetic help to save as much of their crop as possible when conditions are bad and using any synthetic treatments means you can’t be “certified organic”.

Here on my farm I have not had many difficulties this year with pests but have found problems in another area that I didn’t at first think would be so hard to over come.

The thing I have found to be the most difficult is finding & buying organic chicken feed.
Depending on where you live in the U.S.A. the availability of feed varies greatly.
Here in rural Wisconsin, it’s kind of like trying to find a four leaf clover. I have searched and looked at several options and sources. Then I had found a great place that had just the right product I wanted and at a reasonable price, only problem… it's in Fishersville, Virginia. That’s 904.10 miles away! No problem they ship it right to you.

Let’s do some math shall we? I need 200lbs of chicken feed that should last me approximately 6 weeks. I have to feed 37 chickens everyday. At $25 per 50lb bag X 4 bags = $100. Ok, that isn’t too bad, but the shipping cost of a 200lb load is $76 ouch. $176 every 6 weeks!!! (Now consider that non-organic feed would cost me $48 for 4 bags and it is just down the road a bit.)

There has got to be some place local to get organic chicken feed right? NOPE!
So back online I go in my quest for the perfect chicken feed. After many hours of searching I finally have some success and I’ve gained knowledge on how the supply chain works in my state.
I found 5 places to buy organic chicken feed from here in WI. 1 only sells by the ton so they were out. I just can’t buy a ton of feed for my 12 birds. 3 of them are on the other side of the state about 6 hrs drive time. Not exactly a trip I want to make very often, but maybe on my way home from a trip to Minnesota (which I make a couple times a year).

That leaves one supplier left. After studying the ingredients of said supplier I find that a lot of the protein in there feed comes from soybeans. And I’ve notice that the case for all organic chicken feed in the state of Wisconsin. So what is wrong with soybeans? Well I called my source in Fishersville, VA (remember the one I liked but didn’t want to pay the shipping). They are promoting “soy-free” feed and I wanted to know why? Turns out soy is no longer cool, here is why http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html
(In case you don’t want to look up the link… soybeans have a form of estrogen that has been linked to early onset of puberty in teen girls, retardation of sexual organs and maturity in boys, cancer in women and other problems…). Ok, some bad stuff in there, but it does seem to be accumulative and in the mean time I’m just happy to find organic feed, even if it does have soybeans, at least they are organic.

Today I drove to 2 hrs to Frank Organic Feed & Supply in Jefferson, WI. I had placed my order by phone and made arrangements to meet the owner, Joe Carens. When I arrived Joe was there with my order and we had conversation about chickens, gardening and the organic business. Joe was nice enough to let me take a couple of photos before I left, and then me and my chicken feed went home.

Joe also has a soy-free alternative for chicken feed, only problem… again it is by the tonnage. So, either I need more chickens to feed, cough up the money for shipping or Joe has offered to call us the next time someone orders soy-free feed, and if we are in the market, he will order an extra 200lbs of feed for us. Now thats service.
Heck maybe we can even find a few other farms around here willing to go in together and buy a large quantity of soy-free feed. You never know, maybe in 3 years we will be the supplier of organic grains to make feed for this neck of the woods.

Frank Organic Feed and Supply
121 W. Candise St.
Jefferson, WI 53549

Contact: Joe Carnes
FAX: 920-674-5729
Office: 920-674-5730

Center Flower Garden

2009-08-17T07:52:00.008-05:00

Wife of Pajama Farmer
Our house is at the top of a hill with a circle drive way on top. The middle of the circle is filled with grass, clover, other "noxious" weeds, and a big light pole. It’s actually pretty boring. In the winter we have to snow-blow our way through the middle to have a straight line to the garage. In the spring it is usually pretty mucky (like everything else in the thaw) and in the summer and fall it just is. The landlord has been seen driving through the grass so I know he isn’t worried about “ruining the lawn”, but I wanted to spice it up some how.

A flower garden, yep that’s the ticket! Of course I was about to dig up someone else’s sod and plant a garden around their light pole. I hope Steve (landlord) meant it when he said we could do what we wanted.

I picked the light pole to make the garden because I wanted to grow morning glories up it. That and I figured the pole would stop a snowplow from ruining it and those who drove across the grass, again... the light pole would help guard my garden. The hard part was digging up the sod. I swear the grass and roots were a foot deep and well packed.

I marked out a rough kidney shape and told Daryl that I wanted all the sod removed. He looked at me like I was crazy. Then he tried to convince me to make it smaller. Poor guy, he knew I wouldn’t be able to remove all the sod myself, though I did loosen about 1/3 of it. (Daryl came up with a great place to put the sod which was watered a lot and has grown in nicely in its new home.)

I had a plan for what I wanted, but sharing a vision that is in your head can be difficult. I tried to tell Daryl what I saw, but he wasn’t seeing it. But my wonderful husband just followed my directions knowing that even if he didn’t see it or understand it he would help me bring it about.

I wanted to make a “secret garden” in my garden; see, not so easy to explain. I wanted a faux garden gate with a rock path that leads to this “secret garden”. I wanted to make a short rock wall around the whole thing, with another wall/fence inside around my inner garden. I found an old piece of bark that I leaned up agaisnt the pole to help the plants climb. I could see it all in my head. This was what it looked like after we dug, put first row of rock around garden, made path and set up the gate.
Not very impressive and I think Steve thought I was crazy. I bought seeds and we started some flowers inside. I didn’t really have a plan for the types of flowers except poppies. I wanted a section of just poppies. Other than that I’d wing it. I got a 2 different wild flower mixtures, one annual and the other perennial. I mixed them together and sprinkled them on either side of my dirt path (it was still missing stones).

I planted my baby marigolds and 4 0’clocks that I had started inside. I bought a few plants so it wasn’t ALL dirt and then I waited. Darn seeds were taking too long! We added a lot of manure to the dirt and sand since it was pretty clayish when we started. I must have checked that garden every morning for a month before I finally saw something.Unfortunately for me, this spring did not start out very strong. We had cold and rain longer than normal and the growing season didn’t not get off to a good start. I only hope our growing season isn’t cut short in the fall too or us and everyone else will be hurting.
Finally the flowers did what flowers will do, they grew. I know my watching them and trying to coax them along didn’t make them grow faster, but it was nice to see some thing happening.

Then it happened, everything I had hoped, the poppies bloomed and they are glorious!! I LOVE them. The rocks in the path look great. I am still not done. I want to make the rock "wall" at least 2 layers high, and I want to plant a Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (a really neat shrub) in the middle of the grass section for my "secret garden". I'm still going to fence in that "secret garden" and I still have a few empty spots to fill, but I'm waiting for the perennial sales to start at a nursery near us. They have some unique plants I want to use. BUT as you can see my vision is starting to take shape & form and even Daryl and Steve can see what I see.

Culture Shock

2009-08-13T09:38:00.008-05:00

Wife of PJ Farmer here...

Well it isn't hard to adjust to such a beautiful place and I have lived in the country before. Heck in one town, we lived on Main Street and were next-door to a dairy farm, can we say "country town"!

The hard part about moving here was leaving my friends and the lack of city culture. There is one african american man at my work and I want to tell him how nice it is to see a face with some color in it. The town that is 15 miles away is actually a pretty ethnically diverse town, but I am used to being surrounded by it, not having to drive to it.

I also miss my pets. Within one month we lost both Rex (our dog) and Flower (our cat) to unnatural deaths.

Rex who we have had in our family for 3+ years, was hit by a car on the hwy we live on. In the city he wouldn’t leave our backyard if we let him. He want to be next to us. When we went camping people were amazed that we rarely had him on a leash. Rex stayed with us, listened to us and was wonderful with Trinity.

When we moved to the country a funny thing happened to Rex, the “hound” in him came out. In the city going for walks he was a “sight hound”, usually watching where we were going and not sniffing very much. In the country his nose got to smell things for the first time. He would run in the low land, the woods, the field, anywhere he could.

Rex was still an obedient dog, but heaven forbid we leave him outside by himself for very long. Once he was outside for about 15 minutes. We got a call from someone who picked him up and he was 5 miles away!! 5 MILES! The boy could run. Spring time was when this all happened. As the snow melted away and brought new smells, something in Rex just clicked. He was a joy to watch. Running, sniffing, chasing… he was alive. Then it happened and so quick too… let out just to go potty in the drizzling rain. We had been tying him up so that he wouldn’t run if we weren’t outside, but hadn’t that time. I guess he saw his opportunity to run across the highway to sniff the lake and that was it.

He was hit twice and died pretty quickly. Daryl buried him under some trees facing our house so that he is always coming home to us. Trinity still talks about him and that was months ago. Landlord says that every dog he had as a kid was killed on that road. Makes me wonder how we can have a dog and keep it alive.

Then in less then a month,our cat Flower was killed. I’ve had Flower for 10 years. She also LOVED the country. She would wander around the yard killing mice, moles and other little vermin. Flower would scamper after us as we worked around the yard. If she was outside when we drove up, she would be there to greet us.

Back story… our landlord has a woodchuck problem. For some reason the woodchuck likes to dig up under the shed part of the barn. Every time the hole is filled in, the woodchuck digs in again. Now being more of a conservationist then our landlord, I would have just left it or bought a live trap. The area the woodchuck is getting into, well there nothing the critter can hurt, so I would probably have just left it. The landlord used old fashioned traps, the evil kind… you know the ones I mean.

Now they had been in that shed for quite a long time with no success. I even forgot they were there. Flower had never gone near that area, so I didn’t link the two… I know, you are ahead of me and yes, Flower died by one of those traps while Daryl and I were away shopping.

Stupid traps!! Flower is now next to Rex with flowers planted on their graves. I also got the landlord to promise never to use those traps again and to only use live traps in the future.

So I had a few things to get over, but the senseless deaths of the pets was and is one of the hardest. We miss them both very much!

Good farmers have patience

2009-08-09T19:29:00.014-05:00

Nothing to do now but water and wait...and wait.. and wait... (did I mention I’m not good at waiting)
After working so hard I found myself looking for things to do ~ cut the grass, water the gardens, feed the chickens and that's about it. Well there’s always something to do, but now that I’m working full-time there isn’t enough time to start new projects. I’m not the kind of guy that has a lot of patience, but I’m getting better (kind of have to on a farm, plants grow at their own darn pace).

We really enjoyed watching all the song birds around the farm. I put up a few birdhouses up that we could see from the house. I also enjoyed many mornings sipping my fine coffee on the deck bird watching. (My wife would sit on the deck in the early spring mornings huddled in a bathrobe with a cup of coffee to listen to the birds and smell spring coming.)

After coffee I would go exploring the grounds, one day I found 26 pieces of terracotta drain tile all stacked together next to the woods. I should mention there are natural water springs on the farm not far from the house. I then carried several pieces of the tile back to the lower garden… I had a idea.

During this time I also started to transplant some lilac bush to make privacy hedge. Oh yeah, now my wife wanted to make another flower bed. My trusty shovel was never out of arms reach. I have a lot of landscaping experience. In the 16 years I was in the city, I had worked for two landscaping companies and a nursery/craft store. I was also self-employed for many years, maintaining perennial gardens for little old ladies. So when my wife says "I have an idea for a flower bed honey". I know that’s going to mean serious work. Good thing for her I happen to be good at it.

I did 98% of the work and let her plant the flowers. I think she was having a harder time adjusting to the country life than me. She has a lot of friends back in the city; I was always the lone wolf type. I enjoyed listening to her come to me with excitement over the next flower blooming or the new bird in the feeder, or critter she found. Learning to enjoy the simpler things in life is something that happens only after a considerable amount of time out of the carpool lane.

What's in our organic garden

2009-08-06T20:32:00.004-05:00

Well because this is our first year "on the farm" I tried my best to limit what we are growing so things wouldn’t get out of control. (Ok, my wife stopped my over enthusiasm so that we wouldn’t overwhelm ourselves our first year). With that said, we have three main goals this year:
#1 is homemade salsa and lots of it
#2 is homemade tomato sauce with fresh herbs of course
#3 is grow my own organic chicken feed, basically a supplement to normal feed winter rations (hence the “bird garden”).

We’re going to have a very busy fall around here. In the garden this year is lettuce, corn, celery, beans, carrots, 4-kinds of tomatoes, onion, Jalapeno, chilies, banana & bell peppers, muskmelon, watermelon, squash, cucumber, and Jack-o-lantern pumpkins for fall. ON top of all that do not forget the apple trees and pear trees asparagus, rhubarb, raspberries & concord grapes, that has been growing here for generations and I am now the steward of. (I think I’ll need 3 weeks off of work just for canning.)

Be careful what you wish for you just might get it. This spring was cooler than most so we really got a slow start growing, but so far so good there is still time left. I’m sure I will still be harvesting on Halloween, but that’s ok. I'll be singing “Here we go rejoicing bringing in the sheaves…” LOL

[These are sort of mid-season. I'll but current garden photos up soon so you can see the difference.]

Garden Boxes

2009-08-06T11:49:00.004-05:00

~PJ Wife Here~
Some of you maybe wondering why we put boxes in the garden, after all, the whole garden is dirt. I read a few books (not as much as Daryl) and I gleaned information from all of them and then we devised our way of doing things.

We put boxes in to discourage crawly critters like slugs and to help make a border around our plants and the fence. The fence area with grass and wildflowers tends to be the place slugs and other bugs hide out, then at night they sneak from the long grass over to your lovely, tender, juice, just emerging plants and eat them before scurrying back at dawn. By having an inhospitable border between our plants and the fence discourages those late night snacking times. The boxes add additional barriers as well.

The Boxes also help define the garden. It will be easier to rotate the plants year after year (at least easier for me) and the other reason is because we will NOT be tilling every year. We tilled the ground up this year because it was very hard and needed to be mixed with the compost, manure and sand that we had. But every time you till your dirt you bring up weed seeds that have been sitting dormant for years and now you have a whole new batch to weed. It can take you years to weed out all the weeds and frankly, I’m too lazy to do that. The border around the boxes consists of hardpacked dirt, old grass clippings and sawdust. All biodegradable, comfortable to walk on and hard for weeds to get into.

Why do the hard work when God in His wisdom gave us creatures to do it for us? What are these amazing creatures that help fertilize your garden, can help draw your compost down into the soil near the roots, keep your soil aerated? Why it is the wonderful earthworm. Earthworm manure is the BEST manure in the world, so wouldn’t you want to draw them to your garden, I do. By not turning the dirt year after year… and instead adding the compost to the top of the dirt, you draw the worms up to take the compost down. And the best part, no weed seeds being brought to the top. After a year or two of weeding, we should have a fairly weed free garden. Yes there are the seeds that blow in the wind, but those few we can handle.

So now you know why we have the boxes. Of course this is our first year doing this. Stay tuned… maybe in 3 years we will change our mind… or maybe we will start a whole new craze.

Our first summer on the farm

2009-08-05T20:54:00.010-05:00

There was still much to be done and I was no longer working the sales job with crazy hours. Now I could really get some things done around the farm. There was still the vegetable garden. It was without any fence at all, only half the chicken yard had fence around it and now my bestest best friend (my wife) decides she wants a flower garden ..."Ok honey" I said. I would start it right away. After all, if my wife wants a flower garden it was the least I could do. She has put up with me talking about chickens for the last seven months the least I could do was carve out a piece of land for a flower garden.

Next was the garden fencing and gate. I read a article on a make your own garden gate. The picture was cool and said to myself I could do that. Even better it would cost next to nothing. All the fencing and old post were piled up behind the barn so all I needed was a big hammer to pound them in place. Ok I really needed a post driver, but I had a big hammer instead. Visiting friend Toby (vacationing from Minneapolis) helped me make my gate. He was awesome! He helped me cut the tree branches to make the gate, helped me construct and hang it. And the best part... it was raining pretty much the whole time and he never once complained. (Thanks Toby for working so hard with me on your vacation)

My seedlings were growing well in the cold frame and the lettuce was doing fine. I was eager to transplant into my soil beds as soon as possible (weather permitting). Speaking of weather, at this time I was checking the weather forecast daily and getting very frustrated ~ this was a cold spring...

The apple and pear trees were in full bloom now, but it was too cold for the bees to come out of hibernation. We were getting worried that there would be no pollinating of our fruit trees. FINALLY the weather warmed up and we had bees for three days and all the blossoms fell off right after that, literally a 72 hour window. Look what those bees accomplished.

Ordering & Receiving Our Baby Chicks

2009-08-02T15:03:00.012-05:00

The time had come I was now ready to place my order for chicks. My coop was in good shape. After hours and days of work, I had a clean, dry, draft free, predator free, warm coop for my day old chicks. I had done the research. I had read the catalog 16 times cover to cover. I wanted chickens for both meat and eggs.
The catalog is from Muarry McMurray Hatchery of Webster city, Iowa. (http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/) McMurray has been in the chicken business since 1917. Also Iowa is close to Wisconsin so my chicks would have a short trip through the U.S post office.
For my egg birds I choose 12 Rhode Island Reds. They lay brown eggs with the female mature weight at 6.5 lbs. Known as a “dual purpose bird”, meaning they can be used for stew & stock when they have matured to the molting stage. Molting stage is when they lose their feathers and stop laying eggs. At that point it becomes cost prohibitive to keep then longer. So they become stew chickens.

Then for my meat bird, I went with the Jumbo Cornish X Rock because they mature very fast. For the females it is at 9 weeks and then they are ready for the freezer or frying pan, now that’s fast.
So I called the 1-800-number to place a order they were very nice and friendly and knowledgeable. I got the order I wanted the only snag, was going to take a month longer than expected because their business was booming and all orders were behind. I knew I should have ordered sooner. {Note to self ~ order after Jan 1 when the new catalog comes out. Don’t wait} If you call them they will mail you a catalog for free.
My delivery date was May 26th, the day after Memorial day. I went to the post office a few days earlier and told them I was expecting a shipment of live chicks, like the catalog instructed, even gave then my cell#, everything. That morning came and I got in my car with my morning coffee, which I had to order online from Boca Raton, FL because once you start drinking fresh ground whole bean hand selected from the top 2% of the finest Arabica bean worldwide, it's kind hard to drink Folgers.
I get to the post office and inquire about my delivery and the postal worker says. "Nope, nothing here". I was almost in tears on the way home knowing my chicks were out there some where in the postal system and they needed me (and I was so disappointed). I went back to the coop to check the temperature. I needed 90 degrees under the brooder lamp which is raised just 12 to 14 inches from the floor. Good! Ok, I checked for possible security weakness. Just the day before I left the door opened and found a snake in the coop. And not just any snake, this was a Eastern Massasauga Rattler(http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/critter/reptile/massasauga.htm) a rare and endangered snake (though we didn’t know that at the time) "in my chicken coop". The first time I found it, my wife removed it and threw it in the grass outside. Now it was back and I had to act fast to neutralize the threat. I grabbed my trusty rock shovel, the one with a straight edge, and I decapitated the snake without hesitation. Sorry snake you only get one ‘get out of coop free’ pass. It was after this that we found out it was a rare snake and that we probably should have taken a picture of it and moved it further away.

That afternoon my mailperson knocked on my door and said, “We have chickens for you. The # we had for you didn’t work, but I told them I’d stop by and let you know”. I jumped in the car and was gone so fast I almost hit our mail lady. I got to the office and the postal worker said that they were peeping earlier, but that they must be sleeping cuz the box had been quiet. I set them in the passenger seat next to me and assured them everything was going to be ok now "Daddy's Here".

Why?

2009-08-02T14:10:00.007-05:00

Hi, wife of PJ Farmer here. I'll be putting my two-cents in here and there.
So how does a girl who LOVES the city and LOVES the culture of Minneapolis end up raising chickens, growing a garden and living in the boonies...? Well it started about 3 years ago when we found out we were going to have a baby.
Babies make you think, at least I hope so. I knew out life was going to change, but I didn't know it meant leaving the city. In the last 5 years I've had 5 friends how have developed cancer (mostly breast cancer) and of those 5 ladies, 2 are no longer here and of those 5 only one of them was over the age of 35. Heck, I'm 36 now... I don't like those odds.

So I started asking "why?" There has to be a reason so many 30 year olds are developing cancer. Heck they won't even give you a mammogram till you’re in your forties. One friend found a lump in her breast by wiping some food that had fallen on her chest. The lump wasn't in a position that a self breast exam would have found. What is going on? You can’t tell me there is no reason. Now I am about to bring a baby into this world and I want to give my baby the best fighting chance I can. I know I have NO control over most of what is going to happen, but that which I can control… well I want to do right.

One of the biggest things I could (and would) control is the food my daughter eats. 30+ years ago was when foods with hormones really hit the shelves. Pesticides took on a life of there own and we killed EVERY bug that dared to even look crossed eyed at our food. Now here we are 30 years later and cancer is on the rise (as well as other issues), so we decided to go organic.

Now in Minneapolis getting organic isn’t really that hard. Super Target, Uptown Rainbow, and even Cub Foods have organic sections. There are even whole stores for organic food like the Coop on Lyndale, Whole Foods, and one of my favorites Fresh & Natural (they introduced me to grass feed beef and I’ll never go back). But even though it is easy to find the food it is still expensive. When Daryl lost his job after 4 years we felt it was time to move. I said, “Honey, I think God is kicking us out of the cities.” I LOVED my house in Mpls, but wasn’t crazy about the neighborhood. I also dreamed of a yard that my daughter could play in that I wouldn’t be fearful of a drive by or stray bullet. So we packed up and moved to the country.

Now organic food is so easy to find in Minneapolis… not so much here. And the small stuff we do find is very expensive. Grassway Foods in New Holstein is a great place and one of the first to offer organic eggs and raw organic milk, but again, not really in our price range for every day consumption.

Even before leaving the cities Daryl and I had talked about a “hobby farm”, but you k now that sounds good on paper, but who knew if that would really be what we wanted to do. So when we found a hobby farm that we could rent and give it a try I knew God was blessing us.

Trinity thought she was in heaven when she could just pick an apple off the tree anytime she wanted. There was prairie grass and wild flowers, a field for a horse maybe and lots of room for the dog to roam. I imagined Trinity making forts in the woods and being gone for hours playing in the summer time.
Steve is a great landlord for trusting us with his home and I only hope that when the time comes he will sell it to us, knowing that we will love it as much as his parents did.

Back to organic…. When we rented this place we knew immediately that we wanted to go organic. Yes, bugs can be pests, but without bugs our food doesn’t get pollinated, (it isn’t just bees that do that). Yes, I’m a little afraid of spiders or at least creeped out by them, but as long as they stay out of my house (where I use a Kleenex or the bottom of a shoe) I won’t kill them. I don’t want to spray for bugs and then have chickens eat those chemically dead bugs that then I eat… nope not doing that. So no bug chemicals.

Same with the veggies in the garden, whatever I put on those plants I’m then going to ingest and I don’t care what people say, washing isn’t going to get it all. So no garden chemicals. We aren’t trying to tell people that they are wrong or right, this is just the choice we have made. My father-in-law thinks we are crazy, but if I can maybe keep the excess processed food out of Trinity’s system (as well as my own and Daryl’s) and I can do something good for my environment (even if the environment is only our 80 acres) then it is my obligation as a parent and a human to do so. Ok, so I’m done for now. :-)

The Garden part 2

2009-08-01T20:34:00.007-05:00

As I was establishing the plot’s soil and borders, I was germinating seeds indoors from seed I purchased online from SeedsofChange.com. Certified organic seed was chosen for several reasons one of those being I wanted to someday sell organic eggs from organic day range chickens and I wanted to grow my own chicken feed. Have you ever tried to buy 100lbs. of certified organic chicken feed? It's almost impossible! I live in farm country dairy land Wisconsin. I went to several local feed mills and farm stores nobody carries organic anything here. "What is this Or-gan-ick you speak of" or "we don't get to much call for that round here.” More on that later… back to the garden seeds.
The seeds were doing well considering we were not very well prepared for germinating several hundred seeds in our new farm house, but we made do with what we had. When it was warm during the day we put our seedlings outside in the cold frame I made from wood from my friend and neighbor with the saw mill and window from the barn. The temperature was 52 degrees outside and 73 degrees inside my cold frame It worked incredible well. Day after day bring the seedlings in and out and it and out. It finally warmed up enough so it was 50 or higher at night so my seedlings were safe.
I prepared my gardens and chicken yard as if there were roaming hordes of wild beasts seeking to invade and destroy every night. Most of my fencing material came from the barn. I used several dozen old fence post that were still solid and I found 200ft of heavy gage wire that was all rolled up, used but still good. I fenced the chicken yard first. I mean maximum overkill, triple layer fencing in some spots where I perceived a weakness in my defenses. I would go out at night to patrol border in search of the nocturnal predator that might be out there.
After several weeks of this I relaxed a little, this place was not as wild as I once thought it was. Looking up at the stares at night was so clear I could see distant galaxies… it was so quiet. The only sound was the frogs croaking around the waters edge. Breathing in a breath of fresh spring air, exhaling a huge sigh of relief I knew I was where I should be. My goal had been realized my family was safe and sound inside; my chicks were safe and warm sleeping under their lamp. This was true husbandry.....I sat down and cried....

The Garden

2009-08-01T18:40:00.008-05:00

Now that the snow was gone we could start planning on the garden. The main plot was already there, but had not been used in a few years. I also had bigger plans that included a second and third plot. One we call the bird garden which is a bird food plot planted with a heirloom variety corn, Russian mammoth sun flower, pennyroya (a hardy ground cover with a strong menthol-mint aroma with insect repellent properties used since early Greek times), borage (an edible herb that chickens like to eat), and also Amaranth known for high protein seeds.

This required some real planning to accomplish. In the early spring I laid down a thick plastic tarp over the area to discourage grass from growing then a month later remove the tarp and did a controlled burn of area with garden hoses at the ready and my trusty wife by my side with a shovel. I lit the dead grass and started the burn carefully so it would not get out of control. I extinguished it several times and relit. (I once burned several hundred acres when I was 12 and was punished severely for it by my father and "The Belt" so I was really intense about this burn.)

It did not take long and I watered the area and watched long into the evening to make sure it would not flare up. The next step was some old fashioned sod busting with my new find from the barn my Murray 2hp rotor tiller. The soil was virgin and hard even after I attempted to soften with water. The wild grass and flowers that had owned the ground before were not going to give up their roots easily. It took several days, but once I got about five inches deep, I could start to add my soil amendments like sand and manure.

Nothing fancy, but the manure came from a friend who has a friend that owns a huge diary farm and they have a methane extraction facility there. The fresh manure is heated to 2,000 degrees and turned into energy. (It’s really cool.) This was not part of my research so I’m not that knowledgeable on the subject. I do know I got some of the finest manure I had ever had the pleasure of putting my hands in. I also learned that the farm was organic so the manure is too ~ BONUS!

<--- "Lower Garden"
The soil around the farm and area was brown clay so I needed to add sand and lots of it. I mentioned this to Steve one day. (I had looked into having several yards delivered from a local landscape business. The price was a full 2-week paycheck not an option.) So Steve said "oh you need sand I got sand" and walk up to the barn. I heard an engine start and out he comes with a skid loader/bobcat type machine and drove off into the woods way behind the barn. I just stood there with my tiller in my hand as the sound of the bobcat faded. Then as the engine sound got closer I saw that Steve had come back with a full yard and a half of pure sugar sand. I could not believe it!! "Where did you get that?" I asked. "Just behind the dump in the woods,” he says. And then he produced two more loads in a matter if a few minutes. I was happy as could be mixing my soil and manure and sand, the end result was one large plot 35x45 and two medium plots 25x30 (bird garden & lower garden) and a small herb garden. Total cost of soil prep $0.00.

"Main Garden" or "veggie garden"

"Bird Garden"

The Chicken Coop

2009-08-01T16:08:00.011-05:00

During our cold arctic and snowy winter I spent a lot of time studying coop design and upkeep, & raising of organic birds. Lots of work needed to be done to the coop in order for it to house birds. It had not been used in many years. The 16X32 ft. building once held hogs then after a fire and a remodel it held hundreds of chickens back in the day. The windows were boarded up and falling apart, all three doors needed to be replaced. When spring came, the floor was flooded with water due to a negative drainage problem, the roof leaked in 14 different places and the inside was full of junk and extremely old poop from various animals. I talked to Steve about installing windows that came out of the barn. He said he would have his right hand man Kenny do it “‘cuz Kenny can do anything,” (Steve owns his own electric co. and has two employee - Kenny and Steve#2 of which we will see much of later in the story).

As soon as the snow started to melt I got to work on the coop. First thing I did was to remove all the storage junk inside and take down all the boards over the windows. One of the pleasures of living on the farm for me is having your own burning barrel. I pulled one metal barrel that looked to be in good shape out from behind the garage and started chiseling the top off (this took more determination than I expected). Then shoot holes in the bottom half with my trusty 45cal. pistol. Instant burning barrel! (I do recycle and take trash to a proper disposal site, but I also love to burn stuff.)

I had stopped at a few construction sites in my travels on sales route and picked up a good amount of leftover insulation from dumpsters used it to fill cracks and gaps in the windows and walls of the coop. Baby chicks can chill easily and die, so with the added insulation I got for free, I again saved tons of money while insuring my chicks stayed warm. With the spring rains I noticed some leaking in the roof. Once again everything I need was in the barn. I found big cans of black tar stuff and when the weather was right got on the roof and spread 2 galloons of tar over all the nail holes and that seemed to worked great. Cost of roof repair $0.

Next, I borrowed a power water sprayer from a friend and sprayed inside the coop for three hours removing all the old poop, spider webs and dirt from everything! And I mean everything… walls, ceiling and the floor. This was actually fun and will become a annual spring cleaning chore. One gallon of red barn & fence paint at $17 helped to paint the inside after my cleaning. Of course it was barn red. Also a 150Ft. of poultry fence, a box of good wood screws, tubes of window calking and expandable insulation foam for a total cost of $158.

Chickens need bedding on the floor of coop used much like cat litter three or four inches deep and needs to be change on a fairly regular basis, every three months is my personal preference. In my research I read of lots of ways to do this. Buying from the store would be the easy way, but costly because of the large size of my coop estimated cost per year $450. Not really a viable option for this farmer. So it turns out I have a neighbor that operates a old saw mill from the early 1900's powered by a tractor. It's really a site to see because I love all things wood. I needed to make friends with my new-found neighbor as he has something I need SAW DUST and lots of it. I noticed that he seemed to be home on Saturdays working his mill with two other guys. I stopped in one day asking if he would sell me some boards from a old weathered pile in his yard and his price was unbelievable low. I was happy to pay his price plus some extra so my new friend would remember me, when I was done loading all my boards and was about to leave I asked him about the huge pile of saw dust and said I would be interested a few truck loads, He said I could have as much as I needed for free just come and haul it away. On my way home I was pumping my fist and screaming some kind of victory cry. How could I get so excited about some pile of saw dust? What is happening to me?

Surviving the Winter

2009-08-01T14:52:00.016-05:00

I was still working the crazy 12hr shifts to pay the rent, dreaming of spring, shoveling and blowing snow when I was not working or sleeping. My wife got a part-time job at a retail store; not much money, but better than nothing.

Our driveway was drifting like crazy in January. Steve the landlord was helpful and got the old tractor out of the barn to plow now and then, but we got our cars stuck in the drifting snow often and had to pay someone to plow several times.

Steve would come over and spend time in the barn which by the way we are not officially renting. The barn held all the junk that Steve’s parents had never thrown away. In the process of cleaning out the barn, I had the pleasure of sifting through the piles of farm junk, 65 years worth in fact. Steve’s parents lived through The Great Depression and never threw anything away if it had any possible use someday.

Here are a few of the things I discovered and got to keep: homemade chicken feeders and cool antique chicken waters made in the 1930's (worth hundreds of dollars to a collector). There were huge piles of scrap wood pieces of all kinds, every window that came out of the house over the last 65years (of which I used to make a cold frame). I also found 27 broom sticks of various kinds I used to make a chicken roost. Grain grinding mill, corn husker, poultry fence, tons of garden tools, old feed pails my wife turned into flower pots, and solid oak door I'm refinishing. The list goes on, we just could not believe how much was in the junk pile (not to mention how much we didn’t see). We wanted to keep everything but the buckets of rusty farm parts and I even kept some of those. I even found an old stair banister that I turned into a window box for the chicken coop.

I would often explore the barn when my daughter was having nap time. I found huge balls of fencing of different kinds, this saved me a ton of money. There was garden hoses, small garden tiller, several lawn mowers, & weed trimmers. Landlord kept saying "Don’t going buying anything cuz I probably have one in the barn." We’d smiled and say "OK!"

Our new house

2009-08-01T13:36:00.007-05:00

Every day was something new to discover. We were now living on a real farm with eighty acres of land with barn, wood shed, work shed, garden plot, garage, fruit trees, and best of all a chicken coop. I could hardly believe it was real, our new friend Steve, the landlord, was very generous and agreed to let us do whatever we wanted with the place.
So we looked forward to spring, there was a lot of work to be done and plans to be made.
The basic idea was to raise organic chickens for meat and eggs and start a 100% organic garden with plans to make homemade salsa and tomato sauce. I spent months online and my wife brought books from the library researching various topics like, organic gardening, chickens, food processing, woodworking, birdhouse building, plants, pests, bio-security, worm farming, fencing, farmers almanac, weather patterns, soil testing, composting, manure, more chickens, how to build a cold frame, greenhouse, nest boxes, chicken roosting, raised garden beds, canning, wildflower growing and drying, organic fertilizer, egg processing and more....

Finding our own place

2009-08-01T12:41:00.012-05:00

It was now October we were living with my wife’s parents temporarily until we could get our new life on track. Out of money, no jobs, 87% of our worldly possessions in a storage shed on the outskirts of the small town we now resided in. It did not feel like a smart move to me at the time, no chi-vanilla latte's, no real restaurants with professional service, and the nearest grocery store with a organic section was a forty-two mile drive.

These were going to be challenging times. I got a call for a job interview I had applied online before leaving Minnesota. When they offered me the job, I took it....selling frozen food from a truck, I hate sales, but the pay was good the hours were horrible - twelve hour shift five days a week.

Then one day my wife and I were driving down the road and I spotted a tiny sign at the end of a driveway "for rent". We turned the car around to check it out. Without speaking to each other as we got out of the car and looked around we knew this could be good. We knocked on the farmhouse door and inside found a friendly guy named Steve who was an electrician by trade and had been working to fix-up the place for renters. There was no ad in the paper or online, just a tiny sign at the bottom of the driveway. Turns out Steve grew-up in this house and his parents had lived here for sixty-five years. Rent was $850 per month and we wanted it. My daughter Trinity even liked that there were apples she could pick right off the tree. We gave $400 down that day and made plans to move in on December 1; plans included knocking out a wall upstairs to make a master bedroom out of two small rooms. From that day on things were looking up I could now plan....

Moving to the country from Minneapolis

2009-08-01T09:21:00.001-05:00

After living in Minneapolis metro area for almost 20 years I decided along with my lovely bride of five years that it was time to move out and live a slower, simpler style. Things were falling into place and falling apart at the same time, we could feel that this was happening by our design or by force so we better try to steer the ship on a course to our liking.

I had just lost my job in the telecom industry, our interest rate on our mortgage just went way up and we could no longer refinance due to employment and credit problems. We were living in the north side of Minneapol,is (Mpls) in the not so nice hood of Camden. We had enjoyed a hedge of protection from major crime for the last five years but now it was as if the city that we had always loved had turned against us. The police chopper was flying over my house almost every weekend now, drive-by shooting killed two children just two blocks from my house, our family van was stolen by local youths and taken on a all day joyride. (I actually chased them down with my truck on my way home on day and recovered my own stolen vehicle.) The city was trying to force us to pay a fine for garbage someone left in our ally, pay a plumber to fix the curbside water shut off valve so they could turn off our water, pay a huge fee to register our dog as potentially dangerous dog. On top of all that my backyard was a barren wasteland that refused to grow, I had laid new sod two years in a row countless bags of grass seed, the earth rejected all my offerings.

It was time to get out of town so I loaded up the truck with 1 dog, 2 cats, 1 wife, 1 baby and five years of stuff. My wife is a saver of things so I had been covertly disposing of items for months in prep for this day, every week on garbage day I made sure both cans were full of something to lighten the load. Eastern Wisconsin was our destination close to my wife’s parents. Rural Wisconsin here we come!