The True Beginning

As some of you may know, the hwy in front of our house is widening.  When the "old house" was built the road in front of the house was a dead end dirt road.  It was built by our great grandparents back in the 1950's.  It was their second home, one they hoped to live out their lives in and they did, great grandpa passing in the 1970's and great grandma in 1993.  Their first home they built in 1920's when they homesteaded this property.  It still exists here on the farm as well, just not within the new road allowance and set backs.  A lot has changed in this area since the 1950's.  The road was widened to be two lane.  Then it was paved.  Now it is widening again.  We were told that it will eventually be a four lane hwy.  So, it is very evident that the road will continue to widen.  Great grandma and grandpa had one child.  A girl.  Our Grandma Inger.  She married Grandpa Ray.  Grandpa worked in the oil patch as the head geologist and lived with Grandma Inger in Calgary.  Their two children now live on the farm that has been ran by the family since it was homesteaded.  Mom (who wishes to not be named) lives in the "old house" that was built by our great grandparents.  Her brother (who will be left unnamed) moved a mobile home onto the property 2000.

Now, the by-laws of our area say that only two homes can be on each quarter, So, with Mom having the "old house" and her brother having his trailer, there are two homes.  Our home was built as an attachment to the "old house".  Our home is attached by a porch, according to the by-laws that makes it one home.  So, there are now three homes and three families living here.  The road widening affects all of us in different ways.  Mom's brother's house is not in the way, but will have to have new electrical and new water ran to it, everything else stays the same for them.  Our home has to be moved as does the old house.  Since the by-laws changed this year, we can now have three homes per quarter, we are not putting the homes back together.  Instead, we will all be moved to our own sites.  We are moving to the west side, he (Mom's brother) stays on the east side, and Mom moves to the south side.  This will give each family unit the ability to have their own families while still being part of the bigger picture.  What does this mean exactly?  Well, it means that we have to get utilities to each new location.  Also septic systems, driveways, barns, chicken houses, etc.

Two years ago now the farm land was inherited jointly by Dan (Mom's son) and Mom.  Dan and Tera ("us" or "we") run the farm and Dan inherited all the farm equipment to run it with.  We already had our livestock that we bought and pay for separate from the farm land under our business.  Since we run the farm now we are in charge of planting the crops, harvesting, paying the bills for the farm etc.  So, the barns and chicken house will need to be moved to our new site, cause going to the other side of the quarter in -40 weather to care for animals is not feasible.

Now, I have to say, the people hired by Dept. of Transportation are at least trying to work with us.  They came back with their first offer and as they looked over it, agreed that it is not a realistic amount and to get appraisals and quotes and we will go from there.  They are even willing to bring an engineer from the Dept of Transport out to see the layout of the quarter so that they understand that there is little flat land here to built on or move a home to.  Given the harsh winters, things have to be close and usable.  All we can do is wait and see how this goes.  We know what we need to do and where we need to move to and why, we just have to get them to see it.  So far they are willing to work with us on it and can only hope it stays that way.

We plan to keep a blog of things on a weekly basis.  We have so much we have to do and things that will change.

And here we thought that our journey began a couple years ago when we came together and decided what we wanted our future to look like.  Now our true beginning starts!

Our new site!

Spring Prep

Once Christmas is over, most farmers start to turn to the new year.  Some are looking back in order to move forward while others see it as a fresh start every year.  There are as many reasons and opinions on what to do as there are people. 

As with everyone else, I like to think that we are ahead, but it always feels like we are trying to catch up.  Last winter we set out to change that.  We unfortunately didn't get as much done over summer as we were supposed to, but it made this years prep easier.  You see, last winter we made a list of all our fields, the problem weeds we have, what we can plant to help control them or if they can be controlled.  Combined that with the feed we would need for the livestock and what small cash crop we could grow.  That is normally half the battle here.  We made plans last year for 7 years. 

My livestock is bred in the fall, so again, not much to do.  Chickens are put into breeding flocks in November.  Cows are bred in July.  Goats in October.  So, spring prep for livestock will be first the chicks that hatch in January.  Well, the chick cages are bleached and stored every July, so they just need shavings and filled feeder and water unit.  Then it is the goat kids in March.  Not much there.  Just the normal supplies that we keep on hand.  Same goes for the calves in May. 

So, what does our spring prep consist of?  Seed catalogue after seed catalogue.  We have several that come every year.  Some things we already know what varieties we want and some we dont.  We have to look at what we ate as a family, what sold, what grew, what didn't, what kept, and what didn't.  Not to mention the amount of what was eaten.  Only after we know all that can we start our seed catalogue search for just the right seeds.  Some things we save the seed from.  Others, we simply can't right now.  So we sift through the half dozen or more catalogues to find open pollinated heritage or heirloom seed.  Then we order.  Oh man does it feel like it is expensive.  Reality is, if you don't plan what to plant, how you will use it, and the amount needed, it can be very expensive and wasteful.  Try not to get caught up in the "look" of the seed and all the new things to try.  Are you really going to eat it or have time to care for it.  If you can't answer yes to both, don't get it.

Next it is taxes.  Yeah, no one likes it.  No, everyone has to do it.  Yes, refunds are good.

It is also a good idea to revise any plans you have.  Grazing plans.  Fences may need repaired due to a winter storm.  Creek path could have washed out.  Any number of things.  Field plans, even though you may have 7 years of them still have to be looked at.  Did a new weed show up?  Was one weed worse?  Did a neighbor over spray killing hay crop?  Will you need a new bull this year? 

Spring prep is all about planning.  Planning to succeed in the year to come.  The more planning you can do the better prepared you will be and the more work you will be able to do.  I recently read something to the effect of " do the right work to move a head, not just the busy work".  Anyone can work 9 hour days.  But to move forward you have to know what is most important to do then.  Planning is the only way to do that. 

First Rule of Farming

It never seems to fail.  You have planned it all out, you know what you will be doing for the next few days, week, month, season, or even year.  Then it happens....  What is it that happens?  Anything and everything.  Here are a few examples:

For the next two days you will be grinding grain so that there is ample feed for the week while you do other projects.  However, two hours into the first day of grinding you turn around to see the cattle coming for you.  They pushed the fence down and have made a break for it.  So, now you have to spend most of today getting all the cattle back in and fixing fences.  Only throws you off a day, but still, it happens.

Seeing as how building projects are done in the winter cause the summer you are too busy farming to build anything, this winter you will do an addition to your house to make room for the new addition.  Then a month before winter hits, you are approached and told that all new improvements must me stopped and the house will be appraised or moved because they are widening the road and your house is in the new set back.  So, now you have to wait a year to do any building on or build a new house.  Well, moving the house or building a new one on that scale can only be done after the ground thaws to put in new footings.  That means you are not just pushed back one winter, but one winter, one summer, and into the next winter!  Oh yes, that also means that you will be so busy trying to move everything, the house, the farmyard, the fencing, that you will miss a year of crops cause there just isnt time for both when you have a 90 day growing season.  It happens (and is happening right now to us)!

You plan to breed your new pair of chickens cause they are from really good lines and look awesome.  They are both young and you have them in a breeding pen just waiting on the first egg.  Only for the hen to be taken by an owl right before she is due to start laying!  It happens.

So, what is the first rule of farming?  Flexibility!  Anyone can make plans and stick to them, but as a farmer, when you have livestock, weather, rainfall, and customers to deal with, you have to be flexible!

Organic or Not Organic that is the question...

So, from time to time I toy with the idea of going Organic or even more extreme to go Biodynamic (which to me makes more sense than organic since it is the old style of farming.) I could do without the sprays and synthetic fertilizers in fact now that I have inherited the farm we are stopping the use of them (can't afford them anyway).  For me the biggest factor stopping me going this route is no use of antibiotics. To me, I will do holistic treatments and they work most of the time, but sometimes you have to use modern medicine to help your animals. Under these systems the animals are now no longer certified and has to be sold just because you treated the animals to save it. I am sorry but if my kid is sick and natural methods arent working I am going to take them to the hospital and get them something to get my kids better. After treating them I wouldn't sell off my kids why should it be the same with my animals??... 

Ok, so animals are raised in general for food not as our offspring, but what about that dairy cow you raised from a calf hand reared through thick and thin, prized of the herd to a farmer, she is considered one of our offspring, our hopes and future are in that cow and others like her.  If she is treated we are expected to get rid of her??... 

It is the duty of a farmer to raise the healthiest food we can!  Also to be the guardian/mother to our animals to provide them with the best life possible.  God gave us this responsibility to care for the land and animals in our care that their lives would provide us as we have provided for them. Too me the use of antibiotics is one of those tools God has given me to help when the time is needed. I do agree that their use is way too high but going from one extreme to another does not make sense to me. Farming is about balance, too much of one thing never works out well for the farm, the soil or the animals. 

We sell what we produce on our farm direct to people in town.  I agree it would nice to have some type of certification saying yes we run our farm more naturally than the current farming practice, because than they know yes this is ok food to eat without being able to come out to the farm to see it themselves because like us, they are busy people. However since I don't agree with no Antibiotic use I don't see us going biodynamic or organic.  It makes it harder for us to get people to try what we produce because it is not certified even though if they came to the farm they would see how we raise our animals and crops. I guess I am old fashioned and believe that people should get to know their farmer and trust him like they use too with the growing of their food. Perhaps we need a certification called the responsible farmer for those who believe in the Balance of farming like our forefathers did.... Dan

Why We Farm!

Yes, I admit it, I am one of those that probably spends too much time on FB somedays.  Recently there has been a lot of talk on the negative aspects of farming.  A particular person made a post that really hit home this year for us.  Many people are so moving from the city's to farms recently.  They have "stars in their eyes" about this lifestyle.  I do not call it a job, because a job you get to go home from and not worry about til the next day.  This is a lifestyle.  It is something that you live day in and day out.  Last year and this year we have had massive crop failures.  It makes it very tight.  You worry about how you will pay the electric bill.  What animals can I sell and still be able to not impact myself in a bad way so that I can make that payment.  We have lost calves this year.  We have lots chickens to hawks, coyotes, foxes, and due to a very wet spring an outbreak of coci even though they were on medicated chick feed.  Fences have been damaged and walked through.  Garden didnt get cleared and planted properly this year and the veggies we did have all died due to health issues and being unable to go water them.  We have nothing here at home to can except what people have traded with us.  Egg production is down due to the loss of adult hens to the hawks.  Our local butcher closed down and now we have to drive three hours one way to get animals done up to sell the meat.  It adds to the costs for sure.  Our meat bird flock was decimated due to a storm that went through and blew open the building that was their hut and the coyotes got in, that was all in one night.  We have no money, very few crops, and our livestock is going down rather then up due to many factors.  It is a bad year.   We suffer through illness just like anyone else.  We suffer through injuries just like anyone else.  We do not get to take time off without it affecting everyone and everything.  I got hurt pretty bad this year.  Causing a situation that I was unable to walk and am still recovering.  Hubby has had to take it all on himself.  Everything.  Being cooker, cleaner, feeder, feed grinder, waterer, hauler, birther, harvester, everything.  For two weeks.  I am finally able to start helping again, although I still can not stand for long nor can I carry anything, not even our 20 month old daughter.  I can get the kids to help do minor chores.  Like feeding the rabbits and goats.  Doing the dishes.  With help of a chair and my 7 yr old (who loves to cook) we can make breakfast and lunch, but not dinner yet.  Nor can I milk my own goats again yet.  I have breeding coming up in a month and I am just hoping that I can get out there to transfer who I want to when I need to.  If not, hubby will still have to do it.

So why do we do it?  Why do we live this lifestyle and why do we farm?

Lets see if I can explain this where people will understand.  I do this for the crops, the livestock, my children, my self, my husband, and those that purchase from us.  I do it because it is a hard life, but much more rewarding then almost anything else.  To be able to give my family healthy food to eat.  To teach my children through our daily lives what is important in life, the first being your family.  I do it for those little miracles.

For my children:  I love to watch the faces of my children as they watch a calf born from the cow they helped to raise.  The joy at sharing that moment with them.  To watch the excitement as a chick hatches into their hands.  As they bottle feed a sick baby goat and help give it medicine to make it stronger and healthy again.  To then watch that baby goat be able to run and bounce around.  The deaths are part of that too.  They experience death often too.  Be it during butchering or from predation or from illness.  It happens and they know it.  They learn to deal with it in a manner that helps them in life.  They do not take life for granted.  To watch your children plant seeds and love to get dirty and grow things at the same time.  Then to watch them get to harvest veggies from the seeds they planted.  They love that they got to do it and then they really enjoy eating it.

For my husband: To support him in his decisions on the farm.  To help him see his vision and figure out how to get there.  For him to feel good that another year has gone by and he accomplished something many people find too hard or too stressful.  For him to feel loved and useful.  To help him support his family and get those large jobs done.  To allow him the freedom to be with his children when he wants to and not just "after work".  To allow him to sleep I will take night watch when a first timer is calving or an animal is sick.

For the crops:  To enhance the soil in the old fashion to help our crops.  As ultimately that is helping us.  To grow the food for our livestock so that we know they are eating just as healthy as we are.

For the livestock:  To be able to provide the best we can everything they need.  To give them treatment when needed, pasture, feed, water.  To be able to be thankful to them for their life that will ultimately give you your food for your life.  To watch those births and miracles they provide for us.

For my customers:  So they too can get good quality.  So they know where their food is coming from.  So they can experience some of the farming life when they choose to and see the miracles themselves.  Even if it is just the miracle of a garden or a chick hatching.

For myself:  Mostly it is for myself.  As human beings we are ultimately selfish.  We look out for what can benefit us.  For me, my benefit is the joy this life brings to my children and my husband.  For the pleasures a good harvest can bring.  I dont do this to fix fences, I really do hate to do that.  Worse yet is cleaning out the barn.  But I still do those jobs so that I can experience the joys and miracles that I so want.  I love to watch a new life come into the world.  I love to be able to give people the food and quality they love to eat.  I love for my children to be able to play outside and I know they are safe.  I love to see my husband take a deep breath after a hard days work as he looks out over the job he completed and realize just what he accomplished that day.

I know this all sounds romantic.  The honest truth is, the reasons I live this life are more important to me then the reasons I would leave this life.  Sick animals sometimes have to be put down.  It is up to you to do it.  No one else.  Farming as a bottom line is a hard life.  You dont get vacations, but you get miracles.  You have to fix fences when the animals or wild life breaks through them, but in doing so you get to see the daily growth of your livestock.  You have to collect eggs everyday or they freeze or the chickens learn to eat them, but you get eggs that you know are healthy.  You have to milk the cow/goat twice a day, but you get fresh milk, cream, butter, and cheese.

I love this lifestyle because you get out of it what you put into it.  There is never just one way to do things.  You learn more everyday and nothing is ever the same.  We work hard to live well.  Some people rather work hard at a 9-5 job to buy the things we provide for ourselves.  I am grateful to those people, because it is them that buys from us that allows us to pay our bills.  And it is them who are grateful to us for working so hard to provide it to them.  I do this because my heart and soul are in it.

August just isnt August this year!

Well, this year the weather has been so off.  August has been hot and dry, until now, mid August.  It is cool and almost frost at night.  The crops are ready to harvest a whole month early, which is not normal and we were not prepared for that.  We are now shuffling through the steps faster then normal.  No biggie, we will get it done. 

Remember that new goat from the last post?  Well, she isnt lonely anymore.  She still doesnt get along well with my other two, but they have all settled into an agreement of sharing a pasture during the day and separate stalls at night.  She is eating well and giving almost three liters of milk a day.  All the animals are benefiting from her gift.  Angel is now being weaned so the other animals are getting more of Amber's milk daily.  We got our clover field cut and they are loving the hay from that.  So we will be good.  Oh yes, and the other two never did kid.  So, we will try again for a December breeding to have May baby's!

Our rabbits have been producing like crazy.  I had two more large liters born and we just butchered 4 yesterday of the older ones.  We sell our Rex's as pets or breeding stock depending on their quality.  What doesnt sell and I cant breed we eat.  We sell some for pets mostly to pay for the pellets to feed the breeding stock so that all the meat we get from them is free.  It is rare that I have to buy pellets without being able to pull it from the rabbit fund.

Our Whipcream gave birth finally too!  To another bull calf.  UGH!  We cant seem to get a heifer out of her!  Oh well.  Her bag this time is huge and we are getting great milk from her.

We have butcher dates set for the cows and pigs we do not want to over winter for the end of October.  That will be great to get them out of here.  It will help on our work load for the winter.  Dan is going to be stuck doing the winter chores this year as I will not be able to help him outside this year.  

All our gardening was a failure this year.  I got sick shortly after my last post and was down for a couple weeks.  When I finally was able to move around again I found that no one had watered anything and everything except my chives and onion is dead.  No more herbs this year to last us over winter.  No more cucumbers or squash.  Sad deal for me as I love my fresh stuff.  I replanted peas and beans as those can still grow in enough time though.  

We have also decided (more I did) to thin out the chickens.  Anyone that I do not want I am having butchered in two months.  I decided I am done with those hatchery jersey giants.  They did not get anything close to what they were supposed to.  I am enjoying my other breeds very much and will keep them.  

On the other hand.  It is even better having Dan home now.  He isnt trying to shuffle work with harvesting and he is able to start teaching the girls things I simply dont know or cant do.  They have become a great help and I am so blessed to have them as my family.  

It Is Really July?

Yeah, so I have been very bad.  I feel like I havent had time to breath and the blog is the last thing on the chore list.  Today I think it is a good day to do a catch up because Dan is in town getting a tractor tire fixed, it is windy and cold outside, and one of the girls is sick, so I am in the house while she takes a nap.

April-  April came and went.  Nothing major happened other then the snow was still on the ground by the end of the month.  Unusual for us, usual we are melting in April.  Due to the snow it did set back a lot of our plans.  Our garden boxes didnt get put in.  No fencing got done.  No tilling or discing in the fields.  Just nothing really.  I was busy all month, but really cant remember on what.  Oh yes, I was hatching chicks and ducks all month.  I started in March.  You see, a friend of mine put on a poultry show and I helped her.  I did the behind the scenes stuff.  I guess show isnt the correct term either as there was no judging.  It was a sale.  We did well for a first time sale and plan to do it again next year.  I will have to hatch earlier for that though.

May-  So busy!  Finally got the new baby goat the first of this month.  She is growing well and loves attention.  We named her Angel.  The snow melted the first week, then it snowed again and melted the second week and dried up by the third week.  We have family come visit us, but had to plant the fields too.  We got all of the fields planted just in time for the May 31st deadline.  We also started to suspect that Pearl was pregnant due more to her behavior then anything, but she started to look a bit wide.  After all the crap with Cesar over winter, I did not expect any kids this year, so we are watching and waiting to see what happens.  I suspect she will kid in June.

June- Got some discing done in the field we decided to summer follow.  We want to plant alfalfa in it and didnt have time to do a cover crop so we will summer follow it to help with the weeds.  There has been no rain.  We desperately need rain.  None of the crops are growing well.  We finally got the flax seed cleaned from last year.  Something is not right there.  Only got 1100 bushel off 200 acres.  It is considered a big crop failure.  We are now at the last of our savings with no more income coming in.  With the flax failing, it isnt worth the trucking fees to get the flax to the elevator to sell it as it would cost me as just to truck it as I would get from selling it.  It puts us in a really bad bind.  No income coming in, bills stacking up, crops this year not looking good, it just isnt a good year.  Luckily we did a job for someone transporting early this month and can cover the bills off that job for the next two months.  We need to take on more jobs, but when we do, we are not completing our own jobs on the farm.  So it is a double edged sword.  Still no baby goats, but now Snowflake is starting to bag up a tiny bit.  Or is it just fat?

July- Had the chance to get a new goat that is two and in milk.  She has the bloodlines I have wanted, so should work well for what we want.  I picked her up the first part of July.  I have had her now for a week and she is milking 2 liters a day for me.  It is just enough to feed Angel.  Our cow that I was using to feed her dried up and I have been very short on milk for her.  Now she is doing well getting the goat milk and having a good time of it too.  She is bottle fed so I am milking at 8 am and 8 pm every day.  The new goat, Amber, is lonely and not eating as well as I would like.  I tried to put Angel with her, but Angel wants nothing to do with Amber and climbs out of the fence to get back to me.  I cant put Pearl or Snow with Amber cause guess what, no baby's!  They are still pregnant.  Dan watches Pearl's stomach move around from the baby, but still nothing.  They have to be born soon, cause the end of Feb is when I moved Cesar to the greenhouse from the barn.  That only leaves 5 days til their last possible due dates.  Now what?  We wait.  Remember that post?  Impatiently waiting?  Yep, it repeats it's self.  Well, this month we have got a lot accomplished though.  We got most of the goat fencing done.  We have been cleaning out around the barn and milking parlor.  We should have both finished by the end of this month and then I can start to white wash the inside of the barn and get everything resecured.  Then next month maybe we can get the new room built onto the barn.  No extra jobs this month, but I started to sell my chicken feed and that has really helped.  That alone is paying half our bills this month.  So we are ok for this month.  The stress of not having enough money is really starting to affect me, but I try to not let anyone see how much.  I know it affects Dan too, but he tries just like I do.  If we can get two or three more good jobs this year or a decent crop this fall, we will be ok.  I hate having to depend on things like that.  It shouldnt be that way.  We have to finish getting everything set up properly to be able to have things make money!  For some reason this year everything seems to be taking twice as long as it should.  The garden was a bust, had bugs attack it and nothing we tried worked.  It is dead.  I am hoping to save some of the perennial herbs, not so sure I can.  It is one of those years that you just want to scream, cant anything go right?  Every project has been put off or only partially done and some things just shut down.  I had someone tell me once, if you really want to know what faith is, be a farmer.  You have to have faith that everything will go just right for you to have a crop just to be able to live and farm for another year.  God must really be wanting to test my faith this year as everything has failed.  Yet it seems that things are coming along right as they are needed most, so we hope, pray, and have faith that we can keep going.

So, it is mid July and here we stand.  Hunched over and starting to feel defeat, but not allowing that to happen.  We are who we are and we work hard everyday to build the life we so desperately want.  With Dan having quit his job in January it really puts the financial issue of farming into more perspective.  We try to do things locally and sell at the farmers market and do minor jobs for people, but it seems that everyone that wants the work done or buy things are so far away it would cost us more to go there to do it then we would get paid for it.  So it isnt always feasible.  A friend of mine has loaned me one of her sons.  He has been a great help because he wants to learn farming.  Since he has been here he is learning all sides of it.  He has witnessed a birth, a death, and the financial stress of it.  It is enough to put anyone off farming, yet he persists and still wants to learn.  We are teaching him everything he wants to learn and everything we can think of in exchange for his help in completing some of the chores, even if it is daily chores so that we have time for the bigger projects.  It gives me hope that Dan and I are not just building this life for it to be thrown away after our time is over.  That the next generation will want to keep it going.  I can only hope that at least one of our children will follow in our foot steps.  I dont want my children to have a hard life like we are having getting things set up.  I want it to be ready for them to take over and be profitable and a good life.  That is the goal we work so hard for.  Our children.  That is why, even when all seems to be going down and lost, when everything seems to be against us, we can rally and keep going forward and find ways to do what we need to do.  Because we do it for them.