7125 Old Stage Road Raleigh NC 919-322-0197
My buddy Dustin took this picture for me. It’s the view as you are walking up the hill towards the barn and my house. As usual the picture doesn’t do it justice. The Lord gives us amazing things everyday if we can just stop and admire them every once in a while. Luckily, I don’t need Hollywood to be entertained.
On the ride home I saw this plate. Pretty neat. Instead of the soccer mom I expect from a mini-van, it ‘s a girl who can drive a tractor.
When I went down to the wood boiler to fire it this morning, I found this waiting for me at eye level. I cannot recall seeing a bug like this before. Anyone know what it is?
SWMBO decided we were having pork chops tonight. I keep forgetting how huge these pork chops are. Wow!
Yesterday the cows received an unexpected treat. Usually they are fenced out of the 6 acres of woods bordering our main pasture since the woods are a protected area. Per my agreement with Wake County soil and water I can “flash graze” protected areas for one day.
Yesterday when it was time to move the cows to the next paddock, I instead opened the gate to the woods. The cows ran in like kids getting out of school the last day before summer.
This morning it took Spork, the gator, myself, and the inmates to get everyone back to the pasture. Cows really enjoy being in the woods. No worries though. This weekend they will be in the pond flash grazing it so there is another treat coming.
Another video of chickens and their amazing ability to keep their head perfectly steady. This one amps up the action a bit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRKu785g0O0&feature=player_embedded
First day of October. The Halloween costumes are already out and about.
Ms Captain America.
So the bacon continues to do well. This isn’t even all of it. Some is behind me in the cooler. The salt is pulling out more and more moisture, which I drain off every day. I resalted part of the bacon Monday evening with the pink salt mix and plan on hitting it again with just regular kosher salt. I was worried with this blast of fall heat we are having that it would be too warm to smoke the bacon but it looks like we will be fine as there are some days where the lows are in the 40s next week! Winter time, here we come!
So the cure will be in place till about Tuesday, then we will wash and dry the bacon with water and just plain paper towels. Then back into the cooler for the night and into the smoker in the morning early. After a couple of hours of smoke, it’ll be back in the cooler then off to work, after some breakfast bacon, of course.
Yesterday’s paddock on the right, todays on the left.
Today we had another cool start to the day, 54 degrees and sunny. The temps are to climb a bit this week but I am keeping the wood boiler going anyway since SWMBO likes having unlimited hot water. It means when its time to go to church the girls can fill the tub and Spork and I can both get showers and SWMBO can still take her normal scalding hot shower. I think I will have to do a post on the boiler to show how that works. I will put that on the list.
Back to cows. Everybody was up and ready this morning for fresh grass. They continue to graze well and the inmates have the paddocks sized very well for our current conditions. We added another bag of phosphorous to the mineral feeder as the cows continue to chow it down 10 to 1 over all the other minerals. I need to go back and look at my soil test results and see if the results can explain why I am so short on Phosphorous. Something else to add to the list. In case you are wondering, yes the list is long and no it’s never done.
Yesterday we had a visit from two very nice young ladies who are interested in our food system. Daniella Uslan of dinnovatesfood.tumblr.com and Beth Hopping from the doctorate program at UNC Chapel Hill came by to visit. They were interested in all things farming but specifically in how to take food waste from our farmers and turn it into something valuable. I showed them our farm and how we use the product we get from the farmers market to feed our cows and pigs. They were able to hand feed the cows, especially Benjamin and Spunky who are always at the front of the line.
We ended the day with a visit to our neighbors where we opened a bottle of vino and debated and discussed the state of the food system, business models, and life in general. Except for the fact that I missed dinner, it was a good visit.
While visiting with Daniella and Beth we discussed our pasture management process and how we are building soil. I know it seems strange that I haven’t done this lately but I haven’t actually dug any soil test holes in many months. While discussing our soil I dug a small hole with my finger and what do you know, about 1/2″ of loose organic material and about 3/4″ of good looking topsoil. This compares the the 1/8″ of topsoil we had in April. I was really encouraged. I need to dig some holes in other places but it looks like what we are doing is working and working well.