Hard Ground to Fall On

Winter never leaves a dull moment.  Everyone's been wondering what is going on with the weather.  These very cold spells sandwiching a very warm few days have taught me that you really can't predict the weather.  It seems the earth we depend on is sending us a reminder of who is really in control.  Some people don't seem to understand as they continue to try to carry on their normal routines as if the below zero temperatures don't change a thing.

Power was out around Christmas time in Maine due to a pretty heavy ice storm weighing branches down and tearing down power lines.  Fortunately for Kate and I, we were in New York visiting my family.  Meanwhile, her family and our housemates were dealing with no running water or cook stove.  Many people in Maine were dealing with the same issues.  At least with a wood stove or furnace for heat, you can still keep your house and pipes warm.  It is a nice excuse to sit inside, stay warm, and read a nice book.

We are glad we have a nice wood stove and plenty of wood at our house here on the farm.  We could always melt some snow for water.  However, this can be arduous in terms of also maintaining water for the horses.  The frost-free hydrant in the barn froze while I was gone and when I tried to turn it on, I broke something inside it.  I plan on repairing it once there is another thaw, but who knows when that will happen.  In the meantime, we've had to bucket water up; a task eased by snow and a sled.

However, I haven't been doing most of the chores as was our normal routine.  The Monday after Kate and I got back from NY, we wanted to take the horses out for a ride to get everyone some exercise.  We should have know better given the circumstances: the horses had extra energy from not being used or handled for a couple weeks, it was snowy, Kate and I's muscles and joints were a bit stiff from being sedentary New Yorkers for a week.  All these factors added up to Jess bucking me off twice and spraining my right MCL.

The culprit.

What. A. Bummer.  I have been very inactive since, squashing my hopes for logging in these pretty good conditions, doing some carpentry, and doing some cross country skiing and ice skating.  I've noticed that besides getting a bit flabby, my mood is down.  I believe my body and mind are so used to being engaged by chores and moving around that the contrast in how I feel is remarkable.

My knee injury, as most ligament injuries do, will take a while to recover and repair itself, another 2-4 weeks of rest, ice, and strengthening exercises punctuated by hay visits with the horses in their pasture.  They do seem to be bored just standing around in their pasture, but Kate and I have at the very least been taking them on an hour ride on the forecart every week.  Nonetheless their muscles have atrophied a little as well.

Exhibit A: Bored Horse

The injury has been a blessing in disguise as it has forced me to focus on "inside work" like business planning, crop planning, and acquiring a place to farm.  It is satisfying and empowering to figure out cash flows and what our overall farm vision looks like leading up to the coming season.  We feel like we're in an overall good spot and are setting the stage for marketing and income in the future.

In regards to our land search, we are close to finding a place to farm and plan to move out of the house we're in now by March.  We won't make any announcements til we sign a lease, but we feel pretty good about the location we might be heading to. In the meantime, I'll be reading some Wendell Berry.

Whitefield

King Corn visits Whitefield

I've been in Whitefield for the last 8 months.  It's where Kate grew up and the area we'd like to have a farm.  We're working at Sheepscot General Farm and Store for our friends Ben and Taryn. 

It has been extremely busy; especially this past week with us growing what were reputed to be the only organic strawberries available in the state of Maine.  The weather has been tough for strawberries.  We started off with a bang with hot, hot weather that created some sweet and very flavorful berries.  Then came the rain for a week.  The moisture and lack of sun created moist conditions that encouraged lots of rot in the berries.  They still managed to ripen during the wet spell, but did not taste as sweet or flavorful as they had the week prior.

The weather itself has been odd; rainy for a week straight, then hot and dry for a week straight.  It has been consistent, but in a less farmer-friendly way.  We can't get too worked up about it.  It is the weather and the weather is what it is.  I will say that the climate has seemed to shift and become less predictable even in my short lifetime.

Kate and I also have a second horse named Molly, who came to us from our mentors last year at New Beat Farm.  She is a 22 year old Belgian who has seen and done it all when it comes to farm and woods work.  She has been a good partner for Jess who still seems to be building up his knowledge and confidence when it comes to pulling many different kinds of farm implements. 

Molly with Jess pondering the amount of grass he's eaten today.

They are both the same height (which is a nice coincidence), but do not walk the same speed.  With Molly being twice Jess' age, she walks at about 2/3 his normal pace.  The difference in pace makes working them together difficult sometimes because it means Jess is often pulling harder than Molly.  On one hand he can handle the work just fine.  On the other, it isn't the best for him to be doing most of the work as he will tire faster.  We can't complain as Molly is still showing Jess how it's done on a vegetable farm.

Everyone's learning something

Work for the team has been inconsistent to say the least.  The weather is partially to blame as we cannot get them on the ground when it's wet unless we want to risk compaction of the soil.  However, when we can make the time and the weather is OK we still have been driving them around the neighborhood on the forecart, visiting neighbors on the way.

Thursday and Friday, we were able to do some single-horse cultivation with Jess and Molly.  They were in much better shape three weeks ago when we were doing heavy tillage with the two of them.  This week, not so much.  Nonetheless we've seen marked improvements in Jess' ability to work singly with the cultivator. 

At first, we harnessed both horses up and drove them up and down the rows to get them warmed up to the task.  Afterwards, I drove him while Kate handled the cultivator on Thursday.  We only worked him for about half an hour with the cultivator (an hour total of driving time), which seemed to be the right amount of time his attention could hold onto the task.  We were able to cultivate around one of the greenhouses, peas, kale, lettuce, and greens.

Strike a pose

On Friday after harvest, Ben and I harnessed both horses up again.  This time we intended to cultivate with both of them.  It was a hot breezy day, ideal for cultivating potatoes in wide rows with Jess.  I taught Ben how to harness the horses and had him drive Jess up to the potatoes while I drove up the cultivator in the pickup.  Jess initially didn't want to go down the row, but I was able to drive him down at a nice speed without having to adjust where he was walking very much.  In the past, I had to ask him to slow down a lot as well as deal with him tossing his head around all the time.  He did wonderfully even with an audience of strawberry pickers nearby!

After a water break at the barn, we took Molly out and cultivated a wetter area near the tomato high tunnel.  This (and most fields on the farm) needed weeding badly as the rain and warmth has caused all the plants to explode out of the ground.  There were lots of taller weeds so we needed to go several passes on each of the pathways to knock them down.  Molly walked slow and steady down each of the rows, tiring a lot near the end as the ground was hard from being a wetter, heavier area.

Mmmmm clover....uh what?

One of the things I noticed was that she was reluctant to turn around back towards the field and away from the barn.  This was one of the things Jess was having issues with before Thursday and Friday.  I began to realize that maybe having the field so close to the barn was distracting the horses from their work because they always want to go back to the barn (food, water, security).  Jess' lack of proximity to the barn when cultivating the potatoes was likely a larger factor in his improved behavior than I thought.  We will test this theory next week when we cultivate the onions and cabbage with him.

The farm has been on autopilot with weeding, harvesting, and planting at this point and this is enough to keep us plenty busy.  Kate and I have continued our farm search and have a very good prospect in mind for next year and perhaps the foreseeable future.  We'll keep you posted!

Processing the Pigs

Things as as settled as they can be here in Whitefield.  I've started training at Johnny's Selected Seeds to work at their Contact Center and this has taken up most of my time.  All of a sudden all the time I thought I would have to devote to winter projects and business planning has disappeared.  Nevertheless, I have decided to make time to write another post mainly because it feels good.

As previously promised, I will write a post on butchering.  I am by no means a professional and I will confess that at times it got sloppy.  What do you really expect from a guy who lost sleep the previous two days about the logistics of killing, skinning, gutting, and cutting up a pig?  Combine that with cold weather that makes your hands work a little slower and it makes for a long day.

My previous post details how we got the pigs into the trailer, etc.  After the long day of driving, we still had to set up a physical pen using 16' long metal hog panels that we borrowed from a friend.  They were setup using 2 panels we had already set up as a funnel towards the trailer for the other 6 pigs.  We added two other panels to close off the two ends to form a trapezoid where we could trap one of the two remaining pigs and exclude the other.  We distracted the second pig by putting out grain a distance away from the pig we were about to dispatch (she was very hungry because we didn't feed her the night before; this makes it less messy to gut afterwards).

The night before we also had to set up a couple of tripods using long poles, rope to tie the poles together at the top, and a couple of block and tackles to pull them up.  This seemed like a pretty easy and ideal setup...we wish.

WARNING: The next few paragraphs describe scenes that may be disturbing to some people.  Not any pictures though.

Ken, Adrienne, Kate, and I were all there at about 8am.  I had spent a few minutes practicing shooting the .22 Ruger pistol we borrowed from Kate's dad.  I pretended a plastic milk bottle label was the pigs head.  It is recommended that you use a higher caliber bullet, but I read in several places that a .22 is enough provided you fire at the right angle and aim correctly.  You basically imagine an X drawn from the ears to their respective opposite eyes.  An old trick is to make the pigs hungry and then lure them with grain.  Kate passed me a small rubber trough with some grain in it while I was prepared with the loaded .22 trying to stay calm and collected.

I placed the trough on the ground and eventually the pig started eating out of it.  Nothing is as easy as it seems.  The pig's head of course moves up and down every time it scoops a bit of grain into its mouth and chews.  The key was to be really patient and wait until it picked up its head for a split second while it was chewing.  I put the barrel about an inch away from its head, waiting for the right moment, angling the gun so that the bullet would enter its brain perpendicular to its flat forehead, and pulled the trigger.  A puff of smoke and like that it dropped and would no longer feel pain nor be conscious.

Kate quickly passed me the sharp, sturdy, foot-long knife that I would use to cut it from ear to ear after I adjusted the carcass so its head was slightly downhill to facilitate blood flow.  It died quickly and painlessly.  At the same time, the other pig didn't have much of an idea of what was going on since it was busily eating in the woods 100 feet away.

We repeated the procedure with the second pig, which went even more smoothly.  This time Ken made the killing incision after I shot it.  From here on was the real hard part.  There is a fair pressure to complete skinning and gutting pretty quickly as the guts can quickly start rotting and make a mess if left to its own devices in the carcass.  Before we could even gut, we had to skin after cutting the head off by slicing neck meat, twisting, sawing, and pulling.

The tripods were not as high we thought they were.  They were 10' tall and we really needed them to be at least 11' tall to be able to work on the pigs at comfortable working level.  One of our blocks was actually a comealong that ratchets up a steel cable with a hook.  We tied the hind legs of the pigs to a singletree.

We then had the arduous task of trying to ratchet one up.  This took two different tries and two other people to support some of the weight of the pig so that I could get enough leverage to ratchet the ~300 pound pig up to 6' in the air.  This was the easier process of the two.  The second pig had a simple block pulley with a wheel; therefore we had to hold back the weight ourselves.  The tripod didn't cooperate with all the sideways force we were putting on it in order to pull the pig up so we tied the rope to the back of a truck while i held the tripod down.

Ahhhh so it was mid-morning and we hadn't even started skinning or gutting.  At least it was around freezing temperatures.  Skinning the pig took really long.  Really, really long.  Combined with cold hands and greasy pig fat, starting at the anus and ending at the head, skinning took a total of almost 3.5 hours.  Several times during the process you have to stop and sharpen your knife because it dulls very easily on the pig skin and especially hair and bones.  Skinning around the limbs is especially tough because it is tighter to the muscle and has a very curved surface.  Once one gets to the back and belly it gets a little easier.

Fast forward to the gutting.  This is my least favorite part because if you puncture any of the organs it is messy and can ruin the meat if allowed to persist on any of the surfaces.  It is also difficult and nerve-wracking to carve around the anus and make an incision down to the chest plate.  Pig poop stinks and you obviously don't want it on your meat.  This also took a really long time on the male pig because his anatomy is a little less obvious to cut around.  After you open up the abdominal cavity, you kinda stick your hands in there and free up all the connective tissue inside and start pulling things out into a container so you can save the liver and heart.  This is a smelly job, but a nice opportunity to warm your hands up.

By this time it was getting dark around 4:30 and we still had to cut the pigs in half down their spine with a handsaw.  Sawing was pretty easy.  Then we had to rinse the carcasses with cold water down at the house and hang them to dry and cure for a few days in the barn.  Of course there were like 5 other things we had to do so we broke down the "breaking down" of the carcasses into several stages.

First we broke the animals down into primal cuts: the head, the shoulder (roasts and hocks), the midsection (pork belly, bacon, ribs, chops), and the hindquarters (ham, hocks, ham steaks).  This way we could control their temperature in our chest freezer and fit all four halves into it.  A few days later, the four of us would proceed to break the carcasses down into the cuts we are familiar with; also a whole-day process.  We also made our own sausage which was a fun family activity.

Any questions?  No?  Good.  Thanks for reading!

PS- We made lard.

PPS- We own a horse!!  More on this later.

Hog Harvest!

Here we are, already midway through November and the temperature is dropping.  The weather is crazy as evidenced by Super Duper Ultra Storm of the Century until next year "Sandy."  I do hope everyone in the New York tristate area is doing well.  I half-joked to some of my friends through e-mail that the hurricane was evidence that everyone needs to move to Maine to ensure their food security and reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.  The unpredictability of the weather does speak to the effects of global warming, how populous we are as a species, and how vulnerable we really are despite humanity's collective effort to make us invincible.

Being up here in Maine while my friends and family are in New York City does make me think (and I hope everyone else) more closely about food security and being safe.  Resupplying and rebuilding large parts of the metropolitan area comes at great expense to the environment; think of all the stuff that now needs to be removed, disposed of, manufactured, replaced, and installed in one house.  Then multiply that by thousands.  Also most of that stuff was dunked in corrosive salt water which then ends up back in the ocean.

Besides that, I thought about what food might be available and the great cost in energy and resources it takes to transport it outside of the more efficient distribution system in place.  Sure, Ramen noodles can keep you going for a while, canned foods are good, but there are a lot of people in New York City and not all have the means or wherewithal to plan ahead for a disaster like that.  I for one feel a bit safer out here in the boonies.


In other news, the 8 pigs Kate and I raised are no longer in our hands.  After many lost nights of sleep for myself thinking about the little details of getting the pigs in a small trailer and pulling it out with the horses Pete and Jewel, we got it done.  The area that the pigs were in was not very accessible and to use my 4WD Tacoma would risk being underpowered (pulling close to 2 tons of trailer and pig) and getting it stuck in a muddy area.  To initially get the trailer there I had to harness and warm the horses up by trotting them up and down the road hooked to a forecart.  I even walked them around in the area the pigs were in to familiarize them with the noise they make and the terrain.  Together we were able to pull the trailer through a rough dip and turn it around so that we could set up fencing leading to the back of the trailer.  That was the easy part.

The pigs immediately liked the trailer so Kate and I had an easy time getting 6 pigs in and leaving two pigs behind to process ourselves.  That same frosty morning we were ready to deliver them, we quickly harnessed Pete and Jewel and warmed them up.  They could probably sense our anxiousness and seemed a bit anxious themselves although it could've been that they had energy to get out from standing around in the stalls all night and had just eaten grain.  Kate and I hooked the forecart to the trailer and off we went.  The trailer was pretty much lined up to go out of the area over the very dipped culvert. 

The horses made it out to the road with the trailer about to go over the dip and then...Pete balked.  He stood like a statue for a minute and I couldn't get him to go any further.  I tried to ignore the distracting hunters driving by while trying not to get frustrated.  Another minute passed by where Kate and I both thought we may have gotten the trailer stuck in a very hard place.  We started thinking of the option of hooking up Molly instead or pulling from experience, unhitching the horses from the forecart and walking them around for a little while to help them further distance themselves from the hard task.  Horses will sometimes balk if they have a history of pulling a hard load and "learning" they can't pull it and therefore losing confidence in their ability.  Usually they can definitely pull it; it's just a matter of the team starting the load at the same time.

After a couple of minutes of both horses prancing and trying to feel for a way out of the situation and Pete still refusing to move on my command, I sensed that Pete's confidence had returned somewhat.  I once more asked Pete and Jewel to step up and in a wave of relief, they easily walked the trailer out of the dip and we continued on our merry way.  I was so elated I could hardly believe it and had quite an adrenaline rush and comedown for awhile.  Everything else after that was cake.

Yes, this is an actual pork chop we cut up.  Yes, that is Kate's hand.  We did trim the fat.

I will hopefully be writing another elated post about where we will be farming next year.  A post about butchering maybe too.  Until then we will be enjoying some nice, homemade sausage, lard, bacon, and more!

Patience is the greatest virtue

The weather hasn't made up its mind yet, but I believe it's fall.  One week it's consistently below freezing at night (and in the tent) and the next it's nice t-shirt weather.  We do know one thing though; the pigs love this weather.  They're all probably over 210 lbs. and eating more and more and MORE grain.  We truly hope our CSA customers will be happy and have been getting their cutting instructions for the butcher when they go up north on November 5th.

The pigs have taught us patience every time they have gotten out and we've had to herd them; almost always in the late morning.  The lesson here is to make sure they have enough food in front of them or else they'll get bored and hungry.  There are not many things more destructive than a bored and hungry pig.

The season has taught us patience with the streaks of wet weather we've been having which haven't permitted us the flexibility we desired to till in beds or plant cover crops.  We've learned to be patient with all the small obstacles that get in the way of what seemed to be a simple task.  We've learned that finding draft horses and good implements for them to pull is harder than it sounds.  Patience is important when dealing with potential land owners, schools, farmer's market managers, borrowing stuff from other farmers, and more.

In the process of trying to find land, in all of our rush to try to find a place so we can plow it before the end of the year (it will make dealing with weeds much, much easier the following year), we've learned that it will come with time.  We have had some many wonderful opportunities come our way and it takes a lot of time and energy to sort through it all.  Our hearts eventually led us to make decisions that feel right.  With all the uncertainties that come with farming, your decisions are probably about 50% gut instinct and 50% what you know.

So we have learned that you can't work against time, but do what you can to get where you want to go at the pace that feels most comfortable.  There isn't need to stress about how little time you have.  You just do what you can in that time whether it is spending time with friends, enjoying a good book, or of course working (which I tend to do too much of these days).  Good things come to good people; especially people who cooperate with the conditions and community around them.

"Today is the first day of the rest of your life."
-Anonymous

All photos were taken by Nancy A. Johnson

The farm search continues...

Hello everyone, it's been a while.  A farm wedding in the middle of the growing season truly does take over the farm.  Ken and Adrienne's wedding was fantastic and I think a good time was had by all, seriously.  Kate and I were contributing all we could to the farm's operation while Ken, Adrienne, and their families were running about setting things up for a wedding of about 200 people.

Meanwhile, Kate and I have been furiously looking for a place to farm together next year; possibly partnering with a friend or two or five.  We have applied to be MOFGA Journeypeople so we could have access to many farming resources in the state of Maine and learn more about the things we like to do so we can do them better.  There is a lot of land that isn't being used, is being retired because the farmer is retiring, and land that people just plain want to see in agricultural production.

We had a really exciting opportunity that fell through in the beginning of August and have since stumbled upon several more that are exciting for many reasons.  We are excited to perhaps be involved in agricultural education at a charter school and still involving horses in the whole operation.  I suppose most of what I can say at this point is speculation and circumstance so I won't say much more until something concrete happens.  Regardless, Kate and I are expending a lot of energy trying to find that "perfect farm."  We know we just have to be patient, but are also impatient to get our own gig going.  If you think we're crazy, please say so.  We probably won't listen anyway, but it's good to have a reality check.  After all, we just want to farm veggies with horses.  No rush right?  Winter is a-comin'.

Working on working on my own farm

It's the middle of summer and of course that means it's extremely busy with harvesting and weeding (if we can find the time).  There have been many other opportunities presenting themselves to Kate and I.  Horses, land, equipment... it seems to never end.

Kate and I have been looking at farming opportunities and have found one that we think will work for us in the short term outside of Augusta.  We're both really excited and working on terms for a lease and getting our collective sh*t together in terms of money, equipment, and business transactions.  It ain't all cake starting a farm business.  I've been spending a lot of time on the computer; albeit not using it to keep in touch with friends and family unfortunately.

Hopefully I can soon tell about the entire process and what our situation will look like next year.  For now, you will have to anticipate the best.  I'll be going down to Maryland for a wedding August 4th and so will also likely be spending some time in New York City (hint hint friends).  More exciting news in the future!

Oh yeah, an article on why the tomatoes you buy in the supermarket suck:
The prettiest tomatoes taste the worst.

"To Infinity, and Beyond!"
-Buzz Lightyear a la the geniuses at Disney

Here are some pictures of the pigs and the watering system we set up that mostly works well too: