Another thing about farming...

...you need versatility.  What ever you  invest money in needs to be multipurpose.  This van has turned out to be a great multipurpose vehicle, it can handle a lot of tasks. It has a big engine, stiffer suspension and it's higher which is great for the water crossings.  It's almost like a great wife who can do all kinds of things (Tonya: "Really?  I'm like a van?  You're sleeping on the couch tonight.")

There are also some luxuries that don't seem like luxuries until you experience them.  There is nothing like getting out of bed (or off the couch) in the morning and having a cold glass of extremely creamy whole raw milk.  I'm not kidding. The girl in the back is a Jersey and has been proving awsome milk. The goat in the front is a Nubian and also provides very nutritious milk but it is not as creamy.  (Did you know that raw milk can actually hinder or suppress bacterial contamination unlike pasteurized milk because of an enzyme it contains? http://spiritfoods.net/health-benefits-of-raw-milk/)

It is now clear to me that Liberty is from around here.  On the way back from church we saw deer right on a spot where the sun was breaking thru the trees (looked like a scene from some Disney movie), and Liberty said "Oooh, deeer" and then after a pause she said "if we had a gun we could just shoot 'em."

We've made some upgrades to the back-woods water attraction. It's longer (I got another advertising tarp from a friend I've made out here) and Blaise added the trampoline to the beginning of the ride. Water is dumped out of a tub on the top of the trampoline and helps propel you down the hill.

We had another bee swarm.  So far we've captured four swarms and I need to get additional parts for hives soon.  Here we're checking on the progress of a new hive.  We check to see if/when they need expansion bodies and if they've been infected with parasites and add/maintain some passive devices to kill the parasites. Unfortunately there isn't enough honey yet to harvest from any hive.

But if we ate flies, there would be plenty to harvest. These guys can't wait to get in the house and bug Tonya.  We're still paying for not having a good fly mitigation technique months ago (arranging rabbit poop so the chickens can scratch thru it and eat the larve).

We're currently working thru some big challenges and re-thinking strategy.  One thing discussed months ago was the need for wisdom gleaned from successful farmers (those that are farming traditionally full time). Since I had plenty to do, we thought that Caleb could look into a 6 week internship at Rockin' H Ranch, a very respected and successful local farm, and come back to advise us in particular areas.  Caleb was eventually accepted along with TJ.

We dropped them off on Monday, it was very hard to do... but, we've learned that the knowledge you glean from those who are where you want to be saves countless hours and lots of money.  That is the biggest lesson we've learned so far.  (There are a lot of ways to do farming, it's amazing.  The big benefit of the wisdom is it enables you to mitigate some financial risks and build efficiency in early, so you don't needlessly consume hours later, it will also help keep one from getting burned out.  The challenge is if you don't know much about farming, who do you listen to?  You have to talk to a lot of farmers and consumers, observe farms and how they sell product, and slowly it becomes clearer what approaches one should take.)

So with our two oldest out, it was a great time for a bee swarm.  Keena was the first to alert me while my attention was consumed with other things "Dad, the bees are swarming."  Me: "What?  What are you talking about?"  I went to investigate and found a cloud of bees.  I asked Blaise to put on the gear (Caleb has been tutoring him) and this is what we found (actually I kind of yelled at Blaise to suit up, I didn't want to lose the swarm).  I don't have a suit, and I've been told that when they swarm they are very docile so I took a chance.  In this pic I've already trimmed limbs and I'm about to cut the branch so we can carry it over to a hive body.  I'm wearing a t-shirt with no gloves, it felt like I was in the middle of an indoor shopping mall during the holidays wearing only tighty whities.  Amazingly I never got stung.

Blaise successfully put them into a brooder hive body.  Here he is spraying the frames and bees with sugar water to encourage them to stay.

He later provided his assessment, it was the Italian hive that swarmed.  I'm very proud of my 12 year old homeschooled kid.

Getting back to the statement I started the post with.  A friend from church who is a human version of a search engine (he should have had a part in the Matrix, he could have been some kind of side kick for the Oracle) sent me this link (thanks Ralph): http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/06/05/9-rules-for-starting-your-own-farm/.  I think it sums up farming very well.  But despite some significant challenges we're encouraged.  We now have a much better understanding of what it takes to produce food and a lot more confidence that we can do it.

Hay Day

Smart phones are awesome, I'll update the blog while waiting for this train to pass...

Whoa, check that out, a fan tagged this rail car (if that was you Mom, spell out the URL so we'll get more page views).

On to farming.  We spent the day with another farm family learning hay.

Caleb and Calvin have found comfortable farm boy poses. TJ had a pose malfunction.

Blaises' pose is a little more sophisticated.

Gloves would have been nice.  I asked Calvin to clean out the van before we left and he cleaned out the van - even the pairs of gloves I had set aside. One time I asked Trins to remove tools from the van before a trip to AR and she removed the tools - even the ones that came with the van, the ones that allow you to change a flat tire. I didn't realize it until... I had to change a flat tire in AR!

This cat smells fresh.  (Sammy: "Do cawts poop each odder out like goawts?")

Babysitting cows for friends is awesome, they mow the lawn and we can drink their milk (Sammy: "Dats wight, fwesh mik fo my sippy cup.")

A fun and interesting place to get stuck (A little more on this pic: this was taken in the AM but we got stuck the night before around 11pm on Sunday.  I had to check the animals but I wanted company and Tonya was in her PJs ready for bed but I talked her into going along (Tonya: "I'll just wait in the van in my comfy PJs while he's checking, what's the worst thing that could happen?")  The walk back to bed was at least a mile long, no kidding.  (Thinking back about what that was like makes me laugh as I write this, don't tell Tonya).

At the farmer's market.  These two did extremely well answering questions and selling product, I was impressed.