Winter on schedule!

We received about 15 inches of new snow this week. Snow this time of year is about right for Vermont. Last year we didn't get any real snow until mid February and we got hit with 31 inches in 6 hours!

For most of the pigs its the first snow of their lives. For our sows its their 3rd or 4th. They don't seem to excited about it, but the market pigs sure enjoy playing in it, running around, scratching themselves on the trees and rocks in their pasture. Just think of the joy that those confinement raised pigs never experience.

market pigs playing in the new snow!

Sows eating some bread.

The laying hens don't venture too far out into the snow. They must have an aversion to white. If the snow becomes dirty they walk out onto it. They do like to eat the clean snow though.

Busy Summer!

Sorry for the lack of posting to the farm journal - its been a crazy, busy summer!

Here are some photos of various happenings on the farm during the summer.

Hosting a Pastured Poultry Workshop

Christa and I hosted a pasture walk workshop on our pastured poultry operation. We also walked around and showed folks, the pasture-raised pigs, lamb, laying hens, and vegetable operation. We had over 40 folks show up from all over the state.

Jenn Colby of the University of Vermont Center for Sustainable Agriculture, did all the hard work of putting anouncements and flyers together, and providing some great snacks on a hot and humid evening. The center and the Womens Agriculture Network hosted this pasture walk.

Those assembled got to see our outdoor setup and chick barns for raising birds on pasture for the first 2 weeks, then our day range system of letting the birds roam free instead of keeping them in pasture pens. At 8 and 9 weeks we process the birds. Our pasture-raised chickens come packaged with great flavor!

We had been to many of these great pasture walks in the past and came away with a lot of new ideas. It was great to be able to return the favor to the Vermont farming community. I hope they learned something useful.

Vermont Heating Fuel

Asa sits on a 2 cord pile of green firewood delivered by Clifford Lumber in Hinesburg, Vermont. This pile will be stacked to air dry, then unstacked during the winter and put into the woodstove to keep us warm. We go through 3 to 4 cords of wood during the winter. We also have backup heat from an oil furnace that also heats water, but the woodstove is the primary heater of the house.

Nothing like homegrown fuel to keep you warm on those cold winter chore days!

Beautiful Broccoli!

Christa has grown some beautiful broccoli this year! The heads are huge - almost the size of a dinner plate!! The taste is incredibly sweet. The secret....composted chicken manure that we spread on the fields from the chicken hoophouse this spring. Another benefit of a diversified farm!

Using Old Farm Implements

I chained up an old horse drawn spring tooth harrow to do some weeding the other day. Its only about 3 feet wide which means alot of passes to pull up weeds. I have another harrow just like it that I plan on joining together with this one.

I picked up this harrow and a few spike harrows (kind of like large nails attached to a frame) at an old farm this spring. A guy was cleaning up around an old barn and I stopped in to say hello and ask if he had any old farm machinery he wanted to part with. He did and he talked about his uncle that farmed the land with horses many years ago. Those old implements have now found new life on a new farm.

Pasture Farrowed Piglets

Three out of our four pregnant Tamworth Gilts (first pregnancy, after their first they are considered sows) farrowed (birthed) their first piglets out on pasture! They had 10, 10 and 9 respectively. All are healthy and vibrant. The other adults and boar on the same pasture are very gentle when around the piglets. Two of the gilts chose to farrow next to the two round bales I dropped in the pasture a few days ago. The third farrowed at a fence corner in the dirt. I later brought over some mulch hay.

I was concerned about the recent thunderstorms and resulting rains causing hypothermia for the piglets, but they have come through fine. They obviously stay close to their mothers for heat and they snuggle under the hay for additional protection and warmth. So far so good, we will see how many piglets are left after weaning them from their moms (in about 3 weeks).

Farm Education

Christa is teaching a group of local school kids and teachers about the "3 point hitch" on our farm tractor. She spent a good hour and a half walking the kids through the farm, looking at animals and vegetables and talking about where your food choices come from. Its never to early for farm education!

Christa gave another farm tour this week at our CSA Potluck. It was held on a lovely evening and there was a great turnout! We doubled our Summer CSA share this year and it SOLD OUT incredibly fast. All who attended got a tour of the livestock and vegetable fields and finished with a wonderful potluck meal. We served up our chicken and pork and not a speck was left at the end.

It is great to visit with the folks who support your farm. I hope they enjoyed the potluck as much as we did. We look forward to seeing more of our shareholders over the summer and for another farm potluck in the fall!

New crop of lamb and beef

About two weeks ago we picked up 66 beautiful spring lambs from a young couple in the northern part of Vermont. We visited their farm in the winter to look over the newly born lambs and to see their operation. We were impressed and decided to buy lambs from them this spring.


Here you can see Chris and his friend Tarik weighing a lamb. There is a gate at each end of the scale, one to let the lamb in, the other to let them out. We pay the farmer by the pound for the lambs.



Once we got them all weighed we tricked them into our livestock trailer with a bucket of grain. They were pretty packed in our trailer. We hoped to make just one trip, but thought better of it for the lambs comfort, unloaded some lambs and made two trips.



They took to their new home and started munching on grass right away. They look great and by fall will by nice and fat for harvesting.
















Our shipment of Devon-Angus beef yearlings arrived today. Here they are getting off the livestock trailer. There is plenty of grass out in the pastures and I am glad they are here to graze it. We could have used them about a week ago to keep ahead of the growth!

Ed's Farm

This is a photo looking south from Ed's farmstead. Ed has been here on this farm since the 1950s. Its been a dairy farm and now he raises some beef and a few horses as well as hays quite a few acres on his place and around town.

Ed holds quite a few appointed positions for the town. I don't know how long he has held them, but I bet its been a while. They include: Animal Control Officer, Fence Viewer, Inspector of Lumber/Shingles, and Weigher of Coal. The last two positions are probably obsolete as these are not in use much like they were years ago. Some Vermont towns remove these appointed positions since they are not in use. I suspect ours will when Ed feels like he can no longer serve. Ed says he is 72, but he looks and works like he is in his 50s.

His farm has a wonderful assortment of old farm machinery on it and whenever I think I might need a part or an implement I give Ed a call. That was the case a few weeks ago when I was looking for an old hay wagon to build a moveable chicken coop. So I called Ed and asked if he knew someone who might have an old one for sale. He said "Yup... me". So I hurried on over and he took me back through a maze of machinery and showed me an old wagon frame. Just the ticket. We settled on a price and just the other day I finally got over there to pick it up. The tongue was rusted up a bit so Ed and I heated and lubed it up to unfreeze it. He hitched it to the tractor and ran it around the farm turning it back and forth and finally it loosened up enough for me to drive it 6 miles down the road to the farm.

Tyler and I will be working on getting a coop built on this frame over the next few days. Then we can move their housing around the pasture instead of being locked down to one location.

We younger farmers are fortunate to have the old timers around. I like to visit with them and hear their stories. You can sure learn a lot from them just by listening. And when I visit Ed my ears are wide open.

Potato planting

Christa is sitting on the transplanter seat dropping cut seed potatoes into a furrow that is dug in the soil by a metal shoe. There are two metal wheels behind the metal shoe that close the furrow. The photo is from the back of the tractor, Christa is traveling backwards at a slow pace. the field that we prepared is about 550 feet long and it takes us 20 minutes to plant this distance with the transplanter. I planted a few rows by hand and it took me 50 minutes per row.

We are planting on some nice sandy loam soil at a farm about 2 miles south of us. We plowed and harrowed a 2 acre piece for this year. A short term rental has been signed on this plot and we are looking forward to growing crops on this soil. The folks who own the land had been vegetable farmers about 20 years ago, so they are very knowledgeable and I pick their brains often.

You can see the farm truck in the distance and the white marshmallows are wrapped round bales. The sames ones that I fed the pigs this past winter (I take the wrapping off of course).

Another Alexander!

Say hello to a new farmhand this season! He is a bright, young, strong 2nd cousin to Christa (my lovely wife). He has a degree in forestry and is finishing up a masters at UVM in teaching.

We have Tyler sharing in some of the fun tasks on the farm: collecting eggs, transplanting vegetables, working on irrigation setup, and planting potatoes. He will get the full farm experience this summer - you can be sure of that.

Birthday Boy!

Our boy Asa turned 2 years old today!

He got a drill and a ride on the potato digger!

What more could a boy ask for?

Spring Work

Everybody's working for the weekend!

The pigs are working on their new pasture...

Christa and Brian are cleaning out the chicken litter from the hoophouse...

Christa is tilling rows for pea planting...

The work never ends...

It makes the homebrew disappear though - thanks Brian!

The long awaited arrival of the vernal equinox

I don't want to shout it out too loudly, but I think spring might be in our part of Vermont. These last few days have been in the 60s and yesterday and today in the 70s! Our ground needs this warm weather to dry out as it has been very soggy. We havent been able to get into the fields to plant our vegetable transplants which should be in the ground by now. We should be able to get some in over the next few days.

We just got the 370 or so laying hens out of the vegetable hoophouse (their winter quarters) and across the road onto new pasture. We hearded them via poultry netting to a livestock trailer. It didnt work very well. As it got dark they all wanted to head back to the hoophouse and were starting to pull down the netting, quite a few got out but we managed to start grabbing birds and getting them into the trailer. A short trip across the road and into their perimeter netting on the new pasture where they huddled together - and the job was done. The boots came off and the homebrew was swilled around 1130pm. We need to figure a better system for next year!

I have been building a makeshift wood and tin laying shack for to house their nest boxes. Eventually this summer we will build a larger structure on a hay wagon frame that we can pull around with the tractor. The birds have settled in and producing great tasting eggs - and lots of them! The peak of egg production is upon us!

The pigs are out on pasture and boy they were happy to get on some new ground! The piglets born in November/December are sizing up well and should be ready for market starting in June/July. We have 3 sows that should farrow in the next few weeks and another 4 gilts that should have their first farrow in May or June. I am working on fencing off a section of pasture along with a tree island for sow farrowing. The plan is to put in some mulch hay, a few A-frames or tarps to keep the rain at bay and let the sows select and build their nest and have their piglets. I am looking forward to seeing how well they farrow outside the hoophouse. Which reminds me - I need to start digging out the hoophouses and composting their contents so we can get plants into the ground! Lots of work to be done around these parts - enjoy the weather!

Upgrading greenhouse benches

Last year we cobbled together some pallets and scrap wood to make greenhouse benches. In the past year we have visited some farmers and their greenhouse growing systems and decided we needed to make some changes.

We made another farm investment by moving from wood to metal pipe and building roll-away greenhouse benches. The frame is made out of tubular greenhouse pipe the legs are adjustable, and their are 2 pipes on the top of the frame that allow you to roll a frame that sits on top (see photo). We built the top frame of 2 x 4 lumber and then bent some roofing metal that holds seedling trays.

The next improvement in the greenhouse system is a recyclable water supply. It is a very simple system that contains a livestock tank and a sump pump. Plastic water pipe (main line) is connected to the sump pump outlet with feeder lines coming from the main line to each greenhouse bench. At the top of the greenhouse bench is a "T" ball valve and 3/4 inch diam pvc pipe with a few holes drilled into it to allow water to flow on the metal pans. The bench is tipped toward a gutter that is attached to the side of the greenhouse frame that takes the water and dumps it into the livestock tank at the end of the greenhouse. You fill up the livestock tack once and recycle the water through the season. This allows for warmer water going to the seeds and bottom watering of the trays.

We are still fine tuning the system, but it should already allows for efficient use of greenhouse space and less time spent watering. Come by the greenhouse and see how it works!

Time to Farm

We were a nation of small farmers not more than 50 years ago. These were small family farms on 100 acres and less. The primary income producer was the dairy cow with a milking herd of 10 to 40. These farms also raised pigs, chickens, eggs, horses and vegetables. These families preserved the foods they grew (canning vegetables, smoking meats, rendering lard) for year round consumption. The younger generation lived with and learned from the older generation who passed down their knowledge.

Our farm is not so different from this earlier model of farming. We raise a diversity of livestock and vegetables for sale to the community and we preserve and store meat and vegetables for our own consumption during the winter months. We are currently 2 generations working together on the farm and a young 3rd generation tagging along.

About 5 years ago we set up a cardboard table with extra garden produce to sell along the road that runs by the farm (see photo above). This spring we have made the decision to make a living from this and other lands that we use in our town. You don’t read much about young families jumping into farming full-time, least not those who don’t own any land (we lease or have handshake agreements). The media seems to report all the doom and gloom of farms going out, land lost to development, dairy farms dwindling, etc. We think they should be reporting the successes of new farms.

We have made a sizeable leap from 5 years ago – and we still do all the farming ourselves. Last years purchase of a used tractor and some old farm implements have helped us be a bit more efficient since we increased the amount of land that we cultivate. We raise a diversity of livestock and poultry focusing on raising them outdoors on pasture. We have embraced the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) model of providing nutritious, organically raised vegetables to many families in our local communities.

We have received great feedback from our customers over the years and our business has grown to the point where we believe it can support 1 and ½ families. Neither of us worked high paying jobs while we started farming, and we don’t have trust funds to bail us out of poor decisions. We saved and have never incurred debts (save a small house mortgage). We live simply and we work hard at what we love to do: grow great food for our local community.

So this spring we are both excited and scared for what the farming future may bring, but life is too short not to go after what you want. Hope to see you on the farm!

Snow Excavation

The Valentines Day blizzard has ramped up our chore hours! We have been hauling day old bread on a tobaggan along a snowshoe path to get back to the pigs. Prior to the storm we had been driving right up to the pig feeding area with the bread. So after a quick cost-benefit analysis we decided to hire our local excavator/snow plowing guy to come to the farm and excavate a driveable path to the chicken hoophouse and the pig feeding area. This will allow us to drive pig and chicken feed right to the animals, and reduce our chore time. Time is money goes the old adage!

The chickens haven't noticed a big change in their environment even though they went through a blizzard that dumped nearly 3 ft of snow! They are happily spending their winter in the hoophouse doing what chickens do: eat, drink, scratch through the wood chips, take dust baths, and lay eggs. They might have been in for a crushing suprise if we didn't clear off the snow from the top and sides (2x) during the storm.
You can see the snow piled up on the sides of the hoophouse in the photo. The hip board just above the snow is 4 ft from the ground. Its been melting a bit in the recent warm weather. It will have to be shoveled away if another snow storm arrives soon.

Vermont Sausage Fest!

Nothing like homemade sausage and bean soup on a snowy winter day!

We had some friends over to make some fresh sausage from our pork and beef. Everyone pitched in putting together spices, mixing the meats, adding and drinking some wine, and stuffing the meat into casings (sheep intestine). We have an old cast iron Enterprise sausage stuffer that I got from my Pa. We even smoked a few links in our poor farmers smoker that my Pa and I put together a few years ago when he came to visit us in Vermont.

Everyone had a good time. Becky read stories to the kids, Asa and Finn played a duet on the piano, the menfolk talked about the best method for cutting handmade dovetails, and Christa made the awesome bean and ham soup. All stomachs were full, warm and satisfied by the afternoon - which made for good napping conditions!

Happy Plowingtime Day!

Christa and Asa are in front of the new (used) farm truck on Valentines Day. Our Toyota Pickup truck is on the way out so we decided to look for a used truck with a larger bed and more power to haul a livestock trailer. We lucked out and saw an ad in the paper for a truck with a plow up in Underhill. We took a look at it, drove it around a bit and decided the farm should purchase it. The timing could not have been better!

The Nor'easter arrived on Valentines Day and by the next day we had 31 inches of new snow! Fortunately the air temperature was cold (single digits) enough to produce light snow. Nevertheless, we were busy over the next two days as the snow fell and we plowed our driveways, shoveled paths to the pigs and chickens, and shoveled snow away from the greenhouse and hoophouses. Fortunately we did not have any structures collapse, though quite a few dairy barns across the state did collapse and some animals were lost.

One of our Tamworth sows chose to farrow the evening of the storm. She farrowed 8 piglets, but only 4 were alive when I fed her the next morning. She eventually lost the remaining 4, probably due to crushing. She is a large sow and the space in the hoophouse we had her in was likely not big enough. That coupled with the cold weather may have been a contributor to the deaths.

The other pigs were having fun in the snow and taking a last lap around their field before the snow really piled up. The next day I had to shovel a path from their water and feeding area up to their hoophouse. They happily took off in single file down their snow trail!