Molly at three months

This season being our first as a community supported agriculture venture has been interesting and quite the learning experience.

• Worms can kill without obvious symptoms and not all wormers are created equal.

There are only a handful of wormers actually approved for use in goats. None of them specifically target tapeworm. So to keep your goats effectively wormed, many folks recommended using cattle "wormer" off-label and dosing appropriately. This year we tried using an organic/herbal wormer. No dice. The goats were asymptomatic - meaning they didn't show the worm infection until it was too late and they were already anemic. This year, the plan was to raise the goats completely organically without chemically-derived wormers.

• Fencing is of primary importance

We only have a portion of the area we used for livestock and growing vegetables actually fenced in. This was fine most of the time, but certain circumstances arose where this was a liability. The farm is home territory to many different types of predators and plant eaters. The fence is effective in deterring these predators as long as it is in place. We lost two goats and numerous chickens to predators. A partial list of animals cited this year includes coyotes, owls, hawks, raccoons, possums, minks, weasels, foxes and the family dog. Plant eaters of note included deer, groundhog and rabbits. Plant predation was low because of the presence of the dogs. But one dog in particular really liked chickens and several seemed to think goats legs were chew toys. The fence was an effective deterrent once it was up.

• Chicken tractors are awesome

Not only did ours protect the chickens but it has been most useful preparing areas for cultivation. . If the chickens have been there first, it is so much easier to do to turn the ground over. I am so grateful to the friends who lent us this piece of equipment for making that bit a this year's adventures a success.

• Farm work is harder than most people think

There were several shareholders who liked the idea of working for food. Since, I'll take any help I can get, I agreed to let them come and help me. I worked along side most people and several did not come back after the first time. One notable exception, a wonderful young woman who is also a museum, had to stop helping because of heat issues. I love this kind of work, but apparently that is a pretty rare occurrence. Maybe later when the farm is more established and we're not doing so much break-breaking work, people will enjoy actually the labor involved.

I've learned countless other lessons big and small and am so grateful to everyone who supported the cause and encouraged to keep plugging away. We will have another season next year and I hope to post 2009 share agreement around January 1

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!!!

So, How Was Your Day?

Do you know what you'll be eating this year? I do. Fresh, home grown organic produce. You can too. Just join us by becoming a shareholder in Mule Shoe Farm. Click here for the Agreement.

Today was a great day! Warm air, a little rain and there was enough time to work on the goat nursery. Yep. That's right. I'm going to be a goat granny. Duchess is quite well along in her pregnancy and Leslie told me last week, she would have kids soon. I could have made sure I knew when she got pregnant and then marked her due date on the calendar but that would have been too easy. Instead, she and Buddy have been shackin' up together and who knows when she got knocked up. But that's what we wanted. She'll be nursing her kids for awhile and then we'll have milk for the family. Can't wait.

Mary and Hannah came out to help. We picked up the many many sticks in the nursery. The pile was so tall we needed help to stand on top of it. We also made an opening in the fence for a gate and took apart two chain link panels to form the actual gate. Along the way, we discussed what first time farm visitors would need to hear. Hannah took home a math problem to work on and they'll be back on Thursday. We'll be working on putting up chicken wire inside the pen, so the newborns can't get stuck in the larger fence openings.

I've been working on a list of what seeds will be needed this year and a list of what to buy. I think I'll post the inventory on hand In the Basket soon. So, if you have requests or suggestions, please send them in.

We're taking a critical look at the structure of our forests. Trees, just like gardens need to be weeded and tended. They are on a different time scale because trees are not annuals. Duh. I know you know, but sometimes I have to say it out loud so I can get it. Trees require patience.

I've started to see a chiropractor and attended an informational session this evening. Would you believe that the chiropractor advised eating a sensible diet of organic food to maintain health? What do you know? I think this organic thing is catching on. Anyway, a few more people know about Mule Shoe Farm. I am excited about the opportunity to welcome new friends into our circle. Oh yeah, the chiropractor is a big help for me, too. He'll help keep me moving.

While the weather stays good, I'll be outside and working. Maybe tomorrow, I'll actually take pictures. Meanwhile, I am working on a multi-part piece all about growing potatoes. Look for it here.

And before I forget: I got my Valentine present early. He's furry and about 12 weeks old. We named him Lotlo:lu, which is Oneida for "he is watching." He is an Australian shepherd, blue heeler mix. Jimbo's taken to calling him Swiffer. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Federal Farming

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. Duchess - the no-Show goat

Last week I received an email regarding my sources for Monday's article: Does the USDA Know What Your Dog is Doing? I think the person who sent the email brings up a good idea. I should have shared some sources with all you, dear readers. I would also like to point out that I prefer comments as opposed to direct personal emails. You can even comment as Anonymous. I don't mind. I will share sources and some additonal thoughts on NAIS with you today.

Actually, I have several sources in mind for various points in my post last Monday. The trigger for writing about the NAIS program was an editorial in Backyard Poultry Volume 2, Number 6 Dec2007/January2008 issue on page 6 Is NAIS Still a Threat? You Decide by Elaine Belanger, the editor. It was in the From the Editor column which is not available in the on-line version. There are several other interestng articles that have nothing to do with NAIS.

You can find out more at the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) at the Deliberate blog in a post dating from April of this year. This blog has some interesting information. There is apparently $500 grant available to help you implement this system. A company called Global Animal Management which will provide you with a turnkey package in this arena is also apparently linked part and parcel of the pharmaceuticals industry. Hmmmm. I am leary of the connection. Additionally, the existence of a grant implies that there will some cost to implementation. Probably one I really wouldn't want to bear.

For information about feedlots and the agro-industrial methods, I refer to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and a book called The Hundred Year Lie. I cannot recall the author at the moment. Both books are available from Amazon or at your local library. I also recommend reading through Joel Salatin's website http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ for a description of sustainable pasture management.

Also check out http://www.nonais.org/ This website contains articles about a host of applications of a Radio Frequency Identification, called RFID, including human implantation, etc. It is hosted by another small farmer in Vermont. Today's post notes that the 2007 Farm Bill has passed the Senate. On the right-hand side of this site there is an extensive list of links related to this issue.

The final word is, of course, from the USDA at www.usda.gov/nais which states that the purpose of the NAIS as follows:

To protect the health of U.S. livestock and poultry and the economic well-being of those industries, we must be able to quickly and effectively trace an animal disease to its source. When a disease outbreak occurs, animal health officials need to know:

• Which animals are involved in a disease outbreak
  
• Where the infected animals are currently located
  
• What other animals might have been exposed to the disease

By choosing to participate in NAIS, you will join a national disease response network built to protect your animals, your neighbors, and your economic livelihood against the devastation of a foreign animal disease outbreak.

The main issue I have with this whole setup is that it is reactive. It does nothing to actually address the problems of which disease outbreaks are a symptom. NAIS will not reward good disease-preventive agricultural management practices which are counter to an agrindustrial approach to food production. All NAIS does is help the industrial food system figure out who is responsible and far the quarantine needs to go. This is not a sustainable approach because it does not prevent disease. It seeks to limit the spread of disease. Do they intend to imply that disease is inevitable and unpreventable?

Reading a bit more at usda.gov on who must participate and who doesn't have to, I learned that the following criteria means you do not have to participate.

• Animals that never leave their premises of birth, even if they move from pasture to pasture within that premises
• Animals that never leave their premises other than when they "get out"
• Animals that are only moved directly from their birth premises to custom slaughter

That is good news for the backyard hobby farmer for now. All small family farms must keep up their best management practices without fail. The minute a disease outbreak is traced to a small farm, NAIS will become mandatory for everyone. NAIS does, however, affect small farmers who like to show their animals because the USDA recommends animal identification in the following situation(s)

• Animals that are moved from their premises to locations where they "commingle", or come into contact with, animals from multiple/other premises (Examples include - livestock auctions, feedlots, or fairs)

I think may also include swapping animals to improve herd genetics. Just a thought.

So there you have it. Right now, animal identification is voluntary.

Now onto the Senate Farm Bill which passed recently. It includes the controversial Crop Insurance component which allows farmers to grow crops which are not sustainable or financially viable. For more information, I refer you to the Senate Agriculture Committee website. When I finsh digesting the main points of the Bill, I will be sure to have something to say about it here.

Does the USDA Know What Your Dog is Doing?

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photo by klynslis

If you own a pet, you are impacted, too. The National Animal Identification System or NAIS is being implemented by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Currently, participation is voluntary. The plan is to make it mandatory.

What is it? - USDA regulation that requires every animal owner to register as a farm site and tag each and every animal with an ID tag. Every animal owner has 48 hours to report an "event" to the USDA. An event includes coming into contact with animals on another farm site or taking you animal off your "farm" site. Want your lap dog to go shopping with you? Better get ready to file paperwork or login online and self-report.

Exception - Large animal producers can get one ID tag for a "lot" of animals as opposed to one for every animal.

Why I think it's a bad idea - This regulation is entirely reactive. The main purpose is to be able to track disease outbreaks back to individual farmers or producers. This focuses blame at the source instead of focusing on ways to solve the problem throughout the agricultural supply chain. It is the large producers, the corn-fed beef lots and commercial poultry farmers whose management practices are most likely to lead to disease outbreaks. Small farmers and homesteaders with a few animals on plenty of pasture in plenty of space are less likely to be subjecting their animals to disease likely environments. Why is the USDA not encouraging sustainable agricultural management? Small farms, homesteaders and people with one or two chickens will bear the burden of cost for tagging each and every animal on the "farm" while big producers get a break.

You can read a lot more about this issue at http://www.nonais.org/ There are also contacts on the right hand side of this website which will allow you to voice your opinion on this important issue.

Before anyone gets ready to send an email objecting to my one-sided presentation of this topic, you need to know that anything published here on this blog is strictly my opinion. You are, of course, entitled to your own.

Any thoughts you have on this issue? Post a comment below. And contact your Congressional representatives and Senators. Let them know what you think.

Diggin' Dirt

I love late season deals. Just the other day I was at the Ashland City Mall (those of you who live here know what I mean, the store that starts with W*) looking at all the different Clearance racks that I could and I wondered into the garden center. I had just recently cleared the weeds out of the front flower bed and fixed it up. I thought it needed another color besides green, so I was poking around for a cheap plant. I found one for three dollars which had actually become four plants, well grown, too. Yippee and I liked how it looked. So I bought it. And I brought it home.

There it is, looking just like it's always been there. That's my favorite kind, you know. The kind that's always been there. Or at least looks that way.

But as I was clearing mulch and digging holes for these new additions, I was getting philosophical. I remember reading the Secret Garden over and over again when I was young, trying to connect with how Mary felt when she first discovered the garden and started weeding the early bulbs. To connect with the newness and what I imagined to be the satisfaction of knowing that your actions were helping another living thing thrive. I didn't get that feeling when my mother assigned weeding chores to me and I don't know why, It just never occurred to me that way in the heat of the summer.

Now I know the difference, especially today. It's the rain, the mist and the coolness. Today wasn't exactly early spring cold at 68F this morning but it is a good deal cooler than a couple weeks ago at 96F. It's been drizzling and the mist has come back to the hills. The soil is wet and easy to move without choking on the dust. Getting my hands in the early soil is something that I have always loved doing. It connects me with the land, with creation.

I remember working in computers a few years back and feeling vaguely dissatisfied with work in general. Many of the engineers I worked with felt the same way. It occurred to me one day that this vague dissatisfaction was the result of a general disconnect in our culture. It's the disconnect that happens when what you do for a living has nothing to do with what you need to live. Fixing computers all day is not in any way related to preparing supper or feeding an infant except by money. Money that is not even tangible anymore. Easy come, easy go. And the pundits wonder why there is so much debt in America. How often do others feel unconnected to living? Don't we all long to make an impact in some way - a tangible impact? For me, it is farming, sustainable farming. What is it for you?

Hard Work Never Hurt Anybody

by Josef Steufer

It is something your grandpa or father would say, usually at the point where you complain about some tedious chore that pales in comparison to a day playing hookie or doing nothing.

"Hard work never hurt nobody," he would calmly say handing you the tools of the trade.

In my case, it would be my mother who say this and then she would follow it up with "Too bad."
after further complaints. Out I would go to weed the garden, rake leaves, split wood, scrub
the floor, whatever needed to be done.

I learned there is a rhythm in hard work. There a steady pace you achieve in the process. A flow. It requires more than a 5 minutes to achieve. In today's microwave world, how often do we actually set about doing a "mindless" hard work chore without wishing it would take less time, be easier to accomplish, that we didn't have to do it at all?

It is one of the keys of sustainability to relish the meditative spirit that hard work induces. Some things cost less when we do them by hand. Sure our time is worth something, but we are not throwing it away by engaging in the long or hard way to do something. I am reminded of story I once read, probably in Reader's Digest.

A grown son would watch his father mow grass with a hand mower and then
rake it up every weekend when he came to visit.

Out of concern for his father's age and health, the son purchased a riding lawn mower with a bag attachment. (I guess this was before the days of mulching mowers). Anyway, the father expressed delight with a bit of bewilderment.

"What do I need this for?" he asked, "There is nothing wrong with my
mower."

"Well, Dad," replied the son, "I see you working so hard mowing and raking the grass that I thought you may want to spend your time doing something else, like relaxing."

As the son returned each week to visit, he noticed that his father always seemed to be finishing up mowing the yard as he arrived and each time in the same spot. Thinking something was up, the son came early one day and found his father raking the grass into rows and then piles. He went out to his father.

"Dad, why don't you use the mower I gave you? Don't you like it?
Doesn't it save time?"

"Sure, son. It's a fine mower and does a good job. But something is
missing. Come help and I'll show you."

The father explained how the grass rows were lines of soldiers at the battle of Waterloo. As he raked each unit into position, the son understood that mowing the lawn and raking the grass was less about getting done than enjoying the process of the work.

When I undertake to pack the mulch in bags with a pitchfork by hand and so move the hill from one spot to another I do it from the necessity of not having a box blade for my tractor yet, but at the same time I am indulging in the meditative rhythm of hard work.


Meditative hard work is part of the romance of farming. Hard work is also what makes small farming sustainable. I know I can move mulch with a pitchfork. I know I can scrape together the cash from selling at the market to purchase one or borrow one and somehow move things around by hook or by crook. I do not have to go into debt to do it.


Modern farming, industrial agriculture, is predicated upon huge cash outlays for the latest equipment. These cash outlays are usually in the form of loans. When a small farm does work by hand, they avoid the large cash loans that large farms depend on. This often means their produce will cost a little more. But it's more honest, better quality, fresher. It is bought and paid for by the sweat of the brow. Nobody owes anyone anything here. The farm product can be freely given and freely acquired. The economic impact is on the positive side of the balance sheet every time.

What is the value of doing something by hand that restores the mind and spirit and in the end enhances the life of the person who buys it? Is it 60 cents a pound or 1.20 a pound? The next time you are at the grocery store, notice the price difference between organic and conventional products. Know that when you buy organic, you are paying a more honest price for a better product in a situation where everyone and everything does better in the long run. You are paying for something we all can afford.