So, that’s some weather we are having, isn’t it?

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Grace

All my life, the weather was never more than an inconvenience. Growing up in the city, or living as a resident in the hospital, or even being stationed in the hot San Joaquin Valley of California, the weather was just a number, that happened outside… and I was inside, so I didn’t think about the weather.

Now, however, living on a farm, I have never been so aware.

Each rain, each hot sunny day, has a purpose. Each dry spell, each over-flooding has its consequences.

Each time the temperature cools off in the evening, or stays cool in the morning, we farmers, gardeners, or lawn mowers, rush to accomplish work outside during that time. We pray for rain and we wait to see how the lack of it affects our crops, our land.

Now, we move the cows either in the barn at noon, or to a shady spot in the heat of the day, and then move them back out when it becomes cooler. We milk the cows, feed the pigs and then water their mud pile so they can stay cool. Each day has a rhythm that has to do with the weather, and each week, we look ahead to interpret: the weather.

Today, my husband farmer-doctor-hockey dad, said to me: Looks like we are going to cut hay tomorrow. If the weather holds out, I am okay with it raining just a little, but we need someone to bale the hay. Then we have 12 hrs after that to wrap it. I would rather it not rain then. After that we help to move the bales, but our son has hockey practice, I have to work, and then school starts. I think the weather is better this Friday and Saturday, if course then there is that hockey tournament…

Conversations and thoughts about the weather, do not just pass the time. They are as important as one’s schedule, in fact, create the schedule.

To be so dependent on the weather…how does that make me feel?

I guess, I feel like every other farmer, pioneer, gardener, or traveler, that depended on the land to live… it feels real. Living truly in an environment that affects you and you affect it. It’s a vulnerability, yes, and can be a liability, but since so much is uncontrollable, you plan, work, react, and let go.

You breathe, and let the dominoes make their pattern. You let God be in control. You become part of the scenic picture and enjoy the rhythm of the day.

Frankly, farming is not for the faint hearted. There is much more consideration, orchestration, and planning in farming, than I ever thought there would be, and here, the weather is a key partner. But enough about the weather… :)

How To Make Butter by Josiah Freier

Posted on June 16, 2017 by Grace

Josiah was six years old last year when he submitted this for a 4-H project poster last summer. [He won $4!]

Josiah and his milking cow, Rosie

“First, get fresh milk from a cow. A cow eats grass and drinks water to make milk. We milked Rosie, our American Milking Devon, after she had her first calf.”

This is Rosie being hand milked at the Fair. (Usually, we use a Surge vacuum pump)

“Next, cool down the milk and let the milk separate from the cream. The cream floats on the top. Then scoop out the cream and put it in a jar.”

Skim the cream from the top of milk

“Then let the cream warm to room temperature.”

Lots of cream

“You can put the cream in a butter churner, blender or shake it up yourself.”

Josiah pouring cream into electric butter churner

“Then the butter separates from the buttermilk. It will be yellow with big clumps.”

Clumping butter

“Then squeeze all the buttermilk from the butter in a cheese cloth and rinse with cold water.”

Washing butter

“Add salt or honey to make it saltier or sweeter. Store in the refrigerator or freezer.”

Butter ready!

“From our cow, 2 quarts of cream makes about 1 pound of butter.”

The Manure Cycle

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Grace

When we first moved to Maine, I didn’t grasp the importance of manure like I do now…

It was the end of winter…our fields were typical northern Maine fields, rotating between potato and oats, harvested and plowed, covered in snow. These fields gradually revealed rows and rows of brown, rocky (very rocky) soil. We purposefully arrived before spring in order to be here for planting season. We had plans for a large garden and brought seeds for a cover crop of forage oats and a mixture of grasses for pasture.. But, we quickly learned that what is good soil for potato and oats is not necessarily ready for a garden of sweet corn. We ended up with a garden full of yellow leafy corn stalks and half ear sized corn. Our pasture grew a good amount of clover, but not very much grass, leaving us to wonder how we can better plan for our soil the year after…

Picking rocks is a real job on our farm… and on most farms in Maine!

This second year our planning was put into action. Over the winter we kept our cows in the barn. Now, cows generally do well in the cold, especially our heritage breed American Milking Devon Cows will prefer being outside in the dead of winter. But, keeping cows inside will help keep the water line from freezing in the barn during subzero degree weather. As one can imagine, though, it can be more work to keep a barn clean with a dozen cows eating and drinking, and excreting…but, what I didn’t really appreciate at the time of shoveling (manure), that this was our source of the much needed nutrients! Little by little, we moved rich manure into our handy dandy wheel barrow and pitched it onto our garden. After that area was covered, we gradually extended the bounty to nearby pastures.

Growing our cows which grow our pastures, which grow our cows…

Our walks with the wheel barrow did pay off, however. Our garden grew extra-ordinarily well this year, having corn that recovered once from a heavy rain storm and then again from a devastating hail storm. We were also pleasantly surprised by how our pastures progressed. Where we thought we might have put on too much manure in some places (spreading manure by hand, well a pitch fork, is not easy or evenly spread), actually was the best insulation that the field could have asked for this winter. The lack of snow cover with rhythmic heaving from the temperature changes would have exposed large areas to ‘winter kill,’ which would have been evident only after plants did not grow… Some of neighbors suffered large areas of ‘winter kill’ but most of our pastures were fortunately protected, especially in areas that we had manure.

Fresh and sweet corn

Our pastures did so well this year, with abundant clover, grass and my husband’s personal favorite: trefoil; that our grass fed cows got fat, yes chubby on just the pasture alone.

Happy Cows

I didn’t know this, but chubby heifers can sometimes be a problem. They sometimes can have trouble getting pregnant… Unfortunately (or fortunately), one of our beef cows (half Charolais and half Angus cow) failed to conceive despite multiple attempts at breeding both last summer and this year. In a small herd that needs to get bigger, or especially in a dairy herd that needs to produce milk, heifers that can’t get bred don’t stay long. I don’t know if being chubby was our girl’s problem, but on farm, where hard decisions sometimes need to be made, it was time for her to be beef.

Happy Beef

But really, I don’t know a better way for a farm to show its personal achievement than to send off an animal for beef that has been lovingly raised over the last 2 years, feeding it amazing pastures, with rotational grazing, and three minutes of scratching a day. (Dale tells me that studies show that three min of scratching a day causes a statistically significant increase in weight gain.)

Turkey for Thanksgiving

I have to say, I am super excited about each animal we raise for meat, or eggs, or milk. Not only do we “know where it comes from,” but we know what they are eating, we know where they are, what they are doing, and we know them, ourselves.

Not enough cows for our pasture…had to make it into bailage.

Yes, often it is sad to see them go, but we do remember to thank God for his provisions at each meal of each day… It is just amazing to see the “food chain” at work in the seemly simple (yet scientifically complex) ecosystem of our small farm: Cow eats dried grass, produces manure, fertilizes soil, grows clover, rich grass (and trefoil), cows eat pasture, cows grow and produces excellent and healthier, milk and meat…Yes!

[Remind me to talk about why grass fed beef and dairy is healthier…I’d be happy to!]

And here, milk turns into pork: It’s a food Web!

How To Raise a Chicken by Mark Freier

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Grace

[Mark is 11 years old and turned this paper in for his English class on ‘how to write instructions.’]

Mark “Chicken Wing”

Though it seems complicated, raising chickens is a simple and fun thing to do. You could do it as a hobby or as a large-scale chicken farmer. The benefits of raising chickens are: 1) You can get fresh eggs every morning. Store bought eggs can be up to 2 month old. Grass fed chickens lay eggs that are higher in omega-3, which is a good vitamin. 2) You can have fresh chicken meat that you have raised yourself. 3) Chickens cans be good pets. 4) Their waste is good fertilizer for the ground or garden. 5) You can feed chickens your scraps. (As long as it’s not meat.)

New heating plate that mimics Mama chicken. Chicks run under plate to keep warm and can run out to eat

If you are interested in raising chickens you will need: chickens, a starter container for the chicks, chicken wire, chicken feed, feeder, waterer, heat lamp, several two by four pieces of wood, several pieces of long and strong sticks or branches, nails or screws, and hammer or drill.

Early morning visit to the local Post Office

First, you will need to buy or get your chickens from somewhere. If you want to get your chicks from a hatchery I would recommend Meyer Hatchery or Murray McMurray Hatchery. You can get them as newly hatched chicks or as pullets (older chickens). A large hatchery like Murray McMurray has about one hundred variety of chickens. You can choose egg laying hens, meat birds, guinea hens, or turkeys. They can be ordered in advance and they shipped by the U.S Postal Service by priority mail. The chicks can come in the mail, because right before the chicks hatch, they absorb their yoke, which will last up to 72 hours, where the chick doesn’t need to eat. You can also get them from your local feed store, like Tractor Supply or Aroostook Mills. The advantage of ordering locally, is that you don’t have to pay for shipping, but you don’t have a big selection of chicks.

New Cornish Roasters

Next, you would need to build or buy a pen for your chickens. If you get chicks you can get a brooder kit, or use a large container like a kiddy pool or a large rubber-maid tub. Line the container with newspaper and paper towels for the first week. The paper towel needs to be textured so that the chicks don’t slip and get “spraddle leg.” You can also use a rubber lining like one would use in their kitchen cabinets. You also need a heat lamp for the first 8-10 weeks. The first week the temperature of chicks need to be 95 degrees F. The next few weeks you can change the temperature by lifting the heat lamp higher and higher. Reduce the temperature by five degrees each week until you reach the same temperature as the outdoors (around 60-70 degrees). Then your chickens would be ready to be moved to an outdoor pen.

First batch

In your chick container, you will need a feeder and a waterer for your chicks. If you get the chicks from a hatchery, you should dip their beaks inside the waterer as soon as you put them inside the pen, teaching them to drink. You should buy chick starter food which should have 18% protein in small crumbles or mash (not pellets). You should fill up the chicks’ water and food as needed and change the paper towels when they get very dirty. After the first week, you can put down wood chips in the container to absorb the chicken waste. Then change the wood chips when you can smell their waste building up.

Once your chicks outgrow the kiddy pool and no longer need the heat lamp, you can then prepare an outdoor pen. For full-grown chickens you will need roughly three square feet of space per chicken. You can also put your chickens in a shed or a barn, if you have one. Use two by fours to make a frame for your pen walls, then staple chicken wire to the frame. Make sure that you have sealed walls and a roof, so that predators cannot get in. You can let your chicken “free range” during the day, but latch them into their pen at night.

Lastly, build a roost, or a place where the chickens can climb up to sleep at night. A simple roost can be made of several long branches. Lay the branches down like a ladder and screw or nail them together. Lean the ladder up against the pen wall.

First batch now Mama chickens

If you have egg laying hens, buy or build a nest and collect eggs daily. If you have meat chickens, feed them twelve hours on and twelve hours off when they are over three weeks old. Meat chicken are usually processed when they are two to three months old. Egg laying hens will start laying eggs at age 6 months and will lay in their prime at age 1-2 years old.

Fresh eggs!

Raising chickens is a fun way to learn responsibility. You can enjoy seeing your own eggs at your own table and eating them. You can also sell your fresh eggs. Raising chickens is a fun thing to do.

Chicken handlers

Season of Early Darkness and No Mosquitoes

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Grace

Like most phases in life, change comes with its pros and cons. Moving to northern Maine also has had its benefits: less crowds, rolling pastures, small family owned farms, fresh eggs, and outdoor sports. I knew I was trading in large shopping malls and natural history museums for mom and pop shops and monthly community dinners at the local agricultural museum. However, one of the most surprising disadvantages of moving so far north, was the dwindling lengths of daylight.

Sun setting on our snow covered fields at 3:38pm

Sun setting on our snow-covered fields before 4pm

Childhood science class taught me that Alaska had long days in the summer and short days in the winter… but Maine? Yup same goes for Maine. I have discovered that we have pretty awesome long days in the summer, and pretty depressing short days in the winter.

On the past winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the sun rose at 7:10am and set at 3:48pm. This gave us only 8 and a half hours of daylight. Not only are we pretty north, but also very east. We are only three minutes to the Canadian border of New Brunswick, which is in another time zone, making their sunsets at 4:48pm… If only that were true. Instead, I would leave for work in the dark and return home in the dark…and I work a day job! I felt as if I had dark sunglasses on all the time… or wore a hood to hide my identity. Our chickens that only started laying eggs…stopped laying eggs. The leaves fell. The ground froze. Then all was still.

The season of winter arrived.

I wonder about the season of winter. Some people rage against it and move down south permanently. Some avoid it like the “snow birds” that fly south for the winter. Some people –just “suffer through it” and hold their breath until that seasons passes. (Much like me this winter.) Some people embrace it and go skiing, skating, sledding, snowshoeing, etc…And they don’t complain about the darkness, they expect it, pray for snow, and plan ahead…

Josiah trying to score a goal

Dale’s acceptance of winter, as long at there is hockey!

My husband says that the chickens can only lay so many eggs in their lifetime, winter is a time for them to rest and take a break. Plus, shouldn’t we count our blessings? Even when it’s 20 below zero, Dale reminds himself that at least “there are no mosquitoes!” How would we get maple syrup if the ground didn’t freeze and then thaw in the spring? Finally, I remember my favorite shade of green: it’s the color of brand new budding leaves of the trees…If we didn’t have winter, the leaves wouldn’t fall, and there wouldn’t be new leaves in the spring.

After winter… comes spring!

I recall while being in the military a saying: “bloom where you are planted.” Since a military family usually moves every two to three years, if one decides that they are going to just “bide their time” until they are done with their duty station, not make friends, not get involved in community or church, and not plant roots… what will happen? Will they grow like they should? Could they really be happy to let that season of life slide by? And once they are done with that duty station, and move to another, what then?

As we plan this year’s garden… (Did you also receive a half-dozen beautifully colored seed catalogs in the dead of winter?)… We have to keep in mind the right soil and the right seed type for our temperate zone. Sometimes it’s not so easy to “bloom where you are planted” if you are not well matched for the new environment. But, if you don’t put down roots, no matter how missed matched you are, you cannot grow for sure. Even with plants the first season might be rough… slow going; not a lot of fruit, some wrinkled leaves instead of large flowers. But, maybe, just maybe with the right reserve stored up from the last season we can make it through our winters. Maybe even appreciate our winters. Especially since after winter comes spring.

Even now, the days are getting longer! Thank you winter solstice! We have gained more than an hour more of daylight since then. And then we will keep gaining until we reach more than 15 hours of daylight each day! Our chickens are starting to lay again! Fresh eggs anyone?

Loving our fresh green eggs…and of course, our ham

Country Mouse

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Grace

A recent trip to the nation’s capital made me think of a children’s story my mother used to recount to me, “The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.” If you don’t know it, here is a recap: A poor country mouse was visited by his cousin who lived in the city. When the city cousin saw the country mouse’s meager meal and simple accommodations, he stated that ‘where he lives, he feasts on cheese, fish and bread, each being brought right to him.’ So, the two went off to the prosperous city. The wide-eyed country mouse got a great tour of house and the table of leftover food, but just then when they were about to eat, in came the cat! The country mouse escaped with his life saying, ‘Thank you, but I’ll take my humble crumbs in comfort over all your finery with fear.’

“The Country Mouse and the City Mouse” limited edition giclee canvas print

The other day, I felt like that country mouse…wide eyed with wonder as I walked through the big city, that needed crossing guards at each intersection. They looked sharp in their uniforms, armed with a whistle in their mouths, barking high pitched commands to us, the pedestrians and the traffic, oddly comfortable amidst the multitudes of cars speeding around them.

Since moving to Maine, I was surprisingly impressed by the capital’s display of restaurants, from Portuguese to Chinese dim sum. I was stunned by the size of the auditorium that could hold tens of thousands of people. I enjoyed the expertise and education of the medical conference that I attended. I couldn’t help myself as I took pictures of the inspiring monuments honoring our nation’s founding fathers, reminding us of our citizen’s sacrifices in war, and I even took pictures of the art in the lobby of one of the hotels.

Chinatown in Washington D.C.

Growing up in New York City, I found myself appreciating the fine qualities of city living, until it was time to take the metro. Mind you, as a teenager, I had to take the subway round trip each day to attend high school, so, I should have been right at home. Public transportation saves time and money, usually… but, as my colleague and I got on the wrong train we added almost an hour to our trip, our appointment and evening was almost ruined. We got tangled in the complexity of an urban planner’s idea of a “well thought out” system. The stress and the frustration, all of a sudden, outweighed the city’s finery.

The Metro

The next couple of days, I decided to remember why I moved out of the city: The crisp air, and the dew covered grass (currently snow covered) that greets me each morning when it is my turn to do chores in the barn. I would walk across the small field, feeling as if I had just woke up from a day of camping outside. The rising fresh sun welcoming me along the horizon, the earthy smell of life in the barn.

Sun setting behind our barn

In addition, I don’t want to forget the warm community that surrounds you while living in a small town. Your grocery bagger knows you from church and takes your items to the car. The gas stations pump the gas for you, as a curtesy, not expecting a tip…

Yes, I love travelling, I appreciate the nation’s capital, I enjoy visiting New York City… but can a city mouse turn into a country mouse? Yes, she can.

It’s all about the pigs

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Grace

Of our top ten things to do once we moved to Maine, raising pigs for pork may have been fourth (after having a garden, raising milking Devon cows, and raising chickens). We had friends who knew where to get pigs, so we immediately reserved our three. They came as cute little pink wiggly squeally things, and they were small enough to be lifted by their back leg from a truck to our prepared pen. In the pen, we had an automatic waterer and grain feeder. If you haven’t heard before: pigs are smart. Therefore, the little pigs figured out how to use both the waterer and feeder in no time at all… then the growing began!

You would never believe that they started this little…

Every few seconds throughout the day, you could hear a pig lift up the aluminum cover to the grain feeder and then have it slam back down once he was done. They loved to drink any extra milk or left over whey (from yogurt or cheese making). They voraciously ate any left over bread or baked goods. When it was harvest time, they learned to love all garden vegetables, garden plants, and fruit. In fact, they just loved to eat…

Abigail showing off our pigs…

Soon, our smart and impatient piggies started to make their own alterations to the grain feeder with their snouts, to release more food at a time…and when they got big enough to “throw their weight around,” they would finally turn over the entire grain feeder and eat the grain from the top of the feeder, no longer having to wait until the food trickled down to the bottom. Their eating and growing wasn’t the problem. However, as pigs, they were also wasteful. It was frustrating as you shoveled out their piggy waste along with large amounts of discarded spilled food that should have been high and dry in their feeder.

Smart piggies, waiting for a treat to eat!

Therefore, before the grain feeder became a pile of scrap metal, we pulled it out and then we started hand feeding our pigs. Soon, we were buying large bags of tree fallen apples at the local orchard for the pigs, picking potatoes and boiling them for the pigs, then going out and picking more neighborhood apples for the pigs.

Buckets of yummy apples!

Hand fed and loving it!

Yes, our lives seemed to revolve around feeding the pigs… We were still feeding them their favorite grain and milk, twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day… First the pigs seemed too small, then too fat, then too lean? Did I mention this was our first time raising pigs for pork? How big do you think they are? Your guess is as good as ours…

But boy did they grow!

Living large

In six months they grew from less than 30lbs to close to 300lbs… Their final weight surprised us all. Their pork, however, not surprisingly, is really the best pork we have tasted. All that hard work paid off. Knowing and raising personally, our own piggies that we are about to eat, makes you more conscientious and more attentive…

Future goals would be to raise pastured pork. We generally know that grass fed beef is healthier (takes longer to raise, but higher in good fatty acids). Pastured pork would be great too… especially when there would be less shoveling of piggy waste! (I am am sure my whole family is looking forward to that!)

But really, what I am looking forward to even more… is our smoked bacon and ham! They should be ready next week… Talk about living high off the hog!

Chicken Going, Going, Gone!

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Grace

[For your reading pleasure, a fiction “free write” assignment by my 12-year-old son…]

by Dale Freier III

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought the chicken to school today, thought Ben as he walked home. He carried a metal cage in his right hand. The hot afternoon sun shone brightly in the sky, but despite the good weather, Ben was still in a bad mood. What had happened today turned out to be a disaster!

He hadn’t meant to leave Popcorn’s cage unlocked. He thought about what had happened this morning during show-and-tell. His teacher said that he could bring Popcorn to school, as long as he handled him well. Looking back, that probably didn’t work out too well.

It all started when Elijah asked the fatal question: “Can I hold him?” Ben, who had no idea what was about to happen, nodded.

“Sure, as long as you don’t let him go,’’ he said. Then he added, “And also, be sure to keep him away from your face. He is a rooster, you know. He might peck or scratch you.” Ben unlocked he cage and pulled out the squawking rooster. Popcorn was a Buff Orpington rooster, a golden-colored breed.

Ben handed Popcorn to Elijah.

“Hold him by your waist. Yes, like that,’’ Ben told him. “Keep a firm grip on him so he can’t get away.’’

“Why do I have to hold him down by my waist?” Elijah protested. “I’m strong enough! I’m not about to let some little chicken get the best of me—”

“Yeah, sure,’’ Ben snapped. “I bet you know allllll about them.’’ By the end of his statement, Ben’s voice had earned a sarcastic tone.

“Boys, no fighting.’’ Came a loud, muffled voice from behind the teacher’s desk. Or rather, from behind a stack of papers.

Now, by this time, all of the other kids had figured out what was going on. They all clustered around Elijah and Ben and they were all screaming random statements: “I want to hold it!’’ screamed Sarah, and “Oooo, let me touch it! I need to pet it!’’ begged Matthew, and “It’s so FLUFFY, I’m GONNA DIE!!!’’ shrieked Jeremy, which confused Ben because chickens weren’t fluffy. They had feathers.

Anyhow, maybe it was all the screaming and yelling, or maybe it was the loud voice that boomed, “Now, now class! Don’t get to wound up.’’ or MAYBE it was Jeremy who had shrieked “DIE!’’ in his loudest shriek, but somehow Popcorn had escaped Elijah and was now running freely underneath the desks and around screaming kids, feet and eventually, the Buff Orpington rooster ran right out the door and down the hall and … right into the principal’s office!

To make a long story short, Ben finally recaptured Popcorn, but not before getting a suspension and a detention for egg yolk stains on the principal office’s walls. Which also confused Ben, because roosters don’t lay eggs.

Dale and rooster (but not a Buff Orpington…)

Chicken Life

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Grace

As a child growing up in New York City, I lived in a six floor apartment building, on the 6^th floor. It was a two bedroom apartment, and since my parents had four children, with usually either an aunt or an uncle or a grandparent living with us, it was a bustling place. My first experience with pets, however was in this apartment. We had fish, finches, parakeets, hamsters, and guinea pigs. Probably not all at the same time, but still, we all liked animals and we did what we could in the confines of the big city. But the problem with these pets, was that they were always in cages, or tanks. We could never really create a bond with them. I don’t even remember their names…Therefore, not very impressive companions.

On a farm, however, with the ample space of a barn and land, the first type of animals we decided to get were chickens. As a lot of people know, all you need is a backyard for chickens. They don’t take up too much space, they are not too big, they eat insects and their waste is good for gardens. Lastly, they make fresh eggs… I love fresh eggs…

Captain as a chick

Captain today

What really impressed me was how my kids bonded with the chickens. They named each little chick and even as the chicks grew, the kids continued to know who they were. We now have more than thirty chickens, so this continues to impress me. The kids hold them and play with them, un-phased by the fact that the chickens are ten times their original size. The kids take note of their different (simple) personalities and behaviors and take personal pride of each chicken as they begin to lay an egg…

You know you are not in the city any more when your first grade child asks his teacher if it is okay to bring his new little chickens in for show and tell.

First Grade Show & Tell

You know you live on a farm, when your other child (7^th grader) writes a story for his English class about someone bringing chickens into school for show and tell. [next post]

You know things could be a lot worse, when your other other son (6^th grader) spends hours reading through the chicken catalog and chooses to spend his own money on a new breed (for us) called the Black Jersey Giants.

You know you have a chicken life when you have to go egg hunting in the hay rack when you let your chickens free range…

Found 2 eggs!

To Everything There is a Season…

Posted on October 4, 2015 by Grace

…and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;” – Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Sunday morning drive

The Great Northeast certainly has its seasons. Right now the leaves are starting to show off its brilliance in gold, burnt orange, and remarkable reds. My husband loves fall, the cool weather, harvesting the garden, apple picking, and (a new one for us) sending the piggies to market.

The kids named them: Ham, Bacon, and Porkchop

Growing up in New York city, the changing weather was rather inconvenient and practically inconsequential as you rushed from one gray building to another. I never noticed the changing leaves, the morning dew, the sunsets, and least of all the varying crops that fluctuate with every season… Living in California, you can get quarts of freshly picked strawberries year round. I remember seeing ‘knee high corn’ in one field, next to another that was tall enough to be harvested… even in our northeastern supermarkets you can get apples and bananas year-round. So, most of us do not feel the daily movements of the earth as it makes its way around the sun…not, of course, unless you are a farmer.

Farmers here are fully aware of the shifts in weather. They are the ones rushing to get the hay in off the fields before the rain…They are the ones counting the days for the soil to dry out before they can get the potatoes. They are the ones waking up each morning looking for the frost and then pulling up garden plants right after. They are the ones preparing their fences for winter. They are the ones hoping to get their heifers bread to calve in the spring… They are the ones testing their soil and planning their next summer fields…

This morning we had frost!

I guess now we are some of those farmers… dependent on the weather and the varying seasons. Each season has an anticipated start and sometimes a much awaited finish, but with every season, there is change, often a blessing to discover, a lesson to learn, and usually gifts to share… With that, we are calling our little homestead “Every Season Farm.”

Here on Every Season Farm,

you purposefully move to Maine in time to plant a garden, therefore having a time to harvest the peas, then beets, then green beans, corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkin and squash…
There is a time for chicks to hatch, arrive in the mail, and a time for a few of them to die and be buried by the maple tree;
There is a time to seed the pasture, seed it again, then watch it grow and feed our cows;
A time for calves to be born, and a time for a cow to be butchered;
A time to milk (twice a day), make butter and cheese, and a time to dry off the milking cow (soon);
A time for chicks to grow, and a time for them to lay eggs;
A time to stack hay in the barn, and a time to use them throughout the winter;
A time to feed our always hungry piggies grain and milk, and a time to make room in the freezer;

To everything there is a season, for us, this season is Maine.

Grazing by the Watson Settlement Covered Bridge

Green Leaf Island

"He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." – Jeremiah 17:8