Come 'n get it (+ the "F" word)

Buff says, "You are not going to believe this one!"

Have I got a deal for you! This Saturday at the downtown Charles City farmers market they'll be serving lunch. For TWO BUCKS - yes, you read that right, TWO BUCKS - you get a Sugar Creek Farm hamburger or bratwurst on a bun, a slice of melon, lemonade and dessert (a cookie, I think). I believe the melon and dessert, and possibly the bun, will also be from market vendors. I know! What a great deal, right?

The market runs from 9 a.m. to noon. I'm not sure what time they'll start serving exactly, but come on down. There will also be a seed spitting contest - with prizes!

Now I hate to mention the "F" word - Fall - but with Labor Day upon us it's time to start thinking about stocking the freezers for winter. So please get in touch if you'd like to reserve some chickens for September or October; one or more quarters of beef for November; or just some beef or pork cuts a la carte from our freezers here at the farm.

Email sugarcreekfarm (at) osage (dot) net


3 years ago:

A boy and his dog

2 years ago:

Chickens have taken over my garage

Morning at the chicken pen

The sun is coming up, across the bean field to the east. I walk down the driveway, Ike on leash, and head down the road to the west end of the pasture.


"Good morning, Fred." "Good morning, Fred." All of the broiler chickens but 1 are named Fred.


Number 6 (which is actually her age when we bought her, not her number) and a calf. I'm not sure which calf this is, or even whether he belongs to Number 6 or not.

I unhook the poultry netting from the electric, and Ike and I get to work. He walks the perimiter of the chickens' range area, sniffing for trouble and marking his territory. I fill feeders and waters.

And then this peaceful scene dissolves with the appearance of this guy:


Wouldn't you be intimidated if all that was standing between you and him was 42" of unelectrified string? Or am I being wimpy?



I hold my breath and hope he doesn't get a whiff of chicken feed and decide that's what he wants for breakfast.

This is the scene when I leave and head for home. Chickens eating breakfast, grazing cows (and a grazing horse butt), and a dog who still looks at me in disbelief. If he could talk he'd be saying, "Are you serious?!? You're making me chickensit again today?!?"




2 years ago:

Random gardening advice

1 year ago:

If cuteness could kill

Favorite things

(with apologies to Julie Andrews)

Fat hens on clutches



and big roosters crowing,



black and white pigtails



and girls that do mowing,



bumpy red face warts and white splash on wings,



these are a few of my favorite things.

When the pigs die,

when the bull breaks,

when I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember my favorite things

and then I don't feeeeeel soooo baaaaad!


1 year ago:

Ready

Endless summer

Even though the county fair has been over and done with for about 6 weeks now and fall is definitely in the air already, our front yard still feels like summer.

A trio of barrels are still set up.



The pieces needed for a home version of the Flag Race are also out there.



And this photo of girl + horse is a favorite of mine.



I snuck up on them having a girl + horse moment, and neither one even noticed I was there.


3 years ago:

Abbie

These three

2 years ago:

Chuck

An-ti-ci-pay-yay-tion

1 year ago:

Hurricane Ridge

Fourth and final

chick feeders at the ready

I picked up the fourth and final batch of 150 chicks this morning. The most I've ever done in a single year was 300. Last fall I had lunch with my friend and mentor, Penny, and she advised me confidently, "Oh, you need to double that for next year." That took a bit to sink in. Could I really sell twice the chickens I'd ever sold before?

But I trust Penny. So I told myself, "If you raise them, they will come." And come they have. The first 2 batches sold out in short order. The pre-orders for this last batch are nearly all spoken for. And pre-orders for the 3rd batch (on pasture now) are rolling in. I expect once we get past Labor Day people will begin to think about stocking their freezers for winter and the birds will be gone in no time. (So email me asap if you want on the list!)

I've been trying to figure out if there's a business lesson to be learned in this experience. But I haven't come up with anything concrete, except maybe get a good mentor! It also helps to have a back-up plan. If we would end up with a bunch of extra chickens I know that the store that carries our beef and pork would like to sell them, and there are a couple of winter farmers markets that we could sell at.

A few weeks ago Matt did the Charles City farmers market, and a woman asked him where we get our chicks. He told her at Hoovers, and asked her why she wanted to know. She chuckled and said, "Well I own the hatchery!" It's great to do business locally :)


2 years ago:

Oliver

1 year ago:

Mt. Rainier

Messin' with me

Remember Shakespeare? He's growing!

The cows, they like to mess with me. When I go out to feed chickens in the morning, the cows are usually grazing right around the pen. As soon as I unhook the electric so I can get in the pen, the calves are right there messing with the fence. They use the posts to scratch themselves, and they nose the netting. I go over and shoo them away, and so it goes. When my back is turned, they're right back at it.

But today the bull decided to mess with the fence. As he scratched up and down against a corner post he ripped it right out of the ground. Then he stepped on it. Then he got tangled in the netting. I tried shaking my water hose at him and shouting "Go away!" but he just looked at me, amused. Then I shouted, "I hate you!" I wonder if our neighbors heard that? They must really wonder about us sometimes.

Matt: You should have hit him with the hose.

Me: And where would I run out there if he decided to hit back?

Matt: Good point.

At that point Mr. Bull sniffed interestedly in the direction of the freshly-filled chicken feeders. And at that point I decided to get the heck out of there. I quick battened down the can holding my feed bags, so that he wouldn't eat the whole thing, grabbed Ike, and we headed back to the house. Once I saw that the cows had moved on to another part of the pasture we went back and I fixed the fence as best I could.


1 year ago:

Seattle's Pike Place Market

Bee haiku

Busy little bee
Pollinating the ditch weeds
Hope you don't sting me

And a bee poem from a real poet:

Against Idleness and Mischief
Isaac Watts

How doth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower!

How skillfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill,
I would be busy too;
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthy play,
Let my first years be passed
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.


1 year ago:
Where in the world

Back on duty

So far we haven't experienced last year's hawk problems. But a couple of weeks ago, our neighbor warned us that he'd seen a pair of hawks with 2 babies in a nest near our fenceline. So when this batch of chickens went out to the pasture this past weekend, Ike went with them.

Like last year, he cries when I go to leave him in the pen in the morning. But as soon as I'm out of sight he seems to settle into his role of chicken protector. When I return in the late afternoon, this is the scene:



Notice how his butt is touching the electric poultry netting. All of that hair insulates him, apparently. Good thing he's a good dog and doesn't challenge the fence.

This afternoon while I was out there I saw the hawk circling overhead.



It circled, and screeched. A most eery sound. It reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West. "I'll get you, my pretty! And your little chickens, too!"



It finally landed on top of a power pole for a bit, then took off towards our house. It circled up there a bit then headed back, presumably, to its nest.



As I watched it I thought to myself, I'll bet it's been snacking on ducklings. Sure enough. The 2 ducks I'd tracked down in the pasture a couple weeks ago showed up near the chicken coop when I was picking up eggs. The one that had 6 ducklings was down to 5. Not too bad, really. But the one that had 10 ducklings was down to 1.

Hawks. The nemesis of our pastured poultry operation.


3 years ago:

Stan's ferris wheel

Confession

They say that confession is good for the soul. So perhaps if I confess my gardening sins to the internet, my soul will begin to feel more green than black again.

Friends, I confess, our garden this year is a disaster. I present, Exhibit A:



We've got a good crop of weeds, anyway. I'm already mourning the tomato sauce I'm not going to can, the corn I'm not going to freeze. We did get a number of meals of fresh beans, and I even froze a handful of quart bags. But the pigs enjoyed the majority of our overgrown beans.

And the only excuse I can offer up is that I've not yet found a balance for this season of life that we've entered, this season of having active kids to cheer on and support as they find and develop their own interests, their own strengths. It was admittedly much simpler when they were little, and our evenings were our own. Now I get so much joy out of watching them do the things they love and develop their talents. I'm certainly not complaining about it. I know that in a blink this season will be gone, and they will gone off to lives and homes of their own. But it's hard to juggle that with my own desire to be a modern-day Ma Ingalls. I'm hoping some of you been-there-done-that moms will offer me some suggestions.

But back to the jungle garden. Matt would love to just take the lawn mower to the whole thing and be rid of this eyesore. (In fact he did start to take the mower to it, and took out 2 of my paltry 6 melons in the process!)
But as I toured the jungle garden today, I found that there's still some bounty to be found.

Exhibit B: I've got 2 of these Cream of Saskatchewan melons out there.



I've also got one Chelsea Watermelon and one Sweet Siberian melon. So on the bright side, we'll at least get to sample one of each of the 3 types of melons we planted. I planted 3 packs of melon seeds, and only 6 germinated. I blame that one on the crazy weather we've had here in Iowa this summer.

Exhibit C: We've had a bumper crop of lovely cauliflower.



These were grown from purchased starts. It's one of the few things I've managed to freeze for winter. And it's still coming on.

Exhibit D: One lone but oh-so-perfect-looking head of cabbage.



Exhibit E: What I picked on my little walk-through today. A green zucchini, a yellow zucchini, some onions, potatoes, and tomatoes.



I'm hopeful we'll have a bumper crop of potatoes and onions. The drying beans should come out pretty well. I'm making up for our gardening shortcomings by purchasing from my friends at the farmers markets we attend. And I have to say that those little tomatoes there on the right side of the bowl are making me very happy. Those are from seeds that Karl & Tabitha sent me. Plus there are some yet-to-ripen varieties from other seeds they sent. I've managed to not completely squander their generosity away.

So things are maybe not as bad as they seemed when I first began this little confession. Could be a whole lot better, of course, but there's always next year. Leave me your tips on kid & farm & garden time management!


3 years ago:

Cedar Valley Memories

This little pig

2 years ago:

So tired

Tractor pull

Cedar Valley Memories 2006

I went to Grundy Center and bought milk

Welcome!

Welcome, Globe Gazette readers! Deb Nicklay wrote such a nice article about us. I had no idea Deb was going to hunt down my online blogging friends and ask questions! Thank you to Jeanelle at Midlife by Farmlight and Angie at Children in the Corn for saying such sweet things :)

I'll be back in a bit with tales from the chicken pen and woes from the garden...

Mr. Duck says

"I am the real Pride of the Farm, not those stinking pigs!"


2 years ago:

More from Heritage Farm

Cedar Valley Memories 2008

After missing the annual steam engine show last summer we were excited to get back out there again this year! As always it was an enjoyable afternoon taking in all the sights, sounds and smells that go along with this show.

This year's featured machine was a gasoline-powered 1918 Holt 75 Caterpillar:



According to an article in last week's local newspaper, "The late Ed Smolik, acquired this particular Holt in a remote area of Canada. Ed brought the work worn machine home to Osage where it rested for more than 50 years."

And according to a post at this forum, "For the first time in nearly fifty years this giant came to life. It has been sitting many years because the heads were cracked and beond repair. After sitting in Ray Smolik's shed for years it made its trip to Waverly where work was started on it by the late John Ruth. Two years ago we hauled it back to Osage where we finished it. The late Ed and Ray Smolik had 16 brand new heads casted in China. And the valves were bought rite from Caterpillar. We also had a new radiator built." There are more pictures of this machine on that post.

The work that goes into restoring and maintaining these machines is really something!

Another restoration featured at this year's show was Mitchell County's largest country schoolhouse, dating back to 1859. And it just happens to have been built by my great-great-great-great-grandfather, William Green Dudley! And his daughter, my great-great-great-grandmother Mary Catherine "Kit" Dudley Hutchinson, was it's first teacher.





The always awe-inspiring Reeves engine was on hand again for the plowing demonstration. I wrote about this engine a few years ago in this post. Lately some people intimately familiar with this giant engine have left some great comments on that post. It's worth going back for a read!



Here are some other engines that could be found at the show. I know nothing about them, but they're still fun to see!






And my favorite picture of the day...


This is an annual event, so if you get the chance come and check it out one of these years!


3 years ago:

Someday when he knows better

Here a pig, there a pig

Psst, hey you, over here

1 year ago:

OLS Week 7

Installment #8

of "One of these things just doesn't belong here...". Other installments are here.

Star sometimes keeps her distance from the cows, as if they're beneath her and she can't believe that we make her bunk with them. At other times, it seems like she's trying to take a more Zen approach and be one with the cows. Ohmmmmm.


3 years ago:

Close call

2 years ago:

Daytrip

1 year ago:

Happy Anniversary

Basement retrospective, part 3

Ask the readers : Fencing

This is the scene of last week's breakout. The railroad track & trestle forms the western boundary of our property. Sugar Creek divides our pasture about in half. The fenceline down the left side of the pasture is electric, dividing the butcher calves from the cows. Then there's an east-west fence that parallels the railroad line, crossing the creek on this side of the trestle.

When the creek floods, it usually takes the fence with it.



Or if it doesn't wipe it out, it leaves it clogged with debris as seen in the fenceline above. If enough debris catches in it, a large portion of the fence is ripped out by the flood waters.

We've been flooded 3 times this year, which is more than usual. After each flood Matt's re-strung an electric line across the creek. But last week the cows plowed through it. Of course it's possible that with all the debris in the fenceline the electric fence was shorted out.

Matt's ideal fence would break away when it floods without tearing away - something suspended overhead by a guy wire. But at 200 feet across, that kind of structure would be quite an undertaking.

So...how would you fence across the creek?


4 years ago:

Bounty

2 years ago:

Overheard

1 year ago:

Basement retrospective, part 2

This duck just hasn't got her head on straight!

Yesterday when I went in the chicken coop there were 2 ducks with newly hatched babies. Today when I went in the chicken coop, nothing. Off I went in search of them. I found the duck in the picture above, with 10 babies, on the far side of the creek.

And I found this one, with 6 babies, on the near side of the creek.



Sigh... There's nothing cuter than ducklings!

Our ducks are not the best of mothers. Out of 16 babies we'll be lucky if we end up with half. Here's the 6 that are left from a hatch of 13 earlier this summer.



There's another 3 ducks setting on nests in the chicken coop. Still to come, pictures of our handsome drakes!


1 year ago:

Basement retrospective, part 1

Where's Ollie?

For a little bit there I thought he'd escaped! I couldn't see him anywhere, and I started to panic thinking that yet another animal had made a breakout into the neighbor's bean field.

At least the button weeds are good for something.


3 years ago:

The best thing you'll ever do with a zucchini

2 years ago:

Z is for Zinnia

Lessons in entrepreneurship

Yesterday the last of Madeline's 4-H pigs went to the locker. A bit of a sad day for her, but all a part of being a hog farmer. And a hog farmer she is. Even though her own hogs are gone now, she still goes out every morning and chores our sows, boar and butcher pigs for us. I laughed the other day when she told a newspaper reporter, "Hogs are kind of my thing."

You might recall she started out with 8 pigs, lost 2 early on, ending up with 6 to choose from for the county fair. 4-H'ers are allowed to take up to 5 to the fair - a derby barrow, a derby gilt, a market barrow, a market gilt, and a 5th one to round out a pen of 3 entry. Hogs brought to the fair are not allowed to be taken home again. They must be sold right from the fair to the packer, at grade & yield market price.

In the interest of actually making a profit on her hogs, she decided she'd only take 4 to fair and sell the remaining two head directly. One of our customers even came to the farm to select and load their pig themselves (most of the time we select the pig and haul it to the locker for our customers.) Madeline helped them pick the one they took, telling them why she thought he was the better pig, and helped load him up.

We haven't sat down and figured her actual profit (or loss) yet, but I do know that she'll gross almost as much on the 2 head she sold directly as she did on the 4 head she sold at market price!

Time Out

Our cows (and Star, by association) are in time out. It's that time of year, when the grass is literally greener on the non-livestock-owning neighbor's side of the fence. And the multiple floods we've experienced this summer have wreaked havoc on our fencing. Combine that with one particularly naughty heifer that seems to have taught the rest of the cows that you can actually just plow right through this silly electric fence!, and the result is an early morning phone call from said neighbor.

Headache number one is trying to round them back up and put them back where they belong. I was on one side of the creek and Matt was on the other, further downstream. The creek bottom is about chest high with grass and weeds, and in the mornings it's heavy with dew. Traipsing around down there you end up soaked to the bone.

He was pushing them back towards me. My job was simply to stand there and make sure they didn't cross back over to neighbor's side of the creek. But they outsmarted us and crossed over before they got to me. And then they discovered the neighbor's soybean field.

Headache number two is dealing with the insurance company. Matt called in the claim (which of course is just some 800 number in Omaha) and explained what had happened. The reply? "I don't think you're liable." Ummmm, our cows, our fence, neighbor's soybean field. Explain to me how we're not liable. At that point, in as calm a voice as he could muster, Matt tried to make it painfully clear that we need to keep good relations with our neighbor. We've rented land from him in the past, and hope to do so again in the future. The lady on the other end of the line relented a bit at that point and agreed to send a crop adjuster. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

In the meantime, the cows are in lockdown until the grass gets a little taller again and Matt gets the electric fence spanning the creek reinforced with barbed wire (as it was before the floods.)


3 years ago:

Corn time

Hay round 2

Optimism

2 years ago:

In stitches

1 year ago:

Reach for the sky