Resurrection

This is a new favorite poem of mine by Wendell Berry. And very appropriate for Easter.


Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Live Each Day to the Fullest

Live each day to the fullest
Get the most from each hour, each day and each age of your life
Then you can look forward with confidence and back without regret

Be yourself, but be your best self
Dare to be different and to follow your own star
And don't be afraid to be happy

Enjoy what is beautiful
Love with all your heart and soul
Believe that those you love, love you

Forget what you have done for your friends
and remember what they have done for you
Disregard what the world owes you and
concentrate on what you owe the world

When you are faced with a decision, make the decision
as wisely as possible - then forget it
The moment of absolute certainty never arrives

Blessed is the generation in which the old listen to the young
And double - blessed is the generation in which the young listen to the old.

- The Talmud

Meet Ellie

 

Spring is bringing all sorts of newness to our farm! This is our new Jersey heifer, Ellie.

 

She will be 1 year old in April. She will be our family milk cow eventually, but it will be a couple years.

 

So with adding 27 chicks, a goat and a cow in the past month, things are pretty busy around here. Not to mention the problems with our dogs roaming too far and bothering neighbors. I keep forgetting to build time into my schedule for re-securing escaped animals...

And then there's one of my favorite pastimes- gardening! It has been a bit neglected with everything else going on, but we aren't too far behind yet!

Spring Countdown

"In the Spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
-Margaret Atwood

"Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once."
-Old Farmer's Almanac

"Most gardens are beautiful, whatever their state of repair."
-Anne Swithinbank

Meet Wally

 

Our new people-loving, fence-escaping, heart-stealing, 9-month-old wethered Alpine goat.

 

The kids, that is, the children, are having a great time with him.

 

 

This little guy has been making life particularly interesting this week. We brought him home on Wednesday and have spent the past two days trying to keep him in the electric fence. One of his redeeming qualities is that he loves being around people, so when he does get out, he comes right up to the house- usually onto the front porch!

Except, of course, for the time we weren't home and he went to someone else's front porch- down the hill and across the road. When we got home we searched and searched, lamented not having a bell on him yet, and then decided to check out the happy screams and shouts of children down the hill who sounded like they just might have found a friendly goat...

We're still working out the fence issues and also hoping that he isn't quite as eager to get out once he has a companion in there with him. Ellie the Cow should be arriving in the next week, we're just waiting on good weather and some free time in the schedule of the woman who is transporting her for us.

Carving Out Time

I have so much to blog about! Unfortunately, having so much to tell about means, well, that we have a lot going on- so, I'm having a hard time finding computer time to document it all.

The weather is cold and rainy here this weekend, though, so I hope to make some time to write a couple of entries...

I haven't forgotten my loyal readers and I'm working on setting aside time to keep up...

27 Babies

 

We have added 27 new little creatures to our growing farm family! Our chicks arrived a day earlier than we expected, and involved a drive to pick them up at a post office that has people working there on Sundays, but now we're settling into a nice little routine of thermometer checking and water refilling- not to mention lots of cuddling adorable little fluffballs!


Here they are getting warmed up in their new home (they are under a red heat lamp, and that is the thermometer they're huddled around):

 

We ordered the "Brown Egg Layer Special" from Murray McMurray Hatchery, so we're not exactly sure what we have yet... They also threw in a free exotic/rare breed as a bonus; it's the only one we can tell apart from any others. It's head has a totally different shape and it is a bit smaller. Based on the pictures in the catalog, our best guess is that it is a Crevecoeur, a very rare, crested breed that originated in France. There are some cute chipmunk-striped ones that we hope might be Speckled Sussex, but we'll see as we go. We do know we have at least 5 or 6 differetn breeds out of the 27 chicks. We'll keep you posted! Still fine tuning our brooder setup, so off to check the thermometer again...

The Last of the Potatoes

As you may have guessed from my last post, tomatoes are my favorite thing to eat that I grow in my garden. Well, they are pretty much my favorite thing to eat period. But last year, my favorite thing to grow was potatoes. Sure, I knew how they grew underground. I also knew how you went about harvesting them. But I had never done it myself, never seen it close up. The first time I went out and fingered a few new potoatoes out from the mound to have for a summer dinner, I was giddy with the excitement of pulling my own potatoes from the soil. I felt the kind of excitement I associate with my childhood, when all was new and fresh and amazing.

Around here, the old adage is that you should plant potatoes on St Patrick's Day. Well, we didn't even get moved in until May and didn't get the garden going until June, but my grandmother's friend gave me his leftover seed potatoes... So, I stuck them in the ground and figured I had nothing to lose. Within a couple months, I was wheedling a few potatoes out here and there. And a couple months after that, I was lifting a whole variety of sizes of beautiful red potaotes from a little corner of the garden with a big grin on my face. Maybe you saw one of the baskets full in this post on my photo blog. We got about two of those size baskets full. We stored them first in the basement, and then, when we started using the woodstove down there, moved them under one of the beds. I just used the last of them this week.

 

Here's one of my favorite recipes to commemorate the occasion:

Potato Soup

1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped fine
1 to 3 carrots, chopped fine
3 Tbsp butter
8 medium potatoes, cubed
8 C. chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1 C. milk
1 Tbsp. dried thyme (or a larger amount of fresh)
1 Tbsp. dried parsley (or a larger amount of fresh)
1 tsp. salt (or to taste- depends on the saltiness of the broth)
Pepper, to taste
Grated cheese

Saute onions, celery and carrots in butter until beginning to soften. Add potatoes and broth and bring just to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook for about 30-40 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Stir in milk, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper and simmer for a few more minutes.

Now, depending on your preference for consistency, you can eat as is, use a potato masher to mash some potatoes in the pot, blend it with an immersion blender, or remove some to a blender or food processor and puree. You can mash/blend/puree it until smooth, or leave it- like I do- with some chunks of potato.

Serve with grated cheese on top. Perfect for a chilly evening with warm bread and a salad.

 

And, yes, I will be growing potatoes again this year.

Yes, it is an obsession.

 

Tomatoes, how do I love thee? Oh, let me count the ways.

14 new ways this year, apparently. I still have a few more basic varieties left from previous years' seeds, but I couldn't resist these luscious offerings from the Seed Savers Exchange catalog.

No, I'm not quite sure how I am going to fit all the seedlings in my sunny window until May. But I'll find a way.

Because I know this is true.

Snow Day

After a long, cold wait we finally got some snow on Tuesday. It was only a couple of inches, but it was enough for a bit a sledding and a lot of fun. I love the way everything looks covered in a blanket of snow.



Mr. M has been working hard to keep the wood stove supplied. He also started stacking the split wood on the porch- oh so nice for me on days like today when it is 8 degrees outside.

 

Wood splitting in action- he actually really likes this task. In the background is our chicken coop in progress. We have 25 chicks coming at the end of the month!

 

The boys had great fun scraping and hauling the snow around. Miss Headstrong had fun dumping snow on them...

 

And the girls were smart enough to stay nestled all snug in their coop...

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming of frigid weather and no snow. Sigh.