Chicken Tails 01/27/2010
 

Chicken Tales...or Tails...or...
Some (really lame) Gothic Humour!


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I discovered the following article from a Slow Money posting yesterday on Facebook. This is really exciting and is in Time Magazine...no less!

GP: Note: Highlights and italics mine

How Cows (Grass-Fed Only) Could Save the Planet

ENLARGE PHOTO+ Cattle on this Hardwick, Mass., farm grow not on feedlots but in pastures, where their grazing helps keep carbon dioxide in the ground

On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it's little more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it's finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren't for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower, and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post's gardening columnist. At a time when a growing number of environmental activists are calling for an end to eating meat, this veggie-centric power couple is beginning to raise it. "Why?" asks Coleman, tromping through the mud on his way toward a greenhouse bursting with December turnips. "Because I care about the fate of the planet."

Ever since the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a 2006 report that attributed 18% of the world's man-made greenhouse-gas emissions to livestock — more, the report noted, than what's produced by transportation — livestock has taken an increasingly hard rap. At first, it was just vegetarian groups that used the U.N.'s findings as evidence for the superiority of an all-plant diet. But since then, a broader range of environmentalists has taken up the cause. At a recent European Parliament hearing titled "Global Warming and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argued that reducing meat consumption is a "simple, effective and short-term delivery measure in which everybody could contribute" to emissions reductions.

And of all the animals that humans eat, none are held more responsible for climate change than the ones that moo. Cows not only consume more energy-intensive feed than other livestock; they also produce more methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — than other animals do. "If your primary concern is to curb emissions, you shouldn't be eating beef," says Nathan Pelletier, an ecological economist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., noting that cows produce 13 to 30 lb. of carbon dioxide per pound of meat. (See where cows eat and what it means for the environment.)

So how can Coleman and Damrosch believe that adding livestock to their farm will help the planet? Cattleman Ridge Shinn has the answer. On a wintry Saturday at his farm in Hardwick, Mass., he is out in his pastures encouraging a herd of plump Devon cows to move to a grassy new paddock. Over the course of a year, his 100 cattle will rotate across 175 acres four or five times. "Conventional cattle raising is like mining," he says. "It's unsustainable, because you're just taking without putting anything back. But when you rotate cattle on grass, you change the equation. You put back more than you take."

It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals' grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant's roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted — along with vast swaths of forest — into profitable cropland for livestock feed. "Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation," says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma. "Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint." Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.

From Vermont, where veal and dairy farmer Abe Collins is developing software designed to help farmers foster carbon-rich topsoil quickly, to Denmark, where Thomas Harttung's Aarstiderne farm grazes 150 head of cattle, a vanguard of small farmers are trying to get the word out about how much more eco-friendly they are than factory farming. "If you suspend a cow in the air with buckets of grain, then it's a bad guy," Harttung explains. "But if you put it where it belongs — on grass — that cow becomes not just carbon-neutral but carbon-negative." Collins goes even further. "With proper management, pastoralists, ranchers and farmers could achieve a 2% increase in soil-carbon levels on existing agricultural, grazing and desert lands over the next two decades," he estimates. Some researchers hypothesize that just a 1% increase (over, admittedly, vast acreages) could be enough to capture the total equivalent of the world's greenhouse-gas emissions.

This math works out in part because farmers like Shinn don't use fertilizers or pesticides to maintain their pastures and need no energy to produce what their animals eat other than what they get free from the sun. Furthermore, pasturing frequently uses land that would otherwise be unproductive. "I'd like to see someone try to raise soybeans here," he says, gesturing toward the rocky, sloping fields around him.

By many standards, pastured beef is healthier. That's certainly the case for the animals involved; grass feeding obviates the antibiotics that feedlots are forced to administer in order to prevent the acidosis that occurs when cows are fed grain. But it also appears to be true for people who eat cows. Compared with conventional beef, grass-fed is lower in saturated fat and higher in omega-3s, the heart-healthy fatty acids found in salmon.

But not everyone is sold on its superiority. In addition to citing grass-fed meat's higher price tag — Shinn's ground beef ends up retailing for about $7 a pound, more than twice the price of conventional beef — feedlot producers say that only through their economies of scale can the industry produce enough meat to satisfy demand, especially for a growing population. These critics note that because grass is less caloric than grain, it takes two to three years to get a pastured cow to slaughter weight, whereas a feedlot animal requires only 14 months. "Not only does it take fewer animals on a feedlot to produce the same amount of meat," says Tamara Thies, chief environmental counsel for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (which contests the U.N.'s 18% figure), "but because they grow so quickly, they have less chance to produce greenhouse gases."

GP: Note:  Our friends did NOT find the above paragraph to be true. They tethered their yearling calves on pickets and grass-fed them exclusively all Spring and Summer. They grew well and were big robust calves ready for processing by the Fall.

To Allan Savory, the economies-of-scale mentality ignores the role that grass-fed herbivores can play in fighting climate change. A former wildlife conservationist in Zimbabwe, Savory once blamed overgrazing for desertification. "I was prepared to shoot every bloody rancher in the country," he recalls. But through rotational grazing of large herds of ruminants, he found he could reverse land degradation, turning dead soil into thriving grassland.

Like him, Coleman now scoffs at the environmentalist vogue for vilifying meat eating. "The idea that giving up meat is the solution for the world's ills is ridiculous," he says at his Maine farm. "A vegetarian eating tofu made in a factory from soybeans grown in Brazil is responsible for a lot more CO2 than I am." A lifetime raising vegetables year-round has taught him to value the elegance of natural systems. Once he and Damrosch have brought in their livestock, they'll "be able to use the manure to feed the plants, and the plant waste to feed the animals," he says. " And even though we can't eat the grass, we'll be turning it into something we can."

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We so appreciate people who are out there doing that paradigm shift groove thing and coming up with great new ideas and innovations! Since we now have new chicks and more chickens and turkeys on the way, we've been reading up on poultry raising and happened onto several great sights with info on making chicken tractors or 'arks', egg-mobiles or this one...and various styles of coops and hen houses.



What's also really wonderful to see is the country life reaching the cities and suburbs with so many ingenious and old-fashioned-made-new-again ideas! One of my absolute favorites in 'suburban homestead style' is Patti Merino...The Garden Girl...who's taken her home in Boston suburbia to all new green levels turning it into her own little farmette in the city. She's produced lots of short video clips on everything from shearing her angora bunny and handspinning the fur into yarn...to 4 season gardening...to a chicken tractor over raised beds...to vertical gardening...to living with small livestock...to much much more...all in her own backyard! Also see her fresh from the garden recipes! She's very upbeat and her enthusiasm and concepts are contagious! I promise you...you'll love her!!



Another great find along these lines are the Poultry People in the UK. The video above is one of their chicken ark designs that you've just got to check out! It honestly can be this simple! They obviously enjoy their chickens, too, with quirky videos on the 'chicken life'...here below Chicken Meets Fox...quite humorous!




Oh and you'll get a kick out of this one, too...


Once you're done with the chuckling...or chu, chuk, chukking...notice how they've actually constructed this one:  A triangle with roosts and metal roof. Gotta love that little heart, too!


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I just read this on the computer yesterday:

WASHINGTON – The nation's food safety system is a "hazard to public health" and overdue for an overhaul, President Barack Obama said Saturday as he focused on that task by filling the top job at the Food and Drug Administration. Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as agency commissioner and selection of Baltimore's health commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy. Consumer groups applauded the picks.

Okay, so what does "food safety" really mean for us? What does "food safety" actually translate into for small and organic farmers? For homesteaders and gardeners who would like to sell their extra produce...and the local farmers markets? For U-Pick farms and orchards? 

What does "food safety" really provide for the people of our nation?  Once we wade through the stipulations and language of HR 875, who are the big winners and who are the big losers? Because there will be a few very big winners and there will be thousands - if not millions - of big losers....basically our entire country and others around the world who are already following suit. Such is the track record from this type of sweeping government legislation.




Find this following article on Campaign for Liberty

Posted by LydiaScott on 03/06/09 03:36 AM






HR 875  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:  

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor.  One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it.  As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.  Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation.  Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers.  This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed.   It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it.  It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods.  If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a variety of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed.  That's right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.  

 DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF.  The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share.  Post your observations and insights below.  Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it's entirety.
section 103, 206 and 207- read in it's entirety.
Red flags I found and I am sure there are more...........

Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn't actually use the word organic.
Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game. 
Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal.  There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.  
Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation.  It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation.  Who do you think they are going to side with?  
Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities.  The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
Section 207 requires that the state's agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements.  This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone's attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Didn't Stalin nationalize farming methods that enabled his administration to gain control over the food supply?  Didn't Stalin use the food to control the people?

S 425  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s425: 


A solemn walk through HR 875.
by Linn Cohen-Cole

www.opednews.com






People seem to expect the bill to be titled "The Criminalization of Organic Farming and the Take over of the US Food Supply," and when they don't see any words to that effect anywhere in the bill, they declare "this bill is fine" and those seeing dangers are "alarmists."  Do they think the industrial side is composed of fools? These are the same people who make cheery cereals with cartoon characters on the box when, inside, high fructose corn syrup is all over the cereal and it comes from Bt-corn associated with diabetes and HFCS is, too, and there is an epidemic of diabetes here even among children.  They know how to package. Why do people understand that industrial food inside a box can be a problem and yet are so innocent about looking at the bills, not realizing there is packaging there, too, or how much is at stake that the public and even legislators not see since this is about taking control.  The industrial side aren't idiots. 

Understanding parts of the bill at times depends on smelling smoke as you read it.  Here in the US, we still have only smoke ... an Ohio state ag department SWAT team raid on an organic coop, Pennsylvania ag department raids on horse and buggy Mennonites, California setting coliform levels so low fresh milk dairy farmers would need cows that produced pasteurized milk right out the udder, arrest and handcuffing of a single mother in front of her children for selling goat milk, the USDA paying its agents bonuses for foreclosing on farms, ...  But in the EU where 60% of the Polish farmers are now gone because of identical bills enacted into law there, and 60 UK farmers have committed suicide, there is fire.  And in Iraq, where they have been rendered helpless serfs by the theft of their country's seeds and criminalization of farmers' collection of their own seed, it is roaring.  And in India where 182,000 farmers have committed suicide since the WTO and IMF got hold of agriculture and our Big Ag firms went in there, and 8 million farmers have left the land, it is out of control.  

The WTO, run by the multinational meat packers and genetic engineering corporations, want HR 875, here.  The bills are "harmonized" rules for globalization of food and lower food safety standards to allow for it.  Those corporations are members of NIAA, a corporate consortium that brought NAIS, created by Anne Veneman, to the USDA to be made into law. 



GP: Great intro! They begin describing the myths, facts, and terminology. Now this is an area, for example, that I'd like to draw your attention to most particularly. This is found under Section 206(C):


(3) include, with respect to growing, harvesting, sorting, and storage operations, minimum standards related to fertizer use, nutrients, hygiene, packaging, temperature controls, animal encroachment, and water;


GP: And here are their notes in regard to the above:


They never mention seeds but this is precisely how they will criminalize seed banking and all holding of seeds.  

[Notice they mention harvesting, sorting and  storage operations, then watch below.   

To follow how this will be done, you must understand that: 

1.  there is a small list inside the FDA called "sources of seed contamination" 
2.  in which they have now defined "seed" as food,  
3.  so seeds can be controlled under "food safety."   Those seeds (so far) include: 

seeds eaten raw such as flax, poppy sesame, etc.; 
sprouting seeds such as wheat, beans, alfalfa, most greens, etc.; 
seeds pressed into oils such as corn, sunflower, canola, etc.;
seeds used as animal feed such as soy ....  

That is most seeds.  Seeds are essential to life and thus to freedom.

The "sources of seed contamination" include six little items:

agricultural water
manure (but NOT chemical pesticides or fertilizers)
harvesting, transporting and seed cleaning equipment 
seed storage facilities. What you must realize is that seed cleaning equipment is THE single most critical piece of equipment for sustainable agriculture.  It is how we save organic seed.  It is the machinery used after plants "go to seed" to separate out (sort) the seeds from the plant material so the farmer can collect (harvest) and then save (put in storage) seed for the next year at little cost.  With his own seed, the farmer stays free of patented, genetically engineered, corporately privatized seeds.

You must also understand that Monsanto is getting rid of the people who do the seed cleaning and many other means of our having access to seed .

This year, 2009, seed cleaning equipment is now illegal in some parts of the country which tips us off to both the intent to control seeds in this way and to how they could do things under this bill.

How can they make such vital equipment illegal?  Quietly, and by saying it contaminates food.  

"Contaminate" is their favorite word since the public fears the deadly contamination that industry itself - not farmers - has caused.  Scare the public and thus push for "food safety standards" to be set.  

And to eliminate seed cleaning equipment, they haven now set the standards so seed cleaning (the simple separation of seed from plant) will now require a million to a million and a half dollar building and/or equipment ... per line of seed.  

So, a farmer who has been seed cleaning flax for 40 years with a hand made seed cleaner can't sell flax on the market anymore, though there are NO instances of anyone ever having gotten sick from seed cleaning equipment.  A farmer who has been cleaning wheat, corn and soy each year with the same perfectly fine equipment would now need three to four and half million dollars for three pieces of equipment to continue.

(The FDA isn't so bar-setting when it comes to other things like melamine in baby formula, though it is proven to sicken and kill infants), initially denying the melamine was in our baby formula and then quickly inventing a "foods safety" standard to okay it.) 

Organic farmers are not aware of this happening, perhaps because the left is being treated with kid gloves until HR 875 and related bills were passed.  But meanwhile the FDA and USDA have been tromping on traditional (many of them farming organically, by the way) farmers for years.  The organic community is disconnected from them so hasn't been aware of what is happening to them, and they [farmers] have a history of no one listening to them, which is too bad because it is they who are the ones bringing the warning that these bills are deadly.  The organic community, measuring against its own seeming safety, hasn't heard or understood.

Notice, though, that because a single "foods safety" bar has been raised, in time no one will be able to get organic seeds in any number because it will be illegal for all farmers to sell them to anyone.

Now, look at the last item on the list - seed storage facilities.

They would be careful not to ban them all outright given the extreme reaction they would get.  But now the method is more clear.  "Food safety" is the weapon and public fear is the driver and they only need to set the bar at the level that is impossible to meet.  


Farmers, gardeners, seed saving exchanges, seed companies, scientific seed projects, and seed banks, all require "seed storage facilities."  All are working overtime to protect biodiversity that is rapidly disappearing because of ... genetic engineering.  

Set the standard for "food safety" and certification high enough that no one can afford it and punish anyone who tries to save seed in a multitude of ways that have worked fine for thousands of years, and presto, you have just criminalized seed banking.  

The penalties, I will assume, will be tremendous, the better to protect us from nothing dangerous whatsoever, but to make monopoly over seed more absolute.  One is left with control over farmers, and end to seed exchanges, to organic seed companies, to university programs developing nice normal hybrids.

When you know that Monsanto with the help of the US government plundered ancient and rare seed banks in Iraq that held seeds with a genetic heritage (a biohistory belonging to all of us) going back 1000s of years and then made it a crime for farmers there to collect or use their own normal and non-patented seeds off their own land, you see how extreme the intent to control is.  

Now, perhaps it is possible to see how the identical thing is being done here, only it comes in a heavily, heavily disguised way - through "food safety" that isn't at all - and in only one tiny little paragraph within a very large bill.  

The Iraqis are now abjectly dependent on Monsanto and the US for survival itself and will have to pay whatever prices are set for food.  They cannot just grow their own and be free.  So, no matter what form of government they may have, they are now slaves because the control over them is that extreme.  Kissinger was right - control food and you control people.

We are inches from this ourselves.  The left needs to wake up.

This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game, is similar to how blacks had been treated.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Farming--Why-Obama-s-gove-by-Linn-Cohen-Cole-090125-421.html

This trick of setting bars above any ability to be in the game while imposing fines that destroy people who fail to meet that standard, is sadistic.  Then, taking the land as confiscatory payment, is theft by government become totalitarian and colonizing [enslaving] its own people.

There are other items of the list which surely will be controlled as well.  In toto, that little list is the deconstruction of farming itself and given the inclusion of manure, especially of organic farming.]


It's worth going through the rest of this article and their accompanying notes to realize the full impact of what's being done here. I'm afraid this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Current submissions to Congress

Note: For more background, please view the astounding documentary The World According To Monsanto and Patent for Pigs which specifically exposes Monsanto's grab for complete control over all breeds of pigs...eventually livestock. The precedent was set with seeds. Find links  here. The trailer is below.

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Winter Readiness 10/28/2008
 

On the homestead, the seasons roll through with a rythm and pace of their own. Once Autumn arrives, the harvest must quickly come in, wood is chopped and stored in the shed...or under the porch, butchering is done, and the canning of jellies, pickles, and preserves are neatly stored...row upon row of shiny glass jars gleaming from the shelves.

The animals are also tended to and nestled in for the coming months of winter cold. I promised you a tour of the Mere's marvelous chicken coop once it was complete. So here it is!

Karyn and I both relish the tidied up, all-snug-for-the-winter feeling. Come with me as we wander about their cozy homestead...as the bustling last days of harvest are slowing and the bounty is simply waiting to be enjoyed.

The low hinged door...easily accessible to little hands for egg gathering...

They've just started getting their first soft greenish-blue colored eggs from the young Araucana hens...that happen to be very docile, sweet-natured chickens!


The screen door acts as a perfect gate to the outdoor coop...


Chicken ramp into the backdoor of the chicken house...

Are there any chickens in there?


The meat poultry (broilers and turkeys) are now frozen in the freezer along with those scrumptious berries from the summer, and the rest sits prettily in baskets and jars...awaiting the winter feasts.

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Cagey Ideas 10/05/2008
 

One of our fair-weather projects was to get the bunny cage expanded and make it a little easier for the kiddos to access and clean. Andrew used cedar posts with fencing on the ground (to prevent digging) as well as around and above. The board top from the old cage now slides over half of the new cage. It's very solid and the children have spent way more time with the bunnies now that they're easier to get to!

We happened upon the idea for using the cedar posts a.) because we had a bunch, and b.) because our friends and neighbors have used them for their cages with nice success. For example, the Meres have tried a variety of cage ideas...

They used branches to create the posts for the turkey cage then added the leafy limbs on top...

And used the lightweight pvc pipe idea for a chicken tractor...

They've now decided to majorly upgrade and enlarge the chicken coop using very large tall cedar posts along with a spacious new adjoining chicken house that has some nice features as well.

The door they're using was an extra one they had in their shed. Now painted a dark blue, it looks great! The wooden screen door will be used to enter the coop area - another advantage of the tall posts. Steve put a low, horizontal pull-up door along the lower half of the chicken house opening to where the nesting boxes are situated, so that their little ones could easily get to the eggs without having to actually go inside - we all know how messy chicken houses are! They even landed the wooden nesting boxes for free at a yard sale this summer. With a few adjustments they fit in perfectly!

Now Karyn feels that all she lacks is a nice birch-branch wreath to bedeck the wall or door of their new coop. We'll have to remedy that quick! I'll give you the full tour when it's completed.

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The wonderful late summer, early fall harvest is rapidly coming in! But what to do with all this great fresh, organic food?

I've found some good sites and books that I'd like to share with you...and keep on tabs for ourselves! The root cellar is obviously an economical way to store the harvest, but what are the particulars and also maybe some other options?  And while we're talking harvest, how about extending the growing season itself...perhaps even into winter?


The Modern Homestead offers ideas for growing foods that don't require any processing at all...and ways to prepare those types of foods. They also give lots of ideas and practical hands-on experience on growing organic gardens and greenhouses, forest gardens, and soil management on small homesteads.

Hobby Farms offers a ton of valuable information on gardening and storage beginning to end. They focus on helping lovers of the rural life get the most from the farm experience - whether as a hobby or full-time operation. I've also happened onto these books with a wealth of information that I can't wait to absorb and begin trying a few of their tips next summer.

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel goes into extensive detail on all variations of root cellars and storage, as well as upgrading the harvest production.

How to Store Your Garden Produce: The Key to Self-Sufficiency by Piers Warren. I first noticed this book in my current issue of Hobby Farm Home, but I found these reviews especially helpful.

And Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from your Home Garden all Year Long by Eliot Coleman. In his book he

"introduces the surprising fact that most of the United States has more winter sunshine than the south of France. Coleman expands upon his own experiences with new ideas learned on a winter-vegetable pilgrimage across the ocean to the acknowledged kingdom of vegetable cuisine, the southern part of France, which lies on the 44th parallel, the same latitude as his farm in Maine."

This all sounds very intriguing and very promising for those of us wishing to venture on toward the realms of our own year-round, organic foods and produce...perhaps even in the long winter months ahead!

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Our summer has been on the rainy, drizzly side plus the daily distractions (like making a living) just manage to keep getting in the way, so we've been somewhat hindered in productive progress on our log home. However, the sun has been out in full force, we're caught up on most of our other obligations--and we have my parents from TX up here visiting who are ready and willing to help! So the past 2 or 3 days have been quite productive--finally!

So, what's the progress? On the first day, Andrew and my dad were mostly trying to get things organized and ready to go. They did manage to also get 3 logs up by that afternoon. The next day they had to put up a new lifting pole in one corner since the other one had broken off. This proved to be more time-consuming than they'd hoped, but it got done and by the end of the day they had another full course of logs up all the way around.


And this is where we ended up the first day.

The next couple of days I was also out there with my mom and the kiddos mowing and clearing out the brush from the front of our land near the drive. We have some lovely small birches and poplar trees coming up and I'd love to accentuate a grove-like appearance with a carpet of grass and perhaps later some wild roses growing along the steep slope up to the road. Sound nice? I also realized that there's a really wonderful massive, low climbing tree perfect for summer adventures--if I could only get to it and clean out all the scraggly limbs and two feet of grass.

We borrowed a huge weed-eating machine from some friends that quickly made short order of the tall grass--and by day 2 the front was beginning to look mighty respectable.

All in all, we've gotten up 10 logs and the last course has all the holes drilled and most of the re-bar spikes pounded in. We're rainy again today and needed to catch up on some watch work and errands, but are prepared to hit it again tomorrow. I'll be sure to keep you posted and put up more photos!

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Our neighbor was telling us that when he was a boy he remembered stackin' up a huge haystack around a pole while he and his siblings stomped it down as they piled it higher and higher. Then they put a tarp over the top of it to keep it dry.

Sounded like a plan to us--and we even had a spare pole to use in our backyard--and plenty of little stompers! It was originally put up by the previous owners to hang flower baskets on, but it was in such a weird spot behind the house...unable to be seen from basically every angle....and all the hooks were falling off as well. So no love loss there! Why not just use it for hay...??

Look at how much hay that hay rake can tote!


And here's how it's constructed--cedar posts, fastened with metal posts with board planks on top...

Now all we need is a bigger tarp...and about 105 more of these contraptions!

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Rakin' Hay 06/28/2008
 

Letting the hay dry and then rakin' it up...

This hay rake is proving to be handier all the time!

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