Who will feed us when the big farms are gone?

Around here, you don’t have to drive far out of any community until you get to farms gone to suburbs. I’m talking about land that used to be part or all of a big farm, some of which had been in a family for generations, now sold and covered over with houses and streets. Sometimes there are nice houses, but too often what goes up is the cheapest the developer can get by with building.

We’ve lived on our little farm for less than a decade, and there are no less than 4 new subdivisions within a very short distance. One adjoins the back property line of our farm. Where once there were fields of soybeans or corn or cotton, there are now over 45 houses.

Just a couple of years ago we could look towards the back of our farm and see nothing but land with grass and trees and maybe a few animals.

Now just over our back fence line it's houses, houses and more houses.

I know people need a place to live, but they also need to eat. I’m left wondering, “Who’s going to feed everyone when the big farms are all gone?”

Something to think about.

Well, if the big farms are all paved over, what about the little guys? There’s a lot to be said for eating locally grown food. The fresher food is, the more nutrients it retains.

There’s more and more of a movement towards Sustainable Agriculture. It integrates three main goals—“environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.” The scope of what exactly Sustainable Agriculture entails is beyond one little blog entry, but if you want to learn more, just search the web, and websites like the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, will pop up, along with many others.

You can also join an email group such as Sustainable Ag, and chat with people who are interested in, or actually practicing Sustainable Agriculture.

And last, but not least, check out farm websites of people who farm using the Sustainable Agriculture method, such as Seasons Eating Farm.

A lot of big farms are disappearing. We’d better come up with a substitute if we want to keep eating.

Country folk get sick too…

You’d think living that nice, healthy country lifestyle, everyone would be nice and well…. healthy. Too bad it doesn’t really work that way.

Nope, when it comes to illness, people living in rural areas are no more exempt than people living in towns, cities, or whatever urban environment you think of. I would guess that the different types of environments do prompt some different types of health problems, but however you look at it, country living doesn’t guarantee excellent health.

Just like in the city, the rural areas also have their share of people with chronic illnesses. Neuropathy, chronic pain, diabetes, fibromyalgia, arthritis, bi-polar disorder, CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), depression, lupus…. the list goes on and on.

Now you generally can’t tell by looking at these folks that they have a problem. I mean, they look GOOD, so they can’t really be sick, right???

WRONG!

That’s why these are dubbed “INVISIBLE” illnesses.

If you’re living with a chronic illness, you can’t just stop living your day-to-day life and wait for it to go away, because chronic means it isn’t going away! This is a long-term problem, and living your life won’t wait until you get better. So even though someone has a chronic invisible illness, you may not be able to tell it by how they look or act.

If you or someone you know lives with an invisible chronic illness – and I’m betting since almost 1 in 2 people have one, you at least know someone who does! – check out this little video about living with chronic illnesses.


National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week is coming up soon, Sept 10-16, 2007. Be kind to yourself and others, and learn all you can about this problem that affects so many people. Check out the Invisible Illness website.

Cause it doesn't matter if you live in the city or in the country, it could become your problem, too.

A Change in Weather

When I looked at the weather forecast today, it said the high would be 95° F. (35° C.). I thought, “Wow! It’s going to be a lot cooler today!”

You know it’s been too hot for too long, when 95°F. sounds cool!

It’s probably cooler because last night it rained. Not just a little-bitty, very brief hardly-wetted-down-anything shower, which is all we’ve got for weeks and weeks, but an honest to goodness thunder storm that lasted for hours. Wooooowwwww…. there was actually 2 ½ inches of water in the rain gauge this morning!

The garden was actually wet without me having to water it!
The dirt in the flower gardens was actually damp!

The pond had more water in it, which was all stirred up from the rain!

There were actually still WET spots on the driveway and road at mid-morning!

There was even a puddle of water on a little table on the front porch!

Did you notice all the fallen, brown leaves in these pictures? That's because of the drought, cause it certainly isn't fall, and the weather certainly hasn't been cool, let alone frosty!

Yes indeed, we sure could use some more of this change in weather.

More rain, and cooler temps please!

Little Possum Feet

The thief comes sneaking in
On little possum feet,
Looking round and round
For something good to eat.

Cat food, eggs or scraps,
Just whatever he can find.
He’s looking for some food,
Doesn’t matter much what kind.

When he’s munched up ev’ry bit
Of food within his sight,
He scurries fast away,
Back out into the night.

Just wait until tomorrow
When the dark descends once more,
And I bet this little rascal
Will again be at the door.

Fowl Update

We’ve had several little chicks and keets born the last couple of months. It doesn’t take long to go from newly hatched to pretty well grown. Our little chicks are coming close to adult sized, but it’s difficult to know how big they should get exactly, since they are a mixture of breeds.

The 3 chicks pecking at some cracked corn I threw out.
The hen on the right is a Sicilian Buttercup, fully grown.

The picture on the left is a close-up of one the 3 chicks in the first picture. You can see her funny little "top knot." The chick on the right is Peepers. Her mom abandoned her and we raised her in a cage on the front porch until she was big enough to safely let out with the rest of the chickens.

Here’s the oldest bunch of keets, more than half the size as the parents now.

The middle group has grown a lot, but still has quite a ways to go before they are adult-sized.

And the little ones are still running around, so short the only way you can tell they’re in the grass is to see it moving.

We didn’t have any luck with hatching any peachicks this year, not in the incubators nor under the peahens. Breeding season is over and the peacock has moulted. (Why carry around all those heavy tail feathers when the girls are ignoring you?) Maybe we’ll have better luck next year.

And that’s the latest fowl news from the farm…

Cool Llama

This morning when I went out to fill water buckets, there was Miss Keira. In this hot weather she comes ambling up every time she sees me with a water hose. She doesn't like her back to be sprayed, but rather pokes her face and neck into a falling stream of water.


She ends up a bit drippy, with a wet face and neck, but when you have black fuzzy hair, that no doubt feels pretty good in this heat!

A Final Fix & New Beginnings

Over the weekend The Farmer worked on the aviary some more. The joints on the back hoop keep popping out of place when we have high winds or little goats that sneak inside and jump against it.

The hoop holding the netting is made of PVC plastic pipe, so he put new glue on the joints.

To help secure the top hoop, there is a rope from the top of the hoop to a tree. It was anchored in a downward slant. The Farmer decided it would work better at an upward slant.

To accomplish that, he needed a tall ladder and a trip in the treetop. I caught up with him just as he was ready to get back down...


It’s all fixed up and looks good now.

When I went out to take a picture of the finished work, I discovered there was also something new…
A whole bunch of new guinea keets!

Light Pollution

Last night was supposed to be a great night for watching the Perseid Meteor Shower. We went out a couple hours after sunset and checked out the sky from the yard, but no luck. Then we were out standing in our field. Didn’t help It was a beautiful night with a gorgeous sky full of stars, but no “shooting stars”.

We decided to try the driveway. Although there are a lot of big trees there, it’s a darker area. We did see a couple of meteors at first, but then nothing. I had quite a crick in my neck and decided to head inside.

I went back out about 1am to see if I’d have any better luck. I saw one really nice one right off, then a smaller one, then again, nothing.

Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place, but I think it had more to do with the fact we have too much light pollution these days, so were only able to see the brightest meteors.

When we moved here I could go out in the fields and easily see and photograph fireflies, the moon and stars, and yes, we could see shooting stars too. Not any more.

What used to be a dark in-the-country sky here has become a suburban light display with dusk-to-dawn lights, porch lights, and even light pouring from windows. Although there’s about 3 acres between our farm and the new subdivision, it’s a pretty flat field, so there’s nothing to shield us from all that light. The night has became bright.

Sure wish we could get rid of all that light pollution. I miss the dark country nights.

Southern Heat

I don’t know about global warming, but I know it’s plenty warm here in the south. I’m not too thrilled when you pass a bank thermometer and it has THREE digits!

Even though it’s in the shade, our thermometer has been reading 98 degrees F. for the last three days. (For those of you using the Celsius scale, that would be almost 37C.) That’s just TOO hot.

Everything here on the farm is trying to cope with the hot weather, from “A” to “Z”. (Okay, so the closest I have to the front of the alphabet is cat, with sheep at the tail end.) All the critters look for shade, but have different habitats and various ways of beating the heat.

Spot, the Cat, likes to lounge around in the shade under our truck, and keep his thirst quenched with Birdie Broth, otherwise known as water out of the bird bath – just a “faint flavor of birdie essence”. I'm not sure if I put fresh water in there for the birds or the cat.


A dust bath is the method of choice for a quick cool down for the Chickens... … while the Dogs like to hang out under the back porch or in the shade of the big walnut trees in the back yard.

Neffie takes a rest (above), while Toby enjoys chewing on a hunk of wood while lazing in the shade (below).

Even our Garden needs help with the heat, especially considering we are also under drought conditions. I’ve had to water the peppers and tomato plants almost every day. (Thank goodness for well water!)

Of course the Goats like to hang out under the shade trees in the back yard with Neffie.

Keira the Llama often joins them, but she also cools down by “burying” herself in a sea of green plants in the bog area of the bottom pasture, though it’s not much of a bog right now!

In the aviary, the Peafowl go for a combination of bathing in the dust or pool.


Last, but not least, the Sheep also opt for spots under the shade trees. Our flock matron has a special spot under a pile of lumber and gets double shade from that and the overhanging tree branches.
One way or another, everyone is looking for shade and the coolest spot possible. I’m thrilled to be able to enjoy the air conditioning inside the house. Yep, I admit it, when it comes to extreme heat, I’m a Wuss.

Beating the heat from "C" to "W" -
Just keep that air conditioning on for the "W" please!

Stupid Goat Tricks

When I went out to do chores this morning I heard that bleat that means a goat is in trouble.

Oh great, NOW what???

Cinnamon is bawling, "Hey, come & help this stupid kid of mine!"

There one of the buck kids was, stuck in the fence. Not only did he do the usual bit of getting his head stuck, but he managed to get a leg caught also.

He looked kind of like a prancing horse -- only small and with horns, ha!

I figured since the Computer Geek was at home, I'd go back to the house and enlist his help, and get my camera to record the latest bit of goat stupidity.

It didn't take my big, strong helper any time to get the goat worked out of the fence, although the goat gagged a bit in the process -- it's a lot easier to slide those horns through the fence than to get them worked back out!

So there we have it Ladies & Gentlemen, today's Stupid Goat Trick!

Many Happy Returns

After a very busy Saturday, we were glad to be finished with chores and headed back to the house. We made it to back porch when we heard a loud “whoosh!”

Imagine our surprise when we discovered the peahen we thought lost for good had just made a landing in a nearby tree! We hoped she’d fly right down in the yard and go over to the aviary, but she remained stolidly in place.

While she was spending the night in the tree in the back yard, we had another night time visitor in the front yard. I’d left the old peafowl eggs in a bucket on the front sidewalk, hoping to entice the raccoon back so I could take a picture. Instead, there was an opossum helping himself to a free meal: Sunday morning when The Farmer got up and looked out, the peahen was still perched in the tree. However, by the time I went out to do chores, she was on the ground and walking up and down the outside of the aviary with her sister on the inside doing the same.

I think all that time on her own addled her brains, because she couldn’t seem to SEE the open doors and go back inside. I tried opening the back door and easing her in, but she got flustered and wouldn’t go near the door. I was afraid she'd take flight again, so I gave up on that. Then I tried the new front door, and she walked past in a couple of times without any inclinaton to go in. Finally her sister poked her head out the door and she got the idea she could get back in by going through that space.

Thus ends the “Peafowl on the Loose” saga with each and every one of them finally back at home. That’s many happy returns indeed!

Reconstruction

The Farmer got busy yesterday and set about making a new door for the aviary -- a stronger, sturdier and hopefully goat-proof door. Nothing is ever simple, so it took several hours of work.

First, he took an old screen door, and reinforced it with sturdy wire mesh on both sides, making it more than strong enough to keep the peafowl in, and tough enough to keep the goats from going through the door itself.

That was only half of the equation however. To keep them from pushing the door open or knocking it down, it needed a sturdy wood frame to keep the door solidly in place.

During the construction, a little kit (baby rabbit) hopped by to pay a visit. This little one must have just left the nest to still be so tiny.
When the goats came by to inspect the new door -

...they also checked out the teeny-tiny visitor.

Finally the door was completed and securely in place. I don’t think the goats will move it anytime soon!

Rascally Raccoon

Last night I was sitting on the couch in the living room, minding my own business (I do that occasionally!), when I heard a loud “THUMP!” on the front porch. Being the curious person that I am, I immediately went to the front door, turned on the light and looked to see what the commotion was all about.

A raccoon was zipping away into the night, after knocking over a bucket of peafowl eggs I had setting on a shelf out there. They fell to the concrete and smashed quite satisfactorily, making a raw omelet of nasty smelling eggs and shells spread over a wide swath in front of the door. These were eggs from the incubators I’d culled because they hadn’t hatched, so some were pretty foul smelling (yeah, I know, all eggs smell FOWL.).

It’s a good thing Peepers is in a sturdy cage, or the raccoon might try having her for a snack too.

No doubt it also helps itself to the cat food when Spot doesn’t eat it all.

This morning I had the task of cleaning up the mess. I scraped the eggs off the porch and sprayed off the rug and concrete. There was already an army of ants helping themselves to what the raccoon left behind.

That’s the country life for you – raccoons raiding the area for whatever chow they can find, and the ants munching up the leftoers.

The Prodigal Peahen

Our wandering peahen made it home at long last, finally leaving life on the high wires and in the treetops. When the Farmer went to let the critters out this morning, he found the peahen had moved to a walnut tree in the backyard.

Hoping for the best, when I went out to check water buckets later in the morning, I left Toby in the back yard so if she happened to have come down she wouldn't get spooked.

At first I didn’t see anything, but when I got to the back of the aviary and pens, sure enough, there was a peahen on the outside communing with the peahens on the inside.


It took a little finagling , but I finally got her inside with the rest.

Of course, there’s still one peahen MIA, or maybe I should say by now, Missing, Presumed Dead. But it’s nice to finally get the treetop peahen back home!

From bad to worse...

… Or the continuing saga of goats and peafowl.

All right, so on Tuesday the goats tore down the door to the aviary and all of the peafowl escaped. We rounded up all but two peahens and got them back in their smaller pen. At the last minute we discovered one of the last two peahens on the electric wires, but never saw the other.

Come Wednesday, and it’s status quo: one peahen missing, one on the electric wires. Later in the day I looked out the window and didn’t see her doing her high wire act. I thought, “All right! She’s down.” Wrong! I went outside and discovered all she did was move into the tree between the wires and the house.

The temps were up in the mid-90’s yesterday, so I needed to effect some kind of repair on the aviary gate so I could let the peafowl back in. They needed more space and access to their little wading pool to splash around in and stay cool.

The door was still intact, just knocked off the supports, so I used bungee cords to fasten it back in place. I knew that would suffice to keep the peafowl in their pen. The problem was keeping the goats OUT of the pen.

Taking a page out of The Farmer’s “Jury Rigging Manual”, I went looking for a wooden pallet. I found one wider than the door opening and tied it in place. To make sure the goats couldn’t climb up the slats, I turned it so they were vertically oriented.

It wasn’t long until the goats came to investigate my repairs.

Now here it is, 2 days since the Great Escape, and as it stands,
a) the goats haven’t found a way to get through the wooden pallet (good!),
b) one peahen is still missing (bad!), and
c) one peahen is still up in a tree (rats!).

The Farmer decided this evening it was time to matters into his own hands and find a way to get this peahen down out of the tree. She was too high up for any ladders we have, so he got the bright idea to use my BB gun, just pumped up enough so the BB would reach the peahen and maybe sting and annoy her, but not do any real damage.

The bright idea rather backfired. He did indeed get her out of the tree… you know, the one close to the house? Yep, she flew out of that tree…. and way back to the woods and roosted in a tree there. Bad to worse indeed.

He tried the same BB tactics to get her out of that tree, but she wasn’t falling for it again.

Failing with that tactic, he then threw a rope up in the tree to snag the branches she was on and shake them. She hung on and rode it out. Finally he had to admit defeat. But stay tuned! It ain't over until the fat lady sings, or the peafowl comes down out of the tree.

The score is peahens 1, Farmer 0.