Sunday, August 23, 2009
Top 5 Things Kids Love at the Farm
1) Riley: Likes to "pick up chicks" and is very proud of her accomplishment, "I catched the black and white one with my hands."
2) Thessalie: Enjoys playing with the piglets, especially Tac. She spent time petting them (their hair is "not very soft") and watching them eat the apples she collected by the pond.
3) Lou: Prefers above all else to go see Ingrid, his adopted goat. He likes to pet and hug her, and slip her the apple and poplar leaves he's gathered.
4) Ella: Loves giving the piglets a mud bath (and harvesting kale--couldn't decide which was better).
5) Jack: Likes giving clover to the goats (which Grandma Liz picked for them).
The big news of the day? Ella has adopted Myst (seen here with Mahjong and Thessalie behind them), which ensures that she'll be back up at Green Mountain Girls Farm very soon to visit!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Life, Death, and Roosters
I caught my first rooster this morning as Mari, Laura, and I rounded up 25 of our birds that were on their way to slaughter. It sounds so awful, I know- slaughter. It brings up this gruesome image of a fearful and messy death, an image that does not match with the love and care that we have given the roosters since they first came to us this spring. Death is a delicate thing on a farm; you can spend months doing nothing but nurture an animal and it may still get a diseased hoof or a high parasite load. Plants, too, may get decimated by a hailstorm or drowned out by a rainy summer. If something unexpected doesn’t happen, the day will still come when the chickens or pigs are ready to go, and the vegetables are begging to be picked.
So how does a farmer find balance? For one to live, another must always die. For the peas to prosper, the weeds that crowd them must be torn out of the soil (though I must admit there are days when I get tired of weeding and want to shout: stop pulling it out! Stop this uprooting, stop this wearisome chore that hurts my back and dries my hands).
Monday, August 3, 2009
Sunday Chores
But no chore elf, so off to the fields we went. Mari, so kind, slogged to the fields in the pouring rain, while I milked. But as I sat there with Scrabble on the milking stand, I looked out to see an amazing rainbow. I thought to myself, really, this is quite lovely. A rainy evening, the sound of milk hitting the pail, a happy goat next to me and an amazing rainbow. So peaceful. As I walked her back to the barn, I looked north towards Paine Mountain. The clouds were just like a painting. In that moment, there were few better places to be than walking on our farm with Mari and our animals.