Farm
Gulli's tire swing
January '08
Well here is my first photo. It's out of focus, but is does have the richness, color and character that captures our old barn. The tire swing is suspended in the bull pen, home of Gulliver the bull. He uses it for entertainment, by batting it with his horns and to scratch his back. Most of the other photos were horrible. The camera could not handle the low morning light and I am not yet up to speed. I shot another roll this past Saturday, but lost the whole roll, when I thought the film had re-wound (it hadn't). Nothing like re-learning all the mistakes I made as a teenage photographer. Experience and knowledge are important, but there is also the day-to-day doingness of an activity which leads to ease, familiarity and eventually, in the case of photography, artistry.
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Photos on the way
January '08
Took pictures this
morning. We'll see how well my Minolta handles the
15 degree weather here in Deansboro. I'm going to
have to re-familiarize myself with the manual
settings on the camera. Low light situation wreak
havoc on the auto focus feature and by the time
it's happy, the animals have moved! I hate waiting
for the camera while it's trying to focus or decide
whether or not to activate the flash.
I'll be dropping off the film to get developed and then transfered to a DVD. The whole process costs about $6. It's really a bargain. The only downside is the lack of instant gratification that a digital camera brings
I'll be dropping off the film to get developed and then transfered to a DVD. The whole process costs about $6. It's really a bargain. The only downside is the lack of instant gratification that a digital camera brings
Nutrients, food and disorganization: not necessarily in that order
November '07
Wow. It's hard to grasp that three weeks have gone by since my last post. I'm working on being more consistent with the basic chores in my life with the hopes that the larger things will take care of themselves.
The photo is of a handful of our Buff Orpingtons before Sharon and the girls butchered them. (It's funny. The old meaning of the word "butcher" is to prepare to cook, now the meaning is to be unnecessarily cruel.) People talk about knowing where your food comes from and we've gone a few steps further and grow a lot of our own food. The difference in nutrition between a grass and bug fed heritage chicken out in the sunshine and a hormone/antibiotic fed mutant breed caged in a warehouse is calculable.
That said, I cam across an interesting article about cooking methods and nutrient retention in broccoli. (It wouldn't be too much of a leap to assume that the same goes for other vegetables as well.) The bottom line is that stir frying is perhaps the best method for locking nutrition in the broccoli. With microwaving, you lose nutrients, mostly vitamin C because it leaches out with any water you cook. I assume that steaming and boiling vegetables does the same thing. That's why the water has that green color when you are done! I suppose you could drink that water or put it into soups instead of pouring it down the drain. And one last thing, stir fry with heat resistant oils like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil or lard. Some of the other oils don't lock in the nutrients as well and the high heat chemically changes most vegetable oils into toxic compounds.
Composting inside and out
August '07
Today I built two new compost containers. A lot of the weeds we just till back into the soil or feed to Gulliver the bull or Frankie the horse (No, those aren't Sopranos characters, they are farm animals!) as green manure. Kitchen scraps and some other stuff needs a place where the bacteria and other critters can work on them to create compost.
Here is the old compost bin. It's just chicken wire held up by a few stakes. This container was placed under a tree so id didn't get the sunshine or water that it needed to work well. Which brings me to my acupuncture point...
Your internal composting happens primarily in your small intestine. There you have vast number of microorganisms that compost the food you eat so that the nutrients can be absorbed. If the internal conditions aren't right, like the compost bin under the tree, you won't get full nutritional value from the food you eat.
The best way to restore the conditions in your intestines is to take a probiotic supplement. Eating live culture yoghurt is fine for maintenance, but if you have been on a heavy dose of anti-biotics, birth control or have had surgery you need a system for getting the good bacteria past your stomach acid. Get a probiotic that is coated. Natrol's Biobeads and Shaklee's ProBiotics are ones I recommend.
In the weeds
August '07
It's raining tonight in Deansboro. Yesterday I weeded the tomatoes which were sorely overgrown. A combination of bad weather and neglect conspired to nearly bury them in quack grass. As the weeds yielded, I was surprised to see how dry the soil was at the tomato roots. Thank goodness the ground is clear and the water can now reach the roots.
Life is a little like that. Without constant tending the "weeds" in our life can take over and crown out what really is important. Make sure you take a little time today, and every day, to clear out the unwanted distractions that are robbing you of the energy you need to fulfill your destiny.
Jasmine's flower stand.
August '07
Nature abhors a vacuum...and so do cows.
July '07
Who needs coffee when you walk out the back door, turn the corner and are eye to eye with four 800 lb. cows and their 300 lb "babies"? By the way, did I mention these cows still have their horns! Are ya' with me?
Seems "somebody" left the door to the cow barn single latched instead of double latched, again. They ran around the house; I ran around the house. They sprinted toward the highway; I sprinted toward the highway. See what I mean about not needing coffee? At this point I'm not trying to herd them like some horseless cowboy, I'm just trying to prevent a lawsuit.
It all turned out in the end. My daughter Gabrielle enticed the alpha female back into the barn with some sweet feed and eventually the rest of escapees followed. Nature did what nature does, cause chaos.
That is why every living organism consumes energy. It takes energy to keep things organized. It takes energy and a good fence and secure gates. Every organism, every system has distinct borders that require upkeep. Failure to allow for these very basic and simple laws of nature have caused many projects to fail. We pretend that things, once up and running will "maintain themselves." Hah! Nature and my cows say otherwise.
A new bantam chick!
July '07
A lot of excitement on the farm today. We discovered a new bantam chick hanging out in Gulliver's pen. (Gulliver is my father-in-law's American milking devon bull.) This chick is particularly exciting because the bantam cock lost a fight with one of our cats. Seemed Wizard got tired of sharing her cat food with the bantam, so she taught him a permanent barnyard lesson. We have two hens and they usually brood on a clutch of 14-21 eggs so there is a chance we might see another chick or two tomorrow.
By the way, a bantam is basically a miniature chicken. We keep them in the barn to help keep down the fly population and to add a little color to the barnyard.