Pigs!

We're definitely, finally raising a few hogs come this Spring. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on about pig breeds, husbandry, nutrition, etc., which is unfortunately a woefully small number of books. Our local library system had a whole four books on the subject, two of which I'm reading, and two of which I have on hold. I'm surprised and bummed by the lack of information that I've been able to find locally.

With the reading that I have been able to do, I've hit upon a few breeds that really intrigue me - the Kune Kune, the Saddleback and the Chester White. Not that we'll end up with any of these breeds! Looking at Craiglist, it appears to be a sea of Yorkshires, Hampshires, Berkshires or some mixture thereof available in my area and not much else. So I guess we'll get what we get!

Anyhoo - if you have a favorite breed or a hot tip on raising pigs for meat, give me a shout. I'm hungry for more information (and also, some bacon.) ;)

Today's Take 9/16/11

It was a pretty quiet day today. The vet got back to us late last night with the findings on Judith the Australorp's necropsy. She was not egg bound after all, but had an infection of some sort, which appeared to be bacterial. As a precaution, we began treating the whole flock with Tetracycline dissolved in their water. The treatment will last for a week, and began last night. As a food purist and organic farmer, I do not believe in using antibiotics or any other pharmaceuticals, pesticides or other chemicals willy-nilly. But, as we can't be 100% sure what the culprit is here, we are hedging our bets slightly and treating the whole flock prophylactically, lest we lose them all.

In addition to using medicines on my animals that I'd rather not, this treatment prescribed by our vet has an additional downside - its effect on the eggs. All of the eggs laid while the flock are on antibiotics are considered unfit for consumption. Therefore, we have to throw approximately 7-10 dozen eggs away during the medicated time frame, and for a few days following the treatment.

We're considering our options here, since, for one thing, that is a LOT of eggs to dispose of. If we were to throw them all in the compost pile, we'd almost certainly bring a hoard of raccoons, foxes and opossums to our doorstep. No thanks!

Maybe we could/should bury them then?

The other options we are entertaining/researching, are hatching them out, or saving them for making Pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs.

We'll have to decide soon, because chicken ovaries wait for no man. Or woman. They are hardcore like that.

Goat Milk, 1/2 gallon (64 ounces)
Eggs - None collected
Tomatoes - 8 ounces
Bachelor Buttons - A few cups of flowers for dehydrating. The don't really have a fragrance, but they are beautiful, even when dried.

We also weighed Bill's parmesan, which is now 6 days old, just to track the weight loss that occurs as it dries. Today it was 1 lb, 7 ounces.

New in the Garden 7/12/11

I just picked up a few goodies that I still haven't figured out a place for yet. This is an unfortunate habit of mine. Maybe I'll eventually ditch the lawn altogether and fill it with my goofy nursery finds? ;)

Just bought, haven't yet planted-

*2 Heavenly Blue grape vines
*2 Hinnomaki Gooseberry - one yellow and one red. This is a Finnish variety, so I'm thinking that our low temps here should be no sweat for berries that can tolerate Scandinavian winters.
*4 Basil - Three Genovese and one Amethyst.
*1 Rosemary
*1 Nero de Toscana Kale - the bunnies LOVE this stuff!
*2 Mints - one chocolate mint and one "chewing gum" mint. These were the girls' choice.
*1 "Cheyenne" pepper. Seriously, this says Cheyenne and not Cayenne. I have never heard of this one before, but it was $1.99 and it's already loaded with peppers and blossoms, so I had to take a chance on it. ;)

Now as soon as this drizzle stops, I get to go and wander around the yard to try and figure out where these babies are going. If it weren't for the deer, I think I'd take advantage of our fugly chain link fence out front and pop the grape vines in out there, but if the deer like grapes as much as they like cherry trees, that wouldn't fly too well. Hmmm....

BHF ~ Photo of the Day 3/20/11

Some funky freaky fungi that I found in two out of three of our compost bins. Does anyone recognize it?

When do I become for real?

In most professions, there is a moment, somewhere along the way, where you either declare what you are, or accept a job title based on the function that you perform - massage therapist, lawyer, beautician, cashier, etc. If it is your profession (as opposed to "just a job"; a way to pay the rent) you probably have something tangible like a license or a degree that deems you an official plyer of your trade. But there are a few job titles out there that sort of defy the standard process, and I think that farmer is one of them.

At what point is it fair for me to declare myself a farmer? I find this question equally vexing in the context of an artist or a writer. When it's something that you have a passion for, something that you must do or die, that you'd do whether it made you a million or cost you everything, at what point does it become your profession? When you turn your first profit for doing it? When it's the easiest way to sum up the way that you spend the bulk of your time? If a doctor must get her degrees and take an oath to be legitimate in her career, what vetting process must I undergo?

The reason that I belabor the point is that I have a great deal of respect for farmers and the work that they do, and I don't want to usurp a title that I haven't rightly earned. I've come up against this conundrum a few different ways and have always managed to side-step answering the what do you do? question. That is, until last week.

I'd gone out of town with my friends for a girls' weekend, during which we'd scheduled ourselves a trip to the spa. When it came time to fill out my pre-massage paperwork, in the box marked occupation I hesitated a moment before writing Farmer. My reasoning for not writing homemaker, as I'd been writing for nearly 11 years was because the sort of massage that I needed as a homemaker was almost strictly for relaxation - treating myself to a little pampering. The kind of massage that I needed on this most recent visit to the masseuse was for arthritic knees, bursitis and a sinus headache, in addition to some good ol' relaxation. In short, I really needed a massage to keep my parts functional so that I could continue to fulfill my growing list of child and critter care obligations at home, ergo, Farmer. I felt a little bit like a fraud.

So, at what point am I officially, legitimately a real-deal farmer? Is it even possible for someone who gardens and keeps animals on the small scale that I do to ever really be fairly described as such?