Living with the sheep

No, I'm not really living with the sheep but I have been spending a lot of time out in the barn. My wife and daughter come down with the flu around the middle of last week and my two sons have it now. So far I've been spared and I hope to keep it that way.

Pictured here is Bunny, one of our (almost) three year old ewes - three winter ewes as the Icelanders would say. She is our only ewe that will let me pet her. In fact, she's rather like a dog in that she comes up and nuzzles and pushes her head under my hand when I go to the barn or pasture. The kids named her bunny because when she was a lamb she hopped around the pasture.

I took this photo today. It's been "spittin' snow" on and off here all day. The ground is mostly white now.

weather yesterday: 14°F/27°F partly sunny
weather today: 13°F/33°F snow flurries

tags: sheep, iceland, flu, pasture, snow

Productive Day

Today I took advantage of the nice weather and got some work done. It was sunny and breezy today but we're in for a drastic weather change with some snow flurries in the forecast.

I rewired the lighting in one of our barns. All of the fixtures were controlled by one switch and sometimes there was not enough light (to shear sheep for example) and other times there was more light than necessary so I added a couple fixtures in the sheep pen and put pull-chain switches on each of those so they could be operated independently. Now if I want to go in at night when we begin lambing, I can flip the switch and just turn on one low wattage bulb and check on the ewes without causing a big disturbance.

When the previous owners of this property moved out, they left an old disc harrow in the pasture. I finally got around to moving that today as well. And I started cleaning out the old greenhouse on the property in preparation for starting seeds.

weather yesterday: 19°F/40°F mostly sunny
weather today: 23°F/43°F sunny, breezy

What is a Farm?

Earlier today, my friend Polly, wrote a post with this same title on her blog and I thought I would borrow the theme and give my perspective, with apologies to the original author. If you're still reading you may want to jump over and look at the photo she's posted.

One of my favorite authors, Gene Logsdon (who is my neighbor one county up and one county over) wrote in one of his books that some people are born to be farmers and he equated a farmer with a nurturer - a nurturer of the soil for sure and in many cases a nurturer of animals. I apologize for not being able to quote which book this was written in as I've read them all (in most cases more than once).

In modern America, there are two distinct types of farmers. Agribusinesspeople run factory farms according to an industrial model of food production and distribution. I live on the eastern edge of the corn belt (where Round-Up is considered a vital soil nutrient). While most farmers in my area (and the USDA) would consider themselves small to medium sized family farmers, they are full participants in the industrial, factory-farming model. For example, under this model, a calf may be born in Ohio. Upon weaning at around 6 months old, this calf may go to Kansas and spend 6 months on pasture as a stocker. When he reaches a year old, this steer may go to a feedlot in Texas to be fattened on grain and then shipped to Iowa to be processed and packaged for sale in Florida. Not much nurturing going on here.

The other type of farmer operates according to a pastoral model of food production and distribution (borrowing from Gene Logsdon again here - see The Contrary Farmer). I believe it was Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (another favorite author) who wrote about bio-regional economics. According to this pastoral, bio-regional model, food is produced, processed (minimally), sold and consumed locally - using natural, ecological, grass-based practices. Whole lotta nurturing going on here.

The first type of farming (industrial agribusiness) is petroleum-based and has been steadily depleting soil fertility and, through erosion, soil itself for for over a century. Not nurturing.

The second type of farming (pastoral, bio-regional) builds soil fertility and is sustainable over the long term. Nurturing.

Which if these two models do you consider a farm?

Weather today: 25°F/48°F partlycloudy

tags: farm, farmer, nurture, Logsdon, soil, livestock, agribusiness, factory farm, corn belt, USDA, pastoral, bio-regional, Salatin, ecological, grass, sustainable, Polyface

Healthy Sheep Naturally

Last week I wrote that some of our sheep had begun shedding their fleeces. Here is a photo of our ram, Joash. You can see his fleece peeling back around his neck. I don't plan to shear until the first Saturday in March so I'll be pulling off some of this loose fleece by hand.

I also wrote last week about our mineral supplementation and mentioned Pat Coleby, the Austalian expert on natural animal care. Acres USA has published several of her books in the U.S. including Natural Horse Care, Natural Goat Care, and Natural Cattle Care.

Unfortunately, the book I wanted the most, Healthy Sheep Naturally hasn't been published in the U.S. I found a used copy on Amazon but the price was awfully high so I ordered two copies from a bookseller in Australia. They were supposedly backordered until June but I received an email shipment confirmation earlier this week.

I will be writing more about this book after it arrives.

Weather yesterday: 19°F/38°F sunny
Weather today: 17°F/47°F cloudy

tags: sheep, fleece, ram, mineral, Coleby, natural, healthy

I'm Liking This Blogging Thing

I've only been at this for a little over a week and to be honest I wasn't sure how it would go. In that time, though, I've gotten to interact with some really cool people and learned from things that others have done.

One example is the series of posts over at Boulder Belt Farm on building hoophouses. Lucy has written a great guide with photos and it's been a help to me.

Things like this are what make the internet in general and blogging in particular worthwhile.

Weather today: 10°F/28°F sunny

tags:hoophouse, blogging

National Animal Identificaton System

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is the latest move by Big Brother to exert control over the citizenry. If you don't know the details of the proposal, read it here.

Contrary to what they would like us to believe, NAIS will not prevent disease or make the US food supply safer in any way. For up to date info and news on NAIS click on the picture to the left or the link in the list at the right

I honestly believe that the US government will not rest until it controls the entire US food supply from barnyard to supermarket. Farmers like me make them nervous because we don't bend to the knee to corporate agribusiness. NAIS will put us out of business.

Weather today: 5°F/10°F sunny, breezy

tags: NAIS, national, animal, identification, food supply, USDA, agribusiness

Time Marches On

Late winter continues here in central Ohio. Today, I put my seed order together and started working on plans for a hoop house. We moved here too late for a garden last summer so this will be our first at this property. I'm excited to start from scratch and build the garden I want from the beginning. We've had lots of trial and error over the past decade at two other properties.

We're ordering all our seeds from Bountiful Gardens - all open-pollinated and untreated.

Weather today: 38°F/61°F late rain

tags: winter, ohio, seed, garden, hoop house

Late Winter In Ohio

Late winter, aka mud season, has arrived in Ohio. It was in the 40s overnight and up to 55 here today so most of our snow is gone. Here at Liberty Farm, though, we don't despair over mud season. We just do our best to keep our animals out of it and realize that the next thaw will bring Sugarin' Time!

Yes, that peculiar cycle of freezing and thawing that triggers the flow of maple sap in New England, NE Canada and parts of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana is soon to begin here in the southernmost part of that region. And that's something to be glad about - mud or no mud! Hopefully we'll get started making syrup sometime in the next week or so and I'll have some good pics to share.

Also coming up - sheep shearing. I 'd be too embarassed to post a picture of me shearing. (Let's just say I have my own style). We'll be sure to get some before and after photos, though. Our rams and one ewe have already started shedding. Historically, Icelandic sheep were rooed (plucked) in the spring rather than shorn but today most people shear spring and autumn.

Weather today: 41°F/55°F mostly cloudy

tags: mud, snow, maple, sugar, syrup, sheep, shear, Icelandic

Hay Feeder

The hay feeder that I mentioned on 12 FEB is pictured here. Joash, one of our rams, is on the left and Frost, one of our two matriarchs is on the right.

You can see the guard rails that I added over the heads of the sheep. These keep them from jumping up into the feeder. The rails are an absolute necessity if lambs will be using the feeder and, as we found out, necessary for some rams as well.

The hay feeder is essentially just a box on feet that is made to fit a bale of hay. I have built three of these and they are all a little different because I used wood that I had on hand.

The design of this box is made to imitate sheep grazing rather than pulling hay out between vertical slats. Waste is minimal. In fact, I end up taking out the stemmy stuff and scattering it around for bedding.

The plastic pans mounted to the front are for feeding salt, mineral, and herbal supplements. Right now we are feeding combinations of the following:

• Loose sheep mineral
• plain salt
• trace mineral salt
• kelp meal
• Restore & Sustain (herbal supplements from Farmstead Health Supply)

Soon, we will add Livestock Birth/Mother Formula, another herbal supplement from FHS. I am currently experimenting with copper supplementation based on research done by Pat Coleby. In case any of you shepherds are saying, "But sheep are sensitive to copper," let me assure you that I'm aware of this. We also know, however, that sheep do need some copper. It just has to be given in carefully measured quantities - hence the experimentation. For more information, see page 1 of the February issue of The Stockman Grass Farmer.

With the exception of these mineral and herb supplements, our sheep are completely grass-fed. Grass, in this case, is a generic term for forages. Our pasture has at least four varieties of grasses, three varieties of clovers, birdsfoot treefoil, yarrow, queen anne's lace and many other plants. The hay we are feeding this winter is primarily alfalfa and brome grass with some timothy, clover and other plants. All of this falls under the term "grass-fed." To learn more about the benefits of grass feeding - to the animals, the earth, and human beings - click here.

Weather today: 24°F/51°F mostly sunny

tags: ewe, ram, lamb, hay, grass-fed, mineral, kelp, forage, Pat Coleby, pasture, copper

Good News and Bad News

Yesterday I said I would write about the hay feeders that I've built for our sheep unless something interesting came up between then and now. Well, today I received three pieces of news that I want to write a bit about. First, the good news.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association is having its annual conference on March 4-5 in Granville. If you live in Ohio or a nearby state and you like to produce food or eat food, I highly recommend you take in this conference. The workshop schedule is out if this world. If you're going to be there please leave a comment.

The first bit of bad news was a link to a press release regarding proposed legislation in the state of Virginia. H.R. 982 "could eliminate the ability of the state’s residents to raise chickens and other fowl in the outdoors for eventual sale to consumers." The idea, supposedly, is to control live bird markets (there are none in Virginia) but it seems to be directed at bird flu and has the support of big agribusiness (surprise, surprise). Joel Salatin is on the front lines fighting this and has some great quotes in the story regarding bird flu.

This might be old news for some of you but on February 8th, it was leaked that the World Trade Organization had preliminarily ruled against the EU and several individual countries with regard to the moratorium against the importation of genetically modified food (GMOs), aka frankenfoods. Of course European consumers won't be forced to necessarily eat these foods but it seems to me that the dam holding back the worldwide flood of GMOs may have just been breached. As an hilarious aside, when I searched for the term "frankenfood" on Google, an ad at the side said, "Looking for Frankenfood? Find exactly what you want today on Ebay."

I'll leave you with that.

Weather today: 13°F/30°F snow flurries

tags: ohio, ecological, food, farm, chicken, bird flu, avian flu, salatin, gmo, frankenfood

Visit from the neighbor

The pony in the photo belongs to our neighbor. He is 19 years old and an old hand at escaping his pasture. Fortunately, he is calm and tame and never goes far. This week he wandered down the driveway and some of our sheep went over to the fence to visit.

Today I added guard rails to the sides of our one hay feeder that didn't already have them. Our yearling ram, Luther, figured out he could jump in the feeder and be "king of the hill." Unfortunately, he was soiling the hay so I put up the guards to keep him out. These hay feeders that I've built will be the topic of my next post here unless something interesting happens between now and then.

Weather today: 13°F/27°F alternating sun and snow flurries

tags: pasture, pony, sheep

A Farm Girl Turns 7

Our daughter, Katie, celebrated her 7th birthday this week. In the photo she is reading a book she received from her mom and I. It is a gardening book for kids. Our hope is to involve our kids more in gardening this year.

The other places we'’ve lived before moving to Liberty Farm have lacked feelings of permanence for us. They were all stepping stones to where we are now. Because of this the gardens in our past have also not been permanent. This season we will be embarking on a long term quest for steadily improving soil fertility.

Ecology Action has been studying sustainable, biointensive gardening for thirty years in Willits, California. Their research has shown that 60% of the space in a vegetable garden should be devoted to growing dual-purpose seed and grain crops such as wheat, oats, amaranth and quinoa. These crops produce huge amounts of carbon for composting.

I have a three year plan going around in my head for reaching this point. It may take longer and we will have to be flexible going into our first full growing season here. I also need to be better at recording these plans in writing. In my weekday job I have to be very technical and keep lots of records so my tendency on the farm is to focus on the art rather than the science.

I'’ve recently forced myself to begin keeping better records regarding the care of my sheep and I'’ll need to do the same thing with the garden and the management of the pasture going into the green season. If anyone reads this and has some good ideas for this sort of record keeping please comment.

Weather today: 9°F/41°F partly cloudy

tags: biointensive, gardening, soil fertility, compost, Ecology Action

Icelandic sheep

This is Joash, one of our two yearling rams. He is a purebred Icelandic and although he looks mostly white, he is actually black with spotting. In Icelandic sheep, spots are always white and are controlled by a gene separate from the one which determines color - either black or moorit (brown). The color white is actually caused by a third gene which governs pattern - solid, white, gray, mouflon and badgerface. And that exhausts my knowledge on the subject. Click here to learn more.

We chose to raise Icelandic sheep for four basic reasons. The breed has been selected for over one thousand years to thrive on forage alone, they are beautiful, they have wonderful wool, and they taste great.

In Sheep! magazine, editor Nathan Griffith often discusses the wide variation in the flavor of lamb meat. This causes the commercial sheep industry untold problems when consumers who like the domestic leg of lamb they buy in the supermarket one week don't like it the next. It also explains why New Zealand lamb is gaining market share in the U.S.

None of this matters, though, to the smallholder who can sell lamb that always tastes the same to loyal customers with whom he has a relationship. In our case, we have mild tasting lamb to offer. If a potential customer wants a stronger flavored lamb I will gladly direct her to someone who raises a different breed. This is the beauty of local food production and sales and one of the things we look forward to as we grow Liberty Farm.

The fact that these sheep are beautiful to us as well is not to be downplayed. While we don't necessarily want to place form over function, beauty is something that we strive for here. The ultimate beauty, for me, will be to see the various parts of this farm functioning holistically in a system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

weather today: 17°F/35°F cloudy

tags: Icelandic sheep, lamb, local food

First Post - Food Freedom

Yesterday was Ohio Food Freedom Day according to the Ohio Farm Bureau(OFB). According to the OFB, average Ohioans have worked long enough in 2006 to buy all the food they will need for the entire year. Part of OFB's stated mission is to increase farmer income yet every year on this day they celebrate how cheaply farmers sell the food they produce.

The ironic thing is this: the meteoric rise in spending on organic and artisanal foods shows that many Americans don't believe that food that is mass-produced on factory farms is worth even the ridiculously low prices that farmers receive for it.

To me, Food Freedom means the freedom to buy and sell healthy, locally produced food in a relationship between the farmer and the families who buy from him. It means throwing off the insanity of feedlot beef and "Round-Up Ready" corn and soybeans. It means that farmers will once again become nurturers instead of agribusiness CEOs.

On Independence Day weekend of 2005, my family moved a little closer to Food Freedom Day for ourselves and hopefully for other families who will purchase food from us. We hope to turn our little corner of the Earth into a sustainable, grass-based farm. In future posts I'll talk a little more about what that means to us. For now, I'll say that our goal is to produce the healthiest food possible while leaving this land in better shape than when we received it.

This is a photo of our pond and the stream that runs through our property. The weather in January was unseasonably warm but last weekend we had 8" of snow.

weather today: 8/31 dusting of snow overnight