Here is a link to the course overview:

Farm Science for Teens

So days like today I wake up with a couple butterflies in my “tummy” as I consider the things that a day like today presents on the farm. As we all know, caring for animals means making sure they have what they need when they need it to stay healthy. For us that usually means fresh water and lots of food. Shade is something that we like to give the animals but in reality we are not always able to provide shade. The sheep usually adjust and are ok as long as they have had a chance to get used to the heat. A good portion o f our flock have lines that run back to African and Middle Eastern locals. As long as they have water and food they will hunker down and laze their way through a hot day with no shade.

We like to give the cows shade almost always when we get into July  and August. I remember a day last spring when we hit the low 90′s out of nowhere for a couple days. I was not yet tuned into the weather and was still at school . I had the cows out in the open and returned from school to find one cow with his mouth open, panting like a dog. This is NOT behavior that cows should ever exhibit. Thankfully I led them all to the tree and he cooled down rapidly. Not an experience I would like to repeat any time soon.

Got Shade?

Days like today, however, break all the rules because it is so extreme. I spent the morning carving out spots on the farm for the sheep, both groups, to have shade for the next 48 hours. When you manage a piece of land with lots of wide open space this can be challenging to frequently utilize shade in your grazing rotation. However, we have lots of woods and brush to move animals to on days like this as long as it is not for too long a period. It was interesting this morning to see the lambs struggle to find the shade I had provided. They were only about 15 feet fron the edge of the woods but were clumped together and panting (at 8:30!!!) and clearly getting stressed. I had to grab a bucket and lead them into the woods…. even when you think you have done right by the animals you may find that your job is not done!

The chickens are another good example of being careful and complete in your execution of safe environments for the animals on a day like today. Chickens are not dumb but they of coursed can not “consider” a situation. Anyone who has read some of my posts from the winter knows that one thing we struggle with is birds that will cluster so tightly in the winter that they end up smothering themselves.  The same thing can happen if there is not enough shade… they will crowd towards it and get so clumped that they get even hotter! (more hot?). Yikes!

So you can see how the focus is very singleminded when facing such extreme weather. The priorities are simple but life and death…. shade, water, food. Enjoy the heat because you know what will be back soon…..

What heat?

Hard to believe that summer is here. We have just come off several of the busiest months we can remember. In an effort to get caught up and grab the reigns of the farm and our farm community we thought a newsletter was overdue. Lots of updates and planning to communicate so here goes:

On The Farm:

We are in full swing here with the animals. The barns are empty and the pastures are full. I have heard some farmers refer to the rotation of animals through the pastures as a “dance”. I think there is something to that… we currently have about 300 animals in 6 different groups out on our big front field. Ewes, lambs, steers, broiler chickens and laying hens are all out there doing their part for the soil nutrients and forage clipping. I must say it is nice to have them all in one spot and we should see some great results in the fall with their health as well as the health of the soil they are fertilizing. Hay is underway too as we have about 500 bales “in the barn” as they say. It is a great feeling to know that some winter feed is already stocked away!

Getting Our Food:

CSA shares are still available and we would love to hear from you. The beef is definitely going quickly so please communicate your needs asap if you want some beef for this fall. Lamb, chicken, and turkey are still available as well, details and order forms are on the website (www.twocovesfarm.com).

We are officially opening our store the weekend of July 2nd and 3rd. We have eggs, some lamb, and we will have a full selection of grass fed beef. Chicken will soon follow the week of July 9th. We are also selling lamb skins this year as well as some other great products. Please come by the store and check it out! Come anytime, official hours are Thursday – Saturday 1-5pm.

Farm / Art Camp:

Spaces are still available for our first ever summer camp! We have a great program set up to run the week of July 5-9, July 11 – 15, and August 15 – 19. All the details are online at www.twocovesfarm.com so check that out and feel free to call with questions.

Calendar:

Anyone looking for a chance to visit and see what is going on here is welcome anytime. We love to have visitors, we love showing off the farm and what we are up to. One of the things we have loved doing here is hosting open house events that include farm tours and sheep dog demonstrations. We will be hosting these events again this year and look forward to seeing you. Each open house will be from 9am to noon and will include a sheep dog demonstration at 10 am and a farm tour at 11:00. Please consider joining us on July 2nd, July 16th, August 6th, August 20th, and / or September 3rd.

We will also be part of Celebrate Summer in Harpswell on July 9th, we will have an open house from 9am to 3pm and two dog demos at 10:30 and 2:30. This should be a great weekend to enjoy Harpswell, come enjoy the summer!

I will make a concerted effort in the next week to send out lots of pics and updates. One thing for sure is that I will be cutting hay ASAP starting, I hope, this weekend. I love to cut hay, its like the sense of satisfaction and visually appealing feeling you get after doing a nice job on the lawn. LIke that, but way bigger and better.

There are stressors of course… like weather and equipment… but they are manageable. I used to get so amped up about hay…. I would fret and have sleepless nights wondering what would break or go wrong the next day in the fields.

First Crop 2010, Last Year

What makes it so amazing is the sense that it is our “crop”. The crop that gets cut and dried and brought in for the winter months. So if you have ever grown an amazing squash or pumpkin or carrot or onion and you have had the pleasure of pulling that sucker out of the cellar on some cold dark afternoon in February… and you got that brief wiff, the momentary connection to the power of sun and water and soil to grow healthy food…. you have a sense of what its like to crack open fresh nutritious bales of hay all winter long and “feed out” to the animals. I can sit in that barn and watch and listen to cows and sheep eat that hay for hours. I love it.

I’ll put out some pics soon. Better yet come visit us. First “Open House” and Sheep Herding Demo on July 9th!!

Last post... still eating hay.....

Seasonal changes around here are marked as much by what we do as by what the weather is like. While the weather continues to try and hide the fact that spring is here, our chore routine makes it clear what the season. We are back to moving fences and animals, the days of bringing feed to them are over for now… we now bring them to the feed once again.

Now.....

We also have about 200 chicks on the ground again. Our second batch of broilers arrived on Friday and our first batch is on grass and about 3 weeks old. So the routines are different, the winter monotony is broken, and we are woking in the weather once again.

It is exciting to see things come alive and to share the joy that is evident in the animals as they hit the green grass and fresh air once again. Please come by for a visit and see what is happening if you are in the hood. I will try to get back on the posting wagon!

Ever read a short story called “Leiningen Versus The Ants“? For me it is the classic story of man vs. nature. I read it in high school can not really tell you the in’s and out’s of the story but it always comes to mind when I ponder squaring off with a “pest”. The problem, of course, is that these critters are so damn smart, and cautious. I think that the brazen nature of this creature will lead, eventually, to his downfall. (I have watched him urinate and this is how I know it is a “he”.) He is becoming more and more brazen here on the farm.

His visits are always after the farm has settled down from chores. I am pretty sure he listens to the sheep blatting all over the place while we feed and water everyone at chore time. Then we all go in to make supper and eat… stories… bed, etc. He slips in behind the barn, digs in some compost, grabs a loose chicken… whatever suits him.

I maintain lavish daydreams of out “foxing” him. I ponder camo, face paint, long silent stake outs with gun at the ready. I become Bill Murray as he plots the destruction of the gopher in Caddyshack.

So if you see me making small chickens out of plastic explosives you know what I am up to. The funny thing is that I have taken two shots at this critter (with the wrong gun but, as Donald Rumsfeld once said , “You go to war with the army you have”) and have missed badly because all my rage at his pesky raids and their consequences pump away as I hyperventilate at having him in my sites at last. Maybe if I were a hunter I would have a clue how to manage the adrenaline and calmly defend my flock.

It forces that realization that he and I can not share this little peninsula, not as long as he is smarter than I am. Free range and foxes don’t mix…

Eggs are not a big money maker, you can cover your costs and make a little profit after going through the 2 year cycle. You spend a lot up front to feed them in the first 6 months before laying begins, you try as well to keep the lights on and make sure they produce as much as possible during the winter months. What is great about eggs, I have found, is the connection most people have to them. Eggs have a place in most people’s diets and, beyond that, they have a place in our culture that is also noteworthy.

People can relate to eggs, and to me they are an amazing communicator of quality and health. I wrote a earlier of the 99 cent eggs at Walgreens. Part of this reflection was about scale and quality, about how a small producer can compete with those able to sell an egg for a little over 8 cents. What I have found though, and it was not clear in that post, is that increasingly people are willing to admit that not all eggs are the same. That is one of the biggest battles still out there in food marketplace, to convince people that some eggs are better than others, some peppers are better than others, etc. Not just better in taste, better food…. more nutrition, more mineral, more power for your body.

I think most people will willingly admit that some pizza is better than others, some apple pie is better than others, etc. The human factor is worshipped here, the ability of one vs. another in the kitchen. While the ingredients are a level playing field, it is the skill of the cook in the kitchen that makes a big difference. For example, my Aunt Lib made (hands down) the best blueberry (pronounced “bluebry”) pie EVER.  Maybe there is some recognition of the quality of the ingredients, but for the most part its a matter of cooking skill.

What I have seen with the almighty egg is the ability is has to communicate the primacy of methods. I have seen that for many it is a stretch to imagine one egg really differing from another. Shell, yoke, white… and egg is an egg man. When people do see the difference, when they taste the difference, it is such a great opening for conversation about the power of pasture farming.

A chicken can not hide the care she receives. She only has what she is fed and surrounded with to make her eggs. She will make an egg, in most cases, regardless. What she can tell us is that it matters what she is fed, how she is housed, what is under her feet each and every day. Given the right conditions, she will produce a masterpiece of health, nutrition, and beauty each time. We need to keep spreading this message as it is just as important for the cow, the sheep, the pig, and the vegetables. I think it was Michael Pollen in one of his books who said: “you are what you eat eats”…  love that.

Chickens in the Compost

Apparently all in time for some snow to come on Friday. How do you spell “uugg”, like Charlie Brown uugg? Please help us weather the storm by letting us know what you will be ordering this year. It is a huge help!

Longer posts and a Spring Newsletter in the coming days, promise.

2011 Order Form Final

Share Packages 2011

If you are “from away”…. we are happy to examine options to get your food to you… maybe even delivery, just saying don’t count it out. The food is worth it.

So a quick joke about “from away” which is the term in Maine for folks who are not from Maine. Full disclosure, I am from away… born in Michigan. So the big question is always… well, how long before a family can be considered native? I mean my kids are born in Maine so they are all good right? Can’t say they are from away… right?  Well, one old Mainer I spoke to about this said:

“Son, just cause a cat craws into the stove to have her kittens… don’t make ‘em biscuits”

So lets talk about Walgreens. I have watched the erection of a Walgreens happen over the past 18 months on a corner I happen to commute by every day on my way to work (“other work”). It has been an interesting little “note to self” each day… got the foundation laid, ooh look the windows are in, putting up the sign today, paving the parking lot, Opening Day! It was almost like I cared after a while… it was my Walgreens.

That game lost its possibility once the doors opened to customers. I have still not been in my Walgreens… looks nice though.. wonder how they are holding up against the Rite Aid across the street?

ANYWAY… they have a really nice message sign out front, you know those ones that have the numbers and letters formed by the little red dots, each day a new message of promise and appeal..

The message today was: “A Dozen Eggs  -   99 cents” . That is a little over 8 cents an egg.  I was trying to think about what else I can buy for 8 cents. Even my favorite little sniblets (my word, not sure where I got it)  of junk food candy run me a dime.

Economies of scale, cheap food… what’s the cost?

ps.

We are up to 15 lambs now… more on the way… Spring Newsletter coming out this weekend! Stay Tuned!

Three Breeds / Three Colors

There has been little hostility since moving the one breed apart, the whole atmosphere seems to have settled down too. May be a little hard to believe but there is a palpable difference in the space now. Phew! We will keep our fingers crossed… up to about 35 eggs a day now, more birds coming on-line every day.

Lambs too continue to show up. We now have 8 lambs out of 4 ewes…. two twins, a triple, and a single. All are happy and healthy although we do have a ewe with one side of her udder not functioning. Of course it is the one with triplets.

We noticed the day after they were born that they were all competing for only one teat. Once in a while there is a plug that lambs are not able to remove during the first sucklings. We thought it was plugged… alas it is not. Nothing is coming out at all. We do not know what happened, she may have sustained an injury last year we were not aware of that resulted in tissue damage inside the udder. Pretty sure she will not produce again out of that side.

Not ready to think yet about what this means down the road. For now we simply lament the situation and beging the process of supplemental feeding (bottle) of the triplets. They will continue to battle for the one real milk spout but it will in no way cover their needs. A new chore is born!

So far the ewe does not seem to be in too much discomfort and she is not running a temperature. We’ll see where this leads, hopefully the udder decreases in size and her body adjusts. We’ll see.