Spring is close by

The chill of each Tennessee morning is getting replaced with more regularity by a warm afternoon.  It is these hints that remind me that spring is right around the corner.  That and the cheep of our little chicks.  That's right! We have some new baby chicks that are going to provide some of the free range fresh eggs we came to love in our old farm.  As with all the other animals on the farm these guys will be out on pasture and be exposed to green grass and fresh air.

Now is also the time where projects get rolling.  We are currently building a movable pen to house our heritage turkeys and trying out some raised garden beds in an attempt to grow some carrots.  With the clay based soil we have that has been a pipe dream.  Thanks to anawhite.com I found a cheap plan to make these.

Things are a changing

We have moved our operation to middle Tennessee to better serve the growing customer base that this farm has created.  Thank you to all of our customers and we are very excited about this new move.  We are currently on a 35 acre plot in Decherd, TN which is going to allow us to expand out into bee, chicken, eggs, and pork on a broader scale.  All of this will still be produced the old fashion way with sweat and hard work but no chemicals. 

Look for updates soon.

-Brian

They must be crazy

Well our latest venture has been raising some chickens for meat.  These guys have been an interesting experience.  We decided to go the traditional route and buy Cornish X chicks.  These guys are the same as you would see at a Tyson farm or any major producer.  They have often been referred to as a race car with feathers and I can see why.  The amount of feed these guys are able to consume is absolutely mind boggling.  We have had them out on our front lawn and we move the pens they are in on a daily basis.  This way we have 2 great benefits.  The first benefit is that there is no need to change bedding b/c it gets soiled with fresh grass each day that is a fresh place to fertilize.  The second advantage has been the lack of sickness.  We have not had a single bird get sick and we feed no antibiotics in their food.

In the next day or two I will let you know a little about our egg laying chicks and the difference in the two types of chickens.  So having chickens in a movable pen in our front yard has created a they must be crazy caravan of cars.  What are some crazy things you have done or what have you seen that made you go huh?.

What a fun ride it has been so far

We are off and rolling in our first true year on the farm.  It has been such a great experience so far and we look forward to many more rewarding things in the future.  As we get busier into growing season we promise to continue to update the blog weekly to keep all of our fans and customers up to date on the things happening around the farm.

Since we last posted in December we have had a lot of fun action happen.  We have started our first batch of meat chickens for the year.  They are out in their salatin style pen making a tour of our front yard.  I am all but convinced the neighbors think we are insane which is a good thing.  We also have 20+ new laying hen chicks in a separate pen.  They are going to be 100% organic as we have started them out from day 1 on organic feed from Countryside Organics in Virginia.  The feed is 2x as expensive but I know being able to give the kids these eggs is going to be better for them as well as the local customer base which craves organics.

We have had a few losses along the way.  While we were out in Seattle at a wedding we lost all but 2 of our laying hens which really set us back big time in the egg department.  We also lost our 8 turkeys to an attack from a raccoon (we think).  That is why we are out here on small acreage figuring all of this stuff out though.

It has been a blast doing what God has called us to do.  We get reaffirmed every day that we are where we need to be.  The latest affirmation came from our insurance agent.  We told him where we lived and he asked 2 or 3 times if the house had a lien.  I never thought about it before but this house sat on the market for almost a year.  I assumed people couldn't afford it or didn't want it.  The lien issue however reminded me that if not for our great realtor who got it removed this house would have sold quickly.  I think at least 6 people put in offers only to be dissuaded by the lein.  Our house is now lien free I am glad to say.

I will let Logan blog about her bank aha moment soon.  Lets just say she now believes this thing is going to be fun.

Brian

Spring is almost here!

It is crazy to think about but the above headline is kinda true.  Even though Christmas is a week away the spring rush is closing in upon us.  That means that planning for next years crops is already in the works.  We just recieved our first shipment of seed from Gurney's.  We got enough to get us thru the spring and summe rplanting seasons.  Next thing on the list is to find a tiller that we can purchase or one to rent so We can plow up the fields.  We currently have the cows out on the plot where we will have the garden and they are doing some fertilizing for us but we will soon have to rope them out of the area to give it a little less hoof preasure.  Again as we stated earlier it is our goal to grow all of our own meat and veggies for 2011 and beyond so we have been working extra hard to prepare the ground in the right way.

As with our cows we will be practicing a sustainable approach to our garden meaning no pesticides for use.  We will do all of the weeding either with a tiller or by hand (both is more likely) and will plant in aoordance with the organic practices to take natural allies together (e.g. tomatoes and cucumbers).

Spring also means that we can hear the chirping of little chicks in our future.  We will be getting about 100 broilers in the mail to raise and use for chicken (yum!). Out on pasture of course in a salatin style pen.  If anyone of our friends in Tennessee would like to buy some feel free to drop us a line on the blog or at littlefeetfarm@yahoo.com.  Since we are not looking to get into too much federal regulation we will sell you the live bird and then dress it for free if you so desire.  Again, in order to do this you must pre order the birds otherwise we fall into all sorts of govt regulations.  As we all know the government is good for about nothing and food inspection is unfortunatly not any diffrent.  Note the egg salmanila breakout earlier this year.  Again this is why we have stuck out on this path and hope that we can grow a good customer base to support Logan's goal of staying at home with the kids.  If you like what we are doing than support a family like ours in your local area. You can find people who believe in sustanable agriculture at eatwild.com or do a goole search for grass fed.

Animals and the snow

Well it has finally happened. We have gotten our first patch of that wintry goodness known as snow. While we have had some in the air before this was the first that stuck to the ground. What a joy it was to wake up and find our five acres covered in a blanket of wintry white. The joy of the moment was immediately offset when I took my first step out into this winter wonderland and was hit by the 20 mph wind and the 24 (but feels like -10) degree weather. Why would any human subject himself to such a harsh treatment? To feed the animals of course. As with all things in life the farm doesn’t stop being a farm just because you are tired, or sick, or at work. No it goes on in its drumbeat low and steady. The first worry was whether or not our beloved hens had survived this clod snap. While we have been at these temperatures a couple of times this year it had never gotten this windy before and of course had never snowed with such vigor. Usually we are awoken every morning at 5 am by the sweet serenade of our rooster beckoning the sun to come up over the horizon. Well much to my surprise the only noise that arose me this morning was my alarm clock going off at 5:15 drawing me from my deep slumber under the warm sheets. The thought immediately raced thru my head about the chickens and the cattle having turned into blocks off ice like you would see in a bugs bunny cartoon.




So it was with this image instilled in my head that I trotted out to the chicken coop. usually as I am leaving for work at 6 the chickens have already ventured out form the coop and occupy the back yard looking for breakfast. As I glance around hoping the the snow had somehow came lodged them my sense of worry began to deepen. Then right as I turned to open the first hatch I heard the most joyous noise of clucking as the hens had surely been alerted to the presence of a stranger outside. I opened up the door and found all my ladies huddled up but looking rather chipper as if the too had longed to sleep in without the rooster stirring them from their slumber. I quickly fed the brood some corm mash and while that did peak the interest of a few to come down from their roost most remained tucked away from the elements. By this time all the commotion from the hens had drawn my cattle into the front pasture for a closer look.



The guys looked good as they had a thick layer of snow covering their fur but were showing little signs of not being well fed. I broke the ice in their trough and laid out a bale of hay for them to much on. We ended up sticking a deal with the neighbor for some good cheap hay that I am using as a supplement. After laying out the hay I opened up the next section of winter pasture for them to graze on. As usual they had a great time trouncing around in the fresh pasture and despite the snow cover they dove right in and began pushing snow out of the way to unearth the delicious forage below. While I had read that they would do this it was great to see that they actually would eat thru snow given the opportunity to graze good quality grass. It reinforced even further the idea that what we were trying to accomplish going the all natural sustainable route was already working!.



So animals are more resilient than we give them credit for. The have taken this snow in stride and seem no worse for the snow!.



P.S. We have changed the settings where anyone can comment so fell free. You need not be a member.
 
  Grazing on stored forage.

How to follow this blog

In this new era of facebook, twitter, and the like it is easy to get caught up with how many friends or followers you have. You can find yourself measuring your stature in society based off of 2 simple social network numbers. We here at the little feet farm blog are no different. We look with obsession on how many people are following our blog. Some of you have asked how to do this so here is a quick recap of how. Also in order to comment you need to be following us. SO get our self esteem up a few points and click follow.

Step 1.) Right under the picture of our cows you will see a tab that says follow this blog. Click it.
Step 2) A second browser window will open up and you can at that point do 1 of 2 things
a.)If you have a yahoo, google, or any account listed in the tab you just need to click those and sign in using your info. e.g put in your yahoo! id and password. You will then click follow this blog (either publicly or privatly)
b.) if you do not have an account with one of the 3 services you can create a google account by clicking the link at the bottom of the window. THis will give you g-mail and all sorts of other fun stuff but most important you will get to follow us (so we feel good) and make fun of us in the comment section
Step 3) get e-mails when we post new stuff and go back and add comments to past links.

Thats all it takes. Please share your memories with us and the world wide web. i have heard so many nice things from some of you and look forward to those being shared with friends and future customers!!