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!!

Farm Fresh Eggs

Much to our surprise and joy the hens have started laying eggs. It all happened quite quickly and as with all other ventures on this farm it gave us a neat story to blog about. We were coming home after church and as usual the hens had gotten onto the porch. As my wife likes to say she can now relate to the old ladies in the movies that would shoo away hens with a broom from the porch. Anyway these guys would normally go scurrying off into the rest of the yard and allow us to pass but one of the hens did not move an inch. I remarked rather candidly that :She looks like she is about to lay an egg”. Of course I did not have the slightest clue that my skills as a fortune teller were so in tune. Anyway we scurry all the kids inside to take an afternoon nap and as usual 5 things were left behind in the car. I step out onto the front porch and what do I see but an egg and no hen. I must have squealed like a little girl b/c Logan came rushing out to make sure I had not fallen and we both looked very excitedly down at our new little treasure. Since this was the first egg we both pinky swore to wait and enjoy it as a family and suffer thru the store bought eggs for a while. Almost like clockwork the rest of the hens started laying and thankfully they all figured out that their home was a good place for egg laying. I really was not looking forward to the idea of having an Easter egg hunt on a daily basis.

We are now getting 4-6 eggs per day and as the season winds down we don’t expect those numbers to increase very much. Unlike the conventional egg farmer we do not use artificial light or coup them up in cages,. They are free range and lay according to the season which means as the days get shorter they will lay less often which is perfectly fine with us. This allow us to enjoy some of the best eggs you have ever had. The other interesting thing is that the shells are very tough to break. We feed out hens a free range mineral of oyster shells and grit which apparently is not give to your grocery store eggs.

Anyway it has been way to long for a post but I can promise there will be more coming. We have started our winter rotation for our cows and have yet to feed a single bale of hay and yet every other farmer in our county has to crank up the diesel tractor and lay out some. Ah the smell of profits in the morning. Or is that something on my boots? Also we will be sharing our seed buying adventures. Planting season starts in earnest in February and we look forward to growing fresh food well into August.

Until next time all of us from little feet farm are wishing all of you a happy holiday season.

The rooster has learned to crow

So we are sitting outside having fun with the kids when all of the sudden we here Cock-a-doodle-do. Just at that moment we look over to see our proud rooster with his head cocked sidways like wow did I just do that. Then I look back at my wife with eyes the size of saucers thinking wow did he just do that. So now we have a country alarm clock. Oh boy this will be fun!

Rotation 1 down

The Self Sufficient Life

The mission is changing. Well the mission is being slightly altered would be a more accurate statement. When we originally moved onto our five acres I wanted a place where I could create a business plan for profitable small acreage farm. While that goal is still at the forefront of the decisions we have made from a livestock perspective I have discovered a second and equally challenging goal. After stumbling across the book by John Seymour The self-sufficient life and how to live it I have been challenged and inspired to have this simple five acre plot be a place where we as a family can grow and produce all of the food we would need to eat year round. While this may not be an easy goal it is one that I hope to be able to bring to fruition in the next five years.

My wife and I have started a journey to get out of the rat race of life. i truly enjoy going to work and am blessed to be working for a great company that is stable and safe. If there is one thing I have learned for the great recession it is that depending on the safety of a paycheck is no way to live life. We have sought the council of many people including the teachings of Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Donald Trump, ect... and have come to the conclusion that living life free from the chains of debt is the best way for us to raise our family and allow our children to live a life better than ours. Isn't that the goal of any parent to have their child live in a way better than they were able to. I am blessed in that both of my parents allowed me to have a wonderful childhood and I feel that to do the same for my family we need to be debt free and live a life closer to the land. I am by no means going to quit my job. In fact I look to do the opposite. I look to work in a way where I make decisions that I know are best for the company and can have the freedom of knowing even if a boss disapproves to the point of me loosing my job that I will be bale to live without the worry of where my next meal will come from. Take time right now and add up all the things we pay each month, (car note, credit card bills, house note, phone bill, student loan perhaps, cable bill, ect ect). Now imagine if all of that money stayed in your bank account each month instead of going to the banks and fattening their bottom line. We began a journey about a year ago to be debt free minus the house by the end of 2012. I am happy to report that we should not only hit that goal but possible get there a year early. At that point we will look to pay off this homestead.

This rant on debt brings me back to the original intent of the blog. We will be starting a venture next spring to propagate an acre garden that will allow us to produce all of the vegetables we need to eat on. We will also be getting strawberry plants, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry bushes, and maybe even a few grape vines. With the cows and pigs already here and chickens for laying eggs the only other meat we will need is chicken to eat. I will be building a Salatin style pen next spring to try out and hopefully it will prove successful enough t where we can produce all the meat we eat at the Jones household. Imagine you grocery bill cut by 90%!! that is the journey we are on. So come along and enjoy the ride and feel free to stop in for some help along the way!!