JMD Farm and CSA

The temperatures today almost hit 60 degrees.  The weather this fall has been crazy.  I say neither good nor bad because I am not sure it can truly fall into either of those categories.  Don’t get me wrong, the warm temperatures have been nice but, there is a time for cold and freezing.  Freezing temperatures have the ability to put some of the insects to bed for the winter.  Those that have not buried themselves deep enough into the soil are killed off which decreases predation on garden crops the following year.  That is when I am glad for the cold and frozen ground.

The pasture grass goes dormant and begins storing up nitrogen for the following growing season.  Snow cover helps with this a lot as well.  Things in general slow down in the winter which is very important for farm life.  Summertime days are long.  They start early and end late.  I am always glad when the cooler temps and shorter days come.

KC, my Missouri Foxtrotter and Me.

Well I did have a change of scenery today.  I went up into Shenandoah National Park with my Missouri Foxtrotter, KC, and we took a ride.  It was great.  I rode up the Madison Run Fire Road from the bottom.  My friend hiked with one of the Border Collies.  In the park dogs have to be on a leash.  She is not overly thrilled of running on a leash but it is still good exercise for her.  KC and I didn’t quite make it to the top before we turned around.  I like to have some time on Sunday afternoon to lay around, read a book or take a nap.

I had a great time riding and really should do it more often.  It is very relaxing for me.  I don’t think about anything but where I am, my horse, and my surroundings.  It is freeing.  We all have those places we go or things we do that allows us to pull away from the world, from the pressures of our jobs and the complexities our lives.  Riding is how I escape.

Farming after dark becomes extremely difficult. I mean you can use headlights, and flashlights, and lights on the equipment but it is still hard. I spend as much time as outside farming as the daylight permits. This obviously means my summer days are long and the winter allows time to sit around the woodstove and enjoy a glass of wine.

The laying hens and Eggmobiles

Yes, you read that last bit right, a glass of wine. Farmers do drink wine. Or at least this one does. I enjoy a good red of the cabernet line. French is my favorite, generally Bordeaux if I had my pick. After a long day in the winter a glass of wine by the woodstove allows me time to debrief. Time to think of the day, what I didn’t get done and what I did, it provides a necessary closure. Don’t get me wrong. In the summertime, when it is a thousand degrees outside I want a good beer. I mean good too. No offense to Budweiser or Miller but I want a good dark beer like a Guinness.

Well anyway, the day dawned clear and cold. The temperature outside when I got up to have some coffee was 22 degrees. Not too cold, but cold enough to blanket the ground with a thick layer of frost. So today is Saturday and the work still comes. Today I had fence to fix so I could move the cows onto new grass. You might say, “Gosh, you move cows a lot.” Well your right, we do, especially in the summer. During the summer we are moving cows every couple of days to increase grazing efficiency. Today they move from one paddock to another just next door. They are generally ready to move and do so with ease.

The hogs and chickens need water and feed no matter what the day. They don’t eat just because it’s Saturday and Sunday. No weekends off here. Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining. I LOVE what I do.

All in all, I can’t complain about this day.  I got to finish my cup of coffee this morning with no interruptions, it has warmed up nicely and I have not had to chase cows.  Not to bad for a day here at the farm.

As I look over the fields from where I sit I can see the sheep grazing in the big field below the house with the horses,  the cows are on the back hill, and the hogs are down in the woods.  I know that because every once in a while I hear the lids on the hog feeder banging shut.  The hogs have about 3 acres of wood to run in. 

The hogs do four things.
#1. They sleep, generally all lined up side by side.  There really is something to the saying pigs in a blanket as they do lie literally side by side like they were trying to squeeze under a blanket that is just a bit too small for them all to sleep under.
#2. They rout.  They move around the woods with their noses down into the leaf matter in search of nuts, grubs, or other delicacies to the pigs palate.  It is amazing to watch this behavior and see how strong their noses and necks are.  Every once in a while they will come up and get some food out of the feeder.  This is a self feeding device that has lids over each of the holes.  They lift up these lids with their noses and help themselves.  When they are done they pull their head out and the lid slams down. BANG! 
#3. They drink.  I fill their water tubs up every day with 15 gallons of water.  On hot days after they drink as much as they want sometimes they will knock their tubs over, again lifting with their noses.  Once they are managed to spill all the water out they roll around in the newly created mud.  They find great pleasure in this activity.  I also keep a small area with water in it during the summertime so they can always cool themselves.  Sometimes as I go by this area I will see them, again, lined up side by side laying the muddy water.  It is a sight.
#4. They poop and pee.  Won’t spend too much time on this subject, but their poop looks a lot like people poop.  Not that I spend a lot of time looking at people poop but that is what it looks like.

On that note I will sign off for today!

The cows are coming!

This day has been something else.  It started about 7 o’clock this morning as I was finishing up my cup of coffee.  I got a phone call informing me that my cows were out.  I know, I know, yesterday it was the sheep, today it is the cows.  Hey, when it rains it pours right. 

We have been grazing the cows on some pasture on the other side of the road from the main farm.  We have our own little cattle drive a couple of times a year when we take the cows down the lane, across the road, through an open field, into the woods to the pasture on the far side.  In a few weeks time depending on the weather they get brought back home.  Well this time they decided it was time to come home on their own.

A few small calves had been ducking under the electric fence for the last couple of days.  My guess is when one ducked in or out last night or this morning they broke the electric that was containing the whole cow herd.

Yeap, you read that right…THE WHOLE COW HEARD.  I ran out, jumped on the Kubota and tore off to find the cows.  They had scattered themselves over a mile in various people’s yards up the road.  I proceeded to call them to see if they would come.  You might be asking yourself how does one call a cow?  That is a fair question.  Believe it or not many farmers are able to call their cows.  We yell a word that sounds like “Walk” but with a long U placed within the word.  So it sounds like “WAAAUUUULLLK”. 

Not too long after my calling they begin to come, thankfully.  I try to stay in front of the heard as they travel down the road in the direction of the lane, which is what we need them to go up to get them back to the main farm.  Things are going pretty well at this point.  We have a few cars piling up behind the cows but, so far so good.

Well, when we are within 100 yards of the lane the lead cow takes an about turn to the right and heads up a driveway.  Of course the whole heard follows.  They continue out that drive onto the other main road at which point they turn up the hill which is the complete opposite direction I need them to go in.  What a nightmare!

They cross this main road and head over to our neighbors fence line and finally turn toward home after some encouragement.  We are finally able to get them into the woods a little bit to get them around the fence line that separates our place from the neighbors.  Finally they are on home turf.  They come across one of the gardens, through the yard, and finally into the field. 

By 8:30 we had the whole heard back in as it was finally starting to warm up a little.  It was 22 degrees when all the craziness started which meant I had a nice covering of frost on my shoes by the time it was all said and done.  It felt good in come inside, stand by the woodstove, and have my last few sips of coffee.

Well I am sure everyone will be relieved to know that the sheep have come back.  They meandered across the top of the hill, through the fence, down into the bottom, across the creek and into the field here around the house.  To watch sheep any given day is an amazing thing.  They can cover a tremendous amount of ground grazing the whole way.

From where the house sits to the back property line is about a mile.  They travel this distance starting at the barn at least once a day.  Keeps them in shape I guess. 

Many of the ewes have been bred and are due to lamb the beginning of March.  They say it is better to have sheep that are getting regular exercise prior to lambing than ones who don’t.  Same idea with people I guess.

Lambing is a whole different ballgame.  I will have to dedicate one whole post to that aspect.

Sometimes I think a job in the city wouldn’t be so bad.  The office would either be warm on cold days or cool on hot days, generally you have people to talk to whether you like them or not might be another matter, and you get a pay check at the end of every pay period.  Steady money coming in on the farm is always a problem. 

I woke up to a cool morning on the farm.  The wind has blow most of the day with a pretty decent cloud cover.  There feels to be a good bit of moisture in the air and I saw where there was snow on top of the Alleghenies this morning.  I guess Fall and soon Winter has finally arrived.

Trials of the day. 

1. I am having an awful time keeping the sheep off my neighbors.  Thankfully he doesn’t get too upset when they come visiting but it is far from ideal.  Sheep are hard to contain and we have some serious fence work around to do.  To be honest with you I am not sure why they are going over there.  We still have plenty of grass but there is something to the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side” even if it really isn’t. 

2. Fly, one of the border collies, chased the Turkey (Sqaunto-named by my niece) out of the enclosure where the laying hens are kept.  They seem to have a love hate relationship or something as they are always chasing each other around.  I will have to catch him later and put him back in which is no easy feat.

3. Last but not least.  I will have to gather Ben, one of the guard dogs, up from the neighbor’s field as he followed the sheep over.

Just a day in the life of ME!

New born Suffolk lamb with broken rear leg.

My goal with this blog is to give people the opportunity to have a relationship with the outside, natural world on a daily basis.  What will appear here will be interesting stories of daily farm life.  A diversion from a life of sky scrapers, windows looking out over cement and asphalt, cars, metros, stoplights, and sirens.

What I see on a daily basis consists of mountains, the animals I raise here on JMD Farm, my dogs, and my family.  Everyday holds something new from something as big as a new lamb being born to as small as a flake of snow.  Between the big and the small my life holds the consistency of knowing that by my farming practices I am creating a healthier environment for not only those around me but for future generations.

Looking Toward the Blue Ridge Mountains- sunrise

Virginia, Shenandoah Valley, New Hope, Small Farm, In Family Since 1850.

Woke up this morning to temperatures hovering around 55 degrees, dark and windy with heavy rain falling.  The light continues to make its appearance a little later each morning as the days continue to shorten to the winter solstice.  For farm life that means the grass has all but stopped growing and we are growing closer to the time that the animals will start needing to be fed.

 Speaking of animals, we raise, chickens for laying and eating (those are called broilers), sheep, cattle, hogs, and have one dairy cow.  She is of the jersey breed, the only animal on the farm with a name and her name is Delilah.  More on her later.  We also have four border collies, Pip, Fly, Quee, and Hope.  As well as two guard dogs of the Pyrenees breed, Ben and Gwin.  Check back for pictures.

 Since waking up to fairly warm, rainy morning, the clouds are now beginning to break with the sun peeking through.  The wind continues to tear around the farm house and the temperatures are steadily dropping as the cold front begins its movement into the area.