feb 5 blizzard

And yet another blizzard to contend with. Outside the wind is wailing. Through the window I see the snow speeding across the fields. The cows are miserable. The roads are miserable. I am miserable.

Actually, I am not entirely. The house is indeed toasty warm with a gentle fire rolling in the stove. A little glass of rum and ice is a luxury beside me on the desk as I type. Things could be worse.

I did have to experience the wind and blowing snow first hand while watering the cows and repairing fence earlier tonight. That whole process, on a night like tonight, simply reinforces my ideas about the price of food...it isn't high enough!

Thankfully, I receive little opposition to my pricing of our farm products. I try my best to keep things fair and so far my customers are extremely educated on the subject...they get it. They get that it is a tremendous amount of work to do things right, the hard way. The small-scale way, without chemicals and poisons, and unsustainable borrowing practices. I suspect that they appreciate that work and devotion and I appreciate them.

So, with ears and nose stinging with cold, I continue to do what it takes. To haul the grain, water the cows and mill the flour in order to make our little farm work and provide good quality, locally grown, organic food to as many people as I can.

Dreaming of spring.

steer processing

Well, we have slaughtered our one and only steer for 2010. Everything went smoothly and the sides of beef are now hanging in the cooler at Cardiff Meats and Sausage. The beef will be cut and wrapped sometime around the 18th of November. I didn't take any footage of the slaughter process. It is something that I may consider in the future, but for me the whole process has a lot to do with respect for the animal and is not something that makes me want to stop to take pictures.

beautiful morning in the pasture

I missed the best light this morning, it was just beautiful though. Quite chilly at 8C, but the cows were lounging; quietly chewing cud and resting for a day of grazing. Skipper was giving me the stink eye in this picture. I am always a little cautious around him. These are his girls after all and I can imagine him getting aggressive when called upon. I always get after him when he postures to me, but I would always prefer to avoid a confrontation if given the choice. Skipper belongs to friends of ours, but he has spent a good portion of his life with our little herd. We take care of him and share him with another bigger cattle farmer in exchange for his services. Bulls are dangerous animals...we've been to rodeos and have seen what they are capable of. The white faced cow belongs to friends of ours and is on our farm with her 2009 calf. We have tons of pasture and hay so we offered to take care of them this year while they fix fencing. Our friends live in an acreage subdivision and only have the two cows.

This is "Henny". She is the first cow we ever owned. Henrietta is now almost 8 years old I believe, but she is in tremendous health and always delivers us a healthy calf. We have never attended any of her calving events. Henny is a Galloway/Highland cross. One of the calves in the picture is hers...I think it is the closest one. The back one belongs to my favorite cow "Missy". Henny's calves are always the psychos of the herd...constantly escaping whenever the chance presents itself and wild. Missy on the other hand, along with her calves, are very placid and tame...the labotomized cattle. They always come up for a back scratch and are very affectionate. Missy's 2009 calf is "Miley" and she will be bred by Skipper this year. This year both Henny and Missy had bull calves...lots of meat in the freezer next fall.