June 14

Gosh it has been eating at me that I haven't updated the blog for so long. I really enjoy my blogging, but you can probably understand the pressure that I have been going through lately with the spring farm work and moving the farm...along with the other normal family related requirments. I have some pictures and video of what has been going on for the past month or so. I'll try to post those in the next day or two.

First of all "the move"...we have been going gangbusters with trips out to the new farm for the past several weeks. When the grain truck is available between seeding gigs we load it up with furniture, boxes and other assorted junk that is too valuable to just toss. We also have another little utility trailer that Cindy can pull with her CRV. On top of that we loaded up our horse trailer and borrowed my SIL's big stock trailer. Trips are made to the property while Cindy sometimes stays behind to continue loading the next trailer or truck. It has been going well and we actually have 60-70% of our stuff moved. We have to be out of our house on the 25th of June.

Farm work...that has been going well also. No breakdowns so far. The peas were seeded first in late May. That took a day. Then we moved and seeded the oats...that took two days. Then we moved again and seeded the wheat in another day. Yesterday I started seeding the Buckwheat but ran out of fuel and had to quit around 7:30. This was after a very long day of moving furniture and moving equipment and a few minor repairs of the seed drill. I just didn't have the energy to go get more fuel. I will finish seeding the buckwheat tonight after work and after a stop at the fuel station.

That, in a nutshell, is my life lately.

Construction Update - April 26

Not a whole lot has changed lately. I met with the guy who is performing the dirt work this morning. His name is Ed Budzinsky and is actually a schoolmate of mine from Bon Accord. Good guy. We met today to finalize my wishes for the yard. There isn't much left to do...just touch up the driveway a little and expand the yard area where the house is to be located. We needed this area a little larger to accomodate the house and a circular driveway that will be on the east side of the house. This circle will allow guests an easy way to get in and out of our yard without having to backup...a skill that seems to elude a lot of people for some reason? Anyways, this will make it easy for grandma to come for a visit and it will also be easier for me to clear snow with the tractor. I can simply drive around in a circle instead of moving back and forth back and forth.

The gravel for the driveway has been ordered and tomorrow it will be delivered. The grader will still be on-site finishing the dirtwork along the ditches and putting a finishing touch on what is spread by the gravel truck.

Today I also approved the electrical line installation to the yard site. It only cost $270 and I get that back in the form of a government grant so that is a good deal. I will meet with the Fortis installation foreman sometime in the next few days and let him know where I want the lines and he will let me know if that works for him. Not quite sure what to expect for a timeline on installation.

Mrs. Schneider ordered the garage package today also. We ended up ordering the garage package from UFA instead of Totem...it was cheaper. We decided to go with regular form of construction for the garage as opposed to a strawbale building. It will go up faster and easier and then we will have a place to start storing household items from our current house.

The development permit and garage construction permit were approved last week so we are good to start building something. The plans for the house are still underway with the designer/architect/engineer...but they should be ready within the next two weeks.

Busy, busy, busy.

Auction notes

I enjoy going to farm auctions. There is a very real excitement, or for lack of a better term "high" that comes when you bid on something. Even if it is a $20 box of cultivator shovels my heart starts beating heavily in my chest as I bid. The adrenelin rushes a bit and I get a little shaky holding up my number on the bid card for the auctioneer to read once I win something. Of course, the amount of shakiness is directly proportional to how much money I have just spent.

When I attend auctions I tend to just hang back and see what's out there and if the item is something that I could use, I try to come up with a limit of what I would pay for it and still consider it a "deal" that I would brag about later at the coffee shop. That is sort of my gauge for purchasing items at auction. It's funny but you never hear about how someone over paid for something at auction do you? Most people must have the same sense of guidelines for auction bidding that I do.

Every now and then though I attend an auction for a specific item that I really want to acquire. Be it a nice, shedded tractor with low hours and a fresh engine or a combine with similar features. These are the auctions where a little strategy comes in to play and the nerves are weakened just a bit. Usually, in this case what I try to do is stay out of the bidding just to see who the players are. Hopefully, the item I want is late in the auction and I have had a chance to get to know the crowd...who has the money, who is buying what. I watch for who is going over the equipment I want as the auction proceeds. Usually, the people that want to bid on something go over it with a fine tooth comb. I try to get to know the equipment prior to the auction. Almost always, you can phone the farmer and make time to go look at the tractor ahead of time. Sometimes, I already know the farmer and how he takes care of his stuff.

Now when the tractor is finally up for bid, I let a few guys bid it up and I see who really wants it. I try to let them bid up a few times and wait to see who drops out. I already know how much I am willing to spend so I try to get into the bidding near my limit, but still low enough to bid a few times. When I bid, I bid very fast and with extreme confidence trying to send a message that this tractor is mine no matter how high you want to bid against me. Of course I am not always successful and maybe I am bidding against someone who wants the equipment as bad as I do and he has more money to spend, or set his limit higher, or has no idea what it is truly worth. I bid up to my limit and hope that I have bluffed him out of trying to bid against me any further. If he bids again, I shake my head and walk out...letting the auctioneer know I am "out".

It also pays to pay attention to what the auctioneer is saying at an auction. I almost always attend auctions alone so I don't get chatty cathy and I try to stay focused on the details of the item being bid. A perfect example of this was this weekend when a typical fuel tank and stand went up for bid. I needed a tank and stand and these looked no different than any other setup. I was willing to spend up to $230 for the bid. Then the auctioneer said something curious...that the tank was full of diesel fuel! The bidding started and a few guys started throwing bids. I quickly made a calculation that the fuel in the tank was worth around $900 and that the tank and stand itself would be around $250. The bidding was slowing down at $400 and so, with three successive quick nods of my head, I had won $1150 worth of stuff for $475! When I returned to the auction site later in the afternoon to fill up my tidy tank with cheap fuel, a fellow auction attendee drove past me with his winnings and commented that he didn't know it was full of fuel...should've been paying more attention shouldn't he?

I said earlier that people don't mention the stuff they overpaid for? Well at the same auction, I let emotions get a hold of me and I ended up paying too much for a really nice set of harrows. They are worth more than I paid, but I probably could've waited for another auction and got a similar piece of equipment for less. Oh well...the best laid plans.

Cheers!

New Farm Construction - Day 3

Just getting finished up on the rough shaping of the driveway and yard. Next will come the grader, packer and then finally the gravel. It is starting to look like a farmyard already...well, not really I suppose. But, it is easy enough for me to envision how things will look when complete.


Rain in the forecast for the next 3 days. We need it so bad it isn't funny. There are over 60 wildfires burning in Alberta today...more than 4 times the normal for April. This is ridiculous. Whoever says that the climate isn't changing has their head in the sand. When I see the rains in the midwest and central prairies, the droughts along the foothills. The intensity of winter storms along the east. Seems pretty obvious to me that things are more volatile and changing fast.

New Farm Construction - Day 1

Here is a quick video on what our property looks like after Day 1. Here is the Cat D6 dozer building the driveway. He is stripping the topsoil out of the way, then he will wing the clay back up onto what will become the roadbed. After that, the topsoil will be replaced into the ditches and spread out evenly.
I will update on a regular basis the progress with construction. I am betting that this is going to be the boring part of construction for most of you. Everyone I know, is anxious to see the strawbale house be erected. It is very exciting for us though to see the differences in the property each and every day.

Ok...time to update

Sorry that it has been a while since I updated the blog. Here is what is happening. We have found our property and closed on the deal; we have started the process of getting the blueprints drawn; the permits have all been applied for; construction of the driveway and yard have started! This is all great news for us as we have been trying to sell our current location for almost 2 years.

Farming activities have also begun for 2010. It is another hot, dry spring and we are all quite afraid of the fact that another drought year is imminent. We have spent a few days now breaking or should I say re-breaking some hay land. Last year it was broke and seeded in wheat but the wheat did not germinate and the alfalfa simply overtook it. It is a little easier to break this year and hopefully we will get a good kill on the alfalfa so that whatever moisture remains available to the grain seed.

Other than that, we are busy with the multitude of planning activities that go along with constructing a new home and running a certified organic grain operation. Our flour mill is up and running too! I almost forgot to mention that. We are currently selling flour through Eat Local First in Edmonton and will begin to get our products into retail stores like Homegrown Foods in Stony Plain and others.

We have decided to forego with the decision to sell our products at farmers markets for this summer. It is just too busy of a year for us to add another project to our plates.

still planning

We are very busy in the planning stages of our new farm. Currently we are looking for suitable land in the area that we have selected and for a suitable price! That is part of our frustration right now...prices. Here we are in the middle of year two of a pretty sizable economic downturn and people are still asking the same prices for land that they were two years ago during the boom. We found a beautiful quarter section in a prime location for a very reasonable price of $2,200 per acre. We made the mistake to think that we shouldn't act on the first piece of land that we come across and in our delay, another offer was made on the parcel. All the while we have been seeing prices that are at least $1000 more per acre than what this guy was asking. The first offer is conditional upon financing, so we are assuming that somebody wouldn't make an offer unless they were certain they could get the bank to agree. Our offer would be unconditional, but since it is a private deal with a farmer instead of a real estate agen, he wants to honour his verbal agreement with the first guy instead of taking our offer. Understandable.

I dont' want to mention the area we are looking at yet, but we have checked out the school and it is near family and still very close to Edmonton. We are still very excited to get to our new farm and start over!

We will keep looking but we are feeling anxious. Our consultant on the off-grid, strawbale house does not want to commence with design until we have secured the land. So, we need to get the land in order to start the process of drawings and other 'house' issues. We are not in a panick yet, just a little edgey.

As far as the house plans are concerned I think that we have settled on a design that we like. We are simply going to re-create our current house except only the main level. We currently live in a 1500 sq. ft. walkout that we designed and built 10 years ago; and over the years we have often discussed that the entire basement level is pretty much unneccessary. Our current basement is fully finished and we are down there often watching tv or whatever, but it is at the expense of upstairs being completely empty! So, we are going to stick with the devil we know and simply build a single level, strawbale version of our own home. I will take a picture of the plans and post them here sometime next week. You guys can give us your opinions on the plans at that time.

planning underway

Now that the farm has been sold we are very busy planning and discussing what we are going to build. There appears to be two different camps that have opposing views of what we are doing with our lives...one is saying "hey, that is wonderful go for it!". The other camp is saying "are freaking crazy?". Well, we are choosing to look at it from the first point of view...a chance to have a 'do-over' in life, to build whatever the heck kind of farm that we want from a blank canvass of land here in central Alberta.

The most important thing for us to consider is the house of course. We have had our hearts set on a straw bale house for almost half a decade now. We also want that house to be off-grid. Over the past week we have been focusing on those two aspects more than any other. How do we build our house if we have no place to live? What kind of infrastructure will exist in the house now that we are off-grid? No more electric stove/oven for instance. Another aspect of our house that is extremely important to Mrs. Schneider is the term "Healthy House". What this means is that no aspect of construction can create off-gassing...no foams, no particle board, no anything that will make our air sick. We are focusing on all-natural materials for our house or at least as natural as practical for our environment. We won't be able to construct a compacted dirt floor or go with a clay plaster for instance due to code and environmental conditions.

One of the problems we are facing now is how to heat and cook within our new home. We can easily go with propane stove/oven and a propane boiler for the in-floor heating but the fumes from combustion aren't exactly healthy are they? What about a wood cook stove? Actually, Cindy is surprisingly on-board with this solution but we are still a little aprehensive about going back in time that far! The propane fired boiler is alright because we can simply put it in the mechanical room which is sealed off from the living space of the house and it will be vented directly outdoors. But getting back to cooking with wood...we would sure like to hear more from folks who have done this or are currently doing it. What are the drawbacks...obviously it is more effort to start a fire and gather wood etc. but is there anyone out there who wishes they could get rid of their wood cookstove and replace it with something more modern? Here is a good post by Shirley on the subject.

To heat our home, as I mentioned earlier, we will stick with a propane boiler and in-floor heating. This will be only one of three methods used to heat our new home. The other two will be a passive solar design along with a small free-standing wood stove in the living room. Of course, we will forgo that stove if we already have a wood cookstove in the kitchen. The passive solar design along with the woodstove will mean that the in-floor heating doesn't work very hard, if at all. This will be a convenience for us in times when we are away from the house for the day or even on a tropical holiday.

Electrical systems will of course be solar powered and we will look into the practicality of a wind turbine. We will have to adapt our livestyle to follow along with the weather. On cloudy days with no wind, we will be somewhat relegated to what we can achieve electrically. On sunny, windy days we can do what we want. This seems to be the way of off-grid families. Actually it isn't much different than farming is it? You can't perform many farming operations when its raining and what you can achieve is almost always directly related to the weather. We will probably have a small diesel generator somewhere in the yard that can be fired up in times when we absolutely need the power and the weather isn't cooperating.

Well, that's about it for our house discussion today. The one thing I forgot to mention is that we are planning to build rather small and as efficient as possible. We are still struggling somewhat with actual construction design, but I suspect that we are going to focus on a load-bearing straw bale wall and simple hip roof design. I'll post our plans in a few days when we are a little more committed.

farm is sold!

Last night we had a visit from our realtor and he had an offer for us to consider...actually it was 2 offers! After two years of listing our place for sale, umpteen different let downs from people that we thought were serious, countless interruptions from people wanting to walk through our house (usually at the last minute) our place is finally sold. It is actually sold too...unconditional offer...money we can live with...big deposit sitting with the lawyers and a possession date that is flexible up until June 25th.

Now the panic sets in. We need to secure some financing based on the offer we have to purchase land. Then we can start slowly moving equipment, tools, animals etc. At the same time, we also need to finance enough money to be able to get the drawings done, pay the moving company, secure a builder, order materials, etc. etc. There is so much to do, but we are excited because this is the start of our dream that we've been dreaming for about 5 years. A cute little strawbale home, off-grid(ish), no debt, grain land and closer to my family. Very exciting for us indeed.

Now I will ask for some help from everyone out there. I will be posting ideas that we have for this that and the other thing and we would sure appreciate hearing from anyone with suggestions for doing things based on experience. Heating with wood? Capturing rain water for household use? Off-grid living? We have been researching all of these things and many more for years...the one thing we haven't done enough of is hearing from other folks who have actually done all of this. What would they do differently all over again...things of that nature. Wish us luck and we'll have fun updating the process along the way.

2010 Kentucky Derby

Nothing to do with organic grain farming at all...just for fun.

One of the things that I really enjoy is following along with the 3 year olds who are in contention to run in the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown. My Aunt Nan got me into the world of horse racing as she owned a stable and bred thoroughbreds. I was lucky enough to live and work on her farm for a time. It is only Feb. 5th and already today I spent a little time nosing around at what is happening with this years crop of 3 year old colts and fillies who are eligible to participate in the Triple Crown.

Then I stumbled upon this guy! This is Uptowncharlybrown and he posts regularly on his very own BLOG.

Isn't he a cute little guy? Of course this is a picture of him from 2007 when he was a foal. So far he is undefeated in his first two starts and according to his BLOG, he has won his two races by a combined 15 lengths! Here is the video of his maiden race on Boxing Day 2009 pretty impressive.

Now, I am not saying that he is going to win the Triple Crown or even the Kentucky Derby. But I am saying that I am going to be keeping an eye on him. Does that win in Tampa Bay remind anyone of the race below? I'm not saying...I'm just saying.
Big Brown

new subscriber!

I see that our little blog has received another subscriber! He is Yvan Chartrand, the new owner of Treestone Bakery along with his partner Ritsuko!

Mrs. Schneider has already made a point of stopping by to introduce herself to Yvan, but I haven't had the chance yet. I will soon. I hope I am not putting Yvan on the spot, but I would invite him to post something about his beautiful little bakery and perhaps his extensive and extremely interesting background in the world of baking artisan breads.

If you live in the Edmonton Area, I would encourage you to stop by and give Treestone a try if you haven't already. They are located on 99th street, just north of Whyte Ave at 86th ave. The store is on the west side of 99th st. 

flour mill woes

We found out yesterday that in order to bring the mill into Canada from the U.S. it is going to cost us almost half the price of the mill just to get it here. I am constantly amazed at how nickel and dime processes add up so fast. The quote from the customs broker was over $500 and adding that to the shipping price, it equals a lot of money for something that in todays day and age should not be this difficult. So much for NAFTA and economy of travel and all those other things that modern civilization prides itself on. The other frustration is that there is apparently no Canadian manufacturer of small flour mills. Or at least not anyone who manufactures an affordable mill. The only place we found was in Saskatchewan. It was a stone mill that ground at 50lbs/hr and it cost over $16,000. The commercial mill we found out of the States was considerably less money for the same apparent quality and efficiency...without all the bells and whistles.

It just really bugs me to hand over money to people who apparently do very little. I am not privy to the processes that customs brokers go through, but I am willing to bet that they aren't extensive and yet here I am forced to hand over $500+ to them. It would be damn near the same cost for me to simply drive to Carolina to pick the thing up myself. If anyone has any suggestions for us on customs processes or another way to import a piece of equipment please let us know. I realize that $500 isn't a lot of money for some people...its just gets my Scottish blood boiling!

some news...

I am not sure how exciting this news will be for our readers, but it is definitely exciting for Cindy and I. We are pleased to announce that Gold Forest Farms has teamed up with my cousin Andrea and her husband Mike. Their farm, Hill Hidden Coulee also produces certified organic grains and we have decided to work together to produce, process and market locally grown grains. Between the two families, we will purchase the flour mill and begin production shortly. I've been saying that for awhile now, but we are in contact with the customs brokers and we will place the order for the mill within the next week. It should arrive within two weeks after the order is placed and then we can set it up and begin milling.

Mike and Andrea bring a lot of energy and experience with them. They have been farming organically for many years and have recently sold their organic cattle herd to be able to put the land into grain production. They are such wonderful people and we are so glad that they have accepted our offer of cooperation. I am certain that both families will benefit.

With Hill Hidden Coulee farm teaming up with Gold Forest Farms, Gold Forest Grains can now draw upon more than double the acreage for its raw grain production to be able to package and process grains reliably for our current and new customers. We have some exciting ideas for marketing that we will share when the time is right.

Podcasting

I have recently discovered podcasts! I know I know...what took me so long. I am a farmer and I don't like change. But, like I said, I have discovered this wonderful form of media and I am enthralled with it. It has reminded me of a time long ago when families huddled around a giant radio in the living room for their evening entertainment. No different than families of today huddle around a TV I suppose, but there is indeed something different.

I missed being born in a time when the radio was THE thing to do in the living room, but I somehow associate this activity with a time when families meant more to each other and it was easier to be entertained. Now that I have sattelite radio in the truck I often tune in to the Classic Radio Programs from the middle part of last century and I am somehow taken back to a time I had never been. Well, now here I am smack-dab into the 21st century and I have re-discovered radio. I am especially fond of The Kootenay Co-op Radio Station based out of Nelson, BC, Canada. It is the perfect organic, hippy type thing that I like to hear. The music is ecclectic and varied and the talk programs are very captivating. My favorite program of them all is Deconstructing Dinner. You can subscribe via iTunes or a direct feed...couldn't be easier. Or you can simply listen to the radio station live over the internet.

If you are reading my blog on a regular basis and you have iTunes and you enjoy podcasts, give the Kootenay Co-op Radio program Deconstructing Dinner a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. I especially liked the episodes on Canada's first Grain CSA called "The Local Grain Revolution". Wonderful stuff!

a January Sunday afternoon

There was finally something to do around the farm this past weekend. At least something that pertained to farming activities. I had the Hino sitting in the yard with some amount of screenings in it. Those screenings needed to be loaded into portable totes of around 30 bushels each in order to be stored for future sale to customers needing poultry feed. I needed the Hino empty so I could take fresh grain into the cleaners this week. So I plugged in the Hino and the 766 and got to work. It didn't take too long, but there was a tremendous accumulation of snow on the tarp that took a lot of work to dislodge...without poking holes in the tarp!


In the video, I say it is the 25th...it was indeed the 24th.

Turns out that I got a call on Monday from the seed cleaning plant in Stony Plain that they had a cancellation from another organic grower and wanted to know if I could put off delivery of my grain. That wasn't a problem so it turns out that I don't have to haul grain this week afterall.

Farming with horses continued

With some of the intriguing comments on the previous post I did a little digging. I came across numerous websites dealing with the subject of farming with horses. But this particular article on the website Rural Heritage really caught my eye. It deals with the pure economics of draft animals vs. modern internal combustion traction. Again, I am not smart enough to tell if it completely covers the entire discussion of true costs of draft animals and tractors but it seems fairly comprehensive.

The Article by Chet Kendell

Below is a video from JohnNorthcote. Percherons "Jake" and "Oliver" for the first time on the disc. Working nicely!


Andy Egger mowing a LOT of hay with his beautiful horses.

When the oil runs out?

I'll tell you what...when I received the latest issue of Small Farm Canada magazine I found an article that really got me thinking. It was written by Rhona McAdam and the article is called Apres Oil . I had never really thought of "oil running out". I mean when I hear myself say those words it still seems kinda silly even considering how much the topic has been discussed in recent years. That couldn't really happen in our lifetime right? But the article didn't go on to discuss the world physically running out of oil...it discussed what would happen in the very realistic scenario that the price of diesel fuel increases by three fold in the matter of a few months. What would happen if during any given future summer, the cost of diesel went up so much that it was impossible to harvest the seeded and growing crops. Could that actually happen? Would the government step in to allow farmers the ability to purchase even more heavily subsidized fuel? What if the price of fuel never came down as it did in 2009? This scenario struck me as not only possible, but highly probable within a few short years. I am not an economist but I sure saw fuel prices spike in 2007/08 and I can see how it may happen again sometime soon.

Our farm is small and we are continuing to set ourselves up to be able to sell our produce at closer to retail prices. It is a lot of work to process and market the produce to be able to achieve this pricing, but we are doing it. That means that our farm can stay relatively small and still achieve a liveable income. Because our farm is small, could we actually go back to farming with horses or oxen? Is it practical?

Well I would have to say yes when I see so many other folks doing it! Neil Dimmock here in Alberta is a prime example of someone who is more than capable of surviving without oil.

I would be well advised to try to stay in touch with Neil and learn all I can about farming with horses. Cindy and I are no stranger to horses having been around them and involved in raising them for many years in the past. I don't think that either one of us is necessarily looking forward to owning horses again, but if there was an actual purpose behind owning them as opposed to them just being really expensive grass mowers, I could see it happening sometime in the near future. Of course, first things first. We have to get ourselves moved and our new farm built and operating. I hope that can happen before the oil runs out!?!?

Above is KYGuyz using a hay gathering implement to load the wagon. Below, Neil Dimmock seeds his fields with the Percherons.

Feeding cows....during the winter months on our farm things are a little relaxed. Perhaps too relaxed. I feel lazy in the winter and I don't really like it. We still don't have a heated shop, so I cannot really spend much time outside dealing with machinery maintenance or repairs. That sort of stuff has to wait till March at the earliest.
So, now all we have to do is make sure that the stupid cattle waterer stays ice free and the cows and chickens are fed. I would comment more on our cattle waterer but I fear unwanted attention from the manufacturer should they see what I have to say about it. Suffice to say that at one point in time, I called in complete frustration to complain about the ongoing problems with a frost-free livestock waterer that was anything but frost-free and I was told something rude and hung up on. I certainly won't be buying another Nelson Waterer anytime soon. I've said too much now so I may as well just keep going...just make sure that if you are in the market for a freeze-proof waterer that you do your own extensive homework. A badly designed waterer will cost you a significant amount of money and much headache. Our waterer was designed with the heating element above the valve, immediately below the bowl...heat rises so needless to say the valve freezes. The bowl of water stays nice and liquid right up until the cows drink it...then, because the valve is frozen the bowl stays empty. Another problem we had was that the bowl of water easily splashes over when thirsty cows or horses are jostling around...the water then dripples or slops down the outside of the bowl and lands on the heating element assembly...blown heating element in about a month and a half even with the water level significantly reduced in the bowl. The waterer was installed as per the instructions. We haven't had any problems with lines to the waterer freezing or anything else...just the waterer itself. We should have simply purchased a livestock waterer from the local UFA store. They have been selling the same brand for decades...parts are easily available locally and they appear to be ok in our area because everyone has one...except us.

Now I have the waterer rigged up to work as long as the light bulb inside stays on. I installed a socket below the valve level. It works well now except when the bulb burns out from time to time as light bulbs do, but we'll limp along until we move when I can buy a proper livestock waterer.

Feeding the cows is pretty easy. As I mentioned before we are moving the feeder each time we bring a new bale. The field is getting manured up nicely and I am already cherishing the fact that I don't have to haul and spread manure this spring.

Small Farm Profitability – Part 2

I have started small, marketed what I had (once I figured out what worked for us and our customers) and grew from there. I am still a long ways off from where I want to be, but I see our plan developing before our eyes. Only a few short years ago, Cindy and I would sit across from each other over coffee and talk about decisions that impacted hundreds or thousands of dollars; now we are talking about decisions that reflect 10’s of thousands of dollars. It is still growing and I can see a day soon where it will be a family business that can employ our kids and their families should they decide to go that route. Start small, stay as small as practical and grow when you have to…that would be my advice to anyone starting out in farming. The other key in my mind is to produce a product that fills a niche market. Something that people are willing to pay a premium for. Be it Organic or Local or Boutique…fill a need…do something that you love to do…charge a good amount for the product.

What to charge is always something we struggle with. We are often torn between wanting to provide people with "deals", but in the end it costs us a great deal of time, money and energy to produce that beef and market it. We tend to look at it from a standpoint that we have a good product that is better than what can be found in a supermarket and it is still a litte less expensive. I suppose that is as good of a "deal" as anyone can expect. I think that farmers are always prone to undervalue what they produce...why is that?

Small Farm Profitability – Part 1

You may have guessed that part of my plan for small farm profitability is to be cheap! I think that the biggest single problem that beginning farmers face is the pressure to take out a loan, run to the nearest Kubota dealership and plop down 20-40 thousand dollars for a tractor that should have only cost them $3000. Of course, I don't begrudge the fellow that buys a new tractor...hell, I would love a brand new tractor with the plastic covering still on the seat! It's just that I have bought countless numbers of implements and other farm equipment from auctions and select private sales. Tractors from the 40's, 50's, 60's and 70’s in good mechanical condition are cheap, reliable and have all of the benefits of modern tractors. Small tractors haven’t changed much at all in 80+ years! Think of it this way. What would that same $20,000 buy me? A tractor, a few different cultivators, a seed drill, a small swather, a potato planter and digger, a small combine, an auger…perhaps even a small grain truck or gravity wagon. I am good to go start making money and the guy with the Kubota is still just riding around on his tractor. Starting small means being frugal and putting up with other farming neighbors looking down their noses at you as you bark and surge along the gravel road in your 1967 International 503 combine! Air conditioning is for wimps!

My list of the best, most reliable, easy to fix tractors in order of my preference for a small livestock or market garden farm:

   1) Any 1970's IH tractor under 100 hp with 3pt hitch- ie 766, 666, 566. Should be around $5,000-$10,000 Parts still available at any Case/IH dealer. Engines are practically bullet-proof. Most have cabs here in Canada. Any number of loaders fit them for an extra $2000 and most should already have them mounted. John Deere's are good, but they are incredibly over-priced for what you get.

   2) 1960's Allis Chalmers D series tractors - D14, D15, D16, etc. As above on parts, price and reliability (except you need to go to an AGCO dealer). Most already have loaders attached. Ingenious 3pt hitch system called "snap-coupler". If you find the implements to go with the tractor buy them!

   3) Probably the most under-rated tractor in history was the Ford tractors from the 50's. Late model 8n's, 1950's 600 series, 800's and later 900's were tremendous tractors. Parts are still available, but you shouldn't need any. Tough little tractors with ahead-of-their-time hydraulic systems. Because of the way they were engineered you can get a much older tractor and pay less for it but have the same features of other manufacturers' later models. The only reason I place them 3rd is that the later models with indpendent pto's can be difficult to find...they were under-rated as I said earlier and sales started dropping way before they should have. By the 70's Ford tractors were not well-built and I don't consider them an option.

Above is a random video from uTube on the subject of Ford Tractors. Please check out all of "stembre's" other uTube videos to see what an 8n Ford can do! Please keep in mind that I do not consider myself an expert on tractors but these are my opinions on the subject. Take it for what it is...an opinion. Happy Farming!

A quick ski trip!

We decided late last week to take advantage of some nice weather upcoming and we headed for the mountains. The weather was spectacular for this time of year. It was above freezing each day and I think the highest temp we had was plus 6 degrees C. The skiing was fantastic and because we were skiing during the week the crowds were non-existant. At one point in time we were on the back face of the mountain and we could see all the way down the various runs, perhaps a couple miles, and there was not one person in sight. It was like we had the entire ski hill to ourselves. We stayed in Banff, Alberta and we did our skiing at Lake Louise. This is our favorite ski hill. The runs are incredibly long and because of the terrain it is a little more sheltered than other hills. When it is windy in the mountains this is the hill we seek out. Needless to say we had a great trip and we are now wondering why we don't do this more often!

We're Moving!....at some point in time

Over the Christmas break we were supposed to take delivery of our Berkshire pigs. But suddenly we made a decision to not take the pigs. I guess it is not common knowledge with everyone what we are up to with our farm plans. So, here it is. Perhaps by making our plans public so to speak, the cosmos will line up and everything will go as planned...because they sure haven't so far. It's kind of "The Secret" sort of thing.

Taking on another project like the pigs will only serve to complicate our move more than it already would be should our house sell sometime this year.

Mrs. Schneider and myself along with our two wonderful children have been trying to sell our farm for almost 2 years now! We missed the hot market here in Alberta by a few months and now we just can't seem to get it sold. We currently live on a 40 acre parcel of land only a few minutes west of West Edmonton Mall. We are very close to the city of Edmonton. We are also very close to several large suburban subdivisions. Our property is very beautiful with large mature pine ridges and a hollows of Tamarack and Birch. Interspersed amongst the trees are our small fields and pastures where in the past our chickens and pigs and sheep and cattle have grazed.

Since we made the decision to re-enter the grain production side of farming we have sought parcels of land to rent where we could actually grow grain. Obviously, our property is not conducive to any type of large scale production of grain. When we decided to sell though, we found we were presented with all of these wonderful options and we could start over with whatever we dared dream as far as house options and yards and gardens and orchards. It is a tremendous feeling to have a blank canvas...if only we could get our place sold. We want more land for growing grains and food, less house for maintaining and heating, and a better property layout for becoming more self-sufficient with our food and resources.

For the past several years we have dreamed of nothing but a very simple and small off-grid house. Because we live where we live and don't want to move too far away, we are faced with the facts of bitterly cold winters. So our house of choice will be a straw bale home! I will have to write more about that choice later. The fact of the matter is that straw bale construction is nothing new. There are straw bale homes in the mid-west of the U.S and Canada that are well over 100 years old. They are durable, storm-proof, incredibly warm and efficient, quiet, easy to construct and as important as all that they are extremely environmental in their construction.

Along with what kind of house to build we have also had to decide on our style of house. That is not quite finalized but we know we want something small. Currently, our house is 3000 sq. ft. on two levels. That is just too big. We have discovered that we could quite handily live on nothing but our top floor if we wanted to and all the rest is just a waste of space.

The off-grid stuff is more complex. We live in Sunny Alberta so we would be silly to not incorporate solar electric panels in our design. We will catch rain-water from our steel roofs for both drinking and grey water systems. We will heat in a few ways. The easiest way to heat our home is passive solar or properly located windows and properly designed roof overhangs to allow winter sunlight in the living space and summer sunlight out of the living space. Besides that, we haven't quite decided between a simple wood stove, masonry fireplace, in-floor hydronic heating from an outside heat source like an outdoor wood boiler or maybe all of the above? There are so many heating options to choose from. Part of our decision will stem from what kind of property we end up purchasing. Is there a wood lot for instance?

There has been much to think about. One of the blessings of not being able to sell our property is that we have had the chance to perform even more research than before. The plan shown is one of our favorites although it probably needs to be expanded a little to try to hit the 1500 sq. ft. target. We like how simply the plumbing is incorporated and we love the efficiency of the open space design. A couple short hallways extending from the bathrooms would isolate any noise from the living area to the bedrooms. This is likely the house you will see us building sometime soon.

We would truly appreciate any help or advice from folks who have made the transition to off-grid or alternative housing or anything else you might have to offer. Please wish us luck and stay tuned for much ensuing entertainment should the house suddenly sell!

Heritage Grains for 2010 – Part 3

Harvesting (Combining) the seed plots once they get too big to harvest by hand becomes more of a challenge. I have been agonizing over the purchase of a newer, larger combine for the past year. I have pretty much made up my mind to buy an International 914. It is a large pull-type combine from the late 70’s. It is a conventional combine as opposed to a rotary so it is simple and cheap to repair; and I have the 3788 2+2 to pull it with. They are a good sized combine for under $2000! With this new combine I will be able keep the Gleaner C2 free to harvest the smaller plots and just clean it out between plots. It is small enough to clean very easily. I am always on the lookout for another C2 sized combine. They are less than $1000 and usually closer to free!

Heritage Grains for 2010 - Part 2

To harvest the grains from our very small test and seed plots I simply cut the heads off of the still standing plants and place them in a threshing box. This is a simple wooden box with wood slats on the bottom. I place the heads in the box, step in and shuffle my feet for a minute or two. I then take the air compressor and blow out the chaff. It is a great way to obtain a completely clean sample from a small plot of grain. It really doesn’t take much time at all. Of course the grain heads need to be completely dry prior to attempting threshing otherwise they will not want to come off the head cleanly.

In order to grow the varieties into commercially viable quantities I plant the grains in progressively bigger plots and fields. I did this with the Blais Red Fife in 2009. I now have 15 bushels of Blais Red Fife which will seed about 7 acres in 2010. I always maintain a set of very small farm implements like my old John Deere seed drill for these purposes.

Certified Organic...explained

Boy I am surprised at how much misinformation is still out there about Organics. I recently went to a farmers market where the nice lady told me that her golden flax was organic. I asked her where on the package it said "organic" and she proceeded her disertation on how her flax was grown organically and that because she didn't want to be certified she couldn't call it organic. The whole purpose of using the term "organic" is to be able to make the claim that "yes, I use organic practices to grow my produce and yes, I am audited yearly and I pay my substantial fees in order to maintain my organic certification". I get it all the time from farmers I meet that tell me their grain or hay is organic. Almost every time I ask them what certification body they use and you guessed it...turns out they are not actually organic.

I also hear people say all the time that being certified organic doesn't ensure that the produce is any better than non-organic and that anyone can say that they are organic when they are not. That may be true, but if you are not willing to subject yourself to the on-farm audit and subsequent inspections, the paper-trail that connects your food from the field to the consumer or the committment to excellence that is virtually guaranteed from an organic certification then you are probably not following the rules that would make your product organic. It's just common sense. If you are truly doing all of those things then why on earth wouldn't you just pay the fees that get you certified and recoup them in your increased sale proceeds?

Look, there is a very strong committment when you agree to become Certified Organic. The paperwork is extensive, the audit and on-farm inspection is at times intrusive and the fees are sometimes astronomical especially for a small farmer like myself. I take pride in the fact that our farm is indeed Certified Organic.

As a consumer, you will do a great service to actual Certified Organic farmers like myself if you take the time to ask questions from farmers and vendors that claim to be organic.If you want organic produce and someone is telling you that theirs is organic...ask to see their certificate. If they don't have one, and they are calling their produce organic it is illegal. I am always glad when someone asks to see my certification...I worked hard to achieve it and I am proud to show it off.