Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 3 May 2023…
Hey Y’all!
Happy Wednesday from Free Missouri! Another cool start to a warm, sunny day. We put rows in the garden yesterday in preparation for planting today based on the forecast weather. When I looked out this morning, there was frost on the tops of the garden rows and mounds. Glad we waited to transplant! I must admit, I didn’t expect frost and temps in the 30s in May. I think the frosts are gone and we plan to transplant this evening. The next couple of weeks are forecast to be warm and rainy. The animals are all doing really well this morning. We held Happy and Betty in the milking area while the beef herd was near their area. Happy is ready to breed but we aren’t ready for that to happen and we didn’t want to take a chance on either her or the bull deciding to go through the poly-wire with the entire flerd having the run of the farm. Back to Happy and Betty, they were NOT happy about being held off of the grass. Betty refused to eat hay and our milk harvest dropped by about half. On Sunday, after we got the beef herd out of the area, we let them back out onto the pasture and production is now back to where it was. The piglets have settled into a routine and are doing well. We will move a fence charger to their training pen today and they will get their first lesson on electricity. It will take a couple of times touching the 10,500 volt wire with their nose for them to be convinced, but quickly they learn to just avoid the wire. It is integral to our rotational method of moving the pigs through the forest. The beef chickens now just look like chickens and continue to grow. Aunt Harolyn loves to see them, so three pics for you today! We moved three of the incubator chicks into a brooder in the garage this morning. Two more just hatched and will move out tomorrow. Our main project yesterday was preparing the garden. It was an exhausting arm workout to form all of the rows and mounds with rakes and hoes. We both slept well! Today we moved the winter huts out of the middle of the pasture and put them to the sides. We are also going to spend some time working inside, computer, YouTube, and making yogurt and cheese.
We received an email yesterday morning asking if we minded if our picture was used in a YouTube video. We replied that we would not mind at all. So, Kevin and Sarah from Living Traditions Homestead used a pic of us in their video today. It may seem like a small thing, but to us it is really cool. Two years ago, I would return home from 12 hours in the Pentagon slugging it out with some senior leader trying to convince them to keep our secrets secret and want to decompress. Living Traditions Homestead videos were one of the outlets for us. We would sit and watch Kevin and Sarah going through their homestead journey and it was relaxing to us. We weren’t jealous, necessarily, but we did really like what they are doing and discuss that one day, we might do the same. Fast forward two short years, and Kevin and Sarah wanted to feature a picture of us in their video discussing how to look and act professional at a Farmer’s Market. We are ‘Ava Farmer’s Market neighbors’ with our booths across from each other. It has been awesome to get to chat with them and get to know them, even if for just a few minutes on Saturdays. It is encouraging that someone with a huge YouTube following that has been doing this farming/homesteading lifestyle for years would consider us someone to highlight for others to emulate. Thanks for the recognition, Kevin and Sarah!
Link to their video discussing their lessons learned regarding the Farmer’s Market—Check it out and subscribe to their channel!
Local Farm Report for 2 May 2023:
Harvest:
33 Chicken eggs
21 Duck eggs
1 Goose egg
5 3/4 Gallons of milk
Cheers!
Psycho & Shelley
Kevin and Sarah/Living Traditions were the first homesteading channel we subscribed to.
I found them one evening while searching for info on some homesteading project. I was amazed at how similar our stories were....grew up in Wisconsin, moved far south to chase the $$$. Eventually deciding rural MO was where we wanted to be.
So glad we found you guys, too! You bring so much to the table...so to speak.
We feel blessed and honored to have two such great examples of homesteading/farming couples to look to as examples. And what a treat to be able to stand in one spot on the square in Ava and be able to speak to all four of you at once! 😎
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