The Coop and The G-Unit


Loading the Guineas and Chickens into the salvaged-barn coop. Sophie's curious about her new feathered friends.

Big (and busy) weekend for us. Late last week we finished up the salvaged-barn chicken coop, literally screwing down the roof moments before a thunderstorm rolled through. It was good to have a hard rain before the chickens moved in because we got a chance to see where some cracks along the edges of the nesting boxes and a couple cracks along the edges of the coop were letting in rain. We got it all sealed tight by the weekend and on Saturday morning we rolled out to get us some birds. 

One thing we'd heard about and not fully internalized was the existence of ticks. I remember three short weeks ago sitting in our NY apartment and laughing at the "Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say" video where the protagonists constantly ask each other "Is this a tick?". (See video here, it's pretty good: Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say). Little did I know how true that would be. Since we've been setting record heat days around here all month the ticks are out in full force. Full force is an exaggeration actually, they'll get much worse as the year goes on. But this weekend was the first weekend where they were noticeable. And by noticeable I mean picking one off my leg every hour or two (if not more regularly). The mild winter didn't break the cycle, so they're comin' out swinging before the bell.

Read More

Planning vs. Doing on the Farm

Beginnings of the Chicken Coop, salvaged from our old red barn, which you can see behindNow that we're starting to actually do some things around here it's hit me that planning vs. doing is very different. Not in terms of doing being more difficult and planning being easier, but in terms of time management. I'm working remotely from home and it's a 7am to 6pm job. I'll usually take a 20-30 minute lunch with Sweetbreads somewhere in there, but that's it. That leaves very little time for me to actually do anything useful on the farm. Back in the city I could come home at dark and hit the books, make some phone calls, write emails, research different ideas, etc. I could get in a good 3-4 hours worth of 'work', no problem. Didn't matter if it was light or dark outside. Now I need the daylight to really get meaningful work done. That gives me about 30 min or an hour and I better make it count. I'm looking forward to the longer days of summer.
Read More

The Day That Sophie Became A Guard Dog


If you saw our last post or glanced at our Facebook page the past few days you probably noticed that we have a dog. Not just any dog though, she's a ~6 month old Maremma that we hope will one day become a primary protector of our livestock (and ourselves, if need be). Her name is Sophie and since she's our first animal on the farm we're pretty obsessed with her. She's also very special to us because she was a gift from a friend of ours in NY that breeds Maremma's and that we were a long-time customer of at the farmer's market. It brought tears to our eyes when he offered us a pup as a going away present. 

 

Read More