Home Groan: My Adventures in Agriculture

We raise rabbits on the farm (I'm trying to break my habit of calling them bunnies) and every time I mention the rabbits someone says "oh cute! what do you do with them?"   .... well, we uh... I made the mistake of being completely honest with one little girl who was visiting the farm and she cried. So, from now on if you are under the age of 10 we raise bunnies on the farm because they are cute and cuddly and we love them.  Anyway, rabbits are unique because they don't ovulate on a regular cycle like most mammals.  Because of this they don't actually go in heat, they release their egg after mating. We avoid breeding when it's really hot so they don't have a heat stroke or in the dead of winter so the tiny babies don't die but all fair weather is bunny breeding time. Several of our does just gave birth and the babies are so cute.  SO CUTE. In an attempt to encourage her to deliver where it's warm, versus a cold drafty corner, we put a bunch of st...

Our senior intern finished up his internship and left last week which means we have a brand new intern starting this week. I was assigned the task of training him to do 'the rounds'. "But wait, no, I'm still learning, I can't train someone yet - shouldn't I be certified or something?!"  I didn't get far in my protest. While training I thought about all my past bosses and tried to channel their good energy - "OK McK be clear, be patient, be direct... ".  My internal pep talk was going OK until I realized I was talking to myself more than I was the new intern I was supposed to be training. Somewhere between explaining proper coop moving patterns and channeling positive vibes we had a small incident with the gator (see below for "gator" definition) where the chain, which is attached to the gator and used to pull the coops, got wrapped around the back wheel while it was still hooked to the coop. It was a total mess and took us the b...

Since most of my fifth week was spent driving back to TN I'm combining week five and six. In celebration of the first day of fall I came back from TN to find the polytunnel covered in plastic. It went from being an outdoor garden surrounded by a metal skeleton to a toasty warm indoor greenhouse.  We ripped up the tomato plants, dumped compost, raked new beds, and then seeded our fall crops.  As much as I love and already miss tomatoes I was really tired of picking hundreds... HUNDREDS every Friday.  Hello and welcome lettuce, spinach, and kale! I have skillfully avoided tractor work since I had my first tractor tutorial on day one.  My first and only tractor experience had gone great - no one got hurt, no property was damaged, and I didn't completely embarrass myself.  I even felt comfortable telling people I could drive a tractor, sort of.   I was really hoping to hold on to this positive memory, trying out the tractor again would only increase my chan...

An average day:  Our work day starts at 7:30 a.m. and ends anywhere between 4:30 p.m. and  6:30 p.m.  There's a white dry-erase board hanging in the barn where all the chores are listed. The chores are typically either garden (weeding, spreading compost, seeding, watering, etc.) or animal (feeding, tending to medical needs, moving to a new pasture, etc.) or farm maintenance (fence mending, mowing, coop fixing, etc.)  Someone is assigned to "the rounds" (feeding all the animals) and everyone else works off the white board.  Dinner is at 6:30 p.m.; everyone has an assigned night to cook, mine is Monday.  Post-dinner chores can range anywhere from closing a chicken coop (quick) to moving a pregnant pig into a shelter so she doesn't give birth somewhere crazy, like the pig wallow (more elaborate). This week we moved pregnant pigs and sleeping chickens,  closed coops, fed runt piglets, and had to convince a dog to jump over an electric fence into the next p...

I'm adjusting to my new lifestyle; the early mornings, loooong work days, and overall physical demands have kept me pretty tired. This week, however,  I'm not nearly as exhausted, in fact, I feel great. My body is finally catching up.  I like being up before it's light out (where I drink my coffee next to the pigs) and working a hard but super productive day. I sleep great.   I've declared week three my Whitmore Watershed.  I did a little research and according to google, dogs should adjust to their new homes within a few days. I'm not sure what this says about me, seeing as it's taken me a few  weeks to adjust, but I'm glad to know that everyone needs a minute to get their bearings.  My arms and legs (and somehow even my midsection) are still covered in scratches, bites, and bruises but I like to think this gives me a sort of farm street cred.  The farm is out in the sticks, as you might imagine, and surrounded by other farms.  We buy almos...

Monday morning six rabbits were butchered - luckily I was busy while this was going on.  Rabbits are the only animals we butcher at the farm; the pigs, sheep, and goats all go to a USDA approved processing facility.  Whew.  Unfortunately I wasn't saved from dealing with dead animals that morning.  One of our farm dogs, Joy, killed seven chickens. Those seven plus the other two I found (that seemed to have died from natural chicken causes) make it a total of nine dead chickens.  I buried them in the compost after lecturing Joy and saying a little chicken prayer. There have been a couple litters of piglets born since I got here and when they're about a week old it's time to vaccinate, castrate, and notch their ears. If they're any older they're too strong and it's nearly impossible to keep them still.  Tuesday morning we rounded up the piglets and Kent, one of the farm owners, trained me to vaccinate, castrate, and notch their little ears.  The ear not...

I've spent my entire life living in cities/suburbia, so besides helping my mom with a summer garden I have ZERO farming experience. The most exotic pet we ever had was a greyhound. After my cross country bicycle trip last summer I've been completely, and almost obsessively, focussed on doing things the old way. It started out simple, like baking bread and making yogurt. Before I knew it I was reading instruction manuals on shoe making. I just really  wanted to be more knowledgeable.  After reading, researching, and asking a million questions I decided to take the "full immersion" approach. I want to work on a farm.  I chose Whitmore farm for lots of reasons but the main reason was that they do things the old way. All of their animals are pasture raised, grass fed, happy, roaming, and curious. The animals get to be animals. More on this later. Week one: I naively thought that they would ease me into things, demonstrate everything first, maybe we'll review the ...