Grass Fed Beef!

Grass Fed Beef!  

This is the year. We are going to purchase one or two steers or heifers to finish in 2018.  We are very excited to add bovine to the Root and Sky family. There are a few reasons why this enterprise makes sense for us.

We have about 15 tillable acres on our 60-some of property.  We debated back and forth about what to do with the those acres.  We wanted to turn the whole property into pasture right away, but took advice from a more experienced farmer:  take it slow.  He was right.  With the process of getting houses rehabbed and rented, adjusting to a new schedule for our family, the kids into new schools, Tiffany’s longer commute, and pasture raising pigs, we are very thankful we didn't bite off anything more!

We planted about five and one half acres in organic pasture and rented out the rest to a local farmer. Our farmer friend sowed for us a mix of orchard grass, rye, festulolium, and clover.  Because of wet conditions, though, we planted late, in May--and then received no rain for about two weeks.  THEN, a strong storm in the middle of June washed some seed away before it was established.

But the look of the thing when it sprouted!  Amazing.

New pasture 2017.jpg

The period of August and September were the fourth driest in northern Illinois since 1895.  All the way into October, it was looking bleak for the pasture, and I wondered if it would need to be replanted in 2018.  But then, we got some terrific rain and the grass and clover took off and filled in beautifully!  Whew.  

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When the ground thaws this spring we will install a field fence to surround the one-year-old pasture.  This should keep our animals in, and hopefully other unwelcome guests, like coyotes, skunks, fox, raccoons, out.  

An electric wire fence within the larger fence will keep the cattle in one area of the pasture at a time to concentrate their grazing in the way that is best for soil health.  Managed Intensive Rotational Grazing (MIRG) greatly increases the fertility of a field by mimicking the grazing patterns of animals such as the buffaloes that helped form some of our great midwestern soils.  Like in those animal documentaries my kids are addicted to, large herds of grazers such as gazelle stay close together for safety. But in that sort of formation, grazing is concentrated, too. If there is grass in front of you, it might a good idea to eat even if it isn’t your favorite plant, because buffalo bill and buffalo betty are right next to you and eating what is in front of them.  The concentrated grazing means that premium fertilizer--cattle waste--is concentrated in small area, too, which will give us more even soil-improving treatment. We’ll move them daily or every other day.  When we move them, we don’t take them back to the same area for a long period of time (weeks or months) so the grass can recover from the intensive eating, fertilizing, and hoof action. Waiting like that also allows time for parasites from their waste to die in the grass before being ingested.  

We still need to decide how many cattle to add to our herd.  Theoretically, a decent pasture can handle one animal per acre, at the size we are looking to purchase.  But this will be a new pasture, and I don’t want to push it and have to feed hay through the summer if the pasture gets exhausted. One option is to buy just one animal to sell as quarter beef to folks, and take care of a few cattle from a neighbor and get paid a daily rate for their care. Maybe a total of four head on the five acres.  This would mean getting paid a little to have some thousand-pound, fertilizing lawn-mowers to help improve the pasture.   

BUT, if we had customers lined up for beef--we might be able to purchase more than one beef cow to sell.  We can’t store much beef long term, due to freezer space, and couldn’t handle the upfront costs of care and processing without committed customers.  (And speaking of freezer space, we still have a couple of pigs left to sell, and our freezers are FULL of delicious pork (email rootandskyfarm@gmail.com to order!).)

If grass fed beef is something you might be interested in purchasing, please let us know (rootandskyfarm@gmail.com)!  If we have customers reserve quarters of beef (or go in with friends to reserve quarters of beef, for those of you who’d like smaller orders) we could bring in more members to the Root and Sky herd.  A quarter beef would amount to 85 - 100 lbs of meat, at $9 per pound, which is the a la carte cost of grass fed GROUND BEEF. This means that when you buy a quarter beef, even steaks and more expensive cuts (often priced a la carte at over $20/lb) are $9 per pound. A half beef is even better--$8.50 per pound, and a whole beef $8 per pound.  Those prices would include processing and delivery.  

If you want to be notified every time a new blogpost goes up, send an email with “newsletter” in the subject line to rootandskyfarm@gmail.com.





 

Farm Planning Meeting: What Will 2018 Hold?

January 5th, the whole team at Root & Sky Farm (Tiffany and I) congregated at our headquarters (2nd story office at the farm) to discuss the future of Root & Sky Farm for 2018, and beyond. We would like to thank our babysitter (her name rhymes with Fletpix), who allowed for two hours of thoughtful and uninterrupted conversation.

Should we raise mushrooms?

Should we raise mushrooms?

There are so many possibilities, so many interests; it was great to discuss what we would like to accomplish in 2018 while also laying the groundwork for future opportunities. Tiffany is a professor full-time, and I work part-time on another farm, and we are full time parents, so trying to set reasonable expectations is essential.

So, because we are SO reasonable, ee opened the meeting discussing twenty-five different possible farming enterprises.  I cracked open some spreadsheets with varied scenarios and financial information to help us evaluate whether each opportunity was viable or not.  I LOVE to research farming opportunities.  Possibly too much.  Tiffany has done some acting in the past, feigning interest, but the fact that her eyes didn't glaze over in this meeting, hearing my variable costs and hypotheticals, made me love her even more.

Some topics were just too involved, too long-term to discuss seriously.  Having farm dinners almost entirely composed of products from our farm, say, or a pizza farm that raises as many of the ingredients as possible (wheat for the pizza flour, tomatoes for sauce, peppers, garlic...)  for wood fired pizzas cooked on the farm, for example.  These are our dream, but it would be good if got, say, basic irrigation first. I got into this whole farming thing because I started making cheese, and had insane idea of "what if we had our own cows/goats/sheep/water buffalo/camel/cat/Robert De Niros (anyone see Meet the Parents?) to milk?”  But here is a significant financial investment required for dairy (stainless ain't cheap). We’re not quite ready.

Other enterprises might need individual marketing that I'm not sure I can fully invest in doing this year.  One example of this kind of enterprise is quail for eggs and meat.  Even though a quail yields only half a pound of meat, the cost is the same to process as a five pound chicken? That would make quail very expensive.  I haven’t yet found a USDA processor of rabbits, so more research is required. I believe there is a market out there for eating rabbits, but it would probably require a lot of work to find them.

There are others that didn't make the cut this year because there aren't enough hours in the day, or just preference for others at this stage (salad greens, geese, our own honey bees). But the thrill of dreaming about these things is part of why we got into this, so we’re so excited for even some of the dreams becoming a reality.

In my next post, I am going to take one of the six enterprises we hope to have on the farm in 2018.  A few enterprises may just be on a homesteading level due to time commitment, while others we hope to put out the public.

Heirloom Tomatoes:  Should we grow them at the homesteading scale?  Or for the Community?

Heirloom Tomatoes:  Should we grow them at the homesteading scale?  Or for the Community?

Feel free to leave comments of what you would like to see, or if you have any advice. We are very excited for 2018, and we hope, through the blog, social media, or in person, that you are able to come along with us at Root & Sky Farm!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thankful for our Pigs! (And Pork Packs Now Available!)

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Those of you who've been following us on Twitter or Instagram have watched the fall accomplish and watched our pigs make their way from their babyhood at Hasselmann Family Farm to  happy explorer piglets rooting in the woods, to mature, communal wonders  And, now, to delicious pork!

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It has been an amazing summer, full of learning and love. We have toted their water and organic food, blazed new pastures for them out of deep, cool woods, and petted them of a summer evening. We marveled at their habits and shapes, enjoyed their pl…

It has been an amazing summer, full of learning and love. We have toted their water and organic food, blazed new pastures for them out of deep, cool woods, and petted them of a summer evening. We marveled at their habits and shapes, enjoyed their play in the rain, and admired their fierce uprooting of invasive plants. 

Early in November, it was time. We borrowed our mentor farmer's trailer and  let them get used to climbing in--a bucket of feed in the back.  We took a last opportunity to thank the pigs, to look them over each individually in the pens and count them one last time.  And we took the pigs to Eichmann's--our wonderful processors. We are grateful for their happy lives and for their deaths which provide food for so many people we care about.  

Yesterday, Root and Sky Farm was pleased to welcome our family from New York.  They came in for Thanksgiving to celebrate our first pig harvest and to give thanks with us for God's good gifts.   Our first night, in keeping with family tradition of tacos the night before Thanksgiving (pie-making night) we served Root and Sky pork:  Nena's Pineapple Pork Tacos with pulled pork from a shoulder roast and shoulder steaks.  And yesterday, as we ate Amish pasture raised turkey, we paired it with Root and Sky sage sausage dressing.  It was so great to give to our beloved family the pork that we've been caring for for months, trying to bless them with the work of our hands.

We made cloverleaf rolls with little slips of paper in them on which we'd written things we were thankful for (kind of like a fortune cookie, only rolls and thank-yous instead of cookies and fortunes).  As each one was eaten, another thank you rolled out.  

So many were about the farm. "The land," cousin Ryan unrolled.  "The pigs/Phantom," cousin Wesley read out.  And when we did our out-loud thank-yous, pop corning around the table, Josh was grateful for our family's sacrifice in moving away from our homestead in Glen Ellyn to start this lovely experiment.  I was grateful that the pork tasted good--and that we, thanks to friends and family, finally have a working kitchen in which to fashion a Thanksgiving!  

We are so thankful for all our friends and family who have helped and supported us in this journey--with moving, with meals  when we had no sink, with cleaning work days and with the risk of ordering from us even before we knew (though we do now!) that the pork would taste good.   We are thankful to be able to live in this big woods--to try and make a pasture, to make good lives for animals and good food for people we care about. 

We're also grateful  to be able to offer pork packs for sale--from small "we-don't-have-a-big-freezer" packs to "trunkful" size, and even custom pork packs. You can order by sending an email to rootandksyfarm@gmail.com. 

Today, Josh mowed our  baby pasture (with our riding lawn mower--which was an adventure, as the pasture's 4 and 5 feet high in places!) and we dreamed about next year--adding a few beef maybe, a few sheep.  You can let us know if you'd like to be involved in THAT venture by reserving some beef at rootandskyfarm@gmail.com.

What We're Reading Today--and Where

Today I'm taking the summer reading outside--up the tree stand, to be precise. Josh moved the pigs into a glorious new silvopasture section, and we celebrated with a summer trek in  the basswoods. The mosquitoes are so bad we're even wearing GL…

Today I'm taking the summer reading outside--up the tree stand, to be precise. Josh moved the pigs into a glorious new silvopasture section, and we celebrated with a summer trek in  the basswoods. The mosquitoes are so bad we're even wearing GLOVES. We can't help it--the woods are so great.  The book?  Marilynne Robinson's Gilead, a lovely, powerful CoreBook read for Wheaton College. 

"That's a leaf. A leaf off a tree."

Josh Posts: Poison Ivy

I love our woods.  The black raspberries are wonderful.  Rabbits are darting in and out of the woods nearly every time I go up the driveway.  Saw a eight point buck last week fifteen feet from the door.

Eight Point Buck at Root and Sky Farm

I've seen a moth the size of the palm of my hand.  Actually, that was a little unnerving, as it was colliding into the window again and again after the light. It was less a gentle "ping, ping" and more of a "thump, thump" on that single pane glass.  All neat and interesting, and non-threatening. 

BUT. See. When moving the pigs to new pastures in the woods each week, I need to clear strips of land at the perimeter of the new area to put in the fence.  The undergrowth I go through is thick and prickly--I wear a long sleeve shirt, jeans, and leather gloves.  I cut weeds, vines, and small shrubs, and toss them out of my path to prepare for the pigs.  After wrestling with twisted fencing, and soaked in summer wool sweat a ton of sweat, I get the pigs moved to their new home.  

But last time I moved the pigs, I noticed an itch on my wrist.  Mosquito bite?  They are vicious right now.  Swarming.  It's been a very wet summer.  But no.  A couple of days later, it starts to blister and itches like mad.  After a little research, and knowing that we have poison ivy in the woods, I put it together. I put some anti-itch salve on it, and dealt with the irritation for a while, waiting for it to get better in a few days. But then, I started to notice other small pimple like clusters on my forearm.  Wait, and then on my triceps (or rather, well, where this skinny armed man's triceps muscle should be).  I get two hours of sleep.  Work a farmer's market in the morning, and after doing a little research it is decided (translation:  I spoke with my lovely wife, Tiffany)  I need to go to urgent care.  Prednisone is prescribed because in some people that get poison ivy, it can get into your bloodstream and start new patches on your skin in areas of your body that had no contact with the dreaded plant.  I am one of those people.  

Most of the poison ivy I've seen in our woods is along trees.  A vine runs at or just under the ground, finds a tree, and shoots up it with hairy roots to cling to the tree. 

Poison Ivy on a Tree

I believe I probably bumped into a tree while cutting the electric fence for the pigs.  I didn't get a great picture of it, but the tip leaves are usually red, and gradually the infamous three leaves appear down the vine.  

How do you get rid of the ivy?  Pigs have done a decent job exposing the vines, and I've read they will eat the stuff.  They aren't gnawing it off the tree, though.  Cutting it releases the urushiol oil into the air, so I will need to probably get out pruning shears and loppers and wear the equivalency of a hazmat suit.  Burning is a no-no, because again releasing the oil into the air for your lungs and eyes is not a good idea. 

Poison Ivy on the Trunk of a Tree

There is one idea that I like more than any other.  GOATS!  They love the stuff!  I have hesitated on goats in the woods here because of my fear of them getting out into the neighborhood.  The old timer saying is, 'if your fence can't hold water, it can't hold a goat.'  Not exactly encouraging for a new farmer to hear, but maybe 2018 will be the year of the goat!  Stay tuned...

Mowing

The Toro push-lawn-mower is chugging a bit, but it's game.   Whatever we're mowing down is clearly not grass, though what it is, I couldn't say. The land around me is an unknown planet, spearing upward in bizarre spines and jacks. And the broad spears and spiky knobs of seed head are utterly gobsmacking in fecundity.   

Today, I appreciate the lawnmower's courage, because I need encouragement. The used John Deere riding mower we paid a thousand dollars for in April has made it through not even a single use in the four months we've owned it: it has completed neither front lawn, nor garden lawn, nor over-the-tunnel lawn, nor pine alley corridor lawn, nor field-side flats. We didn't even try it on the vicious slope down from the driveway.  Last week, it died in the middle of the front lawn. For a few days, the dead Deere just sat there like a genetically modified green and yellow lawn flamingo--until GNG (Good Neighbor Geoff) helped Josh push it into the workshop and they started tinkering.  I think we could officially deem it a lemon (Lord knows, I've been sour about it for months), but I'm not sure that would HELP anything.

Instead, I thrust with the baby bull mower--with all the energy and resolve that an acres-large embarrassing lawn will give a person.  At the ends of the rows, hedges or flowerbeds of burdock, with wrist-thick stalks. We take a running crash at them, break and chew a few. Then, we jog in reverse for a few steps, and have another go at crash-banging it down.  

Toro.

Toro.

Toro.  

We walk the acres of farm yard in 22-inch wide tracks. Behind us, the lawn looks subdued, sort of, but we don't even kid ourselves--this is clearly not the sort of land one can tame.  We're just tracking it.

***

I'm getting on in the mowing, to the north of the driveway, almost done with the treacherous slope. The yard is so big that I fill the time with fantasies of grand gardens I will build there--great prairies of loveliness that mean I will never need to do this fearsome mowing ever again. I imagine the sight lines, like Vita Sackville West. I imagine the striped grasses, the strong perennials, imagine the town will step in, upon our deaths, and declare this imaginary garden a regional treasure of gardening. If you build it, after all, they will come.

There are these birds swooping down near the mower. Every once in a while I look up at them.  I don't know what kind they are.  But there's a long way to go, and I decide to look at lunch break.

I'm heading to the field side flats, when a car pulls in and two people get out.  I never stop being afraid of this type of situation, because of the terrible state in which we purchased the property, because of the evidence that there were drugs grown behind blackouts in the tunnels back in the day.  But the first words out of the man's mouth aree, "Did this used to be a mink ranch? Because if so, then I have been to this property and I have SLEPT IN THAT HOUSE."

He and his partner want to look around, and so, with deep embarrassment at the still-ramshackle state of the house (newly roofed and painted, outside, yes, but SO terrible still inside) and yet some nervous fear, I let them come in, see the mink tunnels, and tell them a little about the farm dream--about the pasture, about maybe not having it be corn and soy, etc.

We look out from the smelliest of the nasty upstairs rooms, where the carpet had been littered with dirty diapers, animal poop, and a raft of random belongings.  Josh had taken them out to the dumpster one at a time, those carpets, those bags of poop and so forth.

You guys are heroes! he says, snapping a million pictures of the wreckage.

The pasture and cornfields from the windows are spotty with wash out--reddish sand showing through like skin through a tear in tights.  It looks, well, it looks like if the field had a mother, the mother would hiss "get over here," whip out a spit-wet hand, and start scrubbing.

We, we want to help, I think.  

***

I'm mowing the pine alley now, an almost nowhere thoroughfare--two giant lines of evergreen trees running east and west just past our driveway's dangerous slope.  Between them, the non-grass thickly carpeting a massive passage between them--looooooong and seemingly useless--at least currently.  By the time I get to it, I'm parched, and the wind is crazy. Toro and I hug the pines first, getting scoured by pine arms tossing me up and down before taking the seeming endless narrow track back and forth, stopping to unclog the blade again and again. I'm trying, trying to get the lawn done, and it's too much for one day--the whole lawn, I shouldn't have tried it.

My head is down, and it's like I'm dragging Toro now, when suddenly, I realize that those swooping birds, which I have now found out are a whole flight of BARN SWALLOWS, have swept in a riotous dance back and forth across the pine alley.  

They swoop like over-zealous streamers pinned back and forth across the best birthday celebration in the world.  They sail like a housefly of children down the stairs on christmas morning, wave like a class of fourth-graders escaping the school for summer vacation. They swing like hair let down. Their energy source is mysterious--the physics of the the movement of electrons in clouds. They are wide winged, gliding down and up, wings spread and tail spread too--the arc of the feather fringe along the tail is as wide and embracing as ballet arms 2nd position, as open as the wings. There are the flash of salmon hint bellies, and the pivoting flicker of radiant iridescent glory lit from the wings.*

They come so close.  Down 18 inches from the mower deck, behind me and before me, to my left and to my right. Their swooping may be feeding, may even be annoyance at the appearance (and sound pollution) of me Toro.  But at that moment, we are truly in the same place, together.

I stop the mower, and I'm watching them, even from my sadness, looking out, and I can see beyond the swallows to the wide, heaven roistering clouds, above the corn and pasture. I'd forgotten again that there was this much sky, this much anything.  My head is lifted.

The generosity of swallows. The joy of the Lord.

****

Footnote :Someone took a video of SOMETHING like those swallows one time (but not like it was at the pine alley, exactly--they were much larger and closer).

 

Tracking

I woke up early, and was sad.  It was quite early, and I was so sad.  The words sound so banal, because there wasn't anything wrong, except inside me.  It is terrible to wake up ready to cry.  It was a Sunday, usually a day of great peace and rest for me, when I give time away instead of worrying about it. But today was a sad day, already. Which made it more sad, because usually mornings are the best time, when it's a sad period.  I was already crying. And I was worrying about crying so much; it was like being pressed in.

And then, when I was just settling down to pray and cry in the study, the sun coming up, and the regular morning glisten, a child woke and came in to that little room of my own. The child was beautiful, but it was sad, because there wasn't even alone time in my sadness.  I'd written something about the sand dirt (our farm is made of sandy soil) sticking under our arches.  I'd written the sentence in my journal, I am so sad. I'd written down a line from Mako Fujimura: "A person made fully alive is a burning bush." That was all--it didn't seem like enough.

But I welcomed the child, and snuggled for a minute. Then had an idea. Maybe we could go tracking. The day before, on the way back from the farm, we'd seen big tracks, but had forgotten, when we tried to look them up, whether there were nail divots--one of the distinctions between canine (coyote) tracks and feline (bobcat). We wanted to go back to see.  It would be a while before Josh got up, so maybe we could go exploring in the woods, to let him sleep off the 3:30am Saturday wakeup for market.

For some unfathomable reason, the child was amenable. And by some truly-straight-from-God miracle, so was the sibling.  

Here are some photos--a little gallery--of the trip:  some tracks, some berry picking, some love.

So we went out across the fields, the rising sun on our left slanting across the fresh fields, our pant legs sopped. I explained what we'd learned from the tracks guide:  two divots is canine, three is feline; visible nails is canine, no-visible nails is feline.  We scooted through the narrow trail toward the corner mulberry trees.  As we crashed out of the undergrowth, suddenly, out of my eye corner, I saw them: three coyotes at the westernmost treeline. We'd heard them in the night at sundown, howling for their own reasons. This morning they were quiet. They looked toward us a moment, while we feverishly pointed--and slipped their  off into the woods again.

We crossed over the renter farmer's tender corn plants, careful not to disturb them. Picked some mulberries--just the fattest ones from the particular trees with thumb berries.  And a communal breakfast of black raspberries. We sopped and squashed in the muddy eroded part, washed away again. Why is the sand over here so green?, one asked.  

We talked it through.  

We saw washed out animal prints and someone's melted boot prints, and then made our way to where the old tracks were.  Ah.  There were the nail prints--our fingers in them. Coyotes.  But we had seen them, and we knew. So we went to the corner where the coyotes had just left us and saw their freshest tracks--15 minutes old--pressed deep and sharp in the wet sand.

We went to visit the new pasture, stopping to climb one of the tree stands and look out again. It was early, but the sun was growing stronger--our shadows stretched out to the west, tall and alive.

When I went back to my study later, it was different. Yes, my eyes felt gritty and sandy, my eyeballs pressed in, from the earlier crying.  Something had been pressing on me. But I remembered Julian of Norwich--her hazelnut world, her sadness, and I wrote, All is well.

Your Day Probably Needs This

You probably need to see this cute Berkshire hog today.  Josh certainly needs it: Poor Farmer got systemic poison ivy cutting out the paths for last week's pasture move. I will refrain from posting garish pictures of the original site of exposure (truly ghastly) and further outbreaks (rashy, they cause one to steel oneself).

The picture is of a Berkshire hog in the woods, snout toward the camera, having been lifted from the pan of organic feed.  It is unutterably adorable.

The picture is of a Berkshire hog in the woods, snout toward the camera, having been lifted from the pan of organic feed.  It is unutterably adorable.

Bounty

Josh came in the house with a white bowl in two hands.  It was filled to the brim with black raspberries.

We didn't plant them--the wild canes prick their way between the oak and walnut trees and their understory ferns and flowers with a shocking profusion.  Raspberries are, we know, invasive.   And most of the year, they seem to lean out deliberately to trip you up or score your shin, leaving a thin blood line. Not quite as vicious as multiflora rose that will cut right through denim, but more wily and ropy.  Sometimes you feel like you're a steer, caught in its arc.

But they are so delicious.

A couple of weeks ago, we began to see them darken--one in each little bundle of berries.  We picked a few, walking, and enjoyed the bright tang.  Seemed too few to really try and pick, though--it took Fiona some 45 minutes to get half a cup.  (She may have lacked true purposefulness in her picking.  Time. I remind myself that she's not yet as old as I was when I learned how to pick strawberries by working at Behling's Spookhill Farms.). A week, later, though, there were 5 or 6 ripened in each cluster, and suddenly everywhere they were smudged into visibility a forest of richness revealed, finally visible.

At the top of this bramble, there is one ripe berry in a pink cluster.  At the bottom, a cluster of much more ripened berries. 

At the top of this bramble, there is one ripe berry in a pink cluster.  At the bottom, a cluster of much more ripened berries. 

He'd been out with the pigs, feeding them. He's observed that though each pig has its own bowl, and the food is equally divided among the 8 bowls, almost all the pigs think the other pigs have something worth stealing and leave their own bowls to go after others' bowls, others' feed.  Only one doesn't.  The smallest--or maybe second-smallest--stays by its bowl and eats, eats even if Josh approaches and stands right there to make contact.  

After hanging out with the pigs, Josh brought his own bowl out and started picking.  

He didn't even have to wander that far, he said.

I was so happy out there, picking them, he said. A whole bowl.  And there were so many more. I almost started to well up.

A close-up of a man's hands holding a white bowl full of dark black raspberries.

A close-up of a man's hands holding a white bowl full of dark black raspberries.

Who Knew A Pig Pasture Was His Happy Place?

On June 1, we got our first litter of pigs--8 Berkshire Hogs, birthed at our mentor farm, Hasselmann Family Farm. We welcomed these little balls of muscle, around 100 pounds each, with the same anxiety as new parents.  Their training pen--where they learn how to pasture safely in the woods (with regard to the fences)--felt like a little play crib.

Sure, they took to those woods like it was there home country--kissing the very ground, repeatedly, it turned out, and with unending passion.  

But then came the first night, and we had to learn all over again about what it means that everything that has breath must needs do its own breathing if it can. I kept asking Josh if he wanted to check on them again--offering the head lamp, etc.  What if they got out?  What if they got stuck in the fence?  What if something was going to come after them?   Eventually, we got to sleep--and the sight of them in the morning, repeatedly counted and checked, was such a relief.

And, it turns out, it was quite a joy.  Josh has taken to spending quite a bit of time with the pigs--sometimes with Beckett--feeding them morning and night, refilling their water, and just hanging out, talking to them.

Beckett and Josh hanging out with the pigs.  Josh is sitting on the waterer (chief of all he surveys) and Beckett is petting a pig.

Beckett and Josh hanging out with the pigs.  Josh is sitting on the waterer (chief of all he surveys) and Beckett is petting a pig.

While they were skittish at first, running away from any approaching person, they got friendly fast.  And by the end of the second week, they were doing this: 

It's not every day you get to fist bump a pig.  But wait, I guess that for Josh, it now IS an every day thing.  And that means that he's happy.

And for me, that's a dream come true. I've been waiting for Josh to find his happy place for some time:  who knew it was a pig pasture? Couldn't have predicted THAT when we got married--him all ready for bond trading and business, so much so that I nicknamed him CHB (Cold Hearted Businessman).  But given that my view is like this of an evening, I'm pretty stoked. 

But for Josh, the real dream come true is not that HE's happy.  It's that the PIGS are.   These pigs are being raised as happily as pigs CAN be. They spend their time rooting around and munching on various bits of mast and such in the woods--shaded from the heat by all sorts of interesting bits invasive flora, which they root up.  Where pigs would have been panting and uncomfortable in barns last week in that 90s heat, ours pretty much enjoyed themselves (after the rains, they did have quite a lovely wallow, too).

They have access to organic feed morning and night, but they have enjoyed the mulberry leaves from the branches Josh trimmed (to remove squirrel access (and good news!  They're out!  Now, to get rid of that stench emanating from the hole in the ceiling...))  just as much as the feed. Here's one taking down another trimmed branch.

In order to treat the pigs and the forest well, we move their pasture every few days by moving the electric fence and luring them over into fresh space.  Lush with walnuts and red and black acorns, this forest is a pig paradise. And there's even plenty of furniture.

 

And, it turns out, pigs fed on walnuts and acorns and woodland mast are some of the most highly prized and sought after pork in the world. (Check out THIS ONE from Spain!).  We're bringing that tradition to a really small, local set up.  Just 8 pigs this year, who will have, we hope, a life with us that needs no barns or crowding. Unlike pigs in barns, who have to sleep in or near their own latrines, these pigs choose a latrine site as soon as they enter the new pasture, and then sleep and eat away from it. These pigs get just community in the local landscape and the occasional 8 year old visitor to pat them on the head. 

We'll be selling the pigs this year--mainly in whole pigs and half-pig lots--and the page for reservations is now live.