This weekend was really fun. We cleaned up the first coop and moved the old birds to the chicken tractor. We'll let them help break up the manure in the field this summer, even though they don't lay eggs anymore. They can still earn their feed.

We also got 26 meat chickens -each 3 weeks old. We're done raising day old chicks, since the last few years we've lost quite a few. Apparently a lot of other people are getting the older chicks as well this year, especially since so many of those day old birds are dying, at least those ordered from a certain large breeder. We paid $3.65 each for ours at 3 weeks old, compared to $2.50 each for day old chicks shipped. In past years we've lost quite a few of the McMurray chickens as well. So, we figure $3.65 is a good deal with the grain fed to them and with any losses already in the price.

We put the electronet fence up in the veggie garden, although I still haven't finished planting seeds and seedlings. We're getting a freeze tonight - so I'm glad I've been a little bit behind. This year my timing wasn't that bad.

So - next weekend we finish the veggie garden, shovel the remaining manure from the barn stalls, and mulch the front garden. Then, we'll be ready for summer. We've done a lot over the last several weeks and we now have 51 chickens - 2 hives - 4 cows. Soon we'll have one more calf and 2 more hives. then, we'll be done acquiring animals for awhile!

Quarries on Mt Aelous

Some more great hikes can be had by parking at the trailhead on Dorset Hill Road in East Dorset and walking up the mountain. A short distance up the trail there are two gates, both usually kept open. To the left, the trail will take you up towards a cell tower and a open-air marble quarry, with great views to the southern valley. You are standing on the furthest east peak in the Taconics, looking across the valley at the Green Mountains.

The marble quarry there is like a room, with a stone floor and steep 200' stone walls. There's a wide opening to enter, but once inside, it almost seems like a very large church. Leaves have blown inside this ring of marble cliffs over the years and decomposed, so there are some large trees growing up on the stone floor. You wonder - how long did that take? We saw a yellow lady's slipper and columbine blooming when we were there this week too.

Hike up further, you'll reach the bat cave. This bat cave was once one of the most populated of any on the East Coast. But the last few years a mysterious illness has decimated the inhabitants. The metal grate to the cave was once opened turning the summer, but this year it will stay locked to protect the domain of the remaing bats.

From the bat cave, it is a serious upward scramble to the top of the mountain. I still haven't been up there, but my goal is for this summer. Bob says the view is worth the climb.

If you go straight at the gates, instead of bearing to the left to go to the cell tower area and the bat cave, you'll reach another few marble quarries. The main one is the Friedleyville Quarry, a cave quarry. There's also a nice lookout there, and another pit quarry a little further up the trail.

These hikes are steady uphill climbs, and a couple miles roundtrip, and you are following a dirt road for much of the way, so the path surface is usually in good shape. If you are interested in Vermont history - these are the oldest marble quarries in the country and are quite beautiful.

Looking for hikes in southern vermont?

We've been hiking a lot in preparation for a hike this fall to the top of Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak. Here are some of the hikes that we like in Southern Vermont. Google each one for directions online and more information - but they have our vote of approval.

• little rock pond - all roots and rocks, not really challenging and not really easy - but the pond is lovely at the end
• lye brook falls - great hike - 4.6 miles - steady uphill and gorgeous 125 foot waterfall at the end
• prospect rock - all uphill - straight up - 3miles - very easy surface but strenuous, long climb
• equinox pond trails - the network has a great assortment that go straight up the mountain - and some that are flat - good, decent assortment and some nice lookouts. I'm gonna yell at the next group of teenagers I see mountain biking the trails and tearing them up, though.
• white rocks - we did a little hiking there - and need to go back because we liked it a lot. the geology of the area is very cool
• hamilton falls - not really a hike - near the road - but very cool falls
• mad tom notch - tough trail - rocks, roots, stream crossings - not really a well esstablished trail, but there are caves, remains of historical charcoal kilns, and it is beautiful. a steady climb from east dorset to the long trail.

escaping chickens and pigs

On Sunday evening, after a long day of chores, Bernie called around from the barn to say - are the chickens supposed to be out of the coop? These are dreaded words. Our neighbors dogs eat stray chickens, so chickens stay in their chicken runs and coops all the time.

I got the girls and we went running for the back yard. I asked Grace to post herself at the edge of the barn to stop chickens from running towards the neighbors gate. I sent Rose for the trout net. These Red Star chickens should be called Road Runners because they were fast. At one point, I threw the net through the paddock fence at an escaping bird and it landed right on top of her. The kids started calling me Ninja Mommy.

It only took 20 minutes to catch each of them with the fish net. As we caught each one in it, we'd gently put her in the coop. I examined the door to the coop and it appeared that the cows must have unlatched it by rubbing themselves on the front of it. We'll have to fix that today.

The collective pigs, which are being raised by the Muench's again this year, got out on Sunday night. We all went over there when Barbara called us from their way back to town from traveling. Their friend who was coming by to feed them realized they were gone but the Muenches were still a couple hours away, so they called out the collective.

The shoats were found nearby in the woods and herded back through the fence, which our friend Rob opened up. The shoats had found a place in the fence and wiggled through, so we put up more fencing and zip-tied it to the outside. Hog panels are always great to use because they have graduated spacing from bottom to top. The little piglets can't get through the bottom spaces, since they are much smaller than the top ones. But part of the fence had been built from almost identical-looking panels, same metal, same thickness - which didn't have the graduated sizing. The piglets were able to escape through the large boxes at the bottom.

Bill and Barbara had done a great job putting in the fencing, which included bottom boards to keep them from digging under, so the added round of fencing on the outside that was quickly added will do the trick. Pigs will get out of whatever you put them into though, make no doubt about it. We're very grateful the Muenches are willing to raise them again this year.

Bill had turned out earlier in the week when we lost the calf - so we're finding ways to make the best use of our collective food growers!

end of a beautiful weekend

Just a few spring chores left. We've gotten the front garden in, new bees are situated with more to come, the new laying hens are here and the cows have already let them out of their coop once, and the vegetable garden is almost there.

Last night the temps were expected to be freezing, so took a cardboard box out ot the garden and plucked out flowering plants - I'll stick them back in the ground at lunchtime today, and put all the houseplants and potted flowers back outside too. We haven't come this far with all the expense and work to lose my gardens - not for lack of effort anyway.

The last chores are the cows stall and the front chicken coop. We need to cull the flock of hens we've had for the last three years because they aren't laying anymore. But we don't really want to kill them, so we've been putting it off. The time has come though, because we'll need the coop to be cleaned up and dried out before the meat birds come in another week or so.

Not sure when we'll get these two major chores done - I guess it will be Bob and I working on them at night after work. We both have busy work days now. I just want to make sure to get a walk in at noontime each day, since I'm planning to climb Mt. Mansfield this fall.

We went to Fr. Demasi's funeral yesterday. He was our neighbor for a long time and the pastor of our tiny church. He baptized Bernie and gave first communion to all the kids. He still came to visit every Thursday after he retired to Bennington. I'd have to schedule work meetings around his time to drop by. He was like the Everready Bunny, still going and going at 91 years old, delivering food to people in the countryside. We will really miss our old friend.

Memorial Weekend chores

Bob is working again today, down at his medical office. So, the kids are helping me out at home, finishing spring chores. Then, I'll be off to the collective garden to put down newspaper and hay to mulch the field.

We'll also buy some flowers to plant our planters and the front garden too. Between today and tomorrow, we'll get the cow stall emptied out, rebuild the chicken tractor, and clean up the front chicken coop. I'll get the vegetable garden electronet fence up to keep out the calf and woodchucks, and then I'll finish planting the garden.

I'd like to get some bread at the farmer's market or bake some if we get rain. This week will be busy with work, so there's a lot to accomplish this weekend. But I have a lot of helpers and it is so much more fun to do work with others.

Saturday Chores in Spring

I had all three kids home yesterday and I put them to work -

1. we cleaned out two refridgerators - the kids pulled all the foods out, I sorted out old leftovers, and washed the interiors, and we put the items away together.

2. we bought 10 geraniums and put them in Bob's flower boxes at his work

3. we weeded all of the front flower garden and edged it, and put down 6 bags of mini nugget mulch on the path.

4. we weeded all of the rear vegetable garden

Many hands make work light. When my oldest complained about doing work yesterday - I asked her if she thought I should do all of it with her siblings, and leave her out of it. She said no, that wouldn't be fair. I asked her if she thought I should do it all myself. She said no. She was perfectly lovely the rest of the day. I was actually ready to let her off the hook if she was not going to help happily - I didn't want the stress of that. She realized her part in it all though, which was really nice.

Calf Tales

On Wednesday, my husband came home from work and we walked across the street to greet our neighbors who were up to visit their second home for the long weekend. Standing there chatting about their children and grandchildren, we started hearing one of our cows mooing. She had just been allowed into a new area of the field with 10 inch long grass and I had filled their water tank, so I knew her basic needs weren't the issue.

I looked at Bob and said - I wonder if she's had her calf and something is wrong. Two of our cows were pregnant, and then there's Charlie, our little beefer. So we walked down the long driveway back to the gate and looked up the hill to see a new little calf peeping at us from the vegetable garden. The poor mama was on the other side of the interior electric fence, crying loudly.

Since I knew my sandals wouldn't work inside the paddock, I ran inside for a change of shoes while Bob shut off the fence in the barn. When we both came back, the calf was gone. The mother cow was frantic, and now so were we. Did the calf run through the exterior fence when we shut it off? We were only gone a minute or two.

We called out the mounties. Karen came. Pia and Melissa and two exchange students came. Bill came. Diane came. Grace's friends Ton and Bret came. We drove around, walked around, searching the woods near the field and walked all over the inside of each of the separated meadows within the exterior fence.

Looking north at the south gate of our cow's pasture, we have a gentle hill that slopes to the right and is dotted with tall trees, with lush grass underneath. We call that Heifer Hill. To the left, on the west side of the field, we have a steeper, rocky hill, on the other side of a hedgerow of old maples and elms. This is Hog Hill. Down the center of the field, straight on towards the north gate, is lots of thick grass this time of year. This circle, ringed by the two ridges is divided into 5 separate pastures, with a vegetable garden in the center. We rotate the cows into the pastures almost daily.

When we put up the interior fences this spring I worried a little that a calf would be able to get under the one string, but a single string is all you need to keep the larger cows in the individual areas. Well sure enough, the baby calf scooted under the fence to the garden and was separated from her mother.

Eventually Grace's friend Ton found the calf in the tall grass on Hog hill - almost stepping on him. But with so many people in the field, the calf spooked and ran through the outer fence, now turned off to allow us to pass. Now, the calf was really outside the fence. Luckily we had so many people to help and we created a ring around the calf and as we walked towards him, tightening the ring, he turned and ran back through the 5 string high tensile exterior fence.

We turned it back on immediately and mother and calf were reunited. We ordered pizza and sat in the kitchen with the doors and windows open to the warm evening, laughing with neighbors, friends, teenagers, and we were all relieved. Our community saved the day and we were grateful.

On Thursday, the next day, the kids arrived home from school with friends to show off the new calf, and they came back in the house saying that the calf was nowhere to be found. I went out and since the cow wasn't upset, I wasn't either. The new bull calf is a wanderer. I went back out later and still no calf and the cows udder was practically dragging on the ground, it was so full. This cow had always been a great mother and kept her babies close to her.

Later - at 11:30, I took a flashlight and found no calf in the field. But the mother didn't look worried. I was worried, but I knew there wasn't much I could do. We already pulled the cord on the friends searching for this wily calf. So I went to bed and asked my guardian angels to look after the calf.

Friday morning, I went out to the field early, not expecting the calf to be back. I expected a sad mother cow, udder full. But there the calf was - running in the field, kicking up his heels. I thought - he must be nursing or he wouldn't have that kind of energy. He appeared to stay with her all day. No more excursions.

Saturday I was walking down the driveway, at least 50 feet from the field's south gate, and I could hear the calf's loud sucking sounds. There was the baby, emptying her mother's udder. Now I could really be relieved - but obviously not more relieved than her mother!

We've named the runaway calf after Grace's friend Ton, who nearly tripped over him in the field the first night. Hopefully, the calf will be sold this summer when it comes time to wean him In the meantime, his mother appears glued to his side and he's growing a lot daily. You worry about kids, you worry about work, you don't expect to worry so much about your animals, but that's farming. The calf is a check for us - but the calf is also a beautiful little creature that we're in charge of taking care of, as is his mother.

the calf climbed into the soft hay in the round bale feeder

this calf is less than a day old.

Of course, our own garden needs to be put in. So, I braved the black flies - with a spray can of bug repellant and a hat - and moved manure into two of our 8'x8' raised beds. I laid down a thick layer and planted peas, lettuce, and beets. In another box, I planted the multicolored pole beans.



This week, I'll move more manure to fill the remaing 6 raised beds, and plant spinach, herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, basil, leeks, broccoli, okra, and other goodies.



Next weekend we get 2 more nucs of bees - to have a total of 4 hives. We'll finish putting my vegetable garden in, then finish the collective garden. My reward for all of that is time to work on my flower beds and pots around the house. I'm also doing some veggies in pots near the kitchen - tomatoes, peppers, and lettuces for cutting.



Big chores still loom - carting the manure from the barn to the compost pile, and finishing cleaning up the coops and getting the older birds out in the chicken tractor, which needs to be rebuilt. We'll be receiving our meat birds in a few weeks and the front coop will need to be cleaned out, sanitized and dry, before they can be housed there.



We got a lot done this weekend.

We always plant a garden collectively with 7 other families at another family's house. it is 120'x60' and since we don't have time to check the garden and divide up the produce all summer, we take turns weeding and watering each weekend and plant foods that will be harvested altogether.

So - this weekend we spent several hours today and yesterday planting a 40'x60' grid of hilled squashes - acorn, butternut, buttercup squash, and pumpkins. Then in the remaining 80'x60' area, we planted rows 2 feet apart of black turtle beans, Jacob's cattle beans, kidney beans, Vermont cranberry beans, and black garbanzo beans. Then row after row of carrots, onions, Gilfeather turnips, garlic (from last year), flax, beets, potatoes, and multi-colored pole beans. I think the pole beans are the only veggies that have to be harvested mid-summer.

At the end of today, we had piles of newspaper and 30 bales of mulching hay to put between the hills and rows. We'll wait until next weekend, when the seedlings emerge, to mulch the field. It was really nice to have everyone working alongside each other, cracking jokes and of course they all teased me because I insisted on straight rows this year. Last year was a little too chaotic looking for me.

It is fun to work with others, especially when you have a good purpose. Tonight we meet to discuss the launch of our new food co-op. I hope that has the same spirit.

Somehow I always mess up on seedlings.

Last year the identifying markers faded in the greenhouse and I couldn't tell the squash plants apart.

The year before the identifying markers on the table got separated from the planters with the plants were moved.

This year - I'm well aware of what my plants are - but after last night's ferocious winds, they are now upside down on the patio. They were sitting on the table and blew off.

Now this isn't the tale of Job. I'll gather them up and stick undamaged plants back in the pots and some of them will be okay. But it is always something with the seedlings. Next year I'm building a proper cold frame and using all my accumulated experience to figure this stuff out.

Because, as God is my witness, I will conquer this situation! It will not get the best of me! I've kind of had it with putting a lot of work into something and having it fail at the last minute because I moved on to something else. My seedlings will be in a sturdy box on the ground throughout spring, getting enough light and warmth until they are ready to be planted.

Bob is picking up the new laying hens - 10 red star sex links for our second coop.

Then we're off to the collective garden to rototill, plant seeds, and mulch. This year we're planting 6 types of dried beans, squash, carrots, beets, onions, potatoes, and turnips. We have 7 families this year - 2 dropped out from last year's 6 and we added 3 new.

We're also working on our farm this weekend. I need to move that manure, now that I have helpers. I'll plant my garden - with lettuce, tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, spinach, peas, beans, and herbs. I'm growing herbal tea supplies this year too. I can't wait.

We have a new nuc of bees now too. We'll get our 3rd and 4th hives refilled at the end of this month.

This was a hard couple of weeks work-wise, full of disappointments. I can't wait to be out in the sunshine, working hard.

We are very close to incorporating our co-op, which is great news and should help us buy the building.

Well, Rosie and I shoveled for a couple hours and almost finished the chicken coop yesterday. It felt good, but even though we wore bandanas over our mouths, it was terribly dusty and I have a cough today. It is going to be a cold rainy day today, so I'm working on the coop organization research today. I called a meeting of some of our group for sunday to discuss options too.

The cows are loving being out on pasture finally. It was hard to entice them through an open gate - but they are acting like it was no big deal now as they pace the hillside, looking for that perfect blade of grass or luscious dandelion head. I do love cows.

Food Coop

The food coop is looking like it really is going to happen. But in trying to raise money for it, I'm researching the business organization and IRS status that makes the most sense. There is an old church in our neighborhood that just closed that we are trying to buy. I think we could be successful in raising money through investments or outright donations.

We could organize as a 501c3 and buy the building. This way donations are tax deductible. We want to make the old church into a coop and a community center, so we could have the community center as a non-profit that rents out space to the coop. The mission of the community center would match the IRS guidelines for a 501c3.

On the other hand, the best organization for a coop seems to be something called a Sub T - but the details are complicated and there are a lot of choices to be made. Do you give the members a discount at the cash register, or at the end of the year determine how much of a dividend to pay out and how much to reinvest in the coop? These details shouldn't be worked out by me in a rush to have an entity to buy the building, but by a larger group of people that may wish to invest and/or be members. I don't think we have time to organize as a Sub T and buy the building right away.

We want to make sure no one else buys the building out from under us, so maybe a non-profit is the way to go. I don't want to set up a potential conflicting dynamic between two boards though. I feel like we need a coop lawyer and coop accountant to lead us through, but we only have $430 so far in funds for our attorney.

And....I have manure to move!

I'll call a meeting of some of the leaders of our buying group and those interested in the community center concept and let them decide what to do. They'll have great ideas I'm sure - and I shouldn't always be carrying the burden without asking for help. It isn't fair to the group or even productive to the process.

woe is me

I'm working on a list of chores that need to be done on a self-sufficiency farm like ours. I'm organizing it by month. I always forget when to feed the blueberry bushes and when the cows get their wormer. I want a calendar of chores that I can tick off each week year round.

The month of May has a lot of chores - and even though the month is about half over, I'm been very successful in avoiding most of them. Starting today I have to face my tasks head on - and get the work done.

1. shovel out the winter's manure from the cow stall and put in fresh saw dust - it doesn't smell bad like in past years, since there was pine and leaf mulch laid down first, then saw dust placed over manure throughout the winter. They always had a dry place to lay indoors and the odor is miraculously low. Still the whole mess needs to be forked out and put in 43 wheelbarrow loads to the manure composting area of our field.

2. move composted manure to the vegetable garden - we have a lot of composted, black dirt that needs to fill the raised beds in the vegetable garden. another 20 wheelbarrows full. I need to grab teenagers and let them ferry the dirt to the garden while I fill up the wheelbarrows. a bucket loader would be better, but we don't own a tractor of any type. So, I'm putting it off. But - I can't plant the spring crops until this is done, so I have to do it. The kids are doing sports after school and AP exams and other high stakes end of year stuff - so they aren't able to help during the week.

3. plant seeds - I started seedlings, but need to get them into the garden now, since it appears that we won't have frost until this fall. All the spring seeds need to go in too. Carrots, beets, turnips, lettuce, spinach, and of course potatoes and onions should be planted - and I could probably get away with tomatoes, cukes, and squash too. But i need to move the manure first.

4. rototill the new area of the garden - we're starting a new vegetable garden, but we have to dig it up and put manure on it before we can plant. with the other chores, I don't know when we'll get to this one. we don't own a rototiller, so we have to borrow or rent. Am I too ambitious this year? I always am.

5. front flower garden - needs edging, weeding, planting, and mulching. At this point - i keep thinking - who needs the *&^$%$ flowers? But I always enjoy them, and the flower pots that we have around the outside. I have the flower plants indoors for the pots, and the pots have soil in them and are positioned outside. Will I take some time to plant them today? Or will I do my walk? hmmmmm---- walk first, then plant.

6. new chickens are coming on Saturday - so we need to move the laying hens to the chicken tractor or second coop. I also need to remove about 20 wheelbarrows full of sawdust and chicken manure from the front coop to lay in new sawdust for the new birds. This is #6 on the list, but the chickens will need a home on Saturday. so - this has to be done soon, as in today.

7. bee nucs are coming this weekend -- but Bob has that figured out. He also rewired the interior paddocks in the field to allow rotational grazing for our cows. He did it in the semi-dark last night after the softball game and before we picked up Bernie from lacrosse. The cows were unsure about going through a narrow gate this morning to the green grass, so I hope they've figured it out, or I'll have to shut off the electricity and rewire the opening to allow them more room to go through. I was out in my robe this morning trying to coax them through.

So the photos of wildflowers from our hike on Sunday won't get on the blog today - the work I do for a living will have to get by with a few personal days taken - and I'll get out there in my farm clothes and start to move chicken, cow, and any other types of manure I find, one wheelbarrow at a time. I will walk too -

If you are in the neighborhood - stop by, but bring your wheelbarrow!

more chores

The order for the coop came this morning at 6am. Chicken, fish, fresh vegetables and fruit, cheese and milk all arrived looking fresh and wholesome. We are blessed that we live where there is abundance and lucky that we can take buy this food at a good price because we band together with friends. Friends are good - good food is good - and I'm feeling really fortunate this morning.

I also have a huge pile of chores to accomplish this weekend. I've been working in Montpelier for the last week and ignoring spring clean up work. Here is what I need to do in the next few days:

1. add composted manure to the vegetable garden and till it in - do this to the new beds in back and to the collective garden at Marie's house
2. plant peas, carrots, beets, onions, potatoes, kale, lettuce, and spinach - some in my vegetable beds and some in the collective garden
3. move the old laying hens to the second chicken coop and clean up the coop for the new layers
4. shovel out a winter's worth of bedding and manure from the cow stall and start a new manure pile for composting
5. fix the dog fence
6. fix the interior cow fence
7. finish weeding, edging, and raking out the front garden, and order mulch

I love this time of year, but it is also a busy time with work. I'll just take things one chore at a time and ask the kids, Bob, and the collective for help!