| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| FarmerSadie |
Posted - Nov 09 2007 : 3:26:05 PM
Hi Ladies!
I am in the midst of a writing project and would love to include some stories from woemn like myself who have started their own farms. If you can, please post your answers to these questions. the more honest the better 
1. What is your favorite un-conventional farm tool?
2. What is the biggest mistake you have made since moving to your farm?
3. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before starting your farming carreer?
4. How many bruises & cuts can you count on your body right now?
5. When was the last time you had a REAL vacation?
Thank you so much for your help. And if you have a favorite farm recipe, I'd love a copy! sarah@artfarmoregon.com
Farmer Sadie says, "Eat your veggies!"
www.artfarmoregon.com |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| GaiasRose |
Posted - Nov 30 2007 : 08:43:39 AM
1. What is your favorite un-conventional farm tool? I have a marble owl that in a pinch makes a great hammer.
2. What is the biggest mistake you have made since moving to your farm? falling victim to agoraphobia and letting my garden go by the wayside last season.
3. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before starting your farming career? that chickens are dinosaurs and very complex creatures.
4. How many bruises & cuts can you count on your body right now? three bruises and no cuts
5. When was the last time you had a REAL vacation? two years ago.
~*~Brightest Blessings~*~
Tasha-Rose
Blogs: http://gaiarose.wordpress.com
http://womonandsprout.wordpress.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=GaiasRose
Homepage:
http://ForestFaeries.etsy.com
 |
| Annika |
Posted - Nov 29 2007 : 11:06:02 PM
1. A rattly goat chow bag, you can sit on it, kneel on it, use it to haul things, chase sheep with it (don't like the rustling sound, thwacked against what ever), chase escaped goats with it, whallop nasty billy goats with it, to carry stray hens in ...the list goes on
2. listening to my landlady's "easy way" to do things
3. That ewes adore bearing their young in a howling storm,(extra points if it is through deep drifts or in severe sleet/hail) in a half frozen puddle, down an uneven slope, lying upside down and in the dead of night
4. I can't count the ones on my back, but.... about 16 due to the barb wire and falling down an icy slope
5. Wha??? we get vacations???????
Wishing you joy in small things and peace in your heart
Annika
http://panzymoon.wordpress.com/
EDIT: I don't own my own farm, I just live on a farm and am daydreaming of my own little bit of earth. So not sure if I count...fun questions and answers! |
| Aunt Jenny |
Posted - Nov 29 2007 : 10:39:59 PM
1. What is your favorite un-conventional farm tool?
My kids' outgrown little tykes wagon..I use it all the time for hauling things around..especially when no one is around to help. I can haul 3 50 lb. bags of feed on it at a time...and that helps. I am NOT good at hauling bags of feed in my wheelbarrow..I flip it every time. The wagon is stable, and easy to clean out too. I will use it until it falls apart and then get another!!!
2. What is the biggest mistake you have made since moving to your farm?
Keeping a buck goat. He was such a nice guy..but PEEE YEW!! Won't do that again..our little mini farm just dosn't have room for male animals except a couple roosters and a rabbit (well, and one male dog) the bigger ones are all girls. Males are a whole other thing and harder to contain and deal with.
3. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before starting your farming carreer?
Hmmmm... since I learn everything the hard way I can't even think of one right now. I would have got a cow sooner though!!
4. How many bruises & cuts can you count on your body right now?
Oh my..okay...2 bruises on one shin..just bumping into stuff outside and tripped on a bucket yesterday, and "fence bruises on my upper arms..only 2 right now. One small one on my inner arm from the strap and rod that hangs the milker (surge belly milker) under the cow..it gets me sometimes when she shifts..I sit too close. a couple small cuts on my fingers and a big scratch on my elbow from the chicken house door.... I was cleaning things out and scraped up against it. I don't think I ever have a time without a few. I am actually in better shape than usual..once it it mid winter I slip on ice alot..haha.
5. When was the last time you had a REAL vacation?
I got to go to Calif a couple weeks ago for a visit with my son, alone. That was awfully cool...but I did worry like crazy about the animals...and it wasn't the whole family , just me. We try to go for a week in the spring while the cow is dry..about every second year. We arn't sure about this coming spring yet...depends on money..as usual. AND if Mona is dry. She is calving later this year. When she is in milk we don't go anywhere overnight ever..not both of us. I am so thankful husband CAN milk. He isn't crazy about it..but he can.
good thing we are homebodies.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
| junkjunkie |
Posted - Nov 29 2007 : 4:50:48 PM
Sarah, I have to confess that I don't live on a farm, but enjoy the country. I live vicariously through the other farmgirls...so I have no answers to your questions. :) Judy
"To have life in focus, we must have death in our field of vision." Benedictine monk John Main |
| Annab |
Posted - Nov 12 2007 : 03:40:48 AM
I guess farming and animals has and will always be in my genes. My grandfather was president of the Wool Grower's Association in Ohio for over 30 years, I had an uncle who raised hogs for a living, and I remember my mother's gardens and her affinity for all things green and growing. It's only natural I finally found a farm boy here in NC and married him 7 years ago. Hubby's gardens are big enough to warrent tractor usage for planting and tilling. We are but mere hobby farmers and sell watermelons as our main money crop. I got into chickens 4 years ago and have been selling eggs. My love for sustainable agriculture has spilled over into a gift for canning and especially for making jams and jellies.
1. One unconventional tool we use are those wooden spools from the electric company. They make great outdoor tables for just about everything.
2. The biggest mistake thus far has been rather minor. One year I used rye straw for mulch and ended up with a beautiful and unwanted crop of grass in the garden that following Spring!
3. As far as information passed along? Really, nothing has been a total shocker. We are at the mercy to the elements, and that's what keeps us doing this as a hobby and not full time.
4. My hands are a total wreck. Sand-papery and a few annoying micro cuts from bare hands in cold water. I'm sporting the last remnant of blackberry sticker scrapes on the back of one leg from 2 weeks ago. (It was still in the 70's and warm enough for one last fling through the fileds in shorts). One mystery bruise on my lower shin.
5. Luckily we can take vacations each year if we time Spring planting just right. That, and our neighbor down the road is a full time organic farmer and doesn't mind watching our place when we take off for a week. |
| FarmerSadie |
Posted - Nov 11 2007 : 10:30:14 AM
These are great! I've been cracking up reading your answers - keep 'em coming :)
Here's my blog link with some stories from my place: http://www.artfarmoregon.com/blog
Sar
Farmer Sadie says, "Eat your veggies!"
www.artfarmoregon.com |
| MsCwick |
Posted - Nov 10 2007 : 10:35:54 PM
1. What is your favorite un-conventional farm tool?
~~~A five gallon bucket. Great for toting fence staples and hammer out to the woods to repair the fence. Works well to mix fertilizer water in and to carry and pour a bit on each plant in the garden. Ads about 18 inches to my height so I can grab things otherwise out of reach. Lightweight contraption for filling with sticks and junk I am always picking up out of the yard, and to take down to the creek to get white sand....I think I could write 101 Uses of the five gallon bucket.
2. What is the biggest mistake you have made since moving to your farm?
~~~Procrastinating. If not only for the lack of money, but the lack of time as well, on building adequate storage and shelter for the horses and all the painting stuff we have accumulated. It kills me to pile things neatly outside.
3. What is the one thing you wish someone had told you before starting your farming carreer?
~~~Although my farming here isn't really a career, (I was raised on a chicken farm with 52,000 chickens going in and out every 7 weeks) I would have to say I wish someone would have told me how much effort is required, and there are never enough hours in the day. There is always something to do, and I'm a busy body, so this lifestyle here in the country is rather suiting...
Also, I wish someone would have told me that this countri-farm life is addictive, and we always want more...
4. How many bruises & cuts can you count on your body right now?
~~~Hands have lots of micro splinters from getting up firewood w/ DH. Feet are caloused from my summer anti shoe movement and are begining their winter repair process which I will ruin again next summer. Legs are always bruised from something, but usually its a mystery...
5. When was the last time you had a REAL vacation?
~~~June 29-July 1. Our three year anniversary, we went to Williamsburg, VA. |
| therealshari |
Posted - Nov 10 2007 : 2:57:51 PM
Sarah, I took the time to consult two of my roomies (we're The Four Country Gals) and we've come up with the following. In some cases, we couldn't agree on just one answer.
1. The most unconventional tool...
Would you believe using a dog crate to raise "bummer lambs" in the kitchen? We've done that two years in a row now.
I like to use the front of my sweatshirt to carry stuff... like fresh eggs.
Oh, and using the pretty new Chevy Avalanche like a farm tractor. We've used it to drag railroad ties, to stretch a fence, and to haul sheep and hay from farm to farm.
2. The biggest mistake was made before I moved here... Cindy and Bev bought a lamb they named Chiquita. Now, when I got here, they had Paco, Wooly and Chiquita and Merino. Paco and Wooly were wethers and being raised as meat lambs.
Chiquita was a "ewe lamb"... but she had horns. Wouldn't you think that's your first clue?
Well come spring, and time to breed the girls, so we hiked across the desert (about 1/2 mile) to our mentor's farm. She had sold us both girls, and offered to breed them. What a sight... three women, two sheep (Chiquita on a dog lead with Merino following along) trekking through the snow cross-country.
A month later, we picked up the girls... this time by truck with Bev and me riding in the back and hanging on for dear life.
Five months went by... and no lambs.
Now, Chiquita was one of those sheep you could never trust. She was the only one with horns... and not afraid to use them (we're still clueless, here). She put me over a fence, and nearly put Cindy in the water trough.
"Flip", our shearer took her down, and in the process, she let out a very deep, loud, "Blaaaahh!" To which he replied... "This is no ewe..."
So what is she? She was a sheep that looked like a ewe, kinda' sorta. She didn't have any really obvious outer signs... well, other than the horns and her behavior.
Ok, time for a quick conference. Flip offered to take "it" in trade for the shearing bill. Bev got home just in time to discover the problem. We called Cindy and asked her what she thought. It was simple... it couldn't make lambs, or bear lambs... it had to go.
Cindy's reply... "Tell it goodbye, and don't let the gate hit it in the butt on the way out!"
Suddenly Chiquita was reanamed "Bruce" and went away.
3. We wish folks had been a little more candid with us about what will grow and what won't grow where we are. We're in a "micro climate" and things that will grow two miles in either direction from us, just won't grow here. Our last frost can come late into June and the first frost can come mid-August. Our soil is more sand than anything else.
4. Cindy said she can't count the bruises and nicks she has. Bev isn't sure she's got anything recent. I've got perpetually dry skin and my thumbs are forever cracked and dry. As far as bruises... right now I'm in good shape, too.
Oh, Bev fell off her horse about three weeks ago... does that count for bruises? If so, bruised her pride worse than anything else.
5. We haven't had a vacation since we got here, and yet we feel like we're on vacation every day. It's truly a joy to get up and go to work.
Shari Thomas
farmer, web copywriter, blogger
Shari's Gone Country
Vote for me at "Blog for a year" |
| windypines |
Posted - Nov 10 2007 : 04:56:35 AM
Hey Sarah, Your writing sounds interesting. I am not much of a story teller or writer, but I can answer a few of your questions.
1. Though it is not unconventional, I think the most interesting tool would be a pocket knife. I have always thought a poem should be wrote about the uses it has. I have used it as a knife, a screwdriver. You use to to scrap off rust, manure, you name it. Then another time, you wipe the blade off on your jeans, and cut open a nice apple you picked off a tree in the pasture. I get in trouble when I use it to pry things. Broke the tip and my husband had to grind it down. Oh well better then walking to the barn to get a screwdriver!
2. I think the biggest mistake we made, was not to go into debt more, and get the place fixed up right away. After 19 years, it is still not done. Probely could of paid off the extra debt by now too.
3. I was 13 when we moved to the dairy farm. So when we got our own place, I kind of knew the ropes. Basicly it is going to cost you more then you make. Just seems like it anyways.
4. I am in pretty good shape right now. The only thing I have is caloses ( can't even spell them right now ) peeling off my hands. Put in a bunch of wood posts by hand this fall. ( meaning, used a hand post hole digger ) Man they have been sore when they peel off too.
5. Maybe 10 years ago we had a vacation. We went out to my sister's in Montana. Hope to go again sometime soon. Visiting family is as real as we get.
Hope this helps gives you ideas. Michele
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