Swinging into summer

Well Spring sped by at an incredible pace, helped by the fact that we still had lots of snow on the ground mid-April! The weather was tolerable outside but countless times I could not start a project due to snow. Fencing was put off, yard work was put off... And by the time it finally started melting I was full swing into lambing and kidding! That event went off without too much trouble and the weather stayed nice. Now we have hit the high temperatures of summer I feel my springtime enthusiasm for fencing waning... Much nicer to potter around in the shade of my yard! 

Here are some photos from the garden

Cilantro has somehow naturalized in my yard and shows up at the oddest places- here with the onions (and chickweed!)

Potatoes are looking good. Decided not to hill them this year and see what happens. 

Radishes inter-seeded with carrots. By the time the radishes are done, the rows are thinned for the carrots! 

Beans with squash at the far end of the bed 

Tomatoes behind the beans

Broccoli under a row cover to avoid cabbage worm

More tomatoes

Flowers in between to encourage pollinators 

Tomatoes and peppers under a row cover. Covers add heat and conserve moisture. 

Chickens next to the strawberry and rhubarb bed, chives in front

Trying sweet potatoes under a row cover with black plastic mulch. They like it hot! 

New strawberry bed with a red/pink flowering variety. 

SSS + S = sheep shearing stress + snow :)

Well it certainly has been a challenging winter, and there appears to be no end in sight!
Every week the weather forecast teases us with a double-digit forecast for the next week... but next week comes and goes, and the warmer weather remains elusive. Everyone is grumbling about the groundhog that was certainly mistaken, and my vet suggests the groundhog heard about the death threats and is currently sitting on a beach in Mexico..... lol

Seriously though, our grass in this region starts growing around April 17. My back yard still has 2 feet of snow, and the drifts at the farm are way higher than that. I moved my sheep shearing date up to April 18 from April 1, thinking for SURE the snow would be gone by then.... well.... probably not. More snow in the forecast for this weekend, and cooler temperatures again.

Last year I moved the sheep into the old shop the day before shearing, and we set up the handling alley in there for shearing. They need to be inside the evening before in case it rains (or snows!) to keep them dry. Preferably dry for 24 hours before shearing. Well, the shop still has 4 foot snowdrifts in front of it, and it would not be possible to use it. Unless we spend a day on the tractor to clear it out.

Option 2 would be to use the barn. That has its own challenges. Due to the record number of stormy days and more animals, the barn litter has accumulated dramatically through the winter. I keep adding more bedding and now the 8 foot wall is down to 5'6'' in places... meaning I bump my head on the rafters. The plan is to get a bobcat in the summer to clean the barn, but that is not possible to do now because there is nowhere to put the manure. Hmmm.

Option 3 involves using our stock trailer and rent a couple other trailers, and trailer the sheep down to Larry's farm to shear them in the double car garage or in the quonset. The quonset is full of stuff that will need to be moved, and half my sheep panels are still froze down so making a decent pen and alleyway will not be easy.

I cannot delay shearing much longer. Lambing commences May 1, there are always a few that pop up a couple days before that.
I went through my images from last year - a totally different weather picture!

This was taken March 25, 2012. the snow had gone,

the flood was up and the geese were happy

Shearing day March 27, 2012

April 6, 2012. A little dusting of snow. Notice the corrals in the back - no snow.

Right now (April 11, 2013) there are still 8 foot drifts in the corral, and foot deep snow in most places in the pasture. 

This was April 13, 2012. Where the chickens were in 2011. 

The grass started greening up

First kids were born April 18, 2012. 

My backyard, today. Those are my knee high Muck boots - the snow is up to my knees

April 11, 2013

What the barn looks like now. Notice 8ft drifts to the left in the corrals. 

Journey to self sufficiency part 1

I'm passionate about self sufficiency and sustainability and being a good steward of the land. My little urban homestead is a work in progress, self sufficiency is a journey and it is certainly not completed in one day!

This list is for my urban homestead. I have a somewhat different view for the little farm where the sheep, goats, horses and other chickens are. More on that in a different post!

The yard September 2009

Early 2010 after a big rain. I had just had some landscaping done and the manure worked into the ground with a tiller. Probably end May?

2010 late May. Still having landscaping issues.

2010 July. The weeds grew prolifically in the new manure enriched soil! 

My square foot garden in 2011. Chicken coop in background

Garden beds changed in 2012 to save space and produce more.

Lawn with micro-clover in (nitrogen fixing) and garden in background, 2012.

The lawn looks bigger than it is. The yard was landscaped in 2009, and again in 2010 and 2011 to fix drainage issues. I also imported several truckloads of rotted manure and spread it in the yard... with a shovel and a rake. :) The ground was bare during landscaping, and this lawn was seeded April 2012, and the picture is early August 2012. Amazing transformation.

A book that inspired me greatly, I still read from it regularly. 

John Seymour wrote about rotational grazing and environmental factors long before others.

The first edition of this book was published in 1976. 

Things I do already:

• I'm working on creating a permaculture yard with indigenous plant species.
• A large raised bed vegetable garden with closely spaced plants( think square inch!) and poly culture plantings: planting basil in the shade of tomatoes or radishes with carrots.
• The chicken coop is in the fruit orchard. The girls provide me with eggs and manure for the garden. They get rotated to fresh grass and get spoils from the garden.
• I recycle everything I can.
• I compost everything I can.

Things I would like to do:

• When my current washing machine quits, I will replace it with an energy free model.
• When my current dryer quits, I will not buy another one. A clothesline will do.
• If my kitchen appliances quit, I will replace them with energy free models where possible - hand crank blender, etc.
• I would like a wood stove for saving on energy bill - in fact I would like a Rocket Stove, which is more fuel efficient than a woodstove. But that might void fire insurance on my house....

Waste:

• Recycle everything possible.
• Compost everything possible
• Re-purpose where possible: re-use egg cartons, re-use tin cans for starting seeds, buy wisely. Buy in bulk to minimize waste and packaging.

Water:

• I plan to convert my toilet to a composting toilet and use the septic tank for grey water catchment only. That water can be used in the garden. I have a dirt basement so it should be fairly easy. Envirolet Composting has an extensive list of different styles, but I will have to save up some money for that as they are fairly pricey. 
• Have a rain barrel to catch runoff from the eaves. Maybe even one for next to the chicken coop!
• One side of my house eaves drain into the well in the front yard. 

Energy:

• Improve home insulation and ensure doors and windows seal. Use passive heating/cooling by opening curtains on sunny winter morning, closing them to block out heat in summer.
• I would like to install solar panels and a solar water heater. But good solar panels are still pricey. The provincial government in Ontario has some great programs for solar and wind, but here in Saskatchewan I will have to wait and see what programs they offer in the future.
• Use space heaters to just warm the rooms you use most, when you use them.
• When my current washing machine quits, I will replace it with an energy free model.
• When my current dryer quits, I will not buy another one. A clothesline will do.
• If my kitchen appliances quit, I will replace them with energy free models where possible - hand crank blender, etc.
• I would like a wood stove for saving on energy bill - in fact I would like a Rocket Stove, which is more fuel efficient than a woodstove. But that might void fire insurance on my house....

Environment:

• As many native plant species as possible.
• Nesting for native bird life.
• Shelter and food for beneficial insects and birds

The Future of Farming

I often wander what farming would look like if it weren't for fossil fuels.

Grain bins

The most fuel intensive business is farming grains/legumes/oilseed crops like wheat, barley, rye, oats, field peas, lentils, chickpeas, canola, sunflower, corn, soybean.... that sort of thing.
With the advances (really?) of modern (umm) farming, farms are getting bigger and bigger, and to manage more acres, equipment is getting bigger and bigger.

A modern tractor with seeding unit

Most people are so far removed from farming, that the modern farming process is not familiar to all, so let us walk through it, starting in early Spring.
The farmer needs seed and fertilizer. Maybe he has seed left over from last year (if he is allowed to use his own seed - certain seeds like Monsanto owned Canola, Corn, etc can only be bought, NOT stored from last year and re-used.)
So the seed he has needs to be cleaned of weed seeds - a  seed cleaning machine is used for this. An auger is used to move grain from grain bin to cleaner, and from cleaner the weed seeds and smaller cracked seeds go one way (maybe into a grain truck) and the cleaned seeds go another way - into another bin or grain truck.

If the farmer doesn't have seed, he needs to buy it and transport it to his farm. Also fertilizer. Lots of fertilizer is transported in semi trailers to the farms.

Soon after Spring runoff, maybe the farmer will need to work some of his land before seeding. This involves using a tractor and heavy harrows or discs to 'tidy up' after runoff. Maybe he needs to work in some chemical to catch early grassy weeds - again using heavy equipment.

Then comes seeding with heavy tractors and seeding equipment. Grain trucks are used to load the grain carts that go behind the tractor for seeding. Fertilizer is moved to the field this way too. Now the farmer can seed.
 Certain crops (like peas) need to be rolled so a land roller is used, again with a heavy tractor.

a small roller, I couldn't find an image of a bigger one.

Next the crop is sprayed, with tractor and sprayer.

modern sprayer unit

Maybe it gets sprayed a second time before harvest.

A combine harvesting, and filling a grain trailer pulled by a tractor

older style grain truck.

Now it is harvest time! Depending on the crop, this gets done differently:
Lots of crops get 'swathed' which means cut down in rows to dry before harvest.

Swather

After it has dried sufficiently, the combine can come and pick up the 'swaths' and separate the seed from the plant. The combine needs to be emptied, into a waiting grain truck or semi. The truck or semi unit then drives the grain to the grain bins where it gets unloaded using an auger.
The grains get tested for moisture and if it is too moist, aeration fans are plugged into the bins to dry the seed to stop it from spoiling in the bins.
Then, once the farmer sells his grain, it gets hauled out with a semi to a terminal someplace - normally on a railway where rail cars are filled with the grain.

As you can see, that is a lot of steps and a lot of heavy equipment use!
That wheat is nowhere near being made into bread or the canola into oil......

It is estimated that for every calorie of food produced, 10 calories are used up in energy.... seems.... not really sustainable, does it?

two horsepower unit.... nowadays there are 600 horsepower units.....

Conventional livestock is raised on grain.
Chickens, eggs, pigs cannot be raised commercially without grain.
Should we lose fossil fuels, our diet would change considerably!
Eggs, chicken, bacon, bread.... would be a rare treat indeed.
Conventional dairy barns cannot function without grain. Milk (and its by-products like cheese, etc) would sky-rocket in price as production drops without added grain.

How would we deal with this?
I think farms would have to revert back to smaller farms, more producers farming.
Vegetable and fruit cultivation, and ruminants like cattle, sheep and goats rotating over pastures. Pigs can be raised outside too and fattened on root vegetables and the like.

Animals require fodder in the winter months, and making hay means using tractors and swathers and balers..... in the olden days, farmers used to cut hay and grain with sickles and then 'stook' the hay and grains. In fact, in a lot of third world countries this is still done. But one needs to understand how much faster the mighty machine is! There would be severe limitations as to how much we could accomplish, without machines. I would not be able to make hay for my 200 animals, oh no. I might be able to make hay for 20. The same for other producers. We are completely hooked on fossil fuels, as much as we hate to admit it.

But it gives some food for thought! How would we feed the world, if not for oil?

Bale grazing Goats and sheep

There are several methods of winter feeding. Some of it depends on where you are situated, how mild or severe your winters are, etc. A lot depends on the scale of your farm too. Someone with just 5 goats, might be feeding differently than someone with 500.
Conventionally, animals are kept in a corral (or inside a barn) over winter. Hay is put into feeders to minimize waste, and straw is provided as bedding. But what goes in, must come out. It is amazing how bedding and manure and feed waste can add up over the winter into several feet of glorious compost - but it does no one any good being left in the corral or barn! . The concentrated waste can spread disease if the animals are confined too long and it is not cleaned up. Cleanup is labor and equipment intensive and costs $$.

Feeding in corrals with feeders - with snow and waste, the feeders get packed down pretty quick, and you would have to chip at the ice to free them to move them around, or eventually they will get buried in wasted feed and compacted snow.

So what are the alternatives? Through Holistic Management, I know that 'bale grazing' is an excellent option for cows, I just wasn't sure how it would work with goats.

Cows bale grazing Spring 2012 next to the Spring flooding creek. Lucky cows, beach front dining for a few weeks in Spring! 

Remus finding a comfy spot on some rolled out hay, with goats and sheep in background

Let me explain what bale grazing is:
Generally, ranchers would pick a spot that could do with a fertility boost, a piece of poorer pasture or hilltop would be good, but any area will do. Shelter can be a factor here - some ranchers put up artificial windbreaks (for those of us in the Prairies with not a lot of natural shrub and trees, this is an option.)

The bales are placed 10-20 feet apart on end. Strings are removed, and the cows are rationed according to their needs and the ranchers goals. Rationing is done by separating the animals from their feed with a portable electric fence. The fence is moved daily, every other day, or once every week or 2, depending on how you like to do it. The bales are weighed, ruminants (cattle, goats, sheep) generally consume 3% of their bodyweight in feed a day. We calculate 10% for 'waste' on top of that, and then ration.

The bales themselves kinda act as windbreaks, so if you have a whole supply set out and start feeding from the South, the bales to the North are a natural windbreak.

The 'wasted' feed and manure and urine stay on the land. When Spring comes, it is a wonderful fertilizer. The 'wasted' feed bits are like a mulch, insulating the soil and retaining moisture. Over time, it breaks down into humus and becomes food for the teeming bacteria that keep our soils healthy. Healthy soils grow healthy plants, that in turn grow healthy animals. It is a long term investment in your pasture, and takes about 5 years to see the full benefit.

With Bale Grazing, you do not have to haul manure. The 'wasted' feed become bedding, so no need to use straw. The animals move to a fresh spot everytime the electric fence is moved, meaning there is no buildup of manure and decreased risk of disease causing  bacteria.

When I started building my herd of goats, I wondered about bale grazing them and did a google search. I didn't find anything on bale grazing goats and found ONE link to bale grazing sheep- from Ranching With Sheep. I started communicating with Arlette from Dog Tale Ranch and even got my first sheep from there.

We find that rolling out the bales creates a thinner layer of 'waste'. But this winter with our strong winds and unpredictable heavy snowfalls, I started leaving bales on end so that feed is easier to find.

A half-eaten bale. The wind had carved snow around it, creating an extra bit of windbreak for animals laying down on the 'wasted' feed

Sheep finishing off a bale

Sheep at a fresh bale

Goats at a fresh bale

Goats bale grazing

So far it has worked well. I had one goat get stuck - goats have horns that curve back and they get their heads stuck everywhere. But much more so in feeders, so feeding without the use of steel feeders, is actually a goat life saver :) 

Next winter I plan to stage all the bales in the Fall, to minimize having to run the tractor. Right now we feed every 4 or 5 days, but sometimes the snow makes it hard to get in. Having the bales placed before winter would be a great labor saving. 

So... what is it you Do all day? A day in the life of me

So what do we DO all day? In Winter?

Well, it depends largely upon the day, the weather, but mostly there are basic chores that need doing every day. How long it takes to do them, depends on the weather, too! There might be snow to move to get at the hay bales and to get through gates. The snow might be blowing making visibility poor, or if its really cold the tractors might need some begging and pleading to start.... No two days are alike!
My day usually begins with a cup of coffee and a fruit and Kefir smoothie (Kefir is a fermented milk drink with lots of probiotics).
I like to wait until sunup to start chores - easier to get around that way.
So I fill a few 4 liter milk jugs with water - one for the hens in the back yard, and about 4 depending on the day, for my needy/sick/elderly  goats I keep separate in the barn.
We suit up to go outside, the number of layers depend on the temperature and wind chill expectancy but my pink coveralls and Muck boots make up part of the clothing every day.

First stop is the chicken coop. I give them fresh water (they have a heated bowl that keeps their water from freezing) and top up their layer ration as needed, open their little pop door and throw a handful of grains outside for them. Normally they all burst out the door! Only when its really windy or snowy do they stay indoors.

The hens have a bit of straw to scratch in, they love it and keeps their toes off the snow :)

Next stop the goats and sheep. I drive the 2km accompanied by my 3 dogs - the Jack Russel called Dude, the Malinois called Spice and the Heeler/Collie cross called Reno.
Normally the sheep are outside, but the goats are still in the barn. Remus, the guard dog will run up to greet us. I feed him and use Spice to kick the couch potato goats out the barn. I find that if I let them have access to the barn 24/7 they tend to spend a lot of time lounging around, so kicking them out when the weather is decent (in my opinion, anything warmer than -10 daytime and no wind...) makes them eat more... and distribute their manure out on the land where it belongs, not in the barn where it needs hauling out by bobcat come spring.
Moving them out the barn gives me opportunity to scan for any sick/injured animals. All look fine, so I head off to the other barn where the needy goats are, towing a toboggan with my milk jugs filled with water.
I water them, give grain and hay and treat whatever needs treating. The barn cat gets fed, and we are basically done here for the morning routine. We roll out hay every 4 days for the goats, so if this was a feeding day, I would use Spice to round up the sheep and bring them into the corral. Both dog and sheep are used to the routine and more often than not, the sheep are in the corral before Spice and I are through the gate... much to her disappointment!


Then we would move in 4 big round bales of hay, cut the strings and roll out the hay with the tractor. When the gate is shut, we open the corral and the animals happily run to the fresh hay.

Rolled out hay. I took this picture in December before we had a lot of snow.

Now on to Larry's farm. Most days in winter he is out trucking for off farm income, so I go down there with the dogs to feed the cows. The cows need feed every 2 days, or every day depending.
So here I start the tractor to let it warm up and use Spice and Reno to move the cows from one pen to the next pen. I put out hay for them with the tractor, cut the strings, and open the gate. The cows come back for feed and I can check them over for any signs of illness. I check the water bowls to make sure they are open, then feed the calves in the next pen. Back in the yard I check the deep freezers to ensure they are working, we have a lot of beef/chicken/turkey frozen at any one time.

My helper Dude on good days, in the tractor

Happy calves on a nice day

Spice the archaeologist showing me her prize.... a dead calf skull and neck from the bury pit. 

A not-so-nice day driving to the farm...

Windy and snowy and cold! 

cow butts, heads buried in hay I put out

Dude on the not-so-nice days, stays in the truck

Cows sheltering at the windbreaks

By this time its normally lunch time so I head back to my house. After lunch I do things in and around the house - cleaning, laundry, or other projects like accounting and financial planning. The office stuff gets neglected during the busy summer months, so there is a lot of catching up to do, filing papers, planning the new years budget, planning grazing and when to market animals, what the breakeven price is, that sort of thing. Also reading - I might spend some time reading articles on animal health, improving facilities, new vaccines, new fencing products, etc.
Then there are website updates and correspondence to keep up with. If we needed to run into town for supplies, now is the time to do it. Closest groceries: 38km one way. Closest city: 100km one way.
An hour or so before sundown I head out to go and give the sheep and goats a bit of grain - my hay tested slightly low on energy and protein so the animals get a little bit of supplemental grain to maintain their body condition as they are all bred now and due to kid/lamb come May 1. I fill 10x 20liter pails with grain, put it in my truck and use Spice again to move the sheep and goats into the corral, so that I can pour out the grain in troughs in the pasture. Then there is a mad dash as all the animals try to fit through the gate at the same time to get at the treat :)

A snowy evening - can you spot the guardian dog in this picture? I just pulled up for evening chores when I took this picture quick before he moved

There he is! 

STREEEETCHHHHH - bear in mind, he picked that spot for himself. He can go into the barn with the sheep and the goats, but he was comfortable on the straw bale stack. 

Delays, delays.... snow blew in again to my 2nd barn where the needy critters are. 

The top wire of the mesh sticking out above a snow drift. the wire that is just below my knee, should be waist high..... Remus runs over the fences, thank goodness the sheep, goats and horses haven't ventured out yet.....! 

I feed the guard dog Remus, check on my needy animals again and treat as needed. If its a nice evening I would take the dogs for a walk.

Remus and Spice playing

A corner where 3 pastures meet... under 4 ft of snow

my well is completely covered now

The snow is deep and I have to stay on top of the hard ridges or risk breaking through to knee deep and in some places hip deep snow. We admire the sunset, listen to coyotes howling in the distance and head back home.

Remus on a windy evening walk

At home I go collect eggs from the coop and lock the hens in for the night to avoid predators turning them into a midnight lunch.

The hens waiting for their evening snack. See their fence covered in snow in the foreground? The hens only venture as far as the compacted path I made, they stay out of the deep snow. 

A peaceful evening

 

Now it is time for my supper and a chance to put my feet up!