Notes From Zone 4

Oh, the blasted rain this week has just been awful. I had been on top of all of the basil, but then it rained and rained and rained, and it all flowered while I wasn’t looking. I decided to just bite the bullet today and get soaked while I pinched off all the flowers,

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I was so busy this week because I was here by myself, had a dog in heat, plus all the usual farm stuff that I swear I kept forgetting to eat almost every day. Not good, because I know I need to fuel my body if I’m going to work so physically hard, but

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Almost two months ago, the loggers showed up and began our summer project of clearing what we hope turns out to be 15ish acres of new pasture for all of the critters. The plan was to go all the way up and down Mack Hill Road (about 1500 feet) and back about 600 feet. All

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We had a lamb die earlier this year. (Gracie and George’s ram lamb.) The first quick diagnosis was heat stroke, as it was on one of the hottest and most humid days of the year. But I had a necropsy done on him, and it showed bacterial pneumonia and extremely low levels

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Water for all the critters is something that takes up small chunks of time all day long. I must fill water buckets for everyone at least four times a day. I wonder about bigger containers, but the pigs flip theirs so quickly and Albus sits or lays in his that bigger doesn’t help. Since

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Duck. Oh how I love you with an unholy passion. We slaughtered our very own pastured duck a couple of weekends ago. I’ve been having them age in the ice box for almost two weeks, so that they’d be really tender, and it seems to have worked. I was worried that

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I started these braised grass-fed beef short ribs using this recipe. But because I’m trying to use locally available ingredients as much as possible, I adapted it. * 4 pounds grass-fed beef short ribs * Coarse salt and black pepper

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Instead of buying a $300 round bale feeder, I’m going to try using a cattle panel wrapped around it. We’ll see. We cut it down a little, and Aaron and Frank used a Dremel to smooth out the rough bits. We did the same thing for the sheep, except instead of eating out of the top, they will theoretically eat through the cattle panel openings. As they eat it, I’ll tighten it around them. We covered the top with a tarp. I hope these work. I need to find ways to save time during the day. It’s taking far longer for the loggers to clear the new pastures than I’d hope.