High-Tensile Wire

I'm really liking high-tensile wire. We don't actually have any high-tensile fencing, but we have found other uses for the wire:

1. Bracing on fence corners
2. Hooks. When we're in a bind for a hook to hang on a peg board or some such, we have been known to create one out of high-tensile wire.
   
3. Hoops
   1. Tabletop greenhouses
   2. Support hoops for the cloth we put over some of the crucifers in one of the gardens (We have a terrible problem with cabbage butterflies, which have a different name, but I can never remember it. "Cabbage butterflies" works for me. Anyway, they lay eggs that become voracious cabbage worms, which probably also have another name, but I can never...well you know.)
   3. Hoop skirts. Yep. 14yo daughter and I used it (with 11yo son's help) to create the hoops in our hoop skirts that we wore to Franklin in December for the Dickens festival there.

Pretty convenient stuff to have around, but caution is wise: I recommend protective eyewear, as well as simply being careful, when using it.
Mary Susan

Clarabelle Update

Tomorrow marks Clarabelle's one-month anniversary at Allelon Farm. She's a friendly cow, a lot like a very large dog (with small horns that she will use if she decides to!)

When we picked her up, we were told she was due to calve in July. However, when she was here a week, her teats started leaking, sometimes in a steady stream. We called the former owners, found out she had been accidentally bred earlier (neighbor's escaped bull), but they thought she had miscarried. So they had put their bull in with her later, and things seemed normal, as if she were not already bred, supposedly confirming their diagnosis of the earlier miscarriage. But when we told them about the leaking, we were told that she must be going to calve anyday, and that she must not have miscarried.

And so mild panic set in, stalls were quickly added to the barn, and we started researching equipment needed for milking, etc. (things we'd expected to have three or four months to accumulate and learn!).

That's the history. Here's the update: She's still leaking, although not quite as much, but does stream at times. Keith emailed an experienced and very helpful blogger with questions, and he agrees that the only reason he knows of for a cow to be leaking is that calving is imminent. It's been three weeks, now! Should we be concerned??

I've researched on the internet and found little helpful information. The most helpful info actually referred to horses and foaling. I found that one horse leaked for five weeks before foaling. The vet had a colustrum replacement for the foal when it was born. Should we do this? If so, is there "clean" colostrum replacement available--i.e., hormone-free and antibiotic-free? Or, since the "real" colostrum provides great antibodies, etc., does that mean the replacement would be chock-full of antibiotics and such?

More questions I have: Is calving really going to happen soon? Even if it doesn't, do we need the colostrum replacement? One website I saw said going on and milking is an option, but not recommended, mainly because of the loss of colostrum. But if she's losing all her colostrum, anyway, should we go on and milk her?

Quite a learning experience.

Mary Susan

Daylight Saving Time and Cubiculture

The evenings are long, now, which means Keith, upon his daily return from the "cubiculture," can actually get a feel for what's going on around the farm (and what needs to be done) while it's still light. This is something he looks forward to throughout the winter.

However, I understand that at least some full-time farmers don't care for it: their day starts at the same time no matter what the government clock says, and ends when the sun goes down. Therefore, the spring time shift is exhausting for them, increasing the length of their already-long and tiring workday.

The tentdwellers refuse to recognize this "government-imposed 'longer' day." They choose to go by God's day, following the sun's cues as to when the day begins and ends. This, however, is difficult for a family that is involved in cubiculture: Keith still has to adhere to regular business hours in his "cubicle." As a result, he's able to get something done some evenings around here, but our "down-time" together as a family now is often more of a work-time, with only a bit of time for family worship before going to bed.

A huge advantage we have this spring that we've not had before is the tentdwellers: they are incredible, getting a lot done for themselves, but also getting an incredible amount of work done on the farm. So much of the work around here would have to wait until Keith could do it, or at least lead us in it, but these folks are seeing that soooo much of it gets done! It's really quite exciting to see all that has been accomplished in the last couple of months, solely because of their presence. Not only is work getting done, but we're having wonderful fellowship. It's great having them here.

Mary Susan

Spring preparations

It has been too long since we have posted (as my lovely daughter is quick to point out) and there has been some good progress going on around the farm. For over a year now, we have been wanting to get some pigs. As Mary Susan pointed out, we obtained some pigs about a month ago. Since then they have really gone to work.

Pigs
We had heard and read that pigs are efficient at turning up ground that you want to convert into a garden. Not really knowing what to expect, we were surprised and pleased at just how efficient they are. We set up a garden spot about 12' wide and 80' long and we used 3 strands of electric fence wire to create the pig pen. In the picture shown at right, the pigs have been at work for just a few days. As you can see, we are using a spare dog house we had for temporary housing that they are rapidly outgrowing. These guys are heavy eaters and we are going through feed fairly fast. Here's an approximation of the feed recipe we're currently using:

• 24 lbs Ground Corn
• 2 Cups Fish Meal
• 1 Cup Dried Molasses
• 1/2 Cup Kelp Meal
• 1 Cup D.E.
• 1/2 Cup Salt

I get the corn at a local feed store and they call it "crushings". It also includes a bit of wheat and oats. We mix the feed in 5 gallon buckets and add water to create a slop. Of course, the hogs also get some of the table scraps. For anyone (like me) interested in details, here's a better picture of the electric fence. It's important that the fence be adjustable so that you can raise the wire as the pigs root up the dirt. They will eventually ground out the wiring so we are checking the fence daily and adjusting as necessary.

Here's a picture of the first garden spot after quite a bit of work with the tiller and the rock removal crew. We'll be turning in about 500 lbs of calcitic lime and all the composted horse manure we can fetch into each of the new garden spots. We'll also be installing a greenhouse on one end of this first garden spot. A neighbor had some PVC hoops that he wasn't using anymore, so all we have to supply is some bracing and the greenhouse film.

Another part of garden preparation has been starting the seed we hope to plant. This is an area of gardening where we have tried and failed before. Hopefully this time will better. Laura and I built these seedtables as a mini greenhouse. We've made our own seedblocks using 2.5" PVC forms we constructed from materials we found in the basement. The recipe for the seedblocks is really simple:

• 1/3 Peat
• 1/3 Compost
• 1/3 Garden Soil

We mixed this up as well as possible and sifted it through a 1/4" wire grid basket to remove the sticks and rocks. We added water to the mixture until it just starts to squeeze out between your fingers when you form a ball in you hand. We look forward to seeing if this experiment bears fruit.

Keith

"Death of a ..."

Thoroughly enjoying Cindy-at-Dominion-Family's "Death of a Blogger." What a hoot!

http://dominionfamily.com/blog/2007/02/death-blogger-chapter-one/
http://dominionfamily.com/blog/2007/03/death-blogger-chapter-two/

By the way, we got to meet Cindy and some of the Dominion Family a couple of weeks ago. (They looked great, although sickness had hit some in their home. I, however, was on the first day of a very drippy cold and looked absolutely horrible! Comforting to know that God doesn't judge us on appearances!) Regardless, I would have liked to have talked to them a long time, to pick their brains about books, schedules, etc. Cindy's quite an inspiration.

Mary Susan