strange bird at the feeder

We had a heron under the maple tree this afternoon. Not the common place bird to have here on the hillside, they are more associated with water, so I snapped a picture. It flew away as soon as I walked toward it. Cool to see though.
Clean up day around the house and farm, just cleaned ousome beets, carrots and collards from the cooler that were long over due to be feed to the chickens.

Tropical Chickens

Now the range in "free range" is white and cold so what do we do with the rangers? We lure them in to the tomato greenhouse for the winter of course. The sun and animal heat keep things pretty nice. Once the snow piles up outside I open the door every morning and let them get some fresh air and play in the snow. They don't wander very far as those chicken feet sink right in. In the winter we also change the feeding regiment a bit. I feed food scraps that my students at school scrape in to a bucket after lunch each day. No the eggs don't taste like pizza!

One less lettuce eater

My buddy Marc shot a 4 pointer on Sunday. Healthy organically raised deer too. This past year we last thousands of dollars in crops to deer damage. We are in a little niche here, right outside the city where there are lots of places people can't hunt and deer like to live. On an average night there are 15 deer in our fields helping themselves.

This one has already been turned into sausage and steaks which will be shared and enjoyed. Its a great source of hormone free meat that really is pretty cheap.We hope to get a few more by the end of the season. The only other predator is the bumper, 5 have been hit by cars this week alone. It's kind of like driving route 80 out through PA but in VT.

Oh ..I reallly enjoy hunting too, it's one of the reasons I bought this much land.

The Apprentice

So finding time to do this is tough, active bloggers must not have kids, hobbies, jobs or wives! Now I know why the blogs I follow only post once a week or so. Anyway it's early, I was going to go hunting this morning but it is pouring rain which makes for an uncomfortable time sitting so it looks like it wil be a morning of jobs around the house and closing up the farm for the winter.

So back to the title topic - Tom. We had a great apprentice this year who truly gave it all. He was so happy to be a part of all the things we did (or did a good job faking it) from crazy days loading the truck to ship out of state to running around at 6am cutting basil so it was fresh for the farmers MKT. Tom pulled it off ! Tom came all the way from Michigan in the spring to live in out little cabin by the river and learn about farming. It is hard enough working around here, long days in the sun and rain, but to go back to the meager 8x12 cabin try to relax with just enough room to strech you legs is truly the sign of what a trooper Tom was. We quickly figured each other out (more like he figured out that I am a crazy person with way tooo much going on ) and worked really well together. Tom left last week to head back to Detroit to look in to urban farming and the possabilties of a land grant in the city to farm on. He is really commited to growing good food and teaching people what good food is. Our family will miss him.

It all begins here

Today during my lunch I surfered in to a blog that inspired me to share more of what goes on in our lives so friends and others can check in to see whats up. The blog was from a guy in Maine (just back from our yearly deer hunting trip) who lives the out door life and shares it with all through stories and photos. Anyway I was inspired to begin the blog (actually started this spring) and see what it takes to keep it up and running.
Bear with me as I learn how to post photos and have some fun with HTML too. Here we go! George