Shorter Days, Longer Lists?

     This past weekend was, as predicted, absolutely beautiful with cloudless skies and abundant warmth. We broke the record on Sunday for a high temperature for the date and so I had the opportunity to linger on the patio enjoying what will likely be the last of significantly warm weather this year. Kathy and I were able to enjoy a few glasses of wine and relax on the patio because there is much less to do in the gardens now. That is at least how I justified my inactivity but the shortness of that beautiful weekend reminded me that there is a lot to do. I like to make lists because they help me get my thoughts in order and keep my priorities straight. If you visit my house you will often see a piece of lined note paper with number running down the left margin sitting on the coffee table in the living room. Kathy likes to poke fun at me because " the list" is always if front of me even when I'm trying to relax. My boys might tell you I'm a workaholic but I would rather characterize myself as determined and it is this determination to do well that drives the list.                                                       I have found myself thinking lately that my list should be growing shorter because there should be less to do. The growing season is just about done, but we have yet to have a frost so plants are still growing. That means that if I want the late harvest plants to do well I still need to weed around and water them. These two chores have been at the top of the list all summer and I still can't strike them off the list yet. I walk around the garden and hope for just another week of good weather because then I should be able to harvest snap peas and a whole bunch of habenero peppers. If the weather holds then I'll have to add brining and storing jars of hot peppers to my growing to do list. I had resigned myself to doing little or no hunting and trapping this year due to my recent shoulder surgery but I'm progressing faster than I'd hoped. If my progress continues I might have to add scouting my hunting and trapping areas to the list.                                                                            We have built the chicken coop, the does have been bred once again, I inspected the rabbit hutches which I'd hoped to add to our farm, we made iced cream using some of our freshly picked raspberries, many of the spent plants have been cut to the ground so I can check those things off the list. I have also determined that I want a bigger area for the chickens to free range in so I can now add a larger run with a fence to my list. The hutches weren't what I'd hoped for so now I'll add that search to my list. There is a lot to do before the snow flies and the ground has frozen into an unworkable state and the shorter days just don't help. I was hoping the the shorter days would shrink my to do list but the opposite seems to have happened. Then when I look at the numbers on my list I can see many have been crossed off and less have been added. I know there will always be numbers added to my list because that's the nature of the farm. Paces and gears change on the farm as the days shorten and the list changes too. I look at my list and I have just about the same amount of numbers in the margin that I always have and so I can relax just a little. I recognize this fact and can be happy with what we've done on our little farm this year; it seems the shorter days only seem to make the list longer. Oh there's a lot more to do but at least I can enjoy our accomplishments because I love this little farm project and I won't be a slave to the list.

Shifting Gears

  I recently wrote about moving forward and while going forward is always necessary on the farm, sometimes the speed has to change. This time of year requires a change of speed and pace. The summer is officially over and autumn has begun, there are a few plantings yet to be made but the season is pretty much over. The harvest is nearly done, there are just a few raspberries left to ripen, some habenero peppers which need to mature and kale continuing to grow but the these are the last hangers on in what has been a very busy growing season. The sun is no longer providing the needed light and warmth to sustain any more crops and it's time to think about digging out the last tough weeds still clinging to the edge of the gardens. I have spent the last few days walking around the garden plots and making mental notes of what needs to be done next but the pace is slower than what it's been. Gone are the days of picking, blanching and freezing all the rapidly ripening produce. I no longer have to furiously pull weeds to keep the gardens clear they are finally reaching their end and I'll digging out those that have stubbornly made their way into the garden plots.                           With this change of seasons there seems to be an inward shift of gears going on and though the pace is slower there is no less work to do. The work that needs to be done almost seems to require a lower, slower but more powerful gear. The last garden plants will be pulled out over the next few weeks and rabbit manure will need to be spread over the garden plots and tilled in, such work isn't done quickly and requires just a bit more effort. The chicken coop has been assembled but the surrounding ground needs to be leveled to provide an adequate place for the coop and run to rest, this also will take some slower moving and more muscle. The rabbits are now over five weeks old and in a month I'll begin processing them for our family and friends and this too is just a slower process which requires less speed and more precision. Tomorrow I'll go look at four rabbit hutches to see if they'll meet our needs, if they do that also will require some planning and effort to get them set up before winter.
   There are still lots of chores to be done they're just different and they require a different gear. The does have all been bred again and when they kindle the kits will require a bit more care due to the cold weather that will be in place when they arrive. I hope to scout my hunting and trapping areas for the coming season and, if my shoulder permits it, to gather meat for the coming year. This type of activity also requires a slower, more thoughtful pace and a greater effort all because it's tough to endure the cold and dark of this season. Kathy and I will be using the shorter days to learn how to make cheese, jam, make hard cider and acquire other farm skills that are necessarily done in doors. We will also plan for next years gardens, the arrival of our new hens and the expansion of the farm in new ways. We're still going forward on the farm and forward toward our dreams all that's changed is we've shifted gears.

Moving Forward

    It's been just a week since Justin and I buried Chase our New Zealand White buck and I have found that the time has passed rather quickly. There is still a lot to do on the farm, rabbit kits are growing well and it will be time to process them soon, kale planted a few weeks ago is growing steadily and will be ready to harvest in about a month. We have been harvesting raspberries at a break neck clip and the freezer now has twelve pounds of wonderful sun ripened fruit which will be used to make jam, iced cream and an assortment of baked goods. Decisions still need to be made as well, I need to decide if I'll breed the does one more time before the weather becomes too cold and this then would involve borrowing a friend's buck again since Issac is too young for the task. I also need to decide when the remaining plants should be pulled out, wondering if they have produced their last good crop. I am, at times, hesitant to make those choices simply because it's taken so much time and effort to get the good yields we have had this year. I love the taste of fresh vine ripened tomatoes and hate to give up on the last few green fruits, believing that they'll still turn that beautiful red orange color that indicates they'll taste wonderful. The forecasts have called for colder weather and this will slow all the ripening processes, the sun really isn't hitting most of the garden like it did during the peak of the growing season and I think to myself, it's time to move forward.

     I think time seems to pass more quickly this time of year because the days are now much shorter than they were in mid-June, three hours shorter. There is also still a lot to do, manure needs to be dumped on the garden plots and tilled in, the remaining garden plants need to be chopped up and composted, sun chokes need to go in the ground for next year's harvest. We have a chicken coop that needs to be assembled and feeding and watering vessels need to be purchased ahead of the planned arrival of six hens next spring. I sometimes like to linger on the patio on days when the sun is still high and strong enough to warm my skin and give me the impression there might be time for one more taste of summer. During those moments on the patio I also see the shadows growing longer by the minute and realize it's time to move forward.

     Kathy and I have done a lot during this growing season; we've learned a lot too. We are already having some discussion about what the garden areas will hold next year but Kathy usually reminds me that the time for such planning is January because there is still much to do now. We have also talked about our failures and successes and what we learned from them. We will replant some vegetables right where they were this year, it's hard to argue with success, but some will need to be planted elsewhere or abandoned completely. While I engage in these success and failure discussions in my head I still think about Chase. I have left the hutch door down where he lived all this week, the floor needs to be bleached and all his feeding implements scrubbed. When I walk by that open door I think about what I've learned, where I failed and succeeded. I have learned a lot about raising rabbits from Chase, not just having rabbits but raising them. I succeeded in producing good quality litters, we learned how to deal with crazy cold weather and keep all the rabbits alive. I failed to recognize when something was wrong with Chase until it became too late but that to is a lesson, now I know what to watch for and I will not be caught off guard again. I also learned that I have feelings for my animals and this is not all bad because it makes me care more about their well being. An animal well taken care of is an animal that will end up being good produce and it will not suffer in my care. I walk by the hutches and watch Isaac growing into a good looking buck and feel happy knowing that Chases' blood line was saved. I realize that farm is growing the way that we want it to and as I look at the empty hutch that Chase was in I feel happy about what I've learned and about knowing that this hutch will soon house a new doe from his blood line. I think about all of our lessons, failures, successes, and growth and I realize it's time to be moving forward. 

Unintended Endings

   The last time I wrote about unofficial endings and our buck Chase was holding his own. Animal husbandry is an interesting thing not just because of the uniqueness of raising animals but also what goes along with it. I have written a few times about the disconnect between people and their food so I will pursue this line of thought for just a moment. You can observe people walking through the grocery store shopping for the day or the week and see that they aren't thinking about the food but just about the cost. They pick up whatever is the best deal not perhaps what is best for them or their family.It is possible they don't even know what's best or why, they need to eat so they buy what they can afford without knowing where it came from or why. If you grow any type of garden or provide your own meat there is an intimacy with your food that the mainstream populace doesn't understand, if they did perhaps our societal eating habits would change. You realize that things are hard to grow but you know what they should taste like. If you raise animals to eat you are intimately involved with their birth, their survival, their growth and most likely their death. That may sound shocking but everything we eat has died, be it animal or vegetable we grew it to eat it. The plants may affect us less but they have given their life and energy to sustain us none the less. This is perhaps no more evident than on the farm. Plants fail to thrive and we try to understand why and replant. Animals fail to thrive and we try to understand why and breed them again. Yet we are involved in the process.
     All this brings me back to our disconnect with food, many carnivores might not be so if they were involved with the process or there certainly might be a greater appreciation for the meat in the faceless package. We don't think about the process perhaps because it distresses us or maybe we haven't been caused to think that way. Death is hard and most of if not all us try to avoid the thought of it but it happens on the farm all the time. I have processed many rabbits for food since that is what we have chosen for our little farm. I am intimately involved in each piece of rabbit that is produced for food and yet as heartless as this sounds I am not without a heart. I have made a choice to process, nice word for butcher, these rabbits that I have put so much effort into keeping alive and growing but I still feel each extinction of life. I can say that I intentionally end  life that becomes a meal but I feel and somewhat regret it. I am not numb or with out feeling but I am a meat eater and this is my choice.
     I often wonder if I have gone beyond real feeling for animals but yesterday revealed that I am not. I began this blog talking about Chase our herd buck. He should have been given a numbered tattoo and bred with does. He should have produced lots of quality meat rabbit litters and he did. Then he became more than a number tattooed in an ear he became Chase, he responded to his name, he liked to be stroked across his back and neck. Chase met me every morning at the front of his hutch for food and a scratch behind his ear, he became my little friend. Chase should have produced lots of litters, championship, show worthy litters and then he should have finished his service and gone into the broiler. That didn't happen, he became Chase or Chasey boy or buddy. Chase became sick for unknown reasons and lost weight and he could no longer sire litters worthy of his stature. I nurtured him for months convinced I was attempting to keep his blood line going even though I had preserved his son Issac for future breeding. Yesterday I brought Chase to the vet looking for answers and healing and instead was confronted with possibilities of antibiotics and I don't knows. Then Chase revealed he was worse than I thought or hoped and I was confronted with a choice continue his suffering for two or three days or more or end it now. I made the hard choice and the vet brought Chase to me to hold while two fatal injections were administered. I watched as my buck closed his eyes and stop breathing; I had intended to fix him but I had brought him to an unintended ending, I brought myself to an unintended ending. I cried for awhile as my friend breathed his last and I revealed that I am human. Every life costs something, eating costs something, living costs something, but this is the life I have chosen and it costs something.