From farm to city...the final chapter.

My time at the farm is up. Back to society, the 'real world' and the fast pace of the city. It's been kind of a culture shock to move back even after 6 months. Before I launch into my current thoughts, I still have more fun things to write about!

One thing that I like about the farm is being exposed to all sorts of new fruits and vegetables. I tried tatsoi, summer squash, collard greens, kale, swiss chard, a number of herbs, and tomatoes to name a few. Wait, did I say tomatoes?? Before coming to the farm I never liked store-bought tomatoes. The thing that bothered me the most was the texture and bland flavor. When we started getting tomatoes I was a little bit skeptical. How different could they be? I will never question the trying something home-grown again. It's like night and day. Our tomatoes are firm, full of flavor, and even slightly sweet. It's like eating candy! Never in a million years did I ever see myself eating a whole tomato plain! Something that's discussed in food circles is how certain vegetables lend themselves to being selected by us just because of how they look. Tomatoes are a great example. When ripe, they're a bright red with a sweet taste. Not to say that a head of broccoli isn't desirable but it definitely isn't something more people look to for a snack on it's own. This is discussed at length in Michael Pollan's book The Anatomy of Desire.

I've mentioned that I was in charge of the chicks on the farm. We have close to 7 different breeds which looks cool when they're running around. By the time I left, they were comfortable enough with us that they were free-ranging around the dorm, running after us when we passed over the road walking to the dorm or when they wanted to follow us out of the dorm to do work. It was like having 50 velociraptors at your feet (they kind of look like small raptors). Something I'd like to do in the future is keep a few chickens at my house. It's an increasing trend that people are taking to. Chickens lay an egg a day and it's legal to keep them in your backyard (hens, not roosters). Usually your neighbors won't know you have them. I've heard about coops that are big enough for a few chickens. One perk that people may not think about is that they naturally eats a lot of bugs. It's a win-win situation.

Something fun that I got to do a week ago was help tend to our bee boxes. In the back of our farm we have about 7 active hives. We have some hobby keepers that come and help us to tend to our bees a few times a year. During the winter the bees are fairly sedate. When the heat comes they become much the opposite. We start tending to them in May and the honey is ready by the middle to end of July. In order to get close to the boxes we had to suit up with thick gloves and a sexy, white jumpsuit. Before walking to the hives the guys warned us that our bees are fairly aggressive. They weren't lying. When we got to the first hive, the bees started flying around my gloves and trying to get their stingers through the leather. It was a weird feeling to know that they were so close but couldn't do anything. In order to calm them down, we used a smoker. It's a can that you add grass or anything that'll burn to, start a fire, and squeeze a bag accordion style to push smoke out. Each box is called a super. Before opening an active super we'd blow a good amount of smoke in to calm them. It works well. In each box there're about 7-8 panels that the bees can use to create combs and eventually honey. The hives can consist of between 1 and 4 supers, basically as many as you can reach when stacked on each other. We have 5 active hives this year (compared to our 2 last year) which will be good for the farm.

Some information about bees and their hives:
There are male and female bees. The males are called drones and the females are workers. The males have no stinger and instead have a male part. Their sole purpose is to impregnate the queen. A hive will 'take', meaning become active, only if there is a queen in the stack of supers. You order a queen in a wooden block that traps the queen by some candied sugar. In order to get her out, the bees must eat their way in. In order to impregnate the queen, the drones fly to about 2000 feet and mate with her. The type of honey that you get from the bees is determined by what types of flowers the bees get their pollen from. Most of the honey from the Texas area is wild flower honey. An interesting fact about honey is local honey is good for allergies. Because the bees take pollen from local plants, if you eat the honey, your body builds up a natural immunity to those plants. If you have bad allergies, have a few spoonfuls of local honey every morning!

The last day I was at the farm we took a field trip to the Texas AtM ag. research center at Stephenville. The night before we stayed at a friend's ranch house. This family has an acre of lavender that they're using for culinary and essential oils. The field looks beautiful with evenly spaced rows and bees buzzing from plant to plant. We helped pick some for a few hours. It was a very therapeutic experience. The scent and plant colors were very subtle. Apparently there's a fungus that has made it's way to Central Texas so between plants we had to was our cutters with vinegar.

The research center was a cool experience. We first got there and got shown some different types of animal forage. They showed us three patches of grasses: one was a legume, one was regular grass, and one was an overgrowth of all types of native perennials and annuals. They explained how we have a very European sense of what a field should look like: mowed down, no weeds, pretty much like most yards. When you're dealing with animals it's important to have the crazy overgrowth variety. They talked about how having many different types of plants is ideal for animal forage because they can get the right nutrients at all times of the year. You want your animals to eat the grasses when they have the maximum amount of protein available. After a certain stage, the quality of the forage decreases that the grass flowers. Like I was saying, having different grasses ensures that at different times of the year different grasses will be hitting this balance. They took us to the goat and cow research area where they discussed how they test different types of forage by placing bags of food directly into the animals rumen. Goats and cows are ruminants (we are monogasrtics). A ruminant has a 4-step digestion process that works to break down the forage effectively. The rumen is the first chamber in this process. There is a hole cut directly into the rumen where they literally put the forage into. The quality of the food is determined by how long it takes to break down: the less time the higher the quality. We then took a trip to the peanut area. At the center they have the foremost person in the peanut world. Listening to him was about as close to the guy on Best In Show as you can get. He has been to most of South America and has about 3000 species of peanuts being preserved at a center in Washington. He told us about an ongoing argument he's having with one of the other experts about which was the first peanut species. He also had a lot of crazy stories about being stranded, being shot, and dealing with different governments. Needless to say, I don't think I'll ever learn more about peanuts again. There was some research being done on wine grapes as well. There's a disease that inhibits a vine from receiving nutrients from the root stock which is transmitted by a grass hopper. An entire plantation can be infected in a matter of days. They're testing a liquid solution that would render the plants immune. All in all, I enjoyed the research center.

Now that I'm back into normal society my body has to get used to eating processed food again. The first thing my family did after leaving the farm was going to lunch at a greasy burger place. I was sick for 48 hours afterward. I'm used to eating things cooked from scratch from bread to bean and rices dishes. This makes me sound like a food elitist but I think that it's more due to how informed I am about the food system. I understand that one thing that makes it hard for people to eat this way is the lack of time. It's really inexpensive to by a bag of dry beans and some veggies to make chili but it's so much easier to go buy a can of chili at the store that's packed with preservatives and salts that could be controlled by the consumer (i.e. you).

One thing that struck me is not just what corn is used for but also for how little you get from one stalk. Driving around the US there's a ton of corn being grown. In fact, if you see something besides corn, you'd be lucky. It takes up a ton of nutrients and each stalk only puts out 1 or 2 ears. 1 or 2 ears from those beautiful plants. No wonder we grow so much of it! Like I was saying earlier with tomatoes, corn is sweet and, when it grows, it is very majestic. One problem with it is the government gives the farmers subsidies to grow the stuff. Hypothetically, farmers may get $1.00 per ear but put in $1.29 per ear. Because of the emphasis we have on it, the government may give them $1.00 per ear on top of the initial $1.00 they get from selling it (the values I used are made up, I don't know exactly what they are but you get the point). They would otherwise not make a profit they just don't know anything else.

Something else that's been big is Round-up ready varieties of plants (this is the Monsanto controversy). I've read several articles recently that state that pests are now building an immunity towards Round-up. What does this mean for our food industry? We're gonna have to go back to farming using 'organic' practices. Another problem with our food system is the fact that we have to label food as organic. Organic means that it's grown the way we used to farm (for the past 2000 years minus the last 50 years). It's ridiculous that we have to worry about pesticides leeching into the foods we eat. If it's that harmful, it shouldn't be used at all.

I think a root of the farming problem is that very few people grow up wanting to be farmers anymore. It's looked down on as a non-profitable enterprise that is best left to uneducated individuals. Arguably, farming is one of the most important things that we do. It is what sustains us. The number of farms should be increasing at a rate that reflects our rate of growth as a country. If the number of farms stay the same but the population increases by 20%, there's a problem. If you are a farmer, your lifestyle won't be glamorous by any means but I know for a fact that you will be a happy person. They live simple lives and get to work outside. The hours are long but the impact is very tangible.

As y'all can tell, I have a lot of opinions about what our food system is and what is should be. If you'd like to discuss it with me, I'm more than willing.

Now that I'm back in Houston I'm getting to intake all the information that I learned over the past 6 months. I did all sorts of random things like learning to knit, lasso, take care of rabbits, chickens, how to grow my own vegetables and also how to cook among the many other things. I definitely went on a cooking odyssey. I cooked bread, desserts, meals for 25+ people, I even lost sleep some nights because I dreamt up recipes and was so excited to make them. There's also a ton about herbs and natural remedies that I learned. All in all, I wouldn't change anything that I did at the farm. I didn't even mention the crazy people that I had the chance to meet. From other intentional community members from across the states to ex-Hells Angels, I met a range of people. I have a crazy beard and tattoo (that's right, I'm hardcore). If you ever have the chance to go to a farm, I'd suggest it. It's an art that is becoming lost among combines and grain silos. You'll thank your lucky stars.

Thanks to everyone who read my blog and gave me great comments and encouragement. Most importantly, I want to thank everyone at the farm and, the few, who visited me and made my time at the farm. I hope everyone finds the chance in their life to get lost and try something that they enjoy.

One week and counting...

As the title of this post states, this is my last week here on the farm. I'm wrapping things up and trying to have fun in the process. I've been plagued with rashes and infections but still managing to work at full steam through them. I currently have a bad strain of poison ivy. One of the other people here has the same thing. I had poison ivy that I got over a week or so ago and woke up this morning with a swollen left eye. Natural remedies have worked to a certain extent but I think, for my rash, I'm gonna go with Western medicine. I got a shot in the butt on Sunday morning ('roids!!!!).

I mentioned the poison ivy...I got it while working at our orchard when the UMich people were here. Our orchard is 700 trees large. We have nothing but pecan trees. They're separated into 3 sections: the upper, middle, and lower orchard. Pecans produce bi-annually. If a tree produces this year, it won't produce a good nut until two years from now. When we have on years we get close to 15000 pounds of pecans. On off years we may get 100. This is normal for pecans. There's a lot of testing that goes on when looking for pests. There're pecan nut case bearer moths that get into the nuts and make them infertile. All around Texas farmers test for these, using a white grid to see how many appear on it, and report back to the state where the spread can be tracked. It is important to kill the moths within 3 days of them burrowing to prevent contamination. I went for two days and weed whacked around irrigation poles. In the Fall the pecans are harvested. In the Winter, the orchard lies dormant until April. Now our pecan intern is going full steam ahead on getting the orchard ready for this Fall's harvest. Getting the weeds down and spreading fertilizer are two things that have been done recently. Apparently last year we only had one half of the trees produce due to a late frost. The frost only affected the upper orchard meaning that, now, the upper and lower orchard will be producing on alternate years (which would mean only looking after half the trees at once). The middle orchard hasn't been taken care of over the past few years so it's not producing very much. This is mainly due to the sheer amount of trees we have there.

A few weeks ago we went swimming at the orchard just before a storm rolled in. The orchard is set on the Brazos River. We ventured down to the river front to find a sift flowing current and a ton of mud. We mad a rope swing and swam across the river. The current was so strong that by the time you made it over to the other side you were at least 100 feet down from where you started. Swimming back across was even harder. We left the orchard in time to watch a major storm float across the sky and feel the cold front sweep in.

The garden is transitioning from winter to summer vegetables. We have tomatoes, peppers, okra, melons, squash, peas, and corn either in the ground or coming up. The garden crew's been working on getting the tomatoes and peas trellised. The finally finished Friday. It is important that tomato pants have outside support because of how heavy they get. If the fruit is on the ground it is easy prey for insects and pests. Something interesting about corn that I didn't know is that each plant puts out 1 or 2 ears of corn (if you're lucky). There's so much effort put into growing it and it's found in almost everything...it's surprising that we chose this plant to working with. Okra is something that grows so quickly that we have to harvest it every day to prevent it from getting woody.

I've got a rabbit that I'm taking home with me. It's a long-haired mixed breed. Her name is Marshmallow! I've gotten really attached to the rabbits since I've been here. We're expecting two of our rabbits to give birth any day now. I'm afraid it's too hot but only time will tell. They're so soft and have more of a personality than most people would think...they're just not the smartest creature in the world.

My chicks are doing well. They're getting to be quite big for 10 week old animals. We have a grab-bag of breeds. It's interesting to see how fast each of the breeds grows. Some are more suited for meat while some may be better for egg laying. I'll post some pictures on my next post.

My plot is starting to bear fruit, finally! We have corn, peppers, tomatoes and chickpeas coming in. Chickpea pods are huge! Our lentils didn't make it. Since they were grown using store bought lentils I'm not surprised. I hope that some of everything is ready before I leave next Saturday. I'll be doing a container gardening class when I get to school to help students learn how to grow their own food even in their rooms.

We had some cool classes these past few weeks. We had a 3-part class that covered on-farm trials. Neil Rowe Miller, the farm executive director, talked about the experiments he's done in Haiti, Uganda, and Central Michigan. Haiti and Uganda were tailored to seeing what western farming techniques could be used to help increase their yield. In Haiti they farm on sloping hillsides. This can lead to gullies and land slides. Neil went there and helped them setup barriers that would promote soil buildup to build terraces. These flat terraces would then be easier to farm and hold moisture better. In Central Michigan, Neil worked with farmers to determine if more nitrogen on corn would increase the yield. He used a GPS receiver and a sprayer that changed nitrogen flow every 30 feet. He found out that the weather conditions affected the crop more than nitrogen levels. We also had a class on looking at fecal samples. We went to a community college nearby and diluted fecal samples to determine if the animals have any parasites. We found that some of our animals had a lot. It was a pretty cool experience overall.

A few weekends ago I had weekend duty which meant a day off! I biked into West, Texas, a small Czech settlement about 10 miles up the road. They're known for their bakeries. Most everyone sells cinnamon rolls, kolaches, and meat. Some high school students had come to volunteer and gave me the low down: Gerik's is where it's at. I decided to give it a try. I was not let down! I got four kolaches and a cinnamon roll. Oh man, all I can say is that biking back to the farm was much harder than biking there!

My time here at the farm is coming to an end and I can say I don't regret anything that's happened so far. I'm sure the next week will be the same way.

Farm Day 2010!!

This post has been a long time coming. A lot has happened at the farm since my last post: farm day, graduation, rabbit kits, and NASST!

Farm day is basically an open house for the citizens of Waco to come and visit out farm to see what it is we do as well as have a chance to buy wears from friends of the farm. It was a very intense day. We had 900+ people come by. We started setup at 8 AM and went until 4 PM. We had a petting zoo, milking demonstrations, farm tours, lunch (made by us), camels, hay rides, childrens musical time (A La Ryan Pickop), and a stage with bands constantly playing. The day started slow with a few farm friends at the beginning. We all had jobs that we were in charge of doing. I got picked for town crier in the afternoon (I was in charge of walking around and telling people before tours, hay rides, and milking demonstrations started). By about 10 we had a good amount of people wandering the premises, hay rides were already backing up, and the days heat was just getting started. We had vendors selling headbands, herbal remedies, knives, magnetic bracelets (the kind that cleanse your body), herb transplants, bread, and natural dies. We also had several groups that came out of or are supported by the farm including the Heart of Texas Urban Garden Coalition and the McLennan County Hunger Coalition.The pets were bust being molested at the petting zoo (our goats managed to get into the rabbit manure) and the bands were playing. I had tabbed up Hey Jude and I'm a Believer (by Smashmouth) before hand but didn't think I had anyone that would want to play with me. Jessie Miller (the farm executive directors son) is going to the University of North Texas for music and agreed to play with me for each song.It was the first time that I had played in front of an audience ...it was exhilarating. After playing a wrong note or two you just go with the flow and have a good time. It was a pleasant surprise, even to myself, for the day.

For lunch we had burritos and cookies. the cookies started being made 2 weeks before the event! We had about 400 cookies made. I was in charge of making 12 batches of zucchini bread muffins for breakfast. We had left overs of both bread and cookies which was most welcomed by most people. One of our farm friends brought all sorts of mini bread loafs. Some of the flavors included apple sauce, banana nut, and chocolate pecan. We got leftovers a few days later and they were all delicious.I had a good time being town crier. Part of the job includes being obnoxious to get people to pay attention to you. I was just that. After farm day we always go to Bangkok Royale,a local Thai restaurant. It was a nice way to end the day. We had about 30 farm folk there and had a friend of the farm serving us. It's pretty amazing to see how much of an impact we have on the local community. I saw some of our neighbors I never expected to see come out and see what we're about.

Two weekends ago I attended Spring Commencement at UofM and finally concluded my undergrad degree. I'm glad that I waited to come back as our speaker was President O'Bama. The whole weekend was a crazy blur. Sitting in the Big House listening to the President speak was a once in a lifetime opportunity. As much as some people may hate him, he is a damn good orator. He spoke about the current state of politics among other things. From the second that I stepped on campus I had friends by my side. It was as if I'd never left. I ran into people that came to the farm with me and ASB people that were at the farm only a few months ago. I'm feeling good about my choice to go back in the Fall.

Something that has happened is that I'm in charge of everything cute on the farm: rabbits and chicks. One of our rabbits gave birth on farm day and another gave birth 2 days later. We currently have 4 rabbit kits (baby rabbits) alive and kicking in the cages. One of the does has 11 kids....this usually leads to many deaths. Most rabbits can handle 4-5 kids at a time. The kids feed once a day and can't eat any greens for a few weeks. Only recently have our kits started to eat grass. They fit in the palm of my hand at this age and are very VERY soft. I've decided that I'm keeping one and bringing it to Michigan as a keepsake of the farm. I'll post a picture of the one I choose on the next post. Something to note when dealing with chickens is if you have 5 hens to every rooster, there is an 80 - 90% chance that the eggs will be fertile. We gave a number of eggs to local schools and had them incubate them. We recently received them and had about 79 chicks. I volunteered to take care of them. They're turned out fine so far. We're down to about 55 now due to 2 deaths and about 20 being picked up. If you keep chickens in a coop for 3 days you can let them out during the day and they'll know to return at sun down. I recently moved them into a larger coop (they're about 5 weeks old now) and am currently waiting to let them out once they know where they sleep. It's pretty interesting being in charge of all of these animals to see what each one needs, how independent they are, and how fast they grow. I can now say I feel ready to take on the farming world!

Brad and I recently expanded our garden. We now have tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, lentils, and peppers planted. It's a race against the clock if I will get to eat anything that's been planted. Our CSA shares are going crazy. We have 65 members now and the best garden anyone has seen around here. Hannah and Kelly have done an amazing job of keeping our garden in check. Kelly recently left but I'm sure the quality will remain the same.

A lot of random stuff has happened in the past month. I have finished my work with the Census but will be working for the farm a little bit. I will be participating in our after school gardening program. Neal Curran, a recent intern at the farm, is getting married this weekend so a lot of the farm is leaving. This is where I come in. We go to several middle and elementary schools and help them maintain a garden. With everyone gone, I will be taking some people's places. The NASST group from UofM (the same group I cam with last year) is on the farm. This means this week is my one year anniversary of first coming to the farm. I can remember my first impression of the farm as we saw the WHRI sign lit up off of Spring Lake and pulled up to the ed building with Swathi wandering over, on Cinco de Mayo, to give us a quick tour. Everyone here loves the UMich groups, I know why. They always take initiative and seem to be very outgoing.

I have one more month here on the farm. If you haven't come to visit, this is your last chance. There's plenty of room to sleep and we have food for you to cook with. My last day is June 12th. Catch me if you can!

Spring has sprung

Well folks, it's been a while since my last post. I've been keeping plenty busy....we've has ASB groups and visitors galore, I've taken on some new responsibilities, and Farm Day has come and gone, but that's for another post.

Right after my last post I ran the Baylor Bearathon, a half-marathon that winds through Cameron Park. It's known as one of the toughest halfs in Texas due to the hills. Let me tell you, it lived up to its reputation. The event was actually canceled the morning of due to lightning. It was in the 30's and raining when the race was supposed to begin. After they announced the cancellation, they gave out t-shirts. I got my shirt and felt like I was cheating myself by not running the race. I had trained for 2 months and wasn't going to let some cold weather get me down. I wandered around asking if anyone would be running the course. I found a veteran (he's actually run every Bearathon) and we were on our way. Without him, I would have been completely lost. The chalk they used to mark the course was washed away and there was no one out to direct runners. We finished the race in 1:49:00, better than my goal of 2:00:00.

One of my favorite parts about living here is the visitors that find us. We had a group of people from Jesus People USA (JPUSA) come by for a few days. JPUSA is a Christian living community in Chicago. The guys that came were really awesome and had lots of skills to share. One was from Canada, one is a Chicago native with a strong love for bikes, and one has lived with the Hopi Indians and grew up in Kentucky. They fit right into our community as they're used to it. There was another group that came from Wichita, KS. They live in an intentional community called the Orchard. An intentional community is a group of people that share a common belief and decide to live together. They all read "The Irresistible Revolution" and decided to try it out. The Orchard currently consists of 3 couples but they're looking to expand and let more people in. They're thinking about starting a community garden so the garden is where they spent most of their time. Each group learns from us but also brings their own knowledge; it's a very symbiotic relationship.

We had our last ASB group come through from Cornell College in Iowa. They were a very active group, taking chances when they could to take responsibility; in the mornings they took care of rabbits and fed chickens. As far as the college is concerned, Cornell is interesting in that they're on a block class system. They take one class for almost 4 weeks, have a long weekend, and start a new class. Apparently they're one of three schools in the world that works on this schedule. It was fun getting to meet them.

My garden has been growing and is now producing! I should note that this is an experiment for both my partner and I as we haven't ever grown anything on our own before. We have harvested radishes and now have potatoes, carrots, beets, and turnips all poking up through the soil. Neither Brad nor I had ever seen a potato plant before so we were struggling to know what to and what not to weed. Our beets aren’t having the best of time coming up. We have about five that made it and the rest are surrounded by ant beds. Ant beds in your soil say something about your soil biology. It is bad if the bugs and bacteria you want aren’t fighting off predators such as ants. In order to stop them we used neem 45, an organic ant repellant. It smells awful and looks like snot….no wonder they leave. We have carrots coming up but they’re not very big. I talked with one of the garden interns and was told that carrots will grow as deep as you water them. In English, this means that the more you water them the larger they will become. Just getting the surface wet is not enough. Also, when measuring how moist your soil is, you test at the first inch not the surface. With all this being said, we will definitely be watering a lot more.

Speaking of gardens, we had our first CSA harvest last week. The garden was off limits for the weeks leading up to this so everything was nice and full. We invite our CSA members to help harvest to see the work we do and become familiar with where their food comes from. One of our members, Roy, took us up on it. Having extra people is always helpful as we have 61 people to harvest for. We harvested spinach, swiss chard, beets, kale, and some herbs. As great as it is to have customers, my favorite part is the leftovers. Wednesday lunch is always green.

Last week there was an interesting group that rolled through Waco called the Equality Ride. The ER is a bus of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people that are traveling around the US to universities with a negative outlook on LGBT people. As I've mentioned before, Baylor is a Baptist university. On Monday night there was a pot luck that I attended with a lesbian couple that live here on the farm. I met a lot of really cool people including a Jewish girl that attended Baylor for 4 years and is now a guy. There was a transgender panel after dinner that allowed a minority in the world to discuss issues that plague them. It was interesting to hear how each one feels about the social implications that comes with their life. Surprisingly, only one said that they constantly question why there're in the body they were born into...most of them thought about it for 10 minutes and moved on. Tuesday they gathered at Baylor and talked to students about any issues they wanted to. That afternoon there was an off-campus 'rally' where anyone was welcome. It was rumored that student groups would come and be obnoxious as to distract them from their agenda. This didn't happen. There was one student that came out. This is a big deal in general but at Baylor this is even more daring. If you come out, you are sent to a psychologist to be made straight and can even be kicked off campus. This can happen to LGBT allies as well. All of the other LGBT students sent their responses via email that was then read by an ER rider. What kind of a world do we live in where people can't express themselves in a country as 'free' as ours? At any rate, it was very cool to hear from people that are comfortable with their sexual orientation. They are about half way through their ride and I hope they can bring peace to campuses that fight the LGBT community.

I was looking for a part-time job out here and finally got one with the Census. I am a clerk on the weekends at the Waco office. It's fun working with people who have not yet been brainwashed by the government (meaning they're understanding). I've also been learning how to knit. This is a very useful skill to have. I'll be posting about Farm Day soon. It's good to know that Spring has finally arrived.

The shittiest week yet

It seems like every week on the farm is full of surprises. This one was no exception. I became a man...for the second time. Thursday started out like any other day: I got up, went for a run, took care of the rabbits and went to breakfast. At the end of devotions we divvy out jobs for the morning. Almost immediately the farm manager looks at me and says , "Chase and Neal, you're on composting toilets." Oh shit, literally. If you remember, we don't have any toilets with running water, and thus have no septic tank. Eventually, when the composting toilets gets full, they must be emptied. This is where my next two days were spent. There were many a joke to be made about how shitty the job was. Although this is the least glamorous thing I've ever done, I am now officially part of this farm.

Two weeks ago we had a group of students from UofM come for their spring break (you can barely call it 'spring' as it always starts in February). As an alum, I took them under my wing and showed them 'the ropes'. I taught them how to lasso, hold rabbits, and I learned how to balance things on my chin (thanks Ares). I must say, they had the exact same reactions with every thing that they witnessed as my group did when we came before. There is a whole program we do called 'living on the other side' with groups that come for a weekend or more. Note: for most people, coming out here in the first place is considered the 'other side'. Some of the events we do include the 13 cent breakfast (in which you have 13 cents to buy breakfast with and the prices go up based on demand), dinner on the other side, and a hunger banquet. Dinner on the other side is supposed to simulate what it would be like to cook in a third-world country. The group has to walk half a mile to get water and wood, work for the vegetables (usually picking a vegetables for the farmer before they get to keep some for their meal), and killing and skinning a chicken if they want meat with their meal. The stove they cook on is called a Lorena Stove, an improvement on the 3-rock stove in which a pot is balanced over 3 rocks. Something that they find out is how the smoke builds around the stove, a common problem in the third-world. Dinner starts around 2:30 and is usually done by 6. It shows how important food is to those who don't have it readily available. The hunger banquet is a simulation where a three caste system is used to represent the upper, middle, and lower class of the world and the type of food they eat. The upper class gets spaghetti, meat sauce, juice, tea, coffee, clean water, fruit, and ice cream, the middle class gets beans, rice, and semi-clean water, and the lower class gets a few spoons full of rice and dirty water. 60% of the world falls under lower class, 25% falls under middle class, and 15% falls under upper class. It's a very visual way to see how the world is divided. It's also fun to see how far people take the simulation meaning who eats immediately afterward and who waits until the next meal in continuing with the simulation.

On Thursday we had a class on cropping systems. There are a lot of variables that go into selecting which crops to plant and if you want to intercrop. Some factors include soil texture and physical properties, drainage, weather patterns, and day length. Depending on what you are planting it may require soil that drains quickly as not to drown it or need more sunlight (the latitude determines the length of daylight and seasons). Intercropping is having more than one crop in a small area that work to complement each other. For instance, corn takes up a lot of nitrogen and peas (legumes in general) are nitrogen fixing (meaning they take nitrogen out of the air and store it in their roots for later use). As the peas grow, they can also climb the corn stalk allowing for more surface area to be exposed to sunlight. There are all sorts of combinations that can be done. An interesting concept we learned about is relay planting. This involves planting something, letting it grow, killing it, and then planting new seeds immediately to use the nutrients left behind by the previous plant. This causes the second plant to grow faster than it would otherwise due to the extra nutrients. Several intercropping methods include alley cropping and SALT systems. Alley cropping uses the space in between larger plants, or the alley, as room for smaller varieties that will benefit from falling leaves. SALT stands for sloping agricultural land technology. This deals with how wide rows should be to account for sloped surfaces. If you're planting on the side of a hill and it rains, if your rows are too wide, the soil can become loose and slide without being stopped. SALT includes making buffers to stop these slides by using other plants to catch the land behind it. Intercropping on the whole can help to prevent pests and disease by dispersing any single type of plant and essentially hiding it among other varieties and can reduce soil erosion as different plants have different amounts of and sizes of roots.

This last weekend my stepbrother Danny got married. I must say, it was pretty exciting to be at a non-orthodox Jewish wedding. We did the hava nagila but nothing more....and there was mixed dancing. I wish him and his wife the best.

This next week we have a group coming from the University of Texas - Dallas. I hope this group is as much fun as the Michigan group was. I'll leave you with this thought: If any animal deserves a wide load sign it's one of our goats, Phoebe. She recently kidded but pre-kidding this is what she looked like.
Farm Day is coming up! This is essentially an open house where a lost of the locals come and visit. There's hay rides, bands, and speakers all day. This would be a good time to visit if you're close by and wanna come. It's on April 10th.

Food, Inc.

Real quick post:

Last night the farm watched Food, Inc. It was my first time seeing it. For those of you who haven't seen it, please take 2 hours to educate yourself on the food system that we have in the US and how it's affecting the world. I'd be more than happy to discuss the film with anyone as I have strong opinions on most of the issues that were brought up. In case you are interested, the Polyface Farms with Joel Salatin share most of the practices that we do here at WHRI.

Remember, you voice your opinion by what you buy.

The great plague of 2010!

The great plague of 2010 is over for most...except me. I'm currently sitting in the dorm watching the Labyrinth, quite possibly the best movie of the 80's. Within the past week, everyone was either throwing up from the flu or sick with a cold. I thought I was going to make it out alive...until I got hit. I had quite possibly the busiest weekend duty of the year and I'm sick (I took this weekend for someone that was sick during the week).

Any who, this has been a trying time for some of our animals. A few of our rabbits had babies, none of which survived due to lack of care from their parents. I'm currently in charge of looking after them so as the baby-daddy I feel some obligation to care for their well being. Our farm doesn't want to keep many male goats as we only need one to impregnate all the other females. We recently has a male goat and tried to sell it. Since we couldn't sell him we ate him. Must say, its weird eating animals that you knew. Also, one of our dry goats has an injured leg. When I say 'dry' I mean non-milk producing. Just like humans, when goats are pregnant, they produce milk.

Last week we got 3-4 inches of snow, something to rival a Midwest snow storm. We had a snow ball fight (which I pwned the Texans at) and also, on the same day, got a box of chicks! It's pretty amazing, they look like a bunch of peeps running around. They're being raised for a wedding in May. The pecan intern proposed to his wife on the orchard (which I'm yet to visit) in November and as a gesture the farm is raising them. These chickens are broilers, the kinds used in factory farms. They grow very quickly (full grown at around 8 weeks) so they will be ready for the wedding.

This last week one of the older couples left the farm and is headed back to Indiana. Something I learned from them this last week was hot to use a stick welder and a fire cutter. If anyone has an pyro instincts, these are the tools for you. The fire cutter uses acetylene and oxygen to heat up metal and then literally blast through it. The stick welder is a little more old fashioned but still awesome non the less. I thought it would be more complicated but it works on the principle of grounding whatever it is you're welding and completing the circuit through a stick of metal. Pretty sweet stuff.

Last weekend I helped one of the office assistants clean her father's garage. Little did I know he polishes rocks for a living. This guy had at least one ton of rocks! Most looked like standard rocks but some looked like orange sherbet, lava, and most of a petrified palm tree. It took most of a morning to move and arrange the rocks. We also had the take an entire rock polisher table and load it into a truck for scrap. May not sound like much, but it was a pain.

One thing I'm looking forward to using here is the solar dehydrator. You stick fruits into it and, as the name suggests, a few hours later they are dehydrated! Apparently there's a pear tree that no one owns that buds in the summer. We go over with the farm truck and collect as many pears as can fit into the bed. 'Tis a sweet time to be on the farm.

As this is spring time, we have several groups coming over the next few weeks. We had a church group on Saturday and an Alternative Spring Break group from UofM that's here now. I'm looking forward to reminiscing on old time...as in a few months ago. It's weird not having any sort of formal break but I guess being out here is break enough.

More on this later, I'm off to rest up for the week!