Rain

Like everywhere else, December is cold and wet on a farm. I find this disappointing, although I don't know why I am surprised.

Our December has looked like this so far: cough, sneeze, rain, new cows, injury, rain, rain, new calves, flu, rain, mud, tummy bugs, fall in mud.

My day looks like this: sweep, mop, mop, yell at muddy dogs, wash muddy blankets, sweep, wash muddy boots, remind muddy farmers to wipe feet, wash muddy blankets.

And nap. Lots of napping.

Things are tense on McBee Farm tonight because the hay shed just blew away. The guys are prepared for hard work tomorrow but tonight they are quiet.

I am really excited about Christmas on the farm and about starting our own family traditions. Stay tuned for actual farm related non whining blogs soon! Oh guest bloggers as well!

Grrr Goats

Lucy was actually up for evening chores but most of them had already been done so I volunteered to help with goats.  More precisely, I announced that I was going to help milk the goats. I set Lucy up with some toys near by, including Rescue Pack from Diego, and her Cozy Coup. Luke, aka the quiet intern, set me up with an easy going goat.  She was one of the ones who kidded last week, so she has plenty of milk but I couldn't get a drop.  Luke told me to be patient and that she wasn't easy, so I was. She is a super sweet and docile goat, and put up with me trying for far too long.  He milked two goats in that time and then took over for me.  I walked his two goats down to the field and put them away.

Putting away goats seems like an easy task.  I've watched the eight year old, who probably weighs 70lbs do it a hundred times.  They follow her along like she has molasses in her pockets or something. Not so much for me.  It was like walking an untrained great dane, on a slippery floor. Keep in mind it's really dark by this time so I have to hold a goat with one hand and Lucy's hand with the other, at some point she demanded I hold Rescue Pack too. So it's goat, Rescue Pack, and Lucy. You'd think the goat would be begging to go back to his nice, safe, Lucy free field, but nope. Maybe they like squawking.

So back I go to the goat barn, where I proceed to get another goat.  I grab the goat I want just as five others run out. I shove her back in and start grabbing others, luckily Luke is faster than I am and manages to actually catch all of them so we didn't have to hunt for goats in the dark. I tried to milk goat number two.  Tried, being the important word here. This goat was the exact opposite from the other one. I couldn't figure her out either.  I got a couple of tiny streams of milk from her, he checked and declared that normal, so I took her down and tried to move on.

He strongly discouraged me getting another goat out.  Apparently I had been really helpful up until that point and he could totally breeze through the rest of the milkings without me. :)

So I failed at milking two goats, let five out, had one escape from the field, and then held a flashlight while he gave them hay.  I am clearly a pro at this.  I am waiting for the eight and ten year olds to get home so they can give me some more lessons on hand milking.  I firmly believe this is the way to milk goats, especially when someone else is doing it for me.  Not really, I really want to learn how to do this. Goats are not my friends tonight, and I'm surely not Luke's friend either.

I did catch a chicken  today though, by myself and without too much squawking. I also got to feed the baby goats.  I'm a little in love and a little not...  they whine so much and so loudly.  They're gorgeous and sweet though.

Thanksgiving and More

Hello, fellow farm lovers or whoever is reading this. Besides having a sickie toddler this week has been amazing on the farm.

Thanksgiving was fantastic, the best one I can remember in years. While I was doing my paltry bit to contribute to the meal, assembling the dressing and chopping the meanest onions ever, the men were building a giant chicken pen.

Men plural. There are several of them here now, Mr McBee, Kris, our quiet intern Luke, and the oldest McBee child. They chopped down trees, which mostly involved a lot of watching Mr. McBee work a chainsaw. I have never seen anyone chop down a giant tree and it was pretty impressive. I had to take pictures because I take my blogging job seriously.

Hmm it just occurred to me that Quiet Luke might only be quiet because he doesn't want to be featured in my blog. Smart man. I hear he's pretty funny when I am not around.
We feasted on a paleo friendly meal and it didn't feel like a substitute, it felt like real food. Speaking of which, I still eat a lot of boxed foods but they are starting to taste boxed. I have hopes that this will help me kick the boxed habit.

After dinner we went out to finish the chicken pen. I mostly watched and took pictures of my kid being adorable. She picked me a flower, my very first one so I was all misty and touched. Then she took it away and tried to give it to a chicken. I have great video of her chasing a poor chicken yelling, "here bawk bawk, flower bawk bawk." When it became obvious she didn't want my beautiful flower Lucy got mad and threw it on the ground. After a second she smiled sweetly, picked it up and gave it back to me. Heart melting and hilarious.

The highlight of the day was chasing chickens though. It sounded like work at first but the kids got me really excited about it. At sunset I strapped my baby on my back and joined the hunt. I assisted in the capture of several and caught one on my own. Then we pulled the eggmobile up to its winter home. As I write this the chickens are happily enjoying their fresh grass and fertilizing our garden for winter. Lucy might not remember much but it's a day I won't forget. Poor Kris, on the other hand is the only one who missed out because chicken catching takes place at milking time.

Upon proofreading I realize that I left the important parts of chicken catching out. Most of our chickens live in a large predator proof net behind an electric fence, for their safety of course. They do not stay there, the flock follows you around stalker style. Take a few steps turn around and boom they are right behind you but pretending they aren't following you. It is hilarious and slightly creepy. We also have a small flock of strays that lives down by the barn. They sleep in the hay barn, in the barn, and on top of the calf pens. They have been loose for a long time and they are laying eggs we couldn't sell. So that's the layout.

Here's what happens. We waited for dusk and then watch as everyone goes to roost. Marcie and Jason put a sheet up over the door so they're trapped and we move them. It should be easy, they roost in the eggmobile, so boom done. Except half of them roost under the eggmobile, which means two McBee kids have to dive under and try to catch them, which results in chickens running around while everyone tries to catch them. The younger McBee took me hunting for strays. She climbed right up a tractor and struggled for five minutes but caught one, over and over and handed them down to me. She is a hardcore nine year old. After that we went to the barn to hunt. I knew right where they live so I was excited to catch a handful of them. Sadly they only live there during the day so we actually did have to hunt for them. I grabbed one squawker and fought with him for a bit and then cradled him and carried him down. After that I just carried them. I am not a great chicken hunter and just wanted to catch one by myself to prove that I could.

I still haven't made it to a chicken processing but I have caught a chicken, woohoo. I am not hardcore.

In other news, we have a slew of baby kids. Three births since Saturday, resulting in four kids. I am contemplating stealing one. He is gorgeous, black and white with floppy ears, too much love. He is also whiney as heck. Baby goats sound like baby teradactyls in the middle of the night. That said, I am trying to gain custody of the black and white one or at least temporary guardianship. Somehow my promises of wearing him in a baby sling did not move Mr McBee.

So I am trying to think of something Lucy and I can raise on our own in the spring. Thoughts?

We also got a new working horse. No
idea what kind of horse he is but he is massive, beautiful, and sweet. He is going to pull our new wagon and cart. We will be using them for both work and parties. Speaking of which, Marcie does an amazing tour of the farm for groups of eight or more, it's three dollars a person and includes homemade ice cream or yogurt. My moms' group loved it, so think about it.

Pics of my kid on Thanksgiving, chasing a chicken, slacking off with the little McBee, and one of her daddy pushing her all the way to the field chickens in her car. The one of the single kid is just to show how beautiful it is, one of Monday's mom and babies, the new horse, and chopping down a tree.

Yawn!

It is a good morning on the farm, or a morning at least. I haven't seen one in awhile. For all my talk about liking to pitch in with chores it has been awhile since I was able to. When we first got here all the fresh air and sunshine must have gotten to Lucy and she started sleeping like a normal toddler, and then the novelty wore off. She was sleeping until ten or eleven, napping at five, and going to bed at midnight. Completely incompatible with farm life. Yesterday and today she slept through the night (hallelujah!) and got up early. We were actually able to do a small amount of helping both times yesterday. This morning she is snuggley so I am watching billy goats out my front window.

I love goats, I really do, especially the billies. They are super funny and remarkably sweet, most of the time. There are three outside my window right now, notice the crummy pic that follows. They are playing just like young boys. Roly poly, rough and tumble, jumping from hay bale to hay bale, locking horns, pushing each other off, jumping over this stack of wood, and repeat. Love it, it reminds me a lot of watching Jake and John play.

Big Pig left us on Friday, as promised. I have to admit that I miss him. He was a really pretty pig, he liked my baby, he had a ton of personality, and made me laugh. The other pigs don't seem to have any of those personality traits and I would much rather be eating them than Big Pig.

They are all plain white, scrawnier, have mean eyes, and yell at me when I walk by their pen. I guess if I spent as much time in their yard as Big Pig spent in mine I would like them too. I need to be less attached, not more though, so I won't be doing that.

Speaking of less attached, Monday was turkey processing day here. There was one particular turkey everyone seemed a little excited about killing, and more excited to eat. It was a little odd because my moms' group toured the farm on Monday and everyone has super cute pics of their kids petting a turkey. Who knew that would be his last hoorah. I have no love of turkeys as an animal or as food, but I wonder what he thought as thirty sticky hands surrounded him.

It was great to have all of our friends out and show them the farm, I hope we get to do it again soon. It was a bit surreal to see how lackadaisical I have become with Lucy since we got here though. She runs around like she owns it. Climbs the mulch pile, crawls under the colts' fence, harasses pigs and goats alike. She hasn't received as much as a scratch in the nearly month we've been here though. She is so confident it's a lot of fun to watch.

Marcie throws a great tour and I would encourage everyone to put together a group and schedule one. I think it's appropriate for all ages, we had kids from three months to four years and they all enjoyed it. The two year olds seemed to like it the most though, poop, rocks, animals, and yogurt- yum.

We have a new neighbor on the farm. Luke is going to be interning for awhile. I would write more about him but he's very quiet and well I didn't let him know that the few words he muttered were on the record.

Coming soon- Thanksgiving on the Farm.

Thank you

There is always something amazing happening here, even the mundane is pretty remarkable. For the past few days most of my amazement has been centered around the colts. The colts are approximately five and seven months and the kids are trying to break them.

Breaking them is a horrible name for it, what they are doing is bonding with them. Sunday we spent a few hours with them, we got them on lead and brushed them, held them, and snuggled them. It was definitely a great feeling. Since then the kids have spent hours every day with them but I have been "busy" with other stuff.

When I walked over this afternoon to take a peek they had saddles on them and were leading them around like perfectly trained poodles. The colts lifted their legs perfectly when asked and stood perfectly still for their brushing. The kids looked proud of themselves so it obviously wasn't completely mundane to them, but I don't think they have any idea how remarkable the process is or how remarkable they are.

They are passionate, gifted, knowledgable, and have a work ethic I would kill for. Don't misunderstand, they are kids for sure complete with whining episodes, but they have something that most kids don't anymore. They have drive and purpose. I hope that by being here we can instill some of that in Lucy B. On our first day I asked Mr. McBee when he started having them help, expecting to hear three or four, and was shocked when he said Lucy's age. Surely his babies weren't working before they were two, they were just babies then. Now I know better, my girl not only can work- she loves to work. This is where she belongs, it might be where all kids belong. A special thank you to the big kids for taking my little under your wings and teaching her things that I can't.

In other news, Big Pig is leaving us on Friday. I choose to believe that the freezer is still fully stocked with sausage from a pig I didn't know. In related news I want to help with pig fencing. I don't know why because it looks hard but it seems like an instant gratification type job and I like those jobs.

It's a zoo

Today was free admission at the Knoxville Zoo so everyone from McBee went. It was crazy busy but we had a lot of fun, and a lot of garbage food but we won't talk about that. The youngest McBee was my favorite because every single animal was his favorite. Which led me to contemplate my favorite animals at the farm.

I talk about Big Pig aka Bacon a lot so you know how I feel about him. In truth he is hilarious to watch but he's not very interactive. I like the calves and enjoy bottle feeding them but they get a little demanding and whine like toddlers. The ducks are just kind of meh. They yell at me when I come in their pen but it's fun to watch them quack around. I never see the rabbits at all so I have no opinion on them at all.

I love the big cows. Their sad eyes make them look much deeper than they probably are. It doesn't hurt that Lucy is obsessed with cows, they are clearly her favorite. The baby chicks are squawky and adorable, who doesn't love a baby chick? I think we have a hundred right now. The big chickens are awesome. They refuse to stay put though and show up in the most random of places. They always appear very busy. The colts live across from me temporarily and Lucy loves to feed them. Monday was the first time they have come to me and taken the hay out of my hand so that melted my heart. Big fan of the colts. You know I love the cats and dogs, they are in my house enough at least.

That leaves... the goats! I am nuts for the goats. I really adore them. They just wander around doing goaty things and you never know where one will pop up. Are you sensing a trend, I love the animals who wander about the most. That's not the only thing though, they are just hilarious. Some of them look like the classic story book goats. Some can leap a fence in a single bound. Some are super sweet and love my baby. I just love them.

Speaking of which, I made kris track one down at midnight last night. It kept crying over and over so I was sure it was either hurt or in labor. Nope, just couldn't get where it wanted to be. He was thrilled to go hunting for a goat using only my iPhone flashlight.

The Rabbit Hole

This blog was supposed to be humorous but I am not feeling very jolly right now. I've always had a crummy diet and I love fast food. When my toddler started demanding food I freaked a little bit. I wanted to feed her well and I was never going to have one of those kids who knew what McDonalds was by the time she was two.  I didn't know where to start though, a drastic change like that was intimidating, and it was hard to make those changes on our nonexistent budget. At eighteen months I went to the drive up teller at the bank and she threw a royal fit because she didn't get any french fries. We've limited fast food since then and I've started making small changes.

When we moved to the farm I was thrilled with the opportunity to start feeding my baby healthier foods. Marcie is an amazing resource and I am learning a lot from her about how to feed my family good food on a budget. It helps that good food is all around us.  So while I am learning about "our" farming practices and healthy food, I decided I should probably learn something about the other side.  So I am heading down yet another rabbit hole. My education started with Farmageddon the other night.  It was eye opening and terrifying.  Tonight I am watching Food Inc. which is not only eye opening and terrifying, it's also disgusting.  I cannot believe I have just been shoving this stuff down my throat and, worse, down my toddler's throat.

As a former animal rights advocate I wasn't surprised by the conditions the animals were kept in.  It is a very stark contrast to the animals I am surrounded by though.  Everyone here has fresh air and sunshine, they all have space to move about, most of them have a lot of space.  We actually have to look for "our" cows some nights because they're off doing their own thing and don't feel like meandering on down to the barn.  I am pretty sure none of the farmers in Food Inc lose their cows on a regular basis. The McBees feed their calves by hand, their children name them.  The two newest calves are Bozo or Red Velvet, depending on who you ask, and Shield.

Monday was chicken processing day and I didn't want to be a part of it.  I was the only person on the farm who wasn't there though.  All of the big kids, Marcie, Jason, and Kris were part of it.  I felt like a bit of a wimp for sitting it out but I wasn't ready for it yet. I stayed far away from the area but I still saw more than I wanted to.  You can see it from my living room window if you look in the right direction, and occasionally I glanced that way at just the right times. After seeing the way Tyson and Purdue chickens are raised and killed, I can definitely get behind the process here.  I am not volunteering to process chickens anytime soon but I am really grateful that they are willing to do it. Lucy will never eat another store bought chicken.  I like knowing where these chickens have spent their entire lives, I like knowing what they ate, where they slept, what they've been in contact with, how they were killed, and how they were processed after.  Next week I am going to meander over and get a closer look, maybe, I have to make the kids promise not to tease me over my squeamishness first.

Tomorrow we are getting a shipment of chicks!  I don't know how many but I'm super excited. I can't wait to see the little loud mouths.  I really do love chickens, it's why I still have a hard time eating them. Hopefully there will be plenty of cute pics to share.  Now on to the next appalling documentary.

Feeling Good

I just realized something big. I haven't taken ibuprofen a single time since we moved here. For those who don't know me, this is huge. I have chronic migraines, triggered by a pinched nerve in my neck. I take OTC pain killers daily, sometimes twice a day. I haven't had a hint of a headache since we got here.

I can't attribute that to the food or milk because my diet is still primarily junk. It is either the fresh air and all the time spent outside, or it's the low stress life I have here. I realize it is far more stressful for the McBees and moderately stressful for kris but it is nearly stress free for me.

I spend 30 minutes a day cleaning and the rest of the day belongs to Lucy and me. I am trying to write a novel for National Novel Writing Month, which is slow going I need to get a move on it. I am in the research stages of learning about cheese making. I really want to be able to make our own cheese and some for Marcie to sell. My first try at yogurt didn't go well, although I am sure the pigs enjoyed it. That doesn't bode well for my ventures into cheese though. That is about all that's on my plate these days, other than caring for Lucy of course.

Maybe it is just seeing how happy Kris, Lucy, and my dachshund Mack are now. Maybe it is seeing how fantastic the big kids who live here are and hoping Lucy turns out that well. Whatever it is, I hope it doesn't change because being pain free is a nice change.

On a different subject, maybe letting Saucy in at night wasn't such a great idea. Now there are five to ten animals outside my front door waiting to jump every time I open it. I feel like a juggler trying to get them out and get the kid in. I imagine everyone else already knew this was a bad idea.

We had friends out yesterday, and here are my favorite quotes.

From 2 1/2 year old Thomas, "This goat has horns, and a butt."

From 3 year old Lennox when his mom told him to be careful because the pig was big and could hurt him, "but I am so big!"

Pics of said pig and Lennox, the failed yogurt, stowaways, and some of my very dirty farm girl.

Mongolia

Have you seen the documentary Babies? I watched it when I was pregnant. I watched a lot of baby stuff when I was pregnant but Babies stuck out for me, particularly the Mongolian baby. To leave the hospital his mom bundled him up and strapped him to her back and they went home on the back of a motorbike. It seemed crazy, especially compared to the rules about nurses having to check out your carseat before you leave the hospital here.

There was also a scene where the baby crawled into a cow pasture and you held your breath to see if the cows were going to trample him and wondered where his mother was. There were other scenes but most of them involved Mongolian Baby barely escaping certain death. That's my baby now and I am that mom.

I know the statistics for atv injuries but no one told them to my 21 month old who screams, "ride ride ride," every time she passes the four wheeler now. I had a long list of nevers based on danger. My child would not ride on an ATV ever, she would not play on a trampoline outside of an approved gym under supervision, she would not ride horses, I would not leave her with anyone nor let her play with older kids unsupervised, and there were certainly more.

At the same time, I read Free Range Kids when I was pregnant and I wanted one of those kids. I wanted her to play in the dirt and to run around the neighborhood from sun up to sunset. I wanted her to ride the tractor with grandpa and to swim in suspect creeks with dad. I had those things and Free Range Kids showed me the statistics that the world really isn't all that different than the world I grew up in. I was damaged during childhood but not by doing those things, not by living and running and being a kid. My plan was to empower my daughter and victim proof her somehow, so that she could grow up knowing she was strong and vibrant and yet allow her to be relatively safe.

I got lost somewhere in that plan clearly. Not that I believe children need to ride four wheelers or walk through cow pastures by themselves in order to grow up strong. When my daughter walks up to a pig ten times her size (how much does that guy weigh anyway) or tries to bring a goat down by herself or looks up in awe as a cow walks right past her, I can see the confidence. She didn't have that before, she went from home to carseat to supervised activity, and back all the while hanging on my leg or strapped to me. She was like a little potted plant.

I practice attachment parenting, I wore my baby everywhere, she slept with me until a few weeks ago, she never left my side for more than a few minutes. The thinking was that if she had a secure attachment to her mother she would become even more independent because she knew I would always be there to catch her. She has slowly become more independent and had just started playing by herself and venturing off without me. Side note, the zoo is a different story, Lucy thinks she owns that place and is frequently off doing her own thing, much to the dismay of well meaning strangers. I wanted her to be confident and to separate from me, I just thought that would come by playing in her room while I washed dishes, not by chasing billy goats.

I know there will be injuries, she is daring and clumsy. She is gaining so much confidence by having the freedoms she has been given here though, that I will risk a few broken bones to let her grow and become the self confident, strong woman she was born to be. Not to mention, her only real injury to date came from rolling off a couch.

Back to that four wheeler though. I really didn't intend to let her ride it for a long time but things have to get done and people don't just ride horses around a farm anymore. I don't know if they ever did outside of tv, but they surely don't now. They ride four wheelers to find stray cows and bring them in, to haul feed to chickens, and to bring the calves their bottles, mostly they ride them up and down the hill from the house to the barn a lot. But if Lucy is going to grow up on a farm she is going to have to ride a four wheeler like everybody else and oh my goodness is it a fun way to work.

Sorry this was disjointed, I have to stop waiting to write until after I get my night owl down for the night. Here are some shots showing how everyone loves the four wheeler and a gratuitous baby wearing on the farm pic. Thank you Kimberly Watt for the use of your Boba.

A Cold Halloween

It is way too early in the season to whine about the cold. We have four to five months of cold ahead of us but since it's my first time being cold on a farm that warrants discussion.

When we moved here I said that we weren't staying inside all winter and I would just bundle her up and send her out. So that's what we did yesterday. Every part of my body fought against it but I was determined that if everyone else could work in the cold, we could work in the cold.

It was drizzling and in the low forties so I put her tights, socks, pants, two shirts, a warm coat, and her awesome hat. I bundled up to a lesser degree and off we went, just in time to see the truck pull away with everyone in it. I didn't know where everyone went but I knew they'd be back soon and there was no way I was unbundling her and taking her back in. We played with the cat, followed the pig, and talked to the cows until they came home. Lucy was very disturbed to see the cows coming in but no daddy, she kept trying to find him to tell him about the cows.

Eventually, everyone came home and the kids came down to work. They were probably only gone twenty minutes, but to my old Florida bones it must have been two hours at least. Lucy started crying just about the time everyone came down because her hands were cold. At least I assume that was her problem as she was shaking them and crying. About that time I realized my toes were numb and hers must be as well, so in we went without doing chores, again.

I had to take her in kicking and screaming but her hands were ice and she wouldn't wear gloves, tuck them in her coat, or put them in her pockets so I was at a loss. Does anyone know how to teach this to a toddler or does she have to learn it on her own? I can put her on my back and bundle her in my coat, and will if I have to but she wants to play and work, not be carried like a sack of potatoes. So that's an option if I have to work but I don't know otherwise. Surely farm kids have learned this lesson for a millennia but farm kids seem smarter than me in a lot of ways.

It is a beautiful, sunny Halloween today but I completely forgot that trick or treat hours are the exact same as Kris's work hours. I was excited to take her out for the first time but I don't want her dad to miss it. The McBees are used to this and made alternative arrangements. So we are joining them for chili and games tonight. Luckily, she got to wear her gorgeous costume on Saturday for a toddler costume party. I am putting it on her again tonight, because it's too cute not to and it's Halloween. So what else do farming families miss out on? Don't get me wrong, giving up trick or treating is such a small thing compared to this fantastic life we get to experience, that it can't even be called a sacrifice. It just slipped my mind that not only is my baby missing it but farm families everywhere are missing it. Next year, fall festivals during the day.

Hmm not a very happy post, cold and no trick or treating. On the happier side, I am inside with the McBee kids watching them do their school work while my child runs amuck. Marcie is going to teach me how to make yogurt and buttermilk soon.

And now gratuitous pics of my child.