Because once is not enough...ROAD TRIP!!!

My friends over at Wolfe Mountain Farms are parting with some of their stock. These folks are HUGE advocates for the LBH/LBP and Kay is the LBHA president. I have been fortunate enough to lay claim to two bred sows and a boar (Noble Sam). This is exciting for two reasons...first I, uncle Chris (who you may remember was on my first Hog buying expedition) and my eldest daughter get to go to Missouri and meed the Wolfe Farms Folks. Second, I should ave plenty of piggies (5 Hogs farrowing) in the Sept.-Nov. time frame and able to provide some breeding pairs out of this falls litters.

Three people, three Hogs, 6 days, 4000 miles. Pray for us :)

Alandra will be blogging from the road. We depart on the 18th, so keep your eyes peeled for some blow-by-blow from the road.

Poor Old USDA

I just ran into an article that nicely sums up why I think the "Certified Organic" label isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Over on MSNBC there's an article about the continuing relaxation of what is allowed under the Organic program. I have long held that (for example) Cattle raised in an organic feedlot are not on the whole entirely different than those raised on a non-organic feedlot.

The real problem is marketing and perception. Because the label gets a premium in the marketplace, more producers (agribusiness) push to get their current products and practices "blessed" by the program. The public (folks I talk to) largely have a false image of happy animals trotting through green pastures. They think that CO veggies are safer. The CO label does not, in any way shape or form, guarantee this. You cannot even be sure that the banned substances have not been used. With the markup for CO produce, using banned substances is a gamble that some producers are willing to make.

For the small, open system, "all natural" producer....? Organic certification is often too expensive to bother with.

If you want to buy organic, by all means. I don't think it'll hurt anything other than your wallet. Better yet, hit the farmers markets and talk to your grocery managers and find out who is producing your food and how they do it.

Camping MADNESS

So I pomised to tell the tale of the potty frog, and now I will. A few weeks ago we travelled to Klinks resort. Resort is a bit of a gentrification of what klinks is, really a private campground. Very crowded, very nice and the kids had a blast. We arrived on Saturday, fortunately missing the torrential rains of the evening before. 88 degrees and sunny. Kids on the water slide. It was nice.


So, having setup the old camper and sent mom and the kids off to swim (88 degrees is way to cold to get me in the water anymore) I began cooking. Out little propane stov ewas sizzling away when one of my daughters, Mya, came running up with a very puzzled look on her face. Here is about how the conversation went...


Mya: "Papa! Papa!"


Me: "What?"


Mya: "I found a frog."


Me: "So..."


Mya: "It's in the toilet."


Me: "What?"


Mya: "I was going potty and when I flushed I saw something spinning in the potty. It was a frog!"


Me: "Um...so did it dissapear."


Mya: "Nope."


Me: "It's still in the toilet?"


Mya: "Yep."


Me: "Do think you should go fetch it? Kind of seems it won the lottery still being there. After all you DID pee on him."

See Mya, Natty and the potty frog below.









A fine trip was had by all. Even the flat tire on the way home. I got soo far off the road (thanks to a hole in the highway fence and a slope too steep to safely return to the highway) that we had a chance to explore the backroads around Connel, WA. VERY interestting.

Chicken Madness

Well the 100 or so mini-chickens arrived. The nice man at the Pasco post office called us (on Sunday I think) to see if we wanted them. We were out of town, but picked them up today when they arrived in Walla Walla. OK, I thought maybe the Mrs. would need the trailer to pick up 100 chicks. So I'm a bit new at this. I think the chicks came in a box the size of a pack of gum. Seriously, they fit in the fornt seat easily. Neat littler critters.

Later (tonight?) I'll share our recent camping and "hog owner visiting" stories. And the tale of the "toilet frog."

More Hogs???

Well could be. Proabably. There is a plan afoot that could end up with the Dalan Farm getting another couple of littlers this Fall. It ain't over 'till the Sow farrows, but I am very hopeful.

I'll keep you posted as more details become available :)

Hogs and Water

Well there has certainly been an uptick into inquiries about the Large Black Hog. I suspect it is the result of the Hobby Farms story and links to the LBHA website. I'm praying for huge litters and working on (MAYBE) getting some other stock I can pass along to anxious buyers.

I also had my metering project completed today. The installer came in and finished up the back flow valve (with chemgation...not sure I'll ever us this), blow off valves, pressure gauges, manual shutoff, magnetic water meter, etc. Since I am now in compliance with the contract I signed in regards to my water...I have begun to let the droplets fly. Good thing too, I have lots of baby grasses from stuff that went to seed last year and stuff I drilled in last fall and this spring.

It's really nice to have the last open issue behind me. Well, at least it's nice to pretend, for now, that the hassling I got about my water is behind me. I suspect with the possibility of continuing droughts, no matter how old someones water rights are, more "contention" is coming.

Ah well, there's always dry land wheat, Triticale and Oat Hay :)

OH YEAH....I also learned that if you slack off and forget to service your pressure tank...bad things will happen. Like the start up capacitor for your well pump will explode at 6 PM on a Friday evening. Sigh. Sometimes I just have to learn the hard way.

As promised...more chicks!

Well I have a picture of the most recent chick. Much more lively than the last one. I suspect (warming box or not) the first hatchling was a goner. This one is full of chutzpah. Hence the reason I only have a picture of it's little behind. Mom was none to pleased, so I decided to take my lousy shot and move on.

I have also included a shot of a meal we recently made on the old BBQ, in celebration of our fine summer weather. Goat and Asparagus. It was divine. Now a proper Goat meat marketer would probably want me to call it "Chevon." That's so people won't know it's Goat. That's not my style. That kind of renaming is brought to you by the folks who marketed the Chum salmon and "Keta" and the Slimehead as the "Orange Roughy."

If you don't want to eat Goat...then don't :)

OK...off my soapbox now...

New things abound on the farm. I recently learned that friend of mine is in the fruit business. So I asked "Do you ever have any cull fruit you need to get rid of?" He grows apples and cherries and boy do the Hogs love old apples and the Goats will eat them from time to time. He said "yup" so I asked how much he could part with. He thought for a minute, mentioned that a cattle rancher was taking some and then said..."About 15,000 pounds a week"

We'll we kept chatting and he agreed to bring me a couple of bins (about 1000# each) each week instead of burying my farm in cull apples. I didn't even have my trailer ready (some tarped hay on it) and he brought a trailer by last night anyway! Nice fellow. I fed a pile to the Hogs this AM and they made lots of happy sounds. With three of my ladies hopefully bred, I am thinking this could be an ideal source of energy to supplement alongside the pasture and hay.