Grazing sheep and goats

I had to make a trip to Roseville yesterday, it's a 100 mile round trip but what a beautiful day for a drive! As I was traveling a major highway I noticed sheep grazing in a large open field. I pulled off the highway and spent awhile trying to get close enough to get some pictures, why my interest? 

It brought back a lot of memories. Growing up in Southern California, in a rural county there were lots of grazing sheep. The flocks numbered in the hundreds, and were tended by Basque shepherds from Spain. These shepherds, along with half a dozen dogs would tend the sheep as they roamed the open hills and gleaned the valley fields after crops were harvested. 

As a 4-H member my sister and I twice bought lambs from one of these large roaming flocks.

These flocks were owned by a local man Nick C. and we contacted him about buying the lambs. The shepherds didn't speak English and of course couldn't sell the lambs as they did not own them.  One year I picked out a speckled face lamb. The Shepherd and his dogs cut it out and brought it in. The lamb had a clouded eye,  the shepherd sat him on his rump and checked it out, plucking out a fox-tail. What he did next was a shock, he pulled a salt shaker from his back pocket and shuck salt in his eye! Nick said the eye would be fine and we took the lamb home. His eye cleared up and I later sold the lamb at the Junior Livestock Auction.

Herding sheep has changed dramatically since the late sixties when I was growing up. Sheep and increasingly more often, goats are being grazed on private and public lands to control brush and grass in sensitive areas and areas that are hard to access. Goats are great for controlling brush and reducing fuel load in fire prone areas.This has become possible due to the advances in fencing. Portable electric fencing has enabled grazing in close quarters, around homes, parks and along roadways. In my local county we have a lot of levees and sheep and goats are used in these areas to control the over growth. These new shepherds are paid well for their services and it's a great way to keep these types of areas maintained.
  
When I was finally able to get close enough to the flock, I realized they were mostly goats, with only a few sheep. Again, a sign of the times and places, there is a big demand for goat meat in our area, not so much lamb. 

I mentioned that grazing sheep has changed, but not everywhere. One of my daughters in-laws still grazed thousands of sheep in Eastern Oregon and they are tended the traditional way with Peruvian Shepherds. Like the Basque when I was growing up, these men come and work here temporarily, earning enough money to support their families back home very well.   

Let's start with the Grandson!

Anyone who has grandkids will understand! They're just the best thing to happen! So as I introduce my family I'm going to start with my grandson's family. His mother is the "Dairymaid" daughter, his dad is the "Pilot", together they're natural, grass-based farmers. They have a farm in Lebanon, Oregon where they raise chickens, pigs, and beef cows on grass for meat. They also have free range hens, hundreds of them, for eggs and a milk cow (... only one,... one only she told him!!). Their farm is "Taylor Made Farms" and I'm going to include a direct link from this post, I hope! Since pictures are worth a thousand words I'm going to show you around Taylor Made Farm (TMF) with pictures.

The grandson "Woody"

Cleaning the chicken water

 It seems that whenever we have a family get-to-gather it's at TMF because they have a hard time getting away with all the chores. So, when there are extra hands around there are always jobs that require extra hands. My kids are great about helping out and the boyfriends and son-in-laws are learning to bring work clothes for all family get-to-gathers.

The "Dairymaid" daughter

Chicken processing

The Artist's boyfriend getting to know the piggies

 So, whether it's chicken processing, fencing building, collecting eggs or putting a a hoop house, my kids are always up to the challenge.

Building a hoop house for the chickens while the Thanksgiving Turkey cooks!

Some of their Registered Shorthorn cattle

"Outstanding in her field" The artist daughter

Time to feed the broilers




I almost forgot to add the link:


Taylor Made Farm

Rain, Rain Go Away!

The goats found a sunny south-west slope and are  taking advantage of the warm afternoon sun. Goats hate rain!

I'm not even in Oregon yet and I'm tired of rain! I wanted to say it seemed like it has rained every day this month, but I thought I had better check my facts first. I wasn't that far off. Here is the rainfall data for our area, in California, not in Oregon.   

03/01/2011    0.33   
03/02/2011    0.23
03/03/2011    0.00   
03/04/2011    0.00
03/05/2011    0.81   
03/06/2011    0.64   
03/07/2011    0.00   
03/08/2011    0.00   
03/09/2011    0.00   
03/10/2011    0.27   
03/11/2011    0.00   
03/12/2011    0.00   
03/13/2011    0.71   
03/14/2011    0.16   
03/15/2011    2.00   
03/16/2011    0.01
03/17/2011    0.00
03/18/2011    1.28   
03/19/2011    0.85   
03/20/2011    0.49   
03/21/2011    0.03   
03/22/2011    0.12   
03/23/2011    0.71   
03/24/2011    1.42   
03/25/2011    1.21   
03/26/2011    0.41   
03/27/2011 this data was not yet available, only a few sprinkles today.

According to the data there has been measurable precipitation 19 of the past 27 days, for a total of  11.41 inches of rain so far this month, it's not supposed to rain for the rest of the month. I don't know if that's a record, but it's a lot of rain.

Alice and her twin daughters born last week

Despite all the rain there are lots of signs of spring. The flowering Quince and Daffodils have come and gone, the Calla Lilies and Almonds are blooming and most of the trees have leaf buds greening. I have lots of vegetable starts coming up. I've started cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, lettuce, chard, tomatoes and peppers. 

We also had some baby goats last week. My herd kidded in December, except for one doe who waited 'till now. Aren't these  the cutest little kids! My daughter would not forgive me if I didn't mention the poodle puppies, they are adorable. 

My grandson with his puppy "Baby"

My biggest frustration with all the rain is the inability to get moving, literally! We have the stocktrailer loaded and ready to make a run to Oregon but have been unable to because of the rain, who wants to drive and then unload in the rain? Not I... said Farmer Jane! With the break in weather we're heading to the farm with the loaded trailer on Thursday. I'm anxious to see how things are there. I'll have pictures to post next week when we return.

My "Dairymaid" daughter has miniature dachshund puppies, my grandson has claimed this one for himself.

Thoughs on gardening and weather...

I love to garden! I love growing food! My grandparents grew lots of food to feed their families. Of course they were not alone in their endeavor, many, maybe even most families a generation or two ago grew gardens and planted fruit trees. Those previous  generations were barely removed from the days when most of our nation were farmers or very closely connected to farming.  

But gardening skipped a generation in my family. My mother did not garden, not flowers, fruit or vegetables. She and her siblings grew up with a mother who tried everything to supplement her family; vegetables, fruit, grapes, berries, chickens, goats, rabbits, even chinchillas! My mother said her mother had such a green thumb that she would plant a seed while talking to the neighbor just by pushing a little soil around with her foot and not even looking down from her conversation! There were times when all they had to eat was what was grown and persevered by their mother.  My mother nor any of her siblings ever gardened, in fact the other three all had gardeners most of their lives to take care of their yards (my Dad did the yard work at our house).

That's not to say my mother didn't encourage us to garden. My sister and I planted gardens and our mother was always our cheering section, cooking any morsel we could coax out of the ground! She even bought a subscription to "Organic Gardening Magazine" for us when we were in high school.  

Because of my obsession with gardening I'm always checking the weather forecast. On my computer Front Page I have the option to list the weather from many locations. I have included the weather where each of my children live. I have a daughter in Houston, Texas, a daughter in Pasco, Washington, a daughter in Brigham City, Utah, a daughter in Lebanon, Oregon and one in frigid Idaho! (Yes that's five daughters!) Our son recently moved back home while he's going to school, it's cheaper that way, for him that is! I also have listed Craig, Alaska where one of my sisters lives, and gardens!. I used to list our home town in southern California but that was always depressing because the weather is always good there, a person can garden/farm year round! My father-in-law called it "paradise", and he was right.  

Three of my daughters live in apartments and are only able to have "house plants", I'm quite sure they will all garden when given the chance, they were always involved and enjoyed helping at home. My son is a different story, the generation skipped Mr. Green Jeans, and may also skip "The Boy". Mr. Green Jeans does not like to garden though his father always grew a huge garden after he retired from full time farming. 
 
When the kids were home we had a large garden with lots of long rows of vegetables, and weeds! A few years ago I built raised beds and began to garden that way, and I love it! That method can make a gardener out of anyone. The small areas can be quickly turned and planted with hand tools and the bounty is tremendous for such a small area. Vegetables are closer together and seem to thrive in the well worked soil. I have a ready supply of well rotted manure from my animals and it's easy to work into the soil as needed. If you don't have your own manure Walmart sells composted steer manure very reasonable, less than $2 a bag and it works great also. No need to buy the expensive stuff.  

One of the advantages of growing a garden is having fresh food available in your own backyard. My kids grew up eating lots of veggies because they were right there for them to pick and eat, now my grandson is enjoying the same benefit. When he was still crawling he would crawl around the garden while my daughter worked and "sample" the veggies. Kids learn early that vegetables are fun to pick and eat! 

Our Oregon Farm

In my previous blog there were a few sneak previews of the farm, nice pretty springtime pictures! Let me tell you about our farm. It is a beautiful piece of ground, almost 150 acres. There are about 100 acres of tillable ground and a "50 acre wood" with a small lake. The woods are predominately oak with a scattering of pine and a whole lot of blackberry bushes, my goats would think they had died and gone to heaven if they could see the place! Most of the farm is good bottom land which floods in the winter. There are about 25 acres of higher ground where the house and buildings are located. There is an ancient orchard of a dozen or so trees with apples, pears, and a prune tree which bear tons of wonderful fruit. The farm has been mostly planted to grass seed the past 20 years. 

Three years ago the lease was up and we regained control of the ground and planted multi species grasses for pasture and hay. Since our kids were gone in February last year and know one was "minding the farm," things are little over grown. The grass was not grazed or baled so we're not sure what to do with it this year. We had thought we would be on the farm last year to care for it but our California place did not sell so the farm and house have been pretty lonely for some human love and attention. 

We're anxious to get some cows on the place this summer the break up the old stuff and start fertilizing it!  We've been followers of Joel Salatin for years and have employed the intensive grazing management to our place in California and were very happy with the results. We will do the same in Oregon to get our fields in shape, thought we may need more that three cows to do it! We do have a plan, we'll be bringing a couple dozen head from our daughters farm in Lebanon to help out.  

Right now we're between the two places. The California  house is in escrow and should close in March 2011. Mr. Green Jeans was on track to retire, then daughter #2 announced she's engaged and of course wants to be married from the home and community where she grew up...we're going to rent back till May 17th! Best laid plans of mice and men! The wedding is planned for Saturday May 14th then we're outa there Monday May 16th! 

Starting over with "What's in a name?"

In trying to add a picture to my post yesterday I covered the whole post with the "image" and can't figure out how to undo it! But I practiced uploading pictures, so I'll repeat yesterdays post with pictures. 

I'm half way through my fifties and wondering what I'm doing starting over farming on a 150 acre neglected farm, in a one hundred and twenty-five year old house.  I'm leaving the wonderful California climate behind (I tried to get it in the stock trailer with the cows, but it planted its feet and refused to budge!). Farming, gardening and living will take some getting used in the colder, wetter climate of the Willamette Valley of Oregon.


I'm not new to farming, I grew up in rural southern California working for a local farmer riding my horse everywhere I needed to go. My family had a few acres where we had a garden, chickens and raised our own beef and lamb. My dream was to marry a farmer and farm full time...Well, I married my own "Mr. Green Jeans" who was a third generation farmer, who then decided he didn't want to farm anymore and instead took an office job with a guaranteed pay check and all the benefits...Like not having to work in the rain, heat, or wind, no late night runs to the market or harvesting most of the night while the weather holds! It was pretty convincing. 

So Mr. Green Jeans and Farmer Jane bought 20 acres (large I know by many standards) and settled down to raise our family. But...as time went on we (I guess it was more the kids and I) really wanted to leave California and have a bigger place. Our kids had really taken to farming and were out growing our place with their projects, they wanted us to be able to have enough room to farm full time. So we began our search...We took trips traveling all over the west, with six kids in tow (they were home schooled so we could travel when it best suited us and Mr. Greens Jeans' work schedule). We saw lots of beautiful farms and explored many small towns in Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. In 1996 we bought this farm in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. 

But, when it came to leaving the security of his job and taking the big plunge, Mr. Green Jeans just couldn't do it. So the farm was leased for about 12 years, until daughter #3 and her husband moved on to it three years ago. Then in February 2010 they bought their own farm about 60 miles away, so the farm has been on its own for the last year and boy have the weeds and blackberries had a party, like when the folks go away and leave a house full of teenagers for the weekend!!!


So, now that Mr. Green Jeans has a reasonable retirement, and all the help (kids) have left home we're doing it on our own! Hence the name of my blog...farmer starting over...There are fences and barns to build and repair, pastures and hay fields to rejuvenate, a garden area to prepare and fruit trees to plant, and of course the list goes on. 


So this is a journal of our journey, Mr. Green Jeans and Farmer Jane. I've been an avid gardener all my life, we've had meat and dairy goats, milk cows and beef cows, sheep, llamas, chickens, rabbits, turkeys and horses (I draw the line at peafowl and ducks!). We're taking two horses and a pony, the beef cows are already in Oregon and we have too many dogs and cats to mention (all the dogs belong to our children who never seem to live where they can keep them! hum...) 


* Note: Mr. Greens Jeans actually mostly wears bib overalls. Mr. Green Jeans was the farmer that would visit Captain Kangaroo with his farm animals, it was my favorite part of the show  and as a child he was my ideal man! And he actually wore green jeans!