For everything there is a season

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Autumn, hunting, and another visit from my brother!

     Yes,...... I know, you look at this post title and think, "Isn't this a little late Eric"?  I guess "better late then never" is my only defense. Being home for Christmas has given me some time to catch up on little fun things ..... like blog posts! :)  November and December seem to have gone by really fast. Anyone else agree?

      Although we were busy getting the barns and hoop houses ready for winter, November seems to be the most non-rushed month on the farm.  We start to enjoy the longer evenings and not-so-early mornings that come with the time change.  White tailed deer hunting is a big thing in the valley and I certainly enjoyed my third season of participation ..... pictures below. :)  Thanksgiving dinner at Polyface is something to see. Almost all of the deliciously prepared food came right off the farm, and the fellowship is always a great part of this special day.  Another highlight for November was having my brother Daniel visit again.  We spent many hours hunting together and just hanging out with the rest of the Polyface team.

      December's big event occurred during the first two weeks of the month. We had about forty-five intern check-outs come for their two-day working interview for next summer's team. I enjoyed getting to know many of these great people and hearing about their backgrounds. I think anyone passionate about sustainable agriculture should be proud of the many individuals pursuing this path in life. On a personal note, because I believe that the world was created by God, and that stewarding the earth was the first "job" given to man in the Garden of Eden, it encourages me to see such a flood of people coming to the farming "battle front".

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and is looking forward to a Happy New Year!

Enjoy the pictures!

Loading up the herd that I had charge of this fall.

We made a make shift corral with pipe gates and used it to load the cattle into the trailers.

Daniel and Sheri celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary in November with a night out while the team had fun watching the children.

Travis and Jonathan are fighting it out in a game of Battle Ships.

We dug a trench to lay electric and water lines for the hunting camp.
 Target practice on Thanksgiving Day

Daniel and I jamming with Ralph. (He was getting his first guitar lesson.)
A special thanks to Rachel Salatin for the brother's photo shoot

Yes, he's too handsome; I couldn't leave out this photo!

My first buck!!!  A nice seven pointer.

We went bowling while my brother was visiting and had a ball!! ... ha, ha.



One of the many projects we did with the 'check outs' was pour concrete and rebuild walls in the main barn.






It looks so nice!!
Home grown lumber! ... Just a little chain saw work.
Another December project was to move the frozen chicken that had been stored off-farm during the summer back to our trailer freezers at Polyface.


Each box was passed along 'military-chain-style' into the freezers.  We moved about fifteen TONS of chickens.


   

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Moving Pigs

I wanted to do a quick post and share some pictures of us moving pigs out of our Brown's farm. As the weather gets colder we are bringing the herds of pigs into the hoop houses and barns. I talked about this farm in a earlier post but didn't have any pictures to go with it, so here they are!



We are setting up pipe gate before bringing the pigs down the alley.

The alley runs straight up the center of the pasture behind the pipe gates and all the paddocks open into it from both sides. 

It's time to load 'em up!



Monday, November 5, 2012

Some updates....and my first "business trip"

My, how quickly the summer flew by! (and autumn doesn't seem to be traveling any more slowly!). It has already been a month since we said 'goodbye' to our interns, and two weeks since our 2011/12 apprentice, Noah, left to pursue a great farming position back in his home state of California.  Our three new apprentices,(chosen from last summer's interns), took some time off and are now back in the saddle here at Polyface. These changes are an adjustment, but I am always excited to embrace the next season of life.

We are winding down and getting everything in place for the winter. Chickens and rabbits are being brought into hoop houses after enjoying pasture, or some other type of open housing, for the summer. Cattle herds are being consolidated and calves are being tagged and weaned.  We have also been buying yearling calves to build up our herd to around one thousand by year's end.  Buying cattle means hauling cattle, and hauling cattle means pulling big trailers.....which brings me to the second half of this post; a trip to Tennessee!

Polyface purchased a new twenty-four foot, triple axle, goose neck cattle trailer, and I got to pick it up.  This adventure was a fun blessing from the Lord via Daniel Salatin. Thanks Daniel!  There were some good friends that I had been wanting to visit for awhile and it just so happened that they were along the route to get the trailer. Or at least I made it work that way. :-)  I had a wonderful time shooting guns, riding horses, playing football and just enjoying good Christian fellowship. On top of all this, the drive was beautiful. The Tennessee hills were covered under a blanket of brilliant colors and every turn was another breathtaking view. What better way to enjoy the autumn show than from the driver's seat of my Ford F250!  Yes, it was fun to take my first big trip in the truck I had purchased in the spring. With over 226,000 miles and counting, she ran like a clock and pulled great.

I apologize for the blurriness of some of the pictures, they were taken with my phone.  I now have a new camera, thanks to a generous gift from the staff and interns!!

OK, enough words .... below are some pictures that I hope you'll enjoy.

year end potato harvest

We hauled logs off the mountain for the new Polyface Hunt Camp.



a hot dog lunch after a full morning of logging

A summer wouldn't be complete without the pedal tractor pull at the county fair.

God keeps His promises.

a night on the bowling lanes

My brothers, Christopher and Ryan, came to visit in August. It was great to be together.

Concrete was poured into the feeding areas of the barn. It makes scooping out the deep bedding a lot easier.



The new Polyface hunt camp! Construction began in August on this building
which will serve as staff housing.  My new apartment will be the left wing!


sunset on fire


We had a memorable evening celebrating Joel's milestone farming anniversary.

Brie compiled a book of 'Thank You!' letters and meaningful notes from family, staff, and customers. Joel was a little choked up when he opened the gift.  His love for farming and passion for sharing it with others are his life.

fence building

The final product is a beautiful sight to the crew.

I brought my landscaping bent indoors with the turn of the season.



Some young friends are playing in the new trailer during the Tennessee pick up.

Ready, Aim, Fire!  No, we're not shooting at the truck.


riding the range

a couple of good friends, Tyler and Tanner

Tyler raises chickens -- Polyface style.


"Smile for the camera"

It's hooked up and ready to roll from the trailer dealer.



I think they were waiting to order.
We rode to Sonic to grab a snack.  It was a blast!!! Thank you Nathan!


First load of cattle in the new trailer.  I picked them up on my way home from TN.

The faithful crew completing our last processing of 2012.  We were doing old layers, thus the egg tray on the table.

Thanks for taking this picture Travis!
 Brie, Heather, and Ben bagging birds.   Enjoy life and have fun!