Category Archives: Urban Homestead

Olivia’s Illness

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olivia Olivias Illness

This is Olivia, our Jersey cow. This picture was taken this winter and she has a thick winter coat. She has been very healthy since her illness.

About a month after Cinnamon’s birth, Olivia had a health challenge. Shaen and I came up to milk as usual in the morning. Olivia seemed well. During the evening’s milking, Shaen noticed Olivia’s halter was tight around her face. She seemed to have a swelling under her lower jaw. The swelling seemed sore. Her rumen appeared empty which meant she wasn’t eating. Not eating is a very serious situation for a lactating cow. She wasn’t even sticking out her tongue. She normally would give us a lick. She was also drooling.

When we got home, we pulled out our cattle textbooks. We use Cure Your Own Cattle by Newman Turner and The Barn Guide to Treating Dairy Cows Naturally by Hubert Karreman. The condition Actinomycosis or Wooden Tongue sounded the most like her symptoms. This condition is caused by a puncture from rough forage, wooden splinters, or metal objects.

The next morning her swelling was even worse. Cows have body language. When they don’t feel well, their heads are down like they haven’t any energy. We milked her down. We tried to look at her teeth and she seemed to have trouble swallowing. This explained the drooling.

On June 2, 2011 we called the vet and Dr. Rob Mulligan came down to look at Olivia. He used some very useful tools to handle Olivia since we do not have a squeeze. He used a nose-pincher and a device for opening the cow’s mouth. The vet had his whole forearm down Olivia’s throat trying to find the puncture. He did not find anything inside her mouth. There was a small scar on the outside of her jaw which he probed with a needle hoping to drain an abscess. He could not find the abscess. He thought she had the more fast acting mouth infection called Cellulitis which can be fatal if located in the lower jaw. Unfortunately, antibiotics are the only course of action. The vet gave her an IV of sodium iodide which would help fight any bone infection. We also gave her the first injection of a four day course of antibiotics. By the end of the IV treatment Olivia was eating again!

The biggest mistake we made treating Olivia was not using a three day slow release antibiotic. This left Shaen and I trying to give injections to a 800 pound animal without a squeeze or any of those neat vet tools. The needle was big too. We had to get in 45cc of antibiotics through a cow’s thick hide. Olivia was seriously irritated with us by the third injection. I was really upset too because cows are like two year old children. They can’t be reasoned with and do not understand what is being done to them. They only understand the pain. I was worried we would ruin our milking relationship with Olivia.

By the third injection we had a rolling-eyed cow and only got in part of the injection. The next day, we called in the vet for a second IV of sodium iodide and the last injection of antibiotic. This time Dr. Jason McGillivray came and took a look at Olivia. He had her on the ground, completely immobilized, with a system of ropes and a nose-pincher. Shaen said it was amazing to watch someone handle such a large animal with such skill. The vet thought the infection was old and had come back.

After the second treatment, we milked twice a day but continued discarding the milk. The protocol for antibiotics is to wait 72 hours after ending treatment before using the milk. We waited 96 hours. After the treatment, Olivia seemed well. She still has a small lump on the lower jawbone and she is sore from the injections. She seems to have forgiven us for our treatment and she is milking well.

Later, Shaen called Christine Blake from Wildfire Jersey. She sold Olivia to us. Christine knows all her cows very well and Olivia never had an infection. It appears Olivia picked up an infection since she came to us. We don’t know when or how the infection started. The infection is a bit of a mystery. Dr. Will Winter a vet that hosts a yahoo group called Pastured Livestock Producers stated:

“I would suggest that you look at overall herd health. Obviously you want to get treatment for the sick animal, but I encourage you to look into overall health patterns. Certainly if it is “Wooden Tongue”, an Actinobacillus bacterial infection, then there is a holistic plan of action that will prevent further problems. Wooden Tongue, Lumpy Jaw and Blackleg are all “cousins” of the same pathogen. These pathogens are in the soil in a latent condition on every farm. When circumstances are right, they can infect animals.

You can read about this in Chuck Walters’ great book called Grass, The Forgiveness of Nature. He relates stories from the past wherein they shut down the infectious disease bugs simply by mineralizing the cattle. When all the “immune minerals” were in place there were no infections. Zero Vaccine (vaccine programs can never keep up with the evolving nature of pathogens). Even epidemics were stopped in their tracks. Be sure to check your iron levels in forages or water too, as high iron not only blocks the absorption of the other minerals but it also stimulates many bacteria, including Tuberculosis and Para-TB (Johne’s).”

The supplements we give the cattle are Fertrell minerals, kelp and sea salt. The cattle are on pasture and enjoy eating the Saskatoon Bush leaves (Amelanchier spp.). We supplement the pasture with third-cut alfalfa haylage and hay. Our water system is based off a well with a 3000 gallon old metal holding tank. Normally, we are irrigating so much that the water is clear but with all the rain this spring we haven’t been irrigating. I noticed the cows got a big load of rusty water a week or so before Olivia got sick. Rats. It’s so easy to screw up. We won’t let that happen again. Shaen is going to scrub out the tank as soon as possible. He just has to be careful. Tanks are confined spaces and rust absorbs oxygen.

About two days after Olivia finished her antibiotic treatment, we started noticing that Cinnamon had developed diarrhea. The diarrhea was very liquid and white like scour. We considered giving her a drench of probiotics. We decided to watch Cinnamon’s progress carefully. Cinnamon is a happy, energetic calf so we decided to just observe and not intervene unless necessary. This should be a lesson to all breast feeding women that have had to take a course of antibiotics for some reason.  It is very important to watch your baby’s gut health after a course of antibiotics. In the end, on June 23, 2011 we gave Cinnamon a drench of Custom Probiotics. We used four times the normal adult dose mixed with Olivia’s milk. After that one treatment her diarrhea was gone.

Olivia and Cinnamon

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cinnamin Olivia and Cinnamon

This is Cinnamon, Olivia's new calf.

On May 3, 2011 Olivia gave birth to a heifer we have named Cinnamon. It is hard to believe it has been just over seven weeks since her birth. In the last update, we were worried that Cinnamon would develop scour, but thankfully this did not occur. We have left Olivia and Cinnamon together. This is not standard dairy procedure. Dairies normally separate the cow and calf at birth. This allows the dairy to control the cow calf relationship and the calf’s food intake. The calf is fed colostrum for the first few days of life. Without enough colostrum the calf will pick up an infection and die. Later, the diary switches over to cow’s milk, or more commonly, a milk substitute. A milk substitute is used because it is cheaper.

Leaving the calf with the cow is a controversial management style. We think it is better for the calf to have an unrestricted feeding schedule. The cow and calf work out a natural feeding cycle. The calf never gets too hungry, having unlimited access to her mother, thus conditions like scour are unlikely to occur. We think Olivia is happier too. I can’t say I know what Olivia is thinking or feeling but she seems like a content cow to me. Some people believe by leaving the nursing pair together the cow will teach the calf how to be part of the herd.

We had some problems when we first started milking Olivia. She had come from a commercial dairy and had never been hand-milked before. She was used to machines touching her, not people’s hands. We had to work on making our touch a pleasurable experience. Shaen and I have found sharing the milking chore made it easier and fun. Since few modern people have ever milked, or even seen a milking, I thought I would describe a typical milking. Of course, things don’t always go smoothly. One thing cows like is routine. When the routine goes wrong the milking can go wrong too. (If any readers of this blog would like to learn how to milk please contact us and we will make arrangements. Milking is an experiential activity.)

Before milking, we get our equipment together. In one pail, I keep 15′ rope with a carabiner on one end, two brushes, a roll of paper towels, and a jar of coconut oil. In a second pail I have clean water for washing. My third pail has the milking treats. When we are ready to milk, we tie up Olivia and give her a treat of soaked grains or peas, haylage, or green forage. I give her a brush to clean off any loose hair and dirt, while Shaen washes her udders with water and dries her off with paper towels. We use coconut oil for its anti-microbial properties and as a milking lubricant. During milking, if I find my hands getting dry, I squirt some milk and rub my hands together. Milk is a great lubricant too. When we are ready to milk, Shaen works on one side and I the other, with the pail between us. Shaen’s job is to pull the pail if Olivia starts moving around. It’s really important to agree on who is going to put the pail! We milk in a full squatting position which is easier on our backs than kneeling or a milking stool. We may be milking anywhere in the pasture so having a “mobile chair” is very convenient. A full squat is very comfortable for milking but it does take time for a modern person to find the position comfortable.

Olivia is averaging 80L of milk per week, plus feeding her calf. When a cow first starts producing milk, the percentage of cream is low. As the calf grows and needs more nourishment, the cream content increases. We are presently freezing extra milk and making yoghurt and raw cheese. Soon we will be making ice cream and raw butter. Buttermilk, the byproduct of butter making, will be going to our four hogs. We use the buttermilk instead of water to soak the grains and peas. The hogs love it!

Olivia has had her first estrous cycle. Last year we got twin male and female calves from Gort’s Gouda Cheese Farm for Patty after Patty lost her calf. In cows, when male and female calves share a uterus, the male is usually fertile and the female is sterile. The female is called a freemartin and will develop more like a steer. We did not castrate the male and he appears to be a fully functioning bull. The bull has shown interest in Olivia. In a few days we will know if she has conceived or not.

Some people might be worried about us having a dairy bull. Dairy bulls are known for their aggression. When we were at Wildfire Jersey, Christine Blake was in the pen with their pure-breed Jersey bull. She had her back to him. I was worried about her safety and she explained that they keep their Jersey bulls for two years. Her experience is that young bulls are not very dangerous. After two years of age the bulls become very aggressive. Since we have bottle fed our bull as a calf, we can handle him safely, but we know the time we can manage him is limited. We intend to use him this year to breed Olivia and his foster mother, Patty. After his task is completed he will go to slaughter.

Healthy Clothing: Guidelines and Suppliers

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Over the last year I have been doing some research and musing about the safety of our modern clothing. Healthy clothing seems like a small problem compared to the poor diet of the average North American eating out of the Industrial Food System. But our clothing, like cosmetics, are in direct contact with our skin and could cause health problems in sensitive people. Here is a summary of my research:

  1. For the best bang for your buck, put your money in high quality local food from a source you can trust. Grow some of your own food, if possible. For more information please read 25 Steps to Eating Nourishing Traditional Foods. (Eating high quality food will help maintain healthy gut flora which is your first line of defense from environmental contamination. Please read What is a Healthy Gut?)
  2. Take a long hard look at the quality and safety of your personal care products. Stop using dangerous products and make charges towards healthier products. Consider making your own personal care products. Please read Healthy Household for recipes and suggestions. (Your skin is a lot more permeable than once thought. If you wouldn’t consider eating the product, don’t put it on your skin.)
  3. Take a look at your clothing and decide if the material is safe. Over time, switch over to sustainable, naturally produced materials like leather, fur, wool, cotton, linen, hemp and silk. If you care equally about your health and the environment, look for organically produced fabrics. This is an over simplification, but in general if something is healthy for you it will be healthy for the environment. Killer Clothes by Anna Maria Clement can help with understanding the risks involved with our clothing. (If you are healthy, your clothing choices are less important for your overall health than your food choices. If you are dealing with chronic health problems or Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, look for organic fabrics without dyes.)
  4. We spend a very large amount of our time indoors. Look carefully at your household environment. Assess the safety of air and water quality. If you have dangerous items in your home, remove them. Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd has a daunting amount of information about how to make your household safer. She suffers from MCS and maintains a website with helpful tips for a safer home. (In my personal experience, focus your attention on your body’s “internal environment”, and your “external environment” will be less of a problem.)
shaen snow wool Healthy Clothing: Guidelines and Suppliers

Shaen has been skiing this winter in wool. Yes, he looks odd on the hill. He wears merino wool underwear as a bottom layer. His middle layer varies from an organic cotton shirt for hot days to a Guernsey wool sweater for the cold days. His outer layer is a Swanndri and felt army pants. He finds the wool breathes much better then a Gore-Tex shell. Wool felt is water-repellent and stays warm even if wet.

Here are some guidelines for buying clothing that will be safe and long lasting:

  1. Buy clothing for natural materials such as leather, sheepskin, fur, wool, linen, hemp, cotton, and silk.
  2. Buy organic fabric when appropriate. Be curious about manufacturing processes, finishing on fabrics, and types of dyes.
  3. Buy clothing designed for long-term wear.
  4. Buy clothing that can adjust in size for weight gain or loss.
  5. Buy clothing designed for function not style.

I asked a number of chapter leaders with the Weston A Price Foundation where they get their healthy clothing. Here are some sources of fabrics and ready made clothing. Few companies specialize in only natural fibers. Watch for products made from organic fabrics, 100% natural fibers, and environmentally friendly dyes. Most of these manufactures produce only highly tailored clothing. This is just a few of the many online companies providing healthier alternative in clothing. If I have missed your favorite company, please contact me:

Organic Cotton, Linen and Hemp

  1. Mountain Equipment Coop is committed to fair labor practices. They specialize in outdoor sporting wear so the clothing is well-made and heavily tailored. They have a line of 100% organic cotton shirts and pants for men, women, youth and infants. They have a line of 100% Merino wool underwear for men and women. They sometimes carry organic cotton and hemp pants.
  2. Rawganique is a clothing retailer working from Denman Island, BC and “offers sustainable products that are pure and sweatshop-free.” They have blends of 100% organic cotton, hemp and linen clothing. They have classic designs of clothing such as Renaissance Blouse, Hill Tribe Shirt, or Mindful Shirt. They have designs that can adjust for changes in body size such as the Thai Fisherman’s Pants.
  3. The Organic Cotton Company works out of Toronto, ON. “The Organic Cotton Company oversees every step of the processing of our organic pima cotton from raw fiber to spinning to knitting to cutting and sewing. We can assure our customers that Clean Undies are truly the cleanest cotton underwear available, never treated or contaminated with chemicals.” They produce 100% organic pima cotton underwear and shirts for men, women and children.
  4. Decent Exposures is a custom made bra and underwear company working from Seattle, WA. They have a line of 100% organic cotton bras and underwear.
  5. Girl Skirt Mission has an organic cotton shop with Kurta Shirts and Yoga Pants.
  6. Hemp Traders is a wholesaler for 100% hemp fabrics, webbing, yarn and cording. They have a line of 100% organic cotton and hemp shirts for men and women.

Wool

  1. Wool Overs is a company that specializes in 100% “wool, cotton and cashmere knitwear.” This company produces my husband’s favorite sweater, a Guernsey Jumper, he has worn for years.
  2. Custom Woolen Mills working from Carstairs, AB. You can send your raw wool to the mill for processing. Their products include: “carded wools, rovings, spinning rolls, batts, wool yarns, knitting kits, socks, comforters, mattress pads and hand-woven blankets.”
  3. Swanndri is a New Zealand company that produces 100% waterproof felted wool jackets that can last for years. My husband had years of use from he Swanndri bush shirt.
  4. My Merino is a company working from Rocky View, AB and specializes in 100% New Zealand Merino wool. They have underwear, hats and gloves for men, women and children.

If you would like to learn more about healthy clothing, please read these articles recommended by Bari Caine, the Weston A Price Foundation chapter leader for Reno, NV:
Working Conditions in Textile Factories
Cost of Organic Cotton
Deals on Organic Clothing

If you would like further information:
Healthy Clothing: Do you know what’s on your clothes?
Healthy Clothing: Can we have sustainable fashion?

Updated October 5, 2011: I have received a link to a video about Rebecca Burgess, who has put together a 150 mile local fiber wardrobe made with bio-regional dyes. Here is the link to 150 Mile Wardrobe: Local Fiber, Real Color and Gandhian Economics. If you would like to learn more about her 150 mile wardrobe please see her website. I hope this video inspires our local Kamloops Artisans.

Healthy Clothing: Can we have sustainable fashion?

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A question that arises from thinking about sustainable clothing is the issue of fashion. Can we have sustainable fashion? With all of these long-lasting natural materials, does it make sense to change our wardrobe every season? On the positive side, having natural materials as the base of a fashion industry would be better for us and the environment than a fashion industry based on synthetic fibers. Fashion is very important to some people and, in my opinion, it is a personal choice to follow the latest fashion, or not. On the negative side, it seems wasteful to throw out clothing that could last many years or even a lifetime because of a whim in the fashion industry.

If we really want sustainable fashion we will have to move away from tightly tailored clothing and move towards more flexible designs that can adjust for weight loss and gain. A movement away from tightly tailored clothing would be difficult in our modern world. Traditionally, only the very wealthy and powerful could have tailored clothing. Tailored clothing is still a sign of status and wealth. Tailored clothing has long been a class issue. When Mohandas Gandhi put aside his Western-styled tailored clothing and dressed in the homespun cloth of India called khadi, he started a revolution. Never think clothing is not political. In fact, all our household decisions are.

There are many traditional cultures with clothing that can adjust for changes in body size and can have different functions. The great kilt, airsaid, and poncho can be worn as an overcoat or used as a sleeping blanket. The traditional sari, sarong, dhoti, and lungi is a piece of fabric, wrapped around the body in different ways. With these ideas in mind, sustainable fashion would be made from local, natural materials and designed to adjust for changes in body size. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our clothing was designed to be healthy for us, good for the environment, simple to make, having multiple uses, and easy to recycle?

Healthy Clothing: Do you know what’s in your clothes?

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About a year ago, I started wondering about my long term use of nylon, fleece and other synthetic materials from Mountain Equipment Coop. I started wondering if these petrochemical-based fabrics were safe for use next to my skin and for that matter if the products were environmentally safe. Ironically, MEC is all about enjoying and saving the environment. Unfortunately, their fabric choices might be convenient for a sweaty hiker but the fabrics are made from materials that are not sustainable nor environmentally friendly. Many of these synthetic fabrics are partly recycled but the question I keep asking myself is should we be making the products in the first place and how safe are the fabrics for the wearer or the greater environment? On the positive side, MEC cares about the working conditions in the factories that produce their products. MEC sells very inexpensive 100% organic cotton shirts, 100% Merino wool underwear, and some hemp blend products.

I started wondering about my personal clothing choices and what I would have to do to be more sustainable. I realized that leather, sheepskin and fur are very sustainable products and have a very long wearing life. For example, a leather or sheepskin jacket could last a lifetime. In my vegetarian days, I would have been horrified by such an observation. I guess many people feel the same way. On my Visit to the Killing Floor at Kam Lake View Meats, I learned that hides, once a valuable byproduct of the slaughtering process, are now almost a waste product. The inspector said: “we are close to the day when the customer will have to pay extra to dispose of the hide.” The kill floor manager said: “when I started twenty years ago, the hides were worth $50.00 each. Now they get $5.00 a hide.” This situation seems wrong to me. As a show of respect for the life given for our food we should be using every part of the animal possible. There are problems with modern leather products. Most modern tanning methods use toxic chemicals but this does not have to be the case. Leather can be produced using traditional brain tanning methods which does not negatively affect the environment. If there were enough people that cared about how a hide was tanned, we could have a resurgence of artisan tanning using traditional methods.

Wool is another wonderful material that doesn’t require the death of an animal and is completely sustainable. All you need is the sheep on pasture and the wool continues to grow year after year. Wool can be used for years, and some thick wools will have the same longevity as leather, sheepskin or fur. Again, we are seeing the loss of another traditional home industry. At one time, many sheep farms would have had a method of taking the raw wool from the sheep to a finished product. Now, this wasn’t an easy task. Women spent the winter months working at cleaning, carting, spinning, weaving and knitting. They would make many of the clothes and blankets used by the whole family. Now wool is a waste product. It isn’t even worth the cost to send it to Custom Woolen Mills located in Alberta. I talked with Susan McGillivray from Jocko Creek Ranch about her sheep’s wool. She sends enough wool to the mill for her family’s needs but the rest of the wool gets composted. Here is another missed opportunity for a revival in artisan wool production. If enough people valued high quality wool and were willing to pay for handmade knitting and weaving we could have a local cultural Renaissance.

Cotton, linen, and hemp are beautiful materials and true products of the Industrial Revolution. There may have been cottage industry of these products long ago, but few people would have the production knowledge now. Cotton’s major problem is the amount of fungicides, herbicides and pesticides used to produce the crop. Going organic with your cotton clothing would really help the environment. Linen comes from flax straw, a “waste product” of flax seed and flax oil production. Linen does not require as many chemicals for production as cotton. Hemp is a very hardy plant with its own natural pesticide. Hemp is a very strong and versatile fiber and can be used in building materials, fabrics, and rope. The official story is hemp is hard to get because the material got caught up in a silly confusion during the 1930′s drug prohibition. Some people believe this official story is a fiction to hide the true reason which is to protect the synthetic fabric industry. If we lived in a sane world we would all be wearing hemp or linen. If we bought hemp clothes we could be wearing the same clothes for a decade. We would have to give up making a fashion statement and design styles of clothing that can adjust for weight loss or gain. If we are going to continue using cotton we should use organic cotton.

Screen shot 2012 02 08 at 4.36.17 PM 227x300 Healthy Clothing: Do you know whats in your clothes?

This is an interesting book about clothing. It will make you look and what you wear in a new way.

I just finished reading Killer Clothes: How Seemingly Innocent Clothing Choices Endanger Your Health …And How To Protect Yourself by Anna Maria Clement. I was previously unaware of the chemical contamination prevalent in clothes manufacturing. Manufacturers are now putting some very scary chemicals on your clothes. (The way to protect yourself against these chemicals is to know your producers and make it your business to understand their manufacturing processes. Sorry, no easy answers on this website.) Manufacturers are not required to list the chemicals used on the clothing’s label. These chemicals are used to make the fabric flame, stain, shrink, static, wrinkle, bacterial, microbial, and odor resistant. For example, formaldehyde is commonly used in fabrics to resist wrinkling and shrinkage. Ugh. The author is concerned that we are all “guinea pigs” in a vast experiment without our conscious consent. She is concerned that our clothes are adding to a “total toxic load” in our bodies which can led to illness in the short or long-term. She is concerned that many of these chemicals “are persistent in the environment and bio-accumulative in humans and wildlife.” She is especially worried about what this will mean for the health of our children and grandchildren.

Finally, when we are done with our natural clothing, they can be recycled as rags or made into paper. The rags, when worn, will return to the soil which in turn will service another generation of people. I cannot say that about my petrochemical-based nylon, fleece, or polyester.

Olivia’s New Calf

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cinnamon birth Olivias New Calf

This picture was taken about an hour after Olivia's calf was born.

Olivia, our Jersey cow, gave birth to a female pure-bred Jersey calf this morning! It was an unassisted birth. If you would like to learn more about Olivia please read Looking for Another Cow. This is Olivia’s second calf. Olivia’s calf is so beautiful. We are very excited!

It wasn’t easy hand-milking Olivia. Olivia has never been hand-milked before because she came from Wildfire Jersey, a commercial dairy in Armstrong, BC. Olivia has not let us touch her even after four months of daily care. In the past, if we come within touching distance she would always back off. Olivia would show interest when I brushed the other cows but she would never allow me to brush her. Olivia had even managed to partly remove her halter which hung from her neck for months because we couldn’t get close enough to fix it.

Shaen and I spent some time discussing if we should try to milk her now or wait until evening. We knew we had to milk her. Her bag was bursting and her teats were angled off in all directions with the pressure. We knew that Olivia would be uncomfortable with all the pressure in her bag. We also had experience last year with scour. We didn’t want the calf to become sick. We decided to try to milk her this morning. If you don’t know what scour is, please read Patty’s Second Birth for more information.

We took some time to game plan how we were going to handle Olivia. We got all of our equipment ready. We organized two 15-20′ ropes, each with an oval straight gate carabiner on one end. Shaen carried one and I carried the other. We dealt with all the other cows and got their feed ready. We got Olivia’s feed ready and her dairy “treats”. We knew she wouldn’t leave her calf so we used the calf to calm Olivia. One at a time we entered the pen. Shaen checked the calf. He petted and cooed over the beautiful calf. As he was checking the calf, Olivia was watching Shaen, and I clipped the carabiner on Olivia’s harness. I dropped the rope and let Olivia back-up. This was a very important step. If I tried to hold a spooked cow, she would drag me all over creation. I backed out of the pen. After Shaen checked the calf, he picked up the end of the rope and did two turns around a tree. I came back into the pen and walked behind Olivia and Shaen would take up the slack on the rope until Olivia was within a few feet of the tree. Olivia panicked but we got her controlled. Shaen put on another halter. I backed out of the pen and used a low whispering voice to “talk” with Olivia. Olivia was pulling against the tree the whole time Shaen milked her. Because she was pulling, she wasn’t kicking or stepping in the milk pail. The calf slept through the milking.

first feed Olivias New Calf

This is Cinnamon's first feed. The chickens are trying to find any small pieces of placenta that Olivia hasn't eaten. Yes, it is a shock the first time you see a cow eating a placenta.

As I whispered calming words to Olivia, she would turn her ears forward in interest. Olivia looked more and more relieved after we got off some of her milk. We milked out 7L and she was still full. Olivia is going to be a high producer of milk. With this type of production, we will have to milk her three times a day. A cow’s first milk is called colostrum. Colostrum is very special. A calf needs colostrum for survival. People like it for its healing qualities. Here is what Weston A Price Foundation says about colostrum:
Cooking with Colostrum
Raw Colostrum Legal in California

Happy Birth Day!

We Have Organic, Soy-Free Eggs

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egg We Have Organic, Soy Free Eggs

Our eggs come in a number of colors and sizes. We try to feed our hens well so they can produce better eggs.

If you are looking for high quality eggs, we have eggs for sale. Our chickens are a mixed flock of heritage birds: Ameraucana, Buff Orpingtons, Danish Brown Leghorns, Buff Brahams, and Red Rock Cross. This means the egg shells are brown, white and blue.

We feed the chickens certified organic whole grains and peas from Fieldstone Granary and from local suppliers that do not spray. We supplement the chicken’s diet with kelp, oyster shells, sea salt, dolomite lime and kitchen scraps. Occasionally, the chickens get a feast of offal when we slaughter a hog. The chickens are NOT fed any soy products. During the winter the chickens are confined to a greenhouse where they can get sprouted grains, peas and sleepy bugs. During the summer the chickens are free range and get a variety of herbs, forbs, grasses and insects.

We have a small flock so there is only about two to three dozen eggs produced each day, so our egg numbers are limited. We are selling the eggs for $5.00 per dozen. Cash only. We recycle egg cartons, so please bring your old egg cartons.

Slaughtering Lamb & Hogs

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pig head Slaughtering Lamb & Hogs

Here are two pigs heads, one partly skinned. Keep everything from the animal even when you aren't sure what to do with it. Learn how to make head cheese or split a head with an axe and fed it to laying hens in winter. This helps the hens produce better eggs. Use everything.

Early in December we slaughtered one lamb and two hogs. The lamb came from Jocko Creek Ranch. The hogs originally came from Ranfurly Farm but we fed the hogs up ourselves. Our neighbor Joe came over to help Shaen slaughter and process the carcasses. The men killed, bled, skinned and halved the carcasses. Shaen had a chance to use a butcher’s bone saw. He was able to cut each carcass in half very quickly. The carcasses will hang for a few days before cutting, wrapping and freezing.

I was in the kitchen and helped with cleaning and wrapping of the organs and heads. I washed the tripe over and over again. Most of my time was spent cleaning hair roots out of the hog fat. I have never eaten or made head cheese or tripe. I have looked over the books The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating and Beyond Nose to Tail by Fergus Henderson and wondered when I would have a chance to try some of the more unusual recipes.

We didn’t use everything. It is possible to make sausage casing from the intestines but we decided it was just too much work. Joe took the intestines home for processing. I was very sad not to be processing the skin of the lamb into a hide, but we don’t know anyone with tanning experience. I have been doing some research and may give it a try anyway. We gave the remains of the digestive system to the chickens. Shaen could not believe how fast the pile disappeared. The chickens considered the offal very good eating. We also saved certain organs, glands and scraps for pet food. Meadows, our cat, gorged herself on scraps during the slaughtering process. She then disappeared for a night and day to sleep off her feast.

Three days later, everyone got back together to cut and wrap the carcasses. Shaen turned on one of our large deep freezers which has a chill-down setting. This feature is found on some very large older freezers and was originally used by hunters wanting to quickly chill-down their kill. Joe brought his meat cutting band saw, which made short work of cutting up the carcasses. Shaen and Chris worked on the wrapping and labeling table. The men finished the cutting, wrapping and clean-up in about three hours.

Are you a producer or a consumer?

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handmade doll Are you a producer or a consumer?

I made this little doll for Sonja. It is made of 100% wool felt and yarn. The stitching is made with 100% cotton embroidery thread.

I was just reading the afterward in the third edition of The Unsettling of America. As always, Wendell Berry never ceases to alarm as he enlightens. He was talking about smaller assumptions that support the larger philosophical assumption that the world is a machine. Here are the smaller assumptions:
1. If the world and all its creatures are machines, then the world and all its creatures are entirely comprehensible, manipulable, and controllable by humans.
2. The humans who have this power are experts.
3. Experts are made by education.
4. Education only happens in school.
5. Experts are smarter than other people.
6. Thinking is best done by experts in offices and laboratories.
7. People who do work cannot be trusted to think about it.
8. People who work would prefer not to work.
9. Human workers are inefficient machines, encumbered by extraneous needs and desires, and they should be replaced by more efficient machines or by chemicals.
10. In general, the human machine is better at consumption than production.
11. A farm is or ought to be a factory in which plant and animal machines serve the economic machine in the most efficient way.
12. Efficiency has nothing to do with human or biological needs and desires.
13. Farm bankruptcy increases agricultural efficiency.
14. All farmers actually dislike farming and are secretly glad when they go bankrupt, because that gets them out of the sticks and into the bright lights where they have a chance to become experts.
15. Conventional agricultural science (like all conventional science) is disinterested and objective and serves no interest other than the advancement of human knowledge.

What caught my attention today was number 10: “In general, the human machine is better at consumption than production.” I found myself confused by this statement. It brought on the question: Am I better at consumption than production?

I found myself looking around my home. What artifacts in my home have been made with my own hands? A higher standard would be: What artifacts in my home are made with my own hands and come from materials in my local environment?

doll Are you a producer or a consumer?

This doll may be handmade but only the wool stuffing came from a local source.

As I searched my house, I found some drawings, but the art paper and drawing utensils came from some unknown place. I found a few toys I have made for the girls but all the materials came from somewhere else. 99.9% of the artifacts in my household come from somewhere else, produced in a nameless factory.

When I looked into the daily consumables of my household, I did a bit better. I found some food my family has produced on the property. Nevertheless, most of my food comes from local farms and ranches. My dried stores, even though certified organic, come from faceless sources.

I have to say, after my household inspection, I am indeed a better consumer than a producer. I find it interesting that something so mundane and obvious has escaped my notice for so long.

It makes me wonder what type of world I would live in if most of my household artifacts came from people I knew. What would it be like to make most of the artifacts in my household with my own hands from materials from my local environment? I wondered if I would be more connected to my possessions, or less. I could see both as possible, because if I can make something, there is always more where that came from.

Another question that comes to mind is, who are the producers?

What we are working for, I think, is an authentic settlement and inhabitation of our country. We would like to see all human work lovingly adapted to the nature of the places where it is done and to the real needs of the people by whom and for whom it is done. We do not believe that any violence to places, to people, or to other creatures is “inevitable”. We believe that the industrial ideology is wrong because it obscures and disrupts this necessary work of local adaptation or home making.
Afterward 3th Edition, The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry

Wrong Turn

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Unsettling of America Wrong Turn

This is my favorite book by Wendell Berry.

Wendell Berry is like a physician telling a patient that if he doesn’t change his ways he will die of his illness. The patient is our society.

I have been reading the collected essays of Wendell Berry. I cannot begin to summarize his work, and many people think of him as a modern day prophet. But what I take away from his essays is the feeling that we as a society have taken a very wrong turn.
1. We are externalizing the costs of production into the greater environment. We are losing our soil and its fertility. We are increasing the fertility of the soil not by using renewable resources such as manure, green cropping or rotation but by using non-renewable resources such as fossil fuels and an evil brew of chemicals. We are using vast amounts of fossil fuels to produce food. When these non-renewable resources become scarcer, we will have trouble feeding ourselves.
2. We are an incredibly wasteful society. Instead of finding ways to utilize our waste, we produce vast amounts of garbage which needs disposal. Even with all the talk about recycling and reusing, we produce mountains of garbage. We produce toxic by-products, run-off, and now pollute the genetic structure of plants and animals. These costs are externalized and are not added to the cost of the end product. In fact Wendell Barry says: “We haven’t accepted — we can’t really believe — that the most characteristic product of our age of scientific miracles is junk, but that is so.”
3. Our government seems more sympathetic to constructing regulations more suitable to large business than to small business. Government seems to relate better to large business than to small business. These regulations are actively destroying the family farm, small scale slaughtering, and artisan food processing. Even on the municipal level, the government constructs bylaws which restricts the property owner from producing their own food, thus promoting dependency on others to produce food.
4. When farm families leave the land and move to the cities there are extreme societal costs incurred by this migration. Our society loses the collective skills of these people and their skills are not valued in the city. These displaced people may just not “make it” and become “a problem”. Furthermore, Wendell Berry states: “The departure of so many people has seriously weakened rural communities and economies all over the country. That our farmland no longer has enough caretakers is implied by the fact that, as the farming people have departed from the land, the land itself has departed. Our soil erosion rates are now higher than they were in the time of the Dust Bowl.”
5. We have replaced simple hand work and mechanical systems based on renewable energy with technological systems based on non-renewable energy. Old school mechanics cannot even fix computerized machinery anymore let alone the average person with a set of common tools. Soon nothing will be made that doesn’t require some sort of interface with a computer chip. We are entering a time where the masters of the “black box” will control all mechanical systems. Also, working with our hands has been transformed into miserable drudgery. Hand work has been turned into a dirty, nasty business only suitable for the “dregs” of society. Even the dregs don’t want to do it! We seem to have collective memory loss to the pleasure of completing a job well ourselves.

If you have never read any of Wendell Berry’s books I would recommend: The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture and The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural.

People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are healed by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.
What are People For? by Wendell Berry