Friday, April 8, 2011
Mud Room
Did I tell you that our new house has a mud room? I have always wanted a mud room but didn't think we'd actually find a house that we liked that had one! And this is what I want my mudroom to look like. Just Like This. Photo from the Martha Stewart website.
Decorating with Animal Photos
Having always rented and moved every 2 years I've never really gotten into decorating. But the house we are buying deserves to be decorated. The walls in the living areas are already painted in beautiful sage green and soft yellow-- exactly the colors I would have chosen-- so we just need to decide what we want to put on those walls. I would really like come up with a neat way to frame photos of farm animals and use them to decorate the house. But like I said, I haven't done a lot of decorating so I'm afraid I'll just end up with a boring wall of plain frames line up in a row without any character. So I'm looking for good ideas that will go with the contemporary farm house style I'll be using in the house. Oh and it has to be cheap because after paying the down payment on this house we won't have any money left over to actually decorate the place! Any ideas??
For the pictures themselves I've love to use photos with stories. I'm hoping to get some pretty prints from Juniper Moon and may be able to bribe a photographer friend to come out and do a shoot on our farm, but that won't be till we fill it up with animals so it might be a while. Do you have any favorite farm photos of your own? Or do you admire the work of a photographer who does a lot of farm animal photography? Let me know!
For the pictures themselves I've love to use photos with stories. I'm hoping to get some pretty prints from Juniper Moon and may be able to bribe a photographer friend to come out and do a shoot on our farm, but that won't be till we fill it up with animals so it might be a while. Do you have any favorite farm photos of your own? Or do you admire the work of a photographer who does a lot of farm animal photography? Let me know!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
A Farm Needs Animals
As farms go, ours is pretty small. 5 acres is pretty much the minimum you can get away with calling a farm and most "real" farmers would say its really just a glorified back yard. But its our farm and it'll be the perfect size for us to get our feet wet and learn what we are doing without being totally overwhelmed. Because we don't have a lot of space we need to make sure that we pick our animals carefully. To this end we are choosing small versions of the animals we want. For sheep we are looking at Shetlands, one of the smallest breeds (and also the most friendly, in my opinion). And for pigs we are looking at heritage breeds that grow slower and stay smaller than more "commercial" breeds. And since we only have space for a few of each type of animal we want to make them count and get the best animals we can afford. Thankfully over the last few years I have been keeping my eye out for farms I like and long before we found the farm, I already knew where I wanted to get our animals.
Today we visited Cane Creek Farm which is where we want to get our pigs. We love this farm for several reasons. The first thing that attracted us to them was the incredible taste of their pork. I have to admit that I never used to care for pork. The stuff you get at the grocery store tends to be pretty bland and is only good if you cover it in tasty sauce or really flavorful spices or herbs. The pork itself is just a filler to take up space on your plate. But did you know that that's not what pork is supposed to taste like? Here is what happened. Back in the 80s when the pork industry launched its "The Other White Meat" campaign (p.s. pork isn't a white meat...) the trend was towards making pork very lean so that it was similar in fat/calorie content to poultry. So all the commercial pigs were bred to that end. And they lost all their flavor and ended up as just, well, the other white meat. Blah. Thankfully small farms kept heritage pigs alive and thriving. Heritage breeds (i.e. relatively rare breeds that haven't been bred for the commercial meat market) are a lot like wild pigs. They tend to grow more slowly and don't get quite as big. They also tend to be more resilient and are better at foraging for themselves. Provided that they have water and a big, healthy pasture with plenty growing in it they can pretty much fend for themselves. Not that you would want to drop them in a field and ignore them- they have too much personality for that.
The quality of the pigs themselves are the main reason we want to get our pigs from Cane Creek, but we also feel good supporting the farm because we love how its run. They raise pigs, cows, sheep and assorted poultry and all of their animals are so healthy and, well, happy. I try not to refer to animals as happy because I think its a human emotion that we incorrectly transfer to animals but if I have ever seen animals that deserve to be called happy its the Cane Creek animals. Did you know that pigs will roll over on their backs so you can scratch their bellies? Or follow you around the field hoping for a scratch behind the ear? Today I stood beside a monster of a boar with big nasty tusks and scratched his back while he calmly nibbled grass and made contented noises. Yeah, that was one happy pig. The new mama sheep watched me carefully while I petted her itty bitty son and the pregnant ewes (Blanche, you are my favorite) rubbed their swollen bellies up against my legs for a gentle scratch. The only animals on the farm that didn't seem happy for human attention were the geese, but then protecting the farm from intruders is their job so their efforts should be applauded.
Farm owner Elizabeth clearly has a passion for her animals and we feel really honored that she is willing to let us take some of her babies home to our own farm. I can tell that she is the type of person who would only sell an animal to what she knew would be a good home, regardless of the money.
Now we just need to decide which pigs we want. In May Cane Creek will be weaning a bunch of Ossabow and Ossabow-crosses. These young pigs are called "shoats" or "feeder pigs". I personally don't like the term feeder pigs because it reminds me of the feeder mice I used to buy my pet snake and I don't like the image of a cute little piglet being eaten by a snake! The Ossabow breed is pretty neat, but I'm not sure they are for us, at least not right now. They super tasty but also really fatty and I'm not sure we really need a freezer full of such fatty meat. I think we'll just buy the really fatty stuff in small quantities from Cane Creek for special occasions. I'd like to have at least one of the Ossabow-crosses, though. They are a bit better balanced for a small farm, in my opinion. Ideally I'd like to start with 3 pigs and, since we are limited in space and want to make the most of each animal, I'd like each pig to be a different breed. That way we have the most diverse experience raising them and the most assortment in our freezer. So one will be an Ossabow cross but what about the other two? More investigating is needed!
Today we visited Cane Creek Farm which is where we want to get our pigs. We love this farm for several reasons. The first thing that attracted us to them was the incredible taste of their pork. I have to admit that I never used to care for pork. The stuff you get at the grocery store tends to be pretty bland and is only good if you cover it in tasty sauce or really flavorful spices or herbs. The pork itself is just a filler to take up space on your plate. But did you know that that's not what pork is supposed to taste like? Here is what happened. Back in the 80s when the pork industry launched its "The Other White Meat" campaign (p.s. pork isn't a white meat...) the trend was towards making pork very lean so that it was similar in fat/calorie content to poultry. So all the commercial pigs were bred to that end. And they lost all their flavor and ended up as just, well, the other white meat. Blah. Thankfully small farms kept heritage pigs alive and thriving. Heritage breeds (i.e. relatively rare breeds that haven't been bred for the commercial meat market) are a lot like wild pigs. They tend to grow more slowly and don't get quite as big. They also tend to be more resilient and are better at foraging for themselves. Provided that they have water and a big, healthy pasture with plenty growing in it they can pretty much fend for themselves. Not that you would want to drop them in a field and ignore them- they have too much personality for that.
The quality of the pigs themselves are the main reason we want to get our pigs from Cane Creek, but we also feel good supporting the farm because we love how its run. They raise pigs, cows, sheep and assorted poultry and all of their animals are so healthy and, well, happy. I try not to refer to animals as happy because I think its a human emotion that we incorrectly transfer to animals but if I have ever seen animals that deserve to be called happy its the Cane Creek animals. Did you know that pigs will roll over on their backs so you can scratch their bellies? Or follow you around the field hoping for a scratch behind the ear? Today I stood beside a monster of a boar with big nasty tusks and scratched his back while he calmly nibbled grass and made contented noises. Yeah, that was one happy pig. The new mama sheep watched me carefully while I petted her itty bitty son and the pregnant ewes (Blanche, you are my favorite) rubbed their swollen bellies up against my legs for a gentle scratch. The only animals on the farm that didn't seem happy for human attention were the geese, but then protecting the farm from intruders is their job so their efforts should be applauded.
Farm owner Elizabeth clearly has a passion for her animals and we feel really honored that she is willing to let us take some of her babies home to our own farm. I can tell that she is the type of person who would only sell an animal to what she knew would be a good home, regardless of the money.
Now we just need to decide which pigs we want. In May Cane Creek will be weaning a bunch of Ossabow and Ossabow-crosses. These young pigs are called "shoats" or "feeder pigs". I personally don't like the term feeder pigs because it reminds me of the feeder mice I used to buy my pet snake and I don't like the image of a cute little piglet being eaten by a snake! The Ossabow breed is pretty neat, but I'm not sure they are for us, at least not right now. They super tasty but also really fatty and I'm not sure we really need a freezer full of such fatty meat. I think we'll just buy the really fatty stuff in small quantities from Cane Creek for special occasions. I'd like to have at least one of the Ossabow-crosses, though. They are a bit better balanced for a small farm, in my opinion. Ideally I'd like to start with 3 pigs and, since we are limited in space and want to make the most of each animal, I'd like each pig to be a different breed. That way we have the most diverse experience raising them and the most assortment in our freezer. So one will be an Ossabow cross but what about the other two? More investigating is needed!
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Step 1: Buying the Farm
The dream suddenly started to feel real on March 26 when we signed the papers to buy our farm. We will be living on 5 acres in Nicholasville, just south of Lexington, KY. Chris is happy because it has a beautiful suburban looking front yard with a rich carpet of green (blue?) grass. And in the back is space for enough gardens to put veggies on the table year round, an old playhouse that will make a perfect chicken coop, a work shed that can easily be converted into a dye studio, a barn with enough space for animals and a wood workshop and about 3 acres of fenced in pasture land. The whole property is fenced in with the 4-board wood fencing that is so popular in Lexington.
The house itself is move in ready. The upstairs bedrooms will need to be repainted-- right now they are painted in the colors that kids picked out (pink, blue, red...) but Chris really enjoys painting walls so he is looking forward to doing the painting! I love the colors that the downstairs rooms are painted in- sage green and light yellow- so all it needs is to be filled with all our stuff.
We have a few chores that need to be done outside before the farm is ready for animals.
1- right now the fencing is ideal for horses but will need to be lined with wire mesh fencing before its ready for sheep. The gaps between the board planks are big enough that a sheep might be able to escape, or at least gets its head stuck.
2- we'll also need some electric fencing to divide the pasture in half. that way we can have the sheep in one part while we let grass grow on the other part, and then swap. Hopefully this way we can keep grass on the ground and not have to spend as much money on hay during the summer.
3- the playhouse will need to be converted to a chicken coop. We should just be able to put in some roosts and nesting boxes, patch up the screen in the windows and cut out a chicken sized door w/ a ramp
4- we need to decide where to put the pig pen and how exactly we want to set it up
5- one of the first things we want to do is put in the gardens. We have a bunch of seeds ready to be planted but first we'll need to till the earth and mix in some compost. Thankfully Kentucky has real dirt not the awful red clay we are used to in NC so hopefully digging in it will be a bit easier!
6- the dye studio/workshop is just about ready to go. I'll need to put in some work surfaces but I'll probably just use boards on top of saw horses (which is what I'm using now). Before winter we'll also need to insulate the workshop and eventually I'd like to run a water line under ground to the studio. Right now a garden hose will work but I'd like to have a water line in place before winter-- there is nothing more annoying than getting ready to work and then finding out that the water hose is frozen solid!
The house itself is move in ready. The upstairs bedrooms will need to be repainted-- right now they are painted in the colors that kids picked out (pink, blue, red...) but Chris really enjoys painting walls so he is looking forward to doing the painting! I love the colors that the downstairs rooms are painted in- sage green and light yellow- so all it needs is to be filled with all our stuff.
We have a few chores that need to be done outside before the farm is ready for animals.
1- right now the fencing is ideal for horses but will need to be lined with wire mesh fencing before its ready for sheep. The gaps between the board planks are big enough that a sheep might be able to escape, or at least gets its head stuck.
2- we'll also need some electric fencing to divide the pasture in half. that way we can have the sheep in one part while we let grass grow on the other part, and then swap. Hopefully this way we can keep grass on the ground and not have to spend as much money on hay during the summer.
3- the playhouse will need to be converted to a chicken coop. We should just be able to put in some roosts and nesting boxes, patch up the screen in the windows and cut out a chicken sized door w/ a ramp
4- we need to decide where to put the pig pen and how exactly we want to set it up
5- one of the first things we want to do is put in the gardens. We have a bunch of seeds ready to be planted but first we'll need to till the earth and mix in some compost. Thankfully Kentucky has real dirt not the awful red clay we are used to in NC so hopefully digging in it will be a bit easier!
6- the dye studio/workshop is just about ready to go. I'll need to put in some work surfaces but I'll probably just use boards on top of saw horses (which is what I'm using now). Before winter we'll also need to insulate the workshop and eventually I'd like to run a water line under ground to the studio. Right now a garden hose will work but I'd like to have a water line in place before winter-- there is nothing more annoying than getting ready to work and then finding out that the water hose is frozen solid!
Farm Dreams
I know I'm not the only one out there who has always dreamed of living on a farm. In today's fast paced, high technology world the farm dream seems to be the perfect antithesis to our worldly woes. The farm reality is a bit different than the farm dream, of course, but I think that the same qualities that attract me to the farm dream are still part of the farm reality, just mixed in with mud, animal poo and sweat that don't necessarily show themselves in the dream version. Anyway, I've had this farm dream for a long time. As I've lived in cheap apartments as a college student and the suburbs as a newly wed I've held onto that dream. I've grown what I could in window boxes and shady backyards, read books like Living with Pigs and filled our corner of the neighborhood with the clucks of backyard chickens. And all the while I've been saving up pennies and dimes and putting them away in my Farm account. In mid-March we found out that Chris has been assigned to University of Kentucky, Lexington, for his residency. Medicine is much like the military in that they assign you to a hospital for residency and you don't have an choice. You can get the equivalent of a dishonorable discharge and refuse, or you say "yes sir" and you move to Kentucky. So even though we had never even visited Kentucky it is, suddenly, our new home. Thankfully Kentucky is perhaps the best state for living out our farm dream. The more I learn about Kentucky the more it seems to be the ideal place for us. So one week ago we drove to Lexington, met with a realtor, visited 7 small farms for sale and at the end of a very long day we walked through the door of our new home. As soon as we walked into the open kitchen and living space Chris was sold, and as soon as we caught a glimpse of the backyard with 3 acres of fenced in pasture, a big barn and a workshop (i.e. dye studio) I knew I was home.
So now we begin our Kentucky adventure where we are turning our farm dream into reality. We are very lucky that its a dream that we can make happen. I know its not something that everyone can do, especially so early in our lives. Whenever we tell people about our plans the response is either "oh...thats nice" (from the city dwellers who can't imagine living in the country) or "wow I wish we could do that! I don't even know where I would start..." So for those of you who are curious about the process of turning dream into reality I'm going to try to keep my blog up to date as we go through the challenges and joys of this new adventure!
So now we begin our Kentucky adventure where we are turning our farm dream into reality. We are very lucky that its a dream that we can make happen. I know its not something that everyone can do, especially so early in our lives. Whenever we tell people about our plans the response is either "oh...thats nice" (from the city dwellers who can't imagine living in the country) or "wow I wish we could do that! I don't even know where I would start..." So for those of you who are curious about the process of turning dream into reality I'm going to try to keep my blog up to date as we go through the challenges and joys of this new adventure!
Friday, April 1, 2011
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