As chores were wrapping up, I was coming back up the driveway on the 4-wheeler, Tina was leaving the house to chuck compost to the pigs, and Jim was coming back from the barn and we all just happened to converge under the shade of a huge cotton tree! It's pretty rare that I'm with both of them at the same time, I'm either working with Jim, or grocery shopping or doing farmers markets with Tina. But here we were the three of us, in the shade, just talking and laughing, it was a fun start to my breakfast break. However, tomorrow we will have a lot of time together, the whole family! We are all going to the farmers market, which I think is going to be really fun! The downside is, that last time Jim was home to do the chores while Tina and I left around 5:45 to get to the market, but since Jim is coming, that means he and I get to get up at 4 to do all the morning chores before we pack the truck and trailer and still leave at 5:45! Woo hoo! :)
As I was going back to my barn one of the goats, the climber, some how got it's neck caught up in some old electric fencing and it was choking, It was a good thing I came when I did, but even still, the goat fought me, it must have thought I was going to hurt it or something because it was freaking out, and bleating bloody murder!! I had to eventually grab both it's horns, and straddle it like a horse, and then squeeze it together with my thy's to get it to hold still long enough for me to untangle it.
The rest of the day was just preparing for the farmers market, washing tubs, harvesting, bagging produce, weighting produce etc. It was interesting though when I got to over hear Jim and a guy who came by for a tour of the farm talking about local issues. I hadn't ever thought about it before because I grew up in the mid west, but apparently border patrol is a real pain down here, especially for Jim because every time he goes somewhere with his trailer and passes a check point, he has to stop and let them inspect it. The views he and the customer were exchanging were all pretty new concepts to me but fascinating to listen to, I won't get into it here because that's not really what this blog is about. The guy ended up buying a chicken, already butchered and frozen, but then I got to over hear Jim telling him about the butcher process and how when he crates the chickens up, right before they get killed, they start fighting with each other in the crates. Sometimes they hurt each other so bad that he has to either discount that chicken or keep it for himself because even once they have been butchered there are big scratch marks on the backs of the chickens. He said, "It's no wonder that chickens are sold they way they are in mass production." by that he meant in parts and pieces rather than whole chicken, because if his chickens tear each other up in the 30 minutes when they are confined together before they're killed, imagine what chickens that spend their whole lives in crates must look like. Or rather, don't imagine it, because it is not a pretty sight.
The work day ended a little early today, which is just as well because it is 5:30 right now as I'm typing this, and I have to be up in 10 and a half hours! But to make the process of morning chores a little easier on my self, I took the time at the end of chores today to fill up my feeding buckets so all I have to do is drive around and pour it out in the right dish. I want to make sure I don't have to do to much complicated thinking while I'm part zombie tomorrow morning.
In other news my Dad emailed me this video today, It is a five minute plea by Mike Rowe, the "Dirty Jobs" guy, in front of congress. His goal is to help American reclaim the pride it once had in skilled laborers, which farmers are most definitely a part of. I think the video is worth watching if you have time! Here's the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NwEFVUb-u0&feature=player_embedded
For dinner, I finally ran out of delish salmon rice and beans. So tonight I made up some pasta, cooked up some fresh, Walking J grassfed beef, and cuts some fresh garden veggies up into my sauce and had some beef mac and tom!
Another heavy storm is headed our way, the wind just blew over a wheel barrow outside my door!
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