What a week. Saturday’s cookout was not only the highlight of the week, it was likely the highlight of the year. It was good. I know that “good” is an elementary exclamation, but good is the best way I can describe it. This was living at its best…

It’s been a busy week. I like working with pigs. Except when it comes to hauling them to and from the woods. This week we did both. It was time to take growing piglets out to the woods and bring a group of full grown hogs back to the barn. Before Amy and the kids took off for a Knoxville meat delivery on Monday, we took down and relocated our pig pen setup used to corral and load up pigs from the woods. While they were gone…

School’s out for summer. The homeschool school year comes to an end. I don’t know who’s more excited, Amy or the kids. Now they have more time to help with chickens. As hectic as it was for Amy to teach Hallie and Hasten while also trying to juggle farm admin and house work, along with Wren and Carter running around on the loose, Amy’s reflection on the school year, “It was worth it.”

Not all are farmers, but everyone eats food. Everyday. We choose what we eat. Not all farming practice are the same. Not all chicken is just chicken. Not all apples are just apples. What we continuously choose to eat not only has direct implications on our health, the way our food is produced has direct implications on the health of our surroundings. The food we choose to eat impacts not just our own lives but all life, life as a whole. I need to eat better. Not just for my own sake, “for heaven’s sake.”

After almost seven months of wood burning, this week we let the fire go out of the outdoor wood stove. Although I’m not filling up the wood stove everyday anymore, still no break from firewood yet. Cutting, hauling, and splitting more wood for the fall. 

On Monday we processed over 200 chickens…

Things are picking up on the farm. Keeping the cows moving to fresh grass and moving pigs to a fresh paddock in the woods. Amy made lots of real farm bone broth and also spent a half day rendering pork fat into lard. She delivered meat…

And the chicken season begins. We have our first group of baby chicks in the brooder. Another 300 chicks on their way to the farm today. We’ll keep them in the brooder for about 3 weeks with heat lamps before putting them out on pasture in the chicken shelters. We’ll start harvesting these chickens on the farm in June which means no ORVF chicken to sell between now and then…

We went on a short hike in the mountain after church on Sunday. This is my favorite time of year to go hiking. Warmer temperatures but before all the trees are filled with leaves. After hiking, we rounded up a group of 20 mature steers and heifers into the barn to sort out 12 for Monday’s trip to the processor…

Saturday was Amy’s last free Saturday of the year as the Abingdon Farmers Market starts back this week every Saturday from 8:00-12:00. We took advantage of the beautiful day and went hiking with cousins. Parking at the top of the Walker Mountain overlook on Route 16, we hiked a few miles along the top of the mountain and came out at the farm. We took this hike a year ago (it’s not an actual hiking trail), but it was steeper and more laborious than Amy recalled it being…

It feels good to feel good again. Getting back on my feet after being under the weather has given me a rejuvenated outlook on the spring season at hand and an extra pep in my step that will be much needed as our busy season approaches. Being sick was no fun, but sometimes a day or two of being sick results in a greater appreciation for health. As always…

It’s farmer Amy here today. Will is down for the count. The flu or something has gone through the family and now it’s Will turn for the fever and chills. The NCAA wrestling tournament is on TV this weekend, so if I could pick a good time for Will to be glued to the couch, this would be it. If only he could actually enjoy watching it…

It was the 4-wheeler that left me stranded in the field this week. Brother John came to pull it back home. With the John Deere tractor still not running, all the horse power jobs are now left to the New Holland. Until the front end loader controller on it wore out, leaving both tractors out of commission…

A house full of friends. Some of Amy’s close college friends came to the farm for the weekend with their families. I think I looked forward to it and enjoyed their company as much as Amy did. Gun shooting, 4-wheeler riding, campfire talking…

Early in our marriage, Amy spent a lot of time farming with me. Since then our family has grown and the admin side of our farm business has too. Time spent farming with me especially this time of year has been largely replaced by raising kids, homeschooling, cleaning cabins, and handling the “office” side of getting meat to people. But yesterday…

Hints of green slowly coming up from the ground. Spring is knocking at the door. I have a long list of spring projects to tackle, but Amy reminded me that before I move on to spring projects, I need to get all the winter “honey-do” jobs done. A trip to town for lumber…

Amy’s parents came up to the farm last weekend. We upgraded to a bigger plucker that runs off a 220 instead of a 110 outlet, so Amy’s dad spent Saturday running conduit and pulling wires to get the new plucker ready to go. We got a bigger scalder a couple years back. Now we finally got the bigger plucker to match it…

I read a couple articles this week on the beef cattle situation in the U.S. “This is the smallest beef herd since 1951,” coming from a Market Intel report by economist Bernt Nelson. What does this mean? It means there’s not as much beef to go around as there has been in years past. The decreased supply and increase in demand moves the prices upward…

I created more water trouble this week. A steel T-post I was driving into the ground not only happened to find a waterline buried under the ground, but it busted the line in two. As I was finishing off the post with a couple final hits to make sure it was driven down far enough to stay secure, water started pouring up out of the ground like a spring. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself…

The weekend temperatures touched down below zero. It stopped snowing last Friday, but the white blanket hung around most of this week. The later part of the week temps climbed back up into the 50’s. Wednesday morning the ground was still mostly covered in snow. By Wednesday afternoon, the snow was mostly gone…

Snow and cold. More snow, more cold. I’m ready for spring. Stockpiled grass doesn’t do the cows much good covered in a 6 inch blanket of snow. A couple more inches of snow last night. Not supposed to get above freezing until Monday…