Garden Update!

Update: I found Mike's phone and his email address michael@greenakeys is now working.

Still has a dead computer- but he's working on that.

We have a new website page/format:

http://www.greenakeys.com

It's at least live with some relevant information on it-- but still needs TLC. I'm still trying to find the field where I can input the farm because the website template we chose says "YOUR FARM NAME HERE". That cracks me up right now. :)

Thanks to all for emailing about chickens and some of you for taking a few less than you had asked for. The good side of all this as that we'll actually feel good as we officially sold out of chickens for the first time ever.

This year we will definitely have 2 items for CSA members that we didn't have before. Raspberries above. Beautifully training on the wires as well.

And below.... strawberries...

The strawberries are just starting to come out. They are wonderful -- that's the good news. The ones in my hand needed another day to ripen but I had to pick and try them. The bad news is that they are surrounded by thistle. And I mean surrounded. More pictures another time. Though if I look on the bright side- nothing is eating the strawberries except us humans because all other animals don't want to go into the thistle--- so it's all working out!

Rocky the guard dog never made it to the training farm. He's now a working guard dog who protects the chickens and the rest of the farm. He's definitely a guard dog and he knows his job. The fox are not happy.... we heard them crying/screaming at 1:30am the other night. He-he--- guess they'll have to find a new place to have their den as we just cut off their food source.

Chicken Orders

We need a little help from anyone who placed a chicken order.

Mike has had a triple whammy the past week. His computer died (the one with his spreadsheet of names of chicken orders) and then we also moved Greenakeys.com to a new IP address so any greenakeys.com email was not getting to him either and he can't get to that mail as it was also on his computer. (he lost his phone as well for 3 days but then I found it)

If you placed an order for chickens please send him an email at mikeakey@yahoo.com.

If you've been following the blog you also know that our chicken count was drastically reduced due to some foxes. So we may ask that you take a few less chickens as we have more orders than chickens. We appreciate the support and we'll make it up to you in the next round. We now have Rocky the big bad guard dog and the fox are not getting near our chickens. We heard the foxes crying last night probably because they realized their hay day was gone.

So please send a message and come get your chickens this week!

They look fabulous-- they are different than a typical cornish cross. They are longer and the fat is more yellow which is a great sign. Don't waste one ounce of these chickens! Plan to use all the meat and make stock with the bones and all the leftovers.

Great Neighbors

You know you have great neighbors when:

They help you round up the last 2 baby calves and help you get them back into the new pasture area.

And then continue to help as a momma cow also gets out.

As the calves run around their nicely fresh cut lawn....

Ah.... now if we could only find Mike's cell phone that we think got dropped out in the pasture...

Chicken Orders

Well, unfortunately Rocky didnt arrive in time.  While I was out today bringing him to the farm where he is to be trained further in the duties of Guard Dog Life, we had another fox attack.  This time at least 20 birds were killed.  Electronetting isnt working.  The fox are digging under the perimeter fencing and then simply going right through the electronetting.  Its probably not hot enough.  So, we are down to about 50% of the birds we started with as chicks.  Super.  There were some really nice birds that were killed.  Good 6 to 7 pound birds.

So,  I will go through our pre-orders and I will contact you today or tomorrow if we have birds for you.  It will be on a first come basis, meaning the oldest orders will get filled first.  Im completely sorry to everyone that Im going to have to disappoint about their order.  This really hurts me because not only am I losing the birds Ive worked very hard to raise, less than a week before processing, but Im going to have to disappoint friends and customers that Ive worked hard to please.  The only good thing is that I didnt accept any deposits or partial payments for the birds.  So at least we dont have to worry about anyone complaining about that.  Phew.

I guess I feel better knowing that Rocky is here now.  I just wish I had him a few weeks ago.

Guardian Dog- Rocky the Gentle Giant

We've been contemplating a Livestock Guardian Dog for about 8 months now.
As fate would have it- we have a fellow farmer friend that knew a family who needed to find a home for their Great Pyrenees dog named Rocky.  He's 14 months old and about as big as a small pony.  I've now known him for 3 hrs and I already know he's going to be a great dog.  He's gentle and obedient and he's in the barn with about 9 hens tonight.  He didn't go after them so that's good.  He did look like he would jump up and attack the barn swallows though so it looks like he's got a good guarding instinct.
We need him to protect the chickens and the sheep and get the fox and groundhogs.

He's going to go to another farmer friend tomorrow who has volunteered to help train him a little more with lambs and chickens for a few weeks and then we'll bring him back and get him adjusted to our farm.  I almost don't want to send him to the other farm for training as I like him so much.

It's amazing how much this farm has changed me and helped me grow as a person- only a year ago I would have been totally scared of a dog this big but I now see through the size and see the actions and personality of the animal.  We were hanging out with Rocky and he was getting a little antsy- so I said to Mike-- he's got to do his business.  Sure enough..... he didn't know where to go.  Big dog looks like he's frantic-- but really he just needed to pee.

Good lesson for life- sometimes a person looks mean/nice/big/small/etc....  but you have to look beyond the outside layers.

Small Diversified Farm- that's what we are!

We've been doing quite a bit of tours lately - 3 tours last week!  It's pretty cool because folks are finding us.  Sometimes its through Localharvest.org and sometimes through this blog.

The hardest part for me to explain to people is that we are a small operation.  small....

Meaning we'll likely sell 3 steers a year, 25 lambs, 20 pigs, 400 chickens, 12 CSA shares and 600 dozen eggs.   Now if we are lucky- we'll break even this year and cover our expenses.  It will take another year or 2 before we build up and get above break-even.  This is why most farmers we know have a regular job outside the farm.  It is possible to make a little bit of money- it will just take a few years to get there and lots of hard work. 

From a distance up the hill, our farm looks just gorgeous.  

Here's to getting to break-even this year!  

Call us for a tour, we'd love to show you around and sell you some fantastic meat and eggs!

One Task at a Time

I get asked "How do you get all the farm stuff done?" all the time. The first answer is that Mike does 85% of the work. The second answer is that though I do most of the garden work and egg collecting/washing, I just break it all up into little tasks. Little tasks are easier to get done than big tasks and if the task seems too big- then break it up even smaller. (I happen to know that I've got 13 more rows of garlic to weed-- I did 2 rows tonight and will do 3 more tomorrow. Once I'm almost done with an area I'll get extra energy to finish it up.)

Tasks currently on the list:

-prepare for chicken processing (picture above of Freedom Rangers almost ready- totally sold out!!!)

-Weed the snap peas and train to go thru cattle panel

-Weed the small strawberry patch

-Weed 1/6 of big strawberry patch (6 entries... to much to do in one weeding)

-Build one more hive body for bees (there are lots and they need a little more room)

-the honey bees are a new addition this year and they've been pretty fun to watch so far- below is the hive box (you've probably seen them around and never knew what they were)

So if you ever think something is overwhelming- it's probably because it is! But just break the project down into 30 minute or even 10 minute sub-projects and in no time you'll be amazed at your progress!

One of our goals is to get to 100 customers. We currently have about 31 customers. So we are going to slowly work to add 10 customers at a time. I'm hoping that by end of the summer we are close to 100! I think we will based on the rate the last few weeks!