The other day I stumbled across a wonderful website that’s devoted to helping folks raise chickens in urban and suburban residential environments. The website,  UrbanChickens.org (Albuquerque, NM) is the brainchild of  KT LaBadie and her husband Mark Scully … the couple founded the website in 2007 after KT gave a presentation on the benefits of chickens in urban environments in one of her graduate planning classes. “This presentation sparked a lot of interest from fellow classmates who were unaware of Albuquerque’s chicken friendly ordinances and zoning,” KT says. “This prompted Mark and me to start the Albuquerque Urban Chickens group as a way to educate the local public and teach urban chicken keeping classes.”

From this local start, the chicken-loving couple took their project worldwide with the goal of encouraging and helping folks around the globe to raise chickens in town. The website is a treasure trove of information covering everything from the fundamentals of chicken keeping to navigating murky municipal waters. Although KT and Mark are passionate urban farmers, their advice and wisdom, and that of the many forum contributors, is relevant to virtually any small-scale chicken operation anywhere.

KT and Mark live in Albuquerque with their four chickens Gloria, Switters, Omelet and Buffy. If you fancy fowl, check out the Urban Chickens website … and if you have any insight and experience to share, don’t be shy about doing just that.

Logo and photos courtesy KT LaBadie.

I am a huge fan of beanless chili and until now, my favorite has been a variation on Texas Red chili that I found in the Society for Range Management’s Trail Boss's Cowboy Cookbook. I am also particular about the quantity and quality of tomatoes in my chili. In my own recipes, I just leave them out. My mother made a bean-infested, stewed tomato glopped chili that pretty much turned me off the entire genre until I discovered Texas Red. My dad and sisters loved it though, so it couldn’t have been as bad as I thought it was.

Kate has many different chili recipes in her repertoire … most have a few beans and some finely diced tomatoes … I like them all. On New Year’s Eve, 2008, Kate surprised me with the best chili I have ever had … ever, anywhere. It is so good that I ate three bowls of it on New Year’s Eve, and I ate three more bowls of it last Saturday when she whipped it up again.

Kate calls her chili Kansas Red in honor of our present and likely permanent location. This chili is full of different, delicious flavors; it is on the hot side of mild, but not so hot as to make you sweat or cry. And since she tops her Kansas Red chili off with a dollop of sour cream, you can increase or decrease that to modulate the perceived heat. All I can say is that Kate’s Kansas Red chili is my all time favorite … I suspect it would also work well with venison, elk and quite possibly goat meat.

It took a little wrangling on my part to get Kate to share her Kansas Red chili recipe, but she relented. Here it is … I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Kate’s Kansas Red Chili

4-5 pounds beef top round or sirloin (easier if you can buy it thinly cut; if not you can put it in the freezer briefly in order to make it easier to dice)
1 large can diced tomatoes
2-3 serrano peppers, chopped, seeds removed
2-3 large jalapeno peppers, chopped, seeds removed
2 red chili peppers crumbled (or 2-3 T.  chili pepper flakes)
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped roughly
1/2 C. brewed coffee
2 T. green Tabasco
5-6 T. chili powder
1 large bunch fresh cilantro
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
salt and pepper
olive oil
sour cream

Dice the beef into very small pieces ( ½ “ square at most)

Brown the beef well (do not crowd pan) in a cast iron frying pan in several batches and move to the chili pot.  In other words, be sure to get lots of “brown bits” in the pan. Deglaze the pan with 1 C. water and pour in the chili pot.  To the chili pot, add the can of tomatoes and brewed coffee to the beef.

In the frying pan, wilt and lightly brown the onions in 2 T. olive oil.  Add all the chopped peppers and garlic and cook lightly. Add it all to the chili. Deglaze the frying pan once more with ½ C. water and add to the pot. Be sure there is enough liquid in the pot to cover the beef, if not add a bit of water. Add remaining spices, Tobasco and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover tightly, place in the oven at 250 degrees for 2-3 hours.  Bring to stovetop and skim off any oil or fat. 

Serve with a dollop of sour cream, some shavings of cheddar cheese and fresh chopped cilantro.

Invented December 31, 2008

Photo: iStock, Shawn Gearhart

Kate and I have raised our own poultry off and on for more years than I care to count. We have raised both meat birds (broiler chickens, geese and turkeys) and layers. In every case, raising our own poultry helped us save money, while providing endless hours of entertainment and providing higher quality meat and eggs than we could have ever even hoped to buy at the time. Now that we are once again living on the land, raising our own chickens has become a priority.

When it comes to raising chickens, I am a little more conservative than Kate is. She will often go overboard (in my mind anyway) when chick ordering time comes around. I always ask what we will do with all those chickens; she always answers we will enjoy every minute of them. And she is right.

All you need to raise chickens is a little space, a little know how (mostly know to leave them well enough alone) and some desire. If you order day old chicks through the mail, you will need to make a brooder for them. The brooder can be as simple as a heat lamp suspended over a cardboard box (it’s best to staple cardboard across the box’s corners to “round” them … this keeps the chicks from piling up in the corners and suffocating those on the bottom of the heap. You should definitely take a look at our books and articles on raising chicken if you have never done it, but suffice it to say this isn’t rocket science.

As you might imagine, raising your own chickens requires a commitment to care for and nurture the animals. For best success, you need to protect them from predators … including pets and children, and you need to provide food, water and access to shelter throughout their lifetime. During the growing season, much of that food can come in the form of grass, clover, alfalfa, bugs, worms, various garden trimmings and excess fruit and vegetables. The shelter can be a chicken house, barn, shed, old grain bin, you name it.

Some might argue that it isn’t possible to grow your own broiler chickens for less per pound than the limp, bleached out stuff they sell at the grocery store for below a dollar a pound. That might be true. But you can grow chickens yourself for less than the plump nicely colored organic free range chicken that sells for dollars a pound … likewise with homegrown eggs. But, I find that comparison to be lacking, and somewhat anti-intellectual. With chickens, saving money isn’t just about the obvious products they provide.

The fact is, you can raise your own chickens and eggs for less per pound than premium eggs and chicken cuts sell for at the grocery store. If you grow their feed, production costs go down even further. Chickens will also help you save money by keeping insect pests at bay in the garden and yard. Chickens will also help you save money by weeding and tilling your garden. Chickens will also help save you money because they are so entertaining. Once you discover the joys of sitting and watching the chickens peck, you will spend less money on trips to town for a movie … or movie rental. You will spend less money on exercise because your chickens will require daily care … morning and night. And since you and your family will be eating the best, most local food there is, chickens will save you money with physical and mental healthcare to boot.

Kate and I consider raising chickens to be part of our “golf game.” As such, those birds make a huge contribution to our savings account. And that’s a good thing, especially in 2009.

I received a very compelling letter and information kit from Purdue University Professor William E. Field yesterday. Professor Field is the project leader on the Breaking New Ground program … a forward thinking effort to keep physically disabled farmers farming and ranchers ranching. Professor Field writes that Breaking New Ground’s resource center has recently been selected as the site of the National AgrAbility project, which provides services to 22 state and regional ventures designed to work with physically disabled farmers and ranchers to assist them in returning to independence in agricultural production.

According to the Breaking New Ground website, since its inception in 1979, the Breaking New Ground Resource Center in Purdue's Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering has become internationally recognized as the primary source for information and resources on rehabilitation technology for disabled persons working in agriculture. Two of the center’s most successful products are The Toolbox and The Toolbox CD … print and electronic versions of a publication that helps disabled farmers and ranchers sort out the various tools and tool modifications that can be used to keep them in the saddle or on tractor seat.

Like Purdue University’s Breaking New Ground Resource Center, the USDA’s AgrAbility project was created to assist people with disabilities employed in agriculture. According to the USDA, this project links the Cooperative Extension Service at a land-grant university with a private nonprofit disability service organization to provide practical education and assistance that promotes independence in agricultural production and rural living. The AgrAbility Project assists people involved in production agriculture who work both on small and large operations.

It seems fitting that the two programs have merged, at least partially. I look forward to learning more about the accomplishments of Breaking New Ground and AgrAbility and will report what I learn here.

Graphics courtesy Pudrue University's Breaking New Ground Project and the USDA's AgrAbility Project.

Read part 2 here.

Since we had the heavy equipment on the farm to renovate our largest pond's dam, we decided to have the contractor stake out a new pond on some of our highest elevation land. It turned out the area just above the draw that feeds the large pond was shaped perfectly for an arc-shaped dam and the soil was of sufficient quantity and texture to make dozing it into place relatively easy.

After staking the ends of the dam the grading commenced. Since that part of our ground is terraced, the dam was positioned to receive the runoff from three terraces. Thus, the pond will be fed by about 20 acres of watershed, which will be more than enough to keep the water at a depth of about 9 feet. Rather than using an overflow pipe, we decided to control the pond level with grass spillways that open onto a very mildly sloped patch of prairie … just as the terraces did before.

Day one was spent stripping grass and topsoil, cutting a core trench in the clay subsoil and building up the dam … creating a bowl in the earth at the same time. Since I wanted a gravity-flow stock watering pipe, the contractor left the center portion of the dam sufficiently low to facilitate installing the pipe on the second day of pushing dirt.

We haven’t shot photos of the finished pond yet, so I can’t promise that installment tomorrow. Stay tuned though, I will report on the finishing touches soon.

Read Part two of this pond renovation series here. 

 Day three of this pond renovation project began with the installation of the new plastic overflow pipe. This 8-inch diameter pipe is smooth and will flow more water than the old and larger diameter corrugated pipe system. Installing the pipe was as easy as dozing out a groove in the top of the dam at the correct elevation and angle, setting the pipe, and carefully packing it into place. A water-stopping collar was also installed around the pipe on the pond side of the dam.

It didn’t take too long after installing the pipe to get the new spillway grading completed and to spread topsoil over the dam’s surface. The topsoil will give the grass seed (soon to be planted) a fighting chance to produce a soil-holding stand of turf. I don’t know when I will get to it, but I will report on the grass planting when it happens.

Now all we have to do is wait patiently for the renovated pond’s level to increase. It is moving up by inches per day at the moment, but it would come up rapidly with a single spring rainstorm.

I will report on constructing a new pond from scratch next week. Ironically, the new pond’s cost will be lower than the pond renovation, but it won’t be as tricky to accomplish.

Read part one of this pond renovation series here.

Read part three of this pond renovation series here. 

With the heavy machinery in place, it only took a few hours to pluck the 30-year-old hackberry, Osage orange and mulberry trees from the dam during the pond renovation. Jay, our excavator used his 3-in-1 bucket equipped track loader to grab the trees, wrench them from the ground and move them up the hill so I can saw fence posts and firewood from them. Meanwhile Jay’s partner, Ben, used the D-6 Caterpillar dozer to begin reshaping the dam and spillway, and to make a cut to help remove the corrugated drain pipe.

The first full day of pond renovation concluded with the vertical portion of the drain pipe still in place but all of the stumps and voids in the back side of the dam face removed, and the dam’s top re-contoured. Since removing the vertical portion of the drain was the riskiest part of this project, Jay and Ben felt it would be better to knock off early and start on it fresh the following day.

On the second working day of renovating our pond, Jay used the track loader to remove all the water-saturated soil behind and below the rusted out drain. Jay then pulled the drain from the dam, while Ben pushed dry clay into the void. They both admitted that the process made them nervous, but they were careful and quick, and it worked … very little water was lost from our pond. The rest of the day was spent repacking dry clay into the void left by the rusted out corrugated drain pipe.

All that’s left with this pond renovation now is to install the new overflow pipe and find enough clay to build up the dam’s height a few feet, reshape the overflow spillway to avoid soil erosion, and coat the entire earthworks with topsoil so that the grass seed I plant has a chance to take hold. Stay tuned, I will report on that tomorrow.

See the latest photos here.

I discovered some images of the Boomer 8N on the web at New Holland’s media site. No embargo date on them. Here you go.

The press releases and fact sheet haven’t changed from the information that was available before.

Enjoy.

Read part 2 of this pond renovation story here. 

Read part 3 of this pond renovation story here. 

We have several old human-made ponds on our Osage County farm. All hold water for part of the year, a couple of the ponds hold water year round; all leak considerably. Since water is a valuable resource in our part of Kansas, where the rural water supply is maxed out and a potable well needs to go down about 300 feet, we decided to invest in renovating at least two of our ponds. The first is our largest. It was formed by damming the deepest, steepest draw on the property around 40 years ago.

Since that pond has been surrounded by grassland for its entire life, it isn’t silted in too badly so our pond renovation won’t include dredging. This pond (Kate calls it draw pond) has maintained a level about 3 feet below the top of its drain pipe for the past couple of years. We determined that at least part of the problem relates to the corrugated drain pipe’s rotting away below ground … inside the dam. The other issue relates to the 30-year-old trees growing on the dam’s downstream face. Roots penetrate the dam and provide channels for seepage.

Since renovating this pond required moving a lot of dirt and trees, we hired a professional for the job. Pond renovation such as this requires heavy equipment in the form of bulldozers and track loaders … machines that weigh in the vicinity of 55,000 to 60,000 pounds each. They don’t come cheap, but they get the work done incredibly quickly, so the overall expense isn’t bad. And since it takes some effort to get the machines to your place, it doesn’t hurt to have several pond renovation projects on tap.   

If you have ponds that need renovating, be sure to shop around for a knowledgeable excavator. We learned that the reason our other ponds leak is because they weren’t built correctly. I will write more on that after we get this pond renovation completed.

Kate and I have started garden seed in all manner of haphazard fashion over the years. It used to be in cut-off milk cartons on windowsills. We eventually moved to those same containers on a cobbled up light table in the basement … covered with a sheet of plastic. Eventually, it was in our very own greenhouse, but we sold that along with the farm a couple of moves ago. This year, we decided to buy a proper light cart to start our seeds and nurture the seedlings.

Since we had a window nook in one of our bathrooms, we decided to search for a light cart that would fit the space. Growers Supply has many different styles and sizes of carts, and since they are among the very best out there, we went searching for the best price on their G48 model, which takes up about 9 square feet of floor space in a 3-foot by 3-foot package. The G48 Light Cart has four shelves … each hold a pair of flat-sized trays.  After a bit of searching, we found Robert Crespo’s website … named buyPlantLights.com.

Placing the order online was a breeze and communication with the company was adequate. Growers Supply doesn’t sell to consumers directly, but they do drop ship products such as the G48 Light Cart to consumers on behalf of businesses like buyLightPlants.com.

The Growers Supply Light Cart arrived about a week after we ordered it. Setting up the G48 Light Cart was a joy … I can’t think of the last time I put together such a beautifully engineered product.

The first step in the process was to install the caster anchors and casters in the bottoms of the G48 Light Stand’s legs. This was a matter of pressing pieces together. Next, I used Kate’s Craftsman cordless drill to screw cross members to the legs … it took about 10 minutes to get to (and complete) this step. Next, we installed the light-support rods and the lights … about another 10 minutes of effort. All that was left was to set the trays in place and install the optional plastic cover … we included the cover with our G48 order to keep the humidity and heat in.

The G48 Light Cart’s lights are independently operable, so you can turn off any that are not needed. We placed Kate’s basil plant and herb seedlings in the Growers Supply G48 Light Cart, and I can tell you that several days later they look much happier than they did on windowsill in the kitchen.

So far, the G48 Light Cart has motivated us to choose more seed for the garden than ever before. It is really fun to have a beautiful, clean, convenient, and easy to use and move seed starting station in the house. This is one of the best gifts we have given each other ever.

When I got home from work on Friday, I saw the FedEx truck’s tracks in the snow. I was expecting a seed starting frame, but not copies of my new book: Garden Tractors. My Editor at Voyageur Press originally told that the book wouldn’t be available until February 15. It appears that Garden Tractors has made it to the warehouse … it should be on the GRIT bookshelf soon.

Garden Tractors is a historical look at the evolution of the American 4-wheeled garden tractor and the many companies that produced them. If you are interested in old garden tractors, this book will help you understand how the many different models from many different makers came to be. If you currently drive a Simplicity garden (sub compact) tractor, this book will show you the importance of that particular brand to the industry. Manufacturing company history buffs will get a glimpse of where many of the most important garden tractor companies came from and where they are today.

Garden Tractors is illustrated with my own photography, that of a couple of others and with vintage marketing images. The book has a hardcover and full-color production throughout its 126 pages.

Garden Tractors was a labor of love for me. I have a penchant for vintage Cub Cadet garden tractors, but the entire genre continues to fascinate me. To give you a glimpse of what I Cub Cadet nut I am, I wrote a book about the brand in 2005 or 2006 and have collected about 22 vintage machines. I currently mow our lawn with a 1984 Cub Cadet 882 diesel and have models dating from 1984 to 1961. Most of these machines run and several were refurbished some years ago when I had more energy than I knew what to do with.

If you order your copy of Garden Tractors from the GRIT website, I will do everything in my power to be sure you get a signed copy, if that’s what you want.

Brewmasters have known about the preservative qualities of hops flowers for centuries and beer drinkers have learned to love the sometimes less than subtle bitter flavors. Now, scientists report that the antimicrobial bitter acids contained in hop flowers might prevent pathogenic bacteria from taking hold in your chickens’ stomachs.

According to a recent ARS report, adding the bitter acid lupulone to the chickens’ drinking water appears to be a viable alternative to lo-level antibiotic doping of their feed. In one study, lupulone therapy was specifically associated with controlling Clostridium populations in the chickens’ intestinal tracts.

Why is this important? I turns out that chicken guts is one of the primary sources for meat contamination by pathogenic organisms … especially when mechanized evisceration methods are employed. Even if you raise chickens for eggs, or carefully dress your own, I suspect that you can keep your flock a bit healthier by adding some fresh or dried hops to their diet. Why not plant a vine or two this year and give it a try?

Check out the USDA’s ARS website for more information on the antimicrobial characteristics of hops.

Photo courtesy ARS.

Part 1 of this excellent adventure can be found here.

After a good night’s sleep, with a few interruptions devoted to thoughts about how to best attach the corrugated plastic to the FarmTek, Flip-Top, ClearSpan cold frame, I was ready to hit it on Sunday morning.

The FarmTek cold frame kit included a generous roll of corrugated plastic material that was 8 feet wide and plenty long enough to cover the frame. Slightly more than 8 feet of material was needed to span the hoops and provide attachment to the front and back pipe frames. Since the cold frame is 12 feet long, we needed to cut one 8-foot plus length of material to cover 8 feet of the frame and we needed to cut another 8-foot plus length and then trim it to 4 feet wide. With a fresh mind, and help from Kate and daughter Becca, that process went smoothly.

Now the real fun began. The FarmTek cold frame kit included some heavy-duty vinyl H-channel strips that are used to trim the ends of the corrugated plastic, and through which TekScrews are driven to attach the cold frame cover to the pipe frame. With a 12 foot cold frame, a third piece of H-channel is used to splice the 8 foot and 4 foot pieces of corrugated plastic together … to make the full 12 feet of cover length.

We had no problem sliding the cold frame’s roofing material into the H-channels, but it was pretty much impossible for us move that entire piece to the pipe frame, and get it attached without having the 4 foot piece and 8 foot piece at least partially separate. We tried a few different tacks, and then it hit me. Why not run some screws through the H-channel to attach it to the two corrugated plastic pieces. I wish I had thought of that earlier, it would have saved us about an hour of trial and error. Splicing is only required on FarmTek Flip-Top cold frames longer than 8 feet.

With the two pieces of cold frame cover firmly connected, the three of us easily positioned the material on the hoop frame. Kate and Becca held it in place while I attached the corrugated plastic to the hoop frame with TekScrews and washers. This process took about 40 minutes, and I would gladly assemble another 12-foot FarmTek cold frame now that I know how to get the cover splice to survive installation. For a brief moment, I was kicking myself for going with the 12-footer instead of the 8-footer.

The final steps included attaching 2 metal brackets to the rear of the base frame to lock the frame’s “hinge” in place and installing the two support legs on the front of the pipe frame. The finishing touch came in the form of attaching two woven straps to the ends of the pipe frame and the base frame … to keep the cover from tipping all the way back.

Kate and I really like the FarmTek Flip-Top cold frame and are considering the addition of another smaller frame for the herb garden.

Now all we need is for this unseemly arctic blast to head back north so we can begin experimenting with our new FarmTek cold frame. Stay tuned.

Read part 2 here.

After enjoying a delicious winter salad fresh from a friend’s garden around a week ago, Kate and I decided to bite the bullet and install our first cold frame here in Kansas. I nosed around the barn some, but discovered that we didn’t have the bits and pieces to make a nice looking, easy to use and easy to move cold frame. As luck would have it, the FarmTek catalog was on top of one of the piles on my desk … seeing it motivated me to search for cold frames on the FarmTek website.

After a bit of research, and discussion, Kate and I settled on one of FarmTek’s Flip-Top ClearSpan cold frames because it comes with everything included in a kit … even the baseboards. The FarmTek Flip-Top consists of a semi-rigid mini-hoop house attached to a frame that's built of 50 year lifespan lumber. I like this lumber because it is made with recycled plastic. We chose the 4 foot by 12 foot model and placed the order.

FarmTek’s online ordering process is easy and the communication is excellent. Because of its size and weight, the cold frame kit has to be shipped by freight truck. The freight company and FarmTek communicated with us about that process, and it all went smoothly. I met the semi-trailer tractor driver at our farm last Friday at 4:45 PM and we had him on his way back to Salina, Kansas by 5. Even if you don’t have a forklift (we don’t either darnit), don’t be afraid to order something that needs to travel by freight truck. If the item is a single piece that weighs more than about 200 pounds, unloading by hand will be difficult, but more often than not, your shipment consists of several pieces, each of which can be easily unloaded by hand. This was the case with the cold frame, we broke the pallet down on the back of the truck … no single piece weighed more than 50 pounds.

I went to work on the FarmTek cold frame first thing on Saturday morning. Actually, the first thing I did was thoroughly till the spot where we intended to place the cold frame. The kit included all fasteners and other small parts in labeled bags … their labels matched those in the instruction booklet perfectly. Some screws required specialized driving bits … those were also included in the kit. The only tools I needed for the project were my Kawasaki cordless drill and conventional circular saw, a hammer, heavy shear (for cutting plastic) and Vise-Grip pliers. I needed the pliers to extract a screw after I stripped its head.  

The first steps to assembling the FarmTek cold frame included cutting and attaching the plastic lumber base-frame pieces together using stainless screws and special brackets designed just for that purpose. Next, I put the 2-piece arched-pipe rafters together using a self-drilling TekScrew to secure them. The end rafters where then assembled to the hoop structure’s pipe end-frame using PVC brackets and TekScrews. This probably took me an hour and a half total, including all the time I spent with the assembly manual and measuring twice so I could cut once.

After admiring my handiwork for a minute over a cup of coffee, I cut the end panels from the large roll of corrugated plastic material included in the FarmTek cold frame kit. I cut these pieces a little oversized, attached them to the end frames with TekScrews and special washers. Once fastened, I trimmed the plastic with my sheet metal shears. The next step was to install the remaining rafters. These fit into sliding PVC brackets that I had installed on the front and rear pipe frames before I attached them to the end frames. These steps took another hour or so to accomplish.

Kate and I built a 24 foot by 72 foot double-layer plastic covered greenhouse on our farm in South Dakota quite a few years ago. That experience taught me that installing the greenhouse film required patience and a fresh mind. So I called it quits on the cold frame for the day after determining that getting the corrugated plastic spliced and installed would be somewhat arduous. I saved that task and the other finishing touches on the FarmTek cold frame for the next morning.

I will run you through the covering and finishing process in tomorrow’s installment. Stay tuned.

Around the New Year, we received word that the runt of a Cairn terrier litter was available from the kennel that produced our adult Cairn terrier Woodrow a few years ago. Kate thought that Woodrow needed a friend to climb rock walls with … and hey, we already had two West Highland White terriers and two Border collies. I am a sucker for dogs … and we are suckers for runts, so I figured a full six pack would be great. The only problem was that this little Cairn puppy was in Pennsylvania.

As luck would have it, our daughter Becca was hankering for a visit to the farm. So she flew from New Hampshire to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, picked up the Cairn puppy and continued on to Kansas. I guess the people who encountered Becca and the puppy wondered what kind of animal it was. And the exercise wasn’t expensive at all … thanks to Expedia.com.

When I first met Henry (that’s his name now), I was stunned that a Cairn puppy of that age could be so small. His short little legs make him look like an animated South Park character when he walks … or runs. He is a precocious little guy and fits into the pack quite nicely. His lack of size makes him a bit vulnerable to getting stepped on … he likes to hang out in my sweatshirt pocket while I’m doing chores. So, now we have two Toto dogs, but their connection to Oz isn’t why we have them. Like all of our dogs, it’s their stamina of will, their naked joy and their physical expertise that make their companionship such a gift.

I can’t say whether Henry will be it in the dog department for us. And I see no reason to make such a pronouncement. But I can report that the addition of Henry the Cairn terrier fills out our six pack quite perfectly.

Last Saturday night, the moon rose larger than usual over our Osage County farm. This so-called perigee moon is named for the point in its elliptical orbit where it is closest to the earth (the opposite end is the apogee). Since the moon is closer to the earth, it appears larger, and brighter than usual.

 We watched the moon rise through our pine grove as the sun was going down. It didn’t occur to me to run for the camera until the perigee moon was much higher in the sky. The light from that moon was sufficient to see the animals out on the pasture, but not sufficient for me to read the dials on my camera to shorten the exposure sufficiently to capture the crater shadows.

The perigee occurs monthly, but for the moon to be full at the same time makes it a special event. This special moon looks most spectacular as earth’s eccentric companion pulls from the horizon, but January 10th's perigee moon, the largest-looking full moon for 2009 was breathtaking all night.

Click here for more photos of the perigee full moon.

The Kansas Forest Service brochure for tree and shrub seedlings arrived in the mail yesterday.  The form notes that the special pricing on these trees is available to anyone willing to plant them for conservation purposes … not for landscaping or nursery purposes. That seems fair to me, especially since I believe in hedgerows and shelterbelts. Last year I planted some 200 Forest Service tree and shrub seedlings  … this year I am tempted to put in another shelterbelt … using this program, I can plant 100 trees for less than $70.

 

Shelterbelts became popular in the Great Plains and Midwest as a result of several land rushes. My great grandfather, Oscar H. Will, and his son George, capitalized on the need to shelter fields and pastures from the wind, and to populate tree claims with timber by supplying millions of Cottonwood, Ash, Boxelder and other seedlings to homesteaders, farmers, the railroad and various municipalities. Those early shelterbelts were created with seedlings that sprouted freely along the banks, and on the sandbars, of the Missouri River north of Bismarck, North Dakota (Dakota Territory initially). Oscar, and later, George put together crews of young men to pull dormant seedlings, bundle them and float them down the Missouri River to Bismarck in flatboats. Some collecting crews ranged as far as the upper reaches of the Missouri, deep into Montana.

 

Shelterbelts save money by reducing convective heat loss from buildings and providing shade. They also filter dust from the breeze, which substantially lowers summertime home maintenance expenses. Shelterbelts reduce livestock feed costs in all seasons because they protect animals from exposure to extreme weather, and they protect tender crops and gardens from the ravages of hot dry winds.

 

When Kate and I built our first farm in South Dakota, we planted more than 2000 feet of 5-row shelterbelt to protect the building and garden sites from cold north and west winds. More than 90 percent of the seedlings survived the first season. The Soil Conservation Service (as it was called in the early1990s) required that we cultivate the ground bare between the tree rows for at least three years after planting. That we did, and today those Ash, Locust, Blue Spruce, Russian Olive, Manchurian Apricot, Nanking Cherry and Lilacs have achieved a height and density that gives the homestead’s current owners plenty of privacy and wind protection. The fact that the tree planting created a few acres of wildlife habitat is an added bonus.

 

Unless you already live in the woods, you can save some money on your heating, cooling and snowplowing bill by planting a shelterbelt. Ideally, the shelterbelt should consist of a minimum of 5 rows of trees and shrubs situated around 150 feet from any buildings in the protected area. Check the USDA’s website for more information on designing a functional shelterbelt. And as Kate would say: “No time like today to get those trees in the ground.” Well, perhaps not today, but today is a good day to plan for your shelterbelt and to order the trees.
 

It might be that I grew up in a seed-producing family, or that I had the privilege of biting into North Dakota grown tomatoes right from the field … still warm from the sun. It might also be that the miracle of drawing food from the earth, using little more than a tiny seed and a bit of effort, captivated me from the very beginning. Perhaps I am genetically predisposed to raise a crop because my ancestors, and theirs, in turn, did just that. In any case, I discovered at a very young age that vegetable gardening is good for the soul.

Many eloquent essays have been written on the healing powers the act of gardening possesses; urban planners in New York City learned that community gardens were not worthless areas of idyllic pastoral tranquility, but the glue that bonded people of different experience, ethnicity and social stratum into an amalgam of healthy urban culture. They learned the lesson the hard way with the DOME garden project on west 84th street. Community gardening, minimizes differences and heals hurts. Community gardening is good for the soul.

During the First World War, the National War Garden Commission was formed in the United States; its mission was to promote gardening, ostensibly as an act of patriotism. The American workforce was engaged in producing materiel; farmers were headed off to active duty by the thousands. Armies needed to be fed, but every bit as important, those left behind needed to be fed … and they needed to know they were doing their part. The War Garden program brought the most likely and unlikely of people together. They collectively took up the cause and planted gardens in unlikely and likely places. The 1918 effort produced more than $500-million in homegrown food.  No doubt War Gardening did much to keep the country marching on, but it also brought people together and helped heal their suffering souls.

During the Great Depression, gardening again became a matter of life for many folks. Unemployed and unappreciated souls found physical and psychological solace in stirring the soil and nurturing their own nourishment from the earth. Early psychologists reported that humans thrived when there was a firm connection between culture and nature … they prescribed gardening as therapy for malaise. Vegetable gardening was good for depression-era souls.

The Second World War helped bring about an end to the Great Depression; the Victory Garden served as a rallying cry for those left at home. Like the War Gardens before them, Victory Gardens produced a phenomenal amount of food. Victory Gardening was good for the soul, and the country, in spite of the fact that it lacked economies of scale.

Today’s economic climate offers an excellent excuse to get gardening once again; it’s already beginning to happen in a somewhat organized fashion. The new program … a grass-roots program at that … is called Freedom Gardening. Freedom Gardens bring the concept of Victory Gardens into the 21st century and take it one paradigm further by suggesting that we grow our own food no matter what the economic climate is. GRIT blogger Paul Gardner turned me on to this movement. I hope he will post a blog about how the concept developed and got off the ground.

In the meantime, grab all the seed catalogs you can. Get all the good information available. And at the very least plant a single-crop garden this year. Take it from me, and millions of others around the globe. Gardening is good for the soul.

 The numbers are in for 2008 and they look good for the seed industry. They look even better for folks who want to grow vegetables from seed and save money in 2009.

By some estimates, garden seed, especially vegetable seed sales, were up by anywhere from 40 percent to well over 100 percent compared with recent years. In fact, some industry watchdog organizations suggest that seed companies in North America and much of Europe experienced their best year ever in 2008. We’re talking record seed sales … AND they project another record for 2009.

So, what is the fuss all about?

Easy, people are looking for a safer food supply, while adapting to a tighter economic outlook. If you have never grown a vegetable garden, or started your own garden plants, there’s still plenty of time to save money in 2009 by growing your vegetables from seed. If you are like me, you will be amazed, and thrilled, by all the different varieties of vegetable species from which to choose. If you are looking for that little early-maturing tomato called Bison from your youth, you can find seed and save money by growing your own in 2009.

 

Even the American government recognized the value that a garden-growing public could offer to a war-embroiled and slow economy. They no doubt also recognized the community building value in making it easy for folks to grow with one another in the garden patch. At those times, it was much more important to feed the folks at home and share the excess with others than to worry about E. coli-infested spinach … oh, that’s right, we hadn’t pushed our agricultural production models so far, back then, that E. coli and other fairly benign microbes had yet to figure out how to be pathogenic.

Our government called those programs War Gardens during World War I and Victory Gardens during World War II. I don’t know what to call the new wave of gardening frenzy, but I do know that it is exciting, and will, no doubt, play a role in healing our culture.

When you consider that a package of tomato seed might set you back a couple of bucks, and that you might get 50 viable seeds in that pack, it doesn’t take much math to figure out that you can grow hundreds of pounds of tomato fruit from that $2 pack of seeds. Even if you factor in the value of a little labor (it can be hand labor, mind you), a small piece of ground, a source of supplemental water and a few miscellaneous supplies, those tomatoes will be cheaper than cheap. But more importantly, the growing, nurturing, eating and processing will pay that elusive dividend of extreme satisfaction; no amount of store-bought or farm-stand-bought tomatoes CAN EVER bring that. Farm-stand tomatoes, when grown locally, do have added value in the dividend department, because at least you are supporting the local economy at its root level.

 

Add the pleasure you will receive from spending time AT HOME and WITH FRIENDS and LOVED ONES working in, marveling at, and generally enjoying your garden, and those tomatoes pay even more. And if you happen to have an extra-giant bounty, think of the joy those tomatoes will bring as you share them with others in need … or sell to pay for that tank of propane when winter arrives.

The way I see it, if the pleasure from that $2 pack of tomato seed replaced the pleasure of just one latte at the local coffee shop and the fuel needed to drive there and back, you are at least $10 ahead. That’s right, folks, vegetable gardens can pay big time if you only let them.

If you are skeptical of my analysis, check out Paul Gardener’s personal blog and follow his annual fresh food tally. He and his family produce a significant dollar-value of crops in minimal growing space. And they don’t factor the weight of family fun, joy, etc., into the formula to inflate those numbers.

Look for all kinds of gardening resources on this website and at Mother Earth News for everything you need to know about how to prepare for and plant a vegetable garden from seed that will save you money in 2009.

After having a couple of donkeys around for a few months, I have to admit that they are great companions. In fact, they are almost as fun to be around as the dogs … and it is because donkeys like people. 

 

I was cool with the whole donkey addition because we planned to bring sheep to the farm in 2008, and I wasn’t too keen on the idea of leaving them to fend off the coyotes on their own. Well, we got the donkeys, but not the sheep. Actually, we have a ram, but he still lives at my friend Bryan’s farm. I just didn’t get our fence upgrade completed in time … in fact it still isn’t completed. Oh, did I mention that it was Bryan that convinced me that donkeys would be fun? He was right.

Our male (jack) donkey, Jack is said to be at least 7 years old (the previous owners weren’t for sure). Our female, Valentine, is not quite a year. After keeping them separated for months, we finally turned them both in with the cattle and after a bit of chasing around, they have become fast companions. In fact they pretty much ignore the cattle and have formed their own little mini-herd.

Now, whenever we walk the pastures, Jack and Valentine come running. They heel better than any of our dogs and are tall enough that we don’t have to bend over to chuck them under the chin. Of course, the donkeys are really more interested in the all-natural, hormone-free range cubes or  in my coat pocket than they are in being  my companion, but I will take their affection, and gladly rub them here and there, either way.

Some folks won’t have an intact jack donkey around their place, but so far, Jack hasn’t been any hassle at all. We used to keep anywhere from 15 to 25 Angus bulls around (breeding stock was part of our business), so handling large rambunctious boys is nothing new. And Jack is far from rambunctious.

In time, we will rely on Jack and Valentine to keep the flock safe. In the meantime, they are great companions, and that is just fine with us.
 

Early last week, while walking with the dogs through our various patches of woods, Kate noticed a large number of tree saplings and seedlings in the under story. She also noticed a number of small Eastern Red Cedar trees and a few isolated Osage orange saplings growing out in the meadows. Her question to me on New Year’s Day was whether we oughtn’t just save on our landscaping budget this year by transplanting the free trees that were provided all over the farm by Mother Nature.

I was all for Kate’s idea, I mean who doesn’t want to save money in 2009.

Years ago, in South Dakota, when we were just starting out we had very little in the way of discretionary funds. We also had a bare piece of ground to build our homestead on … it was a lovely piece, with a creek running through it, but it was treeless, except for the massive Cottonwoods that populated the low end of the pasture and one lone Green Ash that grew up through the old windmill tower, its roots reaching clear down to the water level in the old dug well.

Closer inspection of that piece of ground revealed a Cottonwood tree seedling nursery at the confluence of one of our waterways and the creek. With a strong need to get some large trees going quickly and to stabilize the creek bank to the west of the house, Kate and I spent many early spring days over the course of a few years digging cottonwood seedlings and saplings from our natural nursery (some about 10 feet tall) and transplanting them about a half mile away by the house. Those free trees are more than 50 feet tall today … they help protect the house from wind and they stabilized the creek bank.

Last Saturday, Kate and I identified a few small oak and Osage orange saplings to transplant. These free trees all had substantial taproots (which got shortened considerably) so the digging wasn’t as easy as if they were year old seedlings. Transplanting the free trees was really easy once they were dug, however. And since they are perfectly dormant, and will remain so for the next few months, they should have plenty of time to establish sufficient root mass to support themselves (with some nurturing) in 2009.

The trick to transplanting free trees is to dig them while they are dormant. A little extra effort with the digging to get as much root as possible will pay a large dividend. Keep the roots moist until you get the trees planted in their new location. Water the trees as you backfill the planting hole and be prepared to give them plenty of water as they come back to life in the spring.

Transplanting free trees isn’t the only way to save money in 2009. We plan to make and root cuttings of the lone Cottonwood on our place … and our corkscrew Willow too. We also plan to collect a few bucketfuls of Osage orange fruit and plant the seeds.

I will report on these Save Money in 2009 topics and plenty of others right here. Stay tuned.

One day last week, Kate and I braved a bit of sleet to pay a visit to Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply in Emporia, Kansas. Bluestem Farm and Ranch Supply is our favorite place to get the things we really need. That day, we needed some steel hog troughs for the Mulefoot pigs, electric fencing supplies (insulators and the like), a manure fork, and some gate latches. We also just needed to take an excursion with one another.

The drive to Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply takes us through some of the loveliest east central Kansas landscape, and Emporia is a fun town to spend a bit of time in.

Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply was founded by Lee and Marjorie Nelson in 1961.  The store was moved to its current location on Highway 50 in 1968. The move increased Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply’s floor space by roughly 15 times; that space is now well stocked with just about everything you need. I say if you can’t find it at Bluestem Farm & Ranch Supply, you don’t need it.

While we were there, Kate and I visited with some folks about the merits of different types of gate latches and discovered some beautifully crafted cedar bluebird houses for the nearly impossible price of $9.95. We grabbed all they had on hand.

I know that many farm and ranch stores like Bluestem are still alive and well around the country. Why not tell us the name and location of your favorite farm store or feed and seed. If I get enough responses, we’ll compile a list of them and post it here.

Happy New Year!

Hard as it is for me to believe, the first day of 2009 is well underway. The winter solstice passed by, more than a week ago. This morning, I noticed that the sun peeked over the horizon just a hair north of where it rose the last time I watched it from my farm-henge vantage point. The season of life is coming, I just know it is. Longer days make me optimistic.

I was born in North Dakota, where winter was long and hard. We knew how to have fun in that dark season ... we spent half an hour bundling up to brave the sub-zero temperatures and double-digit wind speeds. Skating, sledding and fort-building were all on our wintertime agenda. More often than not, in spite of our physical exertion, we turned to little blocks of ice within 15 minutes of exposure. We were warm by the time the un-bundling was completed ... and more often than not, started the process all over again. As much fun as wintertime brought, longer days made me optimistic.

As a kid, I didn't understand the cause of  seasonal day length differences, but I was well aware of the expanded dark period in winter. I was also aware of where I saw the sun peek over the horizon, although it wasn't until 4th grade science class that I was able to put it all together ... with a little help from a very patient teacher. Ever since that revelation, no matter where we lived, I found myself a sacred place in the landscape where I could hide out, reflect on nature and mark the sun's progress from south to north and back south again. My sighting stone was often a grain bin or silo; trees also came in handy. When I went to college in Chicago, I found water towers atop buildings to help. Here in Kansas, our pine grove makes a pretty nice solar tracking device.

With the turning of the sun, and the subsequent longer days to look forward to, optimism fills my soul. I know that our country is facing some very exciting and difficult times in this new year.  I know that folks will want to hunker down, pull back, and wrap themselves in the shroud of survival. Money will be tighter than usual, but don't let that get you down. Our ancestors didn't have half the material goods to feel compelled to consume that we have. They got their satisfaction from hard work and took joy in the small things. They grew gardens out of necessity. They raised chickens and milked a family cow ... out of necessity. They cut wood or dug coal to fire their stoves. They played games, worked on puzzles sketched, painted and wrote. The work of living was hard, but it was oh-so satisfying.

I predict that 2009 will be a glorious year. Yes, the economy will be less than we would like it to be, but in my opinion, that is a small part of the equation. Gardens will once again flourish as nourishment for body and soul. Small chicken flocks will appear in the most unlikely of places. People will stay put long enough to marvel at the subtleties of nature ... and to interact with one another as our highly social species was meant to interact. I predict that there will be a surge in community action, and that people will reach out to help others in ways that haven't often been seen in the last decade or more. The ME generations have what it takes to become the US generations, I just know it is true. I am convinced that the work will be hard in 2009, but it is that special reward that will motivate us in ways our culture hasn't been motivated for some time.

Here's to a new year of opportunity. I am optimistic, and excited to see how it all plays out.