It's 5 am. As I sit here with Ethan in my arms, I know today is special. There is the fact that today is forecast to be 80+ degrees when the surrounding days won't even reach 60. Then, when I stepped outside briefly to see if the thermometer really was reading 50 degrees at 5 am, I heard Reinhold our rooster in mid-crow, announcing the morning to the farmstead. Even more dramatic was the fact that off in the distance, I heard the distinct gobbling of the male turkeys in our neighborhood announcing the same thing. The birds were awake and praising the morning promise, and all around, a sort of pregnancy of anticipation could be felt.

And then I came to it; the reason today stood out for me above all else:

In the midst of the darkness of dawn, the barn lights were on.

I feel my heart leap with excitement. Has it really been that long? Yes, nearly 13 years to the day since the early farm morning was illuminated by those soft squares of light, the old dairy barn is once again animated with life and promise. I can't believe I am affected like this! I had no idea I had missed that part of the farm so much!

Andrew is in that very barn, milking our very first cow, beginning the day with a “chore” that we have been dreaming about for two full years. Today, a big part of our dreams have come to fruition.

This farm is a dairy again.

We just rebedded the whole chicken coop with wood chips from a new arborist friend who had no where to go with all their chips. Free chips! Next up is to move them (the whole coop) out to one of our middle pastures to get them a head start on the grass and bugs. They are out before any of the ruminents because they won't overeat the new growth and don't threaten the tilth of the soil if it rains to hard.

Little did we know that chickens have a homing instinct just as strong as any wild bird. We moved the trailer yesterday about 100 feet from it's spot in the field behind our house. It had been there all winter and when we talked with a farmer friend about moving the flock, he cautioned us that moving too far too fast would result in confused hens. Andy wanted to move the trailer all the way to the high pasture, which is beyond their current roaming range, and fence them in for a few days to get them acclimated. However, having never done this before, we took the advice to do it slowly and in increments.

Last night, when dusk was still holding on, I noticed that about half the flock was running around frantically in the bare earth patch that used to house the trailer. Oh, no. They were heading home to where home used to be, even though that exact same home was in sight not more than 100 feet away. I put Elly down for bed and strapped Ethan into our front carrier and joined Andy in an attempt to lure them back to the trailer. We tried calling them, we tried food, we even tried chasing them. Nothing would dissuade them from their original home base. As night closed in, about 30 or so hens formed a huddle in the middle of the ground and began hiding under one another. I felt so bad for them. They were really scared and confused. I suggested that we take the roll of chicken fence and open it up about 20 feet and form a "U" shape around them. Then, when they were surrounded, we'd "walk" the fence towards the trailer and subsequently walk the hens back home.

That worked only as well as the hens would allow, which wasn't much. After about 20 feet of more or less dragging the mass of feathers and legs across the ground, we decided to let them spend the night in the old brooder house, which was another ten feet away. We got the fence up to the doorway and began pitching hen after hen inside. There is still a perch in there and even one row of nesting boxes. But for every three birds we threw in, one or two would come back out, in search of their old home. Of course, they only got as far as the fence would allow, so we again had a huddling mass on the open ground. While Andy attempted to wrap his arms around 35 hens at once (which was amazingly effective), I searched the perimeter for more lost hens. One by one, I snatched chicken legs and carried them back flapping upside down to the brooder house.

Ethan was not very excited about all this bending and swooping and such, so he was beginning to fuss a bit in the front carrier. Then I noticed that under the sides of the brooder house there were more hens huddled. How many of them had not returned to the trailer?! We later guessed about half the flock, which is roughly 100 hens. Andy crawled around for another ten minutes grabbing hidden hens until we just could not see anymore. We determined that whatever would be, would be for the night. The majority of the flock was safe.

This morning only about ten birds were free ranging, which means we did a pretty good job of triage capturing!

Andy moved the trailer back to it's original spot and we are going to lock them up tight tonight. Then tomorrow, we will move the whole trailer all the way to the high pasture, let the hens out, and FENCE THEM IN until they know where their NEW home is. Word to anyone trying to move a flock of hens: big or small, they return to home and if you can't help them find their way, you may be doing what we will be doing tomorrow:

Moving the chicken coop, take two!

I saw a bald eagle flying over our farm a few days ago, and it made me think ...

We’ve been here on the farm for almost a year and a half now and the transition has been interesting to say the least. Toss a toddler and a new baby in the mix and life turns into a train on its own track. If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that there have been many ups and downs, successes and failures. We’ve spent a lot of time getting things cleaned up and tried to develop an operation that is both profitable and efficient, it has not been and continues to not be an easy venture.

I look back at these short 18 or so months and am in awe of the trek. The grand plans that we started with were blooming with ideals but not rooted in experience. This has proven to be a boon to us. We were not wed to the convention of old but rather allowed to take the best of what was available and discard the rest. This put us at odds with many of the paradigms that must be in place for most traditional farm to succeed. To say that bigger is not necessarily better and that the “economy of scale” builds a house of cards caused many people to look at us as a hobby farm or just some city kids playin’ farm.

Deep down though, they know we’re right. They’ve seen their farms ravaged and plundered by the government. The ideals and goals that they had when they were kids sitting on their daddy’s lap drivin’ the tractor have been replaced by an unprofitable dairy, crops that the government pays for, and the sad realization that their friends have sold out and they are the only ones left.

Most of us will never know the ecology of farm life 30 years ago. The story was very common here in the Midwest but its tale is echoed all across America. Farms thrived. I mean REALLY thrived, not just getting bigger to stay in business. You farmed, your brother farmed down the road, your cousin farmed in the next town over. You split the farm with your brother when your parents hung up their spurs just as they did when their parents passed on. If you had a question or were in a tough time people rallied around you. When you had an out-building that needed to be raised, the men-folk put in the work and the women crafted high summer meals and drinks when the day was done. Large gatherings of friends and family were the norm, not the exception. All that is left of that era are fields of corn and abandoned homesteads. The only “farmers” left are the ones who adapted to the “agribusiness.” They are wildly popular and have thousands of acres that they purchase as each little family farm dries up. Get big or get out.

* * * * *

Life is cyclical isn’t it? I love humanity, we have a such an amazing capacity to weather the storms of history. In just a few short years we have seen a generation grow up that has said to its shackles, “I’m done with you. I’m done with your models, your schemes, your perceived wealth, I’ll do it MY way!” And you do. You find yourself newly liberated, it’s refreshing but the weight of being an outcast soon begins to be realized. Your friends don’t seem to call as much, the refrigerator begins to look sparse, and one by one the amenities that you had surrounded yourself with either are jettisoned or confiscated. Is this what it means to be free? I didn’t know it would be this tough? I didn’t know it would feel this alone.

It is at this moment that you have truly realized your freedom. Life is not about “going it alone,” life is about surrounding yourselves with people who share your ideals, people who are personally and intimately vested in your family’s life. People who can answer the questions you have, people who will be there when you need. Freedom is not the answer, freedom is just an ingredient. Community is the key. Without community you simply have islands. Community is learned through compassion, through empathy, and most importantly, through the giving of time. Community is not available for most Americans. They are too busy watching primetime television, spending 2 hours a day on a commute, and being just too worn out to give a damn.

Congratulations friend, you are on the path to being unlocked. You are asking the questions that are vital in the liberation of your spirit. Keep asking, persevere, have integrity, you will see your dreams.

As I sit here, sipping my coffee with my newborn son passed out on my chest, my wife and daughter still sleeping, and the animals already in the fields enjoying a dew-drenched breakfast, I wonder when it happened: the moment I got the life I never knew I always wanted ...

As new parents, my wife Becky and I were faced with many challenges and questions about the way in which we live. In turn we have come across many ideas and an alternative lifestyle that provides us with greater health and vitality. We are in no way finished on our path but we wanted to share some things that we have learned in hopes of generating interest for this way of life.

In the United States there are many paradigms in place that people encounter every day and don't even know they are there. We go to the store, we make dinner and we go about our lives. Then something else starts to happen and we don't understand why: our kids get sick and diagnosed with attention deficiency, our brothers and fathers are dying of heart disease in the prime of their lives and 1 out of every 8 women will get breast cancer.

I recently spoke with a woman in her mid-twenties, she was lamenting how her son has advanced attention disorder, her daughter has recently been diagnosed with allergies to pretty much everything and she herself has been tired and throwing up for years and doctors can't find out why. I suggested that it would be wise to dissect her diet and lifestyle. This was immediately met with vehement resistance. It's unfortunate, we Americans are killing ourselves but the relativist movement has convinced us that we can do whatever we want with no impunity and no one can tell us otherwise.

So who is to blame? There must be a reason? Like so many things, there must be thousands of contributing factors to these complex issues? Right?

Well, we are lucky, this problem is easy to solve. It's our diet.

The human body is an intricately designed machine. Like my haybine here at the farm, it requires maintenance. I need to make sure it's greased and oiled and free of debris, I have to do this every season and during as well. If not, the machine rusts, cracks and dies. Why have Americans come to this point when they think that we can put whatever we want in our bodies, an infinitely more elaborate system, and expect no repercussion?

The unfortunate thing is that there is much money to be made in this flawed system. Farmers pay almost all of their profits to have the newest genetically modified seed and have it sprayed with the newest savior of chemical medleys. They plant like mad because they don't even make money from the crop any more, they make it all from government subsidies. The end result is we have a glut of corn that we don't have anything to do with so we make things up. We feed it to cattle and glorify the benefits of "grain-fed" beef (which is all the beef you buy in the store, even "organic" if it doesn't say "grass-fed" on it) when a cow is not designed to eat grain. They are even breeding farm-raised salmon to be able to grow on corn because it is such a cheap commodity and there's no where else to go with it.

When a cow eats grain, it gets broken down quickly and the starch is quickly utilized. In small amounts this can be a beneficial addition to a diet. In large amounts it causes the animal to get sick as it is not getting the beneficial grasses it is designed to eat. So, it's immune system breaks down and it has to be given large doses of antibiotics to stay healthy. Couple that with the growth hormones cattle are given to expedite their growth process and their detestable living conditions and you have a breeding ground for sickness.

Unfortunately, that does not take care of our glut of corn that the subsidized farmers have produced. One of the biggest uses of our excess of corn is one of the largest contributing factors to our obesity and diabetic epidemic: high fructose corn syrup. The charges against high-fructose corn syrup are exhaustive. Predominant is the fact that fructose in your diet contributes to obesity and insulin-resistance which are two of the largest contributing factors to Type 2 Diabetes (if you'll remember, a few years ago, Type 2 Diabetes was known as "Adult Onset Diabetes" but because of the huge amount of children acquiring the disease, the name was changed).

Unfortunately, nothing seems to be able to escape the clutches of the industrial foods revolution. The vast majority of our fruits and vegetables are devoid of the amounts of vitamins and nutrients of their heirloom counterparts. Because of our "gotta have it now" society, Americans are not content to limit their diet based on season. If I want a salad in January, I don't care where it has to come from. The sad betrayal is that most commercially produced food has had the health bred out of it. If a salad green has to travel across the U.S. to get to your table, what do you think the producers are more interested in: providing you with a healthy, nutrient-dense food or a product that is able to travel thousands of miles, withstand drastic climate changes and be stable on a shelf for an extended period of time?

The final end result here is the same as our haybine. Rusty, cracked and dying. Because we lacked the preventative maintenance we must instead try to fix the symptoms, not the problem. That is why we are bombarded with pharmaceutical adds on television, why our health care system is out of control and why our mortality rates in the U.S. continue to climb. Diseases and disorders that were all but unheard of 60 years ago are commonplace, and we are concerned but not willing to change our lifestyle.

In Europe some of the healthiest people reside in the southern countries of the Mediterranean. Italians for instance live on a diet of fatty meats, fresh breads, pasta and wine. They also spend 20 cents of every dollar that they make on food, we spend 8 cents. We spend 8% of our income on food; and people wonder why were getting sick. You wouldn't search out the bargain basement contractor, would you? Or choose the cheapest car to drive your family? Why is it that food is the exception? We've been trained to think that cheaper is better, and for some things that may be true. But $0.79/lb. chicken should make you wonder why it is such a deal. You pay with your health.

Fortunately the solution is relatively simple. The veil has been lifted on the world that is around us, and we can see it for what it is: a manipulated and money-driven lie. We have the opportunity to write our own lives with the intentional choices we make. This is in no way an exhaustive list but these are things we have to consider. We cannot go forward voluntarily holding blinders up. We have a responsibility as stewards of this world be it's saviors, not it's cancer.

1. Buy locally! Attend farmers markets, go to farm stores, join a CSA. You go to the store all the time, just change where you shop. How much more fun is it for your child to be munching on fresh carrots or sucking down a stick of unpasteurized honey on someone's farm or downtown as opposed to sitting in a grocery cart being told to sit still.

2. Avoid High-Fructose Corn Syrup – That's right folks, do you really need all that soda? What about all that processed bread (my wife has a bread recipe that is NO KNEAD, and only take MINUTES a day and the end result is one of the most delicious home baked breads you'll ever have). High fructose corn syrup has been added to so many of our processed foods, it's staggering. If you are curious, start reading the ingredients label. Becky and I did this a couple months ago and began boycotting, so to speak, any product with it added. That cut down on our grocery bill immensely and caused us to get creative in the kitchen. That may not be for you, and that's ok. Just be aware of it and try to avoid it when you can. After all, high fructose corn syrup didn't even exist until 1984. That makes ME wonder!

3. Do a budget: Want to know what is killing you? Follow the money. If you track your finances for a mere 3 months, you'll be amazed to find out what you are supporting.

4. Plant a freakin' garden – this one's a no-brainer, it's easier than you think and the results are astounding. I'll never forget this last summer when I pulled our first carrot out of the ground and crunched into it – the flavor, the texture, the sweetness...it made me remember what carrots used to taste like! If Michelle Obama can tear up a plot of ground at the White House, chances you could grow some tomatoes and beans.

5. Start cooking ALL of your own meals. If you avoid pre-prepared meals, you have control over what you put in them and in turn, what you put in your family. Can't cook? Suck it up and learn; it's easy. If you ever need a recipe idea or want to learn how do something, just go online or stop at your library and grab some books.

That is just a fraction of all the things that you can do to improve your life and the lives of those around you. Let me paint one final picture for you ...

It's fall, the sky is grey, the wind is cool and the leaves are falling. Inside, the lights are low, the house is warm and quiet, and your family is drawn in a trancelike state as your pull your loaf of fresh wheat bread out of the oven. You sit down to a quick and easy bowl of chili with local ingredients that tastes like nothing you've ever had, and you sit and enjoy the company, the intentionality but most importantly the knowledge that you made a change for the better.

Here are some more resources to help you on your way to good health:

Mercola.com – Dr. Mercola is a nutritionist and a fanatic for the health benefits of slow foods.

The Weston A. Price Foundation – Weston A Price was a dentist who researched the diets of people all around the world. The result of his research is a wealth of information about eating the way human kind used to.

Micheal Pollan – Mr. Pollan is a writer and strong advocate for an intentional America. His book, The Omnivores Dilemma is a must read for anyone concerned with their food. He is witty and wise.

Local Harvest – Find local farmers producing great healthy food. You pay a reasonable price for a great product and the farmer gets to maintain their family farm and continue doing something they love, caring for you.

Never stop asking, never stop questioning, surround yourself with people who support you and your choices and care for you and your well-being and we can do it, we can change it, we can make it all better.

Be intentional, the journey is the reward.