Duck…Duck…Duck…Drake!

Several months ago we bought 6 ducks from a local farmer. It was “luck of the draw” when it came to sexing the ducks, but we decided to take our chances. Ideally, we would liked to have had 5 ducks and 1 drake for our flock.

Only time would tell as to how our luck had fared. As we have watched our flock grow over these past months, it slowly started to appear that we had prevailed in our hopes for the flock. Almost. Now that the fledglings have grown, and their “adult” feathers have grown out, we find ourselves with 2 drakes and 4 ducks. We have 4 Khaki Campbell, and 2 Cayuga. Not bad at all.

Now, we look forward to some of those farm fresh eggs. During our time in Washington state, we had neighbors that raised ducks for their eggs, and we enjoyed them much more than chicken eggs. Our flock has decided not to stay in the pen and house that we built for them. I think that they were a bit older than we would have liked, so they never took to their designated pen. But actually, I think it better this way. Now I can call them “free range” ducks. They spend their days floating, and foraging around the pond, and sleep in the low brush and grasses around the tank. Now, we wait. I’ll post when we get our first batch of eggs.

Texas raw milk law to change

If you are a consumer of raw milk or raw milk products in Texas, you should be aware of pending law changes regarding the sale or purchasing or raw milk products.

The Texas Department of State Health Services is working on new rules Governing milk and dairy products in Texas. It is important that everyone who cares about having access to raw milk and farmstead cheeses speak up during this process!
Continue reading the article.

Stop NAIS!

In January, the USDA proposed a rule (Docket No. APHIS-2007-0096) to require farms and other properties where animals are raised to be registered in the federal NAIS database for existing federal disease control programs. The rule also sets the stage for future mandatory animal identification. If you haven’t already submitted comments on this proposed rule, please be sure to do so before March 16!

If you are a small scale livestock farmer, or raise flocks of birds,even for personal use, you need to research this NAIS. READ THE REST OF THIS IMPORTANT ARTICLE!

HR 875 – The Federal Take-Over of Food Regulation

The Federal Governments non stop push into every aspect of our lives continues with this Bill introduced in February 2009. Federal control over our food supply, would now classify small farms as “food production facilities” bringing them under rules and laws that apply to “Food establishments.”

While the proposed legislation tries to address the many problems of the industrial food system, the impact on small farms if the bill becomes law would be substantial and not for the better. HR 875 is a major threat to sustainable farming and the local food movement.

Continue reading the article.

ETA to TOFGA

I’ll be on the road for 2 hours and 39 minutes this AM as I make my way south east to Diboll, Texas for the East Texas Organic Workshop put on by TOFGA. I hope to learn much from this event that is focusing on small scale farming and gardening. I missed out on the TCOOPS in Killeen back in early February. I had registered for that event but ended up getting sick, so I had to cancel. This should be a fun day, hope I meet some more microfarmers.

The drought in Texas

As the Texas drought diminished soil moisture and dried out pastures and rangeland, wildfires reports have heated up, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas Forest Service.

Read the Article

Is organic good for the soil?

Here’s a great article I came across from July 2007 on the USDA website.
The article explains how scientist who previously thought that organic farming practices were not beneficial to soil, found that it actually improves soil composition.

Organic farming can build up soil organic matter better than conventional no-till farming can, according to a long-term study by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.

Thrift store book bargain

A recent trip to the local thrift store yielded a pretty exciting find for us. Amongst the disorder and chaos of the book shelves we uncovered this book. It’s a bit old and outdated, published in 1978, but it has a wealth of information about all types of tools. I mean moldboard plows have remained basically unchanged since the 1980’s. The book covers old, early, and hard to find tools and implements that were used or are still used on farms. From hand tools to tractors, seeding to harvesting it’s in there. We were happy to find it, and to spend only $1.00 was even better. So keep an eye out at your local thrift stores, you never know what you may find.

Breaking new ground

moldboard plow

I broke ground on the new garden plot today. I borrowed a two plowshare moldboard plow, or turning plow as some call it, and started plowing our new garden. We recently realized that we need more space as we have decided to grow more food. This gardening is addictive! Actually it’s going to be small scale farming now. We’re excited to get into this on a larger scale and look forward to seeing our farming prosper.

This is my first time using a plow, actually my first time cultivating anything larger than our original garden. I was a bit nervous, I researched much on the web, read old farm implement books, etc. and decided to go for it. Well, most of the things I read said it was going to be difficult keeping my rows strait, and I rolled my eyes as I read those words. Believe what you read when it comes to plowing, it’s unreal how much your hand turns the wheel as you turn around to inspect the depth of your plowshares! Hahaha So I have about 4 passes with the plow and it’s more of a long fair curve then a a strait line, but hey, It’ll be just fine!

Next step will be to finish the turning, then bring out the disk harrow to pummel and break up the large clods. I’ll be borrowing an almost ancient disk to do this, and hope it hooks to the tractor! If not, I’ll have to figure it out. Or, I’ll pull the spike-tooth harrow behind the tractor to break up the dirt. It’s been exciting getting this new plot started, I’ll try to get some pictures posted tomorrow of what’s been done.

New beginnings

We planted a few varieties of seeds about 10-12 days ago now, and we have recently began to see some seedlings pushing their way up through the rich soil. We planted seeds in seed trays at the same time and those as well have begun to emerge. Out in the garden there are onions, lettuce, and beets. In the seed trays are two types oftomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and eggplants. All looking quite cozy in their seed trays. Not too much longer and we’ll transplant them into larger trays. We’re off to a good start with the garden.