Monday Dec. 14, 2009 - Today was warmer but still cool, overcast and gray all day. The big activity for today is to move the square where the chicken and duck coups are located. That means we have to leave the birds in their coups while we take down the portable electric fence, set up the fence posts in the new locations then disconnect all the automatic watering devices to all the coups and move the coups and all the watering hoses. Then we reconnect everything and run the wire around the new fence and then let the birds out. Like a lot of things on the farm it's a simple enough task but it takes the two of us about two hours to complete. I should take some pictures of the old squares so you can see how the chicken fertilizer helps the pasture. There are 8' x 12' rectangles of green, green grass in the pasture of brown winter grass, and in the summer when the grass is growing so much faster it will be about a foot tall, so it's definitely worth it. The next task for the day is to pick mandarin. There is some kind of wild critter visiting the mandarin trees, probably at night and eating too much of the fruit, so Renee has decided to pick the crop clean. Today we will pick two of the four trees complete of their fruit for preserves, the other two trees will wait until later in the week and that fruit will be sold at the market. After picking the two trees clean we spend the rest of the day in the commercial kitchen peeling and cooking the fruit, this is the priority for the day and so today's eggs and those from the weekend have to wait. In the late morning we notice the walk-in fridge is acting up again and make the call to the AC repairman. Renee tells them she wants to process chicken this Thursday and she really needs the thing to be reliable. This time it's a different technician, the company is actually two brothers that took over from the father and this one is the namesake of the company. He dives into it and takes the freezer door off the hinge so he can get in and out easily while he is isolating the refrigerant leak. It takes him a couple of hours and he even takes the time to clean the door hinge so it works better, noticing also that the nylon bushing in the bottom hinge is mushroomed and probably needs to be replaced to get the door to close with less effort. Hopefully this is the permanent fix for the thing.
Tuesday Dec. 15, 2009 - This morning is warmer and it's raining. All day long we get a on and off drizzling, just enough to keep things wet and slippery. During the morning feeding we move all the coups forward by one length to new grass, the coups will remain there for a day or two and then we'll move them again. For the rest of the day Renee has to go to Panama City to get canning and labeling supplies and a new propane bottle from Home Depot. There's a boat load of eggs in the walk-in fridge so the mp3 player is a must. Before starting I get it all loaded up with the usual news and interviews to get me through the day. From around 10:00 to 5:00 I'm in the kitchen looking out the window at the chickens, an incredible seven hours at the sink in the commercial kitchen cleaning three buckets of duck and four buckets of chicken eggs, taking a break every two hours or so for lunch or a cup of tea. I can feel it in my back but the aches are getting smaller and you'll be happy to know that the pounds are dropping off. Two weeks ago I went to the storage unit and dug out some old pants that were down a size and now they're already starting to feel loose. That's the real good news.
Wednesday Dec. 16, - 2009 In the morning the weather is slightly overcast and cold, but the sun comes out mid morning and it turns into a really nice day. Today we have to get ready for processing 61 broiler hens tomorrow. Step one is to move the broilers from the pasture up to the side yard next to the commercial kitchen. In preparation I clean the tarp we use beneath the coup and Renee uses the riding lawnmower to move a small coup into position. Then she spreads the tarp out inside the coup and I pick up the corners so she can get it into final position. This is one of the really small coups, no laying house or stooping rail, it's really light weight, in fact in a high wind it could be a kite. The chickens aren't fed after 6:00 pm the night before and the tarp is to prevent them from scratching the grass and feeding on insects, this insures an empty gizzard. With the coup ready the task now is to move the hens around ten at a time using the modified plastic storage container. It's just a plastic box with a snap on lid, but the lid has two large square holes cut out of it. We place the hens into the box and then put a perforated cloth over the top so they can't see out and get all worked into a panic, then put the lid on top and snap it into place. Place the box in the trailer behind the riding lawnmower and transport the hens from the pasture to the side yard and make sure they have adequate water for the next 24 hours. Next is to get out all the processing equipment from the barn and set it up on the sidewalk next to the commercial kitchen. If you want more details about this you can read a older post from day 5 describing the various workstations for this process. All the equipment is out from the barn and set up, we have a partial bottle of propane and the new full one, the only thing left is to move the stainless steel tables from the kitchen to the sidewalk and then setup the 10' x 10' tent over them. We use two tables this time because we will have a total of five people working which is one more than the first time. Next is to clean some organic lemons and oranges that Renee bought by the pound for her preserves but is going to sell at a markup. Each piece of fruit has to be cleaned with a small plastic brush the size of a large toothbrush, like the size for a cow or horse. The bristles of the brush get into the pores of the fruit and clean out all the dust and dirt which makes for a very cosmetically appealing piece of fruit, then they are hand dried and placed in plastic containers for display. Item last for the day is the evening feeding and then clean the chicken eggs to keep ahead of things.
Thursday Dec. 17, 2009 - Cold morning and gray all day with the threat of rain but no rain. Today will be a record setting day, we will process 61 chickens with the help of five people. Paula and Renee will take the hens from the coup and slay them in the cones, then dip them in the hot water pot one at a time until four of them are ready to be placed in the de-feathering machine. Then Paula will cut off the heads and feet and place them under running water in the outdoor sink on the deck near the kitchen. The three eviscerators, Tony, Mary and Ann will then take the birds one at a time and remove the hearts, livers and gizzards and then put the remaining guts in a single bucket so they can be spread over the compost pile later. The third person doing eviscerating makes a big difference, it really speeds things along and we finish up the last bird around 1:30, then break for lunch. It's only appropriate that we should have chicken for lunch today, with black beans over white rice and more boiled vegetables. Before lunch Mary tells us she is getting the last of her processing equipment from the shipper this week and will be ready to process her first group of birds on Sunday and asks if we can help her out. Both Renee and I agree to meet her at her farm in Tallahassee on Sunday morning at 9:00. After lunch the cleanup effort starts, everything has to be cleaned with warm soapy water and then sanitized with chlorine solution, then put away in the garage or barn. This takes the rest of the day and I'm happy to say that it's easy to put away the processing equipment in the new streamlined barn, CONTROL is slowly overtaking KAOS. After the evening feeding I clean the days chicken eggs because tomorrow will be spent getting ready for the farmers market on Saturday and we need to stay ahead of the game as much as we can. Dinner is leftovers from lunch.
Friday Dec. 18, 2009 - Today the weather is still cold but with a drizzling rain added just to make things exciting in a boring kind of way. I take care of the morning feeding while Renee gets more preserves ready. The next task for me is to pick about half the remaining mandarin crop and clean them for the market. Now we have to start getting the van ready but there are two garbage cans of compost from the Hilton. Renee picked these up on Tuesday when she was in Panama City to get supplies and they have been in the van since then, getting very ripe if you know what I mean. So I get the riding lawnmower w/ trailer, a pitchfork and a shovel, then load the compost into the trailer and head out to the compost pile in a light drizzling rain. Yuck, this weather is terrible, I mean it really sucks and it's cold to boot! Spreading the compost doesn't take hardly any time at all but then cleaning the garbage cans thoroughly well in the rain is a really choice activity but it has to be done because the restaurant wants their cans back and we want more composting material ... oh how the world turns. I feel like the postman, delivery come rain or shine but in my case it's "must be cleaned". The clean cans are loaded into the van first, up near the front behind the drivers seat so the tent/awning can go in next and then two portable tables behind the passenger seat towards the rear. Directly behind the passenger seat, through the side doors will be all the preserves and fresh fruit. From the rear doors all the igloo coolers go in one at a time on top of the two tables. When it's finished the van is just about filled to capacity and it's packed nice and tight so nothing really moves around in transit. With that done I'm just about ready to leave for Tallahassee and then I remember I have to pack my things since I'm going to be off for Christmas for the next two weeks. Back in my room I start to look around at all the stuff I have brought out to the farm, two bags of clothes, a full book bag that I haven't had time to even think about and my laptop with all it's accessories. Ok I think, about a half hour to pack and then I remember Renee asked me to clean my bathroom because she will have company over the holiday. So there's another 45 minutes. Finally around 7:00 I'm on the road.
Sunday Dec. 20, 2009 - This morning is very cold, when I get to my truck the dew from last night has frozen on the windshield ... burrr ... this brings back memories of cold Indiana winters when I was in high school. But those memories include snow on the ground and I'm glad I don't have to deal with any of that! Mary of OrchardPond Organics (here's the link http://www.orchardpondorganics.com )is processing her first batch of chickens and I agreed to come out at 9:00 to help out. Her farm is on the outskirts of Tallahassee and it takes about fifteen minutes to get there. On arrival I see that Renee is already there, her and Mary are setting up a large hot water heating tub to dunk the chickens prior to being de-feathered. This tub is about 30 inches square and about 24 inches tall which is a lot larger than the 5 gallon pot we used at Renee's, plus it has a monitoring system built in to keep the water temperature at 150 degrees and it comes with an accessory that allows us to dunk four hens at a time which just happens to be the number the de-feathering machine will hold, and guess what, they are made by the same company. Hmmm, note to self, this looks like a good combination. Other than that one piece of equipment the setup is the same. Also, Mary has a large three compartment sink in the middle of the yard that she uses to clean veggies and there are two stainless steel tables set up, one off of each side, for the evicserating and then behind the sink are five pails with ice water and a table for labeling the birds once they have been bagged and weighed. A nice orderly setup, things should go pretty smooth. After another half hour the water temperature is ready and more volunteers have shown up to help. There's Mary and Renee, myself, Mina and Lydia who work for Mary, Jenny, an intern from Minnesota and Dick who is a friend. This is quite a work force except for one thing, no one else except Mary, Renee and myself have any experience, so first there has to be some quick training. The first batch of four birds come out of the defeathering drum and Renee does a demo on each of them. She explains what she is going to do and then starts the process and before finishing hands the bird off to one of the volunteers who then ask questions while they finish it up. After the second batch of four the wheels are rolling. In a few short hours we are finished with all the birds. After a short break for coffee and bread we start the cleanup phase and I jump straight to one of the nastiest jobs because I know I'm going to end up there in the end anyway so why not just start there and skip all the little stuff. The slaying station, or throat cutting station is the messiest if the messy. It consists of the eight stainless steel cones, their stand and the plastic three segment bucket below that catches all the blood. One of the other volunteers had cleaned all the cones while we were having coffee but then had to leave for another engagement, so only the stand and the bucket are left. I think the girls won't want to deal with this so I just go for it. I round up some warm soapy water from Jenny the intern and use an abrasive backed sponge to get it all spic-n-span clean, it takes about 30 minutes for both items. Then Mina shows up in an electric golf cart and we load up the equipment and take it all to the storage area. At this point all the big stuff is put away and I see that only Mary and Mina are left and they are putting hoses away and other odd chores. I offer to stay if they have other heavy work and Mary says that's ok and thanks me for helping out, then offers me my choice of the birds in the fridge. I comment something about one of my sacred tenets in life being to never turn down free food and that something in the four pound area would work just great for me. While I'm selecting my future dinner we have a short conversation about how to keep in touch through her website so if I'm able to I can help her out the next time she's ready to process. Ten minutes later my boots are in the back of my truck, tomorrow's dinner is on the passenger seat and I'm on the way home.
I'm taking a Christmas break from interning but I'll be back after the New Year. Soon after Jan. 1 Renee is going to order new broiler chicks so this will bring the entire chicken experience full circle, I don't want to miss that!
Merry Christmas everyone!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 12, 2009
Thursday Dec. 10, 2009 - This morning is cold and gray but the heavy weather has cleared out, around mid morning the clouds break up and the rest of the day is nice, cool and sunny. The first new task after breakfast is to spread another layer of compost material. Since last weeks processing we have been storing the chicken remains and the veggie clippings from the kitchen have been accumulating, plus we have the peelings from all the mandarin and about two gallons of chicken guano. All need to be added to the compost pile. I pile everything into the trailer of the riding lawnmower, grab two pitch forks and a shovel (just one shovel Richard) and we head out to the compost piles. Since we don't have that much material to add we will just work with the larger of the piles. When we arrive I notice that the pile has shrunk, the decomposition has resulted in the pile shrinking a good 6 inches ... where does it all go I think to myself? We remove the plastic cover and uncover what looks like just a pile of wet leaves which I think is normal since we have been getting so much rain lately. A closer look reveals some mold in one area and a hole with a small burrow next to it. Some small creature has been visiting the pile for some reason, perhaps to eat or to keep warm down within the pile, but they are long gone at this point. We spread out all the various material over the pile, again we don't have that much and it doesn't take long, then replace the cover and move on.
I fill out the remainder of the morning by cleaning eggs, then the noon feeding and we are ready for lunch. All morning Renee has been thawing out large amounts of frozen fruit to make preserves, peach, blueberries, fig, pear and of course we have the mandarin. For the rest of the afternoon she will be busy working inside while I clean out all the buckets and pails that had been holding the chicken remains and other compost material. All the containers need to be cleaned thoroughly with warm soapy water and then sanitized with a 2% chlorine solution, yuck I think, more cleaning, but at least the sun is out to keep me somewhat warm. After a couple of hours everything is cleaned and put away. Now it's 3:00 and time for the afternoon feeding. We had been feeding in the evening at 5:00 but this is right at sunset and the birds stop eating when the sun goes down, so we have moved up the afternoon feeding from 5:00 to 3:00 in an attempt to give them more daylight to eat. Hopefully this will result in heavier broilers and more eggs from the layers. I also collect the chicken eggs for the day and clean them when I get back to the kitchen, we want to get ahead of the game as much as possible because Friday is usually rushed to get everything done and get the van set up for the market on Saturday. Around 5:30 Renee notices that the commercial fridge in the garage isn't keeping temperature so I go outside and stand near the compressor to see what is happening. Sure enough the compressor comes on for about ten seconds and then goes off for about 20 seconds and keeps repeating this cycle continuously. She calls the AC repair company and they are tied up on some emergency for the night and agree to come by in the morning to take a look. Renee moves all the chicken from that fridge to other freezers in the house. I'm thinking this is a big deal but she doesn't seem very worried. I ask her why she even uses the big one since we only have about half of it full at any given time and a couple of good energy star domestic fridges would result in a huge savings in electricity. She agrees but says the problem is a domestic fridge won't hold a temperature down to 34 degrees, that they are only good for around 40 degrees and the difference is very important when keeping the chickens fresh without actually freezing them. I'm scratching my head thinking I should look into this but she assures me she has considered it in depth and if it was possible she would have done it already. Dinner is vegetable soup and a frittata with left over veggies from the other night and duck eggs.
Friday Dec. 11, 2009 - Overnight I peek out the window and see there's not a cloud in the sky, stars everywhere, but when I wake up in the morning the clouds have returned and again it's overall gray and very cold. Like, is this Florida? I feel somewhat closer to the arctic circle than I need to be but I can see all the green trees, so apparently the arctic circle has come to Florida. After breakfast we do the morning feeding and then move each of the coups to their new positions on fresh pasture which will be good until Monday when we move the square. The rest of the day is easy and indoors. Renee has canned an incredible amount of preserves and is behind on the labels, plus she has a special feature for the holidays. She has a simple folded gift tag with the Twin Oaks Farm logo and inside it shows Santa pulling a little sleigh. A cute little extra that she hopes her clients will love. My job is to cut out the printed tags with a cutting knife, fold and then punch a hole in the upper left corner so she can tie each one to a jar of preserves. So that's how I fill my morning and afternoon on top of the feedings. Around 10:00 the AC repairman shows up and takes a quick look at the cooler. It turns out this is a recurring problem in the refrigerant lines connecting the compressor to the evaporator, there's a small pinhole size leak or crack or something .. somewhere .. and ultimately the copper lines will have to be replaced, but that will take down the refrigerator for a day or so which requires the stars to align in a certain way which is yet to happen. The work around is to recharge the system with refrigerant and get it back in service for a couple more weeks or months and work on getting those stars to align. Ten minutes later the fridge is back in service. After lunch I just have to load the van with all the stuff needed for the farmers market so in the morning all Renee has to do is load up the coolers and head out. Short day. After everything is set I'm loaded up and on my way to Tallahassee.
I fill out the remainder of the morning by cleaning eggs, then the noon feeding and we are ready for lunch. All morning Renee has been thawing out large amounts of frozen fruit to make preserves, peach, blueberries, fig, pear and of course we have the mandarin. For the rest of the afternoon she will be busy working inside while I clean out all the buckets and pails that had been holding the chicken remains and other compost material. All the containers need to be cleaned thoroughly with warm soapy water and then sanitized with a 2% chlorine solution, yuck I think, more cleaning, but at least the sun is out to keep me somewhat warm. After a couple of hours everything is cleaned and put away. Now it's 3:00 and time for the afternoon feeding. We had been feeding in the evening at 5:00 but this is right at sunset and the birds stop eating when the sun goes down, so we have moved up the afternoon feeding from 5:00 to 3:00 in an attempt to give them more daylight to eat. Hopefully this will result in heavier broilers and more eggs from the layers. I also collect the chicken eggs for the day and clean them when I get back to the kitchen, we want to get ahead of the game as much as possible because Friday is usually rushed to get everything done and get the van set up for the market on Saturday. Around 5:30 Renee notices that the commercial fridge in the garage isn't keeping temperature so I go outside and stand near the compressor to see what is happening. Sure enough the compressor comes on for about ten seconds and then goes off for about 20 seconds and keeps repeating this cycle continuously. She calls the AC repair company and they are tied up on some emergency for the night and agree to come by in the morning to take a look. Renee moves all the chicken from that fridge to other freezers in the house. I'm thinking this is a big deal but she doesn't seem very worried. I ask her why she even uses the big one since we only have about half of it full at any given time and a couple of good energy star domestic fridges would result in a huge savings in electricity. She agrees but says the problem is a domestic fridge won't hold a temperature down to 34 degrees, that they are only good for around 40 degrees and the difference is very important when keeping the chickens fresh without actually freezing them. I'm scratching my head thinking I should look into this but she assures me she has considered it in depth and if it was possible she would have done it already. Dinner is vegetable soup and a frittata with left over veggies from the other night and duck eggs.
Friday Dec. 11, 2009 - Overnight I peek out the window and see there's not a cloud in the sky, stars everywhere, but when I wake up in the morning the clouds have returned and again it's overall gray and very cold. Like, is this Florida? I feel somewhat closer to the arctic circle than I need to be but I can see all the green trees, so apparently the arctic circle has come to Florida. After breakfast we do the morning feeding and then move each of the coups to their new positions on fresh pasture which will be good until Monday when we move the square. The rest of the day is easy and indoors. Renee has canned an incredible amount of preserves and is behind on the labels, plus she has a special feature for the holidays. She has a simple folded gift tag with the Twin Oaks Farm logo and inside it shows Santa pulling a little sleigh. A cute little extra that she hopes her clients will love. My job is to cut out the printed tags with a cutting knife, fold and then punch a hole in the upper left corner so she can tie each one to a jar of preserves. So that's how I fill my morning and afternoon on top of the feedings. Around 10:00 the AC repairman shows up and takes a quick look at the cooler. It turns out this is a recurring problem in the refrigerant lines connecting the compressor to the evaporator, there's a small pinhole size leak or crack or something .. somewhere .. and ultimately the copper lines will have to be replaced, but that will take down the refrigerator for a day or so which requires the stars to align in a certain way which is yet to happen. The work around is to recharge the system with refrigerant and get it back in service for a couple more weeks or months and work on getting those stars to align. Ten minutes later the fridge is back in service. After lunch I just have to load the van with all the stuff needed for the farmers market so in the morning all Renee has to do is load up the coolers and head out. Short day. After everything is set I'm loaded up and on my way to Tallahassee.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 9, 2009
Tuesday Dec. 8, 2009 - The same modified routine this morning, straight away get up and take care of the morning feeding and then clean the duck eggs and then have breakfast. After a shower and playing on the internet for a while I finish off cleaning last nights chicken eggs and settle in on some reading material about organic gardening, a magazine of that title to be specific. The weather was nice in the morning, blue skies and temperature right on the border, too cool to be called warm and too warm to be called cool, just very nice. But around noon the clouds roll in and it starts raining a light drizzle, just enough to keep everything wet and turn off outdoor activities for a while. So I go through and clean up both kitchens, nothing major just organizing, except the domestic kitchen which had a big pile of dishes accumulating on the counter, which I had added to by the way. Renee gets back around 3:00 and her Explorer is filled to the brim with supplies and new kitchen utensils, etc, etc. The rain has stopped but could return any minute so we get everything unloaded while we have the chance and then I take care of the evening feeding and chicken egg collection. See what I mean about the egg work being "never done". Renee tells me about her weekend while we are having our dinner of assorted vegetables in a mild curry sauce over brown rice, which is very good. The usual cleanup and I'm off to bed by 7:30.
Wednesday Dec. 9, 2009 - This morning the weather situation has made a considerable change, the temperature is much warmer, so warm that it feels like a spring day and the wind has picked up. Renee gets a phone call from her friend Mary who had helped us with the chicken processing a few weeks back, a Tornado touched down a couple of miles from her farm near Tallahassee and we hear from the tv morning news there is a tornado watch for our area. During the morning feeding it starts to rain, but not anything heavy, just a drizzling. It breaks up after about an hour and I move on to my next task which is to clean 8 coolers that Renee uses to transport the various products to the market. She has five large igloos that have a hinged top and then three normal size that have a removable top. They all need to be scrubbed with warm soapy water, especially the large ones since they are white overall and are starting to show signs of wear. I take my time and do a thorough job which takes about fifteen minutes per cooler, what the plastic scrub brush doesn't get I use a kitchen scrub pad and then rinse with the hose .... they all look brand new to me! After finishing I'm completely soaked from the tops of my boots to my neck and my fingers are all wrinkled. Luckily it's time for the noon feeding and then I change into some clean, dry clothes before sitting down for lunch. Renee is busy in the commercial kitchen all day making preserves and apparently doesn't need any help, or isn't asking for any, so I move on to the barn to make some more progress on the reorganization. I want to move all the plastic fencing material out and re-stack a pile of cardboard that is in the way of the riding lawnmower. There isn't enough room to keep things semi organized and keep the plastic fencing in the barn so we have decided to use another storage shed which is behind the barn. So, the first new sub-task to my new barn-organizing-task is to clean out the small storage shed. I open the large double doors and I'm greeted with the same cluttered mess that used to live in the barn. Crap everywhere. Particle board signs that have been left in the rain, painted trim boards, unpainted trim boards, hardibacker pieces that are too small to have a function, a small piece of greenboard, some of this and that and all of it just thrown in a big pile just far enough inside the shed to allow the doors to close. Everything must come out so I can put it all back in a more organized way. About a third of the way into it I start to move the particle board signs, there are five or six of them and they are about four feet square and piled one on top of another. I pick up the first one and roaches go running in every direction, then the next board and it's the same thing. Under each board is a little village and all together the roaches have themselves a megatropolis going. Where are those chickens when you need them anyway? After everything is back in I have about 50% of the floor area freed up for the plastic fencing, which isn't going to take nearly that much room. The plastic fencing comes in pieces about four feet high by about six feet long and each one has been zip tied to one of the plastic posts for the portable electric fence, some of them three or four segments long. Then they were rolled up and set aside. So, one by one I carry them to the small storage shed and finally get things opened up so I can re-arrange the pile of cardboard against the wall and out of the way of the riding lawnmower. I look at the final arrangement and I think that it was a lot of work for a small reward, but it does open up more floor space and it will make things easier when we are moving the processing equipment in and out next Thursday. I guess I can count that as a gain. I see the sun is getting low on the horizon but I have about an hour to kill before it will be time for the evening feeding so I get my camera and take some pictures of the property. I haven't figured out how to post pictures on this blog so I'll post them on my facebook page with the others. Tonight's dinner is veggies and then chicken gizzards cooked in a burgandy wine sauce, Mmmmm. Then the usual after dinner clean up and I'm off to bed.
Wednesday Dec. 9, 2009 - This morning the weather situation has made a considerable change, the temperature is much warmer, so warm that it feels like a spring day and the wind has picked up. Renee gets a phone call from her friend Mary who had helped us with the chicken processing a few weeks back, a Tornado touched down a couple of miles from her farm near Tallahassee and we hear from the tv morning news there is a tornado watch for our area. During the morning feeding it starts to rain, but not anything heavy, just a drizzling. It breaks up after about an hour and I move on to my next task which is to clean 8 coolers that Renee uses to transport the various products to the market. She has five large igloos that have a hinged top and then three normal size that have a removable top. They all need to be scrubbed with warm soapy water, especially the large ones since they are white overall and are starting to show signs of wear. I take my time and do a thorough job which takes about fifteen minutes per cooler, what the plastic scrub brush doesn't get I use a kitchen scrub pad and then rinse with the hose .... they all look brand new to me! After finishing I'm completely soaked from the tops of my boots to my neck and my fingers are all wrinkled. Luckily it's time for the noon feeding and then I change into some clean, dry clothes before sitting down for lunch. Renee is busy in the commercial kitchen all day making preserves and apparently doesn't need any help, or isn't asking for any, so I move on to the barn to make some more progress on the reorganization. I want to move all the plastic fencing material out and re-stack a pile of cardboard that is in the way of the riding lawnmower. There isn't enough room to keep things semi organized and keep the plastic fencing in the barn so we have decided to use another storage shed which is behind the barn. So, the first new sub-task to my new barn-organizing-task is to clean out the small storage shed. I open the large double doors and I'm greeted with the same cluttered mess that used to live in the barn. Crap everywhere. Particle board signs that have been left in the rain, painted trim boards, unpainted trim boards, hardibacker pieces that are too small to have a function, a small piece of greenboard, some of this and that and all of it just thrown in a big pile just far enough inside the shed to allow the doors to close. Everything must come out so I can put it all back in a more organized way. About a third of the way into it I start to move the particle board signs, there are five or six of them and they are about four feet square and piled one on top of another. I pick up the first one and roaches go running in every direction, then the next board and it's the same thing. Under each board is a little village and all together the roaches have themselves a megatropolis going. Where are those chickens when you need them anyway? After everything is back in I have about 50% of the floor area freed up for the plastic fencing, which isn't going to take nearly that much room. The plastic fencing comes in pieces about four feet high by about six feet long and each one has been zip tied to one of the plastic posts for the portable electric fence, some of them three or four segments long. Then they were rolled up and set aside. So, one by one I carry them to the small storage shed and finally get things opened up so I can re-arrange the pile of cardboard against the wall and out of the way of the riding lawnmower. I look at the final arrangement and I think that it was a lot of work for a small reward, but it does open up more floor space and it will make things easier when we are moving the processing equipment in and out next Thursday. I guess I can count that as a gain. I see the sun is getting low on the horizon but I have about an hour to kill before it will be time for the evening feeding so I get my camera and take some pictures of the property. I haven't figured out how to post pictures on this blog so I'll post them on my facebook page with the others. Tonight's dinner is veggies and then chicken gizzards cooked in a burgandy wine sauce, Mmmmm. Then the usual after dinner clean up and I'm off to bed.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 8, 2009
Is there anyone out there? If you want to see a picture then post a comment and tell me what you want to see.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 7, 2009
Sunday Dec 6, 2009 - I arrive back at the farm around noon, Renee had fed the chickens before leaving that morning but she didn't let them out of their coups so my first order of business is the noon feeding of the broilers and then let the ducks and the layers out. Then catch up on the egg cleaning and before I know it the time has slipped by and it's time for the evening feeding and collection of the chicken eggs, boy time flies when you're listening to financial interviews and reports on your mp3 player while cleaning duck eggs, lol . Everytime I pass by the jars in the family room I wonder how long it's going to take to get them all upstairs. I'm thinking I should jump in and get a batch done tonight, make a dent in the whole process and ..... naaaahhh, it's 6:30 and I'm headed upstairs to play on the internet. I get upstairs and sign on to facebook and what do you know, I find a friend from Cali online to chat with, I end up squirreling away three hours or so chatting with bjh about financial stuff and organics etc, while writing the blog for the previous two days. It's freezing cold outside and Renee doesn't like to use the heating system so I grab an extra comforter off the bed in the guest room and hit the sack at 10:30.
Monday Dec 7, 2009 - I wake up very rested, the light outside is diffused through the overcast and is a neutral overall gray. I had reset my alarm from the usual 6:15 to 7:00 but looking at the cloud cover I can't determine an approximate time .... and since the cat is away the mice will play so I roll over and fade back out. I make it back to REM but the alarm pulls me back, it couldn't have been too long but it was worth it anyway. Since Renee is not here to fix breakfast I decide to change my morning routine slightly, skip the shower and go directly to the morning feeding and get it out of the way, then back to the house for breakfast. Afterwards I make a big dent in the jar mission. I use a large plastic storage bin to carry 13 boxes at a time up the stairs and down the hall into the storage room. This goes on for about an hour, I'm dripping with sweat and can feel my back starting to ache in a new way so I start to think about ending this first phase and then whamo, I stumble on the stairs at the landing near the second floor level, no damage to the jars and no pulled muscles or anything like that but that decides it, break time. I think it's justifiable, I've moved about 40% of the boxes and there's really no rush as long as it's done by the time she returns. I go to the kitchen and decide to fix a cup of tea, then go upstairs to cool down and check emails before heading off for the morning shower. Ahhh, that's better, after the shower I feel like a new man as I head off to the commercial kitchen to the oldest activity ever discovered by modern or ancient farming .... cleaning eggs. I have this mornings and yesterdays duck egg plus two buckets of chicken eggs from the last two days. I finish the duck egg and then proceed down to the pasture for the noon feeding, then back to it and finish up the two buckets of chicken eggs. After I had left on Friday night to go back to Tallahassee, Renee had kept working late to finish canning and labeling the preserves for Saturdays farmers market, then got up early to load up and get to that market, then picked up the compost material from the Hilton on her way back, then did the evening feeding and egg collection and then packed for her trip to Miami on Sunday. She is getting stretched six ways to Sunday to keep on top of it all and naturally there's no time for clean up, all over the house and commercial kitchen there are little work stations set up where she did this part over here and the labels over there and the boxing over here, etc, etc. Her event horizon is about as long as her right arm. So after cleaning the eggs I straighten up the commercial kitchen and make it presentable. Renee did mention that the commercial kitchen is due for inspection by the USDA, so we need to keep things tidy. A peek out the window and it looks like dusk in about another hour so I head out for the evening feeding and chicken egg collection, then back inside to knock out the remaining jars. An hour later it's around 7:45 and the jar mission is finished, my back is fine but feels a little stiff in a new kind of way .... call it cross training. I have another cup of cold tea and raid the fridge of leftovers for dinner and then I'm off for my evening shower.
Monday Dec 7, 2009 - I wake up very rested, the light outside is diffused through the overcast and is a neutral overall gray. I had reset my alarm from the usual 6:15 to 7:00 but looking at the cloud cover I can't determine an approximate time .... and since the cat is away the mice will play so I roll over and fade back out. I make it back to REM but the alarm pulls me back, it couldn't have been too long but it was worth it anyway. Since Renee is not here to fix breakfast I decide to change my morning routine slightly, skip the shower and go directly to the morning feeding and get it out of the way, then back to the house for breakfast. Afterwards I make a big dent in the jar mission. I use a large plastic storage bin to carry 13 boxes at a time up the stairs and down the hall into the storage room. This goes on for about an hour, I'm dripping with sweat and can feel my back starting to ache in a new way so I start to think about ending this first phase and then whamo, I stumble on the stairs at the landing near the second floor level, no damage to the jars and no pulled muscles or anything like that but that decides it, break time. I think it's justifiable, I've moved about 40% of the boxes and there's really no rush as long as it's done by the time she returns. I go to the kitchen and decide to fix a cup of tea, then go upstairs to cool down and check emails before heading off for the morning shower. Ahhh, that's better, after the shower I feel like a new man as I head off to the commercial kitchen to the oldest activity ever discovered by modern or ancient farming .... cleaning eggs. I have this mornings and yesterdays duck egg plus two buckets of chicken eggs from the last two days. I finish the duck egg and then proceed down to the pasture for the noon feeding, then back to it and finish up the two buckets of chicken eggs. After I had left on Friday night to go back to Tallahassee, Renee had kept working late to finish canning and labeling the preserves for Saturdays farmers market, then got up early to load up and get to that market, then picked up the compost material from the Hilton on her way back, then did the evening feeding and egg collection and then packed for her trip to Miami on Sunday. She is getting stretched six ways to Sunday to keep on top of it all and naturally there's no time for clean up, all over the house and commercial kitchen there are little work stations set up where she did this part over here and the labels over there and the boxing over here, etc, etc. Her event horizon is about as long as her right arm. So after cleaning the eggs I straighten up the commercial kitchen and make it presentable. Renee did mention that the commercial kitchen is due for inspection by the USDA, so we need to keep things tidy. A peek out the window and it looks like dusk in about another hour so I head out for the evening feeding and chicken egg collection, then back inside to knock out the remaining jars. An hour later it's around 7:45 and the jar mission is finished, my back is fine but feels a little stiff in a new kind of way .... call it cross training. I have another cup of cold tea and raid the fridge of leftovers for dinner and then I'm off for my evening shower.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 6, 2009
Thursday Dec 3, 2009 - We processed the 22 hens that got a reprieve the last time. It was a lot easier this time, we set up quicker and once things got rolling everyone knew what to do, we started around 8:00 and were finished around 12:00 but the cleanup took another couple of hours. Even that was easier since I already know where everything goes and since the barn has been about halfway cleaned out it's easier to get the equipment stored again. The extra time was worth it, all the hens were larger than usual in size. After all that excitement it was back to usual, cleaning eggs in the commercial kitchen. On top of that, we are all geared up for making preserves, Renee has frozen fruit for the fig and blueberry and we picked and peeled a ton of Mandarin, we just need the jars from New Jersey. We were expecting them to be ready next week but one phone call later and we learn they are ready at the freight forwarding service in Dothan. We finish up the day and then over dinner Renee asks if I can come back on Sunday to watch the place until Tuesday because she has some business in Miami on Monday. No big deal, so I agree.
Friday Dec 4, 2009 - Since the rain earlier in the week it has been getting and staying colder, like in the 30s cold. So today I add to my usual attire and put on a long sleeve shirt over my two tee shirts and head down for breakfast. I make another change in my usual routine by putting on my old tennis shoes and wear them while working in the commercial kitchen. Then I forget to change to my rubber boots when I go down for the morning feeding. Today must be bad Karma day or something, while I'm finishing up the feeding in the layer hens coup I notice that I'm holding the blue bucket, this is the broiler feed bucket. My head starts to spin like some kind of spherical motorized Abacus, whirrrrr as I look at the feed in all three feeders and I contemplate putting the feed back into the bucket and then going over to the broilers coup and doing the same thing so I can fix my mistake. The little mephisto pops up on my right shoulder and tells me to forget about it, one feeding isn't going to do anything and since I'm down here by myself no one but me (and the chickens maybe) is going to know. The little angel dude doesn't even show up for this one. As I'm exiting the chicken coup Renee is right there and the first words out of her mouth are "Why are you coming out of the layer coup with a blue feed bucket", so I explain to her how I made all these changes to my daily routine and point to my now dirty tennis shoes and then explain how my brain only works on the "management by plan" method and the changes just screwed up my whole mental process, then I assure her that I know how to feed the chickens and this was just a funky screwup in a chain of funky screwups. She rolls her eyes and starts to move on to the next task while saying something about maybe I should take notes or something, as if the whole feed thing is too much for me. I kind of like the idea of taking notes, it takes the work out of remembering things but no way am I going to let her know I'm thinking that way. We walk over to move the coups and then I grab the bucket of duck eggs and walk back to the commercial kitchen to make preparations for putting the preserves in the jars. I guess this is called canning, even though it's a different kind of container and it's a commercial operation rather than home style. After cleaning the eggs I open up the van and remove the large trash cans used to transport the compost material from the Hilton resort. I load up the two five gallon gas cans for the lawnmower and place some cinder blocks around them to keep them from rolling around while driving and I'm off to Dothan, Alabama. I'm all smiles as I go down the driveway, another drive through BBQ heaven. I'm not even three miles away, not even to Esto, not even to the Alabama state line and I notice a little place on a corner lot, DJ's BBQ and I scratch my head and wonder, "How did I miss this place the last time?". Must have been focusing too much on the drive and not enough on the scenery, I make a mental note to get some cash from the ATM machine when I fill up at the BP station on the way back. The drive is nice as usual and it seems to take less time, the routine is starting to settle in. There are 4704 jars on the pallet, they are boxed 12 to a box in 392 boxes and piled up 87 inches tall on the pallet. The guys at the freight service are great as usual, I get some help and we remove about 1/3 of them before the forklift driver can load the remaining jars and pallet through the rear doors. Sign the paperwork and I'm off and running. On the way back I stop at DJ's and order a BBQ beef sandwhich and while I'm at the counter a real cutie about my age comes out from the kitchen and I catch a glimpse of her tanned flat tummy as she is turning to approach the cash register. She notices my glance and smiles and then I look her in the eye and we have a little conversation about being from here and there .... well, this is the family hour so I'll just end that and let you know I'm thinking this really is heaven. I get back to the farm and unload all 392 frikin boxes from the driveway to the family room for the time being, knowing they have to go upstairs and into a storage room above the commercial kitchen. The final destination couldn't be further from where they will be used, but that's not my concern right now, I just want to get them unloaded so I can take a shower and get on the road to Tallahassee.
Friday Dec 4, 2009 - Since the rain earlier in the week it has been getting and staying colder, like in the 30s cold. So today I add to my usual attire and put on a long sleeve shirt over my two tee shirts and head down for breakfast. I make another change in my usual routine by putting on my old tennis shoes and wear them while working in the commercial kitchen. Then I forget to change to my rubber boots when I go down for the morning feeding. Today must be bad Karma day or something, while I'm finishing up the feeding in the layer hens coup I notice that I'm holding the blue bucket, this is the broiler feed bucket. My head starts to spin like some kind of spherical motorized Abacus, whirrrrr as I look at the feed in all three feeders and I contemplate putting the feed back into the bucket and then going over to the broilers coup and doing the same thing so I can fix my mistake. The little mephisto pops up on my right shoulder and tells me to forget about it, one feeding isn't going to do anything and since I'm down here by myself no one but me (and the chickens maybe) is going to know. The little angel dude doesn't even show up for this one. As I'm exiting the chicken coup Renee is right there and the first words out of her mouth are "Why are you coming out of the layer coup with a blue feed bucket", so I explain to her how I made all these changes to my daily routine and point to my now dirty tennis shoes and then explain how my brain only works on the "management by plan" method and the changes just screwed up my whole mental process, then I assure her that I know how to feed the chickens and this was just a funky screwup in a chain of funky screwups. She rolls her eyes and starts to move on to the next task while saying something about maybe I should take notes or something, as if the whole feed thing is too much for me. I kind of like the idea of taking notes, it takes the work out of remembering things but no way am I going to let her know I'm thinking that way. We walk over to move the coups and then I grab the bucket of duck eggs and walk back to the commercial kitchen to make preparations for putting the preserves in the jars. I guess this is called canning, even though it's a different kind of container and it's a commercial operation rather than home style. After cleaning the eggs I open up the van and remove the large trash cans used to transport the compost material from the Hilton resort. I load up the two five gallon gas cans for the lawnmower and place some cinder blocks around them to keep them from rolling around while driving and I'm off to Dothan, Alabama. I'm all smiles as I go down the driveway, another drive through BBQ heaven. I'm not even three miles away, not even to Esto, not even to the Alabama state line and I notice a little place on a corner lot, DJ's BBQ and I scratch my head and wonder, "How did I miss this place the last time?". Must have been focusing too much on the drive and not enough on the scenery, I make a mental note to get some cash from the ATM machine when I fill up at the BP station on the way back. The drive is nice as usual and it seems to take less time, the routine is starting to settle in. There are 4704 jars on the pallet, they are boxed 12 to a box in 392 boxes and piled up 87 inches tall on the pallet. The guys at the freight service are great as usual, I get some help and we remove about 1/3 of them before the forklift driver can load the remaining jars and pallet through the rear doors. Sign the paperwork and I'm off and running. On the way back I stop at DJ's and order a BBQ beef sandwhich and while I'm at the counter a real cutie about my age comes out from the kitchen and I catch a glimpse of her tanned flat tummy as she is turning to approach the cash register. She notices my glance and smiles and then I look her in the eye and we have a little conversation about being from here and there .... well, this is the family hour so I'll just end that and let you know I'm thinking this really is heaven. I get back to the farm and unload all 392 frikin boxes from the driveway to the family room for the time being, knowing they have to go upstairs and into a storage room above the commercial kitchen. The final destination couldn't be further from where they will be used, but that's not my concern right now, I just want to get them unloaded so I can take a shower and get on the road to Tallahassee.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Twin Oaks Farm - Dec 2, 2009
On Monday around noon the weather changed from blue skies to cold, overcast and gray, then it started to rain around 3:00. Tuesday morning the weather is clear but it is chillingly cold, below 30 degrees. After the morning feeding we spend most of the day indoors peeling Mandarin and preparing to make preserves and in the middle of the day Renee decides that since we are all set up it is a good idea to capitalize on this oppurtunity and she picks another 54 pounds of Mandarin. She makes other preserves such as Blueberry and Peach but she has to buy the fruit from an organic grower and that cuts into her profit margin, so it makes perfect sense to me to maximize the take on the Mandarin. The jar issue is all cleared up and they are on the way from New Jersey and on top of that Renee shopped around for the shipping and reduced the cost from around $500 to $285 and we still get to pick it up from her freight forwarding agent in Dothan, Alabama. That will be next week and I'm already looking forward to it. All day in the commercial kitchen it's the same routine over and over. We peel the outer paper thin layer off the fruit and set it aside in plastic bowls. Then by hand we finish peeling off the white middle layer of the peel and pull off as much of the white stuff as possible, does that stuff have a name? Then Renee slices the fruit in half to let the juice out and puts it all in a large pot over the stove. At first I thought she was going to cook it down, but no, she just warms it to "almost too hot to touch" and then gives me the pot. I'm set up next to the stove at a stainless steel table with a hand operated rotary device that is a combination press and strainer. As I turn the handle a archimedes disk pushes the juice and pulp through a strainer built into the bottom of the bowl. I load it up with 9 one cup ladles worth and then start turning the handle, immediately the mix starts reducing down and down until I have to stop and use a spatula to push everything to the bottom of the bowl and then press it again and again. It's surprising to me how much pulp we can get out of the stuff, at the end the useless white stuff is very dry and easy to remove from the bowl. Each pot has 5 or 6 batches for the strainer and there's three pots, plus another two cartons of Mandarin just in from the orchard .... gonna be here for a while. In the afternoon it starts to rain again, this time heavier than the previous day. By the time I finish the evening feeding it's turning into a torrential downpour, when I get back to the house we're back to peeling for another couple of hours. Around 7:00 we stop for dinner of veggie soup, then brown rice and turnips with greens fried in olive oil and akula (sp) salad greens. Afterwords we clean out a freezer to make room for the days production and do a mild clean up in the commercial kitchen just to the utensils directly involved in the pulp removal so it will be easier in the morning to do the complete clean up. Off to bed around 9:00 pm. The weather at this point has turned up another notch or two, there is high wind and rain and the temperature has come up some. The cable tv and the internet connection are through a satellite connection and both are down so I read for about an hour and then give in to the seductions from the pillows. All night there are thunderstorms, high wind and a driving rain. There's a small tree outside my bedroom window always brushing the vinyl siding on the outer wall and sometimes the window itself, it's annoying and keeps me from falling into a deep sleep and then at some point the power goes down for a few seconds, just enough to notice that it happens. Around 2:00 am the wind dies down and I'm off to blessed slumber.
On Wednesday morning it's still raining and windy but the wind is somewhat calmer. The first order of business for the day is to give the commercial kitchen a thorough cleaning, from the top down and then mop the floor. A secondary benefit is to give the weather a chance to clear up before we head down for the morning feeding. Around nine o’clock we head down and after getting through the gate notice some hens clustered together around 15 feet from the back of the large broiler coup. My first thought is that somehow they got out, like a door came open or something like that. But then I notice that the grass next to the coup is dry and then we see a dead chicken directly next to the coup and another stuck under the rail and not moving, but I can see that she is still breathing. A gust of wind had come up and lifted and pushed the coup a good 5 feet or so and trapped the poor hen like the wicked witch of the east under the rail of the coup. The dry grass is a give away that this had happened just a few minutes before we arrived and when Renee picks up the dead bird it is still warm so she takes it up to the house and processes it right away. One by one I round up the others, chasing chickens in the rain with my new yellow rain jacket that feels more like a plastic bag than anything else. After all the escapees are rounded up I get on with the normal feeding. In all of the coups the chicken feeders are hanging from the roof with a thin cord which is tied to the metal handle on the top of the feeder, like a bucket handle. The driving rain has gotten under the tarps and then water ran down the cord and into the feed, turning the feed into a wet oatmeal type solution. This has kept the feeder from working properly, and the result is the birds had nothing to eat this morning. Plus, all the birds look a little wet, so the driving rain has gotten into their little apartment complex. When I get to the large layer hen coup, the one where the majority of the hens prefer to hang out I notice the feeders are bone dry, working properly and completely empty. The ground and the hens are also dry and comfortable looking. No wonder the hens like this place, this is the luxury townhouse of chicken coups. By the time I finish the feeding I'm soaked through and when I get back to the house I notice the power is out. Renee sticks her head out the door and tells me to not open the door of the commercial refrigerator or any of the other appliances. A friend in a neighboring town is opening a bed and breakfast and Renee is preparing to leave the house so we go over a few details about where there are some buckets with rainwater and so on and such and such. Without power there is nothing to do, the house doesn't even have water pressure. After she leaves I go upstairs to change into some dry clothes and start writing today’s blog. After an hour and a half the power returns so I go downstairs and fix my lunch of leftovers, do the house kitchen dishes and the proceed to that usual of all activities, clean eggs in the commercial kitchen, I have the mp3 player all loaded up and ready to go. Most of my body aches are gone except for my back and it’s screaming. I don’t like the idea of covering up the pain with some advil but if the pain isn’t gone by Friday then I’m going to pick some up this weekend. I know the real reason is I’m just out of shape and overweight and since those two things aren’t going to change anytime real soon then …… I clean all the duck eggs from the last two days and then Renee returns from the opening. She has good things to say about the place, it has 16 rooms and the decorations of each room are based on a single country. The whole event went well and she is glad to have made possible connections for future sales. Now we need to start getting set up for chicken processing, the broiler hens that were too small on the last processing day are now nice and plump and she has already arranged some sales via her email chain letters so she has decided to process the remaining 22 hens and sell the remaining ones between now and the next processing date which is Dec 13. The first task is to bring the hens up to the coup next to the commercial kitchen. We do this with the trailer on the riding lawnmower and the special plastic storage bin that has been modified for this purpose. There are only 22 hens so this only takes two trips, nice and easy. While she starts getting the processing gear set up I go down to the pasture for the evening feeding. The weather is breaking up and the sunset is real nice, bright orange with scattered clouds, it would make a good picture and yes I’m working on the whole pictures thing. With all the outdoor activity complete it’s back to the commercial kitchen for more egg cleaning, but my trusty mp3 player will save me once more. Dinner is around 7:00, leftover whole grain rice and the not so lucky fresh broiler chicken that was killed by the flying chicken coup. Renee cooks it with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper and puts some broth in a gravy bowl which I put on the rice. Mmmm, very tasty. After dinner we do the dishes and I’m off to a shower at 8:20. Twelve hour days are turning into a standard event on the farm.
On Wednesday morning it's still raining and windy but the wind is somewhat calmer. The first order of business for the day is to give the commercial kitchen a thorough cleaning, from the top down and then mop the floor. A secondary benefit is to give the weather a chance to clear up before we head down for the morning feeding. Around nine o’clock we head down and after getting through the gate notice some hens clustered together around 15 feet from the back of the large broiler coup. My first thought is that somehow they got out, like a door came open or something like that. But then I notice that the grass next to the coup is dry and then we see a dead chicken directly next to the coup and another stuck under the rail and not moving, but I can see that she is still breathing. A gust of wind had come up and lifted and pushed the coup a good 5 feet or so and trapped the poor hen like the wicked witch of the east under the rail of the coup. The dry grass is a give away that this had happened just a few minutes before we arrived and when Renee picks up the dead bird it is still warm so she takes it up to the house and processes it right away. One by one I round up the others, chasing chickens in the rain with my new yellow rain jacket that feels more like a plastic bag than anything else. After all the escapees are rounded up I get on with the normal feeding. In all of the coups the chicken feeders are hanging from the roof with a thin cord which is tied to the metal handle on the top of the feeder, like a bucket handle. The driving rain has gotten under the tarps and then water ran down the cord and into the feed, turning the feed into a wet oatmeal type solution. This has kept the feeder from working properly, and the result is the birds had nothing to eat this morning. Plus, all the birds look a little wet, so the driving rain has gotten into their little apartment complex. When I get to the large layer hen coup, the one where the majority of the hens prefer to hang out I notice the feeders are bone dry, working properly and completely empty. The ground and the hens are also dry and comfortable looking. No wonder the hens like this place, this is the luxury townhouse of chicken coups. By the time I finish the feeding I'm soaked through and when I get back to the house I notice the power is out. Renee sticks her head out the door and tells me to not open the door of the commercial refrigerator or any of the other appliances. A friend in a neighboring town is opening a bed and breakfast and Renee is preparing to leave the house so we go over a few details about where there are some buckets with rainwater and so on and such and such. Without power there is nothing to do, the house doesn't even have water pressure. After she leaves I go upstairs to change into some dry clothes and start writing today’s blog. After an hour and a half the power returns so I go downstairs and fix my lunch of leftovers, do the house kitchen dishes and the proceed to that usual of all activities, clean eggs in the commercial kitchen, I have the mp3 player all loaded up and ready to go. Most of my body aches are gone except for my back and it’s screaming. I don’t like the idea of covering up the pain with some advil but if the pain isn’t gone by Friday then I’m going to pick some up this weekend. I know the real reason is I’m just out of shape and overweight and since those two things aren’t going to change anytime real soon then …… I clean all the duck eggs from the last two days and then Renee returns from the opening. She has good things to say about the place, it has 16 rooms and the decorations of each room are based on a single country. The whole event went well and she is glad to have made possible connections for future sales. Now we need to start getting set up for chicken processing, the broiler hens that were too small on the last processing day are now nice and plump and she has already arranged some sales via her email chain letters so she has decided to process the remaining 22 hens and sell the remaining ones between now and the next processing date which is Dec 13. The first task is to bring the hens up to the coup next to the commercial kitchen. We do this with the trailer on the riding lawnmower and the special plastic storage bin that has been modified for this purpose. There are only 22 hens so this only takes two trips, nice and easy. While she starts getting the processing gear set up I go down to the pasture for the evening feeding. The weather is breaking up and the sunset is real nice, bright orange with scattered clouds, it would make a good picture and yes I’m working on the whole pictures thing. With all the outdoor activity complete it’s back to the commercial kitchen for more egg cleaning, but my trusty mp3 player will save me once more. Dinner is around 7:00, leftover whole grain rice and the not so lucky fresh broiler chicken that was killed by the flying chicken coup. Renee cooks it with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper and puts some broth in a gravy bowl which I put on the rice. Mmmm, very tasty. After dinner we do the dishes and I’m off to a shower at 8:20. Twelve hour days are turning into a standard event on the farm.
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