Retreat

Our pastured egg production has been a disaster this year. We started out the year with a very desirable problem. We had 6 stores and were having problems meeting the demand. We were producing about 70 dozen a week and thought we could easily move 200 dozen. That led to a huge mistake. In an effort to boost our winter production rate, we bought 1000 one year old chickens that were laying at a 90% rate in a chicken house. They went into a molt soon after we got them and stopped laying. We expected that, but we thought they would recover and give us the eggs we needed. They didn't. We had a lot of money tied up in them and couldn't afford to replace them when we realized that they were not going to do the job we had hoped.

We recently bought 300 baby chicks, but they won't be in production for another 6 months. That is, if we can get them to live through the winter. We weren't able to get them until November 1st and it's been a little to cold for them. I'm sure most of them will survive, but how many we will actually have come spring is anyone's guess. This pastured egg business isn't as easy as it looks folks!

For the last few weeks we have only been producing 12 to 20 dozen a week. Our older hens have slowed way down and I'm not sure if any of these chicken house hens are laying at all. So, for now we have decided we have to limit our sales to the closest stores.

Macomb and Quincy, thank you so much for your loyalty. Hopefully we will be able to return in the spring. We will try to keep supplying the Burlington Hy-Vee Store on Agency and Ducks in Nauvoo. 

Again we want to thank you all for your support! We believe we can do this because of you. Just need to retreat for the winter and rethink our strategy. 

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Changes, Changes

Life has been pretty crazy around here the last few weeks. When I wrote that post saying good-bye to my garden, I thought I was just saying good-bye for the winter. While I was gone, my old farmer went to Heaven. So after the funeral, I spent several days moving out and trying to move plants from that garden home. There's no way I'd be able to keep up with it if I wasn't there 3 days a week. Then I got sick. Nothing serious, just normal caregiver burnout after a job is done and a cold shared by generous grandchildren :)

I'm starting to get my bearings. It's kinda strange not to have 48 hours of work that has to be done within the next 24. To bad it won't last. People call me wanting someone to help them all the time. I'm sure I'll be back to sleeping around soon!

In the mean time, I'm looking around my place and trying to decide how to expand the gardens here to accommodate all the stuff I was planning to do over there next year. Some people have told me it's so sad that I did all that work and now it's gone. But it's really OK. Working on the gardens at my old farmer's gave me something to do, it made him happy and most of all it gave me a chance to prove to Grampa Tom that I could do it! He has recognized that I have quite a bit of skill and talent when it comes to gardening and now my suggestions don't always sound like craziness to him :)

Next week, I'll start on my last year of assessing. Can't wait to get that job done. Then I can get on with my real life! Taking care of people and God's beautiful earth :)

Welcome To Mikes Farm And Country Store!

Grampa Tom drove out to North Carolina to pick me up and meet our new little granddaughter. On our last day in Jacksonville, we decided to visit Mikes Farm. We took our son, his wife and the 3 grandkids. It was fun, but not quite what we were thinking it would be.

Mike's Farm is billed as the most visited non-military tourist attraction in the Jacksonville area. It was once a tabbaco farm. The place mat in the restaurant said that Mike and his wife took over the farm in the 80's. Of course tabbaco was a dying industry at that point, so they decided to start a Christmas tree farm. Today it still has Christmas trees, along with some farm animals that the kids can feed, a bakery and a huge restaurant where they serve a pretty good meal served family style.

The kids had fun (which is the important part), but us farmers were just a little amazed at the lack of poop :) We were hoping for more of an intimate farm experience. You know, the kind where you get to meet the farmer and really get some education about how farming works. There were lots of antique tractors and even a display garden depicting a typical homestead garden in the early 20th century, but there were no signs identifying plants or organized tours where you could ask questions. Perhaps we went at the wrong time of year. In any case Grampa, my son and I all  agreed that it was a very sanitized, citified farm experience. Better than nothing I guess! And I have known people from town who would be repulsed by anything more authentic.

We'd love to have a little restaurant where we could concentrate on dishes made from what we produce on the farm, a shop where people could buy produce and crafts that we produce, a small petting zoo and hands on educational activities for adults as well as kids, but we would want it to be a little more like a real farm and less like a mini zoo.

Welcome To Mikes Farm And Country Store!

Holly Goes Lightly: Mumpkins!

So gotta do this! Wonder if I can find any pumpkins when I get back home. Will have to check with McVeighs of Roger's Pumpkin farm! We picked all our pumpkins before the last market and gave the few that were left over to my daughter.

Holly Goes Lightly: Mumpkins!

God Bless You All! 

~Grama Sue

Visit to the Jacksonville, NC Farmer's Market

Took my grandkids to the farmer's market today. It is always fun to check out farmer's markets away from home. It was their last market for the season. There wasn't a huge amount of vendors there, but there were lots of people! I'm sure all the vendors who showed up made some money today. I would have liked to talk more with the vendors, but I didn't want to keep them from waiting on customers :)

The parking lot they were set up in had a building with garage doors lining 2 sides where vendors could pull in and unload their trucks so they could set up. Inside was a walkway down the middle of the booths and a stage where a band was playing at the far end. There were also vendors outside under tents like we do at home.

They had a hayride for the kids.

And a reptile exhibit with lizards a giant tortoise, a tarantula and several snakes. My grandson got to pet this one.

One of the vendors had some really cool display cases (pun intended). I need to see if I can make myself something like this for my eggs. 

They also had a "cow" for the kids to milk. Great interactive place for kids! My grandson didn't want to go because he was to tired,  (He's been staying up late since his little sister was born the other day. So much excitement!) but he was sure glad I made him come. :)

Poor Grampa Tom! He's missing all the excitement.

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Scooping Poop

So now I've done it all. I've dealt with chicken poop, horse poop, pig poop, sheep poop, rabbit poop, turkey and geese poop, baby poop and old people poop, even my own poop, but I've never scooped dog poop, until now.

My son has this crazy contraption that picks up the poop and puts it in a bag. He keeps his back yard clean that way. Takes a bit of finesse, but I think I kinda have the hang of it.

At the moment, I'm visiting my son who lives in the city. He has a large yard. He also has a new baby, a toddler and a 3 y/o. I'm taking care of baby poop and loving it!

I'd hate to live in the city, but if I had to, I'd want a yard like his. Give me 5 years and I'd have a food forest out there :) Can you say urban permaculture?

One of my favorite Bible verses is Proverbs ... I can't remember the numbers right now but the version I learned says: "An empty barn is easy to clean, but there is no profit in it." It's one I quote often with the explanation that anything worth doing is going to involve some shoveling and if you have a lot to shovel, either someone has neglected it for a long time, or there's a lot of profit in it!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue

Thank You!

This is why we do what we do! We have the best customers! Even though we haven't been able to supply enough eggs to our stores for many, many months, our customers are always asking about us and at the markets we get so many thank yous!

We received this yummy lemon dessert and a custom designed card at the last market in Nauvoo. This retired couple came every week for tomatoes. They were so cute! He would get out of the car and open her door. Then they would come pick out their tomatoes. The way they paid was just adorable! He would shell out the bills, and she would give us the change. So darling! Anyway, the card had their picture along with a picture they took of us and a picture of one of our heritage tomatoes. We were so blessed!

Thank You  and God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue