Sep13

The WWOOF-Pack

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I feel like I won an award and am giving a speech, so just hang with me everybody, I only have a few moments before they usher me off stage.  Ahem.  Dearest WWOOF-pack, you have been so very generous donating your time, for time is what all of you had to give.  I along with the rest that is Ozark Alternatives thanks each and every one of you…HOPEFULLY I have not forgotten anyone…so here it goes:

To Francky, the first WWOOF’er ever, you said you’d come back, we’re still here, thanks for calling.  Thanks for your help.

Christy and Conner, thank you, hope all is well.

E-Town (Eric), hope to see you soon, thanks for all the help you have given.

Jason, hope you found what you were looking for in the south, thanks for your help.

Shiori, you were awesome!  Thanks for your help.

Keyohei, I hope all is going well in Toronto!  Thanks for coming!

Hailey, where are you these days?  Thanks for keeping it real!

BROOKLYN!  Thanks for coming out you two, this is Will and Nora by the way.

David and Marine, you two were troopers.  It was so hot when you were here!  Hope all is well, thanks for your help.

McKenna, we didn’t say goodbye because we thought you were coming back, but glad to hear all is well in California!  Your picture is still on the fridge.  Thanks for coming.

Alex and Shannon, they stayed one day while traveling through, thanks you two!

Sam and Sally, we didn’t even get to meet, but I heard so many great things about you two.  Thanks for helping out!

Half-Time Zack.  Thanks for helping out when you could!

Alyssa Marie!  Hope all is well, thanks for coming when you did!

Annie G.  Hope school is treating you well, thankyou so much for coming out and helping!

Laura!  You swung a hammer like a champ!  Thanks for coming for the week!  You are forever on the wall at the CO-OP.

Pat and Jake, welcome back…again!  Thanks for the help!

Paul, thank you so much for all of the help, we miss you already!

To this guy on the right, a local Fayettevillian to whom I owe thanks, yet can’t remember your name, you too were a great help and thanks.

Beth Andrea!  Former intern, you were in there also, thanks so much.

Rose, volunteer extraordinaire!  Thanks for hanging out.

Jason B., also an awesome volunteer.  Thanks for your help and you need to come out again soon.

Emily, miss you already!  What a tremendous help you were.  And you’ll never know how much it meant to me that you were on time to breakfast!  Way to go champ!

Karen, thank you so much for coming to the farm to help!

Greg, he came for a day and helped out a bunch.  Thank you so much Greg!  Safe journeys.

Kyle, thankyou for coming to the farm.  Your help is much appreciated!

Now, I bet these girls were thinking as they were scrolling “Where’s our picture!”  Well, I put you at the end, because you know what they say.  Thankyou Courtney and Grace for coming to the farm to help out when you did.  Your help was very much appreciated!

Okay, okay, I think I thanked everyone I could in my alloted time, I’m getting the signal, the stage beauty is grabbing my arm.  If there’s anyone I skipped, please know I thank you too!

 

Sep13

A thank you is in order

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To all of you who have just recently looked my way and commented on my chickens, and possibly dug a little deeper, I give you a heart-felt thank you.  I was very humbled by the traffic I have received in the past few days.

Sep10

All in a day’s work, and it’s not even over yet

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This morning the boys got involved in a little work, filling in the trenches that contain the water lines.

It was pretty darn cute to witness. Oliver said “I’m going to work until lunch”.  Just like the big dudes!

Get it Isaac!

These are just a few cute pictures of Isaac climbing a tree.  That’s Sushi, the evil Tom.  I’m speaking about the cat.

Even though his face is a filthy mess, I can’t resist his smile!

 

Sep10

MORE BABIES!!!

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We got our new chicks yesterday.  I’m interested to see how this will play out.  Paul didn’t want new chickens six months ago when I said the hens were broody, now we have mucho.  I think the tally is a whopping 75 head of fluff.  I’m still in the dark as to what the variety of chickens these are, this being addressed to Tabby who is just dying to know…aren’t you.  Tabby, and every one else, they are being kept in the green house at present to keep them warm and such.  Here are some pictures of them arriving.

Everyone was excited.

Doesn’t Karen look happy to be holding a baby chick?!

I told you I’d get a better picture of you Emily!

Did you know chickens were born in a box?

A temporary home.

In other news, Emily, Kyle and I made cultured vegetables for the first time.  We were winging it.  I watched a few YouTube videos and we went for it, but dear reader, it seems to be working.  There are so few directions, so it seems to easy to be true.  I’ll let you know in a few days how they taste.

Here is a picture of them this morning doing their thing.  There is beet, cabbage, kale and collard greens in here.  We also added salt, ground coriander and cayenne pepper.  What a terrible picture!  Too much coffee.

Sep8

The week in a nutshell

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So, I know I mentioned that Kyle and Karen came, well, Emily also came to join us.  She’s from Iowa, on her way to do an internship on the Heifer Ranch down in Perryville Arkansas, so naturally she came here first.  I think I might have a picture of her, sorry Emily, it may not be the best one, but I promise to get a better one of you before you leave.

Emily and Kyle prepping and planting carrots.

You need to watch out for this one!  She is as fierce as that side eye she’s giving us.  Try playing a strategy game with her, she’s got it on lock!

PAKI!  The Pak-man, who at 26 found out that he’s not Greek.  It’s a funny story, and if you come and volunteer I’ll tell it to you, unless Paul is still here…then he can tell you himself.

Carrot planting.

Here’s Karen.  She’s been hiding, but someone found her and snapped this picture.  The water drops look neat at the bottom of this shot.

Teamwork.  Look at them all bending at the hip.  Don’t they know they should bend from the knee!

Few of us have seen this.  Before this picture was taken, only Marine and I had seen this operation in action.  This is the law of nature at its finest, a hornet grasping a cicada, before it drags it into its hole in the ground.  It’s quite an amazing sight to behold.  Now you all know, you can share in the wonders and joys, heartbreaks and…I don’t know, MOTHER NATURE PEOPLE!

Hmm?  What’s going on here?  This is what I like to call Amish paradise!  Kyle here is running a trencher, digging a trench to my house for a water line.  It’s not going into my house…yet, but there is now a spigot in my yard!  When I saw the spigot finished, I wanted to cry.  That’s what love is.  Water.  In your yard.  All day long.

Paul P. is running the trencher through the garden for a grey water something or other.

The Missouri Angels are looking at these pictures, biting their lips because they missed it.  You’ll be back.  And here’s another tidbit fellas.  I beat Paul P. at Settlers of Catan.  I stole the red pieces.  I think that’s his weakness.

Chicken coop for the orchard in its beginning phase.

Aha!  I make an appearance.  Yes, I guess I’ll help for a minute, but not a second more!

Moving whatever piece that is into the chicken yard area.

Amanda, why are you wearing an apron?  Well dear reader, because I’m a domestic, it’s my uniform of sorts.  Also, Emily and I had just finished making 29 jars of wild plum jam for the CSA.  Go ahead.  I dare you to say something.

Sep8

Bear Trouble, or Kung-Fu Deer

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I talked about the bear that ripped through the chicken fence, that more than likely was a karate-kicking deer.  Well, here are the pictures to back up my story.  Sorry Missouri Angels, but the silver lining is, there’s something to do when you get back.

This was what surprised me the most, this pole bent all the way to the ground!  Maybe it was a bear.

Waking up to this image over our morning cup of coffee was not fun.

 

Sep7

Be careful what you wish for

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Brrrrrrr!  Just two weeks ago it was over 100 degrees and unbearably hot at night.  I would tout that I was going to roll around in the snow naked and embrace the cold this year.  Well, the last couple of nights and mornings have been brisk, leading me to find a sweater and socks.  I feel like a little kid with my arms crossed screaming “I don’t wanna!”  I feel like a hypocrite.  Maybe, dear reader I was speaking out of turn and didn’t really mean what I said.  Maybe I will keep my clothes on when there is snow on the ground.

In other farm news, we were anticipating getting 75 new baby chicks this morning.  They unfortunately didn’t arrive this morning, so tomorrow will probably be the next day.  Don’t ask what variety they are, I have no clue.  I didn’t even know we were getting new baby chicks until a few days ago.  Maybe I’m being kept in the dark on purpose, hard to tell.  Also, a bear attacked the pen that was constructed in the orchard to house all of these chickens.  I say bear, but it was more likely a large deer that ran into it, freaked out and karate chopped it to the ground.  Pictures will follow, it’s pretty amazing.  There is a metal pole in the ground that was bent in a 90 degree angle, and now laying flat.  The moral here is, don’t let your chicken fence get in any deer’s way.  The deer will always win.

Sep2

Old, new and in between

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We woke up to a beautiful misty morning the other day.

A picture of one of our CSA baskets.

Some Anaheim peppers.

Patrick displaying the “take”.

Amy Brosi came up to see us from Huntsville Texas.  She along with her husband own Evolution Biodiesel, and also have a farm called Far Out Farms.

Here is Paul Pakis, the mystery, the legend.  I had mentioned him before, now here are the pictures to give you a visual.  We’re glad to have you Paul, and to other WWOOF host farms, you could be lucky to have him also, he’s looking.  It sounds like I’m trying to set him up on a date, maybe I am.  Ladies!  He can spread mulch like he’s done it his whole life.

Get it Paul!

The Pak-Man.

This is Kyle, one of the newest additions to the WWOOF-pack.  He and Karen arrived together, they hail from Chicago, but have been traveling and WWOOF-ing for a few months.  They arrived yesterday morning.

Siesta time affords you many luxuries, like fishing.  Take that 9-5 job!  Doesn’t he look thrilled to be holding that little bass?

 

 

 

Aug30

This is exciting!

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WE are finally up on the “Wall of Fame” in the produce section of Ozark Natural Foods!  Pauline Thissen, produce manager and neighbor, has been an advocate for bringing local foods to your table Fayetteville.  I think the pictures on the wall are a great visual to help connect the buyer of the produce with a face.  The farm names are posted by the local products that they have provided.  Now shoppers, you can look up at our pretty faces as well.  Also, check us out in the latest issue of The Nutshell, the CO-OP’s bi-monthly newsletter, where it talks about the farm, however my name is not mentioned (ahem) as one of the farmers (ahem)…but I guess that’s what this blog is for.

There we are!  One big happy family, staring down at you while you shop!

Aug30

Babies! And other things

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Don’t count your eggs before they’re hatched, or so they say, well we DID count them before they hatched and there were three dozen.  Post hatching, we were delighted to have 10-ish join the flock.  Now I say “ish” because there were two or so that died during the first day.  One of the chicks was hen-pecked, and had a head that was oozing.  So, I, wanting to be a day saver swooped up this chick and put it in a box in the house and treated its head wound.  This chick which I have since nicknamed “Spaz” lived in our house for about a week, then I reintroduced it to its siblings.  The Mamma hens were in this new coop with the babies and they knew Spaz was back and pecked at it again.  Ok, plan B, “Get rid of the Mamma’s”.  Well, easier said than done.  Through experience, I am an expert chicken catcher.  I have an accurate swoop, and through training am no longer afraid.  I threw the mammas into the coop with the bigger flock, and both mammas and babies started freaking out.  The crafty young somehow snuck through the fence and joined the big flock with no apparent side effects such as other hens nipping them and the like.  Leaving sweet Spaz all alone in the new coop.  Such is life.

Babies just hatching.

Little “Spaz”.  Since Spaz had been in the house, it didn’t know how to be with the other chickens.

Mammas and babies trying to figure out what happened.

And little Spaz again, trying to figure it out.

In other news, the Missouri Angels are gone for two weeks.  They will return, to over-winter here, this is great news for their help is so valuable.  Also, Paul Pakis, a previous WWOOFer, has just came back from a week-long vacation.  It’s funny, I have pictures of Paul P. and have never posted them, so to you dear reader, this may be your first introduction to him.  Paul who?  Exactly.  Paul came to us from Little Rock Arkansas, he stayed with us here for three weeks, left for a week, then came back.  He told us last night that as soon as he left and was home for a couple of days, all he could think about was coming back.  He said he had never eaten healthier, or felt better in his life.  That the farm life made him happy.  Things like this make us happy too.  It feels good to create an atmosphere for people where they feel good.  This farm is therapy.  Also, I could mention that right before Paul P. left, the Frenchies, David and Marine have returned to France.  I’m not sure how they’re doing, but I bet they’re relieved to not have to be awake and at breakfast by 6:30 am!  Happy trails to you both.