Green fencing

The image below of a portion of our farm, from google maps, shows fencing helps regenerate soil fertility.

The three light colored spots directly to the left and
below the hexagon are fruit trees, and two brown spots
near the lower right edge of the photo are Japanese Maples.

In the photo the small hexagon in the upper left corner, 750 square feet in area, is markedly greener than the rest of the field. It was fenced off. The rest of the acreage is open to any critter. This photo was taken in the late, dry, summer of 2014.

We watered the trees, but we also watered trees in other areas that do not show similar increases in greenness. It appears that the fencing ended grazing pressure from rabbits, turkey, and deer. The longer grass, bushes and trees shade the soil, keeping it cooler and more moist, setting up a soil creation feedback system--more protection more green, more green more protection, etc...

We have since added considerably to this fenced area, now up to over 10,000 sf. This photo makes me want to fence my entire five acres.

Troops arrive for basic training

I found five little cockerels at Wilco for half price. They are lucky little birds. Normally they would have been tossed into a grinder as soon as they were sexed, but somebody must have thought they were pullets (hens) and sent them to the store where their true nature was discovered. Not sure what the store would have done with them if I hadn't come along looking for troops to chicken the Rooster Picket Bug Kill Zone Garden Perimeter Fortified Area of Defense (RPBKZGPFAD).

As the man at the store said, very absolutely, 'nobody wants cockerels!'

I replied, 'shouldn't they be free?'

No luck, but at $1.50, close.

My Janissaries in training: Two White Leghorns, two Blue Andalusians, One Gold Laced Wyandotte, and two Rhode Island Reds, the latter are pullets to replace my lost Buff Orpington and my Unexpected and Very Expensive Speckled Sussex Rooster.

They're heritage breeds. Without a marketable skill like laying eggs or growing genetically engineered giant breasts, they get, well, decapitalized.

That the boys get immediately killed was one of the ethical dilemmas I faced at the beginning of the chicken head scratching. We can't keep roosters as they're too loud for the neighborhood, plus I need good foragers that are pretty cold hardy--good forager plus cold hardy leaves me with only heritage breeds to choose from.

But for every heritage female I buy a heritage male is going to die. Oofdah, my bruised
conscience.

Cheap Cheeps

The white leghorns massage my ego/conscience the most. White Leghorn hens lay white eggs. White eggs are not sought after by the particular sort of hairless ape that keeps heritage breeds. So, the white-egg-laying White Leghorn cockerel is a lucky bird if he sees day two. Nobody wants cockerels, especially White Leghorn cockerels.

Poor Henry the Unexpected and Very Expensive Rooster, he's going stir crazy. But I can't put him outside. He is LOUD. I take him to the land and let him roam when I have the time or I'm working on the fence. Soon, he'll be in chicken wonderland, though, scratching, eating bugs, and generally Roostering.

We're keeping Henry Rooster in the garage until we get the fencing ready on the farm. Tonight he kicked his stall door open (actually a dog kennel) and raided the place. He hopped up on the top of the chick incubator and broke the heat lamp. We're lucky he didn't kill the chicks.

Work on the RPBKZGPFAD in progress. Electric wires soon.

Everybody's welcome on the farm

I'm not upset when I see mole hills or mice or rabbits. Generally, the more life the better. Mole hills are a sign that  the soil is regaining health. Moles need to eat over half their weight in earthworms each day so they're always looking for rich, abundant soil that is full of worms.

If you've got moles then you've got worms. If you've got worms then you've got worm poop. Yay, worm poop.

Strange fact: A moles saliva is toxic to earthworms. It will paralyze but not kill. The still alive worms are often stored in what is essentially a mole pantry. Sometimes, a mole will store a thousand worms for later meals.

Voles follow in the mole holes, as do mice. The real damage to crops is done by these two. But, as I said, these creatures, usually annoyances or worse, are not hated by me. I see rabbits but I also see Hawks, so nature balances the equation, leaving food for everyone, including my family.

Coast Garter

This little Coast Garter Snake, above, was roaming around. I picked him up. I'd never 'own' a snake because I like my animals to have multiple jobs, but I like seeing them on the farm. They eat mice, moles, voles, bugs.

I can't help grabbing the poor fellows. Reptiles are really cool. Garter snakes are generally not harmful to humans. But, they will emit a smelly musk when threatened, and they do have teeth. If they manage to puncture your skin and then gum you for a bit you might even suffer a small swelling or irritation because they do produce a neurotoxin. If you're a frog and you let the snake gum you then you'll have the unimaginable experience of being swallowed whole while still alive. I guess if the snake was big enough, and you let him gum on you until he released all of his venom, then you might have the same displeasure.

The Farm Blog Begins

Marvelous Wonderful Farm's 2014 Christmas Photo

It's a bit of stretch to call what I'm doing 'farming', though I have a business license, and I'm losing money. But I do hope that I will begin to show a profit in two to three years, so here goes. 

Marvelous Wonderful Farm is my attempt to prepare my family for climate change, to grow healthy food, and, eventually, to show a modest profit. We have five acres in Ridgefield, Washington, about 20 minutes North of Portland, Oregon. We're on a well traveled road, making a farm stand a future possibility.

I am trying to grow food ethically because it seems like a farmer should be at least as diligent with the soil as a Boy Scout is with a camp-sight and leave it better than he found it. I imagine that occasional future posts will include decrying of the fossil fuel intensive, health destroying, water ruining, life killing heavy equipment work that is currently called farming, but I'll keep this blog more about my trials and errors than about the failures of Big Ag.

Let's learn to grow our own food together. After all, if you're dependent on somebody else for food, you're dependent. Better to be dependent on someone you know and trust who is also dependent on you, which is a long way to say that I believe freedom and 'keeping it local' are meaningless without each other.

Rooster Picket Bug Kill Zone, before electric.

An important caveat, though, for any noob farmer: I have land, not much, but enough for one man to farm. Lack of arable soil is the single biggest impediment to starting farming. There are vertical farms and ingenious coops and front yard farmers who rent lawns, and the like, but nothing can really substitute for a few good, south facing acres; and that's what I've got. I say this only to be fair. I know my advantages.

Chris Rush Dudley

Marvelous Wonderful Farm and Film

chrisrushdudley@yahoo.com