Another Reason

Two days ago I experienced another reason to eat local and fresh foods. I got food poisoning. The only thing I ate different then the girls were green beans straight from the can. The girls ate them too, only after I cooked them well. To keep it short and not GROSS I will just say I thought I was going to die! Stomach cramps, explosive diaherra, dizziness and passing out.... I am much better today. Just feeling tired and weak. Thank goodness for Beky and her help.

The government wants to control the food we eat and where we buy it. They say it is in the name of "food safety". I have NEVER been sick from eating food I grew, raised or processed myself, or boughten from local farmers and producers. I have been sick several times from food I have boughten in stores from "big ag" (never as bad as the last time).

Please people... KNOW where your food is coming from. TRUST yourself and the people you buy from. The government is not who we should trust to keep us healthy and safe. DO that for yourself!

Did you notice the soapbox I'm standing on? Want to join me? Get involved! This is an issue in every state!

Now, no one die of shock........ I really am updating this thing. One of my goals this year is to update at least once a month. Now that I have "said" that out loud, I really am going to have to do it!
We have had lots of things happen since August.

Lyle is still working in North Dakota. The "obscence" amounts of money never materialized. In fact I worry (but I worry all the time any way). He is on a 20 day on and 10 day off schedule. So the 20 days gone stink, but the 10 days home are wonderful. He is still Lyle..... and I'm glad!

Levi was married on August 22, in Juneau. I'm not sure how it happened, but they had sunshine for the wedding. Our new daughter in law is Colleen Windom (now Williams of course). She is a nice girl and we are happy she is part of our family. They live about three miles from us. That probably won't last long since both of them pine for Alaska. Levi still works in the oil/gas fields near Big Piney/Pinedale WY.

Jake and Crissy are now in Washington. But just until Jake finishes school. He is going to wooden boat building school. He will be a journeyman carpenter when he finishes, but his love is boats. Crissy is due to have a little boy in March. Of course we are all excited about that! Juliet is two. She is the cutest, smartest little two year old in the world. Now does that sound like a grammy?

Beky is living home with us. I am sooooo happy about that. Since Lyle has been gone she is a huge help here on the farm. She is working at a coffee shop in town. Her calling at church is the ward young single adult rep. Not her "dream" calling but she is doing well with it.

Biff was married in May. She lives in Evanston. We are happy and really like our new son in law, Chris. They are going to be parents in May. She has her ultra- sound on the 17th and we are taking bets on the baby's gender. Biff is working at the same coffee shop as Beky.

Hannah just turned 7. She is growing so fast. We are doing homeschool. She is already looking forward to being 8 and being baptized. Her imagination is growing just as fast as her body. Hannah is rarely Hannah. Some days she is a knight, a prince, tarzan or a million other characters.

Sarah turned 5 in October. She has started phonics and is learning to read. She definitley is a princess, just ask her. She still wishes she had repunzel hair.

I am still doing what I always do. Being the mom, being Lyle's wife and I LOVE IT ! Until next time......... Jana

Big Changes

Big changes at the Williams house. Lyle was offered a job in North Dakota. As he says "they offered me an obscene amount of money" so he could not turn it down. Also Lyle has been out of work since the first of January. I will be taking care of the farm with the help of Beky, Hannah and Sarah and my mom. We all are missing Lyle terribly already. He left at noon today. So wish us luck in our new adventure! Change is a good thing!

Cheyenne ...Here we come

Well he did it. Lyle threw his hat into the ring. He is running for state senate. The primaries are in August. This quote from Ronald Reagan was the final decision maker... "If not us, who? If not now, when? The family is of course behind him 100%. Not sure how a campaign is run, or what we will need to do. But Lyle is an honest, intelligent, moral, hard worker who really believes in our country and will do what he thinks is best. The constitution and his conscience will always guide him. Any support from our friends and family would be appreciated.

"mis-directed" chicks???

We finally got the call from the post office that our chicks were here and ready to pick up.... and oh by the way, they are all dead. Our chicks were suppose to be here on Friday. The lady at the post office said they were "mis-directed". Since they had no food or water for 6 days they died. Don't you think the post office workers would recognize a box with air holes and LIVE ANIMALS printed on it and take a little extra care to get them where they are suppose to go? hmmmmm government can't get live animals to the right address, but we are suppose to trust them to make decisions for us like health care, what food is healthy and what medicines are safe..... Can we all say "connections"?

More skunk wars

Lyle and I attended the interm ag committee meeting on Monday. The little girls stayed home with Nana (they were VERY happy not to go with us). Beky did the farm chores for us while we were gone. Monday morning there was an uninvited guest in the chicken brooder. A skunk had dug under the building and got in where the little baby chicks were. Beky tried to get the dog to chase the skunk out, but he would not even go in the brooder. Maybe Gus is smarter than we give him credit for. So Beky got the shot gun and let the skunk have it. The room is pretty small so Beky 's ears were ringing and she of course smelled really bad, but the chicks were saved. We really appreciate how much our children help out on the farm. Without them we would not be able to do everything we need to do.

Just a note......... Beky does not smell like skunk any more, but the whole shop does, especially the brooder.

"I have not yet begun to fight"

The last few weeks have been an education. On the 12th of Feb we received notice from the Farm to Consumer Legal Defence Fund, an organization "For Farmers and Consumers Defending the Right to Buy and Protecting the Right to Sell Nutritious Food Directly from the Farm", that the Wyoming Food Freedom Act was being considered by our State Legislature. The bill would exempt from all government inspection, licensing and other interference, any food as long as there was only one transaction between the producer and the final consumer. Basically it would allow those of us wanting to opt out of the industrial food system to do so. We contacted Frank Wallis of E Z Rocking Ranch www.EZrocking-Ranch.com to see how we could help. On Tuesday the 16th, the State House Ag Committee was going to hear public input before voting on whether to send the bill to the whole house, so off to Cheyenne we went. I learned at the meeting that my opinion of politicians was going to have to be adjusted. There are actually elected representatives who aren't just there to see how much power they can amass. Of particular note was Sue Wallis, the State Representative who introduced the bill. The bureacrats however exceeded even my worst expectations. The Fuehrer, oops I mean Director, of the State Health Department and three of his minions contrived to use up as much of the allotted time as they could. They explained to the committee that we lowly subjects weren't nearly bright enough to make our own food decisions and must be protected from ourselves.
The committee thwarted the Fascist Coaliton by scheduling a second day for input so on Thursday we made another trip across the state in the name of Liberty. This time we were able to put in our two cents worth and ultimately prevailed. The committee voted to send the bill to the House and there it passed by a nearly 3 to 1 margin. Next it went to the Senate Ag committee for consideration. When we travelled to Cheyenne for a third time we discovered that The Senate was generally opposed to the bill because they had been lobbied hard by the Wyoming Meat Processors Association. It seems that someone in the State Department of Agriculture had called all the meat processors in the state and told them that the USDA was threatening to shut them all down if this bill passed. When asked to produce the communication from the USDA making that threat, our State Ag people where unable to do so but it was too late. The bill died in Senate committee. The battle rages on. Next year will see another attempt to restore the Right to What's for Dinner to the people of Wyoming. In the mean time we will try to gather grass roots support for our efforts and to educate more people about the sorry state of both their food and their government.

Friday we went to a seminar (our valentine day date) by Gary Zimmer. He is an expert on biological farming. WOW! He has a head full of farming knowledge. A lot of what he had to say did not really pertain to our farm, but it was still interesting. There were a few things though that made me go "hmm". It was fun to have the day with Lyle. It was fun to learn new things and have some questions answered. Have you ever heard something and it is like a light bulb going on in your mind? Well, that happened a few times at the seminar, so it was well worth the drive to Spanish Fork (2 hours). Now to put what we learned or had clarified into practice. There is so many things we want to do with the farm. But there are constraints...... both time and money. I guess it is time to sit down and decide what is most important and what needs to happen first.

Kindred spirits

The first time I had ever read the term kindred spirit I was about 15. I was reading Anne of Green Gables. Anne was always looking for "kindred spirits" and was excited when she found them. Because Lyle and I are not usually among the "crowd" some times we feel like we are the only ones, the only ones who think and do as we do and think.
Last Wednesday was a good day for us. We have been trying to get our feed rations closer to what we believe to be healthy for our animals. Lyle was getting very frustrated. He has been trying for two years to find a protein source that was NOT soy. We have tried to a few things but have not been satisfied with them. We thought we had found a source and drove to Ogden to check it out. Again, a wild goose chase. But the guy there pointed to Cache Commodities across the road and said "try them". It looked like a feed store, that same as every other one that did not have what we needed. Lyle and I debated on stopping there. Lyle said "What the heck, we are here. Lets try it". He got to talk to Rod. We had found another Kindred Spirit! Rod understood why we did not want to use soy. He talked with Lyle for quite a while and made some great suggestions. I think we have finally found a place where we can get the supplements we want! He also told us about a seminar on biological farming that they were a sponsor of (and yes we are attending). We left Cache Commodities more optimistic about our feed than we have been in a long time.
Next we went to get some non-gmo corn. YES you read right NON-GMO corn! Near Brigham City there is a farmer who has good corn for sale. Morgan knows what he is doing. His corn looks, smells and tastes great. Yes, I tasted it. He uses safe fertilizer too. He reads Stockman Grassfarmer and Acres. He is a nice guy too. Another kindred spirit. And close to home even (100 miles is close for us).
Some times it is nice to find people out there that have the same philosophy as we do. It is a comfort to know that we are not all alone. Maybe there is hope for this old world and the people who live on it. If there is enough of us, we can make changes. We can have food that is healthy, we can fight the "evil" in the world, we can live in peace without government interference.... Any way, Wednesday was a good day, and renewed my faith in people and my hope.

I love WASHABLE markers!

The Chicken Experiment

OK..... Just a warning, this might get a little gross. Lyle and I were not sure we should post these pictures. But it is a perfect illustration of one of the reasons our chicken is better than "store bought".

Lyle wanted to can three chickens, one of ours, a organic chicken and a regular store bought chicken. He tried to do exactly the same thing to each chicken. First he stuffed it in a jar. Next he filled each jar with water. Then he put them all in the canner, filled the canner a third of the way with water and cooked them. He became frustrated with the plan when some of the water started to boil out of the jars (there was no lid on the jars, and no lid on the canner). So finally at about 10:30 pm he gave up on the experiment, placed the lid over the canner and we went to bed. The next morning things got busy on the farm with chores and the chicken experiment was forgotten. When I came into the house at around 12:30 to make lunch there was an icky smell in the kitchen. I called Lyle in and told him that he needed to take care of his mess, it was stinking up the house. He said that it couldn't smell bad, it had only been 14 hours. BOY was he wrong! We got the jars out of the water and started to take some pictures........ maybe the experiment had worked. The jar with our chicken (as you can see in the photo) had clear broth, a little yellow fat on the top and did not smell bad (it smelled like a cooked chicken). The second jar was the chicken from Coleman organics. It did not look so good. The water in the coleman chicken jar was hard to see through. It had white and purple floaty things in it. The fat on the top was a very pale yellow. Then came the real test, I smelled it. EWWWW..... I don't know how many of you have smelled spoiled chicken before, but yuck! The smell was pretty bad. The last jar we checked was a Tyson chicken from Walmart. There was no way you could see through the "broth". There was gobs of purple and white gunk in it. The fat on the top was grey. So I got brave and took a whiff......... I ended up leaning on the fridge and choking , trying to keep from throwing up. The smell was putrid! Now remember..... each chicken was treated exactly the same, and this smell test was conducted 14 hours after they were put in the cooker.

What more can we say.......... our chicken is safe, tastes great and is worth the money!!!!

Just a side note........ organic chickens are fed differently than conventionally raised chickens, but they are both processed the same. If you want more information do a web search for factory farmed chicken. Or ask us we would be happy to give you some sites to do research, or tell you what our research has found.

Happy eating !

Last calf of the year

Myrna the cow FINALLY calved today. She is named for my mom. this morning when I was doing the chores I noticed that Myrna was missing from the herd. I found her and her calf hidden near the willows. It was great to watch the little calf try to stand for the first time. Nothing beats a new baby! We decided to name the little calf after my sister Lorri (hope its a heifer!). Lorri was feeling left out since we had several cows named after relatives. Now she is "famous" too.

Busy weekend

The rain has finally let up so we have been busy. We got our chicken tractors whipped into shape and put out in the field so we can move the years first batch of broilers out of the brooder. We also castrated our 6 bull calves (Levi learned how to throw a calf and 2 of the calves learned how to throw Levi). This evening we held the first annual Running Water Farms Testicle Festival. Since we only had 11 testicles or "Rocky Mountain Oysters", we had to augment the dinner with Sage Pesto, Apple Plank Grilled Pork Chops. I know what you're thinking "6 calves, 11 testicles, that's....odd." Well, in the mother of all ironies, Uno had only well, uno. May have found some Berkshire breeding stock in Arizona so another road trip in our near future. I think we are the only farm in Wyoming with anything but cows or sheep.

The babies are here!

Our first batch of baby chicks are here! They are cornish cross broilers (meat chickens). Sarah loves the babies.

Chicken RV

Our chickens needed a vacation. So we got them a camp trailer. Actually our yard and garden needed the vacation from the chickens. We free range our chickens and their ranging ruined our yard. Biff is going to fix that for us. Any way.......... We bought an old camp trailer and gutted it. Lyle added nest boxes and roosts. Now the chickens are out in the hay field and loving it. They spend the day scratching and eating bugs and grass and seeds. They spend the nights in their cozy safe trailer. We can move the trailer from place to place so the chickens always have a fresh place to eat. Pretty nifty huh!?!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was a good day. I use to hate mother's day, I would listen to all those talks glorifying mothers and feel inadequate. It made me think of all the things I wasn't doing and all the things I needed to do better. Now that four of our kids are adults, I know that I was right, there were things I needed to do better and things I didn't do that I should have done. But I also know now I really did do the best I knew how in the circumstances I was in. My four "kids" turned out great! They are thinking, caring, responsible people who support themselves. Are they perfect? NO! But that is ok. I now know that they get to choose, and I need to stand back and let them. Now for the present, and this mother's day. I went to church with the two little girls. They refused to go up on the stand with the rest of the primary to sing, they said they were too scared. Hannah sang softly in my ear though. When I got home, I talked to my MOM which I really like to do. Biffy made dinner for us. There was a present from them all (Sarah had a hard time keeping that secret!). We had fun and talked and laughed through dinner (my favorite thing in the world is to spend time with my family). Then Biffy and Beky cleaned up. The little girls played and Levi got ready for a fishing trip. Then the big girls stuck around and we visited until about 9:00. Lyle missed all the fun, he is at work until Thurdays night. I went to bed last night feeling like maybe, just maybe I had done an OK job at being a mom. Thanks kids!!!!

Uno is born today!

Our first calf was born today. It is out of a light colored red angus cow (#744). Obviously the bull was black! The little girls were so excited. We went to take pictures right away. They have decided to name the cow Freckles. She has a pink nose with black spots. Since this is our first calf we have named it Uno.

The next generation all ready outstanding in their field!

Lyle with one of our boars.

Today we took some pictures of our younger boar. He is a Large Black pig. It is a heritage breed that is not very common, especially in the west. Hannah likes to call him "Jacko". Lyle was busy today getting things ready for his regular 8 days at work. He works in the Jonah oil field and is gone from home for those 8 days. He always has the feed for the pigs and chickens ground and in the barns to make it easy for me to do the chores. We have found that the pigs and chickens do much better on fresh ground feed. We also can control what they eat if we mix our own. We tried the "ready bagged prepared" feed from the stores and were not satisfied with the results. Lyle is always resourceful and found a feed grinder on ebay and we started to grind our own feed. Thank goodness for a wonderful high school ag teacher who taught us how to figure feed rations (Thanks Mr. Wallace)! We saw instant results. Our animals were much more active, and just acted healthier. Plus we KNEW what they were eating for sure............