"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 !