Time Flies on a Busy Farm

Where has the time gone? Life on the farm has been very very

busy with no spare time which is why I have not added anything to my blog.

The Denison Farm Market opens this Sunday at noon and I have
been spending many hours over there cutting brush, mowing new parking space,
uncovering the 19th century barn site and clearing the hill behind
the house so they can do a dig.

Capt. George came here in 1654 and we are finding out that
perhaps he was here many years before. He built a Palisade and inside that was
a stone fort, this is the purpose of all the brush cutting and clearing, so we
can find both of these historically significant structures and recreate them on
site.

Besides farm work I also work another part time job in
addition to the continual brush clearing, this leaves very little time for my
own farm. I have many trees down now and just need to cut them up so I can
regain access to my back pastures in the oak forest. Pigs LOVE acorns!!

We had made a deal with a guy to come in and cord out about
10 acres but as time went on he never showed, never called so the trees still
stand, and the brush isn’t getting cleared so more fence line can’t yet be run
to allow more access to acorns for our pigs.

We have lots of piglets and the two little piglets we were
bottle feeding are doing very well, are very friendly and soon will be allowed out
of their paddock so I can start to train them.

The other piglets are my final breed for our Spanish ham
project. These piglets are in my opinion the perfect pig, bright eyes, great
body shape, big and long with up ears (I LOVE up ears versus down ears). This
breed I call a Large Shireworth after the three breeds that were combined to
come up with these.

Pigs on pasture and in particular acorns are far healthier
and the meat far more tasty and nutritious than pigs raised indoors. They are
happier and have a great life while they are with us. Why anyone would raise
pigs indoors or in a mud pit is beyond me.

So we have been moving pigs around to different paddocks,
moving cows, moving chicken tractors, moving chicken fence and egg mobiles,
always moving something.

In addition to all this I have got the garden about done,
seaweed hauled and some spread on the garden. I have started a new
strawberry/blackberry/raspberry bed and have covered most of that with seaweed.
I have added a couple of bushes to our blueberry garden and they are growing
well.

My Mantis tiller broke, the John Deere riding lawnmower
broke too and both are still in that state, just no time to fix everything. I
spend countless hours and way too much money trying to fix my truck, replaced
many sensors, plugs, wires rotor cap and distributor cap, plug and fuel filter.
It runs but it does not like it so I limp back and forth to my part time job in
Waterford. Can’t blame the truck since I have hauled tons and tons of whey,
grain, seaweed, stone and made many runs to the dump. With over 200,000 miles
no wonder it squeals when I fill the bed with 2,200 pounds in a half ton pickup.

We lost 100-day-old chicks 3 days after we got them from the hatchery, it seems that the USPS managed to kill $100,000.00 worth of chicks.

So that’s what I have been up to the past month or so. Hopefully I can make time to continue with providing you more information on what you should and should not be eating.

Remember the Denison Farm Market in Mystic at 120 Pequotsepos Road, which is off Jerry Browne road just past Valenti’s Auto. Take 95 to exit 90 and turn away from Mystic, take your first right on Jerry Browne and follow the signs. While there visit the Nature Center and walk our miles of trails, all provided by the Denison Family who owns all the property both facilities are on.

Cheers,

Craig