Farmers REALLY do Love and Care for Their Animals

Farmer Luke recently posted a satirical video criticizing the Humane Society on our farm facebook page.  I always thought the Humane Society was a great program, and the small shelters, truly are, BUT the organization along with many other programs that encourage the humane treatment of animals are often criticizing farmers for their mistreatment of animals.  Before Farmer Luke and I started raising our own (few) animals, I may have fallen prey to this false advertising as well.

Let me back up... I just came in from working in the preschool, yes at 11:00pm- I'm getting things all ready for our graduation next week.  Before I came in I decided to go and check on our doe goat, Flower that is expecting any day.  She still has not delivered, but the expectation is so much fun, I may or may not have gone out specifically to check on here 3 times already today.  

As I turned on the light in the barn, our barn owl screeched and me and swooped down (wish I had my camera- we talk to our preschoolers about the barn owl that lives in our barn and the fun mice pellets it leaves).   The goats all started bleating for me- they're pretty spoiled by the corn the preschoolers hand feed them.  And then our farm cat, Snow came up for a scratching.  

When our three does (Whitey, Flower and Halle) walked up, I couldn't see our week old baby kid, Diamond.  But I quickly saw Halle (his mom) walk over to where she had him tucked away and in a corner to protect him from any breezes.  It is so touching to see her tender care of her young son.  He is only milking on one teat though, as I have read that singlets sometimes do, so Luke and I got an early experience of milking Halle's engorged teat.  

We had a funny conversation that led up to our deciding to help her out a little.  Luke has been quite busy hand planting over an acre of watermelon, in addition to the other 30+ acres he needs to get in of a variety, so he doesn't have a lot of time right now (to say the least).  Anyway, I was feeling some serious empathy as it was quite apparent the lopsidedness of her teats.  I told Luke that engorgement can lead to mastitis (I spoke not only as another experienced nursing mammal, but also from research I had done on goat forums online).  So, Luke dropped what he was doing and came out immediately with me to help poor Halle.  We pinned her in a corner, I had some warm compresses and had Luke massage her.  He then milked her until she was visibly relieved.  She fought it at first, which I would have to if two caretakers came to relieve me of my pressure during those painful periods of learning the finer art of breast feeding.  

I share this little picture with anyone who reads this, not to scare off any would be breast feeders or goat herders, but to show a small glimpse of the care that goes into raising farm animals.  The truth is that although our farm is small, about 90% of farms in America are small.  And many farmers sacrifice much more of the comforts (and discomforts) of life to help their livestock.  We heard Trent Loos talk about this very subject and how farmers that live in bitter cold areas, go out several times a day to feed and otherwise care for their animals.  

I have never met Luke's dad, Farmer Craig.  He passed away when Luke was 17 from Leukemia.  But the picture that has been painted of him was that he was a firm farmer, but his wife Nancy the other day said that he would cry whenever he saw an animal hurting.  I don't think he is alone in those sentiments.     These farmers spend countless hours caring for their animals, a little like raising our own kids, and we all know as we serve and sacrifice for our dependents whether they are human or animal we love them even more for it.

SO... the next time you see a youtube video depecting animal cruelty on farms, know that most small scale farmers love their animals, and love them deeply.  When our animals are mistreated or are hurt in some way, we grieve and try to care for them as quickly and effectively as we can. (Even though we may not "humanize" them as the Humane Society suggests we should do.)  We truly love our animals, nothing beats the feeling of holding a day old baby kid in your arms and stroking his baby soft fur.

And even many of the larger operations are not as "cruel" as those videos portray.  But thats a subject for another post.

Canning

Nancy just brought me up TONS of delicious apricots. So I will be bottling apricots. I bought some 100% juice concentrate on sale at Harmon's so that they will be bottled in juice. I also plan on doing some in only water- for myself and baby Finn. I'll post pictures later.

Getting Started

My friend Codi posted recently on her blog about the thrill of tossing something you don't need being a bigger thrill than buying something. That really made me think and I've been trying to minimize since. I think I will try to take it one step further and try not to buy any non-essentials for the next year. I don't want to be extreme about it or make my kids feel like they are deprived- so we will see how this goes.
This is what I posted today on my Facebook page:

"I'm thinking about doing a buying freeze. I love finding bargains, but I like the idea more of living more simply. I have already bought Christmas presents, so maybe if I cut it back to absolute necessities- eating as much as possible from fresh produce, our own meat and eggs, then using our own frozen and bottled foods in the winter and early spring.

I will try not to buy any processed foods, anything that I couldn't do without. I'm thinking I'll try it for a week and hopefully do it for a full year. THEN it will become more habit and buying things can be done more carefully.

I've read about people doing these things. Anyone have experience with it? Has it worked? I think it may be most difficult in the adjustment stages but then I expect to experience much freedom from this experience."

I'm actually quite excited and my goal is to blog about it along the way. My progress, setbacks, difficulties, etc. I'll post recipes I do from all of the produce and food storage stuff. (And this will be a good opportunity to see what my food storage is lacking.)