Skip to main content

Why Food Is Not Free

Farming is an up and down sort of business. But a lot of times, it's a really neat job. I'm going to outline today why food costs money, as there are some days that (shh, don't tell anyone!) farmers might be inclined to work for free--just for the joy of it.

This was NOT one of those days.

When The Farmer mixed up his daily batch of compost, he noticed a stray piece of metal sticking up out of the mixer wagon. The mixer wagon is where The Farmer measures and mixes exact amounts of manure and sawdust. After it's mixed, it goes into the in-vessel composter for a few days, and the out to the finishing pile. None of this process involves stray metal banging around in the mixer wagon. When he checked it out, he realized that the mixer wagon was rusting to pieces, and that stray metal was part of the bottom of the mixer wagon.

Time to call for Captain Welderman.


After cleaning out some of the future compost (which is REALLY nasty in its potential form), Captain Welderman went to work patching the bottom of the mixer wagon with a new piece of metal.



This is why farmers don't work for free. Partly because stuff breaks so much, and somehow all this broken stuff must be paid for. And partly because some parts of farming are so darn yucky you wouldn't believe it unless I showed you. And you don't even begin to get the full effect unless you're standing in it. Or doing the laundry later.


I actually can't believe what The Farmer and his cohorts fix. It's simply amazing what they can do, and even more amazing that they do it in some pretty nasty conditions.

Doesn't it look all nice and pretty now?


That, my friends, is why food is not free.
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 28, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    Hooray for the Farmer and his cohorts.

    In the words of Rosanne Rosannadanna: "It's always somethin'".

    ReplyDelete
  2. SonjaOctober 1, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Wow, nice and pretty??? I don't know about that.
    Lona, I love reading your blog.
    Your world is so very different from my suburbia life. I get transported here and always leave thankful to the farmers in our country.

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cary ~ My Wool Mitten at Serenity FarmsOctober 6, 2011 at 5:27 AM

    How absolutely true! Good post, Lona ;)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bloggy Giveaway--Now Closed

**This bloggy giveaway is now closed** Thanks to all who participated and gave such great comments. Janette is the winner of the $15 gift certificate to our etsy store . I'm participating in the Bloggy Giveaways Quarterly Carnival . Click the link to go to the carnival where you can enter to win literally hundreds of things. The good news is that even if you have no time to play on the computer trying to win hundreds of things, you can still enter to win one thing right here. This week, I will be giving away a $15 gift certificate to be used toward the purchase of an item in my etsy shop . This contest is open to residents of the United States or Canada only. The winner will receive free shipping on whatever item they choose. Items in my etsy shop include handwoven rugs, wool yarns and roving from our farm, and the ever-popular cotton dishcloth! To be entered in this wonderful drawing, you must go to the etsy shop and look around a bit. Then come back here and type a comment that ...
132 comments
Read more

This Giveaway Is Now Closed!

Today starts a giveaway at Farming in the Shade! I am happy to contribute this complete hat kit (needles not included) to someone who has a knitting obsession and a small person in their life. Here are the rules (contest open to US or Canada residents only): Giveaway ends May 1 at 9 p.m. EST. Winner will be announced by Sunday, May 3. Enter by posting a comment on this blog post. Tell me something about your knitting--who taught you to knit, your favorite yarn, the coolest thing you ever knitted. Make sure you leave contact information! Earn extra entries by: 1) Following me on twitter. (If you don't know what twitter is, don't worry. It's another way to waste your time on the computer.)  Add a comment here so I will count it as one entry. 2) Tweeting this giveaway (no more than once daily). Add a comment here so I know you did it. 3) Blog about this giveaway. Add a comment (with link) here so I can go visit your blog. 4) Follow or subscribe to this blog (or tell me if have...
45 comments
Read more

Lambing Jugs

We usually let ewes begin lambing in the large pen, with the other expectant ewes. After the first lamb is born, The Farmer will let her care for it for a few minutes. Then he will go in and pick up the lamb (or lambs, if he's arrived after multiple births) and move slowly out of the large pen. In this case, the lamb is the bait that makes the ewe move, too. She is very concerned about her lamb, and will follow closely, calling out the whole time.  The ewe and her lamb(s) are placed in a small lambing pen, called a jug. I have no idea why they are called jugs. If anyone knows the origin of that term, I'd love to know. They are kept there for 1-3 days to ensure that they bond, and that the ewe is caring for her lambs well. No distractions. We set up a whole row of temporary jugs during lambing time. This is one of our hay storage areas, so we need to be sure that we've used most of this hay up before lambing begins. After their time in the lambing jugs, the ewe...
2 comments
Read more