Snow slides by Rose Wall
Delightful snow graced us for the Martin Luther King weekend. Trails made by the Osgood clan satiated the farmers who took time to recreate between bouts with quick-books and an ongoing archaeological dig for receipts in the office.
But the bigger story this week was weather… multiple bouts of seasonal lows and eventually un-navigably icy conditions. Extra hay was distributed to all the beasts, supplemented by grain for the pigs and chickens. The dried grasses and forbes not only offer nutrition, they stimulate the inner furnace of digestion. Who knows if the “market pigs” shivered away all the organic grain calories taken in on some of the days?
What we do know is that they have doubled in size since it got cold. And the hens continued to
Photo by Rose Wall
dutifully lay their eggs. This progress while other growth is arrested, (for greens by lack of light, for farmers by the time sink of snow removal!) makes us glad to have livestock.
Worldbeat, Wangari & Takamba in the Snow by Rose Wall
We ate supper yesterday evening while listening to a wonderful Vermont Edition program featuring our friends Jen Colby, Coordinator for Vermont Grass Farmers Association and Bruce Hennessey of Maple Wind Farm. They shared the compelling advantages of the system they both have helped us learn. We felt glad to be part of a movement and of the community of these and other fine people. Then, a familiar, especially cheery voice joined the program. Katie Spring called in to celebrate further the distinctions of ethically raised meat, differences that enabled her, like Laura, to rejoin the meat-eating world. For us this feels healthy and right for this time and our place. Thanks Katie for the shout out and here’s to all the sustainitarians amongst us.
Now if we could only teach the pigs to plow the driveway!
Snowy Farm by Rose Wall