last days.

All of a sudden, we’re approaching our last few weeks on the farm. After spending most of the past year planning for, traveling to and working on 3 farms in New England, it’s time to start heading west soon.

While it’s still summer here, we can see the changes in seasons coming on. They happen quickly and planning for winter has begun. Luckily, we’ve stood still long enough to watch the gardens show their peas, pick them, store them and watch them dry up. Seeds are saved and extra plants are thrown to chickens. Raspberries were a daily chore to pick, beets were planted, harvested and consumed. Canning and other preserving is an everyday chore. Animals have grown in front our eyes. Rabbits bred, bunnies born. Kittens that were feral and romping in the forest finally are living in the barn.

We’ve witnessed real struggle in what seems like paradise from snapshots and short phone conversations. Small farms that are doing things the right way are up against so many odds. Animals that have rotational pasture need to be rotated. Plants that aren’t sprayed with chemicals have to be weeded, often. Humane slaughter on a very small scale might mean not being able to be USDA certified although the meat comes from an animal raised in such superior conditions compared to even mid-size farms.  I’m not even talking about comparing to the factory farms which feed most of this country. Organic grain is 3 times the price of the non-GMO, non organic alternative.

These questions still remain talking points all day long around here. How can small farmers, in our current case, living on social security, afford to keep going, and how can they possibly not? Without a community that is willing to buy organic dairy, bread, and meat, there is no income from your labors. And then when you are aging or sick, there might not be enough constant help to give you the security to keep going.

Lately it’s been challenging to balance the realities of helping figure out other farmer’s struggles and still be holding onto hope that our own ventures can be successful. We’ve spent substantial time at 3 farms over the past 6 months and all have been on the brink of something beautiful and at the same time, tipping towards financial crisis. So with all the reality in our faces, how do we proceed? How do we move towards a sustainable life that affords a comfortable living in exchange for our drive and motivation. For now, it’s first things first. A few more weeks of milking goats, feeding pigs, chasing chickens, weeding gardens, baking bread and making yogurt. Hopefully a breath and another cross-country road trip will help clear the air and lead us towards a few answers.

paracord goat collars

A few days ago we were tasked with the project of making goat collars for the twelve little boy kids that would be leaving the following day for camp. That’s right, camp. It turns out the farm we’re staying with is very involved with 4-H and made some connections with the 4-H summer camps in Maine to house their extra male kid goats for the summer. So small goats play with small humans, summer ends, small male goats still get the ax but had a really fun summer before it all ends.

I’ve noticed that there seems to be a general belief among people we’ve encountered who have spent time around farm animals from an early age. Those animals that get a really good existence on small farms basically have had a much better life than most of the dairy animals out there in the world and when it’s their time to go, at least they had that sweet little life. Is a summer in the sun better than being killed right out of the womb? This debate seems to be one that continues within the dairy community.

So for this summer, six male kid goats got blue collars made by hand and will go to the camp by the ocean. Six others will wear the green and go to the mountains. I’m still pretty sure I’m not of the heart to take an animal’s life myself, whether small or large, but I like to think that most small scale dairy farmers have the very best interests of their animals. You care for all of them with clean bedding, fresh water, lot’s of room and let them jump around and be silly little goats. When it’s there time to go, someone with a quick and steady hand takes their life and then their mother continues to produce milk for the rest of the season. Then we have milk, yogurt, kefir, cheese, gelato. All the dairy come from the birth (and death) of these little lives.

Internal vegetarian debates aside, I did learn how to make a very cool goat collar which could of course be used for a dog as well. Attached below is the instructional video. Just make sure to buy decent buckles if you have an escape artist, I’ve been told strong ones can be purchased at a mountain climbing shop.

You’ll need:

• 3/4″ buckle
• metal “d” ring
• paracord
• scissors
• lighter

You’ll need a foot of paracord for every inch of your animals neck.

If you’re using 2 colors, you’ll half of that amount of each color and need to melt the ends of each color together. Make sure to press together firmly. Ok. Just watch the video, a few times and press pause a lot.