Welcome to a Party! Last night (April 30) Common Good Books of St. Paul (MN) hosted the book release party for my latest book (The Compassionate Carnivore, Or How to Keep Animals Happy, Save Old MacDonald’s Farm, Reduce Your Hoofprint and Still Eat Meat.) It was scary and fun at the same time. The party […]
There Be Calves Here The dairy farmer finally called. He had four male calves we could buy, between the ages of one day old to seven days old. These guys are babies. The farmer suggested we keep them in individual pens for while. This wasn’t what I had in mind. I pictured the little guys […]
But What About Us?We are in our spring waiting season…waiting for the weather to warm up, for the grass to start growing again, and for the lambs to be born in three weeks. (Yikes.) So while I’m waiting, I tend to get excited about things. A few days ago on NPR an economist from Stanford […]
Shearing, Yet Again My favorite part of farming are the cycles—the same thing happens every year, but each time, it happens a little differently. If you’ve read my entire blog (only recommended for extremely bored masochists), you’ll notice shearing happens at the end of March…every year. This year snow was expected two days before shearing—serious […]
Order Early, Order Often! I know that’s supposed to refer to voting, but I’ve stolen it for my own nefarious purposes. Somehow, between chores and speaking engagements and eating and sleeping, I’ve managed to write another book. It was a difficult birth, but she’s almost ready to face the world. I can’t seem to make […]
What’s Cooking? Our trip to Palm Springs was, of course, great. My subsequent writing retreat, also great. Now I’m home again, and happy to be here. However, I’ve been gone for several weeks, which is long enough to lull me into thinking I lead a normal life just like all the other kids. But then […]
Unbelievable Event! This blogger, who only posts every 10 days or so (let’s face it, not everything that happens on a farm is all that interesting), is taking six days off for a rare event: a vacation. (True, it’s a working vacation, but still…) Even more unbelievably, Farmer Melissa will be coming along, head cold […]
Hay Circles So, here’s a typical winter morning out on Rising Moon Farm. See that small hay circle at the feet of the ewe in the center? The first winter we had sheep, one snowy morning I walked out and found hay circles. It was puzzling. Here they are again, and again. Do the sheep […]
Of Dogs, Llamas, and Electric Fences Llamas make great guard animals, protecting our sheep against coyotes. They ‘adopt’ the flock as their own, and because they despise canines, will scare off any coyotes or stray dogs tempted to stop by for a visit. So when our vigilante llama Zipper (Exhibit A) EXHIBIT A: first laid […]
A Farmer’s Hobbies I’m not sure farmers have hobbies. My Uncle Kenny up in North Dakota pretty much works all the time. When he needs a break from feeding cattle, he drives a tractor for 8 hours. When he needs a break from driving tractor, he heads for the machine shed and fixes something. If […]