sometimes you just gotta laugh

My wife told me there needs to be at least one picture for each blog post.  I took  one picture this week that I have been dreading to look at.  In fact I have been driving by the spot I took the picture every time I leave the farm or come home.  The picture is of what is left of my fence.  My boys and I put up a nice split rail fence last year along the driveway.  The man who built this house many years ago had a construction company and he had many loads of fill put along the driveway.  It is full of large chunks of asphalt and concrete that made digging the holes a nightmare.  To see it down made both myself and my boys very angry.  I have been planning this post and fuming about the fence for a couple days now.

After the events of today,  I have been reminded that a good laugh is great medicine.  So before I tell you about what happened to the fence I want to show you what put me back into a good mood.

My youngest son went to feed the chicks in the brooder.  Being about the age to move into a larger building, the chicks can sometimes jump out if you are not paying attention (this seems to happen to my son a lot).  When the chick got out it ran under the brooder.  My loyal and fearless son went in after it.  He missed.  And that made me laugh.  I know my son is actually smarter that a 4 week old chick, but today the chick won.  Ryan even needed help getting unstuck from the brooder.  I went to get the camera first because without a picture who would believe that a chick could pull off such an elaborate escape.

So now that we are all laughing, here  is what happened to the fence.  We had a large load of grain delivered a couple days ago.  The driver stopped at the top of the drive and walked down to survey the area.  He  decided he could turn around at the bottom or if not he could just back out.  He could not do either.  Instead he backed into one fence post at a time.  Pulling forward after each one then backing into the next.  It took him three hours to knock over 13 fence posts. Then he called for help and someone came, took the keys from him, and backed out in less that five minutes.

some times you just gotta laugh

the man behind the curtain

If you are hoping that this will be a story about me you need to get out more.   I am and will remain the face on this farm, but it would not be possible without a lot of help.  So,  I want to tell you a little about my father-in-law.  He grew up in Canada on a farm.  A chicken and turkey farm.  He hated taking care of the birds.  With the passion of a thousand horses running free he hated it.  What he hated most was the chore of cleaning up after the birds.  The smell of the birds.  The turkeys could always find inventive ways to die and they had to be dealt with.  Chickens poop everywhere and someone has to clean up.  It often was him.  Did I mention he hated it?

That was his first reaction to me raising chickens.  But he said I could if I wanted to.  As he saw the plan come together however,  he was,  I think, surprised that when raised on pasture the smell does not get bad.  He liked that for most of the birds’ time with us they were outside, and therefore did not need to be cleaned up after.  He likes how they taste.  He likes that a lot.

As the word got out about our farm we needed to grow both to keep up with orders and to become more profitable (if your local farmer can’t make a living then you don’t have local farmers).  That meant we needed to build bigger and more efficient pens and brooders.  My dad (that is what I call him)  can build just about anything.  I used cattle panels to make a brood building.  He took my ugly and hard to use “buildings” apart and made these….

then he took the concept I was using for a brooder and designed this………….

It has a thermostat that keeps the temperature at the right level and reduces energy costs.  It also has a fan that turns the air over inside the brooder many times every day which keeps the bedding dry.  The front comes off so the dry but used bedding can be swept into a tub and taken to the compost pile easily.  No fuss and no mess and NO smell.  Chores are not so bad around here because he is on the job.  We use less electricity, less bedding, have a healthier environment for the chicks, and can clean and set up a brooder for the next batch in just a few minutes.

He has built feeders, waterers, fences, field pens, and had his hand in just about everything we do here.  I could not do it without him.  While I think I captured how he felt about some of his chores growing up on a farm,  He was given a good start on that farm by a caring family.  It taught him how to laugh and enjoy life and family as well as work hard even on the dirty jobs.  I pray I can do as well for my boys.   He is a wonderful story teller and has written many poems and short stories that we hope to see published soon.  He won’t have his picture taken, so please use these “1,000 words” about him to see a glimpse of the man behind the curtain.

thanks dad, we all love you

farmer paul