» the man behind the curtain

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

Uncategorized | admin | March 4, 2010 10:32 pm

1 Comment

By Marianne, May 12, 2010 @ 1:58 am

Anytime you want to send “dad” down to Oregon, we would love to have him. He sounds amazing. Love the brood buildings.
Marianne in Oregon