A puppy video

Here's video I posted over at the puppy blog.

You can go there to read about the details if you want.

Here's a link to our youtube channel to see all of the video's we've ever uploaded to youtube. http://www.youtube.com/user/farmblog

A Don Fracisco concert

My family and I had opportunity to see Don Francisco give a concert at a church in Conover, a town north of Eagle River. Friends of ours Phil and Diane got it arranged for Don Francisco to come to the Northwoods. It has been a years long dream of Phil's to have him up here for a concert. It almost happened a year or so ago but, fell through and finally last Tuesday night it became a reality. We were very excited both for Phil and for us to see Don Francisco as we've been blessed by his music for many years now. I think it was around 1981 when a fellow I worked with first gave me a tape of his.

Phil is involved in a prison ministry and he arranged also for him to give a concert at a prison on Wednesday. I haven't heard yet how it went but, I'm sure it was great.

The song in the video above called "He's Alive" is one of the songs Don is famous for. To hear this song in person, I think, gave us all goose bumps, I know it did for me for sure. He played and sang alone as he was not accompanied by anyone else on this trip but, it was still amazing. Don Francisco has a real gift. The Holy Spirit certainly ministers through the music.

Here's a link to Don Francisco's website for more about his music and ministry. http://www.rockymountainministries.org/

To improvise

Last Thursday it was quite windy, cold and wet. We needed to do some butchering of chickens and turkeys so we set up our little processing station inside our dump trailer. This kept us out of the wind and reasonably comfortable.

The little red trailer is used to cart the live birds in from the pasture where they are kept in the movable pens.

Normally the dump trailer is used to haul paper and cardboard once a week to a recycling facility in a near by town. That's why it has tall sides. Makes for a great wind break. Sometimes you have to improvise.

New movie about government spending

Fernando Ortega

Fernando Ortega is one of my favorite musicians. The video above is a tribute to Billy Grahams wife Ruth, who passed away awhile back.

Many years ago we saw Ortega in person at a church in Kenosha Wisconsin. It was simply him singing and playing either a guitar or piano. To me that is the best kind of music, one or more people singing along with stringed instruments. Way better than the lights and glitz of modern concerts.

Some better pictures

These pictures are a little better than the ones in the last post. At least they're not as washed out. I went out today to try to get some better colors. I'm still not real happy with the colors. It might be the time of day with the sun shining bright around noon. Not enough shadow perhaps.

I couldn't believe how many more leaves had dropped just over night. It was cold last night in the mid 20's.



We have some ripe tomatoes still on the vine in the greenhouse, as well as peppers, eggplant, and celery. In the top picture you can barely see the green house along the tree line. It's nearly 100' long.

We have 5 turkeys left. These didn't grow as fast as the others so we are letting them get bigger.

Chicken tractors in the Fall

I wanted to get some pictures of our little caravan of chicken tractors but, I had my daughters camera set on the wrong setting and the pictures turned out all washed out. But, here they are anyway.

These pictures were supposed to illustrate the path the four cages make across the field.

The birds and cages mash down the grass in their wake. The birds forage through the grass eating bugs, worms and such. They eat the grass to. The manure left behind is fantastic for the fertility of the field. The dark green grasses that come up days after the pens have moved ahead are a definite contrast to the grasses that have not had the manure treatment.

We have four cages here and each one is built a little bit differently. That's because I build them with what ever scraps I have on hand.

The square pens are fine except for one bad flaw. They are too tall and strong wind can turn them over, which happened last year when I had two pens blow over tumble weed style in the night and we lost turkeys and chickens to the coyotes. It never happened this year but we did get a wind strong enough to scoot them to the side enough that we lost one young chicken when it got crushed underneath one edge. The Joel Salatin style pens are probably half the height of these pens and I doubt they have the same problem of turning over.

This last picture taken yesterday shows that we are in full Fall colors right now. This is my favorite time of the year. I wish this picture wasn't so washed out so you could see the full brilliance of the colors.