Our Father who liked to Whistle

Walked around the old neighborhood today, North Ashland Ave., Chicago, the land of Our Lady Of  Mispent Youth. Parked the wagon across from Chase Park after dropping off two hogs to Acre Restaurant on North Clark just a few blocks away.  http://acrerestaurant.com/

It was a dark and gloomy day...really it was, and rainy too. I walked south past our old gradeschool, (now a training center for LPN's and lab techs) then past the the old convent (now some kind of hippy joint ? Half-way house ? Soup Kitchen ?) and then past our old apartment building. Which is still an apartment building.And then I wondered,  how can a neighborhood smell exactly the same as it did 47 years ago ?

Overcooked cabbage wafting through an open window followed by stale cigar smoke. Oil and gasoline fumes from the traffic motoring on behind me. Coal dust and Noxema mixed in with Brylcream hair treatment and marshmellow eggs. All of it was right there. I felt pulled towards the courtyard where my sister Mary and I would ride our red tricycles  I wanted to jump up on the narrow metal railing circling said courtyard. I could hear Sister Mary Gerard yelling at me from the school, "Miss O'Shaughnessy, you forgot your homework." But best of all I heard my father whistle. The two fingers in his mouth REALLY LOUD kind of whistle that meant, "Come here now!"  And we would.






So new blog design #3. Comments ?
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Just Playing Around

Soon the New Year will be upon us. I desire something more for my blog. Playing around with my background for starters. The green grass/field thing was too predictable for a "Farmwife" blog. So trying this one on for size. Then will try a couple more until Jan 1. As always comments are welcome as long as they are in complete agreement with my own opinions.

Counting DOWN

If you're a follower of this blog (i.e "stalker") then you might recall our dairy situation. But for those who are new or just forgetful like so many of us Midlifarians, I'll recap. Eight months ago Foremost Coop told us to stop selling raw milk to any folks who came to the farm in need of such. Even though we'd been selling to Foremost for over a decade without any problems , even though all our IDPH inspections were good and even though  selling raw milk is legal in Illinois as long as the customer brings their own container.




Fresh whole raw milk seconds after the cow is milked just
 before it goes into our stainless steel holding tank.
 From there it goes direct to the consumer or the swine of choice.


So we stopped selling milk to Foremost and all our milk is now utilized by selling it raw (non-homogenized, unpasteurized)  direct to farm visitors or by feeding it to our pigs. Sales continue to grow (as do our hogs) every month. Funny thing happened on the way to self-sufficiency. The IDPH (Illinois Department of Public Health)  decided they no longer would grant us the Grade A license we had held for over 10 years, because they were no longer going to survey our dairy. Strange way of thinking. IDPH had publicly stated many times their belief that raw milk is dangerous yet when we asked them to please keep surveying us so we could held accountable to the high standards of Grade A licensure...they said NO.

What's a self-sufficient, responsible, certified organic dairy owner to do ?

Well..we continue to follow the IDPH standards for a Grade A Dairy, one of which is the testing of the milk for various things. One required test (if we were licensed but we are not, so its not "required" of us anymore ) is the test for SCC or Somatic Cell Count. Simply put, the SCC is an indicator of milk quality with  "somatic" referring to white blood cells. Somatic cells originate from INSIDE the cows udder and is considered one way of measuring animal health. If a cow has "mastitis" or inflammation of the udder, the SCC will rise. The SCC of Grad A Dairies should not be above one million cells per milliliter states the USDA  (United States Department of Agriculture). Cows with a SCC of less than 200,000 are considered healthy and will not likely show any signs of mastitis. The average SCC for  Grade A Dairies nationwide in 2009, was 233,000.

Our SCC last month was 90,000  (actual report available upon request to any past, present or future milk customer of ours)

Credit for this goes to our massive employee base. Both of them. Keith who milks 95% of the time and our relief milker (and son) Jason. Its because of their technique and overall herd management that our SCC is so low.

 Oh OK. I'll take a little credit. I am the one who does all the NAGGING about all the rules and regs.  Now back to IDPH.  You would think that they would WANT to survey us, to find out what we are doing well so the information can be shared with others  thus lowering SCC measurements for other dairies who sell both conventional and raw milk. Isn't that what they say they are about , a safe food supply ? I mean it just seems so logical.

Big sister is watching

I was the oldest of 6. Then when I was 14 my younger sister Bernie Jo died and I was suddenly ONLY the oldest of 5. I still feel like the oldest of 6. I always will. I've never minded being the oldest. I am bossy by nature. Being in charge and taking control where situations call for a plan comes very naturally for me,

 even though I know it can be annoying to others,

So my first New Years resolution is this:  Be less bossy. Now get off your can, move away from the computer and accomplish something today will ya ?!?!?!

And so this is Christmas...

Its a beautiful Christmas morning here on South Pork Ranch.  Recent snow and ice storms have given us trees like this:

Simple growths like weeds and grasses, seemingly dead after the first frost, come back to life when coated with shimmering ice.

Bare, skinny twigs which were brown and ugly as they lowered themselves to the ground, became elgant feathery fronds as a blanket of  icy-ness was painted over them.

The crystal formations are everywhere, disguising objects this Midlife Farmwife normally describes as junk, into free form objects of wintry art. Rust, when combined with the icy white colors of snow and ice, evolves into something  like this:

And even into something inviting and welcoming like this,

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy Birthday Baby Jesus !

He's no Freddie Mercury...

...but we still love him. Our Little Freddie, 50% Corgi,  50% Border Collie, 100% nuts. He wants soooo badly to be a real herd dog but we have not gotten around to providing him with professional training. He knows a few commands like  "COME !" and "AWAY !" and then my favorite,  "IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN I'M LOCKING YOU IN WITH OUR BIGGEST SOW ANNE OVERNIGHT AND THEN WE'LL SEE WHO WANTS TO BITE THE HORSES TAILS AGAIN WON'T WE ! ? "  Yeah, he knows the simple commands. But he has a terrible time knowing his left from his right. Let me show you.

Spots piglets, age 6 weeks, (1/2 Red Wattle and half crossbred, we call them the "spotted wattles" ) wandered over to the horse pen,





Then I yell and clap my hands and they begin running

Or in the case of the most frightened pig...FLYING towards their own pen.

When they get across the drive and are heading into their pen where they belong, what does Freddie the Wonder Dog do ? Well, he stops them of course.

Confused, they run back and forth. Confused even more Freddie runs back and forth. Confused most of all, I yell at Freddie and the pigs. No one listens to me. Finally, one of the piglets makes a break for it and they run right through Freddie and the electric fence.

Poor Freddie. Poor poor Freddie. "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me ."

Hog Relocation Program

As our hog herd expands, Keith and I have had to be even more creative about where to locate all of them. To date we have two groups of feeder pigs, bought as tiny babes from other farmers and then finished here. Soon ALL our hogs will be born and raised here, just as soon as demand equals supply. Right now what our customers demand is WAY over what we can supply, even though each month we "supply" more and more.

The Red Wattles continue to be very popular and already several restaurants have reserved RW's for next May, as it will be at that time the current group of RW piglets will be butchering size. In addition, we have four names on our waiting list for breeding stock. These are not problems just blessings to be thankful for. These "blessings" often vex me when they get out from under our fence , run across the drive and into the horse pasture.

Debs purebred Red Wattle piglets resting in between wild jaunts across the drive

Those 8 week old piglets will then stand UNDER the horses feet and dig in the dirt beneath the equines. The horse could are less but it was giving me nightmares. I currently do not have a maket for pig meat indented with horse hooves. So Keith initiated the Hog Relocation Program yesterday and I can report the little RW's are all safely in the big barn. Their mamma Deb was handling the weaning of her litter quite well. I saw her sitting on her hind end with a large rubber tub full of  mulled wine in her hands..uh hooves, as Keith drove away with the 9 wild babes.

In addition to moving Debs litter, he also..
     Moved young Boar Gomez out of his solitary pen into his first breeding group. He now runs with Dot and Debbie. Keith reported he took to his breeding responsibilities very quickly. No advice needed.
     Moved young gilts Morticia and Leopard in with boar  Mad Max for their first dates with the curly haired Hog Juan. Breeding success was also noted by chief herdsman KP.
     Moved older pregnant sow Anne into her own private digs complete with nicely furnished farrowing hut. She is the queen bee of our herd and was a bit miffed by being removed from her kingdom. If we had more acreage we'd leave them all together. Maybe next year.

 Mad Max, Red Wattle Boar, up to his Johnson in fresh snow.
                                           Hmmm, wonder how that will affect his fertility rates ? 
Any U of I folks out there who'd like a new research topic ? Call me.

So, I'll be completing change of address forms for those big fat pigs who seem unable to even do THAT for themselves.