Another wintry day again. I'll have to empty the snow out of the sap buckets tomorrow. We are supposed to get 5" - 10" new inches of the white stuff. At least the daytime temps are creeping up. I already have 1 1/2 gallons of sap so I know Spring is not far off.
I finished working on the news article for the Local Food Atlas that I want to send to the seven different area newspapers yesterday. I'll leave it for a couple of days then go back and review it. I wonder if I'll get enough people who are interested in listing their operations in an atlas to make the project worthwhile.
I spent most of the day in the basement sewing old feed bags into grow bags. It felt good to finish them. I will use 11 bags for tomatoes and 11 bags for cucumbers. Now I need to get out in the woods by the field and cut a couple of poles to build the high tunnel trellis -- maybe I'll beat that beaver to it and cut a couple of popple or birch poles from the area by the lake marsh where he usually does his "shopping".
Stay warm!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Busy Days
It's been a busy last two days.
Yesterday I worked all day gathering data so I could set up an action plan for getting a local food atlas for the northern counties off the ground. I called Miriam Grunes from the REAP organization (thanks to my friend, Jane Hansen at UWEX for the contact info) for advice and help. Then I called the Iron County Development organization and Northern State Bank to see if they might be interested in sponsoring or underwriting an atlas. The bank said "yes" and to call them back when I get the project more formalized, but Iron County hemmed and hawed -- quite understandably. I realize I need to work the project the other way around; that is, first I need to at least get a rough idea of how many producers who might be interested in listing their operations in an atlas. What I did was compile a list of all the farmers markets I could find in the northern 12 counties -- Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Vilas, Forest, Florence, Price, Oneida, Taylor, Lincoln, and Langlade. I will call them all next week and see if I can get a rough idea of the number of vendors for each market. I also looked up the Native American reservations in the target counties and got contact information for them. I will also call them next week to see if they might be interested in listing in an atlas. I was surprised at the number of Reservations; I had no idea the Native American population was so large in Wisconsin. (I suppose if I were a native Wisconsinsite I wouldn't be so surprised.) There is Red Cliff, Bad River, and Mole Lake representing the Ojibwe; Forest County Potawatomi, Mohican at Stockbridge-Munsee, and the Menominee. I e-mailed Langlade County and found out that they do, indeed, have a farmers market, and they kindly provided me with the farmers market contact info. Terrific! The guy at Iron County Development gave me the name of a man named Dave Dumke who is active in Douglas County with local food, and he suggested I link up with him. I will certainly do that and see if we might be able to join forces. I would love to get enough people together who would be interested in forming a structured regional food economy group -- a group that would work on local food policy issues with local governments; a group that micro-agripreneurs could ok to for business guidance and resource information; a group possibly organized as a non-profit organization that would be better able to obtain grant monies to help start agriculture related community projects like organic meat, poultry, and fish processing facilities or community kitchens. But that, of course, is just a dream at this point in time. I keep remembering that line from the movie "Contact" where Ellie's dad says, "Small steps, Ellie; small steps."
I spent most of the day today trying to figure out what size paper I would need to create a 3-crossfold (right angle) brochure where when folded the front cover is 11" long and about 6.25" wide. I would like to set up a "dummy" atlas to work on as I compile data, save the final version to a CD, and take the CD to a printer to get their advice on format. I will try to work up the dummy with my Publisher 2007 program. I may be able to work the location balloons on the different County maps with my Paint Shop Pro program. (WisDOT says we can use their maps with due credit as the maps are paid by taxpayer dollars and therefore public domain.)(ALWAYS go to the Government first when you are looking for information because the chances are that somewhere in the bureaucracy is exactly the information you are looking for and it will be free to use because taxpayers have paid for it!) I think when I finish with this Atlas project I'll write an e-book detailing how to do it so the next person who wants to get an atlas off the ground will save some time and trouble. Maybe I'll do it in Google docs and just publicly post it; I'll have to think about it.
I ordered three more poultry brooders, some latex work gloves, and a logging chain so I can drag logs out of the woods from Farmtek and should get the order by Tuesday at the latest. Also ordered some books from my Wish List at Amazon (even though I know I shouldn't have!).
Well, have to run. Talk to you soon!
Yesterday I worked all day gathering data so I could set up an action plan for getting a local food atlas for the northern counties off the ground. I called Miriam Grunes from the REAP organization (thanks to my friend, Jane Hansen at UWEX for the contact info) for advice and help. Then I called the Iron County Development organization and Northern State Bank to see if they might be interested in sponsoring or underwriting an atlas. The bank said "yes" and to call them back when I get the project more formalized, but Iron County hemmed and hawed -- quite understandably. I realize I need to work the project the other way around; that is, first I need to at least get a rough idea of how many producers who might be interested in listing their operations in an atlas. What I did was compile a list of all the farmers markets I could find in the northern 12 counties -- Douglas, Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Vilas, Forest, Florence, Price, Oneida, Taylor, Lincoln, and Langlade. I will call them all next week and see if I can get a rough idea of the number of vendors for each market. I also looked up the Native American reservations in the target counties and got contact information for them. I will also call them next week to see if they might be interested in listing in an atlas. I was surprised at the number of Reservations; I had no idea the Native American population was so large in Wisconsin. (I suppose if I were a native Wisconsinsite I wouldn't be so surprised.) There is Red Cliff, Bad River, and Mole Lake representing the Ojibwe; Forest County Potawatomi, Mohican at Stockbridge-Munsee, and the Menominee. I e-mailed Langlade County and found out that they do, indeed, have a farmers market, and they kindly provided me with the farmers market contact info. Terrific! The guy at Iron County Development gave me the name of a man named Dave Dumke who is active in Douglas County with local food, and he suggested I link up with him. I will certainly do that and see if we might be able to join forces. I would love to get enough people together who would be interested in forming a structured regional food economy group -- a group that would work on local food policy issues with local governments; a group that micro-agripreneurs could ok to for business guidance and resource information; a group possibly organized as a non-profit organization that would be better able to obtain grant monies to help start agriculture related community projects like organic meat, poultry, and fish processing facilities or community kitchens. But that, of course, is just a dream at this point in time. I keep remembering that line from the movie "Contact" where Ellie's dad says, "Small steps, Ellie; small steps."
I spent most of the day today trying to figure out what size paper I would need to create a 3-crossfold (right angle) brochure where when folded the front cover is 11" long and about 6.25" wide. I would like to set up a "dummy" atlas to work on as I compile data, save the final version to a CD, and take the CD to a printer to get their advice on format. I will try to work up the dummy with my Publisher 2007 program. I may be able to work the location balloons on the different County maps with my Paint Shop Pro program. (WisDOT says we can use their maps with due credit as the maps are paid by taxpayer dollars and therefore public domain.)(ALWAYS go to the Government first when you are looking for information because the chances are that somewhere in the bureaucracy is exactly the information you are looking for and it will be free to use because taxpayers have paid for it!) I think when I finish with this Atlas project I'll write an e-book detailing how to do it so the next person who wants to get an atlas off the ground will save some time and trouble. Maybe I'll do it in Google docs and just publicly post it; I'll have to think about it.
I ordered three more poultry brooders, some latex work gloves, and a logging chain so I can drag logs out of the woods from Farmtek and should get the order by Tuesday at the latest. Also ordered some books from my Wish List at Amazon (even though I know I shouldn't have!).
Well, have to run. Talk to you soon!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Valentine's Day
I started out the day by giving My-Own-True-Love a peck on the cheek (he was eating oatmeal) and saying, "Happy Valentine's Day". His respondent grunt was duly noted and for a while we sat comfortably together, he with his oatmeal and me with my Constant Comfort cup of tea. Memorial Day Weekend (May 24th) we will be married 34 years and we are simply at that point in our relationship where just being together is fine and dandy.
The sun alternately shone and disappeared behind snow shower clouds today. The temperature has dropped and looks like it will remain below freezing during the day for at least the next week, so my tree taps may have to be re-opened once the sap starts to flow again. I did get some sap from a couple of trees in the back yard that are still dripping so I don't think it will be too cold for much longer. It would be nice to have a good sap run like we had last year. With 32 trees tapped and potentially one quart of finished syrup per tree, we may get about 5.5 gallons of finished syrup. That would be great!
I finally made it to town and went to see Bernie at Fiefield Feed Store to talk to him about custom mixing the chicken feed. I gave him a copy of the starter/grower recipe from Herman Beck-Chenoweth's book Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing that I want to use so he could keep it on file for the future. He needed to have the recipe to talk to the guy he uses to mix feeds, and he called me back yesterday with the bad news (er, price). Well, it really wasn't that bad since the quote was within (albeit the high end) the range I estimated, but I did have to commit to two purchases of 1/2 ton each which means I'm going to need to raise more chickens than I anticipated this year in order to not let the feed go to waste. The good thing is that once the layers begin to lay all I need to add to the feed for them is wheat. So, I guess $277 per 1/2 ton isn't all that bad. That works out to 20, 50# bags at $13.85 per bag. I spent some time working out my costs and checking on the Internet for free-range chicken prices. A non-organic, free-range 5# whole chicken sells for just under $30.00. Organic birds are going for just under $37.00 each -- minimum. I need to find the cost for food grade freezer bags to put the processed birds in and then I can settle on a cost for my birds. The added cost of wheat will go into my figures for the egg budget. (See, I AM taking learning how to price my products seriously!)
I bought a bag of game bird starter from Bernie and he is ordering chick starter for me. I mix the two feeds 50/50 and that works well for chicks as the higher protein helps keep the birds from starting to cannibalize. I also bought two bales of wood chips for the brooder in the basement and at Northern Merchandise I picked up a tarp to lay on the brooder floor under the wood chips. I re-read the brooding section of the production manual and found out I need to get three more brooder lights. There is always something to do!
The sun alternately shone and disappeared behind snow shower clouds today. The temperature has dropped and looks like it will remain below freezing during the day for at least the next week, so my tree taps may have to be re-opened once the sap starts to flow again. I did get some sap from a couple of trees in the back yard that are still dripping so I don't think it will be too cold for much longer. It would be nice to have a good sap run like we had last year. With 32 trees tapped and potentially one quart of finished syrup per tree, we may get about 5.5 gallons of finished syrup. That would be great!
I finally made it to town and went to see Bernie at Fiefield Feed Store to talk to him about custom mixing the chicken feed. I gave him a copy of the starter/grower recipe from Herman Beck-Chenoweth's book Free-Range Poultry Production and Marketing that I want to use so he could keep it on file for the future. He needed to have the recipe to talk to the guy he uses to mix feeds, and he called me back yesterday with the bad news (er, price). Well, it really wasn't that bad since the quote was within (albeit the high end) the range I estimated, but I did have to commit to two purchases of 1/2 ton each which means I'm going to need to raise more chickens than I anticipated this year in order to not let the feed go to waste. The good thing is that once the layers begin to lay all I need to add to the feed for them is wheat. So, I guess $277 per 1/2 ton isn't all that bad. That works out to 20, 50# bags at $13.85 per bag. I spent some time working out my costs and checking on the Internet for free-range chicken prices. A non-organic, free-range 5# whole chicken sells for just under $30.00. Organic birds are going for just under $37.00 each -- minimum. I need to find the cost for food grade freezer bags to put the processed birds in and then I can settle on a cost for my birds. The added cost of wheat will go into my figures for the egg budget. (See, I AM taking learning how to price my products seriously!)
I bought a bag of game bird starter from Bernie and he is ordering chick starter for me. I mix the two feeds 50/50 and that works well for chicks as the higher protein helps keep the birds from starting to cannibalize. I also bought two bales of wood chips for the brooder in the basement and at Northern Merchandise I picked up a tarp to lay on the brooder floor under the wood chips. I re-read the brooding section of the production manual and found out I need to get three more brooder lights. There is always something to do!
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