I Wish It Would Rain Down...Somewhere Else

I don`t mean to be unappreciative of rain, so many are going without and we have gone without here even recently.  As a matter of fact, after a wet spring and then a heat wave we were needing a bit of shower activity.  But not the couple of more inches we got yesterday and today.  It is haying time in this area and we could really use a week and a half or two weeks of steady warm with maybe some breezes.

Well, one can hope, right?

As always, it could be worse.  We could have the flooding and landslides that British Columbia, Russia and parts of Asia have been having, or the record drought that I don`t have to tell folks in the US about.

Other than we farming types, all this rain is just what Alberta has been needing.  The water table is replenishing and our marsh lake has never been higher or seemed healthier (although I still know there`s a lot of garbage out there).  The pasture and undergrowth around the forested parts of our summer pasture half section have never been more lush.  We could be pasturing 200 cattle there, easily, for a couple of months anyway.  The less than 15 head there now should fare quite well!

By the way, anyone reading this who might be interested in Grande Prairie grass fed beef, we have 4 steers fattening there now.  They should be available late this fall and into winter.  I`m hoping to get them sold directly so we can keep this excellent beef out of the mainstream feedlot system.

Now that the shameless self advertisement is done, for the moment, I have been meaning to share some garden pictures for awhile.  I took some back in early June but these are from just two days ago.  Luckily I got them taken as its a muddy mess now.


Angie, this is the tomato patch.  In the background are some chickens that think they`re going to get some greens thrown to them.  Turns out they did when I discovered some kind of maggot eating one small patch of turnip roots.

One section of two kinds of beans (the far 3 rows are Pinto, the rest some kind of yellow wax bean that I don`t remember just now).  There are a LOT of beans this year.  I planted about 5 varieties in order to try some changes from our typical green and yellow beans.

A view of the southwest patch.  Some great beets and onions here, but also the turnips that were being eaten.  With all this new rain...I might lose a bunch of this to rot.  Think Ill start processing the beets tomorrow.

Onions in that same area.  They got flattened by a storm a few days ago.  Real strong winds had the tomato patch laying over the same way.  I love how they can go all crazy when going to seed, like the one in the center right of the picture.

North end of the garden.  Some weeds at the bottom, then some lettuces, potatoes, beans, chard, corn, and a thick patch of various pumpkins, squash and cucumbers.  

You can see some of the beans better here, and a small row of kohlrabi.

 More beans and some wimpy corn.  Won`t be much of a corn year again, methinks.  There is another struggling patch that is starting to get its tops, but most isn`t much taller than a foot or two.

These Tonda Padana pumpkins seem incredibly  prolific.  Almost like zucchini.  Some fruit is rotting but I bet there are 15 that are already a decent size like this, and many smaller ones.  I sure hope they taste good.  Gotta find some feeder piglets in case they don`t!

Closer view of the squash and pumpkin patch.  One can no longer tell easily where one variety stops and one begins.  Don`t think I will be saving any seed this year.

This is the plantain that was pointed out to me.  It is the only thing that flourishes in a low, wet spot so I`m going to harvest seed from it this year and if it looks like I can use a lot or sell some, then I`ll plant a bunch in that spot next year.  I now know it grows well in the wild here (when wet anyway) but it looks like I can grow some pretty impressive plants right in our garden, and fill a difficult area at the same time.
 

 

So that`s all for now I guess.  I hear it raining again outside...

Peace and comfort.

Grande Prairie Grass Fed Beef Update

Well, for the first time since I have lived back up here, some 6 and a half years now, we have received a good hard rain. Around 3 days and probably 3 or 4 inches worth. Makes me wish he had a LOT more rainwater storage capability out at the farm. But mostly I'm just very, very grateful for the moisture and trying not to get greedy by hoping for a week or two of nice warm weather and then a few more showers.

I AM hoping that all this rain has been spread around to where it has been needed even more than where we are, places that have been afire or even just parched to the point of real worry about crops, pastures and woodlands.

Around 10 days ago though, we had just an amazingly beautiful day. Clear, calm, hot (especially considering our latitude), and not even too bad for mosquitoes. So lovely that I took my camera along for the walk to move the cattle over to their day pasture. I figured I would take some update pictures of the calves to share here.

These are the first two calves that were born this spring. Both are doing very well but clicking for the larger view should show just how muscular the lighter Blonde bull is getting. Impressive genetics indeed. The heifer is lovely as well, and looking like she will be a good herd addition.


The larger bull here is pretty special as well. A couple of weeks younger than the calves pictured above, this bull is pretty much the same size now. I'd just loooove to have about 20 versions of his mother at about 5 yrs old, or I guess a big pile of gold might be alright too.


Lickerish's bull, the little one of the group, is still lagging behind. He wasn't eating well for awhile but Dad nursed him along and now he is eating as voraciously as his siblings. I am betting that by summer's end he is just about as large as the rest, other than the Blonde who is likely to be massive by then. Click on the lower picture for another good look. That Blonde is one damn fine specimen.


2 of the next 4 beeves which will go to processing are looking good as well. The other two will dress out lean but probably quite light. They are twins whose mother had but one chamber of her udder working. She spent a few weeks trying to "lose" one of them, that one went on to steal from two other nursing cows and actually ended up the larger of the twins. In the wild, if she had managed to both survive and retain fertility she would likely have gone on to mother a line of very hardy animals. However it is highly unlikely that she will be fertile therefore she is likely to be processed. Kind of a shame but these things happen. As I said earlier, in the wild she would likely have been predator food within the first two weeks. With us she will have lived into maturity in the fresh air, on the side of the lake readers can see elsewhere on this blog.

Anyway, that's all for now I think. More to come on our grass fed beef and some ideas for the future.

Grass Fed Grande Prairie Beef

Any of my vegetarian friends and readers might want to skip this post. My apologies if it is offensive but I am more than willing to discuss my omnivorous tendencies and beliefs at a later time.


Well, we now have 4 freezers full of fresh grass and hay fed beef that we need to sell to make some room for the pork that is coming and the broilers that need doing soon. This beef is from a 3 year old bull and is extra lean and absolutely delicious. We have had some of the steak and ground beef and I`m not exaggerating at all when I say it is delicious. It is some of the best tasting beef that I have had. I am sure others will agree.

At the moment we have ground beef, sirloin, t-bone and minute steaks, and a few varieties of roast...all priced below local market prices. It was processed at the local H&M Meats butcher so it is inspected. The ground beef comes in approximately 2lb portions and the steaks are, as I recall, 2 sirloin or minute or 4 t-bone per package.

If anyone in the Grande Prairie area is interested, shoot me an email for more information and pricing:

litetechca (at) gmail (dot) com

As I mentioned above, there will be pork available soon. Two gilts went to the butcher shop on Monday and we are excited to see how they turn out. Apparently our girls were the leanest and healthiest looking pigs of the week`s lot. It`s been years since my family raised pork but most of what is available locally is industrially raised in total confinement. This means pale and fat and chalk full of hormones. Our pigs are penned but have fresh air and sunlight all day every day. They are hand fed grain and grass or hay. We give them treats like coal and various roots as well. These pigs are healthy, lean and have had the best life we could give them, outside of fully pasturing them (which as I have mentioned before, is the plan for the future if I keep at this).

We will also have some free run broilers available very soon. I have been meaning to post about them as well as we are quite happy with their growth. The broiler type is so genetically shallow now and they can be prone to heart problem and limb breakage. But ours get lots of chance to run about and they are brought fresh grass every day, along with their regular diet. This means stronger limbs and healthier birds. I will post some pictures and give them a full post soon.

That`s all for now I think.

Saludos.