Fixing, Selling, Sanitizing on the Farm

Join me when I feed the heifers or work my oxen. You can be there to welcome the eight calves due in April. It'll be fun! Watch for my daily videos on Facebook. I'll post each one at 1 p.m., and also put them here.

These are crazy times: schools closed; a toilet paper famine; staying home. It's sort of like a hurricane without the hurricane, or a snowstorm without the snow, except to add insult to injury we did get snow on Monday. A significant difference between a weather disaster and our current pandemic and is that a hurricane or snowstorm comes and goes in a day or two. The end of this is not even in sight.

Sheltering in place on the farm with my cows is more of a pleasure than a requirement. Sheltering in place with husband Bruce…well, that's a different animal. With 37 acres and broken equipment that needs fixing, he has been keeping busy. For instance, on Sunday, Bruce repaired the utility trailer's lights that had been broken for years. He cleaned up the small-animal paddock, home to Eleanor-the-Donkey, our two goats, the sheep, and Belle-the-Cow. He organized the feed bunker, and with help from farm friends (four of them), we loaded the repaired trailer for a one-way trip to the dump. If the dump closes, we are all in trouble.

During all this, our farm store is staying open for extended hours, and we've been busy alternately selling and disinfecting – counters, freezers, handles, and doors. Sanitizer is set out for customers to use both before and after they shop. Our beef, pork, lamb, maple syrup, and other products can be ordered online. To support social distancing, we provide curbside pickup (more accurately barnyard pickup) and home delivery. So far, our freezers and refrigerators are still full. We have ground beef, steaks, roasts, raw milk, yogurt, soup bones, lamb, pork, hot dogs, sausage, and more. We aren't the only ones with local food for sale. Search for a local farm in your area, and you might be surprised at the abundance of local produce and meat.

The good news is that the distribution of local meat can be quick; quicker than waiting for beef from away that relies on trucks and ships to deliver it from who knows where. Did you know that most of the grass-fed beef sold in grocery stores is from Australia? How sustainable is that in a world crisis?

Isn't it good to know that not just local beef growers, but also farmers that sell raw milk, cheese, ice cream, pork, and lamb have been working over the years to build up the local food supply? Local farmers are working hard to feed you.

Meanwhile, if you crave entertainment, you are invited to join me in a daily video tour of my farm. Monday through Friday, I'll conduct a video tour of farm operations and might even show you, Bruce, fixing farm machinery (while he tries to avoid me). I'll take you around the farm. Join me when I feed the heifers or work my oxen. You can be there to welcome the eight calves due in April. It'll be fun! Watch for my daily videos on Facebook. I'll post each one at 1 p.m., and also put them here.
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