My farm visit, letters to grade school children

 

Have you ever visited a farm? Have you stayed overnight at a farm? Let me share a few of my enjoyable memories from a Kentucky visit. Originally, seven letters were written as pen pals to an early grade school class.

Kentucky has many beautiful trails. Some farms are reclaimed strip mines. Areas were mined until about 1940 and then reclaimed in the 1970s. Some coal mines still produce coal. Mining, farming and tourism provide job opportunities.

 On the farm I visited, chickens, rabbits, goats, dogs, pigs and a guinea hen live together. Future letters will introduce the animals.  Hard work has produced a large garden of fresh vegetables. The family grows greens, tomatoes, potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, corn and a variety of squash. Trees provide apples, plums and peaches. Strawberries grow on plants. Bushes provide blackberries, raspberries, grapes and blueberries. The family and their animals eat fresh food all summer. They freeze and can food for the winter. Juice or jam is made from the berries and tomatoes. The corn is frozen in the hull. When cooked it tastes as good a fresh. Some of the corn is removed from the cob and frozen to use in soup or with roasts.

My name is Mia. I am the middle dog in the picture. I was found in a shoe box tied with duct tape. Some people are not aware that there are shelters that take in unwanted puppies. Mia gave birth to six puppies. All but two went to the shelter. These shelter puppies now live in good homes in another state.  Mia and two of her puppies, the largest and smallest, live on the farm. These dogs, like everyone on a farm, must work and have a purpose. The dogs keep predatory animals away from the rabbits, chickens and goats.

My name is Squigger, Squiger, Squidger. I have always been the smallest, most vocal, and wiggly. Maybe that is what my name means. Since I cannot read or write, it does not matter how you spell my name. I have always been the smallest, but that does not stop me. My heart is big and I keep up with the other dogs and humans. Big Guy, black and tan, is the largest of Mia's puppies. He is just over a year old. He has always played well with his brother. They play games of tug with sticks; they chase each other and roll in the grass. When it is warm and sunny, they both lay in the sun on their back.

Each goat has a different personality just like boys and girls.   My name is Peggy. I have an attitude. My farm family scratches my ears and feeds me greens when I want or I may turn up my nose and walk away from even my favorite snack. Today, I will hold still for you to pet and hug me. 

My name is Hoover. I eat like a vacuum cleaner, especially greens from the garden. I am always hungry.                                    My name is Zippy. I am Hoover's daughter. I run and jump and play. I am very fast. I am still a young kid. I have not had my first birthday.

My farmer and friend read about goats and their care in the book by Paul Heiney called The Practical Homestead: The backyard handbook for growing food, raising animals & nurturing your land. The book is full of interesting facts such as:

• ·       one in seven of the world's grazing and browsing animals is a goat
• ·       many of the world's goats are on small, self-sustaining farms in places where other animals would not be productive
• ·       five goats will live off the same area as one cow
• ·       goats do not demand a lot of comfort out of life, which is why they are found all the way from high mountains to desert communities
• ·        the best grass is no good for them; they need bush and scrub to nibble at, or weeds to chew, and are ruthless in pursuit of their favorite grazing, which can be any garden plant, including rosebushes!
• ·       goats are survivors, this makes them hardier than sheep
• ·       goats have troublesome, instinctive habits. Some are jumpers; others are crawlers and squeezers
• ·       all goats like company, a goat kept along can be troublesome. Their companion may be another goat, a sheep, a donkey, a cow, or a pony - all will do.
• ·       goats are browsers and will enjoy a nibble at shrubs or scrub plants far more than a field of grass

The goats in the photographs above are a breed called Nubian. If you own a dog, the dog may be a terrier, spaniel, poodle or mixed breed. The Nubian is a kind of goat. The Anglo-Nubian is a British breed with a distinctive Roman nose and lop ears. With a high butterfat level, the milk is good for making cheese. 

My name is Hump Day. I am a billy goat. I am about the same age as Zippy. When I was born, my face looked like a camel. I am a LaMancha goat. The breed was developed in California. They are known to be calm and friendly. When I grow up I will weigh about 130 pounds. I am still waiting for my first birthday. LaManchas are easy to recognize because they have very small (elf) ears or no visible ears at all (gopher ears). On our farm, the goat milk is used to drinking, cheese, yogurt and ice cream.

Do you remember that everything on a farm has a purpose? The purpose of the last three kinds of animals is to provide food.

The farm chickens provide eggs and meat.  The chickens have an outdoor yard to scratch for bugs. The yard is fenced in with a wire top. The bottom edges are made so predators cannot dig under the fence.

At night the chickens sleep indoors on a perch.

The chickens cackle or make a loud noise to tell everyone they laid an egg.

Some of the eggs are allowed to hatch. These eggs were placed under a special warm light. The baby chicks live under this special warming light until they are able to live with the adult chickens. A baby chick is checked to make sure it is healthy. They are still kept near the heat lamp as they would chill and catch cold very easily.

 They need special food for laying eggs as well as the bugs from the yard. They need their drinking water changed several times a day. They require regular medical or health checks by the farmer.

In the book The Backyard Homestead: Guide toRaising Farm Animals by Gail Damerow, " … besides fresh water and food, the hen asks for only two things. She wants somewhere to lay her eggs and a perch on which to roost at night. The perch provides for her natural instinct to get up high at night to get away from predators."

Also In her book, Gail Damerow writes that the farmer’s best friend is the pig. Ms. Damerow devotes pages 66-69 of her book to pigs.

“The pig is an intelligent and versatile animal, earning its place on a small farm for both its meat and its friendship.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that pigs are filthy and stupid. Two perfectly reasonable and healthy things account for their grubby image: the way they dig their snouts into soil, searching for grubs and worms; and the way they wallow in mud when there is a danger that strong sun will burn their skin. As for personal habits, pigs are scrupulously clean. Given a choice, they dung (potty) well away from where they sleep, and some pigs have kept their sties (house) so clean that it would be no hardship to spend a night with them. There is nothing filthy about pigs.

They have bright minds too. A sow (female) will organize her home by moving straw around with her snout to make a safe bed for her piglets. She will teach them to suckle, and scold them too. Pigs are also very good timekeepers; if you are in the habit of feeding your pigs by the clock, do not be as much as five minutes late unless you want a mutiny on your hands. I once had a sow who could tell the time better than any alarm clock, and if the morning feed was late, the whole district knew about it.

Pigs wallow in the mud to protect their skin from heat and sunburn.”

My name is Piglet. I was the runt of the litter so I could not live with the other piggies on the hog farm. At this farm I have fresh vegetables and am growing big and strong.

Meet the rabbits or bunnies. These bunnies are about a week old. They grow and mature fast. If the bunnies are going to be pets, they must be picked up, petted and handled several times a day. If not, the bunnies will be too timid and may bite or scratch. Rabbits have personalities just like the goats. Several of the friendly rabbits have been kept for future breeding or sold as pets.

Bunnies have sharp nails that need regular trimming. Bunnies have sharp teeth and need chewy vegetables.

If your family is thinking of any pet, go to the library and read books before you decide what type to purchase. According to Gail Damerow, author of The Backyard Homestead: Guideto Raising Farm Animals, "Rabbits do not need a lot of room. Their meat is not only delicious, but low in fat and there for considered a healthy part of a modern diet. With a long list of reasons for keeping rabbits, there are about 50 different breeds with qualities to match individual styles of farming."

The rabbits raised on this farm are mainly for meat. The breed is called the New Zealand White. The New Zealand White is an albino rabbit with dense white fur and pink eyes. A large rabbit weighs about 8 to 11 pounds. They are kept mainly for meat.

bye from the farm,

Selma Blackmon