Vermont finally made national news, but not in a good way. Tropical storm Irene came through Sunday afternoon. The flood damage in the state is unprecedented and kind of hard to wrap your head around. Brandon, a town not far from here, lost several downtown buildings when the river overflowed.
I am touched by all the people from far away, most of whom I've never met in person, who have emailed to see if we're OK up here. Actually, our town saw relatively little damage, and our property saw no damage at all. Roads outside of town are apparently washed out and causing major headaches for lots of people, like dairy farmers, whose milk has to be dumped because the milk trucks can't get through, not to mention the people in outlying towns who've been stranded. So, all is well at the Lazy J. But thanks for your concern.
The blog would have been updated two weeks ago, because I had the cutest pictures I've taken all year, including a series of my husband sitting out on the porch Sunday morning sharing a bowl of cereal with a hen who had made herself comfy on his lap.
But I deleted the whole set of pictures by accident. I'm just getting over the loss now.
There's not much farm news. It's late summer, I need to process the corn and tomatoes, pick the basil and green beans, and shell the dry beans. And brew another batch of beer. Same old, same old.
A few weeks ago, I picked the last of the shell peas.
The results, though always meager, are delicious.
I pulled the pea vines and they made some goats and a sheep quite happy.
Other veggies from a few weeks back:
We had a hailstorm, but as with Irene, it didn't do any damage.
Sunday, when Irene came and it rained and rained, was the day our meat birds were scheduled for slaughter. My husband and the two guys who came to do the work did despite the rain, in the barn. The day before, we had spent the morning trying to get 76 giant, not-too-bright chickens from their portable coop into a holding pen in the barn. Not exactly the running of the bulls at Pamplona, but eventually they got in there. Now they're all in freezers around the county.
Except one.
What we have in this photo are five young Araucana ("Easter-egger") laying hens. And one Cornish/White Rock cross meat bird. "The one that got away," I guess you'd say.
He was gimpy from the get-go, but never immobile. Still, while his coopmates ate and grew strong and healthy, he never left the coop. Each day we brought food and water to him and my husband kept saying, "I should get rid of that bird." But he never did. Slaughter day came and went and we were stuck with this undersized, limping bird not fit for eating. My husband, once an avid hunter, doesn't care to "get rid" of animals on the farm if he can help it. So this one got a stay of execution.
For the time being he's living with the other birds. The big chickens peck him hard whenever they get near him, but the young girls don't seem to mind him. Maybe he'll be rehabilitated, probably not. Maybe he was faking a limp so we wouldn't eat him. Whatever. He's staying for now.
My last batch of photos, the ones I deleted, dammit, had some pictures of the meat birds on pasture. I have not yet tasted one of these so I can't say if keeping them outdoors on grass made a huge difference in the finished product. However, contrary to what many people told us, they DID move around a lot outside compared to the ones we've kept in the barn in years past. They DID chase earwigs and other bugs, they DID peck in the dirt, they DID eat grass, and in general they acted a lot more like real chickens, not like lifeless eating machines. Just getting sun and fresh air had to make a difference in their health. I'll report back with a taste test soon.
The tomatoes are coming in fast and furious, and thanks to my friend Jenn, who came out and saved me with her gardening skills a couple of weeks ago, the weeds have been beaten into submission and the garden is once again thriving. Which may not be a good thing; it means more work for me.
So tonight I have a date with the Squeezo and a batch of tomatoes. But there's this other thing I've been wasting my time on lately:
Yeah, knitting. Remember that thing I used to always do? This is Vivian, a cabled, shaped cardigan by Isolde Teague. Winter is coming, after all, and fast.
So, wrapping up, life at the Lazy J is crazy, as always, but smooth and untroubled compared to the rest of the state. Thank you to all who have expressed concern as to my safety. We got lucky with this one. Just ask Roy and Trooper.
Thank you for putting up a post, I had hoped that your farm escaped unscathed!
Posted by: Jenn | August 31, 2011 at 05:40 PM
Ooh, Vivian is on my List, so i await the results of yours.
Posted by: Elizabeth | August 31, 2011 at 06:27 PM
I was wondering how you all fared...glad to hear you were missed!
Posted by: jillian | August 31, 2011 at 06:34 PM
You've been on my mind. So glad to hear Irene spared you and that you are all safe and sound. Such a tragedy for those who lost everything including their livelihoods.
Love your photos as always. Hehe on the maybe-not-so-dumb gimpy rooster. Nice ploy indeed.
Posted by: Manise | August 31, 2011 at 07:45 PM
So glad you and all of your animals escaped unscathed (except, um, the meat chickens). Speaking of the meat chickens, it's great that they got to live happy chicken lives in the pasture. Happy farm animals (even ones slated for the freezer) are worth the trouble, I think, even if letting them out in the sun doesn't affect the taste.
Posted by: Elisabeth | August 31, 2011 at 08:34 PM
Vermont certainly isn't a state that comes to mind when you think of hurricanes. I'm glad you and your family missed the brunt of Irene. My BIL's family in Fairhaven also came through OK, though because of surrounding road conditions they 'can't get there from here'.
Posted by: Kristen | August 31, 2011 at 08:41 PM
Glad to hear you're well. We just got our power back after 4 days out, we had tons of trees and limbs down. Terribly saddened about the devastation in Vermont esp. recognizing so many places we've spent time all thru the months and years.
Posted by: diane | August 31, 2011 at 10:55 PM
Glad that you didn't sustain any damage at the Lazy J. LOVE the pea-vine chomping pictures! Those were big hailstones. Love the knitting!
Posted by: heide | September 01, 2011 at 09:20 AM
I *thought* about emailing you, but since you had not posted, I assumed you might not have electricity. Glad your farm escaped the wrath of Irene. Thanks for reporting on the meat birds on pasture. I buy local chicken that is raised on pasture, not sure what breed they are, but they sure are good, not rubbery like grocery story chicken.
Posted by: Abby | September 02, 2011 at 06:08 AM
I'm glad to hear all is well (besides the deleted photos). I was wondering about you and your family (people and animals) when I heard the news about Vermont. (I feel I should write more, but I really should be in bed... good night!)
Posted by: noricum | September 03, 2011 at 02:56 AM
I'm glad to hear everything's okay with your family, I've been worried about you. All the news out of Vermont has just broken my heart, but the stories about the response and recovery have made it a lot better. Happy Autumn! It's finally not 100+++++ degrees in Oklahoma! We all almost cried when it dropped down into the 50s at night.
Posted by: KatyaR | September 09, 2011 at 06:13 PM
How sad about your deleted pics. It's so frustrating when that happens. I haven't had it happen for a while, but it usually seems so unbelievable...like where could they have gone?? I'll check the trash, etc. compulsively for a few days afterwards, just in case, ha, ha
Very interesting about your chickens. My daughter is a vegetarian, so she's often telling me about how terribe factory farms are to chickens. (which I already knew) I do kind of think that there's bad karma eating chickens that have been treated so badly. I could eat your chickens with no guilt! Sounds like they had happy chicken lives!
Posted by: Caroline | September 18, 2011 at 10:09 AM