You Can Farm!

As I write this first post, Sandy Plains Farm is becoming a reality.

My son Russell has wanted to farm since he first took Ag class as a freshmen at Polk County High School. After receiving his degree from NCSU in May of 2011, he came home to Polk County. He found that starting to farm with basically no land, and most importantly, MONEY, was impossible. He started to apply for various positions in his field of Agronomy. Some interviews, no jobs.

This summer I (Paula, the Mom) decided to take an 8 week evening sustainable agriculture class put on by the local community college and the Mill Spring Ag Center. Russ said that I didn't get out enough! I told him that I was taking it and he signed up for it too. Cool, going to class with my son, cough cough. Well, I have to say that it was one of the best things that I have done! (Another was moving to North Carolina in 1994.)

The first few classes were interesting, mainly dealing with gardening. We had started on a garden this year after not having one for 4 years or so. More on the garden another day. But hold onto your hats - the class that got us very excited was how we saw a different way that chickens could be raised!!!

OK, you may wonder why I am so excited about this information. Having lived in one of the counties in the Catskill Mountains for 20 years, you learn to hold your breath driving on certain roads. Chickens raised in huge barns, the manure spread on fields just as thick as frosting on a cake. Probably good for the local economy but bad for the neighborhood. I will not go on about that, but the memories are not the most pleasant!

A nice fellow by the name of Kirk showed the class how he has his meat birds in a thing called a tractor. Being an old farm girl, I don't like the term, a tractor is something that you drive and costs a chunk of money. I know this as Russ bought one this spring. Big, handy, but not something you can keep a chicken in! Anyway, Kirk also showed his processing station (yes, the chickens meet their end here, but after he thanks them, I am not being silly, he really does thank each one.) We also saw how he moves both the egg layer hoop house and the chicken tractor. No smell, the manure goes right into the ground, did I say no smell? NO SMELL!

I was hooked. Before we even left Kirk's driveway, I said to Russ that we, he, could do this. Kirk had told about this place in Virginia (Polyface Farm  polyfacefarms.com) and the fellow that owns it has written books on how to farm. I ordered a couple of books right away. One of them was about raising chickens and the other was titled "You Can Farm". When they arrived, Russell read them cover to cover. I have not seen him so excited since he graduated from State!

We have birds! I will tell more about them later. I feel they need their own story. We now have 110 meat birds, 26 layers and 3 silly little Silkies. Oh and one meat bird that we will never eat. More about her later too!

Now to the farm. Since we only have 3.26 acres of over grazed pasture, Russ was planning on using 19 acres that some good friends have. It would have worked ok for the chickens but he doesn't want to stop there, oh no. He wants cows, goats, pigs, you know - the whole farm animal thing. (We already have horses, thus the over grazed pastures!) One day about a month ago I was talking to someone about what Russ wanted to do and she said "Talk to my husband, there is 20 acres right behind the store here." So the next day Russ went and talked to the owner and he now has Sandy Plains Farm for at least the next three years! I will post some pictures of why I think it is the most perfect place for Russell's farm.

We have moved the meat birds to "the farm". Every morning we go down and move them 12 feet to new grass. I say we as Russ is still working on getting a coop mover so that one person can move the pens. Right now we use two hand trucks, one of us in the back (Mom) and one in the front (Russ). The rest of the "we" are the dogs. Russ has found that his dog Nugz is great at chasing the chicks that may sneak out when the pens are lifted up enough to move them. He will chase them and put his paw on them till Russ gets there. It is great to watch. Some mornings the dogs are so disappointed when no birds escape!