Cluck Tradition!

Preconceived notions are just that: Notions. Set yourself free from other’s stereotypes and expectations. You deserve to craft a life that feels true to you—even if it’s not what anyone else expects.

— Our three new roosters who would rather hang together than fight.

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Here’s What’s Happening At Good Spirits Farm

• It’s the end of the grass as we know it, and I feel anxious. After our first hard frost, the pastures will go dormant for the winter. We worked to stockpile as much grass as we could this fall, keeping the herd off big areas so it could grow lush and thick. We’ll slowly move our animals across this stockpile in patches, trying to reduce the hay I have to feed. Unfortunately, we don’t have as much grass stockpiled as I’d hoped. While I worried incessantly about armyworms taking out my stockpiled grass this fall, it turned out to be a human error that did it. Our fence builder decided to mow down the fence line he’s about to build (a reasonable thing to do). Once he got started mowing, though, apparently he just couldn't stop. He chopped up so much of our stockpiled grass that when I saw the end result, steam nearly came out of my ears. I’m currently hunting for about 70 bales of hay to replace what was lost. At $5/bale, that was a really expensive mowing job.

• Sweet Veli’s training continues. Every day I take her out to the pasture for critter time. It’s such a time-suck that I always feel grouchy as I head out, thinking of all the other things I could be doing. Then, we sit there and I praise Veli for being good, and give Puck and Juliet skritches, and listen to the birds, and realize: This is the best possible use of my time.

  

• The first hard frost also means saying goodbye to most of the garden. I trick-or-treated for sweet potatoes on Halloween, and on Tuesday night, by the light of a headlamp, I hauled in every last green tomato, the remaining peppers, and all the winter squash. It’s always bittersweet to see the garden go. On the one hand: I love the respite the winter months provide, when there are no beans and strawberries to be picked and no garden pests to do hand-to-hand combat with. But: it is just so nice to be semi-shielded from inflation, since we eat so much from our front yard.

  

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Here’s What I Loved This Week

Veli and Juliet really do seem to like each other. I caught this sweet video of Juliet saying hi to Ms. Veli a few days ago. I really hope they can be friends for many years to come!