Colonel’s Blog, Earthdate 2 May 2023…
Hey Y’all!
Good morning from Air2Ground Farms! It was another quite cool, dry, sunny morning. It’s still looking like this weather pattern will continue through tomorrow with rains starting Thursday. The animals are great! The pics today are highlighting the yearlings from the beef herd. The heifer with the white blaze we call Socks. She was the first calf born on our farm. The other yearling is a steer…so we call him…“that one steer.” They came to see us as we drove up on the side-by-side and hung out with us, chin on hood. The older beef chickens are still doing well as are the new beef chicks. The groups of incubated layer chicks are going to quickly surpass what I can keep separated. The first group decided they didn’t like being in with the big chickens and all got out of the net and congregated beside the coop they just left. We herded them back into the yard with the big birds. The next group is enjoying the coop without the bigger chicks. The incubator started cheeping yesterday and there are now 2 new chicks with more to come. The Guinea eggs take about a week longer so we hope to see some Guinea keets next week. Two of the guardian dogs (TJ and Ghost) decided they would rather eat alfalfa pellets with the ewes, so missed out on their breakfast as they refused to come eat. The piglets are amazing and are loving their fermented GMO-free feed! Yesterday, we spent the majority of the day working on the computer. We had to update the website and started building a new online store utilizing a different application. They say the integration is really easy, you just save your old store products as a ‘comma separated value’ file and import it into the new store. Then, when that doesn’t work, even after hours of trying through multiple attempts, their help section says that the values must be in precise order and you will most likely run into issues. Thanks. We are just going to rebuild the entire product list. The new application should allow us to charge by the pound and segregate shipping areas. Hopefully it works better than the product integration! We made a YouTube Short yesterday night and published just before bed. Today we are going to make rows in the garden so we can plant tomorrow. We will also work some more on YouTube stuff.
I absolutely love the comments on the blog posts lately! I thoroughly enjoy the thought-provoking interaction. Ask anyone who worked for me in the USAF, I would frequently say “I don’t need you to think like me, I can do that. I need you to think of the things I’m not thinking.” I truly meant it. I know I cannot think of everything and recognize the need for additional input to be able to consider a problem more fully. The discussion regarding labeling requirements in Missouri HB1169 is a perfect example. What started out as a cut-and-dried situation for me is now anything but that…thanks to the amazing comments from you guys. Shelley and I have now spent hours discussing the issue. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a big issue and I don’t have the ‘answer.’ I look forward to discussing the issue with our Missouri House Representative Smith when he comes to visit the farm. Here’s where I’ve landed for now. I think people should have information regarding what is done to their food so that they can make an informed decision as to whether or not they want to put a particular product into their body. I hate the idea of additional government regulation and enforcement. This becomes an entire can of worms that seems like it would spill out and just keep on spilling. How far should this labeling issue go…all the way to a nutritional label and restaurant menu? How can a farmer prove they didn’t use gene altering inputs when the government enforcement officer comes knocking? So many unanswered questions, but important questions. I’m going to put this issue into the ‘pending resolution’ compartment in my mind. I’ll continue to digest/ruminate/chew/whatever on it. I look forward to more comments to help me think through the issue. Expect me to throw out random thoughts in the future as I try to form an actual opinion. Thanks for your help!
We made a new YouTube Short of the Berkshire piglets enjoying their first taste of fermented GMO-free feed. Hint—they loved it! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZeWX_QNEZhk
Local Farm Report for 1 May 2023:
Harvest:
25 Chicken eggs
14 Duck eggs
0 Goose eggs
0 Guinea eggs
5 1/2 Gallons of milk
Cheers! Psycho & Shelley
Great points Rich - this is a thorny issue for sure.
I like to say most transactions require a certain level of trust between the participants.
In the absence of trust, you need to interject layers of bureaucratic control (do we trust the bureaucrats?).
Here's the rub, for me. You cannot trust someone you do not know. Not without it being a blind trust...which is really not trusting...it's gambling.
And this is a great argument for buying anything (food, ammo, vehicles, financial products) from someone you know....and trust.
I will see you Saturday to buy some more food, God willing!
Tim