[dominiquer60]

A couple of photos. We demonstrated how I can hitch Dick and Jane myself and harrow with them. Then they stood quietly on their own while I helped Dick Smith hitch his Longhorns to the stone boat.

[dominiquer60]

A couple of photos. We demonstrated how I can hitch Dick and Jane myself and harrow with them. Then they stood quietly on their own while I helped Dick Smith hitch his Longhorns to the stone boat.

[dominiquer60]

Mitch, I think that it is safe to say that Monsanto is in the corporations making “democratic” policy category.

[dominiquer60]

It is basically a bill meant to resist natural population atrophy cause by food borne illnesses, by regulating every food facility and food producer. At the moment GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) are not mandatory, but this bill lays out he ground work to make national GAP standards, require everyone to follow them and enforce penalties to those that do not.

It is the perfect storm of regulations that could really be the straw that breaks the back of small farmers everywhere. If you think that you are a pirate farmer now, you haven’t seen nothing yet if this bill passes.

There are many rumors about this bill and they mostly stem from the vagueness of the language and how it can be interpreted by corporate, I mean democratic policy makers. The potential to cause harm to all farms great and small is between the lines.

The only thing specific that I know about this Senate bill is that it doesn’t require a fee for any farms to register, the Congress bill requires a flat fee of $500 across the board whether your name is DelMonte or Earthwise.

Any way I read it, there is trouble brewing.

[dominiquer60]

I am serious, you can borrow my saddle, though you may just have to come down for a visit to get it. It begs to be used again.

[dominiquer60]

Sometimes it is nice to have a manual to reference, I have found quite a few original and reprinted manuals on eBay. Even if they don’t have what you want on a given day you can save a specific search and eBay will email you when someone posts that item. I just got a reprint for my new cultivator, I didn’t need it but I learned a lot more about my new toy after reading through it, and it is nice to have all of the parts numbers.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

It’s not the end of the world and if Lisa’s saddle is too narrow you can borrow mine, it could really use a cleaning too:)

[dominiquer60]

I cleaned and painted this plow in March, but just finished the handles today.
It is a Syracuse 455 8″ single horse chilled steel plow. I hope to try it for the first time at the fair next week where I will have patient help for such matters.
Erika

[dominiquer60]

Leslie,

If you look online at different horse/vet supply places you can find a number of supplements like these Vit E and Se crumbles http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=2e87c065-7b6a-11d5-a192-00b0d0204ae5. I don’t know which is best but shop around, Tractor Supply doesn’t always have the best prices either.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I have considered a yurt as well when I was looking at property. I know that some townships do not allow such things or even just “camping” on your own property, just something to check into. I know plenty of folks that started out in tents and then built something before it was the dead of winter too.

What ever you end up doing you could have a living structure and a close-by storage structure like a truck box or container. Some have lived in these as well, we had a roofer with a PO box in town, he live in a 16′ foot box truck and in the winter you would see the smoke from his wood stove coming out of the chimney as he drove into town from where ever he parked.

You will be able to make anything work as long as you all are happy to make what some feel is a sacrifice in quality of living. People have lived with little for centuries, there is no reason it cannot be done again.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

I have always been a big fan myself. The problem with George is that he is a “comedian.” There must be some people that just see him as funny and don’t get it, and then there are those of us that see him as the stater of the obvious with a wonderfully vivid delivery. I think that he will rest in peace when more of us see the humor in his delivery and not in the actual message itself.

[dominiquer60]

I hear you on that one J-L, I often wonder if I could be in that situation some day the way that land values have gone up and the fact that 17 outbuildings can collect a lot of junk/assets before you know it. I think that a generation transfer plan can come in handy if you start long before you need to, if you can get the older generation to agree to such actions. I know that it has helped a few farms in our area, and there is a free service called NYFarmnet, at least it is free to get the ball rolling in the right direction, other states have similar programs too.

[dominiquer60]

I can relate Matthew. I went to a big poultry show as a kid looking for some high quality breeding stock for the breed that I was working on the bantam Plymouth Rock. A man that I had bought from in the past raises white ones and was looking around with me. The variety that I like the best has a striped feather pattern. Bruce kept telling me that there were a lot of “bad rocks” there at that show.

I was sadden because I was looking for some good rocks (the breed is commonly shortened to “rocks”) and really wanted to go home with a trio of barred rocks (ones with the stripped feathers).

We came to one sale pen and he said, look at those “bad rocks” those are the ones that you should take home with you. You can imagine my confusion. If those are so bad than why should I buy them?
No those are “good bad rocks,” you know “bad” the color like white or buff. And so I was introduced to the New England accent.

[dominiquer60]

Food Safety Bill is a tough one to fight, it seems inevitable because of course we all want safe food, but what is safe to one is unsafe to others, so where in the middle will our politicians meet. Many are pushing that small or direct market growers be exempt, but there are many consumer groups pushing for no exceptions and a one size fits all policy. I personally am fighting this bill and am highly involved at the state level to at least make it more bearable for smaller/direct market farmers.

[dominiquer60]

Mitch, that can be true, our agent is also a farmer and is careful about not spreading disease to his farm or his neighbors like ourselves. Either way it is important to report late blight so that others can be aware and prepared in your area.
Erika

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