Sargent Hill Farm: Grafton, NH

My Uncle called me last night to give me the news that my grandfather has passed away.  Not long before I received his call I had a feeling that he had passed on.  I was replaying moments he and I shared from when I was a little girl.  I heard the call of an owl outside.  I opened the backdoor and looked in the direction the call was coming from.  The sky was mostly clear except for a few stars.  I heard the call again.  I called out to it and whispered, “I love you, I will miss you.  Please hug Chickie (my grandmother), and my dad for me.  If you see my mom, please tell her I love her.”  I heard the call again.  I responded, “Please go, it’s time, they are waiting for you.”  I heard the call again, something flew overhead, and I heard the call again in the distance.  My Uncle called shortly after this encounter to tell me that my Grandfather had passed.

Ray (my Grandfather) was the last living person that was like a parent to me.  I knew he would pass soon, and I went to visit earlier in the summer to say goodbye – that wasn’t easy, but I’m glad I did it.  I will never forget his beaming smile when he saw me.  I will have that memory forever.  I’ve tucked it away with all of the others, like the times he told me stories about me when I was a child.  His laugh, his love for nature, his wit, and his sense of humor.  All the times he took me to the forest preserves looking for deer.  When he used to take me to lunch at Wendy’s because I looked like Wendy.  When he would take me to the twisty slide park and make me promise I’d go home when he said it was time to leave.  I never did follow through with that promise, but he always took me to the park anyway.  He overlooked my personality flaws, and loved me, unconditionally.  

Raymond Charles Estes, Rest in Peace…

Today is one of “those” days, the kind where you were better off staying IN bed, and just skipping to the next day.

It began…at 6:15 when it was evidently clear my dear husband was not going to take care of the animals.  For those of you that don’t know – we have 16 laying hens, 1 rooster, 20 meat birds, 2 pigs and 3 dogs.  WE. ARE. BUSY.  Plus we both work, and we have a 4-year-old.

So, enter bad day:

1. Baby bird kinked the hose, I put it down, he picked it up as I unkinked it – he sprayed me.  I guess that helped with the shower department?
2. While dragging water, produce and grain out to the animals, I tipped over the garden cart and had to start over with reloading and salvaging as much grain as I could.  Grain is expensive – but I should have just let the dogs take care of it and I could have saved a step with all my chores.
3. While feeding the pigs, I tossed watermelons into their waterlogged and muddy pen.  This was fine, until the mud splashed back and ended up all over Ron and his school clothes.  I got it in my hair – I had to take a shower and I had to change Ron.
4. Ron didn’t have any clean shorts, so he had to wear the cleanest ones I could find.
5. Baby Bird opened the meat bird pen for me (nice kid), he locked me in (without me knowing) and walked away.  I tried getting his attention, he wasn’t listening (apparently that selective hearing thing begins at an early age).  So, as I was calculating my escape route, he came back and helped me out (nice kid).
6. In the process of the above, I left the bulkhead door open, the dogs decided to help themselves to animal produce – what a mess!
7. I decided to call my dear husband and tell him how annoyed I was that he slacked off – he didn’t appreciate my rant, so he hung up on me and shut both of his cell phones of.  This made me crazy mad!  So, I set his calls to go straight to voicemail – take that!
8. I took a shower and I couldn’t find a single clean towel to dry myself off.  I figured this out AFTER I took the shower.  I dried myself off with a dish towel.  I let my dear husband dry his hands with it later today.  Hey – I was clean!
9. I dropped a contact down the sink and had to search for more lenses.  I took off my glasses and couldn’t remember where they were.  I couldn’t see, so this was a lot of fun!
10. Meanwhile, I’m getting blasted by work with issues, it isn’t even 9 AM at this point.
11. I drive to pick up the grain, this goes well, until one bag pops a hole and spills grain everywhere.  A nice man in the parking lot helped me – yay!
12. Baby Bird had a meltdown in the store because I wouldn’t buy him a magnifying glass – everyone looks at me like I’m some kind of bad mom.  WTF?
13. As I’m headed in to Lebanon the gas light comes on.  Apparently when I let the dear husband use my car, I fill it up with gas, he doesn’t exercise the same courtesy, so I had to stop and get gas.
14. I spilled gas on my foot – I was wearing flip-flops.
15. Are you still with me?  If you aren’t I’ll be adding this to the bottom.
16. I completely pass my exit to get onto 89 coming from VT – this cost me 20 minutes.
17. I get to work and realize I have no oatmeal in my drawer.  Apparently I wasn’t hungry.
18. Work is a cluster.
19. I’m starving and need food, but cannot find my wallet.  Eventually it turns up.
20. I go and get lunch, on my way back to the office I spill hot chocolate on my shirt.  I guess that is what I get for drinking that in the middle of the summer.
21. I eat my sandwich, the insides fall in my lap and on my keyboard.
22. I get a call from the doctor’s office asking if I plan to bring Baby Bird in for his lab appointment – sh*t, I have the wrong day on the calendar and missed the appointment.
23. The rest of the day goes well until the neighbor comes over and catches me walking around half-naked.  I guess he should have knocked.
24. My pickling cucumbers sitting in their brine have mold on them.
25. My work computer has blocked my blog, the reason:  Not allowed to browse Adult Material category.  I suppose the url name is a bit misleading: http://sassyundertones.com/ I find this rather amusing because there is nothing “adult” about my blog!

THAT was MY day!  How was yours?

So, I have learned that I can grow a baby, grass, and acorn squash (by accident).   I can also grow meat birds, laying birds, and pigs.   I cannot successfully grow anything from a garden (yet).  There is the beautiful acorn squash growning out of the composter right now, and yes, I’m desperate, so I’m taking credit for it.

On Wednesday I went to Sunrise Farm to help them out with processing their meat birds.  Chuck and Norah are really great people, and when I went to pick up our locally raised grassfed grain finished beef, I saw parts of their operation.  In the summer they process approximately 125 +/- birds every month.  I asked if they offered classes on teaching people how to process birds.  Norah said no, but invited me to come to their next processing day as a way to learn. 

Everyone there was old hat at processing, I was the newbie.  Everyone was nice, friendly and eager to teach me.  I asked a lot of questions and learned a lot about farming.  Through the blood and guts, and some mistakes – I had fun.  I left that day feeling energized, useful, and self-sufficient.  What a gift!

The next day one of our 4 week old meaties died.  These birds scare easy, and because of how quickly they grow, they are prone to heart attacks.  We had coyotes in the yard that morning freaking out the animals, so that could be part of it and caused some stress to the bird.  When Kevin entered their pen, one just flipped over and died.  All the other birds got freaked out.  Kevin came back to the house and asked me what we should do with it, as he held up the dead bird.  I replied, “Cut its head off and I’ll process it.”  I think he was a little shocked by my reply, but he obediently did what he was asked to do, then I went to work. 

Plucking by hand sucks.  I should have skinned it instead of wasting my time.  I got to work and used all the skills I was taught the day before…removing the feet, stripping the membrane by the crop, removing the oil glands, performing the famous butt cut, and pulling everything out without puncturing anything.  I was very proud of myself.  Now we have a bird sitting in our refridgerator waiting to be cooked.

My 4 year old son is really excited to eat the “dead chicken” – as am I.  I will feel like a real farmer when I prepare and eat our home grown chicken dinner.

My 4 week old meatie, turning into dinner.

I’d like to become a retired pack rat.  Seriously, I have boxes that have been packed from apartment moves in 2005 – I’ve moved roughly 6 times since some of those boxes were originally packed.  I have tax documents from when I was in highschool.  I decline to tell you just how long I’ve been out of highschool.  For some reason I hold on to things and can’t find the strength to get rid of them.   This will end on Friday.

This weekend my goal is to purge my entire basement.  I am going to go through every single thing that is hiding in that dark place.  This effort will begin on Friday.  The Listen Center will have a wonderful donation on Sunday. 

To make this work, and to make sure that I  follow through – I have to plan.  So here is my plan: Make quick decisions regarding keeping and donating items, and drive the items to said charity. 

These are the ground rules:

1.  If I have not used the item in the last 1 year, it is getting donated.
2. If it doesn’t have a category for storage, it is getting donated.
3. If it is cost-prohibitive to replace said item, then I get to keep it.
4. Remove all emotions regarding making the above decisions.

Hi, my name is Angela – and I am a pack rat.  By the end of the weekend I will be a recovering pack rat.  My husband will thank me.