Nice Things

I realize that lately so many posts have been frantic or tragic in some way, and frankly that’s been an unfair representation of how we are doing. While things are stressful, all of that comes from striving to do something worthwhile. If we could cut corners and relax, we wouldn’t feel what we were doing was valuable, and we probably wouldn’t enjoy it. Then again, if we could cut corners we could sleep in…even for just one amazing day.

Teen Pullet Squad!

We’ve had some really notable successes and mini-triumphs in the last few days. Right off we are quite excited to welcome three new pullets (pullets are hens who haven't started laying yet, essentially  adolescents) to our flock. Last weekend I came across a Craigslist ad from a woman whose very young sons had convinced her to get 3 chickens to put in their tiny yard. I responded to the ad and told her that our 5 girls live out in the apple orchard and are moved regularly to fresh ground, and that we’d absolutely love to adopt her three. I drove out the next day, and was introduced to the chickens by her 6-year-old son who made sure to tell me all of their names and where the names came from (Scarlet- She’s a Rhode Island Red, Jewel- She looks like she’s wearing a necklace, and Pepper-She is white with black spots). The family was so sweet, and ended up giving us the chickens for free because they were going to such a good home. I suppose there really is something exceptional about a child’s pet ACTUALLY being sent to live on a farm (I’m sorry if this bursts anyone’s bubble but, contrary to what parents say, most pets don’t actually go to live on farms).

Only the finest.  The sign reads, "Early Bird Ranch."

In business news, we have been doing fairly well. As of right now we’ve sold 203 chickens and 23 turkeys. Not a bad start at all! Last night, we even got to attend a special event at our first restaurant client, Pasta Moon. The event focused on local food production and had each farmer that sells to the restaurant eating with the guests and discussing his/her operation. The food was amazing, but really the best part of the night was meeting the people at our table. With a good chunk of beginner’s luck, we landed a table with great conversationalists in every seat. It was inspiring to meet such enthusiastic folks. Our table ended up being the boisterous one that had to be shushed when announcements or such were being made. It was a great night and a downright delicious meal.

Lastly, we’ve also been able to calm down because of all the great support we’ve gotten from you guys, our friends and family (what a blurred line that is!). We obviously have a lot on our plate right now, and if we wanted we could be stressed out of our minds, but the optimism and encouragement that we’ve received in phone calls, letters, emails, and even pickle jars (…and yes the Jalapenos were amazing!) have kept us focused on the fact that we are truly supported and loved. We are doing what we want to be doing, and while you all are, for the most part, quite far away, we’ve grown a lot closer to you in just past few weeks. So even if we don’t sell another bird, we’ve come out pretty darn far ahead.

GMO Woes

Shae and I are less than 2 months into the world of farming and we’ve had our hearts broken.

As I mentioned, I started to advertise on the forum of the Weston A. Price Foundation- South Bay Chapter’s forum. The people have been amazing, and the part I’ve enjoyed most has been their intense curiosity and interest in their food. I’ve spent days answering question about our methods, our breeds, and our feed ration. I even got into a small debate with another pasture-based farm in the area over whether a conventional (non-organic) feed could be free of genetically modified organisms (GMO) like Monsanto corn or soy.

This is important to us because Joel back at Polyface has struck a wonderful balance between his political/nutritional priorities and affordability by using a conventional feed that is free of GMO ingredients. We were jumping around the house a few weeks back when after calling feed mill after feed mill, we found one that sold a conventional feed that was GMO free. It felt like we had really surmounted a big hurdle.

However, as a result of my debate on the forum, I wanted to produce the guarantee of not using GMO ingredients in writing from my feed mill. Shae called them and as I watched her face morph from nonchalance to confusion to anger, I began to worry. I learned after the call that the man she talked when we placed our first order had backtracked, and in just a few minutes “non-GMO” became more and more specific, and less and less significant. What they can guarantee is that the feed they sell us does not contain Monsanto Round-Up Ready corn. That’s all.

Now that’s not bad. In fact, once we calmed down we realized that as conventional feeds go, we have been incredibly fortunate to have found one without medications and artificial hormones. The feed even has a great heat-resistant pro-biotic and a very balanced range of vitamins and minerals. But the fact remained; we felt, and still feel, heartbroken.

The reality is that because we are raising omnivores, we rely on grain. In this country 80%-95% of the grain produced is GMO and the vast majority of the available scientific research makes feed producers think you are wacko for requesting that it not be in your feed. Further it’s becoming harder and harder to grow non-GMO crops. No matter how organic or careful you are, if your neighbor or even someone in the county is using GMO you are at risk. This is because genetically modified DNA contained in the plant’s pollen contaminates non-GMO crops by invading (rather than sexually combining with) non-GMO DNA. It’s a bad situation (Shae would like me to add that the beneficent companies that make GMO crops can also sue you for stealing their intellectual property if this happens…and it does).

As though to make matters worse, the cartel of organic feed producers appear to be exploiting this fact and sell their feed at very high prices. While I have been exploring other options, I have been shocked at A.) how expensive organic feed is B.) how unimpressive its list of ingredients are and C.) how poor the customer service is at the closest and most popular organic feed mill. At the price they ask (which is more than 50% above my current feed’s price), I would expect a ration that was darn near perfect. Instead it appears they want me to pay high-end prices for something mediocre.

So, what do we do?

Well, after a lot of late night discussions and lists on the whiteboards we will be sticking with the feed we have for now. Our goal is to produce a stellar product that our respective parents could have afforded to feed our families when Shae and I were growing up. As it stands we are hovering around the $15 per bird range, which was our initial goal, but even some Weston A. Price Foundation members who are truly educated and passionate about their food simply can’t afford that. That’s a tragedy. We are constantly looking for ways to lower our prices, and we’ve done our best to offer trades for labor or other services, but that’s not a particularly sustainable model for us if it gets to be too much bigger.

To us the way forward is clear. Our mission is still to provide new choices to customers so more people can buy and will buy this food. Right now there are at least two other small pasture-based chicken producers in the area who use a 100% organic feed. This means customers have the option to buy a wonderful and pasture-raised organic bird if they can afford it, but they are stuck with what they can find in the supermarket if they can’t. We see our role as bridging that gap. Raising birds out on the verdant and nutritious pasture without hormones or medications is downright awesome and it’s our top priority because it’s the crux of producing delicious, healthy, and humane meat. However, we’ve learned from this that our next priority is affordability, and as such we have to be willing to get our hearts broken sometimes.

P.S.

Since all of you reading this are friends and family, I know you want to know how this has affected our business.

This has been such a blessing in disguise. We have the best customers in the world.

After immediately alerting all of our customers to the fact that our feed was no longer GMO-free, we haven’t had a single cancellation. Everyone who has responded to my email has been so understanding of the difficulty of balancing the priorities I mentioned above. Some have offered their suggestions, their advice, and in some cases even their gratitude for our honesty and efforts to do what we are doing.

One customer put it best, GMO crops and feed are worth fighting, but there are bigger fights for us to be in right now. The treatment of the animals, the health of the land, and people’s access to affordable, healthy, and nutritionally-dense food will have the largest effect on fixing our food system.

Day at the Office

With only three hours spent in the pasture each day, I’d say the last two days have spent at the office. A shift has most certainly occurred in our schedule, and right now all we can think about are the 400 chickens we need to sell by our processing dates on September 11 and September 18.

The deadlines are crucial because we are still operating on such a tight budget, that we would seriously prefer not to maintain an inventory of birds that has to be stored frozen in expensive and energy-intensive freezers. As such, we are doing all we can (including staying in to make phone calls all day) to sell pre-orders for our two processing dates so customers can come out to the farm and pick up their birds chilled and fresh.

The transition to sales has been interesting, but certainly helpful for letting our aching muscles repair themselves. So far we’ve sold about 70 of the 400 chickens, and without embellishment, the customers we’ve met over the phone and via email have been amazing. It’s been so exciting. Yesterday I sent a message about pre-ordering to the South Bay chapter of The Weston A. Price Foundation, a group that Shae Lynn and I consult very often for nutritional advice.

What’s been great about marketing to this group is that they truly value the nutritional-density of quality animal products and they are incredibly knowledgeable and interested in exactly how their food is raised and prepared. In one day, we doubled our orders, and had several meaningful and enlightening discussions about our methods and our priorities. While it took up a lot of our time, they are exactly the kind of customers we want.

I’ve also begun the search in earnest for the components of our slaughter facility. My preliminary design is for a converted open-air trailer that can be setup in new places on the farm each time we process. This will allow the waste water we produce to be an asset rather than a liability. With a mobile unit I can irrigate areas of pasture with the amazingly nutritious water that is used to clean the birds and tables and avoid problematic concentrations of organic matter and moisture in a single area of the farm. It’s amazing how with a little management and creativity, things that plague the industrial system can be used to benefit the small farmer. As such, we are on the lookout for a work truck still to tow the trailer with as well as a hay wagon or cotton trailer, and stainless steel work tables. A bit of each day is now spent on Craigslist looking for the deal of the century, which is essentially all we can afford.

We have also begun the design of a structure that will keep the turkeys dry and shaded once they move out of the pasture shelters with the broilers. The design requires a good bit of tarp to keep the shelter light, which can be expensive. However, my incredibly smart and resourceful wife had the amazing idea of sewing together our empty feed bags from to make a tarp. It’s just another example of taking a traditional waste product and turning it into something of serious and measurable value for the small farmer. Obviously things would be different if we had 10,000 of these bags, but because we only deal with about 80 of them at a time, we have this flexibility to be innovative.

Lastly, both the turkeys and chickens have been growing well and eating A LOT of grass. They eat everything they can find or dig up, but their favorite is the clover, which coincidentally is the cows’ favorite and is compared by Joel Salatin to ice cream for the livestock. Each morning we take their feeders out for about an hour after we’ve moved them to encourage them to focus on the pasture. It slows their growth down slightly because they are eating food with more vitamins and minerals than calories, but it is worth it!

They graze all day, but during that concentrated first hour on the new pasture, it’s amazing to watch them run to find the freshest clover patch. What strikes us every time is that they have the same exact DNA as the industrial birds that are pumped full of antibiotics and hormones to keep them alive and can’t walk or die of heart failure. The juxtaposition is breathtaking. Even though we are waking up at sunrise, it really is our favorite part of the day now.

Pastured Poultry

So today is quite important. Today is the day that we officially became pastured poultry producers.

After a week of intense labor and stress, we have finally succeeded in constructing all of the pasture shelters for the turkeys and broilers and moving the giants out of the brooder and onto the grass. To alleviate the stress of crowding, we had actually moved 250 birds onto the pasture three days ago. Our neighbors, Gary, who grazes shorthorn cattle on the property, and Conrado, who lives in the other house on the property, helped us truck down on Gary’s trailer 5 of the 300 pound shelters and then carry them into the field. We would have been screwed without their help.

The last two days and especially today were a determined and exhausting campaign that got the final 250 birds and remaining 5 pens out as well. However, with the help of our friend John from Santa Cruz (I feel like he should get a column on the blog too now. He knows as much as we do about this farm by now!), we got the shelters out and filled. Here we are on the left.

The birds are doing great! The shelters are keeping them comfortable and safe. We’ve had some interesting temperature changes each day and wind, but they look great and I am very happy to report that no foxes or raccoons have been able to even get a paw inside of the shelters. So while the chickens and turkeys are all setup, in the interest of getting the birds out on the grass as soon as we could, Shae and I postponed working out the details of creating the infrastructure down by the pens for watering, feeding, and moving them. As a result we are moving them by hand each day (however, my neighbor Laco is welding for us the custom dolly that should solve this), hauling 5 gallon buckets of water across the field, and carrying sacks of feed out to the birds. Frankly, this is only temporary, but it isn’t much of a surprise. Our two management creeds are “Just start” and “Stress the farmers not the land or animals.”

We also are now officially taking pre-orders for this first batch of chickens and the Thanksgiving turkeys. Things have been going great and we have already gotten a flood of orders, which has been a big part of keeping us motivated. Even though we don’t have a Paypal account setup yet and didn’t at the time have a business bank account, it was important to us to give individuals and families first crack at our inventory before restaurants. For all of you, I'd be more than happy to send you the order information sheet if you are interested. You can reach me at: Kevin@earlybirdranch.com

I’m downright exhausted (which could also be due in part to the leak in our air mattress that has had us essentially sleeping on the hard floor between 4:00a and 6:00a), but we are thrilled…and proud. There’s more to do, but we can see what we’ve done. We can see the chickens and turkeys expressing their natural tendencies and exploring the pasture. And we can see the quality of the experience we are having While I am a bit puzzled by how we are going to manage all of the things on our to-do list, I am excited by the fact that we have to do them all, and so we will find a way.

Rising Action

The pace is somehow getting faster. I really couldn’t have imagined that being possible, but these adorable chickens are putting the screws to us.

I know I’ve talked about how silly it is to try and keep a schedule on the farm, but frankly old habits are hard to break. Based on the schedule I wrote last week (I’m holding it in my hands just to make sure that there was a time that this reality seemed possible) the chickens won’t be ready to hit the pasture until Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. This gives me plenty of time to build their shelters, shop for a truck, begin marketing, clean the house, and enjoy being married. Basically that idea is wrong…so very, very wrong.

So to begin with we’ve been a little behind schedule since the water system broke (and then broke again, and then one last time to make sure I knew I lived at its mercy) because that ate up some serious broiler pasture shelter building time while Shae’s father was here to help. However, these chickens, and I do not mean chicks anymore, are huge. They are way ahead of schedule and the brooders are looking smaller and smaller by the day. While the compost in there is finally looking nice, we are also starting to see some bad behavior because of the population density. The numbers haven’t changed, but just like children who have lived in the same room for years, these guys are pre-teens now and want their space (they have also developed terrible taste in music and a tendency to cluck back at us). We’ve set up two small hospital pens in the house to keep injured chicks away from curious beaks, which make small wounds into big wounds, and things are balancing out to be pretty good as long as we are vigilant. But, vigilance takes a lot of time and effort and is only a way to maintain the status quo, not improve it.

So we’ve been rushing to get the pasture shelters done, and we are thinking we will have 5 of the 10 shelters ready by tomorrow or Monday. Getting half of the group out, the giant half preferably, would be a tremendous release of pressure. We sent an SOS to our friend John in Santa Cruz and he came up on Friday to help build. Amazingly he offered not only an extra pair of hands, but some really awesome advice that helped us start building at some pretty impressive speeds. But to get the shelters down to the field and purchase some of the final supplies we need, we will need a truck, and that’s been an adventure in and of itself.

The Wattrod (my 2003 Accord coupe) is not a particularly good working car for rural life. As I am learning, our budget of about $5,000 for the purchase of a three quarter ton 4-wheel drive pickup and the first year of its maintenance is slightly comical. What has been so funny about this is that every truck I’ve seen has taught me that I can either have something reliable or something affordable. I used all of Thursday to go and see a truck that looked perfect for us only to learn, thanks to the mechanic I had inspect the truck, that the 74,000 miles being advertised on the odometer and Craigslist posting both neglected to let us know that the 5 digit odometer had rolled over at least once in the car’s life. So we are back to square one on looking for trucks.

Lastly, and I’ll keep this short for modesty’s sake, things are a mess. I’ve got chickens in hospital pens in the living room, all of my tools live now in a wheelbarrow so I can get to work faster in the morning, and I haven’t done laundry since my Dad was in town (feel free to check back on the blog to see how long ago that was). We are eating well thanks completely to Shae, and that keeps us energized and also lets us focus on cleaning the kitchen, but I think the last time I had a shower was on my wedding day.

This sure comes off as a laundry list of complaints, but I wouldn’t be taking the time to write something purely negative. I really like being able to share this adventure with all of you, my friends and family. I think that filling you in on the busy/hectic/scary parts makes the successes real and rewarding.

Wish me luck.

Nesting

I am so happy to say to you all that Shae Lynn and I got married on Tuesday! As I mentioned before, we are living off of our savings right now and can’t afford a reception, but we had a wonderful time being married at the county assessor’s office.

I am anticipating a large number of admonishments for this, but we started our day with building the prototype for our mobile chicken shelters. I had thought it would be fine to do farm work so long as we had an hour to get ready. At first I was a little skeptical when Shae asked to stop working a full two hours early, but I quickly was reminded that I should never doubt her when I saw how gorgeous she was.

We had to make sure the chicks were fed and safe before we left and a couple of trouble makers ended up getting us behind schedule. We also had to stop at the post office because Shae and I (really just me) had forgotten to get me a ring so we ended up ordering one online gambling that it could reach us with overnight shipping by the afternoon of the wedding. Amazingly it did, and after I was scolded by the postmaster for buying a wedding ring on the internet, we made it to the office on time.

The ceremony was obviously small, but we were amazed by how much of an asset that turned out to be. Having just the two of us there made us feel like we were saying our vows directly to each other. There was no audience and no expectations. It turned out to be very moving and something I’m really happy we did.

To celebrate, we had Shae’ brother chick sit so we could have dinner at Pasta Moon in Half Moon Bay. Pasta Moon is an incredible restaurant about 20 minutes up the 1 that really values and seeks out local and sustainable food. Further, they are going to be the first restaurant to serve our chickens and turkeys! When we arrived they had a couple of glasses of champagne waiting for us at our table along with several sincere congratulations from the staff. The owner, Kim Levin, was raised on a farm herself and has a genuine interest in finding food that has the full flavor she remembers. She has been so excited about our chicken and such a phenomenal supporter. The dinner was superb and at the end we were completely surprised to learn that Shae’s mom had called before we had arrived and paid for our meal. The gift made us both beam.

When we got home we were exhausted and had to feed the chicks again, but we made a point to turn up the car’s stereo enough so we could have our first dance under the stars in the driveway.
All in all the day was just a great reminder of how special small can be. We still want to have a reception next year, but it was really moving to be able to spend our day together.

P.S. We are having a great honeymoon. I dragged Shae out to this amazing retreat where city kids like us can spend some serious time learning about local agriculture and where food comes from by waking up early, feeding chickens, eating fresh food, and building farm structures all day.

(Shae is really tired right now and when I showed her this I got a slug in the arm. I am sure we'll find a time in the next 10 years to take a little honeymoon.)

Water, Water Everywhere...

Shae and I woke up this morning with the rare feeling that we’d be able to roll out of bed, casually do some chores, and then have a slow breakfast of sourdough pancakes that would lead leisurely into a couple of projects and prototypes we’ve been meaning to get to.

All of that changed when nothing happened...when I turned on the water faucet, and nothing happened.

This is an old ranch, and the home we are living in is way up on a hill and relies on this old ranch’s water system to get us water every day. It’s not really the most ingenious design, but it’s what we have to work with and today it wasn’t working at all.

We checked all of the pumps and the tanks and realized that the pumps were working fine, but that the tank that feeds the house was missing about 500 gallons of water. Where did it go?

We spent the better part of the morning pacing the heavily overgrown water line, trudging up and down the hill, scraping our way through poison oak and blackberries, and coming up again and again empty handed. Finally we turned on the system to listen for any leaks and right in the middle of the biggest and thorniest thistle patch I’ve seen there came, of course, a gurgling sound.

So out came the machete and the shovels and away we went. What was a bit frustrating was this leak was actually caused by a broken repair from god knows how long ago, and there were very clear indications that it had been fudged a bit then because there was debris and sand that had been added to the hole to keep the water line balancing in a specific position. Obviously that didn’t work.

The best part of the day was after soaking my pants and boots in order to learn that even when the pump is off water pressure will stick around, we found a second leak. What ensued was an inspired choreography set to the Benny Hill theme song where one break in the line would cease leaking and the other, which had just been fine, would explode.

I actually am not writing this to complain or garner any pity. The take away from this post is that we’d be without water, cold, tired, and frustrated if it wasn’t for our neighbor Laco, who gave up his day off to help us, and Shae’s father, Phil, who charitably stayed an extra day to see just how dirty he could get his clothes.

The basic fact behind all of this is that we need these people and all the people who have helped us and will help us. Put plainly and simply this is about as far from self-sufficiency as we can get. We are relying on a lot of people, but I know we are on the right track because every day people are relying on us just a bit more. It’s coming slowly, but it’s certainly there and I really must say it’s amazing to know that when someone comes to help me through a crisis, they know I’d do the exact same for them.

So instead, I am writing this feeling cold and tired, but with a relationship with my neighbor and father-in-law that’s a bit closer, a deeper understanding of plumbing and water systems, and the expectation of a warm shower. Who could ask for more?

P.S. I could ask for a bit more. Shae and I are off to the Court House to get married on Tuesday!