By Angie Mentink
It is the end of October and the weather has been very mild for this time. What a blessing as we await our wood burning stove and haven’t had to run the furnace in the camper much. As I reflect on this summer, and look around at what has been accomplished, I’m in awe. The Lord has been working through our family and those that have helped us in a mighty way to accomplish so much. Our addition was closed in by Toby Johansen and his crew in August. They did a fabulous job. The insulating and electrical for our main floor is almost done, and there’s a large amount of drywall up. A great friend has helped my husband with the drywall project when he has time.
Today my step-dad cleared out a large area of trees and overgrown brush. The work that he was able to do with his machine would have taken us days to accomplish! We are so thankful for him and the right equipment for the job! With his saw, the trees are cut flush to the ground and it has a very finished appearance. We plan to make this area an orchard with fruit trees, herbs, plants, and nut trees using ideas from the permaculture research we have done.
The boys had a pumpkin stand again this year. We were all disappointed that we didn’t get pumpkins and gourds planted as usual, but the boys discovered pumpkins growing in several areas where our pigs were on pasture in the spring. That was an unexpected gift! Last winter we had strategically placed round bales of hay over some of our less desirable land for the animals to eat and then we had our pigs run through this in the spring. We fed the pigs pumpkins and several of the places where there had been a round bale, they found them growing. It was a dry summer so we are thinking the organic matter around them must have kept them hydrated and there was no weed competition. That is the best way to grow something. No effort!
We felt like the Lord provided so abundantly through friends and even strangers. We were blessed with abundant strawberries in the spring, apples in the summer and fall, abundant tomatoes from my mom and a friend, and enough grapes to make 5 gallons of juice. After my mistake of filling in with fresh wood chips in our garden, it really suffered, but we were blessed with enough through family and friends. It is in times like this that I’m reminded that we are not self-sufficient nor do we strive to be. We love being part of a community that shares in their abundance and we pray that we do the same.
Most of our sows have had babies recently. New babies are always fun and exciting, but piglets are especially cute. One group of our piglets enjoys running up and down our hill. It is entertaining to watch! When they are not playing, they enjoy rooting around and working the soil of the weedy areas. This winter we plan to place some round bales for feed on this hill to add organic matter and fertility. This area is very weedy and compacted. We look forward to seeing the results. Our plan for the piglets is to keep and sell some of the best breeding stock and then sell or give away the rest. We are feeding a corn/pea mix along with scraps and whatever they can root around and find. We put apple cider vinegar in their water as a natural dewormer and have found other uses for it as well. They also receive kelp for extra minerals. We move them to new locations as often as we can and through this process we have discovered just how hard they are on pastures, buildings, and fence. We have some work to do in order to get them moving more frequently, without so much destruction. We want them to work for us not against us.
We bought 4 jersey calves in September from Branched Oak Farm, an organic, grass-based farm here in Nebraska. We are still praying about what direction to go with these jerseys. We bought our first milk cow from this farm and loved her genetics. She is a smaller framed cow that has done very well on pasture, has a good disposition, and produces high butterfat milk. She is a great mom and also gentle with our family. We know for sure that we love this breed and the genetics complement our pasture based, beyond organic system. It has been exciting to watch our herd grow. We really enjoy seeing our sheep, goats, and cows eating abundant grass, while staying clean, and enjoying the outdoors. My favorite part is helping to move our animals to fresh pasture. They are so excited and happy to be eating the lush, tall, green grass of the newly rested pasture. While most pastures are looking brown, the areas that we have had time to do rotational grazing on are green and lush. We are so thankful for the way that God has provided in so many ways and we are eager and hopeful for the future of our farm and natural soap business. We pray that we will be a blessing to those we serve as well as our animals and land.