"It's Been a Quiet Week...(In Lake Woebegone)"

Hey There !

Dave from McElhoes Family Farm/Belmont here.

I know, the title of this newsletter is kinda dumb. I borrowed it from "A Prairie Home Companion", a weekly radio show that I listened to most Saturday evenings for years. It is long off the air, and I don't really know if it could be found even if you wanted to listen to it. But it got stuck in my head as I sat in the the porch swing watching Sheep TV last Saturday. I have always liked quiet evenings, and the hot summertime weather has made them even more appealing.

The heat of summer continues, and although there has been a lot of rain in the forecast, after the wet spring we have had very little actual rain. The sheep and goats are starting to complain, as they will in the heat of summer, as the grass dries out. They watch as storms run to the north and to the south yet very little here. The few brief showers we have had have been so hard, they ran off rather than sinking in. I have clipped some of the pastures to knock down the unpalatable stuff in the hopes some better feed will come through. With a little rain, and a little sun we hope to mollify them.

Conversely, the broilers and the new pullets are quite happy with the weather. They find the seedheads on the over mature grasses delectable, and the summer bugs a suitable dessert. We are finally only a few weeks away from harvest on the first batch of Old Fashioned Country Chickens, with our next batch hitting the grass this week. The Gourmet Country chicks are to arrive this week, and with this weather, we hope to offer them a little sooner than we had anticipated back at the beginning of the year when shortages were plaguing most of our suppliers. I have talked to several other producers, and they seem to be in the same situation we have been. While chicks are now becoming available again, those of us that raise outdoors on pasture are running short on time to raise enough to proper maturity. There are shortcuts and cheats that could be taken, but we won't be doing any of those.

Our garden and truck patch are kind of sorry this year too. They say misery loves company, but It saddens and worries me when at least one CSA I know of is having trouble filling their boxes, and I still have very little for our Farm Stand.

We are digging garlic this week, and hope to have it cured in a few weeks. We will have a reasonable selection to choose from. We grew Uncle Louie's, Music, Chesnook, Wild Redneck and Georgian Crystal and a few experiments as well. I'll keep you updated as the harvest happens.

"As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

A tattered slip of paper with that quotation printed on it fell off of our refrigerator today as I was making bread. We have always had a habit of posting thoughtful quotes on the fridge along with school papers and artwork. As Katie is getting bigger, and as she is the last here at home, some of the stuff posted has been there a while. I do not remember which of us printed and posted this, but I think I will put it back up, in a prominent place for us to revisit.

Thanks for Listening,

Dave