24 August 2022
Foreword :
Pretty good when You need a Foreword for a LiveJournal Entry! However, this has been a very busy, exciting, and somewhat scary month!
Not so much scary, but you’ll better understand after you read the following 50+ Pages (Don’t worry most of them are photos) but you may want to grab a cup of your favourite beverage!
Running Water
I really wish AccuWeather would fire their new Weather Forecaster!
AccuWeather is usually very reliable, however, as I sit here at 2:30am on the 23 August 2022, it is once again pouring outside when all we’re supposed to get is a shower or two! Makes it difficult to manage a Farm!
Having said that, when it rains here, especially any amount, things get very slippery on our hillside here at Briden Farm.
Which usually means a well deserved break, but it also means there are about two days we really can’t do much!
So..
We visit the Village…
Tale a Walk in Bear River and enjoy the cool breeze along the river as the tides rise and fall. See the beautiful of our tidal village on stilts! Smell the freshly roasted coffee at Sissiboo Coffee Roasters!
Just up the road a short walk from the Bridge, and when Jon is roasting coffee it fills the village with a wonderfully, delectable, scent!
Where the Tide ends and flows twice every twenty four hours.
So, with the rainy weather comes it’s own challenges in getting things done!
While we get things done the best we can…
Non of us do as well as the ducks…
Muscovy Ducks
The other thing that happens during warm, rainy, weather is a bloom of …
Mushrooms at Briden Farm
I wish we knew more about the Mushrooms, as they are plentiful.
It would be great to know which are safe to eat, and be able to make use of them.
Would love to have someone come teach us
Auntie and Her Babies
Not everyday has been rainy, of course, and many have been unusually Hot! With temperatures in the 30s, or 90s, depending on which system you use.
The heat is hard on the animals, and on us as the animals need to be watered more often. Very thankful we have the garden hoses installed. The hoses don’t reach all the way to all the animals but it does mean when we climb the hills we have to carry water shorter distances.
Although not everyone complains!
Young Birds Enjoying The Spoils
The hens are enjoying the heat, dusting, picking, and fluffing their feathers! While they find places to flock under during the rainy days.
Others are keeping comfortable also…
Shady Woodlands provide Shelter for our Goats
The goats at Briden Farm not only enjoy helping with clearing land, they enjoy the shade of their woodland pastures.
Goats make wonderful Silviculturists!
If you look up the definition of Silviculturist you’ll see it reads something like this…
“Workers perform a variety of duties related to reforestation and to the management and improvement of forests”
If you’ve ever seen the way Goats work and the way they help trim and clear you’ll know it to be true!
However, Goats work from the knees up!
Trimming Saplings and Clearing Underbrush
Since Goats work from the knee up they only do part of the job!
They do their job very well, trimming saplings and clearing the underbrush but only above the knee!
Goats often refuse to eat anything from the ground to avoid parasites!
So, if you really want to clear land and do so effectively it helps if you have…
Pigs working from the Knees Down!
Pigs not only help clear the lower, below the knee, vegetation, they even till the ground and bring up the rocks!
All their hard work, and their lack of sweat glands, means we have to carry extra water to them on the hotter days!
Roscoe Finds Ways To Cool Off
One of Roscoe’s favourite ways to cool off is to sneak uphill onto the neighbours pond. Their pond is actually a small meadow with some muddy areas. These muddy areas are Roscoe’s favourite spots to cool off.
He comes home absolutely filthy, but much refreshed!
When this happens we usually end up…
Taking Roscoe to the River
The West Branch of the River runs along the Eastern side of Briden Farm and provides great natural beauty.
The West Bank of the West Branch
It is said that Bear River is a corruption of the name of Simon Imbert who’s men took shelter on the West Bank of the West Branch of the River. Perhaps having a home here, on the land that has become known today as Briden Farm. It’s also said that some of the earliest Grape Vines were planted here. One thing is sure, the roots run deep here, and it has long been a place to take shelter and find rest!
Holly Rests After Her Swim in The River
While some find it a place of rest, others find it a great place to fish and hunt!
Pete makes his first kill!
See how I squeaked that right in there!
Pete Enjoys a Well Deserved Cat Nap
Pete’s not the only one that enjoys a Cat Nap!
I enjoy them too. ;)
I also enjoy harvesting from our Garden…
Zucchini!
There are definitely things that benefit from the heat!
While others things benefit from…
A Very Wet Month
For everything there is a season and …
Muscovy Ducks love the Summer
Don’t tell them, we love the meat!
Muscovy meat is a red meat and the breast, when done right, is the best steak you’ll ever have!
This Muscovy Ducks can be the red meat providers on a small homestead.
We love our birds, we their meat, and their eggs too!
Muscovy Double Yolker
People who have had overcooked Duck Eggs think all duck eggs are rubbery! Not so!
Muscovy Ducks provide great meat, and great eggs.
The secret is knowing how to cook them!
Nanna and Her Kids
Nanna, our female Nigerian Dwarf Goat, was one of our very first Goats at Briden Farm. Which makes it difficult to get rid of her!
Although, on the 6th of July, Nanna gave us a little buckling, Romeo, and a Doeling, Terri. We know we want to keep Terri, and are seriously considering keeping Romeo as a breeding Buck.
Thing is, we’re going to have to let some of them go!
We think it’s going to be Nanna, and possibly Romeo!
Although we are expanding and …
Storing Hay in Our Barn!
Ok, so, it’s not exactly “Our Barn”, although it is ours to use and it sits on seven acres of field we’ve been asked to work! The owner’s family come to see how we are using Goats, Pigs, Chickens and Rabbits to help change Woodlands to Pastures and Gardens. Then decided they want us to work their place also!
In our area, as in many areas these days, there are a number of properties where the old hay fields are in desperate need to rejuvenation.
Landowners aren’t farming it, and aren’t getting anything financial from it, and therefore aren’t investing in what it takes to keep it dying out and reverting back to Wilderness.
Meanwhile the number of farmers who are baking hay is diminishing. Since they don’t own the fields and don’t always get paid to cut the hay, the farmers aren’t investing their money in it either!
This results in poor hay, lower production, and while land owners want to keep their fields mowed to avoid fire hazards and keep ticks and other pests at bay!
So, a choice has to be made, often an expensive and difficult one! Does the Landowner invest money into it, even though they aren’t likely to reap any, or few profits from it? Is the farmer who cuts it? Not likely!
What’s needed? In many cases, the modern approach would be to invest thousands in chemical fertilizers and bring in excavators to get rid of invasive weeds.
So, are there other options? Yes! That’s where we come in with…
Goats, Pigs, and Other Animals
This is our second year, two years ago, when we bought this place we now call Briden Farm it was old farmland, overgrown and the areas where there had once been pastures and gardens, some 40 years ago, had taken over by forest, and woodlands.
Over the past two years, our first garden here being planted in 2021 and again this year in 2022, is now starting to produce…
Click to viewYes, quite a change, and we’ve done it with lots of hard work. The hardest of that work done by our animals and they love doing it as much as we do!
We’ve used no chemicals, no commercial fertilizers, no heavy equipment excavations, have only used our tractors on a limited basis for hauling out firewood!
Employing animals and what comes natural to them, while using rotational pasturing, and regenerative farming techniques we’ve began the work of turning hillside Woodlands into pastures and gardens.
Now we’re being called on to use these, and similar techniques to help on other properties as well.
Thus we’re expanding to have the use of a friends farm, complete with a barn and seven acres of old hay field.
We all get fooled, and we all make mistakes!
Some days I get it right, and other days I’m just flying by the seat of my pants!
That’s what I told the Landowners where were expanding to also. Thankfully they understand. Which takes the pressure off.
It’s like with our three girls, we thought sure they’d be bred, freshen, have little goats, and we’d have milk!
After all, they all spent six weeks with a young Buck in February and March and should have freshened within 150 days. Give or take 5 days!
The 150 Days, from the day the young Buck left, is today! None of our three Does have freshened!
There is an outside chance that they may still within the next five days, but at this point I’m very doubtful!
Growing Gardens On Weed Tea
weed tea
this post features a briden farm garden tour done 11 august 2022. it’s of our main garden where we’ve pastured pigs, goats, and chickens. goats and pigs last year, and chickens in april of this year. we use no commercial chemical fertilizer, and mainly weed tea! no! no! not that weed! here’s what i mean… see, when you weed your garden, you save the weeds! the weeds, while they’re [...]
bridenfarm.com
Homemade Linguine, Fresh Zucchini, and Muscovy Duck