Our Farm: A 10 Year Old's Perspective

As I was going through boxes in  one of the bedrooms I happened upon one of Hunter's drawing books. Our guy loves to doodle, and write stories too. I was setting it in his pile when a drawing caught my eye, and then there was a story. It was 3 journal entries he had written and I wanted to share them. I am going to type it exactly as he wrote it! He is in 4th grade.

Monday March 10,2014
Hi my name is Hunter. I am the part-owner of Heritage Kirk Farm LLC. I am also the first employee of the farm. My father is the owner of Heritage Kirk Farm, LLC. Right now we are starting the farm and making a fodder system and we should getting our chickens the thirteenth of March. We believe instead of chicken houses or hog houses with animals that never see the light of day should instead start the day with grass and bugs and end with grass and bugs. We do not want any seeds or grain that we feed our animals sprayed with chemicals. (This was accompanied with a picture of a man on a tractor spraying a field with an "x" through it.)

We have 5 acres which might sound like a little bit of land but their is farms with only an acre or two, so if you look at it the way I do then we have a lot of property. Right now we have 6 pigs and plants sprouting. My mother father and me have always wanted a farm and now we have a bigger chance for my father to get out of the military. My father loves working and building, especially with his family. I have four differently abled siblings, Gideon, Zechariah, Asher and Emma. They were adopted!!:) ( he actually drew that on his page)

Tuesday March 11, 2014
Dad,mom, me, Gideon, Zechariah, Asher and Emma are all members of Heritage Kirk Farm we sell eggs and broilers, and we should have the biggest organic sprout fed chicken farm in Camden,SC.

The last one I am not going to share but it was written the week our little world was shaken. One day we were working outside building our moveable hoop coop the next day we got an email that changed everything. That week we found some of our neighbors did not want a family farm here. Again I am not going to share the specifics but I will say that friendships and trust were broken beyond repair. Not only were people willing to go to great lengths to stop our farm, but people we shared our dreams with used those dreams against us. So we were leaving. Hunter was really saddened by this. He did not want to move again. We have moved so many times in his little life. This was where we were going to put down roots. But what are you supposed to do when people don't want you our your livelihood near them.

It has been about 3 months now since all this happened. My last post I shared we were moving to an awesome friends property. And to be honest that's what we wanted so badly. To just leave, never have to see these people again. But God, was not moving, we were trying so hard to get there, but nothing was happening. We were working so hard to get our house on the market, then we had to stop because we discovered at least 4 foxes were helping themselves to our hens daily and we went from 240 to 170.  The pigs ate at least 6, because the girls just loved going into the pigs pen. So Tyler was working so hard to get their coop built at our friends and after spending the money to build it, we realize that it is just too big to be stable. So back to square on with that.

In the end, with lots of time and prayer we have decided to stay right here on our little 5 acres. When this came to us after weeks of ignoring it, I balled my eyes out. Sometimes God has things happen or has us somewhere we would rather not have happen to us or be. But God is good. He has weaved a beautiful tapestry and the only thing we can see is a mess of thread. We are putting our hope in God, that He will provide for all of our needs. We pray for healing for our little community. We are praying  for Joy in a place at this moment we would rather be anywhere else. So that is where we are. Now we are picking up the pieces, rebuilding, with our vision of family farming as the motivation. With all the chaos and confusion, that has been the one thing we knew God has planned for our family. So we are pressing on, with a lot of work ahead!

We are moving!! But just down the road! June 2014 update

The last few months have been quite an adventure. About 2 months ago a few neighbors brought it to our attention that they did not want a small farm here. I won't share the details of what happened because really, nothing good would come from it. But due to the events that have occurred we do not feel like we can stay here at our home and 5 acres and farm. We have wrestled and prayed what to do.

 This will be the first time in our whole adult lives that we actually get to choose where we were going to live. We have been a military family since we were 18, and Farmer Tyler will be separating from Active Duty Air Force September 29th. So we had options, we could go where ever we wanted and start over. At one point we were going to sell everything and move up to West Virginia.

 Again after much prayer, we find ourselves not moving to the mountains but staying right here in Cassatt, SC. We have been blessed to have a great friend who offered to let us rent his land right down the road!! He has 90 acres with 35 in pasture, which would be an amazing place for our little farm! We go back and forth everyday about where we are going to live. We could stay in our house and just move the animals to our friends, or we can sell our house and move to the land too. To be honest the later is what we want to do, our hearts have no joy in this little property we used to love. But we are daily waiting for God to give us direction on that. If we move to our friends, we will probably RVstead, kind of like homesteading, but in an RV. I know, we are nuts, but thats okay!  So we will see! Since our farms got halted, we will not be able to bring in the income we need to live, so Farmer Tyler is going into the Air National guard, and is looking for a full time job as well. This will support us until, Lord willing, next April when we will be in the full swing of things.

 With all the unknown we waited to finish building our mobile hen hoop coop. At one point we thought we were going to sell all the animals as well as all of our farm equipment and just start start over where ever we were going. So where have our girls been living? At night they reside in our our pallet hen house, and by day they roam through out forest and brush as well as about 1/2 acre of grass. This was working out great until we found out that we have a fox 3 foxes. And these foxes have been feasting nightly on our girls for the last 2 months, and we had no idea!!!! Last Saturday we found out about these Fantastic Mr. Foxes, and they have visited us every night! When you have as many as we do, or did, you can't possibly tell if they are being picked off one by one. We have raised chickens here for the last 3 years, and never had a fox problem, coyote problem, yes. So if I were to guess I would say we are at about 125 hens out of 250. We are sure glad that we could contribute Organic Chicken every night to the local fox community......NOT! Farmer Tyler has worked alot this week with our friend to build the mobile hen hoop coop at the new property. So hopefully in the next few days the girls will be safe in their new home! But because of this loss, our egg production will be about half of what we planned.

 Our piggies are growing well. The have been a little slower growing than what we would have liked, and we are guessing that is because they were eating mostly organic grains sprouted into fodder grass. That is not a bad thing, but we now think feeding fodder grass, with fermented corn would have started them off to a better start. Since we have been in transition, with trying to get our house on the market, we had to stop the fodder production. So instead of the organic grains being sprouted into grass, they have been eating organic corn, field peas, barley and oats that are fermented. The benefit of fermenting the grains versus just giving them dry grains is that the fermentation process creates enzymes that aid digestion, as well as anti nutrients are decreased. Since switching to the fermented feed, they have grown alot! Not too much, but where they should be. We had planned for the pigs to be ready in August but realistically it looks like we will have 250 lb hogs late August, September time frame. Our Meat and Egg CSA unfortunately will not be happening in 2014, but God willing April 2015 we will have Small and Large Meat and Egg CSA shares available as well as those heritage turkeys!

This August we will begin with our Organic Fed, pastured eggs. In Late August and September we will sell our organic fed, pastured pork by the whole and half hog. I will do a separate post on how you can reserve your hog! We only have 11 hogs and already we have people wanting to make sure they get a share!

 I think thats it right now. There will be so many huge changes the next few months, but we are excited to get past this and move on. Thanks for all the support many of you have shown us! We appreciate it. Also, I had to create a new FB page for the farm, you can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heritage-Kirk-Farm/762872790419070
and our farm website, www.heritagekirkfarm.com .

News From the Farm: Our First Farm Blog Post

Well here we are, one day before April! Time has flown! So here is alittle info about Heritage Kirk Farm. Tyler, is dad and head farmer. Currently he is in the Air Force but we found out yesterday his application for voluntary separation was approved!!!!! So that means Tyler will be home full time the beginning of September  2014. We are so excited about this as the farm will run a lot smoother when he is home! Val is mom to our 5 kiddos, homeschool teacher, chicken and pig lady, and maid. And honestly, she wouldn't change a thing about that! Hunter is our farmer in training, who thinks it is neat to be the farms first "employee", and hopes to have a rabbitry soon to provide rabbit meat for our customers. Our youngest 4 kiddos are little farm helpers, sometimes messers! But we will keep working with them as one day, God willing, this will be their farm! 

Picture: Almost 2 week old layer pullets enjoying their sprouts. They all jump in a pile to get their! I think that means they like them:)

First and formost we want you to know that this is God's farm, we are just stewards of it. This truth has really impacted our vision for the farm. We have 5 acres. To some that may seem like a lot, to many I am sure it sounds like too little. But 5 acres is what God has given us! So that is what we will farm. Many think "farm", as in corn or wheat fields. But our farm is and will be made up of mostly livestock. We have 248 layer chicks and 12 pigs already started and we plan on doing pastured meat chickens, or broilers, throughout the year. Also if financially we are able to we will be raising heritage turkeys that will be ready in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

 Websters 1828 Dictionary states "HUS'BANDRY, noun The business of a farmer, comprehending agriculture or tillage of the ground, the raising, managing and fattening of cattle and other domestic animals, the management of the dairy and whatever the land produces.

1. Frugality; domestic economy; good management; thrift. But in this sense we generally prefix good; as good husbandry.  2. Care of domestic affairs."

Picture: Heritake Kirk Farm piggies enjoying their Fodder! These are our future hams and bacon.

Our goal at Heritage Kirk Farm is to honor God by good animal and land Husbandry. What exactly does that look like? Well, what we see is instead of confining animals in a tiny space where they never see the light of day, we will raise them outside, in manageable numbers. They will have constant supply of fresh air and sunlight, and clean water. Pigs will be used for their natural rooting instinct to create our pasture. Their home is a moveable pig tractor that will be moved daily to provide new soil each day as well as break up the parasite cycle. The pigs will be followed by the Layer Hoop Coop, a special moveable hoop house that our layer chickens will enjoy their time in. In history, birds always follow ruminants and mammals. As the pigs leave their manure, the chickens will break them apart and consume any parasites larvae and any fly larvae that may take hold. The chickens become our pasture pest control as well as manure spreader! And instead of having to have to feed a big tractor fuel, we will instead receive daily eggs!!! That sounds like a good deal to me!!! As when we get the broiler chicks, we will pasture them aswell in moveable shelters similar to the Salatin style broiler pens.  

What will our animals consume for food?? As we know, you are what you eat. So if we consume conventionally raised meats and eggs we will be consuming high amounts of GMO corn and soy. I can attest to that as my health has deteriorated greatly from eating cheap, processed, conventional foods! We learned about sprouting grains for animals a few yeas ago and attempted to sprout all of our goats, dairy cow and chickens feed last year in our greenhouse. Well it worked great until the temps went above 75 degrees! We live in South Carolina, that's 3/4ths of the year!!!! But the short time we sprouted grains for our luvestock we saw the merit in the method. So we invested a lot of time researching aswell as labor and money building our "Fodder System". We also drove all the way to Virginia to get almost 3 tons of Certified organic grains and supplements. I will do a separate post on the Fodder System and how that works. Instead of a commercial feed made of byproducts laden with GMO corn and soy, as well as chemical vitamins and minerals we are following a whole foods approach. For our grains we are using all organic: wheat, oats, barley, field peas and corn. For the supplements we are using organic kelp, Sea 90 mineral salt, organic alfalfa, organic fish meal, and organic brewers yeast. The sprouting of the grains themselves increases protein, calcium, magnesium and other important vitamins, as well as breaking down the phytic acid. As we should always sprout or ferment any grains we eat to get the full nutrients from it, we should do the same for our animals. As the pigs and chickens go through tilling the pasture, we will also be planting an herbal ley that is full of nourishing clovers, plantain, comfrey and other grasses and herbs. As the animals graze these areas again, they will harvest nourishing food that they helped plant themselves. In the end the animals are eating a diet that not only meets their nutritional needs but creates nourishing, healthy food for you and I to eat! We would say that is a win for all of us!

Our vision for our farm goes beyond just eggs, chicken and pork. We hope to raise heritage turkeys this year but that really depends if we have enough money to build their pens. As we said, our goal is to honor God with this farm, and so debt is something we are not willing to take on. We have been slaves long enough, and this farm is how we plan to provide for our family and never take on debt again. So we have to start somewhere. We see our farm being able to offer wool from a few sheep, rabbit meat, small fruits like blackberries and strawberries, classes on homesteading and self sufficiency and hopefully even raw dairy products. Obviously, since we have only 5 acres we are limited, but we invision a menagerie of livestock and plants. We do not want to be "big", or even rich for that matter. We want to provide nourishing food for our own family and our local community all for the Glory of God!