What a busy week we are having. We are quickly learning that farm life is nonstop and the chores are never ending. Animals need constant care and gardens need constant tending (and in our case constant patrol for foraging Deer). This is especially true working on a dairy farm.
One of the many new phrases we are learning is “make work.” “Make work” means you do whatever you need to do to make it work. There is no time to take to repair or build things in accordance with plans or detailed specifications. You need to work quickly to make whatever you have work for your needs. This is especially true when the nearest hardware store is miles away (30 plus minutes to be exact). You learn quickly to use what you have or do without until there is time to get it together and make it work.
In light of this we decided to build our own chicken coop (rather then buy a pre-made kit or buy a pre-built coop). As usual, Thom researched nightly to find the right coop to buy or kit to build and he never found one he liked. They were either too expensive, not well built, or some combination thereof. Also, when Thom asked Tim Alexander about where to buy a chicken tractor Tim looked at Thom with a confused look and explained that Harrison (The Alexander’s 9 year old son) built their personal chicken coop. Thom was put in his place. After lengthy discussion with Edgar (Alison’s dad) on a recent trip to Winchester Thom decided we would build one together as a family. This is why we came down here-to work together as a family and learn how farmers live.
Here is our result: The Morra Chicken Coop (https://picasaweb.google.com/atmorra/MorraChickenCoop?feat=directlink ) After a couple of trips to Lowes and a couple of mornings working together this is what we came up with. It is a lot bigger then we first planned (and it does not move as easily as we had hoped-who knew you needed to put skids on the bottom), but we are satisfied with our efforts. It was an amazing family experience. We are so glad we trusted in God and allowed Him to work through us to build this coop. Our chickens are at the Alexander’s farm and we will bring them home in about a week. We continue to make modifications to it and hope it will keep our girls safe and secure.
We built this in the mornings over this past week since we have also started milking cows in the evening at the Alexander’s farm. Alison and the kids have watched cows being milked at Hedgebrook farm by our house over the 3.5 years we have lived in Winchester and dreamed of the day they would be able to get into the action. Well, they are still dreaming for it has been Thom who has been milking the cows. He has been working with Oliver-the Alexander’s 17 year old son. Thus far Thom has done everything from cleaning the utters and teats, priming the teats the old fashion way (with his hands) hooking up the milking machine and washing the teats after he is done. He has done it all for the past week. At dinner each night Thom asks at the table: "raise your hand if you ever milked a cow?” He has been a brave soul for a city boy. These are massive animals with their varying needs and quirks and Oliver has been a patient and respectable young man who has guided Thom through this process. He is the kind of boy Thom hopes TJ aspires to become for he is a hard working, humble and respectable young man who diligently serves his parents and the Lord.
Alison has also gotten into the action for she works at the other end of the milking process-bottling the milk for distribution to the farms customers. Next week Thom will cross train with Alison while Alison will work with the boys and learn how to milk as well. In the end this will be helpful for the Alexander’s for it gives them extra people who can fill in when needed for the cows need to be milked everyday (twice a day in fact). TJ and Margaret Rose have also gotten into the action for they help bottle feed the new calfs and are working to learn the names of the cows. This is helpful for they each have their special milking needs and Thom is not able to name them all-yet. From the end he works with they all look the same.
It has been a busy and productive week thus far. We are keeping busy tending our garden (out here in the woods we have Deer eating up our seedling so we need to take more serious action) readying for our chickens and getting more acclimated to the area. Being busy is a blessing and we are thankful for the work.
Next week we hope to get to process another batch of chickens while continuing our milking efforts. We are also hopeful that our new mobile brick oven will arrive soon (Frank the builder is working on the trailer which will help us pull the oven around with us wherever the Lord takes us). We also head out for a trip at the end of the week to the Creation Museum (TJ needs to make good on his promise to Ken Ham-the museums founder) to meet up with our friends the Fields family whom we met at the Family Economics Conference.
We hope you all are well!
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