Lots to do today and I want to start early so I will be brief.
First a tiny scream of frustration: I am thinking of deleting one of my social media streams lest I discover a war being declared over a twitter feed. Or something else completely outrageous. The news reels from one thing to the next making us all seasick from the twisting barrage of hyperbole. Twitter has become a force to be reckoned with. How did that happen? And I want to stop reading the news app. But if we stop bearing witness does that make us safer? Is knowing what people are saying in tiny fifteen-second bites actually helping make us safer – keeping us informed. Must I be informed of all this to be a responsible citizen of the world?
I have deleted from this post more than I have allowed. But you all know me well enough – you all know yourselves well enough – to read between the lines.
And I think the answer is yes. We must stay informed – we are citizens of the world – we have a responsibility to seek the truth, be informed and use this information to promote the greater good, to be good though I admit the truth is getting hard to find. And is often cloaked in opinion. Objective so very hard to find.
Anway. Sigh.
There is a delicious lack of news on the farm front. Things move much slower and with less hysteria in the natural world. The cows brought their calves up to the barn at dusk all by themselves. Molly is still waddling about looking enormously pregnant (unless something happened in the night). The chooks laid about forty eggs. The one pig escaped again and again – she can get OUT under the electric fence but not back IN so she stands on the other side and waits for me to lift the electric fence so she can easily run under. I have put the fattening pigs onto free feed as they are getting too big for me to feed when they are hungry and I am working alone. It was a comedy attaching the feeder to the Rat House barn while they were all knocking at it and investigating it, even though it was as yet empty, chewing on my boots, huffing at each other around my feet.
I have put the free feeder into the big pens field. It has a hopper that i keep full and a little lid at the bottom that they open and feed from. I can hear it opening and closing as I write. It was a comedy attaching the feeder to the Rat House barn while they were all knocking at it and investigating it, even though it was as yet empty, chewing on my boots, huffing at each other around my feet. There are three reasons for the new feeding regime- the feeder has a little lid that they open and stick their heads in to eat. This means that the wild chooks don’t get as much of the feed. Secondly, if they eat when they are hungry they don’t tend to gorge. Thirdly I work alone so there is a safety issue.
I have two fields of pigs. Six in each. So I have a perfect opportunity to do a proper trial and see if they really do eat the same amount when the food is always available. That is the theory anyway. Though I am certain they will eat a little more but steadily. I will take a picture for you today.
Today I will set up the calf creep. You know what a creep is right? A space that only the little ones can get into where no big cows are allowed. It is in the barn. They have their water and extra feed in there – and I fill it with deep warm straw, often the calves use it as a safe space to sleep.
Alex is still sleeping her baby, Rainbow, right down the back away from the herd. Often I find the calves on the outskirts of the sleeping herd. Cows are big. It is safer for babies to be slightly removed. When the mothers bring them up to the barn they are tucked into corners so it is quite natural for the calves to use the creep as a safe space.
I hope Molly is still in one piece as there will be hammering involved.
I never know what I will find when I go out to the barn in the early mornings when I have a sow this close. I checked her about midnight and she was fast asleep. Giving birth to that many babies takes hours.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Love celi
WEATHER: Still beautiful.
Monday 10/02 0% / 0 in. Partly cloudy. High 81F/27C. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph.
c
The Kitchen's Garden 
66 responses to “THE BRIEF”
Your cat seems having a great time playing with the clay pots….
Yes – cats like to sit inside things!
I love the image of you gumboot-deep in wriggling piggies! I wish for a peaceful and constructive day for you, Miss C, as free of Twitter-fed confrontational opinion as possible 🙂
I never actually comment on Twitter or even read it – I am just worried about it being endlessly quoted as though it is a reliable news source.
The word “twitter” bothers me. What happened to us that now we accept the fact that the leader of the free world and the Pope … “tweet?”…. it doesn’t feel right.
I have an orange cat also. My vet told me that orange cats made the best barn cats. I don’t have a barn, and he is an indoor/outdoor cat, but he has decimated the chipmunk population around here.
First time I have commented, but I always read you first thing. You set such a good and peaceful tone to my day. Thanks!
Twitter and TWEET! they certainly are such vacuous words! Thank you for commenting – and thank you for reading – my marmalade cats are pretty good mousers too – I should let them into the house more often but the barn is pretty clean of rodents! Have a great day – talk tomorrow!
Nor do I, but apparently some people find it all too easy to say whatever comes into their heads without prior thought or consideration for the consequences. Here’s to a perfectly good life without Twitter…
I don’t use Twitter so don’t know what’s been happening, but I can imagine 😢 Hope you find a solution that works for you. Stunning photos, that kitty is gorgeous!
Thankfully I am happy with Instagram as my social media of choice – just pictures
😀
We will see if they are as greedy as pigs…
I hear the lid clanging open and closed and they seem to be just snacking frequently – we will see when the numbers come in
Good day to you — trying to avoid all the news today — will catch up tomorrow. We tried the lift-up feeders and they worked very well….both for the pigs AND for the numerous families of raccoons unfortunately. We only have 2 pigs at a time to feed so we now just feed them in the morning all they will eat and clean up during the day as it seems the coons mostly came at night. I do wish it would have worked because, as you say, it is a bit hazardous getting in the pen with buckets of milk and feed — so much easier for all to just fill the hopper that was along side the fence every so often.
I long ago learned that being informed and being immersed in social media news feeds or postings are not necessarily synonymous. A little judicious following, a little selective reading, are enough. Spare me the rest of it.
Agreed . My grievance is that social media is creeping INTO the mainstream media. Twitter has become the news.
That’s true, too. I stopped listening to our radio “news” station when they began offering us “what’s trending in Houston” four times per hour.
Re social media, here’s another take on its importance at times of crisis: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/10/gross-dishonesty-mainstream-media-catalonia/
I agree though that one’s information-handling-skills need constantly to be on the alert for misinformation and hyped-up rumour based on zero fact.
Yes – rumours abound.
While social media was a great help during the hurricane/rescues, most of it is just annoying and superficial or ego driven. I mimic Shoreacres’ plan.
Besides so much nicer being outdoors and unplugged…you know where real life is. Enjoy the day!
I am trying to stay indoors today as I think Molly is getting close – it would be nice if she has her piglets in the daytime when it is so warm.
Thank you for the intro comments. I agree it is getting to be very hard to find truth and sense. We are assaulted with numerous channels of ‘stuff’. Only a small part is actually worthy of consideration. We humans evolved with sources of information that were limited by how many people were in our group, what we could see and hear in our environment, and whether we were wise enough to survive. Today, we are flooded with rivers of tweets, likes, posts, emails, instant messages, etc, all on a small device we hold in front of our faces. Our brains simply cannot process that much at a time. We are in overload mode. It is important to step away from those numerous sources and choose a few we can trust. Remember the days when we read a newspaper or two and watched the evening news? Too many people know too much about things not important.
I will now step down from the stump. Thanks for listening. 🙂
I agree. Years ago – way before the recent onslaught of social media I read an interesting discussion about how the current generation saw thousands more images in an hour than our grandfathers did in a lifetime. At that point we were discussing whether this was contributing to a higher suicide rate in the younger generation. In the last decade our brains exposure to stuff has quadrupled again and again and infinitum. (sp) I still maintain that this exposure ( images and now more of the written word as everyone piles in to have their say) is directly contributing to increased anxiety and mental anguish. It is a wall and surely must implode.
I think, as with so many things, it is all about balance–which is so true its become a cliche. I like to keep up on the news but I’m teaching myself that I can also limit my exposure. I got on Twitter just now to read a bit about what happened last night and quickly got off again, disgusted with the politicizing of it. But, I do have to tear myself away and remind myself I can be up on what’s happening without subjecting myself to vitriol and anger. And, most important, I come here every morning because the farmy is an oasis of calm and peace. So thank you for that.
Oh I am glad you can get calm and peace here – I sure do.. c
I like to keep up with what is going on, but not via twitter.
Yes. But what bothers me is that Twitter is being used AS a news- source. This is where the media goes to collect the news and quotes and pictures. But maybe this is just the way the news Is now.
That is unfortunate.
And they wonder where the “fake news” comes from?; )
Well..that was a long brief!.. I do hope that you are ok out there workig on your own, You need a Jake…. I suppose at this time of the year all the woofers and helpers are back at Uni… but I do worry if you might overwork yourself. You are so dedicated that sometimes you cannot stop. Take care my dear friend..take care xxxxx
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2017 at 2:50 PM
The workers only come for a few months a year – the rest of the time I work out here alone – so no need to worry.
ACK! This is the third time in as many weeks I have written a long reply and it disappears when I “Post Comment”. It is truly annoying! … I fully agree with Jim R, though, to choose your source of news with qualified news people and with Charlotte Dixon to limit ourselves on the social media…… and instead come to the farmy as an oasis of calm and peace! Please, Miss C., don’t ever stop! ~ Mame 🙂
I will do my best . c
The life of a cat eh! Curl up in a handy plant pot in the Sun and then move off umhurriedly when needs be.
I do not use FB or Twitter and read a few select blogs daily and for the most part avoid the politics and drama that way. However I do have a TV on and so will sometimes be bombarded by current crisis or tradegy. Then I come back to the farmy for my fix of peace and tranquility Laura
I am glad I can offer some calm – most of the time !!
Celi – what is the plant with all the seeds in the second picture you posted? (The ones mixed in with the sunflowers) Is it a weed or some kind of grain that you have growing? Curious! : ) Thanks
It is a type of heritage corn though I am not sure of the name
It looks to me like broom corn, I believe the same family as sorghum.
I do believe what you’ve got there is Sorghum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_bicolor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sorghum. I remember seeing a field of it while on a trip to see relatives, got out and snatched one head of it because it was so odd, then forgot to look it up. I know you had a photo of it before and I meant to look then. I found it tonight while checking something else entirely – go figure. I thought you might like to know. You can eat it and you can feed it to your animals. It has a nurtient profile rather like oats. Save some of the seed and plant it next year.
Thank you!
Ah yes, the news. I often listen to the radio as I’m fixing breakfast for the family, then again in the car on my way home from the school drop. The rest of the day is filled with the sounds of animals- who, of course, have their own tales (tails?) to tell. The world can take care of itself. I have chores to do and my own to care for.
Well said!