MM Livestock Co

Last nite while feeding the horses I buried Betsy! She spun herself 180o and buried her nose in the soft ground under the pine tree, I cussed, pushed, rocked, and begged to no avail! I was stuck! As I sat there in the dark trying to think of who to call for help Emma, one of my old ewes came in out of the pasture to see what the heck all the fuss was about. She stuck her head in the window as if to say,"ok you're not going anywhere, scratch my ears and hand over the peanuts!" So I did. Then I checked everyone and went in. This morning Oscar had old Betsy free from her dilemma and Emma was waiting at the tailgate for her grass with a "see I told you so." look on her face. I sent her and Dawg back out to the field and am now going to fill water tanks and go fix fence next to Dave and Kathy's so that they don't have sheep in their living room. Then its up to Tommy's and over to the Winchester pastures to make sure everything is secure. The work never ends but I love it! A couple of our sustainers are coming in tomorrow to spend a few days and I'm looking forward to having them. Andy says I'm a glutton for punishment but he sure enjoys having the extra hands around to help. Julie will be sending down the shearing schedule soon and the shearing party will likely be in early April again this year. Wool, food, drink and homemade ice cream! Good friends and a lot of laughs. It looks like the rain clouds are rolling in again so I better get back to work. Come on by and say hello 951-259-2072. Meg

We had a wonderful morning! We decided to jump in the truck and drive up the hill to pick up some goodies from friends. We talked pigs, sheep, and veggies. What else would farmers do on a holiday right? I really love their greenhouse but will leave the gardening to Oscar! I'm sticking to four leggeds! One of the things we discussed that I think bears mentioning is the raising of Heritage Breeds vs. more common ones. I have both. Heritage Breeds to make me feel that I am making a contribution to preserving the past, and more modern ones because the yield is more predictable. One thing I don't agree with is charging grossly inflated prices for Heritage animals. You are supposed to be breeding these animals to preserve them and the only way to preserve them is for folks to eat them! It does not cost a penny more to raise a Belted Galloway than it does an Angus cross. The cost is in the time, effort, and dedication it takes to get any grass fed or pastured animal to market weight and finish. Grass based animals take longer to finish on pasture period, and you have to really know what you are doing. Anyone can pull a cow off pasture and call it grass fed, that doesn't mean it will taste good. Heritage or Modern, it is how an animal is raised, finished, harvested, and believe it or not, processed that determines the quality of the finished product. I like Heritage breeds for their appeal to a bygone age. I also believe that if I put an 2 steaks in front of you 1 modern grass fed beef and 1 Heritage raised exactly the same way, most people couldn't taste the difference. Now if I put a properly raised, finished and aged steak next to one that wasn't you could tell the difference immediately. Same goes for any livestock. Do things right, do things well, and you will be rewarded for your efforts, bank on a name and you'll go broke! Meg

With 2 clear days so far we decided to bring some of the cattle down off the Mountain Pastures this morning. The 15 mother cows were ready to come in as this group will start calving in the next couple of months and we want them in closer so any problems can be tended to. They move pretty easily with the horses and its only about 5 miles down to the winter pasture at Tommy's. It's a little crisp today and my big gelding was feeling GOOD! Red hasn't had that much spring in his step since I don't know when! He settled down nicely by the time we got up to the herd though. It was a nice quiet ride back down. The ladies are now on the winter pasture where we can move them into chutes as needed, I really like our handling system, the sort pens and chutes can be operated by one person and the squeeze has an assist so if I absolutely have to work solo I can. There should be some nice club calves in this bunch. Females are Registered Aberdeen Angus all crossed to an Aubrac Bull. That will add some size while maintaining good grass based genetics. I like to see the market steers at about 1,400lb when they hit the show pen and these guys can do that easily. I will try to get some pictures up but everybody knows this computer stuff is not my forte! Our new website will be up soon and Al swears we can put video on it. Until then you just have to make an appointment and come see for yourself. builttoslide@msn.com Back to work! Meg

We've had more rain in the last 2 weeks than we usually get all year so things are a bit mucky here at the home place. The sheep and goats can go out in the pasture but the farmyard looks, well, like a farmyard! If the weather holds we should be able to start digging out by Sunday. The rain has cost us a field of alfalfa but we will move some of the yearling steers over there so it won't be a total loss! The home flock is starting to lamb so we will be BUSY for the next few weeks. Thank heaven the jugs are up so eveeryone will be warm and dry. Oscar is planting seedlings for the U-Pick garden and the Tilapia fry are in the stock tanks. Puppies are squeaking, better go let Gracie out. Give us a call and come see what we're up to. 951-259-2072 Meg

Gracie aka The Velociraptor had 6 pups yesterday. 4 females 2males. They should make amazing stock dogs! Faith and Hope already have homes as do Blitz and Nick. Angel and Feliz are still available. This is an intentional cross to produce a Superior Cow dog. Our Grace is a working fool. Strong presence on her stock and Fearless! She moves sheep smoothly with style and can hold a line for days! She is the baby sister of my good dog Tweed and has 10 times his power. Wallace is well started on Cattle with classic Catahoula courage and try. These Cowboy curs are becoming very popular stock dogs, they are better suited to Cattle work than sheep and have no quit. Come see the babies in a few weeks! Watch for Grace's son Soot at the Red Bluff Cowdog Sale. See you soon! Don't forget to call first or email for an appointment builttoslide@msn.com Happy Holidays Meg

Merry Christmas all! As everyone knows Farm chores don't stop for holidays and today is no exception. While feeding the horses and farm flocks this morning I paused for a minute to just reflect on the blessings we have been given. God has blessed us with healthy animals, a loving extended family, and friends we didn't know we had! One of our members stopped by yesterday with her son who is just back from a tour in the Peace Corps. He approved of our Solar Cube, Compost Piles, and worm bins. He laughed at our homemade methane digester and promised to come back and help us build one that is more efficient. Ours only runs D's little trailer heater and stove. He gave Oscar some ideas for the gardens and wants to get involved with some of our many projects. Like the song says "I believe there are angels among us." Ours happens to be named Sean! On a more serious note, The ewes are getting ready to lamb, 3 goats should kid any minute, and 2 of our mother cows calved this week out on the lease. Give me a call and come on by. Meg

We are still here despite the efforts of people trying their best to hurt hard working farmers and ranchers. Until the perpetrator of these attacks is brought to justice we will be limiting our formerly open dialog. Local harvest has chosen to ignore the facts presented to them regarding these heinous acts and is turning a blind eye to the danger allowing these individuals to continue to be part of the local harvest community. Thank you all for your continued support and let the powers that be know how you feel about them choosing quantity over quality. Please call the farm at800-704-7705 to come visit or place your orders. Or email us at builttoslide@msn.com and we will be happy to answer any questions. Meg

Our field harvest yesterday was remarkably well attended and those that came out had some great questions for the butcher! They got a lesson in live wt. vs hanging wt. & how to "judge" a carcass for quality. What I feel was the biggest lesson learned was just how humane field harvesting is. The animal is relaxed in its home setting until the moment it is dispatched. That alone has an impact on the quality of the finished product. Dan came out and gave a little talk on grass vs hay vs grain and what the differences really are. It was interesting to see when people "got it" one gal asked if there was any way to tell the difference between grass & hay finished animals. Yes! It is in the finish, fat, & flavor profile. You can e-mail me for a copy of his lecture. Fascinating stuff! These beeves will be ready for pick up in 5 weeks. USDA Beeves are still 3 weeks out but we have our holiday cuts available. Lambs come back from the butcher Friday and will be ready for pick up 12/21 at the winter gathering. Thank you for your support! Meg

Friday nite about 8 I got a phone call asking about an ad on Craigslist in San Diego. I don't use craigslist & told the woman she must have a wrong number. No she had my name, the address of the farm and read me the ad which offered everything on my farm free for the takeing beginning at 5 am the next day. I told her it was fraudulent & she said that she would respond to the ad & then flag it. A few minutes later another call came in about exactly the same ad. This time the caller was a law enforcement officer from SD County. So helpful! She walked me through reporting this all to the FBI internet crimes, had me send all the stuff I had saved from a prior round of harassment and then I waited till morning. There were about 50 people at my gate ready to load up everything I had. We called the police and a wonderful woman from Ramona kept me from completely losing my sanity. Turns out other posts were made in LA, Inland empire offering tools and an ad was placed in the pennysaver as well. I am sure that I know exactly who did it. I just can't understand why anyone would be so cruel. If you get caught doing something wrong take your lumps and move on. Attacking those that helped you is crazy and you will get caught. This person called me making crazy threats, e-mailed more threats, and the next day texted me to ask for lamb. Not ever in this lifetime! God protects the innocent & I truly believe that is why people came out of the blue to help me deal with this and show me what to do to make sure the perpetrator is punished and it never happens again. Praise the Lord for sending those wonderful strangers! We are all ok but still shaken up especially when we think about what could have happened. Be careful who you deal with, and make sure to lock those gates! Meg

I got a call a few days back from a military wife wanting to purchase clean food for her family. They could not afford even our wholesale prices! I'm planning to set up an account solely to help feed our military families. It will be to make up the difference between what our production costs are and what they can afford for good meat (which is less than it costs us to produce it!). We can and must do our part to support those protecting our country, there is no better way than ensuring that they have good food on their tables. When you come to the farm put a few dollars in the jar for the Marines or better yet send a check with Marine Families in the memo. We are only helping 5 families. Imagine what we could do if every member put $100.00 into the pot. These are the men & women that protect us. What better way to SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! Meg

A friend of mine that owns a cold storage facility has decided to upgrade to walk in storage and has given us several 7.5 cubic ft. NSF approved chest freezers! They will hold about 150 lbs of meat each. Here's what we plan to do with them. Some of our members don't have storage space for bulk quantites of meat so we are going to provide you with your own "lock & load" space. You fill the freezer, put your own lock on it & pick up what you need out of it when you want to. That way you can still get the sharp discounts! We're figuring out the added electric costs and figure about $15.00 per quarter per unit. Farm members will have access to their freezer during daylight hours & each room will have a combo lock that members have the code for. These areas are sperate from THE CO-OP PANTRY which is only staffed on weekends right now. Membership forms are available at the farm & no sales are made to non members.NO EXCEPTIONS! Remember that the gate code changes January 1 so get your memberships signed, paid for, and turned in asap. Sustainers, book your camp times! All the supplies for the patio & pergola are here. Party dates are filling up as well. The Barn Raising will be in April, Summer Kitchen build out in May, Straw Bale Shower House TBD by date plans are approved. Please visit our Producer Members Blogs to see what they have planned for the Co-op as well as their sustainers. Meg

With the holidays upon us I thought it would be fun for you all to experience an old time Winter Gathering. Dec. 21 is pick up day here at the farm so I'm going to break out the dutch ovens and do some cooking! If you want to hang out for a while you can learn how to do an entire supper over the open flames (coals but let's not get too picky) Standing Rib Roast, Ham, Duck and some great sides will be going in the pots early in the day, I'm going to do some pies & cobblers too. Plan to hang out for a bit on pick up day and enjoy some good food & company. Please let me know how many are coming so we can plan for it. Any donations will benefit Barkley's Horse Rescue & Rehab. M

Eliza asked me to clarify for you how membership works. Consumer Members have access to ALL consumables produced by ALL Co-op producing members. This means if we are short on beef for example, Jeremy or Gil will likely have grass fed steers ready to go. If Stacy's chickens are in molt, Kimmy's will still be producing eggs etc. Sustaining Members Support 1 farm. They choose who they want to work with and stick with them exclusively and get a say in what's raised. Sustainers can join as consumers as well reaping double benefit. By working together we,as Producers are allowed to do our jobs without the hassle of filling orders & making deliveries. We leave that to Doris & the girls at the Co-op office. Its a win win. As you know I am timeline deficient and it has cost me dearly. Now I don't have to worry about it and everything gets out on time. I should have done this years ago! I'm much better suited to working sheep& cattle than I am to working a computer that's for sure! Give me a horse and a good dog over a desk any day! Orders are now shipped or picked up at the farm, I don't have to fly up the highway because I left part of an order in the locker, I can focus on production & education knowing that the girls have everything under control. Thanks Gang! you have no idea what a blessing you are! Meg

Sustaining Members Your Quarterly Report will go out on or before December 20. Consumer Members. Please don't forget to renew your membership or join now. We are adding a limited number of new members for 2011 so sign up early to secure your spot! Thanks to all of our 2010 members we couldn't do it without you! Remember, if farming stopped for just 1 week the whole world would starve! Like our Farm Bureau bumper sticker says, Feed your kids today? Hug a Farmer! We are planning a Farm to Table Blow Out in the spring of 2011. Sustaining Members will get 2 free tickets. Thank you all again for your confidence & continued support. Meg

Everyone has been asking how Turkey pick up went. All in all Not too horrible. The frozen birds went out without a hitch. The fresh birds took 3 trips instead of 1 due to scalder problems. Only one person got really upset because the birds were a couple hours late & another customer lost out because his bird went elsewhere by mistake while I was trying to find a thermostat for Eusebio. Murphy's law rules farm life! in the middle of it all Sir tore himself up on the fence & the vet had to come. She is a wonderful person & is as wrecked about our Smoke as I am. We survived another Holiday & I'm beat! both physically & emotionally. It's back to work tomorrow and time to get ready for the Christmas Orders. Please order Early! Hams, Roasts, Porchetta, & crown roasts are very limited. Ducks& Geese need to be ordered by the 10th. We are Field Harvesting Beef Next week for anyone that wants to come watch. There is space for 10 people. Thanks for your continued support. Meg