Hanging Mountian Farms LLC

                                   Eggs

I haven't posted on this blog for several months mainly due toi time constraints. However, the egg recall really got my attention. There are now 500 BILLION eggs from Iowa that have been recalled by the USDA based on warnings from the FDA. In my day job I am a physician and while I am not an infectious disease specialist I do know that salmonella in eggs is a result of the closeness of the hens in the "egg factories". locally grown eggs simply do not have these issues. Salmonella presents as a systemic illness with fever, malaise,and diarrhea sometimes bloody. In the young, old, and comprimised patient population this illness can be life threateniing.

Ted 

The cold this week in North Georgia is unusual in our recent experience. However, I am a life long Georgian and I have seen this before. I grew up in Kennesaw in an old farm house and remember weeks of sub freezing tempretures in the 60's and weeks without power in the 80's due to one of the famous Georgia ice storms. This week we had many days below freezing and all the nights were below 20 F. I had to bring the chicken water in each night and I was only able to fill the Dexter water trough once. I hope to be able to fill again today.

 Resolution: Plan to grow more heirloom vegges and more natural products. I want some turkeys andd guineas as well. I am also going to blog more on the naturally grown life.

Ted

                                       FRESH EGGS

Flash ! The new hens (Delawares and New Hampshires) are producing and we have plenty of eggs. The first few eggs from a hen are small but as time goes alomg the eggs get larger. We are seeing a number of double yolked eggs  well. So far no hawk or furry preditor attacks while they are in the pasture. These hens are also eating the left overs from our late summmer garden.

                                         Ted

                                  Grass Everywhere

The rains have produced unbelievable growth in the pastures and hay fields in NW Georgia. My front field had been cut and is drying; hope to bale this week. We have squash, tomatoes, beans, peas, and corn up and going. The new chickens are eight weeks old and should begi laying around Labor Day. I have several heirloom tomatoes. I chose the variety Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Buster. I am late planting them but it is better than last year when the maters were destroyed by a hail storm.

                                         Big Boy

I went to the hen house two nights ago and our Rooster Big Boy was eaten by the fox. I am going to order one of those predator fences. i cannot believe big boy is dead.

                                           Water

Water is the life blood of any farm. We must have water to sustain the vegetables and animals we are raising. We have had our share during the last week or two. Even after 36 hours with no rain my pastues are still sopping wet. The fescue is chest high in places and must be cut this weekend. I have been reading a fasciating book about water storage by Art Ludwig. See all his stuff at oasisdesign.net. For some of his stuff he is "out there" but for water storage design he has done the work. Did you know in societies where water is under pressure ie piped, the average person uses 100 gallons per person per day. But in societies where the water is hand carried the folks only use 10  gallons per person per day. You learn to conserve if you have to tote a bucket up the hill. I want to conserve the water that God send to my farm for times he is not sending it. Right now we have a plenty; let us see wha it looks like in August.

Ted

                                   Chick Survives the Night

We moved the new chicks yesterday and they seemed to do fine. This morning when I fed and watered critters, one of the New Hampshire chicks was out with the big rooster, Big Boy. Thats Big Boy with me on the front page of our site. Amazingly, he didn't kill the chick and it was alright even though it was cool in northwest Georgia last night. They are 4 weeks old and fully feathered out. I would post a pic but cannot figure out how to do that yet.

TED

                                        Moving Day

Today we are going to have to move the new chicks, Delaware and New Hampshires, to new quarters. They are now 4 weeks old and ready to move from the brooder to the small house. While we are cleaning it out and getting it ready we will let the old ones, Delawares and others out. We will watch them and try to keep the predators at bay. They should be laying by September abd I also paln to eat a few of the New Hampshires. Today is another pretty day.

Ted

                                     Pretty Day on the Farm

This morning is absolutely gorgeous! The tempreture is cool; I could see my breath at 5:30 this morning. The sun is out. the pasture is a brillant green and lush with new growth from the recent rains and manure fertilizer.My cows are out and about eating and packing on the pounds. The chickens have seemingly forgotten Thursday's attack. We gathered 11 eggs this morning. The new chicks are now 4 weeks old and growing rapidly. Good day to be producing local produce and eggs. I ahve a long day ahead with much to do. Cutting, planting mulching and cleaning!

Ted

                         Sad News

I have very sad news for the reader and purchaser of our products. Today in broad daylight something or somethings came into our pasture and killed several chickens. We lost at least 5 of our hens. i found one critter with a hen 1/2 mile away crossing the road in front of our house. Our remaining hens we scattered into the woods and one may still be out. Carlene got them back in the pen. The scavengers are here already to get the dead hens. I am guessing this was from a coyote but do not know for sure. This occured in the middle of the day.

Ted

                              Planting Tomatoes, How I do it

Last night before the rain I planted the first group of tomatoes for our garden. They will probably not freeze but may need to be watched and covered up to mid May to keep them from freezing with late season cold snaps. I start with a large (3 feet) hole about one foot deep. I mix in two shovel fulls of composted manure. I plant the tomato deep in the ground.I mulch with old moldy hay. I put my tomato cage into the hole and then fill in dirt around the cage. It rained shortly after I planted otherwise I would have watered in the new plants. I will mulch the whole row with feed sacks covered with old hay. This method works great. It saves water, utilizes the old paper feed sacks, and recycles the hay and manure. I planted Early Girl, Parks Whopper, and Better Boy. I am also going to have some Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Beater Tomatoes later this year.

Ted

                                 Taste of Cartersville

Tonight Carlene and I went to the "taste of Cartersville" an event put on by the Downtown Development Authority. Many local food service establishments served food in a booth style setting. A number of these vendors serve local food. Swheat market is a local small business serving locally produced food and food with a small carbon foot print. This was a great event and featured local small businesses. We will go to this event again in the future.

Ted

                                   Localvores Eat Safer

I just read an interesting article in the  magazine Hobby Farms. Salmonella used to be a disease contracted from chicken droppings contaminating the food. However, now with the huge egg industry, the Salmonella is in the oviducts of the hen because they have no where to go in the cage. Their living space is about the same as your computer screen. Locally produced eggs have their hens on the pasture not in cages and have much less risk of internal contamination. Check out he CDC website on this issue.

Ted

                               Planting Time

My experience tells me that the best time to plant is after April 15th. So while others are mailing their taxes or going to tea parties or watching tea parties, I am going to be preparing the soil and planting. One can still get stuck in Blackberry Winter in late April and early May but if you wait too late the bugs eat you up! It rained this morning but the weather channel forcast is for dry weather through Sunday. I hope to plant on Friday and Saturday. We will do the usual Silver Queen, various tomatoes, beans squash,okra, and our favorite peas.

The new chicks are making progress although I thought I would lose them yesterday during a prolonged power outage. I borrowed a generator from a good friend and saved them from the cold. Carlene kept it going while I went back to work. They are fine this morning.

Ted 

On Friday and again today we were hammered with horrible weather. Hail damage and fierce rain on Thursday and Friday and severe wind damage today! I have a nice couple from Chatswrth buying some eggs;definity need to sell some more.

Ted