Hurricane Farm

The sunflowers are still hanging in there, but we're sure to have a frost soon.  It's amazing what you can notice when you take a moment to look closely at the swirling, buzzing, busy workers that surround you on an early Autumn day. 

The bumblebees are busy, grabbing that last bit of pollen to store away as part of their winter rations.  Will they survive the winter--if it comes without mercy--to see another Spring?  Or will their stores give out in early March, just as the winter season begins to yield to the earliest of Spring flowers?

First he lands on the flower and feels his way around, slowly becoming accustomed to and aware of every inch of his landing zone.

Check out the pollen covering this little guy in the photo above!  He works until his entire body is laden with the riches of the flower and then makes his triumphant return from whence he came.

Watch closely as they take off...stumbling at first as they become acclimated to their new, heavier selves.  Slowly, though, their courage builds and their balance is restored.  Off they zip to their hidden hive.

Watch next time you manage to notice one...they work at once slowly and quickly.  Amazing!

Look at the photo below, just above the flowers on the right-hand side.  There, quick!  Off he flies to his sanctuary--perhaps in the hollow of a tree, perhaps into a hole and under the dry earth, perhaps nestled within the walls of an old barn.

This past Tuesday an small film crew arrived to shoot footage for an independent documentary at our farm.  They are working on a film about the state of farming here in Connecticut.  This film will be a companion piece to their earlier documentary, "The Farmer's Voice."  We'll try to post any footage that makes it way back to us before the film is complete. 

During the filming, several folks came by to be interviewed.  This included one of our CSA customers, a woman from across town who allows the use of her sugarbush during the maple sap run, and another farmer from the other side of town who lives on one of the original farms in the town of Scotland.

We had a great time showing the crew around, answering questions, and eating freshly picked watermelon!  All the kids on the road came over to sample the sweet melon after Violet and Liev picked it on camera.

Plans are in the works for additional visits to shoot footage during maple sugaring season as well as in the late Spring when all the new livestock "arrives" at the farm.

A local Connecticut restaurant, Zest, has some wonderful dishes on the way prepared with local ingredients including ribs grass-fed, dry aged beef.  If you are in Northeastern CT, stop by their 1750's farmhouse restaurant and try the taste and flavor of local foods!

http://www.zestofct.com/

One of our customers recently tried some of our Heritage pork and offers this recipe:  "Slap Ya Mama Heritage Pork Chops."

Please follow the link to their Food Blog and, perhaps, try it out yourself!

http://acoupleinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/slap-yo-mama-heritage-pork-chops.html

Just a quick reminder to those out there who are planning to get their Thanksgiving turkey from us here at the farm...It is time to put in your order.  We still have some conventional white turkeys this year, and we have a variety of heritage breed turkeys as well.  Our heritage breeds include Narragansett, Black Spanish, Blue Slate, and Bourbon Red.

Our turkeys are raised on grass and are fed all natural vegetarian feed.  The heritage turkeys spend most of their time in the fields or the woods, foraging for bugs, grubs, and seeds.

Please call us or see us at the Coventry Farmers' Market on Sundays to reserve yours today!

Lots of folks have been asking about our (their) turkeys.  It must be coming to that time of year when summer starts to end, fall is almost here, and thoughts of Thanksgiving start emerging from deep within.

This year we decided to raise more heritage breeds and scale back on the conventional giant whites.  This decision was in part due to customer demand, but also due to the ability of the heritage turkeys to free-range.  The giant whites are allowed pasture space, yet they seldom wander far.  The heritage turkeys, on the other hand, roam far and wide throughout the farmyard.  They even find their way atop the farmhouse, from time to time.

Here are some Narragansett and a Bronze "picking" raspberries.

In the distance are some pastured turkeys.  The whites never leave the fenced in area, while the heritage turkeys rarely stay within.

And there you have it...Your turkeys!

Sarah, our Toggenburg milk goat, is hopefully an expectant mother.

That being the case, it was time to build her a place of her own.  She was living with the sheep, able to come and go in and out of the pasture on the schedule of the cattle, but we thought that she might be better off in her own space.

I cleared out some nasty, prickly multiflora rose (invasive!), waded through a sea of poison ivy, set some posts, and stretched some fence.  We ended up with two new areas for Sarah, or any other livestock that may need to be isolated at any given time.  The areas offer some sun and grass as well as the shade of the wetland that cuts through our farm. 

Sarah has been busy clearing poison ivy, debarking Russian Olive trees (invasive!), and clearing the brush from an old stone wall that is starting to re-emerge inside her new pen.  What a great worker she is!

This is the largest ear of corn that I have ever seen!

There is indeed something to be said for heirloom seeds...

And oh the taste!

Yummy.

There are lots of new things here at the farm.  We're always keeping busy...

Work has begun on the Sugar Shack.  We decided that since we really enjoy the outside aspect of sugaring--especially on those sunny late-winter noons--that we'd build an open building.  The idea is to make a pavillion style building that is attached to the barn.  We'll have a roof to allow us to suger through the rain and snow, but we'll also be open to the air around us. 

I started this project by setting four posts into the ground just off the rear of the barn.  This is a pole building, meaning it will not have a foundation; rather, it will be secured to the ground by the corner posts.  I used some of the larger cedar logs that I had remaining from my fencing projects.

Yes, I'll have to move that pallet of bricks YET AGAIN...This will be the third time that I'll have picked those up, one by one...It is handy to have bricks around, though, so I can't complain too much.  They should be added to our official list of necessary farm items.

Next, I used some large threaded rod to secure the back posts to the barn for extra stability.  The roof of the shack will peak perpendicular to the barn and I'll also attach the ridge pole to the roof of the barn.

I had to buy an extra-long drill bit to make it all the way through the post and the barn.  I also used it to drill through the posts at the top where I mounted the beams with 12" carriage bolts.  Using bolts results in a much tighter and more secure connection.

Here is a picture of one of the beams that I constructed out of 2 x 6 dimensional lumber.  I made four beams in total.  Two 10 footers and two 12 footers.  The size of the building will be 12 x 9 when finished.  We'll have plenty of room to upgrade to a larger evaporator in a year or two. 

I have mounted the beams and am ready for the next step:  to install the ridge board and rafters.  I still need to figure out the best way to vent the chimney pipe and have to also construct a cupola which can open to allow the steam from the evaporator to escape.  Luckily, I have some great books on contruction and sugaring.

Stay tuned for more updates as the warm weather ends.  This project needs to be done before it snows!

No doubt by now everyone has heard of the blight that has been ravaging tomato patches throughout the country.  Despite our hopes of avoiding its catastrophic grasp, it made its way to our gardens this past week.

We had many things going in our favor in our attempt to be "blight free":

--we started all our own plants
--we grew only heirloom varieties, no hybrid plants
--we added nothing "off farm" to our garden (all fertilizers were from our own animals)
--we live in a valley and are usually 5-10 degrees colder, which was in our favor
--the blight hit farms around the state for over a month, and we had no signs of its presence

Alas, given the ability of the blight to travel several miles by air, ultimately we had no chance.

Here is a shot of some of the tomatoes a day before we discovered blight.

Vibrant, healthy plants full of lush tomatoes.

Two days later...

The blight starts at the bottom and quickly works it way up the plant.  It is a fungus and spreads rapidly in wet weather, which we have had plenty of this summer.

Erica's first course of action was to pull off the infected leaves and then spray the plants and fruit with natural soap mixtures.  She and the kids experimented with several different mixtures.  Here is what was left after removal and treatment.

Some close-ups of the infected leaves.

Ultimately, the decision was made to pull all the tomatoes from the vines.  Erica brought in more than 300 pounds of tomatoes and there are still some left to gather.  Heirloom tomatoes are sold at a premium, especially this year when few have made it through the blight at all.  Fetching over $3.00 a pound, many find tomatoes to be one of their more important crops. 

Rinsing the tomatoes and washing them with soap mixture helps to rid them of blight and will allow most of them to ripen off the vine.  Currently there are hundreds of pounds of tomatoes spread out on tables on the porch.

Day by day, we have to pull the tomatoes that continue to show signs of blight but we are also able to gather the ripe fruit from the table.  Hopefully, most of it will survive long enough to ripen.  Here are some examples of tomatoes that made it.

The blight has been traced back to seedlings shipped up from the South to large stores like the Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart.  One can only wonder if we would be blight-free if more folks started their own seedlings or shopped in local establishments and avoided those large retailers altogether.

Now we're all lamenting the days when the biggest predator was this little guy:

This is our second late summer here at our farm and just about now it seems we have an annual invasion!  First, at night one begins to hear chirping.  It begins low, and then builds to a piercing crescendo as the twilight gives way to the summer darkness.

In the morning, when looking around on tree trunks, truck tires, sandbox lids, and swingset legs, one finds empty shells...all that remains of the night's symphony.

Here is one newly hatched cicada with two empty shells.  These were all over the tires on the trucks and most everything else near the spruce trees in the front.  They seem to emerge from dozens of holes around the base of these trees.  Look closely and you can see how the back splits open on the shell to allow the transformed bug to emerge.

We are talking about cicadas.  For about a week this time of year, hundreds of these rather large insects emerge from holes in the ground to hatch from their beetle-like shell with newly formed wings.  They climb up a few feet on whatever they can find, emerge from their shells, and fly off in an ungainly fashion only to mate and disappear underground again to repeat the cycle.

We found one cicada that had yet to hatch.  It was looking for something to climb upon.  We set it on a stick and took a series of photos as it emerged from its shell.

Eventually, with all of us crowding around watching, the bug fell off the stick.  We then put it on a railing to continue watching its emergence.

Over the course of about 30 minutes, the bug underwent its metamorphosis.  The kids were very surprised and excited to watch it up close.

Luminous at first, it slowly fades to a dull, speckled grey.  It's nice to have traditions, and we now have the late summer concerts of the cicadas here at the farm.

One of the projects that was on the slate this summer was to install gutters along the front edge of the barn.  Mainly I wanted to keep some of the water out of the pig pen, but also I wanted to try to keep the rain splashing on the barn sills to a minimum. 

We decided to run 1/2 of the legnth of the barn to start.  This would take care of the pig pen area and also it would be pretty hard to run more than 50 feet of gutter all in one direction.  Too much water would get in there and there would be overflow.

Pinning up gutters seemed like an easy task:

1. purchase gutters
2. install them on barn

Not SO simple, it turns out.  This project called for lots of pre-steps before we even got near the gutters.  One step was even involved paint (I loathe painting, anyone can tell you).  I mean, seriously, putting up gutters involves PAINT?!  What the heck...

We first had to install some trim work upon which to attach the gutters.  There was only about 1" of existing trim, not enough to provide the angle we'd need to run 50 feet.  So we tacked up some  6" pine to make a nice surface.  But, then we had to paint it.

Lucky for me, my kids love to paint!

They did such a great job that I only had to touch up areas here and there...I know where to turn ANYTIME I need any painting done.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I got more paint on my clothes than the kids did!

101 feet, 8 inches of "gutter-mount" painted and ready for the gutters...

The next step was the kids' favorite.  When I was building the new out-building, we often used the chalk-line.  They love snapping it and then reeling it back in.  We snapped a 51 foot chalk-line and proceeded to mount the gutters.  We bought these nifty little clips that simply clip into each channel of the gutter and then screw in with a power drill.  Nice and quick!  What was not nice and quick was all the sealing that had to be done to the seams between gutters, to the downspout, to the gutter end, etc...I dislike the caulking gun almost as much as the paint brush.  It especially becomes a chore on the third try at sealing it all correctly to keep it all from leaking.  Pretty soon, though, the kids will be able to handle the caulking gun, too.

The gutters are now up (ironically all the rain has gone away) and we're all ready for some dry less-wet-than-before hogs for the Fall.  Next time it rains, the gutters will whisk the water away to the edge of the barnyard where it will soak into the ground without making mud.

In order to sell meat here in Connecticut, one must visit a USDA inspected processing plant/butcher.  There are not any here in the state, believe it or not.  There is one in Rhode Island, that once one pays a membership fee, will process meats.  They do not, however, smoke any meats.  Not too useful for farmers who want bacon, ham, and the like.

So, we found a new place in Athol, MA.  It is 100 miles from our farm to theirs, but they are USDA inspected and will package our meats in individual cuts, labeled, and ready for farmers' markets.  They, also, do not have a smoker, but we found a place just southeast of Hartford that will smoke our meats.  They make a tasty kielbasa, too!  Until we have our own labels that can be approved by the USDA, the smokehouse makes up some for us. 

Not only do they do all this for us, but they offer curing WITHOUT nitrates and nitrites!  Whoo hoo!  Our customers have been pleased about this, for sure.

All in all, a good tasting product this time around!  Next time we'll be trying some of their Bratworst and maybe some other German preparations, which seems to be their specialty. 

Our grass fed beef is dry-curing as we speak, so we'll have that all packaged up in a couple of weeks.  Grass fed, all beef hotdogs, anyone?

We finally finished the general building of the new chicken coop/outbuilding.  There are still some things left to do, though, like add siding, roofing, a step, maybe a window box with some flowers...

But we have moved all the meat chickens and some of the young egg layers into it.  It took an extra couple of days to get the outside run portion put together.  I ended up using more of the leftover cut-offs from the lumber mill to frame in the run, which gives it a kind of rustic look.

When the moving day came, we first had to load up the chickens.

We backed the little truck right up to the barn and the kids and I loaded them into cages.  It took four trips in all to get every last one.

Violet and Liev especially liked being able to ride in the back of the truck as I drove it from the behind the barn to the new coop.  I remember riding in pick-up beds back from baseball games, to the movies, and all over the place when I was a kid, but that sort of thing is kind of outlawed now-a-days, I suppose.

We probably could have done the whole job with more cages and fewer trips, but the kids really liked the whole driving back and forth and catching chickens aspect of it.

Here is a shot of those lumber mill cut-offs in action.  They were well over 12 feet long, which allowed me to set fewer posts.  To the right you can see one of the windows that we reclaimed from the transfer station (there are 4 in all in this building).  I hung them so they tilt in (old-school chicken coop style).  This allows the air to circulate in the top of the window and then the warm air is sucked out through the openings in the joists atop the wall.  In a house one would block those openings up (with soffits) to keep out all the nasty little critters that try to get in.  But here in the chicken coop it makes for a nice air flow.  Standing in the coop with the windows open you can actually feel the breeze as the air circulates.  Pretty amazing.

I mounted the windows with door hinges...see next photo.  Also see Liev trying to convince the chickens to try out their now pop-hole and chicken yard.  (I think that you can also see part of Violet through the pop-hole...she is testing out the chicken's new ramp.)  Those white chickens all around on the floor are meat breeds.  They grow heavy and fast.  Liev is holding an egg layer the same age as the white ones...It is about 1/4 the size and weight of the white ones.

Smile.

There is the new building from a distance.  We'll add additional runs off the right side and the front next year, but for now the rear one offers plenty of fresh air and shade for the chickens on these hot summer days.  We're planning to put on that tin/metal roofing material like you see on all the homes in Vermont and New Hampshire.  We were thinking maybe white, as it would keep the building cool, but since it has such great ventilation already we might opt for red.  After I build the garden shed we'll order the roofing material for both buildings at once and save on some of the cost. 

We have a whole bunch of old rusty machines on our farm property.  They look like they have lived a long, prosperous, and useful life.  Someone, or lots of someones, has been using them for many years.  In fact, we still get loads of use out of them almost on a daily basis.  They are expecially helpful for "mining" in the garden for rocks, worms, and other "discoverable" stuff.

Here are some of the photos:

Our Calf Dozer...

Our Grader...

Our General Utility Truck (it used to be a crane, I think)...

And, of course, our Loader...

So every once in a while we have to go out into the main pasture and clean up a little bit.  Fences sometimes need to be tightened, and sometimes we have to remove undesirable plants to keep the pasture healthy and useful.  Aside from finding various remnants of super-huge fireworks that our friend Jeff brings over for July 4th, we have to contend with giant "pricker/cactus-like things."  (See photo below.)

If anyone can tell us what these things are, and what their purpose is (if any are known), we'd be much happier when working to rid our pasture of them.  They do have a beautiful purple flower that comes around mid-to-late August.  Problem with that, though, is that when the flower comes so do all the pesky little seeds that scatter around to make more of these things.  We got most all but one of them last year, I think, but that one that we let bloom procreated all over the place!  I know right where it was, too.  Smack dab in the middle of the turkey's pasture.  It managed to spread over several acres all on its own.  What a great job it did!

You can see from the above that the cattle love to eat just about all that grows in the field EXCEPT these little buggers.  Now, Sarah, the milk goat, does enjoy eating these things, but I have kept her out of the pasture lately since the largest cattle is kind of standoffish around other four-legged creatures.  He likes (or at least abides) the turkeys, geese, chickens, ducks, and crows, though.  Check out the next shot where it almost looks like a carpet of grass except for the presence of these prickly devils.  We'll be putting the sheep in to clean up whatever the cattle missed and then after two weeks or so with this weather, the field will be ready for the next set of cattle to move in.

We all worked on getting the pasture in order that day.  You have to try to get the whole root out; otherwise, the pesky bugger just grows right back!

Here comes the reinforcement, pink shovel in hand!

If these plants have any value, then we have yet another thing that we're naturally great at growing (add to list of rocks, stones, poison ivy...).  I generally don't wear gloves, especially on such a hot day, but MAN, those things have a nasty bite to them.  The prickers are up to an inch long.  I have no idea how the goat can eat such a thing.

Maybe it's an acquired taste, say, like hot pepper or anchovies.

Liev came out with his shovel and worked pretty hard along side of us until he started to spot parts of the fireworks.  He then set about to collecting all that he could find, making a pile of the pieces, and trying to assemble his own "rocket ship."

A lush pile of "pricker/cactus-things."  This was merely 1/3 of our take for the afternoon.  It would have been a bountiful harvest if we were harvesting, say, ANYTHING but these things.

My Dad came down to lend a hand at the multitude of tasks that I had lined up for the weekend and three things were discovered:

1.  Pliers should be added to the "must have" list of farm tools.

2.  Cutting and chopping wood should not be done in 85+ degree weather.

3.  Where there is one skunk, there is bound to be another.

Just as I was about to make my way to bed I heard a soft, and then quite loud and nasty scratching outside.  It was ANOTHER SKUNK, apparantly trying to eat the cat's food dish.  I was wondering why, for the past several days, the cat's water dish was filled with dirt.  Well, the skunk must have been washing its paws in there before eating the cat's food. 

I set up the trap again and left a note for my Dad, letting him know that he might want to use the front door in the morning.  There just might be a skunk surprise at the back door in the morning.

Last week, or sometime thereabouts, we had to load three of our hogs onto the trailer in order to take them to be processed.  As readers will recall, our first experience loading pigs, while perhaps comical, took WAY TOO LONG!  This time we had it all figured out, and for the most part, everyone involved cooperated with the plan.

First I had to back the trailer up to the barn and make a runway for the hogs.

Notice above how little clearance there is between the trailer gate and the door frame of the barn.  Now, I should have measured this all out when constructing the trailer gate, but that did not happen.  In fact, the gate was about an inch or two too high to fit into the barn. 

SOLUTION:  Pallets!

Backing the tractor up onto four pallets raised the tractor, thereby lowering the end of the trailer just enough to clear the door frame.  Yet another addition to the essential farm tools list:  pallets.

After getting the trailer where it needed to be, we set up a hog panel (a 16 foot long rigid wire fence section) and reinforced it with a couple of 2 x 4's to hold it in place.  We had a little step made out of a pallet for the hogs to use to walk right up onto the trailer.

All that was left was to "bait the trap," as it were.  We had restricted the feed intake of the pigs the previous night so as to be sure that they would be hungry enough to waltz right into the trailer.

Here I am opening up their pen and telling them to head down the center aisle.  I also reminded them to return their seats to their original upright position and to check the overhead compartments for bagage before exiting.

And there they go.  Right down the aisle, into the chute, and onto the trailer.  Pretty easy so far.  They were not wild about the step, but with a little coaxing and some pizza from Erica, they eventually took the plunge.

We got the first two into the trailer and they immediately started chowing down on the food piled up in there.  I put some wooden slats across the trailer so as to "lock" them towards the front while we tried to get the last pig on. 

Turns out we didn't need the slats, really.  After gorging themselves the two pigs decided on a nap.

Erica used some more of the pizza and some other tasty morsels to try to lure the final pig on.

We gave the pig about three hours waiting time, during which it decided to also take a nap.  Just not in the right location.

Eventually, the last one made its way onto the trailer.  Once they were all back together they ate, drank, and slept just like it was their new home.  This was a much more successful--and less time-consuming--adventure this time around!

Upon returning from a much anticipated and highly successful "boys only" camping trip with my son, Liev, to the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, we remarked that we still smelled the odor of the skunk that took up residence under the porch last week. 

You see, sometime over the weekend the skunk got into the cat food and "leaked" some of its skunk odor all over the place.  Yuck.  It seeped into the house, the outside boot-wiping carpet, and even my hat that was hanging nearby.

Naturally, the fresh air in the mountains helped to clear my nasal senses.  But they were all that much keener when I made it back to the farm.  The skunk must still be about, I thought.

Tonight, then, I noticed something rustling in the entryway near the cat food.  After locating the cat with a mini, pink mag-light, we all rushed back inside.  The skunk was afoot!

Liev and I grabbed our boots and hats (now skunk-free after a thorough washing!) and raced to the barn (out the skunk-free front door) to get our trusty "skunk catching trap."

This is my fourth skunk trapping, and it went pretty smoothly.  Violet had a friend over, so I had a nice little viewing audience cheering me (or the skunk?) on.

We set the trap, baited it with some wet cat food, positioned it about three feet from the little guy and in he walked!  Much easier than some of my earlier attempts which resulted in five or six "cat catchings" before the skunk finally waddled in.  I stood in the doorway and watched him circle the trap, smell the food, and walk right in.  SNAP!  He started eating the food right away, seemingly obvious to the predicament at hand.

Catching it, though, is the easy part.  Next one I must get to the trap and move it somewhere.  Tarps are used here, along with bailing twine and a poking stick.  Here I am ready to go take care of this task.

"1, 2, and 3!  Go, quick, while he's aiming away!"

It's just like wrapping a gift for someone's birthday, or even Christmas.  Remember to tuck in all the edges and get the wrapping ALL the way around the "package."  Erica helped me to get the bailing twine on, urging me not to "rustle him too much."

Anyone order a free-range skunk?

How about those bows!  Now THAT'S a great present.

Here are many of the long-awaited photos of our multi-day adventure in cattle moving.

My Dad helped lend a hand to add higher sides to the trailer.  We used 2 x 6 dimensional lumber and affixed it all with lag screws and carriage (how appropriate) bolts.

A close-up of my Dad working hard.  He most notably suggested that we add the upside down milk crate to the list of indispensible farm tools. 

But, of course, hard work calls for some well-deserved food!

After just a short rest, Dad volunteered to cook us some dinner.  What a nice house guest!  Wood-fired is the only way to go.  Those burgers are made of ground turkey (our own), eggs (our own), carrots, peas (our own), and some other various veggies.

After a night of wonderful food, we were back at it in the morning.  We had the trailer all backed up and ready to be loaded.  We used a couple of pallets as a step for the cattle to get into the trailer.

Here's Fuzzy thinking about it.

And here's Fuzzy inside.  Notice the short gate on the trailer. 

A little grain goes a long way with these guys.

A job well done!  Erica has a certain knack for luring animals into trailers, pick-up beds, down long corridors in the barn, etc.  I think it has to do with unwavering patience.

Ahhh.  But notice now that Fuzzy is no longer in the trailer.  He determined that the lush, green grass outside the trailer was more desirable than the remnants of grain on the trailer floor.  He hopped right out the back while we were starting to tow him away.  So now you can see that we had to build a gate--a much more secure gate--for the trailer.

A few more carriage bolts, some hinges, and two latches later...

This was our third and luckily final attempt at moving Fuzzy.  The trailer was all set and ready to haul.  If we were trying to catch turkeys, we'd have been champs!

Here he goes!

Success, take two!  Nothing is getting out of that gate.  A perfect system, so it seems.

Violet was equally impressed that Fuzzy was so eager to get back into the trailer from which he had fled just hours before.

And there we go, off the farm, down the road, and to the pasture.  It sure is fun driving on the road with a tractor!  On the way back I had Erica follow me in the car and check my speed.  At top speed I was cruising along at 9 miles per hour!  It seemed like 75, though, in the open tractor pulling that trailer.

There we go off road and down into our new pasture.  Violet brought some grain ("Just in case," she said).  Liev lost his shirt somewhere along the line.

One final alteration is still to be made on the trailer...It appears that the cattle can get their pesky little big heads through the sides.  They can barely get them back out, you know, with the horns and all.  I will have to fill in those spaces with some strapping or siding.

One thing that we hadn't counted on was Fuzzy's temperment.  He is normally so nice and calm and friendly.  He was pretty mad at us for the trailer ride, though.  Once he got off he just stormed away into the pasture grasses.  Not even a farewell "moo."

We have a 100 gallon watering trough in the field and we fill it from time to time with water from this little brook that runs adjacent to the pasture.  5 gallon pails at work.

After we brought Alyosius down to join him, all was forgiven in Fuzzy's eyes.  His tail was happily swishing back and forth as he chowed down on the tasty greens.

A job well done by all.  "Great teamwork!"