Thank God I'm a Country Boy

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So I wrote this post a while ago, and didn't realize that I hadn't published it. A lot has changed since I wrote it. Like, I'm not working on the farm...
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I think that's the only country song that I know (...is Cash country?), but I find myself singing it almost daily as I'm out in the garden weeding or feeding the animals.

So what's a day like on the farm here? Well, I generally get up pretty late, everything's on Yukon summer time here, so sometime around 9 or 9:30 I roll out of bed. There's a set of chores to do every morning and evening, which is basically feeding the animals. We mix up the pig feed with water or weigh and feed the pigs. Man are pigs ever appropriately named.

This farm isn't "certified organic," but it is essentially an organic farm. They use no herbicides or pesticides on the garden. The livestock is not fed organic feed (the grains come from a local farm, about 10 minutes away, but that farm uses minimal *icides in their growing). Feeding the livestock a mixture of grains is less cost effective than feeding them corn and soy, but it keeps the animals happy and gives the meat/eggs a different (and more healthy) chemical makeup. The feed is slightly different for each type of animal. For example, the laying hens have ground oyster shells in their feed because the calcium is good for the eggs.

You are what you eat, quite literally. I'm just starting to learn the importance of the input of the meat that we eat, and how it affects us.

Yep, so we feed the animals.

In the afternoon we usually weed the garden for a while, take a nap, catch up on emails, and stay out of the direct sun. There's a lot of daylight here, so you're not constantly racing against the clock. I really enjoy the laid back life on the farm here. It's not like you're not doing anything.

Before and After...

Tonight we harvest the garden for the market tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be here tomorrow, because I'm hitchhiking to Dawson City for a music festival, and then on up to Inuvik, NWT, to visit my cousin. I'll be out of touch for a while, but the post-return blog entry should be pretty interesting :)