Kale and Spinach

We still have kale from the fall garden, and spinach. Funny because of all the spinach I planted, only 2 plants came up. But then a couple weeks ago I found my original spinach coming up all over the place. Maybe I planted it too deep. 

In any event, I won't have to plant any this spring. I should be putting broccoli in the ground tomorrow with any luck.

The chickens are making a slow comeback on the egg-laying front. We were getting 20+ eggs a day before the cold weather hit. With the cold and shortened days, the chickens were down to 4 or 5 a day. Now it appears they are coming back. 10 - 12 a day. 

I like to keep chickens at least 2 seasons, so if they can rebound to close to 20 a day I will be really happy.

Oremus pro invicem!

Wendell Berry on the 10 Commandments

I have been slowly reading Wendell Berry's The Need to be Whole of the past couple months. It is slow because I usually read it in doctor office waiting rooms. The introduction is excellent, and I meant to write some comments on it a few months ago.

This morning I read a new take (for me) on the tenth commandment (9 & 10 are combined here: Thou shalt not covet.) Here goes:

"Thou shalt not covet .... any thing that is thy neighbor's." By contrast the industrial famers of our time are economically constrained, and by the industrial orthodoxy are encouraged to regard their neighbors as competitors, and to overcome them (and possess their farms) by means of newer technologies and bigger machines. Thus a fundamental relationship and obligation is broken by the now generally accepted "realism" and "necessity" of economic competitions, which necessarily brings us to our present condition: a public consisting of dismembered families and communities and the virtually deserted economic landscapes of our country, where, as the parents grow old and die without successors, the children are distributed from sea to sea.

I never really thought of capitalist systems as violating the commandments against coveting, but I should have. I have looked at industrial farming and other capitalist endeavors from a moral view to be sure, but never really connected them to a specific commandment.

Oremus pro invicem!

This is crazy!!!!!

Tuesday night (starting around 4-5 PM) our area got .25 to 1 inch of snow. The snow ended by midnight if not before. It did not turn to rain or sleet. Wednesday morning the roads were clear - but never were icy. The snow was powdery, so it just blew around the roads.

Tuesday one of the colleges I teach closed their campus at 6PM on Tuesday shifted to remote learning for evening classes.

Wednesday morning (note the roads are very clear) both colleges closed their campuses ("due to an abundance of caution) and had a "remote learning day". 

Everything in our town (bank, dr office) except the Dollar General and the Hardware store were closed on Wednesday.

Here it is on Thursday, the colleges are open, but the local bank is delayed opening and the pharmacy and doctor offices also have delayed openings.

It is CRAZY! Less than an inch of powdery snow with no ice and the whole area shuts down for 2.5 - 3 days. 

I understand in Conway they had 6 inches of snow. For South Carolina, this is pretty major. But come on - let than an inch of powdery snow during the evening and night and we shut down everything?

Oremus pro invicem!

It is always about money!

 From Fox News article (Does the Color of Eggs Mean Anything?; 11 January 2025):

"Foods that are high in xanthophyll and carotene, which are basically pigments called carotenoids, will make nice dark orange egg yolks," she said. 

Carotene is found in orange-colored foods, she said, such as carrots, mangoes, cantaloupe and pumpkins. 

Xanthophyll can be found in leafy green vegetables, like spinach and kale. 

But while a darker egg yolk does not mean a chicken is eating a nutritious, organic or fresh diet, "it likely will correlate, since the foods with the pigment are also packed with other nutrients," she said. 

Which is why many folks want to buy pasture-raised eggs, especially from small farmers. 

But Big-AG can't lose a single dollar. So what do they do?

Even so, feed companies and commercial egg farms have discovered workarounds to create a darker egg yolk without these nutrient-dense foods, Steele said. 

These companies "have gotten smart and realized that consumers want to see that bright orange yolk, so they'll add things like marigold, paprika, sea kelp, corn [and] alfalfa to 'artificially' boost the yolk color," she said. 

Anything to make money; deception be praised and damn the consumer.

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 May the joy the Christ-child brings fill you this season and throughout the coming year!

Oremus pro invicem!

Root has another litter

 Sows often pick the stormiest or coldest night to give birth. This was the case last night. The low was around 21 F, and we woke up to Root's 3rd litter for us. Praise God!!

Pigs and gardens and voting

I have been wanting to vent my thoughts about voting, but just haven't had time to write a coherent piece.

I will say that this piece makes a lot of sense to me; at Front Porch Republic.

In the meantime, I am about to go off and vote myself, but here are some peaceful pictures: one of part of the fall garden and one of some pigs we are raising up.

Oremus pro invicem!

First frost; first fire in the stove

Posts are certainly sporadic, although I have much I want to write about. We finally had our first fire in the wood stove Friday morning. It should have been Thursday morning, but things happened to prevent it. We had to move all those pumpkins, plus a whole lot more that can be seen in the picture a few posts below. 

I did do a pre-season chimney sweep. I used to have to climb all the way in the chimney to do this, but last year or so, one of my sons bought a chimney brush that connects to a hand drill; and while I still get pretty dirty, I don't have to do body contortions to get the chimney clean.

I love getting that fire going in the wood stove early in the morning when the house is in the fifties and then putting the coffee on - I am glad fall has finally arrived (although it was in the 80's today.) and we had no fire this morning.

Pigs are still doing well. 

The first frost has left some of my pumpkins not yet ripe. Some will ripen off the vine if they are well along in color. Others will not. I had about 30 or so pumpkins not yet picked or fully ripe when we got the first frost on Thursday morning.

Oremus pro invicem!

Another litter

 We had another litter on October 3. 10 live births with all still doing well.

Oremus pro invicem!

Even more pumpkins!

 Still many more not ready to pick yet. 

Except the okra and green beans, the summer garden is gone, replaced by the fall garden of lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach, broccoli, carrots, radishes, and turnips (so far.)

It has been a great garden year. 

Oremus pro invicem!