Category Archives: farming

Punching calves

Posted on March 19, 2012 by dlhitzeman

I think it’s funny that one of the terms for handling cattle is “punching”. It seems like a kind of inside joke among cattle people about the arduous nature of the task of physically handling cattle during those times when they have to be moved, sorted, tagged, or banded. I punched a bunch of calves [...] Continue reading →

Posted in animals, cattle, Challenges, farming, food, nature, punching, rhetoric, Work | Leave a comment

MENF 2011: We’re all really dirt farmers

Posted on October 5, 2011 by dlhitzeman

Whether we all like it or not, we’re all dirt farmers. You don’t think so? Well, consider this the next time you’re sitting on the pot: you’re finishing the process whereby your body turns the food you have eaten into energy, nutrients, and dirt from which more food can be grown, even if we don’t [...] Continue reading →

Posted in animals, changes, compost, Dirt, farming, food, ideas, Manure, Mother Earth News Fair | Leave a comment

Because it’s a farm

Posted on May 31, 2011 by dlhitzeman

I heard today that our tenant farmer–he plants our 100 or so acres of tillage–thinks my wife and I are ripping off my mother-in-law because, well, there are goats eating grass in the front yard and chickens eating grass in the back. That’s not how things are supposed to be, you know, because now the [...] Continue reading →

Posted in Challenges, Choices, farming, food, industrial farming, philosophy, Self-sufficiency, the difference | Comments Off