I have spent a considerable amount of time and money learning how to “farm” and still today I am learning just as much each and every day.
I remember watching the Matrix, and today I feel like I am living in that Matrix, as just another copper top battery feeding the immense culture that is willing to drain every once of my very being to stay alive… With no regard to me as an individual. So, I farm! I raise my pigs, pay for things like installing water for winter, paying for bags of feed, fencing, waking up early to care for a sick pig, staying up late to care for that same pig that isn’t able to get up.
Why do I farm? Why do I go to work? Why do I care about SamsPlace? Well, it’s complicated yet surprisingly simple. I see my pigs grow, I see my chickens grow, I collect the morning breakfast from the laying boxes and crack the eggs into my fry pan and feed my family with the food I have invested in. I know what my pigs eat, I know where my eggs are laid, I know what My family is eating.
Did you know that when you go to the store and by a pork roast that pig most likely grew up in a small concrete bunker? Next to hundreds of other concrete bunkers? In some far away land, most likely overseas? My pigs are in the woods, playing, eating, sleeping… living a great life… HAPPY!
Did you know that the eggs you buy at the store are likely bleached, sanded and washed? Did you know it’s not normal or natural to have 10 pound chicken breasts? Frozen after a diet of salt water to increase the weight of the chicken just before slaughter? I challenge you to go buy that pterodactyl looking chicken breast and drain the extra water out before you cook it, then cook it and see how much water is still trapped in it.
Please don’t get me wrong, I too was the box store shopper that bought the monster sized bag of “flash frozen for freshness” chicken breasts. I would bring them home and cook them up… then we moved “up-north” and we tried to raise chickens for eggs because it’s what you do on a farm… little did I realize that it would lead me to this new chapter of farming pigs, chickens, eggs and garden produce, with ZERO REGRETS!
Im sitting here writing and listening to the wind howl outside like we seldom ever hear, today I was planning a ride, perhaps my last chance to ride but the wind today is not going to subside, and a cross wind on a two lane county road is not the most favorable conditions, so I will just drive a car, or my truck.
Jess is out west waiting for the new grand baby to show up, I am staying back to run the farm, the business and hoping to get some time at Sam’s Place as well. I am staying very busy, otherwise I would be going crazy with this solitude… My three big pups are very helpful in distracting me from this hollow shell of a life being separated from my dearest and best friend, Jess, we really are a perfect fit for each other and we work well together.
Anyway, it’s windy and not too cold. I covered the squash a couple days ago for the freeze warning but I pretty much know what to expect I will find with this crazy fall wind.
Today I leave you with this thought.. Shop smart because “organic” doesn’t mean healthier, “flash frozen” doesn’t mean fresher, “free range” doesn’t mean better… These are simply marketing tools to charge more to the consumer for things the consumer has decided to spend more money on… “free range” doesn’t mean they walk around and “cage free” doesn’t mean they are living better. Egg shells can be colored, sanded, and washed in bleach, yolks can be “darker” colored and more tasty because of the feed, if all your eggs are identical… well you should wonder why first, I have yet to see a perfectly clean egg, much less one with perfect color, no bumps, no marks… farm fresh eggs, like pork chops and meat chickens don’t actually look exactly the same. In closing, after I have lived in both worlds, buying my food and growing my food, I prefer growing.
Remember, I am a CITY BOY turned country… Born on the south side, raised on the north side and never leaving the country side… ask yourself why, ask yourself… what is it that he has found in the sticks to bring true joy, to a city boy.
God bless you and yours in this crazy election cycle and don’t forget, things really have gotten worse over the last few years. I have met absolutely not one person that says things are better. We should consider our votes this year as a valuable gift to the future generations.
Charlie