The Organic Life

@someonetocarryyou

Organic farming in Canada, up close and personal. My family runs an organic dairy farm in Ontario, Canada, and my dad and I thought it would be really cool to run a blog. So this tumblr page will have everything from pictures and stories of farm life, to explanations of how and why we do things the way we do them. We are passionate about our animals, our land, and our food. We want to have a part in educating people about our way of life, but in a way that is both interesting and human. We invite you to send us questions and comments if you have any, as well as things you would like to see or things you would like information on. If we can provide an answer, we will.

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Here are Keira and Rideau in the new little parlor Linton built at the farm in McBride. Rideau is demonstrating the process for these pictures. The vacuum pump is mounted on the outside of the first stall, and the hosing reaches to the farthest stall. Not fancy, but is easy and comfortable for the girls. There is a kick rail to help with training the first calf heifers if we need it, but these girls know the drill. This is Keira's second calf, and Rideau's seventh. The girls are with their calves all night, and are milked in the mornings before they go to pasture for the day. Milking the excess every morning helps aid in good udder health and gives a good degree of comfort for the them to spend the day outside eating. They wander back to the barn about 6 pm to spend the night with their babies. The milk is being used for our house only, and when Big D calves, we are hoping to get enough excess milk for butter and cheese.

#rideau #keira #milking #farming #farm photos #cows #milk #the move #bc #milking equipment

Mowing our first field of hay at the new BC farm. The new mower is working out really well.

[July 3rd. With so much going on BC, our queue is getting quite long!]

#hay #cutting hay #mower #farming #farm photos #harvest #summer #crops

We bought some grapes from a neighbor. They are just slips, but are growing real well. They are tart, but will make a nice jelly or cider of course.

#grapes #gardening

Keira's baby is old enough to be alone all day now, so Keira goes out to graze all day, and comes back to baby every evening and spends the night with her here in the corals behind the barn. Baby is always pretty glad to see mom coming, and drinks the taps dry. Of course by morning, Keira has a lot of milk again, and we milk her with a small portable milking unit in a neat little parlor Linton made in the barn. Rideau is also producing more milk than baby is able to use, and is now being milked every morning. Makes lots of milk for the house, and we need to start to make butter and cheese from all the extra. We brought 3 dry cows to McBride, and only have Big D left to freshen.

#cows #calf #milk #farming #farm photos #Keira

We got these 2 wagon reaches pretty cheap, and need to build a rack on them to haul the hay home. One of the farms is about a half hour drive away, but we will still need to get the hay home and stored for winter feeding here.

#hay #wagons #farm Equipment #equipment #farming #farm photos

Despite how dry this summer has been in McBride, for right now we are getting pretty good pasture re-growth. This field was pastured once and is ready for another rotation. Linton has been doing a lot of 3 strand electric fencing. All our stock knows and respects the electric fences, but we are worried about when the elk return. They are in their calving grounds higher in the mountains right now, and we won't see them for another 10 weeks or so.

#fencing #fences #farming #farm photos #pasture #summer

Can't have a mower and a rake and no baler! This an older John Deer baler, but seems to work real well. The bales are small round bales measuring about 5 feet wide and 4 feet high, but will serve us for sure. Hope to start cutting hay tomorrow. (July 3)

#hay #crops #harvest #farming #farm photos #equipment #farm Equipment #baler

What's a farm without a Border Collie? This is Tucker. We adopted him from a family in the lower mainland. He hunts ants all day long. He has one blue eye and one brown eye, and is about 14 months old. He has never seen cattle before, and we will slowly introduce him to the girls here.

#tucker #border collie #dogs #the move #bc #farming #farm photos

Can't have a mower and no rake, so this is our new (again, pre-owed) Degelman rake. 5 baskets on each side, and opens up to about 28 feet. Should make short work of a big field of hay.

#rake #hay #crops #equipment #the move #bc #farming #farm photos

We didn't truck the hay equipment from Ontario to BC, but bought new (well, pre-owned, but new to us) stuff in BC. Here is the Rowse mower. Don't see many in Canada. It is an old idea come back again. These sickle mowers used to be the way everyone did hay back in the days. Now they are back in are a 'new idea' again. We'll let you know how we like it.

#the move #bc #mower #hay #farming #farm photos

The bulbs mom left in the potting shed when she had to return to Ontario April 10th have thrived, thanks to her water drip trick. They were left unattended in the shed till Linton got there early in May, in time to meet the truck with the first load of stock. Linton has some tomatoes growing there too, and they look great.

#gardening

Rideau was one of the dry cows who went west with the first load in May. We woke up to her having calved with a new heifer calf on the morning of June 29. Here she is in the morning sun. I had to wait till mom went to get a drink of water to get a shot of the new baby, as mom was a tad obsessed.

#rideau #calf #cows #farming #farm photos

Keira was the first cow to calve out west. This is her calf, first one born at the new farm, and it's a heifer too. She has no name yet.

#keira #calf #cows #farming #farm photos #the move #bc

Mom is back in BC to help with the hay. She sends a picture of the heifers coming into the water tub in early evening. These girls have thrived after being moved from Ontario to the new farm in BC in early May.

#bc #the move #heifers #cows