There really is no one “typical” day at the farm but there are recurring projects and tasks and there is a general pattern to each day.
As an aside, the following schedule rundown and description captures nothing of the blood, sweat, tears and joy we commonly experience as we work so hard to produce excellent food, provide the very best care to the animals and try to redeem the broken and abused ecosystems we encounter each day. Maybe we can cover that in another article!
The pattern for most days is that we:
- get up early, do morning chores,
- come back to the house for breakfast and devotional time,
- do some indoor tasks,
- work on an outdoor project before lunch,
- have lunch together,
- either complete the outdoor project or stay inside for a break period
- followed by more indoor tasks until evening chores,
- complete evening chores,
- gather for the evening meal and discussion
- followed by family time and then
- personal time to finish unfinished tasks or reading / learning,
- followed by bed time.
Sometimes the outdoor work project is simply replaced by school lessons or an educational field trip or an outing to a local park or swimming hole.
Here are a couple of the typical recurring days. The first day is moving the herds to pasture on one of our rented farms (can happen as often as every 30 days or as little as three times a year depending on pasture growth conditions.) The second day is chicken butchering and pick-up day which typically happens once a week during the season.
Moving the herds:
5:30 am — Larry gets up and drives to the rented farm where he moves six broiler shelters containing aproximately 600 chickens. He feeds and waters the chickens.
6:30 am — Larry picks up Grant and they head to town to pick-up high quality food prep scraps and bagels to feed the breeding pigs
— Ethan goes out to check the herds and provide them with salt, minerals and water if necessary
— Elena treks up to the top pasture to prepare for moving the hens to new pasture. She moves the outer poultry netting, feeders and waterers to a fresh patch of grass and waits for Ethan.
— Tina is up doing meal planning, lesson planning, working on financial books and the like
7:00 am- Ethan drives the tractor up to the top pasture where he and Elena move the egg mobile (portable chicken house) to a fresh area. Ethan heads back to the house while Elena feeds, waters and lets the hens out of the egg mobile.
— Larry and Grant return to the farm and feed and water the breeding hogs. Grant heads into the woods to check the finishing pigs. He checks the condition of the fence wire and ensures the pigs have food and water.
— Larry gets the truck and trailer ready for moving the herds. Larry collects portable mesh fencing for use at the new farm. Ethan takes down all the available mesh fences, mineral feeder and watering trough(s) and hauls them to the truck for transport to the other farm.
7:30 am– Tina and/or Elena are preparing breakfast.
8:00 am– Everyone meets back at the house where they clean up for breakfast. We have a fairly large, sit-down breakfast with eggs, sour-dough toast and milk (at a minimum). Someone, whose turn it is for that day, will lead the family in prayer, devotional and Bible study as the meal concludes.
9:00 am– The entire family heads out to set up guide fences to move the herds from their current location up to the barn area where they can be loaded into the trailer for transport to the rented farm. Once the guide fences are set up, people are assigned to different areas and tasks and the cattle drive commences. Sometimes, it’s a short run up the steep hill and into the barn area. Other times, we may drive them over 1/2 mile of rugged terrain back to the barn.
9:45 am — The animals are sorted and inventoried as needed and the first of six loads is ushered into the barn where the trailer awaits. We usually start with the cattle. The loading team works to get as many animals into the trailer as is feasible. The first load of animals is typically reluctant to get into the trailer, so some coaxing and pressuring is usually required. We can usually get six to eight small framed cattle into the 14 foot trailer on the first load. Often, more animals will crowd into successive loads for the short ride over to the other farm.
10:30 am — Larry and the children arrive at the rented farm, set up a new paddock with the mesh fences, install electric fence charger, watering trough and mineral feeder and unload the animals onto fresh pasture.
— Tina moves chickens butchered on the previous day from the outdoor refrigerator area to the indoor freezer, restocks eggs in the outdoor refrigerator, updates the chicken pick-up list and deals with partner questions and business. Tina will stop to prepare lunch in time for the others’ break.
10:45 am — Larry and children arrive at the home farm for the next load of animals. The loading and transportation process is repeated two more times before we take a break for lunch.
1:15 — 2:00 pm Lunch and break. We often have something simple or leftovers from a previous supper.
2:00 – 5:00 pm — Larry and the children move three more loads of animals to the rented farm, a total of over 150 head of livestock for the entire day including cattle, sheep and goats.
5:00 pm — Elena heads up to the top pasture to collect eggs and feed and water the laying hens. Ethan feeds and waters the turkey pullets in the brooder and then assembles some new nest boxes we purchased for the hens. Larry checks and waters the finishing pigs in the woods while Grant feeds table scraps to the breeding pigs, checks their fence wire and waters them.
6:00 pm — The whole family sits down for the evening meal together. Tonight we are enjoying fresh chicken livers and hearts from some of the approximately 95 chickens we butchered the previous day.
7:00 – 8:00 pm — Often, Larry will read from a book to the children. Some of the favorites have been the Little House on the Prairie series, Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Ten Peas in a Pod, Sherlock Holmes and the like. Sometimes we play a game together, read aloud or occasionally watch one of our favorite educational / family shows including: Bizarre Foods, The Profit, Gold Rush, American Genius and the like.
8:00 – 8:30 pm — Everyone takes time for a shower, to read and study or just relax on his own before bedtime.
The second day is a chicken butchering and pick-up day. It’s very similar to the herd moving day except that instead of moving animals we butcher chickens all morning. We usually finish cleaning up by 1 or 2 pm and then eat lunch, relax or take care of any necessary projects before the Harvest Partners begin showing up at 5 pm to pick up their chickens. We’re usually finished with the pick-up by 6:15 when we come in for supper.
