Earth Day
Last week at market many people asked me what I was going to do to celebrate Earth Day and I told them I was going to farm. That’s my day to put up the portable electric netting on some of the surrounding strips outside the fence. I call it mowing with sheep. Yes, this takes extra time and requires that I stay home , always vigilant for idiot s who get twisted up in the lightweight poly-netting laced with a very thin metal wire. There is always one…
I could have gone to a local brewery to plant trees, but why? I’ve got fifty here, along with matching tree stakes & tubes that need to be installed and planted. No, I’ll stick with the portable electric netting project because it means I get to spend the day outside in the sunshine untangling the fence before I stretch it out for installation. No matter how neatly I roll it up at the end of the season, it’s always tangled when I get it out to use it again.
The assortment of fence chargers allow me the flexibility to spot graze anywhere on the farm. There are ones that are solar powered, ones that run off batteries and the big one—a solid state DC current that plugs into an outlet. No one is going through that fence.
Using a rubber mallet, I pound each stake into the ground to which the electric netting is attached. I can go around trees and shrubs, outline the lawn between the house and the driveway, and create a lush lane for grazing along the outer perimeter of the permanent fences.
Somehow the animals know they are about to get the first green grass of the season when I pull out the electric netting. They stand anxiously at the gate, staring with their eyes as if to say hurry up we haven't had any fresh veggies since last fall. They are anxious which is another reason for practicing linger grazing. I linger, they graze. After my Earth Day work, I get to have my own celebration as I pull up a lawn chair and crack open a cold one.
One might think watching a bunch of animals eat is rather boring, but if you pay attention it can actually be quite interesting. First, there are the politics. You think our politics are nasty? Try barnyard politics, they are downright brutal. There's going to be some pushing and shoving and occasionally somebody gets rolled into the fence because they know it’s electrified. One of my favorite events on the farm is this day because everyone is happy, including me. Now the animals are feeding themselves and spreading their own manure.
In addition to the domesticated livestock, it’s also prime wildlife watching season, especially birding. I use the Merlin app from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab and on Earth Day I had 19 different species of birds identified in 90 seconds. That’s a record for me. Included in that list was the Heron who had just returned for the season that day. It flew low and turned its head toward me as if to say Hi, I'm home!
Happy Earth Day indeed.