I once had a friend give me advice regarding planning that I have kept in mind over the years, especially as farm manager of ABC acres. It was something to the effect of, “when making plans, make them in pencil, so they are easier to erase and change when the conditions inevitably change.” Wise words that speak to the value of flexibility of thought and attention, and that certainly came in handy this past Tuesday for me. The readiness to shift attention and task at the drop of a hat, or in my cases at the urgent call of Tim, and the witnessing of hogs running loose, enables me to keep my wits about me and take care of these unexpected events.
First, as Tim and I discussed the topic of my weekly video posting, he suddenly interrupted me to exclaim, “I may be paranoid, by it looks like a hawk is in mobile coop 1 and trying to get out through the fixed window, please go and check and get it out if it is a hawk, so we don’t lose all our chickens!” If he was paranoid, it was justified, as he had found a headless and neckless hen under the coop on Monday afternoon, the victim of a hawk attack, and the first close-quarters attack of a brazen nature we have experienced with our chicken flocks in 4 years. The extra snowy winter has limited the birds of prey their usual relative ease of other food sources, and now they are getting more desperate and bold as a result. Well, Tim was right, and upon cautiously opening the door of the coop, the hawk blasted out and right past my head, swooping upward and resting into a dead top of a cottonwood tree adjacent to the pasture our chickens are in.
After getting my heart rate down a bit, I thought how great that would have been to get on camera, but I was too busy rescuing chickens to worry about filming. Fortunately for our flock, the hawk didn’t get anything that time. No more than an hour or so later, during my animal feeding routine, things became all but routine as I spotted Porky and Chubby Eddie, our breeding pair of large black hogs running towards me down the laneway of our paddock system. Behind their rumbling bodies I saw the broken metal gate they had discovered was no match for their 300+lb. and 400+lb. respective frames, leading me to literally drop everything and sprint to get their feed bucket full of fermented grain. It was a mad dash through the snow, and I was able to coax them back into their paddock with the bucket before I had a freezer full of pork on the run. After figuring out a way to quickly fix and firm up the battered and abused gate to keep them in for the night, I thought again of how entertaining that whole mini-crisis would have been to witness, even if it was at my expense!
Well, friends and fans of ABC acres will not have to wait for much longer before all of this could become a reality, as Tim is in talks with a company to have some high-performance live web cams placed strategically throughout the property, which will give opportunity for people to see both planned and spontaneous happenings on the grounds of the farm, giving a glimpse of life here in this beautiful, unpredictable place. The moments which often change our plans are moments worth sharing. With my departure from ABC acres and moving back to the Midwest, it makes me glad to know that I could have the ability to keep an eye on the place and see how everyone is getting along, as this special spot I have spent the last 4 1/2 years helping create will always hold a place in my heart.
Blessings,
Grant
P.S. Here is our weekly video, where I detail some of the tasks involved with my job, as well as qualities that my replacement needs to possess, or at least be able to obtain!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJH9DwKVQfc
