What a system!

The environment is pretty interesting. I find it amazing that I've spent 35 years teaching this subject to thousands of people. Over the years, I've talked about how the systems in the environment are in a state of constant change, but within a balance.  PnS Farm has been a great place to watch life happen, giving me a front row seat to the daily show. I watch the Rio Grande Turkeys, come through the farm.  I almost always count them.  Going from counting 13 to 10 is part of the population flux of a species who are prey to many others in our canyon.  Last week, one of our heritage turkeys did not show up for the evening.  We tried to hold out hope that she was just nesting somewhere.  Neighbors yesterday asked how long she's been gone (since Christmas Eve), and reported they found a pile of feathers.

We had kept 2 hens and 1 tom Red Bourbon Heritage Turkey for next year's flock.  It took lots of effort to raise her to this point, only to have a fox or mountain lion use her for a meal.  It is, however, an expected consequence to the way we have chosen to raise our animals.  Nature is why we moved here, nature is what happens when you free range or pasture your animals.  There are many more predators than we tend to see, from snakes and racoons getting into the coop to steal the eggs, to the coyote, fox and  mountain lion, looking for a tasty meal when food is scarce.  We even had a bear tear down our coop fence, trying to get to the food cans this year.

Moving to New Mexico, I have learned that farming is ...well hard.  I may have an understanding of the Science of the soil, the life cycle of the plant or animal, even the optimal micro/macronutrients that are necessary for them to flourish.  I can read about the best ways to plant, harvest, preserve and prepare all sorts of the things we grow on the farm.  You just can't predict what will happen to upset the balance.  Nature decides when and where something happens.  I couldn't predict years of drought, but could prepare the farm with ways to combat the hazards of drought.  Late Summer, 2013, I could not prepare for the days of rain that saturated the ground this year.  Nine inches of rain, a year's worth of rain in our desert, came within one short week, saturating the soil.  Flooding was expected, but still a surprise.

Systems are a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole. The environment is constantly changing within the whole of our canyon.  As a farmer, I can sweat over the preparations of the garden bed, fertilizing, weeding and planting.  I can nudge growth the right direction by thinning, shading, watering.  I can be patient with harvest, selecting ripe food for dinner one night, leave another for a special meal. 

What I can't do is to predict when a squirrel will want that particular squash or when a mole will come eat all my carrots, or when a fox will harvest my turkey hen.  I can't predict when a flood will happen.

We do not depend on our farm for all our food, but we do eat what we grow.  Sustainability is a goal, but not a necessity for us.  The food we grow on PnS Farm is grown naturally, meaning we put the seed in the ground amended with compost , water, weed and harvest.  We don't add any non organic pesticides and only use those for problems that can't be handled with companion planting, picking off the pest or the introduction of moved predators (like lady bugs). We get the chickens and turkeys started, provide some food and let them out to the fields to find bugs, leaves, what ever food they can.   The work on a farm is hard, but the benefit of quality food makes the work worth it.

I worry about a government that makes it difficult for individual family farms to be in business, much less be profitable.  I dislike that despite the fact that most Americans do want GMO labeled, big businesses has their way and we haven't moved towards labeling.  I am disappointed that so many bee populations are dying off, that we may have more trouble with pollination in the future.  I am frustrated that while commercial farms can add heavy pesticides to their fields by spraying on ground or air, without having to inform nearby residents, someone who grows their food naturally has to be very careful about how they talk about their food, so as not to break the law and mention that O word, despite the fact that it is grown with those methods.    I think it is hard enough to be a farmer, without putting up barriers.

If the system is a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, we need to understand that changing too many things within the ecosystem will cause a breakdown of that system.  If you kill off the bees, no pollination, no fruit.  If you have too many predators, all my animals will be prey and I won't have food. 

The biggest surprise about farming for me was to find that all of the answers are not in the books, not on the web.  You find out lots by talking to and working with your neighbors.  There are successful years, there are dismal failures.  Here's to hoping that this year will have slightly more successes than failures...