This week was chicken processing week. Not a big deal - right? Well, typically that would be correct. However, this processing was much different. It all started about 9 weeks ago when the USPO somehow lost our regular shipment of baby chicks. So, when Farmer Bob (a.k.a. Bob's Bitties) replaced them he not only sent the missing batch, but included a second batch as well. That equals twice the number at one time. No worries. We grew them out as usual. However, as processing day approached we started fretting about how we were going to do all those chickens

Today, I want to share some updates from our processing plant. Last week we took the last six pigs (the ones we rescued from NC) to the new processing plant in Leaksville where we had them slaughter only. We then brought the "halves" back to our farm plant for further processing. That's how we spent our time on Tuesday and Wednesday. One of our customers had emailed me Monday with very kind comments regarding his fresh ham that they had cooked and shared with friends over New Year's. Here is what he said; "We served up a Nature’s Gourmet ham for a group of friends on New Years Day. It was incredible.

How many people really know where their food comes from or how it was raised? My guess would be at least 95% of the population never considers the impact food has on their health and basically considers food - well just food. My thoughts are reinforced from conversations with many of my customers who have shared our farm (and even given samples they purchased) to their family and friends. Should people care?

Merry Christmas and hello from your farmer, I want to take a few minutes of your time this morning to say how THANKFUL we are to be a part of so many of your lives. We appreciate your generosity to spend your food dollars with our farm and how you trust and depend on our farm to provide nutritious, naturally-raised beef, pork, chicken, and eggs on pasture where the animals can live their life as God intended. Much of our sales are invested right back into the farm to improve the quality & service we bring to our customers as well as ensure our farm stays viable for years to come. Here are a few highlights I've selected from 2021. Hope you enjoy.

First, an important ONE-TIME schedule change for January 2022 deliveries. Consistency instills habits. For example, our Gulf Coast routes always deliver on the 1st Saturday of each month, Hattiesburg/Picayune on the 2nd Saturday, and Jackson Metro on the 3rd Saturday. However, January 1st, 2022 is the FIRST Saturday which creates a problem for many folks associated with our largest sales route. So, we have decided to make a ONE-TIME exception to our schedule to deliver our Gulf Coast route the SECOND Saturday

Before I discuss our soil fertility process I need to mention a housekeeping event that I will do before year end. After about 2-years with our new email delivery provider we have accumulated more than 2,000 email addresses that our newsletter delivers to each Saturday morning. However, only about 38% actually will open them (probably not the same 38% each week). This is not uncommon! Folks hear about our farm from a friend or do a search and decide to register with every intention of one day placing an order. Then, life happens and pretty soon a year has gone by and they are no longer interested. One of our motivations for cleaning up our registered users is our email delivery provider increases the monthly fee from $49 to $122 when the delivery crosses above 2,000. That's almost $900 per year.

When I was serving in the Air National Guard and received my letter that I had 20 good years towards retirement...it started me thinking about whether I continue serving or retire. Back then, most folks I met seemed to only be working for retirement so they could "stay home" without any real objective in mind other than do as little as possible. For me, my health was very good, I was enjoying what I was doing, and l liked being around the people and mission. As the years ticked by I always thought I would know when it was my "time to retire". So, I stayed - for another 16 years. But, I did not retire to sit at home and do next to nothing with my time. I like and need to be busy.

I like Thanksgiving! Ours this year was really nice... it was so good to visit with family and enjoy each others fellowship. Of course, there were still chores to be done. Chickens that had to be feed & watered as well as moved daily. Eggs to gather, wash, grade, and pack. Cows to hay and pigs to feed. Just to mention a few. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that Beth and I can do it all. However, the farm has grown to the point where we cannot physically do it all by ourselves.

About this time each year our warm season grasses have been grazed down and our cool season grasses have not matured enough to start grazing. Early October marks the end of the growing season for warm season varieties like Bahia Grass. However, because Bahia grass is an excellent stockpiled grass we can extend our grazing season typically into early November. It really depends on how much rain we start getting in November. As you know, our Spring and Summer were very wet. It was so wet that much of the work we wanted (needed) to do in our pastures was delayed.

One of the first things folks typically ask is "How Are Things At The Farm"? To be honest, things are going really good! An interesting statistic is folks opening our newsletters. Up until about 4 weeks ago we averaged about 550 opens or 26-28% of the folks who receive the newsletter. Since then the number has continuously increased. Last week 776 folks opened our newsletter or 39% of receipts. That is a 41% increase and puts us way ahead of the average open rate of other farms.

Well maybe not sweet but at least short! That is how my newsletter will be today. Between daily chores, planting cool season pastures, harvesting, cutting up and packing chicken, two trips to the processor in Lucedale, and 8+ hours packing orders for today I find myself tired and short on thoughts to share. I do want to give a big shout out to our Gulf Coast customers! We will be rolling out with 80 orders Saturday morning bringing nutrient dense food to help nourish your families... all "true" pasture raised beef, pork, chicken, and eggs.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow (Sunday) is the last day of October. Where has this year gone? October 16th was our last delivery for October. That left me with two weeks "mostly" open to plant our winter pastures. And, we have been hard at it. On the new ground we spread the seed on top of the ground and then bush hogged - bush hogging is also our means of weed control!