Just Waking Up From A Long Winter’s Nap

It’s mid-January and our little farm, like similar farms, is quietly stirring with the approach of what we call “The Busy Season.” Seed orders are trickling in, having been placed just a little later than I intended. The raised beds are lacking a top layer of compost and the new smaller-sized tiller I wanted to order is still on the wish list. Shallots are a new item for us this year and I must find a place to set out six hundred. A final supply inventory is mandatory, as is a cubic yard of seed-starting material. Baby chicks are ordered for new egg-layers and broilers and turkeys, the dates carefully worked out to allow for the timing of everything that happens here. Once the seed-starting begins and the chicks arrive, there’s no looking back.

The off-season has progressed with many egg and chicken deliveries (feel free to contact me if you want to be notified about these). There has been time for grandchildren, and a few long drives to visit loved ones. Garlic was planted and mulched. The turkeys we raised last summer were sold one by one, and found their places on central Arkansas families’ tables. Today we picked up our pork from the processor, tonight we had bacon and sausage for supper, and next month we start all over with pigs again so that some of you can savor the flavor of antibiotic-free, raised-in-the-woods babyback ribs and chops. At this very moment, there are only 70 chickens at Shaky K Farm. After 2019, our biggest year ever, it feels like everything is sound asleep because of the contrast between how it felt here February through October, and how it feels right now. To say that we are thankful for the farm’s blessings last year is a gross understatement. It was humbling to be so blessed, to meet so many loyal folks who lend themselves to supporting local farms, local businesses, HEALTH, who believe in what we’re doing and choose to come along for the adventure. We’re extremely grateful for this support.

When the grandchildren spend the night, one of them begins to stir out of sleep by humming. The humming builds as he becomes more conscious and I know I’d better finish up whatever I’m doing because I don’t have much longer. Finally he’s fully awake and up and he wakes up his sisters and they all begin whispering, roughhousing, jumping off the bed, running down the hallway and you can feel the excitement by the time they stop short at the top of the stairs to see if I’m ready for them. That’s what it feels like inside me now: a building of anticipation and excitement, knowing that behind these wet, cold winter days an incredibly busy Spring is hiding, ready to explode onto the scene: Ready or not, BOOM! Here it comes.

Remember, for information on reserving a whole or half hog custom-processed to your desires; to reserve any of our pasture-raised, antibiotic-free, non-GMO-supplemented turkeys and chickens; to reserve your tomato or pepper plants for spring gardens, or to score yourself the most nutritious eggs around, laid by free-ranging hens and supplemented with perfectly-mineral-enriched, GMO-free feed (Eggs: a perfect food), you can contact me with a phone call, text, email, or use FB or Instagram to leave comments and messages (@shakykfarm, #shakykfarm). Or, just holler real loud. I’ll probably hear you.

Until next time—

Billianne

Shaky K Farm

501-654-4076