The Method to the Madness

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Farming is like anything else: it’ll absorb as much time, energy, and money as you want to invest. The more you invest, the more success you’ll have…hopefully. Aaron and I are both school teachers, and we’ve used the past few years to figure out how to make farming fit into our lives. That fit has sometimes been a square peg in a round hole, but we’re committed to growing good food, so we persist. Part of making farming work for us means we need to strategically spread out the workload over the course of our off-season. Once spring rolls around, life becomes a whirlwind of chores, and there’s not much time to step back and take in the big picture.

The Obsession

Aaron has spent way too many hours so far this winter methodically mapping out our garden beds for the coming season. (This does not include the hours he’s spent ogling seed catalogues, by the way.) He’s applying the knowledge he’s gained through a Market Gardener Master Class facilitated by J.M. Fortier, a Permaculture Design program through Oregon State University, a C.A.S.E. certification (Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education) at Kentucky University, and the endless gardening podcasts he listens to. The man doesn’t mess around.

The Plan

The spreadsheet Aaron created to plan our crops is intricate and proactive. It includes important dates for sowing seeds, transplanting, fertilizing, cultivating, etc. He’s been going at it like a mad scientist for weeks now. Adhering to the measure-twice-cut-once philosophy, he’s hyper planning now so that we can more easily carry out the heavy lifting of farming in the spring and summer months when it’s harder to think on your toes.

The Rules

Crop planning around here follows a few rules:

1. The crops we plant in our 20 beds are scheduled in a 10 year rotation where a given crop of heavy feeders are followed by nitrogen-enhancing crops (the plant equivalent of dainty eaters—leafy greens).

2. Our crops are planted in clustered intervals so that they don’t all ripen at the same time.

3. Crops are planted as close to one another as possible in order to maximize output and eliminate space for weeds.

4. We don’t plant foods our kids refuse to eat. (Sorry, fennel.)

5. We respect the natural soil food web and therefore plant cover crops liberally. (You’re welcome, worms.)

The Application

Each season of farming teaches us something new. How best to enrich the soil through compost and natural fertilizers. Which weeds to let grow because they improve the land. Which crops people in our lives most enjoy. How to prevent the kids and dog from destroying the insect netting. There’s no end to learning when you recognize nature as your teacher. We use the winter months to harness our learned lessons from the previous growing season and apply them toward the next.

The Video

Watch the video below to hear a little bit about why we plan the beds the way we do.

Rain Water Collection

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As a student of permaculture, Aaron loves to find ways to use naturally occurring systems in our favor. I mean, who doesn’t want more free time? And fewer things breaking is a huge win! Since we have garden beds to irrigate and animals to hydrate, thoughtful rain water collection quickly became one of the more obvious systems to experiment with. The latest rain water prototype may be upgraded to a more permanent set up as it proves its usefulness and we continue to tweak our systems here at Fail Better Farms.

What does rain water collection look like on our farm?

We have four 55 gal water barrels and one 330 gal IBC tote tank set up at downspouts where needed on the property. When it rains, these guys fill up relatively quickly. It’s kind of shocking actually. For every 1” of rain and 1,000 square feet of surface, about 620 gallons can be captured. If the rain barrel is kept up slightly above the ground, we can irrigate on head pressure alone. When it’s warmer we’ll add BTI as a monthly pollinator-friendly mosquito control. (Read about how and why we use BTI here.)

Our current largest reservoir, the IBC tote tank (in photo below) is strategically located. We’re in agricultural zone 7A, meaning we should expect a few hard freezes throughout the winter. Our current solution is to keep the tank on the south-facing side of our garage, out of the biting cold north wind. Using gravity alone, this tank supplies the rain water stored for crops and/or animals.

Water destined for the crops passes through an irrigation filter, a battery-operated irrigation timer (sometimes set to irrigate 3 times a day), and some layflat hose (blue hose seen in photos) before it arrives at on/off valves at the foot of every veggie row (so that only those actively growing get the water). A row of drip tape extends from every on /off valve (right photo below) down the row so every root zone gets a slow steady leak of water. This sounds like a lot, but aside from replacing a 9V battery once a year in the timer, this system has been boiled down to two constants: rain & gravity. Thus, there are NO moving parts to break or be replaced. Win!

Pup Proofing

We’ve also had to get creative because our Great Pyrenees enjoys chewing on (ev.er.y.thing…including) the hose that runs from the tank to the fenced garden. We’ve had success by blocking the front of the tank with wooden pallets and covering the layflat hose with upcycled conveyor belt material. (See photos below.)

How can you plan your water collection system?

1. Make sure water collection is legal where you are.

2. Place your rain barrels in logical locations. If you’ll be using the water for thirsty chickens, then collect the water on your chicken coop. If the water is for your garden, make sure it’ll be flowing downhill to your beds. You know…work smarter, not harder.

3. Be creative. A well-placed gutter is well worth the time it takes to install.

Check out what it looks like:

The Need for Regenerative Agriculture

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Truth #1: Whether we like it or not, because we eat food, we are a part of the agricultural system. Every time we purchase food, we are demonstrating our approval of the farming practices that were used to grow it. It’s a heavy responsibility, but it’s imperative that we all recognize our influence.

Truth #2: Humans have irrefutably done too much damage to our planet, and it’s about dang time somebody (or, better yet, a whole bunch of somebodies) steps up and does something about it. We need to reverse the damage we’ve done. This isn’t just some hippie pipe dream; it’s reality. Here are a few facts from folks who know things:

• “If current rates of degradation continue all of the world's top soil could be gone within 60 years.” (Read this article if you have a few minutes.) (Or watch this movie if you have a few hours.)

• Mainstream farming practices have placed agriculture as one of the top five sources of greenhouse gases. (Fact check me here.)

• “In recent decades, contact with soil has largely been reduced, which together with a modern lifestyle and nutrition has led to the depletion of the gut microbiome with adverse effects to human health.” (Read more about the direct connection between soil health and human gut health here.) (If you're into it, also check out this podcast to learn more about the connection between human health and the environment.)

Truth #3: The status quo isn’t working. If we lose something faster than we gain it, the argument could be made that sustainable agriculture isn’t enough. We’re proud Americans here at Fail Better Farms, and we figure if we can put a man on the moon, then we can live gently on our home planet without compromising its well-being--or, by extension, our own.

Let’s Talk Solutions

Our current situation is not ideal, but neither is it without hope. Enter: regenerative agriculture.

“‘Regenerative Agriculture’ describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.”

— Regeneration International

We are by no means experts on regenerative agriculture, but we’re working to learn all we can so we can be part of the regenerative movement. We hope you’ll join us on this journey.

Why We Have a Love/Hate Relationship with Failing

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If you’ve gotten this far with us, you know we legitimately have no business farming. (Despite our best efforts, though, we are actually getting better!) We’re committed to researching a lot and trying really hard. This fail better philosophy is both humbling and empowering. It repeatedly puts us in our place and reminds us we don’t have it all figured out. It also allows room for error; if you expect that failure is a likely outcome, it’s not so surprising when you come up against it.

Let’s be real, though. We don’t like failing. It’s uncomfortable and frustrating. It feels like the end of the world pretty much every time, but we try to lean into it because we know it’s good for us. It teaches us and makes us stronger. It prepares us for the next hurdle ahead of us that we may not see coming. We realize when we’re knocked down that it’s easier to see the trees rather than the forest. Indeed, we can usually only see the forest retrospectively.

Exhibit A

I posted a blog literally a week ago (Is a Great Pyrenees Right for You?) about how we were so proud of our dog Samson for his growth as a guardian of our free-range chickens. Can you guess what we woke up to this morning? A dead chicken. And there is absolutely no doubt our boy Samson is responsible.

Our Reaction

How do we respond to this setback? We initially feel deflated. We dabble in impostor syndrome, wondering why we think we have any business raising a livestock guardian dog.

Then we try to learn from the failure by asking questions. Is this our boy’s way of showing us he needs more supervised interaction with the birds? Is this a sign that we shouldn’t add to our flock? Should we put the electric fences back up that divide the chickens from the dog?

Disappointing set backs like this happen every day around here. If there’s not a wonky fence post needing to be replaced, then a couple dozen eggs got cracked when somebody tripped, or the carrot seeds aren’t germinating as expected. Aaron and I take turns reassuring each other that we’re following our dream and that hiccups are a part of growth and learning.

And sometimes we don’t have a crystal clear path to fixing the problem. We just keep trying different things and hoping for the best. It’s exhausting and disappointing and rewarding. It’s freaking life.

The Overwhelm

Little fails have a way of adding up to a death of a thousand cuts, right? They make life feel overwhelming. You wonder if you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Moving forward feels as sensible as tidying up the Titanic. What’s the point?

When you’ve invested so much of yourself into your dream, it’s really disappointing to stomach road blocks. I know you know, reader, because everybody living on planet Earth in 2020 knows. Today it’s a dead chicken, but who knows what tomorrow holds? And there are only so many dead chickens a person can take. (I apologize if a dead chicken metaphor offends any of you.)

Attempting to Reset Mindset

We are repeatedly reminding ourselves that we’re grateful for our problems. That we get to deal with them together as a team. That they are problems that are completely within our power to overcome. That we learn and grow so much through dealing with them.

But a fail still feels like a sucker punch sometimes.

The Legend of One-Leg

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The Situation

A month ago one of our guinea fowl survived a car accident. This is new for us. Typically cars that hit our guinea fowl are driving too fast (at least 50 miles per hour) for the birds to survive. Aaron and I weren’t sure how best to handle our maimed bird, so we did what any self-respecting bird owners would do: we scoured the internet.

Our Options

Following the advice we found, we caught our hurt bird and identified where the break was. Sadly, we realized there was nothing we could do because the break was up too high on her leg for us to help her with a splint. We were faced with the ugly decision of putting our bird out of her misery or giving her a chance to push through her pain and fend for herself. We agreed to give the latter a shot. If she had the fight left in her, who were we to tell her otherwise?

A Word About Guinea Fowl

It’s not practical to take a guinea fowl to the vet when injured because the likelihood that s/he will run out into the road and get hit is nearly 100%. I’m not exaggerating. We lose nearly all of our birds this way. Though they have acres of safe land to run around on, they insist on crossing the highway daily. Interestingly, although they are very capable of flight, they choose to walk across the road. Slowly. They are not the brightest bulbs in the box, but we love them for their tick-decimating aptitude.

So How Did One-Leg Fare?

Our busted-up guinea fowl kept on hopping around on one leg, hence her nickname. She could no longer accompany her bird friends on their daily excursions across the highway, but that actually kept her safer than she would have been otherwise. She was grounded and couldn’t move very far from the coop, with its supply of fresh water and roost for protection from predators. If I can anthropomorphize my dear bird friend for a moment, it seemed she had found her happiness in appreciating the reality she was living rather than dwelling on what she had lost. Isn’t that a lesson we can all apply?

Getting to the Other Side

After a few weeks of sticking around the farm by herself while her flock went on their daily outings, she eventually decided she was ready to go with them. Staying in community with her bird crew on their adventures across the highway was, in One-Leg’s estimation, worth the risk of life and wing. I regret to inform you that One-Leg is no longer with us here at Fail Better Farms. While we aren’t sure exactly what happened to One-Leg, we like to think she eloped with a bird lover and settled down to start a family. Maybe she’s watching over us now, roosting up high in the copse of trees across the street. All we know for sure is she crossed the road and was never heard from again. That, dear reader, is the Legend of One-Leg.