IS FARMING DEAD? SEND TO YOUR LOCAL SENATOR OR TO KIRSTIN GILLIBRAND IMMEDIATELY!!!

to: kirsten_gillibrand@gillibrand.senate.gov
from: jtrombley@live.com
Mrs. Gillibrand,

Please reject the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (HR 875). This is an outrageous & dangerous proposal and must not be put into law. It goes against our democratic freedoms, and it is societal control disguised as "protection of our safety. "Our founding fathers would turn in their graves. We must not be dependant on Monsanto and their genetically modified seeds. Taking away our right to have a garden or support local economy at the farmers market by supporting organic OR non-organic farmers is insanity! Please do everything in your power to preserve our freedom to choose, buy, and grow organic produce. We trust that you will honor the voices of concerned citizens that cherish the freedom & pride of New York & America.

Thank you,
Jessica Trombley,
Piano Teacher, Concerned Mother of 4, Granddaughter of a hardworking farmer

Matt Trombley, Creative Designer

Lightning

Just out from The Community Baa Farm....Rainy our 1 year old ewe, just gave birth last night in the middle of a thunder, lightning & rain storm in our little farm in our backyard. The ram lamb came one month earlier than planned. My husband came up to the house after working on building a chicken coop THE WHOLE DAY, and said "hey Jess, I think Rainy is lambing." (So that's what that funny sound was coming from the barn an hour ago.) I was standing on our back deck watching my husband work, and conjecturing what that funny sounding baa was, coming from one of the sheep. Maybe a chicken flew over the fence and was freaking them out in the barn.

Note to self....

check on the sheep IMMEDIATELY, when you hear funny baa noises coming from the barn.

So, Matt & I ended up helping Rainy lamb. It was quite the adventure. I have graduated to "doula" status on this little farm of ours, and I'm not going to live it down easy. My husband officially considers me a "domestic goddess," and I think I earned that title last night. If it weren't for me, I think Rainy might not have nursed her baby and we would have been bottle feeding him every 3-5 hours for the next 3 months. Tell me THAT wouldn't be a nightmare!

Cooking dinner and taking care of Mt. Vesuveus laundry piles is nothing compared to lambing a sheep. Lambing a sheep is just like birthing a real baby. Getting a ewe to nurse is more difficult than getting a woman to nurse her offspring, because the ewe does not listen to you! Although I must say...sheep are not as stupid as many accuse them to be. Rainy listened to me every time she started to stray and I told her to "clean her baby." She went right back to licking off the afterbirth. We also had the pleasure of pulling the lamb out of Rainy's womb, and cutting the umbilical cord. We were covered in blood and gore from head to toe. How embarassing. 2:30am pillow time came just at the right time. We were exhausted!

So, from the community baa to you..."what doesn't kill you, gives you a kick-butt story to tell."

ps. 'Lightning' is a beautiful baby boy with a long white-tipped, black tail. How sweet it is!

All Cooped Up

Matt & Turner building an up-cycled chicken coop for 18 new chickens! We used all recycled materials for this puppy. Isn't it beautiful? The red lumber is from our rotten, burn -it - down picnic table...and the rest of the lumber came from another shed on our property. Not only did it feel good to use wood that would have otherwise been wasted, but it was also great stewardship!

Maple Tree Troll

Maple Sugar Weekend

This was our big day out last weekend. Maple Weekend 2009! We opened our farm, hoping to pick up some traffic from the maple weekend. Noone stopped..... so we got the heck out of dodge, and went up the road to visit a local maple sugar shack. Here's the fam enjoying the sunshine.

Llamas & Chickens & Sheep, Oh My!

Here is the great introduction of our new starter flock of 4 llamas to our alpacas. You can see Zak and Sandy are very curious. Big Brown is the llama in charge in this photo. Trinity is helping to close the fence. We would not want those babies getting loose...they're freakin' huge (roll the 'r' in freakin' for effect.)

The Mermaid's Braid

My fabulous new yarn!

www.themermaidsbraid.etsy.com

Set the Twist

One of my unfinished projects as of late was to set the twist on 6 skeins of my handspun yarn. My mother gave me a brand new 5 gallon stock pot the other day just in the nick of time. It turned out to be so helpful!

English Muffin Pizza

Thank God for BOGO English Mufins, sauce and cheese. I love making English Muffin Pizzas, and my 2 year old digs them too.

Laundry Blues

Sometimes it hits you all at once...the laundry blues. I've got 'em. We have 6 people in our family. We cloth diaper our infant and our toddler (and thank God for our preschooler who just potty trained)...we've had the stomach bug go through our house, and the laundry is literally mountaneous.

This photo does not show Mt. Vesuveus on our bed, waiting to be folded, or the other 3 hampers full of laundry. I pray for strength to finish my chores....