FARM HAPPENINGS
It's been a busy few weeks with the holidays coming on really fast, too fast for me as usual, then trying to spend a little time with family before we jump into the year-end office work which includes the dreaded all-farm inventory. Year-end inventory means weighing and counting all the different poultry and meat products we have in three different walk-in freezers, a host of smaller chest and upright freezers, and then all the products on the store shelves and backroom supply areas. Plus every bale of hay and straw we have located in several barns and all the livestock (we guestimate the number of chickens they are too difficult to count). This is everybody's least favorite job of the year!
It's been a busy few weeks with the holidays coming on really fast, too fast for me as usual, then trying to spend a little time with family before we jump into the year-end office work which includes the dreaded all-farm inventory. Year-end inventory means weighing and counting all the different poultry and meat products we have in three different walk-in freezers, a host of smaller chest and upright freezers, and then all the products on the store shelves and backroom supply areas. Plus every bale of hay and straw we have located in several barns and all the livestock (we guestimate the number of chickens they are too difficult to count). This is everybody's least favorite job of the year!
To give us time to get the store inventory counted on New Years Eve we will be closing at 3 PM, but we will be open normal hours from 10 AM - 6 PM on New Year's Day.
Our raw milk volume has continued to improve over the last couple of weeks as the fresh cows (those having calves recently) continue to increase their production, in particular with the mild weather reducing their energy needs. This wet, rainy weather is the climate Guernseys were bred to thrive on for hundreds of years (the Isle of Guernsey is in the English Channel just off the Normandy coast of France), so it should be no surprise they are producing lots of milk in this weather. Good news for those customers looking to improve their health in the new year with the addition of wholesome raw milk to the diet.
Our egg production had dropped a bit in the last week, for reasons unknown but it does seem like some of the older hens are going into their annual molt. During the molt, which lasts for quite a few weeks, their egg production will drop and they will shed most of their feathers and grow out a fresh glossy set. Usually this happens in late fall but it really depends on the age of the hen and other factors. After the molt is completed and their new feathers grown out they will pickup their production again. The longer days and some increased sunshine will also help with egg production now that we have passed the winter solstice.
FARM STORE UPDATE
We have been processing most of the summer pigs over the last six weeks and are now getting the new pork products back in the store, including most pork cuts and some of the sausage varieties. More brats to come next week as our sausage makers get back from their holiday break. And just one more load of twenty pigs going in for processing in a few weeks but they enjoy playing in the snow.
I also picked up the November beef right before Christmas from our Indiana processor, so we have a very good supply of grass-fed beef cuts available now in the farm store, just in time for those new year's resolutions. This includes most varieties of steaks, roasts, ground beef, chuck, and steak, as well as bones, fat, and organ meats.
And for now we have plenty of pasture-raised chicken in stock, including whole birds, cutup birds, Corn-Free and Soy-Free birds, and legs/leg quarters/feet/wings and bone broth. We have about 150 birds left to put into parts but haven't been able to get those into our processor yet to cut and package them.
Also we got a restock of the Tourmaline Hearth tallow soaps, made from our own rendered beef tallow, and have a good supply of the Gretta's Goat Milk soaps in the store as well. Start the new year off with chemical-free personal care products!
MORE OF MY THOUGHTS ON RFK JR.
In my last post I briefly mentioned some hope that Robert Kennedy Jr. could help clean up the mess and corruption at our national health agencies as Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. While I did get some positive feedback, a few readers were skeptical of him and at least one said he was unsubscribing from my newsletter because I mentioned RFK Jr. in my post. Let me expand on my feelings of hopefulness.
In general I am not a political person. I consider myself an independent, with libertarian tendencies of less government regulation and less government spending. I always vote but usually based on individual candidate views and not party affiliation.
During the COVID pandemic, like many others I was deeply skeptical of the government response, including the universal masking requirements, closure of schools, businesses, and churches, hastily-developed vaccines, the demonization of ivermectin, and then eventually the vaccine mandates. None of these made sense to me given the prevailing scientific wisdom at the time, which seemed to be totally ignored by the federal health authorities. The question was why?
Then I purchased a copy of RFK Jr's book “The Real Anthony Fauci” and started reading. It's a deep book with lots of data and references and science. It helped me understand more about how Fauci and the federal health agencies have been totally corrupted by Big Pharma, and their media lapdogs who depend on pharma advertising dollars to survive are 100% on board with the deception and gaslighting. The fact that Fauci has not pushed back on any of the book's damning claims or assertions leads me to believe they are true.
This book is not based on speculation, but actual facts and events that are very well documented. Each chapter has hundreds of end notes referencing scientific papers, research studies, news articles, interviews, and data supporting the theories explored. And while I knew that Big Pharma and our federal regulators had a very cozy relationship, I didn't realize how deep the corruption really went until I read this book. And how deep RFKs understanding of the corruption really was. Big Pharma has no qualms about killing thousands of people with defective products if they can make a buck off it. Sad but true.
And then it all began to make sense to me. The senseless masking, designed to create panic and fear and force people to get the VERY PROFITABLE vaccine to get rid of the mask. The lockdowns, designed to shut down small businesses and churches and test how compliant people would be when held in a fearful state. And the only solution to ending all this craziness - everybody had to subject themselves to a rapidly developed vaccine, lightly tested, using a new mRNA technology the pharmaceutical industry had never been able to commercialize until the pandemic “fortuitously” came along. Pfizer made over $100 billion off the vaccine, Moderna was saved from bankruptcy.
After reading RFKs book, I developed a deep respect not only for his intelligence and analytical research skills, but also his courage to take on an entrenched federal bureaucracy. And a very powerful industry that would stop at nothing to smear his reputation and try to brand him as a crazy person. They have tried, and in many cases succeeded, with the help of most mainstream media outlets that depend on pharma advertising.
However, I did read an interesting article recently that compared some of RFK's ideas for improving American's health to how other European countries deal with similar issues. This article, written by Vinay Prasad, a practicing hematologist-oncologist and Professor at the University of California, makes for interesting reading for those curious or skeptical of RFK Jr. and his ideas for addressing America's accelerating health crisis.
For those not quite ready to dive into the deep research of “The Real Anthony Fauci” I have also started reading another informative but less rigorous book by investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson “Follow the $cience - How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails". Similar story, outlining the corruption between Big Pharma and our federal regulators, but in an easier to read format.
Somebody has to disrupt this corrupt system, and I think only an outsider with lots of courage and determination can do it. This might be our only chance…good luck Mr. Kennedy.
Happy Holidays,
Cliff, Anna, and the Farm Team
6 comments
I also was skeptical of the whole “pandemic”. None of it made sense to me. I never masked up and challenged stores who tried to force me to wear one. I was only kicked out of one store and I will never and have never shopped there again. I too read RFK, Jr’s book which confirmed my views. I also refuse to call any flu Covid, as that has mutated and is no longer the virus of today. My boss never forced me to get jabbed but thinks I’m the crazy conspiracy theorist. I tell him I wear that badge proudly. There are actually many of us who know the truth, but have been afraid to speak out. I hope more start and we can change this corrupt medical system. I begged family members not to take the jabs. One of my brothers just died of cancer which was all over his body. It came on fast and spread like wildfire. He had 3 jabs. How many more people have to die before people wake up? I thank you for voicing your opinion.
I agree with everyone commenting. I was fired for refusing this medical procedure. Recently, I was chastised for not getting the c19 vax, for MORAL reasons. For the greater good. This, from a person who got it so he could travel. Shaking my head. I pointed out that if he’s vaxxed, why does it matter if I’M vaxxed? “That’s not how it works!” Huh? Anyway, thank you for not falling for the BS.
Cliff, I agree with you wholeheartedly!! During the pandemic, I was mocked and ridiculed for questioning the efficacy of the supposed vaxes. Then I heard RFK ask out loud the questions I was asking. I never got one of the vaccines. I made it through Oct of 24 having been exposed several times and not contracting or carrying the covid virus, but I’m the bad guy for not getting an experimental Vax? I did finally contract covid in November 2024, I guess 10th time is the charm. Luckily, now they give you anti-viral meds. I was well in 3 days. Why weren’t they giving everyone Ivermectin back in the beginning, oh, that’s right, it’s cheap effective and no one drug company can claim rights to it.
Well, now I hope RFK can clean house at the FDA. Reading your views gives me hope for the future that there are more like me out there. Have a wonderful New Year.
Cliff,
As someone with a Holistic-based business, I understand that there are those customers who are still unwilling to see the bigger picture of truth and thus disconnect from those who can -no worries, their eyes will be opened sooner or later.
Your commentary on RFK and his book, as well as his current new assignment is spot on. There is a lot of work ahead for all of us, yet it is an exciting opportunity to finally re-vamp the many systems that have been corrupt for this last century. We appreciate your work at All Grass Farms towards a better world with the field of agriculture!
Cliff,
Agree with you 100%. Interestingly that now, 4 years later, we can openly talk about what many of us knew to be true back then. Release of information has been controlled by our government. Let’s pray that brighter days are ahead. The deception has been going on for decades.