Tag Archives: farming

The time I ate roadkill and learned a life lesson

image of deer among trees

The first and only time I’ve eaten roadkill was last fall when I ate a deer my husband accidentally hit on our road in rural Maine late one night. The experience was a profound one for me, so, the next day, I told my deer story on Facebook. A dear friend of mine, a born and raised Mainer wrote, “You’ve eaten roadkill. You’re a real Mainer now!”

The ACA makes a simpler, farming life possible for our family

chicken farm

I’m a writer, an online professor, a farmer, a wife, and a mom. None of these jobs offer health insurance for me and my family, so our family purchases our health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. We work hard, but we try to work differently. If you read my blog, you know we’re learning […]

How we buy our eggs makes a difference in the lives of chickens

eggs

This week, the BDN reported that the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry has cleared the out-of-state egg producer, Hillandale Farms, of charges of animal cruelty in one of its Maine facilities in Turner. Last May, undercover video was released of the facility, and the video showed chickens living in deplorable conditions. According to […]

Rejecting the food industry: Processing chickens and finding truths

image of chickens at fence

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my anxiety surrounding our first “one bad day” as farmers. We had 14 chickens to process, and I had never experienced anything like it before. For me, it was a tough day. A long day. A draining day—and my husband did most of the work. Still, that […]

One bad day: Preparing to process chickens for the first time

I’ve tried three times in my life to be a vegetarian. The longest I ever made it without eating meat was about 9 months. One day, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I went to a local burger joint and scarfed a giant cheeseburger. It was so good, and though I felt quite guilty, I […]

Lessons I’ve learned from my chickens about being a mom

chicken coop

It has been just over a year since we brought home our first baby chickens, and they’re all big girls now. We got another set of babies in March, but they’re almost big girls, and just this week, they moved into the “big girl house,” the chicken coop. I was so worried about this big […]