Earth Day, new chicks and tractors

April 25,2010
I enjoyed doing my Organic Gardening presentation for The Sierra Club last week. I felt that I was doing my part by sharing some of the information that I have been lucky to have gathered over the years.
It is unfortunate that we are facing another environmental disaster from the exploded oil platform off the coast of Louisiana. This happening on the heels of our celebration of the earth. I recently read that the oil from one automobile oil change if dumped rather than recycled can contaminate one million gallons of water. What are the 42,000 gallons of oil that are leaking each day going to do the ocean and its inhabitants? We need to support clean alternative sources of energy every day.
Our chicks began hatching late Saturday night and the hatch has continued right through today. It has been successful with 24 out of 32 chicks hatched and doing well in the brooder and what looks to be 3 or 4 more to come. These will be crossbreds of the varieties currently in our coop. It will be fun to see what they look like and with most of the varieties being eggers the offspring should carry this trait.
We are looking for an inexpensive used tractor that would be capable of plowinng up to 10 acres using a single bottom plow,also discing, seeding, and harrowing. We will use this to continue to improve the soilin our field through cover cropping. If you know of one that might work for us please let us know.
Until next week, remember that we can all contribute to positive change and that your efforts at this no matter how small do have signifigance. Peace and a smile.
Al