August 12, 2007 - this shelf cloud brought winds that took down more than half of the roof during construction at Two Mile Ranch.

Tim and I were talking at coffee the other morning, he brought up storm spotting and a class being taught up near the county line.  Having seen the storms that can move through an Iowa summer, I agreed and have signed up to be a spotter after taking the National Weather Service 2010 Spotter Training.

Now admittedly, attending a 2 hour class makes me as much of a meteorologist as having a single bullet in his pocket made Barney Fife a Deputy, but I think the hope of the weather service is that an extra set of eyes on the ground makes their ability to warn of dangerous weather easier. Not only do they wish for spotters to report what they see in the sky, but also watch for flash flooding.

As I drove back from the training, I was thinking about the videos they showed, many from storm chasers (not just spotters) who’s thrill comes from video making of storms.  The soundtrack from these home videos, in addition to swear words of exclamation as something gets blown over, is the line “We’ve got debris”.

Do you remember who made this line famous?  It was Helen Hunt in  the movie “Twister”.  Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz make up  an odd love triangle (okay a foursome if you count the tornado).

So Hunt plays a free spirited storm researcher — Gertz is the more structured analyst.  It’s a typical “brains vs beauty” choice for Paxton, although both are beautiful women.

The “we’ve got debris” line may be the most famous, but my favorite line is buried deeper in the film.  Gertz, the straight woman to the more emotional Hunt, says this to Paxton as he rediscovers his love of storm chasing.  Gertz and Paxton have just come through a terrifying storm and Gertz says to him:

“When you used to tell me that you chase tornadoes, deep down I thought it was just a metaphor.”

Makes me smile every time I think of it.

I write. I fish. I dig earth, raise plants, live for food and kill wild animals. I drink bourbon, Barolo or Budweiser with equal relish and wish I owned a farm. But most of all I think daily about new ways to cook and eat anything that walks, flies, swims, crawls, skitters, jumps – or grows. I am the omnivore who has solved his dilemma. This is my story.

Hunter Angler Gardener Cook – Finding the Forgotten Feast

There is nothing more fun for me than learning. And when I can’t learn from a person, reading a book or scanning the Internet is a great alternative. I think there are dozens of essential books for beginning small farmers.  Nothing replaces actual experience on the land, and the advice from more experienced farmers, but I think these five books represent a good starter shelf.

5.  Coop Michael Perry’s book on a year of pigs and parenting gives a great first hand view of life and decisions in a year of living on a new small farm.

4.  Gene Logsdon’s Small Scale Grain Raising is a god introduction to how growing grain doesnt have o be done with a large tractors and gallons of fuel

3. Also by Logsdon, All Flesh is Grass helps understand the need and work behind proper pasture.

2.  Chickens are often a first livestock addition to a small farm and the Storey’s Guides are great quick reference guides to all kinds of farm animals.

1.  If there is a comprehensive book of how-to, Carla Emery’s The Encyclopedia of Country Living is the go-to book here at Two Mile Ranch when I have questions from gardening to dressing meat, to old remedies for cleaning health and life.

“It’s a hot item,” said Bill Niman, a prominent advocate for sustainable agriculture who this year jumped into the so-called heritage turkey market — older breeds of birds that had all but disappeared until championed by preservationists and foodies.

He raised 2,500 birds for Thanksgiving and “sold every bird.”

As I plan the bird cycles for Two Mile for this season, I’ll be adding a handful of heritage turkeys  to the planning.

Turkeys raised in a commercial farm, because of genetics and controlled conditions, may be ready for market in 14 – 18 weeks.  Heritage breeds, often raised on pasture, take 28 weeks.  For November turkey harvest, young turkey poults need to be here at Two Mile by the end of May.

Time to go shopping.

The question is one I found an interesting answer to on a recent Saturday.  I was introduced to someone using a phrase that is maybe one of the best “who are you” answers about me

For many of us, what we do defines us to others. Carlos Zambrano and Jonathan Sanchez both became legends last year , and will now be known as pitchers who threw perfect games in Major League Baseball.  Lance Moore will be known as the Saints football player who smartly etended the ball over the goal line during the 2 point conversion play in Superbowl  XLIV. When I used to live in the city, there was an older man known as “walking man.”

I never learned his name, although most everyone in the town knew of him.  He was well into his 70’s, and would walk in running shorts, shirtless, all times of day and in all parts of the town.  We would see him beginning in the early spring through late fall.  His chest, muscular for his age, deeply brown from sun.  To the community, he was “walking man”.

There’s Bill the mechanic, Joyce the librarian, or Jeff, “the guy with the two big dogs.” In my life, I’ve been known as student, consultant, entrepreneur, producer, professor, boss, husband, dad, brother, uncle, ex, and other things that might tip the censorship of this blog to the limit.

So who am I these days? On that Saturday I found out.

Don Winslow shot this photo in Austin, Texas.

We were sitting at Bob’s barn, catching up on stories from the week when a local woman dropped off her car for some work.  She knew one of the men I was talking with, but didn’t know the rest of us, and as the introductions went around the room, when they came to me, he said,

“This is Fritz, he lives south of town, he raises ducks and pheasants.”

I guess that pretty much sums it up.

Lou Ureneck's cabin in Maine

Lou Ureneck blogged about his cabin building on the New York Times and has moved his blog to it’s new home at MaineCabinBlog.com coinciding with his completion and move in to the space.  We’ve swapped emails from time to time during his building and I look forward to his notes, ideas, challenges, and sharing the world of a small cabin life.  So, as I wrote earlier, what do you call a colleague / friend / email correspondent / blog buddy?  “Neighbor” works well.

This week, Lou posted a few tiny cabin designs from a book he is reading and that led us to a discussion of “what’s next?” and for both of us, it’s a barn. Before I go on and talk about barn plans for Two Mile, I encourage you to visit both Lou’s NY Times blog and his new blog.

Two Mile Barn

I picked out this barn design before I began building the cabin.

My hope is to have both a nice work and storage space as well as a potential guest space in a carriage house loft.  I like the plans and their modular design, in practice, I could build the center module, and then add the lean-tos on either side and end as I need to expand.

Walnut Woods design by DJ Berg

A design like this won’t house large farm implements, but will over protection for the boat, the truck, and make a nice heated and predator-proof space for brooding chicks and a sick bay isolation area.  I had an estimate for nearly $20k to build this as a shell, interior work, electric and plumbing would be on top of that estimate.  I suppose it’s time to get a bid on the materials and see if I can carve out part of a summer and fall to build it.

When I first came to Two Mile, I thought the barn had potential to be rebuilt and restored.  In the late 1930’s and 1940’s, when barn builders put  thousands of these bards on farms, they didn’t do much foundation work or consider the frost heave.  This barn lists about 2 feet to the north.  It’s quaint and has some storage ability. There are days I think about fixing it up to make some shed like storage that would be 75 percent weather resistant.

The existing barn (2005 photo)

So maybe this spring, I’ll take another stab at the old barn, clearing out years of now-composted straw and manure and see if I can take advantage of what is there.

Three of the chickens heading to "freezer camp".

My Sunday mornings include listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper and The Splendid Table®.  Sunday’s episode included a discussion of “french chickens” sometimes called “Freedom Rangers” or “Colored Range” chickens – the chicken breed I grew this year.

After seeing how well they grew, and knowing their history, I enjoyed hearing Kasper’s voice as she described her thoughts and ideas with the caller from Alaska who also raised these excellent chickens.

While I did not weigh each chicken, the dressed weight was in the 5 pound range and larger.  A great source for this birds is JM Hatchery.  The breed of chicken is part of what makes the French Label Rouge criteria for raising poultry in manner that is respectful of animal welfare and the environment.