Just a couple Homeschool Mom Thoughts

I know this may not be directly farm related, but one of the reasons we can (and do) homeschool our children is because we farm. We can teach them so much just by farming and running our business. We can (and do) work our work schedule around their school schedule. And I know many of our customers and farm followers are fellow homeschoolers who (rather you realize it or not) have inspired me along the way to start this homeschool journey. You continue to encourage me and support me along this journey, all the days, the good days and the hard days.

I wanted to share some thoughts I’ve had recently and how my mindset has changed a little. I am a planner, I like to schedule my days and have them work out just as I planned, maybe that’s my controlling personality, maybe that’s my education background, maybe it’s a little OCD- probably a little of all it combined. But between farming and homeschooling and momming and all the things, that usually doesn’t work out MY way.

When we started this homeschool journey I wanted to get animals fed, cows milked, breakfast and school to start by 7:30-8am so we could be done before noon to do all the other things. We were able to do that through October, maybe even into November. Then it started getting lighter later in the mornings, we don’t have electricity in our calf barn so headlamps it was (not a big deal). Then it was really getting colder and staying cozy in the house a little longer was a privilege we didn’t have when attending public school. Part of the decision to homeschool came from wanting a slower life, not always rushing out the door to the next thing. So we allowed ourselves to stay in a house a little longer. Then we would stay up and watch a show or a football game together, (I mean the Lions winning season is a history lesson right?) as a family. Getting up a little later was again a privilege we’ve never had as we are now in control of our time (sort of). And let’s just be honest the kids getting enough sleep makes everyone’s days go better. It is now January and we have Winter. It’s snot freezing cold, snow is deep and waking up early to get out to the barn is not always that inviting. Do we do it early some days? Yes. Do we have to do it early everyday? No. We are in control of that. Some days we let the kids sleep in until 7 or even 8am, some days we wake them up early to go milk cows with Jason. Our animals are always taken care of, our kids are always taken care of and our school is always still done by noon-ish. We’ve added an -ish in there just for the days the kids ‘forget’ a subject and we have to remind them12,0000 times to finish it, or the power goes out and we have to pause school to hook up generators and we get back to it a couple hours later.

In talking with a friend the other day, he reminded me that isn’t this how we are supposed to work and live? Up and working with the daylight? So, if it’s not daylight until later we get out and start working later? This really resonated with me and made me realize, maybe, just maybe we are doing things the way God intended. The way our ancestors did them. Rest a little more in the winter months and work in the daylight hours. We have more work in the summer months on our farm, God created more light in the summer months to get that work done. God created a season of ‘rest’, although we don’t’ ever totally rest, we should be taking this season to do more of it.

So for now we will spend some family time together watching the Lions make history or streaming a movie we’ve been wanting to see together. The kids still need their rest, and it gives Jason and I a little more time to have just one more cup of coffee together before we start school and more farm work. To live this life we are blessed, and I don’t just say that lightly. I truly look back at where we were even 5 years ago and think “wow” following God’s plan for us is so very rewarding.

Why do we limit our store hours?

We have decided to only be open one a day a week for regular store hours this spring season (Thursdays 11am-7pm). This came after much thought and prayer. We do all the farm work ourselves, we run the store ourselves and we have 3 young children who see us work ALL THE TIME. In seasons past (spring and fall when all 3 of our kids play sports) we have closed the store on Saturdays but opened on Sundays. We intentionally are keeping Sunday as a day of rest for our family. We still work on Sundays, cows still need to be milked, milk still needs to be bottled, animals still need to be fed and watered and bedded, and ultimately fields will need to be planted into new grasses this year. The rest of the day we are committing to The Lord and our family.

We understand this may hurt our sales, and we are 100% ok with that. We do hope that you will understand the intentionality behind this decision and still reach out to us to schedule an appointment to continue to support our farm and ultimately our family. The springs season starts this coming Saturday and will last until the middle of June, at which time we will post our summer hours. During the school year we both work off the farm as well as one the farm. During the summer Amanda is home more and able to have more dedicated store hours. Remember if you are a share member you have access to self-serve any day of the week, that is not changing.

We are excited to see the growth of our farm and the commitment our local community has made to us over the past years and I have no doubt with your support we will continue to grow. As always please reach out if you have any questions, or would like to meet me in the farm store during non-store hours.

Jason and Amanda Jorgensen

J & A Sunrise Farms, LLC

616-893-5007

sunrisefarmanddairy@gmail.com

Why Raw?

A couple weeks ago at an event I was asked “why should I drink raw milk?”.  I found myself speechless (which if you know me is a rare occurrence, lol).  I just said “when milk is processed it takes out all things good”.  Which is sort of true, but knew I needed to make sure I am prepared with a better answer next time.

I’ll go over a few of the benefits of consuming raw milk below, but if you’d like to do some more research yourself, please reach out and I have some very reputable sources and websites for you to go to and read so much more!

·         In raw milk there are active beneficial enzymes that become inactive when milk is pasteurized.

·         Raw milk has active probiotics that are destroyed during processing.

·         The presence of healthy fats and proteins are damaged during the processing of milk.

·         Lactase producing bacteria is also destroyed during processing (lactase is what breaks down lactose in our food so our bodies can absorb the food and the nutrients in it).

·         Facilitates production of lactase enzyme in the intestinal tract- allowing many people who are lactose intolerant to digest raw milk without problems.

·         Studies also show raw milk consumption is associated with lower rates of asthma, fevers, allergies, eczema, infections, and respiratory infections.

I know consuming raw dairy isn’t for everyone and ask that everyone makes the choice that is best for their family.  I do also know that much of the western diet would like to scare you into not consuming it.  If you can obtain it from a reputable farmer who handles the milk safely, I encourage you to do so!

If you do consume raw milk, I would like to start a testimony on our Instagram and Facebook pages once a week.  I would love for you to message me you or your family’s testimony of how consuming raw milk has benefited you/your family. 

Thanks for reading till the end.

Amanda

Our people

When we decided we needed to take a family vacation (ok maybe it was me deciding and Jason agreeing) there was no question who we would ask to milk the cows and take care of all the animals for us. Last summer God introduced us to a family that would soon become like family to us. People that share the love of farming with us and also get it. They understand it’s not easy to get away. Although we are working at creating a life that we don’t need a vacation from, we still need to get a break every now and then. When you are a farmer and you are home, you don’t take a break. There is always something to do. A fence to fix, barns to clean, cows to move, pens to bed, milk to bottle, cows to milk, eggs to collect, the list really just goes on and on.

Our youngest is 8 and had never been on a family vacation with all of us. I have taken the kids and went away, or we’ve stayed at a cottage close by so Jason could drive home and take care of the animals. It was time. We needed a rest and to see parts of the country we haven’t yet experienced.

These two in the picture, they immediately, without hesitation said yes to taking care of milking the cows, bottling the milk, washing the bottles, feeding the chickens, and ducks and 4-H steers and heifers and fish for 5 days while we got away. To say they are a blessing is an understatement. Jason worries about the cows when we’re away, and he still did, but knew they were well taken care of. We’ve had some bad things happen when we’ve gotten away (no fault of anyone) so it isn’t easy to leave with peace and relax. This time we were able to do that (once we knew the power came back on as it went out just before we were supposed to leave-for real there is never a dull moment around here).

Jason’s brother and dad also played a big part in taking care of feeding cows and pigs while we were gone and most importantly our four legged family member, our dog, Dixie! Again, without hesitation, these two said yes. They also get it. Farming and owning your own business is hard to take a break from and they stepped in so we could do just that.

Family and friends that are like family. You need to find yours. Farming friends just get each other, kind of like a community that understands the struggles and deep love for animals and just want to help each other out. We absolutely LOVE what we do to provide for our community and it really is such a blessing. Truly we see God’s hand at work each and every day.

We hope to add some fun things to the farm this year and are now rested and ready to start the busy spring and summer seasons!

If you don’t have these friends and family in your life, ask God to open your eyes and show you who they are in your circle. He has them there for you, I promise!

Barn Selfies….

Fun?

I have been reflecting on this word lately for a couple reasons.

The first time I really started thinking about it was after a customer told me “you live such a fun life”. I was unpacking our meat and other products from hauling it to the local farmers market on a Friday evening. Fifteen years ago, this is not what I saw myself doing for ‘fun’ on a Friday night. And even this summer didn’t think about it as being ‘fun’. But after reflecting I realized that we live the life others dream about and consider fun. I take for granted, and sometimes even complain that we are always working. Working on the farm, fixing equipment, haying, packing and unpacking from the market, sanitizing bottles, separating cream, feeding animals, …all of them, on top of working off farm jobs and trying to keep our house in order (which if you stop in our house right now, you’ll see this is what I have let go the most).

I realized it’s time I really step back and look at the fun we are having. Raising our kids on this land is just where God has intended us to be. We live the life others dream of and I need to remember to be grateful we are here.

The second comment that had me reflecting on the word ‘fun’ was in conversation with someone we just met at an event. He asked “what do you guys do for fun”. At first, I was sad that we don’t really have any off-farm hobbies, things we do for ‘fun’. Then I remembered we farm, so I told him that. He farms (on a much larger scale) too so he understood what I meant by that. We farm, that is our hobby. We have been blessed with a life we don’t need a vacation from. Now don’t get me wrong, I wish we could get a break off the farm a little more often than we do, but for the most part we are living out our hobby. It reminded me of what the first customer said to me, that we live such a fun life. We also have kids we are taking to and from sports 5 days a week, so that is taking up the rest of our free time during this season of life.

I close by asking you. What do you do for fun?

We farm!

What did you do Friday night?

We’ve had a pretty easy winter this year. But by mid-February we’re over it! And last night while we wanted to tuck in early and watch a movie with the kids, we bundled up, faced the horrific winds and blowing snow to bring a load of wrapped bales of hay from our home farm to the barn just down the road.

Because we don’t have shelter here this winter (see up in smoke post last April) all of our cows are at the barn down the road. Each week we (and by we I mean Jason and our 11 year old son, Henry) drive the skid steer down the road, out back of our 30 acres along with a truck or tractor with hay wagon in tow to load the bales of hay on and take the load down the road. We use that wagon to put 1-2 round bales of hay out each day to feed our cows. It’s a lot of work and time on a ‘normal’ winter day. But yesterday was SO windy, we only had one bale left to feed and needed to get that load down to the barn before dark.

Well in case you didn’t know, it’s totally ice under the snow around here, like an ice rink to just walk on!

I should also insert here that while loading the first bale Jason broke the spear that picks the bales up, so he had to drive the skid steer all the way back to the barn down the road, get some pallet forks and drive back down the road, to the back of our 30 acre property to start loading the bales….AGAIN. This process alone took him an hour and he has nothing done yet…..

Ok so now Jason has the loaded hay wagon hooked up to the tractor, driving it up our slight incline of a hill from the front field up to our house so he can go down the road and finally feed the cows (it’s now 6:30 at night and he started about 4:30 and still hasn’t fed one animal yet). Well remember it’s like an ice rink? The small tractor he was using wasn’t heavy enough to pull the wagon on pure ice up the hill, the hay wagon pulled the tractor back. He safely got the wagon unhooked and it rolled back into a section of brush. He attempted to hook a chain to the wagon tongue and pull but it just wasn’t working.

Henry thankfully went ahead of Jason to get the skid steer to the barn down the road.

I bundled up and walked back there to tell him he needed to be done for the night (farmers don’t just quit ya know). We had one bale at the barn that we could split to feed all the animals. In the morning he could get the bigger tractor, pull the hay wagon full of bales up the hill and get the rest of the hay to the cows. And let me tell you I did absolutely no work and was frozen from the wind whipping in my face. I drove down in my car, with heated seats, to pick up Henry. But first we helped a little by feeding the calves and goat.

Jason finally got home and in the house for the night just before 8pm. He was tired. He was cold. And he was hungry! But he didn’t complain, he listened to the kids tell him and show them all the books and toys they purchased with their Christmas gift cards. I was blessed to spend the day with the kids for their first day of mid-winter break (while Jason was at his off farm job), along with my bff! We came home to help with what we could here on the farm, it wasn’t much, but we offered what we could.

Raising our kids on this farm is hard sometimes, but joyful too. They are learning the value of hard work, sometimes even getting supper ready for each other, well because mom and dad can’t always be there to do it. They’re responsible for the smaller animals, even though they grumble and complain sometimes I know these are lessons not every kid gets to experience. I am grateful we are able to give these experiences to our children.

Do I wish when we came home last night we could’ve all been inside for the night, picked out a family movie and sat and watched it together? YES I do. But we didn’t, and that’s ok, God had other plans. Guess what we’re doing tonight? YEP, family movie night!

I don’t write this for pity, I write this for awareness. I write this so that those that might take for granted where your food comes from understand the sacrifices farmers and farmers families make. We LOVE being able to provide for our community. We are blessed we have been chosen to farm. I hope you read this and are grateful for the food farmers provide for you.

What did you do Friday night while the farmers were out in the cold making sure their cattle, pigs, chickens and goats all had feed to get through the night (and probably unfroze a water tank or 4)?

I didn’t get a pic of the wagon full of bales, but this is what it looked like after he got them pulled out this morning.

Close up of where the hay wagon landed….

Expensive Chickens

Some people refer to our chicken as ‘expensive chicken’. The old me would have been offended by that. However, I have learned to take that as a opportunity to educate people on what it really takes to raise good, quality meat. We can’t offer grocery store prices on our whole chickens because honestly our pasture raised chickens just aren’t grocery store quality. I used to be one of those people that shopped around for the best sale price on chicken. Then I married a farmer and I learned the quality and value of farm fresh meat.

I learned not knowing where and what my chicken (or any of my meat for that matter) was raised or fed was concerning for me. For this post I will focus on what we do here on our farm to produce the best quality meat. I still don’t know what the cheap chickens in the grocery store is fed, or where it’s raised so it’d be hard to focus on that.

We purchase our chicks from a hatchery here in Michigan, we get them at just a couple days old. We put them in a brooder house (an old shed that we have converted to a nice warm environment with cedar sawdust shavings) and give them fresh food and water 2-3 times per day. We check on them often to make sure they are all healthy and doing well. I can honestly tell you during this stage they are living their best life of any chicks I know.

Once they reach about 3-4 weeks (depending on the weather outside) we move them outside into a chicken tractor (see picture) that my husband has made, this year we made a second one to give them even more room per tractor. These tractors are set in our hay field and moved 1-2 times per day so that they always have access to fresh green grass and alfalfa. This also ensures our hayfields are naturally well fertilized.

They are supplemented with with non-gmo grain that we purchase from a local feed mill, and water is changed 2 times per day when we move the tractors. We care for these birds so they are free from predators and always have access to all things fresh: grain, water, grass and best of all fresh air blows through their tractor all day and night!

Now for the cost break down as to why they are so expensive. $2 per chick from the hatchery, $4 to process each chicken, $15 per day ( x 45-ish days) in feed for a large batch of chickens. This year all of this averaged $10.50 per bird for us to raise. That doesn’t even include our time and travel spent taking care of the birds. It also does not include the money we have into feeders, tractors, and waterers. When we take them to a licensed processor it takes 3 trips, one to pick up the crates that we load them into to haul them, one to drop off the birds and one to pick up the processed and wrapped birds. This is about 35 minutes from our farm one way.

I am not telling you this for any sympathy. I am merely hoping to educate you why your local farmer sells this ‘expensive chicken’ at the prices that they do. We don’t make a lot of money on our chicken’s, however the benefits of providing this option for you, for our community, is something we take pride in.

New, easy to move design made out of PVC pipe.

Our original design that is heavy to move and not enough room for all the birds we raise.

Up in smoke

Getting that picture of your barn in flames is not anything you ever want to receive. That pit in our stomach was aching, then I knew it must be a joke, the picture looked too surreal to be happening at our house, on our farm, to our barn. The next phone call determined it was not a joke, our 100+ year old barn was up in smoke. Flames coming out the sides and top and there is nothing anyone can do but watch. By the time the fire department arrived it was gone, just a frame of old beams remained. The animals inside didn’t even have time to react to get out (except for one 3 week old kid (baby goat). The John Deere tractor, the kids bikes, the toys, the tools, the shovels, the rakes, the egg basket that your Grandma used as a little girl on her farm to collect her eggs, the grape vine wreath Jason and the kids made for me that hung on the side of the barn lite up at Christmas, all charred. March 14th, 2021 a day our family will never forget, the day our barn burnt and we lost just everything in it. Most important to us were the calves and goats that didn’t make it out, even the barn cat, Cole.

Those of you that have suffered fires understand the empty, helpless feeling that is left within you. The time it takes for each of us to process what has happened is different. Some days we feel as though we are healing well and moving on. Other days we see that our children no longer have a healing environment when they need space to spend some time alone with animals. We didn’t really realize how much time they spent there, a farm kids playhouse is what our barn was to them.

We are so thankful that no one was hurt, and we do understand things, and animals can be replaced. And in time we will replace them, right now it still just hurts. We also understand it could have been so much worse, it was contained to the one building and not our main milking barn, contained to the building that had the least amount of stuff and animals than any building on our farm. However it still was a piece of us, of our farm, that is now gone.

I write this not for sympathy but as part of our healing process. To let our farm customers, family, friends and those of you that just follow quietly know what happened and that we are ok! Our God has a plan for us, for our farm, and for our business, we are searching alongside Him to figure out what that is.

I also would like to thank all of the family, customers and friends that have reached out to us over the past month. We appreciate the comforting words more than most of you will ever be able to understand. Although there is nothing that can change what happened knowing that friends, customers and family are here for us, helping us, praying for and with us is all we could ever ask for in a time like this. Truly, thank you!

As we decide how to rebuild we hope to take you along that journey with us so please follow us on all of our social media in the months ahead.

With much love,

Jason and Amanda and family at J & A Sunrise Farms, LLC

Egg Hunt

We hope this post finds you all safe and healthy! We are truly grateful for your support of our farm business. Supporting local and getting to see our community come together has been a blessing!

Now onto the egg hunt…. we have over 20 laying hens, close to 30 actually. All winter long they produced more eggs than we could eat and sell. About 6 weeks ago we started noticing some of them were broken when we’d go collect from the coup. Then we moved them to their new summer home and locked them inside for a few days to get them used to it. Well that must have upset the girls as they started pecking pretty much all of their eggs and eating them. That was frustrating. We started supplementing with calcium, got them a cabbage to peck at, and made sure the kids checked for freshly laid eggs every couple hours (after all this is all part of their home schooling experience as their public school has closed doors for the year). We moved their summer home to the field out by our pumpkin patch and let them out to free range after a few days. They quickly were much happier, exploring new land, scratching new leaves and able to eat natures bugs once again. They stopped pecking their eggs and life seemed to be turning around in the hen house!

Only problem is we are only collecting between 10-12 eggs per day (and 4 of them are from the barn where 4 of the hens decided they would come back to their old stompin’ grounds). Now we understand we take a few chances by letting our girls free range, but we truly believe they are happier and healthier (and let’s face it eat less feed) when they can explore the land. They are safe from predators at night as once they roost we go out and close them inside their new summer home (which is a chicken coop built on the bed of an old wagon). So where are the rest of these eggs you ask? Well chickens like to lay them in a ‘safe’ spot, we assume this is in some brush/woods just on the edge of the field where their summer home is parked. We’ve looked hours in and around the brush, in the fields and in the pumpkin patch. We cannot find them, and we’re talking at least 12 more eggs a day. Best we can guess is they have a very large pile of them, very well hidden from their humans!

There is the possibility that some other animal is feasting on them. But honestly I feel like we are living an everyday Easter Egg hunt, and the chickens are winning. Hours, I mean hours we’ve spent scouring for these things. Offered the kids actual money if they find them…and not a trace so far. I know someday, when we least expect it we will find the stash. Until then, please be patient when we run out of our delicious farm fresh eggs, we are still looking for them!

Farm Raised 9 year old boys

Listening to our 9 year old son facetime my mom on her birthday to tell here all about his day, on the farm, during his mid winter break really warmed my heart. It made me stop and realize that being raised on a farm really has an impact on how we raise our kids.

It was not the best day for my husband. The boar (a boy pig-remember I was a city girl so I understand that some of you may not know exactly what a boar is) he put in with the sows (girl pigs) ran right through the fence and over to the neighbors. The truck with the cattle trailer still attached got stuck in the mud and snow. The kids were fighting with each other about which door of the truck someone got in, he had to drop everything to take the kids to a doctors appointment in the middle of the afternoon, and when the boar did come back he wandered in the chicken coop- where he got locked in and the door nailed shut for a couple hours so my husband could find his sanity and build a stronger, better pen, in the barn, for him where he could be all alone . Some days are just unpredictable and hard…..and that’s farming; actually that’s life!

But hearing our son retell his version of the day to my mom, recalling his favorite part was that he got to ‘drive’ dad’s truck- with the radio blasting rock ‘n roll- while my husband pulled it out with the tractor; that my friends is something that warms our hearts and makes us smile. He didn’t really drive the truck, but in his 9 year old mind that’s what he did to help his dad during this tough day of farm life. It gives me hope that even though we don’t know how to stop the fighting about so and so climbing in on ‘their’ side of the truck, we do know how to provide memories I only pray they take with them for a lifetime.

Why local farms?

I never used to think too much about where my food came from. Especially my meat, eggs and milk. Then I married a farmer. I saw everything he put into making sure the animals were fed, watered, sheltered and cared for. I see the late nights he drives to the barn to check on the cow who’s going to freshen any day (and if we’re being honest, I didn’t even know what freshen meant-for those of you still wondering…..it’s having a baby). Then I started thinking about if the meat I bought from the store had a dedicated farmer like that. I started wondering if the package of ground beef was even from cows that are raised on the same farm, in the same state or even the same country. I still can’t answer that question. I can however answer that question if you purchase directly from your local farmer. That pound of ground beef is from one, healthy, and well cared for cow. On our farm, our kids probably laid with that cow from the time it was born, caring for it as a pet even as it’s out on pasture to graze, and even then I catch our kids out there petting them and loving on them. Our animals our happy, and research says there is a direct correlation to taste of happy, healthy animals- but that’s for another post, another time.

Today I just want to encourage you to stop and talk to your local farmer, they love to tell you about their animals, how they care for them, what they feed them, and the practices they use to make sure they are producing the best product that they know how for their community. You still may decide to purchase your meat from a grocery store, and that’s ok. I do hope that you at least will listen to the dedication in their voice and see the joy in their eyes as you talk with them. I guarantee you will realize they love the animals they raise to produce the best meat, eggs and milk that they possibly can.