Maine State Grange

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Continuing Education

The “University of YouTube” came along just in time.  Jacks of all trades are aging out and it is harder and costlier to hire tradespeople.  It is true, the folks of Maine have, more than not, aimed to solve their own minor problems with a, “can’t be that hard,” attitude.  But boy, if the internet had nothing else to recommend it, I’ll take professionals walking me through fixing what breaks around here every day.   

These last couple of weeks, we have had to troubleshoot and fix: refrigeration, a vacuum pump on the milking machine, the scalding machine’s gas regulator, lighting system, pilot and thermocouple.  Thankfully, none of the repairs turned out to be more than tune-ups or replacing readily found parts. 

I’m just extremely grateful to the folks who decide to film themselves explaining normal operation and common failures for just about everything under the sun, who then post it to YouTube.  It’s my very own, customized continuing education, such a great 21st century, accessible tool for anyone with a sensibility to try.  We did alright this time around and did not dig ourselves into a deeper hole. 

Besides troubleshooting equipment, we’ve been hauling and stacking hay.  One of our hay producers prefers if we can pick it up in the fields as he is 78 this year.  Loading bales onto the truck in the cool of the evening after all the chores are done and driving back in twilight makes for a nice end to the day.  We hope we can fill the hayloft.  It can hold about half of our winter needs.  Filling it in June would cut down on winter hauling, though stacking hay in the winter is nicer than in the summer.

The critters have all finished shedding winter and their coats are sleek and shiny as they graze in grass as tall as they are.  Ahh, early summer.  If you’re a cow at Quill’s End, it is easy living.  You can taste the sweetness in the milk.

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Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Quill’s Endians are members of Halcyon Grange and publish a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and generously permit us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.