Garden work and an animal auction

Newly seeded lettuce....

This morning, several of us went to the greenhouse with Carlen to seed some more trays.  My first task was to seed a lovely romaine lettuce called "flashy troutback"   We also transplanted three different lettuce starts into the hoop house--two romaines and a head lettuce called black-seeded Simpson.

Moving lettuce to the hoop house

Three week old lettuce plants

We also transplanted basil starts to pots and brought back some older pots to the farmhouse for our enjoyment!

Genovese compact basil for farmhouse

We came back to the farmhouse and weeded in the garden until our early lunch.

Weeding the grass from the perennial garden

In the afternoon Bradley drove us all to Sunderland to the auction.  We had a chance to speak to the auctioneer Ed and learn how the operation is set up.  Then we took a look at the animals to be auctioned.  We witnessed a series of hay auctions (see below) and Ed tried to talk us into taking over--the pressure was too great and we did not k him up on the offer, though Caitlin wanted to and we had to hold her back!

We then went inside for the auction.  Animals can be sold by the pound or by the dollar.  The pigs came in one at a time.  Ed would announce the weight of the animal and then begin the auction.  The bids were going up by cents per pound and most of the pigs weighed between 180 and 210 pounds.  When the goats came in, they came as a group.  First the kids came in.  Ed began the auction by announced a dollar amount.  Then people bid to raise up that amount.  The highest bidder was then given the opportunity to choose which kids he or she wanted and could take as many as they wanted at that price.  In ones, twos and threes, the kids were selected and removed from the auction pen.  That same process was used for older goats.  We left before the sheep and the cows came out--those would all be auctioned by the pound.  

There are advantages and disadvantages to auctions, as we learned.  First of all, it is a quick way to sell off animals for which you have an abundance.  Too many goat bucks? Trade them for "bucks"! It is also inexpensive to purchase livestock here--many bargains to be had.  The tradeoff is that one doesn't know the health of the animal and your newly purchased animal has been exposed to all the other animals at the auction house.  So health concerns would be the top of my list.   

Some of us enjoyed talking with a farmer from Vermont.  She had brought down chickens to auction off and had many questions about our work at the Farm School.  She also tried to sell us one of her Paint ponies.  We were tempted but Bradley warned us there was no room in the van.  So we came home empty-handed.

Hay auction

kid goat auction