After a dry and hot August and early September, the appearance of our last nectar flow of Asters, Golden Rod and Wild Garlic creates a glamorous prelude to fall colors.  Yesterday's rain has helped.  It is the last hurrah for bees to find pollen and nectar before the estimated frost of October. 

After finding a bumble queen in fall 2019, much to my surprise I found another Bumble Queen.  She was  obvious as she appeared over 1 inch large.  I estimated her to be a 'bombus bimaculatus,' based on her markings and wings.  There are 9 bumble varieties in the state of Illinois and I have seen the queens of two of them.  Here is a link to learn about bumble lifestyles and details.
​https://www.greatsunflower.org/sites/default/files/imce/Eastern_Bumble_Bee.pdf
 
Enjoy the beauty ​around you today , it comes in small doses along the street, in the crevasses of the gutter, behind the bushes in your yard.  

The year 2020 required all of the country and world to change how to live differently. Schools closed, people became ill and died, and providers of families lost jobs. Meanwhile our society closed into a lockdown.  For us on the farm we continued to offer our raw unpasteurized goat milk to customers and offer time with goats.  Yet it has been a crazy year living with the pandemic and protests in Chicago. The pandemic quarantine created a different  environment on the West Side causing  more time with neighbors, and learning to live together in peace.  I plan to write more details about our neighborhood reactions to protest in another article.

Our milking season started in June with the last arrival of our goat babies. Leani showed up on time and healthy.  She is different from the other kids and has a fun personality.  With white ears and black spots we call her the Prada Girl, as she looks sharp in her prada collar and leash.  These goat kids attracted attention not only in the community but also with families in Chicago.  

When we began to schedule chills in May, we did not realize that we were providing a service to families in lockdown.  In pre-pandemic years, typical Goat Yoga classes were held with 20-25 people.  Goat Chills became a small family group activity with fun outdoors while fulfilling health restrictions.  Families came and hung out with goats and amazingly it continues to be a popular activity all summer till even now in September.   As June and July continued, we continued to call the Mayor's office to review options. In July we offered Goat Yoga only through private groups.  Parties of 12 or less only.

The Goat Chills consisted of spending an hour with baby goats at the Root Riot Community Garden pasture on Waller street, and sometimes on Huron Street.  People come and sit on chairs in the pasture while goats play jump and visit with them.  I even enjoyed moments to relax with goats. 

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​During this year we have learned to live more intentionally  with our neighbors. We have a gathering spot on Midway Park, which is across from the Root Riot Garden and Pasture.  More people gather daily to drink and smoke and chat.  More people are out of work these days and the hot weather drives them to a cooler space.  Mothers need to have a place to sit with their children.  So people I have not met before come to this place in cars or walking. We have offered families to come into the pasture when we were there, and a number of families walking by took our offer.   ​The trees planted last fall occupy the sidewalk in front of the pasture on Waller Street. They were were stripped of all branches three times because more people were outdoors and wanted to feed the goats branches.  We continue to put up signs asking not to tear tender trees.

A number of children are outside and unsupervised.  They come to the fountain at the end of Midway Park, which is across the street from Root Riot and play in the water.  The Chicago water parks two blocks away have been closed all summer. With this summer being the hottest on record,  these cooling activities happen regularly.  Human kids also released our baby goats onto the street.  Praise God for good neighbors who called me.  This has happened in years before and the kids and I had a talk about goats and why they are in a fenced area.  After nine years, we have another group of young kids to educate.  I hope to hire a few of these kids to care for our herd. 

Our Garfield Park agreement was cancelled this year, so we have one less place to graze our animals. We made heavy use of moving our goats to different lots within six blocks of the house.  All of our herd from goat kids to milking mammas,  are trained to jump into the van to find a nice place to eat forage.  We learned to move the goats daily in July , August and now September. 

Every year this urban farm expects one Great Escape of goats.  In 2020,  it came on the Long Street Property.  Kids pulled the gate open to pet the babies  and the big goats pushed their way out.  We had twelve goats running up and down on Long Street before we could arrive.  Praise God for our neighbors who corralled them into another lot.  We arrived five minutes after the neighborhood community moved the animals.  We cannot operate on the West Side without the kind help of our neighbors. 

A group of landowners  have an agreement for GlennArt Farm to use their lots for agriculture.  We clean the garbage, mow the lots  and provide the owners with manure for gardening.  This year the owners' gardening efforts and the goats did not mix well.  The property on Superior had a small plot of corn, potatoes and beans, so we attempted to fence the girls out.  With nothing else to do but look longingly at the corn, the fence was pushed down and the garden destroyed.  We made payment for some of the owner's loss.  In our accounting recoreds, we called it expensive "goat feed."  So fencing a garden from goats does not mix. We hope to be more considerate to our supporting friends in the future. 

We are not able to start goat yoga classes in May and June, in order to keep safe with the world wide pandemic of COVID 19.  So far we have four babies, expecting more in the coming days.  Family groups now living a life of  'shelter in place' are invited to meet baby goats in our pasture spaces.  One mom stated "This is good for the soul," after the 45 minutes of quiet with grazing goat mamas and baby goats napping in the grass.

Contact David at our [email protected] email address for more information.  Weekly we set up times that jive with the occasional good weather we are experiencing in May. Come enjoy a few minutes of the spring with baby goats. 

While Root Riot Community Garden has undergone a significant renovation, GlennArt is working on the pasture portion of the property. This process clears parasite in the grasses as well as allows us to plant other cover crop species that have higher nutrition value for the goats.
The chicks arrived almost two weeks ago, and they are happily eating grass and grain. As we move the tractor across the field, the chicks eat down the plant life. We then sow annual alfalfas, clovers, and millets for goats to eat in July.   The chicks have survived a lot of rainy and cold weather.  Stay tuned as we continue remediation of the field. 

Life continues this spring as Root Riot Community Garden and GlennArt Farm  renovate the Waller Street property.  Our biggest project is to create a pasture mediation process that allows us to clear parasites from the grasses.  These parasites consist mostly of barber pole worms(Haemonchus contortus), a primary cause of anemia in our animals. 

I had a choice of buying a cow (!!!!), a donkey, sheep or to obtain a chicken tractor. While all those other ideas seem fun and permanent, we opted for the chicken tractor. We have built a mobile chicken coop on wheels. Raising chickens for four weeks seemed like a shorter commitment.

Today our Wwoofer volunteers Miles Weber and Andria Ahrens worked with our local carpenter Nairobi Anderson to cover the frame of the tractor.  Half of the 'box' is covered with hardware wire, and half with roofing.  Because of our April snow earlier this week we go to Carlock to pickup the chicks on Saturday.  

​Looking forward to attaching the wheels tomorrow after yet another snow tonight.

Here is a simple slide show that I used in our planning sessions this winter. With the COVID19 in our midst, we all need to plan for beauty.  We continue to establish an agricultural ecosystem within the city of Chicago  that bring nature back to its people on the West Side.  Grazing is a major method to do this.   Our efforts are based on provided grazing plant systems for our goats and bees. The first slide on this series shows kids and goats in a lot on Long Street. While Long Street has grass it is not meant for nutrition. GlennArt will eventually develop this lot with healthy grasses and flowering plants.  The second slide shows our daily perspective of Chicago light, cement and buildings and roads.  The sight of city lights can be beautiful and overwhelming. 

We are developing models to create environments for pollinators to thrive, for mini edible forests to feed us, and grasses for our animals to begin the cycle of connection to the land.  You will also see a plan to organize the edible forest garden and the efforts that have begun, thanks to Joshua Morrow's research.  We are building a chicken tractor to reestablish the grasses on Waller Street Root Riot Garden.  Stay tuned for more details as they happen this week.

When NeighborSpace gained ownership of the property on Waller Street, plans could be made.  First though the property had to be remediated from hazardous pollution on the property.  Taking advantage of the process,  the Garden team organized the space with GlennArt Farm workers to prep for the arrival of the bulldozers.  The site sldo needed to be graded to eliminate the debris from the previous building structure.   


There is plenty of space for any new participants in the garden as well as a coordinated effort to plant an edible forest garden.  This process started last fall with the planting of 26 trees.  Openlands donated the trees and the Root Riot folk helped to install them.  A greenhouse is in the works for the soon future as well as a staging area for gardeners to move materials, newly organized raised beds and a more central entrance to the area.  Thank you NeighborSpace and the hard work of the Root Riot Root Riot Community Garden.  Special thanks to Amy Beltimacchi for coordinating the miriad of needs and details in the planning of the garden for the future support to the community of the West Side.   It is exciting  to see these developments of the Waller Street Property.

I realize that the penguins shown a couple of years ago to be living on a pile of plastic was considered an April Fool message by a French nature group. Still, the horror of seeing a  plastic garbage pile the size of Texas in  the oceans causes me to re evaluate our practices at GlennArt.

Our operation actually depends on recycling of materials for its operation. We pick up composted vegetables to feed our animals.  Whole Foods in River Forest and Sugar Beet Food Coop and Happy Apple Pie Shop in Oak Park  have all contributed to our animal 'furniture' of old tables and pallets.  We obtain activated charcoal from Petco's aquariums to deodorize our side pen, mixing it with sand to eliminate urine smells. Petco in River Forest also provides us with very nice collapsible boxes to line the  cement floors in the garage. 

A new money saver for us has come through a Goat Guardian  Guild member, Damian Casten, has retrieved burlap bags from a coffee importer. Thank you to Metric Coffee and Sparrow Coffee importers. We distribute these bags to community gardens to kill weeds. It just so happens that the burlap bags are sealed in recyclable green plastic bags, which we are now utilizing to bag manure.  

In 2019, we evaluated our plastic purchases.  One of our ideas to make inroads on our consumption of sterile gloves is to purchase biodegradable gloves from Showa Corporation. We are composting these gloves along with our daily use of paper towels in our weekly compost schedule. In addition we now purchase Scotch Brite cellulose scrub sponges knowing that they will disintegrate within a year in a land fill. 

We are always looking for ideas. Please complete the contact form with any suggestions for us.  

Every year we have a number of goat babies.  Because our land space and feed bill are limited, we sell  babies in the fall.  In December, I found a home for the final five kids.  We also asked the land owner to take Esther and Abby.   We reviewed his space and lodgings and were satisfied with the security.  Victor Rogers wanted to use goats for grazing.  We thought it was the best home possible. Victor's place was in Penbrooke Township and  he owns 20 acres of brush.  

What we did not contemplate was that rural areas have strong predators.  Victor already had five goats and placed our seven in a separate shed and enclosure.   The fence appeared strong;  however there were barrels near the fence.  When large dogs run in packs, they are vicious predators.  Our hearts were broken when Roger reported at the new year a pack jumped the fence and killed Abby and a baby.  They maimed Esther and bit two others.  We know that Esther has always been wary of dogs and definitely put up a fight. Then they entered Victor's other area and killed three of his five.  Esther was bitten on both front legs, and her care was complicated.  Victor has since set security measures in place. 

We arrived home from holiday break on Thursday January 9, with obligations and weather problems.  We picked up the five goats from the breeders at Manitowac Wisconsin on Friday. The timing was to pickup before snow/rain storm that was going to hit the area and we arrived home as the storm begin.  It brought other problems that required attention with a sudden sewer problem flooding the basement during the weekend.

It was not until Monday  January 13 we fetched  Esther from Penbrooke Township.  Her care by Victor Rogers was going to be very difficult and long. She was completely off her feet, stumbling on her knees and of course uncooperative.  We carried all 155 pounds of her to the van and drove home arriving at dark.  I had communicated with Dr. Vigil over the weekend.  He waited for us and was at the house by 5 pm.  He had received help from a local vet hospital for triage materials.  She had been deeply bitten on her back flank, her right front  leg and three times on her left front leg.  Her left shoulder (or in goat anatomy her elbow)  was swollen full of pus.  Dr. Vigil and I worked in the dark to clean her up.   She had wild look when we put her in our van;  however she knew she was home and tried to use her legs to jump out.  

In these two weeks,  her least damaged leg is better. Because she had not previously  received quality care, there was a lot of infection.  We still clean out infection daily.  I am not certain of her quality of life prospects.  She is  a strong goat, and has begun to stand on the least affected leg.  Yet the other leg has three wounds on it.  Her flank bite has healed into a heart shaped scar.  If she can manage the two block trip to the Waller Street Field, she will be okay.  This will be her retirement space.  Sometimes there is no place like home.