Our First Field is Done!!

This is how you get the hay from the wagon into the barn, for my regular readers (city-boy brothers ;-) who have no idea how things like this are done. It's called a hay elevator, of all things. It deposits the hay into the barn and the unlucky person who happens to be "catching" up in the loft gets to stack it. There's no air up there, and lots and lots of dust.
Notice you can see clear through the other side of the barn, this is NOT GOOD!! Usually this time of year there isn't room to even hardly climb around up there, and we're scrambling for places to put hay. We're filling up the bottom of the barn, and starting to pile hay on skids outside, to be covered up with a tarp and fed first. But not this year. It's not gonna be good!

And these bales are not the best either, they are scraggly (as a result of waiting this long to get baled) and weedy.
But our field is done, and here is The Mouth and Hubby showing how nice it is to be done with this particular field, one of our hardest.

This is the last time we will hay this field, we'll plow it under and plant corn for a few years, then plow it under again and plant a quality pasture mix. We never get a 2nd cutting out of this field, it's gotten that sparse and weedy, so it's time to rotate it out.

It rained hard last night, thunder, lightening and lost power for about 3 hours, but that's ok, I rise with the sun anyway so it's not like I depend on an alarm clock.

So tonight, there will be no haying (thanks to the miracles of modern technology we know ahead of time when to expect rain), but there will be some serious house cleaning, something that gets sorely neglected during haying season.

I'll also try to get out into the garden again, I've been on a mission to rid the world of zucchini, one plant at a time, but it is a veritable enemy. Well, not really an enemy, but last year I got enough to feed everyone in the county nothing but zucchini for 3-5 years, I don't need any more this year, I'd rather have the stuff it is trying to drown out (corn, beans, watermelon...), so I will get more of that done tonight, unless it rains again. (no, I didn't plant zucchini this year, but apparantly, left some out in the garden last year and it reseeded itself). And, since I had to hunt for a towel this morning to take a shower, I might consider doing some laundry, again, unless it rains....

Out here in the "old world" as my brothers like to call it, we depend an awful lot on the weather, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love this life (even if I hurt really bad right now).

Redneck Hay Truck!

This was a true Redneck move!! The last of our hay (that we got baled), the final 30 bales that wouldn't fit on the wagon, got sucessfully stacked on hubby's S-10. 30 bales! In the picture are hubby and The Mouth.

Another view, notice the S-10 is basically sitting almost on the ground! This truck has proven itself to be the ultimate farm truck, it will haul anything and keep on going. It doesn't even have four wheel drive, but it will go through just about anything! It's taught at least 3 of our kids how to drive a stick shift in a vehicle (they got the basics on the tractors, but in a truck it's a bit different) and the clutch is finally starting to wear out, but I have no doubt it will keep going for quite awhile yet. And when it dies, well, we have lots of spare parts to either build another truck or keep this one going for awhile!

The Mouth followed behind us as we drove from the hayfield to the barn, and she kept telling us that the load was leaning a bit, we didn't notice from the cab (which sounded like it was going to collapse in on us at any time), but when getting out and looking, this is what we saw.

I'm not sure how much further we would have made it, but we didn't lose a single bale.

We had to quit early, as the hay was not quite cured enough to really bale, but we wanted to get as much in the barn as possible last night as it's supposed to rain today. There is a bit left out on the field, if the rain will hold off until later tonight, we'll be gold!

Bad news though, by this time of year our barn should be full, fuller, and fullest, with hay still coming in, trying to find any available nook and cranny to stack it in, but not so this year! It is maybe only half filled. Not good! Because of the weather (lots of rain, and not enough good days in a row in between rains) hay is scarce this year, and even if there were extra available to buy, it would be soooo expensive that we just couldn't do it. We'll be scrambling through 2nd cutting just to get enough to fill our barn and also the guy we usually hay with. We need enough to feed 3 horses and 2 cows through the winter, approx 1500 bales, he needs much more than that as he's got 6 horses and 16 head of cattle.

This morning I can't even hardly move, or talk. The hay dust gets in your lungs (I'm sure it's not real good for you - at least it's natural, and not chemicalized and fertilized) and my 50 year old body just hurts everywhere, but we push on, in January when we have still at least 1/2 barn full of hay, it's nice to remember how hot, humid, sticky, grimy, grubby, and exhausted we felt in July and August just getting all of this done.

This year, once we have our primary field all cut and baled, we're going to plow it under and plant corn for a few years. This field is getting too weedy. The plowing under and planting corn for a few years will eliminate a lot of the weeds, and then we'll plow it under again and put in a regular pasture mix (and with the price of corn, we'll be able to not only trade or sell that for quality hay but we'll be able to raise up more cattle and pigs, which will make money too). I really do enjoy this time out on and under the tractors.... My hands look like they should belong to an ages old farmer, there's grease under my nails that won't come out, there's scratches and slivers from the hay, there's scuffs from slipping with the wrenches, there's calluses from continually lifting, pushing, pulling... not real lady-like, but I really don't care. I'd rather have hands that look like they've seen some hard time and able to do what I need them to do than hands that look like they just paraded out of the nail salon. And right now, hoo boy, do they look rough!

Sequences = A Comedy of Errors, AKA.. Knowing When To Say When!

I've written about my sequences before. For some reason the steps that it takes to accomplish the simplest task sometimes takes a whole lot longer than what it should.

Let me set the stage.

1. I can either walk to work, ride my bike, or drive my car. Let's review the process here:
A. The Bu-Dawgh will be alone all day and we're haying tonight so I can either

1. Drive my car or 2. Walk with Bu-Dawgh (an adventure in itself!).

B. I have plants to take to my Dad so based on this and the above I decide to drive my car.

Ok, that decision is made, and wow! It only took about 10 minutes of reasoning to get there, a personal record I do believe!

So, we're driving to work, the decision has been made.
Here's the steps (sequences to get to work)
1. Load up the car with Bu-Dawgh, all the plants plus a load of garbage for the dumpster.
2. Get in car.
3. Remember that I forgot to remember all my "stuff"
4. Go back to get the rest of my stuff.
5. Get in car.
6. Car won't start.
7. Try to find jumper cables, which weren't put back last time they were used, hmmmm, imagine that!
8. Find another set in hubby's truck.
9. Hook up jumper cables to my car.
10. Get hubby's truck parked next to my car.
11. Hubby's hood won't open.
12. Put hubby's truck back out of the way and go to get my truck.
13. My truck's hood won't open.
14. Sigh, back to the house for another cup of coffee, and seriously consider working from home.
15. Get back in my truck and drive my truck up and down the road over the bumps at a higher than recommended rate of speed until the hood latch pops.
16. Drive back to my car (realizing by now that I have used in gas, what I would have used anyway just driving to work with my truck, but no matter, it's not a simple thing, we have to make it harder than it is!)
17. Open hood of truck and proceed to jump car.
18. Car starts.
19. Put truck back out of the way.
20. Get in car.
21. Shut door.
22. Try to put on seat belt.
23. Open door to release seat belt.
24. Close door and proceed to drive to work, making a mental note to drop Webster a line about all the new cuss words I've invented this morning.
25. Get to work to discover I'm the first one there and am locked out.
26. Reconsider driving back home and going back to bed, but realize that there is indeed someone there, they just forgot to unlock the door.
Sigh.
And we are now at work.

So, to recap, I actually made it to work, which in itself, seemed to be a major accomplishment, I suppose the rest of the day will be a crap shoot!

Sunday we finally offed the rooster. This was a not-nice rooster. He attacks, and not just to protect his hens, but just because he is (was) one of those psycho manic animals we seem to attract. So last night, the "roo-stew" over homemade biscuits was just yummy! And it was very satisfying to finally put an end to that little drama. However, the actual "doing of the deed" as it were would have made for a very good 1/2 hour sitcom, it's a shame that NBC wasn't there to videotape that little production! Because as it is in my life, nothing is as it should be, but it's all real interesting!

Yesterday I took the day off to work on my chicken pen. I got a lot done, LOTS. I would have finished it except for that my life is not just about chicken pens, and other stuff had to happen, so I suppose that all in all, having a super productive day yesterday just paved the road to having a 1 step sideways and 4 steps backwards day today! A day in the life and all that....... Murphy's Law prevailed!

Tonight we're haying. I'm probably not going to go near any of the tractors, I just don't want that on my conscience, so I'll ride the wagon and stack hay hoping that the wheels don't fall off or the axles break or something (all of which has actually happened - I'm waiting for the day that they fire me, except for that they're my horses, so it's assumed that I will at least try to help). It's all good! As long as we don't push our limits.

I'm sure the rest of my day will be as eventful as the beginning, I'll be sure to take notes, noone would believe me if I didn't!

Strawberries and Chickens!

So, the strawberries didn't happen. As usual, I'm a day late and 3 weeks early, or something like that.
We went to get them picked and found that they had already been picked out. It would be easy if it were the same every year, but with the wacky weather lately, they were late as it was.
I can still go north, to get some, but I think I'll concentrate on the cherries over on the west side of the state. Have a friend who lives over there who will keep an eye on it for me, then we'll go to get bunches of those. The sweet cherries are about 1.5 weeks ahead of the sour cherries, but both are just yummy! Cherry syrup and jams and stuff are just as good as strawberries, but the strawberries are local. Oh well, maybe next year. Actually, I'm going to make a note of that in my really cool portable brain that I can't live without, to start inquiring about strawberries around the 1st of June.

Got our first "batch" of hay in last night, well, when I say "we" it wasn't me helping. at all. this is a first!
I was daddy-sitting, so didn't get to partake in the festivities, but not to worry, there's LOTS more hay to be got!

Stupid coffee pot! Just got up to get a cup of coffee and realized that it never turned itself on. grrr.
OK, I'm over it.

So anyway, in my scattered little brain, we've covered strawberries and cherries and touched on hay. Let's go to my awesome chicken self feeding system shall we?
The items needed for this include as many 5 gallon buckets as can be rounded up (on the farm, this isn't a problem), a shotgun or drill to drill lots and lots of holes in the sides and bottoms of the buckets, A way to suspend them above the chicken pen (sticks work great, as does left over binder twine - the plastic stuff) and as many dead critters as you can get your hands on. Again, around here, shooting possums, raccoons and stuff that attack my critters are plentiful, as are fish guts from hubby going fishing, so usually don't have to look real far.
Hang the buckets up above the chicken pen (pre shot or drilled for holes) and throw in the dead critter. Within a matter of days, the flies will swarm and lay their eggs. The maggots will fall out of the holes and chickens will eat them up. It gets a bit aromatic, but if there's a reason for it, well.... it's easier to put up with.
See? Self feeding chickens! Works great!

A bit too redneck for you? Well, it works, and around here, we're all about making these critters pay for themselves, even the dead ones! If you happen to like the idea of this system but lack dead critters, leftover garbage, especially meat scraps would work too, just not as quickly. But we don't have a lot of that, the leftover garden scraps and vegies go to the chix and the leftover meats go to the Bu-Dawgh, with the exception of leftover chicken and turkey, which the barn cats will happily relieve you of.

And the most exciting news of all? I got a heifer last night! This brings my cow total to 4! She hasn't come to live with us yet, but hopefully soon. You know what this means? a constant source of calves as I have a friend with an awesome bull, and an almost constant source of milk and cream for drinking, cheeses, yogurts, butter and ice creams. All organic and natural and everybody with no antibiotics or growth hormones, no pasteurization or homogenization, nothin' but milk, grass fed, right from the cow! Life is great!!

Tonight? more garden work and more chicken pen work, it's supposed to rain, so that will put a halt to the haying, temporarily. And if it rains too hard, there is the hayloft that needs to be organized before we bring in any more hay! The sound of rain on the tin roof of the barn is just one of the best sounds ever!

I love the farm, can you tell? Now, to make it pay a salary that I can live with....

Announcing our New Bouncing Baby.....

This baby started pecking his way into world last night around 11. Here are some pics.





There is only the one chick so far so tonite after work I'll go to the farm store and get my meat chix. This one is an egg layer, a Rhode Island Red.

It's kind of discourging in a way. All of these seeds get started and all of these eggs get collected and put in the incubators and you wait. And start more seeds and collect more eggs and wait. Finally you hear the tiniest of chirps coming from inside one of the eggs, or a seedling pops through the soil and all the wait has been worth it.. So tonight I will go to the farm store and get my meat chickens and hubby wil roll his eyes cause I'm the farmer, not him. And I'll set up shop in the guest bedroom with the feeders and waterers and heat lamps cause its still too cold for them outside and hubby will shake his head but I love this life and he knows it so its all good..

In a few weeks i'll start pestering him cause it's time to get the garden worked up and last years compost moved to wherever I need it to be. With the cost of food skyrocketing, my garden will be at least 4 times the size it was last year with every available flower bed turned into spots for asparagus, strawberries, grapes and blueberries along with the staples of beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, corn, squash, punkins ...

I will be a busy gal this summer, with all the canning, freezing and processing but I love this life. Then comes haying season, with the 18 hour days on the tractors, wagons and up in the dusty loft. The exhaustion is overwhelming but it's such a good, satisfying exhaustion. The next day starts all over again. So tonight after work I'll go to the farm store and maybe come home to find that another chick has pecked his way into my life! I love this life! Spring on the farm is the best place to be.

And, to top it all off, my Red Wings won again last night. One more win against the Avalanche will launch them into the finals. Tomorrow night! Go Wings!!