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Hi Everyone,
The week started out practically the way the week before had ended—Papa helping me milk the cows every morning because Mama was too sick to leave the house. Those days were limited though because come Tuesday Mom was better—Praise the Lord! Wednesday morning found Mom back in the milking parlor milking her cows while I milked my cows. She was still on the weak side, but she was back and feeling much better.
Like a Good Neighbor!
I enjoy writing this journal and sharing about my life on the farm with others—and I really enjoy hearing that someone has actually read the journal. When I talk with a friend, a relative or a customer I can always tell if they read the journal by how much they know about what is going on here on the farm. A few weeks ago a new customer showed up here at the farm out of the blue looking for some milk. He is a beef farmer whose father is one of our neighbors. He is learning about farming the way we farm, so we stood around talking about different “farm” things—and I sent him home with a business card that had our website on it so he could check it out. I do not know if last week’s journal was his first one to read—but I do know that he read last week’s journal for his father called here Monday morning to see how he could help. That week had been very rough here on the farm with Mom being sick and all the haying equipment needing to be fixed before Papa could cut, fluff, rake, and bail the hay in order to get all the tall grass off of the fields so that Papa could plant the fall peas for the dairy cows to eat come October. While Mom was talking with our neighbor—who offered to bale our hay if Papa could get it cut, Papa came inside and told Mom that the radiator in the tractor had a leak. Mom put Papa on the phone with our neighbor and in the end he came over to see how he could help get the tractor fixed. My brother-in-law also came over and actually spent time with Papa travelling the roads looking for parts. In the end our tractors radiator was deemed unrepairable and a new radiator was ordered—but it wouldn’t be in until Thursday. Our neighbor just happens to have more than one tractor and took Papa home with him so that Papa could drive one of his tractors home to use on the farm until Papa could get his tractor fixed. What a blessing! That tractor was a BIG help for Papa had eight rolls of hay that needed to be removed from the field, so that he could then plant the field in cow peas. The other blessing with the borrowed tractor was that Papa was able to continue to move the egg laying chickens to new pasture every day—for the houses are too heavy for the truck or van to move. Come Thursday the new radiator came in and Papa went to town to pick it up. Then he came home and went to put it in the tractor—to only find out that the $700 radiator didn’t come with a plug. Therefore Papa had to go back to town and search high and low for a new plug. Once he found the plug he came home and finished installing the new radiator. Then while I cooked dinner he took the borrowed tractor back to our neighbor, and Mom followed him in the van so that she could bring him home.
The next morning Papa did his morning chores and then did a little bit of mowing—and the tractor began to overheat. UGH! Papa called my brother-in-law over to help him figure out what the problem was, and it turned out that the water pump had gone bad on the tractor. Papa once again headed to town to all the tractor supply stores looking for a water pump—and of course no one had one in stock. So he ordered it and they said it wouldn’t be in until next Tuesday--so once again Papa was without a tractor. It looks like he will be borrowing my brother-in-law’s tractor this time—he is our neighbor too.
The Adventures of Lassie
Naming cows can be a lot of fun—and sometimes it can be very hard. The latest calf to be born on our farm was born to a cow named Bonnie. She had a little heifer, and since Bonnie is Scottish, I decided to give the little heifer a Scottish name. So Bonnie’s little calf is called Lassie. Miss Lassie can be a handful too! She loves to disappear into the tall grasses and lie down and take a nap. She likes to cross under the hotwires (or through them) to get on the other side of the fence. When she was just a few days old I found her in the wrong field standing with her head and one leg through the fence panting because it was so hot outside and she was out in the sun—while all the other calves and cows were under the shade. I went and got her out of the fence and straddled her letting my dress help push her forward. Walking like that soon tired me out—so I decided to pick her up and carry her to her mama. At that time Bonnie was not too concerned about her calf and did not come looking for her though I was calling her to come get her calf. So I carried her all the way to the shade. A few days later I went out to separate the calves for the night and Bonnie began following me around as if to say, “Have you seen my Lassie?” After getting the calves out of the field I then went back to look for Lassie. The grass in that field is well above my knees, and so thick you cannot see your feet—and running isn’t very easy. When you have a two acre field with knee high grass it seems like an impossibility to find a missing calf who is taking a nap. You really do not know where to start—but I thank the Lord for directing my steps. I almost headed to the far end of the field first, but felt led to walk down the strand of hot-wire first. To my delight, about half down the wire I found a trail of smashed grass and I followed it until I found a sleeping Lassie. I called Bonnie and she came to get her calf and feed her dinner. Wednesday morning I was responsible for putting the cows back after milking—which also includes putting the calves back with their mamas, and making sure that all baby calves go back with the herd. The newborn calves are known for hiding in the tall grasses and weeds, and if you are not careful you will find a screaming mama at night when you go to separate the calves because her baby didn’t come back with her. It is always amazing when that happens, because we can let the mama out and she will go right to where her calf is—and more than likely that calf slept all day. After about a week we do not have that problem anymore for the calves seem to know the routine. Miss Lassie has made us work extra hard during her first week of life though. Back to Wednesday morning—I let the cows out, then I let the calves out, and then I drove the golf-cart up to the milking parlor where I had last seen Lassie. I found her and picked her up and put her in the golf-cart with me. She didn’t lie down, but stood up between my knees. That meant that I had to be real careful to make sure that I was the only one controlling the gas pedal—and once I did have some extra help from her little foot. When I got back to the lane I realized that three of the calves did not find their way out of the barn, but with Lassie in tow I could not stop to run them out the gate. I got Lassie down to the cow field and then I came back up to get the other three calves—but I had a problem. The golf-cart was beginning to grind someplace around the back axel or wheels. I knew that I didn’t need to be driving it—so I walked the calves back down the long hill to put them with their mamas. Then I had to walk back up the hill to the golf-cart. I did drive it home, but there it has stayed. So yes, our golf-cart is broke and our tractor is broke. Getting chores done has been a challenge—thankfully the Gravely is still working but it doesn’t go in three directions at the same time. So back to Lassie—another day I was helping Papa put back the calves and the cows because “Alle” (her mama’s name “Ella” spelled backward and pronounced Alley) needed to be weaned. Once again Lassie was in the tall grasses hiding up near the milking parlor. We drove up in the Gravely and found her and Papa picked her up and put her in the Gravely with us. She stood up the whole trip with her back end resting on my knee. We were about halfway down when my knee got very hot, and the heat ran down my leg. Miss Lassie had emptied her bladder down my leg. Thankfully my dress collected most of the moisture, and directed it away from my shoe. Yes, Lassie is a character all her own.
A Gardener’s World
As September rolls around our biggest gardening season begins. Last week I had one goal—to have four garden beds ready for planting by Friday. I had begun the broadforking of the two beds in the new Market Garden #2—but the rock hard earth needed a lot more tender love and care. The East Garden was full of peas—or so I thought. When I got there to pull up the peas with the idea to feed them to the beef cows, I was met with a little more than peas. The crabgrass had taken over wherever the peas where not thick enough. So the first half of the day (Monday morning) I pulled out all the peas, then that afternoon I pulled up all the crabgrass. When you weed 300 square feet of heavy weeds by hand your body greatly welcomes the end of the day. I was surprised when Mom showed up to help pull the weeds for a little bit. She only did about four feet of little weeds—but the fact that she was actually able to be there was great. The next day I was able to string the garden beds—mark with string and spikes where the walkways and the beds are supposed to be. Then on Thursday we hired three men (a father and his two teenage sons) to come and help us get the last bits done in order to plant on Friday. There were two beds in the Market Garden and two beds in the East Garden that needed to be broadforked, composted, wood ashed and the walkways filled up with woodchips. Tuesday morning 20 yards of organic compost was delivered to our garden at 7:00 in the morning. On Monday we were supposed to prepare a place for the compost to be dumped—but the tractor broke. So when the driver called Tuesday morning we scrambled outside to see what we could do without the tractor. The area where we wanted to dump the dirt was covered with a silage tarp, and that silage tarp was held in place by a very long and heavy telephone pole. Papa used the tractor to put it there—but we didn’t have the tractor to move it off. At first we thought that we were going to have to roll it off by hand—somehow, but then we realized that the other side of the tarp was not held down and we could pull it back enough so that the compost could be dumped there instead. Now that Thursday had rolled around that compost needed to be shoveled into a wheelbarrow and dumped in the beds—but first we had to finish weeding what little weeds were there and finish broadforking and then break up the hard clods with a four pronged rake. Then we added some compost from our chestnut leaves/cow manure/chicken bedding compost. Next I sprinkled some wood ash over the beds because I was planting onions, carrots, and potatoes—all which thrive on nitrogen and potash. With three men plus Mom and I, we had four beds prepared and three walkways mulched in three and a quarter hours. We were done by 2:00 and they went home and we took a lunch break. After lunch Steve and I headed to the garden to pull the weeds, spent flowers and pea plants out of the West Garden.
Come Friday all was ready for planting—we were so grateful for all the help we got. There were enough sprouted potatoes from our May potato harvest to plant two full beds of Red Pontiac potatoes. I also had two Russet potatoes that had sprouted before we could eat them—so I planted them too. The potatoes were planted in the two middle beds of the second Market Garden Tunnel. They were planted there so that they can be protected from any frosts or freezes before they are harvested sometime in November. After cleaning off all the dead skins on the multiplier onion bulbs, I grabbed the carrot seeds and Mom and I headed to the East Garden where I planted one bed in carrots and she planted the other bed in onions.
This week I will start planting seeds in the greenhouse and I plan on planting green beans, sunflowers and lettuce out in the East and West Gardens. Once the seeds sprout then the rush really begins to get the tunnels all weeded and the beds prepped and to get the tunnels deer and rabbit proof (build the end walls, cover it with plastic and rabbit fence the sides). There is so much that needs to be done, in such a short amount of time. Rain, sickness, and broken equipment sure don’t help get things done in a timely manner.
Are you planting a garden this year? What are you going to be growing?
Serving you with Gladness,
Tiare