"Salt" the Duck/the Duck that was once "Salt"

It's a sad little tale about a duck, named "Salt".  He was a Peking Drake and the leader of the duck pack, until the day the predator arrived.  The predator, an unknown and vicious beast, attacked at night.  It ate "Pepper" the Swedish Runner Drake and a Mallard Drake, but before it could take off with "Salt" the dog chased the predator away.  "Salt", however, was injured. After a week, he still had a lame leg, and the other Mallard Drakes were beating him up(he was easy prey).  The Wife asked the Farmer's Daughter to do the job...to butcher him.  Before the other drakes kill him, best we eat him.  The Farmer's Daughter was just fine with this, it had been in her mind as well.  She picked up "Salt" and took him down to the barn.  While she was down there draining the blood, the Wife set up a butcher table on the outside patio.  We don't de-feather ducks, we just skin them. So, all that was required was a table and some sharp knives.  A few minutes later the Farmer's Daughter came up to the patio swinging the limp white duck.  The Pied Piper of the Farm-boy Trio saw this and began to sing his song, "Salt's dead, the Farmer's Daughter is a murderer!" The other young children chimed in...there were tears and moans, white feather's flying everywhere, and wails of young children.  Finally, the young children were settled down, the Pied Piper spoken to about EVER starting a revolt like that again, and the healing began. "Let's write down in our journal what we did today.", said the Wife.  The children wrote the following:

We loved "Salt" the Duck.
He is dead.
We will eat him with sauce.

It would be worth the notation, that the young children never paid attention to "Salt".  More than anything the big Peking Drake was mean and they stayed away from him.  But when one Pied Piper in the group can rally anyone to follow him, they will chant and follow almost any cause.  Also worth notation, farming is about sustainability.  We raise animals and eat animals, this is a way of life.  There are no emotional scars.
The Duck that was once "Salt" is in the freezer.  Honorable Son No.1 plans to be here for dinner when we serve him, it's one of our favorite meals.

This is how the day goes...

Dear Farmer:
coffee, coffee, coffee
kiss, kiss, kiss
chores, chores, chores
drive, drive, drive
cut, cut, cut
water-ahhh! with a nutty bar for lunch
cut, cut, cut,
fix, fix, fix
cut, cut, cut
drive, drive, drive
chores, chores, chores
kiss, kiss, kiss
dinnertime, family devotions, shower
zzzzzzzz

The Wife:
make the breakfast
feed the family
brush teeth and maybe shower

start the bread
hug the children
laugh out loud and pray

make the lunch
feed the family
hang the laundry out to dry

start the dinner
play with the children
this is where we go to the beach!

feed the family
laundry off the line
bathe the children and hug the farmer

tuck in the children
tuck in the farmer
spruce up the house and  have a cup of tea

think on things above
thank God for all He's done
rest quick, tomorrow's already come

The Children:
UP!
EAT!
CHORES!
PLAY!
EAT!
PLAY!
BEACH!
EAT!
awww, bed?!

You mow grass? We bale it.

Sometimes we refer to ourselves as "Grass-Farmers".  Take away all the modern-day drug culture and look at that description as it really is, word-for-word.  We grow grasses.  A multitude of them.  Before we were farming full-time we didn't know how many grasses there were.  There's timothy, rye, fescue...
and none of them that we grow are ornamental, they all have a specific purpose.  Healthy blood, healthy heart, healthy coat, healthy eyes...the list goes on.
Dear Farmer lets the grass grow to seed head, and then he cuts it, tedders it, rakes it, and bales it.  Because we are organic farmers, NOTHING chemical goes on the grass!  Nature walks on it, that's it.  This process of making hay takes time with sun and no rain.
Where we are Dear Farmer gets two good cuttings of hay.  The first cutting is okay, it grows fast and is hard to get in.  Spring usually rains a great deal, and to get in the hay amidst the rain drops is difficult.  It needs to have a solid four days of sun.  The second cutting is the best, it grows well because of the spring rain, and has the most nutrician.  It's not usually difficult to bring it in, it's getting to it all, because it's all ready at the sametime.  Sometimes there's a meager third cutting...it's only taken if Dear Farmer thinks we're going to be really short on hay from the winter.
The best part of hay-season is watching Dear Farmer skip out to his tractor, with a big grin on his face!  He's going to be playing with his "toys" all day.
So, the family waves good-bye to him(dressed in our swimsuits), knowing we won't see him until the dew nearly sits on the grass.  He's off to do his "Grass-Farming".

When you separate the bulls from the steers...Observation from The Wife

Dear Farmer and the Farm-boy Trio love to talk "manly".  You know, "man"-things?  The Wife doesn't know all the specifics of "manly" conversations, but there's a lot of grunting and elbow jabbing.  Usually someone has to spit...very "manly".
Dear Farmer has a friend, Don-Cowboy, who is very manly.  He was an active US Army Ranger, no longer active duty, but always a Ranger.  He and Dear Farmer have "manly" conversations.  There is no place for the "faint-of-heart" in their farm-talk.  We have had Don-Cowboy and other Cowboys here to help us move cattle, but this time it was just Don-Cowboy who was helping us cut the bulls from the steers for breeding season.  Don-Cowboy is very sure of himself as he rides his horse around these thousand-plus pound bulls, and smaller steers.  The steers run around, and are skittish.  The bulls just walk.  Don-Cowboy's not messing around, he's on a mission, he's focused.  The Farm-boy Trio all looks up at Don-Cowboy as a man they respect.
Dear Farmer put it very well to them, "Boys", he said, "This isn't a big deal for Don-Cowboy, 'cause he's just "bull" telling those bulls what they're all gonna go do.  Because Don-Cowboy doesn't yell and scream at them, they have no problem following him.  He isn't afraid of them, he respects them and the danger in this job. Don-Cowboy's showing them this job is going to be done his way.  Your actions speak louder than your words."
The Wife concludes: in the end of all "manly" conversations, that must be what separates the bulls from the steers...when your actions line up with the words you would speak.  Your actions will be heard louder than your words.

Dear Farmer's a father...what's your super power?

Yes, that's right!  He's a father of eleven beautiful children.  Eleven individuals, so different from eachother that sometimes it's hard to believe they are related.  Dear Farmer always wonders, "If one plus one equals two...how is it that we have so many different variations(2.3, 2.6, 2.7...)?  Shouldn't they always be a two?"

How does he do it?  Well, he'll be the first to tell you:
1. He doesn't do it alone.
He and the Wife manage the family together, with God as a guide.  It's a partnership.  Two "Super Heroes" fighting for the family! If God is for us, who can be against us?!

 2.They didn't all come at once.
When Honorable Son No.1 first came, it was new and different.  There was times it was thought, "How could we have more?" And times when there was the thought, "How many more can we have?"  But his children have come in ones and twos, slowly building to the point where there's now eleven.  As Dear Farmer sits at the dinner table, he's very comfortable.  It's not overwhelming, it's love.

3.You can't be a Lone Ranger.
When you're a father, you can't have your own space, things or time.  There's always someone else depending on you, someone else in need of something else, and someone else to be with.  There's times when Dear Farmer puts on his mask and hops up on his horse, ready to save the defenseless. Still, in the back of his mind, he knows there's a plate being kept warm on the stove for him, and child waiting to be kissed by his scruffy whiskers before they fall asleep.

Able to leap small children in a single bound, faster than a texting teenager, blessed beyond his wildest dreams!
He's "Super"-Father!
And he is loved.
Happy Father's Day, Dear Farmer!

Dear Farmer's a Father...what's your super power?

Henny Penny Multiplication

There is something to be said for "calling" your animals.  First of all, it's incredibly impressive to visitors when you can "call" and the animal comes running to you.  Secondly, it makes life easier to find a missing animal.

Around here the Wife has chosen to sing to the chickens "Come dear Henny Penny..."  It's unique, and others won't think of it.  The Wife has seventeen of her own personal chickens for eggs.  There are 300+ laying hens around the cows in the fields... those don't hear the "call".  However, we have learned the laying hens in the field are very very social.  When the anyone goes on a walk, the hens in the field tend to get very very excited, and flock around the person.
One day a couple weeks ago, Dear Farmer was looking out the window after dinner and said, "Does it look to you like we have MORE chickens in the yard?"  Whichever child it was he was talking to responded, "Well, I think a few followed us back from our walk today."  That should have been the beginning of Dear Farmer and the Wife "getting a clue", but it wasn't.  Each day someone would go on a walk, and more chickens would appear in the yard.  The pinnacle of this happening, however, was a few days ago when the Wife went on a walk.  The laying hens were very very excited to see a person.  Even though the wife was a good two-hundred feet from the mobile coop, the hens could see her, and they flocked to her!  The Wife doesn't mind chickens, though they aren't her favorite bird...they do give eggs...so she treats them respectfully.  She gave each an affectionate "bop" on the head, and continued her walk...with chickens following her.  Some tired of walking with the Wife, and some diligently hung in there.  Upon the Wife's arrival home, she was being followed by about forty or fifty chickens.  They saw their long lost friends hanging out around the farmhouse and decided they too should stay.  Dear Farmer shrugs his shoulders, "What are you going to do?", he says.  And there isn't anything you can do. Dear Farmer and the Wife have thought about gathering the additional birds at night and driving them back to the mobile coop in the field...but they are just too tired at the end of the day to do it.  So, the Wife calls "Come dear Henny Penny..."  and the wings flap, the feet begin patting on the ground; about sixty birds know it's feeding time down at the barn.  They cluck, they flock, these Henny Penny Chickens are very very happy.

Family Night

Family Night has a special meaning in our house.  We had started it when we had only four children, continued it through the years while the family grew, and now there are two that have moved out of the house.  So, the family being together is more special now that it happens less frequently.

On Sunday night one person in the family is highlighted.  That person gets to choose either a dinner meal, or a dessert.  That person also gets to choose an activity that the whole family gets to participate in.
Meal choices range from pizza to grilled pork chops. Desserts (rare on a daily basis) are always something out of the ordinary, ice-cream cones, kettle-style popcorn, etc.  Activities over the years have been pretty interesting.  Dear Farmer and the Wife are the "stuck-in-the-muds"...apparently going to bed early and having a family picture are not activities highest on anyone else's lists.  Sometimes activities have been simply inviting over another family to join in the chaos.  Always it is fun to simply be together.

Last night was one of the Little Farmer's Daughter's Family Night.  She was all excited planning her dessert. Ice-Cream Cones dipped in chocolate with jimmy-sprinkles and an apple cider donut on top.  I'm with you, I don't understand the donut, but there's little reasoning with a four-year old.  For her activity we were going to pull out the dress-ups and dance to the music from a certain movie about a couple of Nordic-princessess and a snowman.  The adults didn't do much dancing, but we did do some picture taking.  Honorable Son No.1 and Dear Farmer were conversing on the text from church (1 Thessalonians) and Spurgeon's sermons. The Eldest Farmer's Daughter was trying to plan out her week between jobs, family schedule, and friends. The Second Farmer's Daughter was braiding the Wife's hair (it's fun to have a mother with long hair).  The Pied Piper of the Farm-boy trio said the evening was so much fun!  He even did an "ice-cream dance" that he learned from his brother, Honorable Son No.2, who was not present with us...and we had the dessert. There will be a repeat of this night next week, which I think is very comforting.  There will be a different person in the family highlighted, a different dessert, and a different activity-but the picture will look much the same.  Family loving eachother.

Top Ten Date-Nights with Dear Farmer

The rain today prevented Dear Farmer from doing hay, so he took the Wife out on a date. This was very appreciated by both the Wife, and all the children (the Wife had been getting a little lot stressed lately while being the single parent).  Thought it would be fun to show you what Dear Farmer and the Wife consider a "hot" date.


Top Ten Date-Nights with Dear Farmer

1. Out to the local-ish "have it all" home repair store.
2. Out to the next closest local-ish "have everything the first didn't have" home repair store.
3. Out to the local-ish tractor and farm supply store.
4. Out to the grocery store.
5. For a drive around the fields to check progress of growth.
6. To the local "have it all" for your home store.
7. To a family member's house.
8. To a car dealership(to look at trucks for the farm).
9. Down to the barn to hook-up equipment/clean up equipment.
10. Driving equipment out to fields for the next cutting/bailing.

For all of you Wives...you aren't alone. 

For all of you Farmers...as long as the date begins with, has in the middle, and ends with "I love you." You can't go wrong.

The Cowboys are coming!

The farm here is divided by a road.  Not just any road, a commuter road.  It makes life interesting.

Especially interesting when you need to move 80+ head of cattle from the east fields to the west fields for grazing.  Guess what's between the east fields and west fields?  If you said, the road, you got it!
Usually Dear Farmer lets down the electric line and claps his hands and says,"Come on, ladies! Let's go!", and all the cows follow him.  But it's a little more hairy when you have an open road that you need the cows to cross before they get to the next field.  Who knows what one cow could decide to do?!
The eldest Farmer's Daughter works at a stable where cowboys board their horses.  When the cowboys found that Dear Farmer had cows, they were all excited.  They were thrilled when Dear Farmer said they could ride their horses among the herd, but their faces really lit up when Dear Farmer started talking about moving the herd across the road. All the possibilities of anything going wrong, all parties thought, could be solved if there were cowboys on horseback.   Aside from the great picture it makes(the Farmer's Daughter takes magnificent ones) it's actually very practical.  When a cow and a horse are together, the cow naturally will move away from the horse.  The horse is usually taller and more "in charge" than the cow.  (We are not talking about rodeos.) When a person ON a horse is among the cows, they will pretty much walk wherever they are told.  We move the cattle nice and slow (you don't want your meat running all day, makes for a tough steak) especially across the road, that's perfect.  Two cowboys flank the cows and stop traffic...and wow!  You should see traffic stop for a cowboy on a horse in the middle of the road!  Those cars don't even question or try to move around.  One cowboy moves the cattle across from behind and Dear Farmer stands in the front of the cows(on the other side of the road) clapping his hands and saying, "Come on, ladies! Let's go!"  It's definitely a team effort!  So far, everyone's doing the job great.  The Cowboys are happy.  Dear Farmer is happy.  And everything has gone fine.
Now when we prepare to move the herd across the road, we hear a little person excitedly shout, "The Cowboys are coming!"  And they do.

What did Dear Farmer do for his birthday?

In our large family gifts are usually time together, not so much opening boxes or having things.  Last year the children at home started the tradition of all pitching in together for Dear Farmer's birthday...
this year children at home took Dear Farmer out for his birthday gift to the "John Deere Historical Site" in Grand Detour, IL.  If you're a "John Deere"-fan, it's a must!
Check on their website first, to confirm when they are open, admission was only $5.00 for ages 12 and up-we went on a Saturday, they were open from 9-5.  We packed a picnic lunch, they have a beautiful pavilion to lunch in, and they have nice clean bathrooms as well.
The site is approximately one block long, and maybe a quarter block wide.  It's absolutely beautiful and well kept.  You are given a guided tour in small groups with other visitors.  We were a small group all by ourselves, but there was a couple that tagged along with us.  I only felt bad for the other couple when it came to "Do you have any questions?" from the tour guide.  The Pied Piper always has tons of questions.  I'm sure the couple would have gladly moved on.

On site there are several buildings of interest:

• One building is an excavation site of the original blacksmith shop built by John Deere where the company first started.  In that building is a movie about John Deere, and many artifacts from the dig. 
• One building is a replica of the blacksmith shop where an actual blacksmith was giving a demonstration as well as a verbal "tour" around the shop.  The blacksmith was entertaining and informative!  What a craftsman!
• One building was John Deere's home.  The family owned the property for a number of years, so family pictures and furniture were decorating the home.  There are also a number of period pieces to complete the lived-in look.
• One building is the neighbor's house, where there is a gift shoppe.  We didn't go in there...I had eight small children with me, and was not planning on purchasing anything for them.

The entire time there was about an hour and a half, not too long for the littlest, and just right for the parents.

Having seen this John Deere site, it makes Dear Farmer want to go to Moline, IL and see the corporate HQ. I don't know anything about that, we'll have to look into it for next year's birthday.

If you head over that direction, there is more to do in the area.  Lee County in Illinois has a well organized visitor's bureau.  

The highlight of Dear Farmer's birthday...he said it was being with his family!  What a great guy!!!

*Do I need to tell you no one paid me to say anything about anything?  We just had a great time, and would love you others to have a great time there as well!

Happy Birthday, Dear Farmer!

Dear Farmer is celebrating his birthday this weekend!


If you'd like to leave Dear Farmer a birthday message, feel free in the comments!!!

Why did the duck cross the road?

The farm here is divided by a road.  Not just any road, a commuter road.  It makes life interesting.

You know the joke.  The answer around here, however, is very different...
We have ducks.  We have had ducks.  We used to have more ducks, but now we have fewer ducks.  This road, between our fields, is like the ducks' source of entertainment.  Particularly in the morning, during the "rush" time.
In the morning, the ducks waddle out in a line, down over the field, through the creek, up the yard, past the wooden fence and to..the road.  Why does the duck cross the road?  The duck doesn't cross the road.  The duck waddles onto the road, and looks back to his buddies.  He quacks to the buddies. The buddies all waddle up to the road.  They all stand in a line stretching across the road.  Now traffic in both directions is stopped. Car honks, duck quacks.  (We have come to the conclusion that the ducks think the cars are "talking" to them when they honk.) Cars honk, ducks quack.  Finally one frustrated driver edges around ducks and into the gravel (slowly) on the right side of the road, other cars follow, they are on their way again.  The ducks find themselves alone in the middle of the road.  The ducks waddle to the other side of the road.  Nothing more to see there.  Repeat this scenario in the afternoon "rush".
What are you going to do about it?  There really isn't anything we can do about it.  We can't find where the ducks sleep to "lock them up" at night.  They are all drakes(male) so it's not like they are profitable on the farm...though they do eat ticks...All we can really do is watch them waddle and apologize to the cars on the road.  If you pass by our farm...go a little slower and see if you can figure out the real answer to the joke.

What to do while Dear Farmer cuts hay?

Dear Farmer has begun cutting hay.  The Wife is a "hay-ing widow" for the next four months...
The children don't mind Dear Farmer being gone in the fields day after day, though...because the Wife is a beach-girl!
 "Wake up and jump into your suits children, we're hitting the beach!"
Yes, the Wife is very happy to sit on sand all day.  The children run, the children swim, the children don't care how cold the water is, the house is staying clean and the Wife is spending no money!  Really?! How great is that!
There are still responsibilities that need to be tended to on the farm.  Goats and chickens to feed. But we can all pitch in and get the work done in plenty of time to be picnic-ing on the sand.
The Wife LOVES summertime!
Dear Farmer enjoys hearing the stories of the beach, seeing the "treasures" the children have brought home, and knowing that his family has had a great day...while he was playing on his tractor cutting hay.