Dear Farmer counts his chicks before they've hatched!

Dear Farmer just ordered chickens to follow the cows (being the cow-vets) in the mobile chicken coop for next year!  It's a very exciting day!!!  First he got to make someone at the hatchery very excited when he placed an order for 240chicks to come in this year (next year he'll order the remain 160 chicks we need)! Then he got to tell the whole family that the chicks were coming, and what kind they were, and why he chose them.  It's a beautiful thing to have an absolutely silent table of twelve people hang on your every word...and Dear Farmer loves to tell them all the details when they're listening:
He ordered Barred Rock Chickens because they have a nice temperment and are good egg layers, and later they make good stew birds.  They lay well for about four years, they have brown eggs, but the chickens don't eat ticks.
He ordered Black Australorps because they are so docile, good egg layers, they are heat-tolerant(which makes them good for summer laying) and they do eat ticks.
And he ordered a newer breed, the Madisons. They are mix between two other breeds and are supposed to be good layers and foragers, especially bred for living in the cooler weather of the north.
He ordered these three different breeds also be cause they are so diverse in color, which makes it so pretty to look at!
Every so often we get a "broody hen", which means she just wants to sit on her eggs and takes great care of them, so they will hatch. This makes collecting eggs from her a little more intimidating...she'll peck your hand, and sometimes "bite" you...but that's the exception, not the norm.
Dear Farmer's going to be busy this winter, caring for all those chicks, but he's so excited about having a great flock next year, it makes all the work worth it!

Hail to the Rock Pickers of Life!

There's jobs in life that no one wants to do...the bed-pan washer and rock-pickers would be top of that list.
Honorable Son #1 has come up with philosophical ways to pick rocks(see farmingthedream.com Aug.2015).
The Farmer's Daughter has used rock picking for quiet moments of suntanning and body-building.
All-in-all, the job is still just picking rocks. At the end of the day, it's back-breaking, dirt-sticking, sweaty work. And next spring...there'll be more rocks to pick.
Hail to the Rock Pickers of Life!  The ones that do thankless jobs.  The ones that do it everyday because it never really gets better.  Those are the people that exemplify diligence!  Here's your standing ovation!!! There really are people who appreciate your work.

The Keeper of the Flame is in search of Unusual Eggs

One of the Keeper of the Flame's jobs is to collect eggs.  As it's quite the job of late, finding where those chickens could be hiding eggs THIS time, he's begun making it more fun.  He's in search of the unusual eggs! What are unusual eggs? That would be chicken eggs that are speckled shells, bi-colored shells, unusually small or oblong, sometimes there's double yolkers(those are really huge!), and occasionally he finds one with no shell at all!  Once he finds a dozen...he plans to sell them. "Mom, do you think $20.00 is too much for my unusual eggs?" Yes, son, I do.  It'll be another couple weeks before he has another dozen, but I think they'll go for $3.00...in case anyone's wondering.

Dear Farmer has one of THOSE days...

It's one of THOSE days...you know the ones...nothing goes right and everything you planned becomes nothing that you planned...THOSE days.
It started with needing to catch chickens to go to butcher at 4am.  Just what everyone wants to do at 4am...and Dear Farmer can do it, if he wakes up at 3am and drinks a pot of coffee first.  He feels that prepares him adequately to bundle up on a frosty morning and pluck still roosting(ie sleeping) chickens off their roosts and into crates to be transported to the butcher.  Then, after an hour of chicken catching and being pooped on...he gets to come inside and drink another pot of coffee, then go out to do chores.  This is where things turned bad...while drinking the pot of coffee a farmhand jogged inside to let Dear Farmer know that we were nearly out of chicken feed.  Dear Farmer popped onto the phone with the feed supplier (because everyone in the farming world is up and moving by 5am--except for Dear Farmer's Wife), who was also drinking coffee.  The feed supplier informed Dear Farmer that their delivery truck was broken.  How to get feed???  Well, after chores the plan was to move hay from the storage where the large hay fields are to the fields where the cows winter.  This can be an all day process...it wasn't going to be now.  Now, Dear Farmer also had to drive down two-and-a-half hours to get chicken feed, drive back two-and-a-half hours to bring it home, and unload it all.  And so, Dear Farmer suited up, and away he went.  Loading hay for transport went smoothly, but took longer than expected.  Brought hay back and unloaded all the hay-smoothly, but longer than expected.  Loaded up for chicken-feed run, and took off with the Keeper of the Flame to pick up feed.  En Route the two major roads (both toll) were under construction.  Ergh, crawling through and already running later than expected was not in the plan!  Then he got off on the wrong exit, and had to figure out where he was...Dear Farmer, is not techno-savvy, GPS isn't even an option...so he had to drive twenty minutes out of the way, to figure out where he was, to go around a block, and get in the right direction again...finally making it to the feed supplier-and found out he had forgotten the bags to dump feed into back at home.  Thankfully the feed supplier scrounged up enough bags and loaded up Dear Farmer for the return trip back home.  Dear Farmer tried to pull out the day from the pits and met up with Fabulous Uncle for dinner (late) and drove home (later) and made it in the driveway by 10pm.  While  in bed that night he was moaning about his rear-end being in real pain...found out he had been sitting on a roll of electrical tape for his 16 hours driving vehicles all day.  It was really one of THOSE days, but he made it through in one piece, not wanting to do it again anytime soon.

What can you do without?

Our two cousins came to visit this weekend.  It's alot like the "city mouse" and the "country mouse".  Not meaning that in a bad-way, just simply there are two different lifestyles between them and us.
Well, the temperature dropped the first night they were here...and that meant firing up the woodstove for heat.  That was pretty wonderful!  Your whole house is heated by one woodstove? Yep.
THERE'S MORE!  Our Fabulous Aunt and Uncle came for a visit...and brought store-bought-in-a-box cereal!!!  Apparently this is a big deal in your house.  Yep.
BUT WAIT!  THERE'S MORE!
What no one counted on is: because of the temperature drop, the doe-lings didn't want cold bellies, and nursed off the milk-goat all night.  So, after milking the goat, we had about a quarter cup of milk in the morning....
We were going to be eating dry cereal for breakfast.
You actually eat the goat's milk on cereal? Yep.
It brought the Wife to thought...here are two children who are experiencing a life totally foreign from their own world.  We don't buy our milk at a store, we light a fire for the heat, and we only have store-bought-in-a-box cereal when Fabulous Aunt and Uncle bring it....
What would our children be like in their world?
For a couple days the cousins had to do without a bunch of modern comforts (privacy would be a big one in our family), and they had a great time (and very little sleep).  What would our children have to do without in their world?
Like the "city mouse" and the "country mouse" discovered, there's beauty in all places.  To find contentment right where you are is a thing you should never do without.

The Stars are so bright!!!

In the country there is a lack of light-pollution.  Sometimes there is a "glow" coming from more inhabited commuities...we have noticed it happens more often during football season.
Last night we took time to step out of the woods in which our house is nestled, and walk into the field to enjoy the beauty of the stars.  They were so brilliant!!!  The twinkling and sparkling was almost so amazing that we couldn't take our eyes off of it!  We saw the gradual change on the horizon, from the summer sky to the winter sky.  The horizon looked as though the stars were almost touching the earth all around us, and the night was so clear it felt like you could reach up and touch the stars.

The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork...Psalm 19:1 ESV

There is no way we could be stewards of this world, without fully appreciating the Creator's handiwork.  If you have to get out into the "wilds" to enjoy the stars on a clear night...DO IT!  You won't be disappointed.  

Waiting and Hoping for Hay

When the Wife was a child she could not have thought that as an adult seeding a hay field would be something she would be concerned about.  But she is finding that seeding this particular hay field is an "angst" in her wonderful world of agriculture.  This hay field has lain fallow for a year, so it first had to be disc-d, rock picked, disc-d again, rock picked, seeded, and then dragged.  This is what the Wife has learned this year:
Disc-ing has nothing to do with dancing, mathematics, or an Olympic event.  Disc-ing is where a tractor hooks up to an implement that looks to have dozens of round metal discs on end.  This implement in lowered to the ground and run over the ground.  It is not plowing, it is taking the ground and breaking it up, pulverizing the dirt, and preparing the dirt for seed.
Disc-ing the ground brings rocks to the surface.  No seed grows on rocks.  Rocks damage farm equipment and possibly Dear Farmer.  Rocks need to be removed.  They are best removed by a rock picker of some-sort.  There are rock pickers that you connect to a tractor, another in a long line of farm implements, and rock pickers can be people.  Manual labor tends to be more thorough and more testy.  The question here has to be answered, "Do I want to deal with people whining while picking rocks, or spend the money on a rock picker?"
The ground must be disc-d so many times because after the rocks are removed(each time) new ground is uncovered that must be broken and pulverized for planting.
Seeding is the act of planting seed.  There is forty pounds of seed needed per acre...the seed must be present before you can begin seeding.  Mice like to eat the seeds, so do other rodents, birds, and deer. To order seed years in advance is not wise.  It's like storing ice-cream in your freezer the day your baby is born for their third birthday...not only is it tempting for someone to eat it, but it will be no good in three years.
Seed must be ordered and delivered in a timely manner to get the seed planted.  Planting can only happen when the conditions are perfect.  Dry, but not too dry.  Warm, but not too warm.  Sun-shining, but not too sunshiny. Not too early, and not too late in the year.  And the planting will take time.  One full day, nothing else will get done.
After planting the field will need to be "dragged".  This is not something that is done with drugs, and it does not mean the work is boring.  A "drag" is a massive angry looking farm implement that is flat with spikes poking out of the bottom and possibly chains.  It looks more like a medieval torture device, being pulled behind a tractor.  It's heavy and nasty to delicately push the seed into the ground and dust the top over with dirt.  Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?  Once the dragging is done...the name of the game is "Wait and Hope".  Wait for nature to do what it will with the seed.  And Hope it comes up and the field can grow into an amazing and lush hay mix.
This is what has happened to cause this particular field to be an "angst" in the Wife's life:
Dear Farmer went to disc...the disc broke down.  Three different times this happened!  It consumed three days of fussing with a broken implement for it to accomplish next-to-nothing! FINALLY Dear Farmer fixed everything to disc, job finally done.  Dear Farmer has had to cut other fields, care for other chores, and bale hay...while that was happening someone was to have picked the field.  Someone didn't, and didn't and finally did, and did it badly.  So Dear Farmer went to disc again, and broke the disc on rocks, and had rocks pelted at him...and sent people back to do a better job.  When they were finally done, it was late in the year. The weather was not perfect...Dear Farmer waited...and waited....and then he disc-d as quickly as he could. Then he sent people out to pick rocks...and they did an okay job. And it rained.  And the rain destroyed the job Dear Farmer had done of discing...and he had to disc again.  The disc was tired, and it did not want to work.  But Dear Farmer pushed it, eventually-in October-the job got done.  October is too late for planting, but Dear Farmer really had no choice.  He cannot keep the seed, which was ordered early in the year, through the winter.  So he planted the seed.  Then he called the help to drag the field...but the help decided to go home early that day(ARGH!).  So Dear Farmer went to bed...wondering...will the seed get wet before the help comes tomorrow to drag???  The help came to drag the field...and it's late in the year...it's cold and dry, blowing and overcast, and Dear Farmer really doesn't want to have to plant this field again.  The Wife really doesn't want to have to live through another year of planting this same field.  So...we are Waiting and Hoping that next year we will have a hay field with hay growing in it.

Tagged Calves and Castrated Bull-Calves, and nobody got hurt!

Yesterday was a five hour adrenaline rush!  After a week of fencing containment paddocks and wiring new electric lines on those fences, as well as setting up gates and panels---we were ready for pushing the entire herd through the squeeze shoot and dispersing them into the winter paddocks.  It was a grueling process.
Dear Farmer's job is to look over every bovine that comes in the shoot.  Are they healthy? Do they need a tag in the ear? Male or female? Castrate if needed. Dear Farmer shouts out the number of the animal and color tag to the Wife, who writes down everything Dear Farmer observed on that animal and the tag.  The tags are color organized.  Yellow tags mean: organic female, Blue tags mean: organic male, and White tags mean: non-organic breeding stock.
The Wife's other job is to pray for safety for Dear Farmer as he stands behind a bull and castrates.  It can get hairy(no pun intended).  Here we don't use knives for castration, so there's no shots, no knock-out drugs, and no second chances.  We use a Calbrate Bander, the most amazing device known to farmers and well worth the money spent!!!  It's a thousand times more humane as well!
And we castrate while the animals are on green grass, so there's no fear of infection because there's no messes!
The Farmer's Daughter runs the herd through the containment in into the shoot.  She had quite a time getting those little calves to do what she wanted.  But she was patient and used her knowledge of "energy" well. "Energy" isn't a new-age concept.  It's the force of your emotions and the positioning of your body that drives and animal to do what you want.  Sheep herders use "energy" when training their dogs.
Along with the Housefrau Farmer's Daughter keeping all the little people out of the way, and the Whiz Bang!Farmer's Daughter running back and forth from the Wife to the house for miscellaneous supplies-we had four other farmhands helping out.  Including the VeggieMan, the ChickenGuys, our Model Friend and the HerbGuru. They aren't usually working the cattle with us, but they did a great job filling the gaps.
In the past we have had Dear Farmer run over and stepped on, Dear Farmer kicked, Dear Farmer's Daughter kicked, people thrown, panels and gates beaten by angry cows, people fleeing over fences, and paperwork pooped on.  This year we had none of it! God heard the prayers of the Wife!!!
There's quite an adrenaline rush when working with cattle. It's such a big animal, and we are such little people!  There's people "whooping" and "whistling"!  The occasional yelling to a body to move one direction or another.  It's easy to see why cowboys do what they do, it's fun!  But at the end of the day...when the count was in...112 head of cattle...there's the largest sense of accomplishment.  It's like, no matter how bad Dear Farmer's body hurt, it was all worth it.  Everyone was safe, no one got hurt.  112 Head of cattle grazing contently in a field is a beautiful sight.
 

Family Series (Part 1)...Grandmother: the Amazing Farm-Wife

The Wife recently got a wonderful compliment: "I want to be like your mom. Your mom's the awesomest farm-wife.  She does so much, helps your dad, AND gets in there with the cattle.  She's so involved." Thank you, the Wife will live on that one for a while...but she's not the original farm-wife, she does take lessons from a really great teacher.  Here's the story:

The Wife has a special family(you may have gathered) which sprung from one amazing woman...her Grandmother.  Grandma was the Amazing Farm-Wife, that's all she ever wanted to be.  A farmer's wife and a mother.  Simple enough.  Life (however) is never that simple.
Grandma gave birth to thirteen children, twelve survived, eleven still-living. Her husband was a veteran,a farmer, a salesman and a nurse.  He passed at far too young an age. She lived in farmhouses with no electricity or plumbing. She gardened and butchered for food.  She kept a sense of humor about her that makes her a joy to be around...even if she's lecturing you on what you should and shouldn't do.  She has emphasized the importance of family being together, a unit, and a place of safety.  Is this because of being from a rural area?  Maybe because of the life she has lived?  She didn't have a crystal ball, but she did know that in the future, this family would be important! And we would all need eachother. ( If everyone else could grasp this concept-the world would be an amazing place and the government would be much smaller!) It's because of this emphasis on family that the Wife wanted a large family.  Grandma always says, "It's hard work, but so worth it!"
This past weekend Grandma asked the Wife, "So, you never wanted to marry a farmer?  What do you think of it now?"  The Wife's answer was: "No, I didn't want to marry a farmer.  I knew how much work it would be.  Now...I wouldn't trade it for a million dollars, now."  Why wouldn't the Wife trade it?  Because she's learned the value of it.  Because Grandma came along side her and showed her all the wonderful parts of being a farmer's wife.
Hail to Grandma!  She's one Amazing Farm-Wife!

The Goats have a Bad Day

As it gets cooler and the days get shorter, the Wife finds the Goats are becoming a lot like the days...cooler and shorter.  The two doe-lings used to jump about happy and perky, they were sunshine itself throughout the day.  They are currently annoyed and constantly butting heads(literally).
The milk-goat, who generally is only concerned with food(how much can she get of it, and where is it coming from) is more concerned about who's touching the gate and why.  She's ready to take you on if you don't look right to her.
All of this the Wife understands. The Goats live outside in a barn.  The wind blows, the dirt is obnoxious this time of year, and the children are ALWAYS next to her.
Well, it might just be justified that the Goats are having a bad day...this might be a long winter.