The Repair from the Deer

Dear Farmer hit a deer.  The first deer he's EVER hit in his entire life...either as a passenger, or as a driver.
Unfortunately, he hit the deer with the van that we tow everything with.  Our first van.  Our "Love Bus"(as the children have known her).

Good news:
A 2000 Chevy Express that hits a deer will only sustain minor dents on the outside.
The parts to repair cost less than you think they might.
The parts to repair are almost all available at your local auto-supply store.

Bad news:
There are three parts that are most likely to be damaged in a "head on" hit with a deer...they are all necessary.
You have to order all your lenses for the turn signals directly from GM if you want new ones(cough, cough, sputter)
Dear Farmer is plenty busy and doesn't have time to fix a van right now!!!
We need that van to haul all the material we've been gathering on sale for our tiny houses!!!

So, Dear Farmer and the Nordic Ninja are outside, on a cold (35 F) night working by flood lights to repair the van. They have assembled all the pieces (they think), and though neither of them are mechanics...they are going for it! Dear Farmer turned into a pumpkin a half hour ago, and the Nordic Ninja worked a ten hour day with only one fifteen minute break, they are bone tired...and determined.

Moral of the Story: never hit a deer

It's Officially Springtime in Dear Farmer's World

It's not the calendar that says when spring officially arrives, it's nature.  When the pasture starts to green and the air begins to smell of sweet warmth and the farmers are all out driving around and looking at each-others' farms.
So, yesterday, under the guise of needing to pick up fence posts at the most local supply store(which is forty-five minutes away), Dear Farmer went out and about.
The route he took was the most out of the way...
but past every farm that he knew of where there would be cattle and where they grow hay.
"Look there", he would say, "They still have a lot of hay left on the ground."
"OOOoooh, the barn roof didn't handle that last snow."
"I have always loved his location."
All the comments, the drive through the countryside, the beautiful sunshine after the gray of winter....it was a wonderful day.
And the trip that was supposed to take forty-five minutes...took an hour and a half.
Spring has officially arrived.

So you want to be a farmer? The Reality of Being Organic and Sustainable

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-Thomas Edison

If you thought that recycling made you sustainable and organic meant that you didn't use deodorant, then we're a shocker for you.  We take that to a whole new level!!!(Yes, we do use odor protection.)
Sustainable means we put up enough hay in the summer to feed the herd in the winter, and we're planning on growing the grass again next year. So we mow it when it goes to seed-head.  It's not a nice lawn look all year.  Sometimes during the summer it may look quite shaggy-depending on rainfall.
It means when there's an apple tree in the field, we pick it and sauce it so we have food in the winter. We don't complain the apples are the size of your thumb. Sometimes sustainability can take on the same look as common-sense...a chicken gets used four different ways. First as a vet for the cows as it cleans the pasture, next as an egg layer, third as a stew bird for dinner, and lastly as chicken broth preserved for later. We use the sun and air we breathe to dry our clothes, for light during the day and that "fresh air" smell on our sheets.
Everything that's sustainable is hard work, there's no skating by.  Burning wood for heat means cutting the wood, splitting the wood, and stacking the wood-sometimes in the coldest day of the winter.
But it's so worth it!
Organic means we don't use anything God didn't create for fertilizer, animals, and food.  We use our own animals to fertilize the pastures, then give them a dose of watered down compost for good measure.  We don't breed animals to have the biggest body-parts for show or production, we take them as God made them and use them right. That's why our goats have horns, cats have claws, and chickens have bone and skin!  We let the animals eat the grass, the apples, the leaves, the herbs-and we don't peel back an ear of corn for them.  This is the way God meant it to be.
Before you think this is all daisies and roses, can I be quite frank?  Because of this life we live...there are things you may want to consider...wear mud boots(real ones, not fashionable ones) to get to the door. There's chicken poop everywhere.  Why? They have wings, they fly any where they want to.  That means to the house, not just in the barnyard.
There's a goat who will greet you at the car door, and will gladly display for you how she can urinate on your foot and poop all the way to the front door of the house.
The cats like to leave "gifts" everywhere.  Dead mice, voles, ground squirrels, chipmunks...
Be prepared for dirt.  The windows are open in the house and it coats the furniture...really, I dusted it off six times today from the dark wood piano!  The dirt covers feet, shoes, clothes, and gets under nails.  It sticks to the cobwebs created overnight, and onto the faucets where children were washing it off.  It doesn't matter how we attempt to get rid of it, it comes back. A magazine cover will never show the reality of farm life dirt.
The mess. There's a plethora of misc. tools, equipment, toys, and vehicles that don't run. The reality is, we're busy staying alive, there'll be a time to make it all clean(when the dumpster is here), but right now isn't that time.  So, if you're OCD(which I find I am) take a deep breathe and close your eyes as you walk past it. The mess won't change the taste of dinner, and it also won't make the photo shoot for the magazine cover(thankfully).  So just move on. Lastly, prepare yourself for a new brand of sweat.  I promise, we do use odor protection, but it doesn't help the amount of sweat we produce.  It doesn't matter what time of year it is, there's hard physical work we're doing.  Whether it's under the hot sun or bundled in the dead of winter-people around here are sweating!  No need for aerobics class, we pitchfork hay around for hours. Snow-shoeing and cross country skiing are means for checking the fence lines.  Walking miles is a form of transportation, not relaxation. And when you see people standing around this kitchen with dripping hair or frozen hair and wet shirts and socks, covered head to toe in dirt and poop-laughing about the day they just had...know that they've accomplished the "Organic" label that went on that product in the store. AND LIFE IS GOOD!

22 Years Ago to Today

22 Years ago today...Dear Farmer married the Wife.  A girl who didn't fit the description of anything he was looking for in a woman.  The Wife married Dear Farmer...who wasn't a farmer back then, he was a Welder, which is good, because the Wife wasn't going to marry a Farmer.
21 Years ago...Dear Farmer, who was a Welder,  became an Electrician...which is good, because the Wife wasn't going to be married to a Farmer. And the Wife told the Electrician that he would be a Father.
20 Years ago...Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician and a Father traded in the "sports car" for a "sedan" and sold his motorcycle and bought a boat.  Which is good, because the Wife is a beach girl, and boating is a family activity.
19 Years ago...The Wife told Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician, he was to be a Father...again.
18 Years ago...Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician and a Father sold the boat and bought a truck.
17 Years ago...The Wife told Dear Farmer, who was an electrician, "It would be so nice to have another baby."
16 Years ago...The Wife was expecting another baby, and Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician, started his own electrical construction company.  It was "...& Sons, Inc." because all he had was boys.  But the baby was a girl.  The name of the company did not change.  And this was all good, because the Wife was grateful she hadn't married a Farmer.
15 Years ago...Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician, bought a cottage by the lake for the Wife.  Because she was a beach girl and loved to be near the water.
14 Years ago...The family was expecting another addition again...and all the children had chicken pox...and Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician, sold the "sedan" and bought a 15 passenger van...because he had an inkling the family was going to get bigger.
13 Years ago...The Wife thought, "This is it!  We have "arrived" and life cannot get any better!"
12 Years ago...The family was expecting another addition, and we hosted Thanksgiving in the cottage with thirty-one family members and friends and celebrated being married together 10 years.  And The Wife was grateful because Dear Farmer wasn't a farmer, he was an electrician.  And Dear Farmer was grateful that the Wife had learned how to cook, and loved to host people!
11 Years ago...The family was expecting again, and Dear Farmer started to not like being an Electrician...he was unhappy.  And the Wife was just praying he would do anything...but don't be a Farmer!
10 Years ago...Dear Farmer, who was an Electrician became a Builder.
9 Years ago.....The family was expecting again, and Dear Farmer, who was an Builder, began to sell his "...& Sons, Inc" business in pieces.
8 Years ago.....Dear Farmer, who was a Builder, built a barn for a friend.  A beautiful barn!!!  The Amish friends came an "oooo"-ed at his craftsmanship.
7 Years ago....Dear Farmer, who was a Builder, built a fence for the friend who he built the barn for....and during the building of the fence, the friend asked him about farming cattle...what do you do? how do you do it?  And that was the day Dear Farmer thought about being a Farmer...a dream of his since he had been young.
6 Years ago....The family was expecting again, and Dear Farmer was a helping a friend learn farming, and he was still a Builder.
5 Years ago.....Dear Farmer closed the business "...& Sons, Inc." and became a Farmer full-time.  And the Wife was not really thrilled, but God had softened her heart and she was learning to love a "farming" way of life. And preparations were made to move out of the cottage and away from the lake.
4 Years ago....Dear Farmer and the Wife moved the family out to the farm and they hosted Thanksgiving where 43 family members and friends were present!  They all celebrated being together, grateful that God has made us the wonderful family we are, grateful that God can change hearts, grateful that God is in control of our lives.
3 Years ago....The family was expecting again.  Dear Farmer and the Wife were learning the ebb and flow of life on a farm.  The family was learning the work, the diligence, and the dedication it would take.
2 Years ago... Dear Farmer thought, "This is it!  We have "arrived" and life cannot get any better!" And Dear Farmer and the Wife celebrated their 20th anniversary.
1 Year ago.....The family was expecting again. And the Wife was so grateful that Dear Farmer was a farmer!  And she was grateful that she had learned to love the things he loved, and love the life he loved.  And Dear Farmer was grateful that he had married the girl he had, and that she was a woman that embraced everything that God sent her way and loved him, his children, and his neighbors. It was all good.
Today....Happy Anniversary, my darling Dear Farmer!  He's on the road today picking up the heads of the cattle that just went into the butcher.  The restaurant will buy it all. I'm so glad you love being a farmer...I can't imagine being married to anything else, but YOU, a farmer!

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.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...."

The song gets us in the mood, but no worries, it's not actually snowing here..yet.  As our Nordic-Friend friend keeps reminding us of the countdown...there's only ?? more weeks til it snows!  This means we're in WOOD MODE.  There's a lot of things to do on the farm getting ready for winter, but the top of the family's list is: WOOD.  We burn it for heat.  Yes, we are really sustainable people, but we're also burning wood for heat because we like the house at a mere 80F in the dead of winter...and we're cheap and won't pay that much for propane!  So, off to the woods we go to cut down the dead trees, clean up what's laying on the ground, and get in lots of fresh air and exercise!  It's the process of getting the wood that can be either exciting or a real drag.  The Pied Piper and Shadow of the Farmboy-Trio get the opportunity to put all their graffiti skills to work as they mark each dead tree with brilliant orange paint.  Behind them comes the Honorable Sons, Nordic-Friend, and Dear Farmer with chainsaws and a wood-spliter.  The Farmer's Daughters are in charge of the cleaning and stacking...driving the trailer back and forth with loaded wood and picking up all the dead stuff in the down-time.  It's a whole family affair. And from now until next year it will be happening once a week over here.

Flat Tires...ugh!

A flat tire on a car during road travel is a real inconvenience.  A flat tire on a tractor is a real hassle.  A flat tire on your hay mower-is devastating. Dear Farmer got a flat tire on his hay mower yesterday...
It was the phone call in the middle of the afternoon that alerted the Wife to a difficulty in his workday.  It started with a man on the other end of the phone that sounded really tired...it ended with a "can you pick me up?"  Both Dear Farmer and Wife had a little drag in their step for the rest of the day.  This was not a good day to be put a day behind...the sun was shining, it was a good day for mowing. Dear Farmer had to do other things-basically there is no lack in things to do!
Not people to drag long, it was a pick-me up when Dear Farmer was able to invite a fellow-farmer over for dinner("So, I got a flat tire today, want to come for grilled pork chops?")  see: country hospitality:example B . The next day the tire was fixed, and back on the mower...and it rained.  Now rain...that's a whole 'nother monster!

Comfortable

There is a blonde joke:

Two sisters each had a farm, one blonde, one brunette.
The brunette sister was using the blonde sister's bull.
His job was done, and she needed him gone.
The brunette sister only had enough money to send a one word telegram, thinking it out she decided to send this word "Comfortable".
Confused how the sister was going to understand what she needed to do from just this one word, the telegraph operator asked..."Why will she pick up her bull from that?"
The brunette sister replied, "She will need to sound out the long word slowly...Comm-forr-t-bull"

Don't get down on us for telling the joke, we're all blonde here, and it's a great lead in to what we just did...
We picked up a new bulls this week!  Currently we have two bulls, but a lot of cows.  Actually more cows than just two bulls can handle.  We needed a third bull and some new bloodlines.  We have a great friend down south who has great bulls.  He sold us two of his!
So, Dear Farmer and the Wife packed up the four youngest to ride in the truck with them to go down south and pick up the bulls. The trip took two days of driving and one overnight at a cousin's house.  Six of us riding in one truck for a total of eleven hours is really NOT comfortable, but it was fun!  The young children loved the adventure and the visiting with cousins!  The older children enjoyed the young children and parents being gone for a couple of days.  Peace and calm...then the chaos of life began new and fresh again!

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.

Dear Farmer and Family stop traffic

Yes, you read the title correctly.  No, we didn't go walking out in public, we literally stopped traffic on the road...here's the story...
Dear Farmer ordered equipment, shipping here from Texas.  Should have been here a week ago, and the fields need the (fill in the blank) on them, Dear Farmer was getting antsy.  So, Dear Farmer is out on a date with the Wife (awww) to Menard's and while in the check out line he gets the phone call...equipment is coming on a semi truck at 6pm.  Date, done.  Dear Farmer and the Wife scoot back home to be ready for the semi-truck to come.  He says to the Wife, "Well, our date isn't really over.  We're just re-directing it to the road outside the house.  You can make sure cars stop while I'm on the tractor unloading the equipment."  How romantic, Dear Farmer, Wife, and semi-truck driver...in the middle of the road unloading farming implements.
Upon arrival home, however, the children see Dear Farmer and Wife.  "You're home! You're home!" Is shouted inside the house and out in the yard.  Date, done...officially.  Up onto the instructor seat goes the Little Farmhand.  Looking down, the Wife has a couple very sweet little Farmer's Daughters holding her hands.  Out goes the entourage to the road, the dog and couple cats and a chicken following.
There were no cars while we were awaiting the arrival of the semi-truck, but once he pulled up, suddenly traffic started!  Thankfully, the near-by Veggie Farmer came over and helped stop traffic on one side of the semi (The semi was blocking his driveway, so he really had no choice, but he did help so kindly.  Thank you, Veggie-Man!), while the Wife and Farmer's Daughters stopped traffic on the other side of the semi.  Our usual protocol is: stop car.  make sure it is safe on other side of truck.  allow car to go ahead.  while car passes, smile and wave.  The cars were coming in a steady stream, so we were needing to stop three or four at a time, and alternating directions of traffic, this was quite a task.  The Farmer's Daughters, however, looked too sweet while smiling and waving!  It may have been the Tu-Tu's they were wearing.
About a half hour later, traffic was able to flow freely again, the semi-driver and truck were on their way further north, and Dear Farmer had his implements and was looking forward to using them the very next day.

Country Hospitality: Example A

One example of "country hospitality" is waving at a tractor as you pass it respectfully.  Dear Farmer takes it a step further...whether he's driving a tractor or a truck...he honks and waves to a fellow(s) in the yard. When Dear Farmer and Wife were first married he'd do this as they passed every person while driving down the road. Wife asked Dear Farmer, "Do you know them?" Some he did.  More he didn't.  "Why'd you wave if you don't know them?", Wife asked.  "Well", Dear Farmer replied,"just think about all the fun they'll have trying to figure out who that was waving at them!  I've probably given them enough to talk about for a whole day." This is part of country hospitality: you offering others part of you.  Your humor, your talents, your time.