Farm Rule #100: It's going to be a warm day when: the chickens come up to the house!
At 7am the Wife sighted the first chicken up on the deck. She knew this meant it would be a warm day...
She turned off the furnace and turned on the blowers.
She doubled up wood inside the house so we could get the woodstove piping hot and (hopefully) open windows to get fresh air.
Then she smiled and told Dear Farmer that she was glad that spring is on it's way!
Dear Farmer broke the news to the Wife that the temperature is only to be at 38F today. 38F!!!! That's just above freezing!
But...but...but...the chickens are at the house! That means it's going to be a warm day...is 38F warm?
...maybe it there will be sunshine....
Saturday, February 6, 2016
Friday, February 5, 2016
The Farm-Boys Cut Wood
Today was one of those unusual days this time of year..clear blue sky and enough warmth to make you think spring wasn't so far away.
It was also unusual because we had all our farm-boys home, Honorable Sons 1&2, the Keeper of the Flame, the Pied Piper, and the Farmer's Shadow. The bigger boys had returned home for a day of woodcutting...a labor of love for their parents. The day went smoothly, the little Farm-boy Trio had the opportunity to keep up to the bigger brothers and they had great joy in working with the BIG BOYS.
The wood is stacked in neat rows, enough for the next few weeks.
Later that night we all sat down to dinner together. No electronic devices, just home-cooked food, and home-cooked humor. The dinner table was happy, the house was warm, and the parents were blessed. A truly wonderful way to end the day.
It was also unusual because we had all our farm-boys home, Honorable Sons 1&2, the Keeper of the Flame, the Pied Piper, and the Farmer's Shadow. The bigger boys had returned home for a day of woodcutting...a labor of love for their parents. The day went smoothly, the little Farm-boy Trio had the opportunity to keep up to the bigger brothers and they had great joy in working with the BIG BOYS.
The wood is stacked in neat rows, enough for the next few weeks.
Later that night we all sat down to dinner together. No electronic devices, just home-cooked food, and home-cooked humor. The dinner table was happy, the house was warm, and the parents were blessed. A truly wonderful way to end the day.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Welcome the new Groundhog!
While Dear Farmer was preparing to do chores this afternoon he had the opportunity to witness a "waterbirth" by Yellow tag #1. Of course, this first time mother would choose the day that it's raining, snowing, and icing all at once to give birth to a little calf in a sludge puddle.
Dear Farmer had to get the pair into the barn, which is quite the chore when the weather is as it was, and set up with water and hay.
Dear Farmer, calf and cow were all covered in sludge from head to toe(or hoof),but everyone's now in the barn dry and safe.
The Wife called the calf "Groundhog", appropriate for the day and because we've done this all before.
Dear Farmer had to get the pair into the barn, which is quite the chore when the weather is as it was, and set up with water and hay.
Dear Farmer, calf and cow were all covered in sludge from head to toe(or hoof),but everyone's now in the barn dry and safe.
The Wife called the calf "Groundhog", appropriate for the day and because we've done this all before.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Farm-Boys Do Not Clean a Bedroom
Go ahead and tell the Wife all you want to about making boys clean their own bedrooms...it's nothing she hasn't told herself....however, the Farm-Boy Trio's bedroom was so BAD there was just no way she was going to ask for, require, or wanted their help. The bedroom needed an adult size heart of a prison guard, the adult size muscles, and a mother's love.
Just to give you a little taste of what the Wife has found in the Farm-Boys' bedroom in the past, here's the ugly side:
What kind of mother are you? A mother who has happy healthy children, who had a disgusting bedroom.
So now the Wife gave the Farm-Boy Trio the choice, "You may go outside and play with your goats, or work next to me cleaning your disgusting bedroom."
The choice was unanimous to go outside. And for the entire four hours that it took the Wife to clean the bedroom spotlessly wonderful, the Farm-Boy Trio played outside with their goats. The goats loved the attention, the Wife loved the solace of peace while cleaning, and the Farm-Boy Trio loves the clean bedroom. No disgusting discoveries were made during the cleaning this time...and once again the Wife is on the war path that the bedroom should NEVER look like that again!
Just to give you a little taste of what the Wife has found in the Farm-Boys' bedroom in the past, here's the ugly side:
- a dead vole in a jar under a bed-pillow (which the Wife was told, it's not dead, it's just sleeping)
- molded chimichangas stuffed under the bed (when did we last eat chimichanga's???)
- hardened banana peels in the closet
- underwear worn by a boy who didn't make it to the bathroom soon enough...under the pile of clean clothes.
- dead worms (they assured the Wife they were dead and dried when they came into the room, it was a scientific discovery)
What kind of mother are you? A mother who has happy healthy children, who had a disgusting bedroom.
So now the Wife gave the Farm-Boy Trio the choice, "You may go outside and play with your goats, or work next to me cleaning your disgusting bedroom."
The choice was unanimous to go outside. And for the entire four hours that it took the Wife to clean the bedroom spotlessly wonderful, the Farm-Boy Trio played outside with their goats. The goats loved the attention, the Wife loved the solace of peace while cleaning, and the Farm-Boy Trio loves the clean bedroom. No disgusting discoveries were made during the cleaning this time...and once again the Wife is on the war path that the bedroom should NEVER look like that again!
Friday, January 29, 2016
To Be Industrious
Farming and the character trait of Industriousness go hand in hand. Did you know that?
The Wife had first discovered this during childhood while talking with her Grandma the Amazing Farm Wife. When Grandma, while hanging laundry on the line, said,"A gardener doesn't go hungry. It's hard work, but it feeds the family when others might go without." She had said this to The Wife when she lived in town. Her garden consumed the entire side of the corner lot the house sat on, and it also shared the space with the walkway from the ally and the clothesline. Looking back, it was a Norman Rockwell moment, but at the time, it was just barely appreciated. One simple sentence and it planted the seed of Industriousness in The Wife for the rest of her life.
Living on the farm now we have no choice but to be industrious at times...the cows got out and there was no gate to block the road, we had to figure out how to make three people seem like a very large deterrence at the road side...things like this happen often enough to make you prepared at a moment's notice.
Then there's times that we choose to be industrious...to heat with wood, to milk a goat, to make soap, or to boil down bones for broth.
We see our children taking industriousness to the next level...knitting hats, gloves, dishcloths, crocheting blankets, stuffed animals, and slippers, making gifts with wood and nails, and training goats to pack-goat so they don't have to carry the heavy loads.
Recently we spent time with our Uncle Intelligentsia and his wife, Aunt Intelligentsia. It was fantastic to hear Aunt Intelligentsia tell us of her process to insure the city where they live in be educated and funded for the community garden project. She has had to be Industrious to see healthy lives restored even in the city.
It's not easy, not always fun, sometimes barely appreciated...but it will change lives for generations.
The "Polar Bear" puppy and Farmer's Daughter
The Farmer's Daughter became the caretaker of the the "Polar Bear" puppy-a Great Pyrenees- the moment she saw it. The puppy, at nine weeks, was the size of our full-grown Australian Shepherd. She was instantly in love. Affectionately referred to as the "Polar Bear" this pup is playful, smart, and a self-thinker.
The Farmer's Daughter has been taking her for regular walks around the perimeter of the farm property. The two have a grand time. As the Polar Bear is so large, her strides are pretty big as well, so she keeps up with or exceeds the strides of the Farmer's Daughter, the walk is done in a relatively short time.
Currently, because it is wintertime, the fields are damp enough to have created ice intermixed with the snow. The Farmer's Daughter, while on the walk today, slipped on the ice and landed flat on her back. The Polar Bear saw the Farmer's Daughter down on the ground behind her. The Polar Bear stopped, picked up the end of the leash that the Farmer's Daughter would hold, walked it over to the Farmer's Daughter(still on the ground), and licked her face as if to say "Get up and let's keep going!" The Farmer's Daughter is thrilled! This was proof positive for her that there is a relationship between the two(girl and dog) and that the Polar Bear will be a good guardian dog for the farm. Ahh, if we only could all have a Polar Bear in our lives...
The Farmer's Daughter has been taking her for regular walks around the perimeter of the farm property. The two have a grand time. As the Polar Bear is so large, her strides are pretty big as well, so she keeps up with or exceeds the strides of the Farmer's Daughter, the walk is done in a relatively short time.
Currently, because it is wintertime, the fields are damp enough to have created ice intermixed with the snow. The Farmer's Daughter, while on the walk today, slipped on the ice and landed flat on her back. The Polar Bear saw the Farmer's Daughter down on the ground behind her. The Polar Bear stopped, picked up the end of the leash that the Farmer's Daughter would hold, walked it over to the Farmer's Daughter(still on the ground), and licked her face as if to say "Get up and let's keep going!" The Farmer's Daughter is thrilled! This was proof positive for her that there is a relationship between the two(girl and dog) and that the Polar Bear will be a good guardian dog for the farm. Ahh, if we only could all have a Polar Bear in our lives...
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
The Farmer's Daughters' Bedroom.
It's a never ending cycle, and worse in the wintertime than the summertime. House cleaning. More specifically...bedroom cleaning.
Some days the bedrooms look like the destruction of the third World War, some days it's just more of a laundry explosion. It all depends on how cold it is outside.
If it's VERY cold outside, it's the latter rather than the former.
We are constantly cleaning bedrooms.
Organizational tools are for bedrooms that only have one or two children in them. The Farmer's Daughters are in a large room together. That's six daughters in one bedroom the size of the living room. First of all, that's a lot of girls/hormones in one room. Second, that's a lot of stuff in a room. Thirdly, that's a lot of laundry in a room.
The Farmer's Daughters do a great job of organizing...but the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio, they don't read. Labels are stickers waiting to be peeled off. Bins look pretty-especially when emptied all over the floor and used to place blankets in lovingly for doll beds. Folded laundry is for wimps that don't have a little sister to hide more important things from.
So organizing has flown out the window for the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio. Instead we have streamlined their laundry and belongings in the bedroom. Sounds nice, but now we have the issue of the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio getting into the belongings of the Bigger Farmer's Daughter Trio.
The Eldest Farmer's Daughter solved her problems by taking over the walk-in closet...she's made it her bedroom, it has a door with a lock on it. All her stuff, her bed, her dresser and herself fit very neatly into the closet. And when she comes out of the closet every day-she doesn't care that she's brunt of her brothers' joke because she and her stuff are all safe from little hands.
The Haus Frau and WhizBang! Farmer's Daughters have the brunt of the little sisters now. They have devised a method to keep the little sisters on their toes and out of their stuff. Ever played "Hide and Go Seek"?
Their organization is very similar to finding the needle in the haystack. Laundry is shoved in drawers and under beds, hanging from baskets and in hooks. Prize possessions are given homes each week. Keeping them on the move keeps the little sisters from finding and raiding them-candy, Ipods, lotion, and chapstick-these are a few of our favorite things.
Heaven help us if someone can't remember where the electronic device was moved to this week. The hormonal meltdown is equal to a nuclear reactor detonating.
Going off The Wife's Mother's rule when she was a child ("I need a path from the door to your bed.") is the beginning of cleaning the room. If The Wife says this to the Farmer's Daughters they know that the next day will be cleaning the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio Quadrant, followed by the next day of the Farmer's Daughter cleaning out her closet/room, and so on and so forth. By day five, it should all be clean and we can relax on day six. To make the mess again, and begin the whole process all over again the next week.
O the joy.
Someday all the Farmer's Daughters will look back on having shared a room together with fondness and laughter. Someday the Farmer's Daughters will use the same phrases their mother used and her mother used and I might think her mother had used..."If you can't find a place for it, don't keep it!", "Make a path from your bed to the door." You know those, maybe you use them too. Someday the Farmer's Daughters will have clean bedrooms.
Some days the bedrooms look like the destruction of the third World War, some days it's just more of a laundry explosion. It all depends on how cold it is outside.
If it's VERY cold outside, it's the latter rather than the former.
We are constantly cleaning bedrooms.
Organizational tools are for bedrooms that only have one or two children in them. The Farmer's Daughters are in a large room together. That's six daughters in one bedroom the size of the living room. First of all, that's a lot of girls/hormones in one room. Second, that's a lot of stuff in a room. Thirdly, that's a lot of laundry in a room.
The Farmer's Daughters do a great job of organizing...but the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio, they don't read. Labels are stickers waiting to be peeled off. Bins look pretty-especially when emptied all over the floor and used to place blankets in lovingly for doll beds. Folded laundry is for wimps that don't have a little sister to hide more important things from.
So organizing has flown out the window for the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio. Instead we have streamlined their laundry and belongings in the bedroom. Sounds nice, but now we have the issue of the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio getting into the belongings of the Bigger Farmer's Daughter Trio.
The Eldest Farmer's Daughter solved her problems by taking over the walk-in closet...she's made it her bedroom, it has a door with a lock on it. All her stuff, her bed, her dresser and herself fit very neatly into the closet. And when she comes out of the closet every day-she doesn't care that she's brunt of her brothers' joke because she and her stuff are all safe from little hands.
The Haus Frau and WhizBang! Farmer's Daughters have the brunt of the little sisters now. They have devised a method to keep the little sisters on their toes and out of their stuff. Ever played "Hide and Go Seek"?
Their organization is very similar to finding the needle in the haystack. Laundry is shoved in drawers and under beds, hanging from baskets and in hooks. Prize possessions are given homes each week. Keeping them on the move keeps the little sisters from finding and raiding them-candy, Ipods, lotion, and chapstick-these are a few of our favorite things.
Heaven help us if someone can't remember where the electronic device was moved to this week. The hormonal meltdown is equal to a nuclear reactor detonating.
Going off The Wife's Mother's rule when she was a child ("I need a path from the door to your bed.") is the beginning of cleaning the room. If The Wife says this to the Farmer's Daughters they know that the next day will be cleaning the Smallest Farmer's Daughter Trio Quadrant, followed by the next day of the Farmer's Daughter cleaning out her closet/room, and so on and so forth. By day five, it should all be clean and we can relax on day six. To make the mess again, and begin the whole process all over again the next week.
O the joy.
Someday all the Farmer's Daughters will look back on having shared a room together with fondness and laughter. Someday the Farmer's Daughters will use the same phrases their mother used and her mother used and I might think her mother had used..."If you can't find a place for it, don't keep it!", "Make a path from your bed to the door." You know those, maybe you use them too. Someday the Farmer's Daughters will have clean bedrooms.
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