Late-Night Hay Feeding

Dear Farmer was all in a tizzy...rain was coming!
 Lots of rain, over a relatively short time, makes the fields very sloppy for the tractor.
Sloppy for the Farmer.
Sloppy for the feeding process.
Dear Farmer HAD to get fifteen very large square bales out into the fields before the rain came and he would not be able to traverse the tractor-path due to rain.
Hooking up to the hay-forks and loading a helper(WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter) onto the tractor, out they went....two bales at a time...this means they would need to make ten trips to get the cows the needed fourteen bales of hay and three new-to-us feeders into the fields.
They started the process at four-thirty in the afternoon. Tractors don't move very fast.  The process of just picking up two bales can be time consuming.
By five the rain started coming. Little drops can feel really big when you're in an open cab riding in the open fields.
By five-thirty the temperatures started dropping. The two made a quick dash inside for winter coats and gear.  They were feeling the cold chill quick!
By six in the evening the wind kicked up. They were on trip six and just hoping to get in before...
By six-fifteen it was pretty dark.
By six-thirty it was dark and the family was sitting down to dinner...feeling a little bad that we were eating grilled pork chops(Dear Farmer's favorite meal) and he was still on a tractor working. DONE!  Now they just had to park the tractor back down at the machine shed and walk back home in the cold, dark, rain.
Dear Farmer and the WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter sat down to dinner.  We had the food warm, the woodstove hot, and the fellowship lively.
Dear Farmer won't be doing that one again soon.  He can sit back and enjoy the rain...

Burning Stumps

The Keeper of the Flame was less than thrilled when Dear Farmer told him it was nice weather to burn stumps.  Stump burning is endless days of watching the smoldering stump and raking out the old ash so it will keep burning. The object is to burn the stump gone.
The Keeper of the Flame, rather heartlessly, asked Dear Farmer when he should start.
He asked in front of the Nordic Ninja, who suddenly got very excited!
"Stump burning?!", the Nordic Ninja asked, "When are we stump burning?!" He was practically jumping up and down!  The Keeper of the Flame had no idea why the Nordic Ninja could be so excited???

What was so great about endless days of stump burning???

Then the Keeper of the Flame found out how the BIG BOYS burn stumps.
First they rip them out of the ground with a chain and a tractor.
Then they haul them all over to the pit in clearing of the edge of the field.
They douse the whole thing with a little "love", and throw in a match!
WHOOSH!

We have bonfire stump burning.

The Keeper of the Flame may never see stump burning in the same light again...all the more reason to grow up faster!
The Wife and littles supplied all the s'more fixings, and life is good!
The Keeper of the Flame is in love with the stump burning tonight.

The Family Question of the Night...the Wednesday Night Special

Dear Farmer was asked a question tonight at dinner..."Who has been the biggest influence in your life?"

He looked around the table.  The whole family was there.  Something that doesn't happen often enough anymore...
There was a time when it was just Dear Farmer and the Wife.  They dreamed about winning the lottery. Two people with a million dollars, they had it spent!  Alas, they never had a ticket, it was all just a dream.

Scrimping and saving.
Giving and living without.
Rejection of "wants and desires", but the joys of each need being filled.

Somehow, year by year, the most important thing became Family.  

Each set of eyes staring back at him were a monument to a time when he learned,
  a time when he sacrificed,
           a time when he overcame!

He was blessed by each one of those children countless times.
         More than they will ever know.
                  Not until they are parents, will they understand....it was worth it all!

He'd do it all again...the scrimping and saving,
                                                    the giving,
                                               the living without,
                     the never-having-it-all, but the just-having-enough...
                                                                                        he'd do it all again in a heartbeat!

Dear Farmer's answer was perfect..."Your Mother.  Without her, none of you would be here."


I Love this Farmer!!!

Buying Fencing...or...The Reason Dear Farmer Takes His Wife Shopping

So off to the local farm supply store Dear Farmer and the Wife go!  It's date-night!

On the list: goat oats, new collar for polar bear(she's chewed off the other), and...fencing.

About three seconds outside the store the Wife realizes...she forgot her phone at home.

"Ugh!", says Dear Farmer, "Why do you even HAVE a phone?!"(This is a mute argument, everyone knows Wives have phones so they can leave them where they are not.)

The Wife says to Dear Farmer, "Don't worry.  I'm a big girl! I can handle the farm supply store.  I'll get what I need for the goats and the polar bear and I'll meet you in the fencing supply."

And so off they separate.

Dear Farmer goes off to the fencing supply.

The Wife detours to the kitchen gadgets, then rounds the corner to the canning supplies, over to the shoes...boots...children's boots...looks for all the sizes for the children who are needing shoes, realizes the boots cost more than she is willing to spend...over to the clearance racks for clothing..., down past the baby clothes(that are so darn cute!  do we know anyone that is having a baby???), through all the garden supplies, checking out the seeds, meanders through the paint department(to grab some colors that she'll never get to paint, but wouldn't it be nice to dream), through the hunting section, over to the bikes, and the books, and the dog toys....picks up the collar for the polar bear, picks up the goats oats, and turns to the fencing...
where she finds Dear Farmer.

It's been an hour.

 Dear Farmer is staring at a computer screen.
This is where he's to order the fence.
There's no one around to help him work the computer.
 He looks at the Wife and growls, "I hate technology!  I've been messing with this screen and I can't get it to the stuff I want!"

The Wife has two choices: Do it herself or find an associate.
She opts for the associate.
Over one aisle she finds an associate and explains a farmer needs his help.
 He doesn't look surprised.

Dear Farmer tells the associate what he needs.  The associate finds it, makes the screen work just fine, asks Dear Farmer if there is anything else he can help him with, and prints out the needed papers for the check out.  Dear Farmer laughs with the associate about the "good ol' days" when a person spoke to another person and they handed them what they needed.  The associate smiles and nods, then walks away...Dear Farmer figures the associate must be about twelve, "Had no idea what I was talking about.", he says.

Dear Farmer and the Wife go to the check out.

The cashier checks them out, she's about twelve as well.
They hand the cashier cash.
She looks at Dear Farmer almost sympathetically as she asks if he would like to open a credit card with the store.
Dear Farmer replies a solid, "No."
The cashier has to inspect the bills, draw on them with a marker, and then the computer tells her exactly what change to hand back.
She didn't have to do any math.

Dear Farmer and the Wife drive away with everything on the list.  Most importantly the fencing...

On the way home the conversation is about how young everyone in looks these days, and how young the police officers are(do their mothers know they carry guns?!).  They laugh about the not having to do math, and the credit card offers.  They giggle about the computers that aren't Dear Farmer's friends.

It's the fun of the evening...it's the lighter side of a boring activity...it's life...Dear Farmer's life.

Waiting for the Rain

Every day, without fail, Dear Farmer is checking the weather. Using his instinct as a farmer, his skills as an untrained meteorological professional, and the ache in his sinus cavity: he interprets the various websites that predict weather, reads the forecast in the farmer's almanac, and watches the animals.

The old-saying is true...cows will lay down when it's going to rain.
The cows feel the change in the pressure system, and when it gets too heavy, they lay down(probably because of the throbbing headache...have you seen the size of a cows sinus cavity?).  So usually we see the cows lay down, and then they get up-move to high ground, and the rain starts.

The goats will smell the rain coming and run inside the barn.  Goats hate to get wet.

Our farm dogs will beg to come inside.  They are wimps when it comes to rain.  One of our dogs will hide in the hallway...the sound of the rain on the metal roof scares her.

Dear Farmer hasn't started to ache in a joint or "feel it in his bones"...but he does get it right more often than the weatherman.

Dear Farmer is Inside Too Long

The snow returned for it's last few appearances before spring.  It throws the whole family into a "tizzy".  First of all, we can no longer find half the gloves.  Secondly, no one is really excited about playing in the white stuff AGAIN.  Lastly, Dear Farmer is anxious to get on with spring preparations, and it places everything he wants to do on 'HOLD'.
When Dear Farmer has to 'hold' for the snow to melt away, it usually means he has to do paperwork.  Because he's done everything else there could possibly be to do.
And Dear Farmer would rather not do paperwork.  Ever.
On days when paperwork is inevitable morning chores takes a lot longer. And then Dear Farmer
d-r-a-g-s himself inside.
Dear Farmer drinks about two pots of coffee.
Snuggles the littles.
Gets the biggers moving.
Eats breakfast.
Fiddles with the woodstove.
Makes several laps through the house commenting of the deplorable amount of stuff this family has.
And finally makes it into his office to sit down and do paperwork.
Then he spends hours as a caged animal in the office.
We hear thumping and grumping, the occasional bark.
By the fifth time that he's asked "When's lunch?" and it's only ten o'clock in the morning...we know it's going to be a long day.
So, here is the conclusion we have drawn: Dear Farmer doesn't like paperwork.  We had a pretty good idea before, but now we are sure.
Also, Dear Farmer needs to be outside where there are no walls, the scenery is constantly changing, and the jobs are endless(unless there's snow and ice mix with windchill temperatures in the single digits or lower).
We are all anxious for the spring-like weather to reappear, so that Dear Farmer can go about being the happy farmer we prefer.

Scrubbing Out the Muck Boots

When was the last time you had on your "to do" list...scrub out children's muck boots. ????
It ended up on the top of my list today.  I'm not exactly sure how that happened, I was doing a pretty good job of making sure that there were more important things to do all the time.
But I had it there...and the children saw it...and they expected me to do it....ugh.  Thankfully it was a nice day...
The Wife dug in.  The children were no where to be found.  It was nasty! Inside the boots were muck, mud, leaves, twigs, bugs, and I think I saw a frog-leg...
But now they are clean! Well...one pair is clean.  Four more pairs to go.
There will be a lecture soon: What Muck Boots Are For
One would think it would be a "no-brainer"...well, apparently not for my children...