June 28, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 5 Comments
I have to have hay to feed my animals this winter. We planted a buffer strip around most of the corn field, we have the waterways, and we want to make hay on one or two of the back hills. We have this underway, but we have the issue of how to get through the corn field to make the hay.
Plan A
This was our first plan. It is very simple. Put a driveway from the gravel road to the start of the buffer strip just north of my yard. The hay strip is right there. Good plan. This would also be a wide enough drive to get the combine into the corn field this fall.
I want to do things properly, so we filled out our application with the county engineer mid-March. I talked to the engineer in April, and he wasn’t sure we’d be able to do it. We’re supposed to have 500 feet between drives, and we didn’t. There was a culvert right next to it. He’d have to check and see how far down the road was visible, and he’d get back to me.
Finally, this morning I called the engineer back again and they finally came out to check the sight distance after I called. The sight distance wasn’t the required 500 feet. You can only see 350 feet. He did however mark a new location where we could put our driveway.
The red flag is the center of his proposed drive. Ours was down by the tree line. We’d just have to take out some of the corn to reach the hay. Also, we want to mow tomorrow, so Plan A is on hold until next year. Then we’ll extend the hay strip to reach the driveway.
Plan B
Since we were waiting so long to hear back from the engineer, we came up with an alternate plan. It is a two-part plan: one for corn, and one for hay. To get to the corn, we would go through the existing drive up the road from where we proposed our new drive.
The only problem with this plan is how to get from the drive to the corn field. That requires us to remove the trailer.
Think the combine will fit otherwise? Nope, it will go through right where the trailer is sitting to the right of the cedar trees. The other half of plan B makes us go up to the corner and take a left to the first drive.
This drive goes into the corn field, but it isn’t wide enough for the combine. We can get everything through to make hay. The only problem was an entire corn field before we got to the hay. To solve that problem, we extended the waterway to come all the way up to the drive.
You can see the tracks where I’ve driven through there with the Ranger to go back to the pasture to work on fence or up to the orchard. This waterway connects with another and the buffer strip connects to it also. This is a great plan if we hadn’t had nearly ten inches of rain in the last month. There is no way we could get a full hay rack out this way. It will probably be August before it’s dry. This means Plan C.
Plan C
Plan C starts the same way as Plan B. There is no difference for the corn. However, to get to the buffer strip, we start by driving in my driveway and going into my barnyard.
Then we open the gate into my little pasture. Oh, I have to lock the boys in their small pen, so I can keep them and the girls separated. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the girls. Maybe I can put a panel back and have them in the little pasture. Then we open that silver gate and go into the other side of the barnyard. Something of a tight turn, but hopefully we can make it without getting stuck or sliding on the hill.
The barnyard is still quite rough from where we put the water line in. Jeremy did come back and fix it up some, but there is still more to improve. This should be fun with a tractor pulling a hay rack.
Then, we go through the next opening. Remains of a building and junk on one side. Remains of a gate and fence on the other. Looks like we might have to remove some of the junk from where they replaced the fence and stacked the junk.
This part is also very rough. Just one more turn. Remove the post in the middle, remove the panel that makes the lane, and we’re in the hay buffer strip!
See all that grass and oats in front of the corn behind the panel. It’s begging to be cut and made into hay. For the first time since April, we have six days or so without rain in the forecast. We have to make hay this week. Tomorrow, Jeremy is planning on coming out and mowing a small area around the building up north, the buffer strip, as much of the waterways as he can, and part of a back hill, all to be turned into little square bales for my animals.
Plan D
Another year of buying hay instead of making my own.
I’m hoping I can stick with Plan C because I really don’t like Plan D.
June 27, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 5 Comments
No yard goats. I keep saying it.
Why don’t they listen?
Fine. I give up. We have yard goats.
June 26, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 2 Comments
Mom and I decided to see if the raspberries were ripe today. We went to our usual picking place, the bike trail. It used to be a railroad right of way that was cow pasture. That’s when we first started picking there. Then they made it into a bike trail and opened it to the public. We still pick there. This year, we didn’t find much. There were a few nice ones, but mostly we found mosquitoes.
With all the rain we’ve had, there were also a lot of weeds on the side of the trail that is supposed to be dirt for horseback riding. It was a bit swampy. I made Mom go across first. Again, we found some, but most of the branches didn’t look like they were even making raspberries this year. It makes me wonder if they mowed the side of the ditches to try and control the weeds, which means there wouldn’t be many second year branches to produce berries.
The water was only ankle deep. I joined her, and after climbing to the top of the steep sides and working really hard, I was sure our bucket would be full. Well, it mostly covered the bottom of the bucket. Walking back to the beginning of the trail was a lot longer than the walk in. I think it was the water squishing from our shoes and socks that made it so much longer.
We decided to give up in the bike trail and try my new pasture. We took the Ranger back by the orchard. Wow, it’s wet. We were really sliding through the water. When we started walking, I was still squishing in my shoes (Mom got dry ones). I think I sweated all my bug spray off, so I had to reapply that.
Why is it the raspberries, gooseberries, and rose bushes always seems to grow together? The raspberries weren’t too mean, but those rose bushes really attack. I will not lie, there was some loss of blood. We did find a lot of raspberry bushes too, but the berries were in various stages of ripeness.
We went along the south fence. Then we followed a drainage ditch. Then we took the Ranger around to the other side of the ditch and checked that fence row and along the ditch over there. Right now, the grass is really tall with ripe seed heads. When we drive through them, it sends the seeds flying into the Ranger. I think I carried enough seed home in my shoes, socks and bra to seed a small suburban yard.
Along with finding raspberries, we also heard a lot of different birds. One sounded like a baby crying, and I have no idea what kind it was. There were the usual red-winged blackbirds and a wren or two. We have a lot of black-eyed-Susan’s growing out there, along with goldenrod. We also saw a yellow dragonfly. I hadn’t seen one this color before.
It will probably be better picking in another day or so. There were tons that were just starting to turn black. At least now we know exactly where to go for the best picking (not the bike trail), and we can avoid a lot of the up and down the hills walking. It wasn’t a bust today. We did pick a lot and mostly filled the bucket. We decided that would be enough for today, so home we went!
I got the fun task of cleaning them. This was about the worst batch of raspberries to clean ever. It’s not the usual problem. I found only one or two bugs in the whole bucket, although I did almost drown a spider (don’t worry, full recovery and release). It wasn’t that they are wild raspberries, so they are smaller. Nope. Remember all the little grass seeds that were flying into the Ranger. They also filled the bucket. They were very, very difficult to remove. But, finally, I did manage to get them cleaned.
I admit, raspberries are my favorite. I’m thinking raspberry jam, raspberry applesauce, and raspberry yogurt. I definitely want to go back and pick more in another day or two. I will do one thing differently, though. I will certainly take a lid for my bucket. Then they will be some of the easiest raspberries to clean, at least until my nice domesticated raspberries are ready.
June 25, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - Comments Off
Hayfield in late June.
Dragonfly rests on a stick.
A hot afternoon.
June 24, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 2 Comments
I’ve been spending a lot of time working on the trailer. I hate to put any more of those nasty pictures on my blog though. Last time, I had to put two days worth of cute pictures on here just to make up for all the gross. I guess I can write about the gross stuff if I sprinkle cute pictures throughout. Here we go.
We worked on moving more of the railroad ties. There were a lot of them because they used them to frame their driveway and flower beds and just in front of the trailer. Jeremy brought the backhoe in to get them dug out a lot easier than Dad using the pry bar. It made kind of a mess though, so we’ll have to try and smooth the ground out a bit. Some of those ties were really getting buried.
The barn swallows are getting bigger. I hope they leave the nest soon. Dad said they sat there and peeked over the nest while he was removing a door. Then, he went the other direction and worked away from them. Mom Barnswallow is in and out the window constantly, and she’s none to nice in her comments to us. (At least this cute picture really comes from the trailer.)
I figure by the time we finish, I’ll have single handedly moved the entire trailer. Dad breaks things into little pieces, and I pile them. There are quite a few piles. There’s one for things that get burned. There’s a pile of boards that need cleaned so they can be reused. There’s a pile of metal, tin, aluminum, and steel, that will be recycled. There’s a pile that goes to the landfill. There’s an appliance pile. Then there’s my favorite pile, the pile of stuff I don’t know what to do with it until someone smarter tells me where to put it.
Generally, I measure how things are going by the amount of talking and swearing I hear coming out of the open door while I’m making my trip to the burn pile. If things are going well, all I hear is the pounding of the hammer or the whirring of the electric drill. Occasionally, I’ll hear Dad’s conversation with himself, just trying to figure out how things are attached or what he needs to get things taken apart. When the swearing starts, I know it’s time to make another trip outside. Eventually, everything will come apart and it will all be good.
Other than the bathroom where the nest is located, the walls are pretty much gone. Our next step is to get rid of the appliances, put the insulation in bags to be reused, and then get rid of the carpet followed by the ceiling. After that, we can start outside.
I must admit, this reminds me of a lot of summers from my childhood. When we were growing up, my dad would have us work with him tearing down or remodeling houses. I was pretty young when we started, but we could beat plaster off the walls or pick up junk or just keep track of Dad’s tools.
By the time I was in sixth grade, Dad had gone from remodeling to deciding to build a house all on his own. I remember back then, in our little town, we’d ride our bikes with an ice cream bucket on the front to take Dad and Grandpa a beer. Can you imagine that happening now?
Anyhow, he used lumber from the houses we’d torn down to frame the house. When finished, he only used four new boards in the entire frame of the house. He joked that it was the oldest new house in town!
June 23, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 7 Comments
It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned some of the animals, so I thought I’d let you see how they have grown or changed. Let’s start with Thunder. It’s been quite some time since I’ve mentioned the cattle. With the extra thirty some acres, I don’t see them as much. With the warmer weather, they’ve been coming up to lay in the barn some. Here he is.
He is a Gelbvieh Angus cross. I would hate to try to pet him because he’s not very tame after spending his whole life in the pasture. He did try to play with Scarlet and her kids the other day. Poor Scarlet was petrified! Here she is with her whole herd of kids.
They are all growing and bouncing a lot. Poor Scarlet spends most of her time eating and stepping over kids trying to nurse. Misty, with the Entropion Eye is looking great. You can’t tell there was ever anything wrong with her.
The goslings have reached the gangly stage.
I have somehow managed to miss some eggs again. The same white Chinese goose is sitting on the nest again. Oh my, I really don’t need more goslings hatching. I found another nest where nobody had started sitting and emptied it out again. I really thought they were done laying for the year.
The kid who’s birth I featured is growing up already. Sparkle looks like she’s trying to be the flying nun!
For some reason the two peahens are have a battle over the nest. One stole all the eggs, and now they’ve split the eggs up again, but they are almost on top of one another. The way they are going, it’s going to be a miracle if any of them hatch. Guess we’ll see.
The peacock seems to have settled in quite well. He gets a bit naughty with the ducks and chickens occasionally, but overall, he seems to be doing well. I can hardly wait until he gets his adult tail next year. His bright blue is just amazing.
Flower and Bud are growing. They are giant nuisances. They slip through the fence into the yard. They try to “help” with chores or anything else I might be doing. They constantly want attention–in other words normal bottle babies. They are awfully sweet and love to snuggle. The problem I still have is feeding them. We switched from real milk to replacer and got through the messy poo. They never liked the milk replacer, and all of a sudden they seem to be eating just occasionally. I think Mabel must have enough milk to feed one of them off and on. As a result, Flower is back to scours because of the change in diet again. Poor babies.
Notice when I was going to take a picture of Flower, Bud had to make sure he got in the shot too.
I don’t think I’ve ever posted about these hens to need to update their progress, but I just like the first hen. She is the only girl from a batch of eggs school kids hatched. Rooster Boy that likes to attack people and guard kids is another one of the school hatches.
The second hen is simply a picture I liked. The crested ones are so cute!
June 22, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 3 Comments
Today was quite warm. I push mowed the yard while the heat index was 98 degrees. The humidity was 68 and the dew point was 73. Basically, it was tropical. After finishing the yard, I decided to take a break and take some pictures. I decided to switch lenses on my camera. I got my old lens out. I purchased it many years ago for my last film camera. I love this lens. It is a Quantaray 28 – 200 zoom lens. It works with my digital camera, but it doesn’t autofocus. That makes it hard to use when I need a hand available or it is dark or pure black or white animals or when my subject is moving rapidly (i.e. kids). I absolutely love the clarity of picture I get with the lens. Here are some of the pictures I took while playing today.
Bob was taking a nap in the flower bed. He doesn’t pose for me very often, but when he does, it is just adorable.
The coreopsis are blooming. I just love the dainty flowers they have.
Millie’s daughter Bambi has quite the ears.
The barn swallow was not too happy about me taking pictures, but she did sit for me.
The mallow is one of my favorite flowers. I’m glad they self-seed so easily. It makes them very good for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time on the flower beds.
Rooster Boy was naughty today. I didn’t dare turn my back on him.
You know it’s hot when neither Stella nor the toad want to leave their spot under the deck.
The apples are really starting to get big now. I can hardly wait for them to be ripe this fall.
How can tomato plants smell so bad and have such pretty little flowers?
The first coneflower of the year is open. This was fun. I might just have to take some time tomorrow to enjoy my surroundings again.
June 21, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 1 Comment
Yesterday was father’s day. It’s a time when we should get together and spend some quality time with our father. Well, Dad and I spent several hours bonding as we began gutting the trailer house. Isn’t it lovely?
And the inside is just as nice. Here’s the kitchen. As soon as you open the front door, you see a closet directly in front of you. That is just to the left of the refrigerator.
This is the area we started clearing out first. This is looking in from the door. The closet is gone; the refrigerator is gone; and the cupboards are starting to disappear. Dad would tear things up, and I would haul them out of the building. He did tell me to watch out for the hole by the front door. I was confused.
Did he mean this giant hole where some animal dug just in front of the steps,
or was it the hole in the floor of the trailer that he was concerned with.
He did say it was the one in the trailer. Heck, that one is tiny compared to all the other gaping holes in the floor by the bathroom.
The other side of the kitchen was mostly appliances and cupboards, but it all has to go.
The cupboards are gone. The stove is unhooked down to the floor. We even got some insulation and paneling removed.
Then we started the other direction. We made progress with the paneling. Notice all the 2x4s. They will be used to rebuild the Love Shack for my goats.
Next was the wall between the living room and the bedroom. We haven’t figured out what all the boxes on the floor were for.
Look, the wall is gone!
We did actually get quite a bit down. We did also have to serve an eviction notice. A mom and her five babies. Not to worry though because I think the babies will be flying the coop soon.
One had to sit on top of the others because there is not enough room.
They will be long gone before we get to the bathroom. What a wonderful day of bonding with my good ole dad!
June 20, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - 3 Comments
I have been cleaning cherries the last couple of days. So far, we’ve picked about six gallons of cherries from my sister’s one dwarf cherry tree. It’s quite the productive little guy. I figure two ice cream buckets is enough for one day. That is enough to fill most of the day with pitting cherries. We’ll see if I get back there to pick the rest.
Yesterday morning, as I began cleaning, I found myself becoming more relaxed than I had been all this summer break so far. Pick up a cherry, slit it with the knife, pop out the pit, cherry to the right, pit to the left. There was an easy rhythm as I continued this over and over. The repetitive nature of the task is usually what makes it a chore, but not this time. I became aware of how quiet the house was. In the background I could hear the gurgling of the aquarium. There was the occasional honk from the geese, the clicking of the dog’s toenails on the linoleum. Mostly, it was incredibly quiet, and the rhythm of pick up a cherry, slit it with the knife, pop out the pit, cherry to the right, pit to the left was strangely calming.
While repeating this pattern, I realized that I was happy and doing exactly what I wanted. It is amazing to realize that there is nothing you would rather be doing than the task in front of you. While pitting cherries is really a small, menial task, it is a one step in the larger plan. With these cherries, I’m taking another step closer to creating my on farm market. I’ve already made cherry jam to go with my strawberry and strawberry rhubarb jams. I also have an order to fill for three jars of my cherry jam.
Knowing that my work is bringing me closer to my dreams, I kept it up. Pick up a cherry, slit it with the knife, pop out the pit, cherry to the right, pit to the left. As I worked, I could clearly visualize the building I want to put up. I could see the neatly landscaped flower gardens with picnic tables and benches for people to sit and enjoy the gardens. I could hear the music of a live band on a summer evening. I could see the petting zoo with my friendly goats and chickens and geese and whatever animals I might acquire along the way.
The stress melted away with each repetition. Pick up a cherry, slit it with the knife, pop out the pit, cherry to the right, pit to the left. I could feel the measurement of time changing from school days and days until spring break to the passing of the seasons: kidding season, strawberry season, cherry season, harvest season, canning season, on and on in an endless cycle. I bagged and froze the cherries in quart bags to be used for perfecting the recipe for “Chapel” wine.
I froze bags already chopped to make more jam. I collected the juice, and I’ve made one batch of cherry jelly. I have more frozen to make another batch. Pick up a cherry, slit it with the knife, pop out the pit, cherry to the right, pit to the left. The possibilities are limitless with the cherries I’m cleaning and what I visualize while I work. The more I put energy into the visualization and the work, the more likely they are to be completed. Truly it was a beautiful morning.
If you’ve never experienced that Nirvana, perfectness in what you are doing, here is a delightful recipe that might be able to help you achieve that feeling.
Cherry Nirvana
Crust:
1 box (3 packages) of graham crackers, crushed
1 Cup melted butter or margarine
1/4 Cup sugar
Mix the sugar and crushed graham crackers and put in a 9×13 cake pan.
Pour the melted butter over the graham crackers.
Mix it together and press it into the bottom of the pan. Bake the graham cracker crust for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let this cool.
Cherry Sauce: (I confess, I cheated and used a can of boughten cherry pie filling, so you’ll have to figure this out without a picture.)
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons water
2 Cups pitted sour cherries
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently to keep it from scorching. Cook until it is thick and bubbly and continue cooking for another two minutes. Remove it from the heat, cover and chill. When it has cooled, make the filling.
Cherry Filling:
8 ounces goat chevre (or cream cheese softened to room temperature)
1-1/2 Cups powdered sugar
4 Cups whipped topping
1 Cup of cherry sauce (or canned cherry pie filling)
Mix all the ingredients in bowl.
Beat with the mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
Pour over the cooled graham cracker crust.
Put in the refrigerator until chilled thoroughly.
When you serve, you can use the remaining cherry sauce to drizzle over the top, or you can lightly spread it over the top of the entire dessert. If you save a few crushed graham crackers, you can sprinkle this over the top. You can also sprinkle with chopped nuts.
Enjoy!
June 19, 2010 - Posted by Teresa - Comments Off
We’ve had a lot of rains and storms lately. Rain in the morning, heat and humidity in the afternoon, and then the storms rebuild in the evening. We are about five inches above normal for the month so far, and there is still more rain in the forecast.
The girls have had to go out to pasture between storms.
Here are the clouds before last night’s story. You can see the water tower of the small town that is just a mile north of my farm.
This is looking across my corn field. Luckily, we’ve had more rain than anything else. Others around have not been so lucky; there have been several tornadoes around the state. Even so, I do have some damage to the corn.
Here are the clouds after. They really looked like a bunch of cotton balls stuck down from the sky. The setting sun reflecting makes them look so orange.
After the strange clouds passed, we were back to blue sky. They even had pictures of these clouds on the news. I just don’t remember what kind they are. Pretty freaky looking though.
With all the rain, it’s been virtually impossible to get into the garden to work. Just when it’s almost dry enough to go work in it, the rain comes again. It’s horrible! I haven’t been able to weed since it was planted. Here it is before I started working there today.
I can make out the tomatoes. It’s impossible to tell what is on the left side of the picture.
Oh, it’s celery, with one big stand of lettuce. I still have weeds between the rows because there is no way to use the cultivator due to the mud.
Hopefully, you can see that I have pulled weeds from around all the plants I want in the garden. I even pulled some of the bigger ones from between the rows.
This is very embarrassing. You can’t even see anything that would look like a garden. To the far left is the strawberry bed, but it is supposed to be a mass of green.
After weeding, you can see potatoes and garlic were hiding in there. Granted, there weren’t a lot of potatoes, but that is because of the dogs playing in there before they ever sprouted.
Here I found peppers, sage, pineapple sage, onions, parsley, dill, cauliflower, and my asparagus bed.
Hopefully, it will continue to dry off so I can get between the rows. It has been horrible to try and get in there. I had to wear my rain boots, and when I came out, they were caked in mud. My hands were caked in mud. It was five and a half hours to get this much taken care of. Next, I have to get to the garden up north.
I don’t think better weather will help this little problem, though.
They don’t seem to believe my rule of “No Yard Goats!”
