Moved

I have moved over to http://smalltownfarming.blogspot.com/.  Please check out the posts over there!

Coke

Bouncing around in the tractor on hay fields……..makes Coke go flat very fast….

 

Chickens

The baby chickens are now 2 weeks old.  I think we bought 6 different breeds of chickens….I really need to find the shipping list….

Here is their biggest fan!!

Making hay

As the old saying goes….make hay while the sun shines.  There is a lot of racking and baling to be done. 

Here is me racking two windrows into one.

The tractor levers and controls.I am busy trying to stay ahead of the baler.

Stuck AGAIN!!

How many more times will we get stuck this year??  Today we managed to get two pickups stuck…..  One while trying to pull the other one out.

Chickens are here

We ordered chickens last week and here they are.  We will be raising these chickens as layers.  So it won’t take long and we will have more eggs than we know what to do with.  

Wheat field

This picture was taken today of the wheat field that was seeded on 5/9/11.

Garden

Update on how my garden is doing.
This is the garden that is just behind my house.  I am pleased with how well it is growing considering how late I planted it.   This is one of five garden spots that we planted through out the farm.  I will post pictures of the other ones soon.

Two full rows of tomatoes.  I think there are around 60 plants here.  These plants looked fairly sick when I first planted them.  There are only two of them that did not grow well.  The three small ones on the first picture are the cherry tomatoes and seem to be somewhat stunted.
Four patches of green beans.Here are the beets.  This is the first year that I have ever gotten beets to grow.  The last three years the rabbits beat me to them once they came up.

Seeding

Here is a recap of the farm spring seeding “season”.  It rained…..alot….and every 4 days.  We finally threw in the towel because some of the fields were just too wet to even drive a pickup in.  Driving the country road we see many fields that will sit empty this year because of all the moisture. 

 

Fertilizer

The drill is topped off with dry fertilizer before heading out to the next field.

Hot day?

Ever wonder how cattle cool off on those hot days?

Is it raining over there?

With all the rain that we have been having here is a typical conversation that can be heard over our 2-way radios.
Dad: “The clouds are starting to look dark to the south west.”
Bucky: “Yeah, I just ran into some light showers over here.”
Mom: “No rain here yet.  I think it is going to miss us.”
Brian: “Just a few sprinkles here too.”
Dad: “I think I am going to get hit hard soon.”
Me..stopping in the yard to check the radar: “Dad, there is a huge storm coming your way.  It just keeps building. And it looks like it will hit us all”
Calvin: “It’s dry over here.”
Dad: “I’m done. It is pouring”
Mom: “Still going over here.”

An hour later…..everyone is in the shop….talking about how hard it is raining again.  This conversation was repeated many times with many different versions.

My Garden

I have been trying to get my garden planted for the past 5 weeks.  But it has been raining and raining and raining.  When it is not raining we are mowing.  When the ground is dry enough to work in then we are in the field trying to get the crops in.  So my garden has been waiting.  Today we were determined to get the rest of it planted.  It has been two days since a hard rainfall…..oh wait…..I think it rained again in the middle of the night.  I can’t keep track anymore!!
Back to the garden.  About five weeks ago I planted the potatoes, lettuce, radishes, and peas. Then the garden took a hard hit from about 20 cows and never really recovered.  Last week we tilled it again and I finally planted the tomatoes, peppers and onions that have been sitting by the house.  Then it started raining again.  We had about 2 inches in like an hour and rain showers on/off all week.  I think everything is still in the ground.  Today we tried tilling again.  My mom got the tractor stuck!!  Bucky insisted on getting a picture of this so there would be proof that he was not the only one who got stuck this spring….He has gotten stuck three times.
So…..the garden is still not planted…..

The 4-wheeler didn’t budge the tractor so we had to bring in the pickup.

Spraying

The sprayer goes over all the fields before seeding is done.  A variety of chemicals are used depending on the weeds and crops that being seeded.  I honestly don’t know much more about this.  I tend to get lost in the conversations over the 2-way when it comes to how many ounces or quarts or gallons of chemical per tank of water.  And which chemical to use.  If you are going to seed this then you can’t use this chemical and if you do…you need to wait x days.  Then there are the different kinds of nozzles and speeds.  Right now I just pick up all the chemical from the elevator.

Back in the field

The fields have dried out some after a very wet May.  Now I am back on duty for hauling anhydrous tanks to the fields.  

It’s always fun to get backed up straight to these hitches.  Some are not as nice as this one.  This one is an extendable hitch so I can move it forward by yanking on handle.  I still have to be backed up fairly straight with the hitch.  I do have a backup camera in the glove box.  I really should get that thing out and see if it helps.  Here are my helpers!!  Filling up at the anhydrous plant.  And letting the kids run off some energy!!

Stuck again

I am starting to see a theme here.  Bucky gets stuck again.  This time with the sprayer.  And at least it was not in the creek this time.  
Notice how the ladder is sitting on the ground. 

See how the mud is halfway up on the tire.  A few months ago mom and I had to switch and turn all these nozzles.  We had to stand on top of tall ladders and practically climb like monkeys to get all of them switched out.  Now here we would have been able to do it all standing on the ground…..no ladders.

Working the cattle

Good morning girls, it’s going to be a fun day!!!

First we need to get all the cattle rounded up from the pasture.  We chase them into the corner of the pasture, try to get them all out onto the road at the same time.  Then we need to get them all into the yard and into the corral.  Actually this all went really well.  We didn’t have any run away or cause much problem.  The only thing is that about 20 of them decided to go right through my garden and make a huge mess of it.  I am going to have peas coming up through September given how deep some of them are now planted.After getting them all into the corral, we separated the cows and calves.  Once the calves are in a separate pen, we separate all the cows into different pens based on which pasture they will be going to.

Then it is time to get the calves worked.  They are branded and given a couple of shots.  We had a little helper.  He loved catching the calves!!And yes, the branding part does stink, especially when the breeze blows it right in your face!!