“Hello?” “Hey Ken, it’s Brian. We’re up north and the person who was going to check the animals tonight can’t do it now. Is there any chance you could run down? Everyone should be fine except the chickens might need more water.” “No problem, you got it.” “Thanks so much, we really appreciate it.” The above conversation is one that we had with our neighbor and good friend over the 4th of July weekend. I know we have great neighbors but I’m still amazed at how great. Ken and his family have been very supportive since we moved here. Brian helps him as much as possible during harvest and then Ken brings his equipment and harvests our fields. We would really struggle without his help. When our barn was burning, he was one of the first people I called (after 911 of course). Looking back, it is kind of funny. Ken ran out of the restaurant where he was eating breakfast with his wife and his brother, leaving them there. He flew in to our driveway in record time. Later, his wife and I cried together, with her remembering the dreadful day when their own barn caught fire. Speaking of
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Cut Off From the World
Okay, I don’t consider myself to be very high tech. I haven’t used my ipod in 6 months and I refuse to text message. However, today I felt so cut off from the world it was scary, and I was having major withdrawals. Our internet is only working off and on so if I’m missing for awhile that will be why. We can no longer pick up a good signal and there is nothing the company can do to fix it so we’re looking for a new service provider. Every time I turned around today I couldn’t continue with my plans because I couldn’t get online. Here’s what I mean: I wanted to preserve my garlic scapes but I didn’t remember how they said to do it on that website I looked at the other day. Since my Mom, Brian, and I picked a bunch of strawberries on Saturday I was dying to try Abbie’s Strawberry Shortcake recipe but couldn’t get the page to load. I was planning to browse recipes for this weeks’ menu plan and knew I wanted to make Quick Cheese Bread with dinner tonight. Luckily this thing started working. The bread is in the oven so
Continue readingBuilding An Eggmobile: Part 2
This is a follow up post to Building An Eggmobile: Part 1. I apologize for not taking pictures of each step this time. We were both wore out and just wanted the thing done! Tall side: We went with a chicken wire front here for ventilation with intentions of a roll down tarp to cover the front if needed. The door is split with a small door at the bottom. This was easier than making separate little doors for the chickens. One end: You can see the black soot from the fire. We salvaged all the siding from the shed that burned. The front end with the hitch. We’ll use the four wheeler to move it around and prop it up so it will sit level. The rear aspect: This is our favorite part!! No more squatting down to reach for eggs while Mr. Rooster plans his attack on your hind end. The egg door opens downward so you don’t have to hold it up while gathering eggs. I put a little straw in the boxes for now but would like to switch to washable mats. Umm…a little privacy please!? Here’s what is left to do:Secure a board across the
Continue readingFarm Update
I’m still here! Haven’t posted much this week due to the time change (I think!). I seem to be stuck in my old schedule and going to bed much later which means I’ve been dragging and tired all week. We’ve also been pretty busy, so I thought I’d fill you in with what we’ve been up to: I know the video is a little dark but can you hear the little lamb sounds!? We had twins born yesterday. The mama had me worried as she started to have a vaginal prolapse a couple weeks ago. We fitted her with a harness truss, which is basically baling twine tied around her in a way that encourages her insides to stay in. The harness truss worked well, so well in fact that it was trying to hold the babies in! Brian came home to find feet poking out, cut the twine, and helped to deliver the first baby. Then, when he had me on the phone, another set of feet appeared! Both mama and babies are doing great, and she is showing great natural mothering instinct. So, we only have one ewe left to lamb and I think she’s getting close. She
Continue readingGit ‘Er Done 2009
As many of you know, Brian & I bought his family’s farm around Labor Day of 2007. We’ve been working on the house and yard since the early spring of that year, even before we bought it. Things are far from finished as we start 2009, and I don’t want to deal with this again in 2010. I’ve made a detailed list, room by room, of what projects need to be completed this year. I first posted about all this work in this post. I wanted to share my list but wasn’t sure how to set it up. After reading over at Green Resolutions I really like the way she sets up her checklist and shows updates. I’ve decided to use a similar format for my project list. Thanks for the inspiration GR! I’m going to title this segment “Git ‘Er Done 2009”. This will mostly be for my benefit, to keep me motivated and accountable. I’ll try to include some before and after pictures and maybe even offer some good how-to advice. I avoid debt like the plague so these will all be pay as you go projects. Feel free to read along. If you would like to join
Continue readingFamily First?
This is a topic that weighs on my mind from time to time and I was wondering what you all thought about it. Are you the type that sticks by your family no matter what, or do you treasure your friends more than your blood relatives? It’s no secret that Brian and I have had some challenging days in our lives, and who hasn’t? I’ve learned that sometimes on your hardest day it isn’t your family that comes to save you. Sometimes it is a neighbor you’ve never met before, like the strangers who stopped and helped Brian pull so many things out of our burning barn. Sometimes it’s the friends you don’t see often enough that call and take your mind off your troubles. I’ve seen some families stick by each other even after years of bad behavior and through lies, alcoholism, or other challenging times. Where do you draw the line? Do you always forgive and look the other way because he/she is your _____(aunt, father, son, etc.)? I personally have found so much value in my friends, and parts of my family, that I don’t see how blood changes things much. I’m not saying I don’t value
Continue readingJust Checking In
No real great content here, just checking in. I’ve had a very enjoyable weekend with 4 days off in a row. The only downside was that Brian was gone hunting in the U.P. but I did get in lots of quality time with the dogs. Today the 3 of them plus me and the cat all crashed out on the couch for a long nap. All I had to do was make the 20 ft. walk out the back door and gather the chicken eggs. The sheep and chickens are pretty easy to take care of this time of year, just have to refill the feeders and waterers every couple days. I’ve started looking in to our options for rebuilding the barn, including hoophouse type structures. I’ll be sharing what we learn about their pros and cons here, plus I just finished You Can Farm by Joel Salatin and started Keeping a Family Cow, so there should be some book reviews coming soon. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend! 🙂
Continue readingVideo of the Damage
Thank you to everyone who left kind thoughts for us on the last post. We do have insurance. We spoke with the adjusters today and one of them will be stopping by this evening to take some pictures. The insurance company will be sending a fire investigator out to confirm our suspicions that the cattle started the fire by chewing through the cord on their stock tank heater. Brian ran the cord through a thick metal pipe to prevent this problem but the cattle must have pulled on it enough and reached the end. It is heartbreaking to think that this could have been prevented, and we will be looking in to different methods of providing water in these freezing temperatures.Our cattle are safely at a friends’ with his cattle. We’ll make long-term arrangements for them once we see how long it is going to take to rebuild. The building that burned was not ideal for our plans and so we may be redesigning it before we replace it. I feel that the threat of fire is just one more reason that raising animals on pasture is a far superior method. Here’s some video I took yesterday after the firefighters
Continue readingDisaster at the Farm
Don’t know where to start – there was a fire at the farm here today. Half of our big shed is ruined along with the big lean-to we added on last fall. Thank god for our dogs, we were trying to sleep in this morning and they saw the fire out the window and barked until we woke up. It was too late to stop the fire but we saved all the cattle, the tractors, and the hay. Losses include all of the corn and oats we had kept to feed and heat our house, plus our planter and multiple gravity wagons/corn wagons. Our friends and neighbors have already rallied around us and helped in every way possible. We are so grateful. I took some video of the damage today so I’ll be posting that if I can get it to load properly. I figured this will be a part of the farm’s history and we might as well record it to show our kids someday. It just feels like I’ve been punched in the stomach. I’ll be posting updates in the coming days.
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