Farming in the shade

Gotta brag on my daughter. She's been crocheting purses and bags lately. Today's blog will simply be photos of her work. The purses are made from commercial yarn, or handspun (by her) wool yarn, or roving. The colors are natural (the ivory wool is from our polypay sheep, the black and grey from our suffolk sheep). She sits down w/out a pattern and works until she's got something she likes. Her most recent one (with green wooden beads) actually has a crocheted divider inside.

A good chunk of today was spent separating the male lambs from their mamas. We drove them all in the barn (they've been blissfully munching on our lush pastures for several weeks now) and sorted the larger boys out. This is WAY more effective and exciting than a workout at the gym. Though I tend to grumble a bit when misunderstandings arise...gotta work on that. If our sheepdog were actually a HERDING dog, it might help. But "this is my now." Late this afternoon, the 4H lambs got their pre-fair trim job (a.k.a. shearing). This isn't the best photo of shearing, but it's the best of today's photos. Our shearer is a recent high school grad who travels all over doing flocks of all sizes. I asked him if he was going to continue shearing, and he responded, "Yes, for at least four more years!" He's headed off to college, and I suppose that's what he meant. Shearing does not hurt the sheep. Occasionally, one will get nicked (like you might nick yours...

The Farmer has a couple of things that he does for relaxation. He doesn't get much down time in the summer, but every so often I see him at the computer playing a Sudoku game. We also have a Sudoku board with tiles. Sunday he spent some time with our 12 year old son, J., working a puzzle together. He also spends some of his down time spinning wool. He has an Ashford Traveller and an Ashford Country (for those of you who are into wheels), and has been spinning for about 2 years. For much of these two years, he worked with our Suffolk wool. Lately he's started spinning the wool from our Polypay sheep, which he says is much softer. Last year he entered a skein in the handspun contest at the Michigan Fiber Festival and took second in the beginner's class. He plans to enter some again this year. People love to watch him spin. I think the novelty of a seeing a man spinning makes everyone do a double take. We did an outdoor craft show near Christmas, and were blessed with warm tem...

This is the rug I made for a wedding tomorrow. (Photo below of work in process.) Somehow "The Wedding Rug" doesn't have the ring to it I'd hoped. LOL! Rugs are humble things--'specially the ones made from recycled clothing. Hopefully the gift will be well-received. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This has been a full week! Monday and Tuesday we put up 1200 hay bales. We have the sheep barn hay area full--ready for this winter. There's room in the 2nd story haymow in the big red barn, however, and The Farmer tells me the alfalfa is almost ready to cut again. Wednesday-Friday (and parts of Monday and Tuesday, as well) I spent on the seat of a tractor. Cultivating. The point is to break up the hard earth and kill the weeds. I'm learning. This is the first time I've ever cultivated. I killed a few corn and soybean plants along with all those weeds... The reason I was able to be an almost-full-time farm hand is because one of my daughters was willing to be the mo...

In case you think that farming is all fun and games, let me set you straight. In the last two days, we have "put up" approximately 1,200 small rectangular bales of hay. These range in weight from 40-70 pounds. The work was done by The Farmer (who stacked each and every one of today's 700 bales on the wagons), with an assisting crew of senior citizens, women, and children. Thank the Lord that the 10 acres of hay laying drying in the field right now has been sold to another farmer, who wants it in large round bales. Large round bales do NOT have to be handled by the assisting crew at all. Everyone is exhausted. The Farmer, who was relaxing in his chair, has been called out on a HAZMAT situation. He serves as an on-call firefighter in our township and also on the county's HAZMAT team. Bad timing. Sometimes these things go all night. I pray not this time...

I'd like you to meet our sheepdog, Brinkley. Brinkley has lived with us for 2 years now. Her history B.U. (before us) is unknown--except that a kind woman rescued her from a shelter and allowed us to adopt her. We also know that she had a litter of pups. Brinkley is rather timid, for a sheepdog. She is half border collie (good sheepdog material) and probably half australian shepherd (also good sheepdog material). Of course we don't know if she'd ever seen a sheep before she made it to Shady Side Farm--our guess is no. This past winter we had a lamb that was so weak when she was born she couldn't even stand up. We took her into the house to warm her up on a heating pad. Brinkley decided that this little baby needed mothering. We didn't get a photo of her licking the lamb, but this one's almost as good. This lamb was a very tough case. No sucking reflex for about two weeks. We really had to fight to keep her alive. Now she runs "lamb races" with the best...

Just got back home from purchasing a loom. My children say that I have "enough" looms, and they are quite likely right. But I have a dream... (more on that some other time, perhaps) My first loom was my husband's grandmother's loom. When The Farmer and I married, I found out about Grandma's weaving, and asked her to teach me to weave. She answered that she didn't weave anymore and couldn't teach me. She had terrible rheumatoid arthritis, and her hands were all bent up and crippled. Years later, when she and Grandpa moved to a nursing home, she remembered that there had been one of the grandchildren who was interested in weaving. (See how wonderfully I was assimilated into the family? I was one of the grandchildren, NOT just "M's wife.") The Sears and Roebuck 6-harness loom came home to live with me. After checking out books from the library, doing research on the internet and some trial and error, I was ready for someone to show me. I was doi...

Today was the beginning of summer, truly. It's the day that we began eating primarily from our garden. "Summer" came unusally early for us this year. Some years we spend Memorial Day weekend planting our garden. Not this year--we had things planted by mid-May. So our supper included asparagus, strawberries, spinach and a dessert I call royal crisp. The crisp features both blueberries (last year's, from the freezer) and rhubarb with an oatmeal topping. Yummmm... The bounty of our garden makes me feel rich. Eating fresh food from the land is a privilege I often take for granted. But it comes at a cost, as my dirt-stained blue jean knees show. The kids and I spent the morning partly in the vegetable garden and partly in the flower beds. TANSTAAFL! . . . . . . . . . . . (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)

S. is in 4H, as is our son, J. This year they both will show sheep, and S. will also show a calf for the first time. Here’s a picture of her working with him this morning. What do children learn from being in 4H? Many things. I won’t attempt an exhaustive list. But one of the key things they learn is responsibility for someone/thing other than themselves. Most days, I’m pleased with how my children are maturing. Then there’s me. Here’s a picture of what I’ve been struggling with lately. If the jar of mints is out on the counter, I’m snooping. The children have caught me several times, and are quick to point out the unfairness of the situation. I have pretty strict rules about when they can eat candy. Why doesn’t that apply to me? Because I still haven’t arrived at the point of Self-Control. I have the same problem with cookies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is a glimpse of the rug I wrote about yesterday. The colors don’t seem to be true to life in the photo. This rug is being wov...

This is something new for me--blogging. Haven't even read all that many blogs, so I'm sure I'll have to learn by making my own errors. I think this may be a good way to give you a peek into our lives on a 21st century family farm. Let me know what you think! Today was cold and cloudy. The hay needs to be cut (it's already past its prime and laying down on the job), but the weather predictions for this week aren't too promising. "Make hay while the sun shines" is not simply good advice--it's a necessity. The Farmer decided to chance it; he's gotten lucky in the past. He started cutting it early this afternoon. Had to stop to sell some hay to a friend (last year's, out of the barn) and later to fix the haybine. Things only break when you use (and need) them. He finally quit about 8 or so--it had begun to rain. Rain and hay do not go together. So we gambled and lost this time. We may still be able to bring in this hay--but it will take MUCH longer...