Farming in the shade

Today has been a different sort of day. Spent some time on the bookwork for the farm, ordered some homeschooling materials (Teaching Textbooks Geometry), and called for a health insurance quote from a couple of different companies. The kids and I also deep cleaned the kitchen. The Farmer finished up powerwashing the chicken coop. We'll get together with friends later on this evening for pizza and laughter. May you have a blessed New Year!

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will acomplish this. --Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7

Today we had 66 sheep shorn. They are due to lamb beginning in about a month, and there are a couple basic reasons we shear now, in the bleak midwinter: 1) Wool Quality. Lambing is stressful for the sheep, and affects the wool quality. You can literally map the stressors in a sheep's life by examining her wool under a microscope (so I'm told). We choose to have the stress of lambing show up near the end of the wool clip, not in the middle. 2) Lamb Livability. Lambs do their best to find mama's milk, but they aren't really all that high I.Q. when they're fresh and new. They'll suck on anything that hangs down. If it happens to be a piece of wool, they'll keep on trying and trying and trying. Then they'll die of starvation and/or cold. We don't want that. We make sure the only thing hanging down is their mama's udder. Also, ewes with a great big wool coat tend not to feel the cold. They seem to assume that their lambs are fine, too. Ewes that feel ...

I've neglected my blog in favor of our family togetherness during Christmas. Because of this neglect, I haven't told you about the upcoming sheep shearing scheduled for tomorrow. If you're local to us, you are very welcome to come out tommorrow morning, Dec. 29 to watch us shear. No, we don't do it ourselves. We hire a 19-year-old with a strong back and the right equipment. Dress warmly, and in old clothing. After all, we shear in a barn! This is a working demonstration, and we will answer questions if we can between chasing sheep and huffing and puffing. Feel free to come anytime during the morning. Take the west-most driveway. We're in the long green pole building. We'll also have our new on-farm shop open if you'd like to see what we make with our wool: wool-filled comforters and mattress-toppers, yarns and socks. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Tonight I took the two younger children to our local Tractor Supply Co. (affectionately known as "TSC"). They each had gift cards burnin' holes in their pockets, and TSC is famous for putting their toys on sale after Christmas. I wasn't going to buy anything. I was just the chauffeur. But there amidst the clearance Christmas leftovers, I found a treasure! I was first introduced to Eric Sloane through homeschooling using Sonlight curriculum. Sonlight includes in their level 4 Science (corresponding with the study of American History) Sloane's Diary of An Early American Boy: Noah Blake 1805. I fell in love with his folksy, informative writing style, and with his fabulous illustrations. It looks like this Weather Almanac is a reprint of a couple of his books published many years ago. And here's an excerpt from page 199: "The true rural love of weather in America, along with its richness of folklore, seems to have diminished with the passing of individual...

Recently I sold the exercise bike that did nothing more than impart guilt to me. I put that money together with some Christmas cash and started watching our local craigslist.org for my Christmas present. I missed a few really nice ones. I couldn't afford many of them! But I waited, knowing that one would eventually turn up. Monday I saw it: Cherry entertainment center. Call xxx-xxxx. No photo. I emailed the poster, encouraging her to post a photo. After all, she was an hour drive away. She promised to try, when the camera came home from work with her son. Tuesday night, armed with a mapquest printout, some dimensions, an idea of the style (but no photo), we headed out. It was dusty and neglected. They'd moved and didn't have room for it in their new home. Part of it was stored, gathering dust, in the basement. Another part was out in the garage, behind several rolls of carpet padding. It took a bit to empty it out, maneuver it out of its storage spaces, and load it up. We g...

I guess you're never too old to make Christmas cookies.

About a week ago, the Princess bought herself a new coat. She showed me at home a tag inside the coat that said: We both shrugged, figuring it was something mysterious like the tags on bedding. Who removes those? Even me, the rule-follower, ignores that one. A few days later we joined the throngs of shoppers in town. We split up, with the Princess and Beautiful going one way, and the Youngest and I going another. When we met up later, Princess told me she'd been setting off alarms everywhere--even going IN to stores. Now you need to know that she blends in well, and likes it that way. To be singled out by a loud beeping noise and the attention of everyone in the store was horrifying to her! I watched it, as we were together in the last store. She turned many shades of red. One of the store's employees mentioned to her (after asking her a few pointed questions) that her coat might be setting off the alarm. When we got home, she proceeded to remove the offending tag. Even when we...

Today the Farmer met with two educators from a local high school. They are in search of a farmer who will allow a high school junior to job shadow. The young man has no interest in college, and thinks that he might be interested in a career in agriculture. The Farmer is already thinking of all the many possible opportunities we can expose this young man to: the care and feeding of sheep, lambing, composting and manure handling (don't laugh!), the care and feeding of baby chickens, etc. I hope the educators weren't too blown away by his enthusiasm. We meet the young man next week.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. --Isaiah 11:1-4a

The Farmer and I have come to realize that education about agriculture is key in this age of misinformation. That’s why, time after time, we’ve agreed to requests from groups who want to come to our farm and see the composting operation, the sheep shearing, or our set-up for rotational grazing. But what we do as individual farmers is just a drop in the bucket. More needs to be done; we need to educate the kids. Michigan Farm Bureau is doing just that. Last week at the Annual MFB Meeting, around 1,300 city school kids and their teachers were bussed in to see a live animal exhibit. This interactive display , featuring sheep shearing, baby calves, hatching chicks, and more, happens every year at the Annual Meeting. Kudos to them and all the farmers who take time out of their busy schedules to educate the public. But it takes more than just farmers (approximately 1.6 percent of Americans) to educate the public. Non-farmers can help, too. When you hear or read something slanderously ridicul...

Gave blood today, and so I haven't been worth much of anything. So you're getting old news today. The photo is of the wool felt lapel pins that we're selling at the Kerstmarkt. They, and the cool board they're displayed on here, are the brain child of my creative sister in law. Amazing. By the way, for those of you who are trying to visit us at the Kerstmarkt but not finding us, we are in booth #14 right between the double-sized food booth (selling pigs in the blanket and pea soup) and the Santa look-alike selling wooden bowls and spoons and Christmas cookie cutters. South side. The Farmer and I do look a bit different when we're wrapped in sixty-eleven layers of clothing, so take your time and look closely! See the sidebar for times and days.

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. --1 Corinthians 13:12