Farming in the shade

Saturday we were busy with various tasks when the power went out. We have a backup generator for just such an occasion (as the chickens cannot be without feed/water/lights/fans). Within a second or two of losing power the generator kicks on automatically. It's one of those things (like insurance policies) that buys us a little sleep at night. The generator is very loud when it runs, so daughter #2 took this photo quickly and made her escape.  It is vented to the outside, so we always know by the noise and the flapping exhaust panels that the generator is on.  We were without power for several hours. We don't often lose power. When we do, I remember why I'm grateful for backup generators.

Need a lawn mower now that gas has hit $4?

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine! --In honor of those who "more than self their country loved"

This week the fertilizer spreader guy was finally able to come and spread the compost we purchased to use as fertilizer this year. We find that in some cases it is just cheaper to hire something done than to purchase the equipment and do it ourselves. Take a look at this rig... It's been so wet that we haven't been able to do any fieldwork for about a month. We planted oats and hay early, but corn and soybeans need to wait for a bit. They need warm soil, or the seed will not germinate. Then when the calendar said it was time to begin tilling the fields, the rains came.  All that changed this week. We've had a stretch of dry weather, and were able to start chisel plowing. After plowing, we let the ground rest for 2 or 3 days. Then we field cultivate, which kills all the newly-germinated weed seeds. Finally, we plant and pack the soil down with a cultipacker. 

In between computers, I am not able to post the photos I took today of a huge spreader distributing compost on our farm. It may be a quiet week on this blog.  Don't forget to vote on the poll on the sidebar. And folks? I was just kiddin' around when I included "Lona's far-out political views" as an option. Vanilla ice cream here--nothing radical. Probably put you to sleep if I started talking about things like that... So stop voting for that already!

"Really, there are only two kinds of people who are going to understand about hand-knit socks: those who wear them and know the singular joy of perfect socks, and the knitters who have the pleasure of giving that exquisite experience. Everybody else thinks you must be a special kind of crazy to spend so much time making something that you could buy for $1.99 at the store." --from At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (quotation courtesy of Carol, who laments that she is not able to knit enough )

Saturday evening The Farmer worked on cranking out socks on his sock machine . He used some of the yarn we purchased from fellow Etsian Grasshopper Handmade recently. (An aside: I have no idea why or how etsy shop owners come up with such creative names for their shops.) Here's the first sock in process, with the scrap yarn (mint green) that joins all the socks together into one long tube. He ended up with four socks and a little yarn left over. It's always nice when he gets an even number of socks from a skein! This is one of the socks, finished. The color is truer in the photo above. Why are we buying sock yarn when we have plenty of our own wool in all different forms? Because the sock knitting machine is cranky, that's why. It needs a very lightweight yarn, and we have four different sizes of yarn--all too heavy. We brought some raw wool in to Zeilinger Wool Co. in March and placed our order for sock yarn, but it takes about 6 months from order to ship date. Watch for ...

Do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. -- Hebrews 13:16 Thank you again, Liz, for sharing your horses with our family. May God bless your new marriage and grant you the desires of your heart.

We have several pastures that we rotate the sheep through. They stay in each pasture for a few days, and when the grass starts getting scarce, we let them into the next pasture: Here's a photo of the pasture they just finished (on left) and the one that they're about to start (on right): By the time the sheep rotate through all the pastures, the first ones have rested and grown up again. So we start over. Hopefully, some of these pastures will also be cut for hay. Depends how fast the grass grows...

Even farmers and homeschooling moms need a day off once in a while. The Farmer and his amazing assistant (not me) worked like crazy men and cleaned out the chicken coop in 3 days flat this week. A new record. Baby chicks are due in next Tuesday and Wednesday, and we're ready. The sheep are mostly done lambing, and are all feeding themselves out in the lush pastures, cutting down on sheep chores considerably. Due to regularly scheduled, abundant rains, the ground is WAY too wet to till/plant. Even though there is always more work to do, we were given the gift of a day off by our family. Both sets of grandparents held down the fort, organized field trips for the kids, and even cleaned my kitchen and mowed the lawn! We used the day to go to Zeilinger Wool Co. in Frankenmuth. We picked up our order of wonderful Polypay roving and Suffolk quilt batting. We discussed our next batch of yarn (sock yarn for The Farmer's new toy ) with the capable yarn technicians. We visited with frie...

A couple of weeks ago, during Bloggy Giveaway Week , I won a prize! Linda of RS Designs will be doing a free makeover on this blog! I'm very excited, because I'm the type of person who likes the furniture moved around every so often. Linda's doing more than just rearranging, though, so stay tuned! In honor of the makeover, I wonder if there are any topics you might like to hear more (or less) of. Check out the poll on the sidebar to let me know your opinion.

Today was another crazy day on the farm: homeschooling, loading chickens out, hosting coffee (a daily "recess" ritual that encompasses our immediate family, as well as assorted grandparents, neighbors and fertilizer salesmen), meals, composting, phone calls and laundry. My mother in law stopped in the house during one of these Grand Central Station moments bearing a plastic shopping bag full of pieces of a former rug. I noticed when they returned from the deep south (they are full-time RVers) that one of her throw rugs was coming apart. I offered to reweave it for her, and promptly forgot about my offer. Her offer was cooking for weaving. Man, what an offer! I'll choose weaving, anyday. Thump, thump. Step the treadle down. Throw the shuttle. Thump, thump. Step the other treadle down. Throw the shuttle. Thump, thump. There is a mindless, quiet rhythm that soothes my weary mind. I've often joked that weaving is cheaper than therapy. The truth is, weaving is my therapy...

No photos today--in all the rush and packing we left the camera home. Today we spent several hours at the Washington Square Farmers' Market. It's a brand new only-2-weeks-long market, before the real market starts downtown. The Farmer took his sock knitting machine along to entertain visitors. He met people from Cape Cod, Massachusetts (had to see if I could actually spell that). I enjoyed talking with people. One of my favorite encounters included the little girl who begged her daddy for a ball of roving after stroking it like a cat. I mentioned to him that the feed costs for a ball of roving were less than for most other pets. He didn't bite. But the one encounter that especially sticks with me is the husband who kept running different skeins of yarn back to his car for approval. He explained to me that his pregnant wife was on extended bedrest, and they were just out for a drive this morning. She loved to knit and so he wanted to get her some yarn... And in other news, o...

Yesterday two kindergarten classes came for a field trip. They'd been studying about sheep and wool and wanted a first-hand look. The Farmer has done quite a few tours, but this was the first time we actually had a school bus on the place. What next?