Farming in the shade

Back in June, the month of the Great Flood , we were dreaming of this moment: You see, 6" of rain in theory should not be so devastating. But if the ditch is due to be cleaned, and the water can't drain away, it can be a mess. Check out this photo to see what happens when the main drain is clogged:  Our fields sat under water for days. We lost and had to replant about half of our corn and soybean crops. It's not a good crop  year this year, at all. But finally, the ditch is being cleaned out! Oh happy day! Small things amuse small minds, they say... I stood on our driveway bridge and looked down the road at what had not yet been done: And then took a shot up the road at what was already dug out: Maybe next spring our basement won't flood! Here's hoping...

Sustainable farmers Jeff and Karen Lubbers recently hosted their daughter's wedding on their farm. That's quite a feat--to get the old homeplace looking spiffy for a big party like that. But they went the extra mile and grew all the food for the reception, too.  You see, local food is what they're all about. And they wanted to share their passion with those who came to celebrate with them. Read more here .

My kids were camping with their grandparents...

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth."  --John 14:15-17a

This organizing takes forever! I did find some nice little cheap baskets (made in the USA, too!) that I could use in keeping stuff neat on the pullout drawers of the pantry. They were 2 for $1.69. On this shelf I took all the greeting cards out of their boxes and matched them up with envelopes and put them in one of the baskets (back, left). I separated them with divider tabs I cut down to size. I know it's not Martha-Stewart-worthy, but I'm cheap. Work with me here.  The baggies at the far right remind me of Grandma Myrtle, who, bless her heart, had a whole drawer full of them. I'm a baggie saver, too, but in moderation. Group like items together. Things that get used often (tape and stapler) are in front.  In this pullout drawer I used stack trays to separate lined paper from cardstock. Lots of room for printer paper behind the stack trays. And the pullout drawers make this possible. Have I told you I love this pantry? Here's the final shot of the pantry. I did splur...

Okay, I'm making progress. Today, I planned out 9 weeks of school for my son. I have purposely blurred the the computer screen so that you can't really see details about the week of October 27-31. And here is the bottom drawer of my office pantry. It now holds all my shipping envelopes, labels, bubble wrap, packing tape and business card stock. With room to spare. The organizing lady says to store things vertically as much as possible. So I found a couple of plastic magazine holders and laid them down on their backs.  I went on a hunting and gathering expedition tonight, to see if I could find something suitable for storing all the little stuff in the other drawers. I think I found something that might work (that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. More tomorrow...

It's gotta get worse before it gets better... No photos today.

Day One Update: I can now see the top of my desk. It is not perfectly clear, but I have filed and pitched an amazing amout of paper. I now have a small desk-top file with some often-used categories: farm bills to pay, personal bills to pay, to-do, pending, upcoming events, and a file for each of the children's important school information (such as grades and a transcript-in-process). I filed all our old tax information together in one storage box, threw out a couple years' worth (only keep 7!), and cancelled a credit card that had never even been activated. The credit card company tried like crazy to keep me as its victim, but I persisted. I even had the foresight to ask them to mail a letter confirming the closure of the account to me.  I sat through a 15-minute, high-speed phone interview on our medical histories (as we are changing health insurance yet again, due to soaring premiums). I threw away all the old cds and diskettes (yes, really!) for software we no longer use. I ...

The Farmer and I spent the weekend enjoying the Michigan Fiber Festival.  We met with old friends and made some new ones. Both of us enrolled in a couple of classes (spinning, wet felting, dyeing, and carding wool). The Farmer entered five skeins of his handspun yarn in the skein competition, and ended up with white and red ribbons--and one blue! Amazing.  During our time there, we did some stealth marketing. Both of us had several small plastic bags containing our business card with samples of our yarn attached and a sample of our roving. We passed these out to folks who were into spinning and dyeing. We'll see what comes of it. Saturday while I met with new etsy friends, The Farmer cranked socks in a friend's vendor booth. A lot of folks stopped to talk and watch. Fiber people and mechy-techy people alike are fascinated with the sock knitting machines.  And since I forgot the camera, you will just have to imagine all these wonderful scenes.  After our busy weekend, I'm re...

Check out farmgirldesigns , where two of our daughters sell their handcrafted jewelry and pencil drawings. Right now (through August 16) they're offering free shipping anywhere in the U.S. on any items in their shop. 

I suppose I'm more wasteful than my ancestors (who were, by virtue of their genetics, frugal with a capital F). I just today roasted a turkey, in a frenzied attempt to gain some room in my freezer before Mr. Pork comes to stay. And when I finished picking the meat off the bones, I did NOT boil the carcass to make broth. I do this faithfully in the winter. Not today; I just let the barn cats have at it... But it does bother me a bit to waste stuff. So, when we are done harvesting sweet corn (as we did last Saturday), the stalks get chopped and fed to Mr. Cow and his friends.  And that wheelbarrow of corn we husked? The husks went to the rams. They are stuck inside, unlike the females and young'uns who have fresh grass every 3-5 days. So a bit of green was very welcome to them. How do you "swim upstream" in our wasteful culture? What specific ways are you frugal even when it's more work? 

Anyone want to come and help next time? That wheelbarrow of corn ended up as 5 gallon sized ziploc bags of frozen corn, and took me several hours to process (with occasional helpers).

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals , nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." --Exodus 20:8-11

If you had told me in June, as I looked out over our vast holding ponds (a.k.a. flooded fields) that I would be longing for rain in August, I'd have had a hard time picturing it. Yet here we are, on the edge of suffering for lack of rain. We've watched the magical radar, hoping against hope that today's green and yellow and red amoeba would bring us some much-needed moisture. And we've watched that same radar-amoeba fall apart time and time again. Tonight was different.  After the cool clouds came the rain. 

In our little township today was primary election day. We voted on township, county, state and national officials, as well as millage proposals. Turnout was pretty low. Did you vote today?  

Right after the county fair  I had a quicky order to fill for a rug that was going to be a wedding gift (definite deadline here). Unfortunately, none of the "dressed" looms had the right color warp (string for you non-weavers) to match the fabric I was using.  So during the fair week (I think--it was all such a blur) I warped a loom. I usually put enough warp on the loom for 20-ish rugs, just so I don't have to do this part so often. Note the new, ivory warp tied on to the old green/rust/salmon warp--so that I can pull the new warp through the heddles and reed without rethreading everything.    This is not a fast process, even at the best of times. When one is rushed and makes mistakes and has to retie all those knots, it takes even longer... Boy, am I glad that's done... By the way, the rug turned out beautifully, if I do say so myself. You'll have to take my word for it, as it was gifted before I thought to take a photo.  Memo to self: Start the big projects soo...

"For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete." --Deuteronomy 16:15b

We had four entries in the Small Grains Guessing Game. Three of them guessed correctly that it was rye. These three people had their names entered twice! I printed out each entry on little slips of paper, and asked my cute little nephew to choose one.  And the winner is... Carol, congratulations. Please email me with your mailing address, so that I can ship the sheepy cards out to you...