Farming in the shade

Here's where the rubber meets the road, folks. The Crosby Mint Farm in St. Johns, Michigan has undergone foreclosure proceedings. Greenstone Credit bought the 140 acre farm at auction for $300,000 (which is a real steal). The former farm owners have until November 1  to raise the money to buy it back. They have enough mint essential oils in inventory to make this happen. They are selling dram-sized (1/8 oz.)  bottles (at $5 a pop) to raise the funding.  Agriculture is Michigan's top industry, despite the misconception about autos. But our state continues to lose farms and farmland at an alarming rate. I don't know these people or the details of their situation. Perhaps they were unwise with their money and debt load. But haven't we all been unwise at one time or another? If you have any use for peppermint or spearmint essential oils, or if you would like to give these as gifts, please consider buying soon. Time is running out... ETA: At this point, their website (wit...

Annie at Maple Corners is hosting a giveaway of her beautiful cards . While I'm waiting for inspiration (and time), why not head over to her blog and enter to win something beautiful?

I'm not coming up with much to blog about. Busyness and a bit of sadness at the passing of my grandma are interfering with the creative juices... So I looked back at what I blogged about a year ago . Looks like we wrapped up harvesting on October 23 of last year. This year, we've got the soybeans in, but haven't even started harvesting the corn. Last we checked, it was about 40% moisture yet, nowhere near dry enough. We like to harvest it when it's under 20% moisture. Even then, we have to finish drying it down in our gas grain dryer, a huge roaring monster that scares me just a bit.  This weekend will be busy. Our second daughter turns 18, and it's a struggle to make the day special in between a funeral, shuttling people to/from places, and the craft show we signed up for in March. I'm sure you'll not hear from me until next week... What are your plans for the weekend? And what were you doing a year ago?

Whew! The soybeans are harvested (and we've had more rain, so the corn will have to wait). We start our busy show season this weekend. Here's our schedule: Saturday, October 25, 9-2 -- Hamilton Middle School (Booths for Youths) Saturday, November 8, 9-2 -- Eastside Christian School (Eastside Stop N Shop) and we will talk about the Kerstmarkt when it gets a little closer. So in preparation for this first show, we've been cranking and dyeing and thumping and cutting and felting and tagging...and it is my observation that we need a couple more weeks before this weekend comes.  If you are in our part of the world, please feel free to stop out at Hamilton Middle School on Saturday to say hi. The Farmer will have his sock machine along, so look for the crowd in the corner.  If you mention that you read this blog, we'll give you 10% off one item of your choice.

Some of us have been busy dyeing the new sock yarn. We find that it's better not to have expectations, as the yarn often turns out very different than what we plan. We haven't made any total duds yet, however. When they're made into socks, they are just so unique... It's a very gratifying process to start with the sheep and end up with hand-dyed, one of a kind socks!

Last Saturday was a fabulous example of a perfect summer day. We don't get a lot of perfect summer days in October. Here's what the kids decided to do with part of their day, after I kicked them (figuratively) outside... What is it with boys and ditches?

A few days ago, Alwen from the Lost Arts Studio  notified me that she'd given me the "I Love Your Blog" award.  Please go check out her blog.  She blogs about many things, but I think it's the fiber arts that keeps me reading. I also appreciate her quiet wisdom.  I don't know how she found me, but I first realized she was reading my blog when she corrected me on the type of thistle seed sold in birdseed. She knows her horticulture, she does. Now on to the part where I bestow the "I Love Your Blog" award to a few of my favorite blogs. (The point of all this is that we can all find some great new blogs to read...) In no particular order: 1) Maple Corners -- A fiber art enthusiast living on ten acres of fine Minnesota land caring for her Alzheimer's suffering mom, a herd of fiber llamas and alpacas, a couple of dogs, a few cats, and some chickens.  2) Muddy Boots -- A homeschooling mom with a brain! (Joke here.) She makes me think harder than I'd...

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  --Lamentations 3:22-23

We didn't think we'd ever see this day! First there was the great flood in June. Then the extended lack of rain from mid-July through mid-September. Then the realization that most of the soybean plants had died prematurely.  Then another round of extremely wet weather.  If you think the stock market is the only thing with ups and downs, you haven't planted fields and prayed for a harvest. Welcome to farming. We were assured that our soybeans would still be worth harvesting, despite their small size. We may have to deal with a small deduction or two on the price they pay for our beans, but that is better than the big ZERO. So today, we began.  Long-time readers will remember that we are transitioning from conventional farming (using synthetic fertilizers and sprays) to organic. It's a three year process, and pretty labor intensive. Instead of spraying to kill the weeds, we spent a lot of time on the tractor, cultivating the weeds from between the rows. But of course the...

Ottakee mentioned the scratch and sniff manure brochure in the comment section of this post . I really need to tell you that story. Our county is THE main agricultural county in Michigan (both in dollar amounts, and diversity of products grown). Our vistas (though mostly flat) are beautiful, and the communities are very family-friendly. This area has also been until recently a fabulous place for industry. Because it's such a great place to live, lots of people have moved here over the years. And many of them want to live out in the country! Until... ...they realize that farming is not what they remember from the Old MacDonald storybooks. Tractors working long past dark during planting and harvest season. Gravel roads with potholes. Flies. Odors, even. Many people have moved out to the country, and then turned right around and made it hard for farmers to farm. Lawsuits. Angry accusations. Dashed dreams. So our county's Farm Bureau went proactive, and made up a b...

We are fortunate to live within 30 minutes of a major fruit growing area in Michigan. Our wonderful Lake Michigan to the west moderates our temperatures, despite the northishness of our location, and makes fruit growing possible. Yesterday, we braved the mosquitoes and mud to U-pick at a nearby farm. I went with a couple of neighbors (gas is not cheap!) and we actually fit 11 bushels of apples in the back of a van. Well, I guess they were not all in the back of the van--there was that crate on the seat between E. and I, and two bags on the floor by our feet... We picked Spygolds, Jonagolds, Golden Delicious (sensing a trend here?) and Ida Reds. By picking them ourselves, we saved about $12.50 a bushel. Yummmmmm...

I've been waiting to blog about our composting operation until I have good photos. Most days--all of them, so far, in fact--it doesn't occur to me to run out and take photos of the composting process. Recently, however, our farm was featured in a magazine. And there are some pretty good photos along with the article. So I thought maybe I'd just link to the magazine article and let you look at the photos there...

The crops are not quite ready to harvest yet, and so there's a lull (if you can call it that) in the farm work while we wait. We've had our first hard frost, so much of the garden is done. It's still nice enough weather to have the sheep out in the pastures, so feeding chores are not too time-consuming now, either. Because of this "lull" The Farmer has been using his evenings and weekends for cranking socks. Here is a display of some of the socks he's made recently. Some of them he's made from our wool and then dyed after they are in sock form (look for the tie dye effect). Some of them he's made from yarn we've purchased. And my favorite are those he's made from our own wool yarn that we dyed before it was in the sock format. Stay tuned for more sock production photos...

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward." --Hebrews 11:24-26

Recently I took apart a rag rug. It was the last rag rug I purchased before I began weaving my own. So it's probably 15 or so years old. The warp is giving out... But the "rags" are still in pretty good shape. Anyone who's ever cut up enough blue jeans for a rag rug knows you don't throw out perfectly good blue jean weft . So I started cutting the warp and unravelling the rug. Eventually, I had a pile of warp bits to throw away and a few rag balls to take out to my workshop. A "new" rug will soon grace my entryway. Is there anything that you do that you consider "thrifty"? Others might call it "cheap", but you know better. Would you share your idea below in the comment section? I have a feeling we could all stand to learn a few new thrifty ideas...

At a Financial Aid Workshop last evening: "Why is the government the only one who can print money? How is that fair? C'mon..."

"Oh my goodness...how did I get myself into this fix?" "Whoa, Nelly!" "World domination, one sheep at a time..."