Farming in the shade

I think last week we achieved a new level of working smarter, not harder. A couple of times each summer we sort the lambs from their mothers and check all the sheep for parasites. We run them up the chute into the shearing area, which helps us handle them quickly and easily. This is a positive thing for them--who wants to stand in line for hours? They want to get back out to pasture as soon as they can. Anyway, the chute and shearing area have always been a part of our sorting and handling. But this time The Farmer and his assistants set up a chute system to help sort the Suffolk sheep from the Polypay sheep after they've been checked for worms. You see, it's almost time for breeding, and so we sorted the dark faced sheep from the white faced sheep. The Suffolks (dark-faced) are bred earlier, so that their lambs can be ready for kids to show in the July fairs. So the Suffolks went left, through the long barn and out to a back pasture. And the Polypays, due to be bred later, we...

Thursday mid-morning we had a visitation... We were honored to be one of the farms featured on the Entrepreneurial Farm Tour (have you ever tried to spell that word?) hosted by Michigan State University Extension. The participants had about an hour or so at our farm. Here Dr. Adam is giving an introduction. The Farmer is showing off some corn from one of our fields. Weeds and all... The participants of the tour got to see our composting operation , as well as the sheep and our rotational grazing program. We ended up in our little workshop , where we showed a few things we've been able to do with the wool from our farm. Then everyone hopped back on the shiny bus and off they went to the next farm. Wonder what the neighbors thought...

Calves are born without any antibodies and must receive them from their mother's first milk, called colostrum. One cowhide can produce enough leather to make 20 footballs or 18 soccer balls or 18 volleyballs or 12 basketballs. Mature cattle have 32 teeth: 8 incisors on the bottom front, a tough pad of skin instead of teeth on the top front, and 6 molars on the top and bottom of each side.

This week I'm planning/scheduling school for the year. Every summer my parents (bless their hearts) go camping for a week with our kids. The kids get away from the farm, build memories with their grandparents, and have fun. I get solitude. Solitude doesn't automatically equal peace. I've got a bushel of pears on the basement floor, ripening faster than I'd like. The knowledge that I should be canning them robs me of some of my peace. The Farmer wants me to accompany him on a day trip for his work, but I need to make the most of my time scheduling and planning now, while the house is quiet. A project at my job continues to take up some valuable real estate in my brain, always making little bumping noises in a far corner of my mind, even when I'm not working on it or consciously thinking about it. Summer is almost over, and some shoulda-coulda-wouldas nag me a bit. And there is the fire monitor that continues to intrude. The Farmer is a part-time firefighter and medi...

From another farm blog: I hear many city people complaining that farming has gotten too big, that mega farms abound and we have no small farms left. In some ways that is true. In the 1930s, about 25% of the country’s population resided on the nation’s 6,000,000 farms. By 1997, 157,000 farms accounted for 72% of farm sales, with only 2% of the U.S. population residing on farms. Yet when you dig into the facts, the average farm in the U.S. is still under 500 acres, a size that is not mega. Finish reading the article here .

I step outside and the dusk greets me. The air is alive with the sound of night insects. The glow in the western sky is almost a memory. The oppressive heat of the day has dulled to a heavy coolness. I hear the fans from the chicken coop humming quietly. The stars have begun to peek out overhead. A group of barn cats saunter over to greet me. The dog, who is my reason for coming out, sniffs each one. The mosquitoes sing in my ear. Despite the heavy air, the dog wants to play. Finally, tired, she waits at the door. I grab the camp sleeping bag airing out on the clothes line and head in. The screen door slams behind me. It's been a good day. Good night...

One pound of wool can make 10 miles of yarn. There are 150 yards (450 feet) of wool yarn in a baseball. Wool will not easily catch fire under normal conditions. It will smolder only at extremely hot temperatures--like 1000 degrees F.

I finally took the plunge earlier in the year and signed up for a big art/craft show. It's this weekend. Signing up to be a vendor at a show is a bit of a leap of faith. You have faith that those who look over the applications will like your items enough to allow you to be a vendor. (It's called the jurying process--some shows are juried, some are not.) You have faith that you'll have a display figured out by then, and enough items to fill a booth. Abundance sells at shows--having 2 or 3 of 100 different items does not go as well as having 100 each of 2 or 3 items. You have faith that the weather's going to be good. So far, for this weekend, it looks good. Of course the saying around here is: "If you don't like the weather in Michigan, just wait 15 minutes." You have faith that nothing will conflict with the date. Often, decisions about shows are made months in advance. Things come up. With many things an answer like, "Nope. Can't do it. I'm b...

Fair week is always a blur for us. Twice daily trips to the fairgrounds to feed and check on the animals. Shows. Pizza parties (who says 4-H has to be all work?). An auction, where the kids sell their market animals. All on top of life's normal routine... Here the kids are showing off their lambs--they enter two different types of shows. One is showmanship, which has more to do with how the kids show off their lambs. The other is market class, which focuses on the quality of the lamb itself. Here's a photo of the auction--kind of a "runway" experience for country kids. Smile. Show off your animal. Hope for the best. The animals ultimately end up in "freezer camp," which the kids understand in theory going in. But Saturday morning load-out time makes theory real.

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. --I Thessalonians 5:16-18