Farming in the shade

The first-cutting hay has been round baled. We have just been too busy with the late planting to bale it in small square bales ourselves. The round bales are harder to feed throughout the winter, but much less work right now. But we still like to get it in before it rains...

Did you know... ...a combine can harvest enough wheat in 9 seconds to make 70 loaves of bread? ...wheat farmers make about 4 cents from each loaf of bread sold? ...one acre of wheat can produce enough flour to furnish a family of four with bread for nearly ten years? --from Montana Wheat & Barley Committee

The new tractor is working well. We've been giving it a workout, and getting the hang of how it operates. Cutting hay here. Hopefully, no rain!

About a week and a half ago, we wormed the sheep. It was during the blur of planting, between fields. Worming the sheep involved bringing them up from the back pasture. The Farmer led them, and they followed. No fooling. It's an amazing thing to watch. The rest of us came along behind and guided the lambs, who weren't always great at following closely and sometimes got spooked and tried to run off. After the majority of the sheep were in the barn, penned up and waiting for the worming, we went back out to round up the stragglers. A couple of ewes had cracked skin above their hooves (from the tremendous amount of rain we've had) and couldn't move very fast. A few lambs were feeling puny, either because of worms or because they'd lost track of their mothers. I love this photo of The Farmer, carrying in a sick lamb. Makes me think of how our Savior carries us. We ran everyone through the chute and looked at them closely. We only gave worm meds to those who needed them....

We don't have cable TV, but if we did, I think I'd be a big fan of Mike Rowe's Dirty Jobs. I like how Rowe has brought exposure and (even) honor to those who have important but often overlooked jobs. Besides, it's much more fun to WATCH a dirty job than to DO one. One of the stinkiest jobs on our farm has to do with manure. Manure happens. We compost nearly all of it--some through the invessel system, and some we windrow compost. After the sheep are let out to pasture in the spring, the winter manure pack is piled up in the sheep barn in a long pile. Every few days, the pile must be turned/moved, and water must be added. Air and water are important parts of the composting process. A pile just left to dry out will stagnate and stop composting. You can see the steam coming off the pile in the photo below. What you can't see is the smell! Turning the pile is about a half-day job for two people. One gets to play with the skidsteer, and the other stands with a hose, spr...

We consider Memorial Day to be the last reasonable day for planting the garden. Most years we have it planted before that. This year is different. After weeks of rain, we finally had a dry week late in May. June 1 found us planting our garden (and getting ready to plant fields) in a frenzy. Thought you might like to watch. These are some seed potatoes cut up and ready to plant. We try to leave two eyes on each section. Stick the nifty potato planter in the ground and drop the potato section in (I wonder if there is a more technnical term for it?)... Repeat. Before you know it, you've got a row planted. The string is so that we plant straight--important when you begin rototilling between rows. We planted the rest of the garden that day, too, including our strawberries. Strawberries are supposed to be planted in April (or at latest) early May. June 1. That's a first for us. It's important not to cover the "crown" of the plant with dirt--strawberries need to be plant...

It's been dry for several days, and last week we were able to start working the ground. We started with the "big" tractor, pulling the offset disc. After several passes spread out over several days, the ground was worked enough to run the tine harrow over it. The tine harrow helps to break up the last of the clumps of sod. This is our "little" tractor. Finally, last weekend, it was time to plant. We poured the beans into the seed hopper on the planter. And started the long process of adjusting the planter... ...to the correct depth... ...and other things I don't pretend to understand. Our planter is a 4-row planter, which is considered by many to be too small to mess with. Yeah, we've heard that before. Our whole farm is "too small to mess with." This field was planted with 7 different types of heirloom edible beans. The Farmer left space in between each type. Now it's time to start cultivating! Of course, there are still more fields left t...

It's June 1. Most years, we're well on our way to having our crops planted by now. Some years, we're finished and starting to think about hay. This year, we have only worked a teeny bit of ground--testing to see if it's dry enough. It's not. This is supposed to be a bean field. Right now we're letting the horses graze the weeds. Too wet to work. The tractor sits, waiting. The bean seed is here. The corn seed is here, as well as fertilizer (in this case, feathermeal). We got the tillage equipment out and ready weeks ago--see the grass growing up under our offset disc? Um, yeah--that's how long it's been sitting there, waiting. I can't remember a year quite like this one. Every year brings its challenges, and weather is always a large part of the challenge. But the waiting is getting old, and things are starting to get serious. I haven't even been able to bring myself to blog about the situation, it's been so frustrating. We've enjoyed a co...