Farming in the shade

As we learn more and more about farming organically and biologically, we start to realize the importance of cover crops. A cover crop is something you plant with no intention to harvest. This crop is tilled under before the next crop is planted. The natural state of the earth is to be covered with some form of vegetation. It is unnatural to have bare earth, and it takes a lot of work to keep it bare until it's time to plant something. While you are waiting for winter to end, or for dry enough fields to drive on, the weeds come. Cover crops can help suppress the weeds. Besides weed control, cover crops help make nutrients in the soil available to the plants (the crop planted later), and build much-needed organic matter. Recently, I volunteered to frost seed last year's lost corn field. We planted our corn late, due to an extremely wet spring, and didn't have the summer heat to make up for lost time. A wet, busy fall kept us from harvesting the corn, and a generous snow...

The first time I heard about the process of "tubing" a lamb, or feeding via a tube, I was slightly horrified. It sounded so barbaric. But watching a weak lamb slowly die is not all that much fun, either.  So, "tubing" a lamb has become one of our strategies for lamb survival--a tool in our toolbox, if you will. It is important that the lamb is not cold--you can tell by feeling the ears. If the lamb is cold, you must warm it up before tubing it.  The three things needed are a chunky syringe, a flexible tube, and some lamb milk replacer (or mama's milk, if you can get it). You'll see in the photos below that the milk is in a standard baby's bottle. The bottle in this case is simply something to hold the milk in.  The Farmer likes to warm the tube in hot water to make it flexible. The thin end of the tube is inserted carefully into the esophagus. The wider end of the tube is attached to the bottom of the syringe. The warm milk is poured ...

In all the years we've been hosting shearing day, we've never had a live birth. The ewes are rather shy about giving birth in front of people, especially strangers. But (as anyone who has given birth can attest) sometimes there's nothing the mama can do. Those babies will come when they will. Timothy had just quit shearing to go in the house to get some lunch. Many visitors headed over to the shop, but some hung around in the back of the barn, in the lamb area. The Suffolk sheep had been shorn in January in preparation for their lambing. And we had plenty of lambs for people to look at, laugh at, and hold. So it was a popular area. But we couldn't have planned this any better if we'd tried. We had a baby! I'll spare you the pictures of the actual birthing. But as soon as the lamb was out, the ewe instinctively licked it all over. This gets rid of the placenta, and the vigorous licking stimulates the lamb so that it wants to stand up and eat. It is ve...

Those who came to Shearing Day on March 1 (and there were about 180 visitors) were able to watch the shearing process. Here are some of the ladies before they were shorn. And here is Timothy, at the beginning of the day. He sheared over 80 sheep, taking his time and talking, from 9 am - 4 pm, with a short break for lunch. He gently holds each ewe in position as he uses his electric clippers. After the fleece is off, and the shorn ewe runs off to join her friends, we skirt the fleece. We lay the fleece cut side down on a skirting table (wire panel on the top of a hay feeder) and pick out the extremely hay-filled part by the neck, and any dreadlocks or manure. We had a great skirting crew this year, which allowed me to do a bit more talking than usual. The fleece is put into a large bag suspended on a stand. Here the guys are replacing the full bag with an empty one. Thanks to Sherry for this picture! (For more of Sherry's photos, check out her facebook page .) ...

A few weeks ago, we hosted our annual Shearing Day event. It was a perfect day. Cold, but not too cold. Snow on the ground, but very little falling from the sky. A couple of days before Shearing Day, a friend and I set up the shop and demonstration area. (Thank you, Pat!) This was the maiden voyage of the shop--the first time it had been set up since last summer, when we took the roof off the whole building, and added a second floor. It's still rough--no paint, no insulation, no heat. But the wares looked nice, and I don't think most people cared that they were in an unfinished barn. We displayed our coned yarns in a lovely old cupboard. Barbara, our needlefelting demonstrator, was back again this year. (What?! No photos! Oops!) And Chris showed how to spin wool into yarn. Sometimes she let people help. I'm always busy in the main barn, helping with skirting the fleeces. (More about that later.) But if I had my way, I'd be in the demo/shop are...

Last Saturday was our Shearing Day Event. Photos are in process and we should have some posted within the next week or two. Please be patient. One of the things we do almost every year is a prize giveaway. Last year, with 400 attendees, we gave away two prizes. This year, we had about 180 people visit, and very very few of them elected to enter the prize drawing. So this year we are giving away one prize. We used a very high-tech process to determine our winner. We put all the entries into a cardboard box, and shook it vigorously. Then we picked (without looking) one of the entries out at random. And the winner is... Isabel G! I am emailing you with details as to how to claim your prize.

Recently I was contacted by a graduate student from Texas Tech University. She asked if I would ask my readers to help her out with a survey. I love surveys! I checked it out and here is a post from her about the survey: Dear participant: We would like to find out more about what factors motivate people to access agricultural blogs. There are no right or wrong answers to the questions, just what you think. This survey will take about 15 minutes of your time, and we will use the results for a research study. We will not be able to identify you individually. If you would prefer not to answer a question, please leave it blank. Participation is voluntary and you can stop at any time. Farming in the Shade https://aecttu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_4MhKXKG5FspLTcp If you have any questions about this study, please contact Kate Gracey and/or Dr. Courtney Meyers at (806) 742-2816 or by email at kate.gracey@ttu.edu or courtney.meyers@ttu.edu . Thank you for helping us with t...

Any guesses where the title comes from, and what the second half of the saying is? This has been an amazingly cold and snowy winter. The average winter snowfall is about 70" for our area. The last data I could find shows the total at 146.3". More than double.  For the first half of the winter, I was just too busy to enjoy it. And then I wasn't quite as busy, but I still didn't take the time to go out in it. I hate being cold, and can easily just hide in the house. But over the last month I've gone out in the winter wonderland several times. We have some very nice county parks nearby with skiing and snowshoeing opportunities. Tonight, after supper, I was alone in the park. Alone with the trees and the snow. Someone had undoubtedly been there before me--I could easily see the tracks and had no trouble staying on the path. I guess life is like that, too. I'm not really sure what is around the bend, or what the scenery will be like. But t...