Farming in the shade

It doesn't look like much from the picture. But we are oh-so-proud. (Search "barn renovation" in the search bar on the left side of the blog home page for the whole process.) Our little shop offers a place to buy our farm-fresh dry beans, wool roving and yarn, and handcrafted items made by our family: mittens, scarves, rugs, socks, quilts and more. At this point, we are only open Fridays from 1 - 4 pm, or by appointment. Today is our soft opening, and perhaps we'll have something more organized soon. We are located at 13275 Blair Street in Holland, MI. The shop is in the red/white barn to the northeast of the house. It's a lovely day--feel free to drive out!

After hand-pulling the beans , we use the newly-repaired combine  to remove the beans from the plants. This is what the beans look like after some time on the wagons, drying. The time on the wagon ranges from a few minutes to a few days, depending on how dry they are as we pull them. After the combine was repaired, the guys fashioned a wooden box that they mounted on the front of the combine. Typically, when the combine is driven through the field, it has a "head" that helps to pull the plants in. We took the head off, and parked the combine. It's a lot more work to hand-pull and hand-feed the plants into the combine. But this has not been a great year for the beans, and we want to take extra care to get every bean we can. The combine separates the beans (seen falling into a tote inside the combine hopper below)... ...from the rest of the plant. The waste comes out of the back of the combine. This will be used for sheep bedding and/or composting. So ...

After some modifications to the new engine, it was time to put it in place. Good thing we have this trusty skid steer. The engine weighs about 1,100 pounds. Heavy duty log chains come in handy, too. This process took quite a while, as the engine had to be level. Quite a few adjustments were made before the final lift began.   This was a slow and careful project. The heavy engine had to be guided into place. Once it was in place, the engine had to be bolted in place. Lots of jostling when you're driving through the fields combining. The engine has to stay put. After the engine was bolted in place all the guards and covers had to be replaced. Once everything was in place, they fired it up, and it started on the first try. Music to our ears! And finally, the old engine was shipped to where we bought the new engine. It will be used for parts, or rebuilt. No loading dock on the farm, but we can manage. I'm happy to report that the combine is wor...

Disclaimer: The sheep in this story has had no long-lasting ill effects. She may have a new appreciation for fences, though. Also, no pictures were taken, due to our intense focus on resolving the situation. A couple of weeks ago we were having issues with our electric fencer. The fencer is a device that sends jolts of electricity through the fence at regular intervals. It is to keep the animals you want to have inside the fence INSIDE, and also to keep the animals you don't want inside the fence OUTSIDE. If you've ever had a tussle with an electric fence, it's a memory that doesn't fade. (Go ahead and share your story in the comment section. It's funny to read other people's stories.) Anyway, for a few days, the fencer would randomly not work. We replaced ground connections buried under ground. We endlessly traipsed around the fence to see if there was a tree or something else causing the fence to short out. Finally we decided that the fencer needed repair,...

Some of The Farmer's "spare time" (cue laughter track here) was spent working on the combine this summer. During rye harvest, the engine blew . It was a terminal diagnosis. So we looked around, finally found, and ordered a new engine. Let's see if you can tell which is the old and which is the new.  Any guesses? Does it help to see them together? The new engine was actually a tractor engine, just like what came out of the combine. Almost. Kinda. Mostly the same. Close, y'know? There were some modifications needed, of course. Because nothing is ever truly easy. Even when you spend a bunch of money on a new engine. The Farmer has mad wood skills. He is not a natural mechanic (though his brother is!). But after years of working along side my father on all kinds of farm equipment, he has acquired a working knowledge of how to fix things. And out of necessity he has tackled some pretty big jobs. We are grateful for a diesel mechanic friend wh...

The end of September we borrowed a camper, loaded it full, and headed for West Branch. It was gorgeous weather, and we both felt like we should be home harvesting beans. But sometimes you just have to go. And we had committed to vending at the Northern Michigan Lamb & Wool Festival.  We enjoyed wonderful weather and were surrounded by great people. I've taken pictures of our booth, for those of you who only know us as "the bean guy" and "the bean lady".  The Farmer took his sock machine along and demonstrated sock knitting. We often had a crowd at the edge of our booth. For these pictures, I tried to wait until there was no one in the booth. We were in a steel pole barn. For some reason, in our booth only, there was a barn board backdrop. Very unique! The rugs seemed to be the hit of the show this time. We never know what will sell--which makes preparing and packing a bit of a challenge. We end up taking too much of most things, as we ju...

We hope not to pick beans this way forever. But this year's weed crop made it necessary once again to hand-pull the beans.  So, if anyone isn't busy in the afternoon, come on over and we'll put you to work. We suggest wearing long pants. This is step one of harvesting. More to come later, perhaps. Unless we're too busy harvesting to blog...