Farming in the shade

Earlier this year we separated the lambs from their mothers, and moved them to the other side of the road. They've grazed that hayfield twice over since then. And now that the grass isn't regrowing much due to short days and cold nights, it's time to give that hayfield a rest. And it is also time to move the lambs on to their next purpose. The ewe lambs that are keepers will be put in with the ewe flock for possible fall breeding. The wethers (castrated ram lambs) will become lamb chops, and other related food products. The first item of business was to block off where the horses are. The last time we moved lambs, they took a detour into the horse pasture. The horses thought the lambs were a real-life version of a "whack-a-mole" game. No lambs were injured in the excitement, but it's a wonder. We didn't need that happening again. The second item of business was the planning meeting. We sometime skip this step, but the fact that we held one show...

We finished up harvesting corn last week before the rains came. We have had beautiful fall weather (in fact, it was 63 degrees this morning when I got up), and even with the recent rains, harvesting is happening all around us. Since we are small farmers, we run a small combine. Four rows at a time, back and forth. This is the same combine (pronounced COM-bine) that we use to harvest wheat, rye, oats, and our edible beans. We have three interchangable "heads" that we swap out depending on what we are harvesting.  When the combine hopper (storage area) is full, we unload into a waiting wagon. Here's a short video of what unloading looks like. I grew up playing in the neighbor's corn wagons at harvest time. We now know that it is dangerous to play in grain (the larger the amount, the greater the danger). Sometimes the grain bridges up, leaving air pockets underneath. When the bridge collapses, people can be buried in grain and will suffocate. This is...