Farming in the shade

Our sheep and cattle are often pastured beyond the reach of a hose. This requires us to haul water to them on a regular basis, and in the case of our cattle herd, we've had to haul water four or five times a day to keep up with their consumption. We've been using our trusty Gator with four 15-gallon water tanks. It takes quite a bit of time to keep up with the demand for water this way, and means that someone always has to be around the farm, hauling water every 2-4 hours. The Farmer wondered about getting larger tanks and doing the water runs less often. We found a few 330-gallon tanks for sale on Craigslist, and set a couple of them on a seldom-used hay wagon. We fitted them with special valves to which we could attach a garden hose. Now we fill two large tanks (each takes 50 minutes to fill) and haul water once every three days or so. The hose is attached to a standard waterer with a float (to prevent overfilling). The water is gravity-fed from the storage tanks, a...

A friend reminded me that I have a blog. There is so much other busyness to take up my time that I find it difficult to take photos, upload photos, edit photos, download photos, and then find words to put with them. But if I think I am busy, The Farmer is even more so. Spring tillage has started--we have the oats and the hay planted, and he is working the ground for corn and beans. Our parents are busy with other things around the farm--groundskeeping, gardening, cleaning dry beans for sale, fixing things that break, etc. The other day The Farmer was out in the field in his tractor and saw something strange on a fencepost. It seemed to be moving. When he got closer, he saw this: Sometimes bees will swarm, following a queen to find a new place. I am not an expert on bee activity, but we do know who to call when we see a swarm. A couple of beekeeping friends came out right away. It's a little like being called to a fire--if you stop to finish what you're doing, you'...