Farming in the shade

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'...

Spring is here, finally. For a few days we skipped over spring and headed straight for summer. But now we are safely back in spring. The barn is overfull of sheep. The cows are nibbling the sacrifice pasture they've wintered in to death. (A sacrifice pasture is one that will be tilled up and planted to something else, so you don't really care that it gets overgrazed and ruined.) Speaking of ruined, we like to give the pastures a head-start on the animals. Spring growth is phenomenal, but the pastures have to be to a certain stage before you turn the animals loose on them, or they will be stunted for the season.  This pasture is not ready yet.  This pasture is getting close. We will let the sheep out this Friday, April 29, at 4:30 pm. If you'd like to stop out and watch this annual rite of spring, feel free to come. We are at 13275 Blair Street in Holland, Michigan.

The past few days have been rather mixed , weather-wise. Very little of our mixed weather has been pleasant. But when babies are ready, they come, even if the weather is not great. Some of us believe that babies come especially when the weather isn't great.  This little guy was born a day before the snow. At least he had a chance to get acclimated to his new surroundings in two steps: 1) Outside world, decent weather. 2) Outside world, snowy weather. But this little guy--calf #2--was born during the snow that came this past weekend. This picture was taken during a lull. We got more snow after this. His mama had the sense to drop him on a pile of hay, fortunately. Since then, we've had sheep delivering lambs left and right. Fortunately for them, they are in the barn. This ewe is delivering her first lamb of the year. And about 30 minutes later, she has finished delivering all three of her lambs. This is a busy time for The Farmer, but he tends to clear...

Spring is our reward for enduring a long winter. Our senses are full with birdsong, the scent of mown grass and tilled earth, breezes through the windows, and the beauty of flowers.  *Originally posted on May 8, 2013. Still pertinent.

Spring tillage has begun at Shady Side Farm. Tilling the soil has gotten a bad rap lately, with many farmers moving to minimum-tillage and no-till practices. This is a response to poor tillage practices used in the past that led to erosion.  Unfortunately, many minimum-tillage and no-till farms rely heavily on herbicides to get the job done. In my limited understanding of How Things Work, I can't see how organic farming and no-till farming can coincide. Perhaps someone will enlighten me, as I'm always learning. In the meantime, we till.  This is a field in which we grew corn last year. You can see the corn stalk debris left over. But you'll also see a fall-planted rye stand. Rye does not die over the winter, and can be either left to grow and harvested in mid-summer, or tilled into the soil as a green manure crop. Green manure crops return important nutrients to the soil. They also increase the organic matter levels in the soil, suppress weeds, and prevent soil ero...

The spring rains have come. Days like today remind us why we lamb in the barn--so much more comfortable for The Farmer as he works with the sheep. Cold rain is also hard on newborn lambs, who struggle to get up and get the hang of nursing. That first hour or two are critical. Our dog has a tendency to go on walkabout during extended lambing chores. Today she seems content to watch the rain from a comfortable, dry place.

It's been so long, I didn't recognize you! Last March was crazy warm. Warm enough to make all the fruit trees bud. And then we had repeated hard frosts after that, so that much of the fruit crop in Michigan was damaged or lost. This March has been its polar opposite (no pun intended). Lots of snow, grey skies, wintery winds. But now the sun is higher, and seems to peek out more. And the flowers are poking through the ground and showing promise. The horses lay out flat, soaking up the sun. The Farmer is making more phone calls. He's been out to the field where he hopes to plant oats soon. Too squishy yet. Needs ditching, but we can't even get the small tractor on the field to put ditches in. Soon, though. Soon.

Each year we carefully take soil samples and send them to a lab. Our soil consultant (yes, really!) advises us what our soil lacks, and what is the best thing to add to bring the soil up to optimum level. This year we're concentrating on small amounts of minerals that our soil needs. It's important to know just how big a field is, so that you can put on the right amount of fertilizer or minerals. Here's our son, measuring the field. And here is The Farmer, getting ready to spread. Minerals like copper, boron and manganese are in this mix. Didn't take long, but soils (like people) work best when they have enough vitamins and minerals...

Finally, the rains have let up enough for us to get on the fields. May is our normal planting season here in Michigan, but we were concerned with all the extra rain that we might never get on the fields.  This field of weeds is being plowed under using a moldboard plow. This traditional plow turns sod over, and is something we didn't use for many years. The moldboard plow is being replaced (in my humble opinion) with herbicides in modern agriculture. Now that we're transitioning to organic farming, the struggle against weeds demands new (or old, in this case) strategies. It's a tedious job, back and forth, back and forth. I am pretty sure the time is well used in planning and thinking through what comes next.