Farming in the shade

Yesterday's weather, on the opening day of Kerstmarkt, was brisk. The wind kept us on the edge of uncomfortable. And it was a LONG day, from 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. But today was simply wonderful weather! We couldn't have asked for anything nicer... The sun shone for much of the day, and people lingered. Perfect shopping weather. Despite the decent weather, our big seller was mittens. We had a lovely day, visiting with old friends and new. Hoping for continued good weather (though the forecasts don't give me much reason to hope)...

Last week we hired a neighboring farmer to harvest our soybeans. Hooray! Despite a breakdown and some residual mud, the soybeans are done! The reason we hired our harvesting done this year is because of the mud left from the endless torrential rains in October. We have a perfectly good combine, but it is not 4WD and it does not have tracks. It works well in normal years, but this year was not normal. Early this week, another farmer came with his combine (with tracks) to start the corn. This is a photo of a corn head on a combine. The "heads" are removable. You need a different head to combine small grains and soybeans. This is a six-row combine head. Can you see it? These are what make combining possible this year. The wonderful tracks... You thought I was kidding about the mud, didn't you? The corn is loaded into wagons out in the field. The wagons are brought home and emptied into our dryer. This is a natural gas grain dryer. Here in Michigan, we seldom are able to get ...

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." --Jeremiah 29:13

Scroll down for new posts--I'm leaving this one at the top this week. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Boy, there's nothing like trying to post notices about craft shows to take the wind out of my bloggy sails. I've struggled far too long with these graphics, and I'm gonna cry "uncle" and leave it as good enough. Next week starts our craft show season. The first one is a unique holiday home tour in Byron Center, Michigan. Each home has for sale the work of several artisans and craftsmen. The $5 (for the whole tour) admission fee, and part of our sales goes to charity. Held Friday and Saturday, November 20-21, it's a perfect way to get some holiday shopping, quality "friend" time and ideas for decorating all in one. We will not actually be in attendance at this show, but our goodies can be found at home #1. Click here for more details. Then the following Friday, November 27 starts our outdoor Kerstmarkt in downtown Holland. This open-a...

American Farm Bureau's 24th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $42.91, a $1.70 price decrease from last year’s average of $44.61. More info here.