Farming in the shade

Actually, I'm not going to show you the complete life cycle of a blue jean rag rug. I suspect most of you are familiar enough with the intended use of jeans that I don't have to go over that.  But once they're worn out... First I fillet the jeans--I cut away everything but the front and back leg panels. A friend uses pockets for her creations, so she and I trade bits of jeans that we don't want. I discard any leg panels that are extremely stained or worn.  Because I like a lot of different color sprinkled throughout my rugs, I obsessively lay out random colors and work around a circle. I figure I'm getting some exercise at the same time.  The Fraser rag cutter is primarily meant to cut narrow wool strips for hooked wool rugs, but I find it works very well for my purposes, too. The strips fall into a box on the floor, and I mix them up in the box as I cut. Then I (or my dear mother) sew them end to end to make one very long chain of blue jeans...

Each year during Kerstmarkt (an outdoor, European-style Christmas market) we are so focused that I neglect the blog. This year I wanted to give you some pictures of what we have made to bring to the market. We are busy all year long making these items.  My mom and one of our daughters make these mittens from recycled wool sweaters. Yes, many people make this style of mitten, but ours are especially well-made and cute! The famous sock-maker has been very focused on his task. His mom and one of our nieces did a huge batch of dyeing this fall. Despite his head-start, the shoppers are quick to snap them up. This year I have a decent stock of rugs for the market. I make these rugs the traditional way--by cutting recycled fabric into strips, sewing them together, and weaving them into rugs on a loom. The one in the right foreground on the top is made from blue jeans. I cannot keep blue jean rugs in stock. They are very durable and beautiful. We offer our heirloom bean...

The past few weeks, The Farmer has been milking cows for another farmer each weekday morning. The dairy farmer is dealing with a bad back, and can't do it himself. There are at least three other guys helping out, too, covering nights and weekends. It's hard to think about the sole proprietor being laid up in any line of work, but dairy farming is one of the most relentless jobs out there. We feel for our friend, who planned to work five or so more years before retiring. Now what? He waits for the results of tests... The other day I read a New York Times op-ed piece titled "Don't Let Your Children Grow Up To Be Farmers," quite obviously a play on the country music song, "Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." The author got my attention early in the article when he said: "The dirty secret of the food movement is that the much-celebrated small-scale farmer isn't making a living." And then he went on to share statistics...

I've been dreadfully neglectful of blogging this summer/fall. Something about being so busy doing that I don't have time to document (with a little writer's block sprinkled in, if I'm honest). If you ride through our corner of the world, you'll find quite a bit of corn still in the fields. In fact, off to the left in this photo, you see another farmer's corn still standing. We know how it is to leave corn in the field for the winter, as we did it just last year. It's not good at all. You lose a bit to gravity, and you lose a lot to wildlife. We finished harvesting our corn on October 31 this year. None too soon, either, as it was about two weeks later that we got our first snow. Many of the farmers are poised to start combining again as soon as the weather permits, but they will be battling either snow or mud. There were more photos of the combining process, but all were blurry. Something about the vibration of the huge machine... and perhaps the ...

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." John 15:1-4

Mo has done his work for two years now, and it's time for him to move on. He is a purebred Belted Galloway, but without registration papers. If you know of someone who would like a fine bull, please have them contact us at shadysidefarmmichigan at gmail dot com. It seems a shame to just sell him at a local auction sale.