It was the 4-wheeler that left me stranded in the field this week. Brother John came to pull it back home. With the John Deere tractor still not running, all the horse power jobs are now left to the New Holland. Until the front end loader controller on it wore out, leaving both tractors out of commission…
Read MoreA house full of friends. Some of Amy’s close college friends came to the farm for the weekend with their families. I think I looked forward to it and enjoyed their company as much as Amy did. Gun shooting, 4-wheeler riding, campfire talking…
Read MoreEarly in our marriage, Amy spent a lot of time farming with me. Since then our family has grown and the admin side of our farm business has too. Time spent farming with me especially this time of year has been largely replaced by raising kids, homeschooling, cleaning cabins, and handling the “office” side of getting meat to people. But yesterday…
Read MoreHints of green slowly coming up from the ground. Spring is knocking at the door. I have a long list of spring projects to tackle, but Amy reminded me that before I move on to spring projects, I need to get all the winter “honey-do” jobs done. A trip to town for lumber…
Read MoreAmy’s parents came up to the farm last weekend. We upgraded to a bigger plucker that runs off a 220 instead of a 110 outlet, so Amy’s dad spent Saturday running conduit and pulling wires to get the new plucker ready to go. We got a bigger scalder a couple years back. Now we finally got the bigger plucker to match it…
Read MoreI read a couple articles this week on the beef cattle situation in the U.S. “This is the smallest beef herd since 1951,” coming from a Market Intel report by economist Bernt Nelson. What does this mean? It means there’s not as much beef to go around as there has been in years past. The decreased supply and increase in demand moves the prices upward…
Read MoreI created more water trouble this week. A steel T-post I was driving into the ground not only happened to find a waterline buried under the ground, but it busted the line in two. As I was finishing off the post with a couple final hits to make sure it was driven down far enough to stay secure, water started pouring up out of the ground like a spring. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself…
Read MoreThe weekend temperatures touched down below zero. It stopped snowing last Friday, but the white blanket hung around most of this week. The later part of the week temps climbed back up into the 50’s. Wednesday morning the ground was still mostly covered in snow. By Wednesday afternoon, the snow was mostly gone…
Read MoreSnow and cold. More snow, more cold. I’m ready for spring. Stockpiled grass doesn’t do the cows much good covered in a 6 inch blanket of snow. A couple more inches of snow last night. Not supposed to get above freezing until Monday…
Read MoreI’ve been feeding a little bit of hay but not much compared years past. Back in the growing season, I’m sure many who passed by saw our excess grass as a waste. It’s certainly not a waste now. Instead of fighting the mud to get hay to the cows, we’re still moving them to stockpiled forage from the summer…
Read MoreAnd another year begins. Grateful for the past year and hopeful about the next. Amy and I have been having some planning conversations. Trying to mutually agree on where we’re going next. Since we’ve been married, going on 12 years now, most of our planning has been geared towards the growth of the farm in one way or another…
Read MoreA slower week on the farm. After the farmer’s market Saturday, Amy rushed home to unloaded coolers, clean one of the cabins, and then load back up and hit the road towards Knoxville to go see Amy’s family. It was a quick trip filled with good food and good time together. We came back home the next afternoon to check on the animals and be home for Christmas.
Read MoreIt’s Amy here this week. The week before Christmas is always a marathon. I’m quite last minute with my Christmas shopping, but I bought/made the last presents yesterday, so today I plan to wrap. Gift giving is not my love language. It truly is difficult for me to decide what to get people and that makes Christmas stressful for me and turns me into the grinch if I’m not careful…
Read MoreMonday morning I made another trip taking cows and pigs to the processor. Usually we get cows into the barn the day before. With rain in the forecast all day Sunday and a youth wrestling tournament all day Saturday, we decided to get the cows in the barn and sorted…
Read MoreCows drink lots of water. Monday evening our biggest cattle herd didn’t have any. With a long list of things that had to be done this week, getting water to the cows made its way to the top of that long list. Fixing the water problem turned into fixing a series of water problems. Fix one, find another. Ronnie and Brandon to the rescue again…
Read MoreLots of fun last weekend with family in the valley. We enjoyed some fresh tenderloin from a deer Amy’s brother harvested. Amy’s dad worked the whole time he was here, switching out light fixtures, building shelves, and fixing stuff around the house. He can do anything…
Read MoreTuesday’s steady soaking rain was a blessing we, and I’m sure many more, were thankful for. Rain. A blessing often taken for granted. As with most things, the greater the thirst, the greater the thanksgiving for its quenching. So many things to be thankful for. Things I don’t deserve. Things that are not guaranteed for tomorrow…
Read MoreInstead of Wendell Berry’s fictional stories about the Port William community, I started into one of his nonfictional writings “THE NEED TO BE WHOLE: Patriotism and the History of Prejudice.” Not very far into it, there’s a lot of good stuff said so far. This first quote I thought was especially profound, tying the big Ag food industry to the demise of patriotism. As more of society shifts away from knowing and working the land, the less patriotic our society becomes…
Read MoreSome of our laying hens started laying eggs this week. We weren’t expecting any eggs for another couple weeks. Pleasant surprise. The kids helped me put together the nesting boxes. They’re excited about checking for and gathering eggs. I’m wondering how long it will take for the excitement to wear off…
Read MoreWith chicken season behind us, we took advantage of the more flexible season and took off to Lake Norman in NC for a long weekend vacation with the George family. It was just what we needed. I don’t really have a longing to travel. There’s no place I’d rather be than Rich Valley, but it was nice to have a change of scenery. To get away, take a break, and just play and relax…
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