It's been a minute and a bit since I last posted, hasn't it? Sorry but life has a tendency to get in the way and Foggy Mommy Brain has hit me hard this time round.
For those who don't know, we welcomed a little bundle of boy into our family back in September. A little teeny tiny 5lb5oz baby boy named after his late Great-Grandfather Rodney and his Grandpa Al. He is a firecracker and has been since he was born-after a 24 hour labor, he couldn't wait to join us so he beat the dr into the room by 5 minutes.
Not long after he was born though, we found out his sugar levels were dangerously low. As in undetectably low. The pediatrician ordered an IV and some oral glucose but after two days without any sign of his sugar levels stabilizing, we were sent to the NICU.
We ultimately spent almost 3 weeks there with me going home every few days to get more clothes and see the rest of my family. That few weeks span ended up being the hardest weeks of my life thus far. I was recovering from giving birth and my newborn was in the NICU. I was living out of a suitcase in a lonely hotel room in an unfamiliar city. I wasn't able to do more than hold my baby, feed the occasional bottle, and change his diapers during the hours I spent with him in the hospital and I certainly couldn't stay with him all day/all night. If I was with R, I couldn't be with my family but if I went home and saw them for a few precious hours, I was away from my baby. And on top of it all, my grandmother passed away while R was still in the hospital and I wasn't able to make it for the funeral. I've never felt more torn. I was dealing with the emotional upheaval of having given birth, being away from all that I knew and was familiar with, a beloved family member passed on but I couldn't be there to say my goodbyes, and my baby wasn't getting better as fast or as well as we'd initially hoped so our stay was getting extended almost daily. Thankfully, just as I hit my breaking point and didn't think I could handle another bit of bad news without breaking down, R started improving and after another week, we were finally told we could go home.
But coming home had it's own struggles that I wasn't prepared for. Suddenly I went from having all these medical professionals to help me with his care and answer my questions to having to do it all by myself and second-guessing everything. There was always a doctor or nurse nearby and monitors attached to the electrodes that showed his vital signs but at home, there was just me. That first week home was so hard because I was so scared he would have another dip with his blood sugars and I wouldn't know it. I was nervous because after three weeks of hearing the beeps, boops, bee-bumps of the monitors I'd grown used to telling me what my little boys' vitals were, I suddenly had nothing. He was colicky and fussy, I was pumping and bottle feeding while trying to transition him to breast feeding (which wasn't working), and he refused to sleep unless he was cradled in my arms. You can just imagine how this all felt to me-emotionally drained, physically exhausted, still recovering from childbirth me. Yeah...
But, as it usually happens, things have gotten better. My nervousness and fears have faded, R's colicky tummy has settled, and, while nursing didn't pan out and my milk supply has dropped significantly, I'm still able to pump a little bit to feed him along with his formula bottles.We've slowly found our way through this whole experience though and we're doing really well now. R is gaining weight and meeting his milestones on time so the dr is happy and doesn't think there will be any lasting effects of his rocky start to life. For that, I'm SO grateful.
And I've found the good that's come from this.
I've learned that even though I've been through so much over the years with my mental health struggles and my infertility/recurrent miscarriage experiences, I can endure even more than I ever thought possible. And come out stronger for it.
I've seen just how much me and my family are cared about. During that three weeks R was in the hospital, we had so many people reach out to offer help. Whether it was babysitting or meals or coming out to see me while I was staying with R or a phone call or text to let me know we were being thought of or prayers of hope and healing being sent our way. I've never felt so much love as I did during that time.
And I've experienced the kindness and caring of the many doctors and nurses who went above and beyond to ease my fears, care for my baby, and help both of us get through those trying weeks in the hospital.
I also learned that I was one of the lucky NICU moms. After a while, I was at least able to pick my baby up and hold him in my arms. I could feed him his bottles once he transitioned back to oral feeds. I could talk to him, sing to him, snuggle his sleepy little self in my arms, and we got to go home after *just* 3 weeks. Some NICU babies are there for several weeks or even months and some moms can't do more than talk to their baby through an opening in the incubator.
It's not easy having endured so many losses and so many trials on my journey to motherhood and I'm so incredibly thankful that my arms are full again. After 11 miscarriages, I never thought I'd get the opportunity to have another baby but I did. He's truly my miracle baby because I nearly lost him more than once during those rough first months and then his rocky start after birth just makes me even more aware that I'm very blessed to have the family that I do.
So in this Christmas season, this time when we celebrate the birth of yet another baby, take the time to count your blessings to and to say a prayer of thanks. I know I sure am.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Monday, March 13, 2017
The Hardest Thing Is To Hope
Let me tell you a story.
Back in the middle of January, two inquisitive little children found their mother's stash of pregnancy tests. Tests she needed to have on hand so as to find out if she were expecting as soon as possible in order to start her medications right away. Tests she both loved and loathed. Loved because that positive test may mean another child to love. Yet equally loathed/despised/utterly hated because those two pink lines also mean the odds of this mother carrying that child to term are so dismally low.
But I digress.
The boy and the girl decided this crinkly blue and white package was something to investigate. After all, it MUST be a present or something fun to play with or a cool gadget to show off to Dad, right? With a quick rip and a toss of the wrapper, the digital pregnancy test was reveal. Huh, that's interesting but what do you do with this thing? Eh, just toss it in the corner and let's go find our books. So off the brother and sister scampered, leaving the test laying there.
Their mother walked by a few hours later and saw that test. Out of the packaging. Not able to be saved for the next 'I just KNOW I'm pregnant' moment. She knew she wasn't that month. The chances were slim to none and she just didn't have those inklings. She'd even been checked out a few days prior and the result was negative. Besides, it hadn't been happening as easily as it had before. There were those two positive tests a few months back but that ended so fast and it was the first positive in a year and a half. She just couldn't be pg again so quickly. No, she was definitely NOT pregnant.
But something about that test wouldn't let her just toss it in the garbage. The mother picked it up and stared at it for the longest time, debating what to do with it. She'd spent good money on it after all and since it couldn't be saved til next month when it was opened, why not just use it now? It would only read 'Not Pregnant' and she could then throw it away knowing it had been used and not totally wasted. (Thus is the mindset of a woman who has a stash of pregnancy tests in her bathroom at all times. You NEVER waste a pregnancy test by throwing it out unused. E.V.E.R.)
So she did. And three minutes later, her world spun when the test blinked 'Pregnant'. She kept waiting for the 'Not' to show up too but it didn't. She shook the test, thinking it was faulty. She rubbed her eyes and blinked several times.
But the test still showed 'Pregnant'
Finally, she could no longer NOT believe it.
Looking at that one word being displayed by this little white plastic contraption, she realized that life was changing once again.
And she was right.
If you haven't guessed yet, this is my story. It's how I found out I was pregnant way back in January. Unexpected. Somewhat unhappily. Yet definitely undeniable.
And let me explain the 'unhappily' part. You see, pregnancy is not an easy joyful time for me. It's a time of terror, tears, and trauma. I've had lost 12 babies over the years and I have spotting/bleeding in the first months even with my successful pregnancies that makes it very difficult to enjoy those weeks. I have to have bloodwork done frequently in the first weeks, multiple doctor appointments in the first months, and usually 2-3 ultrasounds by 12 weeks. I'm on 2-3 medications from the moment I find out I'm pregnant til 14 weeks minimum and those meds make me drowsy, sick, trigger spotting, and extremely dizzy. My history means I have extreme anxiety, crippling fear, and even a touch of PTSD according to my therapist. In other words, I'm under incredible stress in my first months.
All of this means it's so very VERY hard to hope. Fear is my constant companion for weeks on end and even now, I still have my moments where it beats back every scrap of hope I have mustered.
But Hope is strong. It keeps quietly to itself until something comes along to fan the flames-a positive ultrasound, another day closer to being out of my high risk months, passing my loss milestones, etc.
No matter how much my mental and emotional strain conspire to stifle Hope, it's never happened. No matter how many losses I've had, I've never lost Hope that I'd have another child.
But, oh, is it hard sometimes...
Back in the middle of January, two inquisitive little children found their mother's stash of pregnancy tests. Tests she needed to have on hand so as to find out if she were expecting as soon as possible in order to start her medications right away. Tests she both loved and loathed. Loved because that positive test may mean another child to love. Yet equally loathed/despised/utterly hated because those two pink lines also mean the odds of this mother carrying that child to term are so dismally low.
But I digress.
The boy and the girl decided this crinkly blue and white package was something to investigate. After all, it MUST be a present or something fun to play with or a cool gadget to show off to Dad, right? With a quick rip and a toss of the wrapper, the digital pregnancy test was reveal. Huh, that's interesting but what do you do with this thing? Eh, just toss it in the corner and let's go find our books. So off the brother and sister scampered, leaving the test laying there.
Their mother walked by a few hours later and saw that test. Out of the packaging. Not able to be saved for the next 'I just KNOW I'm pregnant' moment. She knew she wasn't that month. The chances were slim to none and she just didn't have those inklings. She'd even been checked out a few days prior and the result was negative. Besides, it hadn't been happening as easily as it had before. There were those two positive tests a few months back but that ended so fast and it was the first positive in a year and a half. She just couldn't be pg again so quickly. No, she was definitely NOT pregnant.
But something about that test wouldn't let her just toss it in the garbage. The mother picked it up and stared at it for the longest time, debating what to do with it. She'd spent good money on it after all and since it couldn't be saved til next month when it was opened, why not just use it now? It would only read 'Not Pregnant' and she could then throw it away knowing it had been used and not totally wasted. (Thus is the mindset of a woman who has a stash of pregnancy tests in her bathroom at all times. You NEVER waste a pregnancy test by throwing it out unused. E.V.E.R.)
So she did. And three minutes later, her world spun when the test blinked 'Pregnant'. She kept waiting for the 'Not' to show up too but it didn't. She shook the test, thinking it was faulty. She rubbed her eyes and blinked several times.
But the test still showed 'Pregnant'
Finally, she could no longer NOT believe it.
Looking at that one word being displayed by this little white plastic contraption, she realized that life was changing once again.
And she was right.
If you haven't guessed yet, this is my story. It's how I found out I was pregnant way back in January. Unexpected. Somewhat unhappily. Yet definitely undeniable.
And let me explain the 'unhappily' part. You see, pregnancy is not an easy joyful time for me. It's a time of terror, tears, and trauma. I've had lost 12 babies over the years and I have spotting/bleeding in the first months even with my successful pregnancies that makes it very difficult to enjoy those weeks. I have to have bloodwork done frequently in the first weeks, multiple doctor appointments in the first months, and usually 2-3 ultrasounds by 12 weeks. I'm on 2-3 medications from the moment I find out I'm pregnant til 14 weeks minimum and those meds make me drowsy, sick, trigger spotting, and extremely dizzy. My history means I have extreme anxiety, crippling fear, and even a touch of PTSD according to my therapist. In other words, I'm under incredible stress in my first months.
All of this means it's so very VERY hard to hope. Fear is my constant companion for weeks on end and even now, I still have my moments where it beats back every scrap of hope I have mustered.
But Hope is strong. It keeps quietly to itself until something comes along to fan the flames-a positive ultrasound, another day closer to being out of my high risk months, passing my loss milestones, etc.
No matter how much my mental and emotional strain conspire to stifle Hope, it's never happened. No matter how many losses I've had, I've never lost Hope that I'd have another child.
But, oh, is it hard sometimes...
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Baby Brain
Nope, not me.
No, the babies I'm referring to are of the bovine kind. On our farm, we have our cows calve seasonally so they avoid giving birth in the hottest part of the summer and the coldest part of the winter. This means we have two calving seasons each year-Spring and Fall. Spring runs mid-March to the end of June and Fall is mid September to late November/early December. We're currently at the end of the craziest, most hectic, INSANELY nutso Calving Seasons we've ever had and let me tell you, it's been one for the record books. We've had the usual amount of cows having babies but there have been some moments that made for a whole lot of stress. Like having ten cows give birth in three days...Here are a few other head-scratching moments we've had from the last three months.
One late August afternoon, I headed out to bring cows home for evening milking. When I got out to the pasture though, I saw a small group of cows shuffling around in a circle. Now this can be normal cow behavior so I wasn't worried at all but something made me look closer. To my utter amazement, the cows were circling around a wee tiny calf! This was a shock because we weren't supposed to have cows giving birth for another month and all of the cows who were due at that time were in a different pasture. At first we didn't know who her momma was because there were four cows who all thought the baby was their own but we figured it out. Momma Cow had her calf 3-4 weeks premature and because of a mixup in the records, she wasn't even listed as pregnant. Hence the reason why momma wasn't out with the other pregnant cows like she should have been. Oopsie. The calf was so itty bitty I couldn't NOT name her even though we usually just give our cows a number. She became known as Liina-which is my shortened up version of Thumbelina. Liina is now 4 months old and despite her early birth, she's doing great.
We had two other calves born 6-8 weeks early according to our breeding records and since they were healthy and normal sized, we knew there was another paperwork mixup somewhere. I put on my detective hat and sleuthed around until I found last fall's breeding papers.(Well, the hubby found them and brought them over to the summer barn so I could figure out where the mistake was made.) Once I had the right paperwork in front of me, it was a simple matter to figure out what had happened and change the records. One was a skipped entry on some paperwork and the other one was an ear tag number that got written down wrong. One more puzzle solved.
Then there was L450. She had miscarried her first calf at about 4-5 months and the resulting hormone fluctuations caused her to produce milk. This was unexpected (as in 'NEVER HAPPENS' unexpected especially considering that this was her first pregnancy) but we brought her into the milk herd and she's been there ever since. Then one September evening I went to get cows home for chores and found a small black heifer giving birth. I assumed it was the small black heifer that my husband had brought over from the winter barn the week before so she could get used to the barn and the milking routine. I was utterly shocked when said small black heifer walked past me in a totally different part of the pasture less than a minute after I left the new momma tending to her newborn baby bull. Not trusting my eyes, I hurried back to the mom and babe to find L450-the cow we were CERTAIN wasn't pregnant-had been the one to give birth! Our only explanation is that when she miscarried in May, she lost one calf but unbeknownst to us, she was actually carrying twins and the other one survived.
And speaking of twins, we went out for morning chores a few weeks back and there were two new mommas with three calves between them. My farmer husband brought the moms and two of the tots to the barn but the third calf was feeling a bit spirited and galloped off to hide. Because we couldn't compare the three calves until we found the missing one, we couldn't tell which of the cows had twins. It took a fair amount of hunting on the part of my hubby as well as myself but we found the impish young'un hiding in a patch of tall grass and shortly after I deposited the babe in her new pen, I was able to figure out which momma had Double Trouble.
Then the other evening L went out to check the cows who are due to calve only to find one momma and two newborns. One baby was off by itself and it had stumbled into a bit of a mud puddle while the new mom was tending to the other calf. We brought the muddy baby up to the barn and after she was cleaned up, we saw a small black and white calf with an upside down triangle on her forehead. The calf being tended to was a milk chocolate brown with white speckles on it's legs and looked nothing like the mother who was fastidiously cleaning up the newborn. The black and white cow (who has an upside down triangle on her forehead) had been bred to a Brown Swiss bull and Brown Swiss are milk chocolate brown cows so we didn't know what to think. One calf looked like the daddy and one looked like a nearly exact copy of the mother but the two calves didn't look anything like each other. We checked the other cows and discovered the two babies were indeed twins. It's uncommon to get twins that don't look at least somewhat alike but for them to be so incredibly different is pretty rare. They do have *some* similarities though. If you look closely, you'll see both calves have nearly identical white speckled patches on their hind legs, they both have colored tail tips (the black/white calf has a black tail with a white tip and the brown calf has a brown tail with a black tip), and they both have matching white patches on their bellies.
And there you have it. We've had mismatched twins, surprise pregnancies, and itty bitty babies to tend to. There's been other weird calving seasons too (like the one where we had four sets of twins born in two months or the one where 1 out of every 6 calves born was a boy), but this one tops them all.
At least til the next Calving Season starts anyway. 😉
No, the babies I'm referring to are of the bovine kind. On our farm, we have our cows calve seasonally so they avoid giving birth in the hottest part of the summer and the coldest part of the winter. This means we have two calving seasons each year-Spring and Fall. Spring runs mid-March to the end of June and Fall is mid September to late November/early December. We're currently at the end of the craziest, most hectic, INSANELY nutso Calving Seasons we've ever had and let me tell you, it's been one for the record books. We've had the usual amount of cows having babies but there have been some moments that made for a whole lot of stress. Like having ten cows give birth in three days...Here are a few other head-scratching moments we've had from the last three months.
One late August afternoon, I headed out to bring cows home for evening milking. When I got out to the pasture though, I saw a small group of cows shuffling around in a circle. Now this can be normal cow behavior so I wasn't worried at all but something made me look closer. To my utter amazement, the cows were circling around a wee tiny calf! This was a shock because we weren't supposed to have cows giving birth for another month and all of the cows who were due at that time were in a different pasture. At first we didn't know who her momma was because there were four cows who all thought the baby was their own but we figured it out. Momma Cow had her calf 3-4 weeks premature and because of a mixup in the records, she wasn't even listed as pregnant. Hence the reason why momma wasn't out with the other pregnant cows like she should have been. Oopsie. The calf was so itty bitty I couldn't NOT name her even though we usually just give our cows a number. She became known as Liina-which is my shortened up version of Thumbelina. Liina is now 4 months old and despite her early birth, she's doing great.
We had two other calves born 6-8 weeks early according to our breeding records and since they were healthy and normal sized, we knew there was another paperwork mixup somewhere. I put on my detective hat and sleuthed around until I found last fall's breeding papers.(Well, the hubby found them and brought them over to the summer barn so I could figure out where the mistake was made.) Once I had the right paperwork in front of me, it was a simple matter to figure out what had happened and change the records. One was a skipped entry on some paperwork and the other one was an ear tag number that got written down wrong. One more puzzle solved.
Then there was L450. She had miscarried her first calf at about 4-5 months and the resulting hormone fluctuations caused her to produce milk. This was unexpected (as in 'NEVER HAPPENS' unexpected especially considering that this was her first pregnancy) but we brought her into the milk herd and she's been there ever since. Then one September evening I went to get cows home for chores and found a small black heifer giving birth. I assumed it was the small black heifer that my husband had brought over from the winter barn the week before so she could get used to the barn and the milking routine. I was utterly shocked when said small black heifer walked past me in a totally different part of the pasture less than a minute after I left the new momma tending to her newborn baby bull. Not trusting my eyes, I hurried back to the mom and babe to find L450-the cow we were CERTAIN wasn't pregnant-had been the one to give birth! Our only explanation is that when she miscarried in May, she lost one calf but unbeknownst to us, she was actually carrying twins and the other one survived.
And speaking of twins, we went out for morning chores a few weeks back and there were two new mommas with three calves between them. My farmer husband brought the moms and two of the tots to the barn but the third calf was feeling a bit spirited and galloped off to hide. Because we couldn't compare the three calves until we found the missing one, we couldn't tell which of the cows had twins. It took a fair amount of hunting on the part of my hubby as well as myself but we found the impish young'un hiding in a patch of tall grass and shortly after I deposited the babe in her new pen, I was able to figure out which momma had Double Trouble.
Then the other evening L went out to check the cows who are due to calve only to find one momma and two newborns. One baby was off by itself and it had stumbled into a bit of a mud puddle while the new mom was tending to the other calf. We brought the muddy baby up to the barn and after she was cleaned up, we saw a small black and white calf with an upside down triangle on her forehead. The calf being tended to was a milk chocolate brown with white speckles on it's legs and looked nothing like the mother who was fastidiously cleaning up the newborn. The black and white cow (who has an upside down triangle on her forehead) had been bred to a Brown Swiss bull and Brown Swiss are milk chocolate brown cows so we didn't know what to think. One calf looked like the daddy and one looked like a nearly exact copy of the mother but the two calves didn't look anything like each other. We checked the other cows and discovered the two babies were indeed twins. It's uncommon to get twins that don't look at least somewhat alike but for them to be so incredibly different is pretty rare. They do have *some* similarities though. If you look closely, you'll see both calves have nearly identical white speckled patches on their hind legs, they both have colored tail tips (the black/white calf has a black tail with a white tip and the brown calf has a brown tail with a black tip), and they both have matching white patches on their bellies.
And there you have it. We've had mismatched twins, surprise pregnancies, and itty bitty babies to tend to. There's been other weird calving seasons too (like the one where we had four sets of twins born in two months or the one where 1 out of every 6 calves born was a boy), but this one tops them all.
At least til the next Calving Season starts anyway. 😉
I'm BACK!
Well, that's how it goes I guess.
As I've mentioned in the past, I was writing a monthly column for a family newsletter and it seemed like my creative juices kept me writing more for that and less for this little old blog 'o mine. But alas, ye old family newsletter is at an end (or at least on hiatus) so I suddenly find myself at a loss for words...Well not really. I'm just at a loss as to where to put my words.
And then I remembered my beloved blog. So here I am again.
When I started writing for the newsletter, I found it was sometimes hard to figure out what to write about. You see, the hard thing about writing about farm life is while each day is different to me, it's hard to write about it without it sounding repetitive to the reader. Or, even worse, boring.
So I struggled at first. For two years I wrote that monthly column and gradually, I found it a bit easier to find inspiration. Sometimes it literally leapt out at me (or, in the unfortunate skunk incident, ran under me) and sometimes I had to hunt, but I always found *something* fun/interesting/humorous/crazy to write about.
And now I'm in habit of writing things down because I never know what will strike me as good column fodder. I'm in the habit of producing a monthly column and I'd just started a puzzle feature as well. But my place of publishing is no longer there. I'm sad but I understand all too well how life has a habit of getting overwhelmingly busy and sometimes you need to stop something because of that.
So I'm back. I can't guarantee a daily blog entry. I can't guarantee a weekly one either. But I can say that now that I'm in the habit of writing at least once a month, I'm going to try and keep it up here.
I've missed my blog. It's like an old friend.
As I've mentioned in the past, I was writing a monthly column for a family newsletter and it seemed like my creative juices kept me writing more for that and less for this little old blog 'o mine. But alas, ye old family newsletter is at an end (or at least on hiatus) so I suddenly find myself at a loss for words...Well not really. I'm just at a loss as to where to put my words.
And then I remembered my beloved blog. So here I am again.
When I started writing for the newsletter, I found it was sometimes hard to figure out what to write about. You see, the hard thing about writing about farm life is while each day is different to me, it's hard to write about it without it sounding repetitive to the reader. Or, even worse, boring.
So I struggled at first. For two years I wrote that monthly column and gradually, I found it a bit easier to find inspiration. Sometimes it literally leapt out at me (or, in the unfortunate skunk incident, ran under me) and sometimes I had to hunt, but I always found *something* fun/interesting/humorous/crazy to write about.
And now I'm in habit of writing things down because I never know what will strike me as good column fodder. I'm in the habit of producing a monthly column and I'd just started a puzzle feature as well. But my place of publishing is no longer there. I'm sad but I understand all too well how life has a habit of getting overwhelmingly busy and sometimes you need to stop something because of that.
So I'm back. I can't guarantee a daily blog entry. I can't guarantee a weekly one either. But I can say that now that I'm in the habit of writing at least once a month, I'm going to try and keep it up here.
I've missed my blog. It's like an old friend.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
*Blank*
The title says it all. I haven't written in months again and a large portion of that is due mind blank.
Cows got moved in May, kids are growing as fast as the weeds in my garden (which is suspiciously the wrong color of green-quack grass green to be exact), and I'm loving my lawnmower now that we did some landscaping so I've now got lawn instead of thistle patches and dirt piles. Hay is being cut/raked/baled/hauled/wrapped, corn is being cultivated, and if the level of milk in the bulk tank is any indication, there are large black/white/brown/gray animals being milked on a regular basis.
In short, it's life as usual.
Cows got moved in May, kids are growing as fast as the weeds in my garden (which is suspiciously the wrong color of green-quack grass green to be exact), and I'm loving my lawnmower now that we did some landscaping so I've now got lawn instead of thistle patches and dirt piles. Hay is being cut/raked/baled/hauled/wrapped, corn is being cultivated, and if the level of milk in the bulk tank is any indication, there are large black/white/brown/gray animals being milked on a regular basis.
In short, it's life as usual.
Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Howdy, It's Been A While Hasn't It?
Sorry. Life has a way of taking up my time of late and I'm writing a monthly column for a family newsletter too that seems to suck up my grand post ideas. After all, I don't want to repost things that family are reading so it's hard to write without overlapping topics. Multitasking is not my forte and this extends to writing these days.
Anyway...
What's been happening over here? Not much. Just the usual. Same ol' same ol'.
Spring has apparently started to tippy toe into the area so we are playing musical parking spots. If we don't, one's vehicle needs to have 4 wheel drive capabilities to even think of moving in any direction other than down and even then, it's iffy you'll budge. So we're parking hither and yon in the dry-er spots in the hopes that Mother Nature will take pity on us and dry up our parking area enough to again park vehicles without digging ruts to China.
This also means the driveway is the usual grease slide, I'd be wearing rubber boots everywhere if I had a pair without a hole in them (it's #1 on my list to get next time I'm in town), and every vehicle in our fleet have turned to the oh-so-glamorous Muddy Brown.
Oh yeah, and the Electrical Gremlin that lives under the hood of my barn wheels has come up with a sorta nifty new trick to add to his/her repertoire. I now have automatic headlights-which is nice when one drives after dark but it's not so nice when you park because they don't turn off. The only way to turn them off is to pop the hood and unhook the battery cable. Fun. (Sarcasm there...)
Aside from that? We're busy. Tractors need tinkering, fertilizer needs ordering, seed needs choosing, cows need milking, houses need cleaning, kids need raising, laundry need washing, food needs cooking, and life needs living.
Like I said, same old same old.
Anyway...
What's been happening over here? Not much. Just the usual. Same ol' same ol'.
Spring has apparently started to tippy toe into the area so we are playing musical parking spots. If we don't, one's vehicle needs to have 4 wheel drive capabilities to even think of moving in any direction other than down and even then, it's iffy you'll budge. So we're parking hither and yon in the dry-er spots in the hopes that Mother Nature will take pity on us and dry up our parking area enough to again park vehicles without digging ruts to China.
This also means the driveway is the usual grease slide, I'd be wearing rubber boots everywhere if I had a pair without a hole in them (it's #1 on my list to get next time I'm in town), and every vehicle in our fleet have turned to the oh-so-glamorous Muddy Brown.
Oh yeah, and the Electrical Gremlin that lives under the hood of my barn wheels has come up with a sorta nifty new trick to add to his/her repertoire. I now have automatic headlights-which is nice when one drives after dark but it's not so nice when you park because they don't turn off. The only way to turn them off is to pop the hood and unhook the battery cable. Fun. (Sarcasm there...)
Aside from that? We're busy. Tractors need tinkering, fertilizer needs ordering, seed needs choosing, cows need milking, houses need cleaning, kids need raising, laundry need washing, food needs cooking, and life needs living.
Like I said, same old same old.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Winter Shminter
After a little bit longer Fall (beautiful weather right into November), Old Man Winter came a'snowing. We've got the chilly wind, the cold snow, and even colder fingers/toes/noses.
But since we had the White Christmas I was hankering for, I'm not complaining...Much...
But I've got plenty to keep my mind off of the cold. Christmas came and went, the New Year rolled on by, and now it's time to focus books. Tax time is upon us if the envelope bearing our tax accountant's name that arrived in the mailbox is any indication. I'll be in a bookkeeping haze for the next six weeks or so as a result so there will be little time to think about the weather.
Then there's my vacations. I'm going to Florida in a few weeks and when compared to Brrrr-y temps of home, it'll be awfully roasty-toasty wonderfully warm. I'm thinking of sandy beaches with ocean views and sunshiney days. Daydreams and, once I'm back, all those memories are DEF going to take my mind off of snow and cold and ice...*sigh*
My next vacation arrives a month or so later. We dreamed about a hiking trip for over a year but lately, we've been thinking about postponing that vacation in favor of other options. Like Maine. In March...Seems counterintuitive to go somewhere with as much (if not more by the time we leave) snow as we have here if I'm looking to escape Winter but it'll be snow somewhere else so it doesn't count. *wink* Plus, if we head northeast, we'll be heading that way to see family and visiting ALWAYS makes you feel all cozy inside. :)
And finally, through my sis-in-laws, I discovered this ah-mazing little gem of a coffee shop in a nearby town that I will now be stopping at any time I'm in the vicinity (which may or may not be due to slightly manufactured reasons...:P) because it's that good. Nothing like a warm delish sandwich or a cup of oh-so-sweet mocha to warm a body up, right?
So there are my plans for keeping myself roasty toasty this winter.
But since we had the White Christmas I was hankering for, I'm not complaining...Much...
But I've got plenty to keep my mind off of the cold. Christmas came and went, the New Year rolled on by, and now it's time to focus books. Tax time is upon us if the envelope bearing our tax accountant's name that arrived in the mailbox is any indication. I'll be in a bookkeeping haze for the next six weeks or so as a result so there will be little time to think about the weather.
Then there's my vacations. I'm going to Florida in a few weeks and when compared to Brrrr-y temps of home, it'll be awfully roasty-toasty wonderfully warm. I'm thinking of sandy beaches with ocean views and sunshiney days. Daydreams and, once I'm back, all those memories are DEF going to take my mind off of snow and cold and ice...*sigh*
My next vacation arrives a month or so later. We dreamed about a hiking trip for over a year but lately, we've been thinking about postponing that vacation in favor of other options. Like Maine. In March...Seems counterintuitive to go somewhere with as much (if not more by the time we leave) snow as we have here if I'm looking to escape Winter but it'll be snow somewhere else so it doesn't count. *wink* Plus, if we head northeast, we'll be heading that way to see family and visiting ALWAYS makes you feel all cozy inside. :)
And finally, through my sis-in-laws, I discovered this ah-mazing little gem of a coffee shop in a nearby town that I will now be stopping at any time I'm in the vicinity (which may or may not be due to slightly manufactured reasons...:P) because it's that good. Nothing like a warm delish sandwich or a cup of oh-so-sweet mocha to warm a body up, right?
So there are my plans for keeping myself roasty toasty this winter.
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Underneath the layers
I've got layers. Like an onion. Only thing is I don't make your eyes burn.
But I'm not being theoretical here. No emotionally touching, soul searching post here.
Nah. I'm speaking literally.
I'm referring to layers of clothing. Chore clothes to be exact.
As many of you know (or perhaps you don't? But if you don't, you do now...Anyway, I digress.), we move our cows from our summer pasture and open walled barn to our winter freestall barn and enclosed milking facility every October.
As a side note, this day has coincidentally happened on our wedding anniversary about 4 times in the last 8 years. As an extra side note, this was not one of those years. I'm digressing again.
Back to moving cows. So we move our cows to the summer farm in mid-May and back to the winter barn in mid-October because it's just what works for us. We've got irrigated pasture for the cows to nosh on all summer long but as with most everything else, the pasture goes into hibernation once Autumn arrives and our summer barn isn't very winter-usable. It's pretty much a pole barn with curtains for walls on three sides so it's not quite so fun milking in there when we've got your usual Fall weather. Our winter barn has a fully enclosed milking facility so to go from an open room with curtains on three sides (and thus a teeny bit more exposed to wind, rain, cold, and the general chilly October weather-of which we've had surprisingly little this month so I'm not complaining.) to a smaller enclosed room without wind, cold, rain, or the general chilly October weather (see above comment in parantheses) means the temperature inside said room goes up a few degrees. I've found that moving from the summer barn to the winter barn corresponds with a loss of at least one layer of clothing. Long johns and wool socks go back in the Winter Clothing Drawer for a few more weeks. No more frozen fingers, frozen hoses, or frozen noses til hopefully January. Or later. I won't complain about not having to deal with any of those at all really.
Yes, there will come a day (and likely sooner than any of us would prefer) when I'll want my layers back but for now, I'll enjoy my chores a little bit lighter.
But I'm not being theoretical here. No emotionally touching, soul searching post here.
Nah. I'm speaking literally.
I'm referring to layers of clothing. Chore clothes to be exact.
As many of you know (or perhaps you don't? But if you don't, you do now...Anyway, I digress.), we move our cows from our summer pasture and open walled barn to our winter freestall barn and enclosed milking facility every October.
As a side note, this day has coincidentally happened on our wedding anniversary about 4 times in the last 8 years. As an extra side note, this was not one of those years. I'm digressing again.
Back to moving cows. So we move our cows to the summer farm in mid-May and back to the winter barn in mid-October because it's just what works for us. We've got irrigated pasture for the cows to nosh on all summer long but as with most everything else, the pasture goes into hibernation once Autumn arrives and our summer barn isn't very winter-usable. It's pretty much a pole barn with curtains for walls on three sides so it's not quite so fun milking in there when we've got your usual Fall weather. Our winter barn has a fully enclosed milking facility so to go from an open room with curtains on three sides (and thus a teeny bit more exposed to wind, rain, cold, and the general chilly October weather-of which we've had surprisingly little this month so I'm not complaining.) to a smaller enclosed room without wind, cold, rain, or the general chilly October weather (see above comment in parantheses) means the temperature inside said room goes up a few degrees. I've found that moving from the summer barn to the winter barn corresponds with a loss of at least one layer of clothing. Long johns and wool socks go back in the Winter Clothing Drawer for a few more weeks. No more frozen fingers, frozen hoses, or frozen noses til hopefully January. Or later. I won't complain about not having to deal with any of those at all really.
Yes, there will come a day (and likely sooner than any of us would prefer) when I'll want my layers back but for now, I'll enjoy my chores a little bit lighter.
Monday, October 5, 2015
Autumn Arrives
This time of year is the dusty, dirty, long-day (as in work hours not daylight) time of year. Pretty much, it's Spring Planting in reverse. The guys are busy taking crops out of the fields instead of putting them in.
It's also the time of year we start layering barn clothes because the mornings are occasionally frosty and short sleeves just aren't all that warm when the temps are in the 50's.
Leaves are changing color and the days have shortened up noticeably. It's dark when I head out for morning chores and it's dark before we're done milking in the evenings.
Yes, autumn is here and with it comes the hustle and bustle of Harvest Time, the chill in the air as Mother Nature tells us Old Man Winter is on his way, and new baby calves bawling for their milk are a sign calving season is in full swing again. Geese honk noisely as they fly overhead on their way to warmer southern climes, there's the crunch and crackle of dried grass and weeds underfoot as you wander through the fields, and I start dreaming of mugs of hot apple cider in the evenings.
In another month, we'll have harvest wrapped up, the cows will be at their winter home, and the farm work will be winding down. For now, though, I'm just enjoying these last few days of my short commute (across the driveway) and the colors that adorn the hills.
It's also the time of year we start layering barn clothes because the mornings are occasionally frosty and short sleeves just aren't all that warm when the temps are in the 50's.
Leaves are changing color and the days have shortened up noticeably. It's dark when I head out for morning chores and it's dark before we're done milking in the evenings.
Yes, autumn is here and with it comes the hustle and bustle of Harvest Time, the chill in the air as Mother Nature tells us Old Man Winter is on his way, and new baby calves bawling for their milk are a sign calving season is in full swing again. Geese honk noisely as they fly overhead on their way to warmer southern climes, there's the crunch and crackle of dried grass and weeds underfoot as you wander through the fields, and I start dreaming of mugs of hot apple cider in the evenings.
In another month, we'll have harvest wrapped up, the cows will be at their winter home, and the farm work will be winding down. For now, though, I'm just enjoying these last few days of my short commute (across the driveway) and the colors that adorn the hills.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Hatching Day Fast Approaches
I was thinking I had this whole week yet before those little beaks started popping open those eggshells but apparently my mental calendar isn't the same as the actual calendar so hatching day is any day. Sure it could still be a week but it's likely sooner. (I'll keep you updated on that.)
But Hatching Day almost didn't have a chance. Last night we had a pretty strong thunderstorm roll through and dumped 1 inch of water on us in about 20 minutes. I guess the lightening and thunder were pretty impressive and the wind blew REALLY hard but this exhausted mom slept through every flash and boom and howl and downpoured raindrop so I can't vouch for that. I'm just going off of what the husband and my mother in law said.
Anyway, said storm dumped some much needed rain on the area but it also dumped some trees which landed on power lines and we were without electricity for almost 5 hours as a result. I slept through the storm but woke around 4 to a pitch black bedroom and my first thought after I realized the power was out wasn't 'I wonder if a tree fell on the line' or 'I hope my greenhouse isn't halfway down the driveway' or anything so mundane. No, my very first thought is as follows.
"Hmmm. Power is out so that means no lights, no electricity, no power to my incubator which means the temperature has dropped WHICH MEANS MY NEARLY READY TO HATCH CHICKS MAY BE DEAD!" *cue frantic search for a flashlight or cellphone so I could check the temperature* (the flashlight was oh so nicely provided by the half asleep husband.)
The temperature had dropped by about 20 degrees over the course of 4 hours and my stomach sank but I did my best to keep what heat was in there staying in there. I wrapped my heavy cozy robe around the incubator, dug out some of those hand warmer packets to hopefully keep the temperature from dropping more, and crawled back into bed with little hope left.
Much to my surprise, a quick check this morning showed there's still live baby chicks in those eggs and I'm still hopeful that my egg-speriment will be a success.
So here's to hoping my eight little eggs reveal eight little chicks soon.
But Hatching Day almost didn't have a chance. Last night we had a pretty strong thunderstorm roll through and dumped 1 inch of water on us in about 20 minutes. I guess the lightening and thunder were pretty impressive and the wind blew REALLY hard but this exhausted mom slept through every flash and boom and howl and downpoured raindrop so I can't vouch for that. I'm just going off of what the husband and my mother in law said.
Anyway, said storm dumped some much needed rain on the area but it also dumped some trees which landed on power lines and we were without electricity for almost 5 hours as a result. I slept through the storm but woke around 4 to a pitch black bedroom and my first thought after I realized the power was out wasn't 'I wonder if a tree fell on the line' or 'I hope my greenhouse isn't halfway down the driveway' or anything so mundane. No, my very first thought is as follows.
"Hmmm. Power is out so that means no lights, no electricity, no power to my incubator which means the temperature has dropped WHICH MEANS MY NEARLY READY TO HATCH CHICKS MAY BE DEAD!" *cue frantic search for a flashlight or cellphone so I could check the temperature* (the flashlight was oh so nicely provided by the half asleep husband.)
The temperature had dropped by about 20 degrees over the course of 4 hours and my stomach sank but I did my best to keep what heat was in there staying in there. I wrapped my heavy cozy robe around the incubator, dug out some of those hand warmer packets to hopefully keep the temperature from dropping more, and crawled back into bed with little hope left.
Much to my surprise, a quick check this morning showed there's still live baby chicks in those eggs and I'm still hopeful that my egg-speriment will be a success.
So here's to hoping my eight little eggs reveal eight little chicks soon.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Egg-scellent Experiment
For quite a while now, I've been wanting to add to my puny 3-hens-1-rooster sized flock and about a month ago, I thought my wish had come true when one said hens went broody. Broody hens are amazing for farm wives who want more chickens on the cheap (or is it 'cheep'?) with little to no effort on their part. Only trouble was my broody hen who looked oh so comfy on her little nest set inside an old car tire also looked oh so yummy to a hungry predator (maybe time to have the coon hunters come pay a night-time visit again...) and while she escaped with a few less feathers, she abandoned her nest only a few days after she'd started a-settin' on it. I was able to borrow an incubator from my mother-in-law though and I figured if I could find where my chickens are laying their eggs right now (it's definitely not in the coop much to my dismay), I could hatch them on my own. But no amount of hunting high and low (well, mostly low) has yielded the location of said nest(s) so I decided to order eggs instead and started researching hatcheries.
Then I stumbled on a link that gave me an idea. Apparently, some people have had luck hatching store bought eggs. That sounded easy and cheap-both of which appeal to me very much.
Now it's not like you can try hatching any old eggs from the grocery store. Most eggs in the average carton are from laying barns and there aren't roosters running around doing their 'duty' so the eggs aren't fertilized. But if you can find eggs labeled 'free range' and from a more local source (think farmer's markets), there's a chance the facility won't have taken the roosters out of the hen house. There's an easy way to check for fertilization-crack a few eggs open and look for a little yellow bulls-eye blob in the yolk-and if you are lucky, you'll have a nice hatchable bunch of eggs.
Egg-cited by this prospect and in possession of not only an empty incubator but 3 dozen free-range eggs purchased just a few hours prior at my organic and local food grocery store, I decided to try it out. After all, if it doesn't work, I could chalk it up to test run and order incubating eggs from a hatchery.
So here we are. Day 5 of the grand Incubating Eggs-periment, a newly purchased automatic egg turner (that just arrived today) all set up and running, and a quick candling of a few eggs last night showed promising results so far. We'll likely have a few duds in the bunch but if all goes well (and with a healthy dose of luck), in about 16 days I'll have several little yellow fluff balls peeping around.
I just hope that they aren't all roosters...
Then I stumbled on a link that gave me an idea. Apparently, some people have had luck hatching store bought eggs. That sounded easy and cheap-both of which appeal to me very much.
Now it's not like you can try hatching any old eggs from the grocery store. Most eggs in the average carton are from laying barns and there aren't roosters running around doing their 'duty' so the eggs aren't fertilized. But if you can find eggs labeled 'free range' and from a more local source (think farmer's markets), there's a chance the facility won't have taken the roosters out of the hen house. There's an easy way to check for fertilization-crack a few eggs open and look for a little yellow bulls-eye blob in the yolk-and if you are lucky, you'll have a nice hatchable bunch of eggs.
Egg-cited by this prospect and in possession of not only an empty incubator but 3 dozen free-range eggs purchased just a few hours prior at my organic and local food grocery store, I decided to try it out. After all, if it doesn't work, I could chalk it up to test run and order incubating eggs from a hatchery.
So here we are. Day 5 of the grand Incubating Eggs-periment, a newly purchased automatic egg turner (that just arrived today) all set up and running, and a quick candling of a few eggs last night showed promising results so far. We'll likely have a few duds in the bunch but if all goes well (and with a healthy dose of luck), in about 16 days I'll have several little yellow fluff balls peeping around.
I just hope that they aren't all roosters...
Friday, April 17, 2015
Ahhh....Spring Breezes
I love these sunny warm days. The grass is growing, the trees are budding out, and the air smells so new and fresh. (AAHHHCCHHOOO...Pardon me. I get spring allergies and I've been a touch sneezy the last few weeks...)
But best of all, the days are warm enough to do something I absolutely love. (Well, I love it for the first few weeks and then it's like 'meh...') So what is it that I adore doing this time of year?
Hint: It's something you do outside on gorgeous sunshiney days. And it's not gardening-which I can't do even if I wanted to...Usually my garden is a mudpit this time of year but thanks to the dryness outside, my poor garden is mostly dust right now.
Answer: Hanging clothes on the clothesline.
Yes, I actually like hanging clothes outside. For one, who doesn't love the scent of line-dried clothes? Best. Smell. EVER. Second, it gets me out of the house for a few minutes. Even on the days when I have a counter full of dishes, a heap of clothes to wash, and a pile of bookkeeping to tend to, I know I can sneak outside for a few moments and catch some sunshine because there's clothes to hang. Third, I get my Vitamin D dose for the day because I'm out in the sun. Can't argue with that, right?
Since it's sunny & warm with just enough of a breeze to keep the air flowing through the open doors and windows, my clotheslines are set up, and I've got a load of clothes in the washer, I'm off to get my Vitamin D for the day.
But best of all, the days are warm enough to do something I absolutely love. (Well, I love it for the first few weeks and then it's like 'meh...') So what is it that I adore doing this time of year?
Hint: It's something you do outside on gorgeous sunshiney days. And it's not gardening-which I can't do even if I wanted to...Usually my garden is a mudpit this time of year but thanks to the dryness outside, my poor garden is mostly dust right now.
Answer: Hanging clothes on the clothesline.
Yes, I actually like hanging clothes outside. For one, who doesn't love the scent of line-dried clothes? Best. Smell. EVER. Second, it gets me out of the house for a few minutes. Even on the days when I have a counter full of dishes, a heap of clothes to wash, and a pile of bookkeeping to tend to, I know I can sneak outside for a few moments and catch some sunshine because there's clothes to hang. Third, I get my Vitamin D dose for the day because I'm out in the sun. Can't argue with that, right?
Since it's sunny & warm with just enough of a breeze to keep the air flowing through the open doors and windows, my clotheslines are set up, and I've got a load of clothes in the washer, I'm off to get my Vitamin D for the day.
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
April Showers bring May Flowers...Hopefully...
Usually, this time of year we are knee deep (or so it seems) in mud and muck. My driveway is notorious for becoming a quarter mile mud run with the spring thaw and my usual footwear is a pair of rubber boots for the entire month of April. However, this year that is not the case. No overflowing ditches, no mud puddles masquerading as ponds, no sloppy slippery sticky muck everywhere. Sure we had a few days of mush but nothing like normal.
So no mud. No muck. No slop. You are probably asking why I'm complaining about this then if it's nothing like usual. Well, here's the reason. If it's not muddy right now, it means everything is dry as d.u.s.t. and when everything is dry as dust it means there's probably alot of it in the air...especially when a vehicle drives by or the wind starts whippin'.
Now I live in the country and as such, I know to expect a certain amount of dust on everything. My vehicles all have the ubiquitous two tone paint job you see on cars and trucks that spend lots of time driving down dirt roads...You know what I mean-dirt brown over halfway up the sides and dust sliding down the back window. Interiors covered in a film of what looks like cocoa powder. (When your kids tell you they just look for the dirtiest van in the parking lot at the store, you understand how dusty it is.) I don't wash the outside of my windows because I know in less than a day, they'll be back to dusty/unwashed looking. A light covering of dust settles on everything in the house and no matter how often you sweep/vaccuum, there's always more of the stuff hiding in the cracks. So I get it. Country life is dusty.
BUT that doesn't mean I like seeing dust in APRIL. May through October? Sure. It's expected because it's usually warm enough to keep the roads dry most of the time. But April is not supposed to be an arid month. (August, yes. April, nuh-uh.) And all this dryness has an impact on our fieldwork too. Do me a favor. Take a butter knife, go outside and try dragging it through that parched dry dirt. Doesn't really go through all that well, right? Now, give that dirt patch a good soaking with a hose, wait a few hours, and try it again. It's alot easier, isn't it? That's because moisture is necessary to loosen the soil. Now imagine a plow trying to do what your butter knife did in that dry hard dirt and you'll see where I was going with that. On another note, what's usually the first thing you do after you plant your garden seeds? Give them a good long drink of water. Fertilizers often need moisture to help break them down/dissolve them enough to work them into the soil. So moist soil is must right now and we don't have it. We didn't have the snow cover to help insulate the fields and later melt into much needed water. Winter is a very drying season so that pulled water from the soil for months. We haven't had rain hardly at all yet so things have remained bone dry.
We do have a fair number of fields under irrigation now but not all of them are and some of them desperately need some rain in order to even start working in them.
It's not easy farming because you are so dependent on the weather for your livelihood. We have to hope for rain in the amounts we need and that it comes when we could use it the most while not interfering with the planting/tending/harvesting of our crops. We have to hope for an equal balance of warm sunny days and humid hot days so differing crops can grow to their highest yields. We have to hope for a lack of damaging hail and high winds. And this month is certainly one of those months that we're hoping for the right weather when we need it.
So while I usually spend the month of April bemoaning the mess outside and how sloppy it is, this year I'm trying something new. Pardon me. I need to go look up 'rain dancing'...
So no mud. No muck. No slop. You are probably asking why I'm complaining about this then if it's nothing like usual. Well, here's the reason. If it's not muddy right now, it means everything is dry as d.u.s.t. and when everything is dry as dust it means there's probably alot of it in the air...especially when a vehicle drives by or the wind starts whippin'.
Now I live in the country and as such, I know to expect a certain amount of dust on everything. My vehicles all have the ubiquitous two tone paint job you see on cars and trucks that spend lots of time driving down dirt roads...You know what I mean-dirt brown over halfway up the sides and dust sliding down the back window. Interiors covered in a film of what looks like cocoa powder. (When your kids tell you they just look for the dirtiest van in the parking lot at the store, you understand how dusty it is.) I don't wash the outside of my windows because I know in less than a day, they'll be back to dusty/unwashed looking. A light covering of dust settles on everything in the house and no matter how often you sweep/vaccuum, there's always more of the stuff hiding in the cracks. So I get it. Country life is dusty.
BUT that doesn't mean I like seeing dust in APRIL. May through October? Sure. It's expected because it's usually warm enough to keep the roads dry most of the time. But April is not supposed to be an arid month. (August, yes. April, nuh-uh.) And all this dryness has an impact on our fieldwork too. Do me a favor. Take a butter knife, go outside and try dragging it through that parched dry dirt. Doesn't really go through all that well, right? Now, give that dirt patch a good soaking with a hose, wait a few hours, and try it again. It's alot easier, isn't it? That's because moisture is necessary to loosen the soil. Now imagine a plow trying to do what your butter knife did in that dry hard dirt and you'll see where I was going with that. On another note, what's usually the first thing you do after you plant your garden seeds? Give them a good long drink of water. Fertilizers often need moisture to help break them down/dissolve them enough to work them into the soil. So moist soil is must right now and we don't have it. We didn't have the snow cover to help insulate the fields and later melt into much needed water. Winter is a very drying season so that pulled water from the soil for months. We haven't had rain hardly at all yet so things have remained bone dry.
We do have a fair number of fields under irrigation now but not all of them are and some of them desperately need some rain in order to even start working in them.
It's not easy farming because you are so dependent on the weather for your livelihood. We have to hope for rain in the amounts we need and that it comes when we could use it the most while not interfering with the planting/tending/harvesting of our crops. We have to hope for an equal balance of warm sunny days and humid hot days so differing crops can grow to their highest yields. We have to hope for a lack of damaging hail and high winds. And this month is certainly one of those months that we're hoping for the right weather when we need it.
So while I usually spend the month of April bemoaning the mess outside and how sloppy it is, this year I'm trying something new. Pardon me. I need to go look up 'rain dancing'...
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Winring? Sprinter?
What do you call this season? We're not 'technically' into Spring yet according to the calendar but when the temps are consistently above 40, the snow is disappearing daily, and the kids start playing outside without jackets, then it's certainly not Winter anymore. Right?
What do you call this season? When the driveway becomes a mudbog of epic proportions, my only shoe option is a pair of rubber mud boots, and we have a temporary sidewalk going from the house to the main vehicle to bridge the soupy mucky mess that is my parking area?
Yes, what do you call this season? This season when we have more than a hint of spring in the air, mud almost as far as the eye can see, yet you wake up in the morning (as I did this morning in fact) and are greeted with a dusting of s.n.o.w. and ice covered puddles.
This in-between stage when Winter is struggling to stick around yet Spring is nudging that old man out the door. If you mush the seasons together and delete the awkward sounding letters in the middle (sort of like how celeb couples are nicknamed), you are left with two options-Winring or Sprinter. What's your opinion?
Winring?
Sprinter?
Or should we just forget the mish-mash name and simply call this in-between season Mud?
What do you call this season? When the driveway becomes a mudbog of epic proportions, my only shoe option is a pair of rubber mud boots, and we have a temporary sidewalk going from the house to the main vehicle to bridge the soupy mucky mess that is my parking area?
Yes, what do you call this season? This season when we have more than a hint of spring in the air, mud almost as far as the eye can see, yet you wake up in the morning (as I did this morning in fact) and are greeted with a dusting of s.n.o.w. and ice covered puddles.
This in-between stage when Winter is struggling to stick around yet Spring is nudging that old man out the door. If you mush the seasons together and delete the awkward sounding letters in the middle (sort of like how celeb couples are nicknamed), you are left with two options-Winring or Sprinter. What's your opinion?
Winring?
Sprinter?
Or should we just forget the mish-mash name and simply call this in-between season Mud?
Thursday, February 19, 2015
SLOW time of year
It's that season. Slow. Everything is slower. The cold makes the days stretch on (well except when you get your appointment card from the accountant and your appointment day was set 2 weeks earlier than it normal and instead of a month to prep for tax time, you have 10 days. Then time seems to FLY!) and if there's little sun that day too? Then it's just endless. The van grumbles and rumbles and takes extra time to warm up, I have to watch how I walk outside because no one likes to slip and fall (especially if, as I discovered, your landing pad is a 5 gallon bucket...Ouch) so no quick hops/skips/jumps for me, and the lower the temp, the slower the cow.
Yes, it's slow season for us. So what does a farmer do when he can't be cutting hay, plowing fields, or planting corn? What do we do before the busy-ness of Spring comes along and calves are being born, machinery is being prepped, and we start counting down the days til tractors can get back in the fields?
Simple. We slow down. House projects get done (or at least further progress is/should be made), books get read, hills get skiied/slid down, cocoa gets sipped, snowmen get made, and who knows, we may even get a vacation in. Because our year is flip-flopped and our busy time is most peoples vacation time (can't make hay in January but you sure can in June and July, right?), this is our season to relax, sit back, and enjoy the days cold though they may be.
Because, before we know it, Spring gets sprung and we'll be back to busy, busy, busy business.
Yes, it's slow season for us. So what does a farmer do when he can't be cutting hay, plowing fields, or planting corn? What do we do before the busy-ness of Spring comes along and calves are being born, machinery is being prepped, and we start counting down the days til tractors can get back in the fields?
Simple. We slow down. House projects get done (or at least further progress is/should be made), books get read, hills get skiied/slid down, cocoa gets sipped, snowmen get made, and who knows, we may even get a vacation in. Because our year is flip-flopped and our busy time is most peoples vacation time (can't make hay in January but you sure can in June and July, right?), this is our season to relax, sit back, and enjoy the days cold though they may be.
Because, before we know it, Spring gets sprung and we'll be back to busy, busy, busy business.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Driveway Drivel
Driving V.E.R.Y. cautiously to the barn last night (and equally slowly home) should have been a big hint.
Slip sliding out to the van this morning should have clued me in even more.
The fact that the traction control kicked in as soon as I put the van in reverse should have decided it.
But I wasn't about to let something as simple as ice keep me home today. I had an appointment to make, a fridge that was emptying out, and thanks to a week's worth of tax time book keeping/number entering/receipt sorting/all that good stuff (Yes dear, I'm still working on those books. I just took a fifteen minute break from typing on one computer to type on the other. I'll be back to the books as soon as I finish this blog post.) a steadily increasing case of cabin fever. No way was I staying home for anything short of a dead vehicle or a sick kid.
And to be perfectly honest, the ice was mostly on our driveway and the dirt roads. Once you are on the highway, it's smooth sailing...er driving...
So I braved the ice rink that leads from the road to my house and off I went.
And off I went indeed. Or nearly so.
Backing out of my parking spot involved me putting the van into reverse and sliding it backwards about 10 feet. Traction control promptly decided to control traction and my van moved in the proper direction after that. Except when the traction control decided to turn traitor.
See Traction Control and I have a love/hate relationship. 90% of the time, it's great. That's when it's OFF. The other 10% of the time, when I actually do need it? Not so much. It likes to think my wheels should go straight instead of turn even though there's a corner right in front of me. Or that the ditch is so much more inviting than the road. Or my wheels are spinning too fast so let's slow them down and make Jill stop right in the middle of that piddly little snow drift that doesn't even come to the bumper but is covering a 2 inch thick layer of ice so once she's stopped she can't go anywhere and it'll take her and her husband a good half hour to get the van unstuck. Yeah, Traction Control and I are frenemies.
So I should have KNOWN to turn off the darn thing before I left. But I didn't.
And here's where I'll admit that my annually expanding experience with vehicles, icy surfaces, and snowbanks came in very handy. Despite how the previous paragraphs sound, I did NOT go in the ditch. I made it to town and back without incident. I will say having the van do a 90 degree power slide around the corner of the driveway unintentionally (impressive when you consider I was doing about 5mph at the time) was a teensy bit thrilling but I don't care to repeat the experience. I think it's just tempting fate (and those ditches!) to try it purposefully.
And the next time I leave, I'm turning off Traction Control before I leave my parking spot. I have this nasty suspicion that computer program/gadget doodad was only playing Cat/Mouse with me today. Next time I may not be so lucky...
Slip sliding out to the van this morning should have clued me in even more.
The fact that the traction control kicked in as soon as I put the van in reverse should have decided it.
But I wasn't about to let something as simple as ice keep me home today. I had an appointment to make, a fridge that was emptying out, and thanks to a week's worth of tax time book keeping/number entering/receipt sorting/all that good stuff (Yes dear, I'm still working on those books. I just took a fifteen minute break from typing on one computer to type on the other. I'll be back to the books as soon as I finish this blog post.) a steadily increasing case of cabin fever. No way was I staying home for anything short of a dead vehicle or a sick kid.
And to be perfectly honest, the ice was mostly on our driveway and the dirt roads. Once you are on the highway, it's smooth sailing...er driving...
So I braved the ice rink that leads from the road to my house and off I went.
And off I went indeed. Or nearly so.
Backing out of my parking spot involved me putting the van into reverse and sliding it backwards about 10 feet. Traction control promptly decided to control traction and my van moved in the proper direction after that. Except when the traction control decided to turn traitor.
See Traction Control and I have a love/hate relationship. 90% of the time, it's great. That's when it's OFF. The other 10% of the time, when I actually do need it? Not so much. It likes to think my wheels should go straight instead of turn even though there's a corner right in front of me. Or that the ditch is so much more inviting than the road. Or my wheels are spinning too fast so let's slow them down and make Jill stop right in the middle of that piddly little snow drift that doesn't even come to the bumper but is covering a 2 inch thick layer of ice so once she's stopped she can't go anywhere and it'll take her and her husband a good half hour to get the van unstuck. Yeah, Traction Control and I are frenemies.
So I should have KNOWN to turn off the darn thing before I left. But I didn't.
And here's where I'll admit that my annually expanding experience with vehicles, icy surfaces, and snowbanks came in very handy. Despite how the previous paragraphs sound, I did NOT go in the ditch. I made it to town and back without incident. I will say having the van do a 90 degree power slide around the corner of the driveway unintentionally (impressive when you consider I was doing about 5mph at the time) was a teensy bit thrilling but I don't care to repeat the experience. I think it's just tempting fate (and those ditches!) to try it purposefully.
And the next time I leave, I'm turning off Traction Control before I leave my parking spot. I have this nasty suspicion that computer program/gadget doodad was only playing Cat/Mouse with me today. Next time I may not be so lucky...
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Last Year in Review
Looks like it's been a while since I last posted. Ooops. As usual, I guess. This is just part of my personality and anyone who knows me should know this. I'm horrid about remembering birthdays (including my husband's as well as my own), I usually get the last of my Christmas cards out after New Years (still have a buncha them to do so par for the course), and I tend to forget things quite easily.
But there's many things I managed to NOT forget over the last year. Here's a recap of 2014 on our farm.
The farm was busy. Well, when is it not? But you know what I mean. We fought rain, snow, sun, and pretty much everything you typically get weatherwise in a year but the fields got planted, the crops got tended, it all got harvested, and it looks like we had a pretty decent year. Not phenomenal but decent. Can't ask for more than that, right?
We started renovating our house again and while progress seems to be agonizingly slow, progress IS being made. The plan is to finish wiring the basement this winter, move the bedrooms downstairs, and then start working on the upstairs. We're still looking at a few years before the whole project is done but what's a few more years when we've been doing this for the last 7 years? :) However, until we can move the bedrooms, our bed shares space with the couch in the living room.
Another big change was in our family. Baby girl joined us in early July and she has been a joy ever since. Her big brother and big sister simply adore her, and spend hours every day talking to her, reading to her, playing with her, and just generally entertaining her. It was an adjustment for me to have a newborn again because until R came along, my 'baby' was going on 3 but it wasn't long until it all started coming back to me. R is now 6 months old, oh so curious about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g., babbling up a storm, and trying to roll over & sit up. V & A are growing by leaps and bounds too. V will be 5 in just a few weeks and is still farm kid through and through. It's not uncommon for him to ask if he can go with Daddy and be a bit sad when he can't. A hates being left behind because she's Daddy little shadow too. It just amazes me that my almost 5 year old and my 3 year old know more about farm machinery and how it operates than I do but it's like they are little sponges. They just absorb so much when they are out with L in the field, in the barn, checking irrigators, wherever. My kids love farm life and I hope they always appreciate it this much, whether they stay in the agricultural industry or not.
The rest were mundane, ordinary things. We worked on a few building projects here and there on the farms, still have two dogs keeping the rabbits out of my garden and coons out of the chicken coop, the cows are still milking, calves are still being born, and we even squeezed in a trip or two. It's been mostly life as usual.
But there's many things I managed to NOT forget over the last year. Here's a recap of 2014 on our farm.
The farm was busy. Well, when is it not? But you know what I mean. We fought rain, snow, sun, and pretty much everything you typically get weatherwise in a year but the fields got planted, the crops got tended, it all got harvested, and it looks like we had a pretty decent year. Not phenomenal but decent. Can't ask for more than that, right?
We started renovating our house again and while progress seems to be agonizingly slow, progress IS being made. The plan is to finish wiring the basement this winter, move the bedrooms downstairs, and then start working on the upstairs. We're still looking at a few years before the whole project is done but what's a few more years when we've been doing this for the last 7 years? :) However, until we can move the bedrooms, our bed shares space with the couch in the living room.
Another big change was in our family. Baby girl joined us in early July and she has been a joy ever since. Her big brother and big sister simply adore her, and spend hours every day talking to her, reading to her, playing with her, and just generally entertaining her. It was an adjustment for me to have a newborn again because until R came along, my 'baby' was going on 3 but it wasn't long until it all started coming back to me. R is now 6 months old, oh so curious about e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g., babbling up a storm, and trying to roll over & sit up. V & A are growing by leaps and bounds too. V will be 5 in just a few weeks and is still farm kid through and through. It's not uncommon for him to ask if he can go with Daddy and be a bit sad when he can't. A hates being left behind because she's Daddy little shadow too. It just amazes me that my almost 5 year old and my 3 year old know more about farm machinery and how it operates than I do but it's like they are little sponges. They just absorb so much when they are out with L in the field, in the barn, checking irrigators, wherever. My kids love farm life and I hope they always appreciate it this much, whether they stay in the agricultural industry or not.
The rest were mundane, ordinary things. We worked on a few building projects here and there on the farms, still have two dogs keeping the rabbits out of my garden and coons out of the chicken coop, the cows are still milking, calves are still being born, and we even squeezed in a trip or two. It's been mostly life as usual.
Friday, December 5, 2014
50 Blessings
I meant to post this before Thanksgiving but since Christmas is coming, I think it still fits the season.
1. My faith
2. My family
3. My friends
4. A working vehicle
5. A roof over my head
6. Food to feed my hunger
7. Books to feed my imagination
8. Fellowship to feed my soul
9. My commitment to my health
10. The scale (FINALLY) going down.
11. Heat
12. Chocolate
13. Pasty
14. 'I Love You, Mommy.'
15. 'Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmm.' (R speak for Love You Mommy)
16. 'I Love You, Hon.'
17. My wonderful pooches
18. Christmas carols
19. Holiday greetings
20. Pretty the Elf (on the shelf)
21. A fresh new snow
22. An empty sink
23. An empty dishwasher
24. A full cupboard of dishes
25. No laundry pile
26. A clean floor
27. Bedroom walls being constructed
28. Christmas stockings
29. Running water
30. Homemade Lasagna
31. Being the first one to open a jar of peanut butter
32. Friendly cows
33. Friendly calves
34. Homemade raspberry jam
35. Fresh bread
36. Art on the walls
37. A full bookshelf
38. Blueberry muffins
39. Chocolate cake
40. Cross-country skiing
41. Snowshoes
42. Sunny summer days
43. Misty Spring rains
44. Crisp Autumn afternoons
45. Sparkling Winter evenings
46. Christmas trees
47. Decking the halls
48. Christmas programs
49. The joy in a child's eyes as they take in all the seasonal festivities
50. The magic of the season
1. My faith
2. My family
3. My friends
4. A working vehicle
5. A roof over my head
6. Food to feed my hunger
7. Books to feed my imagination
8. Fellowship to feed my soul
9. My commitment to my health
10. The scale (FINALLY) going down.
11. Heat
12. Chocolate
13. Pasty
14. 'I Love You, Mommy.'
15. 'Mmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmm.' (R speak for Love You Mommy)
16. 'I Love You, Hon.'
17. My wonderful pooches
18. Christmas carols
19. Holiday greetings
20. Pretty the Elf (on the shelf)
21. A fresh new snow
22. An empty sink
23. An empty dishwasher
24. A full cupboard of dishes
25. No laundry pile
26. A clean floor
27. Bedroom walls being constructed
28. Christmas stockings
29. Running water
30. Homemade Lasagna
31. Being the first one to open a jar of peanut butter
32. Friendly cows
33. Friendly calves
34. Homemade raspberry jam
35. Fresh bread
36. Art on the walls
37. A full bookshelf
38. Blueberry muffins
39. Chocolate cake
40. Cross-country skiing
41. Snowshoes
42. Sunny summer days
43. Misty Spring rains
44. Crisp Autumn afternoons
45. Sparkling Winter evenings
46. Christmas trees
47. Decking the halls
48. Christmas programs
49. The joy in a child's eyes as they take in all the seasonal festivities
50. The magic of the season
Friday, November 21, 2014
What's THAT noise?
'Slosh' goes the milk into the bucket.
'Ooof' goes the chore hand as she hefts 8 gallons of milk.
'Thunk' goes the door as it's opened.
'Brrr' goes the chore hand as she walks toward the barn through the chilly morning air.
'BAAAAAAAAA!' go the hungry hungry calves as they see their breakfast arriving.
'Vrrrrmmmmm' goes the skidsteer as another bale is unrolled for those hungry babies equally hungry mommas.
'Clank' go the headlocks as the cows reach for a tantalizing mouthful of hay.
'cluck buck buck' goes the lone barnyard hen as she scrabbles for a kernel or two of corn.
'peep' goes something nearby as the chore hand walks back for the remaining buckets of milk.
Wait....Peep? What goes PEEP in the middle of winter?
'Hon, come listen' says the chore hand.
'Where's a ladder' asks the farmer.
'What's making that noise' asks the chore hand.
'Two chicks. And there's 9 more eggs' says the farmer.
'Buck Buck Buck' says the now flustered momma hen as she shoos us away from her little family and nestles them back under her warm cozy feathers in her oh so cozy nest in a little hidden nook of the wall.
And so ends this morning's excitement at the barn.
(Whoever heard of a hen hatching chicks this time of year?)
'Ooof' goes the chore hand as she hefts 8 gallons of milk.
'Thunk' goes the door as it's opened.
'Brrr' goes the chore hand as she walks toward the barn through the chilly morning air.
'BAAAAAAAAA!' go the hungry hungry calves as they see their breakfast arriving.
'Vrrrrmmmmm' goes the skidsteer as another bale is unrolled for those hungry babies equally hungry mommas.
'Clank' go the headlocks as the cows reach for a tantalizing mouthful of hay.
'cluck buck buck' goes the lone barnyard hen as she scrabbles for a kernel or two of corn.
'peep' goes something nearby as the chore hand walks back for the remaining buckets of milk.
Wait....Peep? What goes PEEP in the middle of winter?
'Hon, come listen' says the chore hand.
'Where's a ladder' asks the farmer.
'What's making that noise' asks the chore hand.
'Two chicks. And there's 9 more eggs' says the farmer.
'Buck Buck Buck' says the now flustered momma hen as she shoos us away from her little family and nestles them back under her warm cozy feathers in her oh so cozy nest in a little hidden nook of the wall.
And so ends this morning's excitement at the barn.
(Whoever heard of a hen hatching chicks this time of year?)
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Kids at Play
I hear the rumbly Brrrrrrrruuuuummmm. Brrrrruuuuuuummmmm of a large piece of farm machinery starting up.
I hear a myriad of Moos, Honks, Baas, Neighs, Clucks, Meows coming from the barnyard.
I hear the farmer holler Who's hungry? as he heads out to the barn.
Tractors busily plowing, digging, spreading, combining, chopping, baling, or mowing fields.
Assorted barnyard animals live in a rather interestingly shaped barn.
A farmer busily feeds a bale to the small herd hungrily awaiting their morning grub.
To the two blond kids playing Barnyard, it doesn't matter that their animals are plastic and stand no higher than a few inches. It doesn't matter that their tractors are miniscule compared to the real deal and need 'hand power' to move. It doesn't matter that their fields are floors, chairs, couches and bales are blocks. It doesn't matter that their barns are made of Lincoln Logs.
In their imagination, their pint-sized living room farm is every bit as big and real as the one they really live on and they are farming just like their daddy.
I hear a myriad of Moos, Honks, Baas, Neighs, Clucks, Meows coming from the barnyard.
I hear the farmer holler Who's hungry? as he heads out to the barn.
Tractors busily plowing, digging, spreading, combining, chopping, baling, or mowing fields.
Assorted barnyard animals live in a rather interestingly shaped barn.
A farmer busily feeds a bale to the small herd hungrily awaiting their morning grub.
To the two blond kids playing Barnyard, it doesn't matter that their animals are plastic and stand no higher than a few inches. It doesn't matter that their tractors are miniscule compared to the real deal and need 'hand power' to move. It doesn't matter that their fields are floors, chairs, couches and bales are blocks. It doesn't matter that their barns are made of Lincoln Logs.
In their imagination, their pint-sized living room farm is every bit as big and real as the one they really live on and they are farming just like their daddy.
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