Muddy Boots ...

Sometimes a picture says more about my thoughts on the farm than I could ever hope to express through my writing (or now through The Beginning Farmer Show ... shameless plug). One of those times is right now. I'm not going to complain about the mud this year ... because mud means moisture ... but, it is a good picture of how I'm feeling right now.

In the winter there are fewer pigs, chickens, steers, and lambs leaving the farm in the way of sales and much, much, much more feed coming to the farm in the way of money leaving the bank account. Plus, in the spring, summer, and fall I get used to interacting with customers each week ... and I love doing that!

One thing I know though ... despite the snow that surprised me this morning when I went out to do chores spring is right around the corner and with it will come cattle and sheep on the pastures, pigs in the woods, chickens roaming around, and lots of opportunities to talk with our farm friends. Plus ... there will be things for sale again ... which is nice ...

Muddy Time :: Again

Spring may not be here until March 20th, but the mud tells me it is coming soon. As for this blog ... I think this quote will become at least a year tradition. "March is a green muddy month down below, some folks like it ... farmers mostly." (of course that is Bear Claw Crislap from "Jeremiah Johnson ... one of my favorites) That quote just always seems fitting for this time of year. Right now, as you can see from the picture, we just have the mud. Hopefully soon we will have the green to go along with it. I do know one thing though ... this farmer will take mud right now. I'm not saying that I like mud, but I will grudgingly admit that it means dry ground may be coming soon.

Mud does present it's fair share of challenges though. Just last night I had the pleasure of loading a pig for the processor (at 9:15 PM). Things went surprisingly well considering how dark it was ... and how muddy it was. I was able to get the trailer hooked up, the pig loaded and the trailer out of the mud in 45 minutes. Of course I'm pretty sure I will have to level out some ruts at sometime this spring and plant some new grass there ... oh for lots and lots of gravel!

Once I made it back in the house I decided that I needed to add another thing to my list of possible projects. That is to make a centralized loading area in the winter lot area (I've decided the pigs and the cattle are going to live in what we'll call a "sacrificial area" next year. In the winter neither of them use up much space, and then everything will be close to the feed, water, and shelter areas. Plus, then I would have the benefit of making one nice graveled loading area so that I can load without getting stuck all year long.

This would mean that I would have to do some advance planning to bring animals up towards the loading area when it is close to loading day, but I think that is a small amount of work compared to tearing up the whole farm or getting vehicles stuck in awkward places. It would also give me an excuse to have them bring out enough gravel to put down in front of the shed ...

One more thing about the farm names again ... Muddy Hole Farm seems to be pretty fitting now ;)

Summer Repeat?

I don't want to begin to think that this summer is going to be a repeat of last years major floods (because I can still make it to the farm 3 out of 3 ways instead of 1 out of 3), but it does seem that the weather is hampering our efforts once again. Recently our weather has turned hot, 90º F today, and wet. In the words of one of our friends from church who has 90 acres of grass hay down on the ground, "I'll have the cleanest hay in the county!" We don't have any hay down yet, but the weather is playing a role in that.

As I mentioned earlier this week the weather has slowed down our porch building efforts, but it has also thrown a damper on the fence building project and on the shed construction. Now that soccer is done it has been so wet that I haven't had the opportunity to get everything ready for the fencing project. There are some low spots along the fence line that need wood posts and they have been too swampy as of late. Also, since we don't have the perimeter up yet I'm having to spend more time building temporary fence to keep everybody feed and happy. Hmm... the weather is working against me again.

The rain/mud has also caused a bit of havoc with our new shed. Of course when ever it rains it not only makes our place wet and muddy, but it also ruins a day, or days, of work at the site our builder is currently at. This all adds up to more waiting. Which means no hay yet because I don't have a dry place to put it (and if you haven't noticed yet, it rains).

The thing is though, that I'm not really going to complain because that is just he way things go sometimes. On a related note, the road in front of our drive is getting pretty bad. So bad in fact that the mail man asked us to let the county know so maybe we could get some more gravel. I do agree with him, a couple days ago I was driving up the hill (going straight) and had my wheels turned all the way to the left! Fun ... Fun!

No Control!

On the farm we are continually to the mercy of so many things. It seems we are always dealing with the consequences of the wind, snow, cold, rain, mud, escaped animals, lack of infrastructure, time constraints, daylight, and so much more. This week it has been the rain! In fact since midnight we have received well over 3/4 of an inch and as I type right now it is still raining (although I think we are getting to the end of this round of showers). All of this rain really is a double edged sword though.

On one hand it I know that I should never curse the rain because then I will complain when it is gone, but in our situation it really does hinder our progress. I suppose on a farm that was all set up this much rain would be a hindrance, but it wouldn't bring all progress to a stand still. This weeks plans included the tilling and seeding of our front yard (a much needed project), but now we just have a lake again in the front yard.

The rain also slows down our perimeter fencing preparations because I haven't been able to get to a few places to clear out some brush and get ready for the corner posts. On top of all that the rain, and more importantly the mud that it brings, will slow down the progress on our new shed. They have not started yet, but everyday that it pours like this our project gets pushed back a little.

But, I will say this about the rain ... as I walked around the fence this morning checking on the cows in my mud boots and rain suit I did enjoy the sound of the rain. I think just about every type of weather or condition is beautiful in it's own way on the farm and I'm thankful for all of that beauty!

Photos From A Weekend on the Farm

A few weekends ago some friends of ours came down for a weekend on the farm. I truly enjoy visitors and love to show them around our place and share our dreams and passions. Most of the time this means that we take a hay ride if the conditions will allow it, so on a sunny Saturday we hooked up the hayrack and set out for a jaunt around the farm. I have to admit that I really have fun driving the tractor around and talking about the farm.


As you can see from the picture above things started out fairly well. It was a beautiful spring day and the kids were having a blast. Along the way I decided to stop and pick up some fire wood because I knew that we were expecting a cold front soon and that a fire would be nice.


After cutting wood things took a turn for the worse. The sun was still shining and it had been over a week since the last rain, but before I knew it we had encountered some mud. It didn't take long for the mud to overpower the tractor and we were soon stuck.

The above picture shows the tractor tires before I had them buried. The one good thing is that I had enough foresight to just stop before I had it buried up to the axle ... of course it did eventually get buried up to the rims...


To make a long story short ... not only did the tractor get stuck, but as you can see the Expedition became lodged in the bog as well! Thankfully we have some great friends with even greater tractors who were willing to come pull us out of our mess! Since then the only thing that has been down in that valley is the bull ... when he has escaped ... and that is a story unto itself.

Muddyfield Farm

I'm thinking about changing the name of our farm. Originally we named the farm Stoneyfield because that was what President John Adams called his farm and I am a huge early American history kind of guy. But, after last springs constant rain and the multiple inches of rain that we have had recently I think a name change may be in order.

So, for the time being our farm is now "Muddyfield Farm". It is actually a good description for the farm. In fact if you take a look at the picture above you can see the muddy ruts created when the tractor was stuck a couple weeks ago. The sad thing is that the valley where the tractor was stuck is even muddier now!

I'm just hoping we dry up enough in the next couple of weeks to get my projects done. The garden is plowed, but the rains came before I could get it disced and tilled. The front yard needs to have some dirt added and raked up so we can plant grass. I need to pull about 20 more old fence posts so I an get on with the fencing job. We need some solid ground so we can start our pole building project. And, I wouldn't mind the sun everyonce in awhile!

There is my farm update for the day ... it is muddy on Muddyfield Farm.