Cattle Clean-up Crew and a Looming Concern

It is no secret that it has been dry this year. I am very happy to say that we got 1.7 inches of rain last night. This following the 0.9 inches of last week is the most rain we have seen since the big rain storm in December. This storm also brought some wind and dropped a few trees here and there. One of the trees that fell was an ancient and battered silver maple.

Lost a Chuck of One of the Old Silver Maples

There is an old grove of these ancient silver maples just west of the house. There are also two old depressions in the soil on either side of the grove. What we know about this grove is that there used to be a pioneer farm out there. Some of the community elders remember being told as children that there used to be a farm on that hill. We believe the depressions  in the soil to be old root cellars or ice houses. I have encountered a square headed nail while planting service berries in the area. 

With the cows only grazed for two months before I decided to pull them back to the lot and let the grass recover. These last two storm have me hopeful that we can continue to catch rain and we can get back to grazing within the next two weeks.

Send in the Clean-up Crew

We just got beef back from the locker and are starting to do deliveries. I am a little concerned about sales this year. Having moved once before, I know that sales take a big hit after a move as our customer base adjusts. I am a little more concerned because of our lack of real internet. It makes it hard to reply to customer emails, update our webpage, update pictures of our product on the Iowa Food Cooperative, create blog posts. In general it makes running our kind of business very very challenging, as if it was not hard enough. It is still early, and we will see what comes of the next few months, but I would be lying if said I was not a little worried.

Let There Be House

We had an extremely mild January. This allowed us to go from piles of lumber to an almost fully put together structure in less than two-and-a-half weeks. November's weather was so cold that we were very concerned about how any progress was going to get made on the house. But three mild weeks has made a big difference.

Framing the Basement

First Floor Framing

Rafters Going Up

Sheeting Going On the House

Windows & Doors Going In

Many of the windows going into the house have been in storage for over ten years. The house itself is something we have been working toward for around twelve years, and I will admit that there is something very rewarding about finally watching it take shape.  It is also exciting to take the next steps forward as we move into plumbing, electrical. HVAC, siding, and roofing. 

Outside of the house, not a lot of activity has been going on around the farm. I continue to put two large round bales out every four to five days. I had to invest in two new hay rings as the old one was worn out. They certainly are not cheap, ouch.

Cattle Eating Hay out of Two New Hay Rings

The tractor hydraulic system has been giving us fits ever since the new clutch went into the tractor. It started with the control valve block on the back hoe started leaving all over. Unfortunately, that part is crazy expensive, so it is not getting fixed any time soon. It is possible to just unhook the backhoe from they hydraulic system, so it really is a manageable problem. However, recently the auxiliary hydraulic pump started to fail. Since that pump controls the loader (needed for hay moving, and gravel and dirt smoothing and moving), it needs to be fixed. Fortunately, it appear to be about a fifth as expensive as the valve block to fix. It was already been an expensive end to 2014, and having this problem already is not a great thing for early 2015.

Leaky Control Valve Block

Leaky Auxiliary Hydraulic Pump

I did make some progress finally getting power hooked up to our fences. There is still many more connections to make and two more gates to dig under, but it is a start. 

Energizer is Running Now

Burying Insulated Power Line Under a Gate

The kids continue to get bigger with each passing week. We celebrated Christmas as a family together with my Sister's family, my Father, and my Grandmother. It was not the same without my Mom there. It has been almost a year since she passed, but her presence was always a big part of Christmas and the holiday just is not the same without her. 

Bringing a Gift for Grandma

 If it has Wheels, He is Onboard

Playing at the awesome New Ames Library

Showing off Designs She Just Made on Her Chef's Hat & Apron

I think that is it for now. Will the tractor get fixed, the house get steel shingles, and there be more pictures of the kids? Stay tuned to find out.

Some One Ordered Lots of Rain & Fall Weather

Since my last post in mid-August, we have had a whole lot of rain. We saw very little rain in July and early August, so we really needed it. After a couple of hot days, it looks like cooler fall weather is starting to set in as well. The biggest thing that happened since our last post is that I sold almost all of my sheep. I sold 10 animals for $1000, and now all I have around here is four ram lambs that go into the the locker October 1st. We have not pre-sold any lamb, so we decided that the herd was not worth the work and that my time was better invested focusing on our other enterprises. If you want to order lamb from us now is the time, because once it's gone, it's gone. 

Some of Our Breeding Stock we Sold

Since the sheep left, I have been focused on building fence at our current place and at the new place. I completed a stretch of fence behind our house and put in a gate. We always put up temporary fence in the past, but with the sheep gone, we won't be grazing our yard as often.

Recently Installed Gate & Fence Behind Our House

To build off that piece of fence behind our house, I started clearing brush from our fence up over the hill north of our house. This stretch of fence has always been serviceable, but not great. I am working to clear the brush off, tighten up existing fence, and add an electric line on the top. I am planning on continuing this work on the north side of the farm, where the fence is pretty much crap. I have a few head of cattle that have made it their goal to work the fence as hard as they can to find a way out up there, and I am done with it. I don't want to leave the old farm to work at the new farm only to get a call that my livestock are out. 

I rented the neighbors ground north of us, because we had such a dry spell in July, the cattle got ahead of our grass, and I decided that the best way to manage the farm would be to put the cows on their ground and let most of my farm recover for 30 days. The ground I rented is pretty rough and has good fences on only one side. I want to get my fencing work done on the north side, so I don't have to put up quite some much temporary fence to make grazing that ground work. Needless to say,  I am scrambling to make what amounts to significant fencing improvements in not a lot of time. 

Clearing Brush Off the Fence

I just made my first trip to the new farm in around six weeks yesterday. As you can see from the weeds, the areas we tore-up the ground are a mess with massive weeds. I should have tried to plant annual rye grass or some thing this spring, but that did not happen. 

Three-foot Tall Western Ragweed

At the new farm, my big goals include getting the fences fixed, digging the water lines, and putting the next phases of electrical work. I still would like to move my cattle over to the new farm for hay feeding season. Yesterday, was mostly focused on assessing the situation after being absent most of the summer. I widened an opening in the trees to start running fence and working on corner braces. 

Widened the Path for the Fence & Installed Rain Gauge

My daughter is back in school, which does enable me to accomplish more sizable tasks again. One young child is much easier to do farm work with then two. I am quite sure that the change is good for both of them. 

Imitating Crazy Squig Miniatures 

Watching Fall Broilers in the Brooder

We are entering the home stretch here on the production season. In the next eight weeks we will processes a beef, four lamb, seventy turkeys, and around 180 broilers. I have to make meaningful progress on the new farm, add to our freezer capacity, finish fencing work, Completed two rounds of distributions, and try to stay ahead of the day-to-day. Add in showing the house, and the uncertainty about our living situation and it tends to be a very stressful time. We will get through it one way or another. Until next time. 

Sunset on the Farm

Awakening From A Long Winter Slumber

This winter has been something else. The cold weather has been unrelenting with dozens of days  below zero. It has been hard on the animals, it has made it harder to sell our home, and it has been very draining on our family. I will admit that I am tired of spending two hours a day out in this weather. Add in my Mother's passing, and the uncertainty about our 2014 production season, and you have very demoralizing conditions. Despite all of these challenges, we are determined to press forward. 

Winter Sunset From The House Yard

It is now March, and the Sun's power is far more noticeable. We are finally melting snow off the ground rapidly. Unfortunately, the ground is still very much frozen so almost all of the snow melt is runoff. Our forecast finally sports highs in the 40's and 50's. I think the -13 degrees temperatures of early in the week are finally behind us and we can look forward to more seasonable weather setting in. 

Stream Across the Yard

Following the Stream

The weather has made things hard for lambing season. We lost one lamb to exposure and the cold weather contributed to the death of another lamb, and forced me to make a bottle lamb of another. I have a little flock of two bottle lambs that follow me all over the place and often try to trip me. 

I have only have eight surviving lambs in the barn. We last three lambs and have seen many more single births this year.  I do have two ewes left to lamb, and I have my fingers crossed that we might yet see more twins. 

Some of Our Ewes and Lambs

Flock of Two Bottle Lambs

With the rough weather, we have been unable to do much of anything outside except keep the livestock fed. I am looking forward to that changing. Our new 50' by 50' building was delivered to our building site this morning. I am hopeful that the crew can start on it soon as I don't really want the building sitting on the ground for an extended period of time. 

Marked Site for New Building

The farm move does give us the chance to reevaluate things. A friend is rebuilding our website at the moment. I think we could use an update as our website has become pretty dated. Janice did a great job building our original site, but that was nearly 8 years ago. We are also considering looking into playing with our poultry feed ration to use a Non-GMO soybean meal. We are evaluating if it is even possible and what it might cost. 

This biggest change we are debating is weather or not we will phase out lamb as a product we will sell.   Right now, our sheep herd generates very limited income. The sheep do break-up cattle parasite loads, but we only run sheep on a limited part of the farm. Hair sheep also browse weeds and brushy vegetation quite well on our farm, but our future farm is much more open. Hair sheep also require considerable fencing to contain them, and I am concerned that predator pressure and the number of neighborhood dogs is much higher at the new place. I am not sure that sheep make as much sense on the new farm. To help us find answers to this questions and a few others about delivery scheduling, we are working on a survey that we will send out to our customers in the coming weeks.

The children have been a bit cooped up this winter as it has been too cold to play outside much. That being said, they have remained quite healthy this winter. Our Son's ears have really improved a lot; our family doctor credits not going to daycare all winter. The little guy is such a cuddly fellow and is quite a bit of fun to play with. Our daughter continues to be more independent and is much better at expressing herself since she started school last fall. All and all, we are all doing pretty good. Hopefully, we can continue to remain healthy and get to spend more time outside in the coming weeks. 

Little Shriek Fan

Inside Beach Day

Confronting the Cold

It has been all over the news, but we have had some of the coldest weather I can really remember and certainly the coldest temperatures and windchill since I started farming. On Monday, the  high temperature was -3 F and the low was -14 F with wind chills driving temperatures to around -50. We just got back from vacation Sunday night late and the temperatures were an unpleasant surprise to come home to. They even canceled my daughter's preschool on account of the cold Monday and Tuesday.

When I got home the cows had broken through a temperate fence and hunkered down in and around the hay bales for cover. After two very tight flights hauling kids through the airport as fast as we could go, I did not have the energy to extract the cattle from the hay bales and get them more shelter that night. Luckily, I had moved the sheep inside the building before I left for vacation in preparation for lambing in a few weeks. The building was a whopping 10 degrees Monday morning, still more then 20 degrees warmer then outside. Luckily, sheep chores did not get more difficult because of the cold weather.

Sheep inside our farm building

The chickens require a little more attention in this weather. This is the first time since I built the new building that I had to break thick ice on the unheated chicken water buckets. I am also collecting eggs twice per day so we limit the likelihood of having eggs freeze. Since we use roll away nesting boxes, where the eggs roll forward away from the hen to a collection grove, the hens are not usually sitting on the eggs to keeping them warm. 

Frozen chicken waters

Chickens that are happy to drink again

The cows proved the most challenging to deal with and are most of why I spent three hours outside Monday choring. The first thing I did, was to get the cattle a new bale of hay. So, I rolled a bale down the hill and pushed it over on its side before cutting the bale wrap off and putting the bale ring around it. The bale they we eating on before they broke into the hay was 3/4 gone and was quite exposed to the wind. I then had to pop some sheep net out of the ground using a hammer and pry bar so the cattle could get back to their water and also make use of the outside sheep shelters, since the sheep were inside the building. 

Cattle moved to the south side of the building

Cattle in a more sheltered place

Cattle now making use of the outside sheep shelters

 Then I had to cut the cattle off from getting into my bales of hay. I started by setting up some temporary posts and running a temporary fence line. I had to take a cordless drill and make holes in the ground for each of the half dozen posts.

Temporary electric fence posts put in with the aid of a cordless drill

 I also had to open the cattle water. I love my Cobett waterer, but that was the worst ice I had ever seen on the thing. It was 4 inches thick where the cattle last drank from it and 6 inches on the other side of the waterer. It took several minutes of work with the hammer and pry bar, but I got it open and then the cows, who were impatiently waiting for me, started drinking.

Thick ice on the Cobett cattle water

The cows swarm the Cobett once the ice is off

Lastly, I had to deal with the little things that happen when you move livestock into an area you don't usually have them. I had to reconnect that section of fence to my electrified fence because I had cut the supply line a year or two back for some forgotten reason. The I found that several calves decided to escape through a gap in the the wood fence that I had always intended to close off. So, that project got completed  and the calves got rounded up and returned to the pasture, but not before I chased them around the house yard far longer then I would have liked given the temperature.

Former small gap in the fence that the calves decided to exploit

All and all it is good to be home. It is hard traveling with children and it is nice to work on getting them back into a routine. I think my Son is the happiest to be home since he is not nearly as outgoing as his sister. It could also be that he was tired of ridding around in the back seat of a mini van with his father for several days. 

Watching Daddy int he back of the mini van

I am looking forward to preschool opening up again and life retuning to normal,  but Hazel and I did enjoy a morning of playing with Duplo blocks together.  I will keep you posted as the weather moderates and I get a chance to tackle some farm projects that could use my attention. 

Showing Daddy the rolling Duplo tower

Things are a Brewing, mean while we are Carrying On

It has again been too long since my last blog post. We have been working on making a massive change in our farming operation, that being said it is not a done deal and I would rather not let the cat out of the bag until there is more clarity about this change. I hope to be able to share this change with you in the next week.

Our egg production is down a bit. We had a hard spring with a persistent fox that I struggled to deal with. He would strike in the middle of the day and use the cover of pasture, road, ditch, or even the draw behind the house as cover on the approach. We might have lost as many as 20 birds to the fox, but I finally got the darn thing with the last three bullets I had in my 22. I have found it hard to locate .22 mm rounds. All of the local shops are out. I presume that is associated with the threat of gun control legislation this spring. This does not make a great deal of sense to me, because there was no real threat about restrictions to the common .22 round, but then ardent gun advocates and I don't always see eye to eye on things.

For the time being I will try to share some of the more mundane things going on. The turkeys arrived back in late April. I got 82 in the mail, and I have something like 65 (enough of them die that I tend to lose count) that made it into early adulthood. That was higher mortality then I was going for, but I will have to live with it. I tried to run them earlier to avoid the warm weather of June and July we had last year. This year was quite cold for most of the spring. Many of the crops did not get planted in surrounding areas because of the cool wet spring, and even then some of them got flooded out. This year has been the diametric opposite of last year. I can honestly say that right now is the first time this growing season where it is getting pretty dry out. We are taking orders for Turkeys so let us know if you are looking for a Thanksgiving bird. Our birds should be ready for October delivery, and might be ready for September delivery.

We did not raise chickens this spring. It turns out with the cold spring that this was not a bad idea. Fall chickens should be arriving within the next week and I think we will have birds by September deliveries.

Cattle are doing well. We did just drop a beef off at the locker so beef will be ready for distribution by late July or early August. I love having grass-fed beef in stock and I eagerly look forward to having some available for customers again.

Cattle on Spring Pasture

Around the farm, we have been chipping on projects. We fixed the shop front, which had been damaged in a wind storm several years ago, we did finish putting the eave spouts on the chicken house, and we have been working on cleaning out buildings, and getting our scrap piles cleaned up. Jim, our super helper from Pella, has been a big help through this process.

I did take a weekend to pick berries around the farm. With the unusually wet weather this spring, the berry crop was amazing this year. I picked 15 pounds of berries in one morning with our daughter helping me. Our haul included mulberries, sour cherries, and Juneberries. In the photo below, I left our the cherries, but you can see the Juneberries on the left and the mulberries on the right. We have a variety of mulberries on this farm. We have the white and the dark purple ones, as well as their hybrid light purple to pink ones.

Juneberry and Mulberries fresh from Picking

I would like to take the opportunity to put a plug in for the Juneberry (Serviceberry or Shadush). It is an underrated small tree. Janice did not understand my enthusiasm when I planted them four years ago, but she is been eating her words this year. They are a lot like a blueberry grown on a carefree native small tree verses a temperamental little bush. They have been good in oatmeal, in cobblers, or just eaten straight. 

Juneberry Tree

JuneBerry Close-up, those are perfectly ripe.

Our little boy has been crawling since the middle of May, but he has never really felt like crawling was enough for him. After all he does have a toddler sister to keep up with. So he has been trying to pull himself up and move along surfaces with the occasional few seconds of free standing.  He remains as calm and as mellow as ever. Usually the only time he really protests is when he sister is interrupting his standing by dragging him around or when he tumbles hard.

Our Little Guy working his way along the Sofa

Our daughter has been, well, a toddler. She got a haircut about a month ago, which can be seen in the photos below. We have been working on toilet training. It is still a work in progress. She has a massive bladder, like her dad, and so we don't get very many chances to practice in a given day. She is getting better at being outside, but her fear of chickens, born about by a bad encounter with a rooster, still makes it hard to work with her outside.

Painting Time

Perhaps a little over-equipped to go Check Cows