What's Up with Your Small Farm?

I don't know about you, but for us, selling our what was considered a small dairy meant we had to get used to farming on a much smaller scale. We just can't get it our of our systems.  Getting out of the dairy doesn't just stop what is in our blood: raising animals! I guess it is considered homesteading now, although we are in no way making a living off the farm anymore. I miss that!

We still run a micro herd of heifers. They don't cost much to buy these days, much to the detriment of farmers still in the business of selling calves. It's heartbreaking to see how little people are getting for their animals and in some cases they receive a bill for putting down the animals that didn't sell. That's ridiculous!! But I digress... We do still raise a handful to sell every year or so, saving one back to eat.

We also put in a greenhouse, something I have always wanted. Up here in northern Wisconsin if you want a garden a greenhouse is one of the best things going. It just doesn't get warm early enough to get a good crop where we are of things we like to eat. That greenhouse made all the difference and we have saved hundreds of dollars at the grocery store by NOT buying those same vegetables. My husband discovered also that he really shouldn't have made me leave such a vast quantity of canning jars for the people who bought our farm. We ended up buying new ones to replace them. That was an unnecessary expense, at least it would have been if he had just let me bring all those jars with us. (Ha!)

We also diversified this past fall. We got a couple female rabbits and a male. The young rabbits will supplement our meat supply and I am going to learn to tan hides. He thinks I'm nuts, but I just can't see wasting the pelts when I can make things out of them, especially when it gets so ungodly cold up here. Who knows, maybe I can sell a few of the items I make! That's a ways off of course. I have to learn to do it first.

We are hoping when we finally get our garage built my chicken house can quit serving as a storage facility and actually become a chicken house. We're planning on adding onto the end without a door for a second chicken building so one can be for egg-laying hens and the other for the meat birds. Fresh is so much better!

Now if only I had some way to raise a hog or two and a goat-proof fence for a milking goat...

What are you doing with your small farm?

Welcome Tessa

Yesterday we made it to the cattle auction towing Spanky. She needed a new home. Since my husband lost track of the auctioneer back in December, he ended up bringing home a cow that had been milking since April and still wasn't bred back. This is not normal for milking cows as they stop giving a decent volume of milk and she stopped just about all together shortly after we got her home. We thought we'd at least put some weight on her, but even though she could pack away the food, she just didn't gain weight. (Most people would love to do this!)

To market she went, but there was a sale too, with a lot of milking cows and several registered Holstiens. They must have had a lot of hair since they were outside in a freestall barn where it was cold because they shaved them down some. There was one little cow that they advertised as being a high producer with a low somatic cell count (that means she didn't have mastitis), but they did a poor job shaving her and she was some kind of thin, which means if she is a high producer then she puts her food into making milk, she was also taller in the back than the front which just made her look odd. Well, that didn't bother us! There were hardly any bids on her so my husband literally threw his hat in the ring. They weren't paying any attention to our area and he had to get their attention. We won the bid. Since she was running milk (because they didn't milk her that morning) he named her Squirt! She was actually used to being milked in a parlor, but apparently it was a different type than ours. Once she figured it out though, she was fine. Hooking her up is currently the challenge. Freestall cows aren't hooked in and don't wear collars unless they are being used to robot milk the cows. The robotic unit reads the tag on the collar or the ear to know whether to milk the cow or not. I hope she gets used to it soon, like before she dislocates my shoulder trying get her in place to hook up her collar.

We have been checking on our heifers who have been going through the parlor, albeit not getting milked. Stripe, the heifer who didn't want to come into the barn, settled right down once she was inside and except for a couple times trying to get her to her stall, she actually did better than the others. Last night we decided she might not make until her due date February 9th. We put a grate behind her just in case. This morning we were greeted with a tiny heifer calf she had delivered some time before we got in there. She accepted it once we got the slippery little girl over to her. The poor calf just wanted her mommy but got between Stripe and George Foreman. George kept kicking her. (Farmer growls audibly at George.) Once she was cleaned up and Stripe was in the parlor getting milked (without a single kick or complaint either) we moved the calf to her own stall and fed her. She has some appetite!

Meet Tessa! I don't know why I named her that; I just took one at her and the name popped into my head.

Then She Ran Into George Foreman...

I had named most of my heifers when I raised them, but some of them just had no name; mostly because they didn't show any particular personality traits that spoke to me, so I thought I'd wait until they came into the barn to be milked. Now, of course we have to train ten of them before they calve because once they do, they have to get down to business. Now they get to go through and see what is going on, get handled the way they will once the milking starts, except for putting the milkers on part.

This is actually where it gets interesting. Their personalities are coming through. I told you before about Cuddles. She is sweet and lets me pet her, but she was a bear to get out of her stall and into the parlor. She also didn't want to go back once we were done. She was such a brat that the cows she went in with actually fought to NOT get positioned beside her. Yes, I could absolutely tell this is what was going on. She poked her head underneath the cow in front of her (it's herringbone so they are both in front of or behind and beside another cow), and she being taller than the Jersey cross cows that are milking already, she rested her head on their backs while they milked. They hate that. One cow, we named Pot because she is always stirring the pot causing trouble, we knew would teach her some manners so we put her in front of Cuddles. Cuddles stood on Pot's back hoof and would not move it. I don't how Pot did it, but she actually waited until I was finished milking her and then she pulled her foot out from under Cuddles' foot and clocked her a good one. She stomped hard on top of her foot too. Cuddles hasn't set her foot on top of anyone's foot since. She also settled down immediately. She goes to and from the parlor pretty well now.

We have one with really long, straight legs that my husband named of course Legs. He observed that if she wanted to she reach out and touch someone at a great distance. Why yes, as a matter of fact she can. We had pretty much the same problem getting all the heifers so far to get out of their stalls and go back, but in the parlor where we are trying to get them used to being handled is where Legs showed how well she can kick. She hit the cow behind her and she shouldn't have been able to do that with that leg. The other one, yes, but not that one. She shook the entire section when she kicked the pipes holding the butt plates in place - floor to ceiling. She actually has done quite well now that she isn't scared anymore!

Then there is George Foreman. Yes, that is a man's name and a heavy weight boxing champion. She earned the name because she can hit with equal force with both back feet, as my husband learned trying to put her back in the stall and in the parlor. She left hoof prints on the wall when he tried to get into position in the parlor by closing the crowd gate behind her. I saw it coming and yelled for him to look out. Barely missed him!

Hero, the cow that knocked the bull on his behind every time he got near me, is perfectly well behaved in the parlor. Getting her there and back is the problem. She wants to go anywhere but either of those places. Otherwise, I can pet her, clean behind her, feed her hay out of my hand even. She did try to trade places with one I named Little Twinkle. She is named because she acts like one we bought many years ago that liked to swat at the milker (not kick- just swat) so it had to be babysat, and I got the honor. Twinkle liked to turn when I wasn't looking and give me a big lick on the head or steal my hat in the wintertime. She was goofy. Little Twinkle does the same thing, except she is an instigator and does not like going to and from the parlor. Again, well behaved once there. She never got along with George and doggone it she ended up in the stall where Hero goes right next to George. I told my husband that wouldn't do; they had to be traded, and he said no, he wasn't fighting them to trade them out. We had to break up a fight immediately. They were butting heads under the divider and George was winning. He said they'd stop. Within five minutes of my going to do my milkhouse cleaning chores he stuck his head in and said we had to trade the cows before George and Little Twinkle tore something up. That took a long time since they both like to fight going back to their stalls. But the war ended and all was right in the world for George and Hero.

There is another one I named as a calf who is mostly black with a small white area on her forehead. She eats on her knees for some reason and so I named her Sister Mary. She is another problem child. She actually crawls on her knees and her belly under the stall dividers towards the out door - underneath the other cows! We're afraid she's going to hurt one of them. She crawled her way almost all the way to the end until she met George Foreman! Yep, she put a stop to that in a hurry. Sister Mary is way larger than George, but George has horns in spite of having them removed as a calf. So, when Sister Mary got that far George having seen what was coming, lowered her head and let her have it. Mary stopped. We got a rope and tied it to her head so we could get her turned back toward the walk aisle. George, who doesn't like anyone in her stall with her, let us in and even moved over so we could tie Mary's head. She was under Hero so that could have been a problem, but she didn't want her there any more than George did, so she backed up. Mary finally crawled her way out and got up. I didn't think we would ever get her into the parlor and then wondered what damage she would do, but she actually was perfectly well behaved in there. I just don't get it. She still tries to belly crawl her way instead of backing out and walking.

Stripe was named as a calf because of the black stripe on her otherwise white face. She absolutely would not come into the barn even though she was raised there. The bull did not help either. He has a great deal of control over her almost like an abused spouse. I am seriously not making light of abused women here. She didn't do anything, even eat or get a drink of water, unless he allowed it. She also jumps like a deer and did several times right over corral panels. She did a dive over the gate and bent it like a dog eared page in a book. We had to use the tractor to straighten it back up. We finally had to lock her in the head locking feeder and tie a rope to her collar and then the other end to the tractor and back it into the barn. I took over at one point and my husband guided the rope so she wouldn't get hurt trying to get away. Once inside, she waltzed right into the stall. Go figure! The bull, by the way, is really ticked off that we took the last of the ladies into the barn. He has shaken the walls beating on it. We have yet to take her into the parlor as we wanted her to get used to being indoors first. We start tonight. She actually looks as if she might be the first to calve and after all the stress of trying to get her in for three weeks and the other cows acting up and fighting, we're wondering if she might do like Gertrude and have it early.  Wish us luck.

                                        Stripe cow. Difficult at best to get into the barn. Jumps like a deer.

George Foreman- the stripe down her face gives the impression she has gone a few rounds and broken her nose. The stripe is just in an odd place.

Cow Punching and Barn Update

Cow Punching- Literally

My husband decided that since the cows I hand raised had been outside for a year and only come near him if he has feed (even then they stand back and wait until he dumps it out to go near it) that I needed to reacquaint the heifers with people.  I talk to them through the barn gate all the time, although for the most part they just ignore me, except for a couple of them. But that darn Jersey bull is a royal pain. He has taken to butting the ladies away from the barn and anyone who gets near them. So, I made friends with the bull.

First, I unloaded about fifteen bags (plastic burlap type) of feed into the feed bins (a/k/a metal trash cans with lids), and then I stuck my feed scented gloved hand out the gate as I scolded him for running off the other cows. He came at the smell and stayed for the scratching of the ears. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but now he sticks his head over a gate at the silo room when he hears my voice with an expression my husband describes as love struck. I told him I wasn't a cow, but he doesn't seem to care. I almost gave his nose ring a yank just to get him a little scared of me.

Flash forward a week and Chaos (the awesome companion Labrador retriever- not cattle dog) are out in the woods which are part of the cow's field marking dead trees before the leaves all fall off so we can make fire wood. She is wandering off and being older, she is going deaf and blind, and also having a penchant for chasing skunks, I was busy trying to get her to stay with me in case one was holed up out there somewhere. Next thing I know, I am surrounded by the cows and one love-struck bull. Everywhere I moved, there was that stupid bull! I kept a small tree between me and him in case he suddenly decided to charge and always moved backwards in order to keep an eye on him. Chaos finally decided to come to mama and she for some weird reason decided she was a cattle dog. Now, if she had been trained to move cattle I wouldn't have worried about it, but she isn't - she's a hunting dog, so I told her to get behind me when the bull pawed the dirt at her. She actually minded me and did it (trust me- there was a reason this amazed me). He wanted that dog bad. I finally reached out and just smacked him on the nose. "No dog! No dog!" I yelled at him. He actually looked disappointed. Hmmm.

I told Chaos to go home and she started that way, but hesitated when I didn't follow. I was keeping an eye on that bull as I walked slowly backward. There are a lot of holes out there and other cows, and I didn't think falling was a good idea. I was still taller than the bull and being on the ground could be dangerous. The cows finally meandered off, losing interest, I thought, and I was able to get to the pasture part of the field and we headed for the gate, not running because that could be trouble. Almost there and I hear the sound of hooves running. I turned around and those silly cows were running to beat the band to catch up. I held up my arms and yelled 'stop' and to my surprise, they did. Feet splayed out in front of them, they literally skidded to a stop- every last one of them. After I finished laughing at that ridiculous sight I backed up again, very slowly, because I was coming up on that very hot electric fence. I was too low for the dog to go under (and as stated before- I was not getting on the ground to do it either) and too high for me to go over. I got out my cell phone and called the husband. "Please turn off the fence for a minute so the dog and I can get out of the field. The cows won't leave us alone and the bull really wants Chaos." He asked what only once when he heard me belt that bull right in the nose. "I told you to leave that dog alone! Now leave us alone!" I yelled. He was crowding us to the fence. I heard my husband say real loud it was unplugged. I left the line open and pushed the wire down enough to get over it and then raised it for Chaos and then told him to plug it up quick. I knew when he did it because that bull hollered when he hit it.

I really don't think I want to go out there for a while. Maybe I'll carry a ball bat or something. I apparently am too good at making friends with the cows.

Now, onto the barn!

We finally have the siding up! I helped even though it like to have scared me to death once we got to the higher up part on the front. Heights and I do not get along. I got dizzy and nauseated. Yuk! But, it came out nice. We haven't quite finished the inside as we have to re-roof the barn first (it leaks into the new part- dang!) We are getting along on the parlor though. All the concrete work is done and we got the concrete sealer (garage floor coating) done yesterday. We still have to clear coat both the milk house floor and walls and floor of the parlor pit. I learned how to lay concrete block (foundation for the walls so the wood doesn't sit directly in water when we clean) and how to run a cutting torch (the steel grating for the guttering where the cows stand while being milked). I have epoxy in my hair, though nail polish remover got it off my hands and arms. I think I'll just let it wear off my hair; I just don't think acetone belongs on hair.

Pictures!

                                                        Siding going up- partially done

                                  Siding done! Yay! We had to push the bulk tank out to do the floor.

                          Some of my friendly cows! The bull cannot be disturbed for photographs.

Renovating a Barn

Several years ago we milked cows under a pipeline system. Let me tell you, while that is much better than hand milking and even what was once referred to as a step-saver system, it is still hard on the body. You have to squat between cows and attach the milkers to the cow's teats. This allowed for the cows to kick you if they wanted to, sometimes right in the head. A series of circumstances, including growing children who did not want to farm caused us to stop milking.

We opted to raise beef and dairy heifers which required bottle feeding powdered milk replacer and training them to eat feed and hay and drink water, just like we did with the dairy cows' calves. We also planted crops for sale.

Now we have decided to renovate that old barn and where was once a calf-raising room into a milking parlor. We had changed to using the milking cow's stalls and abandoned that section of the barn long ago. In the parlor we are building there is a central pit between two rows of cows where four cows can be milked on each side at the same time. More importantly, there is no getting kicked in the head or squatting under a cow. That is better on the knees and the old brain bucket!

In the years of non-use the milk house had been ruined from hard winters of heaving frozen ground that broke the concrete. We later discovered that someone had no only built it without a proper foundation, but on sand! This means the building will be razed, the original foundation broken the rest of the way and hauled away and all new concrete poured and a new building. Fun!

                                          Trying to pull up broken concrete pad outside the milk house.

                                           A large slab moved just to discover another one underneath.

                                                              The building coming down.

                                     It's gone! Now to demo the rest of that concrete and start over.
I rented a jack hammer this weekend. The guys at the rental center laughed asking if I was going to run it. Guess what! Yes, I did, and I broke a lot of concrete. Hopefully, weather permitting, we get the new foundation next week. Wish us luck.

                                                   Our ever present helper supervisor.

Deciding to Keep the Smaller Tractor

I did some serious thinking about that tractor that tried to turn over with me. It occurred to me that it is actually mine, as in no payments, and I have quite a few implements that will not fit on anything else that is bigger (bucket, plow, disc harrow, brush cutter –commonly known by the name brand Brush Hog, a lot like a tissue is called a Kleenex- and a sprayer). The sprayer is actually made for a 4-wheeler (which we do not have) but we attached it to a pallet and stick on the rear hay forks (another implement along with the bale spear for the front). We hook the sprayer to the battery and spray away the weeds and grass from the fence rows. Bigger tractors won’t clear the stumps or trees that are next to the fence in places. I suppose I’ll have to keep it and bale smaller bales. Hopefully we won’t have to deal with the knee deep mud again, but this is Wisconsin and mud is a part of the farm, especially in the rainy season.  

                                      Lots of uses for my little tractor - guess I'll keep it after all.

I decided to make my garden bigger this year to accommodate planting potatoes since I used part of it for asparagus last year and you don’t plow that up if you want to keep it growing. I needed that disc. After several trips lengthwise, I went the short way (that was fun dodging trees at the ends of the rows!) several more times just to break it up and then this weekend (a week later) I used the tiller on it. I have a Craftsman rear-tined tiller that has worked without fail for more than ten years. I love it. It will, however, work you half to death if your garden is very large, like mine is. Most people use the implements I have for deer forage plots- nothing like attracting the deer so all you have to do is sit and wait during hunting season. I don’t do that, by the way; they go after our corn and soybeans planted either for cash crops or to feed the cows so I don’t need forage plots. I could get a garden type tiller made to fit that tractor, but once the plants are up, the tractor won’t be able to go down the rows anyway.

I do have future plans for this equipment, and that includes the eventual purchasing of a tiller for it and a planter. This is way off of course, but when we lived in Florida we had what is called a truck crop farming operation. That is when you grow an acre or so of different vegetables and sell them either at farmers markets or vegetable auctions (we sold to an auction when we were in Florida). Some of our bell peppers and butternut squash and yellow squash went to grocery stores all over the country. We sold zipper peas (a variety of field peas) locally by the bushel basket. My only problem with this plan of course is that all of our land is currently allocated either to pasture or feed crops/cash crops for the animals. Hmmm, I’m going to have some figuring to do!

Safety Equipment on Tractors can Save Lives

Are you in the habit of ignoring the safety devices installed on your farm equipment. They are there for a reason, just as are the warning signs about not sticking your hands into moving parts. We have a small Case IH DX 40 tractor. I love this tractor in that it has a hydrostatic transmission so I don't have to change gears and mess with a clutch. Yeah, I'm THAT kind of tractor driver. It has a loader on it that makes it easy to use a bucket to clean snow in the winter (even without a cab- brrr) and scrape manure out of pens and load the spreader, it also has a bale spear attachment for the front and a set of hay forks for the back, it is small and light compared to other tractors and gets into small places. Handy it is; safe for heavy work- not so much. We use it to haul round bales out of the fields in the summer, which it does fairly well because it is counterbalanced with a bale on the back. What I have found is that when it comes time to actually feeding those bales, one tends to only have a bale on the front and it bounces with the weight. Why do I bring this up in an article about safety equipment? Here's why. This tractor has a roll bar that can be folded down for getting into low places, such as our heifer shed, which my husband does, only he has a habit of not putting it back up and he also won't wear the seat belt. "If it tips, I want to be able to get out the way." Well, chances are high that if it tips and you jump, you will be caught in the rollover and squashed; not thrown out of the way. That roll over bar was installed to keep the tractor from landing on the driver and the belt to keep them in place.

The other day it snowed a great deal and with the spring thaw in progress it made it hard to find the soft spots in the cow yard. I wasn't able to drive to work (the roads were treacherous) so I stayed home. My husband asked it I would feed the cows but warned me 'it likes to tip a little, so be careful'. Holy mud pies! Was that an understatement. I dutifully changed out the bucket for the bale spear and commenced to pick up the hay bale he had it stuck into thinking that was the first bale he wanted fed. Then I noticed the rollover bar was down. I shook my head and put it back into place and then hooked the seat belt again. (I always use the seat belt). The first thing that happened was that as I backed out of the shed it tried to tip - a few times-  before I found some way to back out that it didn't. Thank goodness for the seat belt. It would have tossed me right off into the steering wheel. Then I got the gates open and went in to feed the cows. Since I couldn't see where the solid places were I fell right into the softest place by the gate and the front tire sank to the hub. The rest of the tractor tipped precariously. Why yes, my heart like to have pounded right out of my chest. I immediately put the bale down to put the tractor back on at least three wheels because at that point it was only on two, both on the same side and one of those was buried in mud. Again, the seat belt kept me from being thrown off and it wouldn't have been into the steering wheel; it would have been right where the tractor was going to roll. After several tries and more scary moments, I knew I was not going to get that tractor righted. I held onto the high side of the tractor and unhooked the seat belt and jumped off that side hoping it wouldn't roll and take me with it. I was sure if I went off the low side it would. I got a look at it once I was on the ground (mud) and that back tire was a good four feet off the ground. I had to tell the cows to stop eating my anchor, but I guess it kept them in the pen while I went to the house to call my nephew for help. He drove up in a vehicle and I told him I thought he'd bring a tractor and he said he probably should have once he got a look at the situation. He climbed on and did some maneuvering (apparently having done it before himself) and got it put back right, but it tipped several times with him too. I declined to deliver another bale. My husband said I got the heaviest bale in the barn.

Now, had that tractor rolled, that seat belt would have held me in place so as not to be in the path of the rollover and that roll bar would have kept it from smashing on top of me.

Farmers, in spite of old jokes to the contrary, are not dumb; they just do things like everyone else when they see a problem. Case in point: Several years ago a relative was trying to figure out why his forage chopper was not cutting properly. The only way to do this was to lift the cover and actually watch the blades spinning. "Oh, that's the problem!" he said and without thinking reached for it. He lost several fingers. Most farmers after such an incident will say "*&$#! That hurt!" Followed by, "Well, that was stupid." There are guards and covers with warnings for a reason. The graphics may look funny, but if one pays attention to the actual gruesomeness they portray, they would realize just how serious they are. Keep covers in good shape on things such as cutting bars and PTO shafts. An arm or leg caught in a PTO shaft can result in one severing an artery and bleeding to death; and not just mangling the limb. If your shirt gets caught in a shaft that is spinning; getting to a shut off switch is impossible and it will pull you into it.

The bottom line is seat belts, rollover bars, and guards save lives. Use them and maintain them.

My next assignment, find a bigger tractor and trade off my little one!

Seed Catalogs

With all the freezing cold outside (and trust me; it is freezing cold outside) the thing that helps save my sanity is the flood of seed catalogs I get every winter. (Odd considering I usually hate junk mail.)

The good old fashioned seed catalogs 1) Remind me what growing things look like, as opposed to all the white frozen stuff around me. 2) Causes me to think about experimenting with varieties of vegetables I haven't tried before. 3) Offer help with problems I have growing things.

Case in point: a good many of my neighbors seem to be able to grow strawberries and blueberries. I have spent a shameful amount of money trying to do likewise to no avail. I have yet to harvest a single berry; just a lot of dead plants. (hangs head in shame)

We received a nice big seed catalog from the Jung Seed Company (No, I am not affiliated with them in any way!) and my husband got to it first. He suddenly says, "Hey, I think I found your problem." (This could cover so many things!) I raised an eyebrow. "What?" He smiled. "Your dead blueberries," he elaborated, and handed me the catalog. 

Now, aside from the numerous seeds and plants offered in seed catalogs, they also offer tidbits about why one might be having a particular problem and of course the products they sell to remedy the situation. We had our farm soil tested last year and they all had pretty much the same result: our soil is neutral, as in, not acidic at all, especially around where I plant our food. Blueberries need acidic soil to grow. Well, I'll be. I have some work to do this spring and I will be getting the suggested products either from the catalog or locally if I can find it. Quite frankly, plants seldom survive the journey from any company to our farm anyway (like sweet potatoes-ahhh!), but the seeds and other products do well and if not available locally, I will go to the catalogs.

                                                   

                                    

            Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

             Stock Photo - image ID: 10090261

What I have started is my own gardening book of sorts and you can too. Peruse the catalogs for the types of produce, flowers, bushes, trees, etcetera, you prefer and see if they have growing tips and troubleshooting tidbits. Cut them out of the catalog and put them in a binder by category. That way you can find them easily when you run into something with your plants. This is fairly inexpensive –you still will need a binder and something on which to collect the articles. Print off articles you may find online or cut out agricultural articles in magazines and trade newspapers (I have done this for animal health) and add them to your binder. You can also obtain leaflets from your state's university extension service. It is way less expensive than buying an entire book, or books, just for one or two problems and you have what you need at your fingertips. 

Now, if someone could just help me with those strawberries! 

Wintertime Preparedness on the Farm

The calendar says today is the first day of winter. I wonder who thought that up- it's been winter here for weeks. The snow is very deep and of course it is very cold. I live in northern Wisconsin, though, not Hawaii (although that is a dream of mine someday) so snow is expected, if not appreciated.

                                            To give you an idea of how deep it is already.

Most people know to keep gear in their car in the wintertime such as cat litter for traction, a shovel to dig out if necessary, a blanket, a spare pair of socks (important to keep your feet dry and warm), some food that won't ruin like nuts or granola bars, and water. A small board is also useful in case you sink in and need to put it under the tire to help you drive out. But are you prepared for just going outside? Case in point below.

Last year we had issues with the waterline freezing and we had to get a water tank to go get water for the cattle. Unfortunately, the tank was frozen to the ground and had about ten inches of snow around it. We had to get that tongue unstuck and attached to the truck, but I had the wrong gloves on. I was wearing leather chore gloves instead of insulated gloves and let me tell you, frost bite is not fun. I didn't have it severe enough to loose fingers, but it was excruciating when my fingers started to warm up and now I have issues with pain in my fingers when they get even a little cold. I'm lucky I didn't get it on my face too, because I wasn't exactly wearing the right protection there either. I was wearing a large knit scarf, however, and that is probably what saved my face.

Now when I go out in the cold to do chores, or hunting, and it is cold, as it has been here since early to mid--November, I gear up. The tractor we use for feeding hay has no cab and so we are exposed to the elements. I wear a mask to protect my face, along with a hooded coat, and if I am wearing a hooded sweatshirt, that hood is up too. I also wear some seriously insulated gloves. The kind I have is actually for hunting. They have individual fingers, but the ends are cropped off so that one can pull the trigger and get a good grip on the weapon. However, they also have a thick mitten covering that folds back out of the way to keep the ends of the fingers covered when the fingers don't need to be exposed.

                           A good stocking hat is needed when exposed to the cold to protect your face.

 Gloves are important to protect your hands at all times.Thin leather gloves are NOT appropriate in freezing weather. If your gloves get wet, change them immediately.

One problem of course with wearing all the gear is that when turning to back up the tractor, the hood gets in the way and I end up pulling it down so that I can see where I am going. That is where having that stocking hat helps tremendously.

During hunting season we had to have all orange clothing, so I had the insulated coveralls, the scarf (close enough to orange), a knit hat, a billed hat (I attach a clip-on flashlight to the hat), and the hood of the coveralls to protect my head, and the gloves for my hands. I have some thick insulated coveralls that look like overalls and a big coat for farm chores. Because of their color, which is brown, they were not a good idea for any out of doors activities during hunting season.

It was very cold- below zero- during hunting season, but I was warm in my insulated clothing. I wondered if maybe I had on too much, but I never broke a sweat, and it was a quarter mile to my hunting blind walking though a good four inches of snow. Always carry water with you when you will be outside for any long periods of time during the winter. The air is dry and you need to keep hydrated. As an asthmatic, the cold air is dangerous for me to breathe and water can prevent the dry air from causing me to cough and inhale more freezing air into my lungs. On a lighter note: being bundled up like this also caused my glasses to fog up and then the fog froze. It's a little hard to see that way!

Always let someone know where you will be so if you get stuck or stranded somehow, even on your own property, they will know where to look. You should let them know approximately how long you will be gone as well. I know from experience that just because you have a cell phone, does not mean you will have a signal to call for help. Stay warm and stay safe.

Apple Butter Making Days

We have a bumper crop of apples this year in spite of the weather. My dear husband has been picking the apples for me since I was working six days a week. He hasn't even scratched the surface of the apples as he just more or less stood in one spot and picked basket after basket. We, so far, have ten quart bags of apple slices for pies and such in the freezer, two quarts of applesauce frozen (I'll some later), a couple pounds dehydrated for snacking, and eighteen pints, and eight pint-and-a half jars of apple butter. I actually am thinking of making more! I am going to can some applesauce. It is really good for baking, not just eating (hot with butter and cinnamon) or cold. I also have four quarts of juice. We are eating them as fast as we can but I think we may get tired of them. Man, they are good though.

                                                  Really big apples from our trees this year.

   Two batches of apple butter simmering. It takes hours to cook it down to desired thickness. It must be stirred nearly constantly. Sure smells good!

Jars of yummy apple butter. Look out biscuits! Yes, those are Blue Ball Mason jars in the front. And the Dehydrator is running in the background. Apples are everywhere!

Canning, canning, and More Canning!

For such a bad start to the gardening year, I sure got a lot grown to can for the year. We had a hard frost the second week of September and when I was not at work, I had to finish canning the veggies. I don't know how the apples survived the frost, or the butternut squash, but I have to pick that next and put it in jars and the freezer. This is the first time in years I have had to buy more canning jars!

I tried to do a panoramic (sort of) shot, but I don't have that function on my camera, so some of it got shot twice. I also have zucchini and green tomato relish that gone done after the pictures were taken. I'm  not sure where to put them, or the apples and butternut squash, since, as you can see, the shelf is quite full now. At least they have a cool basement to be placed in. We butchered a cow and all my venison from last season had to be canned, so they are in the first picture. then bread and butter pickles. The second one is dill pickles, yellow squash, corn and some sweet potatoes. The third is corn again, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, and strawberry-rhubarb jam. The zucchini will probably be put before the jam (I'll have to move the jam). I do have a small shelving unit next to those shelves which is used for storing stuff that can totally be tossed, so I'll probably toss them, and use it to put the rest of the goodies on. No, if can just find a nice BIG bag of white potatoes (mine didn't do so well!) I can can those too, just so I have them. Busy, busy, busy.

It's time for the corn to be harvested and the soybeans will be close on too, if, as suspected, the heavy frost didn't ruin them. I've seen a lot of fields that are black because of the frost the beans are a total loss. Ours hadn't had a chance to make beans yet, so we aren't sure how they came out. Only time will tell, but they probably won't do much. Who needs a casino? I'm a farmer. We gamble every time we put a plow in the ground and plant something.

Seriously, Cops Need to More Education on the War On Drugs

This year has been either a funny year or a sad year, depending on your point of view, for police everywhere in regards to people attempting to produce their own--FOOD! Earlier this year someone was raided in Illinois by the cops because a neighbor reported they were cooking meth (methamphetamine) in their yard, out in the open for all to see. They were boiling maple sap to make syrup. Then I see an article from 2002 from Texas, albeit they appear to still have not learned the difference, where cops raided, pulled up and burned someone's okra patch because they thought it was marijuana. Now, I see a tomato farm (also in Texas!) has met a similar fate. What is going on? Is it a war on drugs, or a conspiracy to make sure people get all their food from the grocery store? And, just were in blazes so they think their food comes from; thin air?

See the articles I mentioned:
War on Okra:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/766790/posts

Garden of Eden Raided: http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/08/15/Texas-cops-raid-farm-for-mariuana-only-find-tomatoes/1401376601319/?fb_action_ids=677794512248742&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A618968541481378}&action_type_map={%22677794512248742%22%3A%22og.recommends%22}&action_ref_map=[]

Maple Syrup Raid:  http://www.10news.com/news/watercooler/illinois-syrup-operation-mistaken-for-meth-lab02152013

Busy Time on the Farm- and Why Deer Season Can't Come Soon Enough!

These days it is really hard to get the chores done as I am having to work six nine and ten-hour days a week off the farm and my husband has ten to twelve-hour days at his job. We somehow are getting it done, a little later than it should be, but it is getting done. We bagged up our first crop of alfalfa hay to make silage in individual bags. These are not cheap, even though the bags are re-usable, so you can imagine how put out we are with the deer that they are using those bags for practice butting heads and are tearing holes in them as a result. The holes lead to excess air getting into them and thus rots the silage, ruining it. We have special tape for the holes, but if not found soon enough, it will be too late. We did get about three hundred small bales of hay for the mow and I don't know yet what the final tally is of the round bales of dry hay from the second crop.We should have three crops of hay, but with the lack of rain, it's just not going to happen.

                                                There are fifty silage bales we do not need ruined!

My apple trees are loaded this year, and even though I did prune them back, the limbs are still extremely heavy so between the deer having a snack- grrrr- and the wind, my limbs are breaking off or attempting to do so. We need rain to help them fill out too, or they will stay small rather than being the fat, juicy apples they have been in the past. Also thanks to the deer, I have lost two of three plum trees we planted in honor of our son joining the Navy.

                        Damaged apple tree thanks to the deer. Hunting season can't come soon enough this year!

Our corn is nice and tall, but not filling out all that well thanks to the lack of rain; same goes for the soybeans unfortunately. I understand that due to all the rain we had in the spring and the extremely long cold season, many farmers throughout the Midwest weren't even able to plant this year, and crop insurance doesn't help if you never got it planted in the first place. Wisconsin is in the top three states for not getting to plant. We are right in the heart of the worst hit area. Another problem with the corn for us is, you guessed it: the deer. The way my husband explained it, the silks on each ear is attached to the kernels (one to one) and the tassels on top of the plant pollinate the kernels via the silk strands as well as the rain going through them to help fill out the kernels. The deer keep eating the ends off my corn destroying the silks and therefore ruining the corn ears, if they don't just outright eat the corn- stalk, cob and all. Are you seeing a trend here? The critters are not helping my soybeans either!

We do have the squash that ate Wisconsin! In my raised bed I planted okra (does not grow well in Wisconsin), yellow crook-neck squash, butternut squash, cucumbers and watermelon (also does not grow well this far north). Yesterday I picked a bushel of cucumbers and now I will really have to bust my you-know-what to get the pickles made since I am at work so much and have very little time. I also got a half bushel of yellow squash. Somehow I have more plant than squash. I'm not kidding. I took a picture last week (see photo below) and this week we got about a quarter-inch of rain and it got even bigger; as in waist high! I push the leaves aside and call out: "Anybody down there?" when I'm looking for squash. The butternut has grown across the garden too in all four directions and is now mixed with the cucumbers and watermelon plants and through the yellow squash and okra, and is growing over the logs and into the yard all four directions. Composted cow manure, even years old, is something else. I'm thinking of top dressing my regular ground level garden and tilling it in this fall. I'll have to spray it heavily with Round-Up to keep the weeds out, but it should rejuvenate the soil nicely for next year.

                                                 The squash plants that ate Wisconsin!

Update on Night Shade
I got a call the other day from the folks who sold us the sheep we used to have. They had previously bought hay from us but distance and gas prices made it prohibitive to get more. They bought hay from someone closer to them and had spread it out in their sheep pen for the animals to eat. The farmer who made the hay either didn't know about night shade or didn't care. This year it sprouted up in the sheep pen and took it over and now they have lambs and some of their prized rams dying left and and right. They were just pulling it up and throwing it in the woods adjacent to the pens. Yikes! I told her to get it out of the woods immediately and burn it, being careful not to be near the smoke and get it or the animals out of that pen. If there is too much to pull up- and it sounds like it might be- they need to spray it with Round-Up or the generic equivalent, and not the ready mixed stuff either. You can buy it in concentrated form and mix it yourself, which is what we do, and then double the recommended amount of the chemical to do a really good job. As directed it will work for spraying crops, but if you are trying to get rid of night shade, you're going to have to double it and kill it good and dead, and then apply again when it starts growing again, because it had already gone to seed (the berries) and they will regrow. Of course nothing else will grow in that pen for a while, but when the night shade stops coming up, you can quit spraying and a few months (I think it's twelve weeks for gardens before one can plant tomatoes which are related to night shade) replant with a good quality grass seed and keep an eye out for that deadly weed.

How is your garden doing this year? Is the lack of rain ruining it? Or too much rain? I had better get busy now. I have pickles to just waiting to be made!