Filed under: December 2019, Uncategorized | Tags: be kind, Grazing, Happy New Year, positive, walk-in cooler
December 28, 2019
As our year comes to a close, I think it is good to look back upon the year that was. 2019, was a year filled with challenging times. A very wet spring made for delayed planting, but the hay crop was fantastic. I couldn’t cultivate the corn because of the wet weather at the time, yet we have enough corn to feed the animals for another year.
Pastures were very good, so the animals enjoyed many months of grazing. The sheep, even today are grazing the last pasture. They haven’t eaten any hay yet this season, saving me time, fuel and resources. The speltz crop is in and growing. The manure pit is only a quarter full. So, when bad weather confines the animals, there is plenty of room to hold all the manure.
My sister passed away last spring. A sad day for us all, but her “celebration of life” gathering, brought family in from all over the country. Many of the younger children had not seen the place where their grandmother had grown up. They even got to experience a brief sleety/snow mix! The happy memories made, softened the the blow of losing a loved one a little bit.
After many years of butchering our meat here on the farm, we are finally able to add a walk-in cooler. Our crazy, undependable weather makes the cooler a necessity. My buddy Marvin, helped to build this structure from my crude drawings. A whole article about the build, will appear in an upcoming Rural Heritage magazine.
So, for us here on the farm, 2019 closes with some bittersweet memories. Those memories are all made sweeter by focusing on the positives. In 2020, stay positive, be kind and teach someone a skill. Share of yourself and be the “light” in the world.
Happy New Year everyone!
Filed under: June 2018 | Tags: family, farm, farm to table, grandchildren, home butchering, kind, playing farm, positive
June 21, 2018
My granddaughter was playing farm with Grammy, while her daddy, older brother and I sorted sheep. She set up a corral and placed the animals as she wished. The next thing she did, was give each one a bale of hay to eat. I guess following us around the barnyard feeding chickens corn and such, makes her understand animal husbandry.
Once the sheep had been sorted, my grandson joined his sister in the farm play. He built a feedlot. If you look to the lower right-hand of the photo, you will see a block sitting on top of the others. That block is the gate. Each animal had to walk through the gate. Again, understanding the movement of farm animals is not an easy task, yet my not quite 4 year-old grandson , “get’s it”.
I hadn’t really thought about it much, just how often other’s learn from us. I was helped by my other son’s children load chickens into the trailer for a trip to freezer camp. They were gentle. They were quick and they understood perfectly where the chickens were headed. They had raised the flock from chicks. The connection of farm to table is firmly embedded in their daily lives. I am very proud of them.
I try to goof off a little too. In the photo below, three generations of Rice’s catch polywogs in the water trough! I can remember my sons at four years old doing the same thing. Life is short. The days are long…but the years are short.
I am blessed to share my life and my stories with my family and folks all over the world. Thanks in part to TV, the Internet, magazines and books…but nothing is better than face to face interaction. I hope to always be positive and kind, because the lives we touch are precious! The time we share is priceless and the memories we make last forever.
RicelandMeadows 