Filed under: November 2019 | Tags: draft horses, family, Thanks, Thanksgiving
November 27, 2019
Thanksgiving, a day, set aside, for giving thanks. What an awesome time to pause and reflect on the past year. My list is long and filled with memories, people and things. In the photo above, our youngest son drives our horses giving his children a ride. It is things like this that makes my heart soar.
We have family close and far. It is a wonderful thing to think about each of them doing what they love to do. We have a few family members that have gone to the eternal table above. We remember them fondly too.
November comes to a close with family and friends gathering to eat, meet and talk. It is my hope that all of them will give thanks and share a memory of what they are thankful for. I am most thankful for my family. We have quirks, ripples and rifts along with faults and shortcomings, but I love and am thankful for each and every one of them.
Let’s all find the good in every day. Celebrate a little all year long for the little things…like a beautiful sunset 🙂
Filed under: December 2017 | Tags: Blessings, drone, family, friends, inspiration, Small Farming, Thanks
December 22, 2017
Last October during a family harvest party, our grandson Jonathan brought his drone and took pictures of the farm. As I look at the pictures, I am very pleased. The harvest is complete. The compost has been spread on the fields where needed. The speltz crop is up and growing well. The pastures have all been clipped and stand ready for winter.
I am very thankful to family and friends who helped to get the farm ready for winter. My knee replacements are healing and doing well. It helps me mentally to know that things are well, jobs are complete and the promise of spring can be seen all over the farm.
The back of the farm too shows the work that has been done and the beauty that is this farm. A pile of lumber in the photo, is now a barn addition that houses the last of the equipment that once had to sit outside all winter long. Again, friends and family pitched in to make this all happen.
As we close in on Christmas and the end of the year, I am very happy to share the gift of this farm with everyone. We are blessed, I, most certainly am! I pray that this farm and the example I set here, helps not only the people closest to me, but reaches out to others too. These photos are not meant to brag, but rather to say thank you to many and to show that anything is possible….Dream, Believe, Achieve!
Filed under: August 2017 | Tags: animals, anniversary, family, family time, farm life, Farm Wife, home, Love, marriage, sharing, Thanks
August 25, 2017
My wife grew up in Mentor Ohio. She was a city girl who had moved out to this rural area where we met. She has learned all sorts of things from this country boy. Over the years she has milked a cow by hand, helped castrate animals, deworm and tend to medical animal emergencies. She gardens and processes our food. She is an almost expert parts runner and flashlight holder. (Where I’m looking, he says!)
Where she excels the most is nurturing all creatures, two-legged and four-legged. She closes and opens gates. She hand feeds, bottle feeds and forks hay. She has shoveled more than her share of manure and turned the water off to overflowing water troughs way too many times!
The remarkable part to me is that she does all of those things while keeping a clean house, washing a mountain of clothes, cooking, dish washing and nest building, making our house a home. She keeps her finger on the pulse of our family. She keeps tabs on Facebook, remembers birthdays and such and keeps all of us covered in her homemade quilts.
On Sunday August 27, we will celebrate twenty-five years of marriage. I am not an easy guy to love. I come with baggage, strange smells and a menagerie of farm animals. I can be abrupt to a fault and very bossy. She takes it in stride choosing to look past my faults and into parts of me that I can’t see.
So, today, I will use this public forum to say thank you for not only choosing me, but for staying with me after learning all my faults and shortcomings. Thank you for loving me and my whole brood. Thank you for helping me blend our crazy group even when it seems the wheels have fallen off. You are my hope, my love and my best friend. I ask that you continue to hold my hand as we walk through life. Wherever and however far our journey takes us, together forever no matter what…I will love you.
Filed under: February 2017 | Tags: family time, friends, Gratitude, life, Small Farming, Thanks
February 24, 2017
Our maple syrup season is over for this year. It came and went in a flash. We have not seen a spring like this, since the year 2000. I want to take just a minute to say thank you to all the folks who helped us make this short year a success.
We had set up folks, tank cleaners, horse drivers, sap gatherers, photographers, float monitors, cooks and visitors. You all know who you are. I just want to say thank you, to each and every one of you. The job of maple syrup making is a labor intensive effort, made much sweeter by your help and by teamwork!
We identified a few opportunities for next year. We solved a few problems. We discovered a few real fixes and we look forward to trying some new things in 2018. All of these things are a direct result of the prospective views from all of you! I will try to guide and direct…usually as I busy myself with some task from across the room, to make our visions come to be, but know in your hearts… I cannot do this without you and I appreciate your tolerance of my passion.
Lastly, to my dear wife who washes pounds of mud from my clothes, cuts filters and counts bottles, while cooking, cleaning and keeping me in every way, I say to you, I love you!
I look forward to 2018 and our time during maple season, but remember the hay will soon be drying in the hot summer sun! :o) Love you guys!
Filed under: April 2015 | Tags: draft horses, maple sap, maple season, maple syrup, mud, Thanks
Its Syrup!
April 7, 2015
Today, I boiled the last of this season’s maple syrup. We had a rough last few days as I worked my off farm job and pushed to get the last of this years sap collected and boiled. I will now catch up on sleep and start the big job of clean up. The trees must be “untapped”. The spiles, and bags must be taken down. The spiles get cleaned and dried, then put away. The plastic bags get collected and taken to the recycle. The sugarhouse and all equipment gets cleaned and stored away until next year.
We had a good season. We made and canned some nice syrup. The greedy trees kept a lot of their sugar, so our yield is down, but I will still have enough for our farm’s customers. I will even sell a barrel of bulk syrup wholesale. All and all, the effort was worth it on every count. The best thing is, that I made memories and so did quite a few visitors to the sugarhouse.
The woodshed is showing the effects of all my boiling. The job of woodcutting is now at hand. I will get started on the giant oak tree again very soon. The maple season may be over, but farm work continues to keep me busy. Logs to skid will keep the horses in shape, as we wait to begin plowing. My clean up jobs, chores and woodcutting may be the order of the day for now, but spring planting season looms…..oh yea…and all that lawn mowing too 😮
Farewell…until next year.
Thanks to my sister Charlie for laughs and help, my family for help, understanding and goodies. Special thanks to Charlie McCormick for conversation and help. Thanks to my sap gatherers, Sheldon, Marcus, Tony, Lyric, Josh, Becky, Ken and Mae. Hats off to Knight and Hoss for pulling their hearts out and for showing my sister what large feet do to a big mud puddle 😮
RicelandMeadows 