Frost...

This past weekend the kids and I traveled to Virginia with family for my brother-in-law's Seminary graduation.  Before we left, I thought I had dotted all my "i's" and crossed all my "t's".  The tender plants were safe indoors...the laundry baskets were empty...the fridge was stocked...the instructions were written out for taking care of Jenna's goats and the chickens (not usually on Jim's "to do" list)...But did I even think twice about my potatoes?  Nope.

While we were there I saw a facebook post from a friend saying that her potatoes were damaged by a hard frost!

As soon as we got home last evening, I took a flashlight to the garden.  I was surprised, but happy to see that most of my potatoes seem to be okay.  My garden sits in an area that is protected from the harshest weather, so that was probably what saved them.  A few of them got hit pretty hard...

But if you look closely, the leaves on the bottom seem to be okay.  I'm hoping that they will pull through, but I don't know.

Most of the row seems to be in better shape than the one above.  Some leaves have brown edges, but they don't look too bad...

I've never had potatoes in this early, so I wasn't even thinking that they could be hurt by frost.  The last "frost date" in this area is May 15th, so I really shouldn't be surprised that it happened.  But the weather this spring has been so strange...you never know!

As for my friend who lost hers...I will share with you when mine are ready Alma!  Don't let me forget!!  :)

Flowers For Leontien...

Thinking of you today, Leontien...

{{HUGS}} and prayers for you!

Alica

http://www.aruraljournal.com/p/flowers-for-leontien.html

It's Raining...

We are thankful this weekend...because it's raining!

Like in many other areas, our weather this spring has been unusual.  The winter was exceptionally warm, and so far this spring has been exceptionally dry.  I don't know the date of our last rain, but I do know that we haven't had any measurable rainfall since I planted my potatoes on March 14th.  A burning ban was placed on the county because it's been so dry.

Just this week, Jim reseeded nine acres of alfalfa.  The original seed was in the ground for almost a month with no rain, and was not sprouting, so he went over the fields with a no till drill and new seed.  His hope is, that with this rain, the newly seeded alfalfa will sprout, along with some of the old seed, making a thick stand.


The rain started last evening, and it has rained steadily all day today.  Our rain gauge is broken, so we don't have an accurate measure, but it's been a substantial amount.  (A suggestion to all those businesses who hand out calendars at Christmas time..how about rain gauges instead!)

This was the view out my north kitchen window after milking time tonight... 

We'll go to bed tonight with the sound of rain drops against the window, pile on the blankets (it's chilly tonight!) and we will be thankful!

A Success Story...

About six weeks ago, I posted about our cow Mary, who tramped her teat.  We had the vet out to do what he could to salvage her teat, and thus literally save her life.  When I wrote, she was doing well.  I wanted to update you on how she's doing!

These pictures are nothing beautiful to look at, but they are an example of how wonderful our (and our animals!) bodies are made!

This is Mary's front teat, six weeks post-op.  The only signs of her trauma are a slightly deformed teat, and a small scab that will soon disappear!  The milk now squirts out just below that scab, not quite on the bottom like her other three quarters, but who cares?!

Her udder, just before milking.  She's one of our heaviest milkers, and yesterday when we tested, she milked 46 lbs of milk in one milking.  That's 92 lbs per day.  Not too shabby!

         

Jim worked with her carefully for a while to ensure that her teat didn't get infected, and she helped herself immensely by being totally cooperative!

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the vet bill, to see what it cost to have him come examine her and repair her teat...

Farm Call before 8am...$25.20

Wound Repair..............$40.00

Wound Sealant.............$14.00

Total Cost....................$79.20

Tramped teats don't always end in success, but we are thankful that this time it did!

I'd say it was worth it!

Sometimes I Think I'm a Little Crazy...

When we moved to the farm 18 years ago, I decided that I wanted to grow some perennials.  Did I go about it in a reasonable fashion?  Nope!

I was inspired by my Aunt Joanne, who has a beautiful perennial border along the edge of her garden...I started collecting plants...I got numerous pieces of favorites from friends' gardens, or at perennial swaps.  Also, Jim's cousin has a greenhouse, and my car would just automatically turn in whenever I drove past...I had no control over it!

Over the past number of years, the perennial bed has grown.  And grown.  So has the work load.

About two weeks ago, I started to clean up the border.  There were tons of little annoying weeds, some dead wood from last fall, and the edge of the border just kind of merged with the yard.  I worked up the soil with my digger and edged along the yard...

 Then this week I made the first of several treks to a local farm that sells mulch by the cubic yard.  I do it the "lazy" way.  They would deliver the 8 or 9 yards that I need, but then I'd have to shovel it twice...once off the pile into my cart, and again onto the garden. I prefer to load it on the back of the truck, and move the truck around as I need to.  This saves me a lot of time and sore muscles!

 I use their mushroom mulch.  I like this so much better than shredded bark mulch...it's much better for the soil...and it's much less expensive.  I've been told that in some areas it's more expensive, but since we live relatively close to mushroom farms here in southeastern Pennsylvania, it's readily available, and about half the price of bark mulch!

Here's part of the finished border.  There's still a row of shrubs to the right, between the border and the garden that I need to do something about...the jury's still out on what I mulch that with.  I had originally used chopped up branches from when we had our trees trimmed a few years ago, but that has since disappeared...

Iris don't like to be mulched, but roses do, so I pile it up around the rose bushes, and keep it back several inches from the Iris plants...

I started a new patch of strawberries this spring from my neighbor's runners, and I mulched them heavily...

Several years after I started the perennial border by the garden, we pulled out a bunch of yew bushes around the house.   Of course I had to fill in that area with perennials as well!  This bed will need to wait until next week for mulch.  I ran out of steam, and daylight today...

It's a satisfying feeling to be almost finished.  This time of year it looks so happy...

But just wait until mid summer when it's steaming hot and humid, and the weeds need to be tended to.  All that mulch helps, but unfortunately isn't a sure fix for the whole season!

Sometimes I think I'm a little crazy...why did I plant so many flowers!  The whole spring cleanup seems to be a bigger job every year.  I remember some years, I would mulch all day long, and still be going strong by evening.  This year, I did two scoops each day and called it quits.  I guess it was due in part to the fact that I'm fighting off a cold.

Yep, that must be it.

It couldn't be that I'm just getting old!

Happy Easter...

What a beautiful Easter day today!  He is Risen!

We crawled out of bed extra early so that we could finish all the barn work and get to Church early for a special Easter breakfast.  We were served crepes...bacon, egg and cheese crepes...and (my favorite) Nutella and strawberry crepes.  Mmmmmmmmm   good!  It was definitely worth it!

Last week we had my family's Easter dinner, and next week will be Jim's family dinner, so we had today free!  We packed a light picnic lunch and met up with (part of) my family for an afternoon of hiking at Shenks Ferry Wildflower Preserve, in what we call the River Hills.  It's actually quite close to the farm where my Dad grew up...

My Mom and Jenna...

 My Dad, Eric and my nephew Drew...

The hillsides were covered with wild flowers, including these Virginia Bluebells...

This little guy added some excitement!  I touched it...but not without a bit of fear and trembling...

This arch was neat...it's several hundred feet long, running underneath an old railroad bed.  Can you see the brick lining the top part of the arch?  The guys were going to see if they could get the whole way through without getting their feet wet, but didn't get too far...

Of course there were lots of opportunities for family pictures...(insert groans by certain family members who shall remain anonymous)...

I love this picture of my parents!  They are 79 and 83...and still going strong...

The weather was perfect and the company was great!  The only thing that would have made this better would be if my two oldest sisters and their families could have also been here! 

Bringing In the Cows...

What do you think might be one of the most stressful jobs on the farm?

Other than trying to get dry hay baled in between summer rains, or trying to manage busy schedules around milking time, it's got to be be bringing in the cows and securing them in their stalls.

Why?  There are several reasons...

* This time of year the cows are excited to go out onto the fresh, green meadow.  Daytime temps are cool enough that they can stay out for several hours.  When they're finished eating, they lay in the grass chewing their cud, enjoying themselves, so getting them to come back inside the barn is just a bother to them.

Jim calls them, and they lift their heads and start walking up the path toward the barn.  Usually. Today they came a few at a time. ( In the hot summer, they will all line up, anxious to come in because they know they'll be fed and we'll turn on the big fans...)

 * In a perfect world, each cow would have her own individual stall that she would go to, day in and day out, week after week.  However, we have more cows than we have stalls, so they have to be flexible.  Flexibility doesn't come easy for cows; they are creatures of habit.  Trust me on this one!

Jim stands at the top of the path and directs them to the side of the barn he wants them to go to.  The older cows know the routine.  The younger ones have to learn where we want them to go, and then sometimes out of necessity, we go and change it on them...

These two know how to follow directions...

These stragglers are a little confused!  Jim moved some wires around this spring, and they're afraid to walk out of this area because there used to be a wire in front of them. (creatures of habit!)

 *One other thing that makes it tricky for our cows...the young ones especially...is that we have two different types of stalls in our barn.  In one row of stalls, the cows are restrained by a simple chain to their neck strap like this one...

Our other three rows of stalls are a very old style, which takes some training to persuade the cow to put her head where it belongs.  Mostly it's the older cows who are in these three rows...

If the cows decide to be cooperative, great!  If not, everything gets put on hold until they do!

If they don't go into their stalls, they don't get fed on time.   If they don't get fed on time, they get grouchy.  If they get grouchy, they usually stay grouchy all evening.  If they're grouchy, the farmers get grouchy too...and so on.

So you see...bringing in the cows really ought to go well...for everybody's sake!

Raising Calves...part 3...

It's been a while since I talked about raising calves, and what's involved.

Back in the beginning of January, we had a maternity ward here...or so it seemed.  Over the next few weeks, I wrote a little bit about raising calves and what is involved with their feeding as they get older.

There's more than feeding to think about though...Typically, we tag our calves when they are just a few days old.  This identifies them...their birthday and their genetic information.  (some of our animals go back seven generations)  The calf population here is usually low enough that we can easily keep track of who's who with little trouble.  However, six heifer calves in one week back in January made it a bit challenging to keep everybody straight.  On top of that, the ear tag numbers that we needed were a special order, so I resorted to keeping notes on the unique markings of each animal.

The ear tags came in last week, so this morning we gave nine calves their "bling".  We use this ear tagger...it's just like getting your ears pierced, just on a much larger scale...

The calves that were featured on that post are now weaned off of milk, and are eating hay, calf grower and of course drinking lots of water...

This is the one in this ultra short video...

 This little one is still getting her milk from a bucket, and is learning to eat hay and calf starter.  She (and the one above) are in box pens in the barn, as our outside hutches are full...

We vaccinated the nine calves that we gave ear tags today as well.  They should have a booster shot in about six weeks, and then will need to be re-vaccinated every six months throughout their lives.  You know how the saying goes..."an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"!

They're getting used to their "bling"...and now I can relax; knowing who's who will be much simpler now!