Rye Grass...and More Rye Grass...

On Friday's post, I posted a couple of pictures of the rye grass field...mowed and ready for baling.  Here's what happened next...

They began baling mid afternoon, and went on through milking time.  The landscape soon changed...

As the baler continued to bale, Jim began wrapping bales and bringing them in from the field.  He would wrap one bale in the field, pick up another bale, and bring them both in to where he wanted to store them.  He would then dump the finished bale, and begin wrapping the second one.  Over and over again...

Here's a video of the wrapper at work...

My memory card got full just before the finished bale was dumped into it's final resting place.  Bummer.  But when it was finished, it was rolled to what is the right side of the picture, and dumped towards us into a row...

We ended up with fifty six bales!  They will sit for a few weeks to cure before we open them up and begin feeding them.  Hopefully the cows will be grateful!

Next step for this field?  Planting corn...stay tuned!

Random Five Friday...

It's been a busy week...lots is happening at home and on the farm.  With the beautiful...gorgeous...perfect weather we've been having, there just aren't enough daylight hours in each day!

1. Peanut's kitties are growing fast, and getting so playful!  She moved them from the fodder mow, outside to the shed.  They live underneath, play in the weeds behind it, and come running bouncing when we call "here kitty, kitty, kitty".  This is the home she chose for them, and they seem quite healthy and happy!  There are four males and two females.  We've told the kids we will keep two, and the rest are going to a good home next week...

2.  Today is the day Jim will bale his rye grass.  It was mowed on Tuesday afternoon, he's finishing up raking right now, and the round baler will begin anytime!  I wonder how many bales it will make?

3.  My garden is slowly taking shape for the season.  The onions, radishes and potatoes are up...and on the far left lies the string been packet, at the end of the first row I planted a few days ago...

The strawberry blossoms are showing off!  I sure hope we don't get a freeze...this will be the first year picking off of this new patch, and I'm hoping for a bumper crop...

4.  The dogs are in their glory this time of year...they follow me everywhere, and lay at my feet no matter what I'm doing.  If I'm planting in the garden, they lay in the rows... if I'm feeding calves, they lay beside the calf hutches...if I'm mulching, they lay in the flowers.  Here's Snickers, enjoying the sunshine as I fed calves this morning...

5.  My perennials are coming to life!  I have been given small pieces of many different plants over the years, and have had fun sharing with others as well.  (That's what I like so much about perennials!)  I think of my friends when they bloom.

The early blooming Iris came from Brenda...the Fern Leaf Peony came from Edith...

The Forget Me Nots came from Betty, the Lamium came from Carolyn, and I don't remember where the Bleeding Heart came from...

This isn't blooming yet, but the Lily Of the Valley growing fast.  It can become invasive, but I'll forgive it, because I love it's story so much!  This particular plant came to me at the end of a long family trail.  It originally came from my Great Grandma Herr...to my Grandma Herr...to my Aunt Alice from Colorado... to my Mom... and then to me!

What fun!

I hope you're enjoying your Friday!

I'm joining up with Random Five Friday again this week.

Glenda's Bread Recipe...

Yesterday, partly because it was a rainy day...

...and partly because I was out of bread...

...and partly as a huge THANK YOU to our neighbors who helped us to chase our cows out of knee-high, wet rye grass at 9:00 am (criminal cows!!)...

I decided to bake some bread.

If you need an easy recipe for delicious home made bread, give this one a try!  I don't think you'll be disappointed.  I got this years ago from my friend Glenda.  Making it yesterday took me down memory lane...I miss her!!

GLENDA'S NO KNEAD BREAD RECIPE 
yield - 4 loaves

1 cup sugar
4 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups lukewarm water
5 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp yeast
12 cups flour (scant)

Mix together first five ingredients.  (Glenda's notes say to mix the sugar and salt together first...sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't.  Yesterday I forgot, and it turned out fine)

Add flour and stir until incorporated.

*this is a no knead recipe.  Dough will be rather sticky.

Place dough in a greased bowl.  Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.
Punch down, and let rise again.
Shape into four loaves.  Place in greased bread pans, and let rise until double.
Bake at 325* - 350* for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven and rub tops with butter.

Cool and enjoy!

(On a cool, dark day like we had yesterday, I put the dough in the oven with the light turned on to rise, and it worked great!)

Homemade bread is one of my favorite comfort foods.  Toast it, add butter and home made strawberry jelly, and ummmmmm...delicious!  I hope you enjoy it!

Random 5 Friday...

It's Friday!  Of course, you knew that already!  Especially if you have school aged kids, you know just how exciting Fridays are!  They're looking forward to a couple of days off...to sleeping in tomorrow morning...

But oh...that's right...we're farmers, so Fridays don't matter!   :)

Saturday is just another day, with the same schedule.  We'll get our "time off" for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon.

I'm joining up with Random 5 Friday today.  Here are five random thoughts from around the farm...

1.  I tried a couple of new things in the garden this year.  I made a raised bed out of some old pallets, and tucked an herb garden in the corner of my perennial bed close to the house.  I planted parsley, oregano, chives, cilantro, and basil.  It's too cold for the basil at night, so I've been covering it.  It was getting way too spindly in the house, so I gave it a shot.  The bed is pretty protected, and I'm hoping it won't get too cold...

I also planted my lettuce, cabbage and kale in these pallets (in the garden) to try to keep the weeds down.  For some reason, the weeds just love to take over these plants when I put them directly in the garden soil...

2.  We're down to our last four round bales of balage.  They will last us perhaps two weeks yet, and then we'll be feeding all dry hay to the cows. They'll be grazing as well, but by the time we're ready to bale first cutting of alfalfa, the hay mow will be getting empty...

3.  A few weeks ago, Jim "retired" our old New Idea manure spreader...

This is one of the few...perhaps the only...piece of brand new equipment that we bought.  Back in September of 1996, we purchased this manure spreader for $4850.  We spread manure every day, so Jim figured out the with the daily manure spreading, and cleaning out heifer pens several times a year for 16 1/2 years, that his trusty old spreader has hauled between 6500 - 7000 loads of manure!  The web has been replaced several times, and routine maintenance has been done, but it's now been replaced by a used, and slightly larger one. This old spreader owed us nothing!  It will be a great spreader for someone who has a few steers, or some horses, but it's daily, heavy work is over.

4.  My chickens are laying eggs like crazy again, now that the days are getting longer.  We lost some customers over the winter to our Amish neighbors, because we didn't have light in our chicken shed.  Now we have to build up a customer base again.  Three dozen eggs per day is a few more than we need...

5. My fern leaf peony's blooms are just about to open!  I got this flower from a lady at Church a bunch of years ago, and it's cheery blooms are one of the first to open...

This was fun...I hope you enjoyed it too!

Ahhh...Rye Grass...

Yesterday, we put the cows out in the rye grass to graze for a little while.

Here they come!

Food!  We stood near the wires that fenced off their grazing area, just to make sure they didn't run through.  When they see green, they go a little crazy...

(yes, I know it's a weed...but isn't it pretty?)

Here's Helen...she's one of the cows on the header photo at the top of the blog...about five years older, but still going strong!

I stood there and waited...and waited...trying to get a picture of a cow lifting her head with a mouthful of grass, to no avail.  They were too quick for me, so this will have to suffice!  :)

Once they settled down, their heads didn't come up for a while...

I love this sound.  If you turn up the volume the whole way, you can hear her munching...

Pure contentment!  A lush field of rye grass...and beautiful, cool spring day...and several hours of lounging in the meadow, chewing their cud and making milk.

What else could they possibly want?

Linking up to RURALITY blog hop.

The Goats Have Arrived...

It's time to meet Jenna's new 4-H goats.  We brought them home on Wednesday evening after school.

Last year we had a bad experience with the dreadful Urinary Calculi, and were determined to come home with two females this year.  However...it didn't happen.  Instead, we came home with one of each.  Hopefully, using what we learned last year will help us to have a better experience this year!

Bringing them home was a bit different than before.  This time we put down some towels on the back seat of the farm car, and took our chances.  We could hardly believe our eyes, when they curled up together on the back seat like puppy dogs for the ride home, not making a sound...or a mess!  Yay!

This adorable little guy quickly wrapped himself around our little fingers...

 He's tiny...only twenty pounds...but boy oh boy is he feisty!

The girl is a little bit bigger,weighing in at thirty-some pounds.  She was a little bit more shy...

They love having that big tree inside their pen.  It's great fun to hide behind!

It's also fun to climb up on the old stump and make yourself look mighty, even when you aren't...

It didn't take them long to find their jungle gym...an old wagon and a board. (Who needs something fancy?) Can you tell...he's getting ready to buck her off the ramp.

Right now, our focus is on getting these kiddos used to us and their new surroundings, keeping them healthy, and getting them to grow.  Before long, Jenna will practice walking them and setting them up.  It's never too soon to start!

Here's hoping for a good 4-H year!

Spring Greenhouse Field Trip...

You might remember reading about a trip I took to Henrys Farm and Greenhouse  back at the beginning of December with my Mom and my sister.

Today I visited again...for their Spring Garden Party.  What a beautiful day it was...and the flowers were gorgeous!

The first hour was spent walking around and looking, and hearing from some of the experts about particular flowers.  They gave out some beautiful planters as door prizes too, but I was not among the lucky winners. Bummer.

The second two hours were for shopping.  I didn't buy much...I have a favorite greenhouse close to home that I like to support, but I loved looking at all the creative ideas.

Here's a sampling of what we saw today...

The front window...decorated for spring instead of Christmas...

You can compare it to the December picture by clicking on the link above.

Some of my all time favorite flowers...Gerbera Daisies...

...more beautiful flowers...

They are known for their creativity and unique creations.  Some unique wreathes...

I never saw a wreath with succulents in it before, but I liked it!  A lot...

Unique containers for planting...

An old chicken feeder...

And the most unusual ...and definitely the largest "planter"...

Last but not least...check out the unique plant markers!

It's a little hard to see clearly...but it's an old silver fork with "Basil" stamped on it with a metal punch.  They had forks, knives and spoons scattered throughout the herb section.  What a great idea...especially for an herb garden!  I might have to try this one.

What fun it was...and if I didn't have spring fever before, I've definitely got it now, for sure!