Drab

seems to be the perfect descriptive word for the month of February and the beginning of March.  Can't even see the mountains (this is just a hill) and I think I've only seen the moon two times since the new moon.  We've had a little snow, enough to make the ground a sloppy mess to trek through while doing the feeding.  But, we've lived with it, knowing full well that it won't be long until we're wishing for rain and cool summer breezes.  "Que sera, sera!"

The Farmer had asked for extra time out before getting chickens again, to give his leg time to recover.  (By the way, it's o.k. now.)  I think "they" gave us two or three extra days, just long enough to make me want to retire, so yesterday we filled the houses again.  (You're saying, "Oh no! not another picture of chickens!")

There were twins this week; what a cold, cold time for babies.  I don't see how people can raise cattle in the northern states where it is so much colder.  We have them in the barn with their mother.  (Terrible picture of them :(; too dark inside the barn)

This morning the Farmer sent off a load of hay that was purchased last summer but only now being picked up; sometimes we wonder if we should have kept it since this winter more hay has been needed.  This load went up the mountain in all this fog.

So, there you have it: my life these days.  There have been some quilting projects tucked into a few hours most days that I want to tell you about; a wonderful Christmas surprise gift and a fun tradition my girls and I have going; some crochet work ~ just give me a few days to catch up.  Writing a blog post takes up so much time because I sit and wait and wait for the pictures to load. 

Until next time, be happy!

Charlotte

Is This Surprise Coming Early?

Earlier in the week I noticed the surprise lilies were pushing up through the ground,

and by yesterday, they were blooming!

A beautiful mass of pink!  I think I'm learning that flowers planted in mass give better results.  My planting has usually been trying to put a little of this and that in several places.

If it weren't for the fact that these are close to my compost bin I probably wouldn't have noticed them at all until being totally surprised by their blooms.  In the spring they were a mass of green foliage.  I let it die back and turn brown, then I mowed over them, hoping to keep the four o'clocks and irises pushed back so there would be a clear spot for them to come up.  It seems too early for them to bloom; perhaps the fact that our weather has been cooler than normal (so far) this summer fooled them into thinking it's later in the year than it is?  Anyway, the other flower beds are looking tired and spent after a flush of spring irises and summer day lilies and tiger lilies, so these are a very welcome surprise.

Our chickens went out on Tuesday of this week so yesterday I put a quilt top on the frames to work on during my "out" time of two weeks.  The farmer has started the work of getting the litter ready to be put into wind rows so it can go through a "heat" that will kill any disease organisms.  Then while it sits for a day or two, weather permitting, we'll go finish the second cutting of hay, and before we know it, the two weeks will be gone and new baby chicks will be cheeping in the houses again.

Do you have surprise lilies?  Look around for them; they may be early too!

Charlotte

A Likeness of Me

This is how I feel today: a tired sunflower, with a drooping head and petals of energy fallen and scattered. 

We baled hay yesterday, and because there are chances of rain, the farmer decided we would wrap the bales.  Of course that means late hours with lots of travel across rough fields and at times I think, surely I will die from "shaken head syndrome".   We ate supper after 11:00 and when I went to bed I was too tired to fall asleep right away. I keep looking forward to the day when the farmer thinks enough is enough and cuts back on some of the farm work.

When the farmer pulls out of the field with the last load, I drive the loading tractor home, a lot of the time after dark.  Now I know the field backward and forward  in the daylight, but in the darkness things can get out of place, and tractor lights don't give a far range of vision.  We come out of the field, downhill, across a low water bridge and a big snag tree is our sign post of sorts to tell where the crossing is located.  One particular night the farmer had already crossed the bridge and his lights weren't visible to me when I started home.  I drove toward what I thought was the place to cross but couldn't find it; all the edges of the field looked the same in the dim lights of the tractor and there seemed to be lots of snag trees.  I kept driving along the edge of the field, searching, searching; soon I realized I was going in the opposite direction, turned around and found a tree at the edge of the field that I knew was just before the crossing, and slowly, slowly found it.  What a strange feeling to be lost!  I had begun to think I'd just have to sit in the field until someone came looking for me.  Of course I felt stupid to tell the farmer.  Someone should tie a white flag at that crossing!  Last night the farmer waited for me to come up behind him before he drove on.

When I grow so tired and think of how much we do at age 73, these verses from wise King Solomon come to mind:

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.  And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun...  Ecclesiastes 2:18-19

Think about it!

Charlotte

Farm Updates

The past week was a very busy time for us here on the farm.

First, we cleaned out a house we rent out.  You never know how renters are going to take care of a place until it's too late.  These people trashed the place so badly that the farmer finally asked them to move out; since the house is on one of our properties it made the whole place look bad.  It took about six weeks for them to move, without paying rent, and they left the house filled with stuff!  Honestly, I don't know what they took with them to wear, for it seemed most was left in garbage bags or on the floor.

The little calf, Spittin' Image, has been very sick, almost to the point of death.  One afternoon I noticed his mama bawling for him and when we found him we knew he was sick.  The farmer gave him an antibiotic shot and the next morning he was so weak he could barely stand.  When he tried to walk he wobbled.  Young calves often take what we call "scours" and will soon dehydrate.  So we're always prepared to give them an oral hydration, electrolyte solution, (which is mostly a mixture of glucose, sodium chloride, and potassium), using a bottle with a long tube which is put down their throats to insure it gets to the stomach.  This takes a little skill to do; the tube shouldn't go down the windpipe!  He was given the treatment three times and responded well; yesterday I saw him run just a little and he's taking milk from his mama again, so maybe he'll be o.k.

Two days were spent getting the plumbing work done.  The drain pipes to the kitchen and laundry room were almost totally plugged after almost 46 years of use.  In the days when this house was built, l968, drain lines were cast iron and after time the insides rust and stuff starts to build up on that rust until they become plugged.  Now I can use my dishwasher again!  I did hate to see holes cut in my wallpaper though.

The last three days of the week were spent in the hay fields, baling, hauling, and wrapping; some of these days ran as late as "dark-thirty" before we were finished.

The last picture shows the damage wild hogs can do overnight in the fields.  Of course this is only one spot out of many over the field.

 So, yesterday morning, at church, when people asked, "How are you?", I replied, "I'm very, very tired."

Charlotte

Winter Farm Update ~ 2014

Brr-rr!!  This morning we woke up to the coldest day of the winter ~ so far!  The temperature had fallen to around 3 degrees during the night.  I knew it was cold, because in spite of putting more covering on the bed, I was cold all night!  We haven't had rain, ice or snow this go-around, for which we are very thankful because that would make the farm work so much harder to get done.

We have a good supply of wood for heating, but I'm so fearful of fires now since everything is extremely dry and the wind has been very strong; yesterday morning when I cleaned out the ashes, I heard a slight roar in the chimney and smoke billowed out like crazy, so I didn't put more wood inside the furnace just then.  On pretty days we replenish the wood pile; the logs are hauled in from a field we had cleared a couple of years ago.  The farmer saws them up into chunks,

then uses an attachment for the BobCat to split them into sizes for the furnace.

The cold weather has been very hard on the old, weaker cows.  We have lost around eight I think.  Our chickens are twelve days old and will need to be kept at about eighty degrees for a while longer.  We start them in only one half of each house; this means only half of each house has to be heated, saving heating fuel.  Then at eight days we turn them out over the entire length of the house and by the time they are 4 1/2 to five weeks old they are giving off enough heat from their bodies that the heaters are not needed unless it is extremely cold. 

Saving fuel has become very important.  Before these chickens came, the farmer had our 10,000 gallon propane tank filled to 80% at a cost of $1.46/gallon.

This was the reading this morning, after only twelve days of usage.  We hoping we won't have to buy more!  Yesterday we heard there is a shortage of propane and the cost is now $3.90/gallon!  Of course this is bad for farmers, but what about people who use propane for heating their homes and cooking their meals?  This could get serious!

Think about it,

Charlotte

When the farmer laughs...

you know it must be something worth reading.  He takes a weekly paper, Farm Talk, and I don't usually even look at it since it's filled with ads for farm equipment, tractors, auctions, etc.  But when I hear him laughing and he says, "You ought to read this!" then I give a little of my time. 

His favorite column is "Viewing the Field with Milo Yield";  since there is no other name given as the writer, we'll assume his name is Milo.  He writes about things he has experienced in his 71 years of living, from farm to current happenings.  Then he always throws in a paragraph or two of humor such as the following:

"Another overheard coffee shop statement: 'The reason why baby diapers have brand names such as Luvs and Huggies, while undergarments for old people are called Depends is that when babies mess in their pants, people are still gonna Luv'em and Hug'em.  When old people do the same, it Depends on who's in the will.'"

Think about it,

Charlotte

From My Cartoon Collection and Ice Update

It can still happen ;)

Ice is still on the farm, one week later...

Some icicles actually reached the ground before they fell off.

Stay safe and warm,

Charlotte

We Still Have Ice and Snow

Although the sun did shine this morning, I never did see the temperature above 32* so not much melting took place.  We were hoping a lot of this would melt today since more snow and ice is predicted for tonight and tomorrow.  With this much ice, plus the snow, on the roof of the chicken houses, there's a lot of weight bearing down on them.  Too much weight and the roof could collapse ~ oh my!  What a mess that would be!  It's always on our minds when we have a lot of ice and snow.  The farmer told me if I hear things beginning to crack when I'm inside there, to run to the wall.

The storm caught me without any food for the bird feeder, so I put some of my pecan shells on the front porch for them to pick out the little bits of nuts left in the shells.  They were so cute, darting here and there, eating.  Today I saw two of them having a fuss and I could hear them having a disagreement over the nuts.  Precious little creations...

Charlotte

Ice and Snow Storm?? with Update

Thursday night:

We've had rain off and on all day but so far no problems with ice or snow.  However, that may change as the temperatures are just below 32* right now at 9:30 p.m.  We have a generator for the chicken houses so they'll have heat and exhaust fans should the power go off.  The farmer could quickly get it tied into the dwelling house if needed.  We have a wood burning furnace, but it requires electricity to run the fan, and a small gas heater in one room so we can stay fairly warm. 

Today I made vegetable/beef soup, always good eating on a cold day.  Also I finished two embroidery projects that have been around for ages, and read a few chapters in my daughter's newly released book, His Promise True, which, by the way, can be found on Amazon.

So for those of you who have wondered about us, everything is good so far; if ice covers everything, in the morning I'll have to watch my steps carefully when I go to the chicken houses; at least it's good and warm in there. 

Charlotte

Friday morning:
We got up this morning with everything covered in sleet and ice; around 7:30 it began to snow.  No power outage yet.  After the chicken work, the cattle had to be fed.  The farmer had set out bales yesterday.  He's feeding silage bales because the plastic comes off easier than the frozen net.

Every chain and latch on the gates were frozen.

I think untouched snow is beautiful, but it makes for so much more work, cold work.  The farmer kept telling me to "be careful" so I reminded him, "you're older than me".   It seems awfully early in the season for this type of weather in our area.  Hope it doesn't mean all of winter will be this way!

Kitten Tales

I don't know if you've met Callie, my oldest cat.  She lives outside, in one shed or another, just wherever she prefers on any given day.  She's very affectionate, as long as she's not in my arms, then she squirms until I put her down.  These are her kittens from early fall;

just take your pick of which color you like best.  It's been several years since we've had a yellow cat, so I was thrilled, although I knew I'd never get to keep one.  They were born in between some big, extra chicken house fans and  bags of animal bedding on the back of a truck.  The weather was getting cooler and they cried a lot.  Whenever Callie realized I knew where they were, she moved them.  About this time we were selling a bull and the farmer had taken the stock trailer to the barn to load him.  Something told me to look inside the trailer, and there were the kittens, huddled up in a corner at the front of the trailer.  All I had to put them in was my bucket of cat food (picture) so they took a ride back to the shed.  On the way I stopped and picked up a little hay to make a bed for them.  The first thing Callie did was jump into the tub they were in, grab up the white one and jump to the ground.  I put it back in the tub and she got another one and just disappeared.  The next time I went to feed her, I found the kittens in the seat of the BobCat, then they were gone again.  I didn't expect to ever see any of them again because the dogs here have killed all the kittens born on this farm this summer.

Now I know some of you adore dogs, I understand that, but I hate dogs for this very reason.  The dogs here are the results of two "dumped" dogs, one of which had seven puppies and two are still with us, making four, useless, annoying animals.  Almost every time they kill a kitten, they bring it to the back door!

Well, back to the kittens; last week Callie brought the gray and white kitten and one yellow kitten back to the shed and put them up high on the back of a truck.  They were safe there, and I told her so, but again, once she realized I knew where they were, she moved them to the ground.  Two days, and the yellow one is found at the back door.  So yesterday I put the other one back up on the truck, and when I went back for the afternoon feeding, it was gone, but I heard it meowing.  With much sound-searching I found it ~ on top of the stock trailer!  I couldn't reach it; last night was very cold and windy and this morning I didn't see it or hear it, so...I'm just expecting to see it at the back door any time now.

I hope I didn't offend those of you who have loving dogs as pets.  Forgive me?

Charlotte

First Monday of November

We got baby chickens for two houses early this morning; the other two houses will come tomorrow morning.  I was glad there were only two houses to dump because my breakfast was gone and I was getting tired by the time we were finished.  We usually keep the chickens about fifty days which will make these be that age on Christmas.  Someone else may have to fix Christmas dinner this year.

Remember those low-hanging limbs?  The results ~ a wonderful crop of nice pecans!  I haven't even bothered to try to scare away the crows and the squirrel; there seemed to be plenty to share, although the nuts in the tops of the trees must be gone because the crows were scouring the ground this morning.  I've also shared with friends.  Now ~ if I can get the farmer to help me pick out the nuts inside these shells...

Charlotte

Low-Hanging Limbs

All summer I mowed beneath these low-hanging limbs.  I had to bend low to keep leaves and sticks out of my eyes and many times my hat got pushed off my head.  I'm sure if someone saw me they wondered, "Why doesn't she just cut them off?"   But you see, I had a very good reason not to cut them:

they're full of pecans!  And I can reach them!  I think the tree has more on it this year than ever before, which surprised me after two years of drought.  Now, if Edgar Allen Crow and Squirrel Nutkin don't steal too many, there should be plenty for me to gather and have pecans for breads, cookies, brownies, salads...

I'd like to share a portion of a favorite read-aloud story by Alvin Tresselt, which is about the four seasons;  maybe you can find it in one of his books at your local library.  This will be about the fall season from the story, Now Is the Time:

"...now the warm days grow shorter, and the cool nights grow longer.

The trees have a tired, rusty look, and brown leaves gather at the gutters.

'It's time again,' say the mothers.

Time to get out warm clothes...

This is the time of leaf fall in the parks, and a faint tang of leaf smoke in the air.

Hard sweet apples in the markets, and golden orange tangerines again..." 

Charlotte

I've been asked of I drew the picture at the heading of my blog.  The answer is "No" but I wish I could draw that well.  Actually it is a picture from an old calendar.

Making Molasses

Do you have a favorite molasses cookies recipe? My family really likes a gingersnap cookie made by a recipe from the back of an oleo box; it's several years old. Since I can't make a good chewy cookie by any recipe (I'm cookie challenged), and I've always been more of the "eat to live" type anyway, I won't send out the recipe. However, I would like to take you through the steps involved in making molasses. 

Perhaps some of you have read this, as it was first posted in 2011.  As I have mentioned before, raising sorghum cane for making molasses was the main crop produced on our farm when I was a child, and the harvest started about this time of year. (Pardon the line drawings; we had no cameras back in those days.)

...Early each spring the grounds were prepared for the new planting. For several days, Daddy and his brother took their teams of horses to the fields, and all day the horses pulled the plows, back and forth, around and around in the loose, brown dirt. The seeds were put into the ground and the warm sun and rain soon made the rows glisten with tiny green shoots. As the plants grew taller, the women began to hoe the long rows in the hot sun, stopping now and then to straighten their tired backs and go to the edge of the field to rest and drink water that had warmed while they worked.

As the summer passed the plants grew into tall, slender stalks, the fodder turned yellow, the seed heads browned; the cane was ready to harvest. The men and women each took a long wooden paddle, sharpened on the edges, and began to strip the fodder from off the cane. With the leaves stripped off, the cane stalks stood tall and naked. Reaching high, and with a quick flick of the wrist, each woman slashed the seeded heads from the top of the stalks. Behind the women, the men cut the long jointed stalks and laid them in piles, ready to be loaded onto the wagon and hauled to the mill.

Early the next morning, preparations were made at the mill to start making molasses. Easter came to start feeding the cane stalks into the mill. The horse walked around and around the mill, pushing the long pole that turned two big iron rollers. A watery, green juice was squeezed out of the stalks and ran down into a barrel and on to the cooking pan. Frothy foam covered the top of the cooking juice as it began to boil, and as the foam was skimmed off, and the juice began to thicken, it was pushed along the sections of the pan, gradually turning to a golden brown.

The new molasses were strained and put into glass jars and tin buckets, set aside to cool, and labeled, waiting to be taken to the food market in town to be sold...

The brothers were recognized for their efforts in producing good molasses one year, when two half-gallon buckets were prepared and shipped to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. (I tried to include a picture of the letter they received but it wouldn't load; however, the envelope did.)

It's not easy to find molasses now that are golden brown and good for eating on a hot buttered biscuit; most are dark and very strong tasting. Perhaps when one has had the best it's not easy to be satisfied with anything less.

Charlotte

August Eighth on the Farm

Thunder rumbles and lightening flashes, rain softly treading on the roof ~ the sights and sounds I awoke to this morning.  I didn't want to get out of bed, but I knew the farmer had been up and down, in and out, a good part of the night setting up the chicken houses for catch time today.  He needed a good breakfast before the catching crews got here.

It's been a rough week for chickens, and the growers.  Temperatures in the 90s aren't so bad until one factors in the humidity.  When there is so much moisture in the air the cool cells don't work as well as they do when the air is just hot and dry.  They work much the same way as the old time window air conditioning units: water flows across pads and up to twelve big fans per house pull air through, and as the water evaporates the air cools.

On top of the heat factor, we got a load of bad feed which sent two houses into a tizzy.  It's frustrating to put almost seven weeks of work, seven days a week, have a good chicken, and then something out of our control happens.  But after forty one years at this work, we've come to expect the unexpected.  While there are chickens in the houses, they are never far from our thinking, even at night, and it takes a few days after they're gone to remember we don't need to listen for fans or make sure the water is still flowing, or that we can rest our minds for a couple of weeks.

But there's always a little brightness to cheer up the day; one sweet zinnia has responded to the rain, in the midst of tattered iris and day lily fronds and the yard needs to be mowed again this week.  Maybe the drought of 2013 is over; maybe during the two weeks without chickens I can finish cleaning out the flowers beds and hope for a lot of zinnias in 2014.

Charlotte

Hope you have a pleasant weekend!

The Lowly Bitterweed

 

If you are a city gal, you probably won't be interested in this:

I grew up with bitterweeds.  They were around our barn and even in the yard.  Maybe you aren't familiar with this plant, so I'll give a brief description of it.  The bitterweed is a low growing plant, 6-20 inches tall, with bright yellow flowers and a very strong oder.  They are aggressive in their growth in overgrazed pastures, along roadsides, and waste areas.  Where tame grasses grow thicker the weed is usually not a problem.

The bitter weed contains a toxic substance to livestock, especially horses and mules.  Most animals won't eat it because of the foul, bitter taste.  Allowing animals to graze bitterweed, even in small quantities, can cause a cow's milk to taste bitter.  And maybe that was my first encounter with the lowly bitterweed.  Whenever the hot sun dried up the grass, the weed thrived, and Mama's milk cow ate it, making our milk and butter taste bad.

As two little children playing in the barn, my cousin and I found a perfect use for those yellow blooms.  With the sand he brought to me, I made mud cakes and pies in little tin pans, and decorated them with the flowers.  But that wasn't the only use we found for the weed.

During the day, Mama's hens roamed the yard where we played and it was nothing uncommon for us to step barefooted in a hen's droppings and have the wet stuff ooze between our toes.  There was no hose with a nozzle, in those days, connected to an outside faucet for us to wash them, so we found a bitterweed, put the stem between our toes, and pulled up our foot, letting the green foliage swipe off the mess.  It might have taken more than one swipe, but hey, it worked!

I never see a bitterweed without remembering those days, and if this makes me a redneck hillbilly, then I wear the color and the name with pride.

Charlotte

Summer Farm Update

I guess it's time for another farm update.  Dry weather has hit us again for the third year in a row.  We've only had a scant four-tenths of an inch of rain since June 1st.  Flower beds and pastures are beginning to suffer and we are under a burn ban.  Winds have been fairly strong and last week a whirlwind caught up some hay on our neighbor's land, tossing it into the power lines, and setting the field on fire.  Fortunately we're not too far from the rural fire station and the fire was put out quickly.  It's just as well that we didn't have a garden this year, for all the work would have been in vain.

 

You're probably saying, "Why don't you water your flowers?"  The answer: we have to conserve the water for the chickens to drink and to cool them.  One never knows when the city water might shut down and if the wells were dry we'd be in big trouble.

Our spring hay crop yielded enough bales to see us through the winter, provided we don't have to feed a lot of it before cold weather.  Of course we're hoping it will rain and the grass will grow for another cutting.  It's always good to have extra; we learned that from last year when we ran short.  Notice in this picture, the old tractor with a tank behind it; the tank is filled with water just in case of fire.  We also have insurance on the hay. 

 

The flower beds and yard are a pitiful sight.  Everything is just trying to survive the dry heat.  Also, when these beds were put in, the trees were small; now they're big and sap the moisture from the flowers.  Plans for moving the beds are coming to mind.

 

 

Day lilies have tried to bloom, but the plants from seeds I planted shriveled up.  Now do you understand why I love seeing the pictures of your pretty flowers?

 

 

The true tiger lilies are much smaller and weaker than they should be.

 

 

But there is always one flower that will like the heat: the orange, double day lily.

 

 

The chickens are three weeks old now, and as long as we have water for the cool cells and electricity to power the fans to pull cool air over them, they don't know what it's like outside.

 

With hay work at a standstill, I've been working in the sewing room, piecing doll quilts; I'll show you in a few days what I've been up to.  Hope this post isn't too depressing; it's just the life of a farmer.

 

Charlotte

 

 

 

 

 

 

The View From My Office....

the office being the cab of a tractor.  Our weather has been hot and dry this past week, perfect haying weather.  So, as the old saying goes, "We made hay while the sun was shining."

Thick swathes of dried grass spread out in front of me,

and behind me the rake rolls two of them into a large mound, ready to be picked up by the baler and turned into big round bales for next winter's feeding.

This isn't a very large field but we made over 100 bales from it;  so thankful for each bale!  And since the hay was dry, we didn't have to wrap the bales in plastic, only with a netting material which holds the bales tight enough to shed water when stored outside.

 

I had lunch in the office since we left to get an early start.  Actually I didn't have time to eat much of mine: potato chips, ham and cheese sandwich, pear halves, fig newtons, and of course, two miniature Hershey bars.  We baled until around 6:00 p.m. and then there were chores to do before supper, so I was beginning to feel light-headed and unsure on my feet.  I usually carry peppermint candies with me to ward off the effects of low blood sugar, but forgot them.

 

Baby chickens will come next week so we won't bale more until they're settled in.

 

And that's a day from my office; hope you enjoyed the visit.

 

Charlotte

Spring Farm Update

Spring here on the farm has gone so fast!  We had cool weather for a long time and good rains; in fact, it still isn't really hot yet. 

Last fall, when our hay supply was short, the farmer planted grass seeds in the hay meadows and pastures.  When the hay was almost gone, the grass came up and gave the cattle a little extra to eat.  They didn't leave much sign of that grass, but in the meadows it was a different story.

 

This was a variety of grass called "rye", and as you can see it grew to almost six feet tall.  We think this hay will make good feed for the cattle when it is put through the grinder/mixer next winter.

 

 

Arrow leaf clover was mixed with the rye.

 

 

These rows of stubble make the field look like there wouldn't be any more grass all summer, but with a few good showers, new grass will make the field green again.

 

We have had rain in the forecast several times in the past few weeks, making a time to cut the grass uncertain.  But if we can get two - three days in a row without rain, the farmer cuts and we bale the next day.  Of course the grass isn't completely dry; therefore, we use this machine to wrap the bales in plastic.

 

 

The damp hay has to be wrapped the same day it's baled, otherwise it will rot; the plastic seals out air, turning the grass into a type of silage.  As the bales are put onto the machine, they're pushed forward into a chamber where the plastic wraps around the bales as they move.  The long rows are sort of an outdoor barn.  Having to haul and wrap the bales as soon as they are baled, makes for a long day of work.  We can haul as many as fifteen bales at a time from the field, taking about an hour for the road trip and the wrapping.  Some nights we aren't finished until eleven or twelve p.m.; long hours for old people.

 

We've put up almost 450 bales so far, as compared to a total of 501 in last summer's drought. We are so thankful for every bale!

 

On top of working in the hay, our chickens are in their last week on the farm, which means "there's work on every hand!"  I keep wondering, how many more years will we be able to work?

 

Charlotte