Tag Archives: farming

My Rakish Farmer

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Rakish (rey’-kish) adjective smart; jaunty; dashing

Smart

I received this picture with a text that said "A picture of the 50s model tractor I'm using to rake hay taken with my iPhone." Oh the irony!

Jaunty

Jaunty means self confident. Nothing hotter. Just saying.

For those of you unfamiliar with making hay, I will give a short explanation of how it works. You cut the ripe grass with a swather, which lays it out in long rows called windrows. Once the top of that cut grass dries down, it is raked. My farmer is raking the hay in these photos. Raking the hay turns the windrow over so the grass underneath can dry, it can also combine two windrows into one larger row, thereby creating less work for the baler. The baler rolls or presses the hay into bales, wrapping them with twine, wire or mesh. Viola – haying 101.

The rake in action.

Dashing

I love the connectedness technology allows. And I love My ‘rakish’ Farmer.

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Wheat Harvest 2012 – A Pictorial Diary; The First Two Days

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A combine broke down.

Any time you see the sides open like that, it’s not a good sign. That is like seeing a car pulled to the side of the road with the hood up. There is someone INSIDE the back of this beast…also a very bad sign.

The man inside the beast is My Farmer (H.O.T.T. people).

The breakdown required a four-hour round trip drive for parts, almost two full days of mechanic-ing (by the man in the picture) along with the help of four other people and a tractor at critical points. And lots of welding. As soon as he tightened the last bolt, My Farmer’s dad (who we partner with) pulled into the shop with the other combine limping along with a bearing that was out.

This forced My Farmer to stop for a beverage. It was either that or cry. There is no crying in farming.

All this breaking down afforded lots of ‘fun’ downtime at the shop with the kids (fun applies to the kids only in this sentence).

See the combine behind Cowgirl? Just out of major internal surgery. My Farmer was doing a quick bearing-dectomy to the other combine while I took this picture.

In the first 24 hours of cutting our wheat, there were three more troubles including the following: A pickup that wouldn’t start, a pickup that blew a brake-line (or something else I don’t understand that made it not work), A semi trailer that broke down (something to do with it’s brake drum) which required a run into and across town for a replacement part, and what you see below.

Yep, that's my van. I think this is why most farm families don't run minivans, despite their alluring cup holders.

Farmer Boy and I changed the flat ourselves, putting on the little donut spare, and the next morning I drove into town and paid *someone else* to fix my tire (you should gasp here as farmers don’t usually do those sorts of things). It was actually quite fun – I sat around with six old guys and shot the you-know-what for half an hour. We ruminated about the price of combines, the right color for combines (green – duh) the price of wheat and hay. Then we all speculated about my flat tire and argued about how fast (or slow) you should drive on a dirt road in order to avoid said flats.

I think I just need big motor-cross, monster-truck tires on my minivan.

Remembering

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A short post today: The combines are rolling. This is the earliest we have ever cut our wheat but we are excited to be in the field.

I am thankful beyond expression for the men and women who have died protecting my freedom as an American who chooses to make her life raising her family and farming with her husband.

Thank you also to all current and past individuals who have served our country. To you I am eternally indebted.

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Busy times

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Can make for family closeness.

Or sometimes not. I don’t know if it’s all in how you look at it, or, if it is as my wise mother told me once “It just means everything to feel like you both have your shoulders against the same rock and are pushing together.”

Little Cowgirl asked to be dropped off along with lunch one day.

Farmer Boy, walking to the van for a ride home at dusk.

I am so fortunate to feel that My Farmer and I are pushing against the same rock together. And I like knowing that our children are watching us doing so. I watched my own parents shoulder their boulder through the 1980s (farm economy hell) and have benefited from their example every day of my life.

Also, it’s May Day tomorrow. Out of curiosity, does your family do anything special to celebrate?

More signs of spring around the farm…

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Growing kittens…

The two white babies are siamese - if you please!

Coats shed as the day warms…

Cat napping, coat nipping, it's just plain cute.

One son showing another how Dad taught him to find the wheat head…

Split the stem.

Peel it open.

Hold a miracle in the palm of your hand.

This is extra special because this wheat is growing right inside our own garden. When Grandma was in the hospital this fall and Daddy was sowing wheat, Farmer Boy went out himself, collected grains of wheat, and planted his very own patch on the north end of the garden. He has watered, hoed and tended it since September. He has celebrated it’s growth and seen it mature before his very eyes.

I can’t wait to see how he decides to harvest it when June comes.

How are things ‘out there’ in your world?

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I apologize for my temporary absence and thank my good friends for complaining in a good-natured way that I am not blogging. It feeds the attention-whore side of my personality and helps me feel like I am contributing in a positive way to the world at large with my little ramblings here. I haven’t been neglecting this space out of any sort of negative feelings about it – we just became very busy with other things for a bit! Here is a sampling of our world the past couple of weeks:

We have been planting corn on our farm as well as spraying our wheat. We are experiencing disease pressures and some insect troubles because of the unseasonably warm and mild spring thus far.

School has been trucking along – we are reading our last two historical novels and in six weeks we will have completed 1st, 3rd and 5th grades. I am shuffling through curriculum choices for next year and plan to begin in July instead of August.

Random learning experience: The oven light wouldn’t shut off – the diagnosis and repair became an interesting lesson for all of us.

Watching the appliance repair man at work.

Showing the children where the shorted-out circuit can be seen.

The garden is growing great guns. My Farmer Boy has been so much help – he can hardly keep himself out of the dirt, especially now that he has THIS contraption (compliments of Grandpa):

No patch of bare earth is safe from these blades.

We have spinach and lettuce being served on our table, onions and peas growing like mad, the first strawberries are beginning to ripen. The potatoes Farmer Boy planted are up and thriving (though not where he marked them…) and my second planting of spuds are tucked in. We put in carrots, a leek-ish sort of vegetable, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and sweet peppers. Still to come are cucumbers, sweet corn, okra – and maybe we’ll be out of space by then but we shall see.

We had a lovely Easter – one which made me feel especially thankful for good friends.

Don't you just want to eat them up?

Still to come: Tales of an eleventh birthday, our first visit to the botanical gardens of our area, things I’ve been cooking, other cute oddities of spring. What’s been happening with all of you?

Of food and spring…

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I know, I keep talking about food lately. I think I get excited about food when spring comes. Or when autumn arrives. Or during the height of summer grilling. Or when I’m thinking of a warm pot of chili in the winter. I just love food. And eating it. And cooking it. And reading/blogging/talking about it. Did I mention the eating part?

Here is something I whipped up on a whim last night after dark:

Using one half batch of Mae’s biscuits, I rolled the dough out on floured wax paper and topped with thinly sliced apples, a spritz of olive oil, a sprinkle of brown sugar and a generous shake of cinnamon. I baked it as usual and it lasted through a single sitting.

I also got into my flower beds this week – OH how glorious to have dirt under my fingernails again!

And speaking of dirt…while I was giving Cowgirl a phonics lesson last week, Farmer Boy disappeared to do his chores. He materialized again at lunch time to report that he had planted the seed potatoes. Granted, I have no idea how deep/shallow they might be, and they are awfully close together – but I am a truly poor gardener and expect he will do a much better job if I let him go at it than he would under my guidance. So we put in the peas and onions mostly according to his plans.

Guess what we found today? One of his potatoes has sprouted! Did I tell you he has sown wheat along the north edge of the garden? Yep. We are growing four rows of wheat that he planted at the same time Dad was drilling this past fall. It is so lush and green that Farmer Boy told me he wants to roll in it.

What is happening in your immediate out-of-doors?

A false sense of security…

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Every year, I stockpile gifts.  As sales come and go, as clearance racks (my addiction) dangle the perfect item for (insert name of relative here) I snatch up goodies and stash them in either (A) The hall closet, or (B) An undisclosed location in the pantry room of the basement (otherwise known as the pit of dispair).

My Farmer and I spent the entire weekend (I’m not kidding you – we were up past 11pm both nights, stopping only for meals and Mass) doing paperwork.  So my usual housework and weekend catch-up did not happen.  I didn’t file the school papers from last week or switch my binder out for the next, I didn’t get the laundry done or the hot-spots cleaned.  The floors are as dirty as they were on Friday.  But I wasn’t worried, because we are taking this week off of school, spending part of the holiday with my folks and part of it here with My Farmer’s family.  I could use the extra couple of days to tidy up the house, catch up on laundry, pack, etc.

 

In the midst of all this, I walked downstairs to find a few gift items I want to deliver to my family.  While down there, I took a quick inventory, knowing that I didn’t need much to be “GO” for Christmas.

 

Um.

 

After coming back upstairs and placing a beer in my shaking hand, I would like to announce that I have handed myself a major fail in the gift-ahead department.  I have tons of gifts for two people.  That leaves a few more people that I need to shop for.  OH, and those two people better not mind receiving dusty, years-old gifts because it’s going to take many holidays to empty their stash.  It’s simple to look at my gift hoard and see who is easy to buy for – because of course it’s the people who are impossible to find a gift for that I’m coming up empty on.  (You know, the poor people who get a mug or a shirt every. single. year.)

 

So, look out mug and shirt stores – I’m giving up one of my days this week to check out your clearance racks.  SHEESH I will probably have to pay *regular price* for some items! GAH!

 

Every year I plan on having an ‘even more special’ Christmas, with decorations up earlier, and the children MAKING all the tree ornaments out of oranges and salt dough and popcorn, and me presenting everyone with one-of-a-kind gifts I made myself…and every year I’m SO SURPRISED when Thanksgiving hits.

 

But I love this season so much.  And even though I’m shocked each year when I realize how little time I have left for preparation, I let go of my ideas for the holiday I envisioned and enjoy the holiday that is.  After all, it’s not about any of those things, really.  It’s about love.

 

And that, I have aplenty in my life.

 

That, and beer.