Archive for September, 2005
September 16, 2005 – Bees on Peaches
One of our peach trees has some overripe fruit and they are a magnet for the honeybees.
The bees are swarming all over the fruit – I’m not sure what the attraction is – whether they are getting moisture, sugar water for themselves or material to make honey – if anybody knows what they may be using it for, let me know!
September 15, 2005 – “Better than Bach”
Yesterday Martin was pounding on the walls of the metal machine shed while I was moving the electric fence around. I walked by and he said with assurance “This is nicer than Bach.” Not sure that I heard him correctly or that he knew what he was saying, I asked him “What’s Bach?” Martin replied, “Bach is pretty music.” So there you go – music is all in the ears and imagination of the beholder!
September 14, 2005 – School Tour and Film Crew at High Hopes
This morning we hosted four groups of West Marshall 6th graders for a farm tour on Ag Day.
The kids pile off the bus, ready for a farm tour.
I’m not sure what has so captivated everyone’s attention (except Martin’s), but it sure looks interesting!
We set up a hay wagon with all the things we sell at the Farmer’s Market and/or have made for ourselves – dried flowers, bouquets, vegetables, sheepskins, honey and candles, etc.
Linda was miked the whole time and film rolled the entire time the tour was on. The film crew was from Iowa Public Television – we’ll keep you posted when and if we make a program.
We feel good about sharing our farm with the kids – they get to sample real apples and raspberries, see where eggs come from, learn about local food systems and how people on diversified farms plan and manage the interrelationships between crops and animals.
September 13, 2005 – April Does in Another Door
We’ve already replaced one door after April freaked in a storm and destroyed a door. This time, there was a possibility of storms, so the dogs were locked in the garage. This is what the door from the garage to the mudroom looked like.
Again, we are paying for the shortcuts of the previous owners who installed a hollow-wall interior door in an exterior location.
September 12, 2005 – Martin-Daddy Day
Today is known in the trade as Martin-Daddy Day as we are the only ones home most of the day. Today we reconfigured the electric fencing to offer the goats and sheep new browse and pasture. We also unloaded a pickup truck of wood chips into the old machine shed. That was a mistake. I don’t spend much time in there and we haven’t done anything to upgrade it since we’ve moved in. A close look reveals it needs major replacement/removal. More to think about.
Martin was in a very helpful mode today.
Martin moves a couple of bags of layer food to the chicken coop. In case you can’t tell, he’s a horsey in this picture.
Here he is sweeping the remaining wood chips out of the truck.
September 11, 2005 – Day of Rest
We finally had a day of rest more or less. The heat continues, so after church, we went to the beach for some swimming/playing in the sand.
Without fail, it seems like this is the last week of summer and prolonged 90′s with cooler weather the following week into Fall. Two times we’ve gone into the hospital and brought children into the world (September 16 and September 17) and both times when we went in it was hot, and when we left, it was cool. I am looking forward to the cooler fall weather, but we thought we should take advantage of the hot day today.
September 10, 2005 – Game Day and Chicken Coop
Hawkeye faithful can go back to the store and return the “IS Who” t-shirts after mighty the Iowa Hawkeyes fell to the Iowa State Cyclones 23-3. Here are the girls with their game day attire.
But much more important than the game, was Grandpa Dave’s complete rewiring of the chicken coop, including complete tear-out of existing wires and fixtures. We added a fuse box, outlets, and lights to a side that had no lights. Now after-dark egg-gathering will not require as much angst. In addition, we will have an additional place to brood chicks.
September 9, 2005 – Stocking Up
As we are planning on reroofing the house and adding a dormer this year or early next year, I ordered the sheathing and shingles to be sure we had enough when we were ready to go. Unloading the plywood and shingles was a lot like making hay. It continues to be hot.
September 8, 2005 – Meet-n-Greet Japanese Visitors
One of my many hats is being on the board of Wholesome Harvest Organic Meat Company. A few years ago I was able to visit Japan to start letting companies about our meats. The trip was a blast, and today the distributor who has purchased our first shipment to Asia was visiting Wholesome Harvest and the States. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant that features our chicken and are set for a farm tour tomorrow.
Had a big wind and rainstorm that knocked power out for about 7 hours and snapped the amaranth in the north garden in half and flattened all the buckwheat. 
There were 83 mph winds (hurricane-level winds) in Ames measured at the Agronomy building at Iowa State.
September 7, 2005 – New Farm Toy
It’s an exciting day when a new piece of equipment comes to high hopes. This old flare wagon found its way home tonight.
To many it may look like an old rusty wagon, but to me it is full of possibilities. I could fill it with extra corn for the corn stove, fill it with custom-ground layer food, or use it to store mulch for next year’s tree planting. It has a great John Deere running gear (wheels and axles), good rubber, and the box does not have holes. It even has a hydraulic lift to tip it up to pour contents out the back.
I picked it up at Vern’s Implement in Melbourne. He’s got a field full of junk and not junk and a shop in town where he tinkers with old tractors and goes to auctions and sells equipment to help pay for his restoration habit. Anybody who’s driven by Melbourne has seen the place. He’s also got solar panels (a lot of them) on his house.
September 6, 2005 – Media Finds High Hopes Blog
We’ve had out first media inquiry to the Blog. A reporter from the local “Marshalltimes” an eclectic weekly insert into the Marshalltown newspaper is coming out to interview/photograph us tomorrow in support of National Chicken Month. He promises a light-hearted piece. It comes out on September 18th. We’ll keep you all posted.
September 5, 2005 – Making Hay
Today we helped some friends make hay! Hay making is one of those things that elicits fonder memories the longer its been since you’ve done it!
It all starts innocently enough, with the geometric patterns of cut and raked hay in the field. This looks comforting. Anybody who has made hay knows you can predict the hottest days of the year by the hay-cutting schedule.
There is romance about the equipment. Here’s the New Holland baler that we used.
Of course, there are often numerous adjustments to make to fine-tune the baler. The expression that there’s nothing a farmer can’t fix without wire and baling twine, deals primarily with the baler itself.
Eventually, usually with the threat of approaching weather, the hay bales arrive safely to the barn. We are using our barn as a storage area for this hay.
This is the most unsavory part of the day. The day ended at dark, or at least the work did – then it is time for a drafty beverage, simple meal, and the feeling of hay in the barn good as money in the bank.
September 4, 2005 – Turkey Update
It looks like the turkeys are once again reaching giant size. We’ve got some big Toms and they aren’t due to the locker until October 8th. A trick I learned when I was working with the Story County Conservation Board was to make an owl sound to get wild turkeys to call. Turkeys hate owls and sound the alarm.
We are growing the Bronze-breasted turkeys and I made an owl hoot and watched a Tom puff out his feathers and try to look menacing. The turkeys, I must admit, are a bit freaky looking, especially the waddle thingy that hangs down from their head. I’m sure there must be cultures who use this fleshy piece for things I would rather not imagine.
Tom’s big waddle.
September 3, 2005 – Goat Update
Today was another market day in Grinnell. It was “Happy Days” in Grinnell, so the market location was replaced with a car show. There were many more people in town, but about the same number of market farmers. We had ramped up, expecting to sell more than usual, but it was an ordinary day. The lambskins are popular – we’re down to one left.
The baby goats are growing up.
Here’s a portrait of Thing 1.
