Archive for August, 2006
August 17, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #37
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out
last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…
Not too hard for you folks – the honey gate at the bottom of the extractor letting the bounty flow out!
August 16, 2006 – Favorites Around the World
GJ is hosting a high school exchange student in Ames and brought her out to the farm. She is from Nigeria and wanted to eat a couple of things from our garden that we seldom, if ever eat – okra and amaranth. She wasn’t as excited about the rest of the crops in the garden as these two items.
This is the first year for okra in our garden. We have very little, but it seems to go at market. We cooked some up last week with egg and cornmeal to so-so reviews.
The amaranth variety is used as an ornamental variety here, but we’ve known that it is an important crop across the world.
August 15, 2006 – State Fair Grooming
Livestock grooming is serious business at the fair. I thought this might be good for Thingamajig Thursday, but the name is written on it!
This is a blow dryer for cows! This was a common appliance down this row of calf contestants.
The handlers are spraying, blowing, and trimming this calf before the judging. If farming doesn’t work out for these lads, they could always start a salon!
After the downpour, we found ourselves in the DNR building and Linda found this new accessory.
It’s a small fox snake.
August 14, 2006 – Fair 4H Projects
These are some of my favorite projects (that I’d like to copy) from the 4H building at the state fair. These are all from high school and younger 4Hers.
This arbor seat would look great in the garden. I wish I would have thought of this before building my walk-through arbor.
I like this barn-shaped shelf to display toy tractors.
I remember seeing these a long time ago, but not recently. We’ve been struggling with the best way to put a sign up for high hopes gardens, and I think this is it!
This entry wins in my re-purpose a broken item – it’s an old broken metal bar-b-q, with the main part removed and the framework reworked with weatherproof decking for a bar-b-q-buddy.
This was a creative re-use of an old claw-foot tub – it has been refashioned into a love seat. Martin wanted to crawl in and lay down. It would be great for sleeping through tornadoes in!
Finally, a quick update from the farm. Another 1.25 inches of rain fell yesterday, so we are up to over 3 inches in the last week – more than June and July combined.
We had a few leftover plums, so ended up with 21 quarts of canned plums. Martin poked the skins with a fork and packed them in the jars and had great fun doing it.
August 13, 2006 – At the Fair
Today was our day at the State Fair. I’ve got more than one day’s pictures, so I’ll spread them out over the next few days.
One of the most startling revelations was that sheep culture so closely mirrors human history. Bear with me, for this quick tour of “sheep through the ages.”
Practicing the orthodoxy of the Spanish Inquisition, these two crusaders scan the sheep barn for heresy.
The grand imperial wizard of the sheep barn, keeps an eye out for Suffolk sheep taking their place in the barn.
These laid-back California sheep have started their own sheep commune where the motto is “Ewe Don’t Give it up to the Man.”
Finally, we reach the modern era, where the pride wing of the sheep barn allows same-sex sheep to live in the same pen.
August 12, 2006 – At the Market
Linda had a late morning wedding (one of her ag students) in Tama, so it was up the Martin, Emma and I to man the market booth (Claire went with Linda).
It was a pretty good market day as those things go. Emma alone sold $30 worth of dog treats and cookies.
We did have an abundance of plums this week and had made a bunch of plum jam and bought more than a few home unsold, which we are now canning in earnest.
I told Martin he would get a quarter for each jar of jam he sold. We had some samples on bread and his job was to ask people if they’d like to try a sample. He was very hesitant to start. But even I was a bit taken aback when he asked a young woman if she wanted to try a sample. She did and responded politely that it was good. Then, out of nowhere, he says – “Well, if you like it, then you should buy a jar.” She did.
August 11, 2006 – Farm Visit
Yesterday we had about 25 students from the Master’s Program in Sustainable Agriculture from ISU visit our farm as part of a tour of Marshall County. They also visited Linda and the farm/program at MCC and some beginning Hispanic farmers.
We started in the barn as it was a rare rainy day!
We walked around the farm for a little show and tell. It was a diverse group – ag, sociology, and business majors. Students were from South Africa, Uruguay, Pennsylvania, California, Illinois, Texas, Iowa, and Minnesota. Lots of interesting questions and perspectives.
August 10, 2006 – Thingamajig Thursday #36
Here’s this week’s “Thingamajig Thursday” entry. Also check out
last week’s answer.
As always, put your guess in a comment below.
Answer…
- It’s a piece of the portable electric netting.
August 9, 2006 – When it Rains…
We’ve had less than two inches of rain this summer, at a time when we usually receive about 12 inches. Dry.
That ended with a vengeance Wednesday and Thursday – nearly two inches in that time period, including sheets of rain pouring down in horizontal sheets. The rain is welcomed, but of course it coincided with moving broilers out to the chicken tractors.
They are still small and not able to withstand such an assault – so were were out just past daybreak after the main wind and rain front moved through, hauling shivering chickens back to the brooder building to warm up under the heat lamps.
I think all but maybe one will make it (keeping my fingers crossed).
August 8, 2006 – Hoophouse?
We are scheming to put up a hoophouse (actually GJ is scheming, but we’ll be happy to let her). We really don’t have much level ground left. We are thinking on the south side of the barn, shielded from the north wind and on a slightly south slope may be a good place to start. I’ve measured out a 24×36 foot space between the raspberries and peach trees.
For now, I’ve got the perimeter outlined with electric netting. We’ll first let the chickens at it to get the grass out, work it up/level with the tractor and then spread heaps of compost on it and maybe cover it with straw/cardboard to kill whatever grows up – maybe even try to solarize the area. It’s another great experiment.
August 7, 2006 – Grazing Example
Although it might not be as noticeable in this late evening, low-light photograph, this shows how rotationally grazed pastures can hold up better in a drought.
In the center there is a long rectangle fenced off from the rest of the pasture where we have planted trees. The grass outside of the fenced off area is continuously grazed. Inside the fence simulates rotational grazing (periodic mowing). The grass is much happier (and greener) since it has a chance to recover between grazing episodes.
If a tuft of grass is eaten once, it grows back – if it is eaten a second time, before it has had a chance to recover and grow, its roots can’t keep up and it gives up. The lush grass in the middle shows the power of periodic, instead of rotationally grazing. The net effect is the same amount of pasture can maintain more grazing animals and be healthier.
August 6, 2006 – CSI: Melbourne
OK Sherlocks, here’s today’s “CSI: Melbourne” episode. Our investigators run across some deep red internal organs and what looks like the leftovers from a deep fat fryer. What happened here? Back at the lab the organs are identified as beef kidneys and the leftovers are beef fat that has been heated to a high temperature, but the kidneys have not been heated. What’s going on?
Here is stage one – Linda and someone from Morning Sun farm are cutting the fat from around beef kidneys (the best kind of fat for this activity).
Here’s the pot of chopped fat in the stock pot.
Here’s the stock pot that used to be full with fat, with just the crispies left after cooking.
Finally, here’s the vat of fat cooling to 100 degrees before an equal amount of water is added.
Of course, by now, all of you know that this is the first stage to rendering beef fat, which is a precursor to making soap.
August 5, 2006 – Mousehole Days
Like most every Iowa town, Melbourne (town slogan, “Not down under, but right on top”), population 600 and some, has a summer town festival (I’d be wary of a town that doesn’t have such a celebration – something’s amiss with the folks in a town that can’t pull it off). This weekend is “Mousehole Days” in Melbourne. Sometimes it’s a stretch for each town to find something to make their own. Marshalltown has “OctemberFest,” State Center has “Rose Festival,” and Rhodes has, imaginatively enough, “Rhodes Days.”
Melbourne has a railroad underpass that is called a Mousehole, thus “Mousehole Days.”
Isn’t it a beauty? Some of the activities include the Husband/Wife Yelling contest (as in calling for dinner), car show, greased pig contest, and so on.
It was a rainy morning for the first market (at least in Grinnell – we got a whomping 1/10 of an inch at the farm). So we had a bunch of bouquets left over and offered the mousehole committee to sell them and keep half the proceeds. They sold out in a blink of an eye. (Note to self: find out about setting up a flower stand next year for Mousehole Days).
August 4, 2006 – Getting Ready for Market
Tomorrow will be our first visit to the Grinnell Farmer’s Market this season. We don’t have a whole lot because of the drought – not many tomatoes, between raspberry varieties – but some flowers and odds and ends.
Here’s Linda getting some bouquets ready in the barn.
