Farm – All

Posts about life on the farm.

June 30, 2016 – That’s All Folks!

I’ve come to the end of the line for this blog – eleven years filled with 2,815 posts. It may be repurposed into something new, but this segment is over with this post.

Let’s look at the big picture – the tagline for the blog which never changed:

CAN A CREATIVE, HARD-WORKING FAMILY MAKE A LIVING WORKING WITH NATURE? JOIN US ON THE JOURNEY FROM IDEA TO PRACTICE AS WE REVIVE AN IOWA FARMSTEAD.

By any account, the farmstead is revived. Twenty years of updates and improvements to the house and outbuildings make it ready to face the beginning of its second century with a new growing family. Outbuildings on the line between restore or tear down, restored. Totally new infrastructure above and below ground. Electricity derived from nature itself. But most importantly, three children raised in an atmosphere of unsupervised wandering, creativity, and hard work, with the self-confidence to travel the wilderness, or live in Iceland or Australia without knowing a soul before traveling there.

So yes, the farm has been good to us, and us to it.

Can we just bask in the glow of one of the final sunsets on the farm?

Gaze one last time at the wide open spaces and spectacular skies?

I thought I’d look back to one of the first posts to see what I wrote. Following is the second blog post, Valentine’s day in 2005.

The kids couldn’t wait to go back in the pasture and check out the “pond.” All three came back with varying depths of soaked jeans, mudstreaked faces, and wet boots. The remaining snow and warmth (in the upper 40’s) has made a quagmire.

Completed an outdoor counter/drainer out of cast-off materials today. Part of a vintage 70’s harvest gold accent countertop from our kitchen remodel, a couple of metal old refrigerator shelves, and wood salvaged from the original farmhouse for the frame. The outdoor counter will be useful in washing and cleaning vegetables outdoors.

Also wrapped up some seed ordering. Lost my Peaceful Valley catalog, but was able to use their website www. groworganic.com to order some beneficial insect plant and pasture improvement mixes.

That seems a fitting end as well – it speaks to three of the biggest themes of our time here – raising kids, readying the house for the next century, and raising food.

I’ll leave you with a song. This one by Jimmy LaFave. It’s been a theme song of ours over the last four years as we readied to leave. But instead of the song being about a girl, it’s about leaving Iowa – at least in our heads. The chorus is below and a link to the recording follows.

There’s a car outside
And there’s a road
There’s a time to stay
And a time to rock and roll
You’ve been a real good friend
But I’m on my way
If I don’t see you real soon
I’ll see you down the road someday

See you down the road someday – maybe 1300 miles down the road in New Hampshire.

June 12, 2016 – Thanks for Your Support! Auction Day

Auction day! The worst case scenario did not happen. There was not a thunderstorm or rain and the weather was less hot than previous days. These photos are credited to neighbor Nancy.

Gathered around the auctioneer.

Cars in the yard and lined up on the road past the top of the hill.

More stuff we don’t have to move!

Auctioneer Fred Van Metre in the red hat. Fred did a good job for us.

Martin on auction day sampling from the food wagon.

More folks looking for treasures.

We all look on as our stuff changes hands.

The view from the pergola.

Can’t give this man enough credit – good neighbor Don. Brought his loader tractor over and helped folks load up heavy stuff.

Our first couple of life-long neighbors and friends.

The sad looking eyes on the JD 2510 say it all as we depart from the farm.

June 11, 2016 – Getting Ready for Sale Day and Reminisces

I didn’t do this post justice, so it is time for a “do-over.” This will be the 2nd to last post for this blog, Now that I’ve had some time and distance, the enormity of it all is more apparent. Nearly 20 years of “stuff” off to the highest bidder. The auctioneer came out on Friday and got most of it set up. Since there was a 0 percent chance of rain, we were good to go – until about midnight Friday night when frequent lightning approached. So, armed with tarps and car headlights, we covered as much as we could. It was a fretful and rather restless night as round after round of rain pelted most of our farm-related belongings set out in the yard.

This is the remains of the boxes that were rendered useless by the all night rain – about 2 inches worth that fell.

And of course, it was a nice Iowa summer day!

At any rate, here are some photos of the auction all ready to go. As kind of a farewell, I’m going to do a bit of “what strikes Mark about the photo” for each.

Aah, Silverball, the 2002 Prizm with over 250,000 miles. Trusty commuter car and freedom for Claire and Emma for school and at summer camp. All the bikes that have not been used much since the move to a gravel road. The motorized John Deere tractor that Martin loved and hauled garden produce and other things in his own loader bucket. And the mini-horse cart that was never pulled by a horse, but was pulled by people.

What strikes me about this photo is the familiarity of the shadows on the ground. I’ve come to know the patterns of the shadows throughout the days and the seasons on the farm. A way of becoming closer to a place through observation. The tiller and single plow were great labor-savers in planting garlic and preparing beds for planting.

The bees – livestock you really don’t “own.” I think of the challenges we had on our farm due to the pervasive ground and aerial spraying around our place. We finally gave up. Our best hives were at another farm that had acres of native prairie and a buffer from the spray.

On nearly any acreage, the time allotted to mowing can be substantial. Here is the collection of mowers form years gone by. A milestone for the kids was the first time they were allowed to mow using the riding mowers.

I see the barn here. The signature outbuilding on the property. In the time we lived there, seven barns within two miles of us were destroyed. This barn is something that will soon be rare on an Iowa farm.

I think of my father in this photo. I see an old woodstove he had in a previous house, a utility trailer of his that I rebuilt, and an old boat and motor that had set idle for 20 years after plying the waters of Minnesota for my entire youth.

Raising chickens comes to mind here. The portable grain bin and old cages used to transport the chickens to the locker before we butchered them ourselves. Gonna miss those meat birds in the freezer.

The old corn crib. I love the new white roof. All the outbuildings but the barn had bad to non-existent roofs. I remember being up on the roof and calling Linda on the cell phone to come out and lift up another section, then return to the house to mind the young children until I had that piece screwed in and call again for the next piece.

This is a collection of old things I didn’t use much, save the blade for plowing snow. I am grateful we planted the maple tree for shade for the animals in the cement area. Amazing how fast it grows (or how old I am)!

I see the struggling peach trees in the back of this photo. Peaches are iffy in this part of the country, but we usually got a couple of good years from each tree, which was worth it. I also remember watching tornadoes coming out of the clouds a few miles south of here.

The piles of old dimensional lumber to the right are from the original house on the property (the mortgage company almost didn’t let us buy the property with such a hazardous building). But we took it apart board by board and had lumber whenever we needed it.

I think of friend and neighbor Nancy in this photo – the dragonfly vase she found for us. This symbolizes all the “stuff” you can’t take with you, but the significance of the relationships can never be lost.

Unfinished business. That could be said for many of the photos. There is always something else to do on the farm. I see an industrial size light fixture that was never mounted in the machine shed here.

The “lumberyard” built into one side of the corn crib, with lumber from a disassembled garage.

The tractors. There is something about driving and using an old tractor. I was lucky enough to have a classic 1947 Farmall Cub and a 1960’s era John Deere 2510 with a loader bucket. I could attach tillers, blades, and plows. On a small farm, the loader is incredibly useful.

Here’s a collection of mostly hand tools. This hearkens to thinking about the market garden work we did. It was great for the girls to see crops from planting to selling at market. This will be the second to last post on the high hopes gardens section of the blog.

April 17, 2016 – We’re Going!

The search is over (well almost)! Linda has been called by the Starr King Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Plymouth, NH as their ministerial candidate. We will travel to Plymouth in about a month when Linda will get a chance to preach a couple of sermons, meet the congregation, and then a vote will be held whether to affirm her as the new minster.

The church building is about 30 years old and looks like a church you might expect in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire. The round turret with the high windows gives light in the center of the sanctuary.

Plymouth is about an hour and 45 minutes from Boston, about an hour and a half from coast of Maine, and a couple hours to the Adirondacks. The ski resorts in the White Mountains (and highest point in New England) start about 10 minutes away, as is the northern edge of the Lakes region of New Hampshire. Plymouth is also home to a state university.

Now all we have to do is sell a farm and find a place to live.

July 21, 2015 – Prairie Strips

Last year, we replaced a few tired rows of raspberries with strips of native prairie.

The general rule of thumb is that the new prairie plantings look pretty weedy and not very good looking the first few years.

But true to form, there are signs of prairie plants peeking through the weeds – like this purple coneflower.

And these coreopsis.

and some silky prairie clover.

and a bit of mountain mint. Later in the season, it will be interesting to see how the late-season grasses appear.

July 19, 2015 – Hey, Hay

Very few things beat the scent of a freshly-cut hayfield.

The neighbor took a cutting off the back pasture as we don’t have enough animals to keep it mowed down this summer. It is rather novel to be able to walk anywhere in the pasture again.

June 16, 2015 – Sheeeeeep!

My desire to stop weed whacking stinging nettle and to continue to have marinated lamb chops on the grill led to this!

Three lambs, named by Martin – Thor, Loki, and Odin. They transitioned wonderfully to their new home – no bleating at all after leaving their ewe-mom. Now get chomping those weeds!

June 2, 2015 – Wild Basin Hike

Today it was off to yet another area of the park – Wild Basin.

The trail followed a stream for a good portion of the time.

These bridges were either not washed out or rebuilt from the Sept 2013 floods.

The water really couldn’t decide the best path down the mountain, so it just kind of went every which-way.

This was probably the last day for this little Frosty.

Not many days I’ve hiked through snow and seen a hummingbird!

Unfortunately, even though they are given explicit exemption from domesticated animals on the trail, we did not see any llamas!

Lilly Lake.

The parting group shot! We left just in time. Three of the next four nights there were tornado watches and 8 inches of rain the following two days after we left, a tornado touchdown nearby, and knee-deep hail in parts of Denver. Just like I brought sunshine to Iceland, I’m evidently a vacation good weather charm at the moment.

March 22, 2015 – Close to Having to Turn in My Man Card

Had a couple of vehicle incidents that both almost required I turn in my man card, but eked out of both. First, I buried the CRV in the field.

This is a bad photo taken with my phone as I walked away defeated. I USUALLY take a walk to make sure it is not to soft when I drive here, but since we’v had no precip in March and the pond and wet area in the pasture have been bone dry for a week or more, I thought things would be firm. Wrong – once the wheels break through the sod into the black gumbo, you are done. I tried propping boards under the tires to run up on. No luck.

I then went to get the tractor, but all I left with was making these ruts with the tractor. I was able to get the tractor out, but my chain wasn’t long enough to pull from a firm area. Had I buried both the CRV and tractor, I would have had to forfeit my man card.

Here’s the rut from the front wheel of the CRV. Our good neighbors came over with an even bigger tractor and even longer chain and said about dragging it out “The tractor didn’t even know it had a fish on the line.”

The other incident was a problem with the car. Emma reported that she thought she might have left the lights on, but got a jump and got home fine. Next day I drove her to Ames and when I went to leave, again, nothing, not even a turn over. I figured the battery was dead and was eager to get on with my day and called AAA and asked to use the “bring you a new battery and install it” service so I wouldn’t have to mess around with all that. After I made the call, I then popped the hood to indicate to the tow truck where we were. It was then that I noticed the battery cable had come loose from the battery and was resting slightly above the battery terminal. I just put it back on and everything was fine and cancelled the AAA call. Would also have had to turn in my man card if the AAA service man had popped the hood to put in a new battery and found it just unattached!

March 7, 2015 – There’s something happening here, What it is ain’t exactly clear

The basement door is open, the loader bucket is attached to a chain. What’s up on the farm today?

When we moved in about 18 years ago, one of our first upgrades was to replace the aging fuel oil furnace. While the furnace is long gone, the three fuel oil storage tanks are not. We’ve been using the oil left in the tanks to persuade bonfires to start over the years and finally the tanks are empty.

We tried manually moving the tanks up the basement stairs. No go. Wasn’t thrilled about cutting them in half in the basement. Enter a long chain, a tractor, and a three member team to guide them out without taking out a doorframe, door, or wall.

Victory is ours as tank #2 is dragged to the tank graveyard.

It’s a dirty, ugly, smelly job, but now they are finally gone.

February 1, 2015 – Winter Arrives

Well, it first started out to be a 3-5 inch snowfall, then less than one inch, then back to 3-5, and when it finally arrived, 12-14 inches of snow.

The house nestled in the new fallen snow.

Along with the fresh snow, the moon was full, making for brilliant light-filled nights. Can you find the cat in this photo?

The cat abides, and follows me in the night, hoping for a treat.

Finally one more shot in the moonlight.

August 21, 2014 – Golden Circle

The most popular tourist track in Iceland is called the Golden Circle – a one-day trip to Þingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gulfoss waterfall. For my time, it was one of the least interesting days, but being close to Reykjavik, the attractions are easy to get to in a day.

Þingvellir is Iceland’s national shrine and most historic sites. The oldest existing parliament in the world first met here in 930 A.D. The Alþing met here every year to enact laws, including the law passed in 1000 A.D. to introduce Christianity into the island. It has always been the focal point for the country, and whenever a major event is to be celebrated, thousands of people come here. The independence of the Republic of Iceland was proclaimed here on June 17, 1944. At the celebration of the 1,100th anniversary of the first settlement in 1974, more than 60,000 people packed into Thingvellir. This photo is of the drowning pool where mothers of illegitimate children were drowned in the dark ages.

Adjacent is the largest lake in Iceland, Thingvallavatn. The lake is 328 feet deep and home to trout and Arctic Char.

Just down the road is the world’s original geyser, named Geysir in Icelandic and the source of the English word. Geysir itself is rather unreliable after an earthquake a few years ago, but nearby geysers are very regular blowing every eight minutes or so.

The last stop on the Golden Circle is the Gulfoss waterfall.

August 16, 2014 – Farm Aerial

Here’s a shot of most of the farm from the air. It looks so much smaller when you are not in the midst of a pasture, near a tree, or facing a row of vegetables and weeds.

Things that jump out at me are all the visible changes since the first farm aerial shot we have. All the white roofs on outbuildings are new. All of the trees less than 60 feet tall or so are new. The garden beds in strips are new. The wind turbine is new. The mowed labyrinth in the pasture is new. There are also a few things missing – old decrepit buildings, many trees that blew down in storms or were cut down. It is fun to look and see a different perspective on progress.

August 3, 2014 – Catching up

After returning home after an absence of longer than a week, you get an appreciation of all the things that you do, even though you feel like you are never caught up. Seeing what the farm looks like with a week of inattention brings home how much really does get done.

Garlic was ready to pull.

Onions were ready to pull.

Sunflowers went wild.

And we finally got around to introducing Martin to firearms training – one of the many rural skills that have eluded him to date.

July 6, 2014 – Mother Nature’s Fireworks and Funnels, Oh My!

Once again, dramatic skies in the neighborhood.

Looking to the tornado-spawning clouds to the south before sunset.

Same place as the sun set. This is the same tornado-spawning cloud as in the earlier picture.

Clouds and the barn.

Clouds and the hog barn. This cloud made tornadoes by Tama.

A view of the tornado near Rock Creek park in Jasper county. No wind here, and only a sprinkle of rain.

June 20, 2014 – Seems Like a Rerun

Every few days it seems a storm rolls through.

This is looking east in the late afternoon, with some funky rays streaming up (or down?).

The back pasture is lush (and mostly thistle-free).

More passing clouds over the barn.

This is the first year we’ve had deer problems – here’s one of them we scared out of the back pasture on on her way away somewhere else.

A look across the fields to the west after the storm.

Martin *was* building a tree fort in this grouping of basswoods when one of the three limbs of the just-started fort came down.

June 8, 2014 – A Walk Around the Back Pasture

Today was a good day to get things done on the farm. It was only about 70 degrees, Linda offered to take Martin to Decorah for his music camp, so I was left to catch up on all those things that never seem to get done. But first a break as we check out the back pasture.

This wonderful little pond was just a black dirt mudhole when we moved in. We fenced it off, planted some wet prairie/marsh seeds, and now it does its part to clean water as it runs off the neighboring fields before heading down to the gulf.

One of the beauties is this blue flag iris.

The pond gives us great evening sounds, among other things – we can fall asleep to the sounds of the frogs and toads in their little home. Today, however, I was in for a surprise when I scared up a snapping turtle about the size of a dinner plate.

The alleyway of trees we planted in the middle of the pasture are close to creating yet another micro-environment on the farm. The walnuts, bur oaks, and black cherry are really starting to take off.

May 8, 2015 – Prairie Sky

One of the advantages of living in wide open spaces, is, well, wide open spaces.

A bunch of pop-up thunderstorms rumbled around us this evening.

Looking west at sunset – felt like John Hiattt was here with us singing his song Lipstick Sunset.

May 1, 2014 – Doesn’t Look like Much…

The picture does not belie the effort needed to arrange the photo.

This wagon is the new home to about forty 16 foot-long cattle panels. They were protecting small trees from grazing animals and now the trees are larger and there aren’t as many grazing animals, so it was time to take down the fences so the trees wouldn’t grow into them. It is amazing how much grass and soil accumulated around the bottoms – in all cases the first row was buried and in some places, they were buried up to the second cross row. Who needs a gym membership when you can instead rip these out of the sod and drag them to the wagon (uphill of course!) The fenceposts that were pulled are in a different pile.

March 9, 2014 – Two, Count ‘Em Two, Signs Spring is Near

Finally!

Tapped a few maple trees today.

The stream in the back pasture willed itself into being today.

Only a couple hours before this, you can see Linda stepped through the snow to get some pussy willows – a few hours later, a couple feet of water appeared, burying her tracks.

But there’s still a lot of snow to melt – in some places the drifts still barely reach over the top of the pasture fence.

And a garden bed is still a long ways from planting.

February 16, 2014 – Snowboy and Dog

Look what fell from the sky – on a rare above freezing day in the winter of 2013-2014, a boy and his dog, dropped from the heavens.

And a few days later, this nice layer of hail fell down before some snow, just to freeze later and put an impenetrably thick layer of ice everywhere until the next warmup, not currently scheduled.

January 16, 2014 – 2013 Wind Turbine Production

It’s time for the annual Skystream wind turbine update. The good news is that 2013 was the highest year of wind turbine production and just as importantly was the lowest year of energy use.

In 2013, the Skystream produced 4,684 kWh, an average of 390 kWh per month. The farm and household used 9,346 kWh, an average of 778 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 50.1% of our energy, a net improvement of about 1.5% over the previous year.

Annual turbine production – the boost in 2011 was due to a software upgrade.

Average monthly kWh produced.

This chart shows our average annual kWh use over the last 11 years. Some of this is due to better appliances, some due to children leaving the house, and increased awareness of energy use.

January 8, 2014 – View from Above

I thought it was time to see what our place looked like in Google Maps, and thought I’d show it on the blog. It simultaneously doesn’t look as open or tree-filled as it does from the ground.

Now, for a view with some annotations of some features visible from the air.

1) Fruit Trees (3 groups)
2) Annual Gardens (2 groups)
3) Burn Piles (5 groups)
4) House Windbreak
5) Field Windbreak/Christmas Trees
6) Native Hardwoods
7) White Pine Windbreak
8) Native Marsh planting, with willows to the south of the box
9) Tractor ruts from a bad experience!
10) Raspberries and Blackberries
11) Giant Rainwater tanks (2)
12) Animal Composter
13) Chicken Tractor (can see the daily “tracks”)
14) Old Granary
15) Barn
16) Hog Barn
17) Corn Crib
18) Machine Shed
19) Chicken Coop
20) Old Machine Shed
21) House
22) Garage
23) Wind Turbine
24) Cranberry Hedge

January 2, 2014 – A Peek back at 2013

It’s time for some of my favorite or most important shots of 2013.

January.

Still January.

February.

March, hope.

April in Iceland.

May.

Well-earned state track meet berth.

June on a big lake.

June on a little lake.

July.

The summer.

Fruitful August.

Work vultures.

September.

Fall pie.

October.

November.

December.

Ready for the next year.

December 24, 2013 – Together on Christmas Eve

It’s getting to be rare when all five of us are at the same place at the same time.

Here we are after the Christmas Eve Service – a rare family photo.

The traditional shot of the kids in front of the Christmas tree.

With Linda in minister training and at two Christmas eve services, it is time for some new traditions mixerd with old. First out of the gate was the girls preparing the clam chowder and potato soup, along with goblets of beverage and yummy apple dumplings for a late Christmas eve dinner.

November 30, 2013 – Last Day for Christmas Tree Sales

We made one final trip to Wheatsfield Grocery in Ames to sell Christmas trees. As in final-final. When we planted our field windbreak years ago, we planted the trees 5 feet apart instead of the usual 20 feet apart to account for trees that might not mature or get thinned for Christmas trees. The windbreak is now pretty much thinned and/or the remaining trees are too large.

It’s a great experience to have in December. I sold trees as a college student, I sold them now as middle-aged, and with any luck I’ll be able to sell them again as an old man.

October 5, 2013 – Pasture Labyrinth

Linda was excited after walking a labyrinth this summer and I said – “You want a labyrinth, I can make you a labyrinth!”

A few minutes mowing in the back pasture and there you go! Although you can’t see it well in this photo, the center focal point is an old glass ball and lightning rod.

September 22, 2013 – Fillin’ the Freezer

Emma played the good daughter when she said she’d come home from school Sunday afternoon to help us move 40-some chickens from outside to the freezer. It certainly kept the line moving much faster than it otherwise would have. Linda and Emma cut up all but about 10 of them for parts for quicker meals than a whole roasting chicken, but we left a few to roast or BBQ whole.

The plucker does an amazing job of taking the feathers off. A just-plucked chicken must be the model for a rubber chicken!
It’s nice to know where the chicken we eat comes from and have a year’s worth of chicken in the freezer. Especially now that the U.S. made it ok to sell chicken processed in China in the U.S. without having to reveal county-of-origin labeling laws.

September 17, 2013 – When will it ever End?

The food preservation extravaganza continues! This weekend was no exception.

The tomatoes are just beginning. These four baskets are enough to make 14 quarts of canned tomatoes.

Here’s our Sunday afternoon haul. After church, Martin and I started in earnest – 14 quarts of tomatoes, 10 pints of pears, and two batches of blackberry applesauce. We had the tomatoes skinned the day before and the apples were peeled and frozen in the freezer, so we didn’t have all the prep work.

September 10, 2013 – Dramatic Skies

After the last two days of 101 and 99 degrees (the latest in the year it has been over 100 here), we were treated to some dramatic skies.

The first few little thunderstorms skirted just to our south.

The soybeans provide an interesting striped pattern in the field.

Although it may look like a mushroom cloud over Ames, this was the first of a few small cells that passed over us, leaving us with a bit over a half-inch of rain.

Maybe a sky shot without contrails? A nice sunset.

August 26, 2013 – Deck Demolition Time

We are going to replace the small front entry deck with something that affords ample room to actually sit on the front deck.  But first, out with the old. After prying off all the decking boards and railing, it was time to enlist the help of the tractor to pull out the posts.

Any day you get to fire up the tractor to destroy things is a good day, and the ease in which this lifted up was a delight!

August 23, 2013 – Nail Challenge

Martin is at it again offering up this challenge.  Can you balance 16 nails on the head of one nail?  You can affix the nail that the other nails balance on to a board or some other device, but other support is allowed.  Think about it, or try it and scroll below to see the solution…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elevation from above.

Elevation from below.

August 21, 2013 – Gardening Overload

Posts have been a bit absent lately.  I’ve been imprisoned by the abundance of the garden and fruit trees.

This is the last of three pendulous peach trees.  Although officially sick of peaches for the moment, we’ve got  canned peaches, peach pie filling, peach jam, dehydrated peaches, frozen peaches, grilled peaches, peach smoothies, and even some rotten peaches rotting in the sun.

In addition to the peaches, the plums are right behind, the green beans are being transformed into dilly beans and frozen beans, and blackberries and raspberries continue the march to ripeness and the next variety of apples is coming into season.

August 3, 2013 – Eclectic Food Day

Today was a serious putting food away day.

I have to lead with the most perishable item, this Dutch apple pie that Martin made with a jar of apple pie filling that didn’t seal.

But 11 others did seal for winter-time fruit pies.

A dehydrator batch of dried apples.

A couple of canner loads of various sizes of blackberry applesauce.  For blackberry fans, this combination, with a few splashes of lemon makes a great applesauce. Plus three more gallons of peeled, sliced apples went into the freezer.

Almost as an afterthought, some beans and broccoli were blanched and frozen.

In case none of this tastes good, a liter of brandy soaks up some sugar and blackberry to fend off winter colds!

July 26, 2013 – Ridin’ the Storm Out

This poor little guy survived the storm last week.

You would not think that blackberry bushes would provide the sturdiest of homes.

Martin was worried during the storm for the bird and relieved to find it still in the nest after the wind had passed. Amazingly enough, nests had fallen out of some big trees, but this one survived.

July 23, 2013 – Apple Season Begins

Let the apple season begin!  Our apple tree that produces ripe fruit ridiculously early in the season is in full swing.

So far, we’ve got over 10 gallons of peeled and cut apple slices in the freezer, waiting for another variety to get ripe, as a mix of varieties is best for applesauce.  Another benefit of freezing is they break down to sauce so much quicker than just off the tree.

July 22, 2013 – Stiff Breeze

Last night we finally had relief from our latest mini-drought.  We had been unable to pull garlic as the ground was too hard  required watering  everyday (or rather morning or evening, and rather Grandma Jo was doing it).

A storm packing winds and rain came our way – 0ver an inch of rain, a temperature drop of 25 degrees in a few minutes and a breeze that verged on the dangerous.

The first corn field on the blacktop (1/3 mile away) didn’t fare thee well.

If the past is any indication, although this cornfield looks bad now, it will more than likely recover and stand back up.

July 17, 2013 – First Apricots at High Hopes

After years of pretending it was not a fruit tree, our only remaining apricot tree decided to fruit this year.  It isn’t a pretty tree, it is crooked in the main trunk – a badge of courage after surviving a windstorm that toppled many other trees.

The fruit is smaller than a southern apricot – but I’m still a bit amazed that they can grow this far north at all.

July 9, 2013 – Fruit on the Way!

It’s shaping up to be a great fruit year.

Cherries are almost done.

Pears are looking fine.

Apples are looking pretty bug-free.

More apples, these are Williams Pride.

Blackberries fruiting and blossoming.

Plums on the way.

First year for apricots!

Love how these apricots grew into a bird nest!

July 8, 2013 – Fallen Peaches

While peach trees aren’t known to be particularly strong, this one decided to fall just into fruit set.

It’s loaded with peaches, and has the will to live by the tiny bit of bark still connected.

A sampling of some of the fruit at ground level.  If they come to fruition, we’ll have the easiest peaches ever to pick!

To help insure its sister does not do the same thing, a little extra support is on the way.

July 7, 2013 – Sheep Update

I have neglected to show off our sheep for this year. After not having any last year, I wanted to get a few to at least keep down the vegetation around the outbuildings.

The two boys are ours and the ewe is on loan. They are all growing nicely. Baaaah!

July 3, 2013 – Happy Path

Soon the hay will be cut in the back pasture, but until then, I’m maintaining wispy walking trails back to the small pond, the trees we planted, and the burn piles.

It’s pleasant to walk back at the end of the day.  The low spots bring a characteristic deep damp smell in the late evening while we track to progress of the fledgling birds and plants.

June 5, 2013 – M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I

So we are all led to believe that the Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca.

Real Source of Mississippi RIVer

How about this stream flowing INTO Lake Itasca? Shouldn’t somewhere up stream from here be the beginning? Or perhaps one of the other four streams that flow into the lake, perhaps the longest one? No, someone has determined that this one is not large enough to be considered a source.  It has a bridge! Doesn’t that give it some geomorphological cred?

mississippi source

Here is the real start.  The water was too high to step across in shoes.  I wonder how many people have stepped over these stones the last 100 years?

You’ll notice an absence of others throughout most of these pictures.  The week was mostly devoid of traffic and people.  Some of the campsites were nearly empty, so throughout the week, we were able to marvel at the sites relatively undisturbed.

Those in the First Nations who lived here were very puzzled why the white man was so obsessed about finding the exact source of the river.  They viewed every part of the river as special, not just the beginning.

Itasca Bike Trail

One of the non-hiking/driving adventures was a 17-mile bike loop through the park.  It went through deciduous forest, pine forests, swamps, and along lakes.  There was a place to rent bikes in the park, which was a great convenience.

biggest white pine

Just off the trail was this tree that I just quite couldn’t get to fit – it’s Minnesota’s largest White Pine.  The largest Red Pine was also near, but had recently lost part of its top, so lost its crown.  Martin noticed that this one is starting to get hollow and leaning, so it probably won’t be there when he brings his kids hear.

Finishing off the bike trail near the end of the loop.

May 29, 2013 – Record Flood on Iowa River

I’m late posting this, but better now than never. The Iowa River (the closest river to us) reached record levels this week – even higher than the floods of 2008 and 1993.

This photo from the Marshalltown Times-Republican shows the river looking south into Marshalltown along Highway 14.

This photo is of the other main highway north of town, Highway 330 near Albion. We put a sump pump in after 2008 when we redid our septic and while not perfect, it was much better than 2008 when water accumulated in the basement – this time there was just some water running through to the drains over the cement floor.

Needless to say gardening has been non-existent and we’re behind the 8-ball trying to catch up. Most of the things we did get in between raindrops is doing well, although portion of the garden have had water running/seeping through for over a week.

May 10, 2013 – Spring has Sprung!

Now with the snow gone and all, it’s time for a walk around the farm to see what’s up.

The plums are usually one of the first out of the gate.

This pear is just starting to bloom, while another variety has already finished.

This one’s just peachy!

Apples are a bit behind the rest of the gang.

This cherry tree was blown horizontal in a storm two years ago and I didn’t have the heart to take it out, and it looks like it’s making a case to stay, even though the trunk is horizontal – easy picking from the top of the tree!

A close-up of the cherry blossoms.

Mushroom logs are beginning to set fruit as well.

Garlic is looking on target as well.

May 3, 2013 – Winter 2012-2013 – YOU WIN!

Now that you’ve proved your strength, you won, now go away!

It’s still snowing and already both the highest May snowfall ever and most snow ever for the month of May (and there’s still 28 days left!).

These lilac leaves didn’t have a chance.

A country road in May.

April 26, 2013 – Trash to Cash!

I’ve been busy in this time of year when the ground is snow-free and vegetation-free to gather up years of accumulated scrap metal from around the farm, most of which predates our arrival here.

With scrap prices fairly high, instead of taking it to the landfill, I’ve been getting around $60 bucks a trailer load and have scrounged up four loads so far.  It’s a triple win – the farm gets cleaned up, the metal gets recycled and I get paid to do it!

April 3, 2013 – Willow Revenge!

Many of you may remember that last year when I was cutting down the willows, the chain saw took a slice out of my leg (allowing me to recover and watch the first weekend of the NCAA BB games without guilt).

No such luck this year.  After donning the chaps and steel-toes, I was able to cut down all the willows.  This is a shot after the fact as we are collecting them all for the burn pile. I’m keeping them coppiced for ornamental and forage purposes.

March 14, 2013 – Spring Trying to Arrive?

Even though we have had seriously below normal temperatures, running 10-20 degrees below normal all month, the maple s are beginning to show signs of life.

This was the first year a tree I planted was big enough to tap!

We’ve had precipitation 10 out of 14 days so far this month.  I’m ready for some sunshine!

March 10, 2013 – Spring Run-off

The ditches are filling up with water as the snow melts and the rain has mainly been “on” for a couple of days.

This along the road where Linda Maizy commonly walk.

Maizy got a bonus walk today as we walked down to check out the meltwaters.

Even the temporary stream in the back pasture is flowing.

A panorama of the back pasture.

February 28, 2013 – I’m Voting for “Lion”

Last year at this time, we were tapping maple trees for sap.  This year seems a bit more normal.

We’re on about 36 straight hors of snow after the prediction was for “occasional flurries” with some places getting up to an inch.  The closest town to our west measured 14 inches and to the east 10 inches, so we probably got a bout a foot.  Last week they warned us three days before about a major storm that turned out to fizzle.  Now this one, they did not make any warnings until hours after the storm started.  More of the same predicted for the first week of March, so I’m going with in like a lion, out like a lamb this year!

February 15, 2013 – Sometimes a Candle isn’t Enough!

Today was a milestone day in Linda’s seminary studies.  Our denomination has a “weed-out” point where a committee can say 1) you cannot be a minister, 2) go ahead in your studies, or 3) go ahead, but work on these things and check back with us at a later date. The interview was in San Francisco, and the committee looked at the results of her 2.5 day psychiatric evaluation, references, and course work.  It was similar in feel to a prelim for a Ph.D. candidate.

Many of her friends and colleagues told her they’d be thinking of her and lighting a candle for her during her interview. Of course, I have a much bigger stake in her success than her friends and colleagues, so I decided, a candle would not do for me.  My best option was to have a really big fire instead of a candle.  So, it was time to light the back pasture on fire!

This area hadn’t been grazed for about 4 years, so it was full of dead grasses, waiting to have their nutrients returned to the soil. There was still some snow along the fencelines, I had perimeter firebreaks burnt, and always burned against the wind, so the fire didn’t move too fast.  Kids, don’t try this at home – I am a professional and used to get paid to do this in a former life.

The resulting perfect rectangular burn.

This certificate that Martin made for Linda shows that the result for Linda was positive.

January 30, 2013 – Ice, Thunderstorm, Snow must be Next!

No school today, with the howling wind and the snow.

Of course, the next thing is the dep freeze, and although it’s still blowing pretty good, I thought it better to get out and clear the driveway tonight rather than in the sub-zero morning.  I tried to put all the pile to the south and est of the driveway so i wouldn’t create a source for the snow to drift behind.  There are very few things more enjoyable than driving the tractor for purposeful work!

January 29, 2013 – Winter Comfort Food

Emma had a hankering for lots of fresh vegetables and hot soup so she made up this Vietnamese Vegetarian Pho.

Here’s the completed bowl.

The process to prepare the ingredients was not trivial.  What’s invisible in this picture is what it took to make the pot of vegetable broth – all the vegetable that were boiled away and discarded (to the chickens) to make the broth.  It was a great mid-winter meal.

January 28, 2013 – Fire and Ice

Here’s something we haven’t seen for a while – red on the radar.

Thunderstorms and 39 degrees.

Yesterday’s ice storm did not want to give way.

Martin thought school should have been a two hour delay – and he was right – he heard that 5 buses needed a tow – and his bus picked up kids from one of the stuck buses.

Even a common Queen Anne’s Lace looks more elegant encased in ice.

January 27, 2013 – Want a Little Icing on that Earth?

Even though I’ve got photo editing software that puts this effect on any photo, the following are real, undoctored photos.

The view out the kitchen window looking towards the doghouse and barn.

A maple tree in the front yard.

The detached garage.  Everything is shut down this morning because of the ice.

I was hoping for a power blip or two as I finally broke down and bought a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) this week so the computer would work through power blinks and shut down properly during an extended outage with battery back-up.

January 21, 2013 – Definition of Irony?

The worship service was about to begin at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sunday Morning, September 15, 1963.  The clock was ticking.  I knew I had only a few minutes left to collect the rest of the reports and write the Sunday school summary.  I was looking forward to Reverend Cross’s sermon that morning. He had posted the title on the board outside the church: A Love that Forgives.” The sermon was to be based on Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

A few seconds later a bomb exploded in the church, killing four girls dressed in their Sunday best.

From While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement

This free book came on my Kindle this morning, and I thought it good to read since I have the day off in memory of MLK.

 

 

 

January 16, 2013 – 2012 Skystream Wind Turbine Production Stats

Well,the 2012 Skystream wind turbine results are in. In 2012, the Skystream produced 4,660 kWh, an average of 388 kWh per month. The farm and household used 9,603 kWh, an average of 800 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 48.5% of our energy.

This graph shows the average monthly kWh produced by the wind turbine over the past four years.

This graph shows how much electricity our household has used over the past 11 years.

 

This graph shows how the average monthly turbine production varies by month.

 

Month kWh Produced
by Turbine
kWh Used by
house/farm
Jan ’12 458 764
Feb ’12 430 762
Mar ’12 688 763
April ’12 486 766
May ’12 553 831
June ’12 339 589
July ’12 104 1252
Aug ’12 107 827
Sept ’12 200 771
Oct ’12 423 698
Nov ’12 456 651
Dec ’12  416  929
2013 Totals 4660 9603

 

 

 

January 11, 2013 – January Thaw

We’ve had a week-long January thaw.

Kind of a bummer to have to spend the time figuring out end of year finances for taxes, finances, FAFSA, and other college aid profiles.  But hey, yesterday was one minute and 30 seconds longer than yesterday!

Today it was up to 54, this week was enough to melt away most of the 13 inches of snow and drag out the grill to cook outside for Claire’s last “happy meat” meal at home before heading off to Copenhagen.

December 22, 2012 – Solstice Bonfire, Barely

After the howling winds, the Winter Solstice arrived, along with the snowplow about 2:30 in the afternoon.

My favorite wife in the glow of the candle in the darkness.

It took a great deal of effort to get the bonfire to light, but light it did to help light/warm up the longest night of the year.

A couple of the brave sojourners who made it out.  The usual crows od 100-120 was cut way back to about 40 this year.  But that meant more room to move around in the house and enjoy chatting.

December 21, 2012 – First Winter Storm in Years Blows In

The biggest snowstorm in a number of years rolled in Wednesday night and Thursday.

The timing was good and bad, since it arrived the day before about 100 folks or so usually descend for our annual Solstice bonfire.  Bad because it may be hard for people to get here, good, because it covers up the dried grasses in the pasture.

The back end of the Subaru didn’t quite make it in the shed (unnamed daughter did not pull the vehicle in front of this one far enough into the shed to allow Mom all the way in the shed after fetching niece Jill from the airport, just an hour or so before it shut down for the evening because of weather).

We were in the bullseye just east of Ames, with about 13 inches of snow, including the always heavy thundersnow.  Any time there’s lightning and thunder in snow, you’re in for a doozy of a storm. As a bonus, most of it came in sideways, with 30-50 mph winds steady for about 36 hours.

Daisy watches the kids trying to dig a fort into a drift on the driveway.

Martin peering out of his fort.

Late in the day, with the winds calming down and skies beginning to clear, the sundogs came out – because, of course after such a snow, standard practice is clear skies and arctic temperatures.

December 14, 2012 – Christmas Tree Time of Year

Our Christmas tree selling is wrapped up for the year.  There were many types of Christmas tree conveyance from our log at Wheatsfield Grocery. Some people stuck them in the trunk, some on the roof, some on the roof only after laying down plastic or cardboard, and this fellow, who simply walked home with his tree.

Just like Pa dragging a tree home on Walton Mountain!

December 12, 2012 – Brother Mudder

I missed out on the endurance running gene, but my Bro certainly got it. Former college All-American XC runner, still going strong on the downside of 40.

This from a recent Tough Mudder race south of Tampa.

Running through mud, electric shockers, and walls, are all part of a 12 mile jaunt designed by the British Special Forces.

December 7, 2012 – Siding All On!

The last big project (let’s hope) on resurrecting a 90-year old farmhouse is now complete the addition of new siding.

It will be nice to have it all wrapped up for winter in a bright cheery yellow.  Next up a new front porch/deck.

December 4, 2012 – December Lettuce!

Although it is not the most beautiful lettuce, it is December after all and we’ve limped this patch of lettuce through this far.

December garden lettuce is a big bonus!  We’re now marking the longest number of days without a snowfall of any kind, 277 and counting.  If winter ever does come again, I won’t recognize it.

December 3, 2012 – Mulberry Mess

One of the least-beloved jobs on the farm is cutting mulberries out of fences. This year was worse than usual since I wasn’t cutting them all summer as supplemental browse to the goats.  Even worse that cutting mulberry out of fences, is paying for your own “I’ll get to that tomorrow” mess when you leave a roll of wire with a mulberry tree growing up through it for a number of years.

In this picture I’ve already hacked off the branches that protrude outside the wire (it’s about the 3rd time I’ve managed to do that).  Now it is time to release the wire from the multiple stumps.

But wait, there’s more.  In addition to being armed with wire cutters, saw, and pruners, this job requires poor memory so you repeatedly bang your head against a branch from an adjacent tree that is about 2 inches closer to the ground than your head.  This as you unwind the wire and circle around repeatedly.

But wait, there’s EVEN more!  When you finally get down to the end, you discover another piece that is flat on the ground, of a finer wire mesh that is three layers thick.  Now, all the wire is cut, heaved, and wrestled out of the ground and now just needs to be collapsed and sent out for recycling.  But all-in-all a bonus activity on an early December day in the 60’s.

November 30, 2012 – Annual “Rural Route Reader?”

I thought I was way ahead of the game this year.  I had the annual Rural Route Reader conceived, created, and sent out to the printer the last week of November.  There’s always with a bit of trepidation when the package comes back from the printer. I open the package, hoping the printer put the pages together correctly and that the layout made the digital journey to the printer the same way it looks on my computer.

This year my trepidation paid off.  The package was the right size, 11×17, and the right number of copies, but the Reader underwent a radical transformation.

It’s almost as if a poster for a Christmas program in Vermont was switched at birth with the Reader!

There will be a slight delay in getting the Reader out this year.

November 10, 2012 – Late Extraction

We only had one good hive this summer, and for one reason or another, didn’t get around to extracting it until today.

We put the  supers in the back of a car and parked it in the sun to help the honey warm up even more.  It wasn’t enough and still had to hear up the frames to extract.

The yield from one five gallon bucket.

The top of one of the buckets.  We ended up with three 5 gallon buckets about 3/4 full each.  Now we’re set for soap and honey for a while!

November 5, 2012 – Good, Clean, Fun!

This weekend we went over to Morning Sun Farm and had a group soap-making session.  All told, we made four batches of soap, so our share was two batches.

This is the real lye and fat soap, with a little goat milk.  The soap sets up over night and needs to be cut the next day.

Here’s the view after one block was cut and the other awaits the soap cutter.  It needs to sit for about six weeks before use, to make sure the chemical reaction from fat and lye to soap is complete.  This is great soap and it’s hard to live without it once you use it.

November 4, 2012 – Animals Keep on Giving

Even though the four-leggeds have been gone for about a year, they keep giving.

Here’s a nice loader full of compost from where the winter feeder was on the cement barnyard.  This was no-fuss compost, requiring no human intervention.  Scooped up four loader buckets and distributed it to the gardens to help keep the soil top-notch.

October 15, 2012 – Fall Berry Maintenance

Since our blackberries were so good to us this year, I thought I should take good care of them this fall.  So, even though it is one of the most unpleasant jobs on the farm, pruning blackberries it was.

Here’s the rows of blackberries and raspberries before pruning,  The blackberries are very vigorous, and have a tendency to grow side shoots that are at a 90 degree angle from the main stem.  Pulling them out is irritating as your head often times get scraped as you are hunched on your knees, huddled under the canes, trying to cut the old canes out at near ground level while trying to pull out the old cane.  After it’s done the row looks much better.

Although this “after” shot doesn’t show it well, the blackberries are pruned of this year’s fruiting canes and all the raspberries are pruned as well.  That “pruning” is much easier, since all it consists of is mowing down the entire row!

October 14, 2012 – Lettuce Cage

For the first time, we’ve had a problem with rabbits eating OUR vittles this fall.  So, this small patch of lettuce and spinach gives a chance to repurpose a farm item for a new use.

This was originally a turkey tractor, but I thought it might do a good job of keeping the rabbits out as well, and it has without the hassle of building a separate rabbit fence.

 

October 12, 2012 – Drenching the Trench

It’s time to get the garlic in the ground.  It’s so much easier to dig a trench with the tractor than by hand!

Here, the trench is dug and the garlic is going in the ground.  It did take a bit longer to plant this year because it is so dry.  I didn’t want to put the garlic in a dry soil, so after I pushed the cloves in, I dumped buckets of water from the rainwater collection tank, covered the trench with the soil from one side of the trench, then soaked that again before covering it up.  Hopefully the moistened soil will help it sprout and be better insulated when the ground freezes.

October 8, 2012 – Fall Cleanup

OK, the growing season, except for chard, beets, lettuce, and kale is over.

It’s time to pull all the dead plants from the garden and dispose of them.  It’s both a relief and disappointment when the last garden vegetable dies for the season – a relief because the work of eating, harvesting, and preserving is over for the year and a disappointment that there are no more fresh goodies from the garden.

October 7th, 2012 – Chickens to the Freezer

Today we were grateful most of our chickens made it safely to maturity (unlike the 10 turkeys this year who all perished by deformed leg problems, storm, or dog).

Martin hauls the chickens to the killing cones, where I deftly make a cut on the side of the neck where they bleed out.

Next, it’s a few dips in about 150 degree water. The chickens are ready to scald when wing feathers pull out easily.

The chickens before the plucker spins.

About 30 seconds later, most of the feathers are gone.

Then the chickens go to a different pair of hands for cleaning and later cutting up into meal-sized portions.  I wouldn’t say it’s a particularly fun day, but it is rewarding have control of the chickens from chick to freezer  – knowing how they’ve lived and been processed.

September 16, 2012 – Wagons for Sale

Time to make some room in the shed and move out some things that I’m no longer using.  Following each of these items is the starting price – they will drop $50/week until sold.

corn caddy for sale

“Corn Caddy” by Heavybilt.  Mobile grain bin holds 1500 lbs of grain. Has lights and brakes.  Tires like new.  Original prices $1725, asking $850.

new idea barge wagon for sale

New Idea barge wagon, approximately 6×10 and box is about 27 inches high.  Pretty good rubber and wood in good shape.  Asking $400.

 

small gravity wagon for sale

Gravity wagon – not too sure how much it holds – top is about 6′ x10′.  Three tires are decent, one is bald.  Dent in front right and some small holes in box.  Asking $400.

Respond with a comment if you’d like more photos or more info.

September 10, 2012 – Another House Project Commences

The 90 year-old cedar siding has met its lifespan.  The east side was resided when we tore off the garage, the new soffits were put on when we redid the roof, so the siding is all that’s left for the outside. I hate it when new siding is just put over the old, sinking the windows into the house.  This also gives me a chance to insulate in the gap where the old ropes and weights from the previous generation double-hung windows reside, tightening up the house even more.

The cedar siding is all tucked in the trailer, ready for a trip to the landfill (I chose not to burn it, fearing the release of lead into the soil and air).  My legs feel the results of up and down the ladders over a couple of days this weekend.  Early in the week, the contractor will put up the Ty-Vek.  Only two more sides to rip off.

 

September 3, 2012 – Hot Peppers

The peppers are doing just fine this year.  We thought we’d try roasting some hot peppers just for fun.

Niece Jillian is here for a short visit, trying to keep busy on the farm (not usually much of a problem!)  Here she’s cutting the jalapenos.

A tray ready for roasting.

Linda hard at work, peeling the skins off the peppers.  They are good!

August 31, 2012 – Trying out “Ranger” Chickens

We’re trying out a new (for us) breed of broiler chickens. Called “red rangers” or “freedom rangers” they grow a bit slower than the super hybrid chickens used in confinement (8 weeks to a 4 lb chicken) and faster than the standard breeds (14 weeks for white rocks or barred rocks).

These guys looks good so far and are supposed to be good foragers as well, wo they maybe a better match for the chicken tractors if they do a great job of foraging.

August 24, 2012 – Martin’s Adirondack Chair

I was sucked into Menards for the $25 wooden Adirondack chairs. When I got there I found they were unassembled and unfinished. I thought it might be a good project for Martin and I to build.

But turns out that he was more than able to throw on the outdoor poly, sand between coats, and assemble the chairs.

This will be his birthday present to his oldest sister as she moves off campus into a house this fall – perfect indoor/outdoor furniture for a college student.

August 15, 2012 – Hazelnut Harvest

Like many things, hazel harvest seems a bit early this year.

basket of hazelnuts

Here’s the yield from about a 15 foot row of hazelnuts.

hazelnuts

Some of them are completely dried down, others have a bit more time to go, but with the recent spotting of a new squirrel in the yard, it was time to pick (the squirrel can have all the acorns and walnuts).

boy picking hazelnuts

Martin picking the low-hangers.

Linda looking at the higher nuts.

August 14, 2012 – Prez Stops by the Neighborhood

Barack was in the neighborhood today.  I was at work, so missed all the excitement.  He stopped at the wind farm just a few miles south of our farm.

Actually, I was a bit disappointed he didn’t stop in and check out our turbine!

One of the most short-sighted and non-sensical comments on the campaign is Romney’s assertion that he would “allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits.”  Of course, the 100 years of tax credits and subsidies for gas and oil are not on the table as Romney’s desire for a “level playing field” on energy policy does not extend to oil and gas, where he has pledged to retain up to 40 billion of subsidies and tax breaks.

40 billion for gas and oil.

0 for wind.

I wonder what he means by “level playing field?”

The only logical explanation that makes that position true is that nobody on his campaign has told him that wind turbines are a source of energy.

August 12, 2012 – Pre-dawn Visitor/Preacher Linda on the Road Again

The day started early.

Before sunrise, sometime around o’dark thirty, we awoke to the sound of a car in need of exhaust work revving its engine, dying and starting up again. Then we heard the loud stream-of-consciousness yelling.
“Oh No!”
Silence
“Shit.”
More silence
“That’s not good.”
More engine revving.
“Now I’m in trouble.”
Silence again.
“Dammit”
“Oh, now what do I do?”
I looked out he window and saw the guy who delivers the Sunday paper with his car teetered between the steep ditch and road. I looked at Linda and knew it was a job for me. “You stay in bed, I’ll handle this one.” Better to have someone able to call 911 when the crazy guy who almost rolled his car in the ditch go ballistic on me.

I went out to survey the situation and knew what would need to happen. It was nothing a chain and tractor couldn’t handle. I went out and greeted him.

“Glad I didn’t wake you up.” He said.
“I was just getting up to empty the bladder, you didn’t wake me up.” “Looks like we’ll need the tractor and chain,” I said, and started walking back to the shed.

All the way back to the shed and until the roar of the tractor starting in the dark shed, I heard him stand on the road and tell the details of his predicament and how it came to be. I’m sure Linda and the neighbors down the road heard every word.

It’s always a bit dicey getting a car out of the ditch with a chain and avoiding a roll, but he was more than willing to take the chance. The front a back lights on the tractor were a nice bonus as morning’s first light found us. I got him pulled out and told him to stop and help someone else further down the road sometime.

Then it was off to Ames, where Linda was the guest minister at the Unitarian Fellowship of Ames. Last week she did the same thing in Des Moines.

As usual, her message was well-received, even gathering a rather rare immediate applause upon conclusion.

August 11, 2012 – ‘Maters Ready to Can

Today was the first flush of tomatoes in bulk.

I’ve kept them watered and they have rewarded us.  This is only the beginning. Let the tomato processing begin!

boil tomatoes

First step is to drop them in boiling water.  I use this propane turkey burner.  They are cheap after Thanksgiving and make it possible to keep the mess and heat out of the kitchen.  Leave them in there until the skins begin to crack.

tomatoes in ice water

Then put them in cold water until you can cut out the core and slip off the peels.  Usually we’ll put them in cans and process them, but we didn’t have enough time today, so we just threw them in bags and froze them until we have time to can them.

Here’s the yield from the baskets in the first photo – 10 gallon bags.

August 10, 2012 – Emma’s Running Pals

Emma hosted her Cross-Country team to a sleepover.

Here’s part of the team, some couldn’t make it and others arrived after dark.

One of the beauties of living in the country is the outrageous bonfires that happen fairly regularly.

It was a good week for Emma – last Saturday was particularly eventful – she finished 2nd at a 5k run and later in the afternoon made her first rescue at the pool – an 8-yr old boy went off the slide into the deep end of the pool and couldn’t swim.  Emma fished him out to earn her keep for the summer!

August 5, 2012 – The Rain was Nice, the Wind, not to Much…

Yesterday’s rain was welcome, but for this beehive, it was a bit much.

This is our most productive and hive with the most supers on it. It’s at another farm and it was, shall we say, a bit delicate to put a hive back in place section by section. We took four supers that were full away, left the bottom few on and put an empty super on top.  Needless to say it was a bit frightening to put this all back together with the hiving buzzing around, looking for a home.  I brought a trailer along, and with the four supers we brought home, most of the bees blew off the 70 mph trip home.  then we needed to secure the honey in a location that was airtight, so the remaining bees and any other neighborhood hives didn’t steal the frames – so, we pried the frames loose and put them all in giant coolers until we are ready to extract.

August 4, 2012 – Now, for Something Completely Different

Finally, a real storm front rolls through.

While it did not rain too long or too fiercely, we did get a bit under an inch of rain.

It should keep what was still alive in the garden good for another week – although I dug a small hole in the garden, and the soil was only wet down about three inches before it was hard and dry.

July 28, 2012 – More Storm Casualties

While out weeding in the garden, Linda found this egg.

Most likely it had blown out of a tree during the storm that struck last Wednesday when the RAGBRAI riders were here.  We’re guessing it must be a hummingbird.

July 21, 2012 – Out with the Old, in with the New

Although it is taking a bit of time, the collision adjuster from Allstate did make a fair valuation of the totalled 1996 Outback.  The amount we were promised ended up being $54 more than we originally purchased the car for four years ago.  I was looking for a replacement that was small and with 4WD to give me a bit more peace of mind when Emma drives to school in winter.

This Honda CR-V we found with a private party in Cedar Rapids fit the bill.

The previous owners looked us up on the blog (you’d hate to sell your beloved Honda to just anyone, you know!)!   They were also a bit surprised that our teen-age girl was proficient with a 5-speed.  You go farm Girl Emma!

July 16, 2012 – Another Room Remodel Almost Complete

The remodel of the back room is looking a bit more complete.

Here’s the remodeled view of the south wall.

Here’s what it looked like before we started.

All of the wood was reclaimed from old farm buildings – on this farm and the neighboring farm that was recently torn down and burned. It takes a bit of work to plane the boards to get rid of the old grey weathered rind, but the wood itself is gorgeous and I left it imperfect on purpose for a bit of a rustic look.

Here’s the new coat closet.


The old closet had the irritating sliding doors that detached from the runners about every other time they were opened. I like the open design better as you can see everything at a glance and grab or hang up a coat quicker. I even built a box in the back to store out of season footwear to keep it out of sight and baskets for hats, mittens, and the like.

The room was pretty much a do-over – when we tore off the paneling there were old covered up windows, old doorframes, some plaster walls, the ceilings were partially beadboard, partially nothing. New wiring, new insulation, new windows, new ceiling and walls. I’ve yet to decide what to do with the wall adjoining the kitchen. Most likely I’ll put in shelving for kitchen overflow and canning jars and storage, made of the same reclaimed wood.

July 15, 2012 – Iowa Peaches

Who says peaches don’t grow in Iowa?

Unfortunately, these peaches represent about 25% of the peach harvest, or any fruit tree harvest for that case.  All the plums, cherries, and most the peaches were lost in the May frost.  If we’re lucky we’ll get a half-dozen apples as well.  So, this won’t be a big jam or canned fruit year.

July 14, 2012 – So the Summer Goes

We’ve even been missing out on the scattered thunderstorms, like this one that poured down heavy rain just to our east.  This one was moving due south and Marshalltown got some 1 inch hail near the center of the storm.

There’s not a day in the 10 day forecast below 90.  I still remember a pleasant summer a few years back, where it only reached above 90 three days for the year.

July 13, 2012 – First Berry Harvest

Blackberries are one of the few success stories so far this season.  The bushes erupted full of berries, so I’ve been trying to keep them watered, in order not to squander the harvest.

This bowl is destined for the freezer and is about 1/6 of what we’ll need for a fine batch of blackberry wine.  Last year we gave 18 pounds of raspberries and were returned months later with 24 bottles of a nice, dry raspberry wine.  I’m not a fan of the sweet fruit wines, but our vinter did a good job making a dry wine.

 

July 11, 2012 – What’s a Little Mess Worth?

Rumor has it that Martin and GJ are both known for making a mess in the kitchen when cooking. That’s why we’ll show the end products.

Today was no exception – on the summer menu: potato salad, deviled eggs, fresh cabbage and beans from the garden, along with some grilled pork chops from an heirloom variety.

Oh yeah, and home-made eclairs to top off the meal.  Unfortunately, the instructions say that the eclairs are best eaten within two hours of making them!

July 10, 2012 – Documents from the Past

There was a bright light on the horizon this evening. I knew in a second what it was…

the continued obliteration of the farmstead across the section.

I was able to get a few mementos from inside the house.  They are fascinating documents of a different time.  I’ll post them below with the names erased for some sense of privacy, I guess.  It just doesn’t seem ok to post them with a name on them.

Perhaps the biggest sign of the times is this check for polio insurance, written in 1955 – the year Jonas Salk released the polio vaccine.

Gas was 24 cents a gallon.

When’s the last phone bill you had that came in under four dollars?

An electric bill from 1955 coming is at under a 10 spot.

Before we found this, Martin asked me what that funny yellow thing that looked like a small part of combine was (photo is in previous day’s album).  The check for a new corn picker.  Again, 1955 was the end of an era and might have been the last, or one of the last years this style corn picker was available, since modern combines were out about this time.

Scores of old Christmas greetings lay littered on the floor.

A handwritten account of farm budget items from 1966.

And perhaps the most ironic is this bulldozer bill from 1952 – 60 years later the bulldozers returned one final time.

July 9, 2012 – A Sad End to Someone’s Pride and Joy

We were saddened to see not only another barn destroyed and burned, but an entire farmstead and woodlot.   This farm is a bout a mile away as the crow flies. This one is a haunting reminder of our impermanence.  The last person to live here just left everything like he was going to church when he went into a home.  No family came back to put the items in order.  In the photos below, you can see a comb still on the bathroom sink, suit coats still in the closet, overhalls and coats hanging in the mud room, shoes and Christmas tins scattered by the coons and salvagers.  There are extensive financial records, old letters, old Christmas cards and the like scattered around.  All the equipment from a career of farming, from single-row steel wheel plows, to combines and tractors – all left like they were 25 years ago.  Neighbors tried to buy the place a number of times, but never got anywhere, before the house deteriorated and equipment rusted.  It just sat. On its commanding view of the countryside on the crest of a hill.

Here’s and aerial view of the farm (left side of the road) before the bulldozers and backhoes flattened the trees and dug holes and pushed in and burned the buildings – presumably to get ready to plant corn and beans.

The following album shows some pictures of the “progress” in making the land ready to plant.  Click through to see all the photos.

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June 26, 2012 – Making Hay

As we no longer have 4-leggeds running around, our pasture is ready for other uses.  A neighbor is gong to use it for hay and to graze horses.

The grass after getting cut with the sickle-bar mower.

There’s a few obstacles to get around, but it will at least yield a few bales.

June 25, 2012 – Gallons of Water

With the continued onset of hot, dry weather, and much more ahead, it was time to augment soil moisture.

We filled a stock tank and dragged it around to give some plants a drink. We drained about 750 gallons from our wqter collecting tank.

The blackberries are vigourous this year, so they received some, in addition to the tomatoes and peppers.

June 17, 2012 – Early Garlic Crop

Like many things this year, the garlic has matured weeks early. There has been a bit of buzz on some of the local farm listserves about a very poor garlic crop this year, with some reporting “wrinkly, soft garlic” or more culls than in 22 years of growing. That made us a bit concerned and motivated us to go check ours,

For the most part the crop at high hopes looks fine. About the only difference seemed to be the stalks seem a bit more thick than usual.

50 foot row garlic

Here’s the yield from a 50 foot row, briefly drying before getting ushered off. Looks like about 130 plants per double row.

garlic harvest

Here’s about half of this year’s crop, ready for transport in the cart.

May 9, 2012 – Big Gardening Day on the Farm

It was a great “getting things done on the farm day.” It was the first day that Linda and Claire were home all day, so the garden and other things were transformed.

First, Claire volunteered to clean out winter from the hen house. About five overflowing loader buckets (liberally soaked with water to aid the composting process) and the hen house was ready for fresh bedding, and next year’s compost is on the way.

Many plants and seeds and mulch found their way into the garden as well. We got the recycled lumber tarps out of the barn, Linda planted a bunch of peppers and tomatoes. I went to the neighbors via the bumpy dirt trail between the crop fields and retrieved two loads of loose straw from the loft of their barn and put the tomato cages on, pounded the stakes in, spread the mulch and wet it all down.

This photo shows some hearty garlic on the right, a cattle panel trellis that we put up this weekend.  It has pole beans on the outside and lettuce and spinach underneath, hopefully to last a bit longer into the summer with the shade of the beans.  To the left of the trellis is some space reserved for viney plants before a row of tomatoes.  It’s nice to have that mulched portion of the garden already weeded for the whole season!

At the end of the day, I took some time to pull thistles from the pasture.  It appears that last year’s pulling them out by had greatly reduced the population in the paddock we tested last year.  We’ll continue that on the other paddocks this year.

 

March 25, 2012 – Prairie Fire

We helped out at a prairie burn this afternoon at Two Friends farm. I’ll mix it up and take you through the burn backwards.

prairie after burn

At the end of the day, about five acres of prairie is torched.

boy in burnt prairie

Sending Martin out batting cleanup while we go try to find some cold ones (not really).

prairie fire

After setting the backfires, the main fire gets rolling.

ring of fire

A burning ring of fire!

fire flapper

Martin with a flapper to help smother flames along the edge of a fire.

man in prairie fire

Nice flapper work on the right side of the photo!

Starting the fire nice and slow – a back burn against the wind before starting the main fire.

March 22, 2012 – Early Spring Blossoms

The first fruit tree blossoms decided to unfurl the last few days.

This plum is first out of the gate.

Just for a reminder – here’s a shot from exactly today four years ago today!

And this is a shot of our road from earlier in March 2008. All the 80 degree days this March have made snowy Marches a memory.

March 17, 2012 – Man v. Chainsaw

With the advent of the warm weather, I’m behind on the pruning.  Today, I thought I might catch up by speed-cutting down the willows by using the chain saw instead of the hand pruners.  Perhaps the execution was faulty.  While I failed to separate my leg from my body, I did manage to turn it into an ER room visit for 6 big stitches right near the inside of a knee.  Claire was home, and while I felt I could drive, I wasn’t sure I could drive home, so off she came with me.  The two hours there went quite quickly as the basketball tourney was on the waiting room TV and the suturing room TV, which was decorated in a Nemo theme.

The doc said it was easy as chainsaw stitch-ups go as the chain didn’t “bounce” two or three times making a road rash like some chain saw incidents.

 

 

 

March 10, 2012 – ‘Tis the Fighting Season

Every spring Mr. Cardinal finds an enemy he needs to fight somewhere on the farm.  In year’s past, a male cardinal spent hours of the day banging into his reflection in the front picture window.

This year, he has found his rival to be a bit more clever and found him hiding inside the mirror on the car.  I sure hope humans don’t spend the same amount of time and energy fighting phantom enemies!

March 6, 2012 – Linda Counted Among the Powerful Except by Hy-Vee

This morning I dropped Linda off at the airport for an event in D.C. she was invited to participate in by Oxfam – here’s a press clipping about the event:

More than 70 powerful women from around the US and the world, including actor Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), former Haitian Prime Minister Michelle Pierre-Louis, Top Chef Masters competitor Mary Sue Milliken and many more, will join international relief and development organization Oxfam America for a Sisters on the Planet Summit on March 7 to mark International Women’s Day.

The women will also meet with Members of Congress to advocate for policies that support women farmers around the world.

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama and Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, will offer keynote remarks to the morning gathering. An award ceremony and reception in the evening will honor Kristin Davis for her work to raise awareness on global hunger and poverty.

The following day, International Women’s Day, women leaders including former high ranking government officials, civil society leaders and veterans and farmers from across the country, will take to Capitol Hill to advocate for reforms to the US food aid program in the Farm Bill that will save money and lives.

Here’s where Hy-Vee comes in – the not-so-good part. On February 28, she dropped off her D.C. clothes at Hy-Vee to be dry cleaned. She asked me if I could pick them yesterday up when I brought Martin to piano lessons. The clothes were not there on March 5. I asked what dry cleaners they were at, so I could go there to pick them up – they said all their dry cleaning drop-offs for the week are sent to Cedar Falls on Fridays and returned the following Tuesday – so it could be a week or more. So I had the privilege to call her as she was enroute to Ames to stop at Younkers before she came home to make a new wardrobe purchase!

February 26, 2012 – The Sweetness of February Begins

It was a good Sunday.  I had been pretty much cooped up working indoors the last few weeks, so I was looking forward to a nice day outdoors.  Today was double-duty farm work.  It was time to boil down 15 gallons of maple sap and begin pruning the fruit trees.

mobile sugar shack

Here’s the world famous mobile sugar shack.  An old barrel stove on a metal wagon that can be moved around to account for the wind – and it was windy today – near wind advisory criteria.  This photo pretty much shows it all.  Cart with wood, buckets with sap, coffee cup, willing boy, stove and evaporator pan a bubbling, and maple tree with container in the background.

Today’s enterprise is uber-sustainable.  The wood is from the storm last summer, the plastic cartons that use the sap will be converted to tomato shelters in a few months, and the leftover logs that hadn’t burned all the way were snuffed out for some biochar.  To top it off, we produced more electricity than we used.

boy pruning tree

While we wait, it’s a good time to begin pruning the fruit trees.  Martin starts on this one that needs some attention.

boy sleeping in tree

But eventually, the kids tuckers out and finds a makeshift resting place in the branches of an apple tree.

February 22, 2012 – Sap’s Running!

I thought it might be time to tap the maple trees for the spring sap run.  A quick email to our friends at Morning Sun farm found they had just tapped their trees and already had 50 gallons in the hand.

drill tap hole

Drill a hole.

pound tap

Pound in a tap.

dripping maple tap

Sap flow!

tap buckets on tree

About four hours after getting the taps in, this tree has already filled the buckets about 3/4 full.

February 4, 2012 – Claire’s got Stones!

At least curling stones.

You’re looking at about 640 pounds of pure unadulterated fun on ice.

Macalester offered up an free afternoon of curling to a busload of students – Claire was all over it as a daughter whose father neglected her by never once taking her to a hockey game, even though her little brother witnessed the Frozen Four championship game.  Here a nice man instructs the kids how the game is played.

Not yet skilled at using the broom as an extension of the arm to maintain balance during the throw, she’s down. I hope she was able to say that the stone made it into the house.

OK, at least Claire made it into the house!

As with most sports, although you might not think of it, every possible warning is issued to protect from legal action in the unlikely event a stone becomes airborne.  I just went and added the Canadian cult film Men with Brooms to my Netflix queue!

January 14, 2012 – First Lego League Iowa Championships

This week was he culmination of the First Lego League season.

It’s a crazy scene in the atrium of Hoover Hall at the ISU College of Engineering as the 72 teams that qualified for state gather.

Team Mu? watching the robot on it’s mission to complete as many tasks as possible.  The other two parts of the competition, the presentation about an innovative solution and team problem-solving exercises  are just as important as the robot programming, but less camera-freindly.

The team poses with long-time FLL supporter and Emcee Brandon.

The team poses with this year’s award, third place in the State in the “Gracious Professionalism” category.  This is one of the core values to First Lego Leaugue and is described as following from FLL:

With Gracious Professionalism, fierce competition and mutual gain are not separate notions. Gracious professionals learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process. They avoid treating anyone like losers. No chest thumping tough talk, but no sticky-sweet platitudes either. Knowledge, competition, and empathy are comfortably blended. In the long run, Gracious Professionalism is part of pursuing a meaningful life. One can add to society and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing one has acted with integrity and sensitivity.

Photos without high hopes gardens watermark are courtesy of Frank Roessler.

January 9, 2012 – 2011 Skystream Wind Turbine Results

Ok, the numbers are in from last year’s Skystream production. In summary, the Skystream produced an average of 387 kWh per month. This compares quite favorably to the average of the previous two years (336 kWh), and our household electric use dropped from an monthly average of 863 kWh in 2010 to 819 kWh in 2011. So, the Skystream produced 47% of our electric use in 2011.

Production stats for the Skystream Turbine for 2011.

Month kWh Produced
by Turbine
kWh Used by
house/farm
Jan ’11 401 1010
Feb ’11 356 823
Mar ’11 498 839
April ’11 622 814
May ’11 561 690
June ’11 399 808
July ’11 120 1028
Aug ’11 105 880
Sept ’11 191 809
Oct ’11 380 640
Nov ’11 555 792
Dec ’11 455 1012
2011 Totals 4643 10145

2009 Summary
In 2009, the Skystream produced 4,068 kWh, an average of 339 kWh per month. The farm and household used 11,549 kWh, an average of 962 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 38.6% of our energy.

2010 Summary
In 2010, the Skystream produced 3,998 kWh, an average of 333 kWh per month. The farm and household used 10,284 kWh, an average of 863 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 38.9% of our energy.

2011 Summary
In 2011, the Skystream produced 4643 kWh, an average of 387 kWh per month. The farm and household used 10,145 kWh, an average of 819 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 47.2% of our energy.

 

 

 

 

 

January 8, 2012 – The Storm that Keeps on Giving

The extraordinarily warm winter to date allows for some jobs that might have waited until spring.  We’re still cleaning up debris from the storm.  It was nice enough to get the chain saw out today and cut up some more trees and haul more branches to one of the burn piles.

We’re probably about 80% done with the cleanup, if you don’t count whether the trees that were snapped off 1/2 way up come down or not.

January 3, 2012 – Year In Review

It’s time for a year=end review of some of my favorite moments and photos of 2011.

Kids and baby animals are hard to beat.

Extremes in any domain are interesting.

Martin’s new found love and interest in cooking gave us many great meals.

The promise of a neat spring garden always brings hope.

Linda’s wild look in the White House captures a moment.

“Walking the Talk”

Claire as a professional at her work post in DC.

Dad and Martin up on the North Shore of Minnesota.

Martin’s initiative to carry a big pack, rather cheerfully over 3.5 miles of portages.

Emma exploring new foods in Boston.

Taking care of some of our own responsibly-grown meat.

Visiting with women farmers from around the world at our farm.

The majesty and scale of the new wind turbine farm just south of our farm.

Finally, after 20 some odd years (who’s counting, exactly) the love of my life shining a little light of hers.

December 23, 2011 – Christmas Chaos

More than anything, family Christmas gatherings seem to be more chaos management than Silent Night. I won’t pull out the smiling children in front of a Christmas Tree now (that may be coming later).

This photo captures much in its ordinariness.  People gather around the appetizers in the kitchen while Martin receives instruction from his uncles regarding sound effect production.

Middle child often gets left out of family publications, so to make it up to her, I found her doing dishes while her siblings were off playing and having fun.  Great Christmas memories for Emma, for sure!

December 21, 2011 – The Days Once Again Lengthen!

Once again, the earth turns and the days will once again lengthen!  Tonight we had our annual bonfire/potluck to try to bring the light back.  After the fire, the house was crammed full of people yet again, probably somewhere between 80-100.

Linda Barnes

Linda with a candle not in the wind.  It was the warmest winter solstice in memory.

solstice bonfire

The bonfire fueled by the wreckage from this year’s windstorm, was one of the hottest and brightest ever.   There were some trunks 4 ft across that didn’t burn much, so will be a bast for next year’s fire.  Oh yeah, and we still have three more piles from the storm sitting in wait – we might have to increase the party occasions to get rid of them all.

December 10, 2011 – December Mushrooms!

Even though we’ve had some days in the single digits, the mushrooms are still producing!

With this December harvest, that means for 2011, we have harvested something from the farm every month but January! We had an early sap run the last day of February and have harvested something every month since then.  The bounty is amazing!

November 30, 2011 – December Lettuce!

How’s this for wonderful – we’ll be eating fresh lettuce out of the garden into December!

We’ve picked a bunch for the fridge, to guarantee December lettuce.  Any day we could get that first day it’s in the low teens at night and not above freezing during the day to finally kill it off.

November 15, 2011 – At a Wind Turbine Work Site

After seeing the turbine blades lifted in a dramatic night-time maneuver, we thought we’d go check out one not quite built to get a scale of these turbines.

Inside wind turbine towere

The towers are made of three sections. This is the bottom of a yet unattached top tower section.

Here’s the top of the same (third) section – not much room for a person to squeeze through.

wind turbine blades

Emma with 2/3 of the tower built, along with the blade assembly still on the ground.

November 7, 2011 – Wind Turbine-Raising at Night

Now that is is dark before dinnertime, today we noticed that one of the new wind towers to the south was illuminated.  It looked rather cool from a distance, a massive gleaming white tower, looking like an Atlas rocket, growing out of where there was nothing a few days ago.

So we ate dinner, and after dinner tasks and thought we’d drive down to see how close we’d get and to measure just how far they were from our house.

When we arrived, we were in for a surprise.  We could get fairly close and at first it looked like they were raising a blade with the crane, but then realized it was all three blades at once going up together.

The blade assembly slowly lifted into the night air.

The crane must have been about 300 feet tall.  Each of the more horizontal blades also had support guy wires on them

Finally, in the dark, calm of the evening, punctuated only by the sound of the crane winch, the blade assembly was in place.  This tower is 2.8 miles south and a mile east of our place.

October 19, 2011 – More Oxfam Pictures

A while back I posted some pictures from some international visitors brought to high hopes by Oxfam.  They had a professional photographer with the group and following are some of the pictures taken by Ilene Perlman. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves (except for one that needs some explanation).

This type of water pump handle was familiar – it was interesting to see this woman “pump” the handle up and down, like I remember the pump on my grandfather’s farm.

one year ago…”Signs of the Times”

October 18, 2011 – Fall Color

Here’s the little tree we planted in the front yard – growing up quite nicely.

We planted an ash, maple, and oak along the north side of the driveway many years ago to grow up to replace the old spruce, and two maples.  With age and all the wind of late, the spruce tree blew down this summer, and one maple is down to about 25% of its original branches from storm damage.  So, it looks like these trees might add some meaningful shade on the south side of the house by the time the other trees are gone.

one year ago…”Mini-van Driver No More”

October 17, 2011 – Tomatoes Won’t Stop

OK, this is it. The final tomato harvest of the year – frost is forecast in the next few days.

The plants loved the dry late summer and fall. It was an epic tomato canning year – our final tally ended up to be 97 quarts and 37 pints canned – even for us, a lot! So, we are ready in case there is a crop failure next year – we’re good for a couple of years for chili, minestrone soup, red hot dish and whatever else we can use our summer canned in a jar.

one year ago…”In the News”

October 16, 2011 – World Food Prize/Oxfam Visitors

Once more this year, we were fortunate to host some amazing folks who were in town for the World Food Prize Symposium.  This year’s event was much smaller than last year’s, but just as interesting.

Many of the folks who stopped by were international visitors who are used to living in rural areas, and were thrilled to get out to the country after spending a week in hotels downtown.  One of my favorite moments is when one of the visitor’s eyes light up when they see or smell something familiar to them – whether it be the aroma of a fresh herb in the air or seeing and old standard-breed chicken.

Mrs. Silas Samsom Buru

Here Linda speaks with Mrs. Silas Samsom Buru, a farmer from Ethiopia.  Although she had never traveled more than a few miles from her village in her life before this trip, she was on a panel at the symposium panel with VPs from Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods, and NGO Director Generals and was a natural at expressing her viewpoints.  She spoke about a new crop insurance program that pays out not based on an individual farmer’s crop loss, but instead if average yields fall below a certain level in the region.  Farmers can pay with cash, or improve their long-term farming sustainability by soil organic matter improvement to make the soils hold more water through droughts.  She said the program has the possibility of improving the lot of the next generation so they will not need so much outside food aid.

Nelly Velandia

The woman in front of Linda is Nelly Velandia from Columbia.  Nelly practiced civil disobedience by setting up a farmer’s market in towns where they were not prohibited, on the steps of the government building.  The markets were a huge success and the rules were changed.  In Bogotá, she even convinced the mayor’s office to help cover the cost of setting up markets in parks and public squares.  The markets offer poor rural farmers a much more profitable return and urban residents cheaper, more nutritious food.

It was uplifting to share stories among these women of their efforts to improve their corners of the world.

one year ago…”Oxfam Event at High Hopes Gardens”

October 14, 2011 – High Hopes Blog Slowing Down

Since Feb 13, 2005, I’ve committed to daily posts on the High Hopes Blog and have done that for the most part, except for periodic computer breakdowns – my WordPress dashboard tells me I have 2,439 entries. The blog now receives clicks from about 150 visitors a day, 55,000 visits last year, 170,000 visits in the last three years and the highest number of visitors on any one day is 1,066. However, as much of an advocate for sustainable and self-sufficient living that I am, a post that has nothing to do with this topic remains the most popular post – the picture of Claire’s home-made duct tape Homecoming dress is far and away the single most visited post!

One astute observer refers to it as my “electronic scrapbooking” as the blog chronicles the farm and family. We often look back on it when we can’t remember when something happened, or how old an animal is.
With some of the farm activities winding down, there will be less material – so I am no longer committing to daily posts – instead, when something happens I will still post – it might be once or twice a week, we’ll have to see.

A big thanks to all who have and continue to keep up with the goings on at High Hopes Gardens and its denizens.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #229″

October 10, 2011 – Seeds

One benefit of not getting around to pick beans before the pods get too big is that later in the season, you’ve got some seeds for next year’s gardens.  These are Rattlesnake Master pole beans, a non-hybrid, so the seeds grow true.

It’s still amazing all the information stored in each of these – instructions about when to sprout, what to do, what parts to make, how to respond to weather, and how to make more beans!

one year ago…”Lovin the 48 inch Tiller”

October 3, 2011 – Chicken Butchering Commences

Yesterday was the day to put the chickens in the freezer.  We skipped the first step in the photo sequence of butchering.

Here a nice bird is ready for the scalder.

A few dips and twists in the hot water and as soon as a wing feather can be plucked off easily by hand, it’s done.

Into the plucker.

about 15 seconds later, they look a lot like rubber chickens.

Emma and Linda cutting them up.

When we went to the chicken tractor, we found one critter had eaten part of a chicken through the wires.  It’s always disheartening to feed an animal to its last day and lose it, but it was only one, and it could have been, and has been worse.

one year ago…”Marching Band Contest”

October 2, 2011 – Getting Ready to Fill the Freezer with Chicken

Here’s the scene the before the chicken butchering commenced.  We’ve now done it enough times that we’ve got it down pretty well.

The line starts in the distance where the chickens are first hung upside down and bled out, then brought to the scalder, then the plucker, then the eviserating, and finally a couple of cold rinses before they are later either washed and bagged whole or cut up.

one year ago…”Chicken Butchering”

September 30, 2011 – Raspberry Applesauce

In the never-ending quest to preserve apples, the third product is now on the shelf. First was canned apple pie filling, then dried apples for snacking, now applesauce.

These jars sitting on the storage shelves in the basement have a red color due to the raspberries added to the apples. One canning episode was good for about 44 jelly-sized single serve jars for lunches at work. We’ve had no trouble using our raspberries without going to market this year – we traded raspberries for buffalo meat, and handed off 18 lbs of berries to a vinter who promises us bottles of dry wine 6 months from now.

one year ago…”Thingmajig Thursday #227″

September 24, 2011 – A Sweet Day

Today was  honey extraction day.  As GJ says, it’s all about separation today.  First, you separate the supers from the hive and therefore separate the bees from their honey.  Then you separate the individual frames from the supers.

Then you separate the beeswax from the frames.  Emma with the heated knife and gj with a wax scraper.

Then you separate the honey from the frames in the extractor.

Then you filter out all the bee parts and remaining wax from the honey.

A final look at Emma with a nice frame.  We ended up with about 15 gallons of honey from two hives.  Shortly after the aerial jockeys sprayed around our farm, the hive at our place ha greatly reduced activity.  After the bees died, the wax moths took over and there was no honey – but the two hives at another location adjacent to about 15 acres of prairie, did very well.

one year ago…”U of M Public Relations Disaster”

September 23, 2011 – Best Tool Purchase Under $200

When I bought this Delta planer many years ago, I didn’t quite know what a fantastic job it would do.

Sometimes you forget that you’re saving things.  That was the case with some of the floorboards from the old house we tore down the first few years we lived here.  I found them in the lower portion of the barn where we seldom travel and thought they’d be a great floor for the back room we are remodeling.

The planer worked hard on this day – it took old, grey-weathered 100 year old+ tongue and groove boards and made them look brand new.  The good news is that they will actually fit in the room without having to adjust any doors or the like.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #226″

September 21, 2011 – Time for Chelsea to Move on…

We’re now looking for a home for Chelsea, our miniature horse.

It’s the only livestock purchase that we regret.  It’s the same story heard often – young teen girls beg for a horse, parents relent and horse gets ignored.  Chelsea has grown up to be a “Mack Truck” of miniature horses.

Here is Chelsea the day she arrived on the farm.  We’re hoping we can find her a good home with people who will know how to train and keep her, hopefully with others of her kind.

one year ago…”Troubled Waters at University of Minnesota”

September 18, 2011 – Zillow Needs some Work!

There’s a relatively new web site that provides real estate estimates. The cool thing is the aerial map of the property, the bad thing is the estimates of property values.

Here’s the map of the property which is fairly recent – this year because I can see the collapsed granary in the back pasture, but not since the windstorm in the middle of July because all the trees are still standing.

I love being able to pick out features in this map. The sheep grazing in the northeast corner, the garden beds, the rows of baby trees along the north and east, the path of the new septic system and drainfield in the north central, and it looks like a car and trailer in one of the gardens hauling straw mulch in the southwest.

However, the estimated property value is quite spastic.  According to Zillow, in the past 18 months or so, the property value has ranged from $70,00 to $200,000!

one year ago…”Emma Homecoming”

September 14, 2011 – Early Frost Coming?

Weatherman is calling for patchy frost tonight.  It’s very early for a frost, and we still probably only 1/3 of the tomatoes have ripened.

Here’s a few plants that are the most heavily laden under a tarp.  Throughout the rest of the garden is a montage of sheets, burlap bags and tarps.

A quick run through the garden nets a variety of crops, that could be the last of the season.

one year ago…”Dear Blank”

September 9, 2011 – Hawk Stuck in Corn Crib

A hawk is in the corn crib and its instincts are working against it. Usually, to escape danger, it flies up. Well, in this case, it needs to fly down to get out the door. Also, the natural lighting I added with translucent panels near the top of the walls give it another false exit point.

I’m not sure I could catch it without injuring myself or it, so I’m hoping it finds a way out at dusk or at night.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #224″

September 5, 2011 – Mulberry Treats

It’s that time of year, the time to start cutting down the weedy mulberry trees along the fences and along the edges of the property.

Fortunately, the animals eagerly strip the leaves off before I cart the branches down to the burn piles.  Mulberry is highly digestible, contains up to 28% protein, and contains high levels of many minerals.  It’s a good supplement to late season pastures as well.  The animals love it.  Each day, I can cut  a cartload and slowly free the fences and edges.

one year ago…”Emma’s Car”

August 29, 2011 – Parched August

The weather service has officially put our county in the “drought-stricken” category, up from “abnormally dry.”  We’ve received less than .3 inches of rain in August and are at about 60 percent of the normal rainfall to date.

Cracks in the soil, ready for rain.

Of course, I don’t need this fancy NOAA map showing the rainfall deficit/surplus over the past three months.  Looks like over the past three months we’re short 6-8 inches of rainfall from normal.

one year ago…”About those Eggs…”

August 28, 2011 – Iowavertible

There’s likely not too many 4×4 convertibles on the road, and likely fewer pickup convertibles.  Although, technically this doesn’t count as a true convertible as it can’t convert back to having a roof, it’s not doubt a fun beating around the farm truck.

The cab was crushed in the storms in July and the owner just sawed it off.  He thought he might put a roll bar on the back and add a snap canvas top to it as well.  But at least for  a dry August, it’s stylin’.

one year ago…”Linda Recognized as Outstanding Ag Educator”

August 27, 2011 – Putting Tomaotes Up

Today was a long-anticipated day. Last year, we only had enough tomatoes to can seven quarts (it was a good thing we had canned 89 the previous year and had enough left over to get us through). This looks like a great tomato year. It was wet to get them going, hotter than blazes in July, now bone dry in August (avoids bacterial wilt and fungus).

Martin with the first sweep through the garden of the year looking for ‘maters.

A bushel of Romas waiting to be skinned and peeled.

To enable safe boiling water canning of tomatoes, we add 2 tbsp of lemon juice and a tsp of salt for taste.

We throw the tomatoes in boiling water until their skins crack and then put them in cold water to cool.

Then cut out the stem and slip the skins off.

Take about 1/6 of the tomatoes and crush them and bring them to boil, then slowly add the rest (no need to crush).  After all the tomatoes are added, bring to a boil and boil for five minutes.

Put in cans and boil for 50 minutes.  Today’s haul was 28 quarts of tomatoes.  Seems like a lot, but it’s only about two jars a month.  These are a staple in our cuisine.  Love them as the base of a minestrone soup and an essential part of red hot dish!

one year ago…”Ag Incubator Ribbon Cutting!”

August 24, 2011 – Tomatoes

As promised, some tomatoes, grown as though taste mattered.

striped roman tomato

This is a relatively new addition to the garden, and probably a permanent addition – an heirloom variety called Striped Romans – Martin calls them “fire tomatoes” as the orange and red stripes are reminiscent of flames on the side of a hot rod.  They are also good enough for table use, although the skin is a bit thick.

Of course, we never put all our eggs in one basket and planted another more traditional Roma variety as well for canning.

one year ago…”East Side of House Done (well, almost)”

August 21, 2011 – Tomatoland

Ever wonder about those things called “tomatoes” you get in the grocery store in the winter and wonder how they could be so different than the one you get in the garden?

There’s a new book out that ties together many of the problems of  “industrial agriculture.”  The book is called Tomatoland and you can read an except and hear an interview with the author.

The issues are interwoven, and repeated with many common foods, namely pork and eggs in Iowa.  The problems exposed in the book relate to taste and nutrition, human rights, environmental degradation, and human health, among others.

Without further ado, some comments from the NPR story and book:

As one large Florida farmer said, ‘I don’t get paid a single cent for flavor.’ “He said, ‘I get paid for weight. And I don’t know of any supermarket shopper who tastes her tomatoes before she puts them in her shopping cart.’ … It’s not worth commercial plant breeders’ while to breed for taste because their customers — the large farmers — don’t get paid for it.

Florida applies more than eight times the amount of pesticide and herbicides as does California, the next leading tomato grower in the country. Part of this has to do with the fact that California processes tomatoes that are used for canning — and therefore don’t have to look as good as their Florida counterparts. But part of this also has to do with consumers.

“It’s the price we pay for insisting we have food out of season and not local,” he says. “We foodies and people in the sustainable food movement chant these mantras, ‘local, seasonable, organic, fair-trade, sustainable,’ and they almost become meaningless because they’re said so often and you see them in so many places. If you strip all those away, they do mean something, and what they mean is that you end up with something like a Florida tomato in the winter — which is tasteless.”

“My mother, in the ’60s could buy a tomato in the supermarket that had 30 to 40 percent more vitamin C and way more niacin and calcium. The only area that the modern industrial tomato beats its Kennedy-administration counterpart is in sodium.”

“Of the legal jobs available, picking tomatoes is at the very bottom of the economic ladder. I came into this book chronicling a case of slavery in southwestern Florida that came to light in 2007 and 2008. And it was shocking. I’m not talking about near-slavery or slavery-like conditions. I’m talking about abject slavery. These were people who were bought and sold. These were people who were shackled in chains at night or locked in the back of produce trucks with no sanitary facilities all night.

“These were people who were forced to work whether they wanted to or not and if they didn’t, they were beaten severely. If they tried to escape, they were either beaten worse or in some cases, they were killed. And they received little or no pay. It sounds like 1850. … There have been seven [legal cases] in the last 10 or 15 years … successfully brought to justice in Florida involving slavery. And 1,200 people have been freed. The U.S. Attorney for the district in Southern Florida claims that that just represents a tiny, tiny tip of an iceberg because it’s extraordinarily difficult to prosecute a modern-day slavery case.”

In Vermont, where I live, as in much of the rest of the United States, a gardener can select pretty much any sunny patch of ground, dig a small hole, put in a tomato seedling, and come back two months later and harvest something. Not necessarily a bumper crop of plump, unblemished fruits, but something. When I met Monica Ozores-Hampton, a vegetable specialist with the University of Florida, I asked her what would happen if I applied the same laissez-faire horticultural practices to a tomato plant in Florida. She shot me a sorrowful, slightly condescending look and replied, “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I asked.

“There would be nothing left of the seedling,” she said. “Not a trace. The soil here doesn’t have any nitrogen, so it wouldn’t have grown at all. The ground holds no moisture, so unless you watered regularly, the plant would certainly die. And, if it somehow survived, insect pests, bacteria, and fungal diseases would destroy it.” How can it be, then, that Florida is the source for one-third of the fresh tomatoes Americans eat? How did tomatoes become the Sunshine State’s most valuable vegetable crop, accounting for nearly one-third of the total revenue generated?

Enjoy those summer tomatoes! In the next few days, we’ll take to the garden to pick the first batch for canning.
one year ago…”Canning Raspberries”

August 20, 2011 – Expanding Claire’s Horizons

Today, Claire and I woke up bright and early to bring most of this year’s lambs to the sale barn. Although, sharp-eyed readers may debate that either “Colfax Lives” or that we should have brought Linda’s latest knit socks along instead of some lambs.

Isn’t it nice to see Claire on a gravel parking lot wearing knee-high rubber chore boots? Better yet, inside, was no one younger than me, nor of the opposite sex, save for the teen running the concession stand. Surely a different world than that of Washington DC or college. We aim to produce well-rounded children with a wide variety of experiences second to none – and surely, few, if any of her classmates at school or co-workers in DC, have had parents to avail their children to such an experience!

one year ago…”Bees Keeping Cool”

August 17, 2011 – Big Changes at High Hopes

Over the next few years, our lives are taking a bit of a turn. After years of people telling Linda “You should be a minister” after a talk at church or presentation, she’s finally taking the bait. She’s now enrolled 1/2 time at Meadville-Lombard Seminary in Chicago.  She feels as though it is important to be with people along their live’s paths – through births, deaths, and everything in between.

This means many changes for us.  Linda will continue her teaching job and hope to get many of the courses completed over the summer and during J-term.  There are also a community service portion of the curriculum which will require volunteer work at a local hospital, hospice,Veteran’s Home or other such place.  There’s an internship with an existing minister, and a special project as well, so while she won’t be spending much time in Chicago, her energies will be directed at ways outside the farm.

Of course, that means something substantial needs to give – and to that end, activities at High Hopes will be curtailed.  We’ll probably concentrate on providing solely for our own needs and not growing and marketing crops and animals for others.  It’s hard to predict what that transition will look like, but it will be different.  She’s still committed to being an advocate for sustainable farming, through education and whatever other kinds of speaking engagements arise.  We just won’t be “farmer.”

When we started down this path 15 years ago, there were very few people also doing it.  Now, there is a local food group, the importance of diverse and healthy foods is once again approaching a main stage in the American psyche, and there are many good people behind us.

To that end, here’s a link to a story about Linda in the UU World magazine.

one year ago…”Linda at Roundtable with Secretary Vilsack”

August 14, 2011 – Century+ Old Wood Refreshed!

Today, was a moment long in coming. The old granary began its transformation into something new.  I had saved as many boards as I could, and today, used the planer that has sat lonely for about 12 years!

The wood is a dark rich amber-reddish color, with a tight grain from the old-growth forests cut down before the turn of the previous century.  This wood is destined for the entry/pantry/nook room in the house.  It will make beautiful shelves, and counters or whatever else happens to come into that room.

The patina of weathered and raccoon-stained wood before a trip through the planer.

one year ago…”Why are the Soybeans Turning Brown so Early?”

August 12, 2011 – Putting Away the Apples

We’ve been working at preserving the early Williams Pride apples. It’s a wonderfully tart and sweet apple that ripens this time of year.

teen with apples, bushel of apples

So far, from just one tree, we’ve put up 18 quarts of apple pie filling, and numerous bags of dehydrated apples, and eight gallons of frozen sliced apples, awaiting another later variety to make applesauce next month. There’s still a good number of apples left on the tree for more applesauce fixins. Oh yeah, I also found some blueberries at the store for 99 cents a box, so since we missed out on the berries up north, froze about half and canned the other half.

But by far, the best concoction is the apple pie filling. It’s a bit of a hassle to make, but all Linda has to do is make a crust, pour in the filling and bake. Great for potlucks and last minute desserts with little fuss.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #220″

August 2, 2011 – Boys Week Out Begins!

Martin and I journeyed north with another dad and ten-year old for a father-son wilderness excursion! As it is over 500 miles to the final destination, we took it in a couple of days. The first day we drove to Tettegouche State Park in Northern Minnesota.

backroads, northern Minnesota backroads

There are some nice journeys on the narrow, if not beautiful backroads of the North Shore of Lake Superior.

Palisade Head

One of my favorite sightseeing points is Palisade Head, now part of Tettegouche State Park.  It’s a wonderful cliff overlooking Lake Superior.

Here, Martin dares to peer over the edge!

Finally, Dad and Martin on the top.  Shovel Point is in the distance and a destination for later in the trip.

one year ago…”Lemon Tree”

July 31, 2011 – Bees Gone Wild

We have a couple of beehives at a friend’s farm. The hives are at the edge of a woodlot adjacent to about a 20 acres of prairie. Lots of flowers and pollen out there.

beekeeper next to hive boxes

Today we went and checked, and had to add some more supers to the hives. They’re almost as tall as Linda. Should be a good year for honey, even if it isn’t a good year to get all dressed up in a bee suit.

one year ago…”In Theory”

July 26, 2011 – Harvest from the Heart of Iowa

Tonight we hosted the quarterly dinner from a new local foods group – Harvest from the Heart of Iowa.  I’m working on the group’s web site and I hope to have it live in few weeks.  I’ll post the URL when it debuts.

It was an all-local meal, with beef and  pork burgers, bison hot dogs, eggplant/summer squash feta cheese casserole, sweet corn, of course, and raspberries and whipped cream over pound cake.  About 60 people braved the hot and humid weather for the meal.

The speaker was Lois Reichert of  “Dairy Air” (don’t think about that name too long!)  She’s the owner of a goat cheese dairy with national honors for her cheeses.

one year ago…”An Open Letter to the Rainmaker”

July 25, 2011 – Welcome, Daisy the Goldendoodle!

As we lost our Golden Retriever mix April after 14 years on the farm this late winter, it was finally time to get another dog. I’ve been reticent about getting and indoor dog as one of my housemates is allergic to dogs.  But then they found these that shed much less, if at all.

Here’s Daisy –  named so by Martin on occasion of his 10th birthday.

She looks like a big teddy bear.

Daisy and Martin relaxing on the couch – Daisy is half poodle and half golden retriever – she’s supposed to be about 50 pounds full grown.

one year ago…”A Quiet Day in the Country?”

July 24, 2011 – Dilly Beans

It’s that time of year – time to start putting food up in earnest.  One of the first to go this year are the “poor man’s pickles” or dilly beans.

They’re a “snap” to make – just put some galic and dill in a jar, cut the beans to length, and stuff the jars and seal with a vinegar mix.

You can even add a hot pepper if you’d like to spice things up a bit.

Here’s the Recipe we use from the USDA canning guide:

PICKLED DILLED BEANS
4 lbs fresh tender green or yellow beans (5 to 6 inches long)
8 to 16 heads fresh dill
8 cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 cup canning or pickling salt
4 cups white vinegar (5%)
4 cups water
1 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)
Yield: About 8 pints
Procedure: Wash and trim ends from beans and cut to 4-inch lengths. In each hot sterile pint jar (see page 1-14), place 1 to 2 dill heads and, if desired, 1 clove of garlic. Place whole beans upright in jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Trim beans to ensure proper fit, if necessary. Combine salt, vinegar, water, and pepper flakes (if desired). Bring to a boil. Add hot solution to beans, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel. Adjust lids and process.

Process 10 minutes in boiling water (15 minutes above 6,000 ft elevation).

one year ago…”Rockford Fossil Quarry”

July 23, 2011 – We Offer Service Projects!

We were pleased that a group of students from the Marshalltown High School Honor Society saw fit to come out and give a burst of cleanup this weekend.

In this weather there’s only so much you can do a day, but multiply it by more hands and things happen quickly.

We’re hosting a local foods meal for up to 100 next Tuesday, so it was nice to have the help to get us over the clan-up hump and have full access to the yard.  Here they are being pulled on a hay wagon in the pasture after emptying a load

Thanks again to the kids for coming out to lend a hand.

one year ago…”Carrot Experiment Harvest”

July 22, 2011 – Slow Progress

Did I mention that it was hot out? Did I mention the town just south of us recorded it’s highest dewpoint ever this week? The work goes on short bits at a time.

Much of the yard north of the house is now such that you can pretty much walk wherever you’d like.

The area behind the chicken coop is uglier than I first imagined, now that the first few downed trees have been removed – there are many more down and limbs suspended in air, as if by a levitation curse.  That’s where a long chain and tractor some in handy

 one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #217″

July 19, 2011 – Cleanup Begins

OK, so this isn’t my greatest moment, but ‘ll share anyways.

These massive ruts are from getting the tractor unstuck.  I was hauling branches out to the burn pile and was turning around with an empty wagon, on a part of the field not usually soft.  You can see that I was in no manner near the bottom wet part of the pasture (and you can see my original unstuck path coming in on the upper right of the picture).  At any rate, The JD 2510 broke through the sod and that was about it.

Descending into a realm of quagmire and muck.  Once the initial rut started, the only way out was straight back, towards the low spot. It was the first time I’ve been on the farm that I buried the tractor.  It’s a bit of a helpless feeling.  Thankfully a neighbor stopped with his Bobcat by to see how we were doing as he was taking a break from cleaning up at his place.  By a combination of using the loader bucket to push the tractor back a few feet at a time, we eventually got it close enough to solid ground that we could hook a chain up to it and pull it out.

I hadn’t realized that some branches the thickness of a man’s thigh had found their way into the adjacent field.

Unloading branches on one of the many bonfire piles.

one year ago…”Tank is Gone”

July 18, 2011 – Damage in the Neighborhood

Now that we’ve had a chance to get our feet back under ourselves, we’ve toured the damage to our neighbors.

destroyed barn

This is the barn, or what’s left of it, of a farm pretty much due west of us.

barn storm damage

Another view.

marshall county storm damage

This is the barn at the farm directly north of us, about 1/4 mile.

haverhill grain elevator, haverhill coop

These are a couple of the brand new 300,000 bushel grain bins at the elevator in Haverhill, about 4 miles east of us.

Here are some of the old bins from the same place. I’m feeling very fortunate that due to the vagaries of the wind and landscape, all of our buildings survived. I’m also feeling good that all the new roofs I put on the outbuildings remain intact, at least for winds from the NW.

one year ago…”At the Waterfall”

July 17, 2011 – Birch Hill Farm

One of the part-time workers at the lodge has one of the few farms in the Ely area (after all, farming a few miles from Canada where it gets to -50 in the winters and the soil is rock, isn’t necessarily known as prime farming ground!).

This is Roger and Jordyn, in front of their chicken coop.  The day we visited, a couple of coyote pups raided the coop.

Here we look at the fence around the beehives.  I don’t think that this kind of fence does a very good job of keeping the bees in!  Of course, this fence is to keep Winnie-the-Pooh and all his bear friends away from an easy meal of honey.

A man after my own heart, this salvaged tank is what Rog uses to heat his house, workshop, and coop, if necessary.  It can hold a 7 foot stick of lumber.  He also makes his own bio-diesel for his tractors.

Here we look at part of the gardens.  Roger explained how the farm is able to produce.  You can see part of a hill behind the shed.  He said that many years ago, a previous owner clear cut a field, and then spent about two years dozing sand from the glacial remains over the lowland that he had cleared.  As a result, there is a great open hayfield to our right out of the photo. All told, they have more than 100 acres.

Birch Hill Farm has a great location, a great summer market and would be a wonderful place to have a small sustainable farm.  It looks like a great place to live and raise a family.  Thanks to Roger and Jordyn for taking time to show us around.

one year ago…”On the Big Water”

July 11, 2011 – Maizy’s Storm Report

Oh boy, will my owners be surprised when they return from vacation in about a week!

marshall county storm damage

First, they’ll have a hard time even getting in the driveway.

They’ll know from a mile or two away that the profile of their farm has changed – at least six of the white pines and spruces along the road had their tops snapped off and tossed into the gardens.

Another big spruce down by the propane tank.

Another top of a tree up by the propane tank.

The first few tops blown into the bottom garden and crushing a bean trellis.

More tops tossed in the middle garden.

Some more in the top garden.

Some more in the perennial flower garden.

I was afraid my doghouse would blow away, so I sought shelter under this car.  My chain got caught under the tire, but in a panic, I was able to slip out of my collar and run away!

The place for relaxing on the patio is not so much now.

This stock tank received another top of a tree – guess it might be a used as a raised bed container now!

Wasn’t I cool to get my own picture in this one!  I don’t think this tree understands that windbreak doesn’t mean to break in the wind!

The turbine was spared, just the top of this tree on some guy wires.

The area in the chicken yard is a mangled mess.

Two peach trees down here.

A big apple tree down here.  I can’t count very well, but counted three peach trees, an apple, a cherry, and a plum tree down.  They won’t be very happy about this.  Only five days until they come home!

one year ago…”End of the Road”

July 6, 2011 – Linda’s Visit to White House With Bonus Obama Visit!

Pretty good day, as those things go. Linda and the other rural America “Champions of Change” first toured the White House. As no cameras were allowed, use your imagination!

She was able to get this photo outside the White House.

From the photostream of the event:

Linda Barnes, Farmer and Educator, Marshalltown Community College (MCC), IA, at the White House Rural Champions of Change meeting at the White House, in Washington, DC, on July 6, 2011. She was asked to participate along with President Barack Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the President’s Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes and rural communities leaders from across the country for the White House Rural Champions of Change event to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth. Linda Barnes is a professor of biology at the Marshalltown Community College and also an organic farmer. She founded the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial Agriculture Program at MCC which is the first associate degree program in sustainable agriculture in the Midwest. The program focuses on improving attitudes related to sustainable agriculture due to their practical, hand-on focus and local connections. I believe there is a significant component of this program that is geared towards immigrant communities in the area. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

Linda briefly spoke to the President, no doubt the part of their conversation that delved into the preferred s’more marshmallow roasting habits of the Obama family, probably did more to make her visit more memorable than a barrage of policy questions!

one year ago…”Hauling Garlic”

July 5, 2011 – Linda Visits Claire in DC

Linda was able to drop in and see Claire (and actually have a sleepover at Claire’s place one night while she was there).

mother and daughter at USDA

Mother and Daughter in front of USDA building, Claire’s work station for the summer.

intern at work

After all the photos of her out and about town, there’s at least one of her at work!

founding farmers

Claire picked out this place for them to dine.  This acclaimed restaurant is owned by the North Dakota Farmer’s Union! Great food and atmosphere.

mother and daughter at capitol

At the Capitol at dusk.

one year ago…”Hauling Lumber”

June 28, 2011 – Busload of Teachers Visits High Hopes

Today a busload of teachers visited the farm. The local Farm Bureau sponsors the event.

It was part of a tour educating teachers about different types of farms.

Although we only had a short time, Linda ushered them around the farm to tell the story of local agriculture.

They were lucky to get in safely – the driver cut the corner a bit close and dropped down three feet into the ditch and bottomed out the bus.

one year ago…”Garage Progress”

June 26, 2011 – Des Moines Art Fair

We haven’t been to the Des Moines Art Fair for a few years.  It’s highly competitive for artists to gain entry – last I heard it was in the top three in the nation in terms of highest artist revenue of all art fairs in the U.S.

Lots of fanciful wind turbines at this booth.

We couldn’t pass this piece up.  Many of you may know of the story of Linda’s camp name – Raven.  It’s much too long to relate here, but that’s all I knew about her the first six months I knew her. This fanciful piece with a raven and scrabble letters will find it’s way on a wall somewhere in our house

one year ago…”Cherry Pie”

June 24, 2011 – Martin’s First Trout

As long as we had to drive to Decorah to pick up Emma from music camp, we thought we’d take in some trout fishing in the area (yes, I know to most of the world “Iowa Trout” is an oxymoron of the 1st degree).  My brother met us with his camper, so we didn’t even have to sleep on the ground.

boy with trout

Martin had a bot of a struggle at the beginning learning a new kind of fishing that requires pinpoint accurary in casting, but he eventually got the hang of it.

boy on trout stream

And again…

I couldn’t resist this short video of a classic scene of young boy and flopping fish. We look forward to smoking the 20 trout we brought home!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #214″

June 18, 2011 – Claire Leaves for DC

Who could imagine this girl from the middle of nowhere in Iowa, setting out for a summer in DC, following a summer in India! Claire has certainly taken advantage of opportunities and shows what a bit of dedication and persistence can do, no matter where you live.

Here she is, with her summer full of bags, ready to take off to the airport to begin her summer.

Following is a brief summary about this summer’s internship lifted from the Carver-Wallace intern page – you can read more about Claire and the other interns at the Carver-Wallace Intern page.

“Fulfilling the shared vision of Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and World Food Prize founder Dr. Norman Borlaug of inspiring the next generation of American scientific and humanitarian leaders, the United States Department of Agriculture and the World Food Prize Foundation have partnered to create the Wallace-Carver Internship Program.

The prestigious USDA Wallace-Carver Internships offer exceptional high school and college students the opportunity to collaborate with world-renowned scientists and policymakers through paid internships at leading USDA research centers and offices across the United States.

Fifteen former Borlaug-Ruan International Interns were selected to participate in the inaugural program in Summer 2011. These exceptional young leaders will be stationed at USDA research centers for eight weeks over the summer, where they will analyze agricultural and economic policy; assist in the management of food, nutrition and rural development programs; and take part in groundbreaking field and laboratory-based research.

The Wallace-Carver Internships kick off with a dynamic leadership and orientation training week in Washington D.C., hosted by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, where the students have the opportunity to:

  • meet privately with the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture;
  • discuss global and domestic food security challenges with key officials from USDA, the State Department and USAID;
  • attend the World Food Prize Laureate Announcement Ceremony at the State Department and interact with a range of global leaders in science, industry, and policy;
  • meet with the scientific leadership of the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and tour the world’s largest and most diversified agricultural research complex;
  • engage with World Food Prize Laureates, as well as young scientific, congressional and humanitarian leaders working to end hunger and poverty in America and abroad during intimate dinner discussions around the District.”

As I told Claire, I hope that only the discussions turn intimate in the District.  Many in the District seem to have troubles knowing when to share their intimates!

one year ago…”High Hopes Flowers Grace Cover of Midwest Living Magazine”

June 15, 2011 – Baby!

Two of the four quads have become very friendly as we are supplementing them by bottle feeding.

Their names are very creative – much like the thousands of Golden Retrievers named “Golden”by their child owners.  The lambs are named “baby” as when we go to give a bottle, if they are not in sight, we call out “baaaaaybeeee” and they come running.

one year ago…”In Case of Fire”

June 13, 2011 – Back Room

It’s time to remodel the final unremodeled room in the house – the back entry way.  When we moved in, it was a laundry room, we turned it into an office of sort and just did some painting to spiff it up.

Here, I’m debating more about pounding out the plaster ceiling.  Part of the room had a plaster ceiling, part had a beadboard ceiling, and nowhere was there insulation to be found in the original part of the house.

one year ago…”Dominoes”

June 10, 2011 – Visit to Squash Blossom Farm

Today, I was able to visit a long-time blog follower and fellow small farmer from just outside Rochester, Minnesota.  Squash Blossom Farm has a farm blog and was just featured in Rochester Today magazine, so I don’t have to try to get all the details right.

It was bread baking day, so we were able to see the wood-fired brick oven in action. We had a nice tour around the farm – some things were very familiar, and others not.

They are fortunate to live near to town and a bike trail, so they have converted an old granary into a farm store.  This fanciful table is just one of the items for sale.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #212″

June 6, 2011 – Kitchen Subsidy Garden

There must be something in the air – just a few weeks after Linda’s presentation in DC where she wondered “what if farm subsidies were granted in proportion to the recommendations of the food pyramid.” Roger Doiron of kitchengardeners.org comes out with another take on the same concept. He used the first garden at the white house since the Roosevelt administration to show what the garden looks like and what it would look like if it were planted in crops to the relation of federal funding:

Corn receives 35 percent of funding; wheat, 20 percent; cotton, 20 percent; and soybeans, 15 percent. Money is also channeled to cash crops like tobacco, rice, and sorghum. But fruits, vegetables, nuts, and other specialty crops account to about 1%.

one year ago…”Devils Lake State Park”

June 5, 2011 – Weaning Lambs

It’s time to wean our lambs from their mommies – when the lambs are big enough to lift their mom’s back legs off the ground when they extend their head up to attach, it’s time to separate them and give the moms a break. After about 3-4 weeks the milk production drops as the lambs begin to graze.

It is however, a few loud days as the bleat and beller excessively, day and night. A book I read by Temple Grandin suggested to keep them in view of each other and to be able to sniff through a fence, so we are trying that this year instead of totally separating them. After one day, the ewe we call d$%m ewe has managed to somehow get two of her four babies through the fence, while all the other lambs (12 of them) remain separated.

one year ago…”Frank Lloyd Wright – Taliesin Tour”

June 4, 2011 – D$%N Thistles

I’ve been fighting thistles for years in the pasture, it seems.  Many years ago, when we rented the pasture for cattle grazing, a big round bale that was brought it left its mark the next year by sprouting a patch of thistles.  I’ve tried periodic mowing to knock them back, but since they tiller well and have big roots, it’s hard to get rid of them.

canadian thistle bud stage

Evidently, the best way to get rid of them (as in most effective, not most fun) is to pull them by hand when they are just about to bloom, as the roots have given most of their energy to the flowering and are at their weakest ebb of the season.  So, all five of us donned leather gloves and systematically walked though 1/3 of the pasture and yanked them all.  My hope is, we will have to do this only one more time when the grow back again to weaken them enough to say uncle and find some other place to live.  Like good fences, no blooming patches of thistles makes good neighbors!

one year ago…”First Celery”

June 3, 2011 – Window Dolly

We’re slowly taking on remodeling of the last untouched room in the house. All the windows in the house are new except for the side door entry room. When we moved it into the house it was the laundry room (always nice when first thing visitors see is your piles of laundry!). We moved that to a new location on the main floor and just painted over the dark green/brown paneling and made it an office – but it’s best use will be a pantry/mud room. The first step is new windows, so to make them match the rest of the house, I ordered them unfinished and am finishing them now.

I happened across this great time-saving attachment to paint window sashes – set them on a carpeted furniture dolly – you can finish both sides and easily turn them around to get all four sides.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #211″

June 1, 2011 – Hayrides Never Go Out of Style

One of our neighbors was good enough to offer us as much of the loose straw in his loft that we care to haul away – coons and the like have destroyed most the strings. It’s a pain to get out and haul, but offers us great mulch and the chance for Martin to ride on a load of straw under a big sky, with the wind in his air, bouncing up and down on a load of straw.

He was able to ride the mile or so across the field on top of the load – something every kid should have a chance to do. Now, when the wind stops, I’ll spread it on the garden.

one year ago…”Summer Painting”

May 23, 2011 – Concolor Firs

One of the three varieties of trees in the house windbreak is concolor fir.

concolor fir

These trees started out rather straggly growing, but after about five years they took on their nice cylindrical shape. The windbreak now does a good job of capturing snow and we can no longer see the farm to the north out the house windows.

concolor fir needles

This time of year, the new growth is minty green and very soft.

one year ago…”Minister Claire?”

May 17, 2011 – First Tomatoes in the Ground

It’s rather a long job, but one that only needs to be done once a season. The first couple of rows of tomatoes are in. It requires laying the weed barrier down, hauling the stakes and cages from storage, cutting out the milk cartons, spreading the straw, planting, and putting the stakes and cages up.

But it leads to practically no weeding this bed the rest of the summer and offering the tomatoes a more constant supply of moisture. These are the best-looking beds on the farm at the moment – the rest still need some work, but this photo shows tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, fall raspberries, and blackberries in the distance.

one year ago…”Garage as Test Case”

May 16, 2011 – Paw-paw Flowers

I noticed these bizarre Chinese-lantern looking things on the Paw-Paw tree this week. This is the first year flowering for this tree, but I don’t think we’ll get fruit because the partner tree did not make it and the replacement is too small to flower.

pawpaw flower

Unless, perhaps there’s another in the neighborhood we don’t know about that can cross-pollinate this one.

one year ago…”Peonies and Ants”

May 13, 2011 – Claire’s Back

Now that Claire’s back, we get to shake up the menu a bit by adding Indian dishes to the rotation.

Tonight she made naan, a bean-carrot fry, a spinach potato curd curry, and a type of rice pudding.  We’ll let her cook anytime! It gave me occasion to try out a whole new series of puns, some of which have very small audiences. First, it’s the early 90’s band “4 Naan Blondes,” or the pile of naan that have sight, smell, and touch, or “Naansense,” of the newspaper headline after the 747 takeoff was aborted after encountering a pile of naan on the runway “Naan Stop Flight.” The family has had enough groaning, so I’ll stop there!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #208″

May 9, 2011 – Demolition Man

Unless you are a builder, professional building imploder, or have a special on some cable network, most men don’t get too many chances to demolish a building. I’ve been working on the old granary out in the pasture off an on since last fall. A lesser man may have found a match, but I have spent the time salvaging as much of the wood from the building as possible. The granary was probably dragged out to the pasture in the early 70’s and has been deteriorating ever since.

Some of the floor joists from the 2nd story floor are seen leaning against the fence. I
I’ve removed all the wide boards from the interior, all but three of the 2nd level floor joists and some of the supporting wall 2x4s. The building finally reached the point where it wasn’t safe to keep working on it.

So now decision time comes. How to get the building down safely and try to prevent as many of the wall studs and roof rafters from crushing? After a few days of walking around and in the granary and ruminating, I came upon a plan that required the tractor and a long chain. At the end of the day, the building fell just as I had planned – down.

Actually, it fell about as perfectly as I could have wished. First, I ran the chain around the bottom of the short wall on the north side and pulled the bottom of the wall out with the tractor. Next, I repeated the same step on the opposite short side and almost as the last wall stud was ripped out, the building leaned to the east – the east and west walls fell due east and the roof stayed intact and rested on the east wall and exposed the west wall.

Now I have a few weeks of additional salvage. I’ve got a plan for some of the wood, but that’s for another day.

one year ago…”Cuban Bread”

May 4, 2011 – Polecat

Not a polecat in the traditional sense of the word (skunk), but instead a our black cat Ora, checking out her domain from above.

black cat on pole

Actually, the cat is also monitoring Linda as she gives a supplemental feeding to a couple of the bottle lambs from the set of quads.

bottle lambs

I wonder if the cat might not be licking up any spilled milk after the feeding is over?

one year ago…”Thought on Youth Coaches”

May 1, 2011 – Family Circus with Apoligies to Billy

It’s Sunday morning and there’s nothing quite like sitting down with the Sunday paper comics and looking upon the map of the circuitous route that Billy in the Family Circus takes from the house to the mailbox.  We had the high hopes version of that with a ewe and four of her lambs this afternoon.

It started innocently enough, Linda was moving the ewe with her quadruplets from her solitary stall in the barn out to some grass, now that all were getting along well.  Unfortunately, this ewe is the most distrustful of humans in the flock – she’s always been that way and we have no idea of the trauma she must have suffered at a younger age before we acquired her, but she is a pain to work with because she doesn’t think like the other sheep.  She doesn’t seem to need to be with the herd, she won’t go in the barn with the other 6 ewes for morning grain snack time until I leave the barn and much of the grain is gobbled up.

So as we were moving her the 30 feet from her stall to the pasture with the flock, she decided it was not time to be with the flock, but to be a wild sheep.  The map above shows our farm and about a half-mile across and up and down.  She bolted out away from the barn (red track) ran off of our land headed east down the fenceline, then headed south down another fenceline until she came to a creek  I thought I’d have her there, since she wouldn’t get across the creek. But she jumped the creek, and her four lambs followed her and she started heading to the blacktop road to the south.  Linda ran back and hopped in the car and positioned the car on the blacktop (290th) to prevent crossing that direction.  She was successful and Martin and I were running in the field, trying to get them back to the farm.

They went to the farm, but ran by and went to the north fenceline and beyond and ran a half mile down the field road.  At this point we took a break and each grabbed our cell phones and Linda drove around the section a mile down and was going to approach the sheep from the opposite direction on the field road.  She caught up with them where the red squiggles are in the NE corner.  By this time a neighbor came by in his tractor and joined the fray.  We got them turned around and heading back to the west.

Where the line turns purple, one lamb dropped off (probably from exhaustion) and while Linda patrolled the dirt road with the car to prevent them going further north, I was trying to get them to move back west.  Martin and the neighbor grabbed the tired lamb.

The ewe and remaining lambs ran back past the farm, but where the purple line turns yellow, Linda was able to grab two more of the tired lambs.  Now we had three lambs in possession, with the ewe and one lamb to go.  We had the momma bait we needed.  From there, it was rather uneventful getting them all back in the fence.  All in all, those week-old lambs probably ran about two miles, as did I through the unplanted cornfields, enough exercise for the day!

one year ago…”High Hopers Featured on Dock Jumping Blog”

April 29, 2011 – Bees at Work

Bees are fascinating little creatures.  They are no doubt among the happiest creatures that spring has finally sprung.

bee pollen sac on daffodil

Here’s a bee gathering pollen from a daffodil.  Notice the little yellow sacs on its legs where it collects the pollen.

bee pollen sac

Here’s more of a close-up which shows the sacs a little better. The pollen is the protein that makes the hive hum.

bee on plum flower

There’s also busy on the first flowering tree, this plum.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #206″

April 25, 2011 – Quad Lambs!

Our most skittish ewe surprised us with four lambs today!  Doing the morning chores, we saw her with recently-born twins, so we ushered her and her lambs into the mothering pen.  We checked on her a bit later and she was fine.

I left for errands and when Linda got home, there were four lambs in the pen!  We wish her well and will probably need to help her along with extra milk.

one year ago…”Locavoring at Church Conference”

April 22, 2010 – Spring in Suspended Animation

Despite a couple of 85 degree plus Sundays in April, the rest of the month is just short of miserable. We should be in the mid-60’s by now, but it seems many days it struggles to reach 50.

Most everything seems to be in suspended animation. This asparagus is purple because of the cold and hasn’t  shown appreciable growth in a week since it poked out.

Fruit tree buds, like these plums, are likewise, just holding steady and not advancing like they usually do. Last year the plum trees were in full bloom on April 14 – looks like this year could be two weeks or more behind last year’s blooming time.

Despite being the 8th warmest March on record on a global scale, we did not contribute to that warmth. There’s blue dots over us. April will likely be even much colder from average than March.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #205″

April 20, 2011 – Powerline Problems

The last few days the turbine has been shutting down during times it should not.  I checked the diagnostic software that transmits info from the turbine itself.  The software reported that the grid voltage was not ok.  Line 1 voltage was at 133 and line 1 at 120 (the voltage should be close to the same on both lines). I called the power company, and within 30 minutes there was a truck here to look at the problem.  They thought it sounded like a neutral problem and it looked like the neutral wire connection near the transformed was bad, so they reconnected it and it was fine for a while.

The next day it was reporting the same problem and the lights in the house were slightly dimming and brightening.  I called again, and this time they found a problem on the pole in our yard.  One of the hot wires had lost its plastic coating and had evidently run against something it wasn’t supposed to touch and it looked like it had arced and melted about 1/3 to 1/4 of the metal strands that supplies power.

The red circle shows the replaced section of wire.  This tells me that the Skystream is a good forecaster of future household electrical problems and it does a good job of protecting itself  in the case of a problem with the quality of electricity coming to the house and turbine.  Kudos to Consumers Energy for promptly responding and fixing the problem!

one year ago…”Emma on the Track”

April 17, 2011 – What Should Maizie Do?

Life isn’t always pretty and beautiful on the farm. This post from Maizy proves it.

First off, it wasn’t my fault. Last night my owners gave me too much leftover rib fat and rib bones from their dinner. I had to eat it all, and it went down so easy I had to steal from the cat’s portions as well. Then they locked me up in the mud room overnight. I tried whimpering so they’d let me out when I started having problems. Did they come? No.

dog doo

I missed MOST of their shoes and boots with the four separate piles I left. Now I’m getting the stink eye from them. What do I do? Pretend it never happened? Act all guilty like those dogs in the You Tube Guilty dog videos?

one year ago…”Spring Mushrooms”

April 16, 2011 – More Depressing News – Soil this Time

The information from the Iowa Daily Erosion Project paints a grimmer picture than a recent assessment by federal officials. The U.S.D.A’s 2007 National Resources Inventory, released last year, estimated that erosion in Iowa averaged 5.2 tons an acre each year. That was slightly higher than the five tons per acre that the department estimated was a tolerable annual rate of erosion for most Iowa soils.  (Soils “regenerate” 0.5 tons per year, so even our “acceptable” levels lead to a net loss of 4.5 tons per acre per year.)

While the federal report estimates average rates of erosion for states and regions over a full year, the Erosion Project uses detailed information on rainfall and field conditions to estimate soil loss in 1,581 Iowa townships — nearly all of them — after each storm. Last year, according to Erosion Project data analyzed by the Environmental Working Group, the average estimated rate of erosion exceeded the sustainable level in 133 townships. In 2009, an estimated 641 townships exceeded the sustainable rate, including nearly 400 that had double or more that rate.

The project also provides a picture of the erosion caused by severe storms, like the one that dumped more than seven inches of rain in parts of southwest Iowa in May 2007. In a single day, the figures show, 69 townships had average estimated soil losses of more than 10 tons an acre. Of those, 14 townships were estimated to have an average loss between 20 tons and nearly 40 tons per acre. The 2007 storm was exceptionally damaging, but severe storms are becoming more frequent, according to a state report on climate change submitted in January to the Iowa Legislature and governor. (Around here, it pains me to see after every 2-3 inch downpour in the growing season when the crop canopy isn’t full (Oct-June) to see the gullies deepen.  Finally, when it gets hard to get equipment across the gullies, the farmers get out blades and push surrounding soil into the gullies, so it can wash out again during the next big storm.  These farmers don’t ever plant grassy waterways – and they are getting your tax dollars!)

But agronomists say that heavy erosion in unprotected areas can significantly diminish crop yields, and, over time, land that is not well cared for can become depleted. That means farmers must use more fertilizer to increase yields. (On our farm, there is a noticeable drop from our land to the adjacent crop field – most people estimate that half the original topsoil is already gone.)

More than anything else this year, farmers are making decisions based on how they can best take advantage of corn and soybean prices, which have soared in recent months. Dr. Cruse said that creates a paradox. When crop prices are low and farmers are scraping by, many say they cannot afford to take steps to protect their fields from erosion. Now, he said, they say they still cannot afford it because there is too much profit to be made from farming every bit of land. The same incentives have landowners clearing steep hillsides or converting pasture to cropland to cultivate or rent out. (Last year 17 acres of steep pasture adjacent to our farm was plowed up into cropland.)

Seeing the richest soil in the world washed away by careless practices is one of the hardest parts about driving home.  It might not affect the current generation much, but it can’t continue if we are to maintain the ability of the land to produce crops for those that follow us. It also pains me to know that many (in this county alone) of those farmers have received millions of dollars out of the public treasury.

Maybe tomorrow we can return to prancing lambs or budding branches.

(From an article in NY Times, italics mine)

one year ago…”Sometimes the Middle Child Lucks Out”

April 15, 2011 – Antibiotic Reistant Staph on Meat Samples

A new report, saying that risky forms of Staph bacteria are showing up in supermarkets at “unexpectedly high rates,” is raising concerns about whether the US meat and poultry industries are relying too heavily on antibiotic drugs.

Nearly half of meat and poultry samples in the nationwide study — 47 percent — were contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that medical experts link to various human diseases. Of that amount, more than half the bacteria were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics, according to the study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix.

The group said its findings raise concerns that widespread use of antibiotics in animal feed makes industrial farms breeding grounds for drug-resistant bacteria that can move from animals to humans.

“The fact that drug-resistant [Staph] was so prevalent, and likely came from the food animals themselves, is troubling, and demands attention to how antibiotics are used in food-animal production today,” Lance Price, senior author of the study, said in a statement released with the report.

Microbiology experts including Dr. Price worry that the rise in drug-resistant bacteria makes it harder to treat Staph-related diseases. “Antibiotics are the most important drugs that we have to treat Staph infections; but when Staph are resistant to three, four, five or even nine different antibiotics — like we saw in this study — that leaves physicians few options,” Price said. The research institute notes that proper cooking kills the bacteria, although it can also pose a risk “through improper food handling and cross-contamination in the kitchen.”

Researchers collected and analyzed 136 samples–covering 80 brands–of beef, chicken, pork and turkey from 26 retail grocery stores in five U.S. cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Flagstaff and Washington, D.C.. DNA testing suggested that the food animals themselves were the major source of contamination. The study was funded through a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts as part of The Pew Campaign on Human Health and Industrial Farming.

The American Meat Institute issued a news release saying the nation’s meat and poultry supply is “among the safest in the world.” The association, representing red meat and turkey processors, took special issue with the size of the study: “It is notable that the study involved only 136 samples of meat and poultry from 80 brands in 26 retail grocery stores in five U.S. cities.  This small sample is insufficient to reach the sweeping conclusions conveyed in a news release about the study.” The statement also says that when raw meat is handled properly and cooked thoroughly, heat will destroy bacteria whether or not they are resistant to antibiotics.

However, Caroline DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., said the study results suggest that consumers might benefit by wearing gloves when they handle raw meat. “It’s making us rethink our advice to the public,” she said.

(The content above originally appeared in the LA Times.)

So, now is the penalty for an undercooked burger or having a paper cut when handling meat a staph infection that is resistant to up to nine different antibiotics? I’m not comfortable starting to don a hazmat suit when handling red meat. I’ll continue to get my beef from the neighbor down the road and local locker and my poultry from the back yard!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #204″

April 13, 2011 – The Streak Continues – 4 Days in a Row

Our ewe Gabby gave birth today.  We can officially blame Martin for the fact that she only dropped one lamb.  The night before she became a mom, Martin asked if ewes ever only had one baby.  We told him not very often and we’ve never had just one.

boy with lamb

So Gabby made liars out of us.  When she was labor, she REALLY wanted to be a mommy!  I moved one of the ewes out of the mommy-baby pen in anticipation of Gabby and her babies needing the space.  As soon as Gabby saw the other lambs from another ewe, she started licking and nursing them as her own while her own birthing process was beginning.  I separated her quickly as to not get everybody mixed up on who’s who.

one year ago…”New York Farm Workers Bill”

April 11, 2011 – U2 Gives Birth

Our 2nd ewe (also known forever after as U2) dropped her lambs today.  I went back to the back pasture to continue tearing down the old granary.  Smart mommy U2, dropped her lambs out int he pasture in a sunny spot, in the lee of the strong wind near the granary.

It took some convincing to get her into the pen in the barn to bond with her babes and for her owners to insure she’s nursing for a day or two before being allowed back outside again.

one year ago…”New Front Door”

April 10, 2011 – First Ewe Drops Triplets

As is usual with our goats and sheep, Sunday morning is a traditional time to drop babies.  Our first ewe to drop lambs this year followed in that tradition.

No sitting around watching and wondering if everything’s ok – just lambs walking around when we check on them.  We’re generally not fond of triplets, but our Kahtadin ewes have done fine with them so far.

one year ago…”Getting Garden Started”

April 5, 2011 – Old Fence!

I think in this photo you can see an old woven wire fence that a tree has grown around.

Not only has the tree grown around the fence, on the top of the photo, you can see that the tree has also grown around the fencepost that used to support the wires.  Replacing this small section of fence is the last remaining tree clean-up task as I had a hard time laying down this section of the fence before the tree came down.

one year ago…”Linda’s Speaking Gig”

March 30, 2011 – Tractor vs Tree

I’ve spent a good part of the last few weeks cutting up firewood and hauling branches from the old maple tree that came down a couple weeks ago.  The day finally arrived to try to move the main trunk sections down to the burn pile in the pasture.  It was a true case of tractor vs tree.  Tree won the first round.  I needed to cut one part of the trunk in two as the tractor could barely budge it.  That was the first time the tractor had been denied.

So, here’s the first section, almost ready to be released to the pile.

More sign that the tree put up a good fight.  I now have an “opportunity” to reseed the area around the tree and the dragging path in the pasture

The big trunks all in their place.  It’ll be a warm December fire when these guys light up!

one year ago…”Winter Damage”

March 28, 2011 – Hooking Up

When you hook up, it’s very important to get the connection correct.  Of course, there are a number of ways to hook up, some better than others.  It’s time for another irregular handyman hint.

This shows hooking up the chain one way – with the link  inserted perpendicular to the hook.

Another way to hook up is to insert the hook into a link. One method of hooking up is much better than the other.  Know which one?

The top one is superior as it is easier to unhook after tensioning the chain in the chain, the bottom one can get the hook stuck in the link.

one year ago…”Vote for Eliza”

March 26, 2011 – Burn, Baby Burn!

Because of the row of new trees down the center of the back pasture, the area from the trees to the back property line hasn’t been grazed for a bout 5 years.  I was time to reduce some of the biomass to let this year’s plants sprout.

Martin ready with some buckets of water, backpack sprayer, and shovels to snuff out fires.

Here, Linda spreads the backfire, moving the fire against the wind.

Once the backfires were lit, we could let the wind take the fire to the backfires.

Martin and Linda on patrol to make sure the fire doesn’t creep upwind to the pine trees.  The mowed path nest to the trees does the most to stop the flames.

The final result.  It’s great to have an excuse to play with fire.

one year ago…”Landscape Architecture Class Visit”

March 25, 2011 – Spring Put on Hold

After a nice week last week, we have plunged to days 15-20 degrees below normal.  Some days it’s struggled to get above freezing (when it is “supposed” to be in the 50’s).

It looks like the maple flowers might have taken a bit of a hit.

This flower is rather bizarre looking – with all the flowing red tentacles it wouldn’t look out of place in a deep sea documentary.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #201″

March 22, 2011 – First Thunderstorm Downpour of the Season

Last night the sirens went off for the first time of the season and some property was lost as a tornado packing 120 mph winds danced across a county south of Des Moines. For our part, all that landed on our farm was heavy rain and pea-sized hail.

This rain arranged a winter’s accumulation of dead pine needles and other debris into nice pine needle dunes as the water lapped off the driveway. It also took all the frost out of the ground and the earthworms did appear!

one year ago…”Paul Simon and Ali Farokhmanesh – Separated at Birth?”

March 21, 2011 – Happy Spring!

The first brave shoots are plunging up out of the ground, the days are now longer than the nights. But the first real sign of spring, at least to me, are earthworm trails or castings that mean the ground is unfrozen – I still haven’t seen those signs yet. Setting fence posts this weekend, we still found some frozen ground.

one year ago…”Moving Ewes”

March 19, 2011 – New Fence

One thing that is under-appreciated by most urban dwellers is the work and importance of fences.  They’re more work than they seem with branches falling on them in storms and mulberries growing up in them. Lately, we’ve been having too many chicken escapes – they are scratching up the garlic beds and going where they are not supposed to go.  We don’t allow them in the gardens during the growing season.

We put up 150 feet of woven wire around part of the chicken yard.  It used to be cattle panels, with old bits of lath jimmied between the wider squares near the ground the chickens could sneak through.  Now any chickens that get over are flying and get a “wing haircut” to keep them in their place!

We dragged the panels to the back pasture where we could extend our back pasture a bit more as well.  It pretty much shot the afternoon.

one year ago…”Last Lambs Hit the Ground”

March 18, 2011 – Ducks and Fish

I’ve been trying to be a bit more deliberate about getting out more.  Truth is, I could work 120 hours a week on the farm and still not get everything done.  The last few days we’ve been watching the migration at a local marsh, Hendrickson Marsh on the Story-Marshall county line.  This was the first day the ice was out.

For this part of the world, it’s a pretty big marsh.  It sets in about a mile square block and water probably takes up 1/4 of the square mile.  It’s a magnet for ducks and geese.

The were thousands of ducks here today.

We thought we’d try to catch some garden fertilizer in the stream below the marsh.  I’m going to try to make a fish emulsion.  We didn’t get any big ones, but plenty of little ones and it was a great way to spend a Friday afternoon.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #200″

March 16, 2011 – Mushroom Logs Inoculated with Spawn

Wednesday was a good day!  Claire’s been home fro spring break to escape the lingering Minnesota snow.  I ordered small amounts of six different types of mushrooms, 3 oyster varieties and 3 shiitake varieties.  We order the plugs, and I got 100 plugs of each kind – so we have about two logs of each variety.  Of course, we have plenty of wood as the giant maple was cut a few weeks ago – and now is the perfect time to inoculate the logs.

Claire drills the holes in the logs.

Martin pounds the dowels in the logs.  As you can see in the background, the maple syrup boil continues.

The ends and dowels are sealed up with beeswax and the logs moved to to a shady spot to wait to bloom with mushrooms.

one year ago…”Three Cats in the Sun”

March 6, 2011 – Martin the Accordionist!

Who’d of thunk that a few weeks after our visit to the accordion restaurant, we’d have an accordion in our very home!

A long-time friend has recently been unable to resist the temptation to buy accordions in the last year or so, and offered to let Martin try out one of her recent acquisitions.  As he already has the keys down, it’s just a matter of learning the buttons and getting the arm strength to move the bellows.  Martin loves music, so along with the piano and trombone, he’s going to see how he likes accordion.

one year ago…”Ewe Lambs Birth with No Problems”

March 4, 2011 – Coming Soon to a River Near You

Looks like yet another Iowa farm field is set to whisk the water quickly out of the field and into a waterway.

Here’s a bunch of field drainage tile, waiting to be buried under the field, to quickly drain excess water away. There’s been a number of reasons for increased flooding lately, and this is just one – an expressway for rainfall from farm fields (which cover 88% of Iowa) to the rivers. It wouldn’t be so bad if our tax dollars were just supporting the farmers to install the tile, but we also get to pay for flood relief for the increased frequency and severity of flooding along Midwestern rivers.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #198″

February 27, 2011 – This Old Shed

We’ve descended into a dreary, cold and borderline icy low stratus/fog weather period. We were going to go hear Michael Perry (Coop, Truck – a Love Story, and Population 485 ) speak tonight, but the roads seemed a bit dodgy to drive 45 minutes both ways. We did go to a panel discussion about literary agents and editors yesterday, part of a writing symposium at ISU – the panel consisted to agents, and editors from Milkweed Press, and Orion magazine.

So what we did do was head down to the pasture to keep hacking away at deconstructing the old granary.

Inside there are some nice boards that will be beautiful once they are planed down a bit.

Most of the nails are the old square-headed type. We’re saving as many as we can, especially the interior nails which are still in pretty good shape.

one year ago…”Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference”

February 22, 2011 – Tree Down

Wow, the giant tree was felled!  I wish I was home to see it crash to the ground (and not on any buildings).

Martin stands by the trunk for scale.

It was a whopper of a tree and provided lots of shade for grazing animals in its day.  Looks like there will not be a shortage of wood for winter bonfires.  I think I’ll also get a bit of firewood from it, and a bunch of mushroom logs as well – think of it as a kinder, gentler version of the Giving Tree.

The space around the tree – compare to yesterday’s post to see the last known photograph of the tree.!

one year ago…”Snowbanks Along Hwy 20″

February 21, 2011 – Uh-Oh

When we started tapping trees, I noticed a big uh-oh on one of the giant silver maples near the back pasture.

The tree on the left is the tree that is about done for the world.  It’s about 15 feet in circumference at my chest, which makes the diameter about 4.5 feet across!

On the back side, a new crack has developed along the portion where the two main trunks split. Much of this potion overhangs a shed. These maples are inherently weak, so I had a tree service out today and it’s scheduled to come down tomorrow. Better now than falling on the shed, or breaking the fence when the animals are out and we’re not home.

one year ago…”Old House Problems”

February 20, 2011 – Let the Boil Begin!

The week in the 50’s and 60’s that melted all the snow, also started the maple sap running.

Here Martin checks out the new old stove, one that we borrowed from the good folks at Morning Sun Farm, who upgraded to an even bigger stove. This one works much faster than last year’s model.

Just look at that cloud of evaporation as the sap boils away.  In addition to tapping the trees, Martin has been excited about chopping wood – he puts the wood up on the chopping block and stacks it.  It’s been a good team this spring!

one year ago…”New Blog Host”

February 18, 2011 – Early Tap

Can you believe it’s February 16th and the sap is flowing?   Last year at this time, the snowdrifts were still to the tops of the fenceposts!

We’re trying a new collection method this season.  I bought a few of these collecting bags to try.  You just put in the tap and then hang the bag holder and tap on the tree.

Martin putting the bag in place.  As the season goes on, we’ll keep you up to date.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #196″

February 16, 2011 – Farm Fixture April Has Chased Last Rabbit

Today was the day every pet owner dreads – having to willingly drive to the vet to put a long-time pet away. April had slowly given up the will to live, not eating as much, then not eating at all, not drinking water, and finally the last two days, not moving from her comfortable place in the hay in the barn. So it was time.

April had been on the farm before Martin was born.  The girls were three and five when we retrieved April from the shelter.

For 14 years, April has been part of the backdrop to the farm.

She took seriously her animal guarding duties.  Whenever we packed up livestock, she spent the night close by, instead of in her usual spot.

In her younger days, she accompanied us to cut a Christmas tree.  We’re guessing she was a mix of Golden Retriever and Collie.  We called her our Marilyn Monroe dog.  She was laid back and non-barking – things I prize in a a dog!

Like everyone, she had her faults and quirks – the biggest one was her terror of thunderstorms.  When she was young, she was caught in a hailstorm, and rather than seeking shelter, she ran around in the hailstones – some big enough to break windows in the house.  After that, she would stop at nothing to get into the house during thunderstorms.  She destroyed two doors, before we learned to call her into the house when storms were coming and put up steel doors, so she couldn’t hurt herself or the doors if a storm came when we weren’t home.

It was a good life on the farm – sunshine and children to play with.

April always insisted on being part of the first day of school photos.

Everyone in the family had a chance to say goodbye to April.  Last night,  Claire even did when we put the phone up to April’s ear so Claire could say good-bye and April could hear her voice one last time.

Each child in this world, if they are lucky, only gets one good dog to grow up with.  For our kids, we can thank April for being that special dog that they shared their childhood with.  Thanks April.

one year ago…”Sheep Bagging Up”

February 15, 2011 – Footprints in the Snow

Isn’t the world’s most popular poem about footprints in the sand? Well, there’s not much sand in Iowa in February, unless it’s clinging to dirty snowbanks on the side of the road. But there is snow – and footprints.

Martin and I went on a surveying mission in the back pasture yesterday.  The day before this photo, he walked through the back “pond” through many feet of snow.  When we came back the next day, we saw his footprints led to nowhere, for if you look in the center of the photo you can see the dark remains of footprints that were implanted in deep snow the day before are now under water.

It’s a good time of year to get out and move around a bit.  Water needs to be channeled and drained, trees need to be  checked on for winter rabbit damage, and boots need to get wet.

The foreground of this photo shows some of the willow cuttings I just stuck in the ground in this low area and didn’t mow or graze the last year. They were able to compete with the dense sod just fine.  So, I will continue this spring with their advance down this drainage.  Goats will be very happy to have browse!

one year ago…”Feeding Chickens in Winter”

February 9, 2011 – Low Ebb of Winter?

I certainly hope this week marks the low ebb of winter.

It’s been particularly cold and windy, making it unfit to be outdoors other than for brief periods.  The urge to get out and do something is particularly great now.  The days are getting longer, although darkness still rules the evening and early morning hours.  However, there’s promise of warmer weather ahead that might allow me to get out and prune trees, tear apart old buildings, or whatever else can be done outside.

one year ago…”More Snow”

February 8, 2011 – Claire’s Lemon Meringue Pie

OK, it’s back to Iowa farm-grown produce.  Today, we feature lemons. I neglected to post these back over Christmas break, when the lemon harvest began in earnest.

cut lemons

Yes, these lemons were grown at High Hopes Gardens, albeit indoors for some of the year.

Claire shows no remorse shortly after ripping these baby lemons from her long-time companion lemon tree, named Panda.  Being raised on a farm, and around farm animals, I guess she had no troubles tearing this lemon from its mother and immediately cutting it up.

The non-meringuey part of the pie.

lemon meringue pie

The completed pie.

Never one to know when to stop making Panda feeling bad, here Claire returns with a sinister smile to taunt Panda with what her babies looked like after being knifed, crushed, and cooked!

one year ago…”Home DNA”

February 4, 2011 – Emma Buries the Subaru!

Sorry, no pictures of the scene, I was at work when everything went down. Imagine this – a country road, a squad car with lights flashing, a mother mad at you for venturing out without a hat and mittens, and another neighbor there with a pickup plowing a path out and then towing you out. I’m sure it wasn’t Emma’s best trip to school.

The storm had left drifts on the road, but one lane had been plowed. At the first hill a hundred yards or so from our place, the story goes, Emma drove into the banks as to avoid a car that may or may not be cresting the hill at the same time. She ended up burying the car in a big drift. Now, I saw the gleam in her eyes when she arrive home a few days earlier and marveled at the ease of driving through the drifts on the way home from school shortly after the storm hit. So, if she’s anything like her father, the drifts on the hill may have been an attractive nuisance and called her name. But all’s well that ends well, she was only a few hundred feet from home and was retrieved in short order, although not with fanfare and blinking cop car lights for ambiance!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #194″

February 2, 2011 – Could Have Been Worse

The storm that has everyone riled up wasn’t over the top terrible at high hopes – we just hunkered down and waited.  Emma drove home after school yesterday and to my mind was a little too excited after crashing through snowdrifts with ease in the car to get home.

I had to use the Subaru as a plow because it was in front of the tractor in the shed and needed to move before the tractor could get out.  I made a start on clearing the driveway with the tractor, blade, and scoop before a neighbor came over with the industrial model snowblower.

It makes quick work of the heavy, compacted drifts.

The Christmas tree windbreak to the north captured about a four foot drift along the north edge of the property..

one year ago…”What Does Half a Beef Look Like?”

January 29, 2011 – Smallest Chicken Egg Ever!

There was a bit of a surprise in the chicken coop this evening – a mini-egg!  This egg was so small it would fall right through the egg basket!

smallest chicken egg

We’ve had some weird eggs before, but never one this small.  I guess if you were on a low cholesterol diet, you couldn’t get into much trouble eating this one.  I was hoping it would have a perfect little yolk, but it was all egg white inside.  Wouldn’t that have been cute in the frying pan?

one year ago…”How Much Noise Does a Skystream Make”

January 24, 2011 – 2010 Southwest Windpower Skystream Results

Ok, the numbers are finally in from last year’s Skystream production.  In summary, the Skystream produced nearly identical production per month (339 kWh in ’09 vs 333 kWh in ’10), but our household electric use dropped from an monthly average of 962 kWh to 857 kWh.

Production stats for the Skystream Turbine for 2009-2010.

Month kWh Produced
by Turbine
kWh Used by
house/farm
Jan ’09 334 1275
Feb ’09 368 1109
March ’09 482 899
April ’09 570 961
May ’09 433 782
June ’09 210 693
July ’09 177 867
Aug ’09 146 923
Sept ’09 130 801
Oct ’09 411 889
Nov ’09 383 686
Dec ’09 464 1315
2009 Totals 4068 11549
Jan ’10 334 733
Feb ’10 376 851
Mar ’10 389 713
April ’10 524 755
May ’10 384 946
June ’10 227 740
July ’10 120 823
Aug ’10 116 1254
Sept ’10 280 656
Oct ’10 304 687
Nov ’10 591 850
Dec ’10 353 922
2010 Totals 3998 10284

2009 Summary
In 2009, the Skystream produced 4068 kWh, an average of 339 kWh per month. The farm and household used 11,549 kWh, an average of 962 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 35.2% of our energy.

2010 Summary
In 2010, the Skystream produced 3998 kWh, an average of 333 kWh per month.  The farm and household used 10,284 kWh, an average of 857 kWh per month.  The Skystream produced 38.8% of our energy.

 

2009 Summary
In 2009, the Skystream produced 4,068 kWh, an average of 339 kWh per month. The farm and household used 11,549 kWh, an average of 962 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 38.6% of our energy.

2010 Summary
In 2010, the Skystream produced 3,998 kWh, an average of 333 kWh per month. The farm and household used 10,284 kWh, an average of 863 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 38.9% of our energy.

one year ago…”Sleep, Who Needs Sleep”

January 23, 2011 – Local Food Momentum Building

A couple items of note slipped by notice on the blog last week.  First, was the unveiling of the Iowa Food and Farm plan to the public.  I went to the session and it was well attended by the public and the media, with print and TV media in attendance.  About a half-hour into the program, the lights went out in the building where the briefing was being held – so I guess you could say we’re still all in the dark about local foods – but one of the farmers in attendance had  a flashlight, so the speakers could read their remarks.

The other event was the initial meeting/meal of the new “Harvest from the Heart of Iowa” local food group centered in Marshall County .  Over one hundred residents and farmers showed up for the local meal and election of officers.  It was nice to see so much local momentum for the group.

one year ago…”The Ultimate Christmas Tree”

January 21, 2011 – Growing More than Crops!

In my wrap-up of the PFI meeting a few weeks back, I failed to mention the marriage proposal one of Linda’s students made in front of the entire PFI gathering.  The following is a story from Agri-News.

Young Farmer Proposes at PFI Annual Meeting
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
simmet@agrinews.com

LEGRAND, Iowa —For Garrett Caryl the recent Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference was the perfect place to propose to his partner Rebecca Lamb. When he and other beginning farmers participating in PFI’s new Savings Incentive Program were introduced, Caryl, 21, and Lamb, 20, were asked to talk about their operation.

While on stage, Caryl got to the heart of the matter. “I really wouldn’t be here without Becky,” he said. “She’s a special gal.” With that, he popped the question, “Rebecca Lamb would you marry me?” He got on his knee and offered her a diamond ring.

“I suddenly realized, ‘He’s going to do this in front of everybody,” said Lamb who readily accepted Caryl’s proposal. “I was happy and shocked. I had no idea what he was doing.” The couple said they will likely wait a couple years before they have the actual wedding. “I’m pretty excited to start my life with Garrett,” Lamb said.

The couple met at Iowa Valley Community College in Marshalltown. Caryl, who is a certified welder, is in the entrepreneurial diversified agriculture program. Becky is studying to be an art teacher.

Caryl works full-time at Green’s Products in Conrad while he’s attending school because he believes in paying cash. He services semis. “I was a dorm RA, and Becky and I met when I was playing a prank on some baseball players,” Caryl said. “Becky had never farmed, but one of the things I liked about her was that she wasn’t afraid to scoop hog manure with me on a cold windy day.”

Caryl is building his farming operation in between school and work. Last year he and Lamb raised vegetable starts, 15 broilers and five Berkshire hogs at his Colo home. They produce a worm tea from red wiggler worms that they raise in totes. They feed the worms apple and potato scraps and “anything that’s biodegradable.” They spray the tea on their crops, which last year included organic corn and vegetables.

This year the couple is renting an acreage near LeGrand. Eventually, they hope to rent the farmland that goes with the acreage. Since neither of them was raised on a farm, they’re starting small. This summer, they will raise 375 broilers, vegetable starts and a few vegetables. They also want to buy Red Wattle sows and get into niche pork production.

Caryl said Practical farmers of Iowa is a great organization. He learned about it through his ag courses. PFI has held its annual meetings at Iowa Valley Community College and he attended. When PFI offered the SIP program, Caryl applied. “I couldn’t have done the program without Becky,” Caryl said. “I’m dyslexic, and Becky helped with the writing and paperwork.”

Caryl said he thought he’d propose at the PFI meeting because “Becky would be less likely to say no in front of the group. PFI has been there for me. They’re like family.” The couple had been looking at engagement rings recently, and Caryl told Lamb to do some other shopping “because I wanted to talk them down on price. Really, I was making an appointment to come back and buy the ring.”

“It was very special to me to see her face that day,” Caryl said. “I really do love her. We both want a large family. We joke that we want 10 kids so that we’ll have a 12-row planter.” As a part of SIP, Caryl meets with mentor John Gilbert who farms at Iowa Falls. Through the program, Caryl and Lamb will save up to $100 per month for the next 24 months, and PFI will match the savings dollar for dollar up to $2,400. The money can be used for farm business purchases. They are also developing a business plan.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #192″

January 15, 2011 – Technic Medics 5 at State Tournament

Today was the day so eagerly awaited by Martin and the First Lego League team.

Here the team gets pumped up during the opening ceremonies.

The event was hosted by the College of Engineering at Iowa State. This gathering shows part of the crowd gathered in the atrium of Howe Hall.  Out of the 400 or so teams in the state, this event gave 72 teams that qualified from regional events the opportunity to compete.

The judges look approvingly during the technical interview where the judges review the robot runs and look at a printout of the code the team used to program, along with notes the team made. If you look closely, you can see under the robot a red light that indicates a light sensor is turned on and is following the black line to push the robot sensitivity sensor.

Getting ready to start the robot.

Changing attachments on the robot during the run.

The team was thrilled to win first place in state for the mechanical design of their robot!

Martin with his chance to hold the trophy.  The team will have one more meeting, where we’ll debrief the team and “decommission” the robot (i.e. take apart).  It will be with happy and sad memories that the robot gets unplugged and taken apart – but the kids will no doubt remember the fun for a long time to come!

one year ago…”Winter Wonderland”

January 14, 2011 – Martin’s First Lasagna

Martin had the afternoon off from school, so he had time for a new cooking adventure. We looked up a lasagna recipe and Martin was off to the races.

This was Martin’s favorite part, layering the meat mixture, noodles, mozzarella cheese, and cottage cheese mixtures.

It turned out wonderfully, and best of all, since we were making a big mess, Martin made one to eat and one to freeze.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #191″

January 13, 2011 – Thingamajig Thursday #241

Here’s this week’s thingamajig Thursday. This one might be a bit tough.  It’s something that came out of Claire’s room when we were cleaning it out getting ready to move the office up there.

Also check out the last thingamajig answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.

Look for the answer in the comments after next week’s thingamajig is posted.

one year ago…”Chickens in Nest Box”

January 10, 2011 – Iowa Local Food and Farm Plan

Today is the day the Iowa Local Food and Farm Plan was delivered to the state legislature. A bipartisan request was presented last year that stated: “To the extent feasible, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture established pursuant to section 266.39 shall prepare a local food and farm plan containing policy and funding recommendations for supporting and expanding local food systems and for assessing and overcoming obstacles necessary to increase locally grown food production.”

It’s a rather remarkable request from the legislature. The report was released today and you can find the report on the Leopold Center webs site.  I helped write part of the introductory section, and my favorite few paragraphs of the introduction that place the report in a historical context are copied from the report below.

Iowa’s soils are among the most productive in the world, and are considered to be one of the state’s most important natural resources. Through a fortuitous combination of geological history, abundant rainfall, and hard-working farmers, Iowa offers an agriculturally productive environment that few places on earth can match.

More than 30.8 million acres are devoted to agriculture in Iowa, which accounts for 86 percent of the state’s land area. Iowa ranks first nationally in corn, soybean, hog, and egg production. In 2009, Iowa farmers produced agricultural products worth $24.3 billion dollars, and exported 26 percent of these products around the world. In addition to its contribution to the economy, agriculture plays an important role in the cultural and social fabric of the state. County and state fairs, farm toy museums and historical farm re-enactments offer Iowans a chance to celebrate and explore their state’s agricultural heritage. Many Iowans also honor their agrarian traditions through antique power shows, “barn quilts,” the recognition of heritage and century farms, and restoration and tours of historic barns. Agricultural events like the World Pork Expo, Cattle Congress, and World Food Prize Symposium attract many out-of-state and international visitors to Iowa.

Poised as it is on the cusp of all things agricultural, Iowa has led the nation, and sometimes the world, in agricultural innovation. Iowa was the first state to accept the provisions of the Morrill Act in designating Iowa State University as the nation’s first land grant university. The nation’s first tractor factory set up shop in Charles City, and agricultural innovator George Washington Carver is a prominent Iowa State alum and food pioneer. Henry Wallace, the inventor of hybrid seed corn and founder of Pioneer Seed Company, traces his roots to Adair County. Cresco native Norman Borlaug started “the green revolution,” and Grant Wood found artistic fame depicting Iowa’s agricultural heritage.

one year ago…”Cheap Ice Melt”

January 9, 2011 – PFI Conference Review

The Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference is over for another year. Besides the “Know Your Cuts of Meat” session, here are some things I’ll remember. Saw/heard some nice touches for a house. Imagine a house with a nice front porch on a bank overlooking a pond. Now the pond has the geothermal loop in the pond and has a cupola on top with a big fan that can funnel all the hot air out of the house on a hot day if need be. Or imagine a house that has a 6 foot bed of sand under the basement that is criss-crossed with pipes from a solar thermal heater. The ground under the basement warms up all summer and then releases heat into the house during the winter.

Or imagine a group of farmers banding together with other interested partners to create a new kind of business relationship. In this case wheat farmers from the Washington state area annually meet with millers and bakers and decide what the prices will be for all to make a profit up the line. Everyone is protected from radical price swings and they can all plan their business expenses for the next year.

Imagine a grazing regime that can leave pasture more lush and hold more animals at the same time. Imagine a gymnasium filled with young and old farmers with a passion to make a living on their farms while maintaining their resource base. The meeting was all this and more!

one year ago…”Take Homes from This Year’s PFI Conference”

January 8, 2011 – “Know Your Cuts of Meat”

One of most non-traditional sessions I attended today was entitled “Know Your Cuts of Meat.”  It was sponsored by local berkshire pork company Eden Farms from State Center, located just a few miles from our farm.  Eden Farms provides pork for white table restaurants from Manhattan to the San Francisco Bay and I can say it is the best pork I’ve ever tasted.

The session started with the primal cuts of half a hog shrink-wrapped on a table.  Inside the shrink wrap, the pork was somewhat already cut up and reassembled before shrink-wrapping for the presentation.

Here’s a whole pork loin (top along the backbone).

Here’s the slab of bacon from the belly.  You might not think an hour and a half would fly by so fast talking about meat cuts, but it did.

As as aside, for any of you who may have read Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, the Iowa farmer featured in the book just happens to be the distinguished-looking gentleman in the sports jacket on the left, so when you read about Michael riding in the combine with George, here’s a visual for you!

one year ago…”Practical Farmers of Iowa Annual Conference”

January 4, 2011 – Holy Guacamole!

This holiday season we unwittingly had some Dean’s Guacamole dip. Or so we thought we had guacamole dip. The label looks nice – green with photos of avocados, tomatoes, and onion proudly displayed.  Better yet, it boasts 0 grams of transfat per serving.  But a closer look at the ingredient label reveals that it is only “guacamole flavored” and in fact, contains less than 2% avocado!

Here’s the ingredient label:

SKIM MILK, SOYBEAN OIL, TOMATOES, WATER, COCONUT OIL, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF AVOCADO, WHOLE EGG, ONION*, SALT, DISTILLED VINEGAR, EGG YOLKS, SUGAR, NONFAT DRY MILK, WHEY (MILK), LACTIC ACID, SODIUM CASEINATE (MILK), ISOLATED SOY PROTEIN, TOMATO JUICE, VEGETABLE MONO & DIGLYCERIDES, SPICES, SODIUM BENZOATE AND POTASSIUM SORBATE (TO PRESERVE FRESHNESS), GELATIN, CORN STARCH, GUAR GUM, CELLULOSE GEL & CELLULOSE GUM, LEMON JUICE CONCENTRATE, LOCUST BEAN GUM, DISODIUM, PHOSPHATE, GUM ARABIC, XANTHAN GUM, CILANTRO*, NATURAL FLAVORS, EXTRACTIVE OF PAPRIKA, CITRIC ACID, ASCORBIC ACID, BLUE 1, RED 40, YELLOW 5, YELLOW 6. *DEHYDRATED.

Compare to a guac recipe that more people might think of:

  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 1/2 red onion, minced (about 1/2 cup)
  • 1-2 serrano chiles, stems and seeds removed, minced
  • 2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh lime or lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • A dash of freshly grated black pepper
  • 1/2 ripe tomato, seeds and pulp removed, chopped

Should you be able to produce a food label with pictures of ingredients that make up less than 2% of the product?

one year ago…”Emma’s 2nd Wood Project”

January 3, 2011 – Winter Reset

A wonderful January 3. Was able to get all the Christmas lights down, clean out the stock tank – all in still 30 degree weather. The snowless ground and a chance to be outside for a while might go a long ways towards making “cabin fever” more bearable this season.

It’s nice not to be slipping on ice, it’s nice not to be shoveling out the path to the chicken coop, it’s nice for the sheep and goats to get out on the pasture and roam around, instead of staying cooped up in the barn. With no terrible weather on the horizon, it will be nice to at least get through the first part of January without any of the typical winter hardships.

one year ago…”Maizie in the Snow”

January 1, 2011 – Goodbye to 2010

I thought I’d begin the year with some of my favorite photos from the last year.

We’ll lead with the “barn dogs” one cold December morning.

Here’s a shot you can only get once a year – frost on a zinnia.

Linda Barnes

As a storm passed, we had great mammatus clouds overhead.

It’s really quite remote and quiet where we’re at – a reminder on a cold winter morning.

baby lamb and boy

There’s also a continual cycle of life on the farm.

Things can change in a hurry – a day firing the maple syrup stove turns nasty, so in goes the stove into the shed – improvisation is always a great quality to have.

Garlic – we were lucky to get it out during the wet early summer.

More invention on the farm – this time Martin’s cat feeding station.

ag incuabator, MCC susutainable agricultgure

After many years of angst and fundraising, the ribbon cutting for the ag incubator building at MCC happened this year.

cherry pie

Linda’s pies and fruit from the farm – a combination to die for!.

Devils Lake

A great lunch spot at Devil’s Lake Wisconsin.

Baptism Falls, Tettegouche

Finally, the kids at perhaps one of the world’s best outdoor playgrounds – Baptism Falls along the coast of Lake Superior.

one year ago…”Looking Back on 2009″

December 31, 2010 – Winter Break!

Remember a few days ago this same shot with piles of snow and frost – all gone!

When it gets up to 61 degrees on December 30, snow goes by-by real fast.

This airmass feels much like early April – first cumulous clouds after months of stratus, warm, moist air, and the promise of apple buds.  OK, now I’m getting carried away with the apple bud part.  And I think we all now what might follow this respite!  But at any rate, it’s nice to rid the driveway of ice and have a clear slate for the snow to fall the next time.  It’s like Winter 2.0, starting January 1 without any snow.  Hopefully it makes for a shorter mental winter.

Claire (and I) woke up at 4:30 am for her flight from DSM to Chicago.  It was delayed from 7:30 am to mid afternoon, and her connecting flight to Montreal was also delayed, so she had an extra 12 hours or so of waiting in airports today. The best part of the day, wasn’t the delay, but not having her luggage arrive!  Sometimes too much information isn’t a good thing.  I was tracking her flight on flight tracker and watching the Chicago radar and as she was en route, there were tornadoes SW of Chicago, with the storms heading that way – it was a race, would the plane beat the big storms to O’Hare?  The plane did and most of the strong storms went slightly south of Chicago, so the plane landed without incident.

one year ago…”Happy New Year”

December 22, 2010 – Finding a Home for the Trees

Now that Christmas is almost upon us, I have about 10 trees that remain unsold.  Most people preferred to cut their own tree, even when they cost $15 more.

I contacted the Salvation Army and listed them on Freecycle, with no takers. I finally contacted a church in town and they were thrilled to take them to give to folks who couldn’t afford a tree this year.

one year ago…”Ice Luminary”

December 21, 2010 – Winter Solstice 2010

The day is finally here – the day that each day following grows longer (can spring be far behind – well, yes it can).

The solstice bonfire is built after dark.

Folks admire the bonfire light.

It’s a nice tome to get outside and be warm and reflect about the seasons around the fire and share a meal. The attendance was down this year – about 70. It was still very nice as the house and food line were not as crowded.

one year ago…”Winter Solstice”

December 19, 2010 – The Windspire that Never Was

Many of you may have recalled that I won a grant to become a “small wind demonstration site” to compare two different styles of turbines at the same location. The idea was simple – publish production data from two different turbines so potential purchasers might have some data other than the manufacturer’s claims.

So, I put down the money for the Mariah Power Windspire turbine last November (as in 13 months ago). The turbine was supposed to arrive in 2-3 weeks. It didn’t. It was scheduled to go up in the spring. Spring moved into summer and every scheduled date never panned out – due to manufacturing delays.

After the fall date came and went and still no turbine, I decided that it probably wasn’t going to happen and that I should try to get my deposit of half the cost back. Eventually, they refund came and it looks like the checks have cleared.

Now, we have to figure out how to give grant money back – evidently something the University’s accounting system isn’t set up to do!

one year ago…”Tank and Friends”

December 15, 2010 – Picking up Claire

Today I ventured to St. Paul to pick up Claire.  The section of road between Clear Lake and Owatonna was particularly slick.

snowy I-35

There was the usual assemblage of cars in the ditch, an SUV driver’s door down on the pavement in the middle of the interstate, and most rare of sightings was a truck towing another vehicle with a solid towbar in the oncoming lane.  The truck lost control on the ice and starting doing a dosi-doe around each other, still attached.  They did a couple of spins around, the semi trucks behind them shuddering as they tried to stop.  Fortunately, the truck and towed car ended up facing the wrong direction on the shoulder as the trucks passed on by.  We arrived home safely, now Claire is safely tucked in back home after her first semester is complete.

one year ago…”No Windspire Today”

December 14, 2010 – You Know Winter’s Arrived When…

You know winter has arrived when you step outside into the 12 degree weather and say to yourself, ” Gee, it’s really nice out today!”

frosty branch

Those winter days in the teens that you can actually go outside without covering each molecule of your body are a relief after the brutally cold days that preceded.  Won’t be long before we’re dashing outside without coats when the temperature rises above freezing.

one year ago…”Moving Around the Farm”

December 11, 2010 – A Day at a Lego League Tournament

Today Martin’s team participated in their first lego league tournament.

Here some of the team gets excited during the opening ceremonies of the day.

first lego league

It’s all concentration as the team tries its first run on the challenge table.  Each team uses the same board, with the same “missions” and designs and programs a robot to complete as many missions as possible in 150 seconds.  Only two team members can be at the table at once, so they need to strategize when and how to move team members in. Each team gets three runs and only the highest run counts.

The team’s first mission ran into problems as the light sensor didn’t work the same in the gymnasium as it had in the classroom.  The quality of light was different, so here the team ties to reprogram the robot between missions.

Another part is the team presentation on a topic related to the year’s theme.  The Technic Medic 5’s chose to present their information about the spinal cord in a format entitled “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” Being 5th graders, they thought it was funny.

Another part of the judging is the technical interview where judges review their robot design, look at the code design, and ask questions about both.

Yet another part is an “instant challenge” where the team has a minute to prepare to solve a challenge they do not have any knowledge of before they enter the room.

Finally, teams are evaluated on “gracious professionalism, their enthusiasm, and how well the team members interact with each other.

The ending was like the movie “Hoosiers” for this team.  This tournament was for kids in grades 5-8.  Since it was the team’s first year, they were young, and it was their first year, their hopes to move onto state faded with each passing announcement during the awards ceremony.  Eight of the teams move onto the state tournament.  I kind of thought the team had a chance for the “rising star” award – given to a new team with great potential.  When that, and all the others came and went, except for the overall champion, the kids looked pretty disappointed – until they were announced as the top team of the day!  They practiced many days, took great instruction from their teacher who taught them how to speak and think like gracious professionals.  Congrats Team Technic Medics!  Good luck at state Competition at Iowa State after the new year!

one year ago…”Subersnow”

December 8, 2010 – Holiday Irritation

Very few things are more irritating to me than the cheap holiday lights.

Like on this string, some work, some don’t. Last year when I carefully put them away, all the strings worked, this year when I got them out, 3/4 of them didn’t work at all or 1/4 of the string worked or 1/2 the string worked. I have slowly been buying LED strings (none of those have stopped working yet). Although the LED light isn’t as cheery as the incandescent lights, at least they go on from year to year!

one year ago…”Martin’s First Music Gig”

December 6, 2010 – LED Mag Lite Testimonial

I found this LED Mag Lite on sale at Lowe’s and thought I’d give it a try. All the LED flashlights I’ve tried to date, while being very energy efficient, didn’t put out a whole lotta light.

LED Mag Lite

This flashlight is another story – it throws a great beam, easily reaching to the top of the pine trees (and beyond) from the front porch. I no longer have reservations about LED flashlight, or at least this one!

one year ago…”2009 Gift Boxes”

December 5, 2010 – Lambs off to the Freezer

Today, we brought four lambs on the first step on the way to the freezer.

These guys and more are already have an appointment at the locker.

Emma and sheep loading don’t always get along well. Many years ago, when she was perhaps too small to help, we backed the pickup truck to the barn and posted Linda on one side of the tailgate and Emma on the other side, while I tried to move the sheep into the back of the truck. We told her that her job was to “be the wall” and prevent sheep from jumping off of the edge of the tailgate (the truck had a topper). Well, when one decided to skeedaddle out of the truck, it saw her as the path of least resistance, so as the lamb escaped under her legs, she grabbed on and held on as the sheep ran away, dragging Emma behind until we told her to let go.

During the loading experience today – don’t let the docile little faces of the sheep in the trailer fool you. Emma and I were tag-teaming one into the trailer, she had the front legs, and I on the back legs (the thought was that I would have the heavy end). Well, the sheep butted Em in the head and there’s a sudden rush of tears and vivid red blood on the dusting of white snow on the ground – just a few feet away from where the turkeys were butchered a few weeks ago. It was a bit of an unsettling feeling, to say the least. As Linda rushed over to attend to Emma on the way she said, “There goes the sheep profits” thinking Emma’s nose was all busted up and in need of an ER visit. But the story has a happy ending as no major damage was done, but once again, Emma found a way to get out of loading the rest of the sheep!

one year ago…”Gift Box Assembly”

December 1, 2010 – 2010 Gift Boxes

The 2010 gift boxes are here!  Same as last year, except we don’t have as much jam due to the wet spring/summer.

Contains 1 beeswax pillar, 2 4 oz jam samplers, 2 beeswax votives, one small goat  milk soap, and 1 4 oz honey sampler for $25.00.

Contains 1 4 oz jam sampler, 1 beeswax votives, one small goat  milk soap, and 1 4 oz honey sampler for $15.00.

Contains a 4 oz jam sampler and a 4 oz honey sampler for $7.00.  For more info send a comment (we have to moderate them before they appear) or send an email to mark(at)highhopesgardens.com (replace (at) with @ – helps cut down on spam bots not to publish email.

one year ago…”December Lettuce”

November 30, 2010 – Christmas Trees in the Wild!

OK, this week the first Christmas trees will move from High Hopes Gardens to Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames. We’ll be there 9-3 or until they sell out on Saturday the 4th and Sunday the 11th from 11-4 or until sold out. We’ll also have our gift baskets for sale. We really don’t know what to expect in terms of transport, selling, etc., but it promises to be fun.

Here’s a look at the densely planted windbreak – in need of thinning now that the trees are growing together..

one year ago…”Mark Gets Month-Long Sabbatical”

November 25, 2010 – The Feast

After yesterday’s uncomfortable outdoor experience, thought it best to lead with something warm and turkey related.

smoked turkey

Here’s a slab of turkey in the smoker.  We baked one turkey and smoked another half outside in the smoker.  I was the best-smelling guy all day, tending the smoker.  This turkey was out of this world good.

Pie master Linda at work on the lattice top for the cherry pie.

cherry pie

The completed cherry pie.

apple pie

An apple pie.

pumpkin pie slice

And of course, a so-called pumpkin pie (actually it was squash from our garden –  many folks don’t know that even store-bought pumpkin pie filling from the store is squash).

Getting the vittles ready.

Still more vittle preparation.

Making the cranberry sauce from scratch (great with port).

turkey dressing

Finally, the turkey dressing getting ready to mix.  Happy Thanksgiving to all!

one year ago…”Turkeys Ready to Go”

November 24, 2010 – On the Dreadful Side of Miserable

31 degrees. 32 degrees. 33 degrees. Rain. Sleet. Ice Pellets. Thunder. 30 mph wind. Repeat. Today was an absolutely miserable day to butcher turkeys.

Ice covered everything – from the propane tank.

To the hog barn that caught the overspray from the plucker. Working with water on such a day leads to very difficult conditions. A couple of changes of clothes down to the undies. 13 turkeys and 8 chickens later, the job was done.

one year ago…”Lemons at High Hopes”

November 21, 2010 – Three Generations of Chicken Cleaners

We’ve been waiting for the time and weather, mainly the time, to magically turn our old laying hens into chicken broth and stewing hens. With forecast for very cold weather on tap, and a foggy and mostly drizzle free day in the upper 40’s, today was the day. We’ll have to take whatever we get on Wednesday – turkey day.

Here’s three generations of chicken knowledge lined up taking care of their end of the processing line. We fairly easily put 25 in the freezers today.

one year ago…”Morning Wake-Up”

November 17, 2010 – Winter Layer Ration Delivery

Today we got one ton of layer mix – which should hold us until spring.  I make a supplemental cocktail with ingredients from Des Moines Feed mill on Hubbell Ave.  There’s a guy there named Stan who thinks a lot about feed mixes.  Interestingly, there is not any GMO corn in the facility.

For the chickens, I have a mix of probiotics, kelp and many other goodies.  I bring that to the local mill to mix in with the usual feed.  Most of a ton fits in the corn caddy and the rest go in an old stock tank.

one year ago…”Corn Caddy”

November 13, 2010 – Inside the Granary

Now it’s time to go inside the old granary.

Here’s looking in the door – there are two separate compartments on either side of the center aisle.

It does look, however that the center aisle was sealed off with these removable partitions that slid in the door frames.

The door frame had math problems written in pencil all up and down.

It’s amazing to me how straight the door remained for many years using a simple design.

Up in the loft.  Experienced eyes can catch the piles of raccoon dung up here.  Not a pleasant place to be with poor ventilation.  First order of business will be to make ventilation before working inside.

one year ago…”South Side of Barn Painted”

November 12, 2010 – Who Picks Your Fruits and Vegetables and Where do They Sleep at Night?

There’s a little-discussed issue that immigration reform is bringing to the fore – whether you view the person who picks your food as an “illegal” when they require emergency health care or a “guest worker” if you are a large scale fruit or vegetable producer or consumer in the grocery store. More and more, I’m aware of the disadvantages small, family-scale farms run against. I often hear “Why can’t a small farm grow things cheaper than I can get in the grocery store?” The answer is they (we) can’t, because our tax dollars are subsidizing the larger producers directly and indirectly by caring for the “illegals” or “guest workers.” To start out, just a few examples of the direct subsidies that encourage “illegals” or “guest workers.”

Taxpayer-Funded Migrant Worker Housing
Many state and federal programs are set up to pay for housing for migrant workers. Jessie Lane, Washington Growers League says “It just didn’t make a lot of sense for growers to spend the money to build housing that was just going to sit there for 11 months of the year empty.” Gee, it doesn’t make sense for me to buy a hay baler that sits idle 360 days a year, or a tiller that sits unused 360 days a year. Do you think I can get the government to pay for it, like farm labor housing is being paid for by our tax dollars while the profits stay with the private companies who use the housing?

Here are just a few programs I’ve run across the last few months in the Vegetable Growers News magazine.

In New York, loan programs are available to help growers pay for housing that provides growers with 10 years of interest-free financing.

In Michigan – fruit growers have USDA duplexes, which are funded by a loan from USDA’s Rural Development program.

There are more than 100,000 agricultural workers in Washington, about one-third of whom are migrant workers, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department. In 1999, recognizing the need for more farm worker housing, Washington dedicated $8 million to creating new housing every two years. In 2007, the state increased this amount to $14 million every two years and added a $4 million infrastructure loan program for growers who wanted to build on-farm housing.

In California, President of the Nisei Farmer’s League says “We’ve recommended to many of our growers: Don’t put housing on your farms,” Cunha said.  “You’re asking for trouble.” Cunha envisions a scenario that might solve the state’s migrant housing problems: Let cities take over the construction and management of migrant housing.

Reliance on Migrant Workers

Of course, this is all due to the heavy reliance large growers have on “illegals” or “guest workers.” The US Homeland Security Secretary said “Efforts to secure the border will fail unless the magnet that attracts illegals is turned off,” the fact sheet said. “Unfortunately, the fines for relying on illegal workers are so modest that some companies treat them as little more than a cost of doing business. No sector of the American economy requires a legal flow of foreign workers more than agriculture.”

The treatment of these workers can be gleaned from this common-sense advice to growers from Vera Bitsch, an agricultural economics professor at Michigan State University. “Simple things like readily accessible drinking water can make a huge difference in worker productivity and morale.”  Really, someone has to say this?

There’s a reason that no one wants to touch this issue politically. Depending on where you sit, the same person is an “illegal” or “guest worker.” So when politicians rally about closing down the border and stopping the flow of illegals as part of campaign rhetoric, then cash the checks from their big agricultural friends, it’s not surprising that little reform of any kind happens.

I would like to point out that I certainly can sympathize with those that want to make a better life for themselves.  It points out that there are powerful interests at work that are not being truthful.  In the end, it’s all about how important we think food is to us (if you remember Maslow’s Pyramid of needs – shelter and food were at the top of the list, but while shelter is at the top of how we spend our money, food is not.)  The following tables highlight the differences from 1901 to 2003.

food expenditures

In 1901, shelter accounted for 32.8% of income, in 2002 shelter accounted for 23.3 % of income.

Food, meanwhile required 42.5% in 1901 and only 13.1% in 2003, with approximately 35% of that spent at restaurants.  I argue that we should pay the real cost of food at the store, and not in our income taxes.  If the real price of food was reflected in the grocery store price, more smaller farmers could compete, increasing rural vitality, and more people would find it worthwhile to grow their own, and be able to take more of their own needs, making them more resilient to economic downturns.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #184″

November 9, 2010 – Starting to Say Goodbye to an Old Granary

Comes a Time – a time for the building containing Neil Young’s lifelong collection of memorabilia to burn down and for the old Granary to come down. I’m sure I could make a pretty good connection if I thought long enough.  Looks like it could be part of a cover of a Neil Young album.

This building now rests in the back pasture.  It was one of the original farm buildings.  The building’s fate was essentially sealed 40 years ago when the previous owners removed it from its cement foundation close to where the metal machine shed now stands and dragged it out to the pasture.

The bottom floor joists are shot and now the wall on the right is starting to separate from the building.

I’ve managed to save many of the original buildings by putting new roofs and/or siding on them.  This one doesn’t have enough going for it.  I’ll salvage as much of the lumber that is still good and throw the rest on the bonfire.

But as a testament to the building, this is one of many future posts dedicated to preserving the building through extensive photo-documenting its construction and demise.  Kind of a modern-day reverse archeological deconstruction.

one year ago…”Buttercup Squash Yeast Bread”

November 8, 2010 – Advice to Stay Alive: Compost, Don’t Burn

Believe it or not, two people have died in Iowa this fall while burning leaves. A rural Keokuk man died after his clothes caught on fire. A man in Cedar Falls died after he was burned when he threw gasoline on a fire. It would be very easy to make light of people who died from burning leaves, but they no doubt left families behind that are devastated.

I’m still not sure why people burn leaves, other than satisfying the seemingly human need to be around a fire (I’m one of those). However, burning leaves is usually a smokey, unsatisfying affair. In the closest hamlet of Melbourne, raking leaves to the street and burning them seems to be part of the culture. I feel sorry for the houses downwind of the smokey, long-lasting fires, especially those with asthma or other health conditions.

Organic Gardening has a brief article about composting leaves for those looking for some recipes!

one year ago…”Fall Ritual – Digging Gladiola Bulbs”

November 7, 2010 – Passive Solar Stock Tank

Just in time for the colder temps forecast for later in the week, the passive solar stock tank is complete.  Like the Dude, I abide with Joel Salatin who advocates for things that work, rather than look pretty and painstakingly built to perfection.  We have heated water buckets that use a lot of electricity and don’t seem to last very long.  I found some designs for passive solar cattle and horse tanks, and used those as an example to build one for goats and sheep.

It’s not rocket science – build a box with insulation and seal up all the cracks you can with insulating foam.

The tank was black, I spray painted the interior black and made one major adjustment from the horse and cattle heaters I saw.  I didn’t think this one had enough height to get much solar gain, so I made an additional clear partial top on a frame that is not attached to the box, so I can take off the top polycarbonate lid out easily if I need to remove the tank.  I also cut a piece of foam and painted it black and snugly fit it on the top of the left 1/2 of the tank or so (you can’t see it here, because of the glazing cover).  The glazing is polycarbonite panels I got dirt cheap at the Farm-Tek store in Dubuque because they were odd sizes.  Since the tank is designed for goats, I reinforced the top panels with some rebar crossbars in case the goats jumped on top.  I also added some insulated lids to set down at night to keep the heat of the day in.  If needed, I can run a tank heater in on the coldest days of the year to keep the water from freezing. I didn’t want to use treated lumber, so used cedar and finished it with an outdoor polyurethane.

The only thing I might do different is to try to find a tank with a drain plug in case I need to drain it.  I might also make a bed of sand or gravel to set it on so if any water leaks out of the drain holes drilled in the bottom of the box, it will have an easy escape.

one year ago…”Garlic Tasting”

November 5, 2010 – Nifty Animal Separator

In the fall/winter, we have a special ration we feed the sheep, but have had trouble keeping the horse from taking more than her fair share.

Linda had an idea to put a board across that the sheep could go under, but horse not get through.  So, a couple of 2×4 brackets inside the door, a 2×4, and there you have it – sheep running in for a treat.  It won’t prevent the door from closing and  is easily removed by just sliding it out of the brackets.

The horse can just sit and look – rebuffed from the treat inside!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #183″

October 31, 2010 – Happy Halloween Recital

Martin decided it was time to be a mad scientist for Halloween.

Although, truth be told, he looks a bit more like someone in one of the British Invasion bands in this photo.

OK, now he’s got the mad scientist look down.

Ready to go gather the candy with a famous French artist!

Emma and Martin also had a recital today – Martin on the piano and Emma on the flute.

one year ago…”Happy Halloween”

October 30, 2010 – I’ve Got a Pumpkin as a Head

Claire came home this weekend, although I hardly recognized her.

She fell in love with this warty pumpkin.  Reminds me of a song with the following lyrics.

Head full of tricks and treats
It leads me thru the nighttime streets
Black cats and falling trees
Under ladders always walking
Salt shaker spills just throw it over your shoulder, babe
I’ve got a bad idea again, i’ve got a
Halloweenhead, halloweenhead

Bonus cred for anyone who can name the artist.

one year ago…”Fall Mushrooms”

October 29, 2010 – Growing Season Over

The wind stopped and the first hard frost of the growing season settled down upon us last night. It was 24 this morning when my head came off the pillow.

frosty zinnia

This is a photo that is only possible to take one day a year. After this frost, the flower turns brown!

frosty celosia

We enjoyed the longest growing season ever recorded in Central Iowa – 212 frost-free days!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #182″

October 24, 2010 – Tractor Repair

I mentioned a few days back that the JD 2510 was barely running.  Fortunately it was a simple problem that did not exceed my rudimentary mechanical understanding.

I replaced the in-line fuel filter that I had added last year, drained out the carb, cleaned the carb fuel strainer and got it all back together without any leftover pieces and it once again runs like a champ!

one year ago…”Saturday Farm Work”

October 22, 2010 – Getting Garlic in the Ground

Well, it’s that time of year again – time to get garlic in the ground. The last time I used the tractor, it was running really rough, almost to the point of conking out. The first check was the inline fuel filter, so today I went to get a replacement, put it in and it ran better, but still not very well – at any rate, I hustled to take of the tiller and put on the potato digger to make trenches for the garlic.

Then it was time to enlist help of the children to plant.  First, they are “de-cloving” the garlic.

Then, drop it in the ground.  We usually put a couple of rows in one trench.  Today we got about  500 feet of row in the ground.  Wet weather was bearing down upon us, thus the urgency to get them in the ground.  Now, I need to become more familiar with the fuel system of the tractor before snow flies!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #181″

Octobert 16, 2010 – Oxfam Event at High Hopes Gardens

We’ve spent the last few weeks spiffing up the farm in anticipation of the event held at our farm this weekend. A month or more ago, we learned that we would be hosts for an Oxfam event held in conjunction with the World Food Prize.

Here we are with the farmers from around the world. After being hosted by farmers and farm-related businesses on our ag trips to Costa Rica, Mexico, and Japan, it was nice to be able to return the favor.

Here the minister at a local church greets the guests from Haiti.

By the time the event was over, about 80 people came to hear the farmers and tour the farm.  Media from the local paper and Iowa Public Radio covered the event – I have since heard that three short stories ran on IPR, but I haven’t heard them yet.

Here, Linda readies some appetizers before the guests arrive – watermelon from our garden.  We provided the watermelon and raspberries for the wonderful raspberry pastries that Kamal from the Phoenix cafe provided in the catered meal that included squash soup, chicken soup, veggie tray all sourced from the Grinnell Farmer’s Market – in addition to rice from the farmers in attendance – a true local/international meal!

This woman from Haiti talked about the challenges of growing food in Haiti.  So much of their crop is lost to dmage in storage (or lack of storage).  She was working to locally transform crops into products that would not spoil as easily (turning peanuts into peanut butter).  She had a hard time getting out of the country in a timely manner as the only place to do government business is the capital, so she needed to make the 6 hour trip to visit the capital and spend 2-3 days there.  She was supposed to arrive days ago, but arrived at the DSM airport at 8:15 and was scheduled to present at the World Food Prize symposium at 9:15!

This Vietnamese farmer was part of a cooperative growing rice in a new production scheme called SRI or System of Rice Intensification.  The local farmers were leery of changing over to a new method of production that did not require periodic flooding of the rice.  Even though he tried it and had great success, the other local farmers would not try until the coop agreed that if they tried the new method and it didn’t work, they would pay the farmer for the amount they usually grew.  That method worked and the coop didn’t have to pay out since the yields were so much higher.

This farmer is from Mali.  He brought along some props, including a big gourd on a rope that they used to have to use to throw water out of a pit, over the top of his head, to the crops above.  They now have a pump and a new non-flooding rice method, so he no longer spends days throwing water out of the pit.

This farmer from India was a real fireball (in center).  Among other things, she invented a new type of weeder for her fields.  At the symposium, she cornered the director of the Gates Foundation and others to tell her story and advocate for funding for small stakeholders.  In the “it’s a small world” category – her project was undertaken by ICRISAT and some researchers from the ICRISAT campus in India where Claire had her summer internship were at our farm as part of this tour!

Finally, at the end there was a Q and A. Here, distinguished sustainable agriculture Fred Kirschenmann brings up some discussion points. Fred arrived early and helped set up. A farmer true to heart, I join the very few people in the world who have had Fred arrange hay bales in the barn for seating! One of the participants said the barn was the best auditorium they’ve ever been in to see a powerpoint presentation!

one year ago…”World Food Prize Symposium Sessions”

October 15, 2010 – Claire Back in Town for World Food Prize Events

Along with the other 15 Borlaug-Ruan interns in the good seats at the World Food Prize Laureate Ceremony, Claire smiled at the news during the ceremony that U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack appointed these 16 young women and men Wallace-Carver as interns at a USDA office and will bring them to Washington D.C. for another week of learning and interacting with USDA staff in addition to the internship.

The details aren’t yet fleshed out, but Claire is quite pleased! (This photo was grabbed off the TV broadcast of the ceremony, available to view any time on Iowa Public Television.)

Before the ceremony they made all kinds of preparations at the Iowa State Capital Building.

Earlier in the day, the participants at the youth institute packaged 24,000 meals.

Looks like they had some time for fun as well..

one year ago…”World Food Prize Ceremony”

October 12, 2010 – Francis Thicke for Secretary of Agriculture

If you like this blog, live in Iowa – Francis is the man in the upcoming election!

I wouldn’t on the blog for someone I don’t know and Francis is no exception.  He runs one of the state’s foremost grass-based dairies, has a great history of thinking AND doing.  He has B.A. degrees in music and philosophy. and a Ph.D. in agronomy.  He’s worked for the USDA as a soil scientist, received numerous awards and most importantly, is a farmer in more than name only.

one year ago…”Hog Barn Renovation”

October 11, 2010 – Lovin’ the Garden Chickens!

In addition to the mechanically-managed garden spaces, an even better method is the chickens! These chickens are in the garden that contained early season crops and was planted to buckwheat that was allowed to go to seed. Now, the chickens forage over the buckwheat and leave their trail of fertilization.

The left side of the photo shows ground the chickens have already passed over and the chicken tractor will now be moved downhill towards the camera.  I like this because it cleans up the buckwheat and some other seeds but yet leaves some plant material that decomposes easily on the gardens over winter to protect the soil.

“one year ago…”Front Page News: Part 2”

October 10, 2010 – Lovin’ the 48 inch Tiller!

I’m loving the 48 inch tiller – it’s a snap to get the garlic beds ready.

Here’s a few in one of the gardens near the barn, one step closer to getting the garlic in the ground.  It’s been the nicest two weeks of summer lately.  Although, with the grain harvest in full swing, the layers of dust from the road and south or west winds for the last week or so has started to give the dust features of sedimentary rocks.

one year ago…”It’s Over – Growing Season”

October 9, 2010 – Duct Tape Hammock

Ever had extra guests arrive unexpectedly and not have enough beds to accommodate them all? Need to squeeze one more student in your dorm room for the weekend?  Tired of paying outrageous prices for blow-up air beds that leak overnight or after a few uses?

duct tape hammock

Claire sends along this solution from the Macalester think tank – an additional sleeping loft made entirely of duct tape.  This is in addition to Claire’s previous duct tape homecoming dress, which, much to my chagrin, remains the most popular single post on this blog!.

one year ago…”Ya Think?”

October 5, 2010 – Time to Pick Squash

It’s time to bring in the winter’s worth of baked, cubed and roasted, cooked and mashed for pancakes, and many more winter-time recipes that use squash.

It was time to gather them all up – despite the wet weather and chance for wilt and fungus, the vines held up beautifully and the squash came through as a good producer this year.

one year ago…”More Front Page News”

September 29, 2010 – I’ve Been Hauling a lot of @#$% Lately

Where’s Mark been? I’ve been hauling a lot of stuff lately.

It all started when we agreed to temporarily store some shelving for the MCC farm manager last fall until the new incubator building was enclosed, then wait until it was complete, then wait until the dedication, then wait, well, I couldn’t wait until the next wait – with our garage torn down, I needed some more space, so started loading, hauling, and unloading a small grocery store’s worth of loizier shelving.  Fortunately, fuel pellets were on sale, so it was not a wasted trip.  All the shelving is now removed – about 9 trips to town, and 230 bags of wood pellets hauled back to the farm – two tons tucked in the basement and two and a half tons in the shed – they were on sale, so I wanted to get as much of a winter’s supply as possible.  With corn flirting around $5 bushel, the pellets are a better deal this winter.  I’ve also been hauling a bit of hay, but have more of that to fetch.

one year ago…”Mother Hen”

September 28, 2010 – Updates from U of MN

Faithful readers have no doubt been exposed to my soapbox about the squelching of the film about water pollution from agricultural practices. I received an email response from the office of the President Bruininks and post it below:

I am always heartened when academic freedom and scientific integrity are vigorously championed, and I appreciate your taking the time to share your concern with me.

As has been publicly stated, “Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story” will be shown as scheduled on October 3, 2010, immediately followed by an open discussion of the film.

The original decision to postpone the showing of the film at the Bell Museum and the rationale behind that decision could have been handled differently and communicated more clearly by the University. At no point, however, was there a question about the importance of the issues raised in the film or whether such a film should be made and shown. We will continue to review this situation, and I am confident that we will learn from this and improve our procedures as we move forward.

Thank you for your commitment to the mission of your alma mater.

Sincerely,

Robert H. Bruininks
President

one year ago…”Clean Garlic”

September 26, 2010 – Garden Cleanup Begins

Now the unglamorous portion of the gardening season begins (is there a really a glamorous portion)? But in some ways it is as important as what happens during other seasons.

Here’s the tomato cages, posts, dead vines and seedling protectors all pulled and ready to move to their appropriate places. It’s good garden hygiene to remove the old vines and plants from the gardens, especially tomatoes and squashes.

one year ago…”Foraging Turkeys”

September 22, 2010 – FIRST Lego League Team Building

My “off-farm” volunteering this year includes a coach/helper for Martin’s First Lego League team.  We’ll have more about the team later, but today’s event centered around team-building.

The first step was to partner up the kids, blindfold one, and have the the “sighted” one guide the blindfolded one through the lego mine field.  This was a great activity and analogy for making a lego robot as the blindfolded kids represented the robot and the kids giving instructions represent the robot programmers.

Another activity was to raise and lower a stick with each kid always touching the stick with a single finger as it rises and falls (it’s harder than you might think!)

Who can’t have fun with moving a hula hoop down a line without breaking hold of the hand of the person next to you!

The final part of the day was to review the official board and rules of the robot challenge.

one year ago…”Golden Raspberries”

September 21, 2010 – Troubled Waters at the University of Minnesota

I don’t quite know how to explain this one, but here goes. Hey, I can chime in because I have two degrees from the University of Minnesota and am greatly saddened by the events of the last few days. Here goes a quick overview. Private donors give the University of MN money for a film documenting the impact of agriculture on water quality. They hire an Emmy and Peabody award-winning film-maker whose work appears on PBS NOVA series and other respected channels. The film shows the impact of commodity agriculture on water quality. The donors think the film is great.

Two weeks before the film’s premiere on campus and statewide public TV, a University PR person pulls the plug saying it hasn’t met the University’s scientific review. Well, it turns out it does pass the review (remember, it’s not a schlock filmmaker, she’s put out accurate, interesting work for years). OK, so that doesn’t work, now the explanation is that the film shows specific sustainable farmers that sell farm products, so the university can’t release the film because they will be promoting products by companies – and these are bad mega companies – an organic milk co-op and a grassfed beef company.

News flash to U of M – Hey, you know that new football stadium, I think it’s called “TCF Bank Stadium,” I’ve got a secret to let out of the bag – shhhh, the bank sells products. And about that Cargill Building of Molecular Genomics on campus, it might surprise you, but Cargill sells BILLIONS of dollars of products. And hey, you’ve gone as far as not only naming structures after companies, but entire university programs – that Carlson School of Management for instance. And by golly, what a coincidence, the Carlson company sold 38 billion dollars worth of products and services in 2008. I expect all those names will be removed in light of the new university policy that prohibits university mention of companies in any university-related publication or film, even if they aren’t funded by the U of M!

To read more about the bruhaha, check out the Land Stewardship Project page, with links to NPR, Star-Tribune, Pioneer Press and other media outlets stories on the film.

one year ago…”Barn Update”

September 20, 2010 – Honey Extraction Day

Today was a big day at high hopes – honey extraction day! It was a rough year for beekeeping. We have three hives. Two of the hives were new this spring, so first year’s don’t often produce to much as they have to get organized and numbers bred up. The other hive swarmed, so lost some worker bees as well. Then, with the wet weather, it was hard for the bees to get out.

I missed Linda retrieving the supers from the hive – but here they are in the back of Sube. The idea is to get the supers during the day when many of the bees are out foraging. Then, you need to protect the stolen supers from the hive as they will try to retrieve the honey and the supers will be surrounded by an angry swarm. So, they are locked in the back of the car.

remove honey frames

Extracting is best done in a hot environment. The high today was 90 degrees, so the honey was warm and would flow easily. In addition, I turned on the propane heater in the garage to keep it warm after the sun went down. Since the garage is not bee proof, we wait until after dark and the bees are all back in the hive after sunset. Here Linda removes some frames from the supers. (No we are not on the payroll of the Ely, MN chamber as the car bumper sticker and Linda’s shirt may suggest.)

honey frame

Here’s a blue-ribbon frame – full and robust.

uncapping honey

Worth its weight in gold is the electric uncapping knife to slice off the wax caps from the comb.

Here’s a really angry-looking guy spinning the manual extractor. The spinning of the extractor slings the honey out of the frames. Spin for a bit and them turn the frames around and spin again.  He must have known that the next morning would bring aches of muscles usually not used!

Martin guards the honey gate at the bottom of the extractor.

The honey filters through three filters – a coarse mesh filter and a finely-woven fabric supported by another metal filter.

Finally, the honey safely tucked in jars. We ended up with about 10 gallons in total! The honey this year was very amber. That color is not what is typically is commercially available, despite the fact that dark amber honey has up to 20 times the anti-oxidants of run-of-the-mill commercial light honey.

one year ago…”Inaugural Chicken Butchering”

September 17, 2010 – Farm Energy Working Group Meeting

I’m part of the a farm energy working group.  The group contains folks from power companies, alternative energy companies, education, farmers, and some others.  As part of today’s meeting, we visited a number of solar arrays and wind turbines near Kalona.

This is 3.6 kW 20 panel flat array.  It averages about 500 kWh per month and cost the installer about $20,000 (he did the installation himself).

Here’s the controller, inverter and meter for the system.  Wouldn’t his be a nice complement to a wind turbine!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #177″

September 15, 2010 – Subsidized Crop Harvest About to Begin

The subsidized crops (corn and soybeans) in the neighborhood are starting to dry down.

Our good neighbor, who farms the ground around us, works with us in that he leaves a 30 foot buffer in his field around our property – gives us both a little peace of mind that the spray trucks don’t have to back right up to the fenceline and start spraying.

one year ago…”Mulberry Feast”

September 12, 2010 – Trombone Chooses Martin

This week was band instrument selection week at school.  As a 5th grader, Martin now has the privilege of playing an instrument.  Much like the sorting hat at Hogwarts, the instrument mysteriously selects you.

The trombone selected Martin, so then we purchased him a starter trombone.  At this point I will refrain from posting you tubes of him learning how to play!

one year ago…”Fresh – The Movie”

September 11, 2010 – Graphic of Obesity Epidemic

I ran across this animation put together by the Center for Disease Control showing the instances of obesity in the United States from 1985-2009.  It’s very startling how quickly obesity has blossomed. There are huge implications for public and private health spending as obesity-related chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other diseases become much more prevalent.

one year ago…”Carrot Harvest”

September 8, 2010 – Sistas

Linda’s sister dropped in from Southern California recently to tuck in her off her daughter, born 6 days before Claire, to another midwestern college.

Even though these two don’t get a chance to see each other that much, they seem to greatly enjoy each other.  They both have managed to be successful in their respective pursuits – Linda in sustainable agriculture and teaching and Kathy is now working as director of International Marketing for Cisco.  I think these two would make a dynamite pair working for the same organization, if they could find such a place.  People at work are starting to wonder how much longer I can hang with Linda!  It’s interesting how much Claire takes after Linda and Emma takes after Kathy.  I guess that leaves Martin to be like old Dad.

one year ago…”North Side of Barn Painted”

September 7, 2010 – Subey-Deux

With Claire out of the house, our mini-van days are behind us! Ever since we bought the girls an old beater Outback, we’ve liked the car, especially in winter, when it is just a beast in the snow.

2007 Subaru Outback

So, we picked up a 3-yr-old Outback. We like to name our cars, and this one’s name came quickly to us – since the first outback was simply named “Subey” the 2nd one is naturally Subey-deux!

one year ago…”Garlic Cleaning”

September 6, 2010 – Garlic Cleaning

One of the early fall tasks is to clean garlic – by now it has cured up in the hayloft, now it is time to get it ready for sale. Most of this is destined for seed stock and Wheatsfield Grocery in Ames.

garlic

Cleaning garlic is greatly enjoyed by some members of the family. It involves cutting off the stem and roots and peeling back a few of the papers to make it look clean and white.

one year ago…”Heirloom Tomato Tasting at Grinnell Heritage Farm”

September 5, 2010 – Emma’s Car

Some of the best money we ever spent was to buy this old Subaru Outback.  We always said it was Emma’s car, even when Claire got to drive it for high school.  Now she’s at an urban college and doesn’t need a car, so Emma finally gets the car she’s been waiting for years to drive.  Thanks to Claire for not crashing or otherwise destroying the car (although she did leave three bags of room debris we’ll have to deal with).

Emma has already taken to auto care by waxing the car for the first time in many years.  Here’s to small, sure footed cars to keep Emma safe this winter.

one year ago…”Tomatoes Finally Arrive in Bulk”

September 4, 2010 – Monarch Migration Respite

This is the second year we’ve observed our farm windbreak as a respite for migrating monarch butterflies.

monarch butterfly

We’ve had strong south winds for the last few days, and many monarchs gather on the north side of the pine tree windbreak, waiting for the strong winds to subside. With all the flowers and blooming buckwheat, if they are hungry, it is a nice butterfly B & B!

one year ago…”Mazie Ready for Makeover”

September 3, 2010 – Claire Settles in at Macalester

It’s going off to college weekend for Claire (and us!).  Macalester has an extremely long parent orientation – three days!  We’re calling it the helicopter parent orientation and doubt Linda will stay for it all.

Here all of Claire’s “stuff” neatly fits in the new Subaru.  She refers to the contents of the car as the essence of Claire.

New student on campus.

Her room, all set up – noticeable in my eyes are the Indian tapestry, mommade quilt, and sock monkey.  OK, throw in the Indian disco ball and periodic table as well! We look forward to the reports from her next adventure!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #175″

August 30, 2010 – First Oyster Mushroooms

I was very surprised to find oyster mushrooms this week – I didn’t think to look, since we’ve finally had a dry stretch of weather. I was giving a farm tour as we may be the site of a possible farm event later this fall, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen them at all.

oyster mushroom

This one is a little past prime, but it’s fun to see them start to grow. Martin was making his signature beef stroganoff and lamented that we didn’t have any mushrooms and I was happy to direct him to the mushroom logs

one year ago…”Raspberries!”

August 29, 2010 – About Those Eggs…

I thought I should chime in on the factory/commodity egg recall.  To our customers, the stories from the Iowa egg factories do not come as a surprise – hens in cages so small they cannot even spread their wings, piles of manure 8 feet tall leaning on the doors of the buildings, maggots crawling on the factory floor.

Compare this to smaller-size traditional production (see our eggs above). I know this is the way of the world, and why it only costs these mega-producers 54 cents a dozen to produce a dozen eggs.  What gets under my skin is the lack of transparency and hijacking of the images of small farms.  You know the package of eggs, with the nice red barn or pastoral scene that evokes a traditional farm image.  Like repackaged mortgage securities, there’s no way for the consumer to know the true source, since the eggs are branded under many different labels.  So as a consumer, you have no idea who’s behind the eggs – in this case – here’s a litany of documented problems with the owner of the recalled egg factories:

  • DeCoster Egg Farms agreed to pay $2 million in fines  for health and safety violations at a DeCoster farm in Maine. U.S. Labor secretary Robert Reich said conditions were “as dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop.” Reich’s successor, Alexis Herman, called the state of the farms “simply atrocious.”
  • The State of Iowa designated DeCoster a “habitual violator” of environmental regulations.
  • The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission agreed to a $1.5 million settlement against DeCoster Farms on behalf of women who reported they were subjected to sexual harassment, including rape, abuse and retaliation by some supervisory workers at DeCoster’s Wright County plants.
  • 51 workers were arrested during an immigration raid at six DeCoster egg farms. His farms had been the subject of at least three previous raids.

This is part of the price we pay for eggs that cost 54 cents a dozen to produce.

Predictably, the blame for the poisoning lies with the consumers according to industry spokespeople:

“Some people may not think of an egg as you would ground beef, but they need to start,” says Krista Eberle of the United Egg Producers’ Egg Safety Center. “It may sound harsh and I don’t mean it to sound that way. But all the responsibility cannot be placed on the farmer. Somewhere along the line consumers have to be responsible for what they put in their bodies.”

I appreciated the response of another food safety expert to this:

If consumers are being held accountable as the last line of defense in the food safety farm-to-fork line, then the egg industry needs to be explicit about it, says Carol Tucker-Foreman, an assistant secretary of agriculture under President Jimmy Carter who’s worked on food policy at Consumer Federation of America for decades.

“Should egg cartons be required to carry a message that says ‘Warning – to protect your health and the health of those in your household, you should assume that these eggs are contaminated with salmonella enteriditis and must be handled carefully in order to avoid possible illness?’ ” she asks.

At the end of the day, this presents one of the dangers of an industrial food system with hugely centralized operations – one bag egg (pun intended) can lead to the recall of a half-billion eggs.  This is not a system that has much resiliency and as former Secretary of Health Education and Welfare under President George Bush said, offers those who want to harm us a quick and easy path to contaminate the food supply – whether it be in a mega meatpacking plant or elsewhere in the system.

Kudos to Fareway Grocery and Trader Joe’s who have committed to not buying eggs from these farms ever again.

one year ago…”Field Day at Grice Farms”

August 27, 2010 – Ag Incubator Building Ribbon Cutting!

Today was a milestone for local foods, Marshalltown Community College, and Linda.

It was the ribbon cutting for the new ag incubator building adjacent to the college and serving the farmers renting some of the land on the adjacent 140 acres of certified organic land.  Participating in the ribbon cutting are Linda, Rep Latham, Sue Martin Executive Director of the Martha Ellen Tye Foundation, and Conrad DeJardin, Community College Board of directors.

Our congressman, Tom Latham spoke – he was able to help secure some funding for a portion of the building through the Small Business Administration.

Here’s a shot of the front of the building.

Inside is an office, place for vegetable washing, storage, and coolers.  This is just the first part of a vision put forth by Linda seven years ago to help small entrepreneurial farmers, learn, produce, and market foods.  Next?  An incubator kitchen so producers can legally process foods and test recipes before going to a larger food processing facility.

Dr Linda Barnes Speaks at Ribbon Cutting

Iowa Valley Board of Directors Vice President Yvonne Mallory Speaks at Ribbon Cutting

Congressional Representative Tom Latham Speaks at Ribbon Cutting

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #174″

August 24, 2010 – East Side of House Done (well, almost)

The late summer project to remove the old garage and reside and reroof the east side of the house is complete, except for some door frame painting, caulking, screen door and window screen installation.

We’ll get around to the rest of the hose at a later date. An added bonus is the new patio where the garage used to be. We still have another garage and shed for the cars, so the patio seems like a good idea!

one year ago…”Worst of the North Side Barn Staining”

August 21, 2010 – Canning Raspberries

When the berries come on fast, in addition to freezing, we like to can some whole berries – they are great in the winter in yogurt, cold cereal, and pancakes. they are easy to can as well.

First heat some water and sugar for the liquid to a boil – add sugar to taste.  Heat up canning kettle to boiling.  Soften up the canning lids by getting water to nearly boiling and putting lids in and then take off the heat.

Put berries directly in jars.

Fill to within a half inch of the top of the jar with the boiling sugar water mix.

Wipe the rim of the jars dry, put on lids, hand tighten rings, and put in boiling water bath for 20 minutes, making sure an inch of water is above the jars.  It’s a quick and easy way to put up food for later.

one year ago…”Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program”

August 18, 2010 – A Tale of Two Deliveries

Today there were two deliveries at high hopes. A pair of Birkenstocks for Linda delivered by Fed Ex and the package was left in the mud room attached to the house.

And this box of thin balsa-wood like unassembled berry boxes delivered (in a manner of speaking). For some reason the UPS driver thought that the best place to drop off this package on a rainy day was to leave it alongside the driveway halfway between the road and the house!  It might have been better had it been under the spruce tree!  Needless to say the thin wood was wet and some were warped and we weren’t enthused about using boxes that were wet and had a chance to mold for food – so, the true story won’t be that UPS screwed up, it will be how they respond to the screw up.

one year ago…”New Part-time Gig”

August 17, 2010 – Linda at Roundtable with US Ag Secretary Vilsack

Linda was invited to be part of a press conference/roundtable discussion of rural issues at the Iowa State fair with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.

linda barnes

Like a “good” Secretary of Agriculture, Vilsack listens as Linda makes her points about the importance of local infrastructure,  rural broadband issues, and local foods.

linda barnes and tom vilsack

Like a “better” Secretary of Agriculture,  Secretary Vilsack takes notes as she talks!  It was a great opportunity for the voices of a female, small farmer, educator and small business owner to be heard along with the traditional commodity farm groups.

one year ago…”Goodbye to Powershot A510″

August 16, 2010 – Pie Filling

The raspberries are just starting to bear heavily. With all the rain, they are prolific. We picked a couple of gallons from a 70 foot row today (after picking for market two days ago). The apple pie filling was such a hit last year, that we thought we’d try raspberry pie filling. We also had the first few blackberries coming on.

We ended up making seven quarts of raspberry filling, three quarts of blackberry, and we unfroze cherries put in the freezer from earlier in the year for this purpose and canned seven quarts of cherry pie filling. Seventeen pie fillings ready for winter!

one year ago…”Bean Trellis”

August 14, 2010 – Why Are the Soybeans Turning Brown so Early?

There have been large stretches of certain soybean fields that have been turning brown. Some fields seem to be getting worse every day. Some fields just have a tinge of brown.

The beans are suffering from what is known as “Sudden Death Syndrome.” There is no spray to stop it. The beans are not mature – soybeans usually turn yellow before turning brown. The causes go back to the seed variety, planting conditions, and drainage. Seed genetics seems to be the primary culprit. There will be a lot of farmers planting a different brand to seed next year!

one year ago…”New England Dining”

August 13, 2010 – Look for Linda on HBO

Today Linda traveled to Grinnell to be filmed as part of a roundtable discussion of the farm bill and its impact on farmers who might choose to grow something other than corn and soybeans. It’s an HBO documentary that is not scheduled to air for a couple of years, due to come out before the next farm bill is debated in congress.

The weather this summer seems to finally be taking its toll on me – it seems like it is literally raining, the ground and vegetation is wet, or the dew points are in the tropical range. We’re all ready for a break.

one year ago…”Emma Hits Walden Pond”

August 11, 2010 – Flooding Finally Hits Near Home

Last night was another repeat of most of the summer. The ground finally can’t take any more water. Ames may see unprecedented flooding, perhaps even worse than the legendary floods of 1993.

The view of University Avenue and the athletic complex. The basketball court at Hilton Coliseum is now eight feet under water! I-35 is closed, as is US 30 leading in to Ames.

Resident trying to get her stuff out of her home.

South Duff, the main north-south thoroughfare, right in front of the Target store in Ames.

For the first time since we installed the sump pump, water is coursing through the basement, but the pump is keeping up so far. This has officially been the wettest first nine months of a year ever recorded in Central Iowa.

one year ago…”Monsanto, Farmers and Seed Prices”

August 10, 2010 – Back in the Old Days…

Back in the old days, the grass turned dry and brown in August. Back in the old days, hot, humid oppressive days were ended with a thunderstorm followed by cooler air. Back in the old days, if you didn’t like the weather, you just had to wait 10 minutes for it to change. Despite my recent appeal to the rainmaker, the weather is caught in a groundhog day pattern. Heat, oppressive humidity, late night/early morning downpours. Repeat. Repeat.

one year ago…”Mulberry Forage”

August 8, 2010 – House Progress

Slow but steady progress is being made on the cascading garage tear-off project. It has spread to putting new siding on the entire east side and both the additions to the original house.

Although with dew points in the 70’s and even in the 80’s some days, and rain every other day or so leaves much to complain about, slow but steady progress is being made.  Today I ripped off the old siding off the second floor and removed the old storm windows and frames.

one year ago…”Hazelnuts”

August 4, 2010 – Getting Ready for State Fair-like Event

There are many traditional contests at the Iowa State Fair, so to get ready, we have an entry for the longest continuous apple peel. I’m not sure they still, have the contest, but it’s fun to practice. (It’s also a bit of a sneak peak of the new siding, nearing completion on the east side of the house).

The Williams Pride apples are ripe, so we are in the first round of drying apples and freezing some for making applesauce when other varieties get ripe later in the season.

one year ago…”College Visits”

August 1, 2010 – From the “You’ve Got to Be Kidding Dept”

I received an email this week offering “strategies” for getting your kids to go outside. The title was “One mom’s story: How I got my kids outside.” Really? Getting kids to go outside is now worthy of publication and mass e-mails? I guess the smart-aleck answer is to do it the same way my parents did when we were growing up and bouncing off the walls – send us outside and lock the doors! Maybe this makes me sound like an old man approaching 50 (no, that can’t be me!)

Without further ado, then, some of the highlights of the letter of  “One Mom’s Story:”

We need to get this generation of kids outside, stat! And we can start TODAY.
I know it’s not easy. If your kids – like mine – are more resistant to leaving their indoor refuge, take small steps. The other day my daughter wanted to go shopping, so I chose an outdoor mall with beautiful landscaping.

An outdoor mall? My goodness, the kid probably needs a ventilator mask that vents Cheesecake Factory, Sbarro, and Pizza Hut with a bit of 16-plex buttered popcorn and Macy’s fragrance counter thrown in just to survive the walk from the car to the mall!  To me that’s like saying – to get your kids to eat oatmeal raisin cookies, serve them up one ingredient at a time until they get used to it. If you start with brown sugar, that will be a small step.

one year ago…”Skunk in the Brooding House: 35 Lost”

July 31, 2010- In Theory…

In theory, the self-closing toilet seat seemed like a good idea…

It was time to replace the toilet seat, which is generally considered as easy job. Well, the bolts holding it on were about two inches longer than they needed to be and totally rusted. The “nuts” were plastic that deformed when the needed pressure to twist them off were applied, and there was only room for about 1/4 turn at a time since the socket wouldn’t fit over the long bolt.  Hello Sawz-all!

But that’s not what we are writing about today – it’s the self closing lid.  Imagine – no more complaints about the lid left up, no more clanging of the lid as it is dropped down – seemed like a great idea until you thought about it more.

In practice, here’s what happens. If you’re male, you might start a steady stream and watch in horror as the seat and lid slowly drop, midstream so to speak. Not much better if you are a woman – you sit down and the lid drops on and starts pushing on your back as you try to relax.

self-closing toilet seat

Back to the traditional manual toilet seat.

one year ago…”Midwest Living Photo Shoot”

July 28, 2010 – New Layers

New laying chicks came today. These ladies will be in full production next spring.

We’ve got some hens three years old and a handful have learned bad habits, so this fall, we’ll get out supply of stewing hens for winter-time chicken soup.

The turkeys this year turned out badly. The message is that we can’t leave the farm this month. Of course, we lost Tank on the vacation to Minnesota, and a one-night getaway last weekend, the farm watcher dis chores in the evening, and in the morning 17 of the turkeys were dead. It was a hot day. They were not smothered in a pile, nor were they at the extremities of the brooder, nor did they have visible marks or bites. The only thing out of the ordinary (but not this year) was a big lighting storm. At any rate it is a bit disheartening to lose them – both for the price at $5 per poult and the lack of turkey at Thanksgiving.

one year ago…”Sunflowers”

July 26, 2010 – An Open Letter to the Rainmaker

Dear Rainmaker,

I feel rather powerless and inadequate in broaching this subject to you. Who am I to complain or nag about the weather? That being said, your power is unrivaled. In some regions of the country (except San Diego where the weather is usually the same from day to day) nearly every conversation begins with talk about you. Every day a portion of the nightly news is devoted to you. So, please do not take offense at my humble entreaty.

Between me and you – the rain needs to moderate. Really, enough already. In this neck of the woods, we get it. You win. Knocking out a major city’s water supply and flooding downtown Des Moines, along with filling Hilton Coliseum in Ames with water in 1993 was an attention getter. In 2008, you took out Cedar Rapids and did your best in Iowa City. Just last week, you took out a dam on the Maquoketa River. Heck, for the first time on the ride home from Minnesota, there was a road detour on a detour.

Many people have traditionally danced for you to bring rain. I’m not sure what the ritual or program is to ask the the rain not to stop, but to stop the excess. I’ll wait for inspiration. Heck, maybe a blog entry will be all it takes to appease you.

Mark

one year ago…”Garlic Harvest”

July 25, 2010 – A Quiet Day in the Country?

Today we might just as well have lived on the approach to ORD, DEN, or MSP.

Early Sunday morning, the crop dusters started buzzing, sometimes two at a time, it seemed for most of the otherwise quiet and calm Sunday morning and afternoon. In the city, FAA regulations don’t allow planes to fly this close to residential properties and structures. And of course, it just isn’t one fly-by, but repeated twists, turns, and approaches. I was happy when the droning and buzzing finished for the day.

one year ago…”1,000 Friends of Iowa Conference”

July 24, 2010 – Rockford Fossil Quarry

There are some places that are so incongruous.  The Rockford Fossil Quarry in north central Iowa is just such a place. It is only one of three public fossil collecting sites in the nation.

fossil brachiopod

Here’s a fine example of the kinds of fossils you can easily find.

Rockford Iowa sign

The town in quite proud of it’s claim to fame, as it is proclaimed not as “Home of Devonian Fossils” but Home of THE Devonian Fossils”

boy collecting fossils

The landscape has a decidedly western feel to it – something you’d expect to see in South Dakota or Wyoming, not surrounded by corn fields.

Martin readies to pluck a 370 million year old fossil exposed to the light for the first time in a LONG time!

Martin showing off one of his finds.

Again, Linda and Emma collecting on a Badlands-looking outcrop.

mud cracks

Mud cracks – nothing screams the desert west more than these!

beehive kilns

The quarry was originally home to these beehive kilns that were used to make bricks.

A waste pile of bricks leftover from when the kilns shut down.  I think they’ve got a bit of an artistic look to them, much like Tiffany glass patterns popular in Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

one year ago…”Who Put a Spell on Mark”

July 23, 2010 – Carrot Experiment Harvest

The carrots in 55 gallon drum experiment is over for this year.

Although the carrots weren’t as plentiful and large as I expected, I take the blame for that since I had poor germination and didn’t replant, and probably pulled them too early as some were strangely flowering (carrots are biannual).  They were frozen for chicken soup.  I followed them with some kohlrabi.  We’ll try again next year!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #171″

July 19, 2010 – Tank is Gone

The biggest bummer of vacation was finding out our best ewe died while we were gone.

From a photo this winter, Tank is the brown one in the foreground. Evidently, they went into the shed where the 12 foot fishing boat was stored and somehow (I blame the horse) the boat was pushed off the trailer and Tank was found half underneath the boat.

We told the person watching the farm “If you have livestock, you’ve got deadstock.” But still, finding a dead sheep the first time you came over to do chores is no doubt unnerving. We were way out of cell phone range, but between another neighbor and our remote outsourced farm support in India (Claire), the carcass got buried.

We are happy that Tank had triplets this spring, two of them ewes, so her genes run on at high hopes gardens.

one year ago…”Catch-Up Begins”

July 10, 2010 – Goat Milk Cheese (Chevre)

We have (finally) produced a cheese that makes excellent use of our goat milk. Here’s the culture as it looks after sitting for about 24 hours. The liquid is whey and the curd is the more solid, cheesy looking stuff. We fed the whey to the chickens.

This is what it looks like after the curd was allowed to hang in the fridge for a couple of days.

This makes the cheese more firm as the last of whey drips out. We found this to be delicious on crackers. Some we mixed with garlic and chives, another with dill, and a third we made with salt and pepper. These can be frozen too.

one year ago…”Corny”

July 9, 2010 – Buckwheat Already

Although it might look small or not apparent here, there are thousands of tiny buckwheat seedlings starting to grow. After we pulled the garlic, we replanted just 5-6 days ago with buckwheat and it’s already up!

Buckwheat is a great summer cover crop because it loves the heat, provides good late summer forage for the bees, and lays down some nice seeds for the chickens to pick and scratch in late fall as they lay down next year’s fertilizer!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #170″

July 6, 2010 – Hauling Garlic

Today’s news flash is that all the garlic is curing up in the barn. I didn’t get photos of the entire process, just the getting it up in the hayloft portion.  With a rare break in the weather, it was time to get it out before the next rains waterlogged the soil even more.

garlic

Looks good!

Here’s a bit less than 1/3 of the crop freshly pulled out of the ground.

One of the loads was picked right in the tractor loader and the bucket lifted up to the 2nd story loft door of the barn.

Unloading the loader bucket and ready to haul to the drying screens.

Martin, the ever-cheerful worker!

Here he is again, about to lay down a big load on the drying racks.  It’s a good feeling and even better smell to get all the garlic up in the loft, harvested, and ready to cure.

one year ago…”First Pear”

July 5, 2010 – Hauling Lumber

Now that the garage is down, it’s time to put away the salvaged lumber.  There is a good amount of 2×4 and 2×6 lumber that can be reused around the farm (I’d still like to build an implement storage lean-to and a few mobile animal shelters for the pasture and…  OK, let’s stop right there.

In the meantime the lumber has to go somewhere.  I made some “lumber racks” in one side of the corn crib to be able to slide it in and out as in a a lumberyard.  My time-saving idea this time was to write the lengths on the ends before putting it away, so when I need one, I won’t have to slide many out of the pile to find a certain length.  Here they are, ready for transport to the crib.

one year ago…”Old Machine Shed Progress”

July 4, 2010 – Are You Smarter Than The Dean of Agriculture at Iowa State?

Before you read, quick, what have cows eaten for the last few thousands of years?  Remember that later on in the post.

Iowa State deservedly so received a black eye in an article regarding the search for a new director for the Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The Chronicle of Higher Education – the flagship journal of those in higher education wrote an article about the botched search.

In a nutshell, the search committee, composed of a broad range of people, selected four candidates to interview on campus. Of these, they recommended two to the President. Ricardo Salvador was the preferred candidate and another was acceptable, while two were deemed unacceptable. The job was offered to the 2nd candidate and at the same time the 1st candidate was sent a flush letter. The 2nd candidate eventually declined and the university was left with no other options. Now the hiring process has been hijacked by the hiring of the 2nd consecutive “interim director.”

According to the article in the Chronicle, an comment Ricardo made during a presentation that “cows evolved to eat grass” is counted as his downfall (this is a state whose agriculture is dominated by corn and confinements and feedlots that feed ruminants corn; the emperor did not appreciate this comment that suggests there was a lack of clothing.)

The Chronicle interviewed the Dean of Agriculture and asked her if she believed that “cows evolved to eat grass.” She said she had no opinion. (As though this is a question that is one of opinion!). The Chronicle continued to push her and finally she said something to the effect that she was trained as an entomologist and should not be expected to know about everything! Hmm. I’d think for $227,000 dollars a year, a Land Grant university could find some genius who is underemployed who is not an animal scientist who might have a broad understanding of agriculture that includes the knowledge that cows are ruminants.

Obviously, the Dean knows the answer, and no matter who was in that position might have answered the same. There is a structural problem. The problem is that the concept of a Land Grant University funded by public taxes, no longer serves those who pay the taxes, but captains of industry, much like many politicians in Washington serve who do not vote for them.

Somehow, this seems appropriate on the anniversary of our democracy. There’s still work left to do!  A recent billboard for Iowa State urged students to “Change your zip code and change the World.”  If the University blocks progress on changing less than 2% of Iowa farmland and intercedes to maintain the status quo, there is no hope the world will change anytime soon.  There are many bright faculty and students at Iowa State – they deserve leadership that allows them to do just that –  change the world.

This may be in Iowan’s DNA.  A Boone city councilman mulling over an ordinance to allow wind turbines:  “I think it’s really wise that we don’t jump into this until we make darn sure that everything is proper and there’s not going to be issues down the road, because it could really come back and haunt a lot of people,” Councilman Gary Nystrom said. “There are a lot of ideas that come up, but we don’t need to be the first ones to test them.”  Yep, let someone else get all the money and benefits of new technology and we’ll be happy here with our abacus and flint tools.

one year ago…”Happy 4th”

July 3, 2010 – Bee Swarm

Although there’s never a good time for a bee swarm, the day they swarmed was a particularly bad time.  We were running late getting flower and fruit orders out the door, running behind on starting to put the last 50 chickens to rest, and about to head to town to pick up the kids.  We had about 5 minutes together to deal with this.

We set up a hive, got a box to catch the bees as they dropped after cutting the branch.

We misjudged the size of the branch/swarm/box and when they fell, most of them missed the box.  I had to head to town, and they reformed even higher up a tree and while Linda waited for me to return to figure out the best way to get the next branch cut, they flew away a few minutes before I got back home with the kids.  It’s always disappointing to miss a chance at a “free” hive, but maybe next time we’ll have better luck!

one year ago…”Girls State”

June 30, 2010 – Advances in Cat Feeding

With Claire’s recent departure, Martin has assumed the pet feeding duty.

Martin started feeding the cats, and immediately started making changes to the routine.  He added a new bit of technology.  Evidently he was not impressed with Claire’s dump a half pound of cat food out in a pile and run technique.  Martin instituted some new cat feeding technology – single serving cat feeders made out of an old board and tuna cans.  Although not totally apparent in this photo, four tuna cans are screwed onto a board, so all four cats can eat at the same time – portion controlled.

one year ago…”Lake Shetek State Park”

June 28, 2010 – Cherry Pie

Ya’ll saw the cherries a few days ago. Here is one of the finished products from blue-ribbon pie baker Linda.

cherry pie

She’s trying to pass pie-making down to children, but nobody quite has the knack yet. I think Martin may end up with the best chance to master it.  Claire has been posting various Indian sweets on her blog, so I thought we’d fight back with the heavy artillery!

one year ago…”Pipestone National Monument”

June 27, 2010 – Garage Progress

The garage tearing down continues. It’s been a pain through the rain – another downpour in the middle of the night.

Here’s how the garage looked late last night – down to pretty much a skeleton.

There was great progress this afternoon – the rest of the sheeting off the roof, the rafters removed and the front and backs felled with the push of a hand after a couple of strategic cuts!  It was satisfying to watch them fall en masse.

It’s starting to look pretty wide open as only the walls remain

one year ago…”20th Anniversary Trip to Dayton House in Worthington, MN”

June 26, 2010 – On-Farm Chicken Processing

Today was the second time we used the new plucker to move chickens from the chicken tractors to the freezers.

I won’t go into all the steps of butchering chickens, but will show what the chickens look like after they are scalded and through the tub plucker. We did 39 chickens in the morning – we had hoped to get going by 6 am, but the rain didn’t stop until 8 (now rain 23 of 26 days in June). We were through by 11:30. It seemed to go better than the first time. We broke in Emma on the eviscerating line, and Martin caught chickens, turned the plucker off and on and ran bagged chickens to the freezer or refrigerator. Emma and Linda cut up 20 for quick meals of chicken breast or other parts and we sold a few of the rest. Still have about 50 to do later this week.

one year ago…”Birthday Trip to Omaha Zoo”

June 25, 2010 – Cherries to Food

It’s time to “do something” with the cherries. First thing is to pit them.

Pitting is the worst part of the job, but we added another pitter, so two people can work at once. At this moment it doesn’t look like the kids were suffering too much! These cherries are destined for jam and cherry pie filling.  I’ve come to love eating them off the tree, the sweet and tart must just be all full of great healthy compounds!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #168″

June 22, 2010 – Father’s Day

For father’s day, everybody helped with garage deconstruction for a few hours.  Although it’s not a traditional gift, it beats sweaters, socks, or a tie!

Great progress was made – the trailer was filled with shingles -we almost got the whole roof stripped and started ripping off the siding as well.  Soon the eyesore will be gone.  Another day with rain – hard to keep berries and the like from molding.

one year ago…”Septic Day 1″

June 20, 2010 – Mammatus!

We had a spectacular show Friday night as the second round of storms for the day passed by to the east. A nice field of mammatus clouds developed.

mammatus over barn

I went out anticipating that the thunderheads to the east might have some interesting illumination from the setting sun to the west, but was very pleased to see these clouds and watch as the grew and developed.

skystream under mammatus

The following bit of information is condensed from Wikipedia: Mammatus are most often associated with the anvil cloud that extends from a cumulonimbus (thunderheads). Mammatus are often indicative of a particularly strong storm or maybe even a tornadic storm. These tend to form more often during warm months and are most common over the midwest and eastern portions of the United States.

Mammatus may appear as smooth, ragged or lumpy lobes and may be opaque or semitransparent. Because mammatus occur as a grouping of lobes, the way they clump together can vary from an isolated cluster to a field of mamma that spread over hundreds of kilometers to being organized along a line, and may be composed of unequal or similarly-sized lobes. The individual mammatus lobe average diameters of 1–3 km and lengths on average of 0.5 km. A lobe can last an average of 10 minutes, but a whole cluster of mamma can range from 15 minutes to a few hours. They usually are composed of ice, but also can be a mixture of ice and liquid water.

mammatus clouds

As the sun sank lower, the clouds turned from yellow to red.

It was rather exhilarating to be outside walking under this strange meteorologic phenomenon under a wide open sky!

one year ago…”Emma’s First 5K”

June 19, 2010 – Same Story; Different Day

OK, now we’ve had rain 16 of 19 days in June.

Today, we had not one, but two wall clouds blow over, one in the morning and one in the evening.

I tried to put some photos together, but it looks like I’ll have to take the “how to adjust color and brightness and stitch landscape photos together” class sometime.  But nonetheless, it’s a rather dramatic view of a much too common view over the landscape this month.

one year ago…”Pruning Christmas Pines”

June 18, 2010 – High Hopes Flowers Grace Cover of Midwest Living

Last summer our farm was the location of a photo shoot for a feature in Midwest Living magazine. The cover of the August issue features our flowers!

You can check out the behind the scenes photos of a professional photo shoot on the July 31, 2009 blog entry and some more background on July 28. It just so happens one of the photos I took of people taking photos is a shot that made the magazine cover. The photos are in the August 2010 issue.

Most of the photos and sunflowers were from our farm, except for those that showed fields of sunflowers. Ora, our cat is in the background for the Table of Contents page and there are about 5 pages of mostly photos from our place. Martin is the only one in the family who made it through the cutting room floor and into the magazine.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #167″

June 14, 2010 – Putting Martin to Work

Martin put in about three hours working pretty consistently tearing shingles off the roof.  It was about as long and hard as he’s worked on a project with me.

He was a bit fascinated with the pattern and arrangement of the shingles. Unfortunately, there are two layers – I had hoped for just one.

It’s been hard to get much done lately.  It’s been an exceptionally rainy June to date – it’s rained 12 of the 14 days this month – and many of those heavy thunderstorms. The garden is really starting to get out of hand with weeds.

one year ago…”EZ Barn Door”

June 13, 2010 – Dominoes

OK, now that the garage is in process of tear down, the dominoes start falling. The stuff in the garage has to go somewhere.

One place will be on these newly constructed shelves in the corn crib. Then there’s the old kitchen cabinets, countertops and the like in the garage, full of canning jars and so much more that will need a new home.  So, time to throw out the even older cabinets in the shed and move those over.  Oh yeah, and we’ll move the old school lockers out of the mud room that nobody ever used and cut some of the other cabinets to a length that will fit – but before we do that, we need to find a place for all that stuff, and as long as the room is empty, time to tear out the old musty walls from leaks gone past.  I think you get the picture.  Waaaay too many upcoming blog posts about the garage!

one year ago…”Emma at Dorian Music Camp at Luther College”

June 12, 2010 – How Do I Hate Thee…

I have detested the attached garage to the house since the day we moved in. The garage suffers many ills, none of its own making, but rather in those that imagined and  constructed her.

The garage is the 3rd addition onto the traditional foursquare farmhouse – The first addition was a mudroom and back bedroom – not in a contiguous line mind you, but adding a “U” shape and dead space in the center of the U.  For this addition, the previous owners chose steel siding with large vertical lines, to no doubt set it apart from the traditional 3 inch lap siding that it juts up against.  The garage, added onto this addition, made yet another statement when the wide masonite siding to offer another view. So in 15 feet or so, there are three vastly different looks.

The garage leaked soon after we moved in – but the problem that makes the garage salvageable is the fact that the floor is below grade and every time it rains, it fills with water.  So, rather than re-roof, reside, putting a new door and window on, I decided it is time to tear off the garage and start from scratch some day.  So the demolition begins!

one year ago…”Strawberry Season”

June 11, 2010 – She’s Gone to the World

Claire got on a plane today for her trip to India. Des Moines to Chicago. Chicago to Frankfurt. Frankfurt to Heyderabad. About 18 hours of flying time not counting layovers. Someone from the research center to pick her up holding a placard with her name at 11:30 pm local time.

As I went to bed, waiting for the night’s round of heavy rain and thunderstorms to arrive, I tossed in the dark of night, under a new moon, thinking of her hurtling through the blackness over the ocean – letting her go to the world, to follow her path – the moment which all parents prepare their children over the course of their childhood, with ever increasing responsibilities and trust until they board a plan alone to travel half-way across the world. I’ll feel better about all that after I learn she’s arrived safely.

I’ve added a link to Claire’s blog in the page navigation bar above for those that want to check in on her.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #166″

June 9, 2010 – Post-Thunderstorm Winds

We had some strong winds that followed a thunderstorm this week and they gave me a few extra things to do.

First, it mangled the bottom of the shed door a bit -time for some pounding and bracing.

I guess Murphy’s law predicts that of all the empty space under this big silver maple, chances are close to 100% that it would drop on the only object it could damage sitting near the tree.

one year ago…”Barred Rock Chicks”

June 8, 2010 – Barn Staining Update

Looks like Claire managed to complete staining the east side of the barn.  There is not complete agreement as the window frames are left unpainted, but daughter claims that was not part of the instruction since no white paint was left in an obvious location.

At any rate, the stain-splattered body tell me that she indeed make a good-faith effort before her looming trip to India!

one year ago…”Spring Lettuce”

June 4, 2010 – First Celery

We had some electrical problems in the barn (like the lights don’t work and the box keeps blowing fuses). At any rate, it was out of my league, so I called an electrician who hadn’t worked here for a couple of years – actually since the wind turbine was installed. But he’s got a great memory and I was slow on the pick-up when he started talking gardening and asked how the celery was growing? I told him we never grew it since it took such a long time.

Well, lo and behold, he drags out a bunch of celery starts for us to try! They look great and Linda already has them tucked away in the soil.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #165″

May 31, 2010 – India Looms for Claire

Less than two weeks before Claire boards a plane for the unknown!  I encouraged her to take up the blogging torch, so I wouldn’t have to keep up with her activities so closely (a good father gracefully lets go, right?)  So Claire has started her own blog called Namaste, Veggies!  and the location is clairegoestoindia.wordpress.com and has already posted some pre-trip background and thoughts.

one year ago…”House Painting”

May 30, 2010 – OK, We’re Almost Done with Claire

OK, I promise, we’re almost through with Claire posts for a while, but when your baby graduates from high school, it’s best to note it in this Dad’s “Online Scrapbooking” as others have referred to this blog.

Sp there she is, all done with high school!  As her achievements have been previously chronicled, I’ll leave them be for now.  But she did have one last high school honor – she was selected to address the audience at the graduation ceremony.  We were far away, it was hot, and the parameters of the speech left little room for outlandish creativity (aka duct tape school dresses), it is put here only for those relatives who are very interested, the rest of you can wait for tomorrow’s post.

one year ago…”Martin Planting”

May 29, 2010 – Garlic Off To Great Start

The garlic is exceptionally early this year. We’ve already had to pull off the first few scapes – can’t ever remember dong that in May.

Here’s some of the garlic fairly close up.

We were able to institute the new four foot alternating beds in some gardens where garlic wasn’t planted. These two new strips of clover and perennial rye are starting to come along.

one year ago…”Workin’ on the Barn”

May 25, 2010 – Getting Tomatoes In

Finally getting around to some gardening.  Getting the tomatoes and peppers in the ground.

Slightly new system this year.  We’re out of end rolls from the cardboard factory, so I picked up some giant tarps from the lumber yard to use instead.  Cut them to four foot widths, then cut holes in to plant, poked some holes in the tarp with a potato fork to allow water to seep through, put in the stakes, slid the tomato cages recycled from old woven wire fences over the posts, covered with some straw.  The sections between are the new alleys of clover and perennial rye.

one year ago…”Hops”

May 22, 2010 – Graduation Party!

The day finally arrived!  Our first-born’s graduation party.

No party is complete without the graduation “shrine” to the graduate.  We made Claire prepare her own shrine.

Claire with one of the graduation cakes.

I made a video entitled “Claire: The Movie” and took out a few snippets below.  I’m particularly fond of my role as disappointed father.

Part 1 – Musical Intro

Part 2 – Friends Speak Out

Part 3 – Family members remember Claire.

one year ago…”Chimenia”

May 19, 2010 – Jazzed Up

This week was the spring jazz concert.  Emma wanted to play in jazz band, but there’s not many parts for flute, so she picked up saxophone to play in jazz band.

But the director featured her as a flute soloist one song.

It was also Claire’s last high school music event – here she is at the keyboard in jazz band warming up before the show.  It’s a toss-up to me whether I enjoy the spring jazz concert or indoor marching band program the best.

one year ago…no post

May 18, 2010 – Goats on the Ground

Pearl successfully gave birth today.  Last year we just found her two newborns dead.  This year she had two kids and is fairly fierce in guarding them.

They one that looks like her is a male, named Henry and the brown one that looks like her father, Harriet.

After we found them in the pasture, we moved them to a pen to get acquainted and not lose each other.  The children went into look at the kids in the pen and she started pawing the ground, then lowered her head and the children decided it was time to leave.

one year ago…no post

May 17, 2010 – Garage as Test Case

We’re moving the color scheme of the house from white and green to butter yellow and green.  We’ve already put the new siding up of the dormers when we did the 3rd floor of the house and used the leftover siding for the peaks of the garage.  I hadn’t come around to painting the rest of the garage the same color yet.

In this photo, the first coat is about 80% complete.  I did manage to finish this side and prime another side today.

one year ago…no post

May 16, 2010 – Peonies and Ants

Very few things go together more than ants and peonies.

There’s hardly a peony anywhere not  covered with ants.  The ants neither harm nor help the peonies, but can just be a pain for bringing them into the house.  You can cut peonies at the “soft marshmallow” stage before they open up and shake off the ants and then bring them in the house to open up – free of ants.

one year ago…no post

May 15, 2010 – Eight Year Old Boy “Records”

See the red spot in the tree?  That’s Martin, the monkey.

A few days ago Martin came to me with a revelation, “Dad, I set a record for the farm.”  Curious, I asked what it was.  He said with some pride and trepidation, “I have the highest pee on the farm.”  Still curious, I asked, how high and where – thinking he might have decided to launch out his window.  Instead, he said, up above the power lines on the south tree.”  So, there it is, a record any eight-year old boy would treasure.  I just asked him to let me know next time he planned on beating the record, so I could plan my travels around the farm without an umbrella.

one year ago…”no post”

May 14, 2010 – Closing Out the School Year

Lately there’s been many lasts. The last band concert, the last this, the last that. One of those lasts is the last debate (forensics) banquet. No doubt because of plenty of practice from her sharp-witted parents, debate was one of her favorite activities – highlights included being the first student in 10 years to make debate nationals from her high school, and a finalist as “senior of the year” in the state of Iowa.

At the banquet, she got to grab all her trophies that had been accumulating in the school trophy case. Of course many thanks go out to her coaches, who endured many hours on the road and in hotels for out-of-town tournaments!

one year ago…no post

May 12, 2010 – Fern Brings New Goat to High Hopes

Fern delivered her first kid!  Fern is a very undersized doe and we weren’t sure how she’d do with her first delivery.  Because she was so small, we waited two years to breed her.

doe and kid goat

But she delivered her first kid with no problems and we can now introduce you to Hazel.

kid goat

Martin had naming rights to this kid, based on the fact he was the only child home when the baby was discovered – Martin picked Hazel as the name, so Hazel it is.

one year ago…”Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park”

May 11, 2010 – Spring Bee Renewal

The spring beekeeping tasks are at hand.  Two of the three hives needed to be rejuvenated this spring. So two hives have new queens.

The new queens were put in the hives in mid-late April and now it’s time to check on how the hive is doing.  The smoker is ready in anticipation of opening the hive.

beehive and smoker

They are all off to a good start – with more brood cells and great hive activity – so the queens stuck around and are laying eggs.

one year ago…”Ship Harbor, Acadia National Park”

May 10, 2010 – Frosty Mother’s Day

Although a few mothers may have received frosty vibes from their children, at high hopes, the only frost was outside on the ground.

frosty lettuce

As the sun came up, it quickly melted the frost away.  I don’t think we’ll have any ill effects as we only had cold-hardy plants in the ground, and most of the fruit trees are finished blooming, and the frost was light enough, I don’t think it will bother the developing fruit.

one year ago…”College of the Atlantic”

May 9, 2010 – Cuban Bread

It’s hard to go wrong with homemade bread, especially if someone else is willing to make it for you!  This is Cuban Bread, an easy cousin to French Bread.   Linda provides the recipe following the photo.

cuban bread

Ingredients:

5 to 6 cups of bread or all-purpose flour
2 packages dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups hot water (120-130 degrees)
Sesame or poppy seeds (optional)

I used my kitchen-aid mixer to mix and knead the dough. Prepare a baking sheet by greasing it or with corn meal or parchment paper.  I liked the texture of the corn meal.

Place 4 cups of flour in a large mixing bowl add yeast, salt, and sugar.  Stir until blended.  Pour in hot water and beat for 3 minutes with the mixer flat beater.

Gradually work in the remaining flour 1/2 C at a time.  I used a scant 5 cups.  Mix until the dough takes shape and is no longer sticky.  Knead using the mixer for 45 seconds (or 8 minutes by hand).

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 15 minutes or until the dough doubles in size.

Punch down the dough, turn it out on the work surface, and cut into 2 pieces.  Shape each into a round.  Place on the baking sheet.  With a sharp knife, slash an X on each of the loaves, brush with water, and if desired, sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.

Bake at 400 degrees (350 degrees in convection oven) for 45-50 minutes.  Place the baking sheet on the middle shelf of a cold oven.  Place a large pan of hot water on the shelf below, and heat the oven to 400 degrees. The bread will continue to rise while the oven is heating.  Bake for about 50 minutes, or until the loaves are deep golden brown.  Thump on the bottom crusts to test for doneness.  If they sound hard and hollow, they are baked.

Note:  Since the bread does not have shortening, it will not keep beyond a day or so.  Even though it may begin to stale, it makes excellent toast for many days and freezes well.

one year ago…”Bar Harbor, Maine”

May 5, 2010 – New Chicks Arrive on the Farm

Yesterday 103 broiler chicks arrived at the farm.  They are safely tucked in the brooding area.

chicks under brooding light

I’m sure there will be more photos as these guys grow up.  The weather, of course, is supposed to turn colder this weekend – into the 30’s (no matter when the chicks are ordered, you can always count on cold weather very soon after their arrival.

one year ago…”Feeding the World”

May 3, 2010 – Spring Seeding

Nothing is really simple around the farm.  Last year’s septic installation, for example.  There’s no way getting around a lot of torn up ground.  Now that the piles have had a chance to settle over a fall, winter, and spring, it’s time to re-establish desirable vegetation.

This shows a view below the tanks and the house in the background (the drain field behind us).  Last week I seeded the path up to the pasture in regular lawn grass and lightly covered it with straw – the pasture part in this photo, I bought some  grass and legume seeds.  Getting the seeds is the easy part – first, I needed to get out the old disc we bought with the farmall cub.  It had sat for maybe five years – finally got it extricated from it’s last resting place, then disced up the area, spread the seeds, raked over them, then retrieved the electric netting and solar charger to keep the chickens out, who would find the grass a legume seeds a treat to dig out of the ground.  Now all it has to do is rain every few days until the seed gets established.

You may also notice a new watermark on the photos.  I’ve discovered that blog photos have a life of their own on the internet.  Many times people have asked me to use a photo and I’ve always granted permission.  So I’m going to start putting the high hopes logo watermark on them, so if they do reappear, they will at least have a visual link back to the source without the authors having to necessarily interrupt their text with an acknowledgement.

one year ago…”Another Skystream Meets the Wind”

May 2, 2010 – Local Meals!

To us, local meals are really local – as our daughter Emma has commented in the past “I live with my food.”  Many local foodies mark the miles the food travels from the farm to their fork, well, on the farm, it’s hard to be much closer. (Any closer would probably be very unhealthy!)

grilled chicken and asparagus

Chicken thighs – distance from the kitchen – approximately 200 feet;

Asparagus – distance from the kitchen – approximately 50 feet

local meal

Not to be redundant, the meal the day after the previous photo:

Marinated Turkey Tenders – distance from the kitchen – approximately 250 feet;

Asparagus – distance from the kitchen – approximately 50 feet

Shiitake mushrooms – distance from the kitchen, approximately 40 feet

one year ago…”Field Trip to Farmer’s Market”

April 28, 2010 – Urban Gardening Technique – Bin/Tire Potatoes

Another old gardening technique that has yet to come to high hopes is growing potatoes in straw.  Many people grow them in tires and keep piling tires up and adding straw as the potatoes grow up.

Instead of using tires, I used some old pallets wired together instead of tires.

Martin went in and laid down some newspapers and a bit of compost to give the taters a head up on the grass.

Martin is like “Jim” from Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom – he goes in and does the hard work while I stand and watch!  These potatoes were left-0ver from last year and had already started growing.

Straw on top, and the pallets afford the straw to keep piling up as the potatoes grow.

one year ago…”Claire with More Opportunities”

April 21, 2010 – Who Says Cats Don’t Make Good Shepherds?

Over the ages, many scientists, using keen powers of observation and conjecture, have winnowed many complex animal relationships.  These breakthroughs often times explain how seemingly random events are part of a larger unexplained whole.  I had just one such experience this week.  Many people regard cats as having few skills in  herding cloven-footed herbivores.  Dogs occupy most of the herding space, mainly due to their brash and over-the-top nipping, barking and running after their chosen herd of ungulates.

Cats have a different, heretofore, unrecognized approach to herding.  Cats are waaay more laid back – in fact, they’d rather make you think they weren’t doing anything at all.  Our oldest farm cat, Toby, probably about 13 years old by now demonstrated this technique to me, only after our long relationship.  In this photo he positions himself in what looks like a warm, sunny location, but actually uses the adjoining cavern to amplify his voice when he makes subtle voice commands and head motions to move the sheep.

After an initial calling meow, Toby uses almost imperceptible head motions to visually track to the sheep the direction he wants them to travel.  Here the lead ewe begins to follow Toby’s command, alerting the young lambs to come this way.

As his head moves from left to right in this photo sequence, the herd gains speed.

Once the sheep are safely moved closer to the barn, Toby acts as though he had nothing to do with it, even though the sheep look directly at him, awaiting further direction!

one year ago…”Apple Blossoms Soon”

April 20, 2010 – Emma on the Track

Emma’s taken up track this year.  She mostly runs the 3000, 1500 and 800.

She banged up her ankle early in the season (at home), so has been playing catch-up all year.

Even with the bum ankle, she’s still a blur passing by.  We’re hoping she has the running genes of my cross-country All-American brother and not the genes of her 9th grade track drop-out!

one year ago…”Shiitake’s Return”

April 18, 2010 – Spring Landscapes

This time of year the contrast between the dead corn and bean fields and life of everything is else readily apparent.

This is probably as good as the south berry garden will look this season, before the weeds overcome us.

This row of plum and cherry trees smells like a roomful of grandmothers who prefer floral perfumes and have lsot judgment as to the proper amount to apply!

This is the newest strawberry patch – the other one petered out, so this is the new spot – for my future reference – top right Evie day neutral, bottom right Cabot, top left Earliglow, bottom left Cavendish.

one year ago…”Old Red Cedar Shingles”

April 17, 2010 – Spring Mushrooms

Ah, now we are approaching the garden dining season. The shiitake mushrooms have appeared – it looks like the logs have some more life left in them this year!

I didn’t do logs last year, so these must be two-year old logs.

hazelnut flower

The hazelnut flowers look delicate in the wind – looks like the shrubs are really going to put out this year.

one year ago…”What’s Wrong with this Envelope?”

April 16, 2010 – Sometimes the Middle Child Lucks Out

Two women accompanied me to the Elton John concert in Des Moines – my wife and daughter Emma.   Claire drew the short straw and stayed home with Martin. The parent’s could reminisce about the music that was on the radio when they were Emma’s age! It was Emma’s 2nd big Rock-n-Roll show (the first was Paul McCartney).  It was a sold-out show, and even though I bought tickets the first day they went on sale, we were at the very top row, watching the stage and 15,000 other people.  The good news was that no one was spilling beer or chatting incessantly behind us!

Here’s the set list:

Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)
Levon
Madman Across the Water
Tiny Dancer
Philadelphia Freedom
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Daniel
Rocket Man
I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Take Me To the Pilot
Something About the Way You Look Tonight
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word
Candle in the Wind
We’re Never Too Old (off an upcoming album with Leon Russell due out in October)
Honky Cat
Burn Down the Mission
Bennie and the Jets
The Bitch is Back
I’m Still Standing
Crocodile Rock
Your Song

Funeral for a Friend was a great arena rock opening song.  The “old people” in the group listed Rocket Man and Burn Down the Mission as the best songs, and Emma tabbed Crocodile Rock as her favorite.  The only song that seemed noticeably absent was Pinball Wizard.  Even though Elton has been doing this for 40 years he was gracious and entertaining.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #161″

April 14, 2010 – Spring Flowering Begins!

Spring blossoming time has just begun! We’ve been 15 to 20 degrees above normal the last week, so plants have really been amping up.

plum blossoms

The plums are first out of gate in offering the bees the first big rush of pollen and nectar.

pear blossoms

The pear trees are not far behind – looks like our trees are finally old enough to produce more than just a handful of pears this year.

one year ago…”Shed Deconstruction Continues”

April 13, 2010 – New York Farm Workers Bill

An article in the Fruit Growers News caught my eye this week. A bill is before the New York State Senate to grant new protections to farm workers. “If passed, the bill would give farm workers rights to overtime pay, a full day off every week, freedom to form unions and other benefits.”

According to the New York Farm Bureau president, if the bill passes “It will irreparably damage our family farms’ ability to produce local food for local New Yorkers.” It’s good to know that Farm Bureau is now a strong advocate of local foods, but evidently believes that eliminating church-going is one of the sacrifices we need to make for local foods!

But to me it sounds a bit like a discussion this country had when slavery was abolished. Heck, even pre-civil war era slaves has Sundays off! I thought I’d look at our founding father’s attitudes towards agricultural workers in comparison to the modern day Farm Bureau. At Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s slaves had Sundays and evenings off.

How about George Washington? “The work-day at Mount Vernon was from sunrise to sunset, with 2 hours off for meals. Sunday was a holiday. Slaves also received 3-4 days off at Christmas, and the Monday after Easter and Pentecost as holidays. If a slave was required to work a Sunday during harvest, Washington would allow them a day off later, and sometimes compensated them with pay.”

Any New York readers out there that can shed more light on this bill’s progress/political setting?

one year ago…”New Blackberries”

April 11, 2010 – New Front Door

I’ve given up on the fancy weathertight storm doors. It seems like no matter what, the doors last less than two years before the wind destroys them. I even made sure to get one with two pneumatic closers the last time, but it seems once the wind catches them from a certain direction, the closed glass fosters an uncontrolled opening that rips the hinges off and/or rips the closers out of the frame.

So I thought I’d try something a bit more charming and lo-tech – this screen door. My hope is the lack of glass will prevent the wild backswing that wrecked the other doors.  To top it off, it looks like it fits the house!

one year ago…”Serious Garden Progress”

April 10, 2010 – Getting Garden Started

It’s finally dry enough to start getting some of the early season crops in the ground.  Today onions, peas, and lettuce hit the ground.  Enough early season crop beds are ready to go, so we swapped the tiller for the potato digger to trench in potatoes in the next few days.

Here are a couple of the new four foot beds we’re trying out this year.

one year ago…no entry

April 6, 2010 – Tiller Attached and Tested

The “new” tiller is finally attached and has been tested out on a 50-foot bed.

It was a bit of a long struggle to get it attached. First I needed a different category top three-point link. Then I had a lot of trouble getting to move the PTO shaft to extend it to fit on the tractor. I finally gave up and called in some more experienced hands – the neighbors. I had no clue whether the PTO shaft was beat up beyond repair. After a couple of hours of beating, sanding, greasing, and more beating, the tiller was attached and successfully field tested!

Now we can begin our transition to 4 foot wide plots with grassy strips between for foot and tractor tire traffic.

one year ago…”Top Shelf Middle Shelf and Bottom Shelf”

April 5, 2010 – Linda’s Speaking Gig

Last week Linda was the featured program for Women’s History month at the Ames USDA facility and was simulcast to a facility in New York as well.

She spoke a bit about the generational changes that have been exhibited by the women in her family.  Perhaps if we get a video or soundtrack of it, we’ll post it for mass consumption. Not surprisingly, there were some familiar faces in the audience, including folks from church, past colleagues, including an old office-mate from graduate school days.

one year ago…”April Snowstorm”

April 2, 2010 – Willow Season

Today I finally got down to the gooey willow nursery – figuring it wouldn’t dry out any more before it was too late to coppice (prune back to the ground) the ornamental willows.

These are irresistibly soft and such a sign of the season.  The willows have been a great addition to the farm.  Next year we’ll have to do a better job of promoting the willow bouquets!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #160″

March 31, 2010 – Playmobil Napoleanic History Lesson

Since we featured 4th grader’s creative exploits earlier this week, it’s time to move on to high school. This fine piece of Playmobil stop-action history comes compliments of children of family friends in Ames.

It starts a bit slow, but really picks up a few seconds into it. I love Santa’s casting in this piece! It’s worth a five minute review of Napoleon’s dynasty and the Industrial Revolution.

one year ago…”Planting Willows”

March 30, 2010 – Winter Damage

Now that we are getting out and about, a couple of crops have taken a significant hit from the deep snow and drifts this winter.

Many of the blackberry vines were bent over and cracked.  In some ways it greatly simplified pruning – just getting rid of the damaged vines accounted for much of the pruning.  The patch should survive the damage just fine, however.

The white pine Christmas trees are another story.  I’d say at least half of the trees were damaged beyond repair.  Here’s as example of the type of damage.  The Canaan Firs held up much better, probably due to their nature and the fact they were a couple of years ahead in growth to the white pines.

one year ago…”Willows Emerge”

March 29, 2010 – It’s Elementary!

Martin’s teacher had his class (4th grade) use the lambs on Martin’s farm as the basis of a creative writing exercise. She was good enough to send some of the stories on and I’ve put some on today for your enjoyment!

Spy Lambs

There once was lamb that Martin fed and took care of. One night she gave birth to some babies. Three babies to be exact. They were so cute and cuddly. Two boys and a girl. They were AWESOME SUPER SPIES. They were the best in the business and secretly national jewel thieves. Trust me, they were pretty awesome at what they did, but Martin always thought of them as cute and cuddly animals. One day they were on a mission trying to steal the famous picture of Mona Lisa painted by Leonardo da Vinci!!!!!!! That’s when their worst enemy, Leonardo da Vinci, came through the window shattering the glass with his new and old sidekicks. The old sidekick was Daytona, and his new partner, who came in second, was Joshua. It was an all out battle between the lamb triplets and Leonardo and his sidekicks over the Mona Lisa painting, but when the smoke cleared away the champion was, of course, the 3 babies who then went back home and fell softly to sleep in Martin’s barn.

Tank and the Triplets, Super Family

Tank is a sheep with super powers. Tank has super speed, shape shifting and also has telephonesis. That is when you have a telephone in your head. Tank has triplets and they of course have powers too. These powers include things like the super bahh and they are best in disguises. Unfortunately they will not be able to do super work until they master their powers and train very hard so that they do not get hurt and do not let the bad people hurt other people. Plus they have to grow up a bit and when they do they will get new powers and soon they will be saving the World with their super bahh just like their Mom does.

Just Kidding

Tank the lamb joined the FBI and got her degree. She was so intelligent that she became the head leader in 3 and 1/2 hours and was recognized by the town in 1 hour. She could recognize any fingerprint, so was called upon to help solve many crimes. After that she joined the Navy. She stopped the terrorist Osama Bin Laden. She got to meet Barrack Obama because of this accomplishment. She ran and got home to see Martin before the big flood of 2010. Martin looked at Tank and there were 3 babies beside her. Because of the approaching waters they ran and escaped. Then they lived happily ever after in their secret hideout.

Tank and the Triplets

I think that lambs are very cute, but Tanks triplets are the cutest so far. When I went to the State Fair and visited the farmhouse I got to see a ewe give birth to a lamb! It was very cute and disgusting at the same time! It was still a great experience. I also got to see a cow give birth to a calf. You should go this year and experience these awesome things!

Lambs
Lambs are very cute animals when they are young. Lambs also represent spring and the new season. The old saying goes that March starts as a lion and ends as a lamb. This means that March starts harsh, but ends sweet. You can say that because lambs are sweet and lions are harsh. I think Martin is very lucky to have a lamb because they are graceful animals and look very cuddly and sweet. They may be hard to take care of with all of the bottle feedings, but in the end you end up with happy, healthy animal. You would be so lucky to have triplet lambs because it may be hard for the third lamb to live, but it can work out if you take good care of it and it’s mama does too. It can be hard, but it’s all worth it in the end! Just ask Martin!

The Big Rush
One exciting morning Martin’s mom rushed into Martin’s room. “Wake up, wake up. Come see something wonderful!” she shouted. So, Martin got up and slipped on some slippers and a jacket. He followed his mom downstairs, through the kitchen, and outside to the barn. Martin was surprised to find three little lambs scattered around Tank. Martin knew automatically that his favorite one was the small girl lamb. She was white with tan spots. He called her Spotty. “They’re adorable,” Martin said. “Adorable indeed,” his mom agreed. They grabbed some bottles and began to feed them.

The Alien Lambs
There were once alien lambs that were trapped on a farm. When they tried to get out they couldn’t get out of that place because they were trapped by a starving monster that was 1,000 feet high. The monster wanted to eat them for supper, but the aliens said, “We do not taste very good!” The monster said, “Ok, we won’t eat you guys because we need you guys to work for us. You can clean the bathrooms, take out the trash, and eat the trash too. Don’t think of getting out of here because you won’t get out at all.” One of the alien lambs said, “We can get out of here tonight. I have a plan!” The others said, “How are we going to get out of here?” The aliens discussed the plan and it worked! The climbed into the trash cans one night before the garbage man came and the three alien lambs were able to escape back to their home planet! They lived happily ever after.

The Bitter Sweet Birthday
There once was a sheep. The ewe’s name was Tank. So, Tank was walking in the field. Then Tank saw a big black funnel. Tank’s owner, Martin, came running outside screaming, “TORNADO, TORNADO!” Martin ran out into the field to put all the animals in the barn. When Martin got into the barn, the tornado hit. After the tornado hit all Martin could see was dust and houses on the ground. But when Martin looked at Tank, he was shocked. Tank had just given birth to 3 babies. Then Martin’s family ran outside. They were all shocked too. Then they lived happily ever after with the 3 fluffy, soft lambs.

one year ago…”Beekeeper Martin”

March 28, 2010 – Vote for Eliza!

OK.  On a whim, Eliza decided to create a video for the Covergirl Stand Up For Beauty Contest. Little did she know that her video would make it to the Top Ten of a national contest! If she wins, it will be $50,000 in her pocket which should take care of college for her! Eliza comes from good stock, her mom is a teacher and her dad loves goats and has converted 20 acres of their farm to native prairie!

All you need to do is go to the contest web site Click on the video with Eliza’s name on it, watch it, and VOTE!  Contest ends April 4 – and you can vote once a day!

one year ago…”Winter’s Last Hurrah?”

March 26, 2010 – Landscape Architecture Class Visit

This week we dragged about 24 members of the Ecological Design class in the Landscape Architecture program at Iowa State around the farm.

We held them hostage for about two hours, showing the various design and microclimate principles we’ve managed to implement on the farm. One interesting comment we received was that the farm was much smaller than they envisioned after visiting the blog and web site.  We attributed the mismatch in reality/perception was due to the fact that the farm is so diverse and has so many different small enterprises that it must be large to contain so much diversity.  But believe us, tending 7 acres intensively with the numbers of different crops we have, makes it seem like much more than 7 acres to us as well!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #159″

March 24, 2010 – Soil Sampling

It’s time for some soil sampling.  Instead of the small little soil probe that comes with the kit, we decided to use the bulb planter, so we could easily get below the sod line for the pasture soil test.  This particular section of pasture has a thistle problem and I’ve read anecdotal evidence that calcium and ph can be conducive or not to thistle success.

So, off we go getting some samples.

one year ago…”Garlic Up!”

March 20, 2010 – Spring is Here!

Today is the first day of spring!  A fine day to take out the brand new lawn furniture.  The snow, of course followed a 60 degree day.
lawn chairs in snow

I picked these up yesterday – our old wooden chairs, after 10 years of use are out or on their way out (but not before being cut up for fuel for the syrup stove).  I was dead against the molded plastic chairs, was lukewarm on the mesh chairs, but when I saw these retro chairs, reminiscent of the types of chairs that might have graced the farm 60 years ago, I bought the last four.  They are metal, powder coated, have a  slight rock, and can be thrown on the recycling pile when no longer functional.
one year ago…”Skystream Software”

March 17, 2010 – “Planting” Oyster Mushrooms

Today was a great day to “plant” oyster mushrooms.

First step is to have a tree in mind.  Oysters do well in soft maples.  It’s best to find a “tree that doesn’t have a future.”  In this case, the scrawny silver maple between the walnut on the left and silver maple on the right meets that definition.  The photo on the left is before the tree was cut down, and the one on the right, after the tree came down.

The tree was cut up into lengths and moved to the yard for processing.

First step is to drill holes about two inches apart all around the log.  The bit has a special collar to drill exactly the right depth into the log.

Here’s the “seeds,” in this case Italian Oyster spawn impregnated on wooden dowels.

The dowels are pounded into the logs with a hammer.

Since it was a beautiful day, and it’s hard not to multi-task, while the wax was melting, part of dinner was on the grill at the same time.  We used to use regular paraffin wax in the past, but heard that beeswax works better, so here we’re melting a bit of both and will see which one works better.

Martin is applying the wax to seal up the log – all the plugs and cut surfaces need to be sealed up to conserve moisture in the log.

A completed log.  I’ll move the logs to a cool, shady place and wait a few months for the mushrooms to pop!

one year ago…”Washer Broke”

March 16, 2010 – Three Cats in the Sun

Can you find the three cats in this photo? They were all catching some rays on the south side of the barn and since they are cats, didn’t bother to move when the sun went away.

Yesterday was one of those days when the spring list of things to do outstretched the hours in the day. I imagine many people besides me have a long list of things that need to get done. Today, my list included some computer work to keep my employer happy, taking down the Christmas lights, picking up the twigs and branches from the pruning, picking rocks out of the lawn that the snowplowing moved in the snow, and keeping the syrup stove stoked. At one point, I was able to get some peace of mind, by concentrating on being outside on the beautiful day, instead of concentrating on the mental list.

one year ago…”New Electric Fence”

March 15, 2010 – Checking the Beehive

Now that the temps have warmed to the 50’s, it’s time to make sure the bees have enough honey left in the hive to sustain them until the first blooming commences.

Linda is taking over the beekeeping this year.

We were happy to see that this hive was still active after the winter.  Today the black cover came off the hive and the honey supply looked adequate to keep them going.

one year ago…”Prunings”

March 14, 2010 – Maple Syruping Season Begins

We’re a little behind getting our taps in.  The weather warmed up rather suddenly and with the heavy overcast, has stayed relatively warm.  Good sap run happens when nighttime temperatures drop below freezing, but we haven’t had that for a while, nor is it in the forecast, but it was time to get the taps in.

Here Martin is drilling the hole in the tree in the front yard – our best producer.

Later in the day, he monitors the “mobile sugar shack” -this old woodstove on a small wagon, so we can move it around as needed, depending on the wind and precipitation.  We don’t end up with very much syrup because our setup is so small and we don’t have a lot of maple trees, so this size stove and pan work well enough.  But the syrup sure tastes good!  It is one item not for sale from high hopes gardens!

one year ago…”Spring Exploration”

March 13, 2010 – Tree Pruning

The sun peeked out unexpectedly today!  Our week of fog and overcast is coming to an end.

Tree pruning brings many decisions.  Here is Linda scoping out a tree for the next cut.

Later on, in a different tree, she takes to tree climbing for a better stance.  This tree is a great example of the effects of a microclimate.  It is planted due west of the sw corner of the barn.  When we get an east wind, the breeze funnels around the barn on this spot – so much so, that the tree has grown with a distinct lean to the west.

one year ago…”Getting Bees Ready for Spring”

March 12, 2010 – Third Ewe Drops Triplets

Three out of four ewes have dropped their lambs.  This one is our skittish ewe who never really looks pregnant compared to Tank.

Again, a morning trip to the barn found all the lambs out and up – triplets again.  Two of three ewes had triplets so far this year and have not needed any intervention. The ewes have also been very good about spacing their births, about 5-6 days apart.

one year ago…”Thingamajig #157″

March 9, 2010 – Discarded Toyota Marketing Slogans

As the owner of a 2010 Toyota Corolla – the first new car I ever purchased, it is with mixed emotions that I relay the following abandoned Toyota marketing slogans.

Once you start driving a Toyota, you’ll never stop!

Toyota. Moving Forward. Whether You Want to or Not.

Have You Driven into a Ford Lately?

Holy cow, even we didn’t know the Prius could go 94 mph!

And word is that Toyota is in talks with Infiniti to purchase rights to the Infiniti slogan “Infiniti. Accelerating the Future.”

one year ago…”Boiling Sap”

March 6, 2010 – Ewe Lamb Births with no Problem

Our second ewe has given birth without any problems.  We checked the barn in the morning and these two boys were just born and still wet.

This was the birth we were most worried about since the ewe was only a year old.  But as you can see, momma did just fine!  She’s a very vocal mother, and makes all kinds of low muttering sounds to her lambs.

one year ago…”Maple Sugaring Part 1″

March 5, 2010 – Basement Woes Over?

After what seemed like a long time doing the kitchen dishes in a tub and not using the dishwasher, the basement plumbing is finally fixed.

This is during the throes of the replumbing.  This hole will contain a sump pit and that will service the floor drains and will also accommodate part of the moving of the kitchen and dishwasher to the main septic line.  We could have tried to do it cheaper and easier, but it would have meant putting the floor drains in the septic – and in the case of water in the basement, the septic drain field would be saturated, and running groundwater into it, would cause that to fail as well – so we bit the bullet and fixed both problems at once.

The hole cleaned up well – now we just have to wait for the cement to dry and see how we can rearrange the basement as there is no longer room for the chest freezer against this wall.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #156″

March 4, 2010 – Thingamajig Thursday #198

This week’s Thingamajig Thursday is a little different – see how many clues you need to get the answer.

  • You’ve probably seen me on TV in the last month.
  • I grew up in a house with no running water or electricity.
  • I grew up a vegetarian.
  • I own a 630 acre farm in New Hampshire that contains an organic farm and woodland conservation easements.
  • I have five Olympic medals.

Also check out the last thingamajig answer.

As always, put your guess in a comment below.

Hold mouse over this sentence to pop-up answer.

one year ago…”Tree Pruning”

March 3, 2010 – Here Comes the Sun

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it’s all right.

– George Harrison

Indeed, the only slightly sub-freezing days are slowly melting the snow and ice.

It has been a long, cold lonely winter, and it does feel like years since the sun’s been here. Amen!

one year ago…”Getting Ready to Fence Cement Yard”

February 28, 2010 – Tank Delivers!

There indeed was a reason Tank was getting so very large – she was carrying three good-sized lambs!

katahdin ewe with lambs

Here she is with two of them trying to get some milk from momma – two females and one male.

hours old katahdin lamb

Here’s the third triplet, just hours after giving birth – Tank did it all on her 0wn – we went to the barn and the lambs were all delivered, but still wet.  So far, so good on these triplets – they all seem to be nursing and we hope they continue that was so we don’t end up with a bottle lamb.

one year ago…”Sheep Bling”

February 27, 2010 – Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference

For the last few days we’ve been attending the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference in La Crosse, WI. Each year it seems to get bigger. When we first started attending, it was at a convent, then it moved to UW-La Crosse, and now at the La Crosse convention center. Nearly 3,000 attended this year’s meeting, and the La Crosse Center now seems too small.

I thought I’d just put in a shot of the river right behind the conference center since few pictures are more boring than people sitting around tables or chairs talking.

For me, the best part of the conference is sitting down for meals. The food, is, of course, outstanding and without exception, the people you meet at your lunch table are interesting and likable. This year, we seemed to meet many people who were just starting out on their farms and there to soak up information, just like I was years ago.

I’m told be people outside the organic community, that this farm conference is rare in the large number of young people that attend. I got to speak a bit with a reporter from Successful Farming magazine, a mainline farm publication and he said he’s never covered a conference with so many young people – he said it was rare to see a person under 55 at any of the other mainline farming meetings/conferences.

one year ago…”What’s Your Type?”

February 22, 2010 – Snowbanks Along Hwy 20

This weekend Linda had a speaking gig in Storm Lake, IA. We’ve had a lot of snow, but up in northwest Iowa, the snow is even more extreme.

snowbanks on highway 20

Large stretches of Highway 20 west of Fort Dodge have long stretches with snow this tall along the north shoulder of the highway. With our current forecast of temperatures far below normal, the longer the snowpack stays in place and doesn’t incrementally melt, the more the chances of a quick meltoff and subsequent flooding are a threat. The normal highs for late February are in the mid 30’s and we haven’t seen that for a while, nor is it in the forecast for the next week or so – the danger is we’ll go from 10-15 degrees below normal to 10-15 above normal with rain and have a big, quick meltoff.

one year ago…”Claire to Girls State”

February 21, 2010 – Old House Problems

When you live in an older house, you enter in an unspoken agreement to trade old-time charm for sometimes strange features. We thought after 13 years of remodeling, we’d start to run out of surprises. We’ve replaced all the electrical wires and circuits, all the plumbing, new roof, new windows, and so on. Last spring, it was a new septic system to top it off.

So when “water” started backing up in the basement, it took me off guard. I then remembered the septic installer tell us that if we ever had problems, new systems require a filter at the outflow of the tank before it hits the drain field, and that sometimes it clogs and needs to be cleaned out. Alert to this possibility, I put a solar-powered driveway marker at the site of the lids for the septic last fall before the now flew.

So, when the “water” came up, I trudged out to the pasture to the tanks to see if the filter was clogged, grateful for the driveway marker out in the field of white snow, guiding me to the right place. After digging through the snow,I found the lid with my faithful helper Martin holding the flashlight in the darkness to guide me, we were able to get the lid off. About this time, the septic installer came to take a look as well, and we found everything was working as it should in the tank.

I’ll shorten the story here and get to the problem. Turns out that our main house drain and basement floor drains and kitchen plumbing are not connected to the septic. Evidently, when they built the house, the floor drains and kitchen were a greywater discharge and years later when they installed bathrooms, those went into a different system. So, when we installed the new system, the greywater drains must leave at a different place than the other newer system, so the upshot is we probably need to jackhammer up the basement and see if we can tie the floor drains to the septic lines, but will most likely need to install some kind of pump to lift the floor drain water to the new septic lines. An estimator is supposed to come out and look early next week. For now, our bathrooms and washer lines work, but we are washing dishes by hand in a vat in the sink.

one year ago…”Late February Snowbanks”

February 20, 2010 – New Blog Host

I’ve finally got the transfer of the web site and blog moved over to a different host. I’m not sure it’s all quite ready for prime time yet, as I haven’t done too much checking. If something seems amiss, let me know. The sidebar is quite different – there’s a blog search, quote, poll, blog categories, recent comments, news, and archives. Hopefully you’ll be able to find everything without too much trouble!

one year ago…”Hangin’ with the Ewes”

February 19, 2010 – Blog Meltdown

Oh so many days ago, I was presented with a simple choice and it turned out to be a mistake! I was uploading photos for the blog and was informed by Yahoo Web Hosting that I was out of room and would need to delete some items or upgrade my hosting package to the unlimited package that would “not affect your existing files or programs.” So I did – and immediately access to the blog was severely restricted, and available only for short periods of time. Over the course of a week and through 3-4 help desk people, the problem never was really resolved, so I underwent the process to move all the files and hosting to a new provider. I had recently changed my domain hosts for 4 parked domains I own after Yahoo suddenly stared charging $35/year instead of the $9. Now they are parked for less than $6/yr elsewhere.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #154″

February 13, 2010 – In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

(Click lyrics to hear melody)

www.hymnswithoutwords.com Permission granted by Richard MS Irwin

This is, of course, the first line to the Christmas Carol In the Bleak Midwinter by English poet Christina Rossetti, set to music by Holst.

flat landscape

Somehow, it seems like the right time for this carol.

old fence in snow

We are in the depths of the bleak midwinter.

winter horizon

No line on the horizon and no end to the winter in sight.

one year ago…”Katahdin Birth”

February 12, 2010 – Claire Interviews for World Food Prize Internship

This week we ventured to Des Moines for Claire to go through the final cut for a World Food Prize all expenses paid summer internship at a location somewhere in the world.

The interviews were at the Botanical Center in Des Moines for people living in the Midwest – the others will be interviewing via Skype. For this final round of selection, about half of the interviewees will be selected. Claire has her fingers crossed and hopes she’s looked favorably upon!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #153″

February 10, 2010 – You Thought Congress Was For Sale Before?

With the recent U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision treating corporations the same as individuals and asserting that federal laws cannot limit corporate speech (donations of money = free speech), get ready for an even greater influence of corporations over Congress. Imagine how your congressperson will vote if Corporation X comes to them and says, vote this way and we’ll give you 5 million dollars; vote the other way and we’ll give it to your opponent in the next election.

But if we really are going to equate corporations as individuals, that brings up some questions the court will need to decide in the future.

Will a corporation have to exist for 18 years before it can “vote.” Sorry Google and Yahoo, you can’t contribute yet.

What if two corporations merge that both have either both male or both female CEOs? Will propositions outlawing gay marriage forbid the marriage (merger) of those two individuals?

Will corporations have to show up for jury duty?

Will corporations have to register for the Selective Service and serve our country in times of war?

one year ago…”Road Waves”

February 9, 2010 – More Snow

Another week, another snow day.  The latest round dropped about 9 inches on us.  The piles are getting deeper and higher around the farm.

Here’s a look west through a crack in a wall of snow kept open for access to the water hydrant.

Here’s a look east – the side entry door in the machine shed is pretty much closed for the winter now!  All I can say is that I’m loving the tractor this time of year.

one year ago…”Boy!”

February 8, 2010 – Home DNA

Even though Linda started out her career as a gene jockey in the early days of biotech, I still never imagined I’d hear this conversation at home between my wife and eight-year old son.

Linda: “Martin, it’s time to get jammies on.”
Martin: “Can I just finish this base pair?”

Martin’s home DNA kit shows just how ubiquitous the technology has become. Much like the comment many teenagers may have had during the Super Bowl half-time show, “Why are those old guys playing the song from CSI?”

one year ago…”Bonus Poo”

February 6, 2010 – Clothes Humi-dryer

Here’s a great new invention that combines a dryer with a humidifier! I found this adjustable drying rack at Costco for eight bucks off, so brought it home. It holds a load of laundry and placed in front of the pellet stove, dries the clothes in 2-4 hours, so it works especially great to do a load before going to sleep and having warm, dry clothes in the am.

As an added benefit, when the pellet stove is on, the regular furnace with built-in humidifier doesn’t run that much, so the house is in need of moisture in these dry winter months.

one year ago…”Prizm Hood Latch Failure”

February 5, 2010 – New Tiller!

We’ve been thinking and starting to prepare for a while about a new way of growing our crops. We want to get rid of the monolithic blocks and instead garden in four foot wide beds separated by grass/sod strips. The mental and physical energy to manage 4 foot wide steps seems easier in terms of planting and crop rotation, weeding and harvesting. I’ve been looking for a 48 inch PTO tiller for a year or so and finally got lucky today and saw one on Craiglist that was listed minutes before I saw it and was the first one in to get it.

So here it, is ready for spring.

one year ago…”First Lambs Arrive”

February 3, 2010 – What/Who is an “Activist”

I’ve noticed over the past few months, that the word “activist” has become a new pejorative buzzword. I’ve been trying to figure out the rhetorical appeal of the word. I’ve figured out the typically an “activist” is someone out of step within the current system. There are environmental activists, organic activists, alternative energy activists who seemingly have a common agenda to somehow destroy life as we know it. I couldn’t figure out why these activists are so dangerous to the status quo. For example, even though organic farms are less than 1% of Iowa farmland, non-activists have spent lots of money on TV and radio ads subtly and not-subtly casting aspersions on organic and sustainable farmers. It didn’t make any sense to me why they would devote so many resources to defending the status quo. Then I ran across this paragraph by Maine farmer Eliot Coleman (few conventional Iowa farmers would consider anybody in Maine a “real” farmer) and was struck by the statement from Jefferson.

But there is one other connection between the word “radical” and small farms that I need to mention. The small organic farm greatly discomforts the corporate/industrial mind because the small organic farm is one of the most relentlessly subversive forces on the planet. Over centuries both the communist and the capitalist systems have tried to destroy small farms because small farmers are a threat to the consolidation of absolute power. Thomas Jefferson said he didn’t think we could have democracy unless at least 20% of the population was self-supporting on small farms so they were independent enough to be able to tell an oppressive government to stuff it. It is very difficult to control people who can create products without purchasing inputs from the system, who can market their products directly thus avoiding the involvement of mercenary middlemen, who can butcher animals and preserve foods without reliance on industrial conglomerates, and who can’t be bullied because they can feed their own faces.

On Monday, I gave a presentation about our household’s efforts to reduce energy use and increase dependence on renewable sources. I was followed by a member of a biodiesel co-op, and finally by someone from Alliant Energy. This person applauded the energy conservation efforts, but not-so-subtly, again mentioned the word “Activists” advocating renewable energy when it is perfectly clear to him that alternative energy systems will never replace coal plants and are essentially a waste of money. I guess if you have a hammer (an electric utility) then your job is to generate and sell electricity at the lowest possible cost. If someone comes along with a socket set, you don’t really think the socket set will work for driving nails. For if everyone used a socket with an attachment to twist in screws instead of a hammer to nail things in, your hammers wouldn’t be as valuable.

But this got me thinking about larger questions and confluences in food, energy, and farming. I think it boils down to a difference in values. If an urban Sierra Club chapter fights to save a wetland from “development” or a lake from being polluted by farm chemicals, they are labeled “Activists.” If a group of guys with guns like Ducks Unlimited or Pheasants Forever purchase wetlands/native areas they are not labeled “Activists.” Is the answer as simple as arming Sierra Club members? Is saving something for someone else besides yourself all it takes to be labeled an activist?

I think that small farmers, renewable energy proponents, and anyone else engaged in a pursuit that is counter to the prevailing system need to consider a different tack. Our economic system is supposed to serve us – after all, we invented it. Instead, most of us are slaves to the system, not being served by the system. The reason is simple. The practice of or current economic system does not meet basic human needs. Self-sufficiency, taking care of your family and neighbors is one of the historical human needs. So when I’m told I’ve made a terrible economic decision in installing a renewable energy system, or not farming like my neighbors, I think about this. Economics and profit are the motivating factor for every major corporation. Humans, are not like that, however. We don’t make decisions based on solely economic reasons (and if we do, we end up being unhappy and unfulfilled).

What’s the financial return on having children? What’s the financial return on taking care of aging parents? What’s the return on buying a $10,000 fishing boat and gear? What’s the return on a BMW S series? What’s the financial return on farming to conserve soil if you are only alive for 80 years and the soil has 100 years of abusive farming practices left before the other half is gone? There’s something larger than economic return going on here. For too long, organic, sustainable, and energy “activists” have been using the traps of the current economic system to justify their actions. My suggestion – stop explaining the economic returns of your sustainable methods in financial terms. Talk about how “It’s just the right thing to do.” You’ll be assaulted with terms like “niche” “hobby,” or perhaps if you are really on the edge “crackpot.” Talk about how it’s the right thing to do. It feeds my spirit. It connects me to generations in the future. Talk about the satisfaction of pulling a crop or kilowatt out of your place like hunters talk about their exploits outfoxing wild animals.

Our story is much more interesting than a corporate anything. Commodity agriculture doesn’t have a story. Who wants to visit a modern hog farm? Who wants to work in a modern meatpacking plant? Heck, who wants to visit a corn/soybean farm except maybe for a couple weeks in the spring or fall? Contrast that to the small farmer who has a diversity of crops and animals, an ever-evolving network of plants and animals, with a fast two-step throughout the season. Tell your story – it’s much deeper and more connected to the human spirit than any slick corporate ad. We need you, we’ve fallen below Jefferson’s 20% threshold.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #152″

February 2, 2010 – What Does a Half a Beef Look Like?

Ever wonder what a half a beef looks like before it goes into the freezer?

Here is one – we had it processed with an emphasis on the things we eat most often – hamburger and steak. The basket on the right is full of steaks. The next one is roasts, the next one over is ribs/soup bones, and of course, the last two hamburger. Here’s the breakdown from this half.

71 lbs steaks
54 lbs roasts/ribs/soup bones
148 lbs burger

The total cost for this ends up being about $3.30/lb – that’s everything from hamburger that probably average $2 lb at the store to rib eye and t-bones at $7-9/lb. Best of all, this beeve was visible on a local pasture on our way to town. It was grass-raised and finished with some corn, so it wasn’t wallowing in a feedlot in it’s own doo-doo during its lifetime.

one year ago…”Corn Grindin'”

January 30, 2010 – Easy (and cheap) Row Covers

I’m not shy about stealing great ideas from others, so if you are looking for a cheap and easy row cover to protect your  insect-prone crops like squash and cabbage, check out Herrick Kimball.

The Whizbang Row Cover System looks like a great way to protect your crops at a reasonable price.

Herrick is a man after my own heart, with his ingenious, practical, and cheap ideas and plans. Just to whet your appetite, the photo above copied from his web site shows his homemade clips using old bicycle tubes and scrap wood.

one year ago…”Repurposed Solar Landscape Lights”

January 29, 2010 – How Much Noise Does a Skystream Make

I went out on a windy day to see if I could capture the sound the Skystream makes with my video camera. This is a short video of a Skystream 2.4 kw wind turbine on a 70 foot tower on a windy day. I mainly posted it to show how it sounds. You can compare it to a row of pine trees on the same property the same day. You might have to turn the sound up loud to hear it.

Since standard video cameras do not capture enough frames per second (you would need a special camera to capture the turbine spinning at 320 RPMs) the motion of the blades is not as you’d see with the blur of the naked eye.

For comparison, here’s the row of pine trees the same day.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #151″

January 27, 2010 – Coke Coolers

We’re starting a new venture – distributing old-style glass coke bottles in these refurbished coolers at convenience stores.

Here’s a bunch of them in the barn. OK, the joke’s over – we are NOT going into beverage distribution, but instead our barn is hosting a staging area for distribution to area farms. These were all give-aways at a distributorship in NE Iowa and are all reserved for small farms for temporary storage of farm products such as vegetables, eggs, etc.

one year ago…”Frosty Morning”

January 26, 2010 – Aftermath

The wind stopped blowing this evening. As usual, the ground was blown clear, or drifted.

We were lucky the chicken coop wasn’t drifted shut, but instead left this sculpted pathway to the coop.

Sundogs this morning towards the morning sun.

Finally, this 25 car and snowplow pileup near Mason City shows what can happen when you drive too fast in a white-out!

one year ago…”Apple Pie”

January 25, 2010 – Blizzard Warning with no Warning?

The weather people missed out on predicting this storm  We went from winter weather advisory to Blizzard warning in a flash.

I’ll only bother you with four seconds of the view while I was waiting for the early out bus near the closest blacktop road.

sheep in barn

We’ve learned it’s just best to take the lead of the animals and hunker down until it passes, like the animals in the barn.

I had to laugh at the poor sap they interviewed on TV who said he shoveled his sidewalk 12 times today – after each shovel it filled in with snow in just 10 minutes. Evidently it took him 12 times to realize it was pointless and it might be better to shovel it just once after the wind stops blowing!

I-35 is closed from Ames to Clear Lake and I-80 is shut from Newton to Grinnell, so we are pretty much getting hammered.

one year ago…”Snowbanks are Back”

January 24, 2010 – Sleep, who Needs Sleep?

After the recent ice storm, the subsequent weather was a night of rain at 33 degrees with wind. This brought with it a slooooow removal of the ice from the trees over a period of, oh say, over one night. All night the house was pelted with chunks of ice that sounded like golf balls being thrown at the house, about every 15-45 seconds like clockwork. It was amazing in a disgusting kind of way that it could go on for so long and not just get over with. By about 8 am all the ice was finally gone.

one year ago…”Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup”

January 23, 2010 – The Ultimate Christmas Tree

Now that we’ve grown our Christmas tree, dug it out of a snowbank, dragged it into the house for the holidays and decorated it, it’s time for the 2nd to last use of the Christmas tree.

Here it is after the animals had a chance to browse the branches and even chew the bark off the tree!  The last step will be for the tree to be dragged to the site of next year’s burn pile to be the base for next December’s bonfire.  Certainly the high hopes version of the giving tree!

one year ago…”Laying Hen Update”

January 22, 2010 – Ice Still Hanging On

Two days after the ice storm, the ice still hangs on.

The trees are ponderous with ice.  This is a spruce tree encased in ice.

Here’s a side view that shows the oh-so-gradual melting of the ice, but not quickly enough for my taste.  Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to warm above freezing and get heavy rain and high winds – we hope that the warmth precedes the wind, otherwise the powerlines will be a mess.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #150″

January 20, 2010 – Want Ice with That?

Another ice storm fell from the heavens today.  Ice is much harder to deal with than snow or rain.

It’s hard to read electric meters.  It’s also hard to open garage doors that face in the direction of the wind.  It took lots of pounding with a rubber mallet to pound the hundreds of pounds of ice off the door to open it.

The hay wagon out in the pasture shows off the ice.

Now, for a story that might belong in the “you know you are a redneck if” department.  I took the shotgun outside and started shooting trees.  I hit them too!  The last big ice storm cracked some branches high up in the maple trees in the front yard.  The branches have been dangling down, just waiting to fall for over a year.  I thought – Eureka – with the branches laden with the heavy ice, a well-placed shot to the place where they are tentatively attached to the tree, might be enough to drop them down now – instead of later on a dog, person, or car.  Voila – it worked like a charm and two branches no longer irritate me hanging down from near the top of the tree.

What good is an ice storm if the power doesn’t go out?  Dinner accompanied by beeswax votives.  Martin had all the gear from Christmas for the occasion – a hand crank LED lantern, and most importantly, night vision goggles that really work!

one year ago…”Local Foods Moves to Mainstream”

January 19, 2010 – The Home-made Solar Air Heater Quest Begins

We may be getting a new heat-pump water heater (this type removes the heat from the surrounding air to heat the water and uses 1/3 the electricity of a regular water heater).  The downside (at least in the winter) is that it exhausts cool air.  It runs more efficiently if it has relatively warm air to work with, so I was brainstorming about cheap ways to get hot air into the basement.  I found some designs for a hot air solar heater – it’s a simple concept.  Anyone who has found a car with all its windows closed to be warm, even in the winter, knows about the concept – capture warm air in an enclosed space and move it to the basement.

So Martin and I are taking it upon ourselves to make an experimental collector.  First step is to make a frame to hold the air collector. The back was an old, grease-stained sheet of paneling from the garage and the sides are 1x4s.

Next we added insulation to the box – adding a layer of foam board insulation, covered with some of the bubble-wrap reflective insulation.  That’s as far as we are so far, keep tuned for irregular updates as we move along.

one year ago…”Shrubbery Windbreaks”

January 16, 2010 – Need to Cut Metal With Circular Saw?

Here’s another handyman hint.  Don’t want to buy an expensive metal cutting diamond-tipped blade for your circular saw!  Just run an old, dull wood blade installed backwards on the saw.

This blade has cut through many pieces of metal roofing/siding, and it is finally time to retire it.  But no need to throw the dull wood blade away – it will last through many metal cutting episodes.  Be warned that it is very loud and wear ear protection!  My Dad would be happy to see this saw – still cutting 22 years since giving it to Linda for her wedding shower!

one year ago…”Photo Friday – Meditation”

January 15, 2010 – Winter Wonderland

The overnight delivered the perfect conditions for sharp, needle-like frost, known as hoarfrost.  The delicacy of this phenomena is in its fragility and inability or survive wind or sunshine – two common elements of winter.

farmhouse in frost

The house looked like a Christmas card.

hoarfrost on barbed wire

It added more barbs to a piece of barbed wire…

frosty pump handle, hoarfrost on pump handle

and added needles to this pump handle.

one year ago…”New Record Low at High Hopes Gardens”

January 13, 2010 – Chickens in Nest Box

This year, I thought I’d try to occasionally post some everyday farm scenes that have become routine to us, but probably not for everyone.  Today it is to the chicken coop.

chicken on nest box

Here’s a laying hen (as opposed to a broiler, which is raised for meat).  Generally in the first few hours of the morning, the hens will hop into a nest box where they feel a bit protected, and lay an egg.  They prefer to lay an egg in a nest box where there is already an egg.  They are trying to make a clutch of 10 or so eggs to sit on and raise into more chickens.  Unfortunately for the chickens, we come each day and take the beginnings of the clutch and they have to start all over the next day.

egg clutch

This is what might have been under the hen had I disturbed her – this is from a different box.  We often get asked how you can get eggs without a rooster – hens will lay eggs whether or not there is a rooster around – only difference being if there is not a rooster, all the eggs will be infertile and will never hatch.

one year ago…”Lab Results Are In

January 12, 2010 – Cheap Chicken Heater

It seems like all the chicken waterers we buy do not last long enough for what they cost (at least in my eyes). The plastic waterers with a built in heater are either nearly impossible to fill, or if they do get unplugged or there is a power outage in cold weather, they are cracked and useless. There are also heated metal bases, which don’t seem to last more than a couple years and cost 40-50 bucks.

So, it’s time to enter the world somewhere between  Red Green and Eli Whitney.  I took the two non-working old metal base heaters,  used the cord from one, attached an outdoor electric box, socket, and heavy duty light bulb inside the top base, drilled holes in the bottom base to drain water if any dripped in, and connected them together with a combination of sheet metal screws and Gorilla tape.

Here’s the completed base hard at work in the coop.  I’m thinking it might not be a bad idea to wrap some of the metal-foil bubble insulation around the unit and the waterer – at about -10 this one still freezes up.

one year ago…”PFI Conference Wrap-Up Part 2/Nellie’s Gone “

January 9, 2010 – Take Homes from This Year’s PFI Conference

It seems every year after attending the PFI conference, something gives us pause to re/consider changing part of the farm or what/how we farm, meet some new innovative people, and get a chance to swap stories. This year was no exception.

There was a great variety of topics – I attended sessions on nut trees, farm energy, imagining the farm and farming 25 years from now, a workshop centered around writing about your farm from a noted writer, Mary Swander, and of course met some new people, some not so far from our place.

One thinking point that came across is partially summed up with the following quote, “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.”- Charles R. Swindoll.

Fred Kirschenmann was one of the speakers and what follows is a distillation of his presentation, after which he asked how all the farmers in the room could change their operations in light of future oil costs at $300 barrel (China now has more cars than the US) and more frequent severe weather events, (see 500 year Iowa floods in 1993, 2008). The answers, of course, lead to the thought of crisis disguised as opportunity.

one year ago…”Ice Landscape”

January 6, 2010 – 2009 Skystream Results

Now that the year is over, it’s time to look at the Skystream wind turbine production results.

Month kWh Produced
by Turbine
kWh Used
by house/farm
Jan 334 1275
Feb 368 1109
March 482 899
April 570 961
May 433 782
June 210 693
July 177 867
Aug 146 923
Sept 130 801
Oct 411 889
Nov 343 686
Dec 462 1183
2009 Totals 4068 11549

For the year, the Skystream produced 4068 kwH, an average of 339 kWh per month. The farm and household used 11,549 kWh, an average of 962 kWh per month. The Skystream produced 35.2% of our energy. Our historical average electrical use the ten previous years before the turbine and newer appliances was 1255 kWh/month – resulting in an average reduction of 333 kWh per month due to new appliances and awareness.

The interesting point is that our monthly consumption has dropped almost the exact same amount (333 kWh less per month) as the average 2009 turbine production (339 kWh/month). The point being that our efforts to upgrade to energy efficient appliances has resulted in nearly exactly the same amount of savings as turbine generation. So the take-home story is that even if you are not able to add an alternative energy system to your home, you can still reach the same energy savings by using energy-conserving appliances!

We hope our electric usage drops further next year, as we hope to put in a more efficient water heater. We also will produce more with the addition of another turbine still coming at a date TBD.

one year ago…Upcoming Practical Farmers of Iowa Meeting”

January 4, 2010 – Emma’s 2nd Wood Project

You may remember the beautiful cutting board Emma made as her first big wood shop project.  Her next project was to replace the fiberboard white shelf above the sink that had seen its better days.  She was very reluctant, if unwilling to be photographed with the shelf.

But ol’ Dad pulled one of the oldest tricks out of the book and captured her in the mirror! The shelf, of course, turned out well with nice details like routed edges and solid wood construction.

one year ago…”Old Machine Shed Demolition Begins”

January 1, 2010 – Looking Back on 2009

Seems like everyone puts together some kind of year-in-review (and some decades in review this year). I’m not ambitious enough to sort through the last decade, but I will take a shot at the year in review. So without much further ado – the things we’ll remember most about 2009 in no particular order:

  1. This year culminated in some serious progress in outbuilding renovation, most notably, the refurbished hog barn which resulted in an added bonus as the overhanging shelter turned into a nice sheltered place to butcher turkeys on a cold and snowy November afternoon.  An old machine shed was partially demolished and rebuilt, with clear panel tops to let light in. This was a first as it was the first partial building implosion on the farm. In addition, three of four sides of the barn were repainted.
  2. The money targeted for a new garage/siding instead went into a hole in the ground in the form of a new septic system.  The old one was particularly hackneyed, in that it was a small tank (500 gallons) that flowed through an old cistern, and finally to one field tile.  I’m glad that it started acting up in spring rather than in the dead of winter.
  3. The wind continued to be a popular topic – we hosted a PFI field day, I presented a number of times regarding the turbine, we gathered some press on Oprah.com, a feature article in the local paper, and was awarded a grant to defray the costs of erecting another turbine to act as a small wind demonstration site.  We are encouraged that there is such interest in renewable energy and self-reliance.
  4. Linda was flattered to be a finalist for the position of Endowed Chair of Sustainable Agriculture and Local Food Systems at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.  After a couple of days of intense interviews for Linda, we had a chance to do some relaxation around Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park.  The college ended up not filling the position, so we’re not sure if they didn’t like any of the candidates or had budget problems.
  5. Linda also had the honor to be invited to be the keynote speaker at the Unitarian Universalist Prairie Star Annual Meeting, held in Duluth, MN this year.  The theme was “Our Blue Boat Home” and Linda was rewarded with a standing ovation from the 300 or so in attendance.
  6. We endured the rainiest vacation week in our 17 years or so of visiting Northern Minnesota.  The first day and a half were warm and sunny, and then, rain, fog, mist, and cold set in.  On the upside, it was some of the best fishing we’ve ever had.
  7. This growing season was notable for the cool summer and long growing season.  We had our first pears and hazelnuts.  We were eating lettuce from the garden up to Dec 6th!
  8. We had the joy to watch Emma seemingly effortlessly switch schools and enter high school as a Freshman.  Emma loves her new friends, band, and basketball. She had an exceptional travel year, with a school trip to Washington DC, and a church trip to Boston.  Both Linda and I wish we were as content and happy as she is when we were in high school.
  9. Claire’s last year at home were full of honors – from earning a trip to the national debate championships in Alabama, to participation in the World Food Prize Symposium.  College searches started in earnest – we appreciate the energy and motivation Claire devotes to her future studies.
  10. Finally, Martin is at age and has a temperament that makes him excited about exploring the world.  With his enthusiasm after reading about it in some books, he and dad tapped maple trees in the yard and made maple syrup.  Martin remains joyful and helpful boy, fully engaged in life.

one year ago…”Burning up the New Year”

December 28, 2009 – Stagecraft Snow

We had about 2-3 inches of what I call “stagecraft snow” Saturday night.

The gentle, large fluffy flakes that lazily fall down on a calm evening.

They gently rest wherever they fall and adorn everyday objects with a new look. Whether it be a hat on top of a fencepost.

Or a symmetrical snow carbon copy on the barn handle.

And even a few moments of the fluffy flakes glinting down in the sunlight.

one year ago…”More Ice; Another Day at Home”

December 26, 2009 – New Kitchen Floor

A while back, I bought some new laminate flooring for the kitchen and today was the day to rip out the old floor and put the new one in.

Here’s what the old cork flooring looked like – it just didn’t hold up, scratched, gouged and discolored.  It’s the only house remodeling regret/failure that we experienced.

Don’t tell anyone, but I barely had enough to finish – I was about 3 inches short of completing the the job, but just put the last piece on the fridge wheel track.  It only took about 7 hours to rip out the old, install the new, and reinstall the trim, which seemed to take longer than putting the floor in.

The new kitchen floor – now clean and shiny for a while!

one year ago…”Day After Christmas on the Beach”

December 23, 2009 – Christmas Storm Winding Up?

There has been a well-advertised storm en route/here. The forecast is very vague something like “periods of rain, sleet, freezing rain, and snow.”  Repeat for about 3-4 days and add some strong winds at the end.  The predictions were from 1-3 inches of rain, freezing rain, or 12-30 inches of snow.

Today, first came freezing rain to coat the branches and power lines, followed by rain that knocked the ice off all the branches.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Tuesday #147#”

December 22, 2009 – Ice Luminary

One of the simple, yet elegant features winter offers are ice luminaries.

ice luminary

These are easy to make – just put some water in a large plastic yogurt container and put it outside until it freezes an inch or so around the edges – turn in upside down and release the ice, break off the thin shard of ice on the bottom, flip it over, put a candle inside and voila!

one year ago…”Stud Goat”

December 21, 2009 – Winter Solstice

I had great concerns about getting the bonfire lit.  To start with, it was buried in a four foot snowdrift with lots of wind-blown snow inside.

I had a few old pallets lying around the farm, so I stuffed those with newsprint and piled them on top of the fire.

We had youth from the church come over early and they helped stuff newspaper in every possible gap in the pile. About three gallons of old fuel oil from the tanks int he basement completed the incendiary preparations.

Dr. Rev Eslinger led the procession with the playing of the pipes.

Brian shared a few stories, words of the season, and offered a time to reflect on the year past and year to come around by the blazing yule.

Combustion!  A rousing success as the fire overcame the snow. I was relieved as the 120 or so attendees mark the bonfire as the highlight of the evening.

Martin and Hayden helping to light up the longest night of the year.

one year ago…”Awful Wind”

December 20, 2009 – Path to the Light

This is literally the path to the light.  We’ll soon light our winter bonfire and welcome the return to lengthening days!

But for now, the bonfire is in the distance, the tractor cannot clear this snow on the slope, so it is a matter of shoveling the heavy snow to get to the light. We all hope that the bonfire buried in a four-foot snow drift and full of windblown snow is able to light.

one year ago…”Winter Solstice”

December 18, 2009 – Now this is A Christmas Tree!

This is the year we have been waiting for – the first Christmas tree grown on our farm. This summer Martin and GJ put an orange tag on the best tree after much deliberation.

girl on snowdrift over fence

On our way down to get the tree, we thought we might be in trouble when the snow started rising almost high enough to bury the fenceposts!

When we got to the tree (or at least we thought it was the right tree because the orange flagging was buried!) we saw we were in for some digging!

With shovels and hands around the branches, we started trying to release the tree from the snowbank, being careful not to break branches.

The digging crew after they had dug down to the ground.

Martin stands in the excavated hole where the tree used to be. After we dug down a couple of feet, we found the orange flagging!  In addition, there was a bonus as there is a bird nest in the branches.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #146″

December 16, 2009 – Snow Sculptures

The aftermath of the big snow and a glazing of ice a few days later makes for interesting patterns in the snow.

Cross-bedded and sculpted snow looks like basin and range from the sky.

A view of last year’s the flower garden with the wind-sculpted channels of snow and ice covering next year’s garlic crop.

one year ago…”Ski”

December 13, 2009 – Snowbanks

I think the winter is here to stay – we’ve not been above freezing for about 10 days now and the cold weather continues.

Martin went to check out how our natural windbreak worked – and here are the drifts to show that it is working.  Years ago, we’d have to put up an take down snow fences – one less task now that the windbreak trees are doing their job.

one year ago…”Lumberjacking Christmas Tree”

December 12, 2009 – Thanks to Mr. Squirrel

For the first decade or so we lived on the farm, there were not many squirrels. There are now some – I’m not sure if they found the farm again after a long absensce, or if all the trees we planted have now encouraged them to come and stay.

squirrel

I’m thankful for this squirrel as he spent most of the fall picking up all of the walnuts that fell in the lawn so I didn’t have to. Thanks Rocky!

one year ago…”Photo Friday – Weathered”

December 11, 2009 – Subersnow

As expected, storm recovery takes a while.  Hear Martin helps clear the snow off the Outback.

subaru outback buried in snow

We bought the ’96 Outback about 18 months ago as a car for our new drivers, Claire and Emma.  It remains our only all-wheel drive vehicle and has seen a lot of use this week.  I feel better with them driving on ice and snow with it. Two days after the snow stopped falling, the plows have still not come down the road.  A neighbor plowed one lane so we could make the 1/3 mile to the blacktop.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #145″

December 9, 2009 – Storm of the Century?

Word from the weather service is that the current blizzard is the 2nd biggest in recorded history in the state of Iowa – not able to beat an 1880’s storm.  The criteria for “biggest” means the most snow over the widest area.  We’ve had bigger storms here on the farm in the last 13 years, but those storms were more localized than this one.  This storm left a wide swath of snow over a foot deep across most of the state.

The snowdrifts are almost over the fenceposts by the back pasture and buried a hay wagon.

The door to the chicken coop is pretty much drifted shut!  However, we’ve had much bigger drifts in previous years.  No school for two days for the kids – now that the winds are down to the 25 mph range and the blizzard warning has passed it is not nearly so blustery, but the temperatures are plunging below zero tonight.

one year ago…”Oh Little Star”

December 6, 2009 – 2009 Gift Boxes

Once again, it is time to offer the bounty of the farm for holiday gift-giving.  Many customers love the local, made in Iowa, non dust-collecting nature of the boxes.  The boxes contain various combinations of jams made from organically raised fruit from the farm, honey from the farm, real goat milk soap made on the farm from scratch (not the harsher glycerine type), and beeswax candles made with wax from other central Iowa beekeepers (our bees don’t produce enough for all our candles).

The large gift box contains two 4 oz. jam samplers, one 4 oz. honey sampler, two beeswax votives, a four inch beeswax pillar, and a half bar goat milk sampler soap bar along with a gift card offered for $25.00.

The medium gift box contains two 4 oz. jam samplers (or one jam and one 4 oz. honey sampler), a beeswax votive, and a half bar goat milk sampler soap bar along with a gift card offered for $15.

The small gift box contains two 4 oz. jam samplers, one 4 oz. honey sampler,  along with a gift card offered for $10.

The mini gift box contains two 4 oz. jam samplers along with a gift card offered for $7.50.

In all gift boxes, choice of jams and honey are interchangeable.  In addition, 4 oz. jams are available for $2.50 each.  Specific jam requests are available first-come, first serve – this year we have red raspberry, golden raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, strawberry rhubarb, cherry and plum.

We offer delivery to our workplaces or church, pick-up at the farm, or shipping to your destination with a shipping quote upon getting a shipping zip code.

one year ago…”Dinosaur Farming”

December 4, 2009 – Snow and Yech

OK, the 60 degrees earlier in the week are but a memory. Yesterday was the first snowfall. Evidently, the city of Ames forgot where they parked their sanding trucks – I left work a couple hours after it stopped snowing and thought the roads would be fine – I navigated to the busiest E-W street in town, thinking it would have been cleared first. Cars were not even getting up the small rise by the University on Lincoln Way. Eventually, I found my way out of town without getting rear ended or sliding off the road

The top of the well pit, holds the snow and ice.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #144″

December 2, 2009 – Emma’s Woodworking

Emma made a replacement in-counter cutting board for the house.  When we bought the house the pull-out board was in bad shape, so we just threw it out and used smaller counter-top cutting boards until Emma asked us what we wanted her to make in her wood shop class.  Without thinking long at all, we suggested a cutting board.

Here she is with the completed project.  Emma’s hutzpah comes through in this class as she is the only girl in wood shop class.

one year ago…”Bounce”

December 1, 2009 – December Lettuce

OK it’s December 1.  It sounds like winter, but there are still crops in the garden, unprotected.

There was a big lettuce harvest as the weather is supposed to turn colder at the end of this week.  But what a treat to get lettuce from the garden in December – that means that this year, we have gathered something from the garden/farm to eat fresh ten months of this year (if you count maple syrup in March).

We’ll take this weather, if you check the year ago entry, you’ll see the kids were making snowmen this day a year ago!

one year ago…”Snowman”

November 29, 2009 – Putting Bees Away for Winter

It’s time to tuck the bees in for the winter.  By the end of this week, the highs are supposed to be in the 20s.

Martin and Linda add the insulated cover to the hive.

Here, they pose after finishing the job – the black cardboard has been slipped over the hive and we wait until spring to do anything else with the bees.

one year ago…”Gift Box Assembly”

November 25, 2009 – Turkeys Ready to Go

Today’s the day.  The day we butcher turkeys on the farm for the first time.

Here are some toms showing off their handsome looks.

It was a cold day – in fact snowing by the time we finished.  We set up under the newly constructed porch in the hog barn – it blocked the wind and kept the drizzle and snow off us.  We did eleven turkeys.  The verdict on the process was a fairly good thumbs up.  We used a 5 gallon bucket as a killing cone which worked well enough.  The 32 quart turkey cooker we use as a scalding vessel worked ok for turkeys up to 20 lbs or so.  The biggest ones needed to be dunked first headfirst and then tail first.

one year ago…”Waiting for Turkeys”

November 23, 2009 – High Hopes in Sunday Paper

The headline of this article in the Marshalltown Times-Republican is “Area Family Works to Rely on Renewable Resources.” Here’s a link to the story, and in case that ever goes stale, the story is reproduced below.

Self-reliance.
Mike Donahey

That is the lifestyle Dr. Linda Barnes and her husband, Mark Runquist, have aggressively been working toward the last 13 years since they bought a seven acre farm east of Melbourne.

Their children, Claire, Emma and Martin are part of their efforts as well.

“Everybody works on the farm,” Barnes said.

The family raises organic fruits and vegetables. Behind the house, shiitake mushrooms are being grown. Additionally, they raise broiler chickens, lamb and turkey. All are used to provide the family’s food needs.

“We buy our other meat, beef and pork locally,” Barnes said. “The only meat we don’t buy locally is pepperoni.”

“We eat well,” she said. “We have fabulous meals.”

Barnes, a Twin-Cities native, said she cans the fruit and vegetables.

They took another significant step towards self-reliance and addressing environmental concerns when they installed a 70-foot tower hosting a wind turbine. It required a significant investment of the family’s time and money.

The turbine supplies some of the farm’s electricity. What isn’t used is sold back to Consumers Energy, a Rural Electric Cooperative located west of Marshalltown.

They aren’t stopping there.

According to a press release, it was in early November the Iowa Farm Energy Working Group announced they had awarded the family a $5,000 grant to demonstrate how energy needs can be met through renewable resources. Wind is the renewable resource here.

Specifically, Linda and Mark will purchase a vertical axis wind turbine and conduct research to compare it to their existing traditional 3-blade wind turbine.

Their efforts to become self-reliant included dramatically remodeling the farmhouse and repairing the barns and other buildings.

“We put roofs on the out-buildings, planted trees and gardens,” Runquist said. “So, after 13 years, finally, we almost have all of the buildings were we want them to be.”

Runquist, a Duluth, Minn. native, said they did all the work. “Incredible” is the word Runquist used in describing the changes to the property.

With the award of the grant, the family will be increasing their commitment to generating electricity from the wind.

The decision to become more self-reliant by creating their own power was not done quickly.

“We waited a long time,” Runquist said. “So, it was about five to six years ago that we wanted to put up a wind turbine.”

However, the wind-generation equipment then was expensive – about $60,000 according to Runquist – and and only carried a one-year warranty.

“It seemed like a lot of money to sink into something that risky.”

The family re-opened the wind-generation idea about two to three years ago when the equipment became less expensive and provided a five-year warranty.

Much time was spent on the Internet researching companies and equipment. Eventually they decided to purchase the equipment from a Flagstaff, Ariz. based company and it was installed by a company-certified contractor, Todd Hammen of Barnes City.

Runquist said this was one project they didn’t do themselves, due to the complexity of installing a 70-foot tower and the equipment warranty would be voided, he said.

However, before the project started they worked to reduce their household need of electricity. This involved purchasing different energy-saving appliances.

Once the project was complete, Runquist said a party was held to celebrate.

Joining them was Consumer Energy’s Chairman of the Board.

The family and CE have a strong relationship.

“I applaud Linda and Mark for their considerable efforts to become energy efficient and to secure it from renewable resources,” CE CEO Brian Heitoff said.

“We have had a great working relationship for a number of years. Our cooperative is membership owned and it is our duty to work with our customers if they wish to explore these options. Mark and Linda are very knowledgeable customers – they had an idea and we worked with them.”

Heitoff said other CE customers have installed wind-generation equipment and that the company is “right up there” nationally for wind-generated electricity.

Additionally, the company has installed several huge wind-generating devices near their office.

Runquist said the family will explore installing solar energy equipment in the next few years when the price for equipment goes down.

He said solar power will compliment their wind power.

“The peak months for solar power are when wind generation is down,” he said. “Three days of strong winds in April equal what we receive in the month of August.”

The family earned some notoriety recently. when Oprah Winfrey’s Web site (Oprah.com) publicized their efforts. It was entitled “Unexpected Ways to go Green.”

“They must have picked it up from our farm’s Web site www.highhopesgardens.com Runquist said.

Barnes and Runquist were graduate students at Iowa State University when they decided to purchase their farm property.

“It was not our plan to remain in Iowa,” she said. But in looking back, she is impressed with how far the family has come.

When not working on the farm, Barnes is an Associate Professor of Biology at Iowa Valley Community College’s Marshalltown campus. “I love to teach,” she said of her work.

Runquist is also busy with a non-farm job. He works for Wells-Fargo in Des Moines several days a week and also from the home.

When asked why the family has elected to become self-reliant, Barnes replied quickly.

“It is fundamental to our values,” she said. “It is important to us, it is who we are.”

one year ago…”The Fine Line Between Fall and Winter”

November 22, 2009 – Beer and Soap Day

This afternoon we went over to Morning Sun Farm to make soap and beer. It was set up as a nice learning experience for me, as I saw two important steps in beer brewing – the initial ingredient mixing and cooking, and the bottling of a batch previously prepared up to the bottling stage.

The final product – waiting in the bottles.

Some of the supplies all ready to go..

One of the last steps – siphoning into clean bottles. I did not attempt to get a step-by-step accounting of the process, but just walk through it.

At the same time as the beer brewing was happening, a couple of batches of home-made soap were mixed and poured – here’s the results of one batch cut and curing. These bars will sit for at least a couple of months before use.

one year ago…”Stringtown Grocery Visit”

November 21, 2009 – Morning Wake-Up

The last few mornings have been foggy. Haven’t had many days when we’ve had to chop ice off the turkey water yet and Thanksgiving is almost here! The weather chat on the Weather Underground is that following the coldest October on record, November has been warmer than October – and that has never happened.  It might not keep up the last week of the month, but so far it’s been nice – pasture still green, lettuce still in the garden.

One of the rooster announces the start of the day.

one year ago…”Sweet Sound of Success”

November 18, 2009 – Eggo Shortage – Oh the Horror!

A story on the newswire today details the implications of an “Eggo” shortage. Evidently, two Eggo factories are off-line and there is a nationwide shortage. People are taking it hard and exacerbating the shortage by stocking up.

Here’s part of the story of the Eggo shortage from USA Today:

Stay-at-home mom Joey Resciniti says she bought one of the last two boxes of Eggos at a Walmart in Cranberry Township, Pa., on Monday. The frozen waffles are a favorite of her 4-year-old daughter, Julia.

“We have eight of them, and if we ration those — maybe have half an Eggo in one sitting — then it’ll last longer,” said Resciniti.

What then after the Eggos are all gone?  Oh the horrors of having to ration Eggos for a four-year-old.  Perhaps the situation will become so desperate that this stay at home mom will have to make a batch of waffles at home and freeze them herself!

one year ago…”Handy Blogging Archive Software”

November 17, 2009 – Corn Caddy

Here’s the latest piece of fun farm equipment – a corn caddy – essentially a small silo on wheels.

We can use this unit to get chicken food from the co-op and move it where ever it needs to be – whether it needs to be by the layers over the winter or broilers over the summer.  I imagine with a serious pasture raised chicken operation, it would be great to bring out to the pasture to store and keep grain dry and near the chickens.  It was on super close-out at the farm store – original price $1800 marked down to $750. No more trudging through the snowbanks to the shed to get feed in the winter!

one year ago…”Can Anything Else Break Today?”

November 16, 2009 – High Hopes on Oprah Slide Show

Here we are this week as part of a slide show on Oprah.com entitled “Unexpected Ways to go Green.” If you scroll through the show, I can probably about guarantee you this will most likely be the first and last time we’re included in the same slide show as “adult” toys!

I’m not sure how long the show links will stay active, but for now, here’s the link.

one year ago…”Pulling Glads”

November 15, 2009 – Mixing Winter Grain Ration

It’s a big mixing weekend. The bred ewes eat mostly hay over the winter, but we give a little grain supplement for the pregnant and nursing ewes.

First step is to grind up some corn – ground corn is better than shell corn as it is better to digest. Here Martin watches the electric grinder and Ora the black kitten perches on the apple tree high above to watch!

Again, there are many possible combinations of grain mixtures, here’s what we’re trying this winter – steamed rolled barley, steam crimped oats, and linseed meal.

The final bit of the feed mix is a little bit of probiotics.  Probiotics have many good effects on health, but are especially good for good rumen health.

Martin with the buckets ready for the first group to be mixed.  Here’s this winter’s recipe:

2 parts cracked corn
1 part steam-rolled barley
1 part steamed crimped oats
1 part linseed meal
1 oz probiotics per 125 lb mix

one year ago…”Home-Made Cider Press Info”

November 14, 2009 – Mineral Mix

We decided it was finally time to give up on the commercial mineral blocks and go to a more custom mix that we could control a bit better.

redmond's salt bag

Many producers swear by Redmond’s trace mineral salt. I’ve heard it from enough successful producers who swear by it, that it’s time to bring it to high hopes.

redmond salt

Here’s the salt out of the bag.

The final mineral mix – here was the recipe we used.

4 parts redmond salt
2 part sea kelp
1 part KD mineral

one year ago…”End of Season Pantry”

November 13, 2009 – South Side of Barn Painted

The flurry of barn painting this summer is as complete as it is going to be until spring – 3 of the 4 sides stained. Two weekends ago we had 70 degrees and a north wind, so it allowed me to get up high and finish the south side.

barn

The doors and trim on the back need replacement as well, but that’s probably a next year item as well.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #141″

November 11, 2009 – Makeshift Trailer

You may remember that this summer, I traded in the pick-up for a new car (and it already has 8k miles) and am patiently waiting for a new old truck to come to the farm – like cats and dogs, I’m sure one exactly right will come to me, but until then, I need to improvise.  The first challenge comes with bringing lambs to market.  So, I turned the utility trailer into a temporary livestock hauler with a few cattle panels.

I just cut off the bottom horizontal wires, drilled some holes in the bottom of the trailer, and stuck the cattle panels in the floor of the trailer, lashed the tops together and voila!  It worked like a champ taking the first lambs to the locker.

one year ago…”Turkey Predators”

November 9, 2009 – Buttercup Squash Yeast Bread

Remember it was a bumper year for squash? Linda ran across a bread recipe that makes a beautiful moist yeast bread with an orange tint.

The loaves were devoured quickly.  Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

3 packages (1/4 oz each) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (110 to 115)
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 cups mashed cooked buttercup or butternut squash
2 cups milk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup softened butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 teaspoons salt
13 cups all-purpose flour

Directions

In a very large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add sugar; let stand for 5 minutes.  Add the squash, milk, brown sugar, butter, eggs and salt; mix well.  Add 6 cups flour.  Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes.  Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1/4 hours.

Punch dough down. Divide into three portions; shape into loaves.  Place in three greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans.  Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool.

one year ago…”Ornamental Kale”

November 7, 2009 – Garlic Tasting

Today we attended a fundraiser for the Practical Farmers of Iowa.  Appetizers for the meal included a variety of roasted garlic varieties.

I was surprised at the vastly different tastes of the garlics.  The rest of the meal was ably prepared by chef Donna Prizgintas, who among other things, was Paul Newman’s personal chef.  The dinner included a beet gelee on a bed of microgreens, a main course of roasted white carrots and red peppers, along with two kinds of chicken.  The meal was topped off with a squash crumble.

Earlier in the afternoon, there was a stop at Northern Prairie Chevre goat cheese farm.  Next was a stop at Snus Hill winery, where the meal was served. It’s hard to say what was better – the conversation and company or food!

one year ago…”First Snow of the Season”

November 6, 2009 – New Layers

We were alerted to someone who had brooded more heavy breed  layers than they could accommodate, so we bought 20 pullets just about ready to lay.  We’ll put some of our older hens in the freezer for stewing.

The girls bringing the pullets into the chicken coop.

speckled sussex chicken

One of the more interesting pullets is this Speckled Sussex hen.

band chickens

Each year we band the new chicks with colored zip ties and write the color an year on the wall inside the chicken coop.  So all of this year’s new hens are green, last year’s hens were red, and before that white.  It’s simple and it works well.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #140″

November 3, 2009 – City Hams

We take a break from the farm today and give some love to my brother.  All these years we thought my dj sister was the media-savvy ham, but evidently bro picked up some talent along the way.

He is evidently more excited about Minnesota Gopher football than anyone has a right to be!  I’ll let the photo speak for itself – all I can say is that he did show some restraint and taset by choosing this outfit instead of going with the classical bare chest painted with a maroon “M” on a freezing afternoon.

Their tailgate party got about five minutes of run on the “Big Ten Cookout” show before the Gopher-Spartan game last weekend.

one year ago…”76 Degrees in November”

November 2, 2009 – Hog Barn Renovation Milestone

Today marks a major milestone in hog barn renovation.  One of our stated farm goals is to “maintain the architectural heritage of the area.”  To me, this means not automatically burning or tearing down old buildings and where possible to adapt them to creative re-use.

Here’s the hog barn at a place where it would have been torn down by many folks – no windows, major portions of the roof gone and what you can’t see from this photo – walls lilting at about a 15 degree angle.

hog barn renovation

Here’s the same building with a new roof, new windows and a modification to allow for an animal “porch” so we have more options in separating out animals and having shelter from rain and wind – the new porch faces south.  I still need to complete some trim, shore up parts of the building that were not rebuilt and where the white siding is, to put in a door.

one year ago…”Dead Rhubarb”

October 30, 2009 – Fall Mushrooms

Because the weather has been so cool lately, I didn’t think of looking for a fresh flush of shiitakes on the logs we spawned.

But surprise, they’re there!

So tonight we had another high hopes exclusive meal. Shiitakes and onions from the farm sauteed in sesame oil. Walleye caught in the BWCA this summer, along with fresh brussells sprouts and applesauce from the farm – not bad for end of October.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #139″

October 28, 2009 – October Mud

Here’s the view from the farm this month – mud. Mud like slippery late March, early April end-of-winter mud. The rain has prevented many outdoor activities. The corn and bean harvest is way behind schedule. The barn isn’t completed staining, nor is all the garlic in the ground

If it seems like a lot of rain and wetness in this month, there was. The weatherman says it’s the wettest October on record – at least we’ll have good soil moisture going into next spring.

one year ago…”Soap Cutting”

October 24, 2009 – Saturday Farm Work

Today brought a break in the rain, so it was time to go out and do things that aren’t too exciting, but that need to get done.

First was cleaning out the chicken coop before winter.  Here the ladies are happy with their new bedding.

The old bedding is hauled out to near the garden to compost.  This bedding was very dry and fluffy, so it took a lot of water to add between cartloads to prepare it to compost properly.  It was much too wet and muddy to use the tractor, so it was many loads with the carts.

Part of the organic apple regime is to make sure no windfall apples remain on the ground to host apple pests – we give them to the chickens to eat.  This is about 14 five-gallon buckets of apples.

Another important job is to get rid of old tomato vines – I tore the vines out of the cages and stacked the cages and stakes close to where next year’s tomatoes will be planted.  I’m a bit slow as I used to always haul the cages and stakes to the same place for winter storage.  Now I just haul them near next year’s planting area.  Our cages are old woven wire fencing that was destined for the dump – I made round cages and they are very sturdy with a half a metal fence post for support.

one year ago…”Fall Color”

October 21, 2009 – Garlic Planting

When the girls got home from school, I decided it was time to make a rush to get some garlic in the ground.  Garlic is a great crop as it doesn’t need to be put in the ground in the spring.

The garlic cloves, recently separated from their bulbs.

The girls planting a furrow of garlic.  We ended up getting four rows in before the rain started (and is supposed remain for a couple days).  So, if they didn’t get in today, it would probably be at least another week before they got planted.

one year ago…”Mortgage Meltdown and More”

October 20, 2009 – October Stir-Fry

It’s nice that on October 20, the garden still supplies an all-farm stir-fry.

This dish contains carrots, cabbage, broccoli, fresh from the garden and onions and garlic from recent harvests.  The days of eating straight from the garden are quickly coming to an end – about all remaining are lettuce, spinach, kale, beets, and brussels sprouts.

one year ago…”Garlic Planting”

October 19, 2009 – Final Sunday Paper Article

The third of three front-page Sunday newspaper articles related to the program Linda started completed Sunday – this time about local foods in restaurants.

Bringing Local Foods to the Table
A Few Hurdles Remain to Satisfy Consumer Demands

By ABIGAIL McWILLIAM, TIMES-REPUBLICAN

Presenting a roast butternut squash soup, Chef Christopher Curtis is ready to serve the culinary delight at Marshalltown’s Tremont On Main.

When J.P. Howard sits down to a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup he thinks about his Aunt Liz.

“She always made the best soups,” he said. “This is nature’s elixir for what ails you.”

Growing up in Cresco, in northeast Iowa, J.P. was accustomed to locally grown foods, in part thanks to his aunt who created meals with ingredients from her own gardens and livestock.

Now he and his wife, Jennifer, are serving up locally produced food at their trio of restaurants on Main Street.

The Howards have been featuring seasonal local dishes on their white-cloth menu at the Tremont on Main, while incorporating other local ingredients and dishes at the Tremont Grille and Tremont Sports Cafe.

The regularly featured chicken noodle soup is made with the freshest and the highest quality local chicken purchased from a Mexican market in Marshalltown, J.P. said.

While the couple has found great success in some local dishes, and are ready to step up a local foods menu, they need better supply and constant comparable and dependable products.

Part of this effort to meet the needs of area business owners has spun into the creation of COMIDA – an acronym for County of Marshall Investing in Diversified Agriculture – that formed with the goal of building a local foods system in the county.

Just one-tenth of a percent of Marshall County residents get their food directly from farmers – about one fourth of the national average.

A study of the potential impact of a local food system showed that if consumers bought only 15 percent of their food directly from local farms it would mean $8 million of new farm income each year, according to Ken Meter of the Crossroads Resource Center of Minneapolis.

Another survey, this one conducted by the North Central Regional Center of Rural Development and the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce, showed that 73 percent of Marshalltown businesses would like to have more opportunities to establish stronger links with local producers.

The lack of supply has consistently been targeted as the reason local markets and restaurants don’t currently sell more locally grown food.

“We, as a county, are just getting started,” J.P. said.

Even with poor weather conditions taking a hit on local farmers markets, J.P. has poured his efforts into a local menu by attending area markets on a weekly basis.

“I bought everything I could, that I could use,” J.P. said. “Anywhere I can find it that is close and quality, I buy it.”

Meanwhile, a rooftop garden outside of the couple’s condo at the Tremont Inn boasts fresh herbs that are incorporated into local dishes – including thyme, sage, rosemary and oregano.

A butternut squash soup with local appeal was prepared last week by utilizing another garden on 12th Street.

However, planning a consistent menu with local products necessitates high value and quality, J.P. said.

“Value and quality are No. 1 and they go hand in hand,” he said. “So the products have to be the same, because the consumer demands it.”

Another struggle is price comparability, he said.

“We want to have it, but not pay five times more for it,” he said.

At the same time, they are seeing consumer demand for fresh local foods, he said.

“Food safety and food knowledge is driving this whole issue,” Howard explained. “It’s starting to mean something to people, and we listen to what they want.”

Parts of the local food system are already underway with the Entrepreneurial and Diversified Agriculture Program at Marshalltown Community College, which trains students how to develop a local food system.

The first graduates of a course for beginning farmers called “Start Your Own Diversified Farm” received their certificates in March. Ten graduates of this training course are currently renting plots and growing vegetables at the MCC farm. They have been selling their produce at farmers markets in Des Moines, but are anxious to sell directly to Marshalltown grocery stores and restaurants.

Another addition to the program is a food processing facility currently under construction on the MCC campus. The building will provide a place for farmers to prepare their produce for market.

J.P. has high expectations for the MCC training course that develops new farmers and is particularly attractive to the Latino population.

“You can take that spirit and that willingness to take risk and we can find a way to help minimize their risk to get them started … That’s a huge business with the ultimate goal being to provide healthy food to our community.”

By demanding local foods, J.P. sees a stronger movement toward getting nutritious foods into nursing homes, hospitals and restaurants.

“What we’re trying to get to eventually is getting better nutrition to the lower income people – that’s our task as people in the food business,” he said. “We’re supposed to feed people wonderfully and we should be passionate about it.”

—-

Contact Abigail McWilliam at 641-753-6611 or amcwilliam@timesrepublican.com

one year ago…”Post Tomato Harvest Work”

October 18, 2009 – PFI Field Day

Yesterday was the PFI field day at the farm – I returned home literally an hour before the event. Linda had arranged the food and prepared a meal mainly from the farm – squash and apple soup, minestrone soup, and apple crisp.

The field day went well, there were probably about 25 attendees, from as far as Emmetsburg and as close as State Center. I’ve updated the wind presentation with updated info. Since I was presenting and talking, photos are lean. For more commentary, see the PFI blog for Friday October 23.

one year ago…”Oops, Market Peppers”

October 14, 2009 – Pasture Reconfiguration

It is time for a pasture reconfiguration.  The area broadly outlined in white shows where the new temporary fence went up.

This fence allows the animals to get into an area they haven’t yet grazed this season.  It includes the ornamental willow nursery – now that the majority of the growing season is over, they can eat the willows since they will be cut down to the ground next spring to keep ornamental size.  Our fences are mainly cattle panels and metal fenceposts, so it is easy to move things around.

one year ago…”Toothless Martin”

October 12, 2009 – Hog Barn Renovation

Longer time readers might remember the hog barn project.  Now that the growing season is over, I have a month or so to devote to outbuilding work.  The plan with the hog barn is to take out the leaning wall on the left and frame up new walls inside the current structure, keep the roof, and have a covered, outdoor accessible shelter off the  cement paddock.  So there will be steel siding on this new framing.

I’ll be able to use the remaining good pieces of siding on the wall to be removed to patch bad boards on the barn.  It’s been too cold to finish painting the barn – highs int he upper 30’s and 40’s lately and through the weekend.

one year ago…”House Painting”

October 10, 2009 – It’s Over (Growing Season)

The growing season ended last night.  The first hard freeze was accompanied by the earliest recorded one-inch snowfall in Des Moines.  We didn’t get an inch of snow here, but didn’t miss the freeze.

All in all it was an average year on the farm for crops, but much above average for comfort of the farmers, due to the cool weather.  A quick rundown of the growing season ups and downs follows:

It was a good year for…

Apples
Squash
Cool season crops (lettuce, spinach and relatives)
Flowers

It was not a good year for…

Peaches (hard, cold winter and ice storm)
Honey
Peppers (too cool)
Tomatoes (too cool)

The good news is we still have some canned peaches left over from last year and made extra applesauce this year – that’s one of the beauties of having a diversified crop assemblage – chances are not everything will fail the same year.

one year ago…”Iowa Chops”

October 6, 2009 – Squash

This is the week for squash harvest.  We’ve had a pesky problem with squash vine borers over the years, so squash has always been hard to get to maturity.  For some reason, this year, the vine borers seemed absent – not sure if it was the weather, some other cycle, or having more chickens roaming eating pests, but whatever the case, we’ve got enough to get us through the winter.  This was only to first load to be picked and washed before tucking in the basement.

Look for nice squash soups on the winter menu at high hopes.

one year ago…”Peppers at Peak”

October 5, 2009 – More Front Page News

The Entrepreneurial and Diversified Agriculture program and MCC go more front page love, this time the front page of the Marshalltown Sunday paper.  It is the first of a three-part series.

In case the link expires, the text of the article is reproduced below.

MCC trains farmers to provide a growing demand for local foods

By LARRY KERSHNER, SPECIAL TO THE T-R

POSTED: October 4, 2009

Iowa farmers are often said to be feeding the world, but a cadre of would-be commercial farmers in Marshall County have a desire to feed people in their own community.

Four students from Marshalltown Community College have four different paths they are taking to reach a common goal – to earn a living by growing food and by raising meat and dairy animals for consumers who live in nearby communities.

Their path to the goal leads through a two-year degree program called Entrepreneurial and Diversified Agriculture.

“We’re helping to train farmers to provide the growing demand for local foods,” said Linda Barnes, who created the Marshalltown Community College course in 2003.

Caite Grieshop, of Ames, grew up on a hobby farm near Ames. As an adult and in her second year of the program, she hopes to create a way to provide food to local families. Currently, she has Katahdin hair sheep on her six and a half acre farm and wants to expand into dairy goats and laying hens.

Garret Caryl, 20, of Colo, is a certified welder and helped to erect the wind turbines around his hometown. He is in his second year in the course. His plans are to expand his direct marketing business he has with Birkshire hogs and poultry, plus add a welding business as an additional income source.

Jacque Rhodes, of Marshalltown, said she has no background in farming, except that she worked for three years for a nearby pork producer. She is hoping to eventually start a fish farm, possibly raising organic catfish.

“You never hear of organic fish,” she said. “I hope there’s a market.”

Mary O’Dell, of Kellogg, lost her job, along with her husband, when the Maytag plant shut down in 2007. Although she owns no farm land, this city girl wants to raise pigs, goats, cattle and poultry “in a sustainable way,” she said. She hopes to sell her meat products locally. Her husband is taking courses in ag machinery repair and maintenance.

All have different backgrounds, but they share a common belief that sustainable agriculture is the farming method of the future. They believe in it and want to participate in it.

Sustainable agriculture is sometimes confused with natural farming or organic farming. Although it can include those, sustainable ag simply refers to the ability of a farm to produce farm products without causing severe or irreversible damage to ecosystem health.

The MCC course they are studying is part of a widespread local food initiative in Marshall County that includes encouraging people with a passion for producing nutritious food for local markets. Barnes’ course attempts to move them from desire to empowerment to pursue their food-producing goals.

Barnes said there are three key components to the 10-subject curriculum. These include Issues of sustainable agriculture, applied systems thinking and internships.

“This helps them to see the whole as a working system.” Barnes said. On her own farm, every asset has to serve three purposes “or else you aren’t integrated enough,” she said. “Our sheep fertilize the gardens, keep the grass down between the buildings and provide revenue from meat and tanned hides.”

Meanwhile, internships mean students have a chance to work in an ag industry in which they are interested and see how different operations work in the field.

Caite Grieshop, who is an Iowa volunteer coordinator for Heifer International, has a culinary arts background and said she wants to help people connect with the foods they eat. She hopes to eventually create a year-round farmers market with an online format.

She said MCC’s course has helped her to see that successful food growing systems start from the ground up. This includes learning that she can find soil profiles on her farm ground and understand why some crops grow better in some areas. “This will help me improve my production without trial and error,” Grieshop said. “I get my money’s worth here.”

The course includes visits from farmers who have switched to sustainable programs in some or all of their operations. Garrett Caryl said the guest presenters helped him understand how to raise his livestock without antibiotics, unless his animals are ill.

“I don’t have organic livestock,” Caryl noted, “but I hope to work in some organic stock, too.”

Unafraid of voicing his convictions, Caryl said he has considered raising livestock for natural food processors like Niman Ranch, based in San Francisco. “But I don’t think food should have to travel over 60 miles.” Selling locally, he added, “Burns fewer fossil fuels from producer to the plate.”

Mary O’Dell graduates from the two-year course in December and hopes to embark on her new career after losing her 14-year job at Maytag. “I want to grow sustainably and to sell (food) locally.”

O’Dell said that since she was a child she wanted to work with animals.

Her inlaws, she added, are in their 70s and 80s and still farm. She sees agriculture as her new direction that will sustain her and her husband for years to come.

“I like the idea of raising animals in a better way,” she said noting she would like to produce meat animals, most likely swine, not in confinement buildings.

The students say they understand there is resistance in the Iowa farming culture for what they want to do.

“It’s just a different way of doing things,” O’Dell said.

The best revenge against detractors, added Grieshop, “is to do it and make money at it.”

Fact Box

The two-year Entrepreneurial and Sustainable Agriculture course at Marshalltown Community College was created in 2003. It has become a part of a local foods initiative in Marshall County designed to help people who want to produce food for local markets. The course curriculum includes:

Issues in sustainable agriculture
Ecological concepts
Applied systems thinking
Farmstead planning and technology
Fundamentals of soil science
Accounting
Intro to entrepreneurship
Marketing
Organic crop production
Livestock management
Apprenticeships

Contact Larry Kershner at (515)573-2141 or at kersh@farm-news.com.

one year ago…”Morning Sun Party”

October 4, 2009 – Pizza Night

Sunday nights are always the same at high hopes.  Kids get a reprieve from the usual 1/2 per day of computer or TV and get to watch a movie and eat mac and cheese. Later in the evening it’s date night for Mark and Linda as Linda makes a pizza from scratch.

This is a good time of year – fresh from the garden – spinach, tomatoes, hot peppers and onions.

Topped with some mozzarella cheese and tiny peperoni, the tomato slices are eager to poke through the cheese.

one year ago…”Hops Harvest”

October 2, 2009 – Applesauce Day

I’ll spare you the details of the processing, but today might be a record canning day at high hopes!  The girls spent about three hours peeling apples, and we had some bags of apples in the freezer from earlier maturing trees. We made nine canner’s worth of applesauce.  Apples take a while to cook into sauce, so nine batches is a good day’s output.

You’ll notice that the applesauce is red – we had a bunch of frozen strawberries, frozen cherries, and plenty of raspberries.  So, the applesauce is mixed with those fruits – it is tasty!  The total put up for the day is 28 quart jars, 35 pint jars, and 32 1/2 pint jars which are great for lunches.  All in all, it’s the equivalent of about 53 quarts of applesauce.  Fortunately (or unfortunately), there are still lots of apples left on the trees!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #135″

September 29, 2009 – Mother Hen

Mother hen found a new cavity in the hay – yesterday I picked up 50 bales of hay and haphazardly piled a few misshapen bales near the door and came back to properly stack them and found the mother hen and her seven chicks had adopted it as their home for the time being.

In this photo, you can just see two of the chicks – one on top and one peeking out underneath her – the other five are huddled under the hen out of view.

one year ago…”Corn and Bean Harvest”

September 27, 2009 – Big Tomato Day

We started on tomatoes about 2:30 and with GJ and Martin cutting up tomatoes for about 3 hours, we managed to put up 28 quarts of tomatoes today!  Tomatoes take a while as they need to process for 50 minutes, but there is nothing like the home-canned tomatoes.

Martin had a long time to think while he was cutting up tomatoes and made a step-by-step analogy between the previous day’s chicken butchering and the tomatoes.

Step One – Pick tomatoes/bleed chickens

Step Two – Blanch Tomatoes in Boiling Water/Scald chickens in 150 degree water

Step Three – Slip skins off tomatoes/put chickens in plucker to remove feathers

Step Four – Cut stem out of tomatoes/take out guts of chicken

Step Five – Cut up tomatoes/cut up chickens for freezing

Step Six – Put chicken parts in bags and freeze to preserve/put tomatoes in jars to preserve.

one year ago…”Harvest Table”

September 26, 2009 – Foraging Turkeys

It’s about time for a turkey update.  After the skunk in the brooder house, we were left with 12 turkeys.  One them had a badly damaged leg from the skunk and wasn’t moving around too well, so now that they are about big chicken size, we threw it in with the chicken butchering.

turkeys ofraging

The rest of them are happily about, foraging and being turkeys, starting to gobble and puff up at any hint of danger.  Back from my days at the county conservation board, I learned that turkeys don’t like owls, so if you make an owl hoot, the turkeys send out an alarm that spreads through the flock.

one year ago…”Stainless Steel Milk Cans”

September 22, 2009 – Golden Raspberries

The golden raspberries are particularly prolific this year. We only have about 15 feet of row, but it’s more than we can use at the moment.

golden raspberries

The flavor isn’t quite as good (to my taste buds) as the red berries – not quite as strong as the reds.  However, I think this winter we’ll make a “raspberry lovers” gift box with red raspberry jam, golden raspberry jam, and raspberry jelly.

one year ago…”Apple Peeling, 2008 Style”

September 19, 2009 – Joint Birthday Parties

Since this is, in theory, Claire’s last birthday at home, the girls decided to have a joint birthday party this year.  Their choice was to each invite 10 friends for an evening of  fun like only high hopes gardens can provide.  The night started out with a taco bar under the tent shelter, adorned with lights for atmosphere later in the night.

Emma moves through the food line.

One of Claire’s gifts was creatively wrapped – there was an exterior layer of tin foil and duct tape, a layer of birthday wrap, a layer of saran wrap, another layer of wrapping paper, followed by a final interior layer of duct tape!

Claire also got a real experience as one gift.  A friend brought some monarch butterflies and tagging materials and showed Claire how to tag Monarch butterflies and release them to fly to Mexico, where her friend had seen the overwintering place last winter.

After some hearty games of capture the flag over the farmstead, it was time for a big bonfire.  Happy 15th and 17th!

one year ago…”Emma’s Birthday Event”

September 18, 2009 – Scientific American Warns Biotech Companies

In the August 13, 2009  issue of Scientific American, the magazine issues a strong editorial against the practice of biotech companies to NOT ALLOW independent research of the efficacy and safety of their products.  Such statements are in stark contrast to the biotech industry that claims via many industry groups such statements as this one from the International Food Information Council ” A strong regulatory system is in place in the U.S., based on the broad consensus regarding safety among the scientific community.”  Now read what read what independent crop scientists have to say about the “consensus regarding safety” of biotech crops.

Advances in agricultural technology” including, but not limited to, the genetic modification of food crops” have made fields more productive than ever. Farmers grow more crops and feed more people using less land. They are able to use fewer pesticides and to reduce the amount of tilling that leads to erosion. And within the next two years, agritech companies plan to introduce advanced crops that are designed to survive heat waves and droughts, resilient characteristics that will become increasingly important in a world marked by a changing climate.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify that genetically modified crops perform as advertised. That is because agritech companies have given themselves veto power over the work of independent researchers.

To purchase genetically modified seeds, a customer must sign an agreement that limits what can be done with them. (If you have installed software recently, you will recognize the concept of the end-user agreement.) Agreements are considered necessary to protect a company’s intellectual property, and they justifiably preclude the replication of the genetic enhancements that make the seeds unique. But agritech companies such as Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta go further.

For a decade their user agreements have explicitly forbidden the use of the seeds for any independent research. Under the threat of litigation, scientists cannot test a seed to explore the different conditions under which it thrives or fails. They cannot compare seeds from one company against those from another company. And perhaps most important, they cannot examine whether the genetically modified crops lead to unintended environmental side effects.

Research on genetically modified seeds is still published, of course. But only studies that the seed companies have approved ever see the light of a peer-reviewed journal. In a number of cases, experiments that had the implicit go-ahead from the seed company were later blocked from publication because the results were not flattering. It is important to understand that it is not always simply a matter of blanket denial of all research requests, which is bad enough, wrote Elson J. Shields, an entomologist at Cornell University, in a letter to an official at the Environmental Protection Agency (the body tasked with regulating the environmental consequences of genetically modified crops), but selective denials and permissions based on industry perceptions of how “friendly” or “hostile” a particular scientist may be toward [seed-enhancement] technology.

Shields is the spokesperson for a group of 24 corn insect scientists that opposes these practices. Because the scientists rely on the cooperation of the companies for their research” they must, after all, gain access to the seeds for studies most have chosen to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. The group has submitted a statement to the EPA protesting that as a result of restricted access, no truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions regarding the technology.

It would be chilling enough if any other type of company were able to prevent independent researchers from testing its wares and reporting what they find ”imagine car companies trying to quash head-to-head model comparisons done by Consumer Reports, for example. But when scientists are prevented from examining the raw ingredients in our nations food supply or from testing the plant material that covers a large portion of the country’s agricultural land, the restrictions on free inquiry become dangerous.

Although we appreciate the need to protect the intellectual property rights that have spurred the investments into research and development that have led to agritech’s successes, we also believe food safety and environmental protection depend on making plant products available to regular scientific scrutiny. Agricultural technology companies should therefore immediately remove the restriction on research from their end-user agreements. Going forward, the EPA should also require, as a condition of approving the sale of new seeds, that independent researchers have unfettered access to all products currently on the market. The agricultural revolution is too important to keep locked behind closed doors.

Source: Scientific American Magazine

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #133″

September 16, 2009 – Movin’ the Compost

One reason the old man got the tractor and loader was precisely for jobs like this – moving the animal composter. The composter was designed to be movable with eye hooks and electrical conduit connecting the four sides. See February 11, 2006 for some design details.  This composter is where dead animals end up. I needed to move it to get the tractor loader close enough to the barn to be able to use the loader to get higher up on the barn and remove the old doors.

Here the sides have all been disassembled and the tractor is moving in to try to move the compost to the new spot of the composter.

So far, so good, the pile is sliding into the new location. Doesn’t it look like a raccoon sticking its head out in front of the loader bucket?  It’s just some old bones.

Voila!  Back home again – just need to put on the last side and the roof of the compopster.  This job went much easier than it could have.  Moving it by hand would have been a royal pain and if the pile broke apart, it might have been rather stinky as there were recent additions to the pile – but it all kept together.

one year ago…”Grilled Mushrooms”

September 15, 2009 – Mulberry Feast

It doesn’t take long for a mulberry tree to get away from you.  This one was growing in the fenceline south of the raspberries.  It was overdue to take out. One of those things that’s on “the list” for a long time.

The tractor sure made the job easy – instead of cutting it up into pieces and hauling it away – I just had to drop it with the chainsaw, wrap a chain around it and drag it into the pasture. I wanted to do it before the leaves dropped.

In the pasture it became well appreciated browse for the goats and sheep.

one year ago…”Carrot Harvest”

September 12, 2009 – “Fresh – The Movie”

Today we went to a screening of “FRESH the movie.” One of the people featured in the movie is long-time friend George Naylor who has been President of the National Family Farm Coalition and was the Iowa farmer featured in Michael Pollan’s #1 selling book, Omnivore’s Dilemma.

The movie highlights some of the dangers, both from an animal husbandry and health perspectives, of confined feeding operations and contrasts them with some farmers doing things a different way.

The movie was hosted at a farm in Greene County. It’s always fun to see other people’s ideas.

This is an old grain bin that has been converted into a pool room. Here’s a view from the outside.

And here’s what it looks like from the outside.

Here’s a cheap gazebo – the top off an old small grain bin, some poles and you’ve got a dry place to stay outside over a fire or cup of tea.

one year ago…”Alltel Prepaid Wireless Review”

September 11, 2009 – Carrot Harvest

It’s time, er, maybe too late, in some cases, to harvest carrots.

The short, stubby carrots are an example of planting a variety suitable to soil conditions.  One of the gardens has very hard, clayey soil and that results in planting a variety that is short and fat to ease getting them out of the ground. To try to change this we tried planting tillage radishes in part of it to break it down some, added lots of compost this fall – so we’ll see if it is better next year.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #132″

September 9, 2009 – South Side of Barn – Before

I neglected to take a picture of the south side of the barn before I started, so here is one after I couldn’t help myself  and got started.

The weather has been fantastic for painting – upper 70’s and little if any wind for the last 10 days or so and not much change in the forecast going forward.  This side will take more time – almost every door needs to be rebuilt and new trim cut and painted.  I’m also not sure how I’m going to handle painting the top six feet or so – it’s out of ladder range for me – so I’m tossing around renting a cherry picker or hiring it done.

one year ago…”Season’s Turning”

September 8, 2009 – North Side of Barn Painted!

When I started staining the north side of the barn a few weeks ago, I never imagined it would get done so quickly. The combination of dry days in the 70’s and helpers at home to watch when I was on the high areas helped this get done very quickly. It’s very seldom something gets done ahead of schedule, but this project beat winter by a long shot.

barn

We completed the west and north sides of the barn this summer (as long as we don’t look at the east and south sides, we can be happy).

iowa barn

Here’s a head-on view of the north side, recently stained and painted barn. There are still some odd boards to replace, but the barn is more ready for wetness now! The white trim against the red sure makes it look sharp.

one year ago…”Never-Ending Raspberries”

September 6, 2009 – Heirloom Tomato Tasting at Grinnell Heritage Farm

We took some time away from our farm and visited an heirloom tomato tasting event and farm tour at Grinnell Heritage Farm.  It’s a 5th generation, yet new farm reinvented as a diversified organic farm with vegetables, animals, hay, and hoophouses.

andrew dunham

Here owner Andrew Dunham begins the farm tour.

heirloom tomato tasting

They planted 30 varieties of heirloom tomatoes to try to decide which ones they might like to grow and eat the best and shared the varieties with the public during a tomato tasting/potluck/string band event at their farm.  I’d say there was an overwhelming turnout.

lettuce

I, of course, was struck with the beauty of all the vegetable beds.  If I remember correctly, there are about seven acres in vegetable production.  These organic varietal lettuces in front of the old barn are noteworthy for their beauty and being relatively weed-free.

bright lights chard

Bright Lights Chard makes for a beautiful landscape as well.

brassica field

These bug-free cauliflower rows were a wonder to see.  Andrew and Melissa have much to be proud of as they convert this farm to organic, local food production.

one year ago…”Plum Harvest”

September 5, 2009 – Tomatoes Finally Arrive in Bulk!

It’s been a lousy year for tomatoes so far.  We had the bad combination of getting them in late and a cool summer that delayed their growth a couple of weeks.

tomato bushel

The Roma tomatoes aren’t ready yet, but these are ready to eat and hit the canner.

Martin works on cutting up the tomatoes before processing.  He like to style in his Bob the Builder apron!

one year ago…”Market Berries”

September 2, 2009 – Rogue Chicks

This hen is a repeat offender in hatching a clutch of eggs away from the hen house.  This is her second brood of the summer, this time eight delightful chicks.

About half of them are black and the rest variations of brown.  You can see all eight of them here if you count the leg of the one behind the hen.

Here’s a close-up of one of the chicks – looks like this one may have some Aracuna parentage.

one year ago…”Please Flush”

August 30, 2009 – Raspberries!

It’s more or less the peak of fall raspberry season.  We’ve jammed, canned whole berries, made canned raspberry sauces, pies, crisp, and frozen whole berries.  We also sent 52 cartons to the Des Moines Farmer’s Market yesterday.

These are the golden raspberries – we only have about 15 foot row of these and that is enough.  They are not quite as tasty as the red and seem slightly more susceptible to fungus.  They do however offer a beautiful contrast in the box mixed with the reds.

The old standby fall raspberry variety – Heritage.

one year ago…”Honey Extraction”

August 29, 2009 – Field Day at Grice Farms

Today we went to a PFI field day to what may be one of Iowa’s biggest organic farms, nearly 1,000 acres, located west of Iowa City in Keokuk County.

Linda Grice operates this farm and here shows off a 90 acre field of alfalfa that it transitioning to certified organic.

It’s a great place for one of our favorite Powesheik County farmers to sit and listen with his son.

Riding in the backs of pickup-trucks on a bumpy drive through the pasture is one of life’s lost joys. This section of the farm is custom grazed (meaning a nearby dairy farm rents it to graze Jersey milk cows).

Here Linda points out one of her paddocks that includes a pond.  Usually it is not good practice to have a pond available for cattle to graze around, but in a rotational system there are little to no detrimental water quality effects, especially if the paddock that contains the water is grazed during cool weather.  You’ll see that vegetation is not turned to mud along the shore.

grassfed beef cattle

This is a fine group of organic grass-fed beef cattle.  The critter closest to the camera is in its second year and has always just eaten grass.  She has some cattle that are totally grass-fed and others that she sells to Organic Valley that the company wants finished on a combination of grass and grains.

It was a great day and just wonderful to see such a large, successful, environmentally-friendly operation.

one year ago…”Living the Country Life Film Crew”

August 26, 2009 – Chicken Tractors

It’s going to be a lean chicken year at high hopes this year.  Uncertainty about lockers closing down and deliberations about buying a chicken plucker pushed our decision to get chicks out to our second batch time, and the skunk killing about 65 of our chicks leaves us with about 35 left, probably about enough for our family and none for sale.

The remaining chickens are tucked away in their movable chicken tractors where they get fresh pasture daily and protection from varmits.

one year ago…”Linda on Grinnell College Home Page”

August 24, 2009 – Worst of the North Side Barn Staining

I can’t stand the tacky looking north side of the barn any longer.  I’ve started staining it red to avoid future scraping.

The worst part is complete, above the top windows – it’s probably between 35-40 feet to the top – which is a long way up on a ladder.  I happy that part is complete, and now the trips up and down will be much shorter and not nearly as far to the ground!

one year ago…”Front Page News – Linda”

August 23, 2009 – “We Know People”

We have a friend who works for the USDA seed bank in Ames, preserving many varieties of seeds.  One of the latest plants to be grown out for fresh seed was a variety of Hungarian parsley.

world's tallest parsley plant

photo credit: ISU News Service.

This plant grew to be about 7 feet 10 inches tall. The whole story can be found on an ISU news page. The plant is in the process of being certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as it beat the old record by nearly 2 feet!

Now if you ever have to roast a whole cow and need a garnish, is the parsley for you to grow!

one year ago…”Bioblitz”

August 22, 2009 – Visit to a Local Vineyard

One of Linda’s students has started a vineyard.  He’s just getting started, but has a few producing vines in production.

Linda looks over the crop.

A view down one of the aisles.

Some Iowa grapes, about ready for harvest.

We had the chance to take some home – so we did and made about 20 quarts of grape juice.  Here Martin admires a bunch of grapes.

one year ago…”Late August Garden”

August 21, 2009 – Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program

I visited with our local NRCS contact this week to get updated on new conservation programs and was alerted to a new project about two miles from our house.  He invited me to go take a look, so I did, and you can too!

conservation reserve enhancement program

This is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.  According to another similar site I visited in Story County, farmers get 15 years of annual payment equal to 1.5 times the average cash rent of the county.  Then, they need to keep the land in the program an additional 15 years without additional payment.

CREP Program

Here’s a view from this project from a distance.  The area that looks brown and tilled was just replanted as this wetland was just created.

Nitrogen basin

The dam or weir is built to pond water and to the left you can see the culvert draining from the top of the wetland. In case of heavy rain, the water pours over the dam onto the rocks below it.  Instead of field tiles draining directly into creeks and streams, all the field tiles in this area drain into this basin and nitrogen is consumed by aquatic plants before exiting the wetland much cleaner than the water came in.

Wildlife enhancement is a wonderful by-product of the project – in an older pond upstream of the dam, we saw ducks, geese, and an egret, among other creatures.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #129″

August 18, 2009 – New Part-Time Gig

I’m about to embark on a temporary, very part-time gig with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. The center get a variety of calls that they don’t have staff time to respond to in an adequate manner. One typical call might be from an absentee landlord – some one who has recently inherited land or has a change of heart on how to manage the land and want to know what they can do to be better stewards of the land. They might want better conservation practices, alternative or organic crop options. Or a call may come in from an existing landowner who want to explore an alternative crop. My role will be to mull over some options for the landowner and point them to resources that can help them meet their goals. I look forward to working on this project and helping more landowners have the land they own reflect their values.

one year ago…”First Day of School for Martin and Emma”

August 16, 2009 – Bean Trellis

Here’s another use for 16 foot cattle panels.

This is the top of a bean trellis – it’s just a cattle panel looped over kept in place with half a steel fence post on each side.  It always seems like a pain to get in during the spring rush, but this time of year, I always wish I had trellised more crops.  The picking and disease problems, especially during a wet year like this, are greatly less than the ground beans.

one year ago…”Moldy Hay”

August 11, 2009 – Monsanto, Seed Prices and Farmers

Last week I went to a farmland leasing workshop hosted by ISU Extension – the purpose was to look at what was happening with farmland leasing, cash rents, and farm profitability.  The outlook was not good for commodity farmers.  A “perfect storm” of higher energy costs, higher fertilizer costs, lower ethanol demand, higher seed costs and record crops did not paint a good financial picture.  However, of all the profit pressures, the one that worried the economist most was seed prices.  So, I wasn’t surprised when just a week later, Monsanto announces a 42% increase for its new line of GMO seeds.

A story from Bloomberg is included below, along with some of my commentary following.

(Bloomberg) — Monsanto Co., the world’s largest seed maker, plans to charge as much as 42 percent more for its new genetically modified seeds next year than older offerings because they increase farmer’s output.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybeans will cost farmers an average of $74 an acre in 2010, and original Roundup Ready soybeans will cost $52 an acre, St. Louis-based Monsanto said today in presentations on its Web site. SmartStax corn seeds, developed with Dow Chemical Co., will cost $130 an acre, 17 percent more than the YieldGard triple-stack seeds they will replace.
Our pricing has the flexibility built in to ensure the grower captures the greatest return from his seed investment, irrespective of market volatility, Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant said today in a statement.
Grant is introducing new modified seeds that boost yields as part of a plan to double gross profit from 2007 to 2012. The new soybeans, which resist Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, produce 7.4 percent more soybeans per acre than the older version. SmartStax kills insects in multiple ways, reducing the amount of conventional corn that must be planted to deter insecticide resistance.
SmartStax pricing is higher than we initially expected,  Vincent Andrews, a New York-based analyst at Morgan Stanley, said today in a report.
Pricing for SmartStax is at the high end of expectations, Laurence Alexander, a New York-based analyst at Jefferies & Co., said by telephone.
Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean seeds were planted on 1.5 million acres this year and will be planted on as many as 8 million acres next year in the U.S. with a potential to one day reach 55 million acres, Monsanto said.
The company is pricing its seeds to share the benefit of increased yields with farmers, said Mark Gulley, a New York- based analyst at Soleil Securities. Prices include seed treatments designed to protect seedlings from pests and disease, Monsanto said.
They are in essence splitting the value of the extra yield 50-50, Gulley said by telephone.

I am especially taken with the assertion that Monsanto will take half the yield profit gained by the seeds via increased seed prices. The notion that they are “essentially splitting the value of the extra yield 50-50 with the farmer” is absolutely absurd to me. Monsanto assumes that the only two factors are seed cost and farmer profit? The farmer still shoulders the risk of high energy and fertilizer costs, risks associated with weather and crop failure. If the crop fails due to weather, is Monsanto going to “refund” their 50% portion of the yield? Yeah right.

If I had money to throw around, it would be in a open-pollinated corn company. Sooner or later, it will be more profitable to have a lower yield, along with significantly lower seed costs. When’s the last time any working stiffs got a 42% increase per year?

one year ago…”Presenting… Linda at the State Fair”

August 10, 2009 – Mulberry Forage

Mulberry is excellent forage – comparing favorably to alfalfa in protein content.  There is so shortage of mulberry around here, so the goats and sheep have been getting a small daily ration of trees cut out of fencelines and other places I don’t want them going.

When the pastures start to fade in late summer, it’s a good boost for the animals.

one year ago…”State Fair Day”

August 9, 2009 – Rain, Finally

This weekend we had some ominous weather – we’d been dry for about three weeks, but a downpour found us this weekend.

There was one of the worst hailstorms an ISU field agronomist had seen in 30 years a county just north of us. This might be the southern edge of that storm, although we had 2-3 rounds of storms that day, I’m not sure what time of day the Hardin County storm hit. About 80,000 acres of corn are estimated to have been flattened – the stalks down to 6 inches and much property damage and people injured, many inside their own homes primarily from damage related to hail.

one year ago…”Poults Arrive”

August 7, 2009 – Tillage Radishes

We’re trying a new cover crop this year – tillage radishes.

We planted some just a few days ago, covered them with a layer of fine compost since the ground was too hard and dry to work up and it only took a few days for them to germinate. The idea behind tillage radishes is that they pull up nutrients from the deep and decompose in place over late fall/winter/early spring and offer a chance to break up hard, clayey soil before planting. We have one garden that has difficult soil and we are testing the tillage radishes in a small area. For more information see the tillage radish web site.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #127″

August 3, 2009 – First Serious Canning Day of Season

Today was the first serious canning day of the season.

The first batch of William’s Pride apples were ready to be something else.  With last year’s great success of canned apple pie filling, we decided to make that first.

The apple pie filling is in the center quart jars, a batch of dilly beans to the right and a couple batches of pickle relish to the left..

one year ago…”Envirothon Part 3: Competition and Wrap-up”

August 1, 2009 – Skunk in the Brooding House; 35 Lost

Martin came running in the house this morning at chore time, yelling in an excitable voice about a skunk in with the chicks. Even though we have a cat named skunk, the intensity of his voice told us it was not a cat skunk, but a skunk skunk.

We went out to see what was up and sure enough, in the corner of the brooding area was a skunk, with bodies of dead chicks littered about the brooding area.

I couldn’t shoot the skunk in the brooding area because it was on a cement floor and had a small cement wall next to it. So Houston, we have a problem. We need to get the skunk out of the cafeteria. This particular skunk had violated our “tithing to nature” and had decimated over 1/3 of our chickens.

We sat and thought for a while – tried opening the doors and banging on metal to try to make the skunk decide to leave. It’s a delicate matter to try to upset the skunk enough to leave, but not enough to make it spray. This is the question nearly every ruralite has to face sometime – how do I get rid of the skunk?

The obvious answers are to let it leave on its own, or try to catch it in a live trap. Neither of those were acceptable since it was already in the cafeteria, so to speak, and not in any hurry to leave or to walk into a baited trap. Then it dawned on me – water! Rain happens in nature – the skunk should not be too alarmed with rain and it might make the skunk want to leave to seek shelter. So we retrieved a hose out and gently sprinkled the skunk from on high – much like a cat, the skunk did not like the rain, but was familiar enough with it not to be alarmed enough to spray and ran out of the building where he was immediately introduced to Mr. Remington for violating the tithing to nature rule at high hopes.

one year ago…”Envirothon Part 1: The Long Road to Flagstaff”

July 31, 2009 – Midwest Living Photo Shoot

Thursday and Friday a crew from Midwest Living magazine descended on the farm.

At a photo shoot like this, they leave very little to chance, including bringing their own potted sunflowers.

They also bring various hard good props (in case we don’t have enough junky old stuff lying around)!

On Friday, they started at sunrise. Martin was game.  His only complaint was the rare near-record July 31 cold – he’s in a short sleeve shirt and others are wearing jackets

Martin was accompanied by a female model who also came in to participate in the shoot.

On the farm, you never know when you’ll be surprised by some animal, in this case, an early-rising hen to the delight of the kids.

The photographers checking out the shots in the living room later in the day.

Next it was Emma’s turn.  Her job was to water the sunflowers!

The crew setting up for another shot.  The people who came were extremely good to work with.  They worked well with the children and took wandering dogs, chickens, and the like all in stride.  Martin and Emma made money as models and high hopes did get a site fee as well.  Kudos to the Midwest Living folks for making a good shoot.  So look for us in an issue of Midwest Living next summer.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #126″

July 28, 2009 – Sunflowers!

Once again, dumb luck descends upon High Hopes Gardens.  Midwest Living magazine is planning on coming out to the farm this Thursday and Friday to shoot for a story on sunflowers.  We have been sending small amounts of garden products to sell at the Des Moines Farmer’s Market.  The editors were scouting the market for unusual sunflower varieties.

moulin rouge sunflower

I think the Moulin Rouge caught their eye.

music box sunflower

Perhaps along with the Music Box Sunflower.

teddy bear sunflower

Or the Teddy Bear sunflower.

bee on sunflower

Heck, here’s a honeybee on a more standard variety.

So, they contacted us and we just kind of laughed when they asked how big our fields of sunflowers were.  Truth is, we have two or three 50-foot rows and quite a few volunteers between the rows of this year’s crops that Linda didn’t have the heart to weed out.  It’s some of those volunteers that caught the eyes of the editors.  They sent someone out to look at the farm and decided to go ahead with the photo shoot.  So, look for updates on Thursday and Friday about a magazine photo shoot.

one year ago…”Digging Potatoes and Garlic”

July 27, 2009 – Curing the Garlic

After the garlic is harvested, it needs to dry and cure in a warm, dry place.  The hayloft of the barn is the best place on the farm to do just that.

Part of the fun is getting the garlic up to the hayloft.  First, we open one of the trapdoors on the loft and send a kid to scurry up a ladder for on loft support.

We fill buckets with garlic and hand up a rope.  Young boy pulls up the garlic.

Once the garlic is up in the loft, the bucket is emptied and repeated until all the garlic is up in the loft..

Old refrigerator racks make great drying platforms for the garlic.  After the garlic dries down, it will be cleaned and sorted for market.

one year ago…”Apple Pickin'”

July 25, 2009 – 1,000 Friends of Iowa Conference

Today we attended the annual conference of the 1,000 Friends of Iowa held in Iowa City.

1000 Friends of Iowa promotes responsible development that 1) conserves and protects our agricultural and natural resources, 2) revitalizes our neighborhoods, towns and cities, and 3) improves the quality of life for future generations.  We learned about prospects for increased rail service and economic development around transit stations, particularly the Iowa City to Chicago and Iowa City to Omaha via Des Moines, and a corridor between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids.  In addition, we learned about the tribulations surrounding closing of neighborhood schools and building new schools out in vacant land outside of town.

Linda was asked to give the keynote address. As usual, she was well-received and invited for a couple more speaking engagements for other groups. As for myself, I made some great contacts for an upcoming project I’ll talk more about later!

We spent the night before at a farm south of Iowa City (actually closer to the birthplace of Captain James Kirk – Riverside, Iowa) with some friends who recently moved from Marshalltown.  They have a charming old farmhouse and land along the Iowa River, have planted native prairie and trees, along with lots of garden space.  It was a wonderful 25 hours away from the farm.

one year ago…”Chinese Cabbage”

July 7, 2009 – Have They Bonded?

Do you think Martin and the new kitten have bonded?

Oragif is very friendly and can’t get close enough to her people! Martin is showing her how to play in sand.  The other cats and dogs are starting to get used to the idea on a new cat on the farm.


Here’s a “self-portrait” Martin took of himself and Oragif. Looks like he got a lot of the cat and not so much of himself.

one year ago…”Settling in at Kawishiwi Lodge”

July 5, 2009 – Old Machine Shed Progress

The renovation of the old machine shed is nearing completion. I reroofed the good part of the building a few years back, tore down part of the building that was no good early this year and the last few days put on a new sidewall and remaining few roof pieces.

The side after framing up.

Up on the roof putting one of the last pieces of roofing up.

The view from inside – I love the clear panels that bring natural light into the shed without having to turn a light on.

The building after new siding is applied. It’s not perfect, but it’s done! I’m on the Joel Salatin school of farming equipment – good enough and done is better than perfect and undone. The roof rolls like the ocean, but the building will now stay dry in the rain.

one year ago…”Fruit in Season”

July 1, 2009 – “Oragif”

A kitten recently wandered on the farm.

We’ve named this kitten “Oragif” in honor of the recently deceased cat “Figaro” (in case you missed it – Oragif is Figaro spelled backwards).  Figaro was a black cat who lived here for many years after mal-adjusting to city/house life.  So when this black kitten came, it had to be named after Figaro.  I thing Oragif is a bit of a mouthful, so it’s already been shortened to something that sounds like “Aura.”

one year ago…”Martin’s Birthday”

June 26, 2009 Birthday Trip to Omaha Zoo

Today Martin got his birthday present, a trip to the Omaha Zoo with a friend.

No, they didn’t call each other about what they should wear, but they look similar but different enough (Cubs and Twins hats, Mount Rushmore and Petrified Forest t-shirts).

Not that seven-year old boys like to act out, but it seems like a theme for the day.

Ok, we’ll ratchet up the goofing around up another notch!

But we can be gentle as well.

The boys after a long day at the zoo, leaving with sharks in hand.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #122″

June 22, 2009 – Septic Day 1

OK, so this isn’t the most compelling post from high hopes – there’s no luscious fruit, no animals, just a hole in the ground.  Since it is impossible for me to avoid the giant gashes in the earth and piles of soil, I feel the need to share it!

The old septic tank was only 500 gallons and was a few feet from the house – here’s the hole after digging it out and filling in the hole where the old tank was.  The tank was deep as the basement has floor drains and the top of the tank was below the floor drains, thus a really big hole.

To avoid a mechanical pumping system that would be problematic to use in power outages and to avoid more mechanical things that could go wrong, to get enough grade, the new tank, approx three times bigger than the old one, needed to be a ways from the house, thus the long trench.  This was about it for day 1 – it was one of those 96 degree muggy Midwestern days.

one year ago…”Skystream Data Logger”

June 21, 2009 – Rain, Rain

In the last few weeks, if we’ve gone 12 hours without rain it was a relief. Yesterday was no exception, although we lucked out in the afternoon as the storm clouds billowed up literally right over our farm.

Martin and I watched, lying on the ground as this cloud billowed high into the sky. It was fascinating to watch the speed at which the top of the cloud grew in height and width.

After it passed a few miles past, we took a photo with Martin.

Later in the evening as the sun set, a whole new set of colors became available.

The top of the cloud flattens out as it reaches the stratosphere. This series of storms spawned a dozen tornadoes, but none of them very damaging, with only one farm damaged.

one year ago…”Dedication of Boreas Wind Turbine”

June 17, 2009 – More “Wild Chicks”

Martin had been keeping his eyes on a clutch of eggs in the barn.  When we were working on the door, Martin found the eggs were all cracked.

I told him to look for the chicks, because maybe they had hatched (or eaten by a critter).

It didn’t take him long to find the mother and the chicks, in this case a Buff Orpington hen and five chicks.  Finding a “free range” mother hen and chicks is like a combination of Santa’s presents and finding a 20 dollar bill on the street.  It sure beats keeping motherless chicks under a brooder.

one year ago…”Claire in Washington DC: Episode 1″

June 15, 2009 – Drying Strawberries

We’re getting close to a loss on what to do with all the strawberries. The easiest is to freeze then whole on cookie sheets and then put in freezer bags. This year we are going to try drying them for the first time and I’ve overdocumented different drying methods below. All the pictures below show on the left side of the photo what they looked like before drying and the right side shows what they looked like after they were dried.

dried strawberries

This photo show berries cut in half lengthwise and put cut side down.

This tray shows sliced strawberries.

This tray was sliced lengthwise and put on the tray uncut side down.

Finally, whole berrries put on the tray.

As for results, the easiest to take off the trays were the berries sliced lengthwise and put cut side up.  None of them were difficult to remove, but the lengthwise down were easiest.  Our dehydrator has the flexible sheets – it was easy to bend those – if you were using a rigid drying tray, it would take longer to get them off.  The whole berries took a long time to dry, even though they were all the small ones.  I’d cut them all next time.

The dried berries turned out better than I expected, taste-wise – so we’ll be doing more.

one year ago…”Emma at ISU Basketball Camp”

June 14, 2009 – EZ Barn Door

Today I’m going to pass on a neat trick to rebuild barn doors.  Our barn has entry doors with separate top and bottom doors.  The interior cross-member bracing fits into slots built into the door frame.  The first time I tried to build a replacement door, I measured and built the complete door perfectly square in the shop and when I went to attach it, found out neither the frame, nor the adjoining door was square, so I ended up cutting and shaping the new “square” door to fit and it took way too long.

build barn door

A neighbor saw my struggles and offered a bit of advice – forget working in the shop and build the door in place.  The first step is to nail the interior cross bracing into the slots on the frame.  Just nail the boards in with small finishing nails, because after the door is built, these nails will be pounded out as the door swings open for the first time and either pulled out backwards or pounded into the board.  The top picture shows the two interior boards temporarily nailed in place.

build barn door

Next, measure and attach the exterior boards. In this case, they were all slightly different lengths.  You’ll notice that in this picture the white door trim is split near the threshold.  This bothered me, so shortly after this photo was taken, I got the tractor out and was able to use the loader to push in the bottom threshold beam back into place and replace the white trim board with one straight piece.  The boards are nailed or screwed in place and the hinges attached while the door is still nailed to the frame.

build barn door

After the hinges are on, just tap out the door and remove or pound in the finishing nails holding the first two pieces in place.  Here’s an interior door of the completed door (minus painting).

one year ago…”Nearby Tornado Cell”

June 10, 2009 – Road Hay

Is it free?  Is it easy?  Do kids like to help? Sign me up – it’s “road hay” season again. The county sickle-bar mowers have cut the long grass along the sides of the roads and it seems a waste to just let it sit there.

We can always use organic material, whether for bedding, composting, or in this case, Martin is spreading it around in the area close to the chicken coop where all the plants have been beaten down.  It’s easy to scoop up with a hay fork and Martin likes to pack it into the pickup truck with the topper and we can get quite an amount in one trip and then decide where it will do the most good.

one year ago…”Bad Feeling about Next Few Days”

June 3, 2009 – “Classifoods”

Here’s another interesting approach to marrying editorial content with advertising in a print newspaper. This kind of coupling of content with ads has made Google rich – now here’s an example of a print paper – the paper serving the Bar Harbor, Maine area – melding features with local food advertising.

ELLSWORTH:  The Ellsworth American and the Mount Desert Islander today launch a new advertising vehicle for people who grow, raise, sell, eat or admire food. That vehicle is a classified ad that, instead of appearing in the Classified Advertising section of the newspaper, is published in the Arts section where the weekly food, restaurant, recipe and wine features appear. It’s a new concept “marrying the ad to the news content.”

New concepts call for new names, so we have dubbed these new ads  – Classifoods.

Here’s a really new concept: the ads are free this month. Free ads are one per customer per week.

General Manager Terry Carlisle cooked up the idea after attending a workshop in Boston at the annual New England Press Association (NEPA) convention in February.

At the NEPA convention this year, one of the presenters was encouraging us to think outside the box using classifieds as an example. Why do they all have to run in the back of the newspaper? Why not marry them with their news content if that makes sense? He showed an example of a successful food classified page that was running in the Lifestyle section of a newspaper next to the food page.

It was a recipe for experimentation.

To introduce Classifoods to readers and advertisers, the newspapers are offering the ads for free for the month of June. After that, regular classified rates apply.

Any food-related goods and services can appear in Classifioods – from seeds that grow into food to kitchen sinks where we clean up after a meal. Our first issue features a wide variety of foods, including pet foods.

one year ago…”Fruit on the Way”

June 1, 2009 – Dead Peaches

OK, so today’s picture isn’t so upbeat, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless.  We’re on the fringe of the peach range (most people would say we are out of the range), but we’ve planted peaches nonetheless.  Last year was an incredible production year – we harvested many bushels of peaches and sold them, dried them, ate them fresh, and canned about 60 quarts of them.

However, the fragility of the trees comes through this year.  The last winter’s unusually cold temperatures below -20 must have been too much for some of the trees.  Some of them are dead, and others have leafed out substantially less than usual.  That means it’s time to plant some more next year!

one year ago…”Miniature Horse Grooming”

May 6, 2009 – Mud Room Renovations

This doesn’t look like much, but for those that have visited, it may give hope for things that we just don’t see anymore, but others do. The ceiling in the mud room is half sheetrocked and half open to the rafters. I thought I’d use the old barn boards from the shed deconstruction to make a new ceiling instead of buying new lumber – just recycle the old.

I’m also going to put it over against the wall facing the house to cover up the additional bubble foil insulation I put up last fall. Always a project at high hopes gardens!

one year ago…”Out with the Old, In with the New”

May 5, 2009 – Feeding the World?

A common admonition about organic agriculture is that it cannot feed the world and that the crowning achievement of modern industrial agriculture is this claim to “feed the world.” I was very much taken aback to find the following graphic that shows of the 10 most undernourished countries in the world, eight of them receive no corn exports from the U.S.

This graphic is taken from a report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report on ethanol.

one year ago…”Fruit Tree Blossoms”

May 4, 2009 – A Walk in the Spring Forest

Martin and I went for a walk/bike in the spring forest looking for morels.  Our mushroom-gathering bag remains empty, but we did enjoy the evening nonetheless.

The spring woodland flowers are out in full regalia.  I’m not a botanist, but this looks like a dainty hepatica.

Purple violets.

Yellow violets.

Bluebells.

And this funky fungi, I think I’ll call it pipe organ mushroom, although I haven’t a clue to its real name.

Finally, some moss sporophytes end the botanical portion of the walk.

I believe that kids don’t have enough unstructured play, especially unstructured out-of-doors play.  Here Martin crawled down a small ravine about 6 feet deep and was working on making a dam to stop the water.  Great kid work.

one year ago…”Finally, Something in the Garden”

May 3, 2009 – Another Skystream Greets the Wind

Today we were fortunate to attend a dedication ceremony for another Skystream wind turbine.

Gary has a CSA between our house and Ames and decided to put one up as well.

He has an excellent site, with no obstructions and on the top of a small hill – looking to the south, it’s the highest point of land for miles.  As great as April was for our production (over 550 kwh) this site brought home aobut 100 more kwh.

I greatly enjoyed the combination garden blessing and turbine dedication – Gary used a combination of milk and honey to dedicate the turbine and offered others a chance to come douse the turbine and offer a hope or observation for the future.

one year ago…”All Work and No Play Make Mark a Dull Boy”

May 2, 2009 – Field Trip to Farmer’s Market

Today Linda took some students to the Des Moines Farmer’s Market. A group of them are planning on marketing co-operatively through the market and thought it would be a good idea to see the market, look at the presentation, the audience, and the like  so they could be ready for success when they visit.

A few of the students looking over a market stand.

Of course, walking around the market, even though we have our own farm, is still cause for purchase of things we don’t make or don’t have at the moment.  So we picked up some nice bread, a bag of lettuce from Coyote Run Farm,  some Italian sausage and shaved ham from Audubon County Farms,  acouple varieties of  goat cheese from Prairie Chevre, a couple of greenhouse tomatoes, a bunch of radishes, some multi-colored popcorn from Emmack Farms, and some Maytag blue cheese.  Think there will be a good dinner tonight?

one year ago…”Up and Coming Materials Engineer?”

April 30, 2009 – Plum Blossoms

We continue to be in a dark, cold weather pattern.  Hard penance to pay for the 80 degree day last week. Low overcast with continual wetness starts to feel oppressive after a while.  I’m worried that the wetness, cool temps and wind will prevent the pollinators from getting out to the fruit trees.

The plums are first out of the gate and in full bloom.

one year ago…”Wind Turbine Foundation Poured”

April 29, 2009 – Let the Outdoor Work Begin!

There are so many things to get done around the farm, that every few years it seems they catch up and overwhelm me so I hire out some jobs. The shingles on the south side of the detached garage where starting to curl up. Since I had a bunch of shingles left over from re-roofing the main house, it wasn’t that expensive to do.

I’ve always liked this little garage – the color and architecture remind me of an old frame forest service structure. The other little tasks were finishing the soffits on the first floor converted porch, taking and sealing the hole of an old toilet in the basement, and unplugging a basement floor drain. Now I feel much better and can keep moving forward on more projects and spring activities.

one year ago…”More Loader Benefits”

April 28, 2009 – Claire with More Opportunities

Claire was selected and awarded a scholarship to attend this year’s Iowa Youth Leadership program!

Students from around the world will attend and go through a two-week program. The following is from the organization:

The Iowa Youth Leadership International (IYLI) prepares international students to assume active leadership roles in their community and global society. Through IYLI, students embark upon a lifetime of meaningful participation in their local and global communities. Signature academic programs based on the framework of history, culture, geography, environment, economic, education, music, sports, and community provide training and exposure to prepare well-informed leaders and citizens. IYLI emphasizes the connections between local and global conditions, challenges and opportunities.

Some of the activities include a day at the Capital talking with representatives, time in US Senator’s Iowa offices, law firms, banks, outings to natural resource areas, health institutions, utilities, and many more places to get a sense of important community institutions and opportunities.

one year ago…”Hot Chicks and Cold Nights”

April 27, 2009 – Energy Group

I was invited to be part of an amorphous group looking to increase efficiency of small and medium-sized farm energy use and use of renewable energy. The participants included a wide range of parties, including I-Renew, Iowa Environmental Council, Farm Bureau, Alliant Energy, Iowa State Extension and Engineering, Rural Electric Co-ops, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and Practical Farmers of Iowa, among others.

We met at a research area owned and designed by Grinnell College. I love this photo that shows and environmentally and aesthetically conceived building, wind generator, and artisitic monolith in the adjacent prairie.

I hope that the group is able to come up with actionable plans that meet everyone’s needs and can usher in new ideas in farm energy use and creation.

one year ago…”A Constant Battle”

April 26, 2009 – Gully Washers

Today we had downpour after downpour as a line of thunderstorms “trained” over our place.  During the band concert in the high school, water dripped through the lights of the auditorium and the rain did not stop. Water was waist deep on some streets in Marshalltown.  Most of the county received 6 inches of rain.

The debris and runoff from the adjacent field collapsed the fence around the willow nursery in the back pasture.

A wider view of the temporary river where water generally does not flow.  It was a depressing sight, to drive around and see all the topsoil being washed away in nearly every bare field.

one year ago…”Stocking Up on Fuel”

April 15, 2009 – Barn Windows and Raccoons

There were three windows that needed to be replaced in the barn and by far the most challenging one was the highest one on the south side of the barn.

In this photo the window is replaced as you can still see the sticker on the top window (no, I’m not going back up to take it off).  There is a rickety old ladder inside the barn that leads up to the window.  I was climbing up it and had Martin as a witness to watch and serve as a witness and run for help in case something went terribly wrong.

I was nearly to the top of the ladder when simultaneously, as I’m grabbing for for the last rung Martin yells out – “Dad a raccoon!” and I see a raccoon scurrying a couple of feet away from my hand. The raccoon scuttled a short distance away and I pulled up the window with a rope and got it installed.  I wish I had the agility of the raccoon at great heights.

one year ago…”Utility Boy-to-Be?”

April 14, 2009 – Shed Deconstruction Continues

We continue to pick away at the shed deconstruction. All the asphalt shingles have been hauled to the dump and unfortunately, most of the lumber is too far gone to save.

So it gets nails pulled as well as we can and hauled to the burn pile.  After this piece is done, we can collapse the next section and then think about putting up the new end wall.

one year ago…”Christmas Tree Pruning”

April 13, 2009 – New Blackberries

When I read about the first variety of fall-bearing blackberries, PrimeJim, I knew those would go in the 70 foot row I had prepared last year.  This is the first type of blackberry that can be mowed down every fall instead of pruning 2nd year canes out of the patch.

So, I did the old trick of laying down some cardboard and old straw and punched holes it to plant the berries – with the mulch conserving moisture and keeping weeds down.

one year ago…”xxx”

April 12, 2009 – Shed “Implosion” Part 1.

I’m usually the last guy to tear down old buildings – I’ve received some serious guff for saving some pretty decrepit buildings, but this one was too far gone.  I’m saving the “good half” which has white roofing and tearing down the rest and can use the cement foundation for some other purpose, like a lean-to or the like.

Here’s what the shed looked like after I ripped of all the board and batten siding from the part I planned on imploding first.  I saved the boards, which would look nice in someone’s rec room.

The first pull was to remove the center post, via a tractor and long chain.

Martin was instructed to try to get a photo while the building was collapsing – here’s what he got as I was pulling out the corner post.

In a quirk of good luck, the collapse went just as planned – no more, no less.

The collapsed roof.  Now the fun part starts.  I won’t burn the asphalt shingles, so will need to tear those off and send them to the landfill before deciding whether to disassemble or just burn the remaining wood.

one year ago…”Local Food Challenge”

April 11, 2009 – Serious Garden Progress

Today was a serious garden day.  I bit the bullet and got the tiller attached to the lawn tractor.  Since it seemed to be running so well, I surprised myself and let Claire drive it.

I don’t suppose there are too many 16-year old girls who are dying to till a garden, so I did not waste the opportunity to relinquish the seat.  Much of our garden is mulched and not tilled, but part of it is tilled.

Even Martin and Nana got into helping by cutting the seed potatoes to dry before planting.

Again, knives and 7-year old boys have their place in cutting potatoes with Nana, but not many other places!

Today we got in some early spring crops -potatoes, onions, lettuce, radish, spinach, and more that escape my mind at the moment.

one year ago…”Photo Friday – Fragile

April 6, 2009 – Top Shelf, Middle Shelf, and Bottom Shelf!

Here’s what about 4 truckloads of steel shelving looks like!  The organic and natural food co-op and Ames moved to a bigger store and donated the old shelves to the not-yet-built packing shed/multi-purpose building for ag program at school.  Until the building is constructed, the shelves will live in our shed.

In addition to the shelves, a stainless steel sink and other goodies came along with it.

one year ago…”Tree Gone”

April 5, 2009 – April Snowstorm

When we left Duluth just after noon, it was sunny and mild.  We called home to check on the weather and found out that the Blizzard Warning had been downgraded to a Winter storm warning, but I-35 had been closed in central Iowa.  Parts of the state were getting 5 inches of snow per hour.  We stopped at my brother’s in the Twin Cities to check the road conditions and decided to keep going since things had improved.  We did follow the storm out of the state and by the time we arrived the roads were clear and just wet.

Emma took this ironic photo during the day.

one year ago…”Cleanin’ Up”

April 1, 2009 – Wind Turbine Output Update

On March 18, our wind generator guy stopped by to upgrade the software in the turbine to allow it to spin at higher RPMs before shutting down in self-defense. It now can go in a wind 10-15 mph more than the previous cut-off and this month, it made a big difference. Until this month, the most the turbine produced was about 360 kwH. In March, only having the update for 12 days, it made 482 kwH.

So according to our meters – the power company says we used 668 kwH off the grid, but we returned 178 kwH, so we will be billed for 490 kwH, much less than our pre-turbine billing use of 900-1400. Someday when I have more time, I’ll put out all the numbers month-by-month.

one year ago…”Coppicing Willows”

March 31, 2009 – Planting Willows

It’s time to cut back the willows in the willow nursery.

Here’s a curly willow before pruning.

Here’s what it looks like after it’s pruned or “coppiced.”

I use the prunings to start more willows.  I put 88 in the ground. They seem to grow by just sticking them into the ground – we experimented last year just sticking them in a low spot and they survived without weeding, or even mowing.  So, I will move the patch down the lowland.  If nothing else, the goats will love the browse.

one year ago…”Claire at Mock Trial”

March 21, 2009 – Starting Hoophouse

Today we started putting up a 10×21 hoophouse. I’m primarily following a design from the West Side Gardener.

The frames are made of 3/4 inch pvc pipes – light enough for a 7-year-old to shlep down to the building site.

Since the pvc pipe isn’t strong enough to pound into the soil as in the original instruction, I used a piece of metal conduit to make a “pilot hole” to guide the pvc pipe in.

After the pilot hole, in goes the pvc stakes.

Two ten-foot pieces connected with a 4-way connector make the ribs of the hoophouse.

All the hoops in place.

The ridge supports between the hoops in place.  Later, we’ll affix the plastic to the frame, and make the door.

one year ago…”Paying Attention to the Horse”

March 18, 2009 – Skystream Upgrade

Today we got our complimentary upgrade to our skystream turbine.  Among other things, this will change the approximate high shut-off speed from around 30 mph to around 50 mph.  I think this may increase our production 25-50%.  This month alone for example, we’ve had 3 days it was off.  Our record production for a day is 32, so we would have made at least 96 more and there is so much more power in the high wind speeds, that I think it would have been closer to 150 more, which is about 50% of the average monthly production.

Here the hatch of the turbine is open in a Frankenstein-type mode, and wires connected to install new software to allow the upgrade – this is just a s software upgrade, nothing mechanical.  We also have a new remote communications module installed that shows us real-time stats from the turbine.

one year ago…”We Knew This Day Would Come”

March 17, 2009 – Washer Broke

A few days ago, our relatively  new front-load washer started making bad noises on the high spin cycle.  I called the appliance store and over the phone they said it sounded like a bad tub bearing.  They also said that the tub and bearing where integral to each other and that the tub would also need to be replaced.  Needless to say, I was not pleased at the prospect of throwing $400.00 into a two-year old washer.  Long story short, after a long time on the phone complaining, they finally agreed to pay for the bearing and tub.

However, when the tub got in the shop, they discovered it was a chapstick container that got caught between the drum and tub.  Curiously, now no one in the house uses or has used the particular brand of chapstick that was found in the washer!

Until the washer was fixed, Claire got to do one load of laundry in the tub.

one year ago…”First Bouquet of the Season”

March 16, 2009 – New Electric Fence

Although it’s a bit hard to see in this photo, I finally got the electric fence across the cement pad outside the barn.

This will give us much more flexibility to segregate animals as needed.  Because the fence was on cement, I needed to make the fence have alternate hot and ground wires so animals can complete the circuit (the cement acts as an insulator and they don’t create the circuit to ground through the cement.

one year ago…”Happy St. Urho’s Day!”

March 15, 2009 – Prunings

Now that the pruning has been completed, it is time to haul away all the leftovers. Rather than many trips with the two-wheel cart, I thought I’d fire up the old garden tractor and use the small hay wagon.

Of course, by the time the battery gets charged, then the drive belt slips off the tractor and takes lots of knuckle scraping and colorful language to get it back on, everything worked fine!

one year ago…”Maple Sugaring”

March 13, 2009 – Getting Bees Ready for Spring

Another sign of spring is removing the winter protection from the bees.

Here the black cardboard box that slides over the hive is removed.  The black helps warm up the hive whenever the winter sun comes out.  It is rather amazing to think of the bees surviving through the -20 lows and long cold days in the hive.

Now that the temps are in the 60’s and 70’s some days, but the flowers are not yet out, the bees are out and about and here they get a dose of sugar water to tide them over and some mite protection.

Finally, a check to see if the queen is still alive and all we have to do now is wait for the spring pollen and flowers to arrive.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #109″

March 11, 2009 – More Pruning

I discovered last weekend that fruit tree pruning is a great complimentary activity to boiling maple sap.  I can prune a tree for 15-20 minutes, take a needed break by wandering over to the stove and throwing another chunk of wood in the fire, and so it goes.  Today it was frightfully cold, down to the single digits – I’m hoping this is the last stretch of lows in the single digits for the season.

What remains on these fruit trees is to pick up the branches and haul them off to be burned.  I must admit, it gives me great satisfaction to see a well-pruned tree.  Even when passing by another farmstead, seeing a pruned tree engenders a feeling of care and competence on the part of the owner.  Likewise, when I see a fruit tree is disrepair, reaching towards the sky in a tangled mess, it makes me sad that the tree does not have a caretaker.

one year ago…”Thermal Imaging”

March 10, 2009 – Maple Syrup at Last!

OK, the results are in and the maple syrup gets five stars! It is amazingly good, and even has a bit of a buttery taste.

Here Martin shows off the pint of syrup (minus what was poured one morning’s worth of buckwheat pancakes) that boiled down from the first five gallons of sap! Getting your own sweets in northern climates is a bit of a challenge, but we can now add maple syrup to honey. We’re going to keep on keeping on, but now the weather has turned frightfully cold, so the sap will not run until it warms up again.

one year ago…”Chicken Feed”

March 9, 2009 – Boiling Sap

Well, today I started to boil the sap down.  After 8 hours of heating, five gallons of sap evaporated down to about a gallon and a half before I stopped for the day and put the sap in the fridge to wait for another day.

I’m not sure if it was the weather or the stove that prevented a boil – it was a foggy, very windy, cold day and the pan never did boil, although you could see the vapor escaping all day.

one year ago…”12 Feet!”

March 8, 2009 – Sunday Afternoon Class

The last eight Sunday afternoons Linda’s been part of a team that is teaching a class for aspiring new farmers.  It is designed as a quick start/introduction as opposed to a two-year degree program.

After completing this class, the graduates will be able to rent a portion of the college farm to start their farming enterprise.

The class attracted a wide range of people, including Anglo, Hispanic, Sudanese, and Meskwaki members.  The class has already started planning some cooperative marketing and looks forward to the planting season to put into practice some things they’ve learned.

one year ago…”Faith”

March 6, 2009 – Maple Sugaring Part 1

Today was a wonderful day – in the 60’s sunny and a father-son task that was delightful to both of us! We borrowed some equipment from morning sun farm, so we were ready to go.  Martin had just read about sugaring in one of the Little House on the Prairie books he’s ready, so he was pumped!

Since this is the thrifty way, we’re using washed out milk jugs to collect the sap.  Here I’m drilling a hole that will slip over the tap.

I’m putting a small cut at about 10 o’clock.  That notch will help the jug slide over the notch in the tap.

Martin is drilling the hole about 2 inches deep into the tree.

Insert the tap.  Notice the round shape of the tap and the ridge on the top of the tap.  That ridge is what the extra cut at 10:00 in the jug was made to accommodate.

The spile pounder inserts in the tap and get pounded until the ridge on the top of the tap has enough distance between the end of the tap and the tree to slip the milk jug behind.

Martin puts the jug on matching the ridge on the jug with the notch cut in the jug at 10:00.

The jug is twisted to upright once the back plastic of the jug is between the tree and back of the notch.  I also put a bit of the sticky saran wrap on the top since I didn’t have the lid to keep rain and other things out. Now we wait!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #108″

March 3, 2009 – Getting Ready to Fence Cement Yard

With some mixed species barn, we’ve been having to work harder than we need to to keep the horse away from the lambs.  So, I’m going to put up an electric fence across the cement pad adjacent to the barn, so everyone can easily get outside.  Once the pastures firm up it will be easier to manage, but in the mud season, it will be nice to have a solid place for everyone to be outside.

I’m going to drill holes in the cement, insert some fiberglass poles, and run electric rope.  Since the animals are on a cement yard, I’ve been told I’ll need to run an alternating hot/cold rope fence since the cement prevents a good ground connection – so the animals won’t get shocked until they touch two wires.

one year ago…”Back to Reality”

March 1, 2009 – Old Wood Cookstove

I’ve been looking half-heartedly for a while for an outdoor wood cookstove and finally snagged one off Craigslist.

This picture shows it with the top off  (there are two cookplates) and the four foot chimney I added.  The urgency to get it now revolves around wanting to try to make a small batch of maple syrup from the trees on our farm.  I think it would be fun to go through the process to get some real maple syrup and it’s something all the kids could help with.

one year ago…”Costa Rican Beaches/Pacific Forests”

February 28, 2009 – Sheep Bling

Today the lambs got their bling – new earrings.  Only one stud for both boys and girls.  Ear tagging is a new process for us and it seemed to go well.

Here’s Linda with number 16.

And me with number 17. I went into the local farm store (Theisens) earlier in the week to get the tags and thought they were a bit pricey at $28.00 for 20 sheep/goat tags along with $26 for the applicator tool.  I didn’t get them and checked our favorite fencing supply store, Premiere Fencing and was able to get 40 tags for $8 and the applicator tool for $9.00.  So, what I would have paid $82 at Theisen’s, I got for $17 at Premiere.

one year ago…”Mango Farm”

February 27, 2009 – What’s Your Type?

What’s your type? Soil type, that is.  I stumbled upon a great web site by the NRCS that allows you to zoom into a piece of planet earth.

Here’s our farm from the air, via the NRCS web site.  Once you navigate to an address, gps coordinate, or legal description, you draw on the map the area you want soil mapped and the following pops up.

This photo shows the different soil types superimposed on the aerial photo.  To the left is a link to the description of the soil types from the county soil survey.  The detailed soil explanation lists the soil types, the soil characteristics, the suitability of the soil for different crops, building foundations and much more!  There are even little wands you can use to measure segments of land, determine area or rectangles or hand-drawn polygons – useful for estimated acres of a part of a farm.

one year ago…”Mango Farm”

February 23, 2009 – Winter Willow Nursery

I’m a little bit pumped about our willow nursery.  It’s taken off and I am even more excited to try expanding the willows as browse for the goats and sheep.

As soon as the ground unfreezes, we’ll cut these down and plant many more in the back pasture.  The test plantings we did last year, just into deep pasture grasses survived year one, and the willows offer great food for the animals, so we’ll try doing more this spring.

one year ago…”InBIO Park”

February 22, 2009 – Claire to Girls State

Claire was selected for another honor this week – “Girls State” sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary.  The best description I’ve got is the following from the acceptance letter.

Congratulations on being selected to attend Iowa Girls State. You are joining an outstanding group of young women from across the State of Iowa dating back to 1946. During this week you will experience government coming alive through a hands-on process. It will be a special week in which you will make many new friends while learning that you can do things you never thought you could do!

If the week deals with government and meeting new people, Claire will have a great time. The event will be held in Ames in June.
one year ago…”Costa Rican Organic Farm Tour”

February 21, 2009 – Late February Snowbanks

Although most of the “flatland” snow has melted, the county is still working on the roadside drifts.  We’re back in the deep freeze with lows in the single digits and highs struggling to reach 20.

They came by with, using the correct terminology here, a Big Scoopy Machine and pushed the big drifts all the way off the road and into the ditch.  So, now when it snows and drifts, the drifts will have a few more feet to grow before they impede the roadway.

one year ago…”Arrival in Costa Rica”

February 20, 2009 – Hangin’ with the Ewes

All the ewes and lambs are together now that moms and babies know who each other are.  Everybody got their tetanus shots and one boy was banded – the two others will have to wait a few more days as they are not quite old enough yet.

I can’t wait for it to green up and get these folks out on the pasture!  The lambs are frolicking and jumping like good little lambs do!

one year ago…”Attic Progress”

February 17, 2009 – Book Review in Wapsipinicon Almanac

The 15th edition of the Wapsipinicon Almanac is now out and this issue features a book review by yours truly.

I reviewed the book The Emerald Horizon: The History of Nature in Iowa (Bur Oak Book) by Cornelia Mutel.  I’ve always wanted to be a contributor to this funky publication. The journal is still made on an old-fashioned linotype machine with editorial content somewhere between the New Yorker and Old Farmer’s Almanac.  Thanks to a reader from Texas for this link to Eldon Meeks running the Linotype at the Wapsipinicon Almanac on youtube.

one year ago…”This is Getting Redundant”

February 16, 2009 – Tank’s a Mommy

Tank finally had her lambs. She had triplets – each of them seems very vigourous. The previous triplet birth last week, we eventually lost the runt of the batch, but we’re hopeful about these three.

These seem to have perhaps a Romanoff or other Daddy ram as they have more curly fur than their barnmates. After a few more days alone, we’ll finally get all the ewes and lambs together in one spot.

one year ago…”Thinking Ahead to Spring”

February 13, 2009 – Katahdin Birth

We’ve never been able to witness the birth on any mammals on our farm until this Katahdin.  I must  admit it seemed much easier and quicker than the three off-farm births I witnessed (Claire, Emma, and Martin).

The head and legs first popped out and hung around for probably a couple of minutes before the whole body plopped out.

Mommy did a good job of  stimulating the lamb and cleaning it up by thorough lickings.  The ewe made the most tender low muttering sounds to the lamb after birth – reminiscent of a soft lullaby.

The lamb wanted to get up and move in the worst way – after about five minutes of false attempts and struggling, it got up on its legs for the first time.  He has a strong instinct to nurse, again, taking about five minutes to find the teat, first sucking on the back legs and many other false starts before finding the food source.

Then, the process was repeated when another lamb came out – only the next one came out tail first.  It was a bit funny to see the body half out of the ewe with the of the lamb wagging away.

one year ago…”Looking for a Wife? (I’m not)”

February 8, 2008 – Bonus Poo!

What better to do on a 50 degree day than shovel out the barn.  Today’s photos are all courtesy of Martin!

The barn floor was getting kind of ripe.  Usually, it means adding another layer, but the warm day and melting snow afforded another option – removal!

Since some of the snow was gone, but still not the path to the main compost pile, I made a new pile close to the barn, as to not rip up too much soft ground.

Martin captured many salient features in this shot, the tractor operator, the wind turbine, and on the left-hand side, the newly piled “pile.”  All in all, doing it today makes the spring cleanout that much easier.

one year ago…”Smartest Cities in America”

February 7, 2009 – New Hay Feeder

Another accoutrement that we now need is a hay feeder.  Now that the weather has warmed to the upper 40’s, it’s possible to get outside and do stuff.

I copied this design from a photo in a sheep raising book, except I added the hardware cloth bottom and wheels, and made it a bit taller than designed, hoping goats wouldn’t jump on top of it.  I much prefer rolling heavy items than lifting them.  I made the framing out of AC2 lumber, but used cedar for the slats on the bottom and top, not wanting the hay to have that much contact with the chemically treated boards.

We used a design feature suggested by Martin.  I was trying to figure out a quick and dirty way to keep the hinged lid open when loading hay and Martin suggested a small block that’s attached with a wire that goes in the hinge to keep it open.

one year ago…”Thingamajig #106″

February 6, 2009 – 2002 Prizm Hood Latch Failure

Linda had a scary drive to work this morning. The hood opened at about 55 mph and folded back onto the front windshield, cracking the windshield. She was able to safely get the car safely stopped without further incident.

The hood is crinkled, the windshield cracked, hood hinges trashed and the front quarter panels where the hood attaches are bent. I checked the NHTSA web site and filed a consumer safety complaint. Not so surprisingly, out of 11 complaints filed against this make/model/year, almost 30% are for this situation (and the last three are all hood latch failures at highway speed). If you have a 2002 Prizm, check the latches! And if it happened to you, visit the NHTSA web site.  I’m sure not everyone knows about this site, and the more problems that are reported, the more likely an investigation to determine the cause can get started.

I went into the local Chevy Dealer and got only a smart-alecky response from the service manager who’s response was “Do you know how many Prizms were made?”  The obvious answer is “Obviously not very many since Chevy stopped making them half-way through the 2002 model year.”

one year ago…”More Snow”

February 5, 2008 – First Lambs Arrive!

The first lambs arrived today! Linda found them probably about a half-hour after they were born – what looks like triplet ewe-lambs!

Two of them are good-sized, but one is small.

“Baby,” the smallest one, took a turn downhill about an hour after birth.  She looked dead. We brought her into the house, put her on a heating pad, tubed her (put a tube down her throat to get some milk in her to get her kick-started).

A short while later, she showed signs of wanting to live again, and once she was strong enough to stand up, she’s better off with Mom, to get the important colostrum, so she headed back out to the barn. Thank goodness the cold weather broke and the night is only supposed to get down into the 20’s and in the 40’s most of the next 5 days.

one year ago…”Ordering Seeds”

February 1, 2009 – Katahdin Sheep at High Hopes!

We’ve had our eyes on Katahdin sheep for some time.  We found out about a fire sale on bred Katahdin ewes just a few days ago and went out and got some after consulting with people who know more about sheep than we do.  These four ladies are bred and should lamb in a couple of weeks or less.  We’ve got room in the barn, have enough hay, and were able to get the ladies for less than the price of two feeder lambs.

We hope we’ll like these because they birth easily, have hair instead of wool, which means they don’t need to be sheared, their tails commonly aren’t docked, and they are a meat breed and do well on pasture (some studies also indicate they are more resistant to parasites as well).  Stay tuned as the ewes give birth in the upcoming days!

one year ago…”Musings from Tomorrow”

January 31, 2009 – I’m Melting

After a long, cold stretch, it got over freezing today for the first time in a while.  I use the ashes from the corn stove on the driveway and the sun on the black ashes does a good job of melting through the ice and snow.

Although it isn’t all clear yet, parts of the driveway are reappearing.  I’d like to have it all cleared of ice, so the tractor tires have good grip to move the next round of snow that comes our way.  Through the end of January, we’re already a foot of snow above normal for the year.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #105″

January 30, 2009 – Repurposed Solar Landscpae Lights

Last fall I bought some of those cheesy solar landscape lights on super end-of-season closeout (you know the ones you see in some yards that never quite stay up straight – if you have some, I’m not talking about yours!)

I just mounted the small solar panel and the lights over the doors, instead of in the ground as designed.  Now, the girls will have at least a little light to guide them to the coop at night.

one year ago…”Garage Keeper”

January 28, 2009 – A Peek Behind the Curtain

I’ve been behind this week because my new PC arrived on Monday.  The old one was 9 years old, had a big upgrade about 3-4 years ago and was giving some signs of failure – so rather than waiting for a failure, I snapped up one of the post-holiday deals.  It’s a pain in the brain to load and reload all the software, get all the updates, transfer the old files over and do a bit of deleting and reorganizing along the way.

So here’s the ground central of the high hopes blog.  The PC ends up being powered by wind energy about 1/3 of the time!

one year ago…”A Crime in Some Neighborhoods”

January 26, 2009 – Apple Pie

Everyone seems to have one thing they are exceptional at cooking, at our house, it is Linda’s pies.  When we first moved here over a decade ago, Linda entered some pies in a local pie contest and won in the fruit pie and cream pie.  It was hilarious as we could see and hear all the local white-haired ladies asking “who’s Linda?’

So we are the beneficiaries of her talent.  This is an apple pie with the apple pie filling we canned last fall.  The filling gets two thumbs up!

one year ago…”Playing in the Snow”

January 25, 2009 – Snowbanks are Back

I was hoping that the odds were low of having two similar winters in a row and that the towering mounds of snow along our road would not reappear this year.

Well, I’m wrong.  This week the plows finally got here and widened to road to mostly the whole width, but some places are about a lane and a half wide.  Beats the single lane we had.  One plow spent 45 minutes just on the 1/3 mile between our place and the blacktop.

one year ago…”Big Fluffy Flakes”

January 23, 2009 – Laying Hen Update

The layers we ordered in early December were finally given free reign of the coop this week.

They are growing up nicely and all of them survived the brooding in temperatures down to -25.

Getting in and out of the coop has been a challenge, with the continual drifting, water dripping off the roof and filling waterers.  So, it was time to get the axe and shovel out and free the doors of snow and ice.

one year ago…”It’s Cold, That Leaves Only Accounting”

January 21, 2009 – Emma at State Honor Band

Emma was selected to participate in an honor band day at Simpson College yesterday.

The group practiced all day and played a concert in the evening.  The first time the band played together, Emma thought, “Wow, this sounds really good.”  And she was right – take the top players from around the state and throw them together and it indeed does sound good and it gives the kids a chance to meet and hear great middle school players from around the state.

As long as we are on kids for the day, Martin won the character of the month honor from his class of the “Caring” pillar.  Good job Martin!

one year ago…”Snowbanks”

January 20, 2009 – Local Foods Move to Mainstream

For many years, many small farmers have championed the benefits of local food production based on claims of supporting the local economy, freshness, and quality. Recent books by Michael Pollan and others have given the concept a wider audience. Now, I believe the biggest producers have noticed and will soon be marketing their products as such. Following are excerpts from a speech that Bryan Silbermann, President of the Produce Marketing Association gave at his “State of the Industry” address.

After years of becoming more corporate-like and delivering fresh produce to consumers cheaply and abundantly, the produce industry is heading in the opposite direction – meeting its customers face to face. People are moving back to basics, away from industrial agriculture and back to smaller stores and local foods and trying to find the face behind their fresh produce.

“Cheap and plentiful eventually has a price,” he said, noting that consumers are more fearful of their food – and producers haven’t benefited all that much either. Producers now get about 17 cents of the consumer dollar, down from 41 cents in 1940.

At the same time, consumers are realizing they want the freshness and taste of local foods, the open space farms provide and the other benefits local foods contribute to the community – including a greater sense of security. “It’s become a social movement as people are pushing back against industrial agriculture and the over-reliance on excessively processed foods. The next big thing is not more microwavable pizza.” Silbermann said that a “perfect storm” has engulfed the produce industry, combining elements from rising input prices, a shortage of labor, concerns about food safety and a growing interest in local, sustainable food systems.

I think that Mr. Silbermann is a very astute man, and his talk reveals just the extent and possibilities of a new type of food system based on local production – coming from the leader of an industrial food organization, it is particularly informing and encouraging to those in the trenches.

one year ago…”When It’s Wintertime”

January 17, 2009 – This is the Nice Day?

After a week in the deep freeze, we were all looking forward to Saturday when the temperature was forecast to approach freezing! This week in some parts of the state, the temperatures reached -40, which is cold for this neck of the woods.

But the 32 degree temperatures were tempered a bit by the wind blowing up to 50 mph, taking all of the joy out of the day (other than being thankful it wasn’t the 50 mph wind with -20).

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #103″

January 16, 2009 – Photo Friday “Meditation”

This is a bit strange that this week’s Photo Friday theme is “meditation” and exactly a year ago, that was the topic of the blog on this day. So, I guess we’ll repeat the entry, just because!  So, here is last year’s entry repeated:

After Martin got his jammies on, he shouted down the stairs to us, “Can I meditate?”

We gave him the ok to go ahead and meditate, a bit puzzled. We wondered what a 6-year-old meant by “meditate.” We waited a while so he could do his thing alone. Finally, we couldn’t stand the mystery of what he meant by meditate (and he was quiet), so we sent Emma up to investigate. Here’s what she found!

Namaste Martin.

one year ago…”Can I Meditate?”

January 15, 2009 – New Record Low at High Hopes

The sunrise this morning brought -24.  Martin was excited to record the overnight low with his new high/low weather station.

Things are supposed to warm up over the next few days. (I’m not sure how it could get much colder!) No school again today.  As a bonus, the winds are down from the 30 mph we’ve had the last few days, so we can finally shovel/move snow and have it stay in place.

one year ago…”Sandra Steingraber Lecture”

January 14, 2009 – Snow. Wind. Cold. Repeat.

The weather reminds me of the instructions on a bottle of shampoo only instead of: Lather. Rinse. Repeat, there’s an added verse: Snow. Cold. Wind. Repeat.

Here’s a picture taken out of the kitchen window that shows the neighbor liberating the road with his industrial snow blower, blowing snow as high as the power lines. A pickup and plow were unable to punch through and the plow was tardy in arriving.

The days are starting to melt together. It seems like the only time I’m outside is on the tractor clearing snow. Schedules are all messed up – school delays, all out cancellations, early outs, I’m not sure what happened what day – it’s just an endless week of uncertainty.

Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night since we moved to the farm 13 years ago. It will be a test for our fruit trees that are supposed to be hardy to -20. We won’t find out until spring how they fared.

one year ago…”Public Hearing on Coal Plant”

January 12, 2009 – PFI Conference Wrap-Up Part 2/Nellie’s Gone

We had a juxtaposition of events that causes us to rethink how we do some things around the farm. Before Christmas, Nellie,  our two-year old Nubian became thin and we had her stool tested for parasites and found she was indeed in need of treatment, so we did that and she was getting her weight back on.

In this picture from just before Christmas she is furthest to the left. The vet gave us some wormer and she seemed to be on the upswing, and put weight back on.  Last Wednesday when I was in the barn, I heard a goat bawling like one had their head stuck – I looked and everyone looked fine, but it was Nellie bawling.  I thought she may be missing the goat we recently removed from the herd. An hour and a half later Emma went to do chores and Nellie was down.  We called the vet and he was out in an hour and her body temp was 3-4 degrees below normal, he administered the usual antidotes, and asked if we had a heated building to keep her in.  We tried bringing in some heat lamps, but it was not going to keep her warm enough, so she went to the vets.

To make a long story short, while we were attending the PFI conference, we were getting updates on Nellie, none of them good.  The vet thought she ended up with some neurological damage, and cautioned us that there was a remote chance she could be suffering from rabies.  By Saturday morning it was clear she was not going to come out of it and she was put down.

All this was against the backdrop of a 3 hour session I attended by holistic veterinarian Will Winter who opened our eyes to many things we have been somewhat (opposite of proactive) about.  He made a very string case linking pasture health, mineral content of soil, and pasture brix level to herd health, particularly parasite control.  We just started using the pasture and creating separate paddocks within the last couple of years and have done some overseeding to increase plant diversity and medicinal herbs, but we have not yet performed a soil sample to see what kinds of mineral deficiencies we may have in our soil, and therefore in our pasture plants, therefore in our animals, and ultimately in us. So this spring brings a renewed emphasis on pasture improvement.

But back to the unpleasantries. So this morning, I  arrived at the vet clinic at 8:00 to deliver the goat head to the Iowa State Vet School for rabies testing.  I must admit it was unsettling to pick up a sealed foam cooler that contains the head of your goat to get a test that could lead to a series of… oh well, let’s just stop there and wait for the results.

one year ago…”Trip Redux – Six-Year-Old Style”

January 11, 2009 – PFI Conference Wrap-Up Part 1

OK, the Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference has now come and gone. It’s time for some reflections on the meeting.  First, it was a treat to meet a very successful sustainable farmer, Joel Huesby, of Thundering Hooves near Walla Walla, WA.  Linda was set to introduce him, so she fetched him from the airport and was able to spend some time with him.  Perhaps the most fun was when we took him out for dinner along with holistic vet Will Winter after the conference ended.

Some things that Joel has done include having the only, or one of the only, on-farm USDA inspected “mobile abattoir” or slaughterhouses on wheels. The carcasses are then transported to the cut-up facility that Thundering Hooves also owns.  Because slaughtering techniques and treatment of the animals before slaughter and during processing are very important to meat quality, (and respectful to the animals) Joel’s keen eye for detail led him down this path.  Only recently have people like Temple Grandin brought to light humane slaughtering procedures.  Just think how much less stress those animals have in them as opposed to those getting loaded in a truck, moved down an interstate and held in holding pens at a slaughterhouse.

I’ll give you a piece of Joel’s story, in his words, copied from Thundering Hooves web site:

In the summer of 1994, I had an epiphany, a life-changing realization, and I haven’t been the same person since. I remember the day well. I was out burning a field of wheat stubble, trying to quickly rid myself of what I thought at the time was the bothersome organic matter in my way, so that I could plant alfalfa that fall. Only a couple of weeks earlier I received the yield results from a crop of snap beans. I had grown them under contract for a local cannery and yielded 5 tons per acre. This was a good yield, but the cannery was only paying me $102 per ton based on the tenderometer reading (the cannery’s measure of the quality of the beans based almost solely on the timing of the harvest, which is determined by the cannery!) This came to a little over $500 per acre. Then I started to do the rest of the math per acre. Seed cost $100, fertilizer $60, water $120, weed control $35, equipment $80, land payment… operating loan payment… insurance… interest… taxes… And oh yes, I got to pay myself with what was left over!

I saw problems on my farm that weren’t being addressed. The dirt was blowing away. The soil wasn’t holding moisture. I was barely scratching a living. Worse yet, the canneries and the fuel man and the parts man and the fertilizer man and the aerial spraying man and even the migrant workers were all making a living from my land, but not me.

The way things were going; I had to ask myself, “How long can we keep doing all this?” “Should we get out?” We watched as other long-standing farm families were forced to sell everything and move to town. Were we next?

It had become painfully apparent to me that my choices were to either get a job to support the farm and my family, or to borrow more money and fall further into debt until we could no longer make the payments. Our story was not unlike countless other producer/farmers in the commodity business across the country.

What makes this story — and our farm — unique is what I decided to do about it. Remember the wheat stubble I was burning that day? From that fire, as I watched the land turn to black, rise in a dark smoke, and fade into the sky, so also my dreams of making a living in modern commodity agriculture were set ablaze and blew away. Let’s face it; it had been a failure since the beginning – on all levels -financially, ecologically, socially, and personally. At that time I did not yet know where to turn, nor what to do next. All I knew was what did not work for ME. So it was that from that moment I resolved to do NOTHING the same again.

As the weeks went by, I came to view my farmer brethren across the country as being caught in the same circular living from which I had just divorced myself. We always needed bigger equipment to farm more acres faster, and more and more fertilizers to get bigger yields that made greater supplies that lowered prices which meant we needed bigger equipment and on and on.

I could see no future in this for me. Like a giant whirlpool with no way out, I could literally hear the great sucking sound of our finances being pulled up from our farm if I stayed in the present paradigm.

So, what to do? It sounded intriguing to say, “I will do NOTHING the same again,” but what did that really mean? I began to read more and think more, and slowly it dawned on me why my farm was not supporting my family and I. I had broken the law. I was a criminal. Not in the legal sense, but in a much more vast, universal sense. What do I mean? In a nutshell, here is my confession; I had compacted the soil, fed it artificial food, removed organic matter without putting any back, laid the ground bare, disrupted the soil community of microorganisms by use of tillage, poisoned the soil with chemicals and dumped my commodity on the market and wondered why I got a dump price.

one year ago…”Congrats to Linda”

January 10, 2009 – Wind Turbine Presentation

Today was the 2nd day of the Practical Farmers of Iowa conference. Up today was my presentation entitled “Small Wind on the Farm.” I’ve converted the Powerpoint to a series of images. Keep in mind that the slides where only meant for talking points for the presentation, but the pictures may be interesting and I have some new data on production and savings included.

Since the windiest six months of the year are upon us and we are due for a software upgrade to raise the top cut-out speed, I’m envisioning the savings will be even greater in the coming months.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #102″

January 9, 2009 – Ice Landscape

With the 3-4 ice incidents in December, we’re left with an icy ground.  The ice has melted off the trees, but not the ground.  It is extremely icy around the farm yard.  Walking to the barn or chicken coop requires the “old man shuffle” to remain upright.

Anywhere the rain didn’t melt the snow has created a hard, icy surface that I’m afraid will last a long time.

one year ago…”Ouch”

January 6, 2009 – Upcoming Practical Farmers of Iowa Conference

After many years in Des Moines, one of the largest gatherings of interesting farmers is coming to Marshalltown Jan 9th and 10th, in part due to Linda’s efforts in creating the agriculture program at MCC.  Linda is part of the opening session where she’ll welcome people to the conference and introduce the keynote speaker.  Mark will be part of a farm energy roundtable and talk about the farm’s wind turbine.  I’ll try to post the presentation after the conference.

We greatly look forward to meeting friends from across the state, meeting the King Corn filmmakers, and playing host to hundreds of progressive farmers.  More details can be found at the Practical Farmers of Iowa web site.  Stop on by if you can make it!

one year ago…”Leaving for Home”

January 5, 2009 – More Perplexing Instructions

I bought a new antenna for the TV for the digital cross-over and was quite bemused at the last warning on the installation instructions!

I’m really curious how many drunk and pregnant women find themselves in a situation where they need to install a TV antenna?  I’ve never been both drunk and pregnant, so maybe some of the female readers can help me out on this one.  I know pregnant women often have strange food cravings like jalapeno peppers on ice cream, but tell me, during a night of binge drinking, do pregnant women have an uncanny urge to install TV antennas? More importantly, how do they have the foresight to have an uninstalled antenna at hand?

I’m also baffled by the imperative “Do not throw antenna at spouse.”  I guess it’s ok to throw the antenna at neighbors, children, or people you are shacking up with, but somehow spouses get extra protection from intentional antenna hurling?  Chime in if you can offer up your view on the dangers of  drunk, pregnant antenna flingers.

one year ago…”Rain in the Desert”

January 4, 2009 – Old Machine Shed Demolition Begins

The east half of the old machine shed is beyond repair.  Last year I put a new roof on the left side (just out of view of this picture) and new framing inside where the new end wall will begin.

Here’s one view that shows the shed with some of the siding already removed and the sorry state.

Here’s another view of the demolition so far.  Depending on the weather, this project could drag out a while.  We are saving the wide boards – they are wonderfully weathered and hope to find re-use down the road.  I hope to also salvage some of the 4×4 and roof rafters as well.

one year ago…”Hanging Around Sedona”

January 1, 2009 – Burning Up the New Year

Tonight was one of the most anticipated nights of the year for the kids of high hopes.  The annual deep winter bonfire.

All year the fallen trees from storms, old wood lying around the farm, and leftover wood from construction projects finds its way to the pile in the middle of the pasture.

We usually try to light up the night sky on the longest night of the year (dec 21 or 22), but the weather was terrible that night so we moved it to New Year’s Day instead.  The burn pile this year was topped with a 90 year old spruce that was sparkalicous.

After the fire there’s a nice potluck meal in the house and people mosey back  and forth between the house and fire as the evening progresses.

one year ago…”Paint in a Petrified New Year”

December 28, 2008 – Fire and Ice

In the aftermath of the ice storm, beauty abounds.

These are some of the high bush cranberries – which have been a great hedge plant at the farm.  I love the flowers, the leaves, growth habit and fruit left behind for wildlife, although now the cranberries are not easy to get!

Even encapsulated in ice, the holiday lights still glow.  I guess I shouldn’t complain too much when the don’t work after they take abuse like this.

one year ago…”Claire is Here”

December 21, 2008 – Awful Wind

There was horizontal snow most of the day, even though there weren’t many clouds. I think the snow that was in South Dakota this morning flew by our front yard this afternoon en route to Illinois by evening.

Here’s the view of the sunset across the field towards the west.  The good news is that the weather is forecast to be “much warmer” tomorrow – a high of 7!  Bring on the heat! one year ago…”New (to me) Camera”

December 20, 2008 – Winter Solstice

The wind and snow, mainly the wind forced cancellation of the annual solstice bonfire (that’s two years running).  The forecast whiteout and blizzard warning was enough to dissuade us from hosting the event.

Here are some of the now abandoned ice luminaries in a snow drift, as if they’d not get blown away out in the open.  It’s scary cold out there and not fit for man nor beast.  Looks like this winter is starting to shape up like last year’s never-ending winter.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #100″

December 15, 2008 – Ice/Snow/Sleet

We’ve had a dicey forecast for a while.  We were advertised as the dividing line between up to 3/4 of an inch of ice or 6-10 inches of snow.  I’ll always take the snow when left those to those choices.

We ended up getting a glazing of ice, then a matrix of about 2 inches of ice pellets and sleet, topped off with a little snow.  Although not very deep, it was like shoveling sand or granulated sugar – the ice pellets were very heavy.  Even the tractor, which never usually complains about pushing snow, whined and complained and spun tires with this mess.

one year ago…”Farmstead in December”

December 14, 2008 – Tree All Dressed Up

Even though we tried to pick a narrow tree, this one is still pretty fat once it gets into the house!.

My favorite part of this year’s tree is the tree topper which didn’t fit on the top, so instead is sticking out near the top on the right side.  This placement is somewhat controversial between the people who like the non-traditional placement and those who think it just plain looks dumb.

I bought some of the LED lights on clearance this year for the tree.  I was surprised how bright they are.

one year ago…”Bird Tracks in the Snow”

December 9, 2008 – Oh Little Star

Once again, it’s time to get the holiday lights up.  Although I’m not necessarily out for the best display in the neighborhood, I do like to add a few touches to the farmstead.

This is as Clark Griswoldesque (Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation) as I get.  Using the tractor loader, and a couple of ladders, I can reach fairly high up on the barn. Â  Once again, the star is put into place.

one year ago…”Gift Box Assembly”.

December 8, 2008 – First No School Day of the Season

The first winter storm of the year headed our way last night.  As a result, no school for anyone and I elected to go to work tomorrow instead of today.

The storm started out as rain and turned to snow, but the rain lasted longer than it was forecast, so we ended up with more ice than snow.

The accumulation wasn’t heavy enough to knock power out, but has temporarily shut down the wind turbine until the wind comes out to melt the ice off the blades. But since the wind was at about 40 mph today, it wouldn’t have been spinning because of high winds.  Sun is forecast for the next 4 days.  It will be nice to get the ice melted off the roads and sidewalks.

one year ago…”Break out the Skis”.

December 7, 2008 – Off Season Brooding

We have experienced reduced production in the laying hens, in part because we did not replace our two and three year old hens last summer.  So, to get back on track next spring, we ordered 35 more last week.

You may remember the entry about trying to ready the new brooder.  With the cold weather, we decided to try to keep the chick in the basement for a few weeks, rather than having them out in the cold coop while breeding them.  So far so good – they don’t eat much and don’t smell as long as the “litter box” is changed occasionally.

one year ago…”Early Winter”.

December 5, 2008 – 2009 High Hopes Gift Boxes

Once again, this year we are offering gift boxes for the holidays – great non-cluttering gifts ranging from $7.50 to $25.  They are great for family, teachers, and others on your gift list.  All the products are grown or made at high hopes gardens.  The jams are from fruit from our trees, the soap we make ourselves from local fats and our goat milk, the beeswax candles and honey are from our bees (with some additional wax from other central Iowa beekeepers).  We ship for actual shipping costs with no additional handling charges.

If you’d like to order, leave a comment with your contact info at the bottom of the page (we won’t publish your comment) or send an email to mark(at)highhopesgardens(dot)com (to keep the email from being scanned by spamming robots, I’ve somewhat disguised it, but figured out you can figure out what it’s really supposed to be).

This is the large sampler box with two 4 oz jam samplers, 4 oz honey sampler, goat milk soap, a beeswax pillar candle and two beeswax votive candles offered for $25.

This is the medium sampler box with 4 oz jam sampler, honey, goat milk soap, a beeswax votive candle offered for $15.

This is the three jam sampler box with three kinds of 4 oz jam samplers made with organic fruit from the farm offered for $10.

This is the two jam sampler box with two kinds of 4 oz jam samplers made with organic fruit from the farm offered for $7.50.

his is a small non-food sampler box with a large bar of soap and a beeswax candle offered for $7.50.

one year ago…”Latke Time of Year”.

December 2, 2008 – Bounce

With all the fruit this year, we had no choice but to seek alternative uses for the fruit.

Here are three of the bottles of “bounce.” We tried many combinations of brandy, vodka, and rum with raspberries, blackberries, plums, and cherries.  Soon it will be time to filter and decant it for holiday celebrations.

one year ago…”Make a Snow Day”.

November 24, 2008 – Loading Turkeys

Thanks to Martin, the turkeys look good and are ready to go.  The second day we had the turkeys, Martin sheepishly asked us if he could take care of the turkeys.  We anointed him primary turkey feeder and waterer.  About a week or so into the turkey care, we went to bed one night, but Martin had snuck a note on our pillow thanking us for letting him take care of the turkeys.  Evidently, it was important for him to have a significant chore, and so he did.

The turkeys will be fresh for Thanksgiving, heading to the locker tomorrow.

one year ago…”Change of Season”.

November 19, 2008 – Tractor Repair

I called the John Deere dealer to see if they could tell me what was wrong with the tractor (the starter would keep cranking even when the key was out) and they said it sounded like a bad solenoid.

I’m not much of a motorhead, and only had a vague idea of what a solenoid did or where it was even located on the tractor engine, but I figured if I went in to buy the new solenoid, I would see what it looks like and then could find it on the engine.  I did and found the solenoid on the right side of the tractor and only had to remove one panel – the solenoid is the thing attached with the red cable. There is much skepticism in the family that I can make the repair myself without damaging the tractor.  My first step was to take a picture of the existing solenoid so I could see where the wiring goes on the new installation.  It was too cold today to do the work.

one year ago…”The Turkeys”.

November 17, 2008 – Can Anything Else Break Today?

I’ve had these kinds of days before. The day usually starts out on good footing. Today, for example. I was able to get the to get the town job work and other minor things done in the morning and started on the day’s farm work. After about an hour of steady getting things put away for the winter, I was thinking I’m really not getting that much done. That was my first mistake.

An energy pulse from the universe said, “He thinks he’s not getting anything done, we’ll show him what that really means!”

#1 Failure: Yesterday we tested out the chick brooder we bought at the auction, and to my surprise, it worked wonderfully – even the small red bulb under the brooder worked – the thermostat worked and was even linked to an exterior white bulb that lit up when the heating element was on and went off when the heating element cycled off – pure luxury. Since we didn’t get new laying hens, ours are 2-3 years old and really slowing down, so we ordered some laying hen chicks (pullets) set to arrive tomorrow. So I moved the brooder to the brooding building, set up a cardboard shelter around it to keep drafts out and even made a partial roof.

Then the brooder never warmed up. Eventually I turned it over to see if I could see what was wrong – and either due to moving it or energizing the heating element caused it to break. Fortunately our neighborhood electrician was parked nearby in an empty grain truck, waiting for a load from the combine in the adjacent field. I asked him if there was a special way to mend a semi-coiled heating element.

He told me where to go at his place to get the tools and connectors to fix it while he got loaded and dumped his truck in town. I retrieved the tools, but the wire was just too old and brittle and kept breaking whenever we tried working with it. So, that meant dragging it out and trying scrounge up working heat lamps, bulbs and necessary extension cords and a different enclosure.

#2 Failure:  A couple of weeks ago I needed to put a new catalytic converter in on of the cars after the check engine light went on.  The light went away, but now it’s back.  I’m afraid it might have been the sensor and not the converter that was bad.

#3 Failure: The blower fan on the corn stove gave up the ghost.  Needs a new one and will need some new wiring as well.  It’s something I can do, but have to wait for the part to arrive in the mail.

#4 Failure:  One of the tractor tires was low, so I was going to start it up and move it to the air compressor.  I turned the key and pressed the silver start button and the starter cranked away weakly and I release the button and turned the key off, but the tractor kept trying to start and after about 45 seconds of cranking, the battery died.  First step was trying to recharge the battery, but the battery freaked out the chargers, so something was amiss.  By this time daylight was fading, dinner wasn’t even a thought and the kids were ready to be picked up at the bus.

one year ago…”Doesn’t Get More Old Fashioned than This”.

November 16, 2008 – Pulling Glads

Even though it was a cold, blustery day, it was time to get the gladiolas out of the garden.  It’s always a cold blustery day when the glads come up.  This year Emma was drafted to help.

Poor April doesn’t know she was caught unceremoniously squatting in this photo.

Emma shows off a couple of glad bulbs.  Many people just buy new each year, but we dig ours up as we increase our supply as the bulbs often multiply.  After a few days in the house, we’ll pull last year’s shriveled bulb off the bottom of these, wipe the dirt off, make sure they are dry, and put them in the basement for the winter.  If we were really ambitious, we could pull the little round bulbs off and grow those up too, but we’ll just let those go.

one year ago…”Making Money the Old Fashioned Way”.

November 15, 2008 – Home-made Cider Press Info

I’m all for do-it-yourself when you can. I found this great idea for a home-made cider press on the blog of the Deliberate Agrarian.  It looks feasible to make and is ingenious in using an old scissors type car jack as the pressing mechanism – if you’re interested click the link.

The “inventor” is also the same guy who brought us the whizbang chicken plucker.  I ordered the plans for that and we go round and round as to whether we want to butcher our own chickens.  We’re getting closer after our local locker stopped doing chickens and now it’s a half-dozen Sunday drives to the nearest locker that still does chickens.  I suspect that sooner or later I’ll have a whiz-bang!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #95″.

November 14, 2008 – 2008 End of Season Pantry

OK, here it is, the 2008 winter pantry in the basement.  These are all the canned goods from the summer’s bounty!  Of course, we also have two chest freezers with meat and frozen vegetable and fruits, but the canned goods are much more visible.

Some of the highlights of this year’s effort include the following:

60 quarts tomatoes
72 quarts peaches
51 quarts applesauce (most mixed with raspberry, peach, or blackberry)
12 quarts plum juice
12 quarts whole plums
14 quarts apple pie filling
7 quarts beans12 pints dilly beans
62 jelly jars of canned whole raspberries
smaller amounts of pickled beets, bread and butter jalapenos and more I’m sure more I’m forgetting

We’ve also got about 24 dozen jars of jams with fruits from the farm, which most will find their way into gift baskets and holiday gifts.

One of our goals is to feed ourselves first, before selling to others.  The wet spring made our fruit trees abundant, giving us more fruit than we’ve ever had, but a few less tomatoes, but all in all, one of the best putting food up seasons in memory!

one year ago…”One Step Closer to Wind Turbine”.

November 11, 2008 – Turkey Predators?

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the pasture for something or other and found an unwelcome sight. Something had killed and started to eat one of our 15 turkeys. As I was walking down, a hawk flew away, but I’m not sure that is what got the turkey.

I know not everyone would like to see the turkey remains as I found them, but for those who are curious, just click the Turkey carcass link to see. Whatever it was, it ate the head and neck, picked at one leg and wing and a lot of the breast skin and some of the breast meat. We tithe 10% to nature before taking action, so we hope it was a one-time attack so we don’t have to confine the turkeys in a building the last week or so of their natural turkey lives.

one year ago…”Corn Crib Phase Finished”.

November 10, 2008 – Romantica and Carrie Rodriguez

It’s been a good, rare run of music lately.  Tonight we saw Romantica for the first time – I wasn’t familiar at all with the band, but they were quite good – anytime you’ve got a lad from Belfast as a lead singer, a bass player in dreadlocks, and pedal steel guitar in a Western shirt, you’ve got yourself something you won’t hear on top 40 radio. It was a Monday night, so it was a thin crowd, so we were able to sit in the front row.

The band lives in St. Paul now and their latest album was listed in the top 60 albums of the year by Paste magazine.


Romantica – The National Side

Their latest video is just above.

The main act was Carrie Rodriguez, fiddle player extraordinaire, who played this gig with just an upright bass player and lead guitar.  Carrie mostly played fiddle, but here she’s got a 4-string tenor guitar.  She also played a 4 string electric guitar.  You just can’t move those fiddle players up to six strings. Carrie is one half of the duo of one of my “desert island” CDs Red Dog Tracks with Chip Taylor.

Here’s a clip from her recent appearance in Austin City Limits.  Turns out her stepfather was a former Iowa State student back in the day, so she was interested in poking around campus.  They played at the Maintenance Shop on campus, a great venue that has a history of booking great underground and up and coming artists.  It won the W.C. Handy award a few years ago as best Blues Venue in the US.  Since we moved from Ames, I don’t think we’ve been to a show there, but when I heard Carrie was playing, we were there!

one year ago…”You’re Invited to Watch a House Burn Down”.

November 4, 2008 – More About Mavericks

I’d like to join in the national discussion about Mavericks. There are a long line of Mavericks on both sides of our family. We haven’t always been proud of the Mavericks, but ironically, even though the Mavericks were on both sides of the family, and even though the Maverick owners never met because one lived in the backwoods of northern Minnesota and the other in a Twin Cities suburb, ironically, it came to pass that the Mavericks on both sides of the family were eventually replaced by Thunderbirds.

Linda’s family had a Maverick during her formative pre-teen years. My Uncle Dick was the biggest Maverick that I’ve known. He had at least three Mavericks that I remember and may have had more. He found them cheap and had his own salvage yard of parts so he could replace parts as they failed. He realized that buying a dead Maverick was much cheaper than buying an alternator, for example, and because he had the room to store the cars, had his own junk yard and drove the Mavericks for many years. The nameplate in the photo above is from one of my uncle’s Mavericks.

My uncle Dick also liked to visit the “Hinsley Mall” as he called it. He was a recycler decades before it became trendy. The Hinsley Mall was an old-style dump on Hinsley Road – the kind that has been replaced by “sanitary landfills.” Here, stuff was not immediately buried. He picked up all kinds of aluminum, scrap metal and other things to collect and in some ways acted as a metals speculator, keeping piles of sorted aluminum, copper, and iron until he thought the prices were high enough to cash in. The Hinsley Mall was also a great place to watch wildlife, including the black bears that frequented the dump near dusk most nights.

It pains me to this day to go to the sanitary landfill and see all the good things that have been thrown away. I keep thinking I’d like to make a deal with the landfill to scrounge and give them part of the profits from reselling goods from the dump that are still good. I’d call the store the “Hinsley Mall.”

one year go…”More Child Labor”.

November 2, 2008 – Dead Rhubarb

The first sprouts of rhubarb are usually noted on this blog (this year on March 28).

So, in fairness, here are the last remaining organic bits of this year’s crop. gj froze many bags of rhubarb for crisps during the winter month. Rhubarb is one the inevitable harbingers of the changing season – coming up before the last fleeting snows in the spring, and bringing the snows with it when it dies back in the fall.

one year ago…”The Next Project”.

November 1, 2008 – Farm Auction

Last weekend there was a farm auction less than a mile from our house.  I love farm auctions, but hadn’t been to one in quite a while – since this one was so close, I couldn’t turn it down.

People huddled around an auctioneer is kind of a timeless scene.

This photo probably could have been taken many decades ago as all the “junk” on the hay wagon in the foreground was probably at least that old!  Not too many finds, the best probably being about 15 stainless steel malt cups for 2 bucks, a small trailer for 7 bucks, about 40 pounds of like new stainless steel bolts and nuts for 2 bucks, a box of angle brackets for a buck, two hammers for a buck, a large collection of chicken feeders for 7 bucks, and six new ax handles for 2 bucks.  Now, if I just had time to start selling the stuff I don’t need on Ebay!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #93″.

October 29, 2008 – Tractor Repair

The last few times I’ve used the 2510, there has been a smell of coolant – I was able to see that it was a relatively small leak, so I let it go until a later time.  That time was today.

I hadn’t yet dug into the tractor, so I had to figure out how to get the hood off as I could remove one clamp off with the hood on, but not the other.  I was happy for the manual to show me how to remove the hood.

Here’s the offending hose with the clamp loosened.

The new hose clamped firmly in place.

one year ago…”City Smoke, Country Smoke”.

October 28, 2008 – Soap Cutting

It was another round of soap-making this week-end.  I thought it would be a good time to show the final stages of soap making.

About 12 hours after pouring into the mold, this batch was ready to cut.  You can tell when it is ready when the soap barely indents to a strong touch.

The soap mold has fold-away hinges and here’s what the mold looks like after the mold is collapsed.

After the plastic film is removed, the soap goes back in the mold and is cut into bars.

The soap must “cure” for 4-6 weeks before the chemical reaction is complete.  We’ve noticed our soap is like a fine wine – the longer it sits, the better it gets – we found some year-old stuff and it was even better than the new stuff.

one year ago…”Rare Breed Chickens – Silver Campine”.

October 22, 2008 – Growing Season Over

The last of the garden gleaning is almost done (well almost, there’s still swiss chard and some brussell sprouts and lettuce out there). But the main summer crops are all frozen out.

This bell pepper had some more to give, but it’s over now. We’ve never canned and frozen as much as we have this year – in a few days I’ll snap a picture of the pantry to see the big picture.

one year ago…”Adolescent Cooper’s Hawk?”.

October 20, 2008 – Garlic Planting

Today was a “must plant” garlic day.  The weather is forecast for a turn to the very wet and cold and I’m not sure it would dry out before November.  The last few weekend’s “free time” has been spent scraping and painting the house.

This year we are working with another farmer who sells garlic to Wheatsfield Co-op in Ames and he anticipates a much larger demand for garlic after the co-op moves into a much larger building next year.  We bought some of the garlic that he markets and we will grow it and he will market it.  It’s a tiny conenction in a local food network as a number of other farmers are participating in this informal arrangement.

The first job is to remove all the cloves from the garlic.

The second job is to recruit some help to plant the garlic.

The tractor is priceless in making the trenches to plant the garlic – digging the trenches used to be backbreaking work before. Here the kids get down to planting.  I’ll mulch the rows sometime in the next few weeks.

one year ago…”Final Thoughts on Mexican Immersion”.

October 19, 2008 – Post Tomato Harvest Work

Now comes the unglamorous part of the gardening season (OK, some of you may argue that weeding isn’t particularly glamorous, but at least the garden is optimistic or colorful during the weeding season).

Here, we’re in the middle of the clean-up.  Most of the tomato cages and some of the posts and left-over vines remain.  I think it is important to get the tomato vines up and piled up to burn later in a different location to reduce overwintering of tomato disease in the soil.  This spring we didn’t have time to get mulch down so we cheated and just used weed barrier fabric and hog panels to weigh them down because they were handy.

one year ago…”Visit to the Village of Nocutzepo”.

October 13, 2008 – Pastured Turkeys

Our pastured turkeys are now out living the good turkey life.  These are the regular old commercial turkeys but we’ve trained them some new tricks.

We move this old hay wagon around the pasture with their feeder connected to it.  If it’s not raining they roost on top of the wagon at night.  We’ve got some electric netting around their area to keep predators out.  They get water in a different place from a 55 gallon bucket that fills from the gutters off an old outbuilding.  We leave the door open in the brooding shed and they can seek shelter in there if the weather turns nasty (and they have).

one year ago…”Teotihuacán Ruins”.

October 12, 2008 – House Painting

We had hoped to get new siding on the house relatively soon, but it is no longer in the budget, so the overdue house painting begins.  Keep your fingers crossed that it is the last time to paint the house.  It is much easier than the last time because there is new siding on the 3rd floor and new soffits on the main house.

In this photo the left side has the first coat while Emma works on scraping the the other side (and you can see she is doing a fine job!  Linda is painting the porch.  We probably won’t be able to get the whole house done before cold weather sets in, but we’ll at least try to get most of two sides done.

one year ago…”Mexico City”.

October 11, 2008 – Homecoming 2008

I know you are all waiting to see what Claire wears to the Homecoming Dance this year after last year’s homemade duct tape dress. And now for something quite sad – Each day for a number of years I’ve chronicled the good, bad interesting and pedestrian on the high hopes blog. Any guesses what the most common search term people use to find the blog is? It’s not “wind turbine” “organic” or even “goats” or “chickens” but “homecoming dress” or “duct tape homecoming dress.” It is rather humbling to have more people find the site for a duct tape dress than any feature of the farm!

This year Claire stepped up and substituted duct-tape encrusted shoes with silver Converse tenners.

Other than that, she wore a conventional dress, more or less, got together before with a bunch of girls to get ready, and generally did the homecoming thing.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #91″.

October 10, 2008 – Iowa Chops

Tonight it was “Boys Night Out” as Martin and I went to the inaugural Iowa Chops AHL (AAA affiliate of Anaheim Ducks) game.

It took me back to my college days in Duluth when I had season tickets during the heyday of the UMD Bulldogs, when Brett Hull and others played for the Bulldogs.  Martin is showing off his cowbell which got a lot of use during the game.

one year ago…”Baxter Oil Company Web Site “.

October 6, 2008 – Peppers at Peak

Even though it is the first week of October, the peppers are really coming on.  It seems like a long frost-free season so far.

These are some purple peppers.  Some years we don’t get them to turn purple.  Sweet bell peppers like these are a snap to preserve – just cut them up in strips or chopped and throw them in the freezer – no canning, not even any blanching.  They are great on pizza and wherever you use fresh peppers.

OK, no we are moving up a notch to the Jalapeno peppers.  This is about as hot as many people go (and many don’t go this far).  It’s been a great fall for fresh salsa.  It’s about a meal after some long days in the garden – a batch of fresh salsa, some thick chips and a seat in the Adirondack chair while listening to “A Prairie Home Companion” is about as decadent as it gets around here!

Up a notch in heat are the cayenne peppers.

Another bump up in heat are these Thai hot peppers.

By far the hottest peppers we’ve ever grown are these Habanero peppers, native to the Yucatan. These babies are about 50 times hotter than Jalapenos!  I’ve copied the Scoville scale of pepper hotness from Wikipedia below so you can see where your peppers fall on the heat scale.

Scoville scale
Scoville rating Type of pepper
15,000,000-16,000,000 Pure capsaicin
8,600,000-9,100,000 Various capsaicinoids
2,000,000-5,300,000 Standard U.S. Grade pepper spray irritant ammunition
855,000-1,050,000 Naga Jolokia, Dorset Naga
350,000-580,000 Red Savina Habanero
100,000-350,000 Habanero chili, Scotch Bonnet Pepper, Datil pepper, Rocoto, Jamaican Hot Pepper, African Birdseye
50,000-100,000 Thai Pepper, Malagueta Pepper, Chiltepin Pepper, Pequin Pepper
30,000-50,000 Cayenne Pepper, Ají pepper, Tabasco pepper, some Chipotle peppers
10,000-23,000 Serrano Pepper, some Chipotle peppers
2,500-8,000 Jalapeño Pepper, Guajillo pepper, New Mexican varieties of Anaheim pepper, Paprika (hungarian wax pepper)
500-2,500 Anaheim pepper, Poblano Pepper, Rocotillo Pepper
100-500 Pimento, Pepperoncini
0 No heat, Bell pepper

one year ago…”Getting Ready for the New Roof”.

October 5, 2008 – Morning Sun Party

Today was a wonderful event hosted at Morning Sun Farm (if you look closely at the top of the barn that is in the beginning phase of restoration, you can see the old faded name painted on the barn).

It was a celebration of life and friendship following the end of treatment for breast cancer.  The folks at Morning sun celebrated and thanked their friends in a big way, hosting a hog roast as part of a big dinner.

They also made sure some music was on hand, including this group complete with a washtub bass (I  missed the name of the band).  The afternoon was delightful, with warm thoughts, warm food, and warm friendships.

one year ago…”The Reconstruction Begins”.

October 4, 2008 – Hops Harvest

I’m guessing its time for the hops harvest.  I’m a newbie at this, so if anybody out there knows the best time to harvest hops in this part of the country, give me a shout out.

They’ve grown very well on a 16 foot cattle panel propped up against the shed. I wasn’t sure how they’d do with the heat from the western sun bouncing off the wall, but they do fine.

These are Cascade Hops which I’m told are good finishing hops.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #90″.

October 3, 2008 – Green Consultant

High Hopes Gardens had another inquiry regarding the wind turbine.  A former real estate agent from Des Moines is branching out to be a “green consultant” whereby she can offer advice and research to consumers regarding real “green” products and “greenwashing.  Part of her education is to do some research concerning quality and reputation of green products and installers.

She was curious to see and hear our impressions of the service and abilities or our wind turbine installer.  She was very pleased to hear of our experiences and can use them to help guide others.

one year ago…”Sorry State of the South Side of the Hog Barn”.

September 30, 2008 – Dried Soybeans

Here’s a shot for all of you who always wondered what a soybean plant looks like right before harvest.

This field is ready to harvest.  You can see each pod contains about 3 beans and each plant has multiple pods.  These are not the edible soybeans more commonly known as edamame, nor are they specialty beans destined for tofu, but soybeans that will probably be used for oilseed production or animal feed.

one year ago…”Turkeys and a Storm”.

September 29, 2008 – Corn and Bean Harvest

Most of the neighboring farmers are out in force now harvesting soybeans.  The corn was planted very late and is not yet dried down.

The scale of today’s commodity agriculture is exemplified in this photo – a modern tractor and wagon to transport the beans to the elevator can l no longer fit in the barn built around the turn of the century – the doors are neither tall nor wide enough to accommodate this equipment.

one year ago…”More Folks Poking Around the Farm”.

September 28, 2008 – Octemberfest Parade

This is the obligatory town celebration weekend of the year for Marshalltown, called “Octemberfest.”

Here the drum major of the Bobcat marching band leads them town main street.

Have you ever soon a better group of tubas?

The clarinet section leader keeps the players in line!

Emma’s school at West Marshall recently revived their marching band and participated this year.

Emma and some other 8th graders walk behind the high school band – their official title “Band Aids” and their job was to help load equipment etc.

one year ago…”Duct Tape Homecoming Dress”.

September 27, 2008 – Harvest Table

A few weeks ago a school tour came and I neglected to show the “harvest table” that shows some of the goods and products harvested from our farm.

This table, set September 14, shows apples, onions, potatoes, raspberries, blackberries, garlic, tomatoes, beans, shiitake mushrooms, eggs, watermelon, lambskin, peppers, flower bouquet, and a bunch of canned goods.  We are ready for winter!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #89″.

September 26, 2008 – Stainless Steel Milk Cans

I was in Marshalltown shuttling kids and had about 45 minutes to kill, so I stopped in at a couple of garage sales.

I found these stainless steel milk jugs shoved under a table of clothes.  I didn’t hesitate too long before buying them for 5 bucks each.  When I got home and did a search on Ebay I found one that still had a day left on the auction and was already up to $77.00.  I’ll have to decide if I can really use them or list them for sale next spring.

one year ago…”Family Homecoming Royalty”.

September 24, 2008 – New Wind Farm in Neighborhood

About 20 miles form us a 150 MW wind farm is being constructed.  It is about halfway between our farm and Ames. It will contain 100 towers when completed and power 30,000 homes.

I liked this shot of the the old and new – the Sherman County one-room school house and a few of the new turbines.

These machines are massive next to ours – the towers are 260 feet tall and each blade is 125 feet long (compared to our 70 foot tower).  The generator weighs 100,000 pounds.  The interesting thing about this wind farm located in the middle of Iowa is that it is constructed and owned by Florida Light and Power!  From what I’ve read, the construction costs are about equal to a coal power plant, but once they are up, no charge for fuel for the lifetime of the turbines.

one year ago…”Hops Harvest”.

September 22, 2008 – Apple Peeling, 2008 Style

The latest round of apple-peeling was assigned to the girls and they approached it 2008 style.

They dragged out an extension cord, a clock radio that has an IPod docking station and an IPod player to help pass the time.  I much prefer the IPod in the docking station to the earbuds, even if that means I can hear music that I might not have picked.  Got to keep the help happy, productive, and talking to each other!

one year ago…”Marshall County Sheriff “takes out” Martin”.

September 21, 2008 – Monarch Bed and Breakfast

We’ve had healthy south winds the past few days, which has made the migration to Mexico difficult for the butterflies.

So, they wait patiently on the lee side of the windbreak trees I planted many years ago.  I never intended the trees to be used in such a manner, but I’m pleased they are.

They’re not picky about the kind of shelter – here they are also in a maple tree.  It’s a nice sheltered place for them, and along with the resting accommodations, the nearby flower garden provides some food while they patiently wait for the wind to switch.  We’ve been pleased to be hosts to this Monarch bed and breakfast for hundreds of butterflies the last few days.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #88″.

September 20, 2008 – Claire’s Birthday Event

For her birthday event, Claire chose to take a friend to the Des Moines Farmer’s Market, spend some time in the East Village, and eat out for lunch.

Here the day’s quirky food finds are displayed – elk jerky and caramel apple popcorn.

This fellow had a nice job – roasting peppers over a flame – they smelled delicious, but at 10:00 am, I wasn’t ready to bite.  We bought some t-shirts at Smash (I’ll display those later) and ate lunch at the Olympic Flame.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #88″.

September 19, 2008 – Emma’s Birthday Event

Both the young ladies in our family celebrated birthdays this week.  Emma’s choice of a party is encapsulated below.

Good friends, a fire in the chimenia, a tent to sleep in all together, and a long night of fire watching and talking.  A bonus was the new mini-horse cart that the girls got for their birthday, along with the harness tack.  They had fun pulling each other around, to heck with the horse!

one year ago…”Banquet Flowers”.

September 17, 2008 – Apples, Apples Everywhere

The wet spring produced a bumper apple crop.  We’re relatively absent orchardists as far as spraying goes, so besides some dormant oil in the spring and being fanatical about picking up the deadfalls to feed the animals, our apples for the most part are not things of beauty.

But we get enough to eat, and preserve.  This year we’ve made raspberry applesauce, peach applesauce, blackberry applesauce, and apple applesauce.

Since the freezers are full, we don’t have much room for frozen apples for winter pies, so I tried canning apple pie filling.  It required a type of ingredient that isn’t readily available, something called Clear Jel A, a type of starch that holds up under the processing time in the boiling water canner.  The finished jars look wonderful!  Linda mentioned that someone at work wanted to buy one – my answer was – he couldn’t pay me enough to part with one of the seven jars!  Depending on how the time goes, I’d like to make some more.

one year ago…”Turkey Roosting”.

September 15, 2008 – Carrot Harvest

Today was a carrot harvest day.

We pulled most of the remaining carrots from the ground – leaving enough in for more meals of fresh carrots until frost. Since our chest freezers (both of them) are filled up with the summer’s bounty, we have to store the rest of the crops in ways other than freezing.

I remember having one old ceramic crock laying around and most carrot storage advice (if you weren’t leaving them in the garden) was to pack them in moist sand and keep them as close to 32 degrees as you can. So I layered sand and carrots in the crock and hope to make a small insulated enclosed in the basement for the carrots. One day we’d like a real root cellar where the old fuel oil tanks are, but that is an undertaking I’m not ready for yet!

one year ago…”Mid-September Frost”.

September 14, 2008 – School Farm Tours

This week we hosted tours from the 7th grade at West Marshall Middle School. It was ag day and they split into four groups and toured four local farms in rotation. We were glad to be included in the day. The tours lasted from 20 to 45 minutes depending how on schedule the groups were in arriving and departing.

This was the 2nd group standing near a garden near the wind turbine. We emphasized diversity, how we use science to try to mimic natural systems, and depending on the available time tasted berries, smelled compost, smelled herbs, and talked a bit about our farm businesses.

one year ago…”I Never Said ‘Over My Dead Body'”.

September 13, 2008 – Jim Sinning Memorial

We’ve been here 12 years and last week was the first funeral we’ve attended from in the neighborhood. Jim Sinning passed away while vacationing with his wife in Nova Scotia. We immediately liked Jim and Kay when we met them. They are cut from a different cloth than many others.

Jim grew up as a the town (Melbourne) doctor’s son and decided he wanted to be a farmer. So his dad said he better find out if he really liked farming, so he created an “internship” for him. He was sent off to live with a farm family of which his Dad had delivered all the children to see if he really wanted to be a farmer. He did and he died a farmer.

Jim gave up his big pickup truck about 3 years ago (once again, he was ahead of the trends) and bought a Scion xB. As an old farmer, he just removed the front seat attached it on new rails to give himself more leg room. To top it off, he put a giant turnkey – like the kind you used to get to open kipper snacks or other metal fish containers – on a giant magnet that he put on top of the Scion!

Jim loved to cook and was known far and wide for his springtime roadside asparagus route. He had a route where he knew wild asparagus grew in the county road ditches and also delivered to old friends who couldn’t get out.

We’ll miss Jim and think of him, especially next spring when I wait at the bus stop next April and hop out of the car to harvest the first tender shoots of asparagus from the patch he revealed to me somewhere along Jessup Avenue one day this past spring…

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #87″.

September 9, 2008 – Never-ending Raspberries

Aaah, raspberries.  Fruits of the Gods, as one of our customers is fond of saying.

Again, the fall-bearing varieties are not disappointing.  I love these guys because the bear so long and at the end of the season, they are just mowed down – no pruning out the dead canes.

This picture about tells it all – a few are already picked, some are ready to be picked, and yet others are still on their way.

one year ago…”File Under: It Works”.

September 8, 2008 – Purple Beans

The garden keeps putting out and we are struggling to keep up. Now we’re onto a batch of beans – we’ve canned a batch, made a batch of dilly beans and frozen and vacuum packed many packages.

The purple beans are a bit novel – they are easier to spot in the garden for kids when they are sent to pick beans.  Magically, when they are cooked or canned, the purple fades to green and they look like normal green beans.

one year ago…”Raspberries and Apples”.

September 7, 2008 – Plums!

This is the year for the plum tree in the front yard next to the driveway – the tree is now about 20 feet tall and up until this year, had not produced fruit – I was ready to give up on it and replace it with something else.

But this year it has come through with flying purple colors – baskets upon baskets of plums – plum sauce is put up for yogurt and ice cream, whole plums, plum preserves, and plum and vodka soaking in the basement.

one year ago…”Photo Friday – Purple”.

September 2, 2008 – Please Flush

I found this sign above a urinal in the Masonic Lodge in Des Moines and couldn’t resist snapping a photo. I must admit, it was creepy taking a picture in a public restroom, even if I was alone.

In some ways it is easy to apply this photo to the current political process. To my way of thinking, campaigns spend too much time playing “gotcha,” misrepresenting and degrading their opponents, and way too little time talking about things that are really important to our country like offering solutions to fix the economy, the war, immigration, energy policy, and social security. We need a reasoned debate on these important issues.

One of my favorite politicians was a true maverick, Henry A. Wallace, who was Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President under Roosevelt. Before he was VP, he founded Pioneer Seed Corn company (now owned by DuPont). When he was first trying to get farmers to adopt his new hybrid corn that yielded high, but lacked the good looks so important in the popular corn rating contests, he said in one of his most famous quotes “What’s looks to a pig?”

one year ago…”Another Big Canning Day”xxx.

September 1, 2008 – Blackberries!

This year’s crop of blackberries has been phenomenal!

The berries this year are large and plentiful – we’ve made jam (my favorite), frozen some, sold many fresh, started soaking some in spirits (brandy, rum, and vodka).  We found out last year that whole canned blackberries aren’t worth doing, so we have to find other uses – nothing like homemade blackberry brandy to put you asleep on a cold winter night as an antidote against a sore throat.

one year ago…”Honey Extraction”

August 31, 2008 – Masanobu Fukuoka,

I can’t let it pass without noting the death of Masanobu Fukuoka at age 95.  Fukuoka might best be described as the most pre-eminent Buddhist farmer.  He advocated an approach to agriculture which some describe as permaculture, others might call natural farming.  His most widely circulated book is The One-Straw Revolution.  It’s on my winter reading list as I’m a bit sad to announce I haven’t yet read it myself.

Here’s a short summary (well, not so short) of Fukuoka’s perspective on farming.

one year ago…”Photo Friday “Insignificant””

August 30, 2008 – Honey Extraction

Today was honey extraction day.

Martin, GJ, and Linda donned their beekeeper’s suits and robbed the honey.  Here Martin helps smoke out the bees before GJ takes off a super.

A beautiful frame full of honey.

The newest addition to the honey extraction process is an electric uncapping knife – it worked spendidly removing the wax tops from the frames.

Emma shows off an uncapped frame, ready for the extractor.

We use a manual extractor, just put in four frames and turn the hand crank, wait for it to stop spinning, flip the frames around and repeat the spin.

Martin’s job is to run the honey gate at the bottom of the extractor to filter the honey through a couple of filters.  It’s always a hot job as the room should be 85-95 degrees to allow the honey to flow more freely through the extraction process.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #86″

August 29, 2008 – “Living the Country Life” Film Crew

Today a film crew from the cable TV show, “Living the Country Life” descended upon high hopes gardens.  Being one of the few households in America without cable or satellite TV, I’ve never seen the show on the RFD channel. They were working on an episode featuring things acreage owners could do to be more environmentally friendly.

We’re like poster children in that regard! They didn’t want us, just our farm as a backdrop for a few segments.  Although it might seem that we have been out pounding the bushes for media attention – each one we have been asked to do out of the blue.

The Screenscape Studios trucks roll into the farm.

The first stop was the chicken/turkey waterer that is filled from a gutter on the roof.  Shh, don’t let anybody know that the day before the crew arrived, the now old stand that holds the 55 gallon barrel up collapsed after our first substantial rain in many weeks.  I was able to cobble it together in time for the filming, but it needs a rebuild after this season.

The second stop was a 1100 gallon tank that we use to collect water for the gardens/berries/trees in dry times.  It was empty two days ago, but the .60 inches of rain filled it up.

The third stop was at the compost bin.

Showing the compost raw ingredients off.

The last stop was at the wind turbine where I didn’t get a photo.  The crew was here from about 9:00-3:30 without much of a lunch break for three one and a half minute segments.  Other segments on the show filmed elsewhere include drip irrigation, organic lawn care, rotational grazing, solar energy, and a few others I don’t remember.

So all you faithful blog readers take comfort in the fact that you had the inside scoop on all these things long, long, before the TV viewers.  I’ll let you know when the show will air, probably late in the fall.

one year ago…”Fowl Brooding”

August 27, 2008 – Onion Harvest

We’re in the harvest season.  Harvest brings great images, like the peaches last week, this week it’s the onion’s turn.

The onions were pulled a couple of weeks ago, sat in the sun to dry for about a week, then had their tops clipped and sat in the barn to cure for another week or so, before shuttling down to the basement.  This year I actually have a large mesh bag to store some of them in – we’ll eat the purple ones first since they don’t keep very well.

one year ago…”Passport Ready?”

August 25, 2008 – Good Old Small Town Life

There are some good things about small towns and knowing your neighbors.  This tiller exemplifies one such experience.

We share a small tiller with a colleauge of Linda’s at work.  He acquires the tillers and we store and maintain them and he comes out once a year to pick it up and use it.  He just got us an upgrade and it needed some work as the pull rope was broken and it hadn’t been run for a number of years.  I brought it to the neighborhood small engine man and he got it “back to good.”  I arranged to pick it up at a certain time, but when I arrived, he was not home.  So, I checked the shop, it was opened, the tiller was done and I poked around a bit and found the slip showing what I owed and left the money and took the tiller.

The car also needed new tires, so the neighbor down the road works at the goodyear shop in town and he just drove our car in to town in the morning, put the new tires on, and drove it home – saving us numerous jockeying back and forth with two cars and drivers and just leaves the bill on the front seat.  Likewise, we have the same trust with our customers – if we deliver when they are not home, like clockwork a check is in our mailbox within a few days.  It’s nice to have some relationships that are based on a handshake!

one year ago…”One BIG Local Meal Prep”

August 22, 2008 – Late August Garden

The harvest, preserving, and selling season is in full swing and it is time for weeding to fall by the wayside.

This is our best looking garden – one weeding professional Linda has managed to keep in check. It’s hard to make the switch from tending to harvest, as it is hard to let go and there is only time to do so much, and it’s time to put food up

one year ago…”Dog Agility”

August 19, 2008 – Costa Rican Agaratum Folklore

When the Costa Ricans visited our farm a few weeks ago, one gentleman excitedly moved me over to one of the gardens to tell me something.

He pointed at the agaratum as said, “In Costa Rica, if you have an agaratum flower in your wallet, your wallet will not run out of money for a year!” I haven’t tried it yet, figuring a garden patch is good enough.

one year ago…”Local Food Resources”

August 17, 2008 – Blackberry Skeptics!

We packed up some goods to be sold by someone else at the Des Moines Farmer’s Market yesterday. Among the items were our gorgeous blackberries.

Customers at the market were suspicious that such nice berries could be grown in Iowa and certainly, they must have been shipped in from Oregon or elsewhere.  This page is an invitation for all skeptics to type the word “blackberries” in the search box to the left to find photos dating back to May 2006, when the blackberries were first planted!

Here’s another testimonial straight from the field!

one year ago…”They Call me the Batman”

August 15, 2008 – Gun Safety

Many years ago, I promised Claire, I’d teach her to shoot a gun safely.  I’ve either forgotten about it, been too busy, or it wasn’t the right time because of animals in the pasture, but she asked again recently and I said, “Let’s go.”  She was a bit surprised, so we went to the back pasture in a paddock without any animals and went over the basics.

We went over the characteristics of a rifle and a shotgun and got a chance to shoot small versions of both – a .22 rifle and .410 shotgun.

I told her about how I learned to hunt.  The first year I went, I was not allowed to carry a gun, but just to watch and observe.  The second year, I was allowed to carry a gun and “practice” shooting, but wasn’t allowed to have any shells – just the empty gun.  I still remember the first time I followed a duck on the bead of the gun right in front of another hunter’s head.  It was a sobering lesson in losing track of the situation when game appears.  The third year, I was allowed limited shooting with a single-shot gun.

So today was just the introduction – we set up a milk carton on a stick and she was able to hit it with the shotgun but not the rifle.  We’ll take more target practice in the next few months to get competent.

one year ago…”Building the Hives”

August 13, 2008 – What to do with Peaches?

Ok, we’re almost ready to say uncle with the peaches, but there still might be half the peaches left on the trees.

Here are the trays right out of the dehydrator.

The contents of each tray fit nicely into one bag in what I call the “suck and seal” machine.  It’s always a bummer to see how small the fruit gets after drying.

Canned peaches and blackberry jam on an intermediate canning day.  The most we’ve done this year is 28 quarts of peaches in one afternoon.  We’re packing them in quarts, pints, and jelly jars for single-serving jars for lunch. Emma is a gifted peach and tomato skinner.  She has great hands for removing the skins from peaches and tomatoes after blanching.

one year ago…”Restored Marshall County Courthouse”

August 11, 2008 – Presenting… Linda at the State Fair

The current president of the Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers was with us in Costa Rica and for 10 days pestered Linda to present in the ag building during the State Fair. It was easier to say yes in February than it was in the midst of back-to-school and peach season.

Here she is making her presentation about “Holiday Gift Baskets.” I enjoyed a previous segment on pruning Christmas trees. Gotta love the cordless mic, turning her into a fair demo person or customer service rep, wherever that takes you!

one year ago…”Party on the Farm”

August 10, 2008 – State Fair Day

Today was the family day at the Iowa State Fair.

A fair day with low humidity and temps in the low 80’s really brings the people out!

Martin was captivated by the demonstration of the kitchen slicer/shredder/peeler.  He spent a good 10 minutes taking in the demo and even squeezed his way to the front of the crowd.  You put a mechanical device together with food, and you’ve got this boy hooked!

Tuckered.  That describes this duo on the fair grounds.

one year ago…”Claire to Boston: Part 2″

August 8, 2008 – Cherry Leaf Spot

We’ve got a bad case of what I think is cherry leaf spot on some of our cherry trees.

The leaves become spotted, turn yellow, and fall off the tree.

This cherry tree looks like October instead of August.

One of the recommended cultural practices is to remove the fallen leaves to decrease the amount of disease that overwinters in the soil to reinfect the trees the next season.  I’m hoping that the fact that the first six months of 2008 were the wettest on record contributed to this disease that is mainly spread through rain splash and wet leaves.  Our north star cherries in another location do not seem to be suffering from the same problem – I don’t know if the difference in susceptibility is due to a different variety, or location on a southern slope instead of northern slope that .

one year ago…”Claire to Boston: Part 1″

August 5, 2008 – More Garden Space

It’s time to consider more garden space.  We are also looking at some less labor-intensive space.

Here’s our plan.  We mowed four foot wide strips with four foot wide grassy areas. The spacing is such that we’ll till up four foot strips and have grassy steps in between so we’ll be able to do tractor work and keep the tires on the grass instead of in the garden.  So we mowed down the new garden strips and loaded it with compost, then covered it with black landscape fabric to kill the grass by next spring.  This picture shows a couple of strips covered, a couple with compost, and a couple just mowed.

one year ago…”And so it Goes”

August 4, 2008 – Oppressive Weather

The last few days have been off the charts as far as uncomfortable weather is concerned.

Here’s a screen capture from the Weather Underground showing the conditions on Sunday afternoon – the temperature is not unusual, but the 0 mph wind with a 81 degree dewpoint is off the charts.  I tried to look up the highest all-time dewpoint in Iowa as I can not remember it ever over 80 before. I didn’t find the Iowa record, but I did find the highest dewpoint in 102 years in Minnesota was 81. I’m assuming it wouldn’t be much different in Iowa because southern Minnesota is practically Iowa as far as landscape and crops.

Here’s the chart that lists human comfort and dewpoints:

Dew Point    Human Perception
>75°F              Extremely uncomfortable, oppressive
70 – 74°F        Very humid, quite uncomfortable
65 – 69°F        Somewhat uncomfortable for most people at upper edge
60 – 64°F        OK for most, but all perceive the humidity at upper edge
55 – 59°F        Comfortable
50 – 54°F        Very comfortable
<49°F             A bit dry for some

Many people wonder why the Midwest can be more humid than the coasts and tropics – how exactly does warm, moist gulf air increase in moisture after traveling 1,000 miles?  The answer is corn.  At this time of year, corn transpires enormous quantities of water through its leaves.  Even in the weather forecaster discussion, the evapotranspiration of corn is factored into the weather forecast during the height of evapotranspiration season.

I’ve been working in the basement the last few days, adding insulation to the sill plates and under the floor below an unheated basement room.

one year ago…”Gourd Tunnel”

July 30, 2008 – New Aerial Applicator No Spray Signs

After the rash of organic and sensitive crops being mistakenly sprayed by aeriel spray planes (not to mention the large crew of field workers as well), IDALS, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, has implemented a sensitive crops directory that aeriel sprayers are asked to consult before spraying.

The department provides the signs at a discount and leaves it up to handymen like myself to figure out how to get the sign 8-10 feet off the ground with the sign at a 30-40 degree angle from the post.  I just bought a heavy piece of 10 ft PVC vent pipe and a 45 degree elbow.  I cut about two feet off the pipe, mounted the sign to the small piece then connected the two pieces with the elbow.  Then I drove a steel fence post into the ground and just slipped the PVC pipe over it.  I’m hoping I can get away with not attaching it to the post so I can slip it off in the winter to spare the sign and PVC some weathering. Â The PVC seems heavy enough and puts enough torque against the post that it doesn’t seem to want to spin around at all.

one year ago…”Claire’s First Road Trip”

July 28, 2008 – Digging Potatoes and Garlic

It was a day to dig up some of the potatoes and garlic.

Unfortunately, the kids were so efficient at cleaning and putting away the garlic in the hayloft, that I was’t even able to get a picture of this year’s garlic crop!  Linda is sporting a new potato fork – the old wooden fork broke last fall and was replaced with a new fiberglass model.

 One year ago…”A Night on the River”

July 27, 2008 – Apple Pickin’

Martin is using the fruit picker to harvest the last of the apples from the tree that was laid down on the ground during one of the spring storms.

The tree is literally hanging on by a thread and we’re hoping to get it through this year so we can grab a graft next spring to continue the tree – it’s an old variety that ripens in mid-July and is good for pies and sauce.

one year ago…”Another Summer Thundrestorm”

July 25, 2008 – Chinese Cabbage

It has been a most excellent year for Chinese Cabbage.

It’s a great vegetable for stir-fry or boiling and has much less insect pressure than regular cabbage.

Today Claire left for Flagstaff, AZ as her Envirothon Team from Marshalltown High School heads to the National Finals. There was a plane delay in Cedar Rapids and they ended up missing the connecting flight to Phoenix in Minneapolis.  We had my brother in Eagan ready to provide lodging in Mpls to prevent them from sleeping (or not) in the airport terminal, but the airline put them up in a hotel, but they ended up missing about a day of their early arrival to explore Arizona.

one year ago…”Turkeys Arrive”

July 22, 2008 – Hosting Costa Ricans at High Hopes

As part of the Costa Rican exchange, after our visit to Costa Rica agricultural sites this past February, the Ticos are now visiting Iowa and it is our turn to reciprocate for the warm welcome we received.

The stage is set for dinner and dancing – it turned out to be a perfect July evening – in the 70’s with a dry north breeze.

Here’s the group that is visting Iowa.  Four of the members of the group we met in Costa Rica, the others are new to us.

Here “Lonna and the Pretty Good Band” start the evening off right after a dinner of iowa sweet corn, watermelon, hot dogs, rice and beans, and strawberry, apple, and cherry crisps and cobblers from fruit from the farm.

Lonna, the caller, started us out easy in a circle dance.  Despite the language barrier for some dancers, they would quickly catch on the the steps and as music and dancing are a universal language, there was much laughter and levity.

Whoo! The circle comes together!

Annie, our neighborhood piano tuner and musician arranged the band for us.

Lonna did the calling for the dancers.

Swing your partner.

Heel to toe and ’round again.  Emma kicks off her shoes and enjoys a dance.

Martin was very popular with the ladies and danced every dance in good form.

As the band played into the evening, the shadows fell as the music went on.

For those of you with Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer, you can click the icon above to see 15 seconds of the dancing with Ticos, complete with music!

one year ago…”Dilly Beans”

July 21, 2008 – Red Green Alive and Well at High Hopes!

Today’s creation is inspired by Handyman’s Corner from the Red Green TV show.


To many of you, this might look like an old, tired gas grill that missed trips to the dump over the last two years. But sometimes keeping things around too long pays off. We also have an old cooktop from the kitchen remodeling that is usable, but awkward to carry and safely use. We also like to can outside in the summer – nothing like taking the hour long boil of a batch of tomatoes outside the house on a hot summer day. Sooooo, I’m thinking the two units need to be combined…


First remove the cover and all the old propane connections and tubing.


Hmm, after the cover is gone, it turns out the cooktop won’t slide inside, so I need to get the sawz-all out with the metal blade to make the frame relatively level. Then, slip a couple of boards in where the grates used to be, screw the cooktop into the boards and the unit is almost ready.


Here’s the completed unit! Note that the duct tape concealing the joint between the cooktop and old grill is for aesthetics only – it does not provide structural support in this case.  Now we have a portable unit with wheels, a self-contained and hidden propane tank and a battery of knobs that to the untrained eye, do absolutely nothing – but I’m wondering if I could wire them to the controls of a radio and use the grill knobs for tuning and volume of a hidden radio…

one year ago…”Harry Potter and the Dilly Beans”

July 20, 2008 – Martin’s View of “The Swamp”

I thought a seven-year-old boy would appreciate the life in the wetland, so I made it a point to bring Martin over and wax on enthusiastically about the tadpoles and diversity of life in the small exclosure when we were working on the trees in the back pasture.

A bit later, he was helping mulch some trees and ran out of things to do, so he asked if he could go look at the swamp, as he refers to it.  I watched from a distance as he first climbed part way up the fence, peering in.  I made a bet with myself that it wouldn’t be long before he crawled over the fence and went inside to look.  Sure enough, the pull was too strong and he crawled over the fence. 

A few minutes later he came running at full speed towards me, face red with heat in the 90 degree day “Dad, there’s a turtle in the swamp!”  He shaped his hands about as big as a dinner plate and retold the story of the turtle siting.  As I went back to see if I could spy the turtle he turned to me and said “Dad, the farm is getting a lot bigger now.”  I asked him what he meant and he said “Now we have a swamp, we have a baby forest, and a wind turbine.”  Even though you can’t buy that comment with MasterCard, I still thought it was priceless.

one year ago…”Neil Smith Wildlife Refuge”

July 19, 2008 – Wetland Success

We started an experiment a few years ago.  There was this awful mudhole in the pasture that seemed to get bigger by the day – when the grass was soggy, the cows would keep breaking hunks of sod off, enlarging the mud area.

This is what it looked like in the spring of 2005.  Martin can’t float his boat.  I got the idea for fencing this area off from the summer camp I worked at in northern Minnesota.  Naturalist and nature photographer Les Blacklock suggested that an area near the center of camp be fenced off from regular foot traffic and be called the “exclosure.”  The idea was that a different group of plants might grow up just by leaving it alone.  As no part of the farm is left undisturbed, I thought this small section could be spared.

So this mudhole was fenced off, I ordered some marsh and wet (mesic) prairie seeds from Ion Exchange and waited.  The area is hard to manage as it gets runoff from the surrounding crop fields and a few times a year water rushed through like a small rapid stream, but most of the time it is dry or muddy.  I thought if I could establish a canopy of marsh plants, the water might stick around longer in the shade of the plants.

Here’s a peek at one of the plants to pioneer along the edge of the mudhole – Prairie Cordgrass.  It’s been a wet year (5 more inches of rain this week) and the exclosure has had continuous water since snowmelt.

Butterfly milkweed has also been successful in addition to many other plants.  It is full of tadpoles, different kinds of dragonflies and butterflies, and many other things I’m sure I don’t see.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #70″

July 13, 2008 – Tribute to Dad?

A few weeks ago Claire was part of a Father’s Day service at church and she wrote and read this at church. We had requests to post it, so for better or worse, a 15 year-old’s perspective on her father!

TOP 10 THINGS I LEARNED FROM MY DAD

Fathers are one of the core places that we form ideas from, whether they are good ideas, or ideas of what not to do, fathers shape our lives, for better or worse. I am one of the fortunate ones to be born into a family with one of the good dads. One of the dads that helps me become a better person, protects me, while giving me independence, and listens to my thoughts and feelings and takes those into consideration.
However, being a good dad means that your child may not always agree with your decisions (especially related to chores and saying no to things!) But these actions by a dad show love and care. They teach us that the world is not a fair place, and sometimes we don’t always know what is best for us. Call it building character, discipline, whatever you will, but it is a crucial part to being an excellent father.
I would like to share the top 10 lessons that I have learned from dad so far. Many may seem humorous, but when you look beneath the surface, there is a greater lesson.

10. Duct tape can solve anything
From a young age, when something was broken, out would come the duct tape, and a quick easy repair made. Duct tape had many uses, innumerable uses. Dad showed me that. This philosophy soon rubbed off on me, whether I realized it or not. At homecoming I found myself in a hand-made duct tape dress, and I have made myself many a duct tape ball, and now I almost always keep a roll of duct tape in my backpack. Although dad has moved on from duct tape to greater things, that mentality from duct tape still stays with me. This gift of creativity from my father is a unique and useful quality, and I plan to find many more uses for duct tape in my life.

9. Scam off your kids
When you want to teach your kids responsibility, there is nothing like giving them the money they will need for everything and tell them to manage it. This was the system that my dad came up with three years ago. As a result, when I recklessly spend my money on something and I’m left lunchless, he will give me a pay advance- but, there’s a catch. I have to pay him a service fee. Or the time my sister Emma and I had our own mini business making and selling dog treats, dad charged us for electricity for the oven. These little things seemed ridiculous to us, and to our mom, but they are a great lesson in responsibility and accountability. I have learned not to take things for granted because of his little fees and charges.

8. Imitating singers with high pitched voices does not gain you popularity within the family
Dad also has a habit of singing along with rather sappy singers on the radio every once in a while, mostly to annoy us. These impressions are usually met with moans and groans from the back seat of the car. This lesson could be interpreted in many ways, tolerate people, or accept them for who they are, but I think the real lesson is be able to let loose, be free, have fun, and have no worry about what others may think of your little meandering into the wild and sometimes obnoxious side.

7. Even if photo documentation seems a bit excessive now, someday you’ll appreciate it.
Or maybe not. Who knows? In either case, Dad makes it a daily habit to photo document anything and everything around the farm and family. He’ll then compose a blog entry and post it for the world to see. Needless to say, we have countless photos of spring flowers, summer sunsets, fall harvests, winter icicles, family events, and hard labor around the farm. These photos really capture the spirit of our farm and family. It’s a way of showing how far we’ve come (the before and after pictures of remodeling projects or gardens). It can be a fulfilling experience of WOW! Look how far we’ve come. Or it can be a reflection of what went wrong. It’s a wonderful method of self reflection, and recording of memories for generations to come, or just for us in the future.

6. Being a nerd is not bad
Dad is a prime example of this. You’ll know exactly what I mean if you saw his middle school basketball picture. He is the tall skinny kid with the big glasses, the shortest shorts, and the highest socks. In high school, he was a sousaphone player for the marching band. Nowadays he is our computer guru, and fixes problems, and sets things up for the whole family and neighborhood. Dad also has a few strange hobbies including avid interest in Henry Wallace and collecting license plates. Coupled with high intelligence, an avid interest in Ebay, and a degrees in geology and English make him a top of the line nerd. Needless to say he has passed it on to his kids, and we appreciate it. Nerds run the world, they make a difference, so we all need to embrace any inner nerdiness that we may have.

5. Never set dates on when do it yourself project will be completed
This one is more something that he learned from me, that I in turn learned from him. Since we moved to the farm, we have been constantly remodeling our house (before this remodeling, it had been redone in the seventies. Let’s just say that it was far from attractive.) Until last month, my sister and I had shared a room since she was born (approximately 13 years and 9 months ago). At a young age, I was promised my own room by the age of 10, then it was 12, then 13, and then 14, and then maybe never. I of course, being a teenager, was rather bitter about this promise had been broken. As a result, my parents never put a time frame out for any project (at least to me anyway). In this way, I became extremely grateful when something was accomplished. And I do finally have my own room.

4. Family is not a democracy
This lesson was often learned the hard way, usually in some argument, or me whining how life wasn’t fair. Or even asking for a simple vote. On certain issues, yes, we could vote. But on other issues, the true nature of the family government came out- family is a dictatorship. A benevolent dictatorship, but a dictatorship nonetheless. This means, that in order to sway decisions in your favor, you have to get on the good side of the dictators. This could involve helping out with whatever task they are doing, or doing chores without being asked, or just being nice. This taught me that life isn’t always fair, and that you don’t always know what’s best for you when you are a kid or teen, and that those dictators will be there for you, to protect you and keep you safe.

3. Debate arguments do not hold up against the word of a father, no matter how logical
This relates to the concept of family not being a democracy. Last year, I became avidly active in debate, and I love it. But, when I tried the techniques (unconsciously of course) out on my dad, well, let’s just say it didn’t work. Because in debate, the argument, “Because I said so and I’m the dad,” doesn’t work. So he would automatically win any argument that we may have chosen to embark in. Of course I had no response to that, no matter how logical my argument may have seen. Debate may have useful skills for the rest of my life, but for home arguments and decisions, it does not have a place. Here too, the dictators rule the decision making process. And at this point in my life, it’s not a bad thing.

2. If you happen to have children, you might as well use them
Sometimes I wonder if my parents had children solely as farm labor, until I realize that we moved to the farm after they had children. So then I think we moved to the farm because they had children to help out with the work. But really, they have us trained pretty well in a variety of different farm chores. Doing all that hard work does definitely not seem like fun 80% of the time. But when I reflect upon it, it has also shaped who I am. There is something about hard work that changes something in a person, although it is difficult to pinpoint what exactly. I think a good general synopsis of that change is that it adds a different perspective to things. In any case, I am grateful for this perspective, despite the amount that I may gripe and complain.

1. How to start the car, but not how to stop keep it going
Recently, my dad taught Emma how to drive the stick shift car. He showed her how to start, about the delicate balance between letting out the clutch and pushing down the gas. Soon after, she had the car running down the driveway. When they began approaching the cluster of farm buildings at the end, Emma realized that she had not been taught where the brake was located. This relates a lot to the role a dad plays in your life. He helps you get started, and nurtures you, helps you through the tricky balances of things early on, but he’s not going to tell you how to finish your life, or what to do with it, just like he didn’t teach Emma how to stop the car. A dad has to know the balance between launching and controlling a child’s life. The car incident also shows that life can be scary. Letting a child figure out something for themselves and exploring their own life is the mark of a truly wonderful father.

We do not choose our fathers, but if I did have a choice, I would choose the one I have.

one year ago…”BWCA Trip Day 2″

July 6, 2008 – New Blooms

There are a few new blooms on the farm this week.

These are a variety of allium that were on super close-out late last fall. They add spunk to bouquets and attract beneficial insects as well.

These are the more common elderberry blossoms – this is the first year we’ve had a profusion of blooms, so we’ll have to figure what, if anything, to do with the elderberries, other than wild bird food.

one year ago…”Black and White”

July 5, 2008 – Fruit in Season

The cherry trees have gone nuts this year – although I put another photo of the tree up a few days ago, I couldn’t resist another.

We’ve been making pies, jam, and freezing the cherries. A reader asked for the recipe we used to make cherry jam, and I can say that the recipe is not hard, but varies on the type of sure-jell you use – the box has recipes for the particular type of pectin, so a recipe for “Certo” may not be the same as for “Sure-Jell” or “Sure-Jell Reduced Sugar.” We’ve also found that the company web sites have many more recipes and fruit combinations than the recipes enclosed in the box.

The mulberries are in full fruiting now as well. We keep a couple of big mulberries around – one by the raspberries that seem to keep the birds off the raspberries as they seem to prefer the mulberries. The only drawback is the occasional large purple splotch on the car. Another tree is in the chicken yard where the chickens eat every berry that falls.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #79″

July 4, 2008 – Strawberry Renovation

This might not look like much, but it is an important part of strawberry health.  After the berries have completed bearing for the year, I mow them down at the highest level I can and then spread compost on the patch.

This encourages the plants to send out healthy runners to improve the patch.  The berries were plentiful this year due to the rain, but the taste was not as sweet as year’s past until the very end of the season when things finally dried out a little.  I hunted down the last few hidden berries after I mowed, for a sweet goodbye to the strawberry season.

one year ago…”Three Minutes at a Time”

July 2, 2008 – Summer Deliveries Begin

Today, the summer delivery season begins.  We’ve done some small things, but today marks the beginning of the gardening delivery season.  We have settled on an á la carte marketing method that works well for us.  We used to go to Farmer’s Market, first in Marshalltown, then in Grinnell – but found the time spent picking produce, arranging flowers, driving, and sitting at market – only to come home and have to deal with all the leftovers was not worth our time for the amount of product we moved.

We then started a weekly flower subscription and the night before delivery sent out an e-mail with what other things were available, along with the prices.  Then the customers could order what else they wanted.  While most of this year’s customers have weekly flower deliveries, we have added some who don’t have flowers.  Customers have to option to come out to the farm for pick-up, or to have the order delivered for an additional delivery charge.

This year, it looks like the “new” Subaru will work well for the deliveries instead of the van as it gets about 10 mpg more than the van (and the van in turn gets 10 mpg more than the truck we used to take to Farmer’s market).  This delivery system is similar in some ways to a CSA, only it doesn’t commit us or our customers to a weekly delivery and gives us and them more flexibility – and we only pick what we know has been sold, so it is better use of our time as well.

one year ago…”The Unheralded Beet”

June 30, 2008 – Nellie the Goat

Here Nellie sticks her head out of the barn door as if to say “what ya got for me today?”

They’ve had a smorbasboard of different foods this spring. An acquaintance of a friend keeps buying 50 lb bags of various plant materials, hoping to use them for dye. They don’t quite work out as he planned, so we are the beneficiaries of 49 lbs of beet pulp, 49 lbs of ground alfalfa, and a 5 gallon container of liquid molasses. When you are a goat, it’s all good in small quantities!

one year ago…”Trees Gone Wild”

June 29, 2008 – Late Cherries

The cherries are late this year, but they are here – a welcome sight after last year’s late threatening frost and this summer’s rain.  The weather service announced that the first six months of 2008 were the wettest first six months of the year on record – we’ve never had a Jan-June stretch of wetter weather.


This is a North Star cherry tree – the other variety – Montmorency still has green balls for fruit.  This tree has already been picked a couple of days and has plenty more cherries ready to pick.  These cherries make great pies and jams.

one year ago…”Welcome Facets Readers”

June 28, 2008 – Des Moines Art Festival

Since Aunti Julie was here this weekend, we went to the Des Moines Art Fair.


Here Martin is amazed by a contraption that moves balls around a series of loops, falls, twists and turns.


You might recognize this guy from the July 21st Wind Turbine Dedication – one week at high hopes gardens, the next at the art fair!


The neices and nephew with auntie!


Linda seldom sees something that strikes her fancy – this artist, Mark Orr, had a series of ravens bearing keys in their mouths and Linda could not resist!  Here she is with the artist.


Here is the raven on its new perch in the living room near the front door.  One of the symbolisms of the raven and the key is the opening of doors and the welcoming of positive change into our lives.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #78″

June 27, 2008 – Chickens Need Rethinking

The loss of our local chicken locker threw us for a loop this year.  Instead of driving 20 minutes away and taking the chickens with us when we left, the closest other locker is an hour and 20 minutes away and we needed to take two trips, once to drop them off, then another to pick them up the next day.

The chicken raising business is perhaps the riskiest and least profitable enterprise we do.  Feed went up 25%, butchering cost doubled, and we used $70 in gas just to drop off and pick up the chickens at the locker.  I dropped them off on Wednesday and because of the longer trip to locker than usual and heat while we were waiting in line to start, we started losing chickens waiting in line.  I think we lost seven of the largest ones as they are most prone to overheat. Another person waiting with us had the same problem, but we were able to move about 50 of her chickens from her horse trailer to the empty box of the pickup.

The next episode was when Linda picked them up the next day – a storm had moved through the town before Linda arrived and power was out at the locker.  The locker owner understandably did not want to open the locker doors with the power off, because he wanted to keep as much cold in the locker while the power was off.  So more waiting while waiting for power to be restored.

We dropped about half the frozen chickens off with customers and kept the rest as a 50-50 mix between frozen and fresh for ourselves.  So this morning Linda and Emma worked on cutting up the chickens in meal-sized portions for quick winter meals.

We’ve been debating doing on-farm butchering, and the cost associated with the locker, the gas to drive there and the eight hours of time driving and waiting at the locker (not counting waiting for power to be restored) push us to think about that direction.

one year ago…”Milestones”

June 24, 2008 – Bee Swarm

This week we had a bee swarm on the farm. Bee swarms are fascinating. They occur when the hive is successful and needs to split or reproduce. We happened to see this one swarm on a fence on the boundary between our farm and the adjacent corn field.

The bees, all 35,000-50,000 of them, are fairly docile as they are homeless while the scouts are out looking for new lodging.

We called gj and she ran out and got a “nuc” or small hive box with some frames that used to contain honey to convince them that this is their new home. Beekeepers love swarms in June, because you can double your hives for free. Here she scrapes all the bees into the new hive box.

In this photo, the bees have nearly settled into the new hive while gj is building some new hive boxes for the new permanent hive.

We all know that in games of sport and heart attacks, minutes and seconds matter, well, we found out that is true with beekeeping. As the new hive boxes were traveling towards the nuc box in a cart, literally 45 seconds away, one of the giant field sprayers came down the road and entered into the field despite two people in white suits flailing their arms to attract attention to the driver. The drive into the field literally has six vehicles a year enter it and as it entered the drive, the swarm got spooked and lifted off and headed out across the field. I followed them for about 1/3 of a mile before they got out of my eyesight as they fly a bit faster than I could keep up. If we had left literally a minute earlier or the spray truck left a minute later, we’d now have another hive of bees, but as it is, they are now lost to us.

one year ago…”Anniversary/Roadside Natives”

June 23, 2008 – “EcoHeartland” Film Crew

Today we had a visit from a couple of documentary film makers, Nick and Max Cain.


They are putting together a documentary entitled “EcoHeartland” described as “Two brothers, one a filmmaker and the other an environmentalist, take a road trip across the nation to spotlight innovative environmental projects coming from the American Heartland.”  We had a nice visit and interview with them and look forward to seeing what they find on their tour of “flyover land.”

one year ago…”Invasive Plant”

June 22, 2008 – Skystream Data Logger

Today was a quiet day after the party – tearing down is so much easier than setting up. It was nice to walk around the farm in all its well-keptness and not be prone to weed or fix “one more thing.” I spent some time with the Skystream data logger.

The data logger uses RF to transmit data from the turbine to a laptop or PC. For the geek side in me, it was intriguing to watch the power generation graph while listening and watching the turbine so I could get a sense of how much electricity it produces at different sound/wind levels.

On this graph, the left axis of the graph represents watts produced.  The white line is power produced and the red line is RPMs of the blades.  This graph is in real-time and shows about three minutes of generating time left to right.  The peak in this period is about 1800 watts (or 18 100 watt light bulbs for perspective).  The day before it was windier and even though the turbine is rated as a 2kW machine (2000 watts) we saw it peak as high as 3600 watts – just as in fishing “you should have been here yesterday!”

one year ago…”Rain at Last”

June 21, 2008 – Dedication of “Boreas” Wind Turbine

Today was the big day – one we thought might not happen. We were very close to postponing the party a week ago in the wake of the flooding and water in the basement that demanded all our time – but we went ahead with the triple bash of wind turbine dedication, 2nd Annual Logan Township Music Bash, and Summer Solstice bonfire.

Linda kicks off the dedication ceremony with a welcome and introduction to all the guests, estimated at about 150.

Mark Tinnermeier, President of the Board of Directors of Consumer’s Energy speaks on behalf of our electric co-op, which was wonderful to work with through the entire process.

Todd Hammen tells a little bit about his story and the turbine he installed.

Todd was so dedicated to getting things up and running and working out any kinks that came along, that he deserved another photo!

As Brian Eslinger, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Ames, gazes upward to the turbine, he places the turbine into a perspective of being indigenous to a place and using all the resources of a land judiciously.

I spoke briefly about the christening and how we had a hard time deciding if the turbine should be “christened” as a ship or having a ribbon cutting like a new structure. With great clarity, she looked at me and said – “a christening – it is a vessel of the wind.” So it is.

Although it wasn’t captured on film, I did break a bottle of red wine over the foundation of the turbine and named it “Boreas” for the north wind.

A couple of attendees gaze upward at the turbine in thought and conversation.

We found a recipe for windmill on a stick cookies and thought that would be appropriate for the day!

Party favors included these mini pinwheels.

Linda readies the nighttime landscape with luminaries.

My mom tends the beverage cart with a smile!

One of the bands led by the multi-talented Reggie Greenlaw. I think this might have been the first time the band was “wind-powered.”

The second band (told you it was a music bash) led by neighbor Annie Grieshop. It was wonderful for people to sit and listen to the band or listen to the music blowing in the wind around the farm.

A caller, gets some dancers organized into a circle for promenades circle dances under the turbine.

Later in the evening towards dusk the solstice bonfire was lit, preceded by a procession led by the scottish bagpipes.

I particularly like this photo with the bonfire, people, and turbine in the background just after dusk.

Another viewpoint of the spectacular bonfire.

As the bonfire ebbs late in the evening a couple of people enjoy the night air and waning fire.

Special thanks to Nancy Tepper for being places I wasn’t and forwarding the photos to me – many of her pictures are used in this posting.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #77″

June 14, 2008 – Nearby Tornado Cell

We had a nice day – no rain, but heavy rain and hail just missed us when a supercell passed to our north a few miles.


This is a look at the backside of the storm just after a tornado warning was issued. The whitish part nearing the ground to the left of the farmstead in the distance is what everyone was worried about. We were so grateful we were spared more rain or wind damage.


As the barn and chicken coop are sopping wet with manure and water and the first hay cutting has not yet been made, I improvised and found some bedding along the road! It was easy to pick up and I hauled five truckloads home from within a mile of our house for the barn and coop.


The chickens are enjoying their new bedding, complete with seeds to peck at for fun and nutrition!

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #76″

June 13, 2008 – Statewide Flooding

It’s rather hard to take all the flooding in. I was especially struck with the photos from Cedar Rapids and a crest 10 feet higher than ever recorded before.


A couple of views of the flooding in the commercial district of Cedar Rapids.


Here’s a view from another river, another town. This shows one of the main entrances to Iowa City, Hwy 1, or Dubuque Street. The crest here isn’t expected for a few more days and to be about 5 feet higher than in this photo.


Another river, another town – here’s downtown Des Moines. You can see the riverside amphitheater stage sticking up out of the water.


Here’s the same place during a Los Lobos concert we went to last summer. We’re still pumping water in shifts out of the basement, but in good shape compared to many across the state.

one year ago…”Native Grass “Needlegrass”

June 11, 2008 – Another Day, Another 2.5 Inches of Rain

Today they promised more rain and violent storms, and they were correct. The storms moved across the state from west to east – I’m sure most of you by now have heard of the tornado that went through the boy scout camp in Western Iowa and I tracked the storm across the state as I manned the pumps. They brought 70 mph winds just a county east of here, but it finally fizzled out at about 12:30 am when it arrived and didn’t bring wind or hail, just 2.5 inches of rain. The pumping continues. I was able to sleep from about 1-7, with GJ here to take a shift at the pump and give some of us a break.

I got a bit paranoid about the well-advertised storms taking out electricity again, only this time having sump pumps without juice, so I bought a 1000 watt inverter and marine battery for backup power for the At any rate, it will be good to have for various power options now and in the future.

I see last year at this time we were picking cherries – this year they are still small hard green balls.

one year ago…”Cherries”

June 10, 2008 – Bad Feeling About Next Few Days

With many rivers already at or exceeding the Floods of ’93 and more massive storms predicted for tomorrow, I fear that the worst may yet come to pass. A couple of the state’s giant flood control reservoirs are already full and flowing over the emergency spillways – Saylorville Dam above Des Moines and Coralville above Iowa City. That means that any more water that comes down those river flows uncontrolled down and essentially over the dams via the emergency spillways.

Reports have come in from many farming acquaintances which make our trouble look tame. In eastern Iowa, one lost windows in their house and a historic barn. Another family in northern Iowa, the only way they can leave their farm is via their kayaks.

We continue to be on 24×7 pump patrol in the basement and had a rain-free day.

one year ago…”Fathers and Daughters”

June 9, 2008 – They Said a Quiet Day – WRONG!

After a steady day of basement pumping, we were looking forward to a rain-free day. By evening the flow had visibly slowed and we thought we had turned the corner. At sunset, some storms popped up to our south, leaving us with some incredible sky.

These are Mammatus clouds named after, well, look at their billowing roundness and you can probably figure it out.

A bit later, after the formation passed by a little further. It was a relief to have these unforecasted storms miss us. But that ended at about 11:00 in the evening when a big cell camped over us and dropped another 2.5 inches of rain on us. For variety, it also dropped hail, but not large enough to damage the plants. It stopped about 1:30 am. So another 2-3 hour sleep night for me. We are perilously close to bad things happening in the basement – so I’m staying home from work to deal with whatever may happen in regards to pump failure, blown fuses, or power failures. More strong and severe storms are forecast for Wednesday night – it would be nice to get one dry day under our belts.

Since 9:30 Sunday morning we’ve all (except Martin) been on 4 hour shifts manning the pumps. The basement doesn’t have a sump pit, so we have to manually turn the pumps off and on, according to how much water comes in. If we leave them running, they will burn out the motors, so, I ran network cable down so we can at least watch netflix movies online on the laptop or update blog entries.

Our friend, the sump discharge hose!

one year ago…”(Close) to Home on the Range”

June 8, 2007 – I’m Crying Uncle Now – More Storms

OK, Uncle. I said it. Anyone listening who can do something about it? This morning was the third time huddled in the basement for storms this week (and would have been four for me as I wished I was in the basement when stopped along the road during another fierce storm on Tuesday).

Some years we never have to take shelter in the basement, but three times this week alone! I beginning to wonder about the logic that if we attacked Iraq because they might have had weapons of mass destruction, might we also pretend that global climate change might be real and do something about it? The last year has been killer here – first the huge ice storm a year ago March, then the winter that never ended and brought storm upon storm, and now this spring that looks like in many places will top the summer of 93 floods and has brought record amounts of tornadoes.

Today’s damage photos consist of a partial collapse in the wind at Leon’s feed mill in Melbourne – 3 miles away. The debris broke a gas line and forced evacuation of the surrounding neighborhood for a while.

Also, about two miles away, this is all that is left of a construction trailer. It used to rest on the blocks in the foreground. Earlier in the week it blew over in a storm and they put it back up – but this morning it was ripped to pieces.

But I’m saving the worst for last – our basement. It started leaking about 9:30 this morning and I stayed home from church to deal with it. It was uneventful as flooded basements go until another round of storms knocked out power for about a half-hour. This is only the 2nd time in 11 years we’ve had any water in the basement. About 12 hours later, we’ll still pumping and it could be a long night – another downpour moved through in the afternoon – we’ve got two floor drains and they are both accumulating water, so we’ve got two pumps going. We seldom have water as the house is on the crest of a hill.

As if that isn’t enough – something is out of whack on the turbine. Our installer was out in a matter of hours after getting the call that it was acting funky. It was too windy to drop the turbine when he was out here to look at it (45 mph gusts), so he’ll bring another one with him this week and either fix the one that is not working correctly or put up a new one. Not sure what’s wrong – perhaps it’s out of balance as it strongly vibrates -perhaps some debris hit the blades in one of the storms – we’ll know more later this week.

one year ago…”Strawberry Season”

June 7, 2008 – A Rare Storm-Free Day

Today was a rare storm-free day. It was windy so it was a great day to fly kites.

Martin and Emma lay on the ground as their kites soar above. For me, it was a big outside work day – continuing to haul storm debris and getting some of the thistles mowed down in the back pasture before they bud out. Linda wondered why I was so driven and I replied it was the first day in a long time that I had a day to work.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #75″

June 6, 2008 – More Girl Skills

A little bit ago, Emma learned to change oil, now her job is to change a tire. It isn’t exactly an intuitive thing, so we had her change one at home under Dad supervision.

We had her find where all the parts were hidden (and helped me verify that they were all there on the “new” car). Here Emma raises the car up with the jack.

Loosening the tire nuts is always the most difficult part and these needed a little extension to break them loose.

Finally, the tire comes off – we put the spare on just to make sure it held air and we put everything back. We’ve driven a bit since Emma did this and no wheels fell off, which is much better than the guys at the local Wal-Mart auto shop. A local mechanic said he’s heard of five vehicles fresh out of the Wal-Mart garage that didn’t have the tires on right and they fell off while people were driving away, sometimes at highway speeds. Fortunately no one was injured.

one year ago…”Corn Transfer”

June 5, 2008 – Enough Already – Battered by High Winds

Last night about 1:30 am I awoke to the power blinking off and on and finally off for good. I went downstairs to find a battery radio to find out what was going as it was an evening of many tornadoes and we’re all a bit edgy after Parkersburg. The lightning was very intense and I had a bad feeling that a huge line of storms was heading our way after taking out a power line to our west – but before I could wake up everyone else, the storm hit and we scrambled into the basement – when I got into Emma’s room to fetch her, the open window on the south side of the house blew rain all the way across the room to the opposite side of the room! Any window that was open even 1/4 inch on the south side let in a torrent of water and it was so intense it even leaked through the floor and dripped out of the ceiling in the living room.

We huddled and found out a tornado was in the neighborhood less than a few miles away. I didn’t sleep very well the rest of the night and when we surveyed damage this morning, here’s what we found.


Our biggest casualty was this 60 foot spruce tree just north of Claire’s bedroom and near Martin’s playground. When we saw the big hole in the sky out Claire’s window at night, we new something was up. We shined our flashlights out and saw the tree had fallen. Claire was a bit shaken, thinking the tree could have fallen on her while sleeping!


Our one and only summer apple tree that bears fruit in July is also a victim of the storm. The chair was by the garage, about 50 feet away when we went to bed.


Maizie’s doghouse also got blown away a bit.


This is most interesting to me – we had placed black landscape fabric between our tomatoes and covered them with heavy hog panels – the wind picked the panels up off the ground and wrapped one around some tomato stakes. I literally sunk in 4-5 inches in the mud in the garden.


Even the hay wagon was kind enough to blow up from its usual resting place by the barn to up near the fallen apple tree to aid in cleanup! We were lucky the shed doors didn’t blow off, but they did blow out on the bottom.


The ground is littered with fruit that was ripped off the trees. These are cherries.


This white pine looks a lot different than it did yesterday – it looks like all of last year’s needles were stripped off the tree and mainly this year’s clumpy new growth were undamaged.


We weren’t the only ones – here’ s the view at a neighbor’s directly 1 mile east of us – they lost this pine and others as well.


Our neighbors immediately to our north had the most hassle as one branch is resting on the house, another limb took out a power line and they lost some shingles and siding as well.


Here’s a picture of nothing! You can see the cement forms which were part of a cattle feeder that usually has a building over the top of it – the cement remains and the building is gone. This is on the blacktop about a mile away near the big curve on E63.


Some of it is up to 3/4 of a mile away – the wreckage is strewn throughout the field – the farmstead that it came from is in the distance.


This barn was in sorry state before, but now it’s worse!


The pile of lumber to the left was in the garage, part of which is on the right! This is at the first house immediately to our north.


A part of an outbuilding roof ended up on the roof of another shed on this place, just about a half mile away. Right now we are feeling grateful and heard from our neighbor at the Sheriff’s Office that they think it was a tornado that didn’t quite touch the ground.

You may be wondering about the wind turbine – it’s up and running this morning!

one year ago…”Farm View Series #2 SE Corner”

June 2, 2008 – Linda Passes the Torch!

As many of you know, Linda met a long-awaited goal a few weeks ago. While teaching full-time, she managed to create a new academic program and get it certified by the State, converted 140 acres of cash-rent land to certified organic production at the college farm, and raised around $600,000 for some infrastructure (including some Leed-certified buildings), planning, and three year’s salary for a farm manager in her “spare” time. Since projects like these are ongoing and never seem to end, I thought that this would be a good time to stop and recognize the work she’s done.

The recently hired farm manager is a graduate of the Master’s Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State and also holds an MBA. He will be a great person to lead the charge full-time to train young and old, new residents and old-timers in theory, field production, marketing, and business management for entrepreneurial farmers.

The program aims to be an “incubator farm” that people who want to start farming can access land, take classes as necessary, and a be part of a network of like-minded people who see opportunity in value-added, niche, and organic products. A planned second phase will include an incubator kitchen where packaged food can be produced and sold. It’s been a long and eventful four years from idea to where the program is today.

one year ago…”Most Used Piece of Equipment on the Farm”

May 30, 2008 – Enough Rain Already!

We had about 4.5 inches of rain here yesterday and on top of saturated ground, that was enough to start local streams to spill over their banks.


This stream usually ends at the tree in the foreground, but has found much more room to roam.  This is near hwy 14 between our house and Marshalltown.  Knock on wood, no water in basement, but many people had water pouring into their basements via window wells.

one year ago…”Peach Culling Time”

May 28, 2008 – New Car for the Girls!

I’ve been looking for a few months for a car for the girls to drive (very soon I hope!) and finally found one that looked like a good deal! I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to get a 4wd vehicle as we don’t have any all-wheel drive cars, and sure could use one on occasion (like all of last winter). My top choice was a Subaru Outback as they are all-wheel drive and get 30 mpg on the highway and will be easy for the girls to maneuver.


This 1996 model was purchased from Rochester Ford within the budget and I have 7 days to check it out.

one year ago…”Memorial Day 2007″

May 27, 2008 – Weeding Raspberries

After lots of excitement on the farm, it’s back to work that has slid with all the recent activity. Some of the raspberries needed some weeding attention.


Here’s a stretch of berries with weeds doing a good job of competing.


A section showing the weeds lost the battle with Linda the weeder and the berries once again have better air circulation and chances to get sun and water, although water is not a problem this spring!

one year ago…”Soap Making Day 1″

May 26, 2008 – Memorial Day in Parkersburg Iowa

Sunday night the most powerful tornado (EF5) to hit Iowa in 32 years obliterated half of Parkersburg, Iowa.  The tornado picked up headstones at a cemetery and carried them 1/2 mile, took houses off their foundation and ripped tile and carpeting from floors. In a stroke of good fortune, the town installed a tornado warning siren in the section of town that was destroyed just 10 days before the storm hit, no doubt sparing many lives.

The devastation was total.  200-300 homes, the high school and many businesses were swept away.  Parkersburg is a couple of counties north of us, we escaped with only a window blown out in the chicken coop.

When we heard about the storm in Parkersburg, our thoughts went to our good neighbors, who have lots of family in Parkersburg.  We tried calling them Sunday night and again Monday to find out how their families were doing.  Later on the news, we saw that one of their family members was listed as a fatality.  She died in the basement of their home, in the arms of her husband, who is in University Hospitals in Iowa City with a broken neck and other injuries.  He has trauma-induced amnesia and can’t remember the tornado.  Another brother and many nieces, aunts, and in-laws lost their homes as well.  I can’t imagine the grief of simultaneously dealing with planning a funeral, caring for loved ones in the hospital, and arranging for salvage and clean-up of you belongings, all without any familiar surroundings.  This Memorial Day is especially poignant for the residents of Parkersburg and their families.  Keep them in your thoughts.

one year ago…”Half-Rainy Day”

May 25, 2008 – Skystream Summary

Doesn’t she look good up in the air? I’ll try to use this post to summarize some of the most-commonly asked questions about the Skystream. It is on a 70 foot tower (although they are commonly mounted on 35 foot towers in more crowded locations).

The machine is connected to the utility grid so excess power goes back to the grid (for example, on a windy night when our home load is low). The grid intertie leads to a couple of things people don’t immediately think about – when the grid goes down (when power goes off) so does the turbine. Like a generator, you don’t want current going back down the lines when linemen may be out repairing the lines. Nor does this unit have batteries. If you were in a remote location, far from the grid, that may be an option, but the batteries add substantially to the cost and only last about 10 years, so that configuration is not nearly as “green” as the straight grid intertie.

The unit recently had a software upgrade that changed the top speed before automatic shoutdown from 27 mph in the old one to 30 mph in the new one. It may seem like a small difference, but each time a gust goes above the upper limit, it turns off for 15 minutes before retesting the wind. So, if there’s a 25 mph wind blowing, a 29 mph gust won’t stop it and there is so much more power in the higher wind speeds that the latest upgrade has improved some installations by 20%

There’s also an optional RF USB device that you can plug into your computer and get a read-out of all the data coming out of the turbine. Eventually, the company would like to get this info via an internet connection where they could troubleshoot many potential problems without lowering the tower. Those units have recently been upgraded and the installer wants to wait a bit before I consider getting one to make sure all the bugs are out first. I do find myself going out quite often to look at it and the last few days have been very windy and it has been too windy numerous times.

One thing that struck me is that in a strange way it makes me much more conscious of my energy use – It’s fun those times the household load is lower than the turbine production and electricity goes out into the grid. Like the Prius drivers in the mpg drive challenges, it makes you look closer at the electricity you do use. And it is a treat to know that sometimes the computer is being powered by 100% clean and quiet wind power!

So in a way, I do get more enjoyment than the simple economic payback the turbine provides. I like that what used to be a monthly hole (paying the electric bill) now goes towards paying for a capital asset. Anytime you can convert a monthly payment into building equity (in this case, future “free energy”) it’s good for the long term.

I like the way it looks when you drive up the road to the farm. Like may things, I imagine the first few that go up, people think you might be a bit crazy – but after 5, 10, or 15 go up, then people start wonder what they are missing out on! We’re the third one in our county, so we’re on the way.

Today’s drudge job was piling the excavated soil back on top of the trench. Anytime you move wet soil by hand, it isn’t a fun thing, but in today’s heat and humidity (85 degrees, dew point in the low 70’s) it was less fun, but since there is a tornado watch and flood watch out for tonight, I thought it would never be easier or better than now.

one year ago…”Cute Chick”

May 23, 2008 – Oil Change Girl

Ok, farm girls need many skills! One of group of skills consists of basic mechanical and maintenance tasks.

It was time to have Emma do her first oil change. An oil change is a big step in a young teen’s life, if nothing else, to get to do something very few of her classmates have done. Here she is grasping the oil drain plug while she watches the old oil pour out of the oil pan.

The oil filter coming off is always messy!

Finally adding the new oil. We even let Emma try to work the clutch in the yard a few times to get ready to drive in a few years!

one year ago…”Gearing Up for Soap Making”

May 21, 2008 – Final Connections for Skystream

Nothing nearly as exciting as yesterday’s tower raising tody.

Making the trench to run the underground wire from the tower to the utility pole.

The trench from the utility pole and along the shed.

The other half of the trench. I’m including these more for my own records so years from now I won’t have to say “Now where did that underground wire go when there is more building or trenching on the farm?”

Unrolling the wire along the path.

Todd’s working on the prep work for the connections at the base of the tower.

Local master electrician installing the connections on the utility pole.

A new meter reading 0!

one year ago…”Walkin’ the Dogs Down a Country Road”

May 20, 2008 – Up, Up and Away!

Today was day two of the wind turbine installation.


Here’s Linda a GJ checking out the turbine blades just out of the package.


Everyone want to get in on touching the blades that will be spinning high in the sky in a few minutes.


This is the main unit of the wind turbine. This is the “magic box” where the energy from the wind gets transferred into electricity.


Here the pieces of the tower are clamped together with a collar.


Lining up the layout of the tower.


This picture shows it all – the blades and generator in the foreground and tower and gin pole behind them.


Mounting the skystream to the tower. The green rubbery things are noise dampers to help decrease vibration noise from the appliance (the wind turbine itself is a UL listed appliance, making grid connection almost like plugging in a refrigerator).


There’s lots of rigging to do to attach the tower to the cement foundation tie-downs.


Here a ladder is being used as a gin pole to raise the gin pole. The gin pole is used to help raise the tower by providing a leverage point.


Pulling the gin pole into place.


The gin pole up and in position. This pole is half as tall as the tower and as the tower swings up, the gin pole will swing down, creating a “flying L.”


Here’s the fun part, installing the blades on the tower.


The blades get installed by turning them backwards onto the turbine.


Everyone’s excited as the tower begins to lift off the ground. It just so happened that everyone was home when the tower went up!


Here you can see the gin pole to the left going down and the tower to the right going up.


The tower about 1/3 of the way up.


Check out all the rigging as the gin pole and tower continue the climb towards the sky.


The tower almost in position!


Ta-Da! The tower is up and in place. Tomorrow the trenching and wiring take place to make the connections to the house and grid.

one year ago…”Raccoons Make Poor Electricians”

May 19, 2008 – Wind Turbine Assembly Day 1

Today, the wind turbine tower assembly began!

Here’s the automatic pipe cutter doing its job on cutting a pipe to length. Last week five 21 foot long pipes were dropped off at the end of the driveway and I moved them closer to the turbine with the tractor. The pipes are heavy – about 375 pounds each!

Applying paint to the pipes.

Cutting the guy wires for the towers.

There’s lots of drilling in the pipes for brackets and various other connecting pieces.

Moving the pipes that will be part of the tower assembly into place. I thought this was an easy and clever way to move a very heavy piece of tower.

Working on the assembly of the tower to one of the footings. Tomorrow, there will be more to report!

one year ago…”Trees All Tucked In”

May 17, 2008 – First 80 Degree Day in 6 Months

Today it reached 80 degrees for the first time in about six months. The first 80 degree day is usually in mid-April, not mid-May. It was like a blast furnace, along with a 30 mph wind – clothes on the line dried in about 15 minutes, much faster than the dryer.


We got six lambs today – here’s three of them, appreciative of the lush grass, so appreciative that the one on the right is leaving a fertilizer deposit!


The starts look good – they are outside hardening off before getting planted – here is a flat of celosia.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #72″

May 16, 2008 – Tyson’s “Natural Raised Without Antibiotics” NOT!

It was much heralded when Tyson Meats came out with a line of “chicken raised without antibiotics” last year. Pay very close attention to the wording of the claim. Americans, led by doctors who see increasing cases of antibiotic resistance in human patients, have become more aware of the importance of not ingesting antibiotics as a course of daily life, thus the press release from Tyson announcing the new line of chicken.

Now, Tyson’s biggest competitors have taken Tyson to court. First, for labeling their chicken “raised without antibiotics” because it infers that other chicken is not as good. There have been a number of cases of “food disparagement” mainly against organic or natural food companies whose mainline competitors claim that making a statement that milk is free of rBSt or free of antibiotics disparages other foods and the courts have been sympathetic and ruled against the labels. The organic meat company I had the privilege of serving on the board of directors ran into this when a few years ago we wanted to test every beef animal for BSE at the company’s cost and put on the label “each animal tested for BSE,” but that would have been big trouble because it implies that other meat is not safe. The USDA forbid us in this case.

I always thought that this was a law aimed directly at small and organic companies from the big food corporations. After all, virtually any marketing claim implies that one product is better than another. Take Campbell’s Soup “Mm-Mm Good” – doesn’t that imply that other soups are not good? Or doesn’t “Good to the Last Drop” imply that other coffees beside Maxwell house are not good to the last drop.? Or perhaps closer to Tyson’s case is that “Finger Lickin’ Good” KFC chicken claim means that other chicken isn’t. I think you probably get my point.

The only difference with the latest Tyson case was that it was a big company suing another company for food disparagement. Tyson’s main competitors Smithfield and Perdue have lost $10’s of millions to Tyson as a result of consumers running to Tyson’s new “raised without antibiotics” label. In the course of the lawsuit this bit of Pulitzer-quality deceptive language came out of Tyson’s regarding their “raised without antibiotics claim:”

Then during trial in federal court in Baltimore, Tyson officials acknowledged they also inject eggs several days before they hatch with antibiotics that are approved for use in humans. Dave Hogberg, Tyson’s senior vice president for consumer products, said it is a common industry practice.

Hogberg said injecting eggs with antibiotics did not undermine the “raised without antibiotic” label because the term “raised” is understood to cover the period that begins with hatching.

More consumers are becoming concerned about the use of antibiotics in poultry, swine and cattle because they and many public health experts think that it contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant viruses in humans.

So, watch the language carefully – injecting the eggs with an anti-biotic bath means “raised without antibiotics!”

one year ago…”Technical Communication Conference”

May 13, 2008 – Queueing Up the Next Project

I hired out siding the 3rd story east and west dormers and while the guys were here, I had them frame up a new exterior wall for the old machine shed.

Last year I reroofed about half the building, but the half that is over me in the photo is beyond repair – so the new exterior wall will go on this framing. I’m debating saving part of the back wall and make a smaller open-ended shed for implements that will allow me to back into and detach implements and keep them out of the weather. However, taking part of it apart, may be tricky, so it may be a total tear down and rebuild. I’m still mulling it over. I’m not sure why the original machine shed was built so tall.
one year ago…”The Tempest”

May 12, 2008 – Peaches!

In addition to Reliance peaches, we recently planted some “Iowa Peaches” which are evidently smaller and white-fleshed. They bloomed for the first time this year.

The blossoms of the Iowa Peach are much larger and deeper pink than the Reliance peach.

Here’s a “starter” bird nest. It’s nestled in a sturdy place, but at about 18 inches off the ground, probably isn’t in a very safe place from cats and dogs.
one year ago…”Putting the Lambs to Work”

May 10, 2008 – Glorious Spring

We’ve reached a spring day worth living! Most of the fruit trees are in full bloom, the weather is beautiful, and it was dry enough to get some onions in the ground today.

The pinks and whites of the emerging apple blossoms are hard to beat.

Of course, the shy little violets tucked under the apple tree do their part to announce spring as well.

The cherry blossoms outdo nearly every other tree is sheer volume of blossoms.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #71″

May 7, 2008 – Shiitakes!

Today we found that the mushroom logs we had “planted” with shiitake mushroom spawn decided this wet spring was a good time to pop.  Earlier we showed the process to innoculate the logs by drilling plug spawns into logs.


Here’s a couple growing on a log.


Finally, here are a few in the kitchen on the cutting board.  We are looking so forward to trying some. Waiting a year after planting these is kind of like waiting 9 months to have a baby – you can’t believe it when they really arrive!

one year ago…”Trailer Guy”

May 6, 2008 – Out with the Old, In with the New

Late last fall the old electric fence charger gave up the ghost.  I didn’t go to great lengths to investigate why it stopped working as it looks as though it dates to only a few years after the invention of the incandescent light bulb. 

I didn’t go to great lengths to investigate why it stopped working as it looks as though the charger dates to only a few years after the invention of the incandescent light bulb. 


Here’s the replacement tucked away inside the chicken coop all rewired and ready for action.

one year ago…”Portable Fencing”

May 5, 2008 – Fruit Tree Blossoms

The first fruit trees, mainly the plums and apricots are in full blooming regalia. 

The scents catch you in unexpected places and gently remind yo to notice the wind direction and sweetness of the season.

I’m cheating here by putting this picture from May 6 in today.  Just after sunset a big line of storms moved through to the north.  Emma and I were out on the gravel road watching the huge outflow boundaries of the storm and looking for tornadoes as one had been associated with the storm just one county away (that’s within sight distance out here).  One second we were basking in the warm, humid south breeze and just like someone hit a switch, we felt the cold north wind rush past.


After years of waiting, the first pear blossoms grace the farm!

one year ago…”These Boots Are Made for the Hen House”

May 4, 2008 – Finally Something in Garden

Finally, the potatoes that sometimes get planted in March, most times get planted in April, this year didn’t hit the ground until May.  The wet, cold spring is delaying all planting.


Potato planting is greatly simplified with the trencher attachment on the tractor.  Linda also got small amount of the usual early season crops such as radish, lettuce, spinach and the like.  I spent most of the day battling tillers, bit finally got rolling.

one year ago…”House Under Cardinal Attack”

May 2, 2008 – Up and Coming Materials Engineer?

I was in and out of the workshop this afternoon and when I returned one time, Martin had a piece of wood in the bench vice and was trying to turn it to observe, and ultimately try to break the wood. Dad counseled him that it is indeed important work, that we should try different kinds of materials, but that we should also wear some goggles in case a piece flew towards his eye.

So, he tried odd pieces of things from the garbage – vinyl, wood, sticks and watched deformation and shear at work!

one year ago…”Tree Mulching”

April 30, 2008 – Wind Turbine Foundation Poured!

After the 3rd scheduled attempt, today was finally dry enough to get a cement truck with 5 yards of cement back to the wind turbine site without sinking out of sight.

Todd and James set the layout for the tower and four guy wire supports. A perfectly flat site is ideal, but hard to find, even in Iowa.

Setting the auger in the appointed location to dig out the first footing.

Great fertile, black Iowa soil coming up from the deep.

Setting and leveling the form for the footing.

Martin takes a peek down into the ground.

All five holes are laid out and dug out, waiting for the cement truck to arrive.

The bottom 1/4 or so of the hole is filled with cement.

The rebar form is set into the hole.

Cement is tamped in as the hole fills up.

Final finishing and troweling of the top of the footing.

The tie-down bolt for one of the guy wires is set into the footing.

The finished footing. Now we wait for 30 days or so for the footing to cure before arranging a time for the tower to go up.

It was a bit of a symbolic day to install the wind turbine footings as it was also the day the Iowa Utility Board approved the construction of a coal-burning power plant 15 miles away from us. The permit did come with some aggressive conditions, including 10% biomass fuel in the plant, and a 25% renewable portfolio for the power company by 2028 and 10% before the plant is built.

one year ago…”Blossoms at Sunset”

April 29, 2008 – More Loader Benefits

I don’t have a long trailer, so when I fetch cattle panels (16 ft long), I usually put them on racks on top of the pickup and topper. It’s kind of a pain to load and unload from such a height, but it was the only way to get them home. When I went in to get the wood pellets, I saw them loading some panels in a truck without a topper by arching them in the box of the truck by pushing them in with a forklift. Of course, the problem is getting them out, as they are under much force and could really cause an injury if you just opened up the tailgate end watched them spring back.

I thought I’d try it. But I had a better, safer, and quicker idea than racheting them together before opening the door – I’d have them rest against the tractor loader and slowly back up to release the pressure.

It worked like a charm.

one year ago…”New (old) Bookcases”

April 28, 2008 – Hot Chicks and Cold Nights

I wonder how many googlers will be very disappointed in viewing real chicks after searching for “hot chicks” in a search engine!

I’ve found over the years the most reliable predictor of unseasonably cold weather is the day chicks arrive on the farm. This year is no exception – we expect a low in the 20’s tonight and our county has a freeze warning and a flood warning – now there’s a combination that sounds like fun!

The chicks came at an unexpected time, so being the good farmer, I just used whatever I could find lying around to help keep the heat close to the chicks. Linda says these chicks must feel like they’re “living in a van down by the river” due to their ramshackle accommodations (apologies to the late Chris Farley). There’s a piece of leftover metal siding, an old storm window screen draped with one of the circa 1972 draperies that graced our house when we moved in, another more modern screen with an old sheet, and a salvaged window out of an outbuilding.

I must admit, I’m partial to the genius that is the old window over the makeshift brooder as it keeps heat in, while offering a peep in at the peeps.

one year ago…”Starting to Plant 150 Trees”

April 27, 2008 – A Constant Battle

There’s always something to do on the farm, but eventually the most urgent things spring to the top of the list.

One of these items is this fence. We’ll call it the “Leaning Fence of Melbourne.” It’s a bit of a pain to tear out the old, but this one is way past its prime.

Tearing out woven wire fence involves pulling out fencing staples from old posts, pulling the old posts out of the ground and ripping the old wire away. The wire is usually the hardest part as commonly there is of soil and grass above the bottom wire of the fence that makes is hard to pull up. Here’s some detritus from the old fencing – the salvageable woven wire will be turned into tomato cages, the rest to the recycling at the landfill.

A section of new fence, standing tall and proud.

one year ago…”Not in Our House”

April 26, 2008 – Stocking up on Fuel

We’ve always bee forward-looking about having supplies for future times. Years of canning food for the winter, buying meat by the hundreds of pounds at a time, and most recently signing up for a wind turbine. Now, I’ve locked in most of the fuel to heat the house next winter. There’s no one who predicts that the pellets will be cheaper next fall than they are now – so “investing” in this cost now will probably beat money invested in the market! With corn prices rising with no end in site, it will not be cheaper to burn wood pellets rather than corn in the corn stove.

We hauled home 4 tons of wood pellets home today – this is about 1/4 of the pile – these are tucked in the attached garage.

There is a bit of a strange warning on the bag:

I’m glad that the “Not for Human Consumption” warning was on the bag before I drizzled the wood pellets with a light raspberry viniagarette dressing for my daily requirements of fiber.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #69″

April 23, 2008 – Trees In

It was finally dry enough (barely) to plant the trees that have been sitting in the basement for the last week, waiting for a window in the rain to get in the ground. It’s a “climate change” collection – trees that we are marginally in the growing zone. I planted some Michigan Pecan, Persimmons, Paw-Paw, and Heartnut.

I’ve had persistent problems with rodents eating young trees, so I thought I’d try the tubex tree shelters with bamboo poles for this batch of trees.

It was a wonderful few hours – I had all the materials I needed (didn’t have to take a trip back to retrieve anything – I guess some good things come with experience – I’m probably in the golden age until I start forgetting what I need!) The meadowlarks and red-wing blackbirds were the soundtrack for the afternoon, a warm breeze swept over me, I was digging in luxurious black soil, and using water collected from a tank off the roof of the corn-crib which was closer than any other source of water.

Today was the 2nd try for pouring the wind turbine foundation – but it is still too wet as a cement truck would just sink in the soft ground. So, with more big rainfalls in the forecast the next few days, it’s postponed indefinitely. The good news is the turbine has been improved to increase the top speed from 27 mph to 30 mph – which means it will run more at high speeds and potentially give 15% more production over the course of a year.

one year ago…”Apple and Nectarine Blossoms Appear”

April 22, 2008 – Claire Strikes Again – Awarded a Trip to Washington DC!

As if earning the trip to Arizona yesterday wasn’t good enough, today Claire found out that she won an essay contest from the local Rural Electric Co-op and earned an all-expenses paid+ trip to Washington DC this June! It is part of the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour.

Here’s a brief description from the Youth Tour web site:

The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour has brought high school juniors and seniors to Washington, D.C. every June since the late 1950s. Students compete for slots for this unique opportunity and are selected for this program by their local electric cooperative. Usually the selection process takes the form of an essay contest, personal interviews or a speech contest. The selection process is different for each individual cooperative.

Students on the tour learn about electric cooperatives, American history and U.S. government and walk away with a greater understanding of their role as a citizen. They participate in National Youth Day, visit with their representative and senators and explore the sights around the nation’s capital.

Congrats Claire!

one year ago…”Plums Out of the Gate”

April 21, 2008 – State Envirothon Champions!

Today the Marshalltown high school Envirothon team won the state competition! It means Claire and her teammates get an all-expenses paid trip to Flagstaff Arizona later this summer to participate in the National Envirothon Competition. Here’s a part of the press release:

A team of five students from Marshalltown Senior High School beat out 14 other teams to win the 13th annual Iowa Envirothon contest held Monday, April 21, at Springbrook State Park. Marshalltown won or tied for first place in four of five areas of competition, edging out the Decorah Propaganda Pandas from Decorah High School for first place overall.

Marshalltown will compete at the national competition, the Canon Envirothon, held at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Ariz., July 28-August 3. In addition, each member of the Marshalltown team received a $500 scholarship from Iowa State University. The Envirothon tested the student’s knowledge in the areas of aquatic ecology, forestry, soils, and wildlife at stations throughout Springbrook’s Conservation Education Center. Each team also gave an oral presentation on “Recreational Impacts on Natural Resources.”

Judges said the key to Marshalltown’s victory was a dominating performance in the oral presentation, easily outscoring the competition. The Envirothon is North America’s largest high school environmental competition. The goals of the contest are to increase students’ knowledge and awareness of the interrelationship of our natural resources; promote environmental awareness and stewardship; develop students’ critical thinking, cooperative problem solving and decision-making skills; present balanced options for management of natural resources; and provide awareness of and accessibility to resource organizations offering assistance in environmental issues.

(Photo from Iowa Envirothon)

I must say it is not surprising that the team did so well with a member of Two Friends Farm (and state speech winner), along with Claire who gained much experience in debate and mock trial. We look forward to hearing more about the details of the upcoming trip. I tell Claire it’s important to be well-rounded and diversified (if you look at the previous day’s entry, you’ll see how well she goes from manure shoveler to state champion in consecutive days)!

one year ago…”First Round of Garden Planting”

April 20, 2008 – Manure Handling 101

Even though the ground is still very wet, we couldn’t put off cleaning the hen house much longer. The last few years we were able to do an early spring/late winter cleaning, but this winter did not provide that opportunity.

We had a better system this year – to keep the scoopers engaged the whole time, we alternated between loading the tractor bucket and a small trailer – while one was off dumping, the other could stay and be filled.

We also moved much of the winter household compost as it never really heated up this winter and acted more as a storage area than true composter. This bin is designed with removable panels, so here it is with the front panel removed, ready for scooping.

The resulting pile ‘o stuff – soon to be properly turned and magically turned into black compost for future gardens.
one year ago…”Putting Down Roots”

April 19, 2008 – Moving Fence

After another rainy week, it’s important to keep moving ahead, even though the saturated ground prevents us from getting the new trees and grapes in the ground. So today, we moved a fence to enlarge an exclosure in the pasture to accommodate the trees, even though we can’t plant them yet. With saturated ground, it was easy to pull and set the fence posts. It was foggy and drizzly in the morning, but stayed relatively dry in the afternoon.

Linda’s working with the post puller. This is one of my favorite pieces of equipment – it’s easy to use, virtually indestructible, and hard to lose! Since we don’t have much land to play with, we’ve opted to use cattle panels for much of the interior flexible fencing. We like the ease of installation and don’t have a lot of permanent fences, except the property boundaries, so even though it is more expensive initially, we never bought too much at a time, so the extra expense is worth it to us in ease of installation and flexibility.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #68″

April 18, 2008 – I Feel the Earth Move

Last night was the 5.2 quake centered in Illinois. It was felt west of Des Moines, so we were in a place where we could have felt it. We think we did, but never would have thought twice about it and didn’t realize it at the time. We both woke up (this was at about 4:30 am) and it sounded like a large animal was chewing on a door or some woodwork. Linda asked what it was – I said “It sounds like a big animal chewing on the door” and not wanting to actually find a big animal in the house chewing on the door, rolled over and went back to sleep, chalking it up as “old house” or “farm noise.”

Milo is having some troubles. This morning he looked dead, with a faint heartbeat. We brought him in the house and for the first time, tubed an animal. That involved taking a tube and shoving it down the kid’s mouth about 10-12 inches down into the stomach and them injecting milk from a syringe into the stomach, via the tube. It’s one of those things that is a bit unnerving the first time you do it – put it accidently into the lungs and you drown the goat. But this goat was virtually totally unresponsive and we had nothing to lose by trying.

So Linda gave it a try. Milo laid motionless for about two hours after that on a heating pad in the house. Then he blurted out once and I was able to get him to drink some more out of a bottle. He then actually got up. Then he slept for a few more hours and ate again and seemed miraculously vibrant. I thought since he was walking around, he should go back to momma, so brought him back in the barn – but within a few hours later, he was cold and sleepy again, so he came back into the house and was used as a “lap goat” on the couch and spent the night in the house.

one year ago…”Martin Brings Home a Tree”

April 16, 2008 – Milo and Fern

We’ve been anxiously awaiting Nellie’s first birthing experience as first timers can have problems until they figure it out. Paullina gave birth 2 1/2 weeks ago. Here are Milo and Fern – a girl and boy. They are very small but seem like they might be ok. Nellie has an “oh shi#*” look in her eyes, but seems to be licking the kids and murmering to them in the proper goat way.

Here they are a few hours after birth, Fern on the left, Milo on the right.

Compared to their barn mate Solo (being held by Emma) they are shrimps. Solo was born 17 days ago and was not a multiple birth and so he looks like a giant.
one year ago…”New Driveway Gravel”

April 15, 2008 – Utility Boy-to-Be?

The last cleanup from the March ’07 ice storm is taking place. I saw the utility trucks picking up some old poles that have been laying in the ditch and asked if they could bring some over (you never know who or when you could use some 20+ foot poles)!

They dropped some poles off at the end of the day and just left the truck parked at our place. It gave Martin a chance to see what it feels like to be behind the controls of a cherry picker.
one year ago…”Wendell Berry/Barn Burning”

April 14, 2008 – Christmas Tree Pruning

A few Christmas trees are a new crop for us, so I am learning as we go. I had a vague notion that as the trees got bigger, they should be pruned in late summer. Well, it didn’t happen last summer and the trees shot up some leaders that were 22 inches tall. I called the nursery I bought them from asking if I could still prune and got the go ahead – so pruned the top leader and started shaping the trees.

Here’s a before pruning photo.

Here’s an after pruning photo.
one year ago…”Finally, A Day”

April 13, 2008 – Six Pounds of Bees

It’s time to replace the evil hive that was invited to fly away on a 3 degree morning and start some new hives.

gj brought out six pounds of bees. It looks like a bee prison you might see in the “Bee Movie.”

Each box contains about 2000 bees and a queen bee. They will be put into the hives tomorrow. They were to be stored in a cool dark place (not a problem this spring!)

one year ago…”New Committee Duties”

April 12, 2008 – Local Food Challenge

Over the past few years there have been a number of web sites that challenge people to eat local foods. One I remember was a site where each week people posted a photo of a locally-sourced meal and told about it, giving mileages for each item. It’s harder in the midwest to do that at the end of winter, but tonight we had a meal I thought I’d share.


Egg drop soup with real free-range eggs from our farm and the first green harvest of the year – some chives from the herb garden can be seen adding a splash of color to the soup.


Second course is egg foo young, featuring, eggs from the farm, and chicken from last year’s broilers. We look forward to an increasing percentage of farm-raised ingredients in our meals.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #67″

April 8, 2008 – In the Bag

I have another scrounging success story.  I saw bags like this giant bulk bag outside a local feed mill.  It looked like they were throwing them away.  They were, so I picked up a few.  I think they are called spout bags.  These bags carried one ton of dried whey.

You may notice the round cut-out on the bottom of the bag – there is a sleeve that a sheet of hard black plastic slips into, as to regulate product pouring out of the bottom of the bag (or not, if it remains closed).  The bags have heavy duty straps on top (after all, the bag held 2,000 pounds of whey) and a couple of straps and fabric to enclose the tops of the bags.  They are envisioned to be used for storing the corn cobs we have lying around and they’ll be good to store and transport wood chips for future tree planting.  All I need are a couple of forks to attach to the loader bucket and I’ll be able to easily move them.  The price is right!
one year ago…”Easter Day”

April 6, 2008 – Tree Gone

After a day and a half of cutting, dragging, and hauling, I had removed all the portions of the tree g that are reasonable to handle for firewood.  I was left with a big long stump.  Since it is a soft silver maple, it is not good for lumber, so I needed to drag it away.

This is one of the invaluable tractor tasks!

I was able to drag it down to the near the burn piles, where we can sit on it for many years or throw it in the pile, however we see fit.  It was nice to get the site cleared and lots of wood added to the shed.
one year ago…”Cold!”

April 5, 2008 – Cleanin’ Up

Today the cleanup of the tree began. Martin and I started and worked on it from about 10 to 5 and Linda pitched in during the afternoon.

We got to play with many of the farm toys today – chainsaw, truck, tractor, hay wagon, and trailer. The truck is connected to a hay wagon full of branches, the trailer is full of cut-up wood and the tractor is there to help when the chainsaw gets pinched in a log and needs a lift.

So far, we stacked about a cord of wood in the woodshed. Today we stacked the short row we are sitting on and the row behind us. There’s still a lot out there, primarily the bigger pieces near the bottom of the tree.
one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #66″

April 2, 2008 – Old Silver Maple Makes Way for Wind Turbine

I got a call a few days ago from the wind turbine guy saying that dependent on weather, April 11 was the day to pour the foundation for the wind turbine. Amazing as it may seem for an Iowa farm, we had a difficult time siting the turbine on our property because of all the tall trees, the 70 foot buffer from the edge of the property, and needing it reasonably close to the house. We eventually chose a site with a full northern and eastern exposure, good western exposure and poor southern exposure. I later found out that the most common wind direction is from the south, although the N-NW quadrant is the most common quadrant. In order help out the southern winds, we opted to take out one old silver maple tree and to place the turbine in the path of the hole in the trees.

Here Martin plays on the trunks of the recently felled tree. I called in a professional to cut the tree down as one main trunk was leaning towards a building and I imagined three possible outcomes (presented in most likely order of possibility). 1) tree falls wrong way 2) chain saw gets stuck in tree 3) tree falls right way.

This shows the view of the tree before it was cut.

The view of the sky after the tree falls. Now it is my job to cut it up into firewood and haul the branches to a bonfire pile.

one year ago…”Willows in the Ground”

March 30, 2008 – “Solo”

The kids have officially named the baby goat.  The first name that hung around for a few hours was Henry, but eventually it turned to Solo.


The name was no doubt inspired by the fact that Solo was the first single goat born on the farm.  He’s already walking around in the pasture.  I’m thinking the next kid could be Hans.  Hans, Solo. Maybe the next kid could be Franz to to have Hans and Franz to “pump you up.” 

 It reminds me of the story of a confused student assigned to write an autobiography in a high school English class. Â  Through a google search of “Tito” the student wrote the fascinating and far-ranging story about “Marshall Tito Puente” and his amazing life as Yugoslavian dictator and latin bandmaster.

one year ago…”Mushroom Planting”

March 29, 2008 – Baby Goat!

Sometime between 8 and 10 this morning Paullina gave birth to her baby boy!


She’s a good worry-free mother who always does well with her kids.


This is the first year she’s only had one, but this guy looks big and vigorous.  If it makes any difference, we were hoping tha Paullina would give birth before Nellie, who is pregnant for the first time.  We hope she picks up some pointers from Paullina as she is close to her first birthing experience.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #65″

March 25, 2008 – Pasture Overseeding

Last year I frost seeded some clovers in the back pasture (frost seeding is a fancy name for just throwing seeds on the ground and the early spring freeze/thaw/rain snow moves the seeds down into cracks in the soil and puts them in a place to germinate).


The pasture was greatly improved from its grass-heavy state.  So this year I’m doing a couple more types of clovers and some birdsfoot trefoil.  The seed mixtures are so very colorful.

one year ago…”Ice Storm Cleanup”

March 24, 2008 – High Hopes Handy Hint

Maybe I’ll start a “handy hints” category.  I’ll see if I come up with more, but we’ll start with this one that works for farm and town.


Whenever you need to bring a propane cylinder to town to refill for the grill, set it in an old milk crate.  The tank won’t roll around in the back of your truck or in the car!

one year ago…”Getting Piled Up Chores Done”

March 22, 2008 – Snow…

Last night we got a light dusting of snow – enough to make everything white again.


It all melted in a day, but was still a bit of a bummer on Easter Weekend.  To the north, there was up to 10 inches of snow, so I shouldn’t complain too loudly.


It was a good day to make and frost the lamb cake – Nana was down and led the charge on the Easter goodies.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #64″

March 19, 2008 – Pruning

Today was the beginning of fruit tree pruning.

Some of the apple trees we planted are now large enough to climb up to prune the top branches.


The goats enjoy a little roughage and chew on the tips of the prunings.

Cherry trees generally don’t need a lot of pruning – primarily to get rid of the watersprouts near the base and any crossing or dead branches.

You can do your own “Where’s Waldo” to see what branches were cut from the previous photo.
one year ago…”When I Grow Up…”

March 18, 2008 – We Knew This Day Would Come…

Today we got the phone call that our local locker that processes chickens is closing its doors to chicken processing.  Golly’s Locker in Maxwell is no longer an option.  That means if we want to have our chickens processed at a locker, it would be about 360 miles of driving to drive there, drop off, pick up frozen birds and back home.  We’re going to have to think about on-farm processing as an alternative.

one year ago…”Back on the Farm”

March 15, 2008 – Maple Sugaring

Today we had a bit of a treat with an introduction to maple sugaring at Morning Sun Farm.  It looks like I’m following the sugar – a few weeks ago we walked through a sugar cane plant, now through maple syruping in Iowa.


Here the “Sapmaster” and one of his daughters check on the sap flow.  The sap flows best on days that are above freezing and nights that are below freezing.


Trees are tapped in a path throughout the woods.  The buckets (in this case milk jugs) collect the sap until the collectors come around.


Here’s a picture of a tap in a tree – if you look closely, you can see a drop near the edge.


Here Martin pounds a tap into a tree.


Here Martin pours sap from a tree that has been previously tapped into the bucket for transport.


This bucket is about 3/4 full of fresh sap.  I was amazed how crystal clear the sap is.


This is an old bulk tank salvaged from a defunct dairy used as a holding tank after the sap is collected, but before it is boiled.


Here is the sap boiling in the evaporation trays.


The sapmaster with his homemade boiler – consisting of an old fuel oil tank and other parts cobbled together.  He’s leaning on the cover that goes on the top.  You may also notice the scaffolding that he uses to support wind block in the case of strong, cold winds.  It is entirely wood-fired and about 8 gallons an hour evaporate.

Since the season is just beginning, I don’t have any photos of the next part of the process, nor the end product, but we have been able to put our stamp of approval on the final product in years past.

one year ago…”Red House Records Night at SXSW”

March 14, 2008 – Mud

I had to get the truck out of the shed to fetch a new appliance this week.  It wasn’t a good day to drive out of the shed.


The soft ground makes me leery to drive off the gravel, unless I have to.  It was the dishwasher that died, so we used it as an opportunity to get a more energy-efficient  model and to try a new brand – Bosch – as I haven’t been impressed with the trio of Frigidaires we put in when we moved in.  Linda asked in an email what skills it required – here’s my answer – “Skills?  I have skills.  Mainly heavy lifting, swearing trying to get it into a cavity, and hooking up water, drain, and wires.  And a lot of laying on the floor in puddles of water. That’s about it.”

one year ago…”American Music Night at SXSW”

March 10, 2008 – Chicken Feed

Today the feed truck delivered a ton of layer feed.  We have it mixed at the local mill.  It’s more economical than buying the bags at the farm store and we can keep the anti-biotics out.  When I was buying oyster shell at the farm store, I noticed that the feed prices weren’t up as much as I thought they should be.  Then I spotted the feed bags were now 40 pounds instead of 50 pounds! No doubt for “easier handling!”


At any rate, it sure is convenient to have the truck back right into the shed and unload into a wagon.  Fewer trips for us to town and we seldom have to worry about running out. It just so happened, that the truck was able to drive in on frozen ground today as the promised warm-up the next few days will undoubtedly lead to mud and big ruts if the truck came a couple of days from now.

one year ago…”Spring Getaway for Mark and Linda”

March 4, 2008 – A First Melting

On Sunday, the temps soared to 46 degrees!


In the back pasture, the four foot high fence is nearly buried and the yellow snow is water flowing through the snow from a drainage in the adjacent field.  We’ve got a lot of melting before spring comes.


A temporary river started flowing through a low spot in the back pasture.  It was strange to see and hear the sound of running water.  Here Martin is walking on a fence over the flowing water.  This time of year the snowpack can be deceptive as the top of the snow can look white and normal, but if you step in, it could be a couple of feet of slushy flowing water just below the surface.  These are fun days for the kids – to run around in conditions that often don’t happen – like water flowing through big drifts where where is usually not any water.

one year ago…”Frustration Begins to Set In”

February 16, 2008 – Thinking Ahead to Spring…

After a few years of planting “safe” trees, this year it time to go out on a limb in a manner of speaking and try some more unusual varieties.  It was prudent to start with native trees for the bulk of the planting, but now it’s time to experiment a bit a push the growing zones a bit.  All the following photos and descriptions are from Oikos Tree Crops in Michigan (I like to get trees from north of me, to help with hardiness, although I know that most of Michigan is a zone warmer than here due in part to the Great Lakes).  I ordered four of each to start.

New northern pecan selection created by using wild tree germplasm from across the U.S. Selections were based on the early ripening characteristics, so all seedlings would fill nuts every year in southern Michigan. Special thanks to the Northern Nut Growers Association, and some of our more nutty customers, we were able to obtain seed from Minnesota to northern Illinois. Some of this strain has its origin near the ancient portages on numerous Midwestern rivers and streams. It took about 25 years to evaluate this strain completely. In the last 10 years of nut production, there was only one year that the nuts didn’t fill. That was the same year the Concord grapes didn’t reach their normal sugar count and we had a frost at the farm on the eve of July 1. Besides that one extreme, we always have trees producing in our hedgerow. Starting in early October, the nuts will begin filling and be completely out of the shuck throughout the month of October and early November. Although many of the original seed trees have perished on the Mississippi flood plain, we are fortunate to grow and offer these as progenitors of a new generation of the most northern hardy pecan. Height to 60 ft. with equal width. Hardiness -35 °F.

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Next to the English walnut, heartnut is the easiest of the walnuts to use for nut production and edibility. The flavor is very mild, similar to cashews. Clusters of nuts are produced in profusion near the ends of the branches. The nuts are fairly easy to crack and come out in halves and wholes. The trees are easy to grow as a yard tree and will develop a wide spreading crown with horizontal branching. Young trees can bear nuts when only 4-6 ft. tall. A few insects attack the tree, but resistant to all fungal diseases that attack butternut or black walnut. Hardiness -25

The American persimmon is one of the most luscious and sweet fruits containing up to 30% sugar. ‘If not ripe,’ said Captain John Smith of Jamestown, ‘it will draw a man’s mouth awrie with much torment.’ ( Hmm – Similar to eating my grandmother’s corn relish.) And that’s the real challenge of growing persimmons north of their native range. Unripe fruit will make it difficult to use them for anything except frozen golf fruit balls and possibly feeding a few birds and deer. As the fruit ripens the astringency decreases and the sweetness increases. Trees can grow throughout the north even in Minnesota or Maine but in short season areas the fruits will not be edible to humans. Contrary to folklore, frost has little to do with ripening. Having a long warm fall something like an Indian summer really does wonders for edibility. About 25 years ago, we began surrounding our property line with American persimmons from different northern seed sources. Today we have many trees producing a wide variety of shapes and sizes of fruit. Ripening occurs from mid-September through late November. After the leaves fall, the fruit hangs on throughout the fall and winter. All types of wildlife consume this high-energy fruit either in the tree or on the ground. A favorite of deer, persimmons are a strong attractant and will bring them in quantity to your property. Deer rarely browse seedling trees since the foliage is poisonous to them. Persimmon is in the ebony family and the wood is very valuable for special uses like golf club heads. Dark heartwood. Persimmons will grow in a variety of soils, including clay, sand or wet muck. Tolerant to shade and competition from grass or other trees. Trees begin producing at 6-8 years of age. Dioecious-male and female flowers on separate plants. A seedling population will contain a 50-50 mix. There is no way to know ahead of time what sex the tree is until it flowers. Space 10-30 ft. Height to 50 ft.-30 F hardiness for our strains.

The largest native fruit – up to one pound – with a rich, custard-strawberry, banana flavor. Purple orchid flowers in early May. Best growth in a rich, moist high-organic soil, although tolerant to sand and clay. Grows extremely well throughout North America from Florida to Maine to Nebraska. Some commercial growers are found in California too. Two are required for fruit set. They need each other’s pollen to produce. It takes 4-8 years before fruiting begins. Slow-growing at first, established plants average 1-2 feet growth. The Louisiana Indians wove the inner bark into fiber cloth. The fruits can be made into jam or custard and mixed to make cookies and cakes. The fruits can be eaten fresh after they become soft and fully ripened in September and October. The seeds are lima bean shape and contain alkaloids that are not ingested by birds or mammals. Raccoons and possums are frequent visitors to the groves we visit in the wild. Deer never eat the foliage of the plant. A pyramidal tree to 20 feet. Plant 10-15 feet apart for a dense grove or 20 by 20 for an orchard. Great understory tree with oak, hickory and maple.

one year ago…”The Cast”

February 15, 2008 – More Fun on the Road

The plow has been by a number of times and the road is now at full width, but there are 6-8 foot banks of snow along parts of the road.

On the back sides of the banks on a downhill slope, Martin has spent many happy hours sliding, driving his Tonka truck, and pushing his truck down the drifts, kind of like the Hot Wheels jumps I made as a kid, only this is a much larger scale

one year ago…Thingamajig Thursday #61″

February 13, 2008 – Looking for a Wife? (I’m not)

Linda sat down at the computer and found a web browser open with the following in the Firefox “search in page” panel.


I could imagine it might be a bit of surprise to sit down to your home computer and find out that the person before you (most likely your husband) had searched for a wife, and been given options to view the next wife, previous wife, or highlight all wives!

Actually, Claire is to blame, she was doing an assignment on a famous person’s wife and used the search box.  Not a good thing to be looking for so close to Valentine’s Day!

one year ago…”Snow Sculptures”

February 12, 2008 – Mystery Package

Everyone, including the delivery driver, didn’t know what to expect in this 6 foot high package that was dropped off while I was at work.


Even though it was about 6 feet tall, the shipping charge was only $10.16.  The family is never too sure what might be in the mail at high hopes.


Mystery revealed – some tubex tree shelters and bamboo stakes – all at what I thought was very reasonable prices – a buck each for the tree shelters in packages of 5 that are usually $2.50-$3.50 each and the bamboo stakes were 6 foot for $0.30 each.  They’ll be used for something – perhaps a trellis or something else – it will just be good to have some around.  Thanks to Ray’s Supply Company for the quick delivery as well.

one year ago…”SXSW Draws Near”

February 10, 2008 – “Passable Roads”

This is one of those days where there is a huge diference between living in town and out in the country.  The roads in town are just fine and our road is, shall we say “passable” thanks to neighbors with equipment and not the county plows.


We left home early in the morning and came home after dark and found the drifts were higher than the car and the width of the road was a few inches wider than the width of a car.


Again, we’re happy to be home as it is still bitterly cold, but the wind has stopped - but 4-5 more inches are forecast for tomorrow.  This snow is exceptionally dense – shoveling it is more like digging dirt than shoveling snow.  I don’t know if it was the result of the snow being blown for miles and loosing the flakey edges or if the cold makes it pack together tighter.  Whatever the cause, the car drives over the smaller drifts instead of sinking through.

one year ago…”Newer Wheels Arrive”

February 9, 2008 – Stuck

The old wind fired up today – up to 45 mph blowing all day – filled up the road in no time.  Linda left for town before it started and the van plowed through the drifts until about 1000 feet from home.  Once again, the tractor was called into duty to pull it out.  A while later, more folks got stuck, and by this time, it took a bigger tractor with a blower and another truck with a blade and about 45 minutes to get this truck out.


This shot shows the tractor trying to clear a path to the truck.  We were all glad to get home and stay tucked in the house in this night that promised quick death to those who ventured outside not dressed appropriately.

one year ago…”Photo Friday – Sky”

February 5, 2008 – Ordering Seeds

We’re a little behind schedule on the 2008 garden already!  We usually have our seeds ordered by now, but that’s one of the things that fell by the wayside due to the trip over Christmas/New Years.

So once again, it is the hopeful time of year when the garden is full of luscious vegetables, the weeds are magically in check and the temperatures are warm!  We are moving “up” this year.  We ordered more vining/climbing varieties and plan on growing more on trellisis (or is that trelli?) – at our advanced ages, it only makes sense to be able to pick without bending over quite so much!

We’re excited about getting some 12-16 inch long pole beans (they should be great for dilly beans) climbing cucumbers, and some climbing pumpkin to go wild in the corn – the variety is even called “corn pumpkin.”
one year ago…

February 4, 2008 – More Yuck

It seems like we’ve had ice/snow/cold since early December this winter.

Here’s what the yard looked like after all the ice started falling off the trees when it warmed up to 33 degrees.  This big warm-up followed a thunderstorm at about 6 am this morning at about 29 degrees.  It was a bit out of the ordinary to have lightning illuminated the heavy fog when the temps were below freezing.  Martin was happy to have all kinds of rain in one day – rain, ice, and snow!
one year ago…

February 3, 2008 – Google Yourself!

Every once in a while, it’s good to google yourself to see what comes up.  I did that yesterday and found two publications in the past few weeks have included quotes by yours truly.  One was a story from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about Stern Tanning Company’s relocation from Sheboygan Falls to Milwaukee.

Iowa farmer Mark Runquist, who raises sheep, also is eager for Stern Tanning to ramp up its business.

The Runquist family’s small organic farm, located near Marshalltown, has used Stern Tanning to help create around a half-dozen sheepskin rugs annually over the past five years. The rug sales help supplement the family’s farm income, and Runquist said there are few other U.S. tanneries that provide sheepskin tanning.

The other story was from the Cedar Rapids Gazette concerning the public hearing on the proposed coal-fired plant permitting.

“I’ve sat through five presentations by Alliant on this plant and they’ve given us every conceivable opportunity to ask questions,” said Iowa Valley Community College District Chancellor Tim Wynes. “Don’t make this decision based on a fear — fear of the unknown.”

But in this case, the unknown fear was bigger than most the Iowa Utilities Board has previously considered — the fear that carbon dioxide emissions of coal-fired power plants may be deemed so damaging that federal regulators step in to halt their use or require extremely costly environmental controls to capture the carbon. “Alliant management should be fully aware of and financially responsible for this risk,” said Mark Runquist, a plant opponent from Melbourne. “Alliant plans to benefit financially by the operation of this plant. They should assume the risk.”

So, if you haven’t lately, it’s good to Google yourself to see what’s out there about you.

One year ago…

February 2, 2008 – Iowa Network for Community Agriculture Meeting

Today we ventured to Cedar Rapids for the 13th annual Iowa Network for Community Agriculture annual meeting.  The morning’s speaker was tangerine farmer and film-maker Lisa Brenneis from Ojai, California.  You may ask, what is a California farmer doing in Iowa talking at a local food conference?  Quite simply, if you followed yesterday’s blog entry – she was taking us down a different road.

Her film “Eat at Bills” profiles the wildly successful Montery Produce Market – a kind of market that currently does not exist in Iowa.  It was her job to stretch our understanding how local foods could be offered to eaters.


Here’s Lisa showing off some of the just-picked Mandarin Oranges from her orchard.  We got to take some home to share with the kids!  What a treat in February.


one year ago…

January 30, 2008 – Garage Keeper

Last week’s Thingamajig Thursday was part of this piece of folk art made by our friend and art professor.


The eyes are a couple of electric fence insulators and the body is a brightly colored combination of found wood.  Even though it has been outside through blizzard, cold, storm, and ice, it has maintained its color while keeping an eye on the place.

one year ago…

January 29, 2008 – 24 hours

Yesterday was sunny and 46. Laundry got out on the line.

Today, well, today is a day to survive, not thrive.  The temperatures plummeted to -2, along with winds of 51 mph, combined for a day that could suck the life right out of you if you were outside for very long.  It’s hard to get a photo that conveys that kind of cold.  So we’ll just let that day go with wherever the wind took it.

one year ago…

January 28, 2008 – A Crime in Some Neighborhoods

Here’s a picture of a crime scene in some neighborhoods…


OK, maybe crime is too strong a word, it’s against the rules in many suburban and urban neighborhoods. There’s even a group promoting the long-standing practice of drying clothes on a line and have started the “right to dry” and “National Hanging Out Day” (April 19) campaigns. There’s even a powerpoint presentation entitled “Laundry, An inconvenient chore?” Here’s some of their reasons to dry clothes outside

  • Save money
  • Conserve energy and the environment.
  • Clothes and sheets smell better
  • Clothes last longer. Where do you think lint comes from?
  • It is physical activitywhich you can do in or outside
  • Clothes dryer fires account for about 15,600 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 400 injuries annually. The yearly national fire loss for clothes dryer fires in structures is estimated at $99 million.

It’s worth a trip over to the site to poke around.
one year ago…

January 23, 2008 – It’s Cold, That Only Leaves Accounting!

The deep mid-winter is time to catch up on the pile-o-receipts from the past tax year. It’s not really too bad – I do a fairly good job of saving all pertinent materials in three-ring binders and entering sales as they happen, but the bill receipts get stuffed in a plastic pouch in the binder and finally get entered this time of year.


The scene is not especially inviting – a pile of receipts, last year and this year’s record books, and Quicken on the PC. It’s only a week or so until sales tax deadline, so that moves this up on the list of things to do. After the high hopes books get in shape, it’s time to move onto the personal taxes and accounting. Better in January than July.

one year ago…

January 22, 2008 – One Corn Wagon Emptied

The heating season better be over half complete!  The first wagon of corn is emptied.  100 bushels gone.  We’re on schedule, since at one time, I looked up the average coldest week of winter and it was January 22 – the average low temperature bottomed out on that day and slowy started rising afterwards.


There’s one more wagon, but in true delayed gratification style, the harder wagon to scoop out corn is in the first position and the easy one second.  My thinking is, near the end of the season I want it to be easier, not harder to get the corn.  The second wagon is a gravity wagon that I can fill up the buckets from a chute, instead of scooping out the top of a wagon.  When it warms up to a temperature where it is not bone-chilling to be outside, I’ll jockey the wagons around to get the current wagon closer to the door of the shed.

one year ago…

January 19, 2008 – Behave or Grandma Will Take You Out!

Finally, some farming pictures – outdoor farming pictures are few and far between during cold January weeks. However, there is one beehive at high hopes that is very aggressive and gj is not willing to work with overly aggressive bees. 


The solution is to go out on a cold morning and remove the bees.  She wasn’t too sure how long the bees would live in the 3 degree morning, so she’s dressed in full beekeeping attire.  I bet you never thought that beekeeper’s attire worked well as winter camoflauge.


One frame is removed and the ball of bees is visible from in the hive.


Scraping the bees off into the snow and cold air.  Some bees tried to fly away, but at 3 degrees the flight lasted about 5 seconds before they fell and perished.  Next spring we’ll start over with a new queen and some buddies.

one year ago…

January 9, 2008 – Ouch!

There’s a lot of good things to be said about a fender-breaker.


No one gets hurt; better this week than last week in the rental van.

One of the drivers in the family turned from a wet road onto an icy road and nudged a truck waiting at a stop sign.  This is what $1700 in damages looks like.

one year ago…

January 8, 2008 – Winter Chores

One of the winter chores is hauling buckets of corn from the wagons in the shed to the mud room.


I like to keep nine buckets full – this will last for 3-4 days, depending on the weather. You’ll notice a topping of oyster shell on the buckets – that’s to help reduce the “clinkers” on the stirrer in the firepot.

one year ago…

December 25, 2007 – Animals out on Christmas Day!

Before a hearty Christmas meal, we hit a trail to do some skiing.


Here’s something you don’t see every day – Martin losing his balance upon seeing a cow crossing an old railroad trestle!

In addition to the cows we saw earlier, this friendly white dog found the girls and accompanied them for the trip. The dog followed us all the way to the van and looked longingly at us as we drove away. At least he had some Christmas companions for part of the day!

The girls and I went out for a moonlight walk across the fields.  The fields are mostly all ice, with the recent snow all in drifts along fence rows and in our yard!  The night was calm and we trudged around for a mile or so to places we usually never go, and when I got back home, started playing around with the new camera – here’s a shot of a snowdrift in front of the hog barn.
one year ago…

December 23, 2007 – Not Fit for Man nor Beast

As expected, the snow and wind came – up to 40 mph gusts today.

We tried to go to church this morning, but only made it a few hundred feet down the road before burying the van in a drift. Thank goodness for the tractor to come to the rescue! It was good to get gj out of here yesterday. When the wind starts blowing like this, there’s not much to do except sit at home and wait until things get better. There’s been more tractors and tow trucks by the road today than cars.  Most everyone who tried to get by got stuck.
one year ago…

December 18, 2007 – Morning Chores

Just because it’s cold and dark, doesn’t mean that chores can slack.  Winter outdoor chores are greatly reduced – the horse, a couple of goats, laying hens and pets.  Everybody needs water and food for the day and eggs need to be gathered.

We’re on a seasonal rotation, with duties changing with the turn of each season – so starting in a few days, the chores will rotate once again.
one year ago…

December 11, 2007 – More Ice, Another “Snow Day”

We missed the brunt of this ice storm as the 1 inch ice accumulations went to our south.  The ice is starting to get old – now outside we have a layer of ice, covered by snow, covered by another layer of ice, topped off with another layer of snow.


This bird nest in a cherry tree has seen warmer days! Nonetheless, it was a beautiful landscape and all the schools were shut down. 


There was a north wind for this event, last week’s was from the south, so at least the piles of ice are on different sides of the buildings.  It was another good cooking day – baked turkey legs, squash with brown sugar, raisins, and nuts, wild rice casserole, and raspberry pie, with a couple of loaves of honey wheat bread thrown in for good measure!

one year ago…

December 10, 2007 – High Hopes Gift Boxes

Once again this year we are offering gift boxes with hand-made goodies from our farm, including hand-made goat milk soap, jams from organic fruit, and beeswax candles.


This is the large sampler box with jam, honey, goat milk soap, a beeswax pillar candle and two votive candles offered for $25.


This is the medium sampler box with jam, honey, goat milk soap, a beeswax votive candle offered for $15.


This is the small sampler box with three kinds of jam made with organic fruit from the farm offered for $10.

We offer these first to our regular customers but have a few left, so we are showing them on the blog.  They are in mail-ready boxes and we can mail them to you or your gift recipient for just the actual shipping charges. Contact us if you’d like to order some or get a shipping estimate.

one year ago… 

December 4, 2007 – Christmas Rant

Each year I envision a simpler Christmas.  Less running. Less buying.  More time with people who matter to us.  More Renewal. Maybe even more time preparing food together. These good ideas seem to fade as the season encroaches as the focus narrows to getting “the list” completed.  I get sucked into it – finding the best deals is a game that is quite addicting. But it only goes so far. I’m not sure it brings more joy. Thus, I was very much intrigued by Bill McKibben’s “Hundred Dollar Holiday.” This isn’t something that can happen cold turkey. I’ll probably buy the book after Christmas to see if if has hints for cool ideas to replace the gift-giving treadmill so as to not take something away, but to add something else more meaningful. Below are some of Bill McKibben’s thoughts on the holiday that get to the essence of the rant.

I’ve been called my share of names, but the only one that ever really stung was “grinch.” The year that a few friends and I started the Hundred Dollar Holiday program through our rural Methodist churches, several business page columnists in the local papers leveled the G-word we were dour do-gooders, they said, bent on taking the joy out of Christmas. And, frankly, their charges sounded plausible enough. After all, we were asking our families, our friends, and our church brethren to try and limit the amount of money they spend on the holiday to a hundred dollars “ to celebrate the holiday with a seventh or an eighth of the normal American materialism. There’s no question that would mean fewer “Pop guns! And bicycles! Roller skates! Drums! Checkerboards! Tricycles! Popcorn! And plums!” Not to mention Playstations, Camcorders, Five Irons, and various Obsessions. Perhaps my heart was two sizes too small.

So it was with some trepidation that I carefully reread my daughter’s well-worn copy of the Seuss classic, neatly shelved with Green Eggs and Ham, Horton Hears a Who and all the other secular parables. There on the cover was the Grinch himself, red eyes gleaming malevolently as he plotted the sack of Whoville. He hated the noise of the kids with their toys, and he hated the feast of rare Who-roast-beast, and most of all he hated the singing. “Why,for fifty-three years I’ve put up with it now! I MUST stop this Christmas from coming! But HOW?” Simple enough, of course. All he had to do was loot the town of its packages, tinsel, trees, food, even the logs in the fireplace. Even the crumbs for the mice disappeared back up the chimney. But of course it didn’t work. That Christmas morning, listening from his aerie for the wailing from Whoville below, the Grinch heard instead the sound of singing. Christmas had come. “It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!” After puzzling three hours till his puzzler was sore, the Grinch was forced to conclude that Christmas came from no store.

And so I breathed a sigh of real relief. Not only was I not a grinch trying to wreck the meaning of Christmas, it was abundantly clear who the grinches of our culture really are: those relentless commercial forces who have spent more than a century trying to convince us that Christmas does come from a store, or a catalogue, or a virtual mall on the Internet. Every day, but especially in the fall, they try their hardest to turn each Cindy Lou Who into a proper American consumer “ try their best to make sure her Christmas revolves around Sony or Sega, Barbie or Elmo. But Dr. Suess’s message went deeper for me. You see, when we’d begun thinking about Hundred Dollar Holidays, it was mostly out of concern for the environment or for poor people. Think of all that wrapping paper, we said, all those batteries, all that plastic. Think of all those needy people who could be helped if we donated our money to them instead. Think of all those families who went deep into debt trying to have a “proper” Christmas.

All those issues are important. But the more we worked on our little campaign, traveling around our region having evening meetings at small rural churches like the one I attend, the more we came to understand why people were responding – indeed, why we had responded to the idea. It wasn’t because we wanted a simpler Christmas at all. It was because we wanted a more joyous Christmas.

We were feeling cheated “as if the season didn’t bring with it the happiness we wanted. Christmas had become something to endure at least as much as it had become something to enjoy “ something to dread at least as much as something to look forward to. Instead of an island of peace amid a busy life, it was an island of bustle. The people we were talking to wanted so much more out of Christmas: more music, more companionship, more contemplation, more time outdoors, more love. And they realized that to get it, they needed less of some other things: not so many gifts, not so many obligatory parties, not so much hustle. The Real Reason to Change This is not an exercise in nostalgia. What are the problems peculiar to the moment that we might help ease by changing some of the ways we celebrate this greatest of national festivals? Problems?

Well, the environment, surely that’s one. Our enormously increased populations and levels of consumption are filling the air with carbon dioxide, changing the very climate. I’ve spent my career dealing with these issues, and they are vital, urgent, critical, alarming. Name your adjective. But these issues aren’t fundamental. The damage we’re doing to our atmosphere, our water, our forests, stems from deeper dilemmas, I think  “ and so does the damage we’re doing to the poorest people in our nation and around the world. So the reason to change Christmas is not because it damages the earth around us, though surely it does. (Visit a landfill the week after Christmas.)

The reason to change Christmas is not because it represents shameful excess in a world of poverty, though perhaps it does. The reason to change Christmas “ the reason it might be useful to change Christmas “ is because it might help us to get at some of the underlying discontent in our lives. Because it might help us see how to change every other day of the year, in ways that really would make our whole lives, and maybe our entire 365-days-a-year culture, healthier in the long run.

one year ago…

December 3, 2007 – In the News

There have been a couple of recent stories in the news about our neck of the woods. NPR produced a story about immigration and visited with people in Marshalltown, including a woman that went on the trip to Mexico with Linda and Claire’s high school principal. In addition to the audio story, there is a video story link below the story photo from a local coffee shop talking about the caucuses that features some folks we know. The old ladies steal the show in my book!

The New York Times travel writer gushed about the renewed downtown Des Moines. He said in part:

It was not long ago, as most Iowans will tell you, when East Coast stereotypes about this Midwest city were fairly accurate. Bleak and foreboding, a city with a desultory and desolate downtown, few places to eat and little to do once the candidates returned to often dreary hotel rooms. For the hordes of campaign staff members, reporters, television crews who have encamped here for the caucuses over the past 30 years  – great story, yes, but suffice it to say that Des Moines wasn’t the draw. But the other night in Des Moines, I had dinner with a colleague and the Iowa state director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign at a vibrant restaurant, Lucca, in the heart of a gentrified neighborhood called the East Village. The restaurant had more panache and better food than many places I’ve eaten in Washington, D.C. The East Village streets, spread out under the State Capitol, were aglow with lights – lavender, icy blue and, of course, red and green  –  strung out for Christmas. They were bustling with boutiques, bookstores, coffee shops, culinary stores and Smash, an edgy T-shirt shop where the proprietors were listening to Band of Horses while making slightly off-color T-shirts celebrating the Iowa caucuses.

Although Iowans still can’t quite put them up to talking smack about the improvements in their state, at least there are outsiders who can come in and do it instead.

one year ago…

December 2, 2007 – Make a “Snow Day”

I think we needed a snow day. Yesterday while everything was shut down outside, it was time for something completely different.


It was time to make gingerbread cookies and homemade bread! The tasks that should availed themselves (house cleaning etc,) were just too risky because you just never knew when the power might go out in the middle of vacuuming a rug!  So, it was cookies and bread.  Martin loves the honey wheat bread – so much so he calls it “dessert” and doesn’t want anything on it.  He even wanted to bring a PB&J sandwich to school instead of a school lunch of corndogs!


Here Martin shows off his moose and Minnesota cookie with important places in Minnesota for him marked with an X. He’s at the age where he loves cooking.  A few days ago we were working in the attic and as soon as we got up, I realized I needed another tool, so asked him to find a good radio station on the dial while I went to fetch it from the garage.  When I got up,he had dialed into NPR and was listening to Lynne Rossetto-Kasper on the “Splendid Table” and he was all excited because they were talking about spices and reported that most cinnamon in the stores is fake.

one year ago…

December 1, 2007 – In Like a Lion

December is in like a lion with an ice storm.  So far, it isn’t holding a candle to the ice storm that left us without power for 4 days and our neighbors for 8 days.  See February 23-March 4 blog entries for the worst 8 days of ice, snow, and wind I’ve ever lived through.


Chelsea doesn’t seem to mind the ice – she’s out running in the pasture this afternoon.


So far the ice accumulation has not brought any trees down, although it did cause some airplanes to slide off the runway in Des Moines.

one year ago…

November 28, 2007 – I Never Wait Until the Last Minute ;)

Today was the last “warm” day for a while – in the upper 30’s with 25 mph NW winds – but the next week or so is supposed to be much colder, so one overdue task remains – pulling up all the tomato vines, cages, and stakes – if I wait much longer the ground will be frozen.


Here’s the pile of old vines ready to burn.  You’ll also notice what served as the “turkey tractor” up until last week behind the vines.  All the tomato cages and steel posts are loaded onto the wagon and ready to be pulled to the other garden in the spring.  This beats stacking them on the ground and picking them back up and moving them again in the spring.  It only took me 10 years to figure this one out!  Our tomato cages are substantial – sections of old woven wire fencing bent in a circle, held in place with half a steel fencepost. Â We consider the store tomato cages to be worthless for tomatoes – we use them for bell peppers, but sometimes even the peppers get too big and blow down in a wind.


In addition to moving the tomatoes to different locations each year, we burn the vines to help cut down on disease overwintering.

one year ago…

November 25, 2007 – Last Lambs of the Season

Today the last of the seasonal livestock left the farm today.


The last four lambs were loaded up into the back of the pickup truck (complete with topper to keep them from experiencing winter wind chill).  Over the years, loading livestock has become much easier.  When we began, it seemed like a long ordeal – we’d try to make all kinds of ramps to the back of the truck from the barn, try to slowly entice them into the truck with food.  Eventually, a few would get in the truck, then they’d bolt out, or jump off the ramp and back into the pasture.  Of course, we’d also neglect to tie up the dogs, and they’d enter the fray.  Eventually, after period of disgust, bad language, and time periods of all-too-long nothingness, we’ve found the best way for us is to lure them in the barn with some corn, get two adults, and grab the lambs by the front and back legs and lift them into the back of the truck.  Everyone seems more relaxed, and it is important that the animals, too, are relaxed as anybody who has read animal expert Temple Grandin knows.

It is a bittersweet time of year for us.  We are very aware that the animals on our farm end up on someone’s table, often our own.  We have no doubts that our method of farming allows animals the fresh air, water, natural grass-based diet and space they are accustomed to as a species of animal on this earth.  Very few animals raised for food in the U.S. still have these rights.  We are grateful to the animals for what they provide to us and recognize the sacrifices made so we can eat.

one year ago…

November 24, 2007 – Change of Season

The shorts and straw hats are now packed away and out come the layers of clothes and boots to replace them.


Last Thursday’s snow recedes from the fields as well now that we are in the unofficial season between winter and fall. Shall this season be called “finter” “wall” “fallter” “wintall?” It’s getting too cold to work on some outdoor projects, but not cold enough to make you cringe when stepping outside.

one year ago…

November 19, 2007 – The Turkeys

Success this year.  We raised 10 turkeys this year and all 10 are still alive. They are now living out in the pasture and use an old hay rack for shelter/roosting.  Even at 20+ pounds, they are still strong enough to fly up to the top rail of the hay rack. 


These turkeys seemed particularly happy – one morning we were late getting out to feed them and we were surprised they en masse found a way to get to the back door of the house to announce breakfast was late!

one year ago…

November 18, 2007 – Digging Gladiolas

It’s time to get the gladiola bulbs out of the ground. It’s a little like Christmas or winning the lottery.  Many times you plant one bulb, and get back two, or sometimes even three!


This particular bulb has produced two new bulbs.  The original bulb is on the bottom, barely visible in this photo.  So, you just break apart the new bulbs and throw the old one back to the earth.  And again, the price is right – just a little labor in exchange for a stunning stem.  You can see the ground is a bit dry – after a very wet August and September, we’ve not had rain for a month.

Here’s a bushel basket full of gladiola bulbs, ready for winter storage and the promise of another season.

one year ago…

November 17, 2007 – Doesn’t Get More Old Fashioned Than This

After yesterday’s entry about sustainable enterprises and earning it – I can safely say that moving small amounts of manure from a barn to a garden are sustainable enterprises (however negligibly rewarding they may be).


It is strangely satisfying, though to move the fertilizer with only the labor of your own hands along with with a pitchfork and cart.


It’s a time of year we can directly put it on the garden now that the growing season is over.  This will be a tilled garden in the spring and although there is no financial reward, we will avoid having to purchase outside petroleum-based fertilizers, so I guess there is a reward of sorts.

one year ago…

November 14, 2007 – One Step Closer to Wind Turbine

We are one step closer to getting a residential wind turbine at high hopes gardens!  We had a site visit by an installer and now are waiting for a more final estimate.  If all goes well, it could be up in late spring/summer.  The following bit of information was very interesting to me.  It shows the wind speed and direction over the course of a year.  The site also has monthly charts to see how direction and speeds change over the course of the year.  The site is a branch of the ISU Agronomy Department, of all places! They have the charts for 17 cities in Iowa.


I was very surprised that the most common direction of wind is from the south, although the most common quadrant direction is from N to W.  I’m a bit of a closet weatherman (I think all farmers are) and am impressed how much data can get crammed into a simple graphic like this one.


Here’s a picture from the manufacturer’s web site of the turbine.  It is a Skystream 3.7. We may have to trim the tops of some old silver maples and maybe take down one behind the chicken coop.  More on that later.

one year ago…

November 13, 2007 – Hog Barn Update

Another milestone on the hog barn project.


Here it is as of this week – windows and roof all tucked in for the winter.  The unpainted part will be ripped out and replaced later.


Here it is October 3 of this year. I put this in mainly for myself because it seems I never get anything done, since I rarely have more than a couple hours at a time to work on a project, the progress seems painfully slow, but compared to what it used to be, even I can see improvement!

one year ago…

November 12, 2007 – Lambskin Tannery Burns

There’s been entirely too much news about fires on the blog this month – the fire at the solvent factory, the neighbor’s old house, and we just received a letter from our tannery (Stern Tanning in Sheboygan Falls, WI)  that their workspace burned down and our hides were lost.  We had five hides in process.  It sounds like they might be back by the end of the year.  This got us looking for other places to tan our sheepskins and we really didn’t find too many.  The best link we found was this one that lists 4 tanneries a bit down the page.  So, we’ll try again – we really do like the finished wooly hides.

one year ago…

November 11, 2007 – Corn Crib Phase Finished

One project now falls off the list – the east side of the corn crib!


Here’s what the east side looked like a few weeks ago.


Here it is today – all done except for putting the rake and corner on the corners.  But now when the east winds blow mist and rain for days, the old boards will not sit in wetness and rot.  Although it doesn’t look as good and the other sides, I do like the 3 foot clear panels that are on the top of the walls.  You can see I ripped out a couple of the original boards to allow more light in and it really does work to let light in.  So next year new doors are built to put the finishing touches on this farm building renovation.

one year ago…

November 9, 2007 – Mellencamp

Tonight we went to the Los Lobos and John Mellencamp concert is Des Moines.  I’ve finally figured out Mellencamp – he’s a folk singer trapped in the body of a rock-n-roll star.  He’s got the weight of all these much-loved rock hits from his younger days – “Hurts so Good” “Jack and Diane”  But at his heart, he keeps writing some of the same songs over and over - songs about America – with justice and liberty for all.

I think some people don’t “get” the satire in some of his songs, especially “Pink Houses.”  One of his most recent songs about the nooses in Jena, Louisiana is the latest example of John Mellencamp’s America with justice and liberty for all.

The most talked-about part of the concert happened when he invited John Edwards up on stage for a moment during an acoustic version of “Small Town.”  Along with cheers, there were angry boos, which aren’t quite as noticable in the video than in person.

You can see his version of Small Town with the introduction of Edwards on this clip from YouTube of last night’s show.

one year ago…

November 4, 2007 – More Child Labor!

Today’s child labor was much more excited to work.


A paint brush in the hands of a six-year old is a treat for this particular boy. Although the brush he was provided was small, he persisted for a long time, painting the bottom few rows of boards. He and Emma got the remaining unpainted lower portion of the hog barn completed. Now that the roof is done, “all” that remains is to tear out half the south wall and rebuild it inside for the “porch” and put in the new windows and doors.

one year ago…

November 3, 2007 – Child Labor!

Today was another milestone on the hog barn project.  The roof was finished today!


But, oh, the agony, as the girls complained when they were “invited” to help by cleaning up the waste from torn-off roof from the ground and sort the asphalt shingles into the trailer for the landfill and wood into the loader bucket for the burn pile.  But to their credit, they did.

one year ago…

November 2, 2007 – The Next Project

Because I just don’t have enough things going on at once, I’ve started to side the last remaining unsided part of the corn crib.  In truth, certain projects lend themselves to different weather.  This is something that is slated to be completed before winter.  It’s a good project to do on a day with no wind or a west or northwest wind.


I was just commenting out loud the other day that this place would not be good for a person that had to complete a job before moving onto the next project, or one that couldn’t let an unfinished project sit without finishing it. The good news is no matter what the weather, there is something that needs to be done.

So, the plan here is to complete the siding the same arrangement as the first two pieces and on the upper part of the building that isn’t covered by the red siding, to rip out every other board and I’m going to try the clear panels to let light into the building without having to run lights or put in windows, since this building is meant for storage of lumber, etc and the windows will be a liability.

You can also spot another water storage tank that hasn’t been blogged yet. It’s getting close to the time of year to drain them for the winter – this one will need to be drained and moved to get the siding up – another reason this is the best time of year for this project.

one year ago…

October 31, 2007 – Presidential Parade!

Living in Iowa as we do, I would be remiss if I didn’t comment on the parade of presidential candidates testing their message here.


Members of our family have already seen Barack Obama, John Edwards, John McCain, and we know people who have introduced Hillary Clinton on stage and hosted a house meeting with Sam Brownback (the Clinton-Brownback introducees/hosts were different people in case you are wondering!).  So it’s not far from the truth when people say each candidate has been in every living room in the state.  I have been terribly undecided so far and since they moved the caucuses to January 3, I won’t be able to participate in the caucuses.  So, I lose my voice in the process this year after being the precinct chair for the last caucus.  Unlike most of the country, Marshall County is divided quite evenly politically, with about 1/3 registered Republicans, 1/3 registered Democrats, and 1/3 registered independents.  So in some ways, this part of the state is a good representation of the nation.

one year ago…

October 28, 2007 – Rare Breed Chickens “Silver Campine”

The rare breed chickens the girls purchased a few months ago are growing up! 


There’s really no way to describe them other than “chickeny” with their black, white and red coloring, long legs, and chicken strut. The bird in the foreground is a “Silver Campine” a breed originating in Belgium and came out of favor when the commercial chicken industry got off the ground after WWII and the industry standardized on a few breeds and left many of the other breeds behind.

one year ago…

October 27, 2007 – Planting Garlic

Today was a catch-up day.  We missed the window of opportunity to plant garlic and fall bulbs early in the month, and it has just been way too soggy up to now to get in the garden.  So today we got the garlic in and some purple allium, and three kinds of peonies (Duchesse de Nemours -white, Sarah Bernhardt -pink, and Red Magic – red).  We also collected a bunch of seeds from flowers and beans, among other things.


A few days ago, I wouldn’t have bet that I’d be able to dig this trench with the tractor.  Our neighbor filled our two wagons with corn and I went out after I got home from work after dark to haul them back home.  On the way home, the tractor seemed like it was running a very rough and might not make it home.  In my paranoia, it seemed like the exhaust had a white tinge to it, but it was night, and I hadn’t yet run the tractor at night, so I wasn’t sure what it looked like normally at night.  My fear was coolant in the combustion chambers.  Or, I thought maybe the heavy load was straining it because one of the wagon wheels was nearly locked?  But when I got home and stopped the tractor, it still was acting up.  I turned it off and a few minutes later it wouldn’t start.  So I went and got the 2nd wagon with the truck (I felt some urgency as rain was possible in the forecast) and felt lucky not to get stuck in the soft waterway with a two wheel drive truck and gravity wagon full of corn and a dead tractor unable to pull myself out.

Over the night, ruminating about how much a cracked head or other major repair would cost, I remember an old mechanic telling me that if I ever put gas that had a mixture of ethanol in an engine that had not run it before, it would dissolve and break loose all kinds of gunk that might be in the gas tank/fuel system.  I may have grabbed a gas container that had ethanol in my rush to get out in the field.  So in the morning I thought I’d drain the carburetor and check out the gas, and if necessary drain the gas tank and start over.  But after draining all the gas out of the carburetor, it started up and ran just fine – so I am attributing the problem to a fuel line problem that has worked it self out.

Having the tractor to dig trenches to plant garlic, gladiolias, and potatoes is a huge back and time saver.

 

one year ago…

October 26, 2007 – Hog Barn Progress

Another current project is the hog barn renovation.  About 2/3 of the roof is now up.  I’d like to finish painting the upper floor and get the remaining 2nd level windows in and roof on this week.


Following that, but not as urgently, is to paint the right hand side of the lower level and replace those two windows.  The left side will be reconfigured to be a “porch” of sorts.  The outer wall will be torn out and a new wall built what is now “inside” so animals will be able to get out of the sun and under the porch on this southern exposure from the outside.  That way if the barn door should get shut by the wind during the day, the animals will have a place to go for shelter. 

one year ago…

October 24, 2007 – Fall Leaves

It seems like the leaves are really reluctant to turn this season.  I’m not sure if it is the warm, moist fall – we really still haven’t had the temperatures drop into the 20’s yet this season.


Today I got a dose of the legendary Menards customer service.  My steel siding/roofing was in, so I went to town to pick it up. 

1) Show them my slip at the service desk, they call the back for a load out, no one answers. 
2) They try again in a few minutes.  No one answers. Wait.
3) They try a different department.  No reply. Wait.
4) Try calling again.  Still no answer. Wait.
5) Finally, they find someone with a pulse and have me sign the handheld checkout contraption.  The battery dies. 
6) The person who was in charge of the sign-out device tells me she “isn’t authorized” to put a new battery in. 
7) Repeat steps 2-4.
8) Finally, someone at the proper authorization level replaces the battery and instructs me to drive around to the back.
9) No one is there, and when someone does appear, they are not able/authorized to drive the forklift.  At this point, I’m ready to get something done, so I show them my truck and say I’ve got to go run some other errands, so I go buy some new shoes as my farm shoes have needed replacement for a couple weeks.
10) When I return, the truck is loaded, but there is confusion about whether they sent the right amounts of each color I ordered.  At last I suggest I’ll just go home and let them know if I’m short. 

I spent a good part of the afternoon unloading the pieces, almost a ton’s worth – for the roof of the hog barn, some of the walls of the hog barn, and the east side of the corn crib. 

one year ago…

October 23, 2007 – Attic Update

From the project that never ends department, an update on the attic remodeling. The drywall on the ceiling is up! It’s now the home stretch. After it gets taped and sprayed, then we can paint it and start on putting the beadboard on the walls.


The view down the new big dormer to the south.


The view out one of the original small dormers to the west.

one year ago…

October 22, 2007 – Adolescent Cooper’s Hawk?

Today Martin and I ran across an adolescent hawk near the old machine shed. Â She let us approach very close and I thought it might be injured, but eventually we saw it flying around.  Immature birds are hard to identify, but we think it is a Cooper’s hawk.


I think she was interested in the chickens, but was smaller than they are! But then again, she has what looks like it could be blood above and below her left eye, so maybe she did have a meal courtesy of high hopes gardens! Maybe that’s why she was reluctant to leave as well. I’m not sure you can see it in this shrunken picture, but in the original photo, one of the talons is easy to spot.

one year ago…

October 21, 2007 – 1,000 Blog Entries

Yesterday was blog entry number 1000 on high hopes gardens blog! Â  When the blog was born 1,000 or so days ago (February 13, 2005) I thought it would mainly be a place to report on “the farm.”  It has since taken on a split personality as it it sometimes hard to separate the “family” from the “farm” and the blog is a place where friends and family can stop in at their leisure and catch up with the goings-on at the farm.  But there are also the entries that are more family-related and not farm related, so there is a bit of writing to two audiences.

The greatest unintended benefit of the blog is the record it presents of our lives and I trust it will be very amusing and revealing to our children to look back at their childhood, season by season, even day by day.  In a way it is a combination of a journal and scrapbooking – even things as little as two years ago I’ve forgotten – I can’t imagine what it may be like for them to show their grandkids in whatever form it may take by then, printed pages or computer screen.

So, on it goes – I think I’m ready for another 1000.

one year ago…

October 7, 2007 – Old Man Stiffness

After two long days of overhead pounding, prying, lifting, tearing, and standing at an odd angle on a roof, the body seeks its revenge! It’s the upper thighs that are complaining most vociferously. They’re not on strike, just calling a day of rest, and I’m inclined to agree, assess what further materials I may need and do a town run. And so it is.

one year ago…

October 6, 2007 – Getting Ready for New Roof

Today was a hard day of labor on the hog barn.  I ended up having to tear out the old roof as I went along as I wanted to get a direct connection to the new rafters to the 2×4 stringers across the roof.  The old sheathing was really rotten.  So, 7/18 of the length of the roof (not that I’m counting!) has the stringers across (on the newly attached rafters), ready for steel roofing when it arrives, probably some time this week.


I also got some painting done and two new widows and trim in – the windows are a pain as there is lots to do.  I decided to use the vinyl windows and trim, so it will never need to be painted.  It was a good day’s work – dusty and hot as we are in the midst of a rare hot humid spell, with dew points reminiscent of summertime and the cement and brick floors of the outbuildings sweating with condensation.  This is really dusty and dirty work as some of the dust in the roof has been trapped for 90 years!

On the house front, I’ve finally found a drywaller to do the ceiling in the attic (way to many angles with the slanted roof and three cathedral ceilings in the dormers all coming together in odd angles). If I think of it, I’ll shoot an update of the progress up there this week.

one year ago…

October 5, 2007 – The Reconstruction Begins

The first stage of putting a new roof on the hog barn begins.  About 30% of the roof is gone, most of the rafters are rotted, but it is still standing.  The first step is to replace the top plate of the walls and then add new rafters.


Here’s a view of where the rafter meets the top plate on an exterior wall.  The bottom 2×4 in this section was not rotten, but I cut and scraped out the top one.  My friend is the Sawz-All today!


A nice new top plate of treated lumber in place.  Today I did this for about 40% of the length I need to do and notched and installed the new rafters along the same distance.  The same story over and over, get the floor jack out, lift up the old rafter about 3 inches, shove the new raftter in place, lower the old rafter and nail everything together. Repeat.

one year ago…

October 3, 2007 – Sorry State of South Side of Hog Barn

Here’s what the current state is of the south side of the old hog barn. We’ve been fixing up buildings one at a time and it is now time to do this side of the old hog barn. We roofed and painted the north side two years ago, and it looks sharp (and dry). But you can see this side needs some work. Hopefully this will be a great “before” shot to compare to the finished product.


The good part about projects like this one is that it’s easy and rewarding to make huge improvements even if things aren’t exactly perfect. Just having a roof and windows will be a huge improvement. Every time I drive home in the daylight, I can see this side of the building from the road and it bothers me. But from the driveway you see the good side and forget about it.

one year ago…

October 2, 2007 – Chelsea the Mini Horse in Permanent Home

This week the kids (even Martin) worked hard getting the rest of the corn cobs out of the horse stall. It became a bit more imperative as I want to start working on the hog barn soon and can’t when she was in there for temporary lodging. So I whipped up this gate to fit the odd size of the stall.


We thought it was a nice big space,but she promply ripped the gate hinge out of the wood. So, a sturdier design and she seems to have calmed down and is starting to make it home.

one year ago…

September 29, 2007 – More Folks Poking Around the Farm

Today we had some students from a livestock class tour the farm. It sounds like a fun class – the students tour dairy, elk, goat, and a wide range of common and uncommon livestock farms.


We fit into the small and diversified category. Here, I am getting ready to demonstrate how owl hoots get the turkeys to gobble and fluff up their feathers.

I still remember when I learned this trick from a turkey hunter when I had a summer job at the Story County Conservation Board. I didn’t believe “Joe” when he said, he could make wild turkeys gobble. So one day when we drove down a gravel road into a small timbered valley, he stopped the truck, stuck his head out the window and gave some owl hoots, and out of the woods, came the turkey alarms. I didn’t think there were any wild turkeys living there, let alone that he could get them to talk. It even works on domestic turkeys. I guess the owls are one of the turkey’s enemies and if they hear an owl, they set out the alarm.

one year ago…

September 25, 2007 – Putting Food Up

When people wander to the basement and see our assortment of canned goods, they accuse us of being Mormon or survivalists! Since we’re near the end of the canning season, I thought it would be a good time to show the canned goods. This reminds me a bit of the inside cover of Bill Bryson’s “Thunderbolt Kid” that shows a family of the 50’s posing in front of all the food they’d consume in a year. (Though, I didn’t drag out all the frozen stuff from the freezer or root crops for this photo.) I wondered how drastically that picture would change if you did the same today for the average American family – it would be dominated by pre-packaged foods and fast food containers.


The shelves contain stewed tomatoes, pickled dilly beans, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, salsa, raspberries, applesauce, and about six diffferent types of jam.

one year ago…

September 24, 2007 – Hops Harvest

The hops experiment has been somewhat successful.  The vines didn’t cover quite as much of the trellis as I’d hoped, but it did produce hops in year one!  Check out what it looked like on May 11 from the same vantage point.


So, now I’ve got to figure out what to do with them. (Actually I know what to do with them, it’s the how I lack.)


Here’s some of the harvest on the drying racks.  I’m virtually clueless on the correct time to harvest hops in this part of the country.  Any brewmasters out there have advice for me on timing and post-harvest?

one year ago…

September 21, 2007 – Fall, Up Close

The state’s main commodity crops are in drydown.


Here’s a group of dried soybean pods, about ready for harvest. The first combines are out this week. I started scrambling a bit today when I saw our neighbor starting on corn. Since he’s the one that loads up our wagons for the corn stove, I spent a good part of the day getting the current contents of the wagons unloaded. One had ground broiler feed, so I scrambled to find enough empty garbage cans to accomodate all the feed. The other had some corn left over from last year, so I bagged all that up as well. Now I’m ready when he comes over to fill up our wagons.

one year ago…

September 17, 2007 – Turkey Roosting (hey, that’s only one vowel exchange from roasting!)

The turkeys have taken to roosting on the top of the back brace of the hay wagon. They crack me up. It’s actually a good place to roost, especially if your behind is over the back instead of over the wagon!


I wonder how long they’ll be able to fly up to roost as they get bigger? Nine are roosting up on top and one stays on the ground. I wonder if the ground-dweller is the mystic/philosopher of the flock or just the least intelligent one?

one year ago…

September 16, 2007 – Wild Chicks!

In all the excitement of the past few days, I’ve neglected the “wild chick” story.  While we were getting the horse settled the girls saw a hen with chicks under its wings.  They were, as Martin described them, “wild chicks” as they were laid, brooded, and hatched without the aid of a nursery.


It’s the first time that a hen has brooded chicks, and we were in the dark that the hen had squirrelled the eggs away.  There are three of them, all different colors, so they may have different pappas.

one year ago…

September 15, 2007 – Mid-September Frost!

It’s early for a frost.  Very early.  Here’s Linda out last night covering some of the flowers in the garden.  We rolled out every tarp, old sheet, and even an old dish towel or two to try to survive the night.


We’re especially worried about the flowers since we have 25 centerpieces for a dinner to get out this week.  It was a hectic night – the horse came, and with the imminent frost, we picked raspberries and tomatoes and covered flowers, peppers, and a few tomatoes racing against the sinking sun.

I’m not 100% sure but I think the work paid off – we had a light frost here and it killed some things, but I think the plants that were covered will be ok.

one year ago…

September 14, 2007 – I Never Said “Over My Dead Body!”

This might look like the girls are out on the road taking the dog for a walk.  But it is a moment Emma thought would never come – the day a horse came to the farm!


The person we bought it from (The Jolly Rancher) preferred not to turn around her horse trailer in our yard, but was kind enough to bring it to the beginning of the gravel road, 1/3 mile away – so the girls got to walk/run the horse home!


The horse is a 6 month-old miniature horse named “Chelsea.”  She won’t get too much bigger.  We saw some at the Iowa State Fair pulling carts and Dad softened from his hard line of “no horse ever on this farm” to “I could see having one of those for the girls to train to pull a cart.”  The upside is they don’t eat much and aren’t as dangerous as a full-size horse.  So here’s Chelsea, the latest addition to high hopes gardens.

one year ago…

September 12, 2007 – Buckwheat Cover Crop

We have found that using buckwheat as a mid to late summer cover crop works well for us.  It grows well in hot weather, provides late season forage for the bees, and if the flowers go to seed, we fence in the chickens to eat the seeds, fertilizing the garden for the next growing season.


You may notice the chard is still hanging in there quite well. Once it makes it through the heat of summer it revitalizes and is the last thing to die back in the garden.

one year ago…

September 10, 2007 – Horse Stalls in the Barn

The girls have started to attack a barn horse stall.  This one has been filled with corn cobs (and has been since we moved in).  I attached it one afternoon with a wood chipper to make some chicken nest box bedding, but haven’t done much with it lately.

The girls have removed about half of it – filling about 30 gunny sacks full.  The barn has a number of these stalls, the first of which Linda uses to arrange flowers, the others are filled with “stuff.”

The alley along the stalls is this nice red brick.  We were surprised when we cleaned the dumping grounds out of the barn a while after we moved in to find this wonderful floor.  We had someone from the Iowa Barn Foundation come look at the barn and he said if we wanted to the barn would probably be eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of this floor and the unusual roofing support.  We haven’t pursued it, but are fixing up the barn as we have time – mainly needs new windows and doors.

one year ago…

September 9, 2007 – File Under: It Works

Joel Salatin would be proud of this cheap and easy temporary turkey shelter.  The turkeys used to be in the “turkey tractor” (the moveable pen that is now upside down on the old hay wagon).  But they were getting too big, so I just put a tarp over part of the wagon for rain protection, put the tractor on top as a rain porch for the food, hung the waterer on and voila – a movable turkey resaurant, hotel, and umbrella.


I had thought of building a small shelter for the food and turkeys, but this was much quicker and probably better than a portable shelter that would be prone to blow-over and perhaps not as easy to move as this one, already on wheels.  The turkeys are all within a fence that keeps big critters like dogs and coyotes out, so they are free to roam a fairly wide range.

one year ago…

September 8, 2007 – Raspberries & Apples

Today was another big picking day – both raspberries and apples.  I even got tired of picking raspberries today.  We also started on the peach harvest, they seem to ripen better off the tree.  But those will be for another day.


So, 24 more jars of canned raspberries, 11 pints of peach-applesauce, and 22 pints of raspberry-applesauce.  The apple sauce was from some apples we had peeled and frozen earlier in the season, plus some apples the girls picked and peeled today. ‘Tis the season for harvest.  I was thinking, although it might seem like a lot, 33 pints of applesauce is not even one jar a week.  OK, you can subtract summer months when other fruits are in season, and that leaves us with one jar a week from today’s batch!

one year ago…

September 5, 2007 – Fall Raspberries

The fall raspberries are really coming into their own – it seems like by the time you pick to the end of the row, more have ripened at the beginning!


I much prefer the fall-bearers to the summer berries because they are so much less work and produce more.  It would be hard to give up all the summer bearers, as waiting until September is a long time.

one year ago…

September 4, 2007 – Marshalltown Garden Club

Linda was asked to give a presentation to the Marshalltwon Garden Club, so she snuck out of school (didn’t really have to sneak) and gave a presentation over lunch, then that evening offered a tour of the farm.


Here, they are gathered around the paw-paw tree, just one of the off-beat plantings at high hopes gardens.  About 25 folks made the drive out here, including some neighbors who I’m sure where just plain curious about some of the things we are doing.  It was a nice group of people who have an understanding of how things work (or don’t) out in the field.

one year ago…

September 2, 2007 – Another Big Canning Day

Today was another big canning push.


We moved the stainless steel table out under the shade – the heat has returned, but not the humidity.


Today’s haul was 35 quarts of tomatoes and about 55 jars of raspberry jam.  It’s not bad with many hands.  One of Emma’s favorite tasks is blanching and cutting up tomatoes.  Even after all this, we still snarfed down sliced tomatoes at dinner – it’s hard to get sick of something so good!

one year ago…

September 1, 2007 – Honey Extraction

Today is the day that beekeeper gj gets the rewards of her labors!  We gather the frames in the middle of the day and put them in the back of the truck and park it miles away.  After dark and the bees are in bed, we warm up the garage to about 85 degrees and start extracting.


The first step is to take the wax caps off the combs.  Emma has grabbed a frame and is slicing off the caps (wax) with a warm knife.


The frames are put into the extractor, four at a time and spun around by hand.


At the bottom of the extractor, Martin is the “gatekeeper” and manages the honey coming out of the extractor and makes sure the filters don’t spill over.

one year ago…

August 29, 2007 – Fowl Brooding

We’ve got three separate batches of poultry brooding now – 50 more broilers in the old hog barn, and in one half of the chicken coop, we’ve got the fancy chickens and guineas.  The broilers can’t be with any others since they are too pushy and the fancy chickens and guineas can’t be together since they require food of differing protien levels.


So our solution was to stick an old piece of paneling in the ring to divide it up.  The paneling has come into many uses – we ripped all the sheets of the dark paneling off the walls of the house shortly after we moved in and I just stuck it in a shed and slowly have been finding uses for it in unexpected ways.

one year ago…

August 27, 2007 – Passport Ready?

I earlier wrote that Linda was selected to go on an ag trip to Mexico this fall.  Now, she’s going on ANOTHER trip, this time, a bit further south - to Costa Rica in the winter (winter here, not there).  A group from Iowa State periodically sponsors trips for ag professionals and growers to experience a different kind of agriculture.  Linda was invited to go on this trip to Costa Rica – here’s a bit about the tour from the organizer:

“We will tour farms, co-ops, processing facilities, and research centers for a wide range of crops, including coffee, banana, pineapple, papaya, flowering ornamentals, sugar cane, diverse vegetables, mango, citrus, etc.  We will be based in a hotel in the capital city, San Jose, and take day trips out to destinations in a comfortable, air-conditioned bus, returning each evening to the same hotel.  We will get to see these sites up close, and talk to the growers and managers.

Aside from its marvelous agricultural diversity, Costa Rica is an incredibly beautiful place.  Elevations range from sea level (Pacific and Atlantic Oceans) to over 12,000 ft at the top of volcanoes.  Although the focus of the trip is agriculture, we will get to be tourists, too, seeing volcanoes, beaches, and even rainforest.”

It was kind of weird since we were just talking last Friday about some people who had traveled to Costa Rica and loved it. We added it to the “Love to go there someday” (when we had money, time, and a reason) - when a few days later, it drops in her lap.  Linda can’t decide if she’s more excited to go as a farmer or a biologist!

one year ago…

August 26, 2007 – One BIG Local Meal Arrives

Finally, the meal begins!  We’re not sure exactly how many people ate, but it may have been around 110.
The first people move through the local food line.  We used up all the plates and forks! The dishes all had notecards explaining what the dish is and the source of the food.


This is one dish that Iowans can eat locally year-round – salsa and corn tortilla chips.  I enjoyed eating from the mobile salsa tray!


Finally, the meal is over and the event grand organizer can breathe a sigh of satisfaction following a first-time event pulled off successfully.

one year ago…

August 24, 2007 – Fancy Fowl

Claire and Emma pooled some of their money to buy some fancy and rare breeds of guinea hens and chickens. They ordered them from Sandhill Preservation Center, a place devoted to the continuation of rare breeds of fowl and heirloom seeds.

This is a Partridge Silkie. This will be a small, fancy chicken with feathered feet (you can already see the feathers on the feet!)

Now, I know some of the skeptics out there may think this may be a copycat attempt to cash in on the good fortune of the folks at Sugar Creek Farm who won a trip to Hollywood and Disneyland with the Chicken Little crew, all just for having a picture of a silkie on their blog! It’s a fun story and you can see part of the story at their site. The girls just liked this chicken and we can only hope that Chicken Little 2 gives us a call!


We think this is a Coral Blue Guinea keat. They ordered about 12 of each – so now there is be even more diversity on the farm!

one year ago…

August 22, 2007 – Dog Agility

Emma loves her dog – Maizie.


Here she is working with Maizie on some dog agility maneuvers.  For a little dog, she can really jump – she can regularly clear the top level of the jump.  She’s now about two and starting to settle down a bit and learning what it takes to be a good dog here.  A couple of rounds of dog obedience lessons, some videos from “dog whisperer” Cesar Millan, and she’s on her way – not there yet, but much closer than a year ago. 

one year ago…

August 21, 2007 – Garden Spider

Here’s a nice shot from the garden today. 


This is a strawflower being used as an anchor for a garden spider to weave it web. I’ll claim arachnid ignorance on knowing what this spider is really called – we just call them garden spiders. They usually first appear this time of year and are striking additions to the flowers and raspberries.  I’m glad to see them, because it means fall is finally on the way.

one year ago…

August 19, 2007 – Local Food Resources

I thought I’d post the list of local food resources (many, but not all are specific to Iowa) for those of you asking – where do I find good local food?

Directories

Local Harvest

www.localharvest.org

Iowa Farmer’s Market Finder

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/farmermarket.asp

Des Moines Metro Buy Fresh/Buy Local

http://71.18.109.16/resources/marketing-and-food-systems-related-resources.html

Iowa Vineyards/Wineries

http://www.iowawinegrowers.org/

Iowa Apple Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/applegrowers.asp

Iowa Asparagus Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/asparagusDirectory.asp

Iowa CSA Directory (CSA)

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/CSAdirectory.asp

National CSA Finder

http://www.wilson.edu/csasearch/search.asp

Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/fruitvegetable.asp

Iowa Family Farms Meat Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/list1.html

Iowa Honey Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/honey.asp

Iowa Organic Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/organic.asp

Iowa Pumpkin Growers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/pumpkinGrowers.asp

Iowa Strawberry Producers Directory

http://www.agriculture.state.ia.us/strawberry.asp

Do it Yourself

Guide to Home Canning, Freezing and Drying Foods

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publications_usda.html

Path to Freedom (city garden)

www.pathtofreedom.com

Yard Permaculture Examples

http://www.greenhousebed.com/Permaculture/permaculture_examples.htm

ATTRA

http://attra.ncat.org/

Social Networks

One Local Summer

http://www.pocketfarm.com/?page_id=507

Locavores

http://www.locavores.com/

Slow Food Iowa

http://www.slowfoodiowa.org/

Eat Local Challenge (and other challenges)

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

General Information

Food Routes

http://www.foodroutes.org/

Iowa Network for Community Agriculture

http://www.growinca.org/

Practical Farmers of Iowa

http://www.practicalfarmers.org/

Edible Iowa River Valley

http://www.edibleiowa.com/

Reading List

Omnivore’s Dilemma

Michael Pollan

“One of the ten best books of 2006” – the New York Times. Pollan delves deeply into the natural history of four meals and traces the source of the food back to the source, whether in an Iowa cornfield with UUFA member George Naylor or hunting a wild pig in Northern California.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver says “This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air.”

Coming Home to Eat

Gary Nabhan

In this intriguing yet unsatisfying volume, the author chronicles a year of striving for a diet consisting of 90% native flora and fauna, found within 250 miles of his Arizona home. Nabhan is an ethnobotanist with an interest in seed preservation and director of the Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University.

The 100 Mile Diet

Alisa Smith

The authors of this charmingly eccentric memoir decide to embark on a year of eating food grown within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment. Thus begins an exploration of the foodways of the Pacific northwest, along which the authors, both professional writers, learn to can their own vegetables, grow their own herbs, search out local wheat silos and brew jars of blueberry jam. They also lose weight, bicker and down hefty quantities of white wine from local vineyards.

Fast Food Nation

Eric Schossler

Schlosser’s incisive history of the development of American fast food indicts the industry for some shocking crimes against humanity, including systematically destroying the American diet and landscape, and undermining our values and our economy.

Chew on This

Eric Schossler

A version of Fast Food Nation for underage readers.

The End of Food

Thomas Pawlick

Canadian journalist and part-time farmer Thomas F. Pawlick documents the impending food crisis and traces its direct cause to the harmful methods of food production and processing currently used by the so-called agri-food industries to the detriment of everyone’s health and well-being. It’s a bleak picture, backed by hard-hitting evidence and true stories, but Pawlick makes it abundantly clear that it is not too late and devotes the latter part of the book to the many ways that ordinary citizens can take back control of the food supply by becoming active on a local level

Slow Food Nation

Carlo Petrini

The charismatic leader of the Slow Food movement, Carlo Petrini, outlines many different routes by which we may take back control of our food. The three central principles of the Slow Food plan are these: food must be sustainably produced in ways that are sensitive to the environment, those who produce the food must be fairly treated, and the food must be healthful and delicious.

one year ago…

August 18, 2007 – First Big Canning Day of the Year

Today was the first big canning day of the season. Â  We had made a few batches of jam earlier, but this is the first time we rolled out the stainless steel counter and old cooktop from the house and set up in the shed, since there was a chance of rain and it was hot out in the sun.


All the “stuff” ready to go. It beats making the big mess in the kitchen.


Martin got the jars ready for tomatoes – he measured out the lemon juice (for acidification to allow boiling water canning instead of pressure canning).  He also measured out the salt for the jars as well – stylistically decked out in his “Bob the Builder” apron! Can we can it, yes we can!


Emma’s job is to help blanch the tomatoes to get the skins off before making the crushed tomatoes.


Finally, the afternoon’s haul – 24 quarts of tomatoes, a few jars of blackberries and raspberries, along with the frozen beans.

one year ago…

August 17, 2007 – They Call Me the “Bat-Man”

Last night, I awoke in the middle of the night to some strange sounds. After a while, I figured out it was a bat in our bedroom. There are some pretty firm division of labors in our household (and some not so firm), but I immediately knew that a bat in the bedroom fit into the “crunchy bug” category, and therefore the solution to removing the bat relied on my ingenuity as I saw Linda duck under the sheets.

Hmmm. First step, dash out of the bed and shut the bedroom door so the critter doesn’t get into one of the kid’s rooms. Mission accomplished, hop back under the sheets to make sure Linda is still OK.

Plan A. Take the shades off the window and remove the screen while draped with a blanket. Wrong answer – the screens don’t come out easily with the new replacement sash windows and the shades seem screwed into the window frames.

Plan B. It’s looking more and more like direct contact is needed. So I run downstairs and put on shoes, long-sleeve quilted shirt, jeans, thick leather gloves, and a hat. I grab a plastic basket about 1/4 the size of a laundry basket. Now, I’m ready to initiate bat capture. Bats aren’t necessarily bad critters – they just don’t belong in the house! We had seen one flying outside while we were outside watching the meteor showers. I think it must have flown in the door on one of the many beverage runs by adult or child into the house. It’s the second time we’ve had a bat in the house in 10 years, so it isn’t a common occurence.

So, I’m all dressed up, with a blanket draped over me, trying to figure out how to catch it. I’ve got about 1 inch of exposed flesh between my shoe and pant leg (did not put on socks). Of course, the bat managed to fly into that bit of leg and I just dropped the blanket on the bat and then gingerly unfolded the blanket until the bat was revealed and put the basket over it. Then I slipped a piece of cardboard under it and brought it outside and didn’t want to have it close to the house, so I put it in the back of the truck and drove to a wetland about 5 miles away and released it into the air. The trip was rather erie – middle of the night, intermittently pea soup fog condensing on the window so fast I needed the wipers on.

The marsh is right next to a four-lane highway, so I felt a little sheepish out in the dead middle of foggy night pulled over, doing something that looks unusual. Thankfully, nobody stopped to “help” so I was able to get back home and back to sleep. Sorry, I wasn’t too motivated to get the camera, so there is not a picture of the critter.

one year ago…

August 14, 2007 – Improving a Little Corner of the Farm

A year ago this spring we seeded some native plants in an ugly part of the farm that was essentially a mudhole.  The low spot collected runoff from rains on the adjacent fields and would be under water for a few days a year.  The cows liked it as well and continued to break off the sod around its edges to increase its size.  To see what it looked like them see the blog entry from March 28, 2005.  Last year, it was fenced off and at least grew a nice cover of weeds.  In the middle of this summer, we started finding some non-weed plants that must have been part of what we planted!


There is swamp milkweed – in this shot with both a monarch and some ferocious-looking black killer fly (looks like a beneficial predatory insect to me!)


On the very edge is a black-eyed susan.


Then there’s this plant that I haven’t yet identified.  Ideas?  At any rate, it is full of small fluttering critters as well.  In addition to these, we noticed some prairie cordgrass and sedges.  The area is still mostly weeds, but may be turning the corner and the natives are a magnet for many insects.  It is heartening to see it go from a sterile mudhole (growing by the year) to a more natural place, adding a bit more diversity to the place.

one year ago…

August 12, 2007 – Iowa State Fair Day

Today we went to the Iowa State Fair.  Since it was so hot, we decided to try something a bit different.  Rather than battle 100,000 or so people for a place to park, eat, and stand in line in the heat, we arrived there about 5:00 pm and stayed into the evening, to experience the fair after dark.


There was virtually no line at the butter cow, at the big boar and farrowing exhibit, and other places there are usually long lines.  We’ll do that time period again!


Of course, you can get nearly anything on a stick at the fair.


But to my mind, the coolest is the new “Energy on a Stick.”  Over a year, this wind turbine will produce enough electricty to run all the power needs for the 11 day run of the state fair – midway, lights, cooling etc.  In total, it will provide 1/4 of the fairground’s annual power needs (the grounds are open to other events year-round). 

We always look at the displays and compare the blue ribbon winners to stuff at our farm and think that if we ever were organized enough, we may do quite well!

This morning Linda and I presented the service at church where we talked about the sustainability of local foods.  So today was a bit of a relief day after getting ready for the service and party simultaneously.  The service was well received – we even got applause at the end!  Dennis Keeney, former director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was in attendance and thanked us as well. 

one year ago…

August 11, 2007 – Party on the Farm!

In our quest to remain the undisputed “Live Music Capital of Logan Township,” (of course a township is a block of land 6 x 6 miles) we hired the Blue Moon Players and threw a party.  We hope this is the first of many such summer events.  There’s something nice about live music out in the country, with the wide-wide world of the farm and barn for the kids to run wild in. The older folks can forego the games of Sardines or capture the flag by sitting in the shade and listening to some great music.


For my money, any time you’ve got an upright string bass propped up on your hay wagon, you’re living the good life!  The day was incredibly hot, but we all managed just fine.


Of course, no party is complete without a spread of food, so here’s the food table showing some of the delights of a midwestern potluck in August.

one year ago…

August 7, 2007 – Linda to Mexico

The Northwest Area Foundation along with University of Iowa Institute for Support of Latino Families and Communities, and the Main Street Project has instigated a four-state, four-year project focused on building community capacity in rural Latino communities in Iowa, Minnesota, Idaho, and Oregon.

One of the goals is to find ways to integrate Latino immigrants into their new communities.  Part of the process is for people in the communities that are receiving the immigrants to have an understanding of the background and culture of the immigrants in order more smoothly make new connections to their new homes.  Linda was asked to apply for a cultural exchange/immersion as one of three representatives from Marshalltown.  In her role at the college in working out a way to get new farmers started through classes, social support and most importantly, having land adjacent to the college to rent to new farmers, Latino immigrants may be one of the main groups of people who may be interested in starting a farming enterprise.  So this fall, she heads off with folks from 4 towns, (in Iowa, Minnesota, Oregon, and Idaho) to a rural Mexican area to visit with and understand the background of the immigrants.

After initial resistance, Marshalltown has finally realized that a prosperous future depends on using all their assets, including the huge influx of immigrants.  There is no doubt that Marshalltown will soon have a much different flavor than the rest of the primarily white population of the rest of the state.  For example, more than half the births at the Marshalltown hospital are to Latino parents.  Already many of the previously empty storefronts on Main Street are now bustling with the activity that Mexican grocers, eateries, clothing, and other businesses afford.  In fact, a prominent downtown businessman told me that the influx of immigrants has revitalized a struggling town, now growing slightly instead of losing residents to old age or export to larger urban areas.  There certainly have been challenges, particularly in the school system and resources needed to get students up to speed with English and other skills, but 20 years from now, the consensus seems to be moving towards looking at the immigration as a positive boost to the community.
one year ago…

August 6, 2007 – Step into Another World

There’s a place in downtown Melbourne that hides its secrets well.  “Vern’s Implement” always has a yard full of old farm equipment along with an accesssory lot along side the road on the way to our place.  In the past, I’ve bought a thing or two from Vern.  He’s also got a small retail store complete with the old general store type wood strip floor, big wooden entrance door, and a couple of aisles of different size bolts, nuts, etc. in old wooden bins. A while back, I had a hard time finding a certain length bolt in a 5/8 width – not at big box stores, not at True Value – all the while, the right one was sitting at Vern’s.

Back in the shop it really changes.  I swear Vern doesn’t like to work on equipment made much past 1950.  I thought I might get him to work on my ’47 Cub, but he has other work he evidently enjoys more and said he didn’t have time.  (I don’t think he likes mundane repairs.)  He also has an older solar array on the front of his house – probably from the 70’s – so he is obviously a tinkerer.


Here he is, looking at a steam-powered, steel-wheeled tractor from the early teens.  He has fabricated missing parts, rebored what needs to be re-bored, and finally painted it.  It’s a massive hunk of machinery – you can see the back steel wheels are about 5 feet tall.  It takes about two hours of burning before the engine is ready to go.


This shows the back of the tractor and some of the gears – there is one “gear” – forward and back. This is in the way back of his shop and to get there, is like traveling through a tractor graveyard, with all kinds of other tractors in various states of repair/restoration – it’s got the feeling of an old blacksmith’s shop.  I’m sure there are other places like this (at least I hope so) but they are getting rarer by the day.

one year ago…

August 5, 2007 – And So It Goes…

Yesterday (doesn’t really matter what day!) brought a common occurence on the farm – something not going according to plan.  This isn’t particularly compelling story, but typical. Had some weed-trimming to do, so in the more relative cool of the evening (if 85 degrees and 75 degree dew point can be called cool) I set out.  I had previously outrigged the weed whip with a head that was a chain, so it really cut tough weeds and nascent mulberries, and lasted a long time – over a year by now.  It finally needed to be replaced and so I tried to turn the screw that kept it in place and it wouldn’t budge, even with penetrating oil and some time (as it is getting dark and no work is getting done).

Finally, the head breaks off the screw, so more extreme measures are needed.


Between a bench vice and a vice-grips, I was able to get the shaft of the screw out and replace the head.  The replacement head had a better design, which didn’t rely on a single screw to come out, but used the whole cutter head assembly to tighten onto the shaft. I guess the good news was I had a replacement head on time, but it was still not until after dark that the repair was made.  But at least it is ready to go for another day.

one year ago…

July 31, 2007 – Blackberries!

The blackberries we planted in the spring of 2006 are giving their first fruit this year!


They have a sweet/sour taste that has to be sooo good for you!  The row looks very healthy and there are many more on the way.  Like most everything we do, we weren’t too sure how we’d like them or how they’d grow here, so we just put in one 75 foot row.  Looks like a thumbs up for blackberries so far.  If I was forced, I’d say blackberries make my favorite jam.

one year ago…

July 29, 2007 – Peaches!

Today is a day to live for – fresh sun-warmed peaches just off the tree!


This is a day we greatly look forward to – we are cheating the range of peaches to get them this far north – and despite the ice storm and late, hard frost, the trees still managed to produce a tempting basket of fruit.

one year ago…

July 24, 2007 – First Hazelnut!

We also planted a half-dozen hazelnuts years ago to see how they’d like living at out place.  They have been very slow to produce – this year the first nuts have appeared.


I’m not sure if this is normal for first fruiting but 4-5 years seems a bit long – we have peach trees that have produced fruit faster than that.  We may have a place for them as the shrubs below the understory in the developing shade strip down the center of the back pasture.

one year ago…

July 23, 2007 – Hops Progress

The hops we planted this year are making a tentative start.


The experimental hops we planted this spring are making their way up the trellis.  I’ve been rather surprised that we are having a bit of a pest problem with these – as there are not many hops around to breed pests.  There are tent caterpillar-like worms that we’ve been picking off the leaves.

one year ago…

July 22, 2007 – Dilly Beans

Finally, the finished product – 18 jars of dilly beans.


We’ve decided not to be as stingy with these as we usually are, so we are making more than usual this year. This batch is without hot peppers, the next ones will contain hot peppers. We started making these as in the past (decades now!) we didn’t have good luck growing enough cucumbers or canning pickles and keeping them crunchy. These are a nice alternative – dilled beans with plenty of garlic!

one year ago…

July 21, 2007 – Harry Potter and the Dilly Beans

Welcome to potions class, high hopes style.


Here are the instructions. Insist that each of the Harry Potter books be read out loud, together as a family. Link farm chores with additional reading. Kids are under the parent’s spells and gladly do work they may normally complain about! Today we read a few chapters while we prepared to make dilly beans – sitting around the kitchen table cleaning and cutting beans to the right length to stuff in jars.

one year ago…

July 18, 2007 – Local Food at High Hopes Gardens

Tonight we had a nearly all-farm meal for our guests, now joined by Linda’s Dad and his wife.


The menu tonight is marinated and applewood grilled extra-thick lamb chops (lamb and herbs from high hopes); less than day-old sweet corn from northern Marshall County; new potatoes fried with fennel and olive oil (potatoes from high hopes); fresh garden salad with feta (also from high hopes, except feta). Can it get any better than this?

one year ago…

July 16, 2007 – New Tractor Tire

Usually 9 days away fror the farm leaves A LOT to do upon our return. However, we are getting better at it, by working extra hard the weeks beofre we leave to get as much done as we can. We were fortunate (or not) that there was not any rain while we were gone. Very few weeds grew and no need to mow the brown grass.


The first order of business was to take care of a leaking tractor tire. When I bought the tractor it had one new tire and an old one. The old tire finally started leaking a few weeks before vacation, and required frequent filling. It also had the fluid in to give the tractor weight and not freeze in the winter – that was hard on the rim (rust) and I don’t really need that extra weight – so I called the on-farm tire service – they came and sucked out the fluid and replaced the tire. It sure beat trying to jack up the tractor, remove the lug nuts, get the wheel off…

one year ago…

July 4 , 2007 – Three Minutes at a Time

Part of today was designated as “food day.”  There were some spring crops in need of harvest, so we got the kettle out and froze away.  Most of these veggies require cleaning and cutting, then dipping in boiling water for three minutes and plunging into cold water before putting in freezer bags.

Today we harvested some cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and apples.

The kids and GJ took the apples outside to peel and core them.

The handy-dandy apple/potato peeler at work!

These will be thrown in bags directly in the freezer and combined with other apples later in the season for applesauce.  We’ve found that freezing them makes it easier to make sauce out of them later.

one year ago…

July 3, 2007 – Chickens Gone

Today was the last day at the farm for the first batch of broilers.


This picture shows the chickens last week. We had the best batch ever.  We ordered 100 birds, and brought 100 birds to the locker. We even left one behind at the farm that we somehow missed in the flurry of excitement in loading them into the transport cages, so we really ended up with 101 birds.  And that remaining chicken looks quite depressed – like somehow she’s missed her calling in life, or has an extreme case of surviivor’s guilt!  Some of you may still be back at the “ordered 100 birds and ended up with 101.”  It’s not a story of the fishes and loaves, but rather the hatchery usually sends a few extra in case some chicks die in transport.  We actually recieved 102 birds, so that means only one chick died along the way from brooding through delivery to the locker.

We had some frozen for our customers and brought some home and Linda and Emma cut up about 20 of them for quick and easy meals later in the year. 

one year ago…

July 2, 2007 – The Unheralded Beet

Beets are a lot like the sanitary sewer system – they live underground, people don’t think much about them,  But the analogy only remains true so long.  When the sanitary sewer stops working, people take notice – there probably wouldn’t be much of an uproar if the beets disappeared from the grocery shelves.  But the beet is sweet and tangy all at once.  A good portion of granulated sugar comes from beets – 30% of worldwide granulated sugar comes from beets.


Today we put a few beets up. Martin helped harvest with his tractor and wagon. It was a good outdoor kitchen project.


I saved the tops and blanched and chopped them for borscht – one of my grandfather’s staples – the great thing about borscht is that it is just as good cold as warm. We thought my grandfather ate the same pot of borscht all week. The original pot would last for a few days, then as the days wore on, he’d throw some pork in, maybe some potatoes or turnips, maybe some chicken broth to make it last another day. I don’t know whether it is because of this, or that my people have eaten beets for a long time, but as I was cooking and freezing the beets and tops, I couldn’t resist constantly snacking.

And beets have a place in fiction, as I imagine a few people have had beets anonomously left on their front doorstep (ala Jitterbug Perfume).

As I was skinning the beets of their rough skin and revealing the smooth, blood red flesh below, Figaro (the cat) played with the trimmings, perhaps confused with the apperent dripping blood and dangling long mouse-like tail of the taproot.

one year ago…

June 30, 2007 – Trees Gone Wild!

The trees that are in their third year in the ground at high hopes are really taking off this year.


This tree is typical of that year of trees.  It has sent a leader skyrocketing 21 inches-many of the other trees have experienced similar growth.  This year’s seedlings, while not sending up that much, have 3-4 inches of growth.  They must be happy with the intermittent, but heavy rains we’ve experienced this season.

one year ago…

June 29, 2007 – Welcome Facets Readers!

Today Linda and the girls were featured in a monthly magazine published by the Ames Tribune – the July version of Facets.  As soon as I can get a link up, I will.  This issue focused on “green women” in central Iowa.

 

Linda contributed “little green gems” numbers 51-63 in the issue.  The only correction we would make to the article is the photo captions switched Claire and Emma!  Thanks to Sue Ellen for making the drive out and meeting with the girls of high hopes.

In other news today, A little birdie told Linda that a local foundation contributed $75,000 to the Entrepreneurial and Diversified Agriculture program that Linda founded at Marshalltown Community College. Â More good news may be on the way soon as the farm bill and other federal appropriations are announced.  She has worked extremely hard to get this program off the ground and do her part to support sustainable agriculture in this part of the earth. More on that in upcoming weeks.

one year ago…

June 25, 2007 – Strawberry Renovation

Today was the beginning of strawberry renovation (or more accurately, retirement). This is an ugly strawberry patch. We harvested the last of the berries today and that is the end for this patch.


Strawberries are difficult to keep weeded, especially organically-grown berries and this patch is five years old or so and the weed pressures finally made it unbearable to weed. We planned the retirement and planted a fresh patch this spring. Next year, that one will be ready and nearly weed-free!


So we just mow the old one down, spread some manure and old bedding (seen in the photo above) then cover the soil and let the critters of the dark take over the decomposing and kill all the weeds that remain. Next spring this will be available for general garden planting.

one year ago…

June 22, 2007 – Rain At Last

The rain that’s skipped over us the last few weeks graced us today and left a rainbow in its wake. 


Over 2 inches fell from the skies – enough to keep us going another week or so.


Days like this I wish for my old 35mm camera. I haven’t yet sprung for a good digital camera and I missed the old one with its arrays of filters and lenses that would have made these rainbow shots much more lifelike.

Emma was on her first official babysitting gig this evening while the storm rolled through.  It knocked the power out for about 45 minutes, but she and the kids handled it with excitement rather than fear.

one year ago…

June 18, 2007 – Flower Tour

Our ground is now “hard as a rock.”  I moved some electric fence and had a hard time pushing in the posts.  Today we were promised relief from the heat and 100% chance of rain, with 2-3” amounts possible.  The rain came, but not even enough to get the ground wet under the trees.  You’ll see most of the rain still sitting on the flower petals on the following pictures.

one year ago…

June 15, 2007 – It’s Hot, Must be Haymaking Time!

Now that the temps are in the 90’s – that means just one thing – it must be time to make hay!  We were invited to help at Two Friends Farm this weekend.


How’s this for a date?  Sitting on an empty hay rack after the unloading 100 or so bales is a good rest.


Starting out a new rack after one was under our belts.

Even Emma and Claire were enthused about helping and took their turns on top of the racks.  It’s great to now have kids old enough to handle a bale of hay.  We figured we handled about 8 1/2 tons this afternoon.
one year ago…

June 12, 2007 – Workin’ on the Farm

On Monday, it was a bit of rare day that all of us were home!  We set everyone out with a job. 


It’s Emma’s summer to learn to paint.  She wants to paint a side of the barn, so we are starting her out on an easier painting task, the north side of the hog barn, which doesn’t require much ladder work. Here, she is scraping off some of the old paint.  There’s really not much left and we sprayed it with water first to keep down the dust.


Claire is assuming more of the mowing duties on the farm.  While the regular mower is in for repair, she gets to use the old lawn tractor.


Linda gives me a boost in the attic, completing some of the insulation in the east dormer.

one year ago…

June 11, 2007 – Cherries!

We have one cherry tree that produced this year (we are grateful as many trees around here have no fruit because of the late cold snap).


This photo shows cherries in various forms of processing – cherries right off the tree, cherries pitted, and the cherry pitter full of pits.  These cherries are destined for cherry jam.


Martin insisted on getting in a picture as well!

one year ago…

June 6, 2007 – Corn Transfer

Lots of little projects were completed today.  In getting ready for a couple of tons of chicken food to be delivered, we had some leftover corn from the corn-burning stove season in the gravity wagon that we needed to move to make room for the chicken feed.  The gravity wagon is the easiest to get a few buckets of feed at a time with, so we transferred it to a different wagon. 
Here, Emma is controlling the door to fill the bucket (we don’t have a corn auger)

Loading it in the tractor bucket – about 15 buckets per scoop.

Finally, dumping it into another wagon.
one year ago…

June 5, 2007 – Farm View Series #2 SE Corner

Today is the second in a series of views of the farm. I went to each corner of the property (and the midpoints) and took photos in different directions. The following views are from the SE corner of the property.

 
This is from the SE corner shooting diagonally towards the NW. You’ll notice the corn crib is reroofed and all but about 80% of one side resided – that’s a fall/early winter project. The project that is next outbuilding-wise is the renovation of the south side of the hog barn – the north side is tight and re-roofed, but the south is falling apart.  Right now my time is devoted to the house, so it will sit a bit longer.


This is the view looking due west from the SE corner. Just over the rise is a small orchard, trellised berries and a garden.


Finally, this is the view due north from the SE corner. It shows the first row of trees along this boundary.

one year ago…

June 4, 2007 – Farm View Series #1 NE Corner

Today is the first in a series of views of the farm.  I went to each corner of the property (and the midpoints) and took photos in different directions.  This view is from the NE corner of the property.  I did some of this a decade or so ago, but wish I had been more thorough as the shots are kind of hit and miss. 


This is from the NE corner shooting diagonally towards the SW. You can see the brush piles from the ice storm and an old granary in the back pasture.


This is the view looking due west from the NE corner.  It shows three rows of trees, this year’s planting furthest to the left.


This is the view due south from the NE corner.  It shows the first row of trees along this boundary.

one year ago…

June 3, 2007 – Chickens Movin’ on Out

Yesterday we moved the chickens out to pasture.  They are a little over 3 weeks old. Here’s a chicken tractor full of new laying hens.  These ladies will be with us for 2-3 years.  They will be in the chicken tractors until fall and then they’ll join the laying hen flock.


They’ve got everything they need in here – fresh grass to live on (moved to fresh grass daily), food, water, and protection from predators.


This picture compares a laying hen chick (dark) with one of the cornish-cross broilers (white) at about three weeks of age. You’ll notice a big difference in size and agility!

one year ago…

June 2, 2007 – Most-Used Piece of Equipment on the Farm

The humble garden cart gets my vote for the most indispensable piece of equipment on the farm.  We bought one of the Vermont Carts new and picked up another at an auction.  They are the best money ever spent on the farm.  We’ve had one ten years and it is still works as well as the day we put it together.  It is sturdy, very easy to push, fits through gates easily, tips, and can haul hundreds of pounds if need be.

Now there is an alternative – the guy who brought the world the whiz-band chicken plucker has published plans to make your own cart.

one year ago…

June 1, 2007 – “New” Equipment

Here’s the “new” belly mower for the farmall cub.  Well, “new” is a relative term when you are adding bling to a 1947 tractor.  Having a green mower under a red tractor will add a certain festive color aesthetic!


The Farmall is in need of some shop time, so the functionality of the new mower might not immediately be known.  The good folks at Morning Sun farm alerted me to this mower, and I was able to get it from a retired John Deere guy who now spends his time buying and selling equipment.

It’s a lot heavier than it looks – it sure was nice to have the 2510 and loader to lift it straight up out of the pickup and onto the ground.

one year ago…

May 29, 2007 – Soap Making Day 2

After the soap is poured, it needs to sit in the molds until you can make a small indentation with your finger with some pressure – usually within 24-36 hours. Then it’s time to cut!


Linda positions the cutter at the appropriate width and slips the soap cutter down through the slots on the mold.

Here’s a view of a freshly cut block – you may be able to see the cornmeal flecks added to make “farmer’s lava” soap!

The cut bars are stored for 6 weeks or so in a place where they can “breathe.” We usually cover them with a piece of fabric in these mesh baskets. It takes that long for the “soaponification” process to completely transfer the lye and fat to soap.

one year ago…

May 27, 2007 – Soap-Making Day 1

Today was soap-making day with Morning Sun farm. We assembled all the basic ingredients (beef and pork fats, lye, rainwater) and went to work.


By far the most tedious part is cooling and stirring the soap back down to the temperature required to pour it in a mold. It’s a lot of stirring!


Finally the soap “traces” or leaves a small mark when dripped on intself from a spoon. Then it is poured into the molds.


Here are te soapmakers standing next to four batches of soap – one naked goat milk soap, one cornmeal, one lavender, and one orange.

one year ago…

May 25, 2007 – Cute Chick

Our favorite chickens are the laying hens as they harbor a bit of wildness and “chickenness” mostly bred out of the meat birds.  We usually get 25 mixed breed pullets to refresh our layer flock.


Here’s one of the layer chicks.  Some of them look like owls, others look like hawks, and some like the traditional barnyard chickens.  These guys are almost ready to head out of the indoor brooder and into the chicken tractors

one year ago…

May 23, 2007 – Gearing Up for Soap-Making

We’re getting ready for the first soap-making episode of the season this upcoming weekend. Last year I made a couple different styles of soap molds and the one with the hinges to open up the mold after the soap has hardened was a runaway favorite with the soap alchemists.  So, today, I made a couple more.


The bottom piece is a mold all ready to pour soap.  The top shows a mold extended, as you would unfold it after the soap had hardened.  The smaller pieces can slide wherever you’d like in the mold, depending on how much soap you have to pour.  The small slit on the right side is where a soap cutter can slide in to cut the soap.

one year ago…

May 22, 2007 – Spring Garden\Garden-Fed Kids Eat Healthier!

Here’s a view of one of the gardens. Linda’s probably got 85-90% of the garden in. We could use a good rain as we haven’t had one since the deluge April 26.


I’ll stop back here in July for another photo.

Today, a report came out in the April Journal of the American Diabetic Association that found that young children who regularly eat home grown fruits and vegetables eat more than twice as many fruits and vegetables as their peers who do not have a garden!  This is a huge difference.  The researchers from St. Louis University Medical Center found that the kids who grow up eating home-grown produce prefer the taste of fruits and vegetables to other foods.

one year ago…

May 20, 2007 – Raccoons Make Poor Electricians

As life on the farm goes, one thig leads to another.  About 5:30 a.m. one of the goats started bawling.  Nellie had managed to escape over the barn door and separated from the herd, was freaking out.  In going out, I let the dog out and Maizie promptly chased a raccoon up a power pole.


The raccoon was perched above a transformer and I feared for the damage the raccoon could do to the transformer (our electric co-op printed a list of reasons why transformers fail, and animals were the #1 reason).  I contemplated taking the raccoon out with a .22, but thought only two bad things could happen – I could miss and hit the transfomer or other piece of the electric grid, or I could get the raccoon, and its fall could break something on the way down – so I decided to lock the dogs up again and hope the raccoon would climb down on its own.  If it wasn’t 5:30 am Sunday morning I may have called the co-op for guidance.  About an hour later, we heard a terribly loud buzzing, arcing sound, the power blinked off briefly, and when I went out to make sure all the fuse boxes were intact, I found the crispy raccoon at the base of the power pole, its fur all singed. It was kind of creepy – so I showed all the kids and impressed upon them the importance of not messing with electricity!

one year ago…

May 19, 2007 – Trees all Tucked in

A couple of weeks ago, most of the trees were mulched.  It’s those last 20 that take so long.  The supply of chips at home was exhausted, so it was necessary to load and haul chips from the Marshalltown compost facility.


Here’s the look at the north border – the row on the furthest left is the newest row.


Here’s the new row along the east edge of the pasture. Linda contnues to get more seeds planted in the garden.

one year ago…

May 18, 2007 – Garden in Full Swing

School is finally out for Linda. It was a day at home for me. Kids were in school. A recipe for day-long attention to getting more of the garden in.


Here’s a portion of the tomatoes – all tucked in under the mulch and staked with cages made from old woven wire and old fenceposts cut in half. Those flimsy so-called tomato cages you buy in the store are basically useless. So we made these for nothing but some time many years ago cutting up the woven wire and fenceposts.

We’re now eating something instead of rhubard and aspargus from the garden.


The first lettuce, radishes, and spinach are in season.

one year ago…

May 11, 2007 – Little Projects

Today some nagging things were completed. I’ve long disliked the placement of the metal machine shed on the property (it predates our arrival on the farm). It presents a wall of steel driving into the farm, blocks the view of the pasture to the east and is generally ugly. I’ve always wanted to put up some greenery, so to help the hops we planted as an experiment, I put up a 16 foot cattle panel on end. It was a bit trickier than I anticipated, needed to get the tractor loader out to lift it into place.


The hops can grow 30 feet tall, so even this seemingly tall structure is still undersized. If it works out, we will add sections in future years.

I also got the deck on the small trailer built – I made the deck detachable using pins to hold it to the frame, so I could take advantage of the trailer’s variable length. This deck was built in the short position – when I build a longer deck, I’ll just have to pull the 4 pins, extend the trailer and swap out decks.

I also got 80 or so feet of Christmas trees fenced off in the pasture. 
one year ago…

May 9, 2007 – A Day in the Life of Martin

Today, we feature the most photogenic member of the family – Martin. We must have been temporarily insane when we signed him up for T-ball and swimming lessons at the same time. It’s a lot for a 5 year old, but swimming ends at the end of the month, so it won’t be for long.


It’s his first round of swimming lessons at the “Y” in Marshalltown and he’s enjoying the lessons.

All of you that have gone through t-ball won’t be surprised by the stories from the t-ball field.


Here’s a might swing slightly off the mark. Practices are a hoot – they’ll be kids laying down in the grass in the outfield, others will be throwing their gloves ar each other, while a solitary boy tries to kick his way to the lower crust of the earth. Martin’s first time at bat he made it to 2nd base and when the next batter got a hit, he was being waved to run to third base, his response was a big smile and a wave back while the batter ran towards him from first base.

one year ago…

May 8, 2007 – Keepin’ the Chicks Hot

Today the first batch of chicks arrived. It’s important to keep the chicks hot the first few days – 90 degrees to start and then slowly dropping until they have lost their fluffiness and grow their feathers.


It seems like there is some reverse imprinting with the chicks – it seems whoever happens to be home and dips their beaks in water and sets them up in the brooder is the main caretaker and worrier. This year it’s Linda!

one year ago…

May 7, 2007 – Trailer Guy

My old small trailer broke last week, so it was time for a replacement.  I happened upon this one that was on close-out from Farm-Tek, usually $250, marked down to $112.  I was pleasantly surprised with the sturdiness of the frame and thickness of the angle iron used to make it.


It can vary in length from 60-92 inches.  My next move is to make a deck for it (maybe a couple of different lengths) and begin hauling.  I do have a weakness for trailers/wagons.  I have the same weakness for spring/fall jackets.  I’m guessing it’s better than having a weakness for cars/trucks and scotch!

one year ago…

May 6, 2007 – Portable Fencing

Here’s a picture of our new portable electric fence.  The name of this fencing is “Permanet” as it is designed to be left up for the whole season, if necessary.  We get our electric fencing from Premier Fencing in Washington, Iowa.  Many people swear it is the best you can get. 


We’ve used some of the poultry electric netting and been pleased with it, so when we found this version that is taller and firmer, we thought we’d use it to start some rudimentary rotational grazing in the back pasture. 


This picture cracks me up – it shows that forbidden grass is always better than grass you’re allowed to eat.  The goats were just turned loose into this pasture that goes all the way to the fence in the distance over the goat’s back.  Where do they choose to eat first?  They stick their heads through a fence guarding a tree to get at the “good” grass.

one year ago…

May 5, 2007 – These Boots are Made for the Hen House

This afternoon’s main job was cleaning out a winter of “processed” chicken food and bedding from the chicken coop.  Linda decided to splurge and get a new pair of boots.  I can only imagine the tight advertising copywriting that led to the impulsive purchase of these beauties.

These boots boast the color of black patent leather made of a 100% neoprene high-top that sit atop a 3/4 inch heel. The high-cut vamp features a rolled edge design (to allow your foot to slide easily into the boot without snagging your hose (water) on slippery mud. The suede-like leather heel lining cradles your heel while preventing slippage on wet manure. If you prefer “a little more boot” to cover the sides of your feet when the going gets deep, this is your best bet. 


Claire had to be at school for a band thing at 5:45 am and Emma had to be at her school at 6:45 am. So we had a full day of work today. The hen house is all clean, bedding hauled away and doused with water to start the composting. I was able to get some temporary fencing up in the back pasture to let the goats roam wide, and finished applying the last of the wood chips on the property and only have about 20 pine trees left.  Linda got the brooding room all ready for the 125 chickens that will arrive on Tuesday. 

one year ago…

May 4, 2007 – House Under Cardinal Attack!

A pair of cardinals are building a nest in the shrubbery less than two feet from our big picture window.  The male bashes up against the window thousands of times daily.  At first I was worried the cardinal would hurt itself, now it is just annoying!  Evidently, each time he is successful in warding off the intruding cardinal (his reflection), so it goes, over and over. 


We’ve tried closing the curtains, pasting Martin’s artwork on the window, and hanging a dishtowel outside to wave in the wind, but he is very determined.  He escorts his lady each time she gathers a piece of nesting material and when she comes back to weave it in the nest, the attack begins. 


Here he is during a quiet moment.  I hope the nest is successful – we can see directly into the nest through the window and it would be cool to see the eggs and hatchlings, but the nest is only a few feet off the ground, so I’m guessing at some point the eggs or baby birds will end up as cat food.

one year ago…

May 2, 2007 – Tree Mulching

The tree planting is the easy part! Now comes the mulching. We mulch because I think it may be less work in the long run and we don’t have to use herbicides and worry less about watering in dry periods. Today was the good mulching day. The fastest equipment was put into force today. Below is an old animal chute that I rigged up to hold mulch. It pulls with the tractor, drives over the rows and holds enough mulch for about 180 feet of row.


I also have some old barge wagons that I use, but they aren’t quite as handy. But these contraptions are nice since I can load them up in the late fall so they are ready to go in the spring. Today, I ended up getting 60 trees covered in the morning. Last Monday I got 35 trees done and suffered from equipment failure, equipment stuck in the mud, and smaller-scale haulers. The temperature was near 90 on both days, along with up to a 30 mph wind, so I spent some time watering as those are about the worst conditons you could imagine for newly planted trees. Now I’m on the lookout for a small low, trailer that the garden tractors can haul – the one I got at an auction 8 years or so ago to use to put the stock tank on to drag water on, was one of the equipment failures when the axle snapped (with an empty load, thank goodness).

one year ago…

April 28, 2007 – Starting to Plant 150 Trees

Over Saturday and Sunday, we managed to get 150 white pines in the ground.  All the kids were out of the house on Saturday night, so after a leisurely breakfast on Sunday morning, we got 55 in before heading off to church!


Here’s Linda near the end of the row along the east pasture.  Notice the two boards used to measure the distance between trees and the distance from the fenceline.


Stage two is watering the trees – the mobile water hauler (stock tank and garden tractor) work better than the big tractor when it is this muddy and wet.

one year ago…

April 27, 2007 – Not in our House?

In the 10+ years we’ve lived here, we’ve never had water in the basement.  I attribute that to the siting of the house, on the highest point of land on the property, even if it is a little closer to the road than most farmhouses. 

Driving home from swim lessons with Martin on Wednesday night, I jinxed us when after driving home and seeing all the full ditches, temporary lakes in fields, and overflowing creeks, Martin asked if our house would flood.  I said no, we never had any troubles because our house was build in a good place.  Thursday morning there was water in the basement and the floor drain was not working.  I think the water in the drain field is higher than the level of the basement, so it has no where to go.  It also looks like the water is coming up through the floor.  There is good sloping all around the house and new gutters and downspouts, so I think it just may be a matter of super-saturated ground.  We’ve had more than 6 inches of rain in the span of a few days before, but not on top of an already satured soil.

So Linda came home from work at 9:30 to see if the level was rising or falling and it was rising, so I left work and stopped at a Menards in Des Moines to look for a pump.  The whole aisle of pumps, sump and otherwise was cleared out.  I stopped at another one on the periphery of town and they had a small pump to attach to a garden hose, so I used that to get the water out. There wasn’t a lot of water, perhaps 2 inches deep, so things aren’t floating, so it could be worse. Â (all of you that have had water in a basement know what a pain that can be.) It seems like as of this morning, the inflow has stopped, but now it’s off to get a new dehumidifier as the existing one ran all night and didn’t produce any water. Meanwhile, the 150 trees wait to get planted…

April 25, 2007 – Fruit Blossoms = 3 Day Rain

It seems like every year you can pretty much expect a 3-4 day low pressure system to bring constant rain and wind during the peak of the fruit blossom time (hampering the bees from pollinating).  This year is no exception. Only this year’s rain is a lot harder than most years (5.5 inches of rain so far the last two days, and one more day to go).  About 0-2 times a year the low spot in the back pasture becomes a river.  Today is one of those rare days.


You can see what’s left of the willow mulch in the left-center part of the picture – looks like about 3/4 of it was washed away.  Willows were planted there just because of such periodic events.  I just hope the ground doesn’t stay under water for an extended period while the willows are getting established.

I ordered 150 windbreak/Christmas trees yesterday and they arrived in the mail today!  But, by the looks of it, no trees are going to get in the ground today.

one year ago…

April 23, 2007 – Apple and Nectarine Blossoms Appear!

At least some of the apple blooms will make it.  This tree is the most hopeful. 


Blossoms as they are about to burst are a beautiful bit of magic.

The nectarine is the happiest of all the trees this year.

And as an aside for those of you who know me well – you’ll all be pleased to know I got through an entire physical, shot, blood work and all, remaining alert and conscious through the entire procedure!
one year ago…

April 21, 2007 – First Round of Garden Planting

Today was a rare day.  The spring garden was ready to receive plantings, we were all home, all day, and all the equipment ran as expected.


Here’s bit of a new idea for us that you probably can’t see too well yet.  In the middle is a straight trellis of sorts for sweet peas for cut flowers – on either end are cattle panels “hooped” up to make tunnels – vining crops can go up the trellis and we can plant spring crops like broccoli and cabbage underneath.

Today, among other things, we planted potatoes, onions, and the rest of the strawberries (Claire dug the last 70 holes).  I filled up our 2 new raised beds that some chickens were perched over last summer with black soil, put a locking latch in the barn as Nellie has learned to unhook the latch with her nose! Sharpened the blades on the mower deck and even had to mow part of the yard where the grass was getting long.

one year ago…

April 20, 2007 – Putting Down Roots

Once you figure out which side is down and up, even a five year old can be a great asset in planting strawberries.  Out current patch is starting to decline as some grasses have invaded from the corners and rather than burn them out with grass herbicide, we will move the patch to fresh ground and cover the old patch with cardboard and straw to kill the old berries and grass.  It takes a couple of years to get a patch into production, so this will be the last year for the old, and will give the new patch a time to settle in.


The roots on strawberries are fairly long and each one needs a hole about 6 inches or more deep.  We ordered 200 new plants and put about 130 in today.


The varieties we put in today are Earliglow, Honeoye, Mesabi, and Jewel.  We order our strawberries from Nourse Farms – they provide a handy variety comparison chart for berry varieties.  We’ve been happy with their berries (straw and rasp) over the years.

We also got 5 new fruit trees in the mail the same day (4 peaches and a nectarine) to replace the trees we lost in the ice storm and got those in the ground as well. 

 

one year ago…

April 18, 2007 – Martin Brings Home a Tree

Today Martin brought a tree home from school.  He said everyone got a tree in his class.  He didn’t know what kind it was.  sually, the kind of tree would determine where to plant it – how big it may get, its effect on other plants etc.  He said there was a note on the tree.  The note said it was in honor of Arbor Day and was donated by the Izaak Walton league and if it isn’t planted today, keep the roots wet.  No mention of the type of tree on the note. Â Not wanting to discourage the budding arborist, we found a place for it.

  

He was sure we could find a place for it on the farm as he remarked “Dad has planted millions of trees.”

one year ago…

April 17, 2007 – Coming out the Deep Freeze

The last few days have been back in the 70s after the long early April cold snap. We still are not sure how far along the fruit tree blossoms were when the cold weather came (teens at night and 3 days without getting above freezing).  We should know in a few days to week or so if they saved the flower buds.


The rhubarb will be fine, it’s already sending up new growth from the growing point, even though the first few leaves are brown and dead.

one year ago…

April 16, 2007 – New Driveway Gravel

Last year I put off re-graveling the driveway. The lime rock usually only lasts a few years before breaking down into powder/fines. Now that the threat of snow is passed, 17 tons of gravel were deposited yesterday as you don’t want to lay gravel that may have a chance to be plowed or snowblown before getting packed down. The truck can drive and spread most of it, but can’t get under the trees.


I still had the blade on the tractor, so used that for some rough leveling and spreading the piles under the trees before making an impromputu drag out of a cattle panel and some cement blocks for more fine leveling. The driver assures me I got a deal today because they were not processing the regular rock at the quarry, but the hardest stuff for freeway construction in Des Moines, so I got gravel that is usually $15/ton for $10/ton.

one year ago…

April 15, 2007 – Wendell Berry/Barn Burning

Not many days you can see a barn burn down AND hear Wendell Berry speak!  First, to the barn.  A few months ago, I wrote about a century farm (one that is honored to be owned by the same family for over 100 years) that was let slide into disrepair and intentionally burned).


We were headed to church on Sunday morning and the smoke had just started pouring out of the barn.  Mesmerized with the size of the fire, we pulled over on the side of the road to watch (I wasn’t willing to drive back home to get the camera, some moments have to stay that way).  It was about three minutes from the time the barn was in full flame until it collapsed to the ground.  Huge vortexes of flame shot out of the door to the hay loft.  The barn wasn’t it good shape (see picture from last winter), but it is sad to see another barn go.  It is way too common.  Our skyline changes once again.

That night, about seven hours later, we were driving back to Ames to see Wendell Berry and something had re-ignited the ditch near the barn and the fire was heading south quickly – the fire trucks arrived as we were driving down the road to survey the fire and whether anything was in its path to stop it.  Now we have a complex – our 2 now-famous fires (two different trips) where places we were just at/just arriving burned in Texas – and now, happening across the height of two different fires in the same place, the same day, hours apart.

In case you haven’t seen it, Sugar Creek Farm has a post and incredible photos of an old barn burning down

In the evening we went to see Wendell Berry, an author, poet, social critic, and farmer whose work I have long admired.  He appeared at Iowa State in the Great Hall.  In an attempt to make the evening more intimate, it was set up like a talk show – with other speakers besides Wendell on stage to make conversation.  Unfortunately, the sound system sounded and acted like it was purchased second-hand from a McDonald’s drive-thru, so I wasn’t really sure what all he said – there was an overflow crowd as well. 

When they opened it up to questions from the audience, again, unfortunately, there were questions that didn’t elucidate elaboration, or worse yet, just plain ramblings by people using the microphone to introduce the audience to their web site and pet peeve.  All in all, it was an unsatisfying event that held so much promise to be good.  I’ll have to read his latest book to make up for it.

one year ago…

April 14, 2007 – Finally a Day!

Today, we finally had a day that wasn’t cold or snowy! We were able to get a few things done outside. GJ dressed up a crowd to do some bee work.  She brought her stepson from CA and a friend visiting from Fiji.


Here is the crew and, of course, the youngest one gets to hold the fire!


Marty leads the procession down to the hive.


Smoking the hive to settle the bees before lifting off the lid.


Yeah!  There’s still bees inside (that’s no longer something taken for granted).


More hive work. (I’m not sure what’s going on today!)


Linda got the first few things in the ground, although most of the garden is still to wet to work.

one year ago…

April 13, 2007 – New Committee Duties

I have a new committee committment.  I have been asked to be a member of the Advisory Committee for the Value Chain Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture currently facilitated by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. 

There are currently a number of groups funded by the project, including the pork niche working group, regional food system working group, flax working group and bioeconomy working group.  As advisory board members, we will be asked to help evaluate the benefits/results of each group and help determine funding levels for each group going forward.  It’ll be a great way to keep connected to what’s going on in this neck of the woods.

one year ago…

April 9, 2007 – Equipment Day/Fresh Air

This afternoon, although it wasn’t warm, it was sunny and calm. I needed to replace a couple of battteries on lawn mowers, change oil, and other things.


Swapping the mower deck for the tiller is always a pain – here we are almost complete. 

This evening Linda and I had a bit of a treat – we went to Ames to a lecture by Terry Gross, host of NPR’s Fresh Air radio/interview show.  First, it was strange to see the woman behind the voice – the mental models never quite match up with the real thing.  It was an interesting evening – she shared interviews that went well and those that didn’t.  We heard about some of the background on her interviews with Bill O’Reilly, Monica Lewinski, Lynn Cheney, Gene Simmons (Rock band KISS) and many others.

one year ago…

April 3, 2007 – Willow Varieties

Yesterday I planted seven different willow varieties. Let’s fast forward to what the willows will look like in the future. We’re thinking these will be a great addition to the farm as they fulfill the “rule of three.” We like each element of the farm to have at least three uses. The willows can be used as goat browse, woody ornamentals, and basket/furniture materials, all while growing in a moist spot of the pasture. We purchased all these willows from Bluestem Nursery – the folks have a wonderful web site. All the following photographs and descriptions are from the Bluestem Nursery site.

Salix udensis ‘Sekka’

Common name: Japanese Fantail willow, Dragon willow

Description: Large shrub; 10 m (35′); dark maroon-black new growth; very bright fall colours; highly ornamental.

Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’

Common name: Black pussy willow

Description: Large large shrub; 7 m (23′); rounded form; slow growing; showy black catkins appearing in spring; highly ornamental. Black pussy willow will often bloom (display its catkins) before the snow melts. No other willow compares to the display of orange anthers against the jet-black catkins. Slow-growing and easily controlled by selective pruning, ‘Melanostachys’ is suitable for smaller areas.

Salix triandra ‘Black Maul’

Common name: Japanese Almond leaved willow

Description: Large shrub; 10 m (35′); dark maroon-black new growth; very bright fall colours; highly ornamental. Probably the most widely used willow for baskets with varieties growing throughout Europe, Britain, the Middle East and into central Asia.

Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’

Description: medium, many branched shrub; 4 m (13′) in height; reddish-green annual growth; young leaves pale pink, turning to dark green and grey beneath; sways nicely in a breeze. Used extensively in Japan for fine basketry. Naturally grows long, very flexible rods. Basketmakers will want to coppice annually in late winter. Native to Korea, but very hardy in our cold climate.

Salix babylonica var. pekinensis

Common name: Curly or Corkscrew willow, Peking willow

Description: Small tree; 6-9 m (20-30′); contorted reddish-gold new growth; outstanding ornamental throughout the year. There are many varieties of the larger Peking willow. However, this is a smaller clone preferred by the Japanese for flower arrangements, where it is used both fresh and dried. In colder climates, it is not as prone to die back, thus preserving the twisted golden branches. Highly ornamental and non-invasive, Tortuosa can be used in smaller areas. Nonetheless, one would wise to keep it well away from septic fields, which is the case with any tree. S. babylonica var. pekinensis will grow to a height of 15 – 20′ in just 3 to 4 seasons, then slow down and fill out, eventually reaching around 30′ after 8 to 10 years. There are two ways to grow this plant – pruned or left to grow to its natural form.

Salix viminalis ‘Superba’

Common name: Common Osier

Description: Tall shrub; 3-9 m (10-30′); yellow to olive-green branchlets; conspicuous yellow blooms, often before the snow melts. For basketry, plant in fertile soil, space .5 m apart and space rows 1.5m. Keep well watered and weed free for three years. Prune annually to encourage long straight rods that quality baskets require. There are two ways to grow this plant – pruned or left to grow to its natural form.

Salix caprea ‘Select’

Common name: Goat Willow, French Pussy Willow, Great Sallow

Description: Large shrub or small tree; 6-9 m (20-30′); reddish-brown new growth; leaves broadly elliptic or obovate, grey-green. This is one of the larger willows not associated with water. The natural habitat is the woodland edge and in the lowlands. In early spring, goat willow or great sallow produces an abundance of nectar and pollen on the many fat catkins (see them developing at the leaf junctions in the picture). Bees are greatly attracted to these catkins. This is one of the famous pussy willows of the floral trade.

All descriptions and photos from Bluestem Nursery where this is only the tip of the iceberg in willow varieties for sale.

one year ago…

April 2, 2006 – Willows in the Ground

My day was outlined for me when the mailman brought a package of willow cuttings.


Tomorrow, I’ll go into more details about the varieties, but today it was important to get them in the ground.  (Note to self – they are planted in the order of the photo.)We have a wide swath of lowland that is temporarily wet in the spring and after a big rainstorm.  We hope to start a small nursery here where we can propogate the varieties that do well for us as ornamentals, goat browse, or willow baskets/furniture (or all three).


I was lucky today was not windy, so I could get the landscape fabric out without turning it into a sail.  If you look closely, you’ll see little sticks poking out of the fabric.  To plant, when it is this wet, just stick them into the ground and they root. 


The completed (except for fencing and more mulch after the willows grow) willow nursery.


A little time, mulch, and some wet and muddy knees, and the willows are tucked.

one year ago…

March 30, 2007 – Mushroom “Planting”

Today was the second time we “planted” shitaake mushrooms in logs. The logs we did last year have not yet fruited, but the time-frame is usually 12-18 months, so we are still waiting.


This a log before the process starts. The ideal log is about 3-8 inches thick and about 40 inches long. Oak is the best, but most non-conifers work fine. Harvest logs while dormant. We had a good supply that broke off in ice storm.


The first step is to drill holes in lines about 6 inches apart and in rows 2 inches apart.


We ordered spawn on wooden dowels that are pounded into the drilled holes.


The final step is to seal each plug and the ends of the logs with wax, to preserve moisture.


Here’s a completed log. The last step for a while is to stack the logs in a shady, moist spot until they start fruiting in 12-18 months.

one year ago…

March 28, 2007 – The Goose Gets a Gander

Today, our two geese have a chance for a more complete and fulfilling life with the entrance of a gander! He’s in the middle, we’re thinking of calling him Mr.Toulouse Goose, or Mr. T. for short, but our shortest human rejects Mr. T. Martin prefers the  longer version.


You can read about the utility of the geese in solving our chicken predator problem in the October 26, 2006 blog entry.

one year ago…

March 26, 2007 – Moving Fencing Material into Place

Another nice June-like day in the upper 70’s. Started working on some more fencing (it will never end). Went to town to pick up wholesale buying club order, got some cardboard sheets and more cattle panels and T-posts. Martin is a great 5 year-old worker. Sometimes he asks what work we can do outside.


Here he wraps up the rope that held the panels down on top of the truck. It’s a pain to load/unload them from on top of the truck, but I don’t have a trailer that approaches 16 ft and the truck does, so up they go. The truck has now graduated into the heavy-duty farm use where scratches and dents only add to the value.


Martin was able to drag the panels into position (as long as the location was downhill).


He also was good at distributing the fenceposts – he moved about 75% of the posts to the correct places along the fenceline. All I had to do was get the panels off the truck, drag the uphill panels, and take the binders off the posts that banded them in groups of five and Martin did the rest. The fence is in position, we just need to pound the posts and put up the panels. This is the fence along the SE property boundary.

one year ago…

March 25, 2007 – Ice Storm Cleanup

Another task that had been weighing heavy was the messy yard from the ice storm. We had done some of the cleanup, but today, took three hay wagon loads and a couple of truckloads of branches to the burn pile.  It reached 80 degrees today, but with a strong wind!


All five of us worked and it was much faster than a solo effort. Claire’s comment about the afternoon was “even though I didn’t want to, it feels good to work.”

There is a problem with the old Farmall Cub – it started to smoke around the fan belts, so we turned it off and pushed it into the shed.  We’ll investigate the problem some other day. 

one year ago…

March 24, 2007 – Getting Piled up Chores Done

The weatherman promised rain most of the day, but it really didn’t seem to come as heavily/often as we were led to believe. That gave us a chance to get some much-awaited spring chores done. First was overseeding the back pasture.


Martin’s job was to reseed the cow trail. He did a good job and seeded all the way to the property boundary. We spread about 25 lb of seed over the 2-3 acres.

I’m also behind on fruit tree pruning. Between the cold until early March, ice storm/snow, and week away, it is a little later than I’d like.


I was able to get 90% of it completed. Linda started all the seeds that need a jump – flowers, tomoatoes, peppers, etc.


Martin was a good helper, filling the peat pots for Linda. I also got new fittings on a water tank, so it comes out a one inch hose instead of a garden hose. So the things that had to get done, got done today.

one year ago…

March 20, 2007 – Life and Death on the Farm

Sometime last night, Paullina gave birth to two kids. The boy has the waddles, like his daddy, Sugar. These kids are a Nubian/Alpine mix.


Here’s Emma holding the boy with under the watchful eye of Paullina. Sadly, we lost the girl kid. We have some pens made up of cattle panels in the barn and one of the panels wasn’t entirely secured and some time during the day it fell down and the kid happened to be underneath it when it fell and it died. It’s one of those things that just wrenches your gut to see that dead nearly newborn kid.

Then you go through all the what-ifs? What if the panel hadn’t fell? What if the kid hadn’t been underneath it, what if it happened on one of the 5 days a week someone was home all day instead of one of the 2 days everyone is gone? And so it goes. Not a happy on the farm day.

In the evening, as neither of us has not yet seen an opera and a touring company was presenting the Marriage of Figaro at Stephens Auditorium in Ames, we were able to go both see our first opera. We both enjoyed it – like most things it was much better live than recorded.

one year ago…

March 18, 2007 – Back to the Farm

Now that vacation is over, it’s back to work!  One of the first orders of business is to clean up the mess from the ice storm.  The snow is almost all gone and the branches are released from the grip of the snow and ice.


Maple sap tastes sweet right out of the tree!  Here Emma finds a weeping maple and tries to catch the tasty drops.  We all started picking up near the back pasture gate.


This big limb was the first order of business as it blocks access to the pasture and the burn piles.  All of us pitched in to drag the branches and limbs away and cut up the limb so we could start cleaning up the rest of the yard another day, but be able to use the wagons and tractor to transport the limbs. But today was devoted to clearing this area.

one year ago…

March 4, 2007 – Frustration Begins to Set In

Eight to nine days after the power went out, our neighbors on the roads a mile east and a mile west still don’t have power. We are lucky to be part of a small rural co-op and had our power restored in 3 days, the neighbors are part of a multi-state power company with over 1 million customers, with much larger resources, and are still waiting for power. Another vote small and local over large and centralized?

A couple of days without power is an adventure, but eight days in the winter turns to misery fairly quickly.


Here’s a hand-made sign just a mile due east of us offering instruction to the local electrical foremen! You’ll also notice the tractor and red generator working to keep the people warm inside and pipes from freezing.
one year ago…

February 7, 2007 – Yeah for Heated Waterers!

Chores are brief and perfunctory this time of year! I’m very grateful for the automatic waters for the animals to make sure they have water all day, not just for a few minutes until it freezes. Here’s the goat waterer. A nice heated black rubber-like bucket.


The chicken waterer is a heated metal base that the metal waterer sits on.


one year ago…

February 4, 2007 – What Must it be Like to Live Outside?

When snow is on the ground and it is below 13 degrees, it makes a crunchy sound when you step – warmer than that, the friction of your boot hitting the snow melts a small layer and prevents the crunch. There’s been a lot of crunching lately!

I am so grateful for indoor heat! The animals all seem to be doing fine, but just the few minutes outside seems painful to me. We gave Maizie the germination map to sleep on in her kennel and violated the no dogs in the house rule to let April sleep in the house. She doesn’t move from the carpet next to the door and is in all manners a great house guest. This is the view from inside the chicken coop looking outside. The chickens obviously put out enough water vapor to frost up the windows.


one year ago…

February 3, 2007 – Linda Strikes Again/INCA Conference

Today was the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture’s annual conference, in Marshalltown this year.  The local foods movement is getting much more visibility.  Both State of Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and Senator Tom Harkin (head of committee writing new farm bill) showed up.

I did a presentation with Jay Wagner from essentialiowa.com – I talked about the nuts and bolts of local food and Jay talked about his experience to “Eat Iowa” for a year – to try to eat nothing but food grown in Iowa.

There is a traditional potluck (ever been to a potluck for 150? -ok the solstice party at our house is close, but not that big!).  Here’s part of the spread.

Linda had a good and long conversation with the Senator’s Ag staffer about the program at MCC.  Here’s another feather in Linda’s cooking hat.  As Senator Harkin was leaving, he shouted out – who made the white chili?  I want the recipe.  Once again, Linda had to step forward with a cooking honor of sorts. 

January 29, 2007 – The Core of Winter?

It seems like today may be the middle of winter. It’s been cold for a few weeks now, and the coldest days of the year are supposed to be here this weekend, followed by more below normal temperatures. The corn stove has been running like a top (knock on maize) lately which adds a delightful look of warmth to have a constant fire in the house at all times. The last few days we’ve had many brief snow squalls followed by sunshine.

one year ago…

January 28, 2007 – A Boy and his Fish

Martin is very proud of his fish. If you look closely, you’ll find a gold and grey goldfish in the bowl. There is much “discussion” of fish ownership between Martin and the girls, who want to hone in on the fish ownership. Martin said “I started the conversation about getting the fish.” The conversation started more like “Dad, can I get an animal in a cage in my room?” Hamsters, rats, ferrets, and guinea pigs were all squashed and he finally seemed a bit shocked, when we agreed to fish. He was one happy boy to get them. It was worth at least two days of perfect co-operation!

one year ago…

January 21, 2007 – Snow At Last

We finally have a blanket of white after a winter of brown. The last week we’ve had two snowfalls. Just enough to warrant trying out the tractor with the blade for clearing snow.

It sure beats shoveling! I’ve still got some learning to do with the equipment, but right now it is a novel activity. This snow was folled by still and warm – not the usual howling wind, so it is once again nice to be outside.

one year ago…

January 9, 2007 – Pasture 2.0

Here’s a look at the furthest east side of our pasture. You can barely see the rows of Christmas trees on the far side and you can see the fencing of the hardwood trees on the left side. For now we’ve decided pasture is not the highest and best use of this ground since we have so little land and need a higher return than we can get from a few grazed cattle.

There’s a bit of higher ground on the far east side, and you can see where a couple of rows of Christmas trees will go. Down the center of the picture, we are investigating woody ornamentals that can stand wet feet. They’re in a low spot that floods maybe once or twice a year if we get a quick, heavy rain in a short time when the crops aren’t in the adjacent field. It doesn’t stick around for long, but does move through pretty good.

We’re looking at curly willow and other brightly colored willows and perhaps some marsh-loving plants like iris in the low area. The willows can be mowed every year and as a side benefit will offer great goat browse as well. I must admit – I do like researching and planning a farmscape like this. A great advantage of doing something totally different than the rest of the county is we’re the only one doing it. Of course, the disadvantage is that we’re the only ones doing it! I do however like the diversity and experimentation that we can indulge in on our little piece of old prairie ground.

one year ago…

January 8, 2007 – Another Mission Accomplished

Today, after a year since the first piece was put up, the back roof of the machine shed it now roofed (or at least all I’m planning on roofing). This brings a number of benefits – no more pile of steel roofing on the ground taunting me, no more drips in the shed, and no more having to straddle two sharp pieces of metal between the legs to put on a ridge cap.

The plan is to tear off the rest of the building, or make it open to the south as the lower half is in pretty rough shape, even by my standards.

one year ago…

January 7, 2007 – Gathering Mulch

The tractor came in handy again today. There was a small pile of the good mulch at the pallet factory, so I ended up with a couple of pick-up loads of “A” mulch – about 45 cu ft (not quite 2 cubic yards) for free. The pre-tractor method was to move it from the pickup and throw it 4-5 feet over the top of the wagon by hand with a pitchfork.

Now, It gets pushed once from the truck to the loader. (The loader is about an inch wider than the bed, so I can’t scoop it right out of the truck.

Then from the loader to the wagon. The wagon is still in the barn and this is the view from the tractor seat.

one year ago…

January 5, 2007 – Keeping the Cub in Use

It’s been a while since the ’47 Farmall Cub was used with the new tractor on the farm, so moving some cattle panels out to the pasture was just the job as it is lighter than the JD and the ground is soft. It starts right up and runs like new.

I love this little tractor – even the smell of the exhaust hearkens back to another time.

Linda took me out for dinner at the Phoenix Cafe in Grinnell – it was an enjoyable evening with good food.

one year ago…

January 3, 2007 – New Gate

Another 50 degree day. The kids are back in school. Once again the “Cone of Silence” can descend upon the household. Got down all the Christmas lights and removed the hanging door hardware from the old corn crib doors for re-use with new doors and started next year’s burn pile with the Christmas tree and old wooden doors.

Took a walk with Linda in the back pasture and started thinking about possible uses. So many options! Will keep you posted.

Got one rotting gate replaced.

This is a home-made design using a piece of a wire panel and treated lumber. It’s an original design and works quite well as affixing the panel lends lots of sturdiness to the gate. The heavy-duty gate pin on the bottom with a regular hinge on top adds to the strength and simplicity.

one year ago…

December 30, 2006 – Pulling Fence in December!

It’s not often December 30th brings 50 degrees – we used the opportunity to get a start on some work that is usually done in late March or early April – pulling up and putting in fence. We’re moving the entire line of fence on the north side out another 10 feet so we can plant another row of trees in the north windbreak/Christmas Tree patch.

Here’s Marty working the post puller. It was actually so wet, that we didn’t need this – the posts could just be pulled out.

There’s something about working in a warm rain – I’m not sure it reminds me of camping, or if the rain provides a slight sense of urgency to get done before the rain increases. It was not unpleasant and good to get out.

one year ago…

December 27, 2006 – Fencing Me In

Now that the cows are gone, the tree-destroying job has evidently been passed onto the rabbits. I noticed some chewing around the base of the trees, particularly the maples. So, now we are starting to put chicken wire around some of the trees.

Today the girls made the cages, pounded the stakes in, and protected 17 trees. More to do tomorrow!

one year ago…

December 10, 2006 – Roving Bands of Chickens

The warm weather continues. The chickens are liking the lack of snow cover. Once the snow comes, the free-range roaming instincts are limited.

This is one of the roosters we hatched ourselves. He’s pretty happy with himself this evening. (But then, the roosters always seem quite happy with themselves.)

He’s the leader of the group of “gypsy chickens” who roam separately from the rest of the flock and end up in places they shouldn’t be. We are actually looking forward to a few snow days so they can learn were they should be. These chickens do not lay in the nest boxes – we find clutches of eggs here and there from this roaming band.

one year ago…

December 9, 2006 – More Siding

Today was the first warm day since I moved the scaffolding to the north side of the corn crib and was able to get the most challenging (highest) pieces up and start down on the other side.

Here I’m tearing down the third section high after already tearing down the fourth section high. I’ll be happy when this is done for this year. Next year we can work on the doors. It’s a bit of a time stretch to work on this in the heart of the busy season, but a day near 50 in December calls out for a job like this to get some attention.

one year ago…

December 8, 2006 – Photo Friday “Fresh”

This week’s Photo Friday Contest theme is “Fresh.” Here’s a shot from the high hopes archives of milk about as fresh as you can get it!

This is one of our milk goats, Paulina.

We all know there’s more than one meaning to “fresh” so keeping that in mind, and in keeping with the goat theme, here’s another photo.

Back up to about 6 months before the milking picture for Mr. Billy getting “fresh” with his lady!

one year ago…

December 4, 2006 – Gift Boxes

It’s now time for the shameless commerce portion of the blog. This year we’ve decided to offer gift boxes of products from our farm – various combinations of pure beeswax candles, hand made soap, and jams.

This is the big sampler box.

This is the medium sampler box.

You can look at all the boxes at the high hopes gardens web site.

For those wishing to order not in the local area, we’ll add actual shipping costs to the order and ship them where/when you want them to go. Just send us the shipping zip code and we’ll estimate shipping and let you know. The shipping should be between three and seven dollars, depending on location and shipping method.

You can pay us instantly via paypal or send a check in snail mail. Send us an e-mail to highhopes@prairieinet.net for more info or if you have questions.

one year ago…

November 22, 2006 – Way too Gross for Me!

Never one to pass by a better and creative way to feed animals, I was intrigued with the post on the “whizbang chicken plucker” Yahoo group – a place where many people with small flocks of chicken post questions, problems and answers.

I’m able to pick up a few things here and there on this group – but the posting describing “free feed” went over the edge for our operation. It described growing maggots for chicken feed. I think maggots would be a great chicken food – however the growing method described – get beaver guts (or other dead animal) and hang in a plastic bucket over the chicken yard and let the maggots fall down to the ground. According to the author, it wasn’t bad unless the wind was blowing toward the house. Don’t think I’ll risk it!

one year ago…

November 21, 2006 – Thanksgiving Turkey

Here’s one of our thanksgiving turkeys. Today was the day they went to the locker – so they are fresh for Thanksgiving.

It was a rough start to the turkey season – first 10 of 15 of the poults arrived dead from the hatchery this summer. As the replacements weren’t sent for a month, we were worried about the turkeys getting to size. Then a feral cat, ate some of the other turkeys out on the range. At $5 a poult, it adds up in a hurry. We ended up with 9.

The biggest two were about 26 lb and the rest were 12-16 lb, which wasn’t too bad. We kept two – one 16 lb for Thanksgiving and the biggest one Emma cut up and vacuum-packed for many meals. We traded a couple of turkeys for some berkshire pork from Eden Farms. We fried up some chops tonight and they were the best I’ve ever had – literally melt in your mouth chops.

one year ago…

November 17, 2006 – Fruit Tree Problems

This year, a number of our fairly new peach trees developed wounds on the south side of their trunks. While I was at the Small Farm Conference I spoke with someone from the Missouri experimental fruit station after a grafting workshop who told me to paint the south sides of the trunks white because the hot winter days followed by cold were causing the splits in the trunks. He said you don’t need fancy paint, interior latex works as well as anything.

It looks kind of strange to see all the white trunks offering striking contrast to the autumn browns.

one year ago…

November 14, 2006 – New Pastured Poultry Breed – Finally!

I’ve been hearing rumors for years of a chicken faster growing than the standard breeds, but not quite as fast as the cornish-cross confinement-style chicken. I believe these birds were developed from some french stock. There are four different breeds with slightly different characteristics. They are distributed by a Canadian company, but there is a hatchery in West, Bend, IA. The prices seemed very reasonable as well.

For all you chicken growers out there looking for a hardier, even tastier, bird that takes only a couple of extra weeks to finish, check out the “Freedom Rangers” website.

one year ago…

November 13, 2006 – Windows (not the Bill Gates kind)

Things at the farm are in a constant state of needing attention. This summer, a couple of windows in the barn lost some panes of glass. Years ago, I would painstakingly reglaze and repoint the window panes into rotting wood, then paint – all told a job over a few days time. Then I got smarter and bought the pre-primed frames and just had a couple of coats of taping, painting, and scraping. Now, I’m a firm believer in the PVC/Vinyl windows for the outbuildings. No painting, no scraping, no waiting, just put them in. (However, I’m not a fan of them for the house!)

Here’s the broken window.

The path to the broken window from inside the barn. I was fortunate it was over the loft, so the ladder journey wasn’t as far.

Finally, the completed fix. I put two new windows in the barn – need one more for the corn crib.

In unrelated news, I was fortunate the battery to the van died in the K-Mart parking lot! I could walk in, buy a new one, and install it on a nice day. I was fortunate in it wasn’t when Linda had the van and kids somewhere on a cold, windy day.

one year ago…

November 8, 2006 – Short Shirt Sleeve Day

Today might be the last day in the mid-70’s for a while. I used it to take care of lots of nagging little jobs. Fixed the oyster shell dispenser that was leaking oyster shells on the ground outside of the coop, painted the south side of the peach trees white, moved all the chicken tractors in the barn along with most of the summer outdoor furniture, started on rabbit guards on the new trees, put another coat of poly on some bookshelf shelves, and so on.

My favorite task is “pruning” the fall raspberries

Here is a row before pruning.

This is the row after pruning. The “pruner” in this case is a riding lawn mower! This beats the heck out of individual cane pruning the summer bearing berries. I’ll just throw some compost on, and they’ll be ready for next spring.

one year ago…

November 3, 2006 – Small Farm Conference

Today, we drove down to Columbia, Missouri to attend the National Small Farm Conference and Tradeshow. We’ll also use it as our “annual meeting” of high hopes LLC. The conference is a real interesting mix of people, some so far around each end of the political spectrum that they meet up here.

It was a nice drive down, we took some county roads (T61 from Eddyville to hwy 2 was a great drive and we avoided driving through Ottumwa).

I was able to listen to Joel Salatin talk about pasture-based farming. Joel is the poster child of ecological, community based farming. He was the hero of the best seller “Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan.

Perhaps some other day, I’ll summarize his presentation, but I do want to share one story.

I asked him if had any corrections or comments regarding his portrayal in the “Omnivore’s Dilemma.” He gushed a bit about Michael Pollan and then came with one little thing that raised his hackles. Pollan notes the lack of coffee at Polyface Farm, and seemingly begrudges, or at least can’t understand why there is not any coffee. Salatin says that is not true – there is indeed coffee on the farm, and if a guest asks, they are happy to brew a pot! Had only he asked, there would have been coffee.

one year ago…

October 30 , 2006 – Getting Soil Ready for Hoophouse

We have a small plot where we’d like to experiment with a small hoop house. The one we are looking at is 20×36 and 12 feet tall in the center. This fall, we ran the chickens on the plot to do their thing killing some grass and leaving some deposits behind. The ground where this is located is badly eroded. When we moved in, it was previously used as a cattle yard and as it is on a slight slope, most of the topsoil washed off, leaving clay behind.

Here it is after a few passes with the middlebuster to break up the remaining sod. You can see the loader ready with a load of compost ready to dump.

Here’s what the clay looks like. Other places of the farm range from a few inches to about 18-24 inches of wonderful black loamy topsoil before hitting the clay layer.

This is what it looks like after 8-10 loaderfulls of compost. In the spring we’ll plant a cover crop for a year to get rid of grass and further enrich the soil. It’s still novel for me to have the tractor and to be able to do this in about 3/10 of a tractor hour instead of lots of shoveling and spreading.

one year ago…

October 28, 2006 – Planting Garlic

Today was supposed to be warm, but that never happened! It was the first time to get the middlebuster, or potato fork on the three-point of the tractor. I needed to do some monkeying around to get it mounted.

The biggest lesson was learning that the drawbar needs to be removed; otherwise, when you lift up the middlebuster on the three point, the shovel gets stuck on the drawbar! So I needed to unbolt the shovel and then retract the drawbar.

Once that was fixed, it was time to try to dig a trench for the first time.

It may not be exciting to look at, but what a relief not to have to dig all those trenches by hand 4-6 inches deep! It will sure speed up garlic, gladiola, and potato planting.

one year ago…

October 23, 2006 – Guard Geese

These ladies are our chicken protectors! At one time we were losing a chicken about every other night – it would be partially eaten in the coop overnight. Nothing too big could get in the building, so we are guessing unless some animal learned to unlatch the door, it was most likely a mink or weasel.

A neighbor suggested to get a goose, since the geese are fairly alarmist when it comes to new creatures in their space. So we did, and whether by luck or design – we have not lost a single chicken to predation overnight since the geese have arrived.

October 20, 2006 – 2nd Stage Garden Cleanup

Today was the 2nd stage garden cleanup – mowing to shreds all the remaining plants and weeds to help them break down over winter. I did find one total surprise – some of the radicchio and chinese cabbage plants have regrown. They are early spring crops and just kind of hibernated through summer and now they are back!

I found out our power cooperative has an off-peak billing option – you pay half price for 22 hours of the day and pay three times the rate from 5-7 pm. It sounds pretty good – put a timer on the deep freezes and water heater to go off for a couple of hours and avoid laundry or clothes washing at that time – I figured it could save us up to $80/month. I’ll keep you posted how it actually works out.

one year ago…

October 16, 2006 – Sugar (Shoog-uh!)

Yesterday the good people at Morning Sun Farm brought a young Alpine goat buck when they came over to make soap. His name was alternately “Whiteface” or “Sugar” and we decided to call him Sugar, pronounced “Shoog-uh” as his job is to impregnate Paullina and Blaze. The two young boys went to the sale barn on Saturday, and the two young girls went to Two Friends Farm for a while.

Here’s Shoog-uh with one of his harem.

one year ago…

October 15, 2006 – Soap

Today was another day to revive an ancient, somewhat forgotten task – making soap from scratch – in this case rendered beef and pork fat, lye, and goat milk. The folks from Morning Sun farm came over to finish what we had started a few months ago when the fat was rendered.

Everybody looks pleased to finally see the soap being poured into the mold without any lye burns. In 6 weeks we’ll be able to test out this batch.

one year ago…

October 14, 2006 – Garden Clean Up Begins

Today was a big get the garden cleaned up day. We hired one of Linda’s students to help and got all the tomato vines pulled and dragged to the burn pile, pulled all the posts holding the tomato cages and bean trellises out, dragged them to the winter storage location, chopped the sunflowers and corn stalks, and weeded the baby pines one last time before winter.

Some of the tomato cages lean against the barn. These are home made out of old woven wire fencing destined for the dump, slid on top of 1/2 of a steel fence post, they make sturdy tomato cages.

one year ago…

October 11, 2006 – Garden Gleaning

You know you are committed when it’s 39 degrees with a 25 mph wind and you are out picking the last raspberries of the year! I had to come in three times to warm up the fingers before getting all the raspberries picked. Tonight will be the end of the growing season at last. This was the last garden gleaning before a hard frost.

This was part of the day’s harvest. In addition to this, some radishes, lettuce, and herbs were gathered. So, today was devoted to freezing the beans and berries, making one batch of salsa, and canning more tomatoes.

I wasn’t necessarily planning on this for today, but something about my upbringing can’t let the food go without one last putting away day.

one year ago…

October 10, 2006 – Egg Production Slowing

It’s the time of year that egg production drops as the light decreases. We don’t “force” our hens to lay like the big egg houses do by keeping the lights on all the time, nor do we withhold feed the last days of the hen’s life to trick her into a burst of laying before death. We’re able to ebb and flow with the chicken’s natural cycles, so we get an overflow of eggs in the spring and fewer in the winter.

We have a few young hens (pullets) just starting to lay. Their eggs the first few weeks are about half the size of regular eggs. They often appear in strange places until the pullets figure out it’s nice to lay them in the warm, cozy, nest boxes to make a bigger clutch with other hens.

October 9, 2006 – Lambs Growing Up

Our lambs are a bit behind most others in the area. They were born in June, so won’t be ready until late, late fall. They get a little bit of corn to help them keep warm and get used to coming when we call. That helps when we yell SHEEPY-SHEEPY-SHEEP to lock them up at night to prevent a coyote feast! Otherwise, they graze to their heart’s content all day.

September 24, 2006 – Raspberries Won’t Die!

The frost was not a killing frost – only a handful of tomato plants bit the dust. The raspberries keep going…

Someone asked the variety – they are the old traditional fall variety – Heritage.

One of the neighbors had a “block” party this afternoon(A block meaning a couple of miles square) for all the old and new neighbors to get together. We had some a few years ago, but hadn’t had any for a while, so it was nice to have the tradition picked up again.

September 17, 2006 – More Food By

Yesterday was a marathon food preserving day.

  • 24 8 oz jars of whole raspberries
  • 16 jars of raspberry jam
  • 16 jars of peach jam
  • 28 pints of canned peaches
  • 8 bags of frozen beans

Some of the jobs are quick – like the berries, just put whole berries in jar, fill with light syrup (sugar and water) and put in boiling water canner for 10 minutes.

Other jobs are more lengthy – like the peaches, blanch the peaches and slip off the skins, cut to remove pit, add some light syrup and bring to boil, then pack in jars and put in boiling water canner for 25 minutes.

The kids love the peaches and I love the berries on cereal and in yogurt for breakfast. It’s great in the winter when the fresh fruit supply dwindles, to be able to reach for a jar of fruit to add to any meal.

September 15, 2006 – Peaches and Raspberries

Our raspberries refuse to surrender. We’ve been picking since mid-August. On Monday we picked 2 gallons and today (Friday) 6 more quarts. This is from a 50 foot row!

The oldest peach tree was ready for harvest as well. Three crates of peaches from it this year – about 1/2 or less of last year’s harvest from the tree, but still lotsa peaches.

So, time to make more jam, and depending how the mood strikes us tomorrow – canned or dried peaches. I would not be disappointed if it froze tonight (it won’t for quite some time yet). I’m ready for something else besides picking and putting food up (at least for a while). I don’t think I’d do very well in a place without seasons. It’s nice to anticipate, enjoy, and exhaust each season. I look forward to fall – typically a time to fix up buildings/create contrivances in the workshop after the gardens die.

September 13, 2006 – Fencing

Recently the cows crashed through the cattle panels and ate all the leaves off the second year hardwood trees I’ve been babying. Now that the broilers are gone, the solar charger is available and so I strung wire around the enclosure and turned it on.

This SHOULD work to keep the cows out.

September 9, 2006 – Market Goods

Here’s a sample of what we bring to market. This may be one of the last weeks as the garden winds down.

As Martin’s Kindergarten class was discussing colors this week, nobody believed that peppers were purple. (Doesn’t anybody teach “Peter Piper picked a peck of purple peppers anymore?) So, for share day, he brought in some Purple Beauty peppers to show.

Some of the fall bouquets are striking with the dark reds and browns.

Our fall raspberries are just going nuts this year – lots and lots of big berries.

September 6, 2006 – Chickens Gone and Farm Tour

This morning, for the last time, for a long time, the sound of roosters crowing woke me up at 3:30 am. about 45 minutes later, with a view of an orangish-pink setting moon, I drove to the locker to bring half of our chickens. On the way home, the sun was rising. GJ came out and since these chickens were for us, we cut up most of them and froze them.

In the afternoon we had another farm tour with students from MCC as part of a livestock class. We were also recorded and captured on video for possible future classes.

Here a student tries to milk!

September 4, 2006 – Gift of Heirloom Apples

Today Helen Gunderson stopped by the farm and dropped off two Wealthy apple trees she grafted from an 80 year old tree on her childhood farm. I’ll have to ask her where the tree was in this arial photo shown in the previous link.

We were able to pick two of the trees to plant at High Hopes. To facilitate this project, Helen learned how to graft and brought these trees from grafted twigs to these nice potted trees over the summer. She is spreading the apples around the state, a modern-day Johnny Appleseed (except the true story of Johnny Appleseed involves lots of hard cider and profit, but that’s another story for a diffent day).

September 2, 2006 – Honey Extraction

Today was honey extraction day. We went out in mid-afternoon to rob the honey from the hives while many of the bees were out foraging, loaded the frames in the back of the truck and parked it a distance from the house, so the bees wouldn’t find it and start stealing the honey back.

After the bees went to bed for the night, we drove the truck back and started extracting. The weather had just changed, and our near 80 degree day switched wind directions and dropped to the 50’s. We started the heater in the garage to make sure it was warm enough for the honey to flow.

The first step is “uncapping” the frames.

Here’s a beautiful full frame with the caps partially cut off.

The neighbors wanted to see the process, so they came over and here Marty and a visitor are in charge of the honey gate. The hot steamy garage and cool damp, dark outdoors made for a delightful contrast.

August 28, 2006 – Stuck Goat

This evening the goats were bleating like they do when one gets separated or they need help. It’s a different kind of sound than the “feed me” or “milk me” sounds.

Nellie caught her head in the fence.

Trying to get her head out every which way – neck first, nose first, and on…

Finally, it’s time for the fence bending blocks and levers to try to bend the wire just enough to release the goat. If this doesn’t work, the ultimate solution is the sawz-all!

Free at last!

Last night it started raining (about 2.25 inches worth of driving rain) about 3:30 am and strong east wind and unseasonably cold August temperatures in the mid-50’s. I started to worry about the chickens outside, but tossed fitfully until first hint of light, hoping not to see a pile of dead birds. Just one died – a turkey – but I jerry-rigged additional shelter with tarps to get them through the rest of the day.

August 22, 2006 – Livestock = Deadstock

There’s a saying – if you’ve got livestock, it won’t be long before you have deadstock. Two things struck today. We had a group of laying hen chicks in with some of our broilers that free-ranged during the day and were locked up in a building at night. The layers are much younger and smaller. Other broilers were in chicken tractors and out on the “range” in electric fences surrounding them. Linda kind of thought the numbers were going down. I had seen a wild cat numerous times in and around the building they were living.

Tomorrow 10 replacement turkeys may come, (the original 10 died in transit) so we were moving the chicks from that building to new accommodations so the new turkeys can brood in peace and be protected from the cat. Only 8 of 25 layer chicks remain! Time to find a new home for the cat!

While I was readying the brooder, Claire yells out that she thinks Blindy (the lamb) is dead. Sure enough, he was – no signs of anything wrong with him. I think that whatever caused him to be blind and have deformed feet, must have finally killed him. He was nice and blocky, fat tummy (but not bloated) and free of the runs.

I gently brought his body over to the animal composter pile, placed a layer of half-rotted manure/compost on the bottom, placed him on the compost, then covered with a bunch of hay and got it soaking wet. In a strange way, it felt good to take care of him in a respectful and natural way. It will be the first use of the new composter.

August 19, 2006 – Unnatural Fruit of the Garden

You’ve all seen the unnaturally shaped garden vegetables – misshapen potatoes and squash seem particularly amenable to be Rorschach Test subjects. Some are even purposely grown in uncommon shapes in special vegetable molds.

We have a tomato entry (unmodified) in the non-standard tomato shape contest.

I will let the readers jump to their own conclusions regarding the particular resemblance of this tomato to other natural forms. Suffice to say that many drug companies will no doubt want the genes from this tomato!

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 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 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 1, 2006 – Flower Bouquets

I thought I’d share a picture of one of the bouquets Linda makes. We sell them at farmer’s market and to some people at school and in town.

The flower composition varies by the week, but they are always nice!

One of the ideas we had last winter when we were researching a farm store was an e-mail ordering service for mid-week to help keep produce moving between markets. We started with two families and it is working great for us – send them an e-mail as to what’s available and they e-mail back what they’d like. Both the delivery and school bouquets are great since we only harvest what we know we can sell mid-week.

This week’s idea…well, more about that tomorrow.

July 31, 2006 – Peppers

The peppers are starting to come on strong. Here’s an assortment from the garden.

The dark purple peppers (Purple Beauty) are the size of normal grocery store bell peppers and the big green one is called “Napolean Sweet Pepper” – just for fun here’s a description of it from the 1923 L.L. Olds Seed Company Catalog: “Plants about 2 feet tall. Possibly the most productive of all the large peppers, bears consistently until frost. Mild as an apple. Fruit about 8″ long and 4 ½” in circumference, standing upright until they get so heavy they sometimes droop. Remarkably early for a large fruited pepper. Might be classed as an extra early.” Good flavor when green, sweeter when red.

July 26, 2006 – A Time for Dreaming

Last week Linda went to Athens, Ohio to tour ACEnet, one of the nation’s most successful incubator kitchens. An incubator kitchen is a place where a person or aspiring company can process food for retail sale, or ramp up a recipe in a batch food environment before building or taking it to a food manufacturer. So, you may be a sweet corn farmer who sells frozen cobettes (corn on the cob broken in half) to a rib restaurant – you could rent the kitchen for a week to legally process all your corn. You may have a great family dressing or salsa recipe you’d like to try to sell – this is the place to produce test batches and do some test marketing.

This is a picture of Bill, the food scientist/chef at ACEnet. He helps people with ideas batch up their recipes, among other things.

An incubator kitchen is one part of the dream for the entrepreneurial farm Linda is planning at the community college. They hope to use the 140 acres adjacent to the farm to rent out small plots – 1/2 to many acres for someone wanting to start an agricultural enterprise. Along with the classes, incubator kitchen, and farm – it could be a great way to recapture lost food dollars, begin a local food economy and provide meaningful employment. Linda has spent her “work” summer researching other entrepreneurial farms in planning the use of the land at MCC.

It is frustrating that this type of community-based agricultural venture does not gain traction. Especially in light of the farm subsidies paid to commodity farmers to produce crops that result in overproduction. The Environmental Working Group has published all the taxpayer money that goes to commodity subsidies. In Marshall County Iowa alone, the data is from 1995-2004 and the largest farmer received $1,302,739 in taxpayer money (or national debt as the case may be). It’s not an isolated case. There were 44 farmers who recieved over $750,000 and 164 farmers who received $250,000 or more. Just the payments from one of those farmers would go a long way to helping many more entrepreneurial farmers create community wealth.

July 25, 2006 – Not Three Blind Mice but One Blind Lamb

One of the bottle lambs we were given was blind from birth. He seems to be doing very well so far

He’s nice and fat. For a while, one of the other sheep acted as his “seeing eye” sheep, but now every once in awhile this one will start bawling when the others are out of his hearing range, but he comes running to the sound of our voice, so he’s easy to get back with the herd when that happens. He gets along quite well for the most part.

Any day this week the turkeys should arrive. Here are the luxurious accommodations, at least for the first week or two.

At high hopes we like to have multiple uses for whatever we can. This is a used stock tank we picked up at an auction for dirt cheap. It still holds water, so I put it on a small trailer and haul water with it from the tank that collects water from the barn to the raspberries or new trees. Now it is brooder to keep the turkeys separate from the chicken chicks. We also use it below the barge wagon so when we open the rear gate, any grain that spills falls into it instead of on the ground.

July 24, 2006 – News from the Farm

Among other things, today was onion and potato harvest day.

We pulled all the onions. It wasn’t the best year for onions, as they weren’t all very big – the white variety did best this year.

We pulled about 1/4 of the potatoes and Martin was excited to haul a load from the garden to the drying spot with his tractor wagon. The red potatoes dried down first. Like the garlic, we seeded buckwheat where the onions used to be.

I also spent some part of the day hauling scaffolding – three sections from Morning Sun Farm and two sections rented from a scaffolding company in Des Moines.

I’m always scheming what to build next – the latest idea is an outdoor brick or adobe oven to cook breads and dry fruits and veggies and cook an occasional pizza. I’m about to start the research process and my number on question is can the clay-based horno type ovens last in this alternating humid/cold climate? Keep ya posted.

July 22, 2006 – Here We Go Again

Today a package arrived in the morning. Any ideas what could come in a package like this?

There’s holes in the boxes, the post office calls us to pick it up at 7:00 am, even though it is regular post, not express.

It’s round 2 of baby chicks! It’s sure easier to brood chicks in July than in March. Cousin Jill from California was amazed the chicks come through the mail.

July 21, 2006 – Garlic Drying

Here’s an update on the garlic – it was pulled a few days ago, and here is drying on old refrigerator racks in the hayloft of the barn – as warm and dry place as we can find these days.

Garlic is a great crop for us – it’s planted in the fall gets pulled in mid-July, and stores well and people like it.

July 17, 2006 – Harvest Day

It’s amazing what grows in a week or so. Today was a big harvest day despite the sweltering heat. How hot was it you ask? When I got out of the car, my glasses fogged up at the blast of warm humid air.

But there were things to do – pulling some more of the garlic was high on the list.

We did this first thing in the morning, but it was still hot.

Martin with the day’s digging. The girls were sent out in the afternoon to pick beans. They came back with a 5 gallon bucket and a grocery bag full!

I think the looks on their faces portray the joy of picking beans! We also had a bunch of raspberries to pick, and a big secondary blush of broccoli.

In the evening, since it was so hot and the supers were near full, Joanne extracted honey.

A frame dripping with honey.

Turning the extractor and draining the honey.

Finally, the raw honey in a 5 gallon bucket. All in all, a good day at the farm!

July 7, 2006 – Little bit of Oat Hay

Today, the oat buffers along our farm were baled. Since all my wagons were occupied and there were only 13 or so bales, we just used the truck to pick them up.
There was a short waterway that we couldn’t get to using the tractor and baler, so we snuck the truck in and picked up the loose straw hay (still has the oats attached)

We’re looking forward to using this as bedding in the chicken coop in the winter as it will give the hens something good to scratch in the winter.
It was good work (it didn’t take long) and there’s something about making hay that is rewarding, no matter how little.

July 5, 2006 – Working with the Cub

Today’s entry doubles as this week’s Photo Friday Contest entry. This week’s theme is “Summer.”

I had just a little bit of raking to do today on the buffer strip in the neighbor’s field. I borrowed the neighbor’s rake and hitched up the Farmall Cub to rake the oat straw.

Nothing says summer like making hay on a hot day.

July 4, 2006 – Fireworks and Broccoli

Happy July 4th! It’s wonderful to watch fireworks through the eyes of a 5 year old.

One of today’s tasks was to put up broccoli. We even caught it this year before any heads turned to flowers!

Broccoli out in the garden, unaware of the knife poised at it stem.

Broccoli florets floating in the sink in salty water – driving any insects out.

Finally, vacuum sealed broccoli vacuum sealed after blanching and cooling. I even chopped up the stems in the food processor and cooked it with the chicken broth from last week’s butchering and froze it to make cream of broccoli soup.

July 2, 2006 – The Three Sisters

Even though Linda and I don’t have three sisters between us, we planted them this spring. The three sisters are corn, squash, and pole beans. We planted the corn first, waited a few weeks, and followed it up with the beans and squash.

Here are the anthers from the “Mandan Bride” variety of corn we planted.

Here’s another expression of the Mandan Bride corn.

Finally, here they are all together. The beans are starting to climb and the squash are just getting started. The idea is the squash smother the weeds, and the beans fix nitrogen for the corn and the corn offers the beans a place to climb.

July 1, 2006 – Next Year’s Vegetables

Check out next year’s vegetables!

This heaping pile of fertility is about to become compost for next year’s garden. Most of this pile was scraped out of the barn and chicken coop this morning. The tractor made it easy to haul and will make it easy to turn over and water, but scraping it out (by hand) was about the morning’s job.

June 30, 2006 – Martin/Daddy Matching Tractors!

Today is Martin’s 5th birthday. Many of his loved ones went together to get him a battery-powered scoop tractor, just like dad’s!

He’s having great fun helping around the farm – moving mulch, carrying tools, straw, or whatever else needs to be hauled.

He has not yet mastered the art of backing up with a trailer – maybe another day.

We also got for more lambs today.

Here’s Emma with one of the lambs. Now we have a total of six.

June 28, 2006 – Grain Grinder

A few years back I bought this grain grinder on E-bay.

It works great for small quantities and grinds a range from coarse to flour. We use it occasionally, like today when we need some creep feed for our bottle lambs and all the feed in the farm store was laced with anti-biotics. So, we have to make our own.

Here’s a sample of the coarse grind. It takes about 15 minutes to grind up about 50 lbs of corn.

June 27, 2006 – Early Summer Garden/Musings

It’s now officially early summer. Here’s a view at some of the garden.

It’s much easier to focus on what’s going wrong or not according to some plan, so today, I celebrate the things that are on track.

I suppose we’ve all got those mental lists of things to do – fix that, organize those photos, clean that. But amongst all those things, kids get raised, good work gets done, and the world is improved little bit by bit.

I’m paraphrasing a quote I heard a few days ago – I think it was attributed to an old Cherokee saying:

“When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.”

This goes along with a magazine my mother dropped off this weekend that I had not yet seen – here is the philosophy of Countryside magazine:

“It’s not a single idea, but many ideas and attitudes, including a reverence for nature and a preference for country life; a desire for maximum self-reliance and creative leisure; a concern for family nurture and community cohesion; a belief that the primary reward of work should be well-being rather than money…and a taste for the plain and functional.”

These are eerily like our wedding vows (we celebrated 17 years last Saturday). I like to think of it as our mission statement as a couple – I like to re-read them at least once a year to see how we are doing. So here are the thoughts that were read at our wedding – our wishes for ourselves concerning our marriage and life 17 years ago.

“First of all, we wish for you a love that makes both of you better people, that continues to give you joy and zest for living, that provides you with energy to face the responsibilities of life.

We wish for you a home–not a place of stone and wood, but an island of serenity in a frenzied world. We hope that this home is not just a place of private joy and retreat, but rather serves as a sacred place wherein the values of your life are generated and upheld, We hope that your home stands as a symbol of humans living together in love and peace, seeking truth and demanding social justice. We hope that your home encompasses the beauty of nature–that it has within it the elements of simplicity, exuberance, beauty, silence, color, and a concordance with the rhythms of life. We wish for you a home with books and poetry and music–a home with all the things that represent the highest strivings of men and women.

We wish for you children–children who will not be mere reflections of yourselves, but will learn from you your best traits and will go forth to re-create the values you shall have instilled in them. We hope that you will give your children the freedom to find their own way, that you will stand aside when it is time for them to seek their personal destinies. But we hope you will pass on to your children the concept of family, not as an economic unit but as a transcendent force which brings people close in time of joy and in time of need.

Finally, we wish that at the end of your lives you will be able to say these two things to each other: Because you have loved me, you have given me faith in myself; and because I have seen the good in you, I have received from you a faith in humanity.”

So how are we doing regarding the children finding their own way?

I’m not sure I would have selected “Bob the Builder” underwear as a hat – but so be it!

June 25, 2006 – Jammin’

Today was a jammin’ day. We made a bunch o’ jam yesterday and today.

We made strawberry, strawberry-rhubarb, and cherry. All day the rain danced around us – there was enough to make puddles in Melbourne (3 miles away) it rained in Marshalltown for a few hours (12 miles away) and we didn’t get any until a small cloud gave a brief shower and we got 1/10 of an inch! At least enough to settle the dust for a day or so. It also added 100 gallons to the storage tank that runs off the barn.

June 21, 2006 – Longest Day of the Year

Well, it’s over now – from here on in the days get shorter! Neighbors had a summer solstice gathering with potluck, fire, singing and everybody was invited to share a piece of poetry or other thought.

I’m hoping to save a bunch of time on wood chips this year. Rather than driving to pick up and load and unload by hand – the utility trimming truck came to the farm, I can load them with the tractor loader.

 

I saw these guys last week and asked them to dump at my place, but they never showed – they came this week and to entice them back they got a carton of freshly-picked strawberries!

June 20, 2006 – Shh, Don’t Tell the Chickens it’s Not Raining!

I found a new way to convince the chickens to go inside the night-time shelter other than shooing by hand or with sticks – virtual thunderstorms!

I just spray the hose into the air and as the “rain” comes down, they scurry into the shelter. No more convincing chickens it’s time to go inside. It works like a champ.

June 19, 2006 – Summer Fencing

Today was a day for some fencing configuration. First we put up the portable electric netting fencing.

Martin is hauling over the “power posts” for the netting. You can see it is all laid out, the path is mowed, and today’s good fortune was that the 164 foot length was about perfect from the side of the chicken coop to the fence next to the pine trees. It was also close enough to the electric fence in the main pasture to hook onto that instead of putting the solar charger out.

Here’s the fence ready for action – works on chickens and goats alike. Love this stuff.

We also took an odd portion of the main pasture and fenced it in with cattle panels to keep the cows out. Thought it was time to put the goats on a different pasture for a while, plus there are some mulberries they’ll mow down first.

What more could a guy want than a tractor to do the heavy lifting and a wife to do the pounding! It was nice to have the tractor to save the back by pulling out and putting in posts.

June 18, 2006 – Cherries are In!

Even though the strawberries are still coming in, the cherries have arrived.

Linda picked them to make her favorite jam – cherry jam. Today to celebrate Father’s Day we went to Ledges State Park – a place we used to hang out when we lived in Ames. I didn’t have my camera so no pics.

We walked down the creek, surrounded by rock cliffs and lots of greenery. Nice place on a hot day. The road that winds through the park, occasionally goes through (instead of over) the creek. Kids line up and urge cars and trucks to drive fast through the water to splash. We also climbed up to a rocky outlook over the Des Moines River and felt nervous with a four year old.

There were lots of people there today picnicing, the most notable, an “absent” father who had a sun shelter set up watching TV! Even the natural wonders and his family around him were not enough to lure him from the TV and watching the cars going around in a circle over and over…

June 17, 2006 – Takin’ Care of My Babies

Today was mowing and trimming day – got the pines and the hardwoods all mowed and trimmed. Also got the two thistle patches in the pasture mowed down.

The pine trees look good do far – all the new ones this year now have a drink.

The hardwoods are looking good as well – many of the trees that were eaten by rabbits have resprouted.

The rain still dances all around us.

June 13, 2006 – Martin Behind the Camera

I gave Martin the camera the other day and let him click away. Here’s a few of his photos.

We’ve got an old granary that was dragged out into the pasture – this is a piece of metal that was tacked on the corner at one time that the wind has seen fit to detach.
One of his favorite subjects is the “scoop tractor.”

I think one of dozens of pictures of the tractor will be sufficient!
There’s hardly ever pictures of the cameraman so Martin took this picture of me.

June 12, 2006 – Berry Moon

Last night’s full moon was also known as the “Berry Moon” in times gone by. I’ll vouch for that!

Today was strawberry day. This was the biggest one day harvest from the patch so far this season. This strawberry season we’ve made canned strawberry sauce, froze whole berries, made jam (strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb). About the only thing left are fresh strawberry margaritas!

June 10, 2006 – Auction Day

I went to an auction for the first time in a long time today. It was a tough call as it was really cool (in the 50’s after a week of 90’s), so putting up ceiling insulation in the attic (without windows) was also calling. But I decided to go, in part, because it was raining and I thought the crowd would be a bit thinner. The auction is an annual event to raise money for the Mid-Iowa Antique Power Show. I can get there on all gravel roads, so it is good to drag things home. Most of the morning there were three auction rings going at once until they got to the big machinery.

I thought this old guy was a character (he was driving the auctioneer’s truck around). I don’t know how I managed to get a picture of him without a cigarette in his mouth!

There were hays racks full of treasure or junk, depending on your perspective. Here they are showing the merchandise up for bid.
The bidding gets hot and heavy as the ring men point out who has high bid. I ended up spending most of the day there and hauling things home at 15 mph.

Here’s a nice collection of burlap and seed bags – all bags $8.00. These were my favorites. Good local color from a Grinnell company – the town where we go to Farmer’s Market. I think one could more than pay back my entire bid price.

A nice pile of Dekalb seed corn bags.

More local color with these seed bags from Lynnville, Iowa.

I couldn’t pass up these metal emblems ($10) from John Deere tractors. They came along with a couple of side rails for a John Deere 2010 (whatever they are!)

This is an old animal chute. I bought it for the wheels and frame to make another trailer type. (A steal at $5)

Here’s a classic old wagon for whatever. Just needs one new tongue and groove floorboard on the bottom ($100).

Finally, a 6 foot blade that is VERY heavy, ready for use on the tractor ($30). I’m very pleased with this piece and especially the price.

After the auction it is off to Bruce Springsteen. More about that tommorrow…

June 7, 2006 – Strawberries/Attic Building Continues

The strawberries are here!

Linda is being diligent about getting the fruit in. Claire made strawberry shortcake from scratch for dinner and the rest are destined for the freezer.
Today was a bit of clean-up in the wake of re-roofing. It is now very hot up there since there are no windows to open. I moved all the boxes and cleaned up all the nails, dust, bits of wood and asphalt shingles that fell down inside during the re-roof. We had about a dozen sheets of plywood left over and I moved them from the hay rack to the barn and finished hauling the branches that were trimmed to the burn pile.

Spent most of the rest of the day behind a paint brush.

Here’s Claire a couple of days ago, wiping the stain on the floorboards and window and door trim. Since it was hot and dry – it was a good day to throw a finish on the trim and beadboard for the attic. We’re on our 17th day in a row of above average temps and the grass is finally starting to turn brown. I’ve got two hay racks full of freshly finished boards.

June 5, 2006 – Bottle Lambs & Dormer In!

Today, our lamb supplier called to ask if we wanted a couple of bottle lambs. He is off to the World Cup in Germany and couldn’t care for them. It was an easy choice for us – we have the milk (from the goats), the time (plenty of kids) and the price was right (free).

Today was the day the dormer went in along with the re-roof on the southern side of the house. Some people have a reoccurring dream about falling or getting chased. Mine is having a house that leaks (badly) in the rain. I’ve had it about a half dozen times, including last night. I guess I was a bit anxious. So, when the hole is cut in the roof, it gets my attention.

Here the hole is cut and the rough framing is in. The big hole in the side will be all window.

Here’s the view after the shingles are ripped of, but before the old rafters are cut. It will be a nice green light through the window.

May 28, 2006 – Cleanup Begins

We spent a bit of time cleaning up this afternoon. We put the tractor to good use. The limb that fell on the machine shed was to big for me to budge, so… loader tractor to the rescue.

A chain, a tractor, no problem. We loaded a hay wagon with branches from the yard. Here is a photo Martin took of Linda unloading the wagon.

Stay tuned for pictures some day soon that Martin took today.
Here is the little guy on the biggest limb that we loaded on the burn pile.

It is probably not noteworthy to all you long-time farmers out there, but having the ability to lift up and move a log like this is just a treat and saves the back!

May 27, 2006 – “Beautiful Weekend?”

The weatherman has been promising a great Memorial Day weekend, hot and maybe a bit breezy. Last night a small chance of late afternoon thunderstorms was added – but a small chance. Evidently the storm at 5 am that woke us up was 12 hours late (or early)!
This afternoon damaging winds blew through, not as part of a thunderstorm, at least not here. It made my work for the next few days clear.

I moved the chicken tractors out of the barn a few days ago to check them over as the chicks may get in them later this week. The wind wrapped it around this apple tree very nicely!
Lots of small limbs are on the ground and are on the garage roof, shed roof. A big hollow limb off a silver maple fell off in the back pasture.

There a lot of branches in the front yard snapped off, but still hanging in the trees. There were at least a dozen bird nests blown to the ground as well.

I didn’t notice right away that the back door of the barn had been ripped off as well. I heard Paullina bellering especially vigourously and went to check. I could hear a kid (goat) whining in what sounded like a part of the barn that wasn’t supposed to have goats. I went in and couldn’t find her. We still have a few layers of hay against one wall of the barn, about 6 bales high. The sound was coming from within the bales, so I started unstacking the hay. Sure enough, the kid (Millie) had gone through the place where the door had been, climbed up to the top of the hay and fallen in the crack between the hay and wall. When I got to the bottom and could see her, she wasn’t moving – her head was stuck between the bottom bale and the wall and she couldn’t lift it up – her momentum must have wedged it in pretty good. With trepidation, I pulled the bottom bale, not knowing if she had broken anything and she was fine!
We lost power and as I went out to check on neighbors, I saw the reason for the outage.

A powerline snapped at the ground in front of our closest neighbor’s house to the south – and didn’t fall to the ground because it was leaning against some trees.
The other direction from this neighbor, a big silver maple blew down (away from the house) and the small park a mile away lost trees as well.

Not exactly the “beautiful weekend” advertised! But now I know what the weatherman means when he says a “bit breezy.”

May 26, 2006 – Garden and Building

Today was one of those rare days that more “farming” got done than planned. Spent the morning loading up a load for the dump and getting supplies in town and in the afternoon started getting ready to reroof the back side of the old machine shed. First task was to nail 2x4s across the roof into the rafters. The roof has a great hump (where two buildings were joined). So, I tore all the asphalt and cedar shingles to get down to the sheeting on the hump to help smooth out the hump. Got all the boards pounded in.

Even got three sheets of roofing up – about nine feet. I was hoping to get it done this long weekend, but about 3/4 done today – should be a snap!
Linda got some serious weeding done today.

Here’s a view down the onions and potatoes.
GJ got lots of patio blocks set around the new raised beds. It was hot and calm – a day that felt and smelled like summer. So it was the first time to Ev’s in town for ice cream after dinner.
Any guesses what this crop is?

These are Chinese cabbage and raddicchio – looks like they like the wet weather of late.

May 22, 2006 – No Flame Decals on that Tractor!

Today, the tractor was ready to be picked up at the John Deere Dealer after they fixed the problem that filled the crankcase with gasoline. They didn’t have the ticket written up, so they let me drive it home without paying for it (yet).

They drove it out of the shop and noticed some gasoline was leaking around one of the newly installed parts. They went to fix it and the service man was fiddling with it for a few minutes, when he suddenly runs away from the tractor and grabs a fire extinguisher to put out the flaming engine block! I’m sure that flaming tractors in the lot are not good for advertising! It was extinguished in moments. The gas that was leaking out was ignited when a wrench arced across a wire that was missing its plastic coating.

After it was all fixed, I had a 12 mile or so tractor ride home. I lost my fondness for ever participating in the “Great Tractor Ride Across Iowa.” Twelve miles was enough.

I’ll leave you with one picture for today – the minty new growth on the concolor fir.

The last 2 weeks, the trees have really taken off with spring growth – some of the black cherries and bur oaks already have grown 4-6 inches.

May 20, 2006 – Saturday on the Farm

It’s another keeper of a day. Lots of little things today. Planted a dozen peppers, spent half the morning in town getting lumber and running errands. Built a waterproof top for the gravity wagon that is storing chicken feed. We had some makeshift tarps over it before and a few leaks in the shed found their way in, so it was time to make a permanent solution out of leftover pieces of steel roofing.

Also got some planting in –

Martin is helping Mom plant her Mother’s Day flowers. Linda made three batches of soap – among them what looks like a better goat milk effort than the first time around.

May 17, 2006 – Strawberry Fields Forever

The strawberries have loved the rainy weather of late.

Today, it warmed up to the mid-70s and Linda was out of school, so it was the first day for a long time we could work on the farm at the same time. We finished weeding and pruning the raspberries, weeded the perennial flower garden, got a few herb, some okra and parsley planted, lawn mowed and other odds and ends.
The newly planted raspberries and blackberries are starting to come to life as well.

May 16, 2006 – Acorns to Mightly Oaks?

Here’s a look down the alley of hardwood trees we planted in the pasture. The fence is to keep the cows out. It’s hard to see much yet as this is just the 2nd year in for the trees.

This will be the centerpiece of a rotational grazing system that the animals will rotate around the oval with the trees in the middle and be moved to a different section ahead every few days. We planted walnut, sugar maple, bur oak, and black cherry with a few chestnuts thrown in. So far, the black cherries have taken off the fastest.

May 15, 2006 – Bye-Bye Tractor

The tractor ran strong and without any hint of problems until the last time. Now the crankcase has filled with gasoline and is dripping out the dipstick hole. Time for professional attention. Here it is getting loaded on the semi for a trip to the local Deere shop.

I wished I had a picture of the red Farmall Cub pulling the green out of the shed! Having this is a little like children, whatever happens, you’re stuck with them.

Today was a good day. The weather held off. Our first bulk order of broiler feed arrived – one ton loaded directly in the gravity wagon. I was able to get all layers of light-affirming goodness to the hardwoods planted last year in the pasture. Round one was with hands, pulling weeds around the trees. Then the weed whacker to a bigger distance, then the riding mower for between the rows, finally the push mower for the spots the big mower can’t get to. It was good to get something started and completed in one day. Also got about 1/3 of the raspberries weeded.

This evening a student from Grinnell College called wanting to bounce ideas about starting a co-op to provide food for the college food service. It’s a struggle to create a new food system and it was good to hear a young voice working so hard to make it happen.

May 14, 2006 – Goat Milking

Goat milking season is in full swing. It’s good for drinking, making yogurt, and a bunch is finding its way into the freezer for goat’s milk soap.

Here’s the front end of the goat during milking.

Here’s the milking end of the goat.

Quite literally, here’s the kids at play during the milking.

I’ve got a little bit of feeling in my hands tonight of the long-time Minnesota tradition of fishing opener. It’s been cold and windy and drizzly/rainy for many days now, but this evening we went out just before dark to pull weeds from the perennial flower garden. Now my hands have that deep stiffness from the wind, wetness, and cold, much like repeatedly dipping your hand in the minnow bucket on a windswept lake in the middle of May.

This morning Martin was the perfect gentleman. As soon as Mom got up, he brought her the Sunday paper in bed. Then he brought up a cup of coffee. Then a bowl of strawberries with a dollop of whipped cream. Then some sliced pears, egg scramble, and toast, finally a piece of organic dark chocolate and bussed the dishes downstairs! This afternoon he took Mom to see a stage version of Winnie-the-Pooh. He ended the day, helping in the garden.

May 12, 2006 – Chicks!

I hope this title doesn’t get me traffic for folks cruising for non-poultry-chicks. They will be greatly disappointed! As usual, we can predict the weather on the day the chicks come without consulting the weather forecaster. Today is in the mid 40’s with 20-30 mph wind, rain. Yesterday was the same except 30-40 mph wind and lower 50’s.

Here are the chicks, tucked in their makeshift brooder, currently comfortable.
Those of you who have chicks will recognize the following classic chick pose –

the refreshing head up after taking a drink. I fell behind at work this week, so had to work more than usual – but it was a good day to do that. Also worked on getting the last of the spring newsletters out. More off the list.

May 10, 2006 – Things that Need to be Fixed

I heard a saying this week. There are two kinds of buildings/equipment on a farm. Things that need to be fixed and things that need to be fixed now! Today was one of those days. A few days ago the pipe between the muffler and catalytic converter dropped off, today the tractor started spitting black smoke and misfiring and leaking gas, and the riding mower hydrostatic transmission seems stuck. There are better days, but this is not one of them!

May 7, 2006 – An Old Story

Here’s the latest version of the story retold many times over – the hatching of baby chicks. About a month ago we sequestered 2 White Rocks, 2 Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rocks, and 2 Auracunas with a Black Australorps rooster and put the eggs in an incubator.

Here’s the incubator about a day before the chicks are ready to hatch.

Before this, they were in egg carton like plastic holders that turned the eggs.

The first pecks out of the shell as the chicks come out. We could hear them peeping in the eggs before they hatched.

Here’s a little one just a few minutes out of the shell – still wet and looking a bit punkish.

Finally, they are moved to the brooding house. In here they are under a red light. I’m not sure we need a red light for these few chicks, but all the advice says to use a red bulb in case one starts to bleed, the others won’t see it. (In larger groups, they will pick at each other as soon as they see a spot of blood and kill each other.) These guys will get a chance to grow a bit before the meat birds come and can all go to the locker together (at least the roosters – the hens will replenish our layers). We are excited to see what kind of birds they look at from the mixes we bred.

May 6, 2006 – #$%&*# Stealth Frost


Don’t let the cheery lilac fool you – the tomatoes and peppers we put out yesterday looked, well, dead, today. It was 39 when we woke up, but obviously it was colder than that sometime during the night. The low was predicted to be 40. It’s a bummer not necessarily because of the replanting, but because we had many heirloom varieties from Seed Savers and elsewhere that aren’t available at a greenhouse or garden center. We’ll have to check to see if we have any seeds leftover and start over. The frost also killed the new, tender leaves on the year-old walnut and chestnut trees.

But there’s still lots of things to do – here are Linda and the kids working on putting in the flowers started from seed.

The eggs we were incubating also started to hatch – pictures tomorrow!

May 3, 2006 – Catch-up

Today was one of those days that I felt like no matter how much got done, I’d need another day and still not be where things need to be for the season. It must be the weekend+ worth of rain that set these wheels in motion.

It won’t be long before the strawberries are here!

This shot shows some strawberry flowers and a very small green berry.

May 1, 2006 – Asparagus

Today was the second cutting of aspargus. It’s one of the first edibles out of the ground. By the end of the season, we’ll have our fill of grilled, souped, and steamed asparagus. It’s a nice, easy crop at a good time of year. Around here the old-timers treat the wild ditch aspargus like morel mushrooms – they have memorized the location of all the wild patches that grow in the ditches and drive around and harvest.

Today I cleaned out the boat. I got it from my Dad and have not had it on the water yet! It was in an old shed and had years of raccoon doo-doo in it. So I washed it out and put it back on the trailer upside down to prevent a re-run.

Since it was so soggy, also got a little hand weeding done around the fruit trees and raspberries. Tonight we discovered a rat had been getting into the pet food outside, so without delay I went to town and got a rat trap. (It’s just one creature I don’t want to share my immediate surroundings with.) I didn’t get one of the giant snap kind – that seemed a bit scary – especially if the pets got near it (which they would). Instead I got a small live trap that is too small for the dogs and cats to get in, but big enough for a rat.

April 29, 2006 – Spawning

We started the mushroom “planting” today. The dowels innoculated with shitaake mushroom spawn arrived and the logs were previously cut and ends waxed and ready to go.

Martin is holding the bag of spawn.

First holes are drilled in the log to one inch with a drill and collar. They are spaced about 6 inches apart in rows about 2 inches apart.

The dowels are pounded into the logs next.

Finally, wax is put over the holes to seal them up as the log needs to stay moist. According to the directions, we should move the logs into a shady spot, keep them moist, and in 6-18 months the picking should begin! This is a job that requires many hands and everybody can help.

April 25, 2006 – Got Milk?


Here’s the output from Blaze and Paullina (still with three kids nursing between them). We’re just milking once a day now. It’s time to put milk away for soap and making yogurt!

April 24, 2006 – Boys and Their Toys!

Today was a day long in coming – the arrival of a scoop tractor to high hopes! Isn’t it a beauty? It’s a 1967 John Deere 2510 with a nearly new Westendorf loader, a category 2 three point hitch, and wide front end. I’d been looking at tractors for a while and finally found this one. The arrival of a tractor ranks in importance somewhere between a new car and new house.

The next three pictures are a story of three photographers. The picture above was taken by Emma.

Mark took this picture.

Here’s Martin’s picture! As a young boy, he made sure to get all tractor and cut the people off the top!

I’m excited about the tractor for a number of reasons, not the least of which is my back. Lots less lifting and moving of heavy things with the back. Able to move a big bale when the time comes. Many folks made the tractor possible – “financing” by Grandma Jo, pre-sale inspection by Linda’s Uncle Wayne, and finally driving the beast home by Two Friends Farm. Curiously, the tractor was for sale about 16 miles away alongside Hwy 330. As we were driving it home, Claire was coming home from Des Moines with her TAG teacher, Grandma Jo and her partner for History Day competition at the State Historical Center in Des Moines and they passed us and waved wildly!

Also got five new apple trees grafted from the old near-dead tree in our yard onto new rootstocks courtesy of Two Friends farm. I just put them in the garden for this year to get established. It’s a very early apple – mid-July and makes great sauce and is in the right season to make raspberry-applesauce.

April 23, 2006 – American Gothic – High Hopes Style

Emma and Martin pose their version of American Gothic. The load of straw they are standing in was thrown from the 2nd story of the barn into the truck by just Martin and Emma. We found out after the fact that Emma invited Martin to jump from the 2nd story door into the truck filled with hay. They are now clear that is not a good idea! With this load of straw, now all the new berries are tucked in.

Got a little more planting finished today – about four varieties of zinnias, some beans and cosmos – along with a little more lettuce and radishes. The peach trees are showing a few blossoms and cherries are just beginning.

April 21, 2006 – Planting Raspberries

Today, among other things was raspberry planting. I ordered about 75 feet of fall berries, golden and red, along with 75 feet of blackberries. We hope these spread our berry season out a little more and offer a little more variety.

Here I am using the wheel hoe to make a shallow trench to plant the berries. Yes, I do feel like a horse. The berries are being planted in the place we had the paper and straw laid down on sod last year and had tomatoes planted.

Here are the newly planted berries. The new plants will come up from the roots, not necessarily from these stumps.
H

ere’s Claire helping put a little mulch along the side of the berries to conserve moisture and help keep weeds out. We lucked out and had some calm winds at nightfall, so were able get the paper down and mulch.

Martin had an interesting few days. We had been getting him ready for Kindergarten roundup today and he was very apprehensive saying he “didn’t want to sit at a desk all day.” He goes to day care two days a week and is home the rest of the week, and at day care, he was hugging everybody and saying good-bye (including getting in trouble with his friend – see here at this blog entry) by hugging her and not letting go! He thought he was saying goodbye to eveyone at Tiger Tots forever as he thought Kindergarten was starting today, not next fall. In his mind, he was saying good-bye forever, and everyone else thought he was saying good-bye for the day. At any rate, he was excited about school after going through an abbreviated day of books, recess, singing, and snack in the lunchroom.

April 19, 2006 – Lawn Work

Here are the tulips up against the compost pile.
Today was a day of some “lawn work” is what people in town may call it. I don’t have a lot of time for the lawn, although I have a lot of it! Today was the first lawn mowing of the season – a day I face with some trepidation. It means lots of wasted time and points out to me that I haven’t yet implemented enough food naturescapes. Each year we lose a little lawn, but not fast enough.

One of the big tasks was moving the walnut logs that were cut up. I rolled many of them out of the way, hauled some of them away on a low trailer, and dragged the biggest one down the burn pile with the tractor. It’s nice to have the open space there to access that part of the farm without squeezing between trees or drive over the septic tank.

April 18, 2006 – Bees Finally Working

Now that spring is here and things are starting to bloom all over, the bees are out in force after waiting patiently all winter.

Here’s a bee on a plum tree. The tree was abuzz with insects, mostly on the lee side of the tree to stay out of the wind. The unbottled fragrance spilled downwind from the tree.

Even the less showy maple flowers were attracting the bees, although not in this picture.

April 17, 2006 – Fence Repair

Neighbors Don and Phyllis came over today to check the fencelines after winter. They cruise around the pasture in this nifty ATV. Martin was lucky enough to get a ride for part of the trip.

We had just a few places to shore up along the farmstead.

Here’s a place where a corner post wrapped in woven wire cracked at ground level.

After I pulled all the fencing staples, Martin singlehandedly drove it down to the burn pile, dumped it, and pushed the empty cart up the hill!

Here’s the fix. Now, I know replacing a wooden post with a steel one is not generally good practice – Don did offer to come put a new wooden post in, but this entire fence needs to be reconfigured, but the steel post was an 8 footer, and it leans on a couple of feet of cement at the base, so I tried to cheat a little. By the end of the day, the cows were over.
In continuing signs of spring, the “automatic waterer” for the chicken coop was hooked up (a 55 gallon barrel of water outside, hosed into the coop), the fence between the shed and barn put up and the last of this round of R-board stub wall pieces cut and pushed up in the attic.

April 12, 2006 – Flamer!

Late today, the wind finally stopped blowing enough to try out the borrowed flame weeder.

Here, I am trying to fry the border between the sod and the new raspberry patch before the new berries are planted. I’m not too sure how it will work on grass, I imagine it will need a few treatments. Hey, who says organic gardening isn’t thrilling. The thing sounds like a jet plane and you don’t need a big budget Hollywood action movie to use a flamethrower! Many people use them to knock down young weeds before their crop germinates or in the case of corn, even after the corn has germinated. I also got some cardboard and mulch spread on part of a garden and weeded around some of last year’s Christmas trees.

Martin and Linda work on the raised beds in the herb garden. If you look behind them, you can see I also started putting in the patio blocks around the future raised beds.

Finally, here is another shot of spring – this shows last year’s cranberries along with this year’s new growth.

April 11, 2006 – Behind Last Year

Even though the past few days have been in the 70’s and 80’s, spring is still behind last year. I think it must be due to the cold March. Checking over last year, by April 9, asparagus was up and the first blooming trees had flowered by April 10. This year, none of that has happened yet.

April 10, 2006 – Unfinished Business

Today, we took care of unfinished business – got the rest of the fence up by the trees and fixed fences that had fallen around some of the chestnuts in the pasture. Finished planting the potatoes. This morning Grandma Jo and Martin administered bee medicine to the hives.

Martin operates the smoker to get ready to open the hives.

Our good neighbor planted a buffer of 24 feet of oats/hay around our farm on the land he rents. So now both of us can worry a little less about drift.

Took a load to the dump – wasn’t pleasant as the dump pile was upwind from the unloading area and the strong south wind brought 78 degrees. As long as we were in the hauling mode, we went to town and scrounged for cardboard for more grass killing/mulch for part of the garden.

Martin and I went for a little hike in a nearby woods. We found an old garbage dump in one part and found some “treasures” for our neighbor Nancy – a cobalt blue bottle, an amber apothecary-type bottle with black lid, and what looks like an old lampshade, only made of heavy metal. We also saw squirrels and the first spring flowers.

April 9, 2006 – More Kids!

We thought Paullina was due in a couple of weeks, but when we came home from church there were two babes in the barn. That’s the second year in a row that Paullina has given birth while we were at church. Emma was the one that found them, she had a friend come over who arrived shortly after we returned home and she and Betsy found them and ran back excitedly to the house.

Here is kid #1 a darling black and white kid (no name yet).

Here is kid #2 looks like her mother. They are both females!
We also started to plant the garden – a little bit of lettuce, beets, larkspur, and spinach.
Here are the kids are cutting up the potatoes to dry up before planting.

Here’s part of a trench to plant the spuds – just look at that rich dark soil!

April 8, 2006 – Trees Tucked In

This morning after dropping Claire of for her ACT test (yes she’s in 8th grade, but was suggested to take it), we started to mulch the trees. I’ve gathered mulch over the winter and had two wheeled contrivances full.

The first step today is to put the landscape fabric into place (a great Costco bulk item and the 220 foot roll wasn’t long enough!) and cut an “X” where each tree is. Then the trees peek out and the fabric is ready for the mulch. Even though it was in the 30’s for a good part of the morning, it was still, clear, sunny, and the spring birds were calling.

Here’s the cattle shute, filled with mulch. See its conversion into a mulch wagon last October.

Martin helped get the mulch in and here he helps shovel it out.

Finally the boy gets a chance to pretend to drive the tractor.

In the evening, I dropped Claire off in Ames and got another load of mulch to replenish the area under Martin’s playground. We also made the “TCC” Total Chicken Containment area complete – those birds love to dig in the mulch and doesn’t make me quite to happy – so we stretched a bit of chicken wire along the cattle panels.

A note – I bought some of the newfangled plastic chicken wire last week to try – well – DON’T do it. The chickens pecked right through it.

April 5, 2006 – A Great Day to be Born!

Today started out well enough. In the morning Martin and I took care of some small things – we pulled out some fenceposts to move to make way for the new trees. Martin could pull them out, drag them, and lean them along another fence once I used the fence puller to get them nearly all the way out.
Then we mowed the strip where the new trees are to go.

We uncovered the garlic from the winter straw.

We unwrapped the winter wrap from the peach trees.

We got out the ladder and cut some of the middle-sized pines to a single leader on top. We added some chicken wire to the bottom of some cattle panels so the chickens couldn’t get to the new trees.

Right before lunch, we went to check on Blaze, and this is what we saw!

Blaze had given birth to triplets sometime between 10ish and 11:30. She was a dutiful mother and was licking the kids with conviction. One is very small and was not able to get up for a few hours. Although it is windy, it got up to 70 degrees today, so it was a good day to be born.

Then the UPS truck comes with the trees I was expecting Friday. So, after getting everything ready for planting, I went to State Center to get taxes signed off and pick up the girls from school so they could see the kids sooner and help with planting.

The sound of the girl’s shouts of glee when they looked in the barn and saw the kids was worth a lot of mid-winter chores and then some!
After playing with the kids for a while – Emma tenderly and confidently picking up the runt and easing the kid’s mouth into its mother’s teat was very nurturing. Blaze had all boys. Last year we had 2 boys. If you count Martin, that’s 6 straight males conceived on the farm!

Linda got home a bit early and it was great to see all five of us working to get the trees planted before dark/evening thunderstorms. Claire liked to dig holes, Emma liked to plant, Martin liked looking for worms and the rest was just hauling water and digging more holes. Eventually, Claire went in and cooked dinner for us as we finished. We finished by planting four more peach trees that came with the firs. We still have the mulching left, but all the trees are in the ground. The skies opened up minutes after getting back to the shed. More good karma.

Linda and I had a good 45 seconds of bliss as we were alone on a corner of the farm, looking down a couple rows of orchard, beyond that two full rows of conifer on the north edge stretching to the end of the property. To the right were the windbreak trees we planted when we moved in reaching 10-15 feet, and a distant view of shiny white new roof on the corn crib. After the new life, delightful experience of all of us pulling together to get more trees planted, we were able to remove ourselves from the never-ending “to-dos” and could simply enjoy what we’ve done since we arrived on the farm. 45 seconds of bliss, plus the sounds of the girls seeing the kids is enough to keep us going another year. It’s the kind of day that deserves a Morning Sun home brew from brewmaster Mike. Today is a good enough day to open one!

April 3, 2006 – Spring Really Here

After the weekend thunderstorms, I can officially declare spring is here. The grass is greening up, my new trees should arrive this week, and the undisputable sign – the ground is unfrozen – worms are out.


Rhubarb peeks out from the ground.

Today, we finally got the lambskins wrapped up and sent out for tanning. It was very blustery, so not much outdoor stuff got done, a little fencing for the new trees and some more cutting on the walnut log.

April 2, 2006 – Fencing

The soggieness continues – just 6 miles south of us had 4 inches of rain last night, but we didn’t get that downpour. Nonetheless, our spring soil has been properly recharged. Spent some time today revamping some fencing around the chicken coop. Put in some “gates” that will allow access through every fence. As it is now, the fences that were in place sometimes forced a long walk to get across a fence. Now, it is much easier.

Also moved one chicken tractor on top of a new raised bed to help build soil.

The soap was an unqualified learning experience. It fractured when it cut and was a bit crumbly. After researching soap troubleshooting, it may have been because of over-stirring, or curing not at room temperature. We’ll try again!

April 1, 2006 – Soap Poured

Our first batch of elemental soap, made from scratch, is sitting in the mold, waiting to be cut. It was a long way from raw beef fat to soap!

Here Linda is cutting up raw beef fat, straight from the locker – look how thick that fat is from that cow! This fat was cut up, melted, water added and allowed to harden, water poured out and remaining fat remelted and water added again, cooled and water removed.

Here are all the ingredients lined up – lard, rendered beef fat, sodium hydroxide, and rainwater. It’s still bizarre that someone could put melted animal fat and a caustic material together to make soap. What’s more, greasy animal fat and caustic chemicals mixed together can be used to clean!

Alchemist Linda stirring the brew.

Still more stirring.

Finally, pouring the soap into the mold. It needs to cure for a day before removing from the mold, and 4-6 weeks before use.

March 31, 2006 – Jr. Beekeeper

Martin has shown a great affinity towards the bees and seems to understand and play out the different roles of the different kinds of bees in a hive. Grandma Jo wanted to make sure he was comfortable around the bees – here he is in his new beekeeper’s suit that arrived today.

I’m guessing he’ll be the only beekeeper at Halloween next year.

We missed out on all the severe windstorms last night, but got a good downpour. Since it is not forecast to be below freezing through the entire forecast period and it was very windy today, I took the cover off the cold frame (purchased at Theisens a few days ago.)

March 29, 2006 – The Ultimate Pruning – A New View!

Today was the day two of the three old apple trees were cut down.

This is the view before the cutting.

After the cutting/Before the hauling.

This is the view after the cutting.
The apple trunks were cut into logs and ends sealed with wax to prepare for Shiitake mushroom spawn in a few weeks. The branches (all four loads) were hauled to the burn pile. It was with both sadness and relief that the trees were cut. They were very bland tasting apples and the trees took longer to prune than the rest of the trees combined and picking up the deadfalls was a pain. However, they were part of this place for a long time. We kept one of them as it has very early (July) apples great for sauce and we’ll give it one more year and graft some branches to new rootstock to continue it on this place.

If you look closely, you can see the first raised bed in place – I’m going to build a bunch of raised beds where the trees used to be for more gardening space. Right now, there is a chicken tractor perched on top – we’ll use that to create the soil.

We also put up a small cold frame to get a jump on lettuce and early spring crops.

March 26, 2006 – Goat-Proofing Barn

Ok, so “goat-proofing” may be too optimistic a term for what we did today, but it sure sounds hopeful! Every once in a while, the goats climb over the feed bunks in the barn and get in the main part of the barn. Today, we put up cattle panels above the bunks to help them decide to stay on their side of the barn. Again, with goats, this is all theory.

If you look closely, you can see the panels up on the far wall. We also fixed one of the doors that the Billy knocked off, and fixed one door that had settled and did not close. So, now we are more ready to the kids – Paullina is scheduled to deliver this Friday.

March 25, 2006 – Seeding the Universe With Chickens

Today we had a visit from the good people at Gracious Acres. They put up a brand new chicken coop in the past few days and were ready for some hens. Our hens have been outproducing our egg demand, so they came over to get a half dozen. That’s two more than we were seeded with nine years ago when we moved here and had an empty coop and no clue what to do with chickens. We’ve now sent (live) chickens to two states!

Martin had a great time as one his his “classmates” came to his farm and he was able to show his farm.

The fun begins as the chicken round-up begins.

The chickens safely tucked away in the truck are ready to go.

I’m not sure how to caption this one – other than what more could a little boy want than a little girl who has a big truck!

March 24, 2006 – It’s Still Not Spring

As the snow s-l-o-w-l-y recedes with highs only in the upper 30’s, the garden springs to life in the basement.

A statice pokes its head out of the soil.

The wonderful starting stand we have was given to us by someone who was moving – it has some nice trays, fluorescent and incandescent lamps, and wheels. It works great for seed starting.

March 22, 2006 – Barn Time

Today, a student from Iowa State came out to visit our barn. The class was doing a project and was looking at “Adaptive Reuse” of barns. She came out and asked some questions, took some pictures, and we lamented about the vanishing barns

Here is a collection of blog entries that show renovation in progress or other interesting local barns.

Here’s the link that shows the “before” and “after” chicken coop

Here’s some before and after of the inside of the corn crib

Outside of Corn Crib Renovation

Here’s a pretty picture of the barn in winter

Here’s some pictures of a neighborhood barn in good shape

Barn in bad shape

Here’s a really cool posting from one of our friends whose barn burned down due to lightning.

March 20, 2006 – Tree Cutting

This morning was a morning of efficient town trip. I ordered some mushroom spawn (shittake) and need some logs to inoculate with the spawn when it arrives. The three old apple trees near the driveway need to go away – they take so long to prune and only one produces decent apples. When we moved in they were old and had reached about 8 feet over the power line and I had pruned them back to 5 feet or so under the wires, but they were a lot of work to keep there and produced lousy apples. The other two just make windfalls that have to be constantly picked up. So, they’ll be cut down and used for multiple purposes – spawn logs and goat browse. One of them will be grafted onto new rootstock for a new tree.

So, I wanted to make sure my chain saw blades were sharp and one was dull and the other was quickly dulled by cutting up the remains of a big walnut that blew down in a big windstorm years ago. I cut until the blades were dull. It was one of those things that is “on the list” it doesn’t necessarily take that much time, it’s just that so many things are on the list! So we got all but the biggest log sawed up.

Then we took the truck and dropped off the load of scrap metal, dropped off the chains, stopped by Big Lots going out of business sale and by a stroke of luck, bought a split queen box spring as our box spring will not fit up the stairs to the attic after the remodeling is finished. Then off to the lumberyard for more cedar for another raised bed.

We had our first appointment regarding Emma’s orthodintia and one of the options was to saw her jaw, move it forward and re-attach it. That didn’t sound like a great idea, even if it would immediately “fix” her mouth. Since there is not a health reason, just a cosmetic reason, we all agreed it was a bit excessive. Emma was very relieved. So I took her to the ISU women’s NIT game and watched them lose in OT to Marquette – but it was a hard-fought, exciting game.

March 19, 2006 – Seed Starting

The last few days Linda and Martin started seeds in the basement – things like tomatoes, peppers, some cut flowers, and soybeans. Soybeans are for Martin. Last year after harvest we walked in the field adjacent to the farm and Martin picked up some seeds that the combine had missed. Unknown to us, he had saved them, remembered where they were, and wanted to plant them. So, not wanting to discourage a budding seed saver, we planted some of his beans.

Martin ready with the row markers for the newly planted seeds.

March 18, 2006 – Full Farm Press

This afternoon we engaged everybody in completing some tasks. Martin and Linda scrubbed the chicken waterers.

Claire and I destroyed the old composter, separated the composted from the uncomposted and put the new composter around the pile. Linda and Emma cleaned out chicken doo-doo from the hog barn.

Claire taking out the last of the rotted wood from the “temporary” composter we built when we moved in nine years ago.

Claire putting the cedar slats to separate the “done” from “undone” sections in the new composter.
Early this morning, the buck goat went to the sale barn. In the evening we were recipients of a wonderful St Patties dinner at Two Friends farm, featuring real corned beef, Irish soda bread, potatoes, cabbage and goat milk cheesecake!

March 6, 2006 – Lots of Odds and Ends

For some reason, it seems like lots of things got wrapped up today. Finished some shelves in the corn crib and moved some of the beekeeping stuff that isn’t accessed very much.

Got almost a full load of scrap metal in the truck – old woven wire fencing, old gutters, old pipes, and leftover metal pieces from the corn crib siding. Finally getting to the point where it actually takes some hunting to get a load’s worth of junk hauled out.

Neighbor Don brought over some empty 5 gallon buckets that will help drain the fuel oil tanks in the basement. Started working on a new chicken tractor and got more 2×4’s unloaded from the truck.

Did a little spring burning along the south border.

The rationale is that if there is a wildfire in the field in the fall, having burned the dead grass will act as a bit of a firebreak to prevent the fire from moving along the fence lines. Mostly, it’s fun to play with fire. Plus with the rain last night, the grass wasn’t explosively tinder dry so it didn’t burn as fast.

March 4, 2006 – Tax and Newsletter

It’s a drizzly, foggy day – a day for indoor work. Getting tax stuff ready and working on spring high hopes newsletter. As this is our first year filing as an LLC, I’m filling out the forms best I can, then taking it into the tax guy to finish.

March 1, 2006 – In Like a Lamb

March welcomed us with a nice 60 degree day. The most capricious of months, the temps in this neck of the woods in March range from a low of -35 (in 1996) to 90. The math comes out to a 125 degree range, the largest range of any month.

Today I got the pasture overseeded, the small fruit trees to the north pruned, and a load or R board hauled in the trailer – it was just right to carry 24 4×8 sheets with the cargo net – much better and easier than the truck.

Emma took the camera today and took this shot of Skunk. Skunk was the runt of a litter and has finally put on some weight.

February 28, 2006 – Fast Seed

The seed I ordered the other day from Albert Lea Seed House has already arrived.

They have a good selection of organic and regular seeds for pasture and small grains and are very fast. I even like the packaging with the custom-sewed bags and handwritten labels on the bags. So, tomorrow it looks like frost seeding begins.

February 26, 2006 – Replacement Composter Done

I drove home this morning, so after unpacking and the like, didn’t have too much time for farming, other than taking a walk around the farm with Linda looking at it with slightly new eyes, finishing the household composter, and getting a small load of mulch from the pallet plant.

I tired of driving on the interstate on the way home, so I got off at hwy 20 and started zipping south and east on county roads for diversion. I was really struck with two things – all the hog confinements and the rural poverty. I don’t know if it just looks worse in this brown season – or if it was the contrast between the overflowing life of the conference attendees and their hope for a self-directed future and the run-down and abandoned farmsteads. It made me sad that forces have run so many off the land and that an alternative exists that many have yet to try/are unable to try.

February 22, 2006 – Warmth Returns

Was able to get outside and get a few more things moving along. Warmed back into the 40’s today. Almost completed building the new household composter – just need to insert a few more eye bolts and make the center partition.

February 20, 2006 – Trying to Make it all Work

The last few days I’ve been working on a high hopes newsletter and order form for the upcoming season. Today I called the locker where we take chickens to find out the minimum number we could sell to individuals and let them pick it up. They wouldn’t do it period. So something that was inconvenient for our customers becomes impossible.

Out options are to butcher the chickens on the farm or go to a locker licensed to sell retail – that would add about $3.50 to the price of the already expensive chickens without much of a margin for us. This is one enterprise where economies of scale sure help – driving 100 chickens to the locker plant vs driving 1000 would drive a lot of the costs significantly down, but growing 1,000 chickens does not fit into the balance of our farm at this point.

The chickens are such a wonderful product – but we can’t do it for free or little profit with all the risk that goes along with it. We NEED a plant closer to make it more economical.

So until we decide what to do – the newsletter is on hold.

February 19, 2006 – All Things Not Created Equal

It makes complete sense to us that animals raised eating and acting the way they traditionally have been treated make better food. Evidence is sometimes hard to come by since these producers are for the most part, small family operations and lack multi-million dollar lobbying and industry organizations.

We strongly believe that the husbandry and diverse food choices, in addition to exercise makes all animals healthier, including livestock. Just think how healthy you would be if you were confined to a cage just slightly larger than you were (how most chickens and pork are raised).

For example, the following chart shows a comparison between conventional cage-raised grocery store eggs and free-range eggs.

For more information about eggs, see information from the University of Michigan.

Likewise, there is mounting evidence of a connection between mental health and diet. A number of recent studies have indicated a link between a healthy diet and mental health (depression ADHD, Alzheimers).

For example the report said chickens reach their slaughter weight twice as fast as they did 30 years ago, increasing the fat content from 2% to 22%.
Industrial chicken culture has also altered the balance of vital fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6 in chickens which the brain needs to ensure it functions properly. Pastured poultry has been found to have elevated levels of omega-3. See a story about the study from the BBC.

February 15, 2006 – Gettin’ Ready for Snow

Yesterday’s 60’s will soon be a memory. Today, I tried to get some time outside to get things wrapped up before the snow and cold revisit. Got the tree all cut up with the chain saw, wood stacked and limbs hauled to next year’s bonfire pile.

Other housekeeping chores included filling corn buckets for stove, started work on the household composter, did a garbage run, and cut some boards for the attic.

It went without notice that Monday was the 1st anniversary of the high hopes blog. 367 entries and counting!

February 13, 2006 – Goats and More

Today I brought Thing 1 and Thing 2 (male dairy goats born last spring) to the locker. Six of the visiting does that were “serviced” by the buck (stinky jim) at our place had an ultrasound today and 5 of 6 have at least twins. So the open doe is back for another visit.

We also got a mulberry tree cut down that was on the back of the machine shed – one of those winter extras – so that when spring and roofing season starts, it won’t be in the way.
tree saw

There’s still a lot of hauling and cutting to do, but it is at least down.

In a family note, tonight was the last forced eye-drop administration of pink-eye solution to Martin’s eyes. It took one parent to hold his body and arms, another to pry the eyes open enough to get the drops in three times a day. He never did warm up to the procedure!

February 11, 2006 – Composter Built

Today, Martin and I finished building the small animal composter!
composter

We used treated 2×4 and welded wire (we got on closeout at a store that went out of business last fall) to make the sides and some old roofing I found under the corn crib for the roof.
composter

This shows a closer shot of one of the sides of the composter. The part facing up is the outside of the composter.

composter

This shows a closer shot of one of the sides of the composter. The part facing up with the wire attached shows the inside of the composter.

composter

Here’s a bit of detail on how the sides go together – with a section of electrical conduit and some screw-in eyes. This makes it really easy to move or take one side off to fill it up.

composter

Here’s the final product. A great project – Marty helped by standing on the rolled wire while I got one side tacked down and helped hand me screws, etc. as I needed them. I’m hopeful this will save me a lot of digging in the coming years. Here’s a link to the original sheep composter that was the inspiration for this one.

Next, we need to make a new household composter because the “temporary” one we built the first month we moved in 9 years ago is starting to rot.

February 10, 2006 – Fire

Ok, I like to play with fire. I get to play with it every day in the winter by keeping the corn stove going and clean – and get to gaze upon the flame in the main room at any time. On high hopes blog you can find a prairie burn, solstice bonfire, and today’s small blaze burning the old raspberry canes.
raspberryfire
It’s good to burn the old canes as they can harbor disease and a breeding ground for raspberry pests. But more than that, it’s fun. I have stopped burning garbage and have retired the burn barrel. But nonetheless, it is a long-time rural tradition. Even Iris Dement has an unreleased song about Greg Brown and watching him tend the burn barrel.

Almost everybody has a story about themselves or a neighbor who was burning trash and something happened to start a grass fire or burn down a barn. Although it wasn’t from burning garbage, Kelli at Sugar Creek Farm posted pictures this week of photos of their barn burning down after a lightning strike a few years ago. It was an awesome sight I hope I never get to see!

February 7, 2006 – Sheep Composter

Two Friends farmer Steven sent me this link for a great small animal composter. This will be of great use on our farm to dispose of the entrails from butchered sheep and goats as the locker does not keep them because the rendering truck that picks up hogs and cattle will not pick up sheep and goats. I always dread butchering day because it means digging a big hole in the ground by hand and covering them up. This will also be useful for the chicks/chickens that die before market weight. All in all, it will be a great labor/time saver. I just have to get to town to buy the wood.

My camera came back from Canon with a new lens assembly – so more photos will soon be part of the blog once again.

February 5, 2006 – Mulch Ready

Couldn’t help but get a little bit of farm work done today. Retrieved a pickup and trailer load of mulch for the trees. It’s great that it’s free and only 4 miles away. Here’s the wagon safely tucked in the shed ready to haul the mulch to the trees in the spring. Now, if I only had another three trailers!

It’s nice to get this stuff ready for spring.

January 28, 2006 – The Season Begins

Last night it got about as quiet as it gets around here. Sent the kids to bed, went for a short walk in the thick fog (a cloudy, foggy night is very dark in these parts) and then came back and started to order seeds for the coming season.
seed order
We’re excited to try some new varieties, especially since the Grinnell Market seemed to gravitate towards the heirloom type tomatoes. So we got out all the catalogs, a bottle of wine and began. This past year we readied 150 feet for new raspberries, so we ordered 75 feet worth of blackberries, 50 feet of early fall raspberries, and 25 feet of golden fall raspberries.
This is, of course, the best part of the gardening season as weeds, bugs, and hot/cold are absent from the seed catalog photos. This year’s most mouth-watering pictures goes to the Seeds of Change organic seed catalog. As it is near Santa Fe, we checked out if they were open for tours in March when we will visit, but alas, tours are only in the late summer. Some of out other favorite catalogs are St. Lawrence Nursery for northern-hards organic fruit trees, Pinetree Garden Seeds, especially for their small seed packs that lets us try more different varieties without paying more, and Seed Savers Exchange.

January 20, 2006 – Farm Bell

One of the nicest “extras” we bought for the farm is a real farm bell. We ordered it from Lehmans – an Amish catalog and store full of basic homestead and farm tools, including lots of non-electric devices.

farm bell
We have pretty strict rules about the bell. It is really loud and is not supposed to ring just for fun. If we are out somewhere on the farm and the kids need us for something, they can ring it. Likewise, if the kids are out playing and we need them to come in for dinner or some other reason, we ring the bell. If you hear the bell, it means, drop what you are doing and come home. It even works on the loud, windy days.

You may notice the bright and sunny 50 degree days are now gone and snow is back.

January 16, 2006 – Black Astralops

With our fall batch of broilers we ordered 25 straight run Black Astralops. We have a customer from Brazil who wants black chickens, so we ordered some for eggs and meat. Most of them are hens, only about 7 or so are roosters, which is fine for us. They have not yet started laying – should be any day now.

The roosters are very attractive – they have an iridescent green sheen to the black feathers and lots of big tail feathers.
blackastralops

January 10, 2006 – Attic Project

The add a dormer project in the attic is about to begin. Although these pictures are hard to see, they will be fun to look at “after.”
attic east

This is the look to the east – the stairs come up in front of the window and there is already a nice rail around the stairway.

attic south

This is the look to the south where the dormer will be built. The attic is a nice space and it is fun to imagine the placement of the room, storage, closets, and built-ins.

January 9, 2006 – Gravy Raspberries

Today was gravy. It was about freezing with a strong north wind, but it was sunny and there’s always something fruitful to do at high hopes. Today I started pruning the dead canes out of the raspberries. The raspberries are on the the south side of the barn and in the sunshine and with the barn blocking the wind, it was more or less pleasant.

It was gravy in that January 9th isn’t always a time when I can get at the canes. It gives a little more time in late spring for something else. Also continued hauling burnable wood out of one of the old sheds to the burn pile.

Here’s what the canes look like before pruning:
before pruning raspberries
Here’s what it looks like after the pruning:
after pruning raspberries
The summer berries grow one year without fruit, the second year they fruit, then they die. It’s good to get the dead canes out to give the new ones more room to grow, help prevent disease, and make it easier not to have to move around dead canes. It’s a good task since it is not a “must do” during a particular day or week, like picking strawberries.

January 7, 2006 – April Day in January

Today it was so warm, the kids were running around in short sleeves outside for a bit. Barn cleanup called us today in the warm weather. We’ve had a few more goats than usual with Billy “the stud” at High Hopes. We didn’t realize it was quite so deep.
cleanbarn
The doors are narrow, and there is no way to get equipment, other than the “Armstrong pitchfork” in to help cleanup. The cleanup is simple, scrape the stuff out, load it into a two wheel cart,
cleanbarn and haul it away.

It is a rather dreadful job when it lasts more than a couple of hours or so, and this job helped me make friends with it by thinking of it in a new way. Rather than the drudgery of sraping and cleaning it out, like many things at our farm, we like things to have multiple uses.

The good part of barn cleanup is fertilizing the fruit trees and gardens. I used to have to truck the stuff in, now it was a direct trip from the barn to the soil in one trip – mush more efficient than driving and reloading the stuff and then distributing. So, most all of the garden space, fruit trees, and raspberries have been fertilized, and there is some to spare in the compost pile.

January 6, 2006 – Slice of Sunshine

We’re going on two weeks without sun. It came out for a peek this evening and for about 15 minutes a few days ago, other than that, it’s been two weeks since we’ve seen it. The good part is that it has been warm, most of the snow is melted; the bad part it the clouds get monotonous after a while.
flowers

Today we finished cleaning up the attic and began to clean out one of the sheds that hasn’t seen attention since we moved in. This space was full of old lumber.
insideshed
Here it is in the truck destined for the burn pile or storage racks in the corn crib. This is a little under half the haul.
insideshed

January 1, 2006 – Open Source Cattle Panel Feeder

Computer geeks have “open source” software, meaning collaborative, free software instead of software controlled by a company, like Microsoft. But I digress as a point of departure for “open source cattle panels.” Fellow sustainable sojourner Steven Smith brings this design for a hay feeder to our farm.

There are many uses for cattle panels – someday I’ll devote an entire section of my web site to the many designs and uses, but for today – it’s a hay feeder. Here’s a first look at the feeder.panel feeder

Here’s what it looks like full of hay.
panel feeder

The design is simple and flexible – cut a panel the long way however wide you’d like it, leaving a little stub from the wires to insert into an existing vertical panel. Take another piece of wire and make it the length you’d like, and bend “hooks” in it to connect from the vertical panel (in this case, the board that makes the top of the fence). These can be quickly moved as needed.

December 31, 2005 – Corn Crib Renovation

Another one of the “b list” items off the list today. The corn crib has three interior sections – one on each side used to store the corn and a middle section for equipment. We’ve already converted the middle section to a basketball court.

The two sides have large boards running diagonally like large X’s from the outside to inside walls to help keep the walls from bowing out when full of corn pressing against it. As I cannot imagine this ever holding corn on the cob like they did in those days, I wanted to reclaim that space for other uses. Here’s what it looks like before reclamation.
insdie crib
The boards are very wide, probably at least 10 inches wide, and secured very well. With a little bit of prying, sawing, and pounding, they can be convinced to come out and offer more wide open space.
insdie crib

December 23, 2005 – Dr Barnes, Goat Medicine Woman

We’ve had an outbreak of Pink Eye amongst the goats, both those visiting and resident. The treatment is similar to humans, ointment in the eye. You can imagine the fun it is to administer ointment to a goat’s eye twice a day. We had a few who had an especially bad case and needed shots of anti-biotic to help them recover. Here is Dr. Barnes, Goat Medicine woman, before administering the remedy.
goat shots

December 18, 2005 – Neighborhood Barns #2

Not all the barns are in as good shape as the Aberdeen Angus barn of yesterday. This barn is in exactly the same place (first place on the right) as our place and the Aberdeen Angus barn on three consecutive roads.
jessup barn

This barn is typical of what happens as farms get bigger and fewer people live on the land. This place is rented out and not kept up very well. Old barns are becoming more rare. Since we’ve moved in, there have been two barns within a mile that have been bulldozed and burned. There’s a group dedicated to saving the disappearing barns, the Iowa Barn Foundation.

December 17, 2005 – Neighborhood Barns

ingrambarn

This barn is just off the blacktop two miles west of our place. The top line says “Homeland” the bottom line says “Aberdeenangus Cattle.” I like it when people paint the name of their farm or their favorite breed on their barn. I didn’t immediately recognize what “Aberdeenangus” meant, as it wasn’t familiar to me.

A quick google search reveals the name to be “Aberdeen Angus” (the space between Aberdeen and Angus makes all the difference). The cows are originally a small, stocky lowline breed from Scotland. Here’s a bit of history about the Aberdeen Angus from New Zealand. It’s also listed as one of the most rare breeds according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. Now, I have another mission to find out the history of this farm and if any of these cattle remain.

December 11, 2005 – Goats with Attitude

goatlook

I’m not sure what this goat is trying to say, but she looks like she’s got a bit of a swagger to her.

Even more goats came over to be bred by Billy. Billy and Ringo have been very cozy lately – Ringo wagging her tail furiously and sticking around Billy. The goats do not like to go out on the snow – there are very few tracks out in the snow.

December 7, 2005 – Snow on the Roof

The cold snap continues – we are about 25 degrees below normal – lows in the teens below zero. The snow has stayed on the barn nearly a week now – this is longer than any of the last few winters.
snowbarn
Usually, snow is soon followed by a warm day and it doesn’t take much of a warm day for the metal barn roof to shed its load of snow – usually in one or a few big “Swooshes” when the snow slides off in one big avalanche. You don’t want to be near the barn when that happens – it would knock you over and bury you. I’ve been lucky enough to see it happen a time or two. The first time it happened, I heard it and couldn’t figure out what made the noise until I saw the big piles of snow by the barn.

December 3, 2005 – Snowfall

The computer is now back online. In addition to fixing the problem, I added a firewire card, network card, upgraded to Windows XP and added a DVD burner.

We had some nice gentle snowfalls the last few days. This is the earliest we’ve had lasting snow in quite a few winters. Now there is a big cold stretch, with lows about 0 and highs in the low teens for the week. This puts an end to any work with the soil, although there are still things to do on warmer days in terms of interiors of outbuildings
snowtree
The new pine trees are all tucked in the the snow now.

November 27, 2005 – Shed Roof

I’ve completed one side of the shed re-roof and I think I’m done unless the weather continues mild into early December. The first step was to pound 2×4’s horizontally on the roof into the rafters and through all the shingle layers. I had to put a few 2×4’s vertically to try to take some of the bigger swales out of the roof. These give me a footing on the rotting roof and give a solid surface to screw the metal roofing into.
shedroof
From up on the roof, you can see the boards.
shedroof
The plan for this building is to save the part that has a new roof and build a new structure in the footprint of the part to be torn off and put in doors in one of the new sections on both sides so animals can go through or be restricted to one side or the other. It will give us many more options than we have now.
shedroof

November 23, 2005 – Good Neighbor/Unrelated Tragedy

During the big storm about a week ago, we lost one of the posts of the clothesline. Now, we use the clothesline a lot and this fact must not be lost on our neighbor. He noticed the line was not upright and just happened to be driving by with his tractor and post hole digger attached and stopped by to dig a new hole.

It saves a lot of time with the hand post-hole digger!

He told us a story of a 35 year old man who borrowed someone else’s tractor and post hole digger and went out himself to put in a new fence line just last week in the northern part of Marshall county. The next day, the tractor was found, with the post hole digger still spinning, and the man found dead about 100 yards away, missing his arm at the shoulder. I just hate to think of it.

November 21, 2005 – Glads

Today we (Linda) started digging the gladiola bulbs out of the garden.

When we planted them this spring, they were less than half the size they are now.

It’s nice to see so much growth – and we can use them again next spring and will probably get bigger glads. There’s still more to get and freezing ground is not far away.

November 19, 2005 – Last Class

Starting in about a year ago, we enrolled in a “growing your small market farm” class where, among other things we wrote a business plan for an “on-farm store.” The plan and research showed us that the store would probably not be successful, so we avoided a lot of pain! We did however incorporate into an LLC and helped focus on some other planning.

Today was the last meeting after a summer hiatus and during the meeting, our instructor, Penny Huber Brown won an award as the “Woman Entrepreneur Achievement Award” for her work in helping small farmers think like small business owners.
penny

November 17, 2005 – State Center Locker

We are fortunate to have a good, locally owned and operated locker about 12 miles away in State Center.

Small town lockers are a very important part of a local food system and economy. In this age of vertical integration of livestock, it’s good to have small independent lockers like this one.
Ralph and Janice

Ralph and Janice are the owners and they’ve had it quite a while and made some great improvements to the facility. They do everything for us but poultry. They do a good job of accomodating our requests and customer’s requests for custom cutting and wrapping of the meat, always with a warm smile.

November 9, 2005 – A Turn in the Weather

The season’s first pot of beef stew is simmering in the cast iron pot and the wind is howling from the northwest. The weather in the 70’s has ended.

Another afternoon of tucking summer items away for the winter. Martin and I started shoveling dirt out of a stock tank. Hmmmm. What is soil doing in a stock tank? It’s one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. We were digging out the soil early this spring where the playground would be, so we thought it would be good to save the soil and put it in some raised beds we were planning on building. Why not put it in the stock tank – it will be contained, there already was a home-made lid for it, as it was previously used as a swimming pool.

stock tank

Well, here it is November and the raised beds are but a memory – so the soil is getting thrown out into an existing garden so the tank can be rescued before winter.

Last year I replaced all the windows in the coop with the vinyl sash windows. One of the 4 panes of glass in one of the windows broke this summer in a storm and today I was impressed how easy it was to put a new pane in by just unscrewing three screws and sliding everything back together – much easier than the glazing points and window glazing of old.

November 8, 2005 – Interesting Work

I ran across two interesting links today. First is a 20 minute interview with Bill Mollison, one of the forerunners of the modern Permaculture movement. I’ve wanted to go to one of the 12-day permaculture classes but have never made the commitment. I’d especially like to see examples of permaculture applied to the midwest united states.

Another interesting link was a field experiment using various assemblages of vegetable and fruit in a “polyculture” arrangement from Ohio State. More details and photos are also available. I think this would be well worth the time of any small or market gardener to ponder and experiment with on your own farm.

November 7, 2005 – Lulled Asleep?

It was another day 20 degrees above normal. Morning was work and errands and this afternoon could do some “farming” outside. The weather has lulled me, but the calendar says Nov 7, so I started getting the farmstead ready for winter – took in some of the electric netting fence and rigged up a hanging holder (to keep mice out of it in the winter), cleaned up gardens some.

More does came over to visit Billy goat today. After school, Emma helped me put pound the 2×4’s on the roof of the old machine shed. I like to string the 2×4’s across the roof before putting the steel roofing on. It gives the steel something firm and reliable to attach to and it offers me safer footing on the roof. I’m using giant spikes to get through the asphalt and old cedar shingles to find the rafters. It’s about 50-50 whether I hit a rafter and it’s helpful to have a pair of eyes in the building to see if the nail was off right or left.

Emma did that with great cheer, despite having stuff falling from inside the building – including something she caught in her eye. She did have a good day, as her new flute arrived today.

flute

November 6, 2005 – Corn Crib Done Until Spring

I’ve completed the goal to get one side of the corn crib sealed from the elements so I have a place to store lumber instead of boards scattered about in nearly every building. It looks kind of silly this way, but now it is on to roofing part of the old machine shed. I also have some work inside the crib, getting the other interior half to have usable space by removing some of the cross-members that were used to hold the walls in when there was corn pushing against the sides. These buildings were solidly built and it is the squarest of any of the outbuildings.

Doing the partial side (and the opposite side as well) took much longer than the entire west side. Lots of cutting and ladder work on these sides. I’m not sure my ladder will reach to the top of the building – we’ll find out next spring. I’m now looking for a solar-powered light. It will be dark in there after it gets all wrapped up and I don’t envision ever needing a lot of power in there, so small solar panel and battery may be perfect for lighting instead of an overhead or underground electrical supply.

November 5, 2005 – Date Night at High Hopes

datenight
Today we went to fetch Billy. He and Blaze “hit it off” right away. Blaze’s tail was wiggling and happy to see Billy. We’ll have Billy for about a month before he moves on. Hopefully Paullina’s time will come as well. We can sure tell there is a Billy here – it really stinks in the barn now.

Today Maizie entered the stinking dog sisterhood by finding and rolling in something disgusting. The girls gave her a couple of baths to try to remove the smell.
bath

It was probably a good thing after coming home from the shelter – she is reported to be much more fluffy now.

November 4, 2005 – Peach Wrap

Today, nothing was “urgent” so lots of smaller things got some attention. I wrapped tree wrap around the peach and nectarine trees – hopefully that will help with sunscald and winter heat/cold damage.
peachpaper

I also put permanent metal tags on a number of trees, worked some more on the siding on the corn crib, but have reached the height that I can do solo, started sizing up the roofing on the old machine shed, put some summer furniture away for winter. It was another gorgeous day.

October 31, 2005 – Graveside at Halloween

Note: Today’s post deals somewhat graphically with death and burial of animal remains. If that makes you uncomfortable, you may want to skip reading this post.

Today didn’t go as planned. I didn’t envision I’d be outside after dark on a chilly Halloween evening beside a shallow grave, watching the steam rise up from the intestines and assorted other organs of the sheep.

I knew I’d be burying sheep offal, just never thought it would be after the 10 o’clock news. I asked the locker to call call me after the sheep were slaughtered so I could retrieve the lambskins to start the first part of the tanning process. They promised they would. The renderer does not take sheep offal, so the farmer has to take the remains and dispose of them.

So I kept checking the phone every 15 minutes or so. I’m told if a hide isn’t quickly salted down, the hair will fall off later in the tanning process. Nine am passes, 10 am, 11 am, noon. One pm, finally I can’t stand it any longer and decide to drive in before I pick the girls up from school to either pick up the skins because they forgot to call me or see when they would be done.

The “Critter Ridder” does the slaughtering. His truck advertises he will get rid of problem bats, raccoons, skunks, moles, feral cats. etc. His side job is slaughtering the animals for the locker. I wonder if the guidance counselor in high school was disturbed when the results of his career interest survey came back.

Critter Ridder tells me he is way behind as there were a couple of emergency cows that came in and that the lambs should be ready around 6:00-6:30. I return then (missing trick-or-treating) to find nothing at the slaughter house. The lambs are not in the outside pen where I left them, nor are the lambskins and offal outside, nor is anybody there. I wait around for a half hour or so, hoping he had just run to get some smokes or a bite to eat.

I resign myself to thinking I’ve missed the boat on these skins. Around 9:30 he calls and says they are ready to pick up. I run to town to pick them up and when I return home, start rubbing the salt into the hides. There is something satisfying about this step. I don’t know if it is reminiscent of earlier times when hide tanning was an important skill for survival, whether I’m feeling good about using the a part of the animal most people throw away, but at any rate, rubbing the salt into the hides is satisfying.

After the hides are all salted down, it’s time to drag the offal into the pasture to the hole that Martin and I dug earlier in the day. As the darkness and chilly air surround me, I hear more than one strange sound as the offal falls into the shallow grave. In the darkness, I fill the hole with dirt, happy that this part of the day is finally over.

October 30, 2005 – Sheep Gone

Today many small events overlapped. Our friend and favorite Guiness Book of Record holder and one of the, if not THE, nation’s top amaranth curator stopped by to harvest the seed increase we grew out for him. The girl’s piano teacher and her husband stopped by to look at our corn stove. The kids had a fun time walking inside a round section of a small bin, walking inside like a rat on a treadmill.

It was also the day to bring the lambs in to the locker. Many people may think it’s kind of corny, but I always make a point to verbally thank the animals for their gift to us before I drive away. I have no doubt that their lives were much better than most of their brethren, many of whom are confined to small spaces eating a diet of primarily grains to fatten up quickly instead of grasses for which their rumens were made. Claire has a name for them – “Happy Meat.” She fiddled with vegetarianism for a while and eventually decided she would eat only “Happy Meat.” (I don’t think there is any happy meat in a “happy meal” under the golden arches.)

Our customers are looking forward to the meat and bringing their friends into the table. It is rewarding for the customers to really look forward to their annual special meat arrival.

October 28, 2005 – Green Machines

Our neighbor has finished up all his harvesting and brought some equipment over to store in our shed. Here’s Marty getting a ride in the tractor.

Today my Nikon digital camera went on the fritz. I bought the first one new and it had this problem, so I bought the same model used off ebay and it worked for a few months before developing the same problem. I guess Nikon digitals don’t share the lineage of their 35 mm SLR predecessors. So I will be without photos until the new camera arrives. I really want the Canon that accepts lenses from my old SLR, but the budget called for an inexpensive point and shoot.

October 26, 2005 – Corn Crib Project

Now that the steel has arrived, I am beginning work on the corn crib. This fall, I’m going to put steel siding on about half the building and do the rest next year. I built some racks inside one section of the crib to store lumber and need to keep the water and snow out – so I’m closing up one side and parts of two other sides.
crib
Here’s the crib before (but notice the nice roof from year’s gone by!)
crib
Everything flowed today and it was an easy job (no windows or doors and only one piece to cut). I could have used more than 1 1/4 people (Martin could hand me a drill when I was holding the unfastened pieces in place, but that was about it). I just have part of the top two rows of screws to put in and the west side will be done.

October 25, 2005 – New Puppy for the Farm

puppy
After our experience with Blue and the confidence Emma has gained in dog training, we now have a new puppy. Her name was Missy, but nobody really cares for that name, so we are thinking of a new name. We were leaning towards Maizzie, but when Martin says that it comes out like Macey. So we’ll decide tomorrow and get on with it. We got her from the animal rescue league – she is about 4 months old and a mixed breed that contains some spaniel.
puppy

October 24, 2005 – An Afternoon Project

Today’s project was one of those “good enough” projects. I’ve adopted Joel Salatin’s mantra of making things cheap and just good enough, no matter what it looks like. This was an old cattle chute I put a new tire on and am converting to a mulch hauler (while retaining its ability to still act as a shute. Here’s the before picture.
shute before
The rule for this was to use only materials on the farm – no town trip allowed! So, the side extensions are paneling we ripped out of the house to expose the plaster, the front removable section was leftover plywood from the trailer I recently refurbished, some wood was from the old house that was torn down, the electrical conduit was leftover from a project and the handle on the back sliding “door” handle was from an old double-hung window that was replaced!
Here’s the end result:
shute after
Casual observers may not appreciate some of the decisions that need to be made in such a project. Does the nice side of the paneling face out for a good look, or face in so it doesn’t look like an old woodie station wagon which are long out of style?

Here’s a bit of a close-up of the back shute showing some design features:
shute after

October 22, 2005 – Garlic In

Today we got the garlic in (but not mulched). It does so much better planted late fall than spring. We planted five different varieties: California Early White, California Late White, Music, Chesnok Red, and Siberian. We planted a bit more than last year – last year we had about 200 ft of garlic, this year we have about 360 feet.
We also rearranged some chickens.
tomatochickens
We moved two groups to garden clean-up patrol – the Black Astralops were assigned to the former tomato patch to clean up the rotten fruit on the ground.
gladchickens
The mixed standard layers pullets were assigned to the gladiolas and pole beans (the part of the garden most weedy by the end of the year).

I’m really loving these chickens in the garden after harvest to clean up the waste/seeds/weeds. They really seem to enjoy it and leave some fertilizer in place. It’s like getting free weeding and fertilizing!

October 21, 2005 – RoundTuit Work

Today was a day of “RoundTuit” work. Stuff that needs to get done, but never bubbles up to the top of the list. One of today’s tasks was taking a flat wheel off an old cattle chute (last fall we dragged it out of the corn crib to make way for the basketball court, flat tire and all). We took the wheel off and brought it to town to get a new old tire put on it.
jacking
Here’s Marty jacking it higher as we get ready to put the new tire on.
lug nuts
As Marty learns the next steps in replacing a tire, he demonstrates tightening up the lug luts.

I’m thinking of converting it to a mulch storer/hauler as there will be lots of that in the coming years.

October 18, 2005 – Corn in the Shed

Today, we are ready for winter. Our wagons are full of corn and sitting safe and sound in the shed. The corn heats our house in the winter and especially this year, it is like money in the bank. I was concerned about the tires on the gravity wagon. Even though you don’t need great tires to travel a few thousand feet a year, it’s also not fun to try to replace a wheel in the field on a wagon loaded with 5 tons of corn. So I picked the tire that looked the worse and got a new used tire in its place.
After this trip in the field, I have a new candidate for next year – the tire that shed part of its tread and exposed the steel belts – but it made it into the shed alright. Sometimes things go right!

October 13, 2005 – Sparrows and Moles

I’ve started to become a bit repulsed by all the piles of poo-poo from the growing population of house sparrows in the corn crib and barn. I started looking for info on trapping them and found that both the Bluebird and Purple Martin birding societies view them as mortal enemies of the Bluebird and Martin and other native birds since the sparrows will kill the young birds and even adult Bluebirds and Martins. So I ordered my trap to try to give the native birds a chance and help clean up the buildings. A few are fine, but when they start to make piles…

We also have a big influx of moles in the yard this fall – again, a few I can handle, but they seem to be everywhere in the yard – in the gardens, lawn, near the outbuildings bringing up dirt in front of doors. I tried an old style cheap trap – digging a hole under and active burrow and burying a canning jar, and replacing the dirt around it and covering it with a board – the theory being they will fall in and not be able to get out. It’s been in a day and no luck yet.

Of course this brings me to a bigger question – can I design a farm that sparrows and moles do not become pests? Are there layouts of plants and animals to help minimize them? Plant native grasses in the yard so I have some places for moles to live? Are there predators for the sparrows I could encourage – or since they are introduced species, am I the predator? Stay tuned…

October 12, 2005 – Aftermath

aftermath
Today was poultry to meat day. Here is the aftermath of the trip to the locker. The day starts early – I rolled out of bed about 3:30 am and headed to the locker – the birds were loaded the night before. It was a restless night. Like the first night the chicks arrive, the last night is stressful. I was tossing and turning, wondering if the new system would work. I decided to put all the chickens in the new trailer instead of in the pickup. That way there is one “dirty” vehicle and one “clean” vehicle to take them home in. I had reservations at the first restless toss – I stacked the cages three high, with solid trailer sides on two sides and more cages on the others. What if there wasn’t enough air and they all suffocated? What if the few loose turkeys got crushed by a shifting load of cages? Thankfully, there was no loss and all made it ok.
Here’s the biggest turkey:

This is what a 35 lb bronze-breasted turkey looks like! Linda cut this up into many, many meals. It was also Emma’s turn to try her hand at learning how to cut up a chicken.

Emma was a quick learner and cut up her first one nearly flawlessly! After the turkey, this chicken looked like a cornish game hen.

October 8, 2005 – Front Page News

Saturday readers of the Des Moines register woke up to this picture above the fold on the front page. wende

Wende is the founder of Wholesome Harvest Organic Meats (of which I serve on the Board of Directors). The article focused on the booming organic market and the loss of even this niche market to oversees organic producers. American taxpayers have chosen to subsidize conventional growers while other countries have chosen to subsidize organic farmers. I’ve always thought it was backward that organic farmers have to certified by a third-party NOT to apply toxic and cancerous chemicals to growing food plants. You’d think we’d want to tightly control those using those chemicals, not those not using them.

October 5, 2005 – Jinxed Myself

On Monday I wrote about the trees. Today, I was at work and Linda called to report that part of the fence was down and some of the neighbor’s calves and bull were in the alley munching on the new trees. She tried to shoo them out, got the calves out, but the bull was not interested in moving. Then she remembered all the stories of the farmers being killed by their bulls and thought better of her approach. So she went to the apple tree and picked some apples and coaxed the bull out with apples (thank you Emma, for starting to feed the cows apples many years ago!) For the most part, it looks like it was just a light browsing on mostly the oaks, I don’t think there is much damage to the trees as a whole.

October 4, 2005 – Dare to Dream?

What if there was a food distribution network for artisan/organic food producers? What if the power of socially-minded programmers could be harnessed to offer an alternative to the dominant food distribution system like Linux and other open source efforts offered to Microsoft? What if the producers of the food shared in the profits, were even owners of this network while maintaining their independence? These are some of the questions I’m mulling over. Here’s a couple of quick links for related efforts:

An example of a system for part of the network – retail food outlets – I saw this in my high school alumni newsletter developed by a classmate I don’t know (yet) CoCoNuts
A new way of thinking about food and sustainability – PlaNet
More coming!

October 3, 2005 – Getting Trees Ready for Winter

Martin and I finished mowing and hand weeding around the trunks of the new trees. I want to make sure there are not good mouse/rabbit hiding places in the the tall grass, so out it comes. Then we distributed one truck load of mulch to about half the trees. They are looking good. I has been very warm the last few days – 88 today and humid – more like August than October. By the end of the day I was wiped out as your mind doesn’t wrap around the fact that it really is hot out in October.

One of the baby Bur Oaks, the state tree of Iowa and the central feature of native prairie savanna.
hardwood
A southward look at “hardwood alley” the center of our back pasture planted with bur oak, sugar maple, black walnut, black cherry, and chestnut. Perhaps someday it will become the nexxus for a raceway rotational grazing track.
conifer
An eastward look at “conifer alley” on the north edge of the pasture, perhaps offering Christmas trees and/or a windbreak.

October 1, 2005 – “Billy” and coop cleanup

Today we entered into a somewhat mysterious partnership with a neighbor we don’t really know in purchasing a Nubian buck from another neighbor who is moving, cleverly named “Billy.” We need buck service for our two ladies, and the other neighbor is willing to keep the buck at her place as she had many more does to service. Anybody who has been around goats, knows this is a good deal and the Billy goats are quite pungent. We hope it works out.

Linda had her semi-annual clean the chicken coop day. It’s part of our agreement- she does manure hauling, I deal with dead (animal) bodies.

September 30, 2005 – Gourds

Here is this year’s gourds drying down own the vine.
hanginggourds

We’ve found that the best way to dry the gourds is to leave them outside over the winter. We’ve tried bringing them in the barn or house, but they just seem to rot. So outside they will hang.
See the August 26th entry for the gourds in full spendor.
We’re working on making the gourds into useful items – the obvious one is bowls (maybe we’ll get beyond that this year!).
gourdbowl

Here’s a seasonal display using the miniature corn and gourd bowl.

September 27, 2005 – Honey of a Day

Even though it was a town work day, farming work was done today. Today, Joanne extracted the honey from the first-year hives.
honey
Here’s a section of a frame of honey still in the comb.
honey
The frames go in the extractor.
honey
The extractor gets spun around manually to spin the honey out – think a giant salad spinner or a very slow autoclave for the scientists out there.
honey
Finally, the pot of honey – kind of like making something from nothing – like fruits from sunlight.

September 26, 2005 – Simple Things

There’s a million things (ok maybe that’s a slight exaggeration)that are on the list. Many of them are not difficult – it’s just that only one can happen at a time. The last few days, I’ve been working on one of those “I’ll get to it someday” projects – making some more shelving in the machine shed. This section of wall was particularly unkept – so I bought some shelving frames and scrounged the shelves from leftover wood and wood salvaged from torn-down buildings. The result is 14 or so feet of five levels of storage. It is especially useful for all the additional beekeeping equipment joining us this year.
shedshelves

September 25, 2005 – A Great Rotation

I’m especially proud of this rotation we’ve put together this year. First was potatoes and onions. After onions and potatoes were pulled, we planted buckwheat, which acted as a cover crop and great flowers for the bees. Now we are running chicken tractors over the buckwheat – the chickens are eating all the seeds and leaves and leaving next year’s fertilizer!
chickens on buckwheat

To the right, you can see the garden the chickens have cleaned up and towards the top, the buckwheat waiting to be eaten. The chickens are eating virtually none of their usual food, preferring the buckwheat.
Just as things were getting dry and I was about ready to water this year’s trees, the skies opened up with about 1.5 inches of rain this weekend.

September 20, 2005 – Harvest Begins

The last few days the first bean harvesting has begun in adjacent fields. Here’s our neighbor testing out the combine in the field adjacent to our place.
combine
After the field was harvested, Marty wanted to go look. So we found some stray soybeans and gathered them up to show everybody.
Then he just ran and ran in the field, for a long ways – like he was reveling in the open spaces just created. It was gratifying to have such a big playground and sense of freedom and security to run so far. I liked looking at his figure – small, strong, and sure – running in the distance.

September 19, 2005 – Cover Girls!

Here’s the cover of the insert section of Sunday’s Marshalltown paper. marshalltimes

Don’t those chicks look cute! The writer found us via our web site/blog and wanted a local story about chickens. He came out, took a few pictures and talked to us a while and did a good job on the reporting.
marshalltimes

There are lots of color pictures in the story as well. As if this wasn’t enough, the front page of the paper had another article about the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial program at MCC.

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.
bus arrive
The kids pile off the bus, ready for a farm tour.
whatthe

I’m not sure what has so captivated everyone’s attention (except Martin’s), but it sure looks interesting!
goods
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.
IPTV
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 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.
workhorse
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.
workhorse

Here he is sweeping the remaining wood chips out of the truck.

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.

coopwiring

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. amaranthbroken

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.
flare wagon

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!
hay making
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.hay making
There is romance about the equipment. Here’s the New Holland baler that we used.
hay making
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.
hay making
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.
flowers
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.
flowers
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.

Note to Gary

Gary,

When I was looking for inspiration for our wind turbine dedication, I ran across the following from St. Olaf College’s dedication of their campus wind turbines.  I thought it was a beautiful dedication and did a great job of integrating a Christian viewpoint of the creation and living God.  Perhaps you’ll find it worthwhile as well to ponder or adapt as you see fit for your dedication.

http://www.stolaf.edu/green/turbine/dedication.html

We’d be willing to try a bit of garlic to start out – we hardly ever jump hole hog into anything.  What do you figure for row yields 60-80 lbs per 100 foot double row?

Mark

September 1, 2005 – There’s Something in Our House!

This evening shortly after Martin went to bed, a concerned, but not out-of-control loud voice comes down the stairs “DAD, THERE IS SOMETHING WE DON’T WANT IN OUR HOUSE.” He said this three or four times. I made my way upstairs and found a praying mantis on the clock radio next to his bed place.
prayingmantis
This brought the girls in there – Emma (who is capturing insects for a school collection) says “Mom says I can’t catch any Praying Mantises, they are good for the garden. So we ushered the spectacular bug out of the house safely.

August 31, 2005 – Hints of Fall

The first hints of fall are appearing as September nears. Some of the soybean fields are showing a splash of yellow as the drying down begins.

hint fall
We lost our first turkey overnight – one of the biggest toms – just dropped dead, no sign of predation (they are behind an electric netting fence.)

We also closed on a home refinance that was and is rife with errors and bad communication. I’ll be happy when it is completed.

August 28, 2005 – Around the Farm

Thought I’d share some of the nice sights around the farm these days. Here’s Claire next to the broom corn – it’s tall!

I continue to be struck by the combination of the blooming buckwheat and amaranth.
amaranth buckwheat
This amaranth is very striking in its deep maroon color – even from a distance, it is the first thing that catches your eye and is much more striking against the green backdrop than this photo portrays.

August 27, 2005 – New Market and Tomato-RAMA

This spring we reserved a space at the farmer’s market section of the local energy cooperative’s annual meeting and fair. We were regretting it after the good market in Grinnell. The market was indeed rather lousy – it was twice as long and we sold a third as much.
The event was very nice though. I won a door prize of a $25.00 credit on my next electric bill. Martin got to ride up 55 feet to as high as the co-ops “lofty” could reach! Dad forgot his camera, so here’s a copy of a Polaroid they took before he went up. He’s got “hard hat” in hand and safety harness on.

We had lots of produce left over, so we went nuts canning – we canned over 30 quarts of tomatoes.
I also completed selling some things on e-bay – mainly things that were broken or in auction boxes I didn’t want – got nearly 100 dollars, led by a DeWalt drill, charger and battery that didn’t work for 34 dollars!

August 26, 2005 – Squash Tunnel

One of this year’s experiments was to bend a 16 foot cattle panel over as a half circle and plant gourds on it. Part of the reason was to span the pile of fenceposts destined to be grape fencing.

It turned out well, next year it may be worthwhile to make it double-wide and trying cucumbers to get them off the ground and maybe help prevent wilt.
gourds
Here’s a view of the fruit from the inside – I love the filtered minty green color inside the tunnel.

August 24, 2005 – Over the Stove

Today was a very cool August day – a nice change – it didn’t get to 70 until mid-afternoon. So we took advantage of the cool weather and went nuts canning.

Today’s totals = 9 jars of raspberry jam, 5 jars of whole raspberries, 7 jars of tomatoes, 12 jars of applesauce (five of raspberry-apple and the rest cinnamon-apple). The tomatoes and applesauce are two of the most time-consuming things we can, and since it is the last day before school starts, I took advantage of the extra hands.
We vowed to do more of our own food this year before selling it and we’re doing very well with that. The freezers are filling up with veggies and fruits and we’re getting a little canned to save room in the freezers.

August 22, 2005 – Non-Gas Powered Brush Cutters

Are goats part of the solution to the rising oil prices? I promised ya’all before and after pictures of an area pre- and post-goat. Due to a technical malfunction (I erased the “before” pictures – you’ve all got to remember I’m still operating with a Dell and Nikon camera, not the Televac 62000).

There is an area under some big trees that is prone to overgrowth by mulberry and other brush. It has been a pain to keep it clean via mowing or cutting with pruners or a heavy-duty weed whip with metal blades, so I turned the goats loose surrounded by our electric netting fence powered with a solar fence charger. It worked great as you can see by the following picture.

goatbrush

You’ll have to imagine a brushy area under the trees, with lots of 3-6 foot mulberry shrubs.

August 20, 2005 – Every Which Way

This morning we went three different directions. Linda went to the Iowa Farmer’s Union annual meeting and got to hear John Edwards, 4 gubernatorial candidates and three Secretary of Ag candidates, in addition to spreading the word about the Sustainable and Entrepreneurial program at MCC.

Grandma and the girls went to the Grinnell market where they had a good morning – the girls each netted $20.00 on their baked goods after paying their parents for expenses.

Martin and Dad stayed home to say goodbye to our guest and do stuff around the farm. We moved the portable electric fence around the pine trees that had grown up with mulberries and weeds. The goats did a great job of clearing it up – better than a brush cutter. I’ll put before and after pictures up in a few days.

We’ve discovered that the windfall apples are loved by the cows. Here are the kids feeding the cows the apples.
feed cows
feed cows

August 19, 2005 – ‘Nother Hot Day

Today was another 90 degree plus day with plenty of humidity. The girls spent most of the morning in the kitchen making cookies for market tomorrow and the afternoon on the slip and slide.
slipslide
slipslide
The hot weather is good for our buckwheat crop. After we harvest summer crops in the garden we sow buckwheat since it grows well in hot weather. Here’s part of the patch where the potatoes used to be.
buckwheat

This picture is a few days old – today it started to show flowers – an added bonus is more forage for the bees.

August 16, 2005 – New Mower

I’ve made an upgrade in mowing from the old riding tractor to the not-so-old mower. They are both green. This one when you turn a tight circle leaves about a 6-8 inch circle of uncut grass. The old one left about 6-8 foot circle. Mowing time is probably cut in half. The first time I rode it, I thought I might need some Dramamine to prevent getting dizzy from whipping around the trees.
525

August 15, 2005 – Welcome Blaze!

I know, Blaze sounds more like a horse than a dairy goat, but a dairy goat she is. She was a ribbon winner at the Story County Fair and some neighbors bought her a few weeks ago before they knew they were moving. Getting the goat home was like a scene one may have seen in a joint episode of “Sanford and Son “and the Beverly Hillbillies. The truck was crammed full of garbage for a dump trip the next day, so we brought the “new” utility open-top trailer and Linda and the goat rode in the back.

Here’s our girl, posing.

Here’s a head shot. She’s a great milker. We let Paullina rest starting last week, so it’s nice to get some more milk.

August 12, 2005 – Rain, Rain

It has been very unusual for August – things are starting to mold (raspberries and tomatoes) and mushrooms are popping up in the yard. The combination of still winds, frequent rain and drizzle and warmth makes things tough in the garden. It is unusual not to have any brown patches in the lawn.

We started getting ready for market today and went clothes shopping for Linda in Des Moines and had a dinner at a co-worker’s with “the Department.”

August 8, 2005 – Winter Meals Made Easy

At 9:00 am these carrots were in the ground and by 1:00 they were out of the pressure canner.canned carrots

While I was messing with the carrots, Linda was chopping up and freezing the bruised and imperfect onions. So now, all we need to make chicken soup in the winter is a few hours of cooking time – the carrots and onions are all cleaned and peeled, and chicken in the freezer.

It’s seemed a little bit like London in 1940 the last few days with the crop dusters buzzing around, especially when they are clearing the tree tops above our house by what seems inches. It’s amazing to watch them fly, but disconcerting knowing the imperfect applications of poisons they drop off. Watching the planes fly, I was wondering how many crash, and I saw in today’s papers that two have gone down this weekend, in a crop field in Green Mountain and in someone’s front yard in Osage.

August 7, 2005 – High Hopes Salon

Today was the day for goat pedicures at High Hopes. Nothing but luxury here! We are rookies at the goat hoof trimming experience, but here’s how it goes.
goat hoof trim

Paullina is led into the barn to the goat stanchion for trimming.

goat hoof trim

Here’s a before picture of a very overgrown goat hoof.

goat hoof trim

Linda hard at work trimming the hoof. It doesn’t hurt the goat, but the material is very hard and needs special goat shears.

goat hoof trim

Here’s a newly trimmed hoof.

goat hoof trim

A picture of all 4 hooves neatly trimmed!

Besides this, we also got the chicken house shoveled out and lots of mowing and trimming around this year’s tree planting.

August 6, 2005 – Taking the Bad with the Good

All in all, it has been one of those “full” days. I don’t mean full in the sense of lots of activities, but full of many meaningful and interesting moments. The day started at 6:00 am getting ready for Farmer’s Market. We wanted to try Grinnell’s market. It was also the day to pick up Emma from 4H camp.

The truck was all loaded for market, running just a tad behind schedule, but still ok. Linda was going to market, and I to get Emma and the truck steering column locked up. The wheels were turned sharply when the truck was turned off and the key would not turn the truck over, nor would the steering wheel move. I’ve had this happen before, but it was relatively quick to turn hard on the wheel to make it break loose. We tried over and over and started to feel hopeless about a truck full of produce and flowers and immobilized.

In desperation, I got out an old logging chain (forged in Duluth, MN) and tried pulling the truck with the tractor to try to break the impasse. On the second try it worked. Linda had a good day at market – sold all the flowers, lots of garlic and nobody complained about the prices!

It was good to see Emma again and learn of her week at camp. We had a sheep (Beatrice see blog entry for her arrival) that seemed a bit listless yesterday and when we got home from the morning activities, she was dead. She showed no signs of bloat or diarrhea, just went down. So we spent some time digging a hole to bury her. I’ve come to accept that death is a part of raising livestock, but it’s never easy.

The rest of the day we put up some more sweet corn (last of the season) and picked and peeled the remaining apples from the first three apple trees to ripen. We just peeled and cut up the apples and froze them to make applesauce in bulk at a later time. We did get a 92 inch continuous apple peel!
applepeel
On our way back from the camp we stopped in at “Mousehole Days” in Melbourne to drop the key off to the new lawnmower for my lawnmower guy and fire chief to look it over and haul it home for me. Martin got the chance to sit in the firetruck and blow the fire truck siren!

August 3, 2005 – Big Weeding Day

We’re still trying to catch up from being gone on vacation, so today was a giant leap forward in weeding. We’re probably 75% back to where we were before we left. Martin and I started looking for a new riding mower. We bought an ancient John Deere when we moved in eight years ago, and now the mowing deck is no longer fixable, and a replacement one is anywhere from $700 used to $1500 new, so it is time for a new outfit. I spent one last time taking it apart and resharpening blades and bending metal back into position. Martin’s quote is a real farmer’s quote. “The mower is giving Dad too much trouble, he’s going to get a new one.”

August 1, 2005 – Blue

Our new Australian Shepherd has a new collar these days. We just couldn’t break him of chasing cars on the road. Rather than have a dead dog, we bought a “training collar” (which is a nice way of saying shock collar). Before, when he chased cars, he immediately got stern warnings and locked in the garage, losing his freedom. So after a few rounds of that, he would chase the car against our commands, then run in the garage to get his punishment!

It seems to be working. We’ve had it on for a little less than a week and I’d say the chasing has almost (but not quite) completely stopped.

July 31, 2005 – Strange Days

Today was a strange day. We had a small chance of rain, it started about 6:30 am and I ran out to get the laundry. At about 10:00 I checked the radar and there was only a narrow band. By one the narrow band was still there and the last drops fell at 5:00. Two people said the clouds today were the weirdest they had seen. A neighbor called and left a message to look at the clouds to the north (I love the neighbors who alert me to this stuff) and my Mom sent me an e-mail saying they saw some weird clouds north of Ames. Here’s what they may have looked like, as I received both messages a bit after the fact.

April flipped out today. The lightning, although not frequent, dragged on for most of the day. She freaks out is storms ever since she was caught in a hailstorm that dropped hail big enought to break windows a few years back.
door
This is what she did to the back door before we heard her! This was an ouch on the paws as the broken wood is sharp!

July 27, 2005 – Cart-o-Veggies


Today was root crop day at High Hopes. We dug all the potatoes, and the remaining onions and garlic. Just as importantly, pulled all the weeds and planted buckwheat where everything was pulled. The weather is still pleasant and it was a good day to work.


We moved the turkeys out of the cramped chicken tractor and got our first electric netting fence up and they had a good time stretching their wings. They were quite hilarious flying up and discovering what the fence does.

July 25, 2005 – Garlic Bread!

Today was the last hot day for a while – so it was a good day for a dentist visit and to clean the house to get ready for an appraisal for a refinance. It’s nice to have a clean house. In the evening we cut some of the black-bearded wheat we planted for ornamental value. Martin, however, is convinced we are going to make wheat flour with the wheat, so here’s a picture of “garlic bread” for Martin.
garlicwheat

July 14, 2005 – “Sweet Winter Chickens”

martychicken
Today Claire and I were up at 4 am and off to the locker. She has written about it, but I haven’t seen it yet. We got the assembly line going today cutting up chicken – breasts in bags, soup parts in bags, etc. We left a few whole, but got quite a few cut up. The new portable outdoor counter I made out of the old kitchen countertop and some old refrigerator grates worked very well – the birds could drain on the grates, and be cut up on the counter, built for tall people like ourselves. Then the meat was into the vacuum seal-a-meal.
lindachicken
Marty helped carry bags into the freezer telling me. “Dad, these chickens are for winter, right?” I replied, “They sure are.” Martin’s response was “These will be sweet chickens in the winter.”

July 13, 2005 – Chicken Loading

We just finished loading the chickens in all the chicken cages for transport to the locker tomorrow. It’s finally become a bit of a routine and marking of the season for us. After dark, the chickens are loaded into the crates and put in the pickup truck. I postponed the appointment at the locker a week since it seemed they weren’t growing as well in the heat. Now, however they seem very nice and plump.
chickenload

About 4 am, I’ll awake and bring them to the locker, hand them to the slaughtering man six at a time and in a few minutes we’ll have dressed chickens ready to go home.

April has now figured out her job. She used to bark and flail at the chickens as they squawked and fluttered on their way to the chicken cages. Now she just watches and spends the night by the truck under the yard light, guarding the chickens all night long.
chickenload

We always worry about heat this time of year. It is not uncommon to lose chickens due to the heat. Sugar Creek Farm had just such an experience (my nightmare) earlier this year.

Claire claims she wants to come tomorrow morning. We’ll wake her up and see what happens.

July 12, 2005 – New Trees Gain a Foothold


So far, so good on the new trees planted this spring. Until now, rain has been plentiful (I’m grateful I’ve only had to water once) and they’ve put on inches of new growth. Virtually all have survived. The next step is to get them through the heat of summer and through a winter to see what rodent damage may be. Next year, I’m planning on planting more.

July 8, 2005 – Claire’s Back and Linn St. Market

Today was Claire’s “graduation” from her two weeks at U of I. The director told us that they were the youngest that the university recruited and each has a $1,000 scholarship should they enroll at Iowa. I wonder if Iowa State will match it and add 10%?
clairebelin
Claire after the closing ceremony.
clairebelin

We “had” to go Prairie Lights bookstore where one of Claire’s favorite night-time events was a book reading.

This morning we decided to try to move some stuff at Linn Street Market – a place where local farmers can sell their goods year-round at an indoor venue by renting market space. We brought in some raspberries, flowers, and the first apples of the season.
lindaflowers

Linda creating her magic in the barn arranging the flowers. We also vacuum-packed the first few carrots of the year and threw them in the freezer.

July 2, 2005 – Trophy Dandelion!

Today was a day of long-overdue work around the place. Spent most of the morning weeding the gardens. Check out this trophy dandelion root. It was about five feet long. I kept pulling and it just kept coming and coming, and coming.

Also spent a couple of hours on thistle patrol – mowing patches in the pasture, cutting them out of fencerows, and pulling them out from around the new trees. Everybody hates thistles, so I am doing my part for neighborhood harmony. We also picked the last peas and took out the trellis and poles and moved it over to the just planted pole beans.
Had a nearly all-farm meal tonight – our chicken, beets and green beans. Froze the peas, some beans, and some raspberries as well. Planted the last of the Gladiolus (I think we put in about 450 this year). Also planted some buckwheat where the peas and a weedpatch were as buckwheat does great as a summer cover crop. Did a little work on the trailer while Emma and Linda took the dogs for a walk at dusk.

Martin has been dwelling on his birthday and what it means. He was asking where he came from and where he was before he was born. We told him that half of him came from mommy and daddy. That was good enough explanation and he seemed pleased with that answer. Then he said something to the effect of “But I have my own spirit, right?” I thought that was rather amazing that he would consider the non-physical part of himself after finding out his body came from Mom and Dad.

July 1, 2005 – Sheep Finally Arrive

Today, we finally picked up our sheep. We got four from Goat Girls Farm near Runnells. Emma has promptly named all of them in the vacuum left by her sister’s absence. Without further ado, this year’s sheep crop!
sheep
They are still a bit shy, only on the ground in their new home a few minutes when this picture was taken.
Did you hear about the two shepherds leaning on their crooks at the end of a long day. The first one says to the second, “So, how’s it going?” The second one sighs and shakes his head, “Not good. I can’t pay my bills, my health isn’t good, and my oldest kid was thrown in jail last night.” The first shepherd replies, “Well, don’t lose any sheep over it.”
sheep We’ll have these until the grass dies in the late fall.
The turkeys are growing fast. Here are what our Bronze-Breasted look like today.
turkeys

June 28, 2005 – Soul Searching

Throughout the winter, we took a class Saturday mornings entitled “Growing Your Small Market Farm.” The culmination of the class was to write a business plan for your farm operation. Along the way, we formed High Hopes Gardens LLC for legal and financial protection of our non-farm assets, learned a great deal, and met some good people. We began writing a plan for an on-farm store – thinking that we spent too much time driving to and sitting at farmer’s markets and that our time would be better spent selling at retail from our farm – with poultry as one of the main draws.

The poultry processing rules put a kibosh on that aspect, but we still went ahead with a survey to other on-farm stores nationwide and to about 200 local consumers to gather info on profitability factors of on-farm stores and attitudes of local people towards shopping at an on-farm store.

Although not totally discouraging, we realized that it probably wouldn’t work on our location on a gravel road. So although we did lots of research, much of it original, we did not think it would work. We had our on-farm visit from our instructor last Friday and had looked at our schedules and life and found no room for a business. In some ways, Linda is starting a business in getting the sustainable and entrepreneurial program off the ground at school. The time in feeding ourselves, raising the kids, and having two other jobs doesn’t leave a lot of room for new adventures. Another challenge is that if we wanted to take the leap, having about three acres of hilly ground would be hard to replace one off-farm income.

So we’ll not have this immediate expectation of starting quite yet. We’ll look back and see if we’d like to do more long-term crops (christmas trees, nuts, lumber) or just try a short season at market with fruits, flowers and berries, or perhaps off-season hoops.

Deciding to let this drop, if even temporarily does not come easily or without its own angst. We’ll try it on for a while, breathe for a few seconds a day, and see where it brings us.

June 26, 2005 – Summer Colors

Today after lunch, brother Kraig and family left, Linda and Claire went to Iowa City to drop Claire off at a two weeks writer’s workshop, and Grandma Jo took Jill and Emma, so it was the boys most of the day. We mowed some grass, stained the wood for the trailer and sanded the metal to get ready for primer and cooked dinner.

The clematis on the garage is going nuts this year. Here is a view from afar.

…and a closeup.

While I was mowing near dusk, I happened upon some interesting sights. First was this grass laden with yellow pollen. (Allergy sufferers, it must not be quite so beautiful) and then a Great Blue Heron set its wings over the back pasture and swung around a couple of times. I was flattered that the small wet spot we fenced away from the cattle was even being considered by a heron. Later, near dark, I wandered down there and the Heron was roosting in one of the big maple trees on the edge of the pasture.

June 19, 2005 – First big Flush of Fruit

Today was the first big flush of putting food away. The cherries are beginning and the strawberries are at peak. We’ve got strawberries freezing on cookie sheets, cherries reserved for pie, cherry jam made, cherries drying in the dehydrator, and strawberries left over for eating fresh or waiting for an empty cookie sheet.
strawberry patch
Emma’s helping out in the strawberry patch.
grandmastrawberry
Grandma Jo helped out too!
cherry picking

Martin helped for a short time picking cherries.
cherry picking

Martin examines a cherry.
Later today cousin Jill arrives fro m L.A. and Graunt (combination “adopted”aunt/grandma)arrives from Minneapolis as well.

June 14, 2005 – Kitchen Floor

The kitchen is almost done – I’ve got the trim up and floor in. All that remains is the light/light panel above the kitchen sink.

Here’s a before and after:
floor

We installed a cork floor in the kitchen, in part to have a warm and soft floor and one made of renewable materials. I am disappointed with the floor. I would not recommend the type of cork flooring I bought. It is warm and soft, but it is not very “tough.” I can gouge out a piece if I try hard enough with my fingernail. The floor has three layers – a cork underlayment – some other fiber middle and a top of cork with the top a thin layer of finish and color. It is the first experiment gone awry in the remodeling project so far. It is holding up well for the first month, but I am not confident of future hardiness.

floor

June 13, 2005 – Emma’s Experiments

I let Emma loose with the camera and she took many pictures from interesting perspectives. Here’s one of some garden flowers from the ground up.
emma experiment
She also took a photo of some amaranth after weeding.emma experiment
We have been growing amaranth seed increases for the WORLD’S amaranth expert, David Brenner. The seeds we grew out last year are now at Reiman Gardens. Dave holds the Guinness Book of World Records for world’s tallest amaranth. Dave is the curator for amaranth, clover, and many other species at the Plant Introduction Station that maintains seed lines of plants, much like a seed-saving operation for future crop improvements.

June 11 2005 – Strawberry Gorging

It’s strawberry season!

strawberry
That means that it is that sweet time of year for strawberries with each meal, snacks, made into jam, and frozen. The season is so sweet and fleeting.
strawberry
strawberry jam
Today we made one batch of jam – that’s all the Sure-jelll we had leftover from last year.

Today the ponderous bee swarm swayed in the wind. We located an empty hive down below the swarm in hopes that they may move in there. They were too high in the tree to try to move. We were weeding the garden when they decided to blow this popsicle stand. They all swarmed in a cloud, moved over the raspberries and took of to the east and were gone in a a matter of a couple minutes. I wonder where they went? Do they send scouts out to find a new place? How do they decide where to go and who to follow? Is it like the Borg from Star Trek? Perhaps its a simple HTTP protocol?
At any rate they are gone.

Blue came home very ragged after a T-Storm yesterday. He looked very sheepish and very dirty. He was bleeding a bit this morning and then disappeared. Emma came home from her week away and wanted to show her friends how Blue jumps, and I had to tell her he was hurt and we couldn’t find him. She eventually found him and we brought him to the vet for an exam and some anti-biotics. I don’t know if he was hit by a car, had a run in with other dogs or barbed wire?

Emma took the camera this nightfall and took this picture of some yarrow in the garden from the perspective of an ant!
yarrow

June 10, 2005 – Bee Swarm

Today as I was mowing the yard in a break in the rain, I noticed a cloud of insects up ahead, like a big group of something had just hatched. As I got closer, I saw they were bees and realized it was a bee swarm. Watching the bees swarm is like a train wreck – it’s not something you want to see, but can’t take your eyes off. They started to swarm on a white pine branch about 15-20 feet off the ground.

By the time I had run back to get my camera, here was what the swarm looked like.- bee swarm
You can see that just a few have started to mass on a branch near the top of the tree and many are buzzing in the air.
bee swarm
Here’s a closer look as the swarm continues to grow as the bees collect around the queen.
bee swarm
Another close-up of the main swarm body as it begins to elongate.
bee swarm
Even more bees coming in to make the swarm even bigger.
bee swarm
Finally, the swarm is at relative rest and all the bees that swarmed are in a mass.

It is quite an experience to see this phenomenon of nature and hear the incredible buzzing as they were swarming!

June 8, 2005 – Playground! and Sick Chickens

Today the playground is open for play for the kids (I still need to anchor it, put up the slide, and perhaps shore up some joints I think the manufacturer scrimped on and put some wood preservative).

playground
playground

We had a bit of weather this morning – about an inch of hard rain, wind and temps in the low 60’s. After the storm blew through, a strong wind 40-50 mph blew for about a half hour. When we went out to check the chickens, most of the 25 broilers in the chicken tractor were laying flat, drenched, eyes closed, looking dead. We scooped up the handful that were still upright to the hog barn and put the brooding lamps back on them. The rest of them, when we picked them up, twitched and opened their eyes, so we put them all under the heat. As of now, only three have died, three are still not moving, three look ragged, and the rest look as “normal” as a three and a half week broiler can look.

However, this is not as bad as our classmates and fellow bloggers at Sugar Creek Farm who lost about half of their chickens the day before they went to the locker to the heat. That’s one thing I always worry about – losing them all at the last minute after all the work and $$ is into them.

June 6, 2005 – Back Home

We drove home from Minneapolis yesterday and arrived home around 1:30. In contrast to the trip up, where Martin talked nearly non-stop. …right Dad? ….right, Dad? …right Dad? …right, Dad? He slept almost all the way home. I should hope that he keeps valuing my opinion as he ages! Today I got some of the thistles in the pasture mowed down, but that ended rather abruptly when the pulley came off the mower deck, along with some loose bearings. Not a good sign.

We moved some of the turkeys and chickens out to the chicken tractors. Right now they are close to the old hog barn, but will be moved out to fresh pasture daily.

Here are the handsome bronze-breasted turkeys.

May 23, 2005 – Lofty!

Today Lofty came to the farm. To those without a youngster in the house, Bob the Builder is a toddler construction hero supreme who has a wholesome motto of “Can we fix it, yes we can! Lofty is a crane, there is also Dizzy the cement mixer, Muck the bulldozer, Scoop, the bucket, and the favorite – Lofty.

Lofty came to help haul away the tree trunks I didn’t want to cut up for firewood from late winter’s tree-cutting near the power lines. Here’s lofty lifting a big trunk up.lofty 1

It was a fun day for Martin to have lofty come so close.
lofty 1
This is almost the last chapter of that work – much of the wood has been squirreled away in the shed, the branches have been mulched and distributed on the new tree planting. It’s kind of sad in way for the trees to have stood so long and be cut down before they naturally fall. The combination of being able to get them cut for free and have truckloads of mulch delivered on the property – free – helped sway my decision. The clincher was they are helping a new generation of trees get started. If only we could all be so useful. The only thing left is to rent a log-splitter some day I’m bored and out of things to do and split up the logs.

May 20, 2005 – Dog Agility

Emma has been taking Blue, our Australian Shepherd, to dog obedience classes and today got the dog jump apparatus out for the first time. It was a bit of a milestone since it was the first time she has used the equipment since Frankie, our Shetland Collie died unexpectedly. She started Blue jumping over the lowest rung, and moved up to the top, exclaiming, “Blue’s a natural!”

dog

Blue is a very fast and strong dog, so this jumping is no sweat for him, even the highest rung. Got a bunch of tomatoes and peppers planted in the straw that will become next year’s raspberries. All the cages are up and the plants are ready to go.dog

May 19, 2005 – Foggy Morn

We haven’t had a foggy morning for a long time. In fact the weather has been pretty awful the last few weeks, between downpours, off and on drizzle, or 35 mph or more winds, it hasn’t been pleasant. This morning was refreshing to awake to weather calm and foggy. The view of a neighbor’s place at 6 am.
foggyfarm
Our timeless barn also benefited slightly from the morning fog and sun.
foggyfarm

It was a hard day to be in work as it was in the 80’s and pleasant. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

May 18, 2005 – Coop Renovations!

We have almost completed renovations on the chicken coop. All that remains is to replace one more set of doors. Here is the coop before renovations:
old coop
Here is the coop after renovations:
new coop

It’s good to reflect on things that have been completed. The coop was re-roofed, re-stained, new doors, all the junk hauled out of one side, all new windows and walls straightened.
The chickens are in exploring their new turf. There are two sides to the coop – one is about 1/4 of the space, the other 3/4. All the junk was in the big side and that’s where the chickens moved.
new coop
I made serious progress in the kitchen today – probably about 75% complete putting up trim around doors and baseboard. Ran out of wood and time, but had a good run at it.

May 16, 2005 – The Leaning Goat of Melbourne

We have recently started miling Paullina, our Nubian goat. We have a nice milking stanchion courtesy of some neighbors. All we had to do to use it was to add a feeding tray so Paullina could eat while she was being milked.
goatmilk1
The milking begins traditionally enough, with Linda pulling one squirt at a time.
goatmilk1
Soon however, this must become tiresome for Paullina, so she begins to lean on Linda, gently at first and as she continues, leaning more and more.
goatmilk1
This reminds me of a band playing in Austin, TX at the end of the month (I was checking out the music listings for when we visit at the end of the month). I’m guessing there is not a steel guitar or mandolin in “Super Heavy Goat A#$” (last two letters of band not faithfully rendered).
I think Paullina may be leaning because whe is a) ready to be done b) wants to have the other side milked, or c) want to see her kids which have been separated from her all night.
goatmilk1

May 11, 2005 – Hot Chicks (at least we hope so)

Chicks arrived yesterday. We ordered 75 broilers, 25 mixed breed layers, and 10 bronze-breasted turkeys. One thing is certain, whenever we order chicks, the weather takes a turn to cold. Not a problem unless you need 90 degrees to survive. I went out to check them this mid-morning and the brooders and heat lamps were all off. A check of the wiring found that the old-fashioned round fuse in the building they live in was loose – I just had to tighten it.

Here are the chicks all huddled under the light after the power was restored. babychicks

Here’s Martin showing off his favorite! martin and chick

The turkeys are in a separate area – you can see a few sticking their heads out in this photograph.

 turkeypoult

Last night we finally got a soaking rain – about 2 inches – the first good rain since the trees were planted. It was a wet, blustery day, so Martin and I spent most of the day cleaning out the laundry room, doing laundry, and the biggest time-sucker of all – going through all his clothes in drawers, boxes, and bags and sorting to the right season, stack for future, stack for Goodwill, and stack for resale. Martin was a trouper, trying on clothes for a good part of the afternoon.

May 10, 2005 – Ye Olde Trailer II (steel and musical)

Here’s the trailer with all the old wood ripped off. Looks mighty fine, don’t ya think? trailer

Today’s paper has a segue from my trailer to musical trailers – a big story about Trailer Records. Trailer Records is a small indie (started in a mobile home) record label producing Iowa artists – Greg Brown, Bo Ramsey, Brother Trucker, etc. It’s interesting that the commodification and lack of diversity in farming is also present in the commodification of music – as Dave Zollo explains in the story.

I loved his discussion of keeping the “Iowa Sound” alive – a sound Zollo describes as “a sound that arose from Iowa’s proximity to the Mississippi River and its status as a gateway to the West, with different socio-cultural crossroads. You’ve got country music, blues and folk music, all with long and rich histories here.” Although Iowa may be most famous musically now for metal-mongering, chart-topping Slipknot, there’s something to be said for the mix of blues, folk, and country that somehow defies categorization (and therefore no play on Clear Channel).

For a heap of good music that defies Clear Channel, visit Miles of Music and make sure to scroll down and listen to some of the samples.

May 5, 2005 – Ye Olde Trailer

I’ve had this old trailer in a corner of the farm for the last 7 years or so. It collects srap metal until I have enough to go to the dump. It literally has not moved for 7 years until this week. trailer

I’ve started to disassemble it for possible retro-fitting as a new trailer. We need a canoe trailer to haul canoe and “stuff” on vacation. The plan is to take all the old wood sides off this trailer and bring it into a welding shop to see if we can add a longer tongue and removable racks for the canoe (perhaps even a removable long tongue so the long tongue is only on when hauling the canoe).

This trailer is a hand-me down trailer from my Dad. I used to hate this trailer because it meant more work! It was the wood hauling trailer and Dad would cut up the trees in lengths as long as my brother and I could drag out of the woods, then we’d load them up and bring them home. Having the trailer meant we weren’t done when the pickup was full. I guess I’ve adopted some of his practices as the girls now groan when I say we need to go get more free wood chips.

I’m hoping this is the first of many pictures of the trailer on the road to re-use!

May 4, 2005 – Busy as a Bee!

Mother-in-law Joanne has picked up the beekeeping torch. It was one of those things we always wanted to do – and had much of the equipment – but never had the time and thought energy to do it. She is ready to set up 4 hives, with the bees coming any day now. Today and the last few days was a flurry of painting, constructing, etc. before the bees arrive.

busy bee

We greatly look forward to the honey and the pollination.

The upper 60’s seemed like a heatwave today. Lots of little things got done – tore apart an old gate made of wood and hog panel, finished watering the hardwoods for the first time, picked up the rest of the mulch that was dying for bedding, mowed the sheep pasture to keep the grass tender for the sheep who have yet to arrive, replaced one of the peach trees that died over the winter, started tearing apart the old trailer for refurbishing, got a row of beans planted and some gourds over this arch made out of a cattle panel that spans an unused portion of the garden where the poles are that will be used to construct grape trellises some day.
planting gourds

May 2, 2005 – Another Frigid May Day

Today was just as ugly as yesterday. At least when I washed the van this am, the water didn’t freeze on the vehicle as it was 33 degrees.
grow light
The seeds we started really want to go outside, but that would be cold-blooded murder on days like today. This weekend we put some of the broccoli and cauliflower out to get hardened off (used to real sunlight) but the wind really made them look bad, but not as bad as they did after they were put into the mud room for shelter and a dog/cat/child stepped/dropped something on them.

Let’s think happy thoughts, shall we? We are trying to incubate our first eggs. These are Guinea Hen eggs and are expensive through the hatcheries (about $5.00 each) and guineas are notorious for wanderlust and never coming back. We have two we think are a pair of the right combination, (although we haven’t seen them being amorous). guinea eggs

Guineas love insects, so we hope to employ some natural insect control in the garden.

May 1, 2005 – Bark & Lichen

Here’s all I’m going to say about today from the weather forecast:

“Isolated light rain showers and light snow showers in the afternoon. Breezy. High in the upper 40s. West wind 10 to 20 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Gusts up to 40 mph.” Enough about today!

I’ve been thinking about this bark on an apple tree at the farm.
The bark is starting to get old. There are lichens growing on it. I associate lichens with old places – for example all lichen growing on exposed bedrock in northern Minnesota.

This was one of the first apple trees I planted when we moved to the farm. It was part of a pasture that went to within 75 feet of the house. It makes me think of the consequences of our actions and the understanding that can only come with time and watching life unfold. Anybody can look at a tree, but until you’ve planted one, watched it grow up and get old, you may not really “know” that tree. The time from sapling to maturity gives a deeper perspective. In the past few months, I’ve seen and cut up some trees that were probably planted by some of the first settlers of this farm and I’ve planted some new ones. I haven’t and probably won’t be around to see those trees mature, but seeing the lichen on this tree gives me some sense of the passage of time.

Likewise, I’m aware of the part of life I’m now in – I’ve seen a parent die and watched children be born into the world. There’s a lot more to see – like seeing the children grow to fruition, whatever that may be. There’s something from this passage of time and long-term awareness that seems to be lacking in our disposable and short-attention span culture. I’m grateful that the lichen on a tree can remind me that delayed gratification can indeed be sweeter and richer than a quick fix. Somehow the apple from the tree planted, watered, and pruned by my hand is no contest in satisfaction to the bag of apples I can instantly buy that have been stored in ethelyne-controlled warehouses for months. That’s one reason I like the farm – there are so many of those things in place – and more on the way.

April 30, 2005 – When will Spring Come Back?

Another freeze last night – record low on this date was 33 until last night’s 31. Most of the day was in the 40’s and windy again. Got two tanks full of water distributed so all the pine trees got watered. We use water off the roof of the barn that goes into a big tank.
water tank
Here’s Emma helping water the trees out in the field.
emma watering

We got just a few more things planted in the garden before the wind sucked the energy out of us.

Girls went to a a dog show in the morning and earned money for their 4-H club by scooping doggy-do from the show rings. This evening some friends from the farm class came over and vaccinated and turned the boys into no chance of being daddies.

April 29, 2005 – Getting Ready for Raspberries

The wind finally stopped blowing today, so this afternoon, I had a chance to prepare the ground for next year’s new berries. Rather than fight with digging up sod, or spraying it, we first put heavy paper over the grass.
mulch
Next, we put some old hay we scavenged from a nearby farm.
mulch2
By next spring, the ground will be ready to plant. These two rows will probably contain fall raspberries and blackberries. How much many more rows to do???

April 27, 2005 – The “Upstairs Basement”

Shortly after Martin learned to talk, he referred to the attic as the “upstairs basement.” I thought that was a great way to describe what an attic is if you don’t know that word. It contains virtually the same stuff as the basement. I wonder if any grad students out there have done any studies on the likelihood of certain items being stored in the basement or attic.

At any rate, today was another lousy cold, windy day (but it would be a great day to have a windmill). Martin and I took a load of scrap metal to the landfill for recycling (old bent fence posts, old woven wire, pots, lamps, fence bracing). It’s always nice to get rid of that stuff and think you’re not on the slippery slope to junky farm.

As it looks like we may be re-roofing and adding a dormer to the attic, that means it is time to clean out the attic. It’s one of those tasks that you can work for three hours and an untrained eye would see virtually no difference. For all the attic voyuers, here’s a peak into ours.

attic 1

Martin was occupied playing with old toys and looking through old photo albums. There is one nice part about the existing attic – the old handrail around the stairway. It is nicely finished but the attic is not. Did they give up?
attic 1

I brought down all the framed photos we took off the walls in the main room before we remodeled last summer (It may be time to put them back up).

April 24, 2005 – BRRR!

Last night was cool – I was up at 6:30 am and was curious what it was like outside, so I got up and went outside. The weather said it was 28 in Marshalltown and 32 in Newton – so it was probably in between at high hopes. There wasn’t a lot of frost, but there was 1/16 or so of ice on the dog dish. As long as I was up and everybody else was still asleep, I went to the dump pile at the pallet company and got another load of wood shavings. I guess we’ll see in a few weeks, how the cold affected the fruit trees.

April 23, 2005 – An Entire Saturday!

This was the first time in a long time we didn’t have Saturday morning class. So instead of our day starting at about 1:30, we were able to spend the morning cleaning house (I know, you are all real envious of that kind of fun). It was a very windy and cold day, so that precluded planting any more garden.

Then this afternoon the lawn got mowed, some more seasonal fences put up and improved, and the biggest task was cleaning out the biggest side of the chicken coop, which we have never used. We’ve been working on it a bit of a time, cleaning it out, and today was the last bit. Next step is to put cement patch along some parts of the foundation to make it more critter-proof and make a new small chicken door in the back, then it will be ready. I also got a good load of wood shavings scrounged from the pallet company at sundown when the wind let up a bit.

Here’s Marty’s idea of an amusement park – rolling along in a section of a bulk bin – we’re moving it back to where it belongs after it was on a hay wagon to haul wood chips.
martinrolling

April 19, 2005 – Bonus hours

Today Linda had a dinner meeting, so I came home early from work. Claire made dinner on her own for the family and Martin and I went into the back pasture and finished the fence around the “island” planting. We just have about 100 feet of fence by the pine planting to move out 16 feet and the fencing will be done – still no rain, even though there has been a threat.

In the on-going series of spring blossoms – today it’s the nectarine. This is the last year for this tree. It blew over in a storm a few years ago and grew back from the rootstock. We let them ripen last year, but they really weren’t any good, but we thought we’d let it bloom this spring before cutting it down to enjoy the profusion of blossoms. It will be replaced.

April 18, 2005 – Finishing Up Mulching (sort of)

Today, I finished distributing the last of the mulch. Everybody’s tucked in, but I could probably add another truckload to make some thin spots a little thicker. Here’s a look at the pines completed

pine planted
Sharp eyed readers may notice that some of the trees are protected by a fence and others are not. No, this is not the Sven and Ole planting, the nursery sent us about 20 extra trees, so I started an unplanned row and have to move part of the fence over. I’ve also got about 1/4 of the fence around the hardwoods to complete – then I will be done with this project except for watering.

The trees are in full bloom – here’s a peach blossom on a tree in the ground at high hopes for its third spring.
peach blossom

April 16, 2005 – Just one more…

Today was the tree planting day. The trees were mostly all too big to spade an and some were 3-4 ft tall, so we ended up digging a lot of holes in the black soil. It was rainy/drizzly most of the day until about three. So we went through 2-3 sets of clothes through the day and didn’t have any pictures in the rain, but took a few in the afternoon.treescene

We had reinforcements come near the end of the day for that last boost over the hump.

tom and linda

We even let Kraig take one break in the afternoon.

kraigbreak

A special thank you goes to Emma, who spent many hours with us digging holes and fetching water!

April 15, 2005 – Tree Planting Begins

We got a jump on the tree planting planned for tomorrow – brother Kraig down from Twin Cities.kraig
We had many hands tonight working on the northern pine border. emma digging
We planted Canaan Fir today, Iowa’s best equivalent of Balsam Fir. pineplanting
Even the smallest hands helped haul water. Rachel and Martin brought us buckets with a gallon or so of water at a time from a stock tank on a trailer. They also helped move carts.
rachel and martin
Photos courtesy of Claire.

April 14, 2005 – A Good Day

Today Linda burned up a use it or lose it personal day. It was a pleaseant, not windy, sunny day. We ripped out most of the fence around the cement animal lot and put in a new one. We mulched the remaining unmulched chestnuts and put fence around the ones along existing fences.

The first fruit trees are setting out flowers. Here’s a cherry tree showing off its splendor.
cherry bloom

In preparation for the tree planting, our neighbor came over and loaded all kinds of conveyances for hauling wood chips (saves us a lot of scooping). wood chips

The first things are coming up in the garden – spinach, radishes, lettuce, and onions. onions

The rains of the last few days filled up the mudhole, but did not flow through it, which I’m hoping is good for the marsh seeds I planted the morning before the rain.

The girls were exploring the drainage a few hundred yards downstream from the mudhole and found a big crayfish. I didn’t think anything was living in there!

April 11 – Goat Girls and Spiderman

Here’s today’s rainy day shot from in the barn of the the two goats and a couple of kids.
goats and girls

The girls learned about the not-so-cute part of goat husbandry today. As every parent knows, newborns have a predictable, if not variable excrement pattern. The first “discharges” are tarry and black, and once they start nursing, the semi-solid yellow follows. Well, shall we say the goats don’t have good “clearance” and much of the yellow stuff ends up stuck on the little guys. But other than that, they’ve been faithfully monitoring to make sure they are getting enough milk and getting the hang of nursing.

This morning there was a break in the rain, so “Spiderman” (a.k.a. Martin) and “Green Man” (a.k.a. Dad) went to work. We planted 11 more potted chestnuts and seeded and covered the mudhole with marsh seeds. Today’s rain has been just perfect (so far) that it hasn’t washed away the seeds. Spiderman was very good at fetching trees, putting empty buckets back on the wagon, and putting the empty containers back as well. Spiderman and Green Man actually worked faster than Green Man could have worked himself. Martin is fascinated with Spiderman, – I’m not sure where he came into contact with Spiderman, but according to Martin, he is half good and half bad. His Mom was a spider and his Dad was a Dad.

April 10, 2005 – GoatBabiesRUs

The mama goat finally decided to let loose her kids today, 5 days past her due date.

When we got back from church, they must have been only a few minutes old, a half hour at most. They are both boys (last year she had triplet girls).

I’m not sure what we’ll do not going out to the barn in the middle of the night. One of the girls usually checked around midnight and Linda around 3 am or so. What a feeling it must have been for the girls, to be up so late, walking out to the barn alone at night in the dark, wondering if when they opened the barn door, they would be the first to see the new baby goats and run back to the house to report the news to the family.

The first flowering shrub broke open today – the viburnums on the south side of the garden.
viburnum flower

April 9, 2005 – SpringBurst

Spring is bursting all over. Here’s the rhubarb: (compare to March 30).

rhubarb

The aspargus popped its head up yesterday:

aspargus

Today we ate the first garden produce. We had fresh chives in our twice-baked potatoes. The radishes and lettuce are up. Today was the last “Growing Your Small Market Farm Class” for me for until next fall. The last class is next weekend and it is tree-planting weekend, so I won’t make it.

It was extemely windy today. Too windy to plant, to windy to spread mulch, the kinds of day that uplifts swirling dust clouds from the road. So, it was a good day to fetch the last 100 fenceposts from town and pound a few more into the ground. I got what is affectionately and oh-so-creatively called the mudhole fenced off. We bought a marsh seed mixture from Ion Exchange and need to get them in soon. The turf around the mudhole is slowly being broken apart by the cows, so the fence and planting should help it recover.

When the wind died down a bit near sunset, the kids got the home-made kite out and played with that. We were watching the three of them, the two dogs, and the kite out in the back pasture and I commented to Linda “there’s the reason we moved here.” We never have to worry about who’s in the park. Here’s a picture Emma took of her kite (a 4-H project) and the best kite we’ve ever had.

kite

Martin was holding it for a while, until he let go and although there is a substantial piece of board to wrap the string up, it lifted all the string and the board over two fences and about 20 acres away. I came back to see them and saw Emma far-far away with kite in hand and Martin clinging to the fence.

April 6, 2005 – Material Handling

hogbarn
It tried to storm all day, but the storm just hung and hung to the southeast, with barely more than a brief promise of rain.

Material handling is a vastly under-estimated (at least by me) part of the farm. Moving stuff to the farm, off the farm, and around the farm takes about as much time as anything. A testament to this is all the types of contraptions with hitches farmers have to move things – hay wagons, manure spreaders, grain wagons, stock trailers, flat trailers, and the list goes on. Today I hauled three pickup loads of old hay from a neighboring farm to use as mulch for the garden. I also made two trips to town to haul the rest of the cattle panels that were not reserved for us – so I put the boat carriers on top of the truck and brought home 19 at a time.

I just need a day to catch up (I know this is a fantasy for 1 day) – catch up on planting and mulching the 10 unplanted chestnut trees, to update the business plan, to get more stuff in the garden, to begin looking at cleaning up the attic for the construction this summer, finish the tile around the upstairs tub, put in the kitchen floor. I fear that lawn-mowing season will soon arrive and take a couple of more hours out of the week. Linda promises me a day off from work where all the kids will be gone and we’ll have a day to catch up sometime this month.

April 4, 2005 – Frankie :(

Early this morning when Linda woke up and went to check on Paullina, Frankie was lying on the ground, stiff, only moving his eyes and his ears. We got him to the vet, but he didn’t last much longer. Evidently he suffered some sort of auto-immune reaction which caused liver and other organ failure. In hindsight, we look back and Emma recalls he didn’t want to jump over the dog agility apparatus on Sunday – I recall seeing him try to throw up something (of course, the dogs frequently try to throw up something, so I didn’t think twice about it.) Emma is crestfallen. We’re going to bury him in his favorite blanket and put one of the branches form the shrub he rested under on top of him so he will be surrounded by familiar things…
His last photo March 25.
frankie

April 3, 2005 – Light!

Now things can happen after dinner outside! Today 10 of the chestnut trees found a home but need to be mulched yet. We continue digging out Martin’s playground and moved the dirt to the chicken yard which has become denuded of grass, in part due to the trenching for new water a while back. So we laid down a thin layer of soil, and spread some grass and clover seed and some hay.

Linda had a meeting with a woman who received a grant to help entrepreneurial immigrants get started in agriculture. There was not a big turnout as expected because there were fears the INS was around and people, even legals, were keeping a low profile. Seems the INS and Swift (the packing plant) have a cozy arrangement. Swift hires illegals, doesn’t pay for health benefits employees for the first 6 months, the INS comes in or is rumored to come in, large numbers leave, and when they come back, they start over for seniority and benefits.

April 2, 2005 – Planting Time

flowers
I went to class this morning and noticed some folks must have had enough accounting as the attendance was thinner than usual! Brought the truck so got another load of free mulch. The tiller worked like a champ today – did all gardens without a bolt breaking, tines gettting wrapped in garbage, or belt breaking. Then potatoes, onions, and the first round of chard and carrots found their way it the ground. Here’s team potato at work:

planting

Emma enjoyed getting the bike out today as well. Oh yeah, I forgot Claire is i Washington D.C. for a class trip. No fair – When I was her age, I got to go to St. Paul for an afternoon!
flowers

April 1, 2005 – No Fooling

I guess I’m just still not all myself yet and unable to think of a clever photo or story to commemorate today. Stay tuned for next year. We put the last bucket of corn in the stove tonight – it’s supposed to be our last below freezing night for the forecast period.

Got the tiller attached to the lawn tractor this afternoon.
tiller

Putting this beast off and on is one of my least favorite seasonal chores. It’s an older belt-driven model, so the mower deck first needs to come off, then the tiller and all belts and nuts and bolts attached. It’s unwieldy and usually leads to at least one bloodletting. Even worse is my ambivalence towards tilling. I really would like to get to a totally mulched and undisturbed garden, but change is slow and this year I have an alfafa patch to till up for flowers.

This turkey vulture got the chicken’s attention – it’s amazing the way they skee-daddle when the bird of prey shadow flies over.

turkey vulture

March 31, 2005 – The Court at High Hopes

Now that we are on the cusp of the NCAA college basketball championship, it’s time to show the world one of the best home court advantages in the known universe. Sure, they talk about Hilton Colieum, Phog Allen Fieldhouse – but for my money, they all pale in difficulty when compared the Court at High Hopes! Not only is this an intimate setting, but the off-court distractions are unlike any other.

The court is a bit narrower than a regulation court, so there is literally no out of bounds. Bouncing the ball off the side walls is not only allowed, but encouraged. In essence, it combines racquetball and basketball in one game. It is a much quicker game as the ball never rolls too far away before coming back into play.

The Court at High Hopes is the center of an old-fashioned corn crib. We cleaned out the junk and the court has a nice cement floor, shelter from the wind and sun from the slatted sides meant to keep corn on the cob in, while allowing air in to dry the corn.

We put the hoop up a couple of months ago and look forward to many games.

basketball

March 27, 2005 – A Good Day’s Work

It was a warm calm day and a laundry list of things were completed. We moved 62 of the cattle panel fencing and some of the poles to the pasture. We had them on a small hay wagon, but it was dicey hauling it as the panels were too long and tractor couldn’t hitch to the wagon, so we had to drag it with a chain. But we got to a place where the wheels got twisted hard to the left on a hill and we had to stop since the tie rod is weak from a previous bent out of shape experience hauling hay on the road, flat tire and a longer story than I care to repeat, but we found that we could slide 10 or so off and just drag them with the tractor and chain.

dragging cattle panels

After spreading those around the pasture, we loaded up the posts we had and as I drove the tractor slowly, Linda threw one off the wagon every eight feet or so.

unloading posts

I was able to pound in the posts and put the fence up on the northern border, about 300 feet of fencing altogether.

The girls helped as well today, picking up sticks from the trees that were cut down last year, cleaning the aspargus patch, and general hauling. Linda got one row each of spinach, lettuce, and radishes planted in the garden and the statice (flowers) planted in the house. I had to bring Claire to Ames, so while there, took the truck and loaded up a pick-up load of free mulch.

It’s officially spring according to my definition – spring comes the day I see the first earthworm in the soil. That means the ground is unfrozen and life once again appears in the earth.

March 26 2005 – More Snow


Photo courtesy of Emma! She is captivated how the roof barn and sky melt together! I’m calling this the “Robin Snow” meaning the last snow of the year (typically after the robins return, we get at least some snow). Now we are less confident that the goat is near due after talking to the vet during a pet visit.

March 24, 2005 – Goat Early?

When we were gone a few days ago and called home to see how things were, it was reported that “something was coming out of the goat.” Since she is pregnant, we assume it was the mucous plug and now she can birth anytime (about 2 weeks ahead of schedule).

This may complicate Easter plans as when we bought her, we thought that the april 5 due date would not interfere with travel plans. So, Linda may end up staying home.

Seventeen surveys were returned today. They are interesting and I will share them after I compile the results in a week or so. It was a very dark and rainy day, good day for a work day away from the farm.

March 23, 2005 – Retreat Conclusions

We’ve only been gone less than 36 hours – but it was two full days, a night away and drive-bys of 100’s of farms – most not doing too well. Rural southeastern Iowa is not a particularly prosperous part of the U.S. It was quite jarring driving up from the south to Iowa City after two days in small towns and rural lands and seeing the difference in wealth and opportunity. What makes us value town jobs more than rural jobs? What would it take to have a person who grows your food make as much money as a person who landscapes your yard?

Yesterday was good for hunkering down and working on the farm business plan. It was raining and snowing, so we weren’t tempted to go outside. We made some great strides and are grateful for that. Today, we had a nice chat with the owner of the Bed and Breakfast whose town of 35 residents has been declared a national historic district, in whole, due to the efforts of a “newcomer” (she moved there in 1955) who made enemies for life in trying to move the town from a collection of junk cars to a place worthy of preservation and opportunity. The buildings are all built of red brick, fired from local clay by the Mormons over 100 years ago. We wondered why it was when you lived in a shithole it was so hard to flush and make something new and better? Kudos to those in the Villages of Van Buren for making something new out of a treasure of history and architecture.

Today we visted Premiere Fencing near Washington, IA – one of the biggest purveyor of fencing supplies. We then went to Red Fern Farm to pick up some chestnut trees for our silvopasture. Tom is experimenting with alternative crops in Iowa like chestnuts, heartnuts, persimmons, medlars, and others. Red Fern had 6 inches of snow overnight.

An upshot from this time away and bit of perspective is that we are now thinking that we are going to stop offering poultry for sale. The lousy return (even charging $2.00 lb) and huge risk (predation, disease, dogs, weather) along with the liability insurance cost, just doesn’t make sense for us to sell on a small scale and we are not willing to grow the thousands it may take to make it worth our time. For our small farm, it just does not work right now. This might change if there was an inspected locker close by.

It is not easy to drop this enterprise as it is a product our customers cannot easily get in the store and we are not happy with the conditions commercial broilers are raised, but we can’t do it without a reasonable return. We are going to shift our focus a bit – but more about that later, as I am now rambling.

March 21, 2005 – Vacation or Fence?

You know you are a real farmer when you’d rather spend your money on a new fence than a caribbean vacation! I started building the fence for this year’s tree planting. I ultimately decided on the cattle panels as they will be most flexible and “always on” even though they are a bit pricey. Today, I finished pulling the snow fence posts and got about 6 panels (96 feet) worth of fence hauled and up. That means I’m about 1/14 done with the fence. Here’s about half the pieces on the wagon.
fencing
Tomorrow morning I leave with Linda on a 2 day get-away to the Villages of Van Buren County. We’re renting a “cottage” and today I went shopping for food and drink. It looks like the weather is going to be crummy, so we’ll probably spend less time hiking at Lacy-Keosauqua and more time working on the farm business plan.

March 19, 2005 – Worn Out

If not for a phone call, I was about out for the night on the couch I’m finally tuckered out. Another class day. Today we had a volunteer with a 25-ft 5th wheel trailer offer to help us haul the 100 cattle panels (4 gauge gridded wire fence sections 16 feet long) that Linda had paid for and reserved earlier in the week. In the age of sparkling customer service, only 68 were there today. So that means another trip some other time. It’s time for bed.

March 16, 2005 – Fire and Snow Fence

Today was almost as pleasant as it gets – calm, about 50 degrees after a winter of cold, and no bugs! Ran errands in town for a couple of hours with Martin, then we burned the pile of raspberry canes and tomato vines from last year’s garden.

It took some time as I burned the grass around it for some space before lighting the pile, so I wouldn’t have a grass fire on my hands. Burning is one of those necessary dangerous tasks. There’s a sense of skill and care in controlling a fire, especially this time of year when a fire can run for several miles. The vines didn’t dry down enough after we got them out of the garden before wetness and winter set in. Burning helps reduce the chance of disease to spread. So we did!

Then we cleaned the garage and mud room and took down about 150 feet of snow fence. I enjoy putting up and taking down the snow fence. The satisfaction comes, in part, due to the visual nature of the work. So much we do is “invisible work” that putting up and taking down snow fence is highly visible sign of progress.

flowers

March 14, 2005 – Googled Out

The most time-consuming part of the “Growing Your Small Market Farm” class has been writing the surveys and finding survey recipients. Today, I sent out a web survey to 83 people who have on-farm stores or stands. It took a lot of searching and dead-ends, as many farms did not have e-mail addresses on their web sites, just phone numbers. We’ll see how many respond. I was steadfast and did not follow any web tangents and only sent e-mails to others three times for things I found along the way! Next task is to compile addresses for 200 or so local residents. I went to the Post Office to buy 400 stamps today (gulp!)

Here’s a picture of the rest of the people going through the class with us! No doubt each of their enterprises will improve along with ours.

class

Random unrelated thought
Men’s NCAA Tournament teams from basketball happy Indiana: 0
Men’s NCAA Tournament teams from Iowa: 3

March 13, 2005 – Sunday, Sunday

The day dawned cold and clear, but it was a pleasant cold and clear after all the wind. Of course, by the time we got around to some outside work, the clouds and wind returned. We started pruning the last three apple trees. Here’s Linda hard at work. Martin has proved himself an able tree-climber, so in a decade or so, I’ll have a monkey to climb the trees on my behalf!

Linda Pruning

March 3, 2005 – On the Bubble

It’s the time of year that the NCAA basketball tournament brings talk of “bubble” teams – endless speculation about which teams might or might not make the tournament. Enough of bubble teams, what about bubble items for high hopes gardens? But first, what’s in this year:

More flowers
Tree planting in the pasture
Whizbang chicken plucker

The following are on the bubble for this year:
Establish breeding flock of chickens
Scrape and paint one side of house
Heirloom turkeys
Beginning sauna construction
Reroofing house

The following are out for this year:
Belted Galloway (cattle in general)
Vacation in Sedona (Daughter is traveling instead)
Vegetable gardening for fun and profit

I’m sure all of our venerable readers will chime in with their bubble ideas as well.

As a postscript to the corn cob comments to yesterday’s post, I posted a question to the Whizbang Chicken Pluckers Yahoo! group about the best use for ground corn cobs. High absorbancy was a landmark trait reported by all respondents, so the use of the ground cobs as a helper for “eliminational hygiene” may indeed be good for certain textures of “elimination” whereas the whole cob may be good for other more firm “eliminations.”

February 26, 2005 – Got Goat

Paullina joined high hopes today. She is due to give birth April 5. Last year she had 3 female kids! She is 4 years old and we will post Paulinna’s photo on the web site soon so you can all meet her. Pauline is less than the perfect Nubian dairy goat as she evidently had her ears frozen at birth, and lacks the classic long ears of her kind.

Today Martin described himself as “Mr Cranky Pants” and no one argued with him. This accurate self-assessment will no doubt serve him well in the future. Besides class all morning and fetching goat, that is about the day. Tomorrow we can try to look at our outside fences and see (it won’t take long for the goat to show us) where they need a little help.

February 25, 2005 – Web Site Updates

Finally got the website update/redesign finished today. Still have lots to add, but for now, it is at least a bare bones presence. Was able to get outside some with Martin. We hauled and stacked Wednesday’s woodcutting. Martin is excited to become a “goatkeeper.” Tomorrow goat arrives. We made the mistake of reading the goat book, especially the what can go wrong in labor section. It’s a good thing I read the James Herriot books long ago, so I will be prepared for any eventuality.

February 24, 2005 – Got your Goat?

It’s all but official now. Permanent goat will be coming to high hopes. We have in the past performed goat-sitting, but we have just committed to buying a bred nanny. Our motivation is simple – we may nevermore run out of milk. The doe is set up to come in two days and should give birth within a month. At that time, the milking will commence. Of course, there are the minor details like building a milking stanchion and making sure the fences where goat will trod are goatproof. Daughters have promised to care for goat to best of their abilities. I’m sure this is just the first chapter of many revolving around goat.

February 14, 2005 Valentine’s Day

The kids couldn’t wait to go back in the pasture and check out the “pond.” All three came back with varying depths of soaked jeans, mudstreaked faces, and wet boots. The remaining snow and warmth (in the upper 40’s) has made a quagmire.

Completed an outdoor counter/drainer out of cast-off materials today. Part of a vintage 70’s harvest gold accent countertop from our kitchen remodel, a couple of metal old refrigerator shelves, and wood salvaged from the original farmhouse for the frame. The outdoor counter will be useful in washing and cleaning vegetables outdoors.

Also wrapped up some seed ordering. Lost my Peaceful Valley catalog, but was able to use their website www. groworganic.com to order some beneficial insect plant and pasture improvement mixes.

February 13, 2005 Valentine’s Eve

Although we are leaving the dead of winter, high hopes is bustling. This week we have decided to take the plunge into forming a LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) as a result of a “Growing Your Small Market Farm” class we are taking. Tomorrow our plan to integrate an agroforestry component goes before the local NRCS council. If approved, it will offer us cost share to improve our small pasture.

It’s a foggy rainy day, and we’re tempted to toss some lettuce seeds out… but the rain has melted the last of the snow and it’s a tad muddy outside.