Today I was going to do equipment maintenance, but as with many days this year, the weather turned me back.  I took the round baler to my brothers farm so that I could do yearly maintenance on it in his shop but all I did was drop it off and head back home.  The wind is howling and the snow is blowing and drifting today, so instead of being out I've decided to research 2010's vegetables and also start researching the grasses and forages for grazing.  I pulled up last years vegetable spreadsheet to see when I started germinating our plants in '09.  It looks like I started germination for the first run of plants about the middle of March.  That gives me a little time to make this year's list and place my orders.  We're looking into working with a co-op this year and I kind of volunteered for summer squash and cucumbers.  I chose these two vegetables because they are the easiest plants to pick, don't take much tending and will save us something that we lack during the summer - time.  These two crops also work really well in our beds and mulch system.  So at the very least, we'll plant summer squash and cucumbers in quantity.  The other items will be sold as part of our product selection direct.  We tried the farmers market last year and found the time vs. return to be out of balance, so until something changes we'll probably continue to direct market our products.  The next step is to determine what our customers want in vegetables.

Snow, Snow, Snow Oh Yeah and Cold, Cold, Cold

It's been a while since I updated the blog.  There hasn't been much going on around the farm unless you count moving snow for hours at a time.  With the tractor in the shop for an overhaul, moving snow has been reduced to using a skid loader and I have literally spent whole days moving snow.  The last bout with the snow took about 9 hours just to clear the lane and that didn't include the time that George spent clearing the snow down to the cattle.  I did sell some hay at auction that brought great money and I've made some individual deliveries too.  But in general the snow and cold have dominated everything from equipment maintenance to setting up bunks for the cows.  We've lost a couple of small steers this winter and to make sure that everyone is getting enough energy to get through the winter I dropped a couple of large wooden feed bunks into the cattle paddock area.  We've been supplementing the cow's hay with oats that I held back from our oat harvest in 2009.  The cows and especially the horses love oats and eat themlike candy, which is why I can't pour it too them too fast or they can actually make themselves sick from over eating.  A challenge has cropped up however.  Keeping the cows from crowding the calves/steers out of the feed bunks.  The first thing I tried was to pull a hot wire off of the electric fence.  Knowing that the snow is insulating the ground and knowing too that the fence charger is weak from the snow pulling the wires down and covering them, I ran both a + an a - within inches of each other.  Turns out that the cows like oats more than they mind being shocked.  I haven't tested the wire to see what the volts are, but I can occasionally hear the snap of the shock, so it has to be some volts, but obviously not enough to deter them.  I also put one of the bunks right by a set of small trees but the cows weave their heads through the trees and still pinch the calves.  I guess I can try building some wood fences to the bunk, but I'm pretty sure the cows will push against anything I build hard enough to break them loose.  We're still thinking, but suggestions are welcome!