Better Late than Never

We finally got our vegetable seeds sown this weekend.  It was practically stress free and Sara has taken over as lead planter.  She has the disposition to do the tedious work required to plant hundreds of seeds one at a time carefully into the germination cells.  Based on my notes from last year we should start seeing our sprouts in about 7 - 10 days. 

Frost Seeding

I frost seeded some alfalfa the other morning.  The snow is just about off all of the fields and while the nights are below freezing the days are above freezing which allowed me to get the tractor out into the field.  Frost seeding is supposed to take advantage of the freeze thaw action that happens between day and night temps.  When the soil freezes with moisture in it, it actually stands up and creates small pockets in the soil.  The seed that I sowed are supposed to then fall down into the cracks and pockets created by the freezing and when it thaws the soil should cover the seed.  That's the way it's supposed to work anyway.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm trying to get away from using fertilizer but grass pastures need nitrogen so sowing a legume like alfalfa or clover that fixes nitrogen into the soil should add to the manure that the cows leave behind.  That and since I had a couple of bags of alfalfa left over from last years planting I thought I'd give it a try.  Only time will tell.

The pace is picking up and I'm falling behind.  I have some frost planting I'd like to do in the pasture, the vegetable seeds need to be germinated and I wanted to take some straw to the sale barn this weekend since it's calving season and I thought I could get a good price for it.  But when I tried to move the hay rack after taking it to town to weigh it I noticed the hitch tongue had a problem.  Pulling on part of the hitch tongue I was able to break it by hand.  Good thing I didn't take it to town loaded with straw!  I hooked up the rack and took it to my brother's.  Well almost.  On my way the hairpin clip must have popped out of the hitch pin and the hay rack unhooked itself as I was going down the road.  I noticed a flash of movement in the mirror and then watched the hay rack head off into the ditch and get hung up in a fence.  Luckily it went South.  If it had gone north it would have gone down into a school yard!  Miles of open farm land and it comes undone in Lake Park.  It wasn't a big deal to pull it out and hook back up, but it is just another setback in my schedule.  I keep trying to tell myself that we're not in control.  Today it's pulling the water pump off of my truck that leaked on the way home yesterday evening...

Goat Kids -- For Sale

Sara's Toggenburg goats had kids over the weekend.  One goat had twin females and the other had triplet bucks.  They all look very healthy and were jumping around after the first day.  Sara is bottle feeding the kids so she first has to milk the mama goats and then feed the kids with the milk that she just stripped.  It takes a long time, but Sara has always like to work with her animals regardless of how long it seems to take.  She really has a passion for her animals.  You can see a few pictures of the goats on our website here.

Vegetable Seed Orders -- DONE!

Whew!  It took most of the day but it's finally done.  The orders for this years vegetable seeds are in.  Next steps are to receive them, sort them, and start them.  We have about 10 days until we'll have plant trays strategically located all over the warmest spots in the house to facilitate vegetable plant germination.  Ready or not!

Geese and Vegetables

The weather is finally above freezing but we can already tell that the season is "behind schedule".  We usually see our first flocks of geese going over the farm by about Valentines day.  This year Tom saw geese on Friday of last week and I saw two ducks the same day.  I'm not sure if that will equate to a two - three week delay in everything else, but I kind of hope so.  This year has been very difficult to get our vegetable plans in order.  We learned last year that vegetables are a time killer and we thought about really scaling back.  They compete with everything else that goes on which I guess one would assume, but as with most things in life and farming, you have to choose what your priorities are.  So when we have hay on the ground or hay that needs to be cut, the window to get it done is set and the clock starts ticking.  The old saying make hay while the sun is shining is true to a point.  Grass hay can be made into bales at any time once it's dry, but alfalfa hay that we grow has to be made while the sun is shining but with enough humidity to keep the leaves from shattering, so not too dry, but not too much humidity or it will mold, and no rain on it or it will lose its quality etc.  But I digress...  Anyway, if it comes down to making hay, processing chickens, or picking vegetables, the vegetables lose.  So vegetable crop management is key.  If we can plant items that take less human capital, in a way that keeps us from having to "tend" the plants as much, we can then maximize our produce efficiency.  Sounds easy enough, but since we don't use herbicides, if I plant too much of the wrong stuff the wrong way, we'll be out pulling weeds, and when you have acres of vegetables, pulling weeds is not an efficient use of time.  Today is the deadline for getting the plants ordered to make our March 15 date for starting our plants indoors.  Interesting that I had all winter to get this done and today I'm running up against a deadline...

I'm officially sold out of hay.  I did really well on the hay that I took to the sale barn this year, but then I only sold hay that was my best.  The best round and square bales of alfalfa were kept in the hoop building which were kept nice and fresh, and when they were put next to other hay at the sale barn looked really nice.  I sold my very best hay to some direct hay customers, and I now know that I sold well below the market, but that is the way it goes I guess.  I'm really optimistic about this coming years crop of hay.  If I can get good hay making weather I hope to be able to make a great product.  But as I'm not in control of the future, the weather, or the market... Okay, since I'm not really in control of anything I guess I'm just excited to see what He give us.

Note to self.  Don't make a compost pile right next to the cattle paddock.  Especially if old moldy bales are on the pile.  Today the sun melted the snow off of the top of a bale on the compost pile which is right next to the cattle paddock.  The bull decided he wanted to reach that bale so he pushed on the cattle panel until it broke the welds on the panel.  Then he was half in the paddock and half out so he could enjoy the moldy hay.  Sara ran in to say the bull was out!  The got everyone moving.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but we did have to dig down through the snow and drop another panel in place.  And just for good measure I torched the bale to discourage any of the cattle from wanting to try that bale again.