Wendell Williams

Our neighbor and friend Wendell Williams pass away yesterday.  He will be missed by many, and very, very missed by our family. Wendell was someone who was often the first to know about our next "great" farm plan, and yet as unconventional and probably crazy as our plans may have seemed to him, he was always supportive and seemed to enjoy the uniqueness of our plans. He did our custom planting and harvesting, and could be counted on to have a solution to the crazy conditions and timing that made even us cringe.  Green alfalfa in the beans at harvest? Not a problem, he just said he took a nice cutting of hay with the beans. Small and misshaped fields? That was okay too - he made it workout. We really enjoyed his visits and I will forever remember and miss the sound of the kids yelling "Wendell's here!" whenever he stopped by.  I enjoyed working with him and knowing him. He was a good man and our family was very blessed to have known him.

Winter Greens from our High Tunnel

I can taste the fresh greens already! Why? Because the high tunnel is up and covered! It was a tough long process, but in the end we got it done.  We had to pull some long days, working into the night and starting before the sun came up, but when those greens are on the table, lightly dressed, we'll look back at all of the work with fond memories - I hope.  Mark and Harvey got us off to a good start, and Harvey hung with us through the project as electrician turned general labor, so we thank them both. The roll-up sides work great, but we have one other minor issue to work with on them, besides waiting on a new replacement temperature probe that the goats ate. Then the high tunnel will be auto-temperature controlled and the growing can start.

I've been so busy the past couple of weeks that I seem to just run from one task to the next which is great, and I love the work, but lately it feels like I go from one bump to the next.  We've been baling corn stalks for feed and for sale, but after about 30 bales I broke a couple of belts on the baler.  It looked like there was a rock that got between the belts and the baler so I ran to John Deere to drop the belts off to get them fixed and switched over to chopping stalks for a neighbor.  Then when the belts were done I switched back to baling only to run out of twine int he baler and have to run to town for more twine. Nothing major wrong, but every bump seems to make the jobs seem to run long.

The high tunnel is done! Okay, not actually done, but everything but the cover is on. Harvey DeGraw came over this week and wired the control box for the auto side curtains and we even tested the motors.  We missed the warm, sunny, windless days by one day, so we're waiting on a day that fits that description to pull the plastic over the top. Its been a long building process, but I think we're ready to go as soon as the weather cooperates.

Today I should be hauling corn for a neighbor.  He combined my corn for me and we did really well. The corn hybrids these days are amazing, the way that they can handle the drought and still produce a decent yield.  George will finish baling stalks today.  We should have well over 100 large round bales.

Corn and High Tunnel

We've been flying along on the high tunnel.  We're down to the final pieces that are needed to hold the plastic on, and then we'll be putting on the automated roll up side curtains parts. I'm hoping that this coming week we'll be able to pull the cover on.  Now that we're nearing completion I can see all of the ways that I could have made things go a little faster and smoother, but that's always the way when you do a project for the first time.  I've made some major changes to our high tunnel based on the input from other guys who have had their high tunnels up and had serious issues with manufacturer design flaws.  Weak side walls and zippers were a major complaint that we heard from just about everyone, so we've installed hard sides made of fiber glass panels and wood framing to overcome that flaw.  We've put in sliding doors and a man-door on the west side of the high tunnel as well.  Regulating temperatures was the other issue that we have heard regularly so we went ahead and invested in the temperature controlled automatic side curtains.  This was a huge expense, but we figured that if we lose one set of plants because of our inability to manage the temperature, it would more than pay for the side curtains.
We'll take a break from the high tunnel today to combine and haul our corn.  We're hoping for a good crop and we'll know by the end of the day how we yielded.

High Tunnel

The high tunnel is nearing completion.  Having learned from those who have them up in the county we decided to put solid sides up instead of having the soft poly type sides that come with the high tunnel. We ordered auto-rollup curtains for our high tunnel as well.  They came last week but some of the materials were damaged in shipping so we'll have to wait for the new parts to arrive.  In the mean time the plan is to finish some of the minor detail items to get things ready.  Our goal is to have everything in place before the weather cools too much, because the plastic poly type cover that is the main covering needs to be added when it is warm or it will stretch when the weather does warm and can cause all kinds of problems with our winds here in NW Iowa.

2012 Chicken Days

The last batch of 2012 chickens is more than half completed.  We finished up yesterday afternoon later than we'd hoped. It's not that things didn't go well, it just seems to take a very long time to process the chickens to our satisfaction. I think we have the scalding, plucking and cutting-up moving at a very efficient pace. It's the gutting that seems to take the longest amount of time. We've seen how others process more quickly, we're just not happy with how they look when they're processed that way. Maybe we'll change our minds - some day, but for now we're sticking with what gives us the best looking product. On the subject of efficiency and best look, we purchased a poultry cutter this year to make the cut-up process just a little neater.  Based on yesterdays processing it makes cutting up much quicker, but I still like the way a knife takes the thighs off of the chicken better than the cutter does it, so I use a combination of the cutter and the knife.  Using the cutter is nerve-racking. You can send your hand or arm into the cutter without much effort, but it makes a split breast look great and it has definitely made the cut-up process more efficient than it even was before. Today should be a nice day to finish the last of this batch. I started the scalder at 5AM and we should be in full swing by 7.  Oh, and of course we have to thank the Boernsen's for their help with chicken processing. Okay, and it wasn't all work yesterday.  Once we had cleaned up we switched to some real redneck farm fun with the Boernsen kids. We jumped rope with a long lariat (this was group jumping at it's finest) and then shot some clay pigeons before going out and catching today's birds under the moon light.

3rd Cutting of Alfalfa

I took a 3rd cutting of alfalfa yesterday but I left at least half of it uncut. I just couldn't bring myself to cut anything that was too thin to make it worth my while. What I did cut seems to be dry already, enough to have baled today, but I didn't want to rake it into windrows with the night time temperatures in the 40's and low 50's and have to roll it to get it dry throughout. I'll rake it tomorrow first thing in the AM and maybe I'll get it baled tomorrow as the dew comes off. If not I'll get it baled tomorrow evening when the humidity hits it's magic 84% reading on my weather station. Either way it should put up very nicely even if it was in full bloom when I cut it. The rest of the alfalfa I plan on letting the cows graze once they come up from the back-9 field.