Tractor

Our son, covered in a dust of corn and soybean meal that he was supposed to feed to the pigs (not throw, LOL!) But he had fun, as you can see above. Below is a photo of our tractor. Concord Mommy took this picture or she would be in it too. It has worked well so far, and will be a great asset to the farm.

This week we almost finished up hay season. The picture below is Concord Son and I traveling home from raking hay. He came over to the fields to bring Dad some water and begged to ride back with me. We have also been working on putting more firewood inside the wood shed and cleaning out the other half of teh shed for the tractor (to be parked out of weather). Monday morning was first of many firewood cutting parties to be had through the winter. The parties usal consist of myself, Matt and Andrew. We cut, split and load all 3 of our trucks with wood; many hands make the work go fast.

The pigs are growing. I am hoping to expand there pen this week to enclose our entire garden which is almost done producing for this year.

Another Tractor

Today we will be signing papers on the "new to us" tractor. It is a Massey Ferguson 255, a newer year model than the last and froma different dealership. Matt, my neighbor will be pulling home with his big truck and trailer. So tomorrow we will a new tractor to put up hay with. We have about 15-20 acres down still, that need baled. My barn is almost full, about 15-20 bales and it is there ready for winter.

New Tractor

Above is the newest addition to CMF. Recently we have been in the market for a 50-70 HP tractor. On Wedsnesday we test drove and made a deal on this tractor. It is a 1966 Massey Ferguson 175 Diesel, 63 HP with 3 point and remote hydraulics ( It will do everything I currently and in the future will need). This is big enough to pull my haybine (mower), and disk and plow. It is going to be delivered on Tuesday or Wednesday. We are very excited.
PS- Pigs are doing well, will post on them soon.

July

Summer is coming right along. First cut hay is done. Fence is in progress. Next to do: firewood and barn roof. We have canned some, and will be canning alot more as more tomatos ripen.

Jay playing on his toy "trac-sher" wearing my old work hat. He has so much fun on that tractor, it has seen and will see many more miles.

Here my wife worked on brush hogging the pasture which has been grazed early on in season, but before weeds go to seed and spread, we mow, to stop the seed spread and help pasture growth. What a great job she did!

Fence is an ongoing project. This will keep our bull Travis from wandering to the neighboring farm when their cows are in heat. The light weight electric that shocks @ 4,500 volts did nothing to stop him 4 times this week, thankfully they're understanding and very helpful. We have finally finished the east side of the perimeter fence; it has been built in stages. It consisits of 4 strand barb wire and cow panels for gates. Big thanks to Kyle for his help!!!

This is our newest family investment: a pop-up camper. We are so excited to use it, we have planned to camp the first weekend of August.

Photo Update

Morgan and Jakes litter of puppies- going on 3 weeks old- some mobile creatures now.
Travis of Hollifield resting in the shade- what a bull he is!! Were gonna fix those horns though!

Sally and Abby calf (Left, left)......... Big Momma and Chloe (right cow and center calf)

Hay mowed at Wolfe Farm- Andrew mowed on saturday, hot sun + wind = dry hayHay raked by your truly on Sunday afternoon, baling by Andrew Sunday night

We have more ahy down, Matt mowed hay Sunday while we were busy.... Happy Fathers Day to Dads everywhere!

April Snows Brings May Flowers?

It is a little hard to tell but a good look at the above picture shows snow on the ground, this very morning! Crazy I know, LOL! Wow 2009 is moving along quick. We have gotten alot done so far this spring. Below are photos for the following tasks completed. Cayla, Jay and I finished the fence up through the woods, and tore down the old, expanding our pasture a little. Yes, it was done in reverse, because I wasn't sure that I would complete the new fence in time for grazing, I left the old fence so at the top pastures were usable.

We have also been painting on the dismantled hay mower, progress is slow, working as weather allows, for painting metal- conditions must be right. Jay even handled a paint brush and helped paint the red panels pictured and added his person touch to our garage (it hard to stay within the lines, lol).

Thanks to our neighbors we were able to barrow their tractor and plow the garden, in exchange for getting the plow in usable condition- that it was not. Our other neighbor Joe was passing by on his tractor a few days ago with a tiller on the back, after talking to him for a few, Joe said he would till our garden in exchange for help at a later date(freshly tilled garden- 4th picture). The country is great, we all help each other out! At least our garden is large and ready to plant- and the chickens are absolutely chowing down on worms. Last night we planted all of our seed starter cups. Enjoy- feel free to Comment.

Big shoes to fill! Jay in Dads boots.

Hay Baler

Our most recent investment pictured above. A Massey Ferguson #12 Square Hay Baler. This was bought in share with our neighbors the Sayres. It should serve us well, its in great shape, well cared for by 2 older gentlemen that always stored it indoors. Im excited to use it this summer. This was a local purchase from an Ebay auction. We will have it home tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend.

Hay Day

This winter we have been feeding a combination of round bales of hay- available to cows all the time and small square bales- which we feed at night. The small square bales are of higher quality ( higher protein) and have been stored inside. This is one of my neighbors tractors, for green and yellow it gets the job done somewhat well. We also went to look at cows this weekend and have decided to purchase one- a yearling heifer, the other two- 2 y.o. cow and yearling bull are headed to the Sanders Farm, another local couple.