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.

Summer Update

Times are busy as always! Since we are both working off them farm jobs and around the farm, days are long. Good news: all puppies have new homes; the garden is filling with fresh veggies (above picture) and we are late yet again splitting firewood but we have some done. There has been massive amounts of hay baled, stored and sold this season- possibly one for the record books. Everyone is doing well. Jay is growing by the day, its unbelievable; he got a pet Ki-Cat (kitten) for the garage/ barn/ outdoors... Mouse catcher... would be great for the feed storage area. Both calves are doing well putting on weight. adapting the pasture life.

Friends and Family

Farm and Dairy, a weekly paper that I regularly read had great column this week: We are blessed to live in rural America by Judith Sutherland . It describes the way of life for many, including our family. How lucky we are to have such great neighbors and family. Happy July 4th wishes, and safe travels for all!

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!

Another Calf

Yesterday Big Momma gave birth to a red heifer "Chloey" (Above). She had no difficulty and let me carry it to the barn. We are now at 5 head of cattle: 1 Bull- Travis, 2 Cows- Sally, Big Momma, 2 Calves- Abby, Chloe.

Above is Sally and her calf Abby, in the pature this morning.
This is an older picture of our bull Travis of Hollifield.

My brother got new tires on his Jeep and had to try them out. After a long day of fence building ( Thanks guys) he got to try them out on trails. Fun, fun.

Yesterday Andrew, Cayla and I baled hay and hauled it to the barn. The new sqaure baler worked great.

Organic To Be

While searching for other books by Gene Logsdon, I found a blog that he regularly writes on. After reading The Contrary Farmer, then, Animal Vegetable Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver), I am currently reading Chasing Rainbows, my grandfathers book of memoirs. I am in search of the next books to read. Being such a great fan on Gene, an Ohio homestead type farmer, who has authored many books on such subjects as: small scale farming, organic gardening, homesteading and much more. Anyway back to topic the blog is Organic to be. Link to the blog: http://organictobe.org/ . Gene has his own section, using the tabs at the top click "Gene". Mr Logsdon is a true inspiration, his writing will draw you in and boggle your mind about the ways you do things and ways that they could be done differently. Check out some of his writing in these links (Click to view):
Books on Google (excerpts you can read) http://books.google.com/books?q=gene+logsdon&btnG=Search+Books ,
Books on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Gene-Logsdon/e/B000APL8F6/ref=ep_sprkl_at_B000APL8F6?pf_rd_p=479564851&pf_rd_s=auto-sparkle&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_i=gene%20logsdon&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=10MGSCP1NH2EEV82TKM0

New life on the farm

The garden is doing well so far, Jay has been a big help, LOL. So far we have 4 kinds of tomatos, potatos, bell peppers, banana peppers, bush beans cuccumber, cantelope and corn, and a rash of herbs which will be in our new raised bed. (Later Post)

Morgan and Jake just had their final litter of puppies before the fix. (Yes they're getting fixed.) She gave birth to: 8 total= 6 live, 2 still born......... 4 male, 2 female.......... 4 black, 2 white with black. Everyone is fine and dandy and eating well. Taking requests on pups.

Sally finally had her calf!!!!! Yesterday Morning!!! Easy birth she pushed for a few minutes calf emerged, and fell right out. she immediately began cleaning it, etc... The normal mom stuff I guess. Its a heifer (female) and appears to be a red/dun color. The first calving I have witnessed!

With the weather cool and rainy we decided to pin them up in the barn for a day or so. Sally is not happy about being in the barn, as you may know she has been our trouble cow.... she is plain nuts! Below she is playing guard, no human contact allowed on her watch.

The dates dont line up, I know, but these pictures were all taken yesterday June 3.