Farmers Rock!

Five years ago today my family found out how dangerous farming could be. My dad was involved in a horrible accident resulting in losing his right arm. Two days later he had a heart attack and had to have 4 stints put in. He is doing well and has adjusted very well to his handicap, and still farming!

Farmers are amazing! No matter the obstacles that may stand in their way they find a way around them.  My dad is no exception. We are in awe. The first spring after the accident dad was still a little leary on being out by himself but he did. He was spraying and the hoses came off the sprayer. They are usually held in place with zip ties. Try using zip ties with one hand. Dad used duct tape, a lot of duct tape. Red Green has nothing on my family (he has shows and books on usages for duct tape).

At a times like this you find out who your friends are, who steps up to help without being asked. You hear about it all the time on the local news when farmers pitch in and help. It was no different in the Woodward-Granger area. Dad had finished getting the harvest in just the day before the accident but the fall prep work still needed to be done and the local farmers came to the aid. I let Andy stay home from school so he could take pictures and video it. I then made the photos into a slideshow for dad a couple of years ago. He is very proud of it, he has the pictures in a photo album by his chair and every once in awhile he will ask me to reprint a picture so he can give it to someone who was probably there to help.

Full time farmers like my dad are a generation that is dying out.  I attended a wake tonight for a farmer who passed away this week he was 88. He was my Dad's neighbor while he was growing up and later became his landlord and friend. About six or seven years ago Joe wanted to sell his pickup, he wasn't driving anymore and had no use for it. He asked my dad if he wanted to buy it under one condition. The condition being that the hampshire pig sticker stay on the doors of the truck. Dad still has it pig sticker and all.  Tim helped Dad fix the tire tonight and get it started, we are going to place it in Joe's field.  Tomorrow when the funeral procession goes past it to the cemetery Joe's will have one last salute the farmers way.

I am getting away from my point here but I just wanted to share how I see a farmer. There is just something about a farmer that when it comes right down to it they are there for their fellow farmers. I can't really put it into words but I am proud my dad is a farmer, that my husband would love to be a full time farmer and that my son wants to be somewhat a farmer.

I am sharing Dad's video. Thanks to all the farmers and friends that helped that day it meant more than any of you will every know.

Sounds of the Farm

I wish I knew how to tape sounds, or to even have the device to tape sounds. I probably do but just don't know it. I was outside yesterday afternoon enjoying probably our last 70 degree day, and just started laughing. If I had neighbors they would have thought I had gone mad, but if I had neighbors they would think we are mad.

This past weekend Tim moved all of the cows and calves back home. We have 13 cows with 12 calves, 1 bull and then 9 calves that will be going to the locker in February, plus Lucky and Lucy the two calves we have bottle fed and will be friends for life. So there is a lot of mooing going on especially from Lucky who has been the only one around since May and getting all the attention. As soon as she sees Tim or I she really starts the mooing. I think she is telling us she is not happy with all the new animals.

We also have Cocoa my new mini donkey we added in September. I am not sure about donkey's mating ritual but it seems like he makes a lot of noise when Punkin is in heat. Cocoa's voice is not like you would think a donkey's would be and definitely not like Donkey's in Shrek. Part of it comes out and then it gets horse (no pun intended). It is funny especially when you hear it at 3 in the morning.

Then add the 1 guinea, three peacocks, 4 roosters and two barking dogs. Yesterday while I was outside it was like they were all trying to get my attention!

Our closet neighbors are about two miles away by road but two fields away the old fashion way. So I am sure if the winds blows right or maybe if there is no wind they can hear this and bet they are glad they are not right next door. Some day I will have to go to the neighbors and just listen to hear what they hear. Maybe that is why they do not come visit!

It Is Always Something!

"Farming is not easy, if it was more people would be a farmer." I use this quote frequently around our farm, especially the past couple of weeks when my dad, Tim and Andy are trying to get the crops out of the field.

Two weeks ago Andy exploded a battery when he put the cables from the battery charger on the tractor wrong. He was lucky he was in the tractor and not standing by it or we would be talking about a hospital visit. The next day he had a flat tire on the tractor he was using, lesson learned for him: You have to change the tire not just put air in it. This past Sunday the poor kid hit (just grazed no damage) my dad's new tractor. My dad's first brand new tractor in lord knows how long and Andy had to be the one to hit it. Of course he will never live it down even though there was no damage.

We have had grain bin dryers that didn't work. The bin repair people worked on one four days in a row with the same problem. As soon as they leave it would break again. Then the grain bin at our house broke. Tim would come home from work and have to work on the bin.

Then, we are not done yet...The combine broke down. That was a two day fix. This was all happening while the weather was beautiful and you kept hearing the local weather people telling farmers to wait until it rains to get the crops out because of it being dry and the potential for field fires. Now what is wrong with that advice? These people obviously have never farmed. You can not combine crops in the rain. Fires are a hazard that farmers deal with much like the weather, there is no control. Just be prepared! And my dad was, he made sure there was a fire extinguisher in the combine and a disc hooked up to a tractor. I stayed home the days they combined beans at my house, just incase.

One weekend the joke was anything Tim touched he broke. None of which was his doing and thank goodness he could fix it but hoses were coming off the tractors, the 4-wheeler froze up, the tractors that were running the auger were not working. It was just one thing after another.

Tuesday they finished all my dad's fields! Yea!

 We rent some ground from Tim's  mom and we are also in a 50/50 with someone on some more ground. It was time to start the harvest at these fields. We hire a friend of Tim's to combine those fields because it was closer for the them. Everything went well on Wednesday evening combining the small field at his mom's. Thursday while driving the combine to another field a wheel fell off of the combine. Scott (the owner of the combine) was so lucky he kept it under control. The road was shut down for several hours until everything could be moved. Needless to say the combine is out of commission. My dad who happen to be on the phone at the time with Scott, calls his combine man and he comes to our rescue. Now dad's combine operator is combining and Scott's crew is hauling what a combination, but it works. Now the Ethanol plant we are hauling to is getting to much corn and shut down on Friday at noon and then again this past Saturday at noon. So hopefully Monday we can be done and then begins the prep work for next year.

You might wonder what I do if I am not hauling grain and I am definitely not working on broken equipment? I am the taxi driver. I take them to the fields or pick them up when they get the equipment to the field. I am also the lunch lady. On the weekends I make sure they have one hot lunch but most of the time it is just sandwiches because they eat on the go. No stopping! A farmer starts when it is day light and they go til dark. I also usually have dinner ready as well if I am not working. I am also the photography, I love to document everything with a picture. I have so many pictures of tractors, cows, chickens it is a little ridiculous.

So you see it takes a small army to farm, a army that loves to be outside, that can work on anything that can basically take anything that is dished out and still laugh about because at the end it all gets done!

Oh Chicken Poo!

Did you know that the average chicken poops 30 lbs per year?  Why are you asking is this something you need to know? You don't! But I was wondering as Tim and I cleaned out the chicken house this weekend. We got to talking and couldn't remember when the last time we cleaned it out. That is bad! I am sure it was sometime this past summer we just couldn't remember when. We have 40 chickens that is 1200 lbs of poo! I swear it was all in the chicken house and why? These birds get to go outside whenever they want why not do their duty outside?

So I got online to find out that chickens poo before they fly and when they get scared. They do not poo when they are sleeping. SO, they can not fly in the chicken house (there is nests and roosts) so they must be getting scared! I have noticed a lot of feathers lately thought maybe they just drop them because of the weather change, but I haven't found any dead chickens.

We leave the dogs out in the summer so they can chase away critters. We hear them bark during the night but I never see anything. We once set up a live trap after losing 26 guineas and caught a rim horn owl. He was a pretty owl but he wasn't a nice owl. I got to look at him all day as we tried to decide what to do with him. (It is against the law to shoot them) We called the DNR and they said we should release him at least 15 miles away.

So getting back to poo. I found out that breeder hen litter goes for $19.67 per ton. We would only be about 800 lbs shy of making $20. (Tim is laughing right now because I am always trying to find ways to make money on the farm from the most random things). Next problem who would buy it? I can not see charging for poo!

Did you also know that one chicken lays 260 eggs a year. Forty chickens minus 5 roosters and we SHOULD have about 9100 eggs a year, that is 758 dozen eggs to sell. Notice the should! We seem to be a "do not get rid of" farm. We have some old chickens.  Chickens only lay eggs for about two years and their meat is only good for three years. We have some chickens that bless their little hearts have stayed around for about six years now. What are we suppose to do with them? Tim has had to shoot roosters (we have had a few that would try to fight us) but I do not think my hunter can shoot a hen especially when they come wobbling toward us at feeding time and can not wait for the bread crumbs or the sweet corn we are giving as treats.

I remember when I was a kid my family and my Grandma would dress about 100 chickens. That would mean that Grandma would pull their necks (us kids would love to watch them flapping around, it was our job to get them from under the vehicles). They would then put them in hot water and pull off the feathers. My Grandma would then chop off their heads and feet. We would clean some more then my dad would cut into pieces and we would put into freezer bags. Easy! (of course we kids didn't do any of the work).

Now it is our turn and I do not think I have the stomach for it. There are no lockers around that do this anymore (I have checked!) So what do we do? If anyone has any ideas or would like to help and do not mind doing most of the work if my stomach gets to me, let us know? We need to do something soon. We have more egg customers than eggs right now and I can not get more chickens until we do something with the old.

 And I thought this farming stuff would be easy!

Aren't they cute!

 That was our Owl friend. We moved him to 

Webster City.

Saying Goodbye To Summer

It is the last day of summer and I am bummed! I love Spring and Summer. I love to feel the warmth of sunshine, to be outside, to see baby calves being born and to watch things grow.  Fall to me is flowers dying, a chill in the air, the farm turning gloomy as the crops are waiting to be harvested. Yes there is still warm days and believe me I get my butt out there to soak it all up but the nights being cold, having to bundle up to walk in the mornings that is just not my cup of tea, (but I do it).

Enough of me whining I will just have anticipate my tropical vacation while we get ready for the harvest. For now here is a look back to some of the happenings on the farm this past Spring/Summer.

This is lucky. We had to bottle feed her because she lost her mom. She is our baby! She loves to talk back to us, of course in her own mooing way.

Any time we have the hummingbird juice out we can watch at least 4 hummingbirds playing around the feeder.

Tim is introducing Punkin to our newest farm critter Cocoa. Hopefully a year from now we will have a baby Hershey. Yes girls mini donkey's are pregnant anywhere from 11 1/2 to 13 months. YICKS!

Grass Is Not Always Greener!

Meet Bush! He is our Palomino and the most inquisitive horse I have ever been around. If left to his own he can open latch gates. He well take your ball cap, your sunglasses he has even grabbed my ponytail, all in fun of course.

Last night about 9:30 I am closing up the house and I hear galloping, wow the horses are active tonight! Then the dogs start barking, a mean guard bark. I go outside and see a white tail go by the side of the house. I call for Bush and he looks around the corner at me. What are you doing out? It is dark and we have two brown horses and a brown mini donkey, Tim is at a business function. Great!

I call him anyway, just to see how close he is. My luck he is just coming to Granger! I tell him "His Horses" are out. They were in when I did chores at 6:00. You hear Bush whinnying and carrying on. I have no idea where the others are.

Tim comes home and Bush goes right to his truck, they walk to the gate and Bush goes right in. I am on the front porch trying to figure out where the rest are. Tim says they are in!

We have no idea how the horse got out or where but I guess the moral of the story "Grass is not always greener on the other side if your friends will not follow!" Crazy Horse!

Bridget is the one with White on her nose and leg, Sissy is the other one. Sissy was suppose to be a race horse but she is to spoiled and would need Tim to run around the track with her. Her race name I thought would be so cool, Settle Down Lil Sister.

Our 9/11 Nightmare!

With the anniversary of 9/11 coming up I thought it appropriate, just like everyone else to reflect on where we were on that dread full day. Tim and were on a cruise in the Bahamas. We remember that day so well, it was a Tuesday, we had gotten up early to watch the ship dock at Nassau. We took a horse and buggy ride around Nassau just waiting until a departure ferry to Atlantis came. As we get back to where the horse and buggy drop us off we notice that there was a huge presence of the military walking around with machine guns. Shop owners had the radios on in their cars parked in front of their shops. It was the first time either one of us had been out of the country so thought nothing of it.

We boarded the ferry and headed to Atlantis, we were departing and notice TV's on at the station and people stopping and gasping. We heard "Oh My God" so many times. We heard people crying. Finally we asked some one what was going on. We were told that a plane had crashed into the towers and that New York was under attack, (now this gives me goose bumps just writing about this ten years later). We decided to stop and watch and then they announced the Pentagon had been attack. That is when I lost it. My mom works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA. She was in Washington for training. I also remembered that my sister was to fly to New York for her job with Citi Group. We didn't have our cell phones so we try to find phones in the Atlantis. After many attempts we finally reach my dad, (The one time we are glad he doesn't like to travel).

He was panicked trying to make sure that my mom, sister and I were all safe. He wanted us home and now! He had heard from my mom and she was in a different part of the pentagon, Shelly's (my sister) flight was cancelled because of the attack, (they shut down all airports right away).

 I do not remember going thru Atlantis at all. If it wasn't for Tim taking pictures of the beautiful aquarium I wouldn't believe I was there.

We go back to the cruise ship and turn on the TV. The ships captain is telling people that we need to have our ID's and that the ship needs to see everyones before taking off that evening They also announce that there will be no charges for phone calls back to the states. I try to call my mom and Andy, who was staying at his other grandparents, the circuits were all busy after about an hour I finally got thru to my mom. What relief to hear her voice, she was safe.  As soon as she could she was going to rent a car and  drive home. She was informed as a government employee that all air travel will be cancelled for awhile. She advised us to try to rent a car. My next call was to Sue, Andy's grandma. She was so up beat, Andy was still at school and she was just going to let him tell her if the school said anything and she wasn't going to have the TV on so that he wouldn't worry. Andy is a worry wart, he is a big "What if" person. I told her I would try to call when we could. Our next call was to a car rental to book a car because there was no way we were going to get on a plane even if we could.

That night as the cruise ship was suppose to be pulling out of the Bahamas they would call peoples names over the speaker looking for Mr. or Mrs. whoever. Most of the time it was a foreign name. It was kinda scary. Finally after an hour past the departure time we take off.

We tried to stay busy on the ship, eating, watching the shows, gambling, but I was just getting motion sick so bad. I could feel every little wave that the boat hit. We went back to the room, Tim dropped me off and he went up to go outside (he has a dirty little smoking habit). He comes back down and tells me not to look outside, now if that doesn't peak one curiosity. After a lot of "what is going on out there" he tells me that it was so windy out there that he couldn't open one door so he went to the other side, then he watched the chaise loungers be catapulted off the top of the pool deck out into the ocean. Great! We get ours bags packed because the next day is the last of the cruise. Thank God! It wasn't until the next morning we find out were sailing around a Hurricane, Hurricane Erin!

Once in Miami we were two hours trying to get off the ship because you had to go thru customs and they were being very careful (we didn't need passports back then). We get to the Miami airport to find out that no flights are leaving, (we knew that but had to check in any way) we go to the car rental place and get the last remaining car, thank goodness we booked it. By the way, when we were at the Miami airport it was pure hell there, that is where they discovered the terrorist stole the pilots uniforms. There was military, dogs, police, millions of people stuck and scared. We got our car, bought a few maps and took off.

We were listening to the radio it was raining out, I was the co-pilot. We would hear the announcement on the radio to take cover there was a tornado in such and such town. Tim would ask where that was, we just past it! Drive further and another announcement for another town, once again we just past it! This happened three different times. I am starting to freak out but Tim keeps his cool and is going to get us out of here one way or another, we just want to get back to the Midwest! He drives in heavy down pours until we got out of Florida. Finally in Georgia at about 1:00 am we decide to get a hotel. Who could sleep but I am sure he is tired of driving in this crap!

Next morning brings a beautiful day, we decide to try to salvage this trip and drive thru Louisville Kentucky and check out the horse ranches. What beautiful country that is. (That little trip is a whole other story). We finally get home two days later than we were suppose to due to the driving, but I was never so glad to get home in my life.

So that is where we were on 9/11, where were you?