Colonel's Blog, Earthdate 21 Feb 2023...
Hey Y'all!
Good morning and happy Tuesday from Free Missouri! It was 39 degrees this morning with the temps expected to get up to the mid-60s today. Yesterday was a beautiful 69 degrees! The animals are doing very well this morning with the exception of the newest beef bull calf. He is exhibiting behaviors that cause us concern. He is often separated from the herd, like this morning when we gave hay, the entire herd walked away from him and he just wandered as if he was lost. All of the other calves stay with the herd, even when they were as young as he is. He also doesn't seem to be seeing very well. It is almost as if he can tell light from dark but maybe not much else. We will keep an eye on him as he is still very young and just may need a while to get-it-together. Yesterday, Shelley delivered the tax info so we can stop thinking about that for a bit. When she returned, she hopped on the tractor and mowed about 8 acres of 25 or so that we need to get done before spring grasses start to grow. I spent about an hour burning 200 or so feed bags, greased the tractor (takes about 45 minutes--lots of zerks!), and then got to work on the bar. Also yesterday, the dogs got a brushing and dew claw trimming. They do pretty good at keeping their regular claws worn down but the dews need trimming. It is supposed to storm tomorrow, so today Shelley is going to continue mowing in the hopes of finishing up before the rain soaks the pastures again. I am going to pick up feed, pics to follow tomorrow. We are going to get 4x 1,000 pound bags this time instead of 80x 50 pound bags. We are excited about the reduction in trash and no more empty feed bags laying around. After using the tractor to unload the feed bags into the barn, I will get busy on the bar. The noses theme for the pics today just seemed to happen as I tried get everyone to pose, so I went with it.
We feel an impending transition. The days are getting longer and warmer. We know winter isn't over, but the spring brings so many additional tasks to the farm that we are getting eager to finish house projects that have been lingering. We need to grout the kitchen backsplash, paint the doors, finish the bar, seal the porch concrete, install exterior light above garage door, install GFCI sockets on porch, trim kitchen cabinets, install barn lights, etc. before the spring increase gets here. The meat bird email the other day really did make us realize that the 'rest time' of winter on the farm is coming to an end. Spring brings the farmers market every Saturday, meat birds, daily cow and sheep moves, hogs to the processor in two different trips, new piglets, garden prep and planting...just to name a few. We are making a list of things that we want to get done on the house before things ramp up. Hopefully, we can get them done so we feel eager for the transition to spring , rather than lamenting the things we didn't get to; because transition is happening.
Shelley's YouTube Short of the day--be sure to subscribe: The New Holland at Work
Local Farm Report for 20 Feb 2021:
Harvest:
33 Chicken eggs
10 Duck eggs
1 Goose egg
4 1/2 Gallons of milk
Sales:
N/A
Cheers! Rich & Shelley
Yep I understand and enjoy your thoughts... keep on trucking 🤗
Hey Rich,
I really enjoy reading about what y’all are doing but also your vision into the future (immediate and long term). The planning is a great insight to ideas that might be helpful for others. Your next post on “blog” got me thinking about if you guys document through this or video your daily or weekly vegetable garden activities?