We came from here: The thread "March, spring? hmmm" in Farming forum


Well, happy April Fools. We are having wind and snow today. This is the week that Stan was hoping to fix fences, as school is out and there 's a son-in-law and a grandson who could help, but it is looking like for today and tomorrow there's little hope of that. Maybe the end of the week will be better.

extra points for whoever can site the title of this thread. Here's a clue, April is Poetry Month

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

Wasn't that T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land?

If not, then April fool again!

You guys are good. One of my least favorite poems.

I posted while Mary was; I didn't intend to be an echo.

T.S. Eliot is one of my least favorite writers.

I get quite lost in the wanderings. We had to read a lot of different things in high school literature, this one seemed to go on and on and on. I thought I would never reach the end of it. Somebody must have liked it?

We have had 3 days of great weather. Trees will leaf out any day now. Grass is growing well, due to several nights without frost. It's unusual for this early in the season. This morning's daylight temperature was 37. I wish for nights this warm when I set squash and tomatoes out about June 1. Strange year.

A meadow lark was vocalizing near the house this morning. What a beautiful song!

Well, none of Mary's weather hear yet, that's for sure. Said this morning on the weather report I was watching while doing my workout that daytime temps are about 14 degrees BELOW normal for this time of year. Yuck.

Friend Norma is doing Equity today, I will go Wednesday and she will go Friday for the feeder cattle sale. They are back down to 2 feeder sales/month now till fall. We had only 539 last Friday when I worked, but the wonderful states of Wisconsin and Illinois have implemented new rules (which they cannot manage to keep in effect for very long until they throw that one out and make another one that is stupider than the previous one). It will be a total PITA for all involved.......us doing the papers, those in back doing the ear tagging, and especially for the Equity office gals. I think we are all going to need a beer or 3 after the first few sales when this all gets going.

The computer program that I have to use to do the paperwork for the state is SO not user-friendly. "They" are supposed to be re-vamping it and be releasing it to a few select vet clinics to be guinea pigs for it. Alison said that she really hopes that ours will be one of them, since she has been very vocal with them about how it can be made much better for all involved. We'll see how that all goes...............

I am needing to wage a nuclear attack on the whiteflies up in the greenhouse today; guess it will be back to every 10 days again till plants can go outside. Wretched creatures................the whiteflies, not the plants............LOL

I spent a lot of time on my knees today, weeding garlic and planting onion sets. I feel it in my lower back, and the wind was blowing just enough for me to get some trash in my eyes that is still bothering me. It will resolve overnight. The guys were rototilling. The 2 acre new garden patch looks good. In the next couple of days it will be seeded to peas and oats for a cover crop to be tilled under in a few months. We might get a little bit of rain on Thursday or Friday, so it would be good to have the seed in the ground before then.

Don't you just love when the state gets involved with anything?

More snow, although yesterday afternoon it came off sunny and just warm enough to melt the snow that fell in the morning. It's just snowing now, but Stan said when he went to spread that there was a windblown heavy snow and he drove through a white out up the back road.

I don't know what to say about 'plans' for the farm here. The young man who was going to buy all the cows is now going to be taking 10 and he won't be using the farm. Stan is planning to keep the rest until August (?!!?). We'll see how this goes, ahem.

Personally, I am getting ready for some workshops as teacher in fabric painting with transparent paints and, possibly, with natural dyes. The natural dyes will come up only if I figure it out. Maybe some paper making with natural stuff like iris leaves and cat tail heads, but that is yet to be scheduled.

The sun is shining through the snow - if it were rain we'd have a rainbow. I'll take it as a hopeful sign.

Oooh! I want to take your workshops, however the commute is a bit daunting...

lol, yes, but wouldn't it be fun!

Mary, have you ever read any of Ivan Doig's books? I just finished rereading 'This House of Sky' and there was a paragraph that made me think of you: "Lambing at the Camas stretched as one long steady emergency, like a war alert which never quite ignites into battle but keeps on demanding scurry and more scurry. No ritual more frantic exists anywhere in the rearing of animals..."

We've come off spring-like, now that the kids and teachers in the family are ready to head back to school. No fences were fixed, but a lot of posts were made for up at Adam's and Melissa's. The cows look to be spending the summer here. I really need to have a conversation with Stan one of these fine days...

Thanks, that certainly describes it! I'll have to check for Ivan Doig books at the library. Probably not until winter though, as I won't have much time to read until then.

Uh oh, a "conversation". I hope that common sense prevails. It's hard to keep a good man down, especially when it concerns his health!

Who's milking?

So far, the kids that have been milking still are, but Josh's job is changing to days and he says he can't take the cows until some time in the summer. Kelly wants a part time job this summer and Jessie, my right hand girl, wants a full time job, and can milk if there is someone else there with her. I suspect that Stan is planning on milking mornings. He walked up the hill last evening and jogged back. He's feeling too good to keep down. Aiyyyeee! I'm ready for him to do what he can, without getting too worn out. I just want to hear what he's thinking. He's gotten very bad at communicating since I quit going to the barn.

I didn't know any man could communicate in any way, shape, or form.........mine sure can't.

Had about 850 at the feeder sale on Friday. I didn't get done till 6. I start at 11:30 on feeder sale days. The volume buyer was from Iowa and bought 272........and ALL had to be on the health paper. Luckily we could leave his till last, as he either has his papers faxed to him or they are to be put in an envelope that is affixed to the pen for the trucker.

[quote="AnnaZ"]I didn't know any man could communicate in any way, shape, or form.........mine sure can't.

So true Anna!

Hey Girls we communicate hug yep nope don't know maybe some time
Dave719

dave719 said:Hey Girls we communicate hug yep nope don't know maybe some time
Dave719