Our Laying Hens

There's always a few chickens around here. Never have to buy eggs. Predators are a problem here so the hens have to be protected from them. There's around half and half California Whites and Rhode Island Reds. We will be getting some Brown Leghorn chicks this coming May. They are a beautiful bird. 
 

Open Pollinated Corn and Heritage Hogs

Heritage corn and heritage hogs. Open pollinated corn, the kind you can save seed from. Been doing it for years. Makes the best meat and the best likker, (moonshine).  

This is our Hereford boar pig. Got him as a feeder pig cause its hard to find full grown boars of that breed anywhere near here. He's a growing! 

More coming up soon. I'll try and resume journaling about the country life. The old time ways especially.
 

Getting Simpler

 A few weeks ago I was standing by a nice replica of a Red River cart. Quite the masterpiece if I must say so. Of course being one of my main interests sure made my day. Hard to imagine back in the day, pre settlement for this neck of the woods, how the folks lived and thrived. I guess the 500 mile trip from Winipeg to St Paul could be called the once a year shopping trip. The moderns might have a hard time with that one nowadays. 

Now almost 200 years later the area is crowded with people. Most have nothing to do with farming. I yearn for a time when the land would be important again instead of a place to slap an over priced house on and act like they are important, Nope, this could be almost a paradise of small farms and homesteads but people would rather be basically slaves to the modern system. Too bad. But as long as we are out here there will be a place apart from the modern system. And getting simpler daily. 

Doing Good

 

Was a dry year to say the least. This is a picture from a few weeks ago in our east pasture. Zero green. The Hereford heifers and cows still did good out there. Proud of em. Lately we've been getting some small rains but it's cool enough now not to evaporate before noon like in July. Now we're getting ready to wean the calves any day now. They are growing good despite the year.

In any spare time I like playing around with wood. Here I'm peeling bark on some big spruce poles to keep them from rotting and dry them out better. Hope to get back at working with wood a lot this winter. Hoping for a non eventful winter too. Peace is cherished. And at the moment I'm trying to get back to blogging. New laptop and better glasses seem to be doing the trick. This and the last couple posts were just to see how it would go. Seems smooth. Can still type a little. So it's a go then. I'll try and give it a whirl again.

Chopping Done For The Year

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 Nice day in the northland. Fifties and not too much wind. Chopped about three acres of silage corn for October feeding and are done for the season with that job. Went good this year except for the 100 degree days a month ago. That was a test in a non air conditioned tractor cab. But that's history now. This week, haul some manure, try and wean calves and a multitude of other jobs.

  Looking forward to a nice Fall.

Fall Has Finally Arrived

 

October in the northland! I for one am glad it's here. The summer heat was getting to me somewhat. Now the last few days its been cooling down, quite a change really. Yesterday we got all the cattle home so now all of em are within a half mile radius of the main farm. This sure does make it nicer with no more running around the countryside every day checking pastures and feeding them because of the drought. 

It's also wood making time and I love it! Good for the soul! Hoping for a semi open winter so I can fool around in the woods a lot more than last year's winter. A week ago today the rye and cover crops were drilled in and they are starting to emerge. Hoping for some rapid growth and maybe some later fall grazing in a few weeks.

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For the record, this is my Bible and it's my favorite by far. Any verses ever quote on this blog will be direct from my "farm" Bible. Nowadays it's good to go back to the real things and this Bible is the real deal. 
 

Deep Winter

Looks like an average winter in this area. Snowfall here and there, cold and then warm ups. The cows are doing fine, something I didn't expect last summer in the drought. There's a lot to do to keep a fella busy during deep winter. And nothing is nicer than the woodstove in the shop. No matter how cold it is outside the shop's warmth is always welcome as a fella is freezing down. And besides a place to warm up it's a place to do projects. I even haul firewood in there and split it in a warm building then haul it back out when done and stack it in the big chicken coop.  There are chickens in there but they like the rows of stacked, split firewood. 

 

There are a few projects in the planning.  Build some feed troughs, some hay feeders, maybe even some calf hutches. Nice working in a warm building.

  The firewood comes from dead fall trees and storm blown trees. This past summer we had more than a hundred trees blown down here and there on the farm. Wicked storm that was. Plenty of firewood if I can get out and make some. The snow is getting deeper and deeper.  

  So deep winter moves on. Not boring. Always something to do.