Month in a Minute

Here's a quick list of what has happened around here in the month since I last posted.

1) Took the family to the beach for 3 days. Stayed with our friends Kristin, Saphouse Bill, and Isaac. Had a great time and great weather. Tore a rotator cuff body surfing.

2) Traded the Tile Hooligans a roasting pig and 8 chickens for a golf cart. It is the ideal form of on the farm transportation.

3) Made about 3900 bales of first cutting hay during a pretty wet summer. Some of it isn't the best, but it's in the barn.

4) Waged war with the old haybine mower we used to use and wanted to use again because it cuts closer to the ground and is more fuel efficient (wider cut, uses less horse power than the Cutditioner) but was in rough shape. We currently have a cease fire agreement.

5) Baled 500 bales of pretty nice second cutting hay (so far).

6) Thought I had blown up the motor in our 1650 Oliver tractor, which is really the only "good" tractor we have. Turns out it has a broken valve which may cost a few hundred dollars to fix, but shouldn't be the death of the tractor.

7) Had a nervous few days waiting for the Postal Service to figure out what they did with my 140 turkey poults. They were shipped on a Monday afternoon. They showed up Thursday morning. None were dead and they had grown quite a bit during their time in the box.

8) Had it brought to my attention that there is still plenty to learn about raising pastured poultry when one of the batches suffered a high mortality rate due to Coccidiosis. The hatchery is now innoculating our chicks by spraying a small dose of Cocci over the chicks when they hatch, which should increase their resistence to this protozoan organism.

9) Built the dock for the Natural Swimming pool. The water quality has been unbelievably good. My oldest daughter spotted an earring back at the bottom of the deep end (7 feet) from the dock and dove down and got it.

10) In 45 minutes all 3 kids will be getting on the schoolbus. I'll be getting back to being a full time farmer. It might get a little lonely though. I am hoping that I still remember how to work.