I Wish I Was A Cow...Or A Cat!

Can you see them?


What about now?


This is how our two calves spend their days. They aren't real interested in eating their corn or picking at the hay. They don't even go wild for the lush green grass like I expected. They mostly lounge around the pasture and sleep in the sun. It is a beautiful sight, and I'm jealous.

We don't have any set plans for the weekend yet. We may head up to the beach tomorrow and get Brian's Mom's camper settled in to her lot for the summer. I can hardly wait to get back to the farmer's market in Port Austin. It is the best one around by far, especially on holiday weekends. Then we have a lot of work to do around home, as usual.

What are your plans for this weekend? Is the weather supposed to be nice? I'd love to hear about it.

P.S. This just in...he's trying to help me type with his back feet I guess.

Planting the Big Fields

Brian planted 40 acres of corn at the end of last week. Sunday we planted 25 or 30 acres of soybeans. Brian helps our neighbor farm in exchange for use of some his equipment.

The planter he's using in these pictures is a "no-till drill". It actually cuts a path and sticks the seeds in the ground without the field being plowed up every year. Last year we had corn in this field, this year we drilled the soybeans right in. The conservation district in our county even owns a drill that can be rented out. No-till farming is easier on the environment. The fields are not as susceptible to erosion. Plus, the practice saves quite a bit of fuel and time, thus reducing our expenses.


Planting can be a one man job most of the time. The picture above shows the bins that hold the seed. Ideally we would have just enough seed to plant the field without too much extra to clean out at the ends. As we near the end of planting I stay on the planter and watch the seed level. One person, or even two, can stay pretty busy shuffling seed from one bin to another.


I didn't have to work too hard. We had quite a bit of seed left. There wasn't much planting to do this year since our other fields are already growing wheat and hay. It'll be nice to see these fields turning green again as well.

Fruit Trees!

My order from the Conservation District came in on Friday. I took advantage of the 70 degree temps (!!!) yesterday and planted them. I put them on our sideyard near the one pear tree I planted last year. Now we have 1 pear, 1 peach, 1 cherry, and 2 apple trees there. I still need to add another pear and another peach.

I also got in touch with a neighbor who graciously came and showed me how to prune our older trees. We take care of the empty house across the road and there are a few apple trees in the yard. I picked a lot of apple from the trees last year and wanted to prune them back nicely. I didn't do a lot because it is quite late for pruning but at least now I have a better idea on how to do it.

My nice neighbor gave me a recipe for tree spray and recommended I use it repeatedly throughout the season. He insists that he tried organic methods with his and was not happy with the results. What are you thoughts on this? I hate the idea of spraying them but it did make for a lot of extra labor last year trying to cut around the buggy spots.

Thoughts?

Planting Onions!

This should by no means be taken as a tutorial since I am planting onions this year for the very first time. I wasn't even going to post about it until I saw that little paper bag sitting next to the freshly planted row and thought what a cute picture that would make.

We don't eat many onions, just a few in casseroles and such, so I probably didn't need to plant any. Our good friend Rob shared some of his last year and is growing plenty again this year. These ones just caught my eye in line at the feed store so I picked up a couple bags. I figure it can't hurt to learn a new skill.

The paper that came with the onion sets had decent directions: plant 2-3" apart just deep enough to cover the tops in rows 12" apart. Thin later to 4" apart, then harvest in July or August when tops dry and fall over. I pretty much followed the directions except went about 4" apart right from the start. I've never been one to "thin" plants out, I just can't bring myself to pull up the little buggers just when they get going.

While out in the garden I also cut away the old asparagus stalks from last year and trimmed back some of the old strawberries too. My favorite part of last summer was spending a few hours in the garden each morning before work. It has been so nice to be out there again the last few days.

I was thrilled that today was nice enough to plant without getting hypothermia. I put in one row of lettuce and one row of sugar peas on Monday and thought my fingers were going to fall off. Only in Michigan do you have to hoe through the snow to get your seeds in at a decent time.

Have you ever grown onions? Did you start with sets or seeds? I tried seeds indoors last year but none of the seeds I started then did any good. What are you planting? Are you getting back in to a routine that includes garden "chores"?

Spring has sprung - here!!!

I've been watching jealously as one by one my fellow bloggers have posted pictures of their first spring shoots. Now I can finally join in the fun!!

Farm mom inspired me to plant garlic for the first time last fall. I have not yet removed the thick layer of straw that covered the planted cloves all winter. Today I went out to inspect the patch and guess what - the garlic is already growing even through all that mulch! I still didn't remove it but I pulled back a good section and found several sturdy looking sprouts. How exciting!


Then I wandered over to my strawberries. I planted them last spring in a big metal pot that we found when we tore out the bushes around our house. I neglectfully forgot to mulch them over the winter so was prepared to find them dead this spring. They are more durable than I expected. I found several fresh green plants making their start already. Mmmm, I can't wait for that first batch of jam.


I planted two pear trees last spring as well. One tree didn't even live through the summer but the other is doing well. Check out the little tips already growing this spring.


I am so excited now and all fired up for spring. Last year my Mom and I went to our favorite nursery on Mother's Day. I'm hoping we can make that a tradition and find some great new plants this year. What are looking forward to this spring? How did your plants come through the winter?

My Take On Forward Contracting

This is a little more technical than most of my posts and refers to grain farming. Not sure how many readers raise grain but this is something I learned about that I'd like to share.

So basically, we grow the corn, we take it to the elevator, and then we either sell it right away (if prices are good) or we start to incur storage costs on it and don't sell it until prices come back up. Supposedly, this is the first year in the last 10 where a farmer didn't make money by storing grain until after the 1st of the year. Of course that would happen during our first harvest year, why not!?

So since we are beginning field work and need $$$ to buy fertilizer and seed, we really need the money from last year's corn. Plus, we don't want to pay to store it much longer. However, prices are still low enough that I'm not convinced they will even cover the cost of growing that corn. So, there is another option available: forward contracting. Basically, we sell the corn today and a check is mailed to us. The check is for the current price ($3.42/bushel) times the # of bushels we have minus any unpaid storage AND minus, in our case, $0.37/bu for this forward contracting option. This storage costs will stop the day we sell. The $0.37 gives us the option to "sell" again in the next 3 months in order to benefit if prices go up.

Say in June prices go up to $4.00. We could "sell" then and get a check for the extra $0.58 x # of bu. We can only do that once and then our "contract" is done. I think. The downside is that if prices don't go up we would actually lose money. If prices go up $0.37 we would get back what it cost us to have the option but would come out the same as if we had sold outright at today's current prices.

Is this understandable? I know it is a confusing topic, so I thought I'd share what I know. Maybe someone will Google it and find this post. Do you see what crop farming makes me batty!? I hate gambling, and that is what we do in this line of work.

I Started My Seeds!

I'm not exactly sure if this was the right time to do it, but I did it. The weather will never be exactly right in Michigan anyway. Here's what I started on Sunday:

Snapdragons - 9 cells
Baby Dolls - 9 cells
Ping Tung eggplant - 9 cells
Long Purple eggplant - 9 cells
Amish Paste tomatoes - 36 cells

I used equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite as a starting mixture. The plastic cells and trays are being reused from last year.



I'll be starting another batch of tomatoes in a few weeks as well as some other flowers, my herbs, broccoli, and some others I've forgotten. Right now I have the tray down by our corn burner to stay warm. This next goal is to get Brian to hang up my new lights so the seedlings can go under there once they sprout. It feels like spring it finally here!

How Do You Start Your Seedlings?

I am happy to be back to blogging after the holiday. I meant to leave a more upbeat post up over Christmas but have been having a lot of trouble with my internet connection and therefore gave up. I have some nice Christmas pics to post and I'd like to share what gifts we gave this year, as well as some nice things we received.

Today, though, I would like to discuss something that has been on my mind a lot, and apparently on others too. Let's talk about garden plans! The latest edition of Hobby Farms is full of tips and tricks for garden planning. Sharon Astyk posted awhile back about signs of a possible seed shortage so I sorted through what was left of last year's seeds and made my list for this year.

I order my seeds almost exclusively through Baker Creek Seed Co. at rareseeds.com. They are a great company to deal with and produce a wonderful catalog chuck full of good information. The real reason I prefer them is because they care so much about seed integrity and I trust them. Frankly, I don't have to time or the knowledge to sort through other catalogs and pick out the seeds that are non-GMO, "safe", etc. I have some basic knowledge of those concepts but feel good ordering there until I take time to expand my knowledge.

I did have a lot of seeds left from last year. Not because I wanted to but because the first batch of seedlings I started didn't do very well so I gave up on a lot of the plants that require early starting. Last year I used black plastic trays and a mix of peat, vermiculite, and perlite. I planted the seeds as directed and kept the soil moist. The trays sat on a big table near our cornstove so they were very warm. Then when the plants emerged I moved them upstairs to our bay window. The temperature was quite a bit cooler but they needed the light. I tried to rotate the trays regularly to prevent the seedlings from growing crooked but they got very spindly and almost none lived once I moved them outside.

I checked with the hometown greenhouse but the owner doesn't have any room to start veggies for me, she uses all her space for flowers. Last year I bought a flat of tomato seedlings and they produced well but they were definitely no heirloom variety. This makes me think there may be a market for any extra seedlings I produced.

I've looked at growing setups in catalogs and they all seem to be quite expensive. I've heard of people using those long tube lights (forgive me I forget the correct name for them!). Should I invest in some of those or look into a small greenhouse? I would love to hear what works for you! I'm not necessarily opposed to buy seedlings I just haven't found a local source of the types I want.

Keep in mind I'm in Michigan so I don't plant much outside until May or June. Tomatoes are my main concern, and last year I remember trying some broccoli and onions so we could have an early supply of them.

Spring cleaning

Sometimes it is really important to take a step back and look at the big picture...

especially when zoom works this good!

We took the screen out of the window to toss some boxes out so Baxter decided he wanted some fresh air. Now that the upstairs is cleared out I need to move all the boxes from our extra bedroom downstairs up there. Then we will actually have a guest bedroom that people can use! It is hard to stay inside and get things done with so much going on outside. Tomorrow we have a busy day planned. Here is our to-do list:

• Build a pen for the chickens (they are outgrowing their makeshift brooder boxes)
• Divide up the horse pasture to allow for rotational grazing. We barely got the perimeter fence up last fall so now we need to finish the job. While we're at it there are a few shorts that need to be fixed.
• Spread a few more loads of pig manure on the fields. A friend is giving us all we can use but it takes a little over an hour for each load by the time we fill the spreader, pull it home, and apply it.
• Get the youngest group of calves outside. We having been weaning them gradually and tomorrow morning after they get their last batch of milk we will take them out of their individual pens and put them together. We buy Holstein bull calves from a local dairy and finish them for beef. There are 5 calves in this group. We have 3 more that are a couple months older so we'll have to see if they will all get along.
• If there is any more time I would really like to work on the garden. I've been digging it my hand using the bastard trenching/deep bed method. It takes a long time but I think it will be worth it. I might break down after this section and use the rototiller but next year I'll make another section in to a deep bed and so on. I'll go in to more detail on this in a later post.

Looks like plenty for one day. I doubt we will get it all done but any progress made will be great! I'm looking forward to having 2 day weekends again soon instead of working on Saturdays like I have been!

Not sure how many people are reading this yet (if any) but feel free to offer any input or share what projects you're working on. :)