FarmerJ | August 10, 2009
Keep those hay bales rollin’! It seems like forever ago since the first cut of alfalfa ~ so I thought I’d better give you an update…and let you know where I came in with my prediction on the number of rolls that massive cut produced. [I guess there's a reason why I never win those [...]
FarmerJ | July 14, 2009
With all of the unwanted excitement around here, I’d forgotten about the fun we had the day before the shop fire. Winston and Spanky had a play date in the Back Forty ~ and the results were splendid! We refer to the Back Forty as the approximate five or so acres behind the back slough. [...]
FarmerJ | June 7, 2009
The moment we’ve been anxiously awaiting finally arrived ~ we’ve got our first cut of alfalfa for the 2009 season! By the looks of things, it should prove to be a fairly productive harvest. Earlier this spring, Darling Husbie went to the local fertilizer plant and placed an order for a special ‘cocktail’ for the [...]
FarmerJ | April 24, 2009
Meet Wilma! She’s a White Garden Tractor powered by a 22hp engine and sports a 50″ deck ~ and she’s loaded with all the important luxuries a girl could ever want…and she’s a blast to ride around the Farmstead! I will admit that when Darling Husbie made the executive decision to purchase Wilma, it was [...]
FarmerJ | January 8, 2009
Darling Husbie got a New Year’s prize. Meet Winston. Winston is a Hesston 620 Windrower/Conditioner. What exactly does Winston do? Well, he’s actually quite a complicated piece of machinery ~ he will cut our alfalfa, condition it (which means to squish the moisture out of the hay so it dries faster and more evenly) and [...]
FarmerJ | December 27, 2008
Okay, well, maybe not seconds. According to the official Prairie Farmstead Weather Station, we’ve experienced daytime temperatures ranging from 0° F to 54° F in a two-day timespan. That’s crazy, I tell you ~ and apparently pretty typical for the prairie land. The guys have had a few instances where they’ve taken advantage of opportune [...]
FarmerJ | December 22, 2008
Yesterday was a happy day for us here at the Prairie Farmstead ~ both the first day of winter and Daniel arrived! I cannot tell you how relieved I am that we have now officially entered the winter season. You see, in my book we’ve been in ‘winter’ since about the middle of October. Especially [...]
FarmerJ | November 14, 2008
Yesterday afternoon, the girls (Abigail the Toy Fox Terrorist and Peanut the Beagle/Shepherd) and I were outside on the front patio ‘cleaning’ the popcorn harvested from our garden. Off in the distance ~ we live approximately three miles from the local municipal airport ~ because the cloud coverage was just right, I could hear an [...]
FarmerJ | October 27, 2008
Last night was our first really hard freeze, so I wanted to tend to the last few plants in the garden. Saturday was a beautiful day here on the Farmstead, reaching a blissful 71 degrees ~ it sort of made it hard to believe the forecast was calling for 22 degrees the following night. Oh [...]
