Inventions

I love inventing things. It is one of the rewarding challenges that comes with my job and life. Recently I have been perfecting my solar shower. Last year, I had one in the greenhouse that was heated by filling a large coil of black plastic irrigation tubing with water. One end goes into a bucket and the other is attached to the cold water. When I am ready for a shower, I turn on the faucet and it pushes the hot water into the bucket. The bucket is suspended overhead and a toilet flapper lets out the water in a satisfying WHOOSH when you pull a string. This provides enough water for a long-ish shower. The drawback was that as soon as the sun went down, or if it clouded up at the end of the day, boom, no hot water.
The water in my new system thermosyphons into the bucket and it can be insulated. As water warms, it expands, causing it to rise. It has to go up in a continuously rising tube to work. One of my goals with this shower is to use parts and hardware that can be purchased at Fleet farm. Two black garden hoses are connected and provide the heating surface. In the picture, you can see the shadow of the heated water reflected on the bottom of the bucket. The jury is out on whether the volume of the hoses will be enough to heat the volume of the bucket, I'll keep you posted. I built the shower stall but my friend Mark Olson did the decorative joists on the top.

Riding the Rhythm

There is a quiet turning point that happens near the end of June; a moment when there is an easing of the frenzy of the past two months. It feels like the small relaxation that comes with the sound of the rain on the leaves when it has been dry. I am almost at that moment with the farm. Most of the cover crops are up but not ready to plow under. Most of the vegetable plants are in the ground. Most of the seeds are planted and the successions have been set up. The fall broccoli is planted and up. There is more to do, there is always more to do, but it seems manageable now and I can relax a just little.

The plants have started their own move towards maturity and can survive a certain amount of insect damage. Sure, the potatoes need to be sprayed with Entrust to kill the bugs who can strip the plants in a week, but the rest are getting on with the business of thriving. The first few deliveries have been made and the number of bags at the drop sites has solidified and is set. Now I can ride the rhythm of the summer's beat: deliver, harvest, plant, weed. It pulls me along instead of me pushing it into place.

There are still the emergencies that call for extra attention, the sick animal or the missed bag, but most of it has begun to roll along and I can just hang on for the thrilling ride.

Here we go!

The recent rains have the vegetables springing out of the ground. There is a delicate balance between rains and dry periods for vegetable growth and weed management. In my large garden(4 acres), I have the best luck with weed control when I can get into the garden with the horse-drawn cultivator. This marvel of engineering digs up the weeds and leaves them to wither on the surface of the soil. Wither when the soil is dry. When it is damp, followed with a rain, they are just replanted. Tilling the soil when it is too wet causes soil compaction.

When it is dry and I am desperate for rain, I scan the forecast eagerly for any sign of rain. As soon as it has rained enough, I look with equal urgency for a dry spell to transplant, seed and cultivate. I would rather have it on the wet side though than dry. Hand weeding is always an option although slower and more costly. Its all a trade off because more moist soil makes pulling weeds easier.

New technology enters our lives as a marvel and quickly seems indispensable. I scan the radar like an oracle and try and project the movement of the storm cells. Its doesn't affect the outcome, but I am addicted none the less.

Right now I am thankful for the moisture and cooler temperatures. Within days and sometimes hours, I will be wondering when it will dry out so I can get some work done!

Roller Coaster Spring

What a long and wonderful spring it has been. I am almost dizzy from the ups and down in the temperature. I farm to a rhythm that I have internalized after many years. When the weather runs counter to the beat, it is difficult. Ironically, having a longer spring makes me feel behind when actually I am ahead.

I have had time to plow with the horses and get used to my new mare, Molly. She is doing well. We have planted peas and oats as a cover crop that will be used for plow-down to add fertility to the soil. When it was warm in April, I kept saying to myself that it was going to get cold, all the while not believing it. The snow flakes coming down on May 8 made me feel a little smug that I hadn't planted out more crops that could have frozen. The last frost date in our area is around the end of May. When cold air drops down out of Canada, there's no arguing.

Baby!!!

Mingo had her calf today, March 30. We had been waiting, each night proclaiming that the time was at hand. Finally she went into labor and produced the baby in less than an hour. I thought that she was due the end of February but I was only off by a month! Ironic then, that I won the baby pool within 5 minutes. I guessed March 30 at 5:00 p.m. and Mingo's calf was born at 4:55. The baby is a beautiful chocolate brown. Mother and baby are in the barn in a roomy box stall. I called Darrel, the former owner for some pointers of dealing with a new mom. It is nice that this time she will be able to keep her calf at her side. We will try letting the calf drink and milking her too. Right now her udder is so big, it might have milk for the whole town. Milk fever is something you have to watch in new bovine mothers and sheep too. When too much calcium goes into their milk production, the muscles don't have enough and they can get stiff to the point of not being able to move. You can avoid this by not stimulating milk production with rich food and not milking her out all the way. I will try this and keep a close eye on her.

What a fine Udder

Mingo, my 11 year old jersey cow is going to freshen, or give birth very soon. She is due according to her breeding date around March 8. Each day her udder has been growing and filling. This is called "bagging up." I expect it to fill out more until she begins to drip a little milk and then I will really watch her closely. Being on baby alert is nice because it gets you out of bed in the middle of the night. Sounds crazy I know, but the stars are really vivid around 2:00 a.m. and I feel very peaceful heading out to the barn to check on things. I have learned a lot since I came to Wisconsin in 1981. I didn't know any terms for cow pregnancy like "freshen", "springing" or "bagging up". One day Gary Faulkner, whose farm I was visiting for the summer, told me to go out and see if any of the cows were "pulling". Not wanting to seem ignorant, I decided to go out and see if any of the cows was pulling anything. I looked. They were all standing around like normal. I didn't see any pulling. I ducked back into the barn and reported that all was quiet. Gary stuck his head out of the door and saw one of the heifers mounting another one who stood still and waited. "Well there's one bulling right now," he said. Oh, BULLING. Thus began my education about cows calving and just one of the many terms that I would become so familiar with.

New horses at the farm

I have been working horses for 29 years ever since I first learned when I came to Wisconsin in 1981. It must be a real relationship because there have been hard times and great times. It is the best when it is at the center of what I do and commit time to. Like many relationships, as the thrill wore off, it has been put aside as other needs pushed in and took the attention. Several times I have considered getting out of the horse business and just using tractors.

One of my mares, Tora is now 23 years old. I bought Tora when she was 5 years old and broke her to work in only a few days. She has always been my smartest and most reliable horse. She can still work, but her feet hurt and she is over weight. I feel lost thinking of working horses without her but it is time to add new animals or stop with the horses altogether. With this in mind, I began to look for new horses. Perhaps, I thought, I should get a different kind of horse. I went and looked at some that the Amish had. Compared with my Fjord horses, they all looked big and awkward. Then I realized that to get horses I really like to work with, I would have to break them myself.

About this time, I learned of a herd of Fjord horses that had belonged to Betty Davidson. Betty had died tragically in a farm accident and all of her horses were for sale. In early December I went and looked at the horses. They were in need of a little attention but one stood out, Molly, an 8 year old mare. In another pasture were the weanling filly colts. All out of the same sire, they looked remarkably similar. I had not come with any intention to get babies but the group was so nice. Two of the fillies broke away from the bunch and approached tentatively. One particularly was very friendly and unfazed. They did not have names but were distinguished by number tags on chains. I fell in love with 13 and 15.

I called Betty's daughter Bev and said that I wanted Molly and the two fillies. I picked them up on December 23 and have not had a single regret. I have christened the two new fillies as Binna (female bear in Norwegian) and Snorri. They are learning about being tied up and having their feet handled. Molly will undergo some training when things warm up in February and I have the time.

It feels like the right time to recommit to working horses. The best days on my farm were when both the horses and I worked in a regular rhythm. I can't imagine my farm without these wonderful teddy bear horses.