Thankful Thursday ~ State of the Farm

Hey Everyone!

Happy Thursday ! 

Things have been busy around here lately. Jeff and I were on vacation visiting family in Iowa, which you can read a bit about in my previous Thankful Thursday post. Then, we were home for a few days before some great friends of mine came from Seattle for a visit of about four days. I'll write a bit more about that soon, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, for the most part it has continued to be dry, dry, dry with the weather. Jeff just showed me the drought report put out by our local tv news station...

We are located near Havre on that map, in the peachy-tan colored section. So, we're not as bad as some parts of the state, but we're still pretty bad. We have not had much rain at all this year, which makes it pretty difficult to grow crops.

Then, on July 4th we had some "fireworks," brought to us by Mother Nature by way of a severe thunderstorm with rain and the four-letter H word. Yep, you guessed it.. hail. There was actually a tornado warning issued for part of our county. 

To add insult to injury in a dry, dry growing season, we then were hit with sideways hail. On the land that Jeff and I farm, we received hail damage to some extent on 100% of our crops. Tom (Jeff's Dad) had hail damage on some of his land, too. Both farms were reeling from droughthy weather. Some of our neighbors literally have no crop left standing in the field. With harvest just around the corner, their crops are completely totaled out already. 

You can see how the wheat is literally laying down.
The power of strong wind and hail.

So why do I bring all of this up? There are a fair number of friends and family who read this blog because they like to know what is going on here on the farm. Now you know. I'm not writing about this to gain sympathy or to share a sob story. It's simply statement of fact as to how the year is going. I.e. not very well. 

But what we must do, despite everything, or rather, IN SPITE of it all, is try to remain positive and thankful for what we do have. In agriculture, we are completely at the mercy of the weather. We cannot control it. We can do everything we can to plan and prepare for how we expect weather conditions to unfold according to typical weather patterns for our area, but when we have an off-year, that's just how it is. Not every year is going to be tremendous. Most will be average. When bad years or bad things happen, we have to learn from it, if possible, and move on. 

And just to lighten the mood while emphasizing my point, please watch this video from The Lion King:

"It doesn't matter-- it's in the past!"

What happens, happens. And, it really DOESN'T matter, because it's in the past! We can't change the past. What we can control is our own behaviors and actions in the moment and going forward.

Is it easy to let go? Hell no! Does it still suck when bad things happen? Absolutely. But I believe that a person can recognize, acknowledge, and give some weight to the negative emotions we feel due to bad circumstances, learn from them, and then let go and move forward. Try to make the best of what's still here to work with.

Rather timely, I'd add, another blog that I follow posted this article this week: Things You Gain When You Let Go Of Control. It's all about letting go of what you can't control, giving space to those things, and relishing what you can control, which is really only yourself. When you do that, you find that you're more able to recognize the good and the peace in what is all around you, and in yourself. I think the best quote of the entire article is this: "If you want to control your cows, give them a bigger pasture." Ponder that one for a while. :)

And so, even as the summer drags on, with whatever mixed bag of tricks Mother Nature still has in store for us, I remind myself of some of the many reasons I still am glad to be here. What we do on our farm helps feed a hungry world. Today's modern agricultural practices feed more people than ever before, and we are part of that. Every bit of grain we will harvest in the coming weeks, even though it's less than we originally thought we would have, helps to serve others. That's something to be proud of and to be thankful for.

I'll leave you with this Wendell Berry excerpt. There's a lot in there that rings true.


Happy Thursday, everyone! 
What are you thankful for this week?

Snow Fun (and a little work, too!)

What a great weekend it has been! Thanks to the snow day we had on Thursday, I enjoyed four days off of school! Pretty awesome. Even though the temperatures were pretty chilly most of the past four days, Jeff and I still managed to get outside and have some fun recreating in the snow. Today, the warmest day, has made it up to 16 degrees at my house with NO WIND and the first SUNSHINE we've had in a while! I tell you what, the flat light and cloudiness has been a downer. I would struggle to live west of the mountains where that's the norm this time of year. So nice to see the SUN today! :)

This weekend's adventures included snowshoeing the tree rows in my yard (Thursday), cross-country skiing the ditches with Jeff (Friday and Saturday), and a brisk jog on the snow-covered gravel road today. I took a few photos here and there.

Twice I also helped Jeff with cow-feeding chores over at Tom and Carol's place. So, there's just a few photos of that too.

 The first group of photos are from my snowshoeing adventure. The sun peeked out for just a bit that afternoon, so I did nab a silhouette photo:

Where we live, we don't get nearly as much snow as other parts of the state. When we do get snow, it typically blows sideways and doesn't make much ground cover. It's only thanks to our tree rows that I'm ever able to snowshoe at my house. The trees catch the snow and keep it from blowing away. When the wind is blowing, as it was on Thursday, this is the place to be anyway because you're more protected. 

Walking in my own snowshoe tracks among the carigana.

I basically just made laps up and down in the tree rows for about a half hour. It was pretty cold-- single digits-- and pretty windy. Half an hour was plenty, but still so great to get out and get the heart pumping! 

 One of my favorite things about fresh snow is that you can see all the animal tracks and signs. Grouse have been numerous in our yard since it got cold. Their tracks are everywhere! I also noticed what looks like markings made by their wings in the snow. From takeoff? or landing? Pretty cool!

 I love this old thresher! It sits protected from the wind behind some grain bins.

 Harvey had a great time tromping through the snow with me, too! He sniffed and tracked a whole bunch of grouse and really seemed to enjoy himself! Even with his short coat, he moves so much and runs and plays so he seems to stay warm enough.

Harvey, taking my path instead of creating his own. :)

I didn't take any photos of our skiing adventures in the ditch for several reasons. I'm not the world's greatest Nordic skier so I was concentrating mightily on simply staying upright. The snow surface of the ditch was pretty icy. There certainly wasn't a nice two-track or anything, and we couldn't cut one because it was crusted over. Again, it was pretty cold but we were bundled up and moving around so it didn't seem too bad. We did about two miles on Friday and probably 3.5 on Saturday. The light was so flat that it was really hard to see the surface of the snow we were skiing on to notice the dips and rolls of the crusted surface. Tough going, but still lots of fun!

 Finally this morning the sun came out! 

 When I helped Jeff with chores it was again in single digits but with the sunshine and no wind, it felt so much warmer!!! I never did get cold outside!

When I took this next photo, I was just focused on the pattern of the tractor tire track in the snow. It wasn't until now that I noticed the bunny track within the tire track! Happy accidents. :)  I like the juxtaposition of scale between the bunny tracks and the tire markings. Also interesting to note that one track was created by man and machine, while the other by an animal.

Harvey "helped" with chores!

 Jeff operated the tractor while I swung gates and cut twine outside. I like this picture because it shows how the snow drifts up and the tractor cuts tracks through the drifts. You can see how deep it was in places.

Cows munching on some fresh straw! Gotta love a red cow in the sunshine! :)

 Jeff unrolls the bales with the tractor and the cows fill in behind him and start eating. We fed two hay bales and also brought two straw bales into the pen; one was for bedding and the other we put in the feeder for them to munch on. Also, a "peak" (harhar!) of the Sweetgrass Hills in the background!

On to today's run! I actually haven't run in two weeks, which is the longest I've gone without running in quite some time. With travel to Glacier and my family's visit, followed by feeling pretty down and out with fever and a nasty cold, I just haven't been out to run. I decided to test the waters today with an easy two mile jog, accompanied by Harvey and Abby, of course! It would have been so easy to hop on the treadmill today, but with the sun shining and no wind, it was so much better to head outside!

 The run went well. I felt like could have done more.  I'm excited the days are getting longer again and looking forward to some evening jogs after work, hopefully soon!

Another shot of animal tracks! After my jog, I walked out to our grain bins to take a look at the traffic patterns. No person has been over here since it snowed, so what you're seeing is entirely created by animals! Mostly grouse and jackrabbits. They come into the yard because it's protected, and also because they can eat grain that spills ever so slightly out of the bins. Just look at all those tracks! Also, can you spot Harvey?

This week is supposed to be warmer and warmer every day. I'm looking forward to jogging outside at least once. And, even though it was nice to have extra time off of school and to ease back in last week with an abbreviated week, I'm also looking forward to getting back into routine and spending time with the kids I work with.

How was your weekend? Did you get outside?!?

Winter Fire

Late Monday morning as Jeff walked from his parents’ house, through the tree rows, and over to the shop, casually looking over his right shoulder out the western horizon. The wind was howling that day and would have whipped him right in the face.  A few moments later, Jeff and Tom noticed a plume of smoke to the west on that same horizon which had previously been clear.  The power had flickered off and on several times in that time frame and they began to wonder if the smoke and flickering power were connected.  They called a few neighbors and discovered indeed there was a grass fire to the west of Tom and Carol’s place, started by a five or six power lines that had blown to the ground due to the strong wind.  When they came back outside and looked to the west again, the small plume of smoke had blossomed into a mushroom cloud. With 50-60 mph winds, a grass fire could get out of hand very quickly. They loaded up and headed a few miles north and west to help fight fire.

By the time they got there, several other neighbors and volunteer fire fighters from the area were there to help control the blaze. Jeff said later it was the largest fire he had ever helped fight. As a team, they got the fire under control, and shortly after a snow squall hit to punctuate the extinction of the fire with heavy, wet flurries. Power north of Joplin, however, would be out for much of the night. 

Jeff estimated that the fire burned several hundred acres and can say with certainty that it did cross into northeastern Hill County, though the bulk of it was in northern Liberty County.  The fire did make it as a blurb onto the evening news, which you can read here:http://www.krtv.com/news/fire-burns-100-acres-in-liberty-county/  If you ask Jeff, he’d tell you that the blaze was actually slightly more west than indicated on that map and larger than what the Liberty County Sherrif reported.

The ferocious wind dissipated the smoke cloud quickly, but the smell lingered.  When I left work that day in Gildford, MT, which is probably 50 miles or more from where the fire was, I could smell smoke through the ventilation of my vehicle as I drove home. 

Grass fires are typically not something we are concerned with in Montana this time of year, but with the extreme wind events we have been party to lately, it seems anything can happen. Structures that have withstood heavy winds for years are finally succumbing to stress. Farther west of here at the base of the Rocky Mountain Front, in towns like Browning, Cut Bank, and St. Mary, gusts were recorded over 100mph. There were and continue to be many reports of wind damage to property.  Thankfully, the fire near here did not hurt any people or property and the worst disaster anyone suffered was power outages.  Mother Nature will continue to teach us to be ready for anything, winter or not.

The Animals are Back

Late fall on the farm.  After shipping the steer calves and most of the heifers a few weeks ago, the remaining replacement heifers, fats, and misfits are now residing outside our place.  This young lady did not make the cut to get on the truck (read THIS post from a few weeks ago for more details).  Alas, she has horns.  So, her fate will be settled at 'the ring' in Chinook at some date in the not-too-distant future.  I thought it was rather endearing that her brazen curiosity got the better of her young-calf skitters when she cautiously meandered right up to me to sniff me out.  Actually, I think she was most interested in my camera.

Its nice to have some animals in our corral again.  The yearling heifers were grazing in pasture behind our house all summer and I came to really enjoy looking out the window at them munching on grass.  After harvest, they had gone to join the rest of the cows to graze on crop stubble.  Even though it had really not been that long between when the yearlings were hear and when the young heifer calves arrived, it was a nice sight for me to drive home one day and find Jeff preparing some hay for these young ladies.

These heifers were separated from their mothers on the day we shipped the rest of the calves.  The mama cows are presumably pregnant again and the cycle continues.  They stay over by Tom and Carol's for the winter and will calve in March.  The young heifers here were quite noisy the first few days, bawling over being in a new place without their mamas, no doubt.  (You'd cry, too!)

Jeff feeds them when they run out of hay, every few days.  I have told him I would like to learn to do this chore as well.  I may regret offering my help later this winter when it's -20... but for now it seems like a good way I can play a small part in the cow operation. So far, I have been simply helping him swing gates open and clear the calves away from the feeder so he can drop in the hay bale.

It is a windy devil of a day outside today.  I think about the nursery rhyme where the three pigs have each built a house-- one of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks.  The big bad wolf is clearly huffing and puffing outside today and I am hoping my house is made of bricks. It will be a good day to stay inside and get caught up on laundry and sewing projects. If Jeff feeds the calves today, I'll try not to get blown away when I go out to help him.

Photo from www.wikipedia.com