Fleeces and Fence Posts

Morning

 Well hello Blog!  It's been awhile...how've you been?  Have you forgotten me?  No?  I'm glad to hear that!

Fleeces and fence posts ~ so much I'd love to catch you up on, happenings and every day routine things.  But I guess my farm life right now is dominated by these two things, fleeces and fences.

Some of you know that we sold our remaining farm ground back at the end of December, first of January.  What we have remaining now at this place is ten acres.  Old fences, pasture barriers, needed to be moved.  Because I wanted to save and re-use some of the woven wire and the cedar posts, this meant a bit of work!  I don't have farm equipment - at least nothing like a tractor or skid steer, and the farm truck has some tire issues.   So it was with a bucket and fencing tool, a hammer and a pair of pliers that I went to work!


A bittersweet job.  So many thoughts running through my head.  The passage of time.  The loss of the land (not really a loss, I guess, a conscious choice, but still - no longer ours).  A change in our lifestyle.  And remembering, as I dismantle this fence, being in this same spot at a different time, putting the fence up with my Dad, who's no longer with us.  I think about pausing from our work to sit on the tail gate of his truck - my truck now - to drink a cup of coffee.  Working in silence.  Admiring his efficiency and strength.  Still missing him terribly every day.

There's something, though, that's satisfying with this kind of work.  It also tests your

End of day

patience and endurance.  When my father put up fence, he intended it to last.  To stand up to livestock and wildlife, and weather and time.  So taking it down was really no easy task. But then again, now that I think of it, probably easier to take down a nice, strong and straight fence than one that is laying in the weeds or buried in the tree line.  Anyway, I cried more than a few times in the course of this job, trying to remember things Dad said or how he did it. Mad at myself when I did things wrong, proud if I got it right.  A few mishaps sent me to the house, crying to my husband, bless his heart!  At the end of the day, tired and discouraged, I poured us both a cup of coffee and asked him to just let me cry and vent my frustrations, which he did.  Then he called the neighbor and asked if they would bring their truck and pick up my rolls of newly dismantled fences from the pasture and bring them to the barn.  They did and I felt better.  The neighbor who bought the property came with his tractor and he and Alex pulled up the wooden fence posts. Friend and neighbor Caren came and hauled away wire we could no longer use.  Alex and Mark rolled up the big wire for us, as best they could (have you ever wrestled with used woven wire?)  

I'm glad that work is done. 

Kimber, a nice charcoal grey Corriedale with well defined, traditional crimp 

So in that time, as lambing finished, we also got shearing done.  As always, I'm slow to get the skirting done.  I like to do it myself and I like to take my time.  So there are fleeces available, I'm slowly getting pictures and prices.  If you are a blog reader who has spoken to me about reserving a fleece, will you please email me again?  I lost a lot of saved emails, so please contact me at serenityfarmswool@yahoo.com if you are interested in Corriedale or Corriedale-Bond fleece this year.   

I also received a lovely, large shipment in the post right in the middle of all of this work and excitement ~ I can't wait to share with you what that's all about, but I think I'll just save that news for its own post!  Thank you for sticking with me! Do any of you have stories or memories of working on the farm with your Dad or husband or someone special to you?  I'd love to hear!

Edited to add:  Although we are down to ten acres here at this place, we still have the Round House and Burnham Barn and Woods, along with about eight acres of hay at the Burnham Farm ;)

Lots of Flowers

Mothers Day Flowers of all kinds!  On the right, lovely lilacs pure and simple, from my own Mothers garden.  Is there anything that can bring back a memory of mom or grandma like the scent of a lilac?  So sweet ~

Then below, a beautiful bouquet of many pretty flowers - roses, delphinium, sunflowers, Queen Anne's Lace, asters.  This arrived by delivery on Saturday from my darling step-daughters and their families and oh my, did I ever need that flowery "hug"!  It had been quite a morning I'll tell you.  So I feel pretty well loved and really enjoyed my weekend.  How about all of you?

 

Cue the Crochet

Knitting is my first love, but I do crochet and occasionally just like to pick up the crochet hook and do a quick project.  I'm especially fond of "granny squares" since I'm kind of a square-granny ;)  Did you know that March is National Crochet Month?  And that there are tons of really neat crochet patterns and projects out there - especially if you like "retro" or "vintage".  Here's a sample of a few of my favorite old potholders, all of them gifts to me from various friends and loved ones, most found at thrift stores.  I went on a binge a few years ago of making potholders like these but since my crochet, like my knitting, tends to be very loose tension they just never look that good ;(  But I keep trying!

Earlier this month, while visiting my favorite thrift store, I found these in the free basket - what a score!

The decorating book has some especially fun pieces and has me dreaming.  Another thing that keeps me dreaming about crochet is a blog I've followed for a long time, Attic24 - for some real eye candy you really should check it out.  And its not just crochet, not by a long mile, its all kinds of lovely things! 

My mom did beautiful crochet.  Her stitches were so precise and lovely (see the edging of one of the blankets she made for me below).  One of the sweetest things I have in my possession is the last project she was working on.  Its only a few rows, but along with the yarn and crochet hook is a little slip of paper with her handwriting.  As she grew weaker, it was hard for her to do much but she wanted to give it a try again to keep her hands busy.  It was to much for her so she sat it aside.  My brother, bless his heart, came across it in her night stand and saved it for me.  I have it in a basket near me now.

Do any of you crochet?  What is your favorite thing to make?  Why not pick up some crochet before this month is over!

Five Years and More

Excuse the fuzziness of this picture of a special little hand - it might be a misty-eyed Grandma's reflection of how fast time flies by.  Today our youngest grandson turns five years old, and in just a few more days - on Christmas day in fact - our oldest grandson turns thirteen!  Is it just me, or does it seem like the grandchildrens birthdays go by faster than the childrens did?

Happy Birthday, Little E!!!  We'll celebrate this morning with a birthday breakfast and tonight with a preschool Christmas pagent.  He has been belting out songs for weeks now, his favorite being "Go Tell It On The Mountain".

Five years old and jumping into life with both feet!  Blessed days ~

Today is the day ~

The day when our farm is reduced in size by half. When corn fields, and bean fields and hay field are no longer ours. A day as a farmer you know might one day come. But you don’t really acknowledge it in your heart of hearts until it’s there staring you in the face.

We’ve known of this for a month or better now, been planning for it, but I couldn’t find the words to speak about it. Or when I thought I did, emotion got the better of me and I couldn’t. In some ways we’re lucky – more so than many. We aren’t losing the land to foreclosure or fire, flood or drought, hurricane or tornado. It’s our own decision and one we are so grateful to God for being able to make. We are giving in to old(er) age and health. And a need to be debt free and a bit more secure than we are right now. We’re lucky that at least for the time being we will still have the Burnham Barn and Round House and Woods and some acres around our daughters house. We’ll only be selling farm ground. Only farm ground?!?

Only what we see when we stand in our daughters yard and look north, what the sale bill calls “Parcel One” ~

Or when you stand in the yard and look south, at “Parcel Two” ~

When you come out of the woods looking to the east and the Burnham Barn and you see all of this ~

From the Burnham Barn looking west and then north again, with daughter Patty's piece at the far end of the lower photo beyond the hay field ~

Only farm ground. I think not. It feels more like a death, it’s that profound of a loss. You feel like you have failed the land somehow, like you haven’t been able to keep it safe and part of the family. You grieve. You really and truly grieve.

Other farmers especially know how you feel. Its been evidenced by the phone calls and visits we've been receiving especially over the past few days as the sale looms closer. “Just wanted to see how you are doing” “Is there anything I can do to help?” “Do you need anything, just let me know. I can be there if you need me to” “How ‘ya doing, Doc?” “Do you need me to drop off a pie?” (Yes, as farmers we always associate food with comfort and rightly so!) You can tell by the hugs and the handshakes you get in the grocery store, coffee house and barber shop.  Farm friends, and farm family. If  you have ever had an attachment to five acres or fifty or five hundred, you understand it.

It has fed our livestock and it has fed us, both physically and spiritually for a long time. Now its time that it do so in a bigger way. And we’re thankful for the opportunity.

Like all grief and loss, time will help ease the painful sting. We’ll keep our eyes focused on God and the direction He continues to lead us in. We’ll work harder and hopefully smarter and more efficiently with what we have left to farm…our wee house and barn and pastures on the west side of the Burnham property. We’ll still enjoy the Round House and Woods and our children and grandchildren and beyond, God willing!

But for today – at least for today, if you are reading this, will you remember us in prayer as we say goodbye to this dear friend? Especially for my husband, who knows every single square inch of that dirt, where every stone in the stone pile came from. Especially for him.

And if you're reading this and have a similar story to tell, I would love to hear it if you would like to share.  Just drop us an email or leave a comment.  I'm not sharing this because I want anyone to feel sorry for us, not at all.  We are able to make this choice with a lot of thought, and planning and prayer.  And though it may not have been our first choice, if we had been able to do it otherwise, it is still the right one for us at this time of our lives.  So no, I don't share looking for sympathy but only to help ease the sadness and help us to look forward from here.

God Bless ~

Last Weeks Work

It was busy, it was frantic, it was fun and it was productive!  I can't say enough about our wonderful family and friends who joined in to help Bill and me with some fall farm projects...we really, really are blessed beyond measure.  We got to visit, we got to eat and we got to work and see some pretty great results (I get excited about a clean barn.  Wish I could say the same about a clean house!)

So, I'll just share some random photos from those lovely days.  They probably won't mean much to anyone but me, but it is another look at what happens around the small farm - at least around our farm ;)





A lot of thought went into making these old box stall areas more functional for sheep.  I couldn't be happier with the changes and I think it will be a lot easier to work with



The ducks were quite unsettled by all the activity and kept watch from a safe distance

Small trains, small tractors and small boys were everywhere!  Our fourth (and future) generation of farmers ;)



Emptied compost piles....

New manure piles (with grandsons shown for scale)....

All add up to a fresh clean barn for winter!

Of course all good work begins with planning and strategies, right?  And we had plenty of that going on...

Actually, I think this may have been football talk ;)

The "compost committee" (hmmm, might have been football talk as well! Go Steelers!)

My Dad and my Husband, working on making my barn work a lot easier!

Our thanks and love to everyone who helped out again....Dad, Michael, Devin, Mark, Nakia, Mason, Elliot, Eric, Wayne, Bryce, Austin, Laurie, Dakota and Jim.  Alex is usually here to be part of the "fun" but he is busy with college life now.  Also thanks to Randy for the use once more of the skid steer and Mary for the great barbecue meatballs that added to our lunch!  We just couldn't do it without you guys!!!

Sunday afternoon found us finishing up the weekend in a special way that served as another reminder of all we have to be thankful for.  Daughter Patty had asked Bill to be part of her 4-H group meeting, being held outdoors at the Burnham Farm near the Round House.  They will be doing a special project this year about "barns" and Bill was going to talk about the history of those two special buildings...

Grandson Dylan and several neighborhood children are part of this 4-H group!

The great orator sharing history and memories

It was beautiful and somewhat poignant to sit in the shadow of a great oak tree, the silhouette of the Round House and the shelter of the giant but tired old Burnham barn.  Our own farm days are changing and there is that sense of time rushing by, probably much faster than we want it to.  But at the same time as that change there are moments like these and many others we were able to share over the weekend that remind of how much in life is unchangeable - at least in our hearts and memories.

Barn Raising? Barn Cleaning! And Breakfast...

Most mornings for the past week, breakfast has been a succulent and delicious Brandywine tomato from the garden.  Sometimes I might slop up the juices with a hearty chunk of homemade bread, toasted.  Two nights of frost here in mid-Michigan have pretty much brought this to an end and Wednesday afternoon Elliot and I picked all of the tomatoes from the garden.  Yesterday morning I was up at 4 am, canning!

This weekend will be a wonderful, busy and tiring time of barn work!  Bill and I will have a houseful of grandkids, children, nephews, friends and even my Dad to help us get the barn ready for winter.  I will be running back and forth between the barn and the kitchen ;)

I will be back here (hopefully) on Monday to share some of the work and good times.  We hope you have a great weekend, too!

Late Summer Passing

The summer, once it finally arrived, seems to be passing by so quickly! A lot going on in our daily lives, so I haven't posted much. 

The giant phlox continues to amaze, blooming now into its third month!

I thought I would catch you up with some summer photos.  Remember in my last post I showed you a wagon load of straw?  Well, thanks to some fine help (ranging in age from 4 to 8 to 33 - grandsons, daughter and son-in-law!) we unloaded it all and got the wagon cleaned right up....

Next, the second cutting of hay.  I wanted twice as much in the barn this year as I had last year (I think hay could be a bit scarce this winter).  I was so relieved when this scene ~

My husband keeping watch on the progress

Turned into this scene ~

Before this scene rolled in!

I even got to do rake part of the field!  Raking is turning the swath of cut hay over - flipping it almost - to let the fresh air and sunshine dry or cure the grasses so it doesn't mold and spoil in the bale.  You do this after cutting but before baling.  I love raking hay, its one of my favorite jobs, with plenty of barn swallows alongside for companionship, gobbling up bugs...

This tractor belongs to our friend, the hay farmer.  You can see the sky getting darker back behind the Burnham barn!

Four year old Elliot is glad the hay is in the barn, too!  We now have hay (both first and second cuttings) and straw filling both mows of the barn as well as this last load on the barn floor.  You can see we go all the way to the beams and nearly to the lower roof line - woohoo!!!  There may a third cutting of hay yet, but we won't keep any of that. 

A 2011 lamb can't wait for me to spread this straw around!

Having the top of the barn full of hay and straw not only will feed the animals this winter but will provide much needed insulation to the lower part of the barn.  This will be especially important this year because we are planning to lamb much earlier than usual - February, if the rams do their job!  Brrrr....

Along with all of this, we have had a bit of a garden to keep up with and some other projects I want to share more about in another post.  Now, suddenly it's September.  My youngest grandson (above) started preschool  (how?  when?  the time goes faster and faster....)

This week the barn swallows lined up in rows on the wires.  And now they are gone....

They left early this year. 

Straw Or Gold?

Another favorite flower to share with you this morning, a hybrid lily.  It's a cross between the glorious Oriental Lily and the sturdy, prolific Asiatic Lily.  It's a real winner and I wish I had more of them in the garden, maybe next year.  Yesterday we counted nine open flowers and six buds waiting to open on one stalk!  The color and the perfume are divine.

It's much cooler this morning, thank you Lord!  78 degrees and a nice breeze compared to the mid-eighties and high humidity we have been waking up to.  I opened the front door to the breeze and stepped outside to enjoy these ~

Lavender in full flower outside my front door.  Ornamental grass rising up behind!

Some years I cut the lavender early, before it is fully open and dry it.  Some years, like this one, I just let it grown and enjoy it every time I step outside.  Me and the bees ;)

I'm really am glad it's cooler.  My kids will be here shortly to help with this:

2011 Straw

I better go get another cup of coffee and a piece of toast!

Farm Kids

Kids ~ Grandkids ~ Farm Kids!



Yes this skinny girl is my child, mother to these two boys!  I was that skinny once, too, a long time ago ;)





Wonder...



Boots with shorts is perfectly acceptable farm fashion

I love this last picture so much, it almost makes my heart hurt....8 years old and 4 years old, brothers though not exactly friends at this stage, headed out on an adventure with Grandma (me).  I just want to capture this image and hold it in my heart forever!

Henry's Argyle Sweater

Because I have been having fun playing around with the color option on my new camera, here is Henry with Nakia trying to hold the squirming boy still for a picture:

I love our old basement barn! And for something more colorful...Is he dapper (below) or what? That black shadow in the royal blue next to him? That's his twin sister, Holly:


These photos are for my Argyle-themed sister...she knows why ;D