I know, I know, long time no see! Believe me it has been a whirlwind here at the farm. The last time I updated you all (are there any of you?) we had just had three adorable lambs, seed had been sown, and the summer work was about to begin. And boy did it ever.  I’m not very “preachy” and I don’t consider myself exceptionally well versed with the Bible (even though I spent my formative years in a parochial school) but the verse from Ecclesiastes 3 could easily sum up the last few months.

2 “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”

We highly anticipated the birth of lambs this year and the delivery of our new laying flock. Both things went off without a hitch; three lambs (Poppy, Tulip, and Daffodil) and new chicks (15) arrived just before the lambs. Sadly, the opposite of birth is death and on the farm that is a reoccurring cycle. Our very loved lamb, Poppy, was having problems when she began to eat hay. At first we thought bloat, then choking, and then we suspected maybe she was constipated. When everything we could do didn’t work we called in our wonderful Veterinarian. He suspected a few different problems and we ran a diagnostic x-ray of her esophagus-stomach. Unfortunately she had a congenital heart defect , in which the muscle of the heart constricts around her esophagus not allowing food to pass through so she regurgitates all that she has consumed. There was no feasible surgery or medicine to help, we were instructed to keep her comfortable. Upon seeing the poor little thing I couldn’t bear it any longer and we took her back to the Vet to have euthanized. I’m not one to give up on animals so quickly but pain/suffering are not my thing so she peacefully passed on in my husbands arms. On the bright side her half sisters (Tulip and Daffodil) are doing wonderful and are growing big and strong in our new pasture.

 

The chickens were doing great as well until a loose cat somehow managed to squeeze his way into there pen and kill eight before I found it and got him out of there. There is no sight or sound more awful than a chicken dying. We doubled our efforts and the remaining chicks are growing and thriving. My daughter had selected two for her 4-h project this year, if you’re not familiar with this (4-H) please go to their site (https://4-h.org/), it’s a wonderful group for kids to be involved in. We listed them both a pullets, of course nature laughs at my plans frequently, and we actually have a pullet and a cockerel (young rooster). She has decided to select another female from our remaining chicks as he was less than excited to be messed with.

 

We planted and planted, corn, soybeans, barley, alfalfa, and grass seed. Again, mother nature snickered at our efforts. After we finished planting we had beautiful timely rains, until the month of June. And then the water valve was turned off! Now mind you we have most of our fields under irrigation (a well pumps water up through a system of pipes an it is sprayed onto the fields) but of course our alfalfa and grass were not. Suffice it to say our grass is barely there and the alfalfa is toast. When we walk across it, it disintegrates into the ground.  The alfalfa is a total loss. On the flip side though, our barley, wheat, corn and soybeans look fantastic and here around the end of the month we will be harvesting wheat followed by barley! We are praying for good yields.

   

The struggle on the farm is real! But we LOVE what we do and while that isn’t a great security net when things die or disintegrates; it never the less keeps us moving forward. I have to say being a farmer, whatever size it maybe, makes you realize there is a greater force at work behind everything that happens.