All posts by Cindra@lifewithafarmer

Must Be Summer, Because We’re Putting Up Hay

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One of the tell-tale signs of summer is putting up hay.

The Farmer woke up one cool, cloudy morning and decided that he was going to start cutting hay. The weatherman made a prediction of low clouds but no rain, and The Farmer believed him.

Not me…I had often been duped into believing that the weatherman could actually predict the weather here in Missouri, and had finally come to the conclusion that whatever was reported on TV was never what was going to happen.

So being the “supporting” wife, I informed The Farmer that if he insisted on cutting hay on a day when every physical sign pointed to a wet weekend that I would emphatically say, “I told you so”, when he was raking up wet hay.

Fortunately, The Farmer was right (must be farmer intuition). He pressed on, even under the pressure of low lying clouds and an unyielding spouse, and was able to get the first field cut, tethered, raked, and baled before the rain came.  

Cutting grasses while they are young and tender is best because the nutritional value is at its peak. It also makes more tender and tasty hay during the winter months (so I’ve been told).

The ideal time to cut hay is on a clear, warm, summer day, but sometimes that’s not possible, so The Farmer tethers the hay to dry it out faster. A tether machine picks up the hay and scatters it around to allow the hay to aerate. This step isn’t always necessary during really nice weather (just sayin’).

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After the hay is cured, it is raked into windrows and then baled.

 

 
 
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9StIukpbFmc]

 

We stack our hay and then cover it with a tarp. This is the first field and the first cutting. It really looks like a good year for hay, which is encouraging, because we had to buy a lot of our hay last year because of the drought.

Maxwells Attic

Date Night With The Farmer

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One of the most important aspects in a good marriage is communication. When two people are coming from different backgrounds, different lifestyles, and different traditions, it takes a lot of communication and hard work to come together as one flesh.

Ideally, some matters are discussed and settled before marriage: where to live, go to work, go to school, go to church, spend holidays, maybe the number of children that you will have or not have. Then life happens. Reality starts to set in and all the difficulties that go along with it. Plans change, goals are reset, and dreams die and come back alive in other forms. Sometimes couples start drifting away from where they started until they get to a point that they don’t even know the person that’s sitting across the breakfast table from them.

Most husbands and wives live in separate worlds. The Farmer and I certainly do. He has always gone off to a world that I hear about often and see occasionally. He works 40 minutes away from home and after a 40-hour week of hard, physical labor, he comes home to work on the farm, or fix a vehicle, or fix some other physical or mental difficulty that occasionally raises its ugly head.

Although there was a time when I would pack the kids up and go off to a job, fortunately, I stay at home and keep the home fires burning (sometimes at a ferocious roar). My world is filled with home school, child rearing, and housekeeping. Occasionally I am the farmhand or the riding boss.

Like most couples, there are very few and precious moments that we get to spend together, so years ago The Farmer and I set aside a sacred day and time apart for just the two of us. It is at this time that we come together and reclaim the time that is so needed in order to maintain a oneness between us. His world and mine come together. Sometimes it causes a tornado, but more often it brings unity. We adjust our goals, or reset our family’s GPS, or simply recover our sanity.

Saturday night is our official date night. We hold it as a sacred time. Most activities get pushed aside for this evening. And if something happens and we can’t make a Saturday date night, we do it on Friday or Sunday night. We haven’t always had this, but we realized early that it was a much needed ritual to keep us on the same track. Having a large family often makes it difficult to find babysitters, so we didn’t go out often in the early years, but as soon as our kids were able to stay at home by themselves, we made date night a priority.

So what is a date night with The Farmer like? Well, I’m glad you asked. Last Saturday when we went out, we recorded a moment by moment timeline of our date.  In case you haven’t been paying attention to my blog, we are a farming family who have raised nine kids on one income  (well almost, three of them are still teens). So our date nights are usually pretty cheap. We do have the occasional anniversary or birthday celebration, but most of the time we are very frugal. It has always been our decision to go frugal and often, as opposed to splurging and not being able to go out every week.

 

McDonald's
We usually eat in the truck, so our first stop is McD’s to get a 32 oz. soda for $1.00

If we do go into a restaurant, we drink water because soda is crazy expensive in restaurants!

Jack in the Box
On this particular Saturday, we decided to eat at Jack’s house

I did blow my diet, but was rewarded with a coupon for a free taco on my next visit. 🙂

Often we go up town to eat. We love to sit and watch traffic pass.

We often discuss the history of the town, or imagine how it was back then.

MFA building
Of course we have to drive past the MFA and…

cannon in town square
The cannon in the town’s square “Cool Hand Luke”

Then we drive around looking at…

Other people’s fields, other people’s cows, and other people’s farms…

Of course, coming home is truly our favorite part of the date.

Now that it’s nice outside, we are able to spend the rest of the evening together on the front porch.

How To Peel A Hard-Boiled Egg Without Smashing It Against The Wall

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How To Peel A Hard-boiled Egg

?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????–Without Smashing It Against The Wall

Well the title may be a little extreme, but some of you may be able to relate to what I’m talking about. Several times in my life (usually before a big BBQ), I have tried to make deviled eggs and end up peeling chunks of the white part off, because the shell won’t come off.

One time I was having the kids over and deviled eggs was on the menu. I boiled the eggs, sat them aside while I fixed everything else, and at the last minute remembered that I hadn’t gotten them fixed yet. As usual, I cracked the egg shell on the counter and started peeling away the shell. And as usual, it took part of the egg white with it.

I usually made extra eggs just for this reason, so no problem. But then I started peeling another one…same thing. And the next one and the next…each egg was completely ruined because I couldn’t get the shell off. On the last one I attempted, it started tearing apart so I struck it with my hand and smashed it all over the counter. (temper, temper) I was so frustrated, now I had no eggs and a mess to clean up, too.

I knew I had to find a better plan. I searched the internet to find out how to peel a hard-boiled egg and found that there were many opinions out there.

  • Peel it hot
  • Peel it cold
  • Peel it fresh
  • Peel it old…

Fortunately for me, Daughter #2 shared the best way I’ve ever found. Her husband’s grandmother gets all the credit, but I thought I would share it with you.

Take a straight pin (I use one I got from a corsage) and pierce the egg before cooking.

111 pin in egg

Place the eggs in a pan of water that just covers the top of the eggs. Bring to a boil and cook on medium high for 10 minutes.

112 boil eggs

After the eggs are finished boiling, run cold water over the eggs. Just until they are cool enough to touch. Crack each egg until the shell resembles crackle glass, and place them back into the water.

113 crack eggs

After you have all the eggs cracked, simply peel the shell off; it should peel off without any problems.

114 peel eggs

Works for me every time!

115 perfect eggs

Visit From The Vet

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Visit from the Vet

The Farmer and the vet from Crawford County Veterinary Clinic 

We worked the cattle on Saturday, but today we had a visit from the vet. He was here to do a preg check on all the fall breeding cows. As each one went through the chute, the vet would tell us if they were pregnant and give as an approximate point of how far along they are.

We had 16 cows that needed to be preg checked. Unfortunately, two were open (not pregnant) and one of them was #11, the crazy cow that jumped the fence on Saturday. She jumped it again today. So we don’t know if she is bred or not.
The Farmer is not happy. 🙁  And well he shouldn’t be. This cow knows exactly what to do to get out, and she’s not soon to forget it. Our choices are to build a higher fence, give her lead poison, or wait until she’s too old to jump. We can’t afford to build higher and lead is too scarce, so I guess we’ll just have to wait until she gets too old. 

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Working Cattle

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cow face

Working cattle is always a learning experience, and this year when we worked our herd we learned a lot.

We learned that it pays to be prepared and organized.

As each cow or calf comes through the alley, we have to be prepared with what we are going to do to them. They are all given a fly tag (to ward off flies), treated for lice, grubs and other unwanted parasites, vaccinated against pink eye, and various other infectious viruses, and then weighed. Our calves also get a shot to prevent respiratory problems and blackleg, which can actually wipe out a whole year of calves. Fortunately this disease is preventable with vaccination. So these shots and tags all have to be kept separated and organized.

We learned that sometimes it takes several hands to do one job.

Although the Farmer is very proficient in what he does, he just can’t be in three places at one time. As the cattle go through the alley way someone has to encourage them along, and someone else has to open the sliding gate and shut it behind each cow or calf, and then the Farmer shuts the head chute at just the right moment.

We learned that a 13 year-old farmer’s daughter is not a big enough threat to keep a 1500 lb. cow from going over the fence.

Usually a cow’s moo is worse than their bite, so we had Daughter #5 standing at the top of the gate to ward off any wayward cow that may have gotten a crazy idea of trying an escape while they were in the holding pen. And it worked. Although we had a crazy cow escape (#11), she didn’t go through the gate; she jumped over the fence! Well, she jumped on the fence, it broke, and then she went over. But still the same result. Several years ago we had a similar incident in a sort of make-shift lot that we used to work our cattle in. So when we built our existing lot, we purposefully built it high enough so a cow could not go over (or so we thought until this year). The crazy thing jumped a couple of times and then finally busted through the boards and went right over, like she was a trained horse or something. Whatever…she didn’t get a fly tag so I hope she gets bitten by a great big horse fly!

And the final thing we learned this year is working cattle in the rain is no fun at all!

Although the day started out a little nippy, the sun soon came out and we were plenty warm about a half hour into the process. Unfortunately, the sun was overtaken by some ominous looking rain clouds and it began to pour. It didn’t take long before we were all soaked and covered in mud, which wasn’t too bad because it washed away some of the manure that we were all covered in from working the silly cattle in the first place. They are so uncouth.

cattle shute
Son #4 setting up the scales so we can weigh the cattle. Our largest cow weighed 1550 lbs. and our largest fall calf weighed 732 lbs.

working cattle
Daughter #5 still holding her post after the rain had let up a little. Notice she’s staring down one of the mama cows.

 

 

 

cattle pen
If you look closely, you can see Son #1 and the Farmer separating the spring cows and their babies from the fall calves.

 

 

 

 

 

d9585-storm
All the cows and calves have been separated and will soon be back on the pasture.

Harvesting Cattle

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Farming can be so unstable. No matter what we are doing, the final result is usually out of our hands. Although the Farmer is a very hard worker, everything he does around here depends on the weather, the seasons, or the money 🙂

Last year we informed our beef customers that we would have meat around April or May, but had to push back the date because the calves weren’t gaining quickly enough.

This year we slacked off of weighing them–mostly because it was so wet and we didn’t want to have to swim to the scales. But we went out and weighed them this past weekend and they are ready to go!

We have one topping out at 1200 pounds, which is really the max weight of what we like to get them to. Another one weighed 1,180 pounds, so these two can go to the processors today!

Fortunately, the rest of them are just right, weighing 1,035-1,075 pounds. We have an appointment at the processors set for the end of May and these calves should be ready to harvest at that time. I guess I should give an honorable mention to the two calves that are still in the 900 lb. range. We seem to always have a couple of late bloomers.

So bottom line…we will be taking orders for the next two weeks. If you would like homegrown, naturally raised, grass-fed, grain-finished beef, we’ve got some available.

Take a look at the “Buying Beef” tab at the top of the page (under Enloe Farm) for more information on ordering beef. Or Click >>Here<<

Guilty Motivation

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That Mom-in-law!
That Mom-in-law!
I do not like to walk at all!
Would you, could you walk each day?
Would you walk a mile half way?
Would you walk if I ask nice?
Would you walk if I ask twice?
I could not, would not walk each day.
I could not, would not walk…no way!
Could you, would you, we’ll have fun
Come on, come on, we won’t run!
I could not, would not have much fun.
But call me over when you are done.
We’ll work on the computer or make a card,
But walking two miles is way too hard!

Okay, well that’s my introduction to what I’m writing about, with a nod to my favorite author, Dr. Suess.

For years, my Mother-in-law has been walking 2+ miles a day. No matter what the temperature is outside, she is usually walking—Monday thru Friday. She is very determined to live a long and healthy life, and so far she has succeeded…she was fourscore and six in February.

I, on the other hand, do not consider exercise to be my friend—and it shows. So why would I want to get off my couch, tug on my tennis shoes, go out to walk up and down the road for 2 miles every day?

…because it’s the right thing to do.

The Bible says (eww! I hate it when I find Scripture that points to my sin)…
“To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 1:17

There are many good reasons why I should be walking:

  • It’s good for my circulation

  • It makes my heart stronger

  • It increase my lung capacity

  • I need the discipline

  • Because my Mother-in-law needs a walking partner

  • I need to lose weight

  • To encourage others (maybe)

So these are my motivators. These things give me good reason to tug on my tennis shoes, and walk out the door, and go up and down the road. And these things are important, but I must say, I believe my biggest driving factor is knowing that my walking partner is 30 years my senior, (Oh my! When I write it out it’s even more startling then when I think it!) and if she can do it, then I should be able to…probably…right?

Enloe Farm Is Going Green

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Well we didn’t make it for Earth Day, but we’re still going GREEN!

We’re trading in our blues and we’re going green. That’s right, for over 50 years the only tractor that’s been on this farm has been a Ford or a New Holland  (the company that bought out Ford).

 

 But now we are going John Deere green!johndeere logo

The Farmer Going Green

 

Saying Goodbye to a Tradition

Going Green Looks Pretty Mean!

 
 Got a great deal from Schweissguth Bros. in Dutzow

But they did too…

What do you think of the Farmer’s new toy (oh, I mean necessary farming equipment). 🙂
Click on a pic, if you want to see more detail.

 

 

Old Mother Hubbard

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Just like Old Mother Hubbard, I went to my cupboard and found it getting bare. Except the freezer was my cupboard and looking into it this afternoon reminds me that it’s getting close to calf-selling season again.

At this time of year, our spring calves from the previous year are getting ready to be processed. They’ve gained approximately 800 lbs. since birth on mama’s milk, grass, and grass hay. Because food supply is limited for these calves, they are fed a little bit of grain throughout the winter months. Being time to condition them for processing, we separate our calves into the lot where they are still exposed to fresh green grasses, but their grain intake will increase—no argument that this improves marbling and, in my opinion, the taste of the beef.

However, the great debate over grass-fed beef vs. grain-fed beef always seems to intensify around here when new customers begin to inquire about our beef. There are strong opinions on both sides, but the final call comes down to personal preference.

Our Calves Are Raised Naturally

According to the USDA, naturally raised means that the cattle have been given:

  • No growth promotants
  • No unnecessary antibiotics
  • No animal by-products

 

Our Beef Is Organic

In accordance with USDA Sec. 2105, Sec. 2107, organically produced livestock must meet these qualifications:

  •  Produced without the use of synthetic chemicals
  • Not fed plastic pellets, manure, or feed containing urea
  • Not given growth promoters and hormones
  • Complete traceability (our calves are born and raised here)

 

calf in lot

The beef we sell to our customers is the beef we feed to our children; therefore, the quality of our beef can be completely trusted. Our cattle are not kept in a crowded feedlot, which is a problem with commercial feedlots, nor are they exposed to harmful chemicals and growth stimulants. Because they are our food supply, too, we take care that our cattle remain healthy in a very humane environment.

If you would like more information on buying beef from us, go to the Enloe Farm Beef tab.

Dash and Flash Meals for the Farmer

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If you know me at all, then you probably know that I’m not a big plan-ahead person. Daughter #1 enlightened me on the reason recently, by reminding me that I was born on the biggest procrastinating day in US history—April 15 (tax day, in case you live under a rock). At any rate, this gift of procrastination is manifested in just about every area of my life, but the most noticeable area would be in supper preparation.
The Farmer gets home around 4:30 every evening (for the past 35+ years), and being the hard working, over achieving, workaholic that he is, he’s usually starving by the time he hits the door, wraps me in his arms, and tells me what a great wife I am! (hee, hee)
Of course, being the perfect wife, I have supper timed so that he still has just enough time to check cows, move them to another paddock, and feed the bull (which I’m sure he doesn’t give a thought to how much effort I put into this notable achievement).
So, you may be wondering how the queen of procrastination can accomplish such a feat (maybe not, but read on anyway).
First of all I have a freezer full of frozen beef—frozen being a key word here. I keep staples aplenty like potatoes, canned vegetables, flour, and seasonings. And that’s really all I need; oh, and soda.
The procrastinating attribute comes to light when the Farmer calls to let me know he is on his way home from work, which gives me a full 40 minutes to prepare supper. Not too bad, if he calls when he leaves work, but more often than I like, he gets busy on the phone with someone else before he can call me. Often I have received a 20-minute warning, or worse yet, a 10-minute warning! (yeah, well supper isn’t always on the table).

Well, I have become a master of Dash and Flash Meals.

Translated—putting together a delicious meal super fast!
Hamburgers and fries are probably the easiest, because when we get our beef processed I have a lot of my hamburger made into patties.
So, I scrub a few potatoes, cut them into steak fries, and soak them in vegetable oil that’s been brought to a boil (saw this on FoodNetwork).
Then I get the hamburger patties out of the freezer, throw them into the microwave for 2 minutes, break them apart, and throw them into the skillet. (I’m about 10 minutes in at this point)
When the hamburgers are almost done, I turn the fries on high temp. And magically my hamburgers and fries get finished right before The Farmer comes in for supper.
Spaghetti is another really quick meal. I again start with frozen hamburger, peel off the outside plastic, and throw it into the microwave for 3 minutes. It comes out ready to crumble into a skillet. It only takes about 5 minutes to brown at a high temp, so I put my water on to boil during this process. After the hamburger is browned and drained, I add seasonings, tomato sauce and parmesan, and simmer this until the spaghetti noodles are cooked. I usually fix biscuits (canned of course), garlic bread, or just butter bread with this.
Both of these meals can be cooked in about 20 minutes. As I was writing this, I thought of other Dash and Flash dishes that I make.
  1.       Beef and noodles
  2.       Chili (made from left-over pinto beans)
  3.       Cowboy Supper (made with beef, beans, and bbq sauce)
  4.       Tacos
  5.       Chicken Quesadillas
  6.       Sausage hash
  7.       Steak and baked potatoes (baked meaning microwaved)
  8.       Swiss steak burgers
  9.       Chef’s salad
10.       Frozen pizza J
What about you? Do you have any Dash and Flash meals that you make? Share it with the rest of us and maybe we can exchange recipes.

 

Today Is My Birthday!

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Cindra as a baby

 

Today is my 53rd birthday!

Really!? Really!?

How could that be possible? How could five decades pass and me not even realize? How could I have gone through childhood, adulthood, parenthood, grandparenthood! And not notice that time was passing so quickly?

Fifty-three years…hmm.

Wasn’t it just a few years ago that I was a fat little roly-poly waddling down the sidewalk? Fortunately, this memory was recorded for me on a movie reel (Anyone remember those?).

And hasn’t it been just a short time ago that we were going on family camping trips? It’s not been so long ago, in my recollection, that our cousins would come to visit and we would play hide and seek in the dark (another game my children think they created).

I’m sure it was just a few summers back that we had family and friends over to swim, played tag in the cemetery, enjoyed spending summer vacations with grandparents and cousins, or rode our Shetland ponies (although I can’t remember if they were ours or Grandpa George’s).

Oh…some of the memories flood back as I write this, and for those who read this and shared some of the experiences, you will recall things like: Alley Springs, walking to the movies, the bowling alley, steal-the-flag, our old red dog, Butch, and hasn’t everyone had a dog named Blackie? There were carnival rides, basketball games, drive-in movies, cheerleader tryouts (didn’t make it), snowball fights, and long trips to Winona. Rock collections, bug collections, catching lightening bugs in the summer. Oh! and tying strings around the legs of a June bug and hanging on to it while it flew around.

As a teen I remember getting a curling iron and trying to curl wet hair. Does anyone remember Psst! I think that’s what it was. You sprayed it on your hair if you didn’t have time to wash it. It was like powder on your hair (eek!) Long hair, ponytails, and bell-bottoms.

And wasn’t it just yesterday that The Farmer and I were married, and experiencing the trials and triumphs that come with a new family? Well, the reality of having children grown and married and having children of their own brings me back to the possibility that maybe more time has passed than I have realized.

Although the calendar records that I have had approximately 19,345 days on the earth, I still can’t believe it, because they have passed by all too quickly.

And looking at the clock I see that even more time has passed, so I’m going to end this walk down memory lane before another birthday passes me by completely.

 

 

graffiti
dreamstime.com

 

 

The Final Tally

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The best thing about spring is seeing all the signs of the new life that is beginning to appear at this time of year.

Seeing the grass sprouting up through the cold ground, the new blossoms on the trees, the soft sounds of the wind, the chirping of the birds, the warmth of the sunshine—I could almost burst out into song! (You should be thankful there is no sound) 🙂

 

One of the greatest things about living on the farm is being able to see our calves being born. Unfortunately, three of our heifers did not
calf this spring so we are down from what we had expected. The birthing season has ended and we only have nine calves.

 

Although it was not the number we were expecting, we had a successful season. A couple of our calves were born during the frigid weather when winter would not turn loose of spring, and at times we wondered if they were going to make it. Seeing a brand new, wet, cold, shaking baby calf fall to the ground of a snow covered field is at times unsettling. However, the fortitude those babies have are nothing less than miraculous! It doesn’t take them long to nuzzle up to mamma and warm their little bodies.

 

Often the baby calves huddle together when laying out in the field. I tried to sneak up on them to take a picture, but they were too quick for me. As soon as they saw me coming they started getting up.

 

calves in the field

 

calves in the field
Oh well, I’ll get a closer picture next time. Once it gets a little hotter,
they won’t be so quick to jump up.