A Walk in the Crik

Hello, dear friends!

Welcome!

I'd like to share a summary of the past two weeks.  It's my favorite season of the year: Hay Season! and we've been quite busy, only now is it starting to slow down.  So far we have 120 round bales ready to store in the barn and approximately 600 square bales in the big barn loft.  It has been a pretty good year with the barn being the fullest it's been in several years.  And we still have two fields to go! (For the first cutting.  We are hoping to get at least three cuttings off the fields.)

Moving on...

On a particular day, we were happy to have our cousin R join us for the day.  With his help, we unloaded two wagon-loads of square-bales early that morning.  Then, we took a four-wheeler ride to pick up some of the herb Yarrow for Catlia's purposes, and headed to the creek to wait until time for us to head to the hayfield.

We had so much fun cooling off in the creek, as you'll see in the following pics.

It was such a beautiful day!

Catlia came prepared to whack the heads off of any snakes we came across, and we saw 3 or 4 in one area.

Cousin Rob on what we call the Footlog.  It consists of two retired telephone poles serving as a bridge.

Found some wild strawberries by the way.  The taste is very watery compared to their larger counterparts.

We had a blast playing with the good Tennessee clay.

O si yo, R Clayface.

(Cherokee for "hello")

O si yo, Girl-Covered-Head-to-Toe-In-Clay.

*burst out laughing hysterically*

Ah, the traditional clay-fight between two squaws.

Rhen posing.

"Me, warrior.  You fight?"

Cleaning up.  'Bout time to head to the field.

Headin' back up the creek, we found this big guy.  That's me holding him.

Smile! 

R and Mr. Crawdad.

After the creek, we went to the grandparents house and boarded tractors to take to the field.  We had a neat little caravan with the cab tractor, the two Farmalls with the wagons, and the square-baler.

First we tedded the mowed hay, then raked and finally baled.  To see how it's done in detail, check out our mother's blog.

R helped out a lot on the wagon working with the square bales; they got two full wagon loads and Poppy round-baled the rest.

Come Saturday we will finish up the last two fields for the first cutting.

Then we will pray for rain and sunny weather and, God willing, we'll be able to get two more cuttings.

In the Hay Field Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Thanks for reading!

Elisera

Next:  Another day in the Garden (garden pics, an update).

A Day in the Garden

Last week we spent a day in the garden.  The BIG garden.  And we planted everything!  Corn, green beans, squash, cucumbers, cabbage, broccoli, onions, green peppers, okra, tomatoes, some potatoes, watermelon, and cantaloupe.  Did I miss anything?

Anywho, here is a before picture of the bare garden.

Once everything starts to grow, I'll post some more pics.

In this pic, Rhen is adding fertilizer to the soil.

Our brother, the Knight, is planting green beans in this one.

Poppy is laying out the rows in the lower part of the garden.  I did exactly that in the upper part.

This area is where the watermelons and cantaloupes are usually planted.  

In case you haven't noticed, we are a Farmall Family.  Below, Poppy is driving the A Farmall, which is used specifically for garden or ground work (plowing, planting, etc.)

Broccoli plant.

We bought these as plants, not seed.

Yellow Squash.

Cucumber.

Ma is tilling the ground free of footprints.

Our grandfather is very picky about his garden and how it looks after working in it...

But shh! Don't tell him I said that!

Here are the 'mater plants.

How To Plant a 'Mater Plant:

First, dig hole.  Then pour cup of water in hole.  Place plant in hole and cover base.

Be sure to make a mound so that rain water won't be able to stand and drown'd the little plant.  If you hear word of coming frost, take buckets, according to plant size, and place upside-down on top of plant, effectively guarding it from the cold.  Let grow on their own, watering occasionally, when needed.  When time is right, pick ripe, bright red 'maters (or green, your preference) from plant and serve in whatever way preferred.

Well, there you have it.

Now to wait for yummy home-grown veggibles.

Until next time,

Elisera

All photos by me.  To check out our mother's version of the garden, click here.

Random - Calves, Creation, & Cat's Tongues

I meant to post these pics earlier, but totally forgot...

Anyway...

Meet Timothy!  Isn't he cute?  Long story short, mommy cow had twins but only accepted one thereby abandoning this little guy... =[  We found him all alone in the field, and after several attempts to find his mother, I ended up with him in my lap on the four-wheeler.  Of course, someone else was driving, my bro I think.  

He was born before Christmas and we raised him on a bottle.  Now, he has been weaned and is a good bit bigger than the pics below, which were taken sometime in January.  

Yes, it was my idea to give him the bandanna, how'd you know?  =D

Comfortably content to suck your fingers, hands, shoes, laces, zippers, pant legs, etc...

 The next four pics were taken on a walk to our Secret Garden.  Yes, it is a secret - but everyone knows about it.
In our Garden, you can find over 70 different species of wildflowers naturally growing on our farm.  I'll try to post pics every now and then throughout the spring, just to give you an idea of the varieties.
Below is my sparkly rock.  Quartz.  We have tons of these babies all over the place.  I like how they shine. =]

Next, is Spring Beauty, one of the earlier blooming beauties.

This is Round Lobed Hepatica.  You can't see the leaves of the plant, but they are round green-purplish lobes for which the plant is named.

I just liked this pic and had to post it.  It is a white oak growing on nothing other than a big boulder.

And finally, I wanted to share pics of our crazy cat.  Her name is Nala, and she enjoys boxes of all shapes and sizes, among other playthings such as a ball or two of yarn, buttons, your hands, pant leg, pens, or wires.  She also loves for you to hold her while walking around the house and is content to sit in your lap whether you want her to or not, no matter what it is you are doing.

Oh, and another unique thing about our kitty is her tongue.  I may have mentioned this before, or posted it already, but instead of a regularly shaped tongue, hers has two little humps that look like the number "3" but flipped horizontally.  Does that make sense?

...

Her napping poses are the best.

See! There's her tongue!!

Well, that's my random post of the month, seeing as how I haven't done one in quite a while...

Until next time!

Blessings,

Elisera

Fallen Giant

A couple weeks ago, during a particular heavy rain, we found this beautiful cedar had fallen.  It was so tall and pretty, nothing was wrong with it.  It was very much alive.  But, the location of its roots were mud, mud, and more mud.  And maybe a bit more of something else... So, after the rain soaked the ground and the wind pushed and pulled its branches, I guess it finally gave in.  Anyway, here are some pics.

Our grandparents, who own our farm, were away for the week, so we called in our neighbors/relatives to help us out.

This pic below shows how long (tall) it is.  We had a barb wire fence attached to its trunk, so when it fell, it pulled the wire with it.  I don't know if you can tell, but the cedar is laying across a ditch.

This is our great-Uncle Bo.  (He did most of the sawing.)

That's another neighbor/cousin with Uncle Bo, I'll call him G.B.

That's the root ball of the giant, it was approximately 30 feet in height.

Once Uncle Bo sawed through the trunks (there were two that made up the one tree), and sawed a little more, the remainder of the trunks with the root ball finally popped back into place.

The wires are hard to see, but this pic and the next show how stretched they were.

Here you can see the rings of the tree and the cedar's signature color.  I love the smell!

I love this pic in particular, because I love taking close-ups. =D

This is the back of the big barn, where the Holstein calves are kept.  We were to the left working on the tree.

And here's the finished repair job.

The workers and "supervisors."  *laughs*  Most of us, including me, just stood around while the men worked.

Say hello to our new barn kitty!  We named her Pari (pro. PAH-ree), which means "fairy" in Arabic.  She's really small, and, as you can see, has not tail.  She's the sweetest thing, and makes a pretty good playmate for Sable.

This is the kitties favorite napping basket.  I have a pic of both of them in there, but this one just has Pari.

Well, that's all for this post!

Have a great day!!

Elisera