Thursday, August 25, 2011

Bad Blogger, No Donut

Holy Crap! Has it really been well over a month since I have bitched, moaned or offered some kind of farm/life update? I must have been soooo very busy or stressed out over the continually darkening future across much of the world, or maybe even celebrating with exuberant jubilation over the opportunities still available (?) in this same world.

Not really, sad to say.

Other than my normal thing, around 8 hours a day out at the farm, I haven't been doing a whole lot of anything important or interesting. Feels a bit like treading water, or waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The rain stopped falling shortly after my last post, other than the odd short shower or brief thunderstorm. This has allowed us to bale up a very nice quantity of hay, all the rain in June and July made for fantastic hay crops in the area. It would have been nice to have a fresh crop of alfalfa, ours are all quite old and diminished to mostly brome grass, but we still ended up with around 200 very nice, round bales.

This picture gives an idea just what I mean by fantastic hay:

That is brome grass, if you are unaware. It typically grows around two and a half feet high. The stuff in the picture is around 8. Now I should say, this is an exceptional patch. Most was around 4 feet this year. But still...pretty damn impressive.

The summer pasture has grown in nicely as well, and 4 cows, 4 calves, a yearling bull, 3 yearling steers and a yearling heifer are getting fat and sassy on thick, tall grass. It would be nice to have about 30 more head over there to take advantage of the good forage but at the same time...just letting it die and decompose will help regenerate soil that has been sorely tested by drought the last few years.

I think that's as far as I'll go in updating tonight. Next time I'll talk about the mixed blessing that has been the garden this year.

Peace and comfort, brothers and sisters. I hope you have been, and continue to be, well and good.