The Farmer's Blogger

Hello friends!

It’s finally feeling like spring around here! We’ve had a little sun, it’s starting to get warm, and I get to work out on the porch occasionally.

We had quite the April around here. First of all, Watson had to have an urgent surgery. He’s all good now, but is officially toothless, again. So, late March he started acting like he was having the worst allergies, which he has always had some allergies but this was really rough. It started making me nervous that something was going on so I called and got him an emergency appointment because it was messing with his breathing and it was clear he was just unhappy. They took a look at him and it turns out the little guy wasn’t quite as toothless as we had thought. In fact, he had some impacted in his sinuses that were officially rotting and decaying and causing a whole mess. So, it wasn’t quite emergency surgery but it was “we need to solve this asap” and as soon as his bloodwork came back my sweet baby had dental surgery. He was an unhappy camper for a while during recovery, but now he is the most happy go lucky little pup again. He jumps and plays just like a puppy, I can’t imagine how much discomfort he had been having with those hidden teeth. It’s clear this was a major quality of life improvement.

We’ve had a pretty vet heavy month anyway, because on top of that, April is almost always farm call month. This year Watty abstained because he had just finished surgery and had been poked and prodded previously, but Joe, Ro, and Nellie all did awesome!

Joe loves making friends and had such a good time meeting the new vet (we rotate vets so there’s always someone who knows my critters around), Ro was a saint as the vet used her to help educate me on some new ways to keep an eye on health metrics (I learned how to tell if a horse needs their teeth floated,  and spoiler alert, this summer she will), and Nellie totally blew my mind and stood happily for the whole thing! Not one spook, the vet good-naturedly accused me of lying about her being a spooky horse. We didn’t push our luck and I still vaccinated her a few days later, but to be honest, I think we totally could have gotten away with him vaccinating and I think she would have been fine. But I am glad we didn’t because this way it was just a fun experience with new friends, and hopefully she will build on that next time.

My new glasses finally arrived, and I love them. The everyday ones currently still hurt my ears, so I think I need to go get them adjusted again but the sunglasses have been life changing. I do not know how I have been working out in that bright sun without eye protection because it is truly so so so nice. Especially with little miss Nellie, who is a glowing white in the summertime, she would literally leave little sparkles in my vision similar to when you look at a light bulb.
Otherwise, we are just slowing bringing the farm back online after this winter. This winter was crazy rough on the farm, so there’s a ton of work to do. But some of the sprinklers are working, the arena is clean, and the yard is nice for the dogs again. I still need to move hay around, clean my tack room, and I would love it if literally any of my wheelbarrows had working wheels because the manure picking situation on this farm is a little ridiculous at the minute. Those goat head weeds did a number on the tires around here.
Anyways, I think that’s most of that in my corner of the world. Hope you all are staying safe and having a good spring. If you have been hit by any of the crazy storms around the midwest of the US, please know you are in our thoughts. I hope the weather chills out soon.
Love you all, until we chat again my friends!

Hello Friends!
Well, February was sure a show stopper! We got probably about a foot and a half of snow, although not all at once so it had some lovely layers of ice and melt off in between, and we saw some negative temperatures overnight! It was a rough one weather wise.

The girls finally had to be blanketed, when the highs are around nine degrees, well, no one can grow a coat thick enough to be comfy in that. Plus, with all the snow and ice their pasture hasn’t been great for grazing at all, so keeping them warm internally has been a struggle too. I tried putting a little hay out in the pasture so they could hunt and find it, but they had no interest, in fact, I think I inadvertently just fed the deer. So, they got room service, breakfast in bed, if you will.
The deer are a fun story in their own rights. You see, I think I have a herd of deer that have basically domesticated themselves. Early February, before I put hay out or anything, we started having deer come down into the yard more frequently. Not a big deal, they had been watching us work with the girls all fall and winter so I kinda figured they just decided we were a safe enough lodging, and I have a big cozy tree in my yard that, even when it’s pretty gross, is a good weather break. As the month progressed, we had a couple jumpscares and spooky moments because the deer became frequent visitors after dark. It’s gotten to where we can’t bring the dogs out after dark because Joe wants to be friends and doesn’t listen very well, and Watty is spooked of the whole thing and wants nothing to do with the outside after dark (I can’t blame him, while I love that the deer are sticking around, I also don’t love the vaguely lovecraftian shadows that now follow me around while I do the nighttime chores).
Now we are at the phase where they are wary of me, but not really spooked, so I walk through the herd down to feed, and they sorta move on when I come back up, then close ranks again once I am back inside. I’ve tried to get movies and photos, but it’s usually dark or really icy, and my filmography skills aren’t great at the best of times, and definitely not built for inclement weather. But they’ve slowly just moved in, they are hanging out eating my hay (which is not my first choice, since it’s expensive, but like, I get it, they want food and water too), and they love the heated water trough. I don’t really know what to do, because I don’t intentionally feed them, I don’t necessarily want them to feel super comfy around humans, but they’ve basically domesticated themselves and I don’t want to heartlessly kick them out in the cold. Plus they’ve seemingly run off some of the other critters, like the opossums and such. I dunno, I suppose it’s fine. I’m a big believer in being a steward of what you are given, and if God’s given us deer, I suppose it’s just fine that they get to enjoy the finer things while the temps are super low.

Having said that, it’s finally warming up! We are finally seeing temps above freezing, and I’ve started tentatively walking again. Only when it’s safe to do so though, like today, it’s so foggy and rainy, unless something changes, I don’t think we will be going. I don’t like walking in the fog for all the safety and horror movie reasons and will avoid it at all costs. And, of course, everything is getting quite muddy!
Otherwise, not much has moved on the farm. I got some more feed buckets and I am VERY pleased with them. We’ve busted into the second hay bale, I am hoping that lasts through March at least and I can buy hay in drier, warmer weather. The usual mid winter lulls.
What have you guys been up to?
Until we chat again my friends!

Hello Friends!

Happy 2025! How’s yours been thus far? Mine? A little hectic but we’re getting there.

Ro and Nellie are certainly getting ready for spring, they both are so completely over all the mud and rain, and the winds and cold weather aren’t helping either. They are loving the alfalfa, they’ve gotten a fair amount of it lately because it’s been cold enough for hotter feeds. They’ve not been loving that I keep changing where they are eating, but I can’t reach the usual feed area easily due to the ice and then mud, so after the third faceplant I decided it was fine to feed elsewhere for now. It’s still a safe and lit up area, just a little farther down the fence.

Joe has been enjoying getting out for walks occasionally when it’s been warmer. I am a chicken when it’s cold but I have been trying to get him out for a change of pace every so often. He loves to run around on the farm, but it’s fun to expand his horizons a little every so often. However, it’s been cold enough lately that he hasn’t even been keen on walking. Watson wants to go so badly, but then when I get him out walking he’s so cold and angry! So, I’ve tried letting him stay home, I usually find him a willing family member who’s up for some cuddles and maybe a nap. It’s been middling results, sometimes he’s fine with it, no interest in coming with us, sometimes I get home to find out he bawled the whole time. Of course, then I feel terrible about that, but it’s impossible to know ahead of time if he’s going to enjoy it or be upset the whole walk. To be clear, when it’s sunny and warm? He’s a trooper, loves to go and see things, he’s just so little it’s hard, even with jackets, to keep him warm.

Do you remember my last post when I said we hadn’t had a plumbing issue in a minute and I was so pleased? I jinxed it. Just yesterday (as of the time of writing this, so a few days ago for you all) we had a water pipe break and we spent several hours out in sub freezing (11 degrees for most of it) temperatures trying to patch it before I finally admitted defeat and called a plumber. Also, because of the age of the pipe that burst, apparently it was from an era that just did not consider safety, because, per the usual with this house, there were absolutely no shut off valves and, for reasons beyond my understanding, live wires running through the same hole as the pipe? Which meant this was super dangerous too? Luckily no one was hurt and now the craziness has been mitigated but, y’all, it’s always an adventure.

Luckily the plumber was able to come out the same day later in the afternoon, which was good because we had to shut the water off at the well, which meant the whole property had no water access for most of the day. It’s amazing how quickly you start missing indoor plumbing. He was awesome, confused by what on earth was happening with the wiring, but he solved it all pretty quickly and didn’t charge me an arm and a leg. I really appreciated him.

If you ever get anything from this blog, it should be the following things. Falling in love with an old farmhouse is a dangerous activity, and trying to run a farm of any size means you are going to get really good at fixing (or almost fixing, “good enough for now” fixing) darn near everything with duct tape, and what you can’t for sure needs a professional. I am convinced with a pocket knife and some duct tape I could probably build a house at this point. Anyways…

Beyond that though, it’s been pretty chill, thank goodness. We’ve kinda had a slower start to the year, and I am really grateful for that because as the year progresses it’s already filling up and looking busy. Got a couple weddings, a couple business trip things, a couple people graduating… lots to attend and lots of weekends already preplanned. I am just hoping for a year of health and happiness, however busy that looks. Really trying to make sure to look at the bright side of things and just enjoying all I can.

How’s your January going? Got plans starting to shape up for 2025? Got some fun goals? Lemme know!
Until we chat again my friends!

Hi friends!
Happy end of December! Are you ready for the new year? I am getting there.

To be honest, things got just a touch derailed the few days, because, in what is becoming a trend, we had another December house repair issue. Luckily it seems like it’s a much more simple fix than last year, no weeks of plumbing issues and terrible companies and scummy practices and lighting my house on fire. I’ve had the first roofer out today and his estimate is that it’s not that big a deal, the leak is easily solvable, and it’s not going to be expensive or frustrating. I love it when that happens, because it does sorta feel like the end of the world when it is raining in your living room.

We’ve had a ton of rain lately, like an abnormally large amount, and are having flooding issues and wind damage issues in places we don’t usually see that. The storms have been rolling through almost every night, and now they are predicting a snow storm. That’s sorta why I feel an urgency to get the roof fixed up.

We’ve had a lovely, quiet Christmas, got to see some family and just hang out and be chill. I got some very posh new bedding that I am in the process of washing and setting up today while I type this. It’s been much needed, my beloved comforter is a hand-me-down and while it’s done a very good job for many years, it’s starting to look like I massacred a gaggle of geese every time I make my bed. It’s starting to shred faster than I can patch it. So, it’s getting retired to the back up blanket shelf, and I am setting up cozy new bedding. I am very excited! I think this also speaks to the stage of adulthood I am in haha.

It’s been really lovely on the farm, very quiet, with lots of Christmas spirit and that warm, soft vibe of settling in for the remainder of the winter. It’s the first year that everyone sorta settled into the idea of a cozy Christmas and I think it did a world of good. It’s also why this post is going to be short and sweet, because I would like to stay off the computer and with the family as much as possible until I go back to work.

The animals are doing good, Joe is really tired of being inside most of the time (I am too, to be fair, so I get it), but he’s a happy boy. Watson is happy as long as a blanket is being shared and Nellie and Ro are especially tired of the rain since their corral and part of the arena resemble ponds more than land. But they are loving the alfalfa bale. They usually eat teff but I sometimes add in more alfalfa when it’s cold or wet. My hay storage solution did not hold up to the latest round of 35+ mph winds, so I am back to square one keeping their food dry, but they don’t seem to mind it.

I know this post is a little shorter, and I apologize for that, I’ll catch you up again in January. But things have been pretty slow, and I am enjoying a long winters’ nap, so I will catch you next time.
Until we chat again, my friends!

(they both do and don’t exist)

Hello Friends!

How are we on this crisp November afternoon? Doing well, I hope!

As you are reading this, Thanksgiving has passed, but as I sit here today, it is not quite turkey and gratitude time just yet. See, we are having a small dinner on the actual day with my immediate family, and the extended family is all getting together on Saturday to accommodate most work schedules. It’s kinda nice because it gives us a chance to create our own leftovers with our favorite bits and also have all the fun of hanging out with all the family!

I thought about saving this post until after those were done so I could tell you all about it, but to be honest, we have a lot planned over the next couple days and I am a little concerned about forgetting this post until way late, or all together! I have had a couple close calls with things like that lately because the holidays and everything have discombobulated the schedule a little. So, as of right now I can just tell you about the plans for the holiday!

It’s a bit of a new thing for me this year, but I am not hosting the big family dinner at all! It’s not at my house, I am not cooking much at all (I have pie duty) and I’m weirdly relaxed for being this close to a holiday. I am glad I get to experience it all from this side for the first time in a while. 

For our small, immediate family dinner we are making a turkey roll thing that I don’t fully understand, but my parents are super excited about, along with most of the sides, we are being choosy and only making the ones we look forward to each year. We bought a couple pies for our event and then, if I can get off work in time, and get the kitchen to myself long enough, I thought I would surprise my mom with a homemade pumpkin pie because that was one she couldn’t find at the store. We decided a little late to do our own mini thanksgiving so some things were a little hard to come by.

For the bigger family meal, I am bringing mostly pre-made pies, because my family’s favorites are ones I don’t know how to make. It’s nice, even less cooking for me, and it means I still get to sleep in on Saturday morning instead of running around preheating ovens and panicking about cleaning the house. I could really get used to this.

In non-holiday news, we have had one of the wettest Novembers I have seen since living here. It’s been insane, raining near constantly, and my hay bales are molding because my storage isn’t ideal. It makes me nervous because wet bales are ticking time bombs. I guess this is my push to build something more suitable and less temporary for my hay cover. We’ve had the craziest winds too, just constant high winds, to the point where we hardly even react to them anymore. I think it’s been a side effect of that bomb cyclone that was on the coast, I think we probably got the far flung bits that made it over the mountains.
I couldn’t believe the damage that thing did for being as unassuming as it seemed. I have so many friends over there that lost roofs and power and had all sorts of issues. I know of at least a few people that, as of the writing of this, still don’t have power back. I remember as a child we had a really nasty windstorm when I lived on the coast, and it took the roof off the house and we didn’t have power for a couple days. I remember my dad was working the night shift and his supervisor called him and sent him home because it wasn’t safe to be out patrolling with the debris flying. That was a crazy night.

We also got our first snow of the season, which came super early in the month, and honestly makes me a little worried about how much snow we might get the rest of this winter. It didn’t stick around for long, but it snowed a good portion of the day and everything was pretty white for a bit.
Otherwise, not much has been going on for us, my parents got their wedding video remastered onto dvd so we had a little viewing party, Mom tried her hand at driving the lawnmower for the first time since her strokes, and work has been slowly killing me as we careen toward the end of quarter four. Luckily, I like my job, so it’s worth it.
What are you guys up to? Did you celebrate Thanksgiving? What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food and why is it the green bean casserole? What did you do in November that wasn’t turkey related?
Can’t wait to talk with you all again soon!

Until we chat again, my friends!

Hello friends!

Happy Halloween! Hope your holiday is as spooky as you wish it!

We don’t really do Halloween here, it’s not really safe to have trick or theaters this far out and I’m not a big fan of some of the imagery anyway, but the kiddos love the scooby doo esque version of it, so they do some Halloween things in town.

Admittedly though, I’m writing this a couple days early, and the forecast shows pouring rain, so that may be a wishful sentence instead of a truth. Also Halloween is on a Thursday this year, which is a little odd for most people’s schedules. 

I like the treats though, lots of tasty spooky treats, like pumpkin cookies and mummy brownies, double the icing so it looks like a mummy, that’s alright with me.

We had a bit of an interesting October. My grandma managed to break her back in two places, so we’ve been spending a lot of time in town trying to keep her company (and keep her from breaking doctors orders, she’s so bored). Doing some extra grocery shopping and such. Hopefully soon she will be able to ride in the car again, and then we can at least take her places and get her out of the house. She’s allowed to walk, but not far, so she’s going a little stir crazy.

We’ve officially hit wintery weather. It’s been mid 20s for several mornings in a row, and foggy and frozen. It’s usually not quite this cold this fast, at least I don’t remember it being this cold this fast, so it’s making the transition a little rough. I’m not ready to give up being outside. But I’m also not loving the sore ears and frozen fingers, so inside it is. 

It’s been a busy fall for me at work, we’ve had some major infrastructure type stuff to do, which is a fancy way of saying it’s above my pay grade but I help where I can. It also means I’ve been trying to be at work and outside as much as I can, and everything else is getting back burnered. I fear the dust bunnies I’ll meet when I finally move the furniture and dust again. We won’t even talk about how behind I am in my filing. If that pile collapses, send in the national guard. I figure I’ll have time to deal with it all when the snow flies. Yuck, don’t wanna think about that yet.

We are working on a more permanent solution for that irrigation ditch through the pasture path. The current temporary solution is doing okay, but I fear it won’t last all winter. Dad had this idea to build a reinforced lid so we can access it but it would be heavy duty enough to hold up the ponies when they barge through. I’m pretty excited to see it all put together. It’s metal and wood and I’m gonna grab another rubber mat to cover it with, it’ll be so nice.

Speaking of the ponies, both are doing really well with the groundwork. Lots of working over poles, liberty work, desensitizing training, Nellie especially has gotten much braver. Ro is slowly building muscle back, today she did several rounds of trot poles without tripping over the poles because of dragging her feet. I was very pleased!

I still haven’t finished Nellie’s mask and I’m so frustrated. I put it together and the magnets aren’t strong enough. So I’m a little out of ideas. Well, not quite. I have ideas, but I don’t wanna waste this mask so I’m trying to work with what I got first. But this one is a little disheartening for sure.

The canal emptied today, well, or yesterday. I know it was full the day before because I commented on the fact it was still full this late, but I didn’t think to check yesterday. It’s definitely time, with it being so cold, but it always feels a little sad. Kinda a very strict stopping point on the summer farming. But at least now the deer can cross, and they’ve been wanting to.

We’ve had two little babies following Mama around. They are so cute and not nearly afraid enough of us. Although the parents aren’t either. We have a bit of a reputation I think. The deer don’t seem to worry too much about us, heck a bunch of them were in the pasture eating with the horses yesterday. Munching away like it was their job, which I guess it is.

Well, the winds are blowing, the rains are coming, and the sun is settling down, so I better leave this here to go throw hay for the evening. I hope you all are having a wonderful, safe fall. 

Until we chat again, my friends!

Hello friends!

Happy end of September! We have had a pretty fun one here on the farm!

My parents went on their yearly mini vacation and spent a couple days visiting Mount Rushmore and wall drug, and to my knowledge had a grand time. They took my grandma so she could see the sights, turns out she had never seen the “mountain of faces” before and it was a huge deal for her. I am so happy she got to have that experience. They stayed and watched the lighting ceremony and found out that their were others there from our small town, small world!

Meanwhile Christopher and I kept the farm running while they were gone. We call it sibling weekend every year and we usually pick a spooky video game and a new recipe and spend the weekend hanging out. It’s always really fun, this year it was longer than a standard long weekend so we actually played a few things and tried a couple new recipes.

Things I learned? Pasta is kinda fun to make but very dense if you make it yourself (that might just be that we did it wrong, but we had fun so, meh) and Portobello mushroom caps as burger patties has potential but our recipe wasn’t quite it. Glad we tried it though. It wasn’t bad, it was just texture funky and a little bland. But I have plans to try again with some tweaks. All in the name of science.
We also had to rebuild the mini bridge over the irrigation stuff in the pasture trail because somehow the girls managed to kill that off while we were having sibling weekend. Luckily I have a Christopher, who is very good at problem solving with whatever is on hand, so we were able to rig up a solution. I still want something more permanent, but this gives us some time to solve it without panicking. How they managed to put a huge hole in a series of 4x6s is beyond me, I know that they are large animals but dang.

Nellie also finally totaled out her handmade mask, and while I had a new one ready to go in the wings, she quickly found all the flaws for v2, so her mask is currently sitting on my desk waiting for me to have an epiphany on how to solve all of those little issues. The biggest one being she learned immediately how to undo the snaps. Like, two hours in, learned how to undo those. Thing is, she wants her mask on, so she takes it off to itch and then gets so annoyed. Such a toddler. 

But in all seriousness I am really proud of how she’s been doing with the mask, and I have maybe an idea to solve it, so hopefully it’s not really a big deal. 

We are officially in fall storm season, and we had quite the front come through just the other day. It was one of those funny ones where it’s beautiful and sunny, then you notice some clouds on the horizon and before you think it might be something, it’s blowing and crashing and pouring. I’m very grateful for the rain, but less grateful for the wind and lightning, one of which knocked out power in the valley for multiple hours. That was unpleasant. The good news was I had not yet gone to the grocery store, so any potential loss was relatively minimal, the annoying news was I hadn’t eaten dinner (worked late through it), and with no ability to cook or open the fridges, I had Ritz crackers for dinner. Needless to say, I was a little put out haha.

The girls also had some fun during the storm. It came up so quickly I hadn’t gotten the girls inside yet, so they, with all the survival instincts the good Lord gave a stump, hid under the trees in a lightning storm. So I’m out there trying to coat them back in from the pasture, into the barn (which I was successful in, they were safe and sound) in driving rain and high winds with lightning crashing. My neighbor texted me to let me know what I was doing was dangerous. I concur, but I care too much about my critters to let them hide under a tree in a thunderstorm. 

Other than that, we’ve just been slowly working towards repairs and such before winter. Finally got the frost free down in the corral to have water pressure again. It’s truly magical, I had missed it. Now I can do some of the cleaning tasks I had been putting off because I didn’t wanna haul water buckets. Things are about to get shiny!

Anyways, all for now!