Northern Farmer

I was going to post last evening but I tell you, the lightening was hitting all around us. Straight down bolts! The power went off once for a minute or two, in fact it surprised me that it came back on after a couple of minutes! Most of the time if it’s off for more than a few seconds we have to wait at least two hours or more for a power truck to come out from the county seat. And when the lightening is flying around I don’t expect any power company worker to be out there getting the power back up. I know I wouldn’t be all that excited working in conditions like that. In fact I’m about as scared of lightening as our border collie dog we had years back. I never seen a dog who could fit in tighter places than that dog could when the lightening and thunder got going good. But I figure that dog had more sense than allot of folks. And he didn’t die from lightening either.

We got almost two inches of rain over night and after the terrible drought we had this past summer I can safely say that our sub soil moister is getting back to a pretty good condition. But spring rains is what we’ll need. I don’t get all that excited about winter snows adding to our moister because allot of the time that just runs on down to the Gulf of Mexico. The ground gets so frozen that all the water runs away before the ground even starts to unthaw. So this morning it durn near took me all morning doing morning chores because of the wet conditions. The calves we worked Saturday are doing fine, hungrier than heck as usual, all looks well with them. It was still misting at noon so that means there’s opportunity for an old fashioned farmer’s nap. Had one about forty five minutes long too! Got up and didn’t know what I should do, (what a life, eh), then decided I didn’t want to hang around the farm yard. The wind was blowing and it was still cloudy out. Then I got a thought, I’d go out and make some wood in the woods. And I really enjoyed that. There’s quite a bit of dead standing elm, all under twenty five years old. Years ago we had Dutch Elm disease come through here and it all but destroyed all those big American Elms in the area. But a new generation sprouted up back then. Well, these last few years Dutch Elm disease must have come back because almost all them young elms have had it. But it’s good enough wood for the outdoor boiler, plus easy making so that’s what I was doing this afternoon.

After an hour and a half or so I decided to take a break and look around the woods. I thought I had most of the cattle at home so they wouldn’t be bugging me while I’m making wood, but I seen one Angus off in the brush. So I mosied over there and found a brand new calf with that old cow. That don’t happen too often, but last year I was really behind here with cattle work, didn’t pull the bulls from the cowherd till way late, so wallah! New calf! I figure I’ll label this calf as calf number one of next year’s herd. Close enough for me. That calf will be in plenty good shape to take on winter in a few weeks so no big deal. Feed the cowherd and their one mascot calf all winter. Sure it ain’t quite up to snuff as far as proper industrial management of a cow herd, but who cares! Sometimes a person just has to kick back and enjoy it all.

Plus I’m still on a high from yesterday’s church service, had us a guest preacher,a third generation Pentecostal lady preacher, and the preaching was on the Blood. Whew, was it something else! I was ready to explode out of my seat, just a shaking! Man, I love old Holy Ghost power preaching! Nothing quite like it! Just like the Bible. Praise the Lord! Didn’t get home from that till almost mid afternoon. Old fashioned country style preaching! I’ll be writing about that a bit more in the future. Plus I have it on tape, (and can make copies). I don’t let preaching like that fade into memory.

So, thus starts the week, nothing earth shattering, might start fall plowing tomorrow, kinda a farmer’s vacation. Sit in the tractor and plow down hayfields. No dust, just right as far as temperature outside. The soil coming back to life from proper crop rotations, the soil is looser, smells sweeter, has a fluff to it. Hard to describe, but it’s so much better than years ago when we did intensive crop production. Yup, what a life, farming the way farming should be done, attending a little old fashioned church out in the hills, a warm house, food that kings and presidents don’t even get! Yup, life is good!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 7:03 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.