Feathers, Mosquitoes and Grasshoppers
July 3rd, 2008 by Northern FarmerSo far so good this week except for a tad bit of a lack of moister around here. Getting back to the dry side but its not as bad as last year at this point yet. Spent the first two days this week cultivating corn and the last couple cutting deep meadow hay which is looking really good this year. And with the new rock guards on the haybine I only plugged up the sickle twice in the wire grass. Not bad compared to normal. Cutting is really slow down there with that tough old wiregrass but it sure beats buying hay because I’ve found out these last couple of years that our worst hay is better than the best hay I can buy. Funny how folks are so poor at making hay. Never fails to amaze me! I hope that’s a thing I don’t do much of in the future, buying hay that is, because up to the last couple of years I’ve never had to and I sure don’t like to.
So other than all out work around here there’s not much more to tell. Got 15 baby ducks yesterday morning at the co-op. I guess that’s big news around here! I always liked ducks, don’t know why, but I kinda like those critters. I always wear boots so the greasy lawn doesn’t bother me a whole lot either. We’ll just let them hang around the place, not a big fan of eating duck but times get tough they sure can turn into a good meal mighty quick! I was just paging through an old Foxfire book and it tells a little about how they made those old fashioned feather tick blankets from the duck flock on the farm back in the olden days and that reminds me of the one and only time I slept in a feather tick and that had to be the most comfortable thing I ever slept in during my lifetime! Plus them ducks get reused, just pluck em down and let em go to grow some more down. Can’t beat a deal like that! The old feather tick I slept in was at a friends place back in my teenage years when I stayed overnight there. An old farm house in Minnesota with only a wood stove down stairs and the upstairs was literally freezing. After a few minutes in that old feather tick I was toasty warm till waking up in the morning. Since that time I have never experienced a more comfortable sleep in conditions such as that. Funny how the old timers had it figured out and now we just get some blankets that a person almost freezes to death in if the temp is below fifty in the house. That reminds me, at the same house the oldtimer that lived there, he was born in the 1800s, he had a buffalo hide jacket. It was long and heavy, right down to the floor. And that thing would protect a person in the most brutal Minnesota winter weather unlike anything made today from petroleum products and foam. People think that folks got so cold back in the olden days, but they had it figured out much better than us. They’d bundle up and head to town, or a neighbor’s or where ever and they’d get there just fine in the cold, cold weather without some fancy car and heater. But anyway, funny how a person can get going on that just because we got us some ducks yesterday.
Tomorrow’s the Fourth of July and like nine out of ten years that means making or baling hay here. But when its all said and done we have us an invite to go visit, so visit we will! Not all to far away, eat some and have a great time of Christian fellowship that I always crave! Then in a couple weeks at church the younger kids are having an all night camp out, kinda a youngster’s camp meeting I figure, and rumor has it that there might be fireworks and they want me to light it up. Hmm, this could be interesting to say the least! But its all in a person’s duty to his local church so away we go! Fireworks used to be illegal around here, but they musta have modified the laws somewhat to allow lower level fireworks to be shot off. Being one who just about never pays attention to laws I really don’t know, but if they got em, I’ll shoot em no matter what the law says. And if I never return I will this blog to Jim V………..
Oh Lord, a guy can get tired out this time of year and I sure am tonight. Very little wind tonight and our state bird, the mosquito, is out in full force outside tonight. It was wet enough a few weeks ago to give them things a pretty good hatch and they must be hungry cause they were after me when I went to look at the little ducklings. But a mosquito means that there’s not many grasshoppers and between the two I’ll take mosquitoes every time. Nothing good comes out of a year where the hoppers are dominant. And seeing I don’t have the same tastes as John the Baptist I don’t really have any need for hoppers being around. I’ll take the honey though. All in all things are going well around here and I’m more than satisfied. Farm is moving along, our walk with God is doing fine, our country church is bustling with activity and interesting times. Nothing like a little country church I always say, that’s on fire for Jesus! Couldn’t even imagine life without it! When its time for me to cross that old River Jordan I must say that life was a thousand times better than I would have ever imagined it could be! Living life so different than what’s considered normal these days. I know many folks can’t even figure out what I’m talking about, or at least its hard to imagine, but its true never the less. Old fashioned faith out in the countryside! Glory!
July 5th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Morning Tom!
Glad things are going well for you. Just got in from trying to cultivate 10 acres of corn, had to give up as the cool weather here has caused an explosion of mustard that is out of control! Since we can’t spray (due to the organic rules) I have to hitch up the disc and tear up the field. Not sure what I’ll do, replant some corn and pray for great weather or throw some late soybeans in and hoe like crazy!
July 5th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Hey Tom,
I wish I could send you some rain. We have had more rain than we need but not enough to flood things. The garden is growing well though because the moister in the ground that was so low from last years severe drought has been replaced. I think the farmers around here are going to have a good crop even though everything was planted late due to rain.
You mention the mesquitos and I was thinking about those things yesterday. We have had all this rain but you can hardly find any mesquitos around here. We usually have all kinds of mesquitos inluding some new varieties introduced from asia but not yet this year. I can’t figure it out. Maybe our severe drought from last year had an effect on the mesquito population this year.
Do you have a pond for your ducks? What kind of ducks did you buy? I’ve read that muskovy ducks will eat every tick, tomato worm and japanese beetle in sight. When I lived in Minnesota and would go into the woods I would always get ticks on me. When I grew up in Michigan I would crawl through the tall grass and wander through the woods all summer and never once in all my life up there found one tick. Now they say there are plenty. I live here in Ohio and I’ve seen plenty here. If I ever get my own place I may get some of those muskovy ducks just to help keep the ticks down.
Brent,
There’s no way at all to save that corn? That seems like such a waste to have to just till it all up and start over at this late date. Can you just let it do its best and feed it along with the mustard plants as silage or fodder? Or harvest what corn you can and use what’s left for silage, fodder or stover? Or sell it standing to another farmer as silage or fodder? Or pasture live stock on it once the corn gets up and has ears.
Is it worth more as silage, fodder, stover or late beans? It would seem that the cost of fuel, seed and time already spent would not be worth more seed, fuel and time just for some beans when you might get silage or fodder from what is already planted. I’m not a farmer though and you guys know what your doing.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Well I just answered some of my own questions by reading on the internet that wild mustard plants are poisonous to live stock. However I also read that the weed can be controlled to some extent by grazing so I don’t know how that works. It would seem that if it’s poison you wouldn’t want to graze animals in it. I have seen what appears to be a lot of it growing in wheat and corn fields in Ohio. Can grain like wheat and corn be harvested without harvesting the weed with the grain?
July 5th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Hey Brent,
Bummer about the mustard. Well, a guy has to do what he has to do. I’m still praying for rain here, getting on the dry side with warm temps and high winds. Grass is browning. Corn is twisting. So what else is new?
Oh well, still doing better than last year here.
Hey Don,
I got Rouen ducks. Active little rascals! At the moment we don’t have any pond close by, but if it’d ever rain in summer we might just have one again. Our ducks have to carry a water jug with em
July 5th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Don, thanks for the thoughts. The problem with the corn field is that it sits across the road from the rest of the farm and the cows have no access to it. I couldn’t bring myself to disc the field so I rehooked the cultivator and hit the field again, it looks like I’m row cropping mustard now, but I’ll keep at it to salvage what corn I can, pigs and chickens need it! Oh, I have 4 hoes on order at the feed mill, we hope to hit that corn (and soybeans too) and see if some old elbow grease might help! On the good side, our winter wheat looks good and the cool weather has really helped the field peas and the oats. To distract myself from the farm problems I’ve been reading up on peak oil and just finished the book “World Made By Hand” and “the Long Emergency”, now that stuff is scary!
July 7th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Tom,
Looks like you survived the fireworks. I am glad. I think people would get bored with me blogging all the time.
We have feather tick blankets and feather beds at our place. They are nice and warm in the winter. You can keep the temperature in the house lower and stay planty warm while sleeping. Funny how we talk about feather ticks on one of the first days of the summer when it finally feels hot and sticky. Of course last week I turned on the heat in the car one morning when I went to check cows at the neighbor’s place…
Time to start asking God to be merciful and send us some rain. Seems that we are back to that pattern where 50-60 percent chance of rain means that we get nothing. I see that they are forecasting 50-60 percent chance for the next 24 hours. Maybe this time God will grant us enough rain to sustain the crops and pastures.
Jim V
July 9th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Hey Jim,
My internet was knocked off for a couple days from the Monday evening storm, the server took a direct hit, (better them than me), and I see we got service back this morning! Got almost three quarters of an inch, first time in years we received a rain in July so I don’t really know how to act. Corn is lookin good and the oats is beautiful!
I’ll try to catch up around here the next few days. Its just kinda different not being in full drought mode in July!