A Warm June in the Ozarks Is Getting Hotter

We began June with a 3-day Pioneer Handcart Trek Re-enactment, something our Church does every 4 years to help our youth gain a little taste of what our pioneer ancestors experienced during their migration to the Western part of USA in the mid-nineteenth century. 

The youth are put into "families" with a Ma and Pa. Their limited possessions & bedding had to fit into their handcart, which they then pulled and pushed up and down Ozark hills for 3 days. The temps crept up into the 90's! This river crossing was cooling and fun. How far did they have to walk thru water?

It seemed quite long, but was really...

...not that bad.

They eventually reached the far bank and got their camp set up before the rain arrived. Trek was fun and safe, but even more important than the hard work was the Spiritual growth. 

The following weekend after Trek, our family had 5 members in the cast of the ballet, "Annie".  This pic is a little fuzzy - it was taken with my iPhone, which is not the best camera in our family.

Mom stole the show as Ms Hannigan.

K8 was the villain, Rooster, with Tia as his partner in crime. They were great.

After Youth Trek and a long weekend of Annie shows, it was time to get back to farm work.

Worked some cattle, burned brush piles, and replaced some gates.

We were able to hay our lower paddocks in between rain storms. 

Our friend Brian R. came over after haying his large fields and spent 3 hours cutting our grass and clover on a hot Thursday afternoon.

After letting the cut grass dry for 2 days, I borrowed Brian's hay rake on Saturday and raked all the cut grass into windrows. It was hot, but I wore a long sleeved shirt and hat to protect against getting sun burnt.

Not bad for my first time raking. I am particularly happy with how well this paddock has improved in quality over the years. It used to be our worst due to poor soil, but after liming the fields every other year for 8 years; spreading sea salt the past year and a half; and with mob grazing the cattle for a month at a time in each paddock during the winter (spreading hay bales around to make sure cattle spread their mature around), this result looks beautiful. Hopefully, we can now hay every year.

This is another friend, Brian C. who came over and baled the hay for us on Saturday evening. We finished in the dark with me driving the UTV along side, because the tractor's lights weren't working. Thanks to great friends, we were able to get some much needed hay ready for next winter.

I moved all the bales into paddock #6. K12 was my helpful assistant, hopping down and getting the gates for me.

We celebrated Father's day with a houseful of kids and grand children - this is just a small number of them. I had requested beef stroganoff for supper, and there were two different cakes with ice cream. Yummy.

Singing and making music is a vital part of our family's home life. We start them young.

As soon as I got the hay bales moved out, I opened all the gates into the lower paddocks and let the cattle and sheep in to clean up the fields. It started to rain again, which is good because the grass will re-grow faster, and brought cooler temps for a few days.

Our flock is up to 70 sheep now. I will be selling all of the male lambs soon. I sold our main St Croix ram a few months ago to give the momma's a break, and will buy one or two new rams in the Fall, no later than October, to ensure April lambing. These two new rams will either be Royal Whites or Dorpers (or one of each?) in order to get bigger birth rate lambs as well as faster lamb growth. I now run a commercial flock of St Croix with the main goal of making money by selling to the meat market (and some individual buyers). All the momma ewes are 100% pure St Croix, a breed I really love for their looks, good mothering traits, and parasite resistance.

Our Dexter cattle herd is up to 22 and still growing, with more momma's dropping more calves over next few months.

K9's plan for rapid weight gain is eating chocolate brownies - no batter was wasted in this batch. With the temps staying up in the 90's lately, I am not sure I want our kitchen oven on, even if it is producing delicious brownies. 

Spring 2018 farm update - it was busy as usual

We had a drought all Fall, which meant we bought a lot more hay than a normal winter. It got to the point where we were buying 2-year old hay. 

We supplemented the animal's hay with grain whenever the temperature went below freezing - which it kept doing, all the way into April. We had the second coldest April in history! We buy bulk grain from Childer's Farm and Feed. 

I got bored one day and decided to mow the ditch along our dirt road. Sounded like a good idea, and the wheel base looked wide enough, so I did it...up to the part where the ditch got wider than my wheel base! Had the boys come help me pull the bush hog mower off the back, and just as I was calling a neighbor to ask if he could rescue me with his Big tractor...

...along came a new neighbor who said he would be back in 15 minutes with something that could pull me out - he was right, it was a really Big piece of equipment. He recently bought the 70 acre property just across the dirt road from us and is building a beautiful house. He and his family are a great new addition to the neighborhood.

K6 was helping me spread a variety of grass and legume seed on our paddocks, which the animals had grazed almost down to the dirt. He is waving an empty seed bag. That is a seed spreader strapped to the back of the UTV. 

The wife needed a break from the cold weather, so we took a trip to San Diego to visit some dear friends. I thought it was warm enough, but as you can see, she had to wear a coat on the beach.

Our friends have a large avocado tree in their back yard, which she loves.

It was an excellent mini-vacation.

Raw Hide! We had our own version of a cattle drive down the road to a brother's piece of land that had plenty of new grass growing. We weren't riding horses, just the UTV and several family and friends helping - on foot. Great family, friends and neighbors make life worth living. The drive was going well until the bull saw a small break in our neighbor's fence line and charged through it. The herd followed, and we spent an extra 15 minutes rounding them up and moving on down the road. 

We finally got the herd to new pasture. This is the first time my cattle have experienced electric fencing, which our friend Bryce helped set up for us. We kept 7 cows and calves back at home on our place, and kept main herd here almost two months, until neighbors started seeing black bear roaming nearby! Then I brought all home where I could keep a closer eye on them. 

Three of our talented children performed in the musical, "Cats!" It was a great show. From left to right: K8, K7, and K5.

Just saying, one or both need to lay off the GMO feed...