Recent statistics show that just 1% of the U.S. population considers farming their primary occupation. Since John & I fall into that 1% group, I believe it is important to share about our work in food production. Since 100% of American’s eat, every Friday I write to those who may wonder: Where does my steak come from? What does a farm look like? Who are the farmers and ranchers? What do they do?

This week…

We hired a gentleman to do some painting on a tin building and windbreak. The painter uses a heavy silver paint that slows the natural process of corrosion, which will hopefully make the buildings that John & Ron built last longer. They also look a heck of a lot nicer, too!

Before:

After:

John also sprayed some weeds in the lot, because if he “lets them go” they will take over the whole pens which are used for feeding cattle in the wintertime & sorting. In this case, we don’t want grass here, so he takes care of that via lots of 4-wheeling trips.

The corn is also getting really tall! Now that we are back from Missouri and settling into “our new normal” it finally feels like summertime to me! Thank goodness for that, because as tall as the corn is getting it is going to be harvest time before we know it!

One windy day, John and Ron took some time to clean up a bunch of metal that had collected around the farm over the past couple years. John hauled the load to a recycler in Huron and he was paid $300! Whoo-hoo! They need to do this again. (Dear Lord, please send us more windy days!)

Big load, huh? 

More than anything, this week was about haying. The wind finally died down and Ron spent several days cutting road ditches to bale up and John spent quite a bit of time sitting in his baler. That meant they were both away from the farm and it was downright PEACEFUL around here for me (no offense John, I’m just saying!). 

Something broke in John’s baler, so I had to drive (2 hours round trip) to Huron, S.D. to pick up some parts for the baler. He and a friend spent several hours fixing the broken part before he could continue baling. 

The baling is still not done & John will probably spend most of the weekend in the baler. They also took the second cutting of alfalfa this week and it should be ready by Friday night or Saturday morning.

“Married life” is wonderful but, I have to admit I felt really married (whatever that means) when John hung a clothes line in the yard. I guess it just takes awhile to set in & things like a clothes line help get it through my head.

Clothes line + my brain = yep, we’re married. 

Riley and Moda came out to help me put our jeans on the line. They are getting very big & ornery these days. 

I need to go to the store & get some clothes pins. Notice the tractor in the background? It seems like there is a tractor everywhere I look in my new life on this farm. It sure wasn’t that way growing up in Missouri! We only had one tractor between three families for the first 15 years of my life! All in all – I think the clothes line and the tractor are quite charming! 

I was so happy about my plants at the beginning of the season, but now my two darling kittens have basically destroyed my poor flowers. They lay in the pots, wrestle and scratch at the plants.

Before…the day I planted everything! 

Bad…

Bad-er…

Bad-est…

I am totally blaming this flower-failure on the kittens, but it could also be attributed to the fact that I was out of town for three weeks & John probably didn’t water them very faithfully!

Yet, the kittens enjoy laying in everything – from smothering the flowers in my pots to a rolled up rug! So – they look pretty guilty! 

At least they aren’t playing in the road!

This week we enjoyed our new dishes and wedding gifts. We grilled several times, which made it truly feel like summertime!

On Wednesday, I took a canning class from SDSU Extension & came home with these beauties. I hoped the canning class would be enjoyable – and it was – but it was a bit more stressful than I expected. There are ALOT of way you can kill yourself (or your unsuspecting husband) if you don’t preserve your food carefully! Check out botulism and you will be frightened, too.

Also, canning is much harder than it looks. While these jars may be pretty, the fruit has all floated to the top, which won’t make good jams and jellies. I can tell this “farm-wife” skill is going to take quite a bit of practice! I helped my Mom can spaghetti sauce when I was a kid, but I didn’t remember how to do anything except cut the tomatoes.

Finally, we are have ONE MORE PARTY to end our lovely, fun, long, exciting wedding season of life. We set up the tables and decorations Thursday tonight for a South Dakota “social” because our wedding in Missouri was quite a drive for most folks around here. John’s friends and parents planned the whole event & I am grateful for that! I was worn out on planning! 

So, we are having a supper & social tonight at 6:30 pm. I am looking forward to it! Mostly, I am excited that we were able to use our decorations more than once! Those pennants took us a lot of time! 

Hope you have a good Friday!! We are thrilled to be enjoying the beauty of summer & our almost settled-in farmhouse.