Haying

Earlier this spring, I wrote about planting grass at the Four Sisters Farm.

Last week, we were finally able to take the first cutting of hay from that 9-acre field.

John and I have started calling this summer The Haying Year from Hell.

No kidding, this summer was a nightmare for putting up hay. Too much moisture, too much rain, too few sunny & windy days. 

I mention this because it would have been ideal to cut this over a month ago, but everything was just way behind.

So, it got done in early September.

Nature has her plans, we have ours. She wins.

In the end, we got 16 round bales from this new seeding. After John did the baling, I moved the bales off the field into a nice tidy row.

Then, we fed one bale to the cows and calves. We have 20 summer calving cows right now and we are up to 17 calves. Only three to more babies to go! We’ve been feeding the cows a little cracked corn and distillers to provide extra energy while they nurse. 

John spent some time on Sunday cleaning up the manure and wasted hay from around the hay rings.

Long-Term Projects

The strawberry plants are putting out “runners” now & doing pretty well for year one. Both the strawberry patch & the new pasture were long-term projects. We didn’t reap much for rewards this year – about 10 berries and just a few big round bales.

However, in three years we’ll have enough strawberries to make jam and the grass in the pasture will have firmly-established roots. We’ll be able to graze a few calves out there!

Good things are worth the wait – right?

Baby Stuff

Speaking of waiting, I only have seven weeks left until my due date! Ek! John took this bump photo for me a few weeks ago.

I can’t wait to meet our little boy or girl. We are getting more curious every day – boy, girl? Boy, girl?

I wanted to get a “mom haircut” so that it would be shorter and easier to manage.

Some girls are great about fixing long hair. For example, ALL of my baby sisters. I, however, get soooo lazy. I do better with short hair. So, I cut off seven inches! 

I really, really, really like it. Low-maintenance to the max.

There’s this funny thing about being pregnant. You lose total control of your body. Everything changes & you can’t stop it.

Your ankles swell, you get stretch marks, your belly button pops out, your clothes don’t fit, your wedding ring doesn’t fit, you can’t lift anything over 40 pounds, you get out of breath all the time.

And, there is nothing you can do about any of it!

But, your hair, that you can still control.

Anyway, I think that’s why I liked getting my hair cut. It was a great pick-me-up. It gave me something else to focus on for a few weeks while my tummy continues growing, growing, growing.

Hope you have some exciting plans for the weekend! I’m not sure what will be happening around here quite yet.

Maybe canning some spaghetti sauce? Quilting? Trying to grill brats?