The poor man's bulldozer

There is a never-ending battle here at the farm. The enemy is steadily and relentlessly advancing. This "enemy" doesn't rest, he doesn't take holiday, or go on vacation. He doesn't sleep in, or work half days. He is dedicated and motivated to conquering our farm. He has even gone as far as calling in allies from Russia, I kid you not! Here is photographic evidence...

Russian Thistle

So we are constantly battling the briars and thistles, which seem to do amazingly well here in pretty much any condition or circumstance imaginable. If left unattended briars can tear down a good strong barb wire fence in only a few years. Also, where the briars grow, the grass cannot. Cows need grass more than they need briars.

Last year we did an interesting experiment with the cows. We learned that if we put their salt lick in the middle of a briar patch, they would tramp out the briars in that area. It is really awesome. It looks like an explosion happened in the middle of the briars, totally annihilating " the enemy".

This winter we are feeding the cows in the briar patches. Rather than spending time with the tractor and other machinery, we are letting the cows do the work. Each morning we move the feeders to a new location so that the cows are constantly clearing more and more briars. It looks really muddy right now, but in the spring we will plant grass, and we will have more grazing area for the moos. And that is why cows are called... the poor man's bulldozer.

Moby Duck

Last spring we decided that we needed some ducks on the place, so i bought 4 cute little ducklings. There is really only one thing more cute than a baby chick, and that is a duckling. So when I came home one day with four cute little baby ducks, as you can imagine the girls were beyond thrilled. Especially Eden, our two year old. You see the ducks were kept in a box where they would stay warm while they were little, and thus they were easy prey for a two year old. Suffice it to say the ducks very well could have been loved to death at the hands of a toddler, but that was fortunately not in the cards. Well, as it turned out, one of the ducks was big and white, so we named him "Moby Duck".

Moby was a gentle giant, but he was slow. By default he was the one that Lia could most easily catch. He was always a good sport about it though. He never hissed, or bit, or hit either of the girls. Despite occasional bouts of captivity at the hands of a sweet little girl, Moby lived a happy, peaceful life. He was free to roam the whole farm with his three duck friends. It could have been a fairy tale ending, but alas it was not meant to be. One day I came home to find Moby floating face down in the creek. After a bit of investigative work, we arrived at the conclusion that it was my father-in-law's dog, Meg who whacked Moby. After Moby, the raccoons did away with the two girl ducks. We are down to one drake, and the poor thing has nobody but the chickens to hang out with.

Awesome Possum

Last night at approximately 9:30 p.m there was a disturbance out at the chicken coop.

It turns out this little chap is the one that has been giving the chickens such a hard time lately. Incidentally it was his craving for peanut butter that was his undoing. Only too late did he realize that it was a trap! The night before last I cut one of the legs off of Lia's (our 4 year old) tights, and stuffed it full of peanut butter, and then hung it in the live-trap. Sure enough, just like grandma Hansen said it would... it worked like a charm.

This morning the girls were thrilled to see a "real-live" possum in action. Well ok, there really wasn't that much action. He didn't even play possum. He just kind of sat there. But it was awesome. The story did have a happy ending. The possum was safely returned to the wild. Maybe he will be back to visit someday, but I doubt it. There are plenty of busy roads between him and me right now. The odds are definitely not in his favor. However, with a little bit of luck and some "street smarts", he could very well make the journey. I would then have to name him "Sancho the homing possum."

Another day... another chicken attack

Today started out with copious amounts of rain, but it did get better. Rainy days are good for paperwork and pencil pushing which, thanks to the way the world works these days, there is plenty of on the farm.

These are last year's calves. They range from 8 to 12 months old. The smallest ones weigh around 350 lbs, and the biggest ones are closer to 700 lbs. Note how they totally dig the cedar tree shelter. It's really a very popular new hangout.

This is a first person perspective of being attacked by a chicken. Ok, not really. Our chickens just really love people, because usually people=food.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step...

What does a farmer do to occupy the time? Have you ever wondered what really happens, and how things come to be? Well, now is your chance to tune in and find out because the Chronicles of Sweetwater Farm have officially begun. We aim to post once a day and share what we are up to. So without further ado...

Today, we cleared out some of the debris that came down almost two years ago in the landslide. You can read about that here... Seattle Times, we made the front page! I am pretty sure that it will take us at least five more years to get fully caught up from all of the damage. We have come a long way, but there is a lot more left to do.

In a nut shell, today we sorted through a big pile of trees, rocks and dirt and carried the sticks, stumps, and logs away to be burned. We also moved some fence so that the calves can take shelter under the cedar trees in the pics. A cedar tree is even better than a barn, because it does a really good job of keeping the cattle dry, and also gets lots of sunlight, and the sun keeps parasites from building up like they do in a barn. Bet you didn't know that. Nothing too exciting really. But it takes time and energy.

Before...

After

Summer!

Here is what we are up to:

We do pretty much all of our own work. Sometimes our awesome friends help us.

Just in case you have ever wondered what farmers might occupy their time with, here is a list of some things we have been working on in the last 12 months.

1. Feed Cows, Pigs, Chickens
2. Manage Pastures
3. Build/Repair Fence
4. Move chicken tractor
5. Capture stray cattle
6. Doctoring cattle
7. Delivering calves
8. Clean out barn
9. Repair farm equipment
10. Operating heavy equipment ( Dozers, Excavators Dump Trucks etc.)
11. Diesel engine work
12. Metal working (welding/torching)
13. Machine shop work (working with metals this is where you have to be precise, things are measured in thousandths of an inch)
14. Painting equipment
15. Structural buildings (Steel and wood frame construction)
16. Roofing (Steel, Wood shingle, Composite)
17. Seeding grass
18. Cutting briars, clearing brush
19. Gardening
20. Keeping the orchard up
21. Beekeeping

he list is long and varied. The depth and range of the projects is quite exciting. Farmers always have an abundance of work, but usually not enough money to pay someone else to do it. This means that the farmer has to figure it out.

Barn Upgrade: We are re-modeling the barn by installing a new feeding system that will save us time, and make the cows even happier. But really... how much happier can these bovines really become. I think we're splitting hairs. Incremental gains... diminishing returns, yada yada... Well anyways the project involves a lot of concrete. We need to be done with the whole thing by the time the snow starts to fall in November.

Hay: Cut/Rake/ Bale. We will be putting up around 250 tons of hay between now and the end of July, (most of it by hand.)

Fencing: we have about 8,000 feet of five strand barb wire fence to build.

Giant Cow Sign: We are putting Glenoma on the map. We are building a big steel sign to go in the pasture along the highway. The design is ready, we just need to start cutting and welding. It is going to be awesome! If you are ever headed east on Hwy 12 you won't miss it. Trust me.

Bridge: We need to put in a 40 foot bridge across a small river/large creek.

Pigs: We've got two beautiful gilts (young female pigs) that will be having their first litters sometime in November. These pigs are very social. They enjoy busting out of their pen at least once per day to come say hello, and to see what we are working on.

Chickens: We have 100 Heritage Red Chickens coming this Friday (July 9). We are going to raise them on the pasture. This will compliment and help the cows because 1. the chickens eat the flies that bug the cows, and 2.) they fertilize the fields with high quality natural fertilizer.

newest members of the farm

meet the slug patrol