Raindrops keep falling

Usually by the middle of July (and usually on Rally weekend) we stop getting rain until toward the end of August. We might get a noisy thunderstorm or two during that time, but generally it's hot and dry for five or six weeks. Not this year.

It has rained at least twice a week, and been the coolest July and August on record. The pastures are so green, it's almost hard to look outside. The summer legumes - clover and lespedeza - are so tall and lush that it's difficult to mow. It's been so much cooler than normal - rarely getting above 90F (32C) - that the warm season grasses have hardly grown, but our cool season grasses keep getting taller.

Add to that: because of our government programs in place this year, all of our pastures were limed, fertilized and overseeded. The animals are fat! This weekend, Sarah (goat doe) had such a full belly that she grunted and struggled to stand back up after she layed down to rest on top of the bush hog. But they still all want to eat their sweet feed mix as often as possible.

The weeds in my garden are getting a little out of control. Ashley keeps trying but I think the bush beans may be lost. The pole beans are making the best of it, climbing up the tall weeds to find sunlight. Tomatoes are growing, but since they weren't planted out until the end of May, they're behind. I'm sure they'll catch up - as long as the weeds don't take them, too!

Little Sturgis Rally for Charity

Every year, Sturgis, Kentucky, hosts the Little Sturgis Rally and Races for Charity (http://www.littlesturgisrally.net/). It's a motorcycle rally - not to be confused with the Sturgis, South Dakota, rally - that has given over $2million to local charitable organizations that work at the Rally. People come from far and wide to show off their motorcycles, have fun, and maybe drink a little alcohol. Since Charles and I returned to America in 2005, we've been volunteering, gradually working up to full time volunteers.

The Rally happened on Thursday, July 16, to Saturday, July 19. This year was different for me, because I was asked to be in charge of all the volunteers. In previous years, all I did was train them for gate sales and look after them so they didn't overheat. This year in addition to the training and looking after, I was also responsible for signing them in and out, selling volunteer bracelets, calculating how much money each volunteer organization earned, and generally dealing with problems that came up. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had been sick with a stomach virus from the Sunday before, and was still recuperating on the first day of the Rally (Thursday), but I had a lot of great helpers so I made it. By mid-morning on Friday I was firing on all cylinders.

The weather was also beautiful, mild, breezy and sunny. There was a little rain storm early on Friday morning, but nothing as strong as we tend to get during the Rally. The photo is scanned out of our local newspaper the Union County Advocate. I'm the person with her back to the camera, wearing the Gate Committee t-shirt.

Northern Visitor

This week my cousin Joe Kramer from Minneapolis, Minnesota, came to visit and help out on the farm. Joe is 12 years old, and is into lots of sports - ice hockey, football and baseball. We like Joe to visit, because he's a hard worker and keeps Charles on task (when I'm not there to do it!).

Joe helped hang gates, build the first wall of our house, milk goats, feed animals, chase chickens, move the chicken run, collect eggs, weed tomatoes and squash, check beehives, house repairs for our Uncle Paul, put up our little soaking pool, and cleaned off Paul's deck. He learned how to drive an automatic and even got a little practice with our stick-shift pick up truck.

Then he would play on the wii until we sent him to Paul's to sleep. And he ate all the bread I could buy or bake. After Independence Day fireworks at the Sturgis Airport, which is not nearly as lame as it sounds, we drove back to Bolckow, Missouri, to drop Joe off for a week with Aunt Sallie and Uncle David. They are also farmers, but on a whole different scale than we are. They have thousands of acres of corn and soybeans, and all the gigantic equipment to go with it.

County Fair Ribbons

Here in our little community, the County Fair is a pretty big event. There's a lot of good food, rides, pageants, livestock shows, and competitions. I have entered the Fair in three years, 2006, 2007 and 2009, and am proud to say I received ribbons for every year. Apart from enjoying all the cooking and baking, it's fun to see how you measure up to other cooks and bakers.


The photo here shows some blue ribbon baking: a decorated cake, a loaf of white bread, and a Chocolate Dream Pie. It sounds like bragging, but I am proud that I make things that other people appreciate. I also plan to use my blue ribbons as a marketing tool for selling my farm produce. My Hot Kosher Dill Pickles won first place, so I will put a little ribbon on my label so everyone knows they're eating the best dill pickles in the county. Here's what I put in the 2009 County Fair:


Baking Division:
White Loaf Bread: Italian Feather Whey Bread *1st place
Sweet Rolls: Cinnamon Rolls with Orange Glaze * 1st place
Chocolate Chip Cookies: Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies * 1st place
Peanut Butter Cookies: Jif Peanut Butter Cookies
Other Cookies: Soft Ginger Cookies * 1st place
Plain Sugar Cookies: Almond Sugar Snaps
Decorated Cake: Violet Damask Dalia * 1st place
Fruit Pie: Gooseberry Pie * 2nd place
Other Pie: Chocolate Dream Pie * 1st place


Canning Division:
Dill Pickles: Hot Kosher Dill Pickles * 1st place
Corn Relish: Sweetcorn Relish * 1st place
Other Relish: Yellow Squash Relish * 1st place
Corn Cob Jelly: Corn Cob Jelly * 1st place
Other Jelly: Sweet Hot Pepper Jelly
Other Canned Good: Elderberry Syrup * 1st place


Crafts and Photography:
Craft Item from Recycled Materials: Knitting Needle Holder from Pringles Cans * 1st place
Tole Painted Object: Purple Spotted Kitchen Cannisters * 3rd place
Handmade Jewelery: Celtic Knotwork Necklace with Heart Pendant * 1st place
Patriotic Item: Flag Brooch
Other Craft Item: Millefiore Heart Brooch
Black and White Photo: Cimetiere Pere Lachaise, Paris 2002 * 3rd place
Landscape Photo: Ben Lomond, 2001
Vacation Photo: Mojacar Playa, Spain 2005
Collage or Theme: Photos from the Cambridge American Cemetery * 1st place

New Farm Toys

Charles is excited like a little boy at Christmas ("he's been! he's been!"). His new tractor-driven post driver is fully operational. It's very heavy duty, basically a steel beam with a hydraulic ram. On a full drive it will exert 71,500 pounds of pressure on the end of an 8-inch diameter post. Don't get any body part in the way! The warning contains words like "crush" and "amputation". Once the tractor is exactly in the right place, the driver is adjusted until it is level and plumb. A fence post is loaded - no need to sharpen the end - and held in place with a spring. Then the operator stands to one side and moves a little lever, about six inches long, back and forth, which raises and lowers the ram. Five minutes later the post is firmly in the ground.

It's at the limit of our old tractor's capabilities, but in 75 minutes, he put in 6 posts, including manuvering between post locations. That would take almost two days the old way of auger out the hole, finish by hand with a post hole digger, and tamp the post in by hand. One morning, he and I put in 21 posts in about 4 hours, and that included having to deal with a fountain of hydraulic fluid when the return hose worked itself loose from the hydraulic tank. Messy!

The Campsite Field is now divided into four, with another fence to go, giving us a total of 5 paddocks. Each paddock will have access to an automatic waterer and a shelter corral, but these won't be finished until spring. I'll put pictures of our completed fence up then, for now, just gaze upon the glory of our post driver!

Baby Goat named: JoJo Bucket

The new baby has been named JoJo Bucket. He is named after his uncle/half-brother Cotton Ear Joe, whom we called JoJo. He got the Bucket from his immediate love of the feed bucket. I gave him a nice manger area, but he far prefered dumping over the bucket and laying in it. He is the boldest baby we have ever raised. He doesn't care where mom Sarah is, he wants to be with the people because they have the fingers required to scratch his ears. Sometimes is drives Sarah crazy.

One day Sarah was bleating outside the barn, and I couldn't find JoJo Bucket anywhere. I checked all over the barn, and even got Charles out of bed early to help find him. I looked between the hay stack and the barn wall, in all the outdoor shelters, in the old barn. Charles rechecked the stalls in the barn, the wood stack, the side of the barn that we use to store big stuff - then he just turned around and there was JoJo Bucket stood in the middle of the barn, like he'd been there all along. I found his hiding place a couple of days later: he was under a little trailer in the barn, so low that he has to crawl under it.

The goat that we processed this spring (JoJo) is turning out to be a real treat. Every way we have eaten goat meat has been delicious - burgers, meatballs, roast and sausages. Some people might not like to read this but JoJo Bucket will share the same destiny. Because he was sired by his own grandfather - which is not the end of the world, but also not the best situation - we don't want to sell him for breeding. He will supply meat for our family, which is, I think, the most noble thing an animal can do.

Family wedding and a new baby

The past week has been crazy, with putting in the (late) vegetable garden, building the house, receiving our new post driver in kit form, a family wedding, and a new baby this morning!

Charles and I traveled to Columbia, Missouri, to attend the wedding of my cousin, Donald Potter, to Christen Kent. Donald is the son of my father's oldest sister, Sallie. Sallie and her husband, David, are the other farmers in the family, but they farm big-style corn and beans. Their daughter Ruth and her husband John are also farming with them.

Donald owns parts of two piano bars, one in Columbia and the other in Lexington. Christen is a first grade teacher. They depart on their honeymoon in a couple of weeks, going to Italy - Venice, Florence and Rome.

I fretted all weekend that my pregnant goat Sarah would have her baby this weekend while the whole family was away from the farm. But she's a good goat, and when I got up this morning, there she was in the barn with a new baby boy. Mother and son are doing well, both eating and walking around. I'll work on finding him a name today. I already had a name picked out for a female, so I'll have to look around for a male name.

The house is still progressing, with added floor. I can now walk all the way from the front of the house to the back of the house. Charles will only work on the house for another day or two, and then we have to switch to fencing. We have to put in a couple thousand feet of fence by the end of the month, plus the males need a new paddock this weekend. And my tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings are still in trays in the garage, so that will occupy my evenings this week.