Category: Farm Mom

My Favorite Field

Some fields on our farm I wish were 1000 acres by themselves so we could camp out for weeks just harvesting in that one perfect spot. We harvested my favorite field last night. Sitting there in the beautiful shade of old oak trees reminded me how every year when we harvest here no one ever wants to leave.

For the kids there are adventures at every turn. In years past they have built forts or climbed on old equipment parked out back. This year Auggie made a restaurant selling all sorts of delicious tree bark and grass straw main courses.

There was four wheeler riding, dinner eating, cold beverage drinking and even a dance performance on the old grain bin slab.

The next few weeks will feel like the Sahara desert compared to this. A lot more dust, more gravel roads and zero trees for shade.

But it sure makes you feel thankful for that one field, under those old oak trees, that you always wish could be 1000 acres.

Harvest has started

Usually our first crop that is ready to harvest is crimson clover. It goes through a similar process as grass seed. Once it’s mature we swath it into rows, usually at night or in the early morning to allow for the higher moisture in the air to keep the seeds from falling off the stems.

We got a little bit of rain today, but with this crop particularly the little bit of rain after it’s swathed will help it combine easier. So this cooler and a little wet weather is a welcome sight even if just for a short time.

The kids got to get some hours on their time cards too. We have to look for vetch in the cut rows and pull it out. The vetch is difficult to remove when we send it to the seed cleaner so we try to get it out of there before it ever goes through the combine and into the truck. Clean seed is an important part of producing quality products that come off our farm.

The Start of Spring

We have hit the “it’s a good day to go get a tractor stuck” weather! Woo hoo!!! For those of you who don’t farm that means the sun has come out and every farmer is rushing around thinking now is the time to get all the things done. Meanwhile Mother Nature has dumped quite a bit of moisture which is sitting in the soil just waiting for you to give her a go so she can laugh.

I would bet we could queue up a few buried or at least stuck-in-the-mud tractor pictures this coming weekend. I’m hoping we aren’t one of them because we’ve all been there. We do have some radish we would love to get planted in this beautiful window of weather; but like I said, sometimes we get a little excited and things don’t go our way and it’s just not time and the soil isn’t ready.

So until then we can still get lots done in this sunshine. This week we took the kids out to pull wheat out of some grass seed fields. I told them it would take 5 minutes…and an hour later we were back home. So they are slowly getting the language of all farmers engrained in their young minds. Always bring a lunch folks.

I’m sure if you’re in any sort of farming area here in the Willamette Valley you’ll see a lot of activity in the coming days. Keep an eye out on the roads for SMV’s (slow moving vehicles) and please be patient, we are as excited as the rest of you for this spring sunshine to hit; our vehicles just drive a little slower.