Happy Halloween

Granted it’s a day late but still it was a beautiful Halloween night here in Oregon.  The dogs and I watched a beautiful sunset over a freshly mowed clover field, and then settled in to wait for kiddos to come trick or treating!

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The best part though about living in a house in the middle of nowhere…you still have to buy all that candy for the 6 kids that stop by, but you get the rest for yourself!

20131031-202855.jpgSooooo good! 🙂  Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

20131031-202844.jpgps, saw this sign at our local coffee shop, The Banker’s Cup and couldn’t help but share it, too funny!

Ah Turning 30…

Today is my birthday, the big 3-0 is finally here.  I am one of those people who loves their birthday, I love getting older.  Which sounds weird maybe, and maybe this will change, but as an old soul I’m still convinced that I will finally feel like I’m comfortable in my skin when I’m 82.  So every year is just one more year of adventure and excitement.

And what a year it’s been.  I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to have had the year that I’ve had!  Getting married, new house, new little farm worker (baby haha) that is yet to come join us…it’s just a big overwhelming in such a wonderful way.

My favorite story about this day is the one that my parents always tell.  My mom was due on the 20th of October with me.  This time of the year in 1983 my dad was out busy planting wheat fields like crazy.  He had his two way radio on his hip (no cell phones then) just in case my mom called to say, “It’s time.”  My uncle who my dad was farming with at the time knew, that if my dad went racing out of the field, my mom was in labor and he was gone.

Well the 20th came and went, along with the 21st, 22nd, and so on and so forth.  Then the 27th of October came and went, meanwhile they had finally finished up all the wheat planting.  So that morning on the 28th, when all the guys from the farm were gathered around talking about how good it was to get all the crop planted, dad finally got the call.  Mom and dad both say that they knew I was going to be the farmer in the family, since even as a baby I knew I had to be patient and wait until the crop was all planted.

And when I finally did come out I was no small potato, all 10lbs and 12oz of me…possibly a good spot for a “corn fed” type of comment here haha.  Anyhow here’s to another great year ahead, another year closer to that magical age of 82 and as my grandma Arlene says, “Enjoying all that in between time in life, it’s what really matters anyways!”

What We’re up to on Our Farm

For today I’ll just give you an update on what’s going on here in Oregon.  We’re having some incredible fall weather, foggy mornings, sunny afternoons and chilly evenings!  Basically it’s the best time of year here and we’re taking advantage of the lack of rain and getting quite a bit done!!

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We have only one more field to get worked down before we get it marked out to plant filberts.  We plant in the fall and then crop in between the rows to get a little return on our land while we wait for a hazelnut crop to come (4 years is about how long it takes).  Below is an example of a 1 year old orchard with crimson clover in between the rows.

262112_747476613819_3819296_nWe are also working on getting our established orchards pruned up to be able to take out half the trees next year.  Our older trees are 23 years old, and hazelnut trees love to have room to grow so that they can produce more and more.  So because of the size of our trees, we are going to be taking out half of them.  This may sound counter intuitive, but it does work out in the end.  We did this to another orchard a few years ago and the first year we lost half the production, the preceding years though it slowly caught up and this past harvest we broke even. I’m guessing that next year this orchard with only half the trees could out produce those where we haven’t thinned yet.  In a way it’s like pruning your roses back, just on a much larger scale!

As for me….due to my post from last week.  I’m on light duty, only allowed to lift 10 lbs for the next two weeks.  (Do you know how many things on a farm are OVER 10 lbs??!! Basically everything!!)  So I’m working on next year’s budget…a necessary evil of farming and good business.  Anyhow hope everyone is having a good Monday so far and if you’re not having this great weather…aka Midwest states…I’ll try to send some your way!