Wheat...my, how things change!

I thought I would do a "photo documentary" of the progression of our wheat field.  It's fun to see how quickly things change on a farm.

This is our field early in the spring.  It had come out of it's winter dormancy and when everything else around was dead and brown, the wheat was lush and green. 

 This was the wheat in early June.  It had grown tall and just set on it's heads.

 After reaching maturity in June, it quickly began to turn yellow and die.

 Drying down enough to cut the wheat is a waiting game.

Here we have our field of wheat shortly before it was cut.  Fully dry, it makes a lovely rustling sound when the wind blows.  It's a race to get it harvested before fourth of July fireworks start.

 After the wheat is cut, we bale the straw.  That's Sidney working with her dad.  Sometimes they have help, but other times just the two of them go out to collect the straw bales.  She drives the truck (a stick with no power steering) and also straightens up the bales in the field so they will feed into the loader.  Lots of hopping in and out of the truck!  Ted rides on the back of truck and stacks the bales neatly in the truck when one comes up the loader.  Very HOT work!

 This is the wheat stubble that remains after all of the straw is taken from the field.  We will plant sunflowers into this, but the field, as it is, is very flammable.  It also has a lot of weeds growing already.  We either have to burn it off, or work the ground first.

We chose to burn it off.  As an option, burning is faster, cheaper, and let's be honest...way more fun!  Also, we have learned over the years, that (most often) the sunflowers do better after the field has been burned, rather than worked.

The field went up like...like...well, a house of straw!  It was over 100*F (actual temperature) yesterday when we burned it.  Let me say that it got a little bit toasty out there!  Anyway, the field is now ready to plant sunflowers.

Sunflower News

I've had quite a few people ask about sunflowers, 

so I thought I'd get off my lazy kiester and do a quick blog. 

This is just a painting I did of the sunflowers and is not meant to represent how the sunflowers look now.

This is actually how the sunflowers look right now.

They will (hopefully) get planted today.  That is the plan, anyway.  They are 73 day seeds which means that they should bloom sometime in mid-September (but I'm too lazy to do the math right now).  The rate of growth also is variable on planting depth, sun, rain, clouds, and whether or not the NFL works out their negotiations.  Ha!  Anyway...farmer Ted is on it!

I promise to keep you posted!

Buddy Clifford Grinter 2000-2011

In 2000, a blessing was (literally) dumped into our lives.  He was a big puppy, and for whatever reason, someone decided the thing to do with him was to dump him in the country.  We fell in love.   The really funny thing was...our girls had been praying for a big dog.  We had just had to put down our previous dog due to old age and the paralysis following a ruptured disc, and the girls were heartbroken.  They naturally thought having another dog would help them heal.  I told them it would have to wait.  We were in the process of moving, and it just wasn't a good time.  Almost overnight, a giant playful puppy showed up on our doorstep.  The girls each gave him a name.  Buddy because he was friendly, and Clifford because he was huge.  They had named him...I guess that meant that we were going to keep him. 

Although the girls and I loved Buddy, he took a particular shine to Ted.  (And Ted to him.)

They were inseparable!

If Ted went out in the pickup...Buddy would jump in the back.

But Buddy was most enamored of the Gator.  (I think because he got to sit up front with Ted.)

Anywhere Ted went, Buddy ran after...

At home, Buddy kept a good eye on things and liked to bark at deer.  He did not, however, ever bark at people.  We always said he was a good watchdog.  He could watch people all day!

Buddy always loved winter.  Especially when it snowed.

But without a doubt, Buddy's favorite thing in the world was going to work with Ted everyday.  

(And I mean EVERY DAY!) 

These two boys...they were buddies!

So...Buddy got old and it was getting hard for him to move his huge frame around.  Eating and moving was more and more of a chore for him and today he made the decision to not try anymore. 
Then we had to make a hard decision ourselves.

We believe Buddy had the best life a dog could have, and he enjoyed his life to the fullest.  All of our family will miss him terribly.  But I think that Ted will feel the most profound loss.
 He has lost his shadow...and his best friend.

Hollandaise the Easy Way!

We are spoiled. 

My mil (mother-in-law) makes the world's best Eggs Benedict!  We usually only get it twice a year...Christmas and Easter morning.  Recently, my eldest asked me if we could pleeeease have Eggs Benedict for breakfast at our house since it was a long time until Christmas.  EB is not in my usual repertoire because I have always had an aversion to making Hollandaise sauce.  That is, until I found a recipe that involved using a blender.  I tweaked the recipe to taste, and I must say, it runs a close second to my mil's sauce.  I would never say it was as good...that would be gastronomical suicide!   (But I am very happy to eat this sauce when forced to make it myself.  It is very yummy and so easy you won't believe it!)

Blender Hollandaise Sauce 

3 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1 dash hot pepper sauce

1/2 cup butter (or oleo)

Add egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, and hot sauce to blender and blend for a few seconds.  Heat the butter (I used oleo and it came out fine) in the microwave for 1 minute or until completely melted and hot.  Turn the blender on high and add the butter in a thin stream.  It will thicken very quickly. 

Serve immediately.

Wolf Spiders!

So, for Mother's Day, I asked my hubby to please bring me some mulch...but NOT bulk mulch because then I would have a pile to contend with and it would involve much more labor on my part.  I didn't relish the thought of deciding where to put the pile; shoveling the pile; all the trips back and forth to the pile

(you get my drift, here)...

So, what did he bring me?  Bulk mulch, of course!  (Gee!  Thanks, honey!)

I decided to just shut up and make it work...maybe after just a little groaning and complaining.  After all, it was much better mulch then what I am accustomed to, which is what the county chips up from pruning roadsides, and leaves in massive heaps for us when we tell them it's ok to deposit some on our farm.  (Just can't say no to free mulch.)   But what I completely forgot about, was that no matter the quality of mulch, if it's in a heap, you will most likely get a few of these:

Wolf spiders!

 I had scooped up some mulch with my hands and thrown it into a 5 gallon bucket.  I just needed a little bit to put some in the tops of some flower pots.  I was happily reaching into the bucket for mulch and was almost to the bottom of the bucket when I happened to look in.

Although I didn't relish the thought that I had been playing keep away with this spider, I'm certain that she was much more afraid than I was.  After all...she had her babies with her!  Wolf spiders are kind of really cool in that they attach their egg sacks to their spinnerets and carry them around with them to guard.  They even hunt this way.  After the babies emerge from the sack, they will climb up her legs and ride around on her abdomen for a time.  (I can't imagine carrying around hundreds of offspring!) 

After terrifying her some more with my camera, I let her out into my garden.

She had a hard time getting over this dried stem with the egg sack in tow.

She was very gentle with it.

After eventually winning her battle with the stem, she found a nice leaf to crawl under to hide from me. 

I can't blame her one bit!

Winter Wheat

 We plant "Hard Red Winter Wheat" in the fall.  That's a long name for a grain, but wheat is named for the growing season, the gluten content, and the color.

 Hard wheat has a high protein content and is used predominantly for all-purpose flour.

 Wheat that is planted in the fall sprouts, grows a few inches, and then lays dormant for the winter.

 Then in the spring, it looks like this! 

Lush, lovely greenness...when everything else around is still brown and ugly.

It will be harvested in late June or early July...hopefully before the fireworks start for Independence Day celebrations.  It's always a race.  By then the wheat will be fully ripe and...dry.  (Fireworks and wheat fields are a bad combination.)  But for now, I'm going to enjoy the green!

What's in a Tree?

Ted's mom and dad's house was recently featured in Lawrence Magazine.  The gist of the article is that they used all native lumber off of our own farm in the finishing process.  The floors, the woodwork, the cabinets, etc., were all made using what we had on hand.  If you remember from a previous blog that we fell our own trees and then we hire a portable saw mill to come in and saw up the logs.  The boards then get stacked for drying and when we feel the need to make something pretty, it's there.  

If you'd like to see the article and get a glimpse of the house and see what logs like these can become,

click here.  You'll have to scroll to page 12 where the article begins
(or 15 if you go by the toolbar at the top.). 

It's called "Farming Elegance."  For those of you wondering, we don't just cut down trees.  Ted's dad, Jim, plants lots of trees, acorns, and seeds.  (Acres of them!)