Sugar Creek Farm

This is one of our neighbor’s horses, standing on their hill, contemplating the sunset.

I think we humans could take a lesson, be still, and contemplate the sunset on occasion.

The first pair of Canada geese to make a stop in our pasture this year. They’re even more a harbinger of spring than the robin here at SCF.

3 years ago:

Sugar Creek Farm goes Hollywood
Can’t believe it’s been 2 years since that adventure already!

I wonder how long she stood there until she gave up and got her other foot muddy.

3 years ago:

Garden, March

And muddy calves

Cute little muddy snouts!

Mud facial, anyone?

3 years ago:

Weird (and rather boring) things

Normally I love our creek. It’s serene, and calming, and attracts a wonderful variety of wildlife.

But I don’t love it this time of year. All of the land around us drains right through the middle of our farm, water racing to get to the creek.

Here’s the creek at a normal level:

And here’s what it looked like today:

Here’s another view:

Of course to a 6-year-old boy with a stick, it’s heaven.

Here’s Matt’s attempt at using little snowpiles to divert the water around the cattle/hog shed, so that it’s not running right through the pigs’ sleeping area:

He ended up letting them out of their pen to bunk in the feeder calves’ pen, hoping they could find a dry enough spot in there. We so need a real pig barn. But with the cost of feed right now, we might not even have pigs after this year anyway.

2 years ago:

So close…

Ag challenge: Adapt, bring in youth

“An Iowa farmer could raise rice in watery paddies, with ducks and fish. The ducks eat insects; the fish eat certain plants. So no feed or chemicals are needed, and there’s little energy output and good production. The farmer also could raise fruit trees around the rice paddies.”

*****

Biofuels future is not based on corn

“Some grasses could provide five times the amount of fuel from an acre as corn.”

*****

The ducks have taken to lounging on top of the cornstalk bales.

The bales seem to make a good launching pad for flying down to the creek, too.

All of the critters seem to be doing a lot of lounging these days, as if they’re just standing around defrosting, thawing out from the long winter.

3 years ago:

R.I.P. Superstar

On Sunday we took the last of the Spring ’08 beef to the locker. This has been a weekly chore for the past 5 weeks. It’s not my most favorite chore. It can be dangerous, and I always feel like a bit of a traitor.

Here’s the group – 9 yearlings plus 1 finished heifer.

We walk them into a sort of roundpen and sort off the one we want.

Here’s the heifer we’re looking for.

Matt points the way to the chute.

She takes a look…

and heads that way. She’s got to walk through the corncrib alley and then into the livestock trailer. Matt runs in after her, trying to keep her momentum going. “Be careful!” I remind him. “I don’t want to be a widow!”

She kicks up her heels, wheels around and comes running right back out. Yikes, scary!

At this point I put down the camera so I could be of a little more help. We repeated this start into the alley, change my mind, run back out routine many, many, many times. So then we decided to bring in another calf. Having a buddy that wasn’t afraid of the alley got that heifer going where we needed her to go and finally we were off.

3 years ago:

The List

Today you are 6! Six has been less traumatic for me than five. I think because five meant I was soon to send you off into the world on a big yellow school bus. Now, a year later, you’re already halfway through kindergarten.

School has been a bit of a challenge for you. Wait, let me rephrase that. Having you in school has been a bit of a challenge for your teacher. You love school, and get yourself up, prepped, and ready to go every morning. Your teacher tells us that academically you’re right where you need to be or better. She says you’re respectful and kind and popular. She also says you have a hard time sitting still or keeping your mouth shut.

Art, P.E. and recess seem to be your favorite “subjects”. Interestingly enough, considering the family you were born into, not music. But I think that’s less about a dislike for music and more about a dislike for music class. In fact one day you came home and announced, “Mom, I think my talent is singing. Definitely.”

Around home right now your favorite things are…freeze tag with Dad and The Sisters, Legos, football (always football), all implements John Deere, “your” pigs, sledding, hanging out with your cousin Connor, and games – Memory, Go Fish, and Trouble.

We still aren’t sure if you’re left or right-handed. You write, draw and color with your right hand. You eat cereal and throw a football with your left hand. Very interesting.

You gave wrestling a try this year and loved the practices. We only let you do one tournament, and you didn’t love that so much. But when I suggest you might like basketball instead, you get irritated with me and reply, “No, Mom, I’m a wrestler!” All right, fine then, but basketball would be so much easier on your mother. Watching you out there all alone on the mat is almost more than I can take.

You’re learning to read, and it seems to come fairly easily for you – if we can get you to sit down and work on it. For a boy who loves to be read to, you sure aren’t interested in learning to read for yourself.

You seem to love numbers. Perhaps you’ll be the one of my children that takes after me in that respect. You’re always asking me, “What’s 9 + 9? What’s 90 + 90?” And when I explain how 9 + 9 is 18, and how 90 + 90 is just like 9 + 9 except with a zero, you actually seem to get it! You love to build things. The other day I watched you work and work to construct a hollow-centered pyramid with which to entrap a toy dinosaur. And of course, as your mother, I dream big and wonder, “engineer?”

Happy Bithday, buddy.

Love,
yo mama

3 years ago:

Five