Sugar Creek Farm

Dear Rafe Henry,

Today you turned five. Not that I need to tell you that, you’ve been counting down since July. And not that I need to tell anyone else that, either. You told everyone we saw today, “Hey! I’m five!” while displaying all five fingers on your right hand.

You’re convinced that now that you’ve turned five, they will finally admit you into kindergarten. First thing Monday morning. Dude, you’re going to be mighty disappointed when I pull up outside of preschool again. Now you’ll be counting down to August. And I’ll be trying not to even think of putting you on a schoolbus.

This week you learned to buckle your own seatbelt. Really I think you could have accomplished this before now, but you have a bit of a prince complex and believe that the rest of us are here to serve you. But buckling your own seatbelt is a big deal because now I’ll allow you to sit in the “way back”. And this makes you feel like big stuff. Once buckled in, Prince Rafe commands that his theme song be played. Your theme song is “Click Click Boom” by Saliva, and yes, it has a couple of swear words in it, but it rocks and it has a good message which, in a nutshell, is “dream big, quit your whining and don’t blame your parents for everything.” Remember that, especially that last part.

Your interests right now include dinosaurs, matchbox cars, Tonka trucks, everything farm related, and karate/wrestling. The first thing you do when you get home in the afternoon is change immediately into your pajamas, er, I mean “karate clothes”. Your uncle Kyle tries to teach you the right way to wrestle, and you go along with it for a bit, but inevitably it all ends in a body slam.

When you’re excited you say, “I’m so exciting!” And when you’re bored you say, “I’m so boring.” But believe me, you’re never boring, and I could type all night trying to capture all of the ways that you bring fun and joy, laughter and happiness into this family. Yes, you drive us crazy sometimes. I get mad at you for your selective listening. You still don’t like to sit still except when someone reads to you. Your sisters have been begging for a lock to keep you out of their bedroom. But I don’t think any one of us could even imagine life without you.

Happy Birthday, 5-year-old.

Love,
Yo Mama

The farm where I grew up sits along the Cedar River, nestled up to the bottom of the river bluff. The house is just off to the right of this picture. My parents bought this farm when I was about a year old. Corn and soybeans and hay. Hogs, farrow to finish. A cow/calf herd. Typical for then, maybe not so much for now. Typical is much bigger these days. 35 years later my dad still farms the ground (no hay now), my brother has the buildings for his hogs.

My brother and I and the neighbor girl (she was “Little Kelly” and I was “Big Kelli”) had some grand adventures exploring the woods and the caves and the river banks. In my memory now it seems like we were out and about from morning until dark, on foot, or on bikes, or later a 3-wheeler.

A parade of images marches through my head. My dad pulling our sled behind the tractor in the field across the road. Washing our 4-H pigs for the county fair. Picnics at the cave in the bluff with the big rock in front of it. Riding the “Mitchell” bus. Following the deer paths through the woods between our house and the neighbor’s. Wildflowers in spring. Almost putting my car in the river on the way to school one slippery winter morning. Last-day-of-school campouts in the woods with my friends.

It’s interesting, as I sit here, trying to formulate the words to describe my feelings about this place. I’m failing. And I wouldn’t want to share them in a public forum anyway. They seem to run the full gamut of emotion, tied up as they are with past experiences, present reality, and the future.

A summer view…

These are some of my brother’s sows, over at my parents’ farm. They were out and about, dare I say, frolicking in the snow.

(Just because I can practically see my brother rolling his eyes at me calling his sows frolickers. Hee hee.)

Tree limbs felled by the ice storm made for an interesting look on these snowmen. I can’t decide if they look modern and angst-ridden, with their blank faces and oddly proportioned arms (one of which seems to be sticking out of a hip socket), or simply exuberant.

This is one of the Osage Municipal Utilities’ 3600 KW generators that powers the town when needed – like during last week’s ice storm when the power coming into town went down. Less than an hour after the power went out, the generators were up and running and power in town was restored. In all there are 4 engines totaling 16 MW.

Matt is a lineman for OMU, and I stopped by the plant with him on Day 3 of the storm to check on things. During his first 5 years with OMU he was also a standby plant operator. Now he mainly just has to answer questions about throwing switches and such (that’s about as much as I understand about the whole thing.)

He told me that once he had to climb inside the crank case of an engine. They sucked out all the oil they could and then he climbed in with a rag to sponge out the remaining oil and pick up little pieces of babbit.

As you can probably imagine, it’s very noisy and smelly. But I’m always amazed at how clean everything is.

The on and off switches – I’m sure the guys will love that description.

…with apologies to Matt’s nephew, Jake, because you’re birthday present is going to be so so late. Old Man Winter’s being a real jerk this week.

URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LA CROSSE WI
210 AM CST THU MAR 1 2007

…LIGHT WINTRY PRECIPITATION THE REMAINDER OF THE NIGHT WITH THE MAIN STORM STILL TO HIT THE AREA LATER TODAY AND FRIDAY…

.A DANGEROUS WINTER STORM IS STILL SLATED TO MOVE INTO THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEY LATER THIS MORNING…WITH SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF WINTRY PRECIPITATION ACROSS THE AREA.

VERY STRONG LOW PRESSURE WILL SURGE NORTH OUT OF NORTHERN MISSOURI THIS MORNING BRINGING A TREMENDOUS INFLUX OF MOISTURE INTO THE AREA BY MID MORNING. A LARGE AREA OF MODERATE TO HEAVY PRECIPITATION WILL ACCOMPANY THE LOW PRESSURE AS IT MOVES INTO IOWA DURING THE DAY…AND THIS PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO MOVE ACROSS THE AREA FROM SOUTH TO NORTH. DO TO THE VERY DYNAMIC NATURE OF THE SYSTEM…THUNDER MAY BE POSSIBLE ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA AS THE PRECIPITATION MOVES THROUGH.

FOR AREAS FROM CHARLES CITY AND OSAGE THROUGH DODGE CENTER…ROCHESTER…LAKE CITY AND MEDFORD…THESE AREAS WILL SEE THE BRUNT OF THE STORM IN THE LOCAL AREA. HEAVY PRECIPITATION…LIKELY TO BE SNOW MIXED WITH SLEET AND FREEZING RAIN…WILL CHANGE TO ALL SNOW BY LATE THIS AFTERNOON. HEAVY SNOW IS LIKELY FOR A TIME THURSDAY NIGHT…WITH INCREASING NORTHWEST WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH. NEAR WHITEOUT CONDITIONS MAY OCCUR IN OPEN AREAS. SIGNIFICANT DRIFTING IS A POSSIBILITY…WITH SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS RANGING FROM 8 TO 12 INCHES…WITH LOCALIZED AMOUNTS APPROACHING 15 INCHES THROUGH FRIDAY. ICE ACCUMULATIONS MAY EXCEED A QUARTER OF AN INCH.

TRAVEL WILL BE DANGEROUS IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE IN THIS AREA BY THURSDAY NIGHT. SOME LIGHT ICE ACCUMULATIONS MAY ALSO OCCUR. POWER OUTAGES FROM ICE- LADEN TREE LIMBS FROM THE PREVIOUS STORM…MAY ALSO OCCUR. THIS IS A VERY DANGEROUS SITUATION FOR THIS AREA IN PARTICULAR. A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THIS AREA.

IAZ008-009-018-019-MNZ079-086>088-094>096-WIZ017-029-032>034-041>044-011615-MITCHELL-HOWARD-FLOYD-CHICKASAW-WABASHA-DODGE-OLMSTED-WINONA-MOWER-FILLMORE-HOUSTON-TAYLOR-CLARK-BUFFALO-TREMPEALEAU-JACKSON-LA CROSSE-MONROE-JUNEAU-ADAMS-INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…CHARLES CITY…ROCHESTER…WINONA…AUSTIN…MEDFORD…NEILLSVILLE…BLACK RIVER FALLS…LA CROSSE…SPARTA/TOMAH…MAUSTON

210 AM CST THU MAR 1 2007

…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST FRIDAY…

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST FRIDAY. AREAS OF FREEZING DRIZZLE WILL CONTINUE INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS. ICE ACCUMULATIONS WILL REMAIN LESS THAN A TENTH OF AN INCH. TRAVEL OVERNIGHT WILL BE DANGEROUS DUE TO THE WINTRY MIX OF PRECIPITATION…AND AREAS OF BLOWING SNOW.

A LARGER AREA OF PRECIPITATION WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA LATER THIS MORNING. A MIX OF RAIN OR FREEZING RAIN AND SNOW WILL GRADUALLY CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW DURING THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HOURS. THE SNOW WILL THEN CONTINUE INTO FRIDAY. ICE ACCUMULATIONS FROM A QUARTER TO A HALF INCH ARE POSSIBLE. TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BY FRIDAY EVENING RANGING FROM 5 TO 12 INCHES WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS PARTICULARLY WEST OF A CHARLES CITY TO ROCHESTER TO MEDFORD LINE.

IN ADDITION… WINDS WILL INCREASE ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING AND GUST TO 30 MPH. THIS WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES WITH CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW FOR THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. IN AREAS RECEIVING ICE THESE WINDS MAY BRING TREE LIMBS AND POWER LINES DOWN…WITH A THREAT OF WIDESPREAD POWER LOSS. THIS WILL BE ESPECIALLY TRUE FOR AREAS OF SOUTHEAST MINNESOTA AND NORTHEAST IOWA…WHERE HEAVY ICING ALREADY OCCURRED THIS PAST WEEKEND. DANGEROUS TRAVEL IS EXPECTED.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW…SLEET…AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

One of the things we did for entertainment during the storm was play “99”.
Madeline did a lot of Sudoku puzzles, when she wasn’t “busy” taking care of her 3-month-old cousin, Paige. (As if anyone could get Paige out of Madeline’s arms!) Rafe & his 2-year-old cousin, Connor, did a lot of racing and stair sliding. I did some scrapbooking.

Someday my kids and my brother’s kids will be reminiscing about the Storm of ’07 and their big sleepover party at Grandma and Grandpa’s. Even though I’m sure we all drive each other crazy once in a while, memories like these make me glad we live in within a few miles of each other.

Now we’ll see if we get to do it all over again. An almost identical storm has begun here today. You could hear people today making plans for the weekend with the proviso, “If we have power.” Unfortunately there are still those that haven’t regained power since the first storm.

After a night of freezing rain and 40 to 50 mph winds, the power finally gave up the ghost Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m. About noon I packed up the kids and headed for Mom & Dad’s house, as did my brother and his family. Mom & Dad have a large pto-driven generator which can provide electricity to the house, well, and outbuildings – a necessity to power the fans in the farrowing house which was full of my brother’s sows and newborn piglets.

Back here, Matt found a small 5hp gas-powered generator to borrow. Our main concern was the freezers. We have 4 large freezers – 3 filled with meat – plus the refrigerator/freezer. The generator was enough to power the boiler…or 3 of the freezers…or the other freezer & refrigerator/freezer. One at a time. So he spent the three powerless days here babysitting the generator, switching it around every couple of hours or so. Our health inspector called this afternoon to see how we had handled the outage, and I was happy to tell her that all was well thanks to that borrowed generator.

But it was not enough of a generator to power the well, so when Matt wasn’t tending the generator he spent a good deal of time hauling water for the livestock. We opened the gate to the pasture so the cows & bull could go out and drink from the creek. It was warm enough that the ducks were out there as well. But the feeder calves, pigs, & chickens had to have water hand delivered. And when he wasn’t hauling water, he was moving snow.

Of course I took my camera along, so I’ll share some pictures this week from my parents’ farm where I grew up.

There are still areas here without power, as well as those further south (and I’m assuming here, too).

1 1/2 inches of ice…

followed by 12+” of snow…

gives you 60 hours without power.

Not as bad as the ice storm of ’91, though. (Ha, I sound like such an old fogey.) Not here anyway. It’s worse south of us.

But they’re telling us to prepare for Round 2 Wednesday/Thursday/Friday.

Too tired to give the full report tonight. More later.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that we were debating about expanding our beef business or not. Well, we decided to go the route of expansion. One good thing about being in the food business is that if you fail, at least you can eat your products. So last Saturday we were off to the sale barn.

We’ve built our cow herd at the sale barn, buying at special bred cow sales. Many (if not most) cattle producers will tell you you’ve got to invest in good genetics and advise against buying at the sale barn. But for us it’s been an inexpensive way to get going, and also to buy just 2 or 3 cows at a time.

Overall we’ve had excellent results with our cows. But you have to know what to look for and what to look out for. It’s definitely a “buyer beware” proposition with no guarantees. We’ve been burned a couple of times. One bred cow we bought turned out to have Johnes disease and we lost both her and her calf. A bottle calf we bought had something wrong with its digestive tract. You could feed him, but nothing would come out the other end and he died soon after bringing him home.

But buying purebreds is not necessarily going to be without troubles, either. As my brother likes to remind me, “If you’ve got livestock, you’re going to have deadstock.” He’s wise, that one.

Our favorite sale barn is in Dyersville. There are sale barns closer to us, but we think Dyersville is worth the trip because they usually have a good selection of what we’re looking for. Better to drive 2 1/2 hours and come home with a full trailer than to drive an hour but pull back an empty trailer. Anyway, the sale barn is our idea of a fun date 🙂

If you’re new to livestock sale barns, visit the ones around you a couple of times before you buy anything. You’ll get a feel for what they usually offer and how they run things. You’ll notice who the regulars are – the auctioneers will call on them by name. Strike up a conversation with one of them and ask some questions.

When buying bred cows there’s 2 pieces of information the auctioneer will give you – the cow’s age and what trimester she’s in (cow’s have a 9-month gestation just like humans.) Age will be in years, or “SS” or “BM”. “SS” stands for “short solid mouth”, which means her teeth are wore down but still intact. She’s probably somewhere around 7 to 9 years old. “BM” stands for “broken mouth” which means she’s started to lose some teeth and is an older cow. We came home with a 6 year old, an 8 year old, and a “SS”.

The auctioneer should also say what trimester (or “period”) the cow is in – 1st, 2nd or 3rd. At Dyersville they also put color-coded eartags in to designate the period. But the auctioneer might also say such things as “she’ll calve on grass for you” meaning she’ll calve in May or June.

Beyond that you want to look for a cow that looks generally active and alert, but not too wild. A skinny cow isn’t necessarily a sign of bad health. Most likely she’s just been underfed. We bought some of the plumpest looking cows at the salebarn, but when we got them home next to our own cows they looked like skinny minnies! They’ve been at the hay feeder constantly since they got here and they’re starting to look better. Also a mangy looking cow isn’t necessarily a sign of bad health. Some pour-on when you get her home and she’ll probably be fine. But if you’re not using pour-on in your operation you’ll want to avoid those cows.

You’ll want to get to the auction with plenty of time before it starts to walk around the pens and yards and see what’s there to buy. Bring a pad of paper and a pen so you can write down the numbers on the ones you’re interested in, so you’ll recognize them once they’re in the ring. Things can sometimes move pretty fast.

Watch out – sale barns can be addicting 🙂 It’s probably a good thing Dyersville is so far away!

The advertising wall at Dyersville sale barn.