Sugar Creek Farm

Well, I’m going to start with the most exciting event first – the dog show. Madeline started training our 1-year-old Great Pyrenees, Ike, as soon as the weather got nice last spring. Once dog classes started the beginning of June she was out there with him just about everyday, spending at least 1/2 hour a day between training and grooming.

The afternoon of the dog show we spent an hour and a half in the bathtub with him – lather, rinse, repeat with whitening shampoo. And then an entire bottle of conditioner.

But boy did he turn out pretty!

Disaster almost struck, however. The show was at 7:00. About 6:00 we were still at home, getting ready, when Matt said, “Where’s the dog?”

Either Olivia or Rafe had accidentally let him out. And he wasn’t wearing his collar because we’d taken it off for his bath.

Not. Good.

He took off thru the cornfield and headed up the road. I hopped into the truck and took off after him. One good thing to come of dog class is that he loves to get in the truck now. So I got ahead of him on the road, stopped, opened the door, and he hopped right in.

Whew! We’re going to have to make a point to keep taking him for a ride in the truck every week or two.

I had ordered Madeline an early birthday present – a new collar and leash from 3 Dirty Dawgz . So I came in the house and said, “Ike’s in the truck but he doesn’t have his collar on, so you’d better open this and put it on him.”, and gave her the package. She was so excited.

Finally we were ready to go.

Ike and Madeline both did really well – especially considering how hot it was, and a scary dog fight that occured partway into the event between 2 other participants’ dogs.

One exercise they had to do was to put Ike in a “sit” at one end of the arena, tell him to “stay”, walk back to the middle of the arena, and then tell him to “come”. He had the “stay” down. Really well. So well that when she called him he just sat there. That got a laugh out of the crowd.

We knew Ike didn’t have a chance at winning the agility event against the more sporty dogs, but they had fun trying.

The show lasted about 2 hours, and they finally brought everyone back in the ring to award the ribbons. Madeline was thrilled to receive a blue.

And then she got a surprise – they announced that she had also won a purple ribbon for “Best Junior Handler”.

I’m so happy for her and proud of her, she worked really hard. And I can’t say that about all of her 4-H projects 🙂

The proud handler, and the pooped pup

Our county fair is going on this week, thus the bit of silence on the blog. We started Tuesday evening washing the chickens. There’s a reason for the saying “madder than a wet hen”.

Wednesday morning Madeline had her horticulture project judged and received a super blue. First year 4-H’ers can’t have their projects sent to state fair, so a super blue means her project would have been considered for state fair if she was older.

Wednesday afternoon she and Matt took her stocker calves (pen of 3) to the fair. At this moment she’s at the beef show, waiting her turn at judging.

Thursday morning the chickens had to be brought to the fair. She took a pen of 3 broilers and 5 fancies, and received 6 blue ribbons.

Today is the beef judging, plus Olivia is participating in the Little Miss Mitchell County contest. These two activities will probably overlap, so I guess I’ll go one way and Matt will go the other. This evening Madeline is singing a song for “Share the Fun”, which is like a 4-H talent show.

Tomorrow night is the dog show (preceded by a day full of grooming and primping for Ike).

Sunday afternoon is the ribbon auction. She can auction off her beef ribbon (actually a duplicate of her beef ribbon) and gets the proceeds minus a 10% commission that goes to 4-H activities. Grandma has instructed Grandpa to buy the ribbon 🙂

I’ll be back with pictures and updates when the craziness is over!

A ride in the loader bucket.

Mom’s idea of an accident waiting to happen.

This weekend Rafe got hold of my microphone, so Matt started coaching him in rocker-speak ala Les Zahn and First Amendment.

Throw me some metal!

Somebody scream!

Are you ready to rock?

One time!

A hazy view of the Osage Farmers Cooperative Elevator from the hayfield we rent. This is where we buy our corn for the stocker calves, and have all of our swine feed ground, mixed and bagged.

*Sigh*

Madeline went out to feed her fancy chix today and came back to report that the calf we call Art was laying on his back with his legs in the air. I knew right away what was going on. Called the vet, knowing there was probably nothing he could do.

Tetanus. Again. Banding them leaves a small open wound, vulnerable to tetanus.

If you’ve had horses on your farm anytime in the past 100 years, chances are you’ve got tetanus. It can live in the soil for a coon’s age. We had the male calves vaccinated for it this time, but apparently it hadn’t had time to build up immunity in their systems. And the vet says there is no such vaccine for swine. (We lost a piglet to tetanus this spring.)

My brother says, “If you’re going to have livestock, you’re going to have dead stock.” We’ve certainly proved that point.

*Sigh*

Winston and Sarah have fashioned themselves a swimmin’ hole to keep cool on hot days.

Here’s Winston dining poolside:

The piglets are getting big. Hard to believe they will be ready to butcher the end of next month.

These pictures are from Father’s Day weekend. The first crop of hay is usually cut well before then, but all the rain we had during May and into the first part of June pushed things back. You need to allow time for the hay to dry after its cut, before baling it, turning it over with the rake a few times to help things along. Finally the planets aligned and we got a few straight days of sunshine.

We rent 14 acres of alfalfa/clover hay from one neighbor, and another 5 acres of grass hay from another neighbor. The alfalfa/clover hay is high in protein and gets fed to the stocker calves that we’re feeding out to eat. The grass hay gets fed to the cows.

Matt hires the hay cut…

then does the raking himself…

and then hires the hay baled into large rounds.

Holidays and Sundays don’t mean anything – when the hay is ready, it’s ready. Our baler came the afternoon of Father’s Day to do the baling for us.

Matt gets the bales off the field as quickly as possible. Some are stored in our sheds, some in the neighbor’s shed, and some outdoors.

Hopefully the next 2 cuttings will go as well as this first one!

A little ray of hope in a state under the stranglehold of conventional agriculture. I only wish my own county was so progressive.

Madeline’s been working on creating a perennial garden next to my garage this summer. It’s one of the perks of having a kid in 4-H. They get a project to do, and you get something done for you.

I’ll wait and share pictures of the complete garden when she’s finished. Almost there – just a bit of weeding to do and the rest of the mulch to put down.

In the meantime, here are a few of the blooms. If I get the names wrong, someone please correct me. I can grow pretty much any vegetable, but I have a black thumb when it comes to flowers. I’m hoping the flower-growing gene skips a generation, from my mother to Madeline, just like the nail polish gene seems to.

Asiatic Lily

Black-eyed Susan

Tickseed

some kind of little daisy-like flower 🙂

A completely out-of-focus shot, but I love how Rafe is down there smelling the catmint.