I'm Just a Farmer

Living out here, I have made quite a few friends who are farmers. Some with small farms and many that farming is just their way of life. Be it sheep, cattle, or grain. I often times here them say "I'm just a farmer".

I'm just a famer=

The mechanic that can fix dang near any piece of machinery in front of him.

The welder that can make a feed bunker or just fix the axle on his sons wagon.

The veterinarian who can deliver a calf twisted sideways and then treat the cow for any infections that may come.

The carpenter who can build a bookshelf for his wife.

The nutritionist who can figure a feed ration down to the ounce.

The doctor who'll mend his own cuts, scratches, scrapes and colds and keep going about his day.

The accountant who'll figure down the last penny how much that lamb cost him to raise and how much it's going to cost him to keep.

The scientist who can put together a fertilizer mix that would make Miracle Grow envious.


These are really just a few examples. Farmers are really so much more. They are the back bone of our country and the source of our bread. For everyone of them I am thankful, because I'm proud know "I'm just a farmer."

And here is my favorite poem of all time.

Here's the text of Paul Harvey's 1978 'So God Made a Farmer' Speech, which inspired the Ram Trucks Super Bowl ad that has resonated with so many Americans:

And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.

God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.

God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.

"Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'" So God made a farmer.

Lambs in the House

Lambs in the house: Sounds like a book doesn't it. Right now it's my life or another part of it I should say.

Any farmer knows, there comes a time when there will be an animal in the house. Right now we have two little lambs in the house. One is here because his mommy didn't like him. This happens sometimes and I'm just glad I found him in time. The other has become a tenant of the house because her mothers teats were to large and she couldn't get a good latch. Combine that with these cold temperatures we've been having lately and that's how she came to the house. They are cute and adorable right now, but I'm hoping for warmer temperatures here soon. As much as I love the little buggers I really do want my house back.

How to Wash a Fleece

I have had people at shows ask how we wash our fleeces here. So I'm just going to give the basic overview of what we do.

Items needed:

-A fleece
-A large container to wash in.(We use our bathtub, but other people use trash cans, rubbermaid tubs, or even wash basins.) Make sure its big enough to hold the amount of fleece you want to wash.
-Soap. ( We use laundry soap)

The very first thing I do is lay the fleece out and reskirt it. Yes I skirt the fleeces as we are shearing, but I always reskirt as I go to wash. I do this with every fleece even if I buy it. You just never know if something was missed and I usually have more time to look through the fleece and pick out the little things.

Next I put the fleece into the tub. I lay it out as much as possible. This opens it up so that the water can cover more area. Now start covering it with water. The articles I've read say that the water should be over 135*F. Make sure the fleece is covered completely. Add the soap. Make sure you add enough to make the water slightly slippery. Do not agitate the water to create suds.


I let the fleece soak for about an hour if not longer. Then drain the water. Give the fleece time to drain out. Most times I will put it into strainers to remove as much of the water as possible. Now back into tub for the rinse. Once again make sure you cover the fleece completely. This time it doesn't have to soak as long. Normally about 20-30mins. Once again do a drain to get the most out of water out. I rinse again afterwards just to make sure the fleece is as clean as possible.

After the second rinse it's time to dry the fleece. Lay it out as open as possible. Be sure to turn the fleece as often as you can. A whole fleece will normally take a couple days to dry.

A Day to Dye

We use many different techniques for dyeing. It mostly depends on what we are doing the dyeing for. I took some pictures one day while I was dyeing some locks. 

First I picked the colors. For this day I was using primary colors. Red, Yellow, Blue.

Soaking the locks in hot vinegar water. I let them soak for about 20mins. 

I sprinkled the dye onto the locks and then added more locks. I don't normally add more locks, but I had put to much water in and needed the locks to sop it up. 

Locks in the process of dyeing. 

Before the blue and red took over the yellow. 

rinsing.

a wider shot of the rinsing. 

For dyeing we use acid dyes. Acid dyes need an acid to strike ( take up). We use vinegar as our acid. Depending on the technique that we are using I will either soak in vinegar water or wait until we've added the dye to add the vinegar. All of our wool sits in the dye bath until the water has cooled and then goes through rinse cycles until the dye doesn't bleed.

I hope to be posting about some of the other ways that we dye.

Wool Mill Road Trip

This past week we decided to take a trip to Zeilinger's Wool Mill. We have been sending our wool to them for nearly 10yrs to be processed into rovings. This is the first time that we have actually taken wool up there ourselves. We generally send it with another family or drop it off at wool shows.

We left on Wednesday night and got there late. Went into Zeilinger's first thing in the morning. They did our wool intake. That wasn't much different than any other time dropping off at a show. After we were done with the wool intake.

After our intake we took a quick tour of the facilities. We got to see the combing machine, roving machine, and the picker. That was just in one building. When we went to the next building we saw where they wash the wool. Then we got to see the machine that makes batts. They were working on an alpaca batt when we came in. In the upstairs of that building is where they make the socks.

All in all we had a good time. I can't wait to see the rovings and batts that we get back. It is a never ending circle though and we have started washing and picking for the next batch to go out.

The batting machine

A side picture of it

A top view

fleeces drying

That's to Graphic

** Disclaimer: I am a parent and I do not tell you how to raise your children, please don't use this as a place to bash my parenting. **

The other day I was working at my job. For those of you who don't know me. I pretty much can do anything on the front end of Walmart. This particular day I was working in customer service. Not that extravagant of a day. Nothing much going on.

I had a customer bring back up a dvd series of "House", with a small boy in her cart. Probably about 4 or 5 years old.  I went through the normal questions; "Return or exchange", "Is there anything wrong with it?". The customer was very nice and in no way snotty. I found she wanted to do an exchange and there was nothing wrong with the movie. She wanted to exchange it for the "Bones" series. Turns out she already had this season of house.

I said something at that point that "Bones" was my daughter and I's favorite show. The lady proceeded to tell me that the show is to graphic for her young son.

This got me thinking. What exactly is to graphic? I'm talking in general senses. I don't let my children watch "Edward Scissorhands" or "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but my daughter really does love to watch "Bones" and we watch "House" on occasion. My children have also watched and assisted in kidding and lambing season. They have helped to butcher chickens and turkeys.


I don't find these tv shows to be to graphic and I'm very open with them about the tv being about actors and the storys and blood are fake. I think my children are well rounded for it and they learn, so yeah "Bones" isn't to graphic for my kids. Not after they've torn apart a chicken.

Traditions

Christmas for my family is filled with many traditions. I love some of these traditions and have carried them over to my family. Some I do still love, but they directly conflict with my husbands family traditions.

Some of my favorite traditions include dinner. My parents always did dinner on Christmas eve. My dad would read the story of Jesus' birth and we would light the Jesus Candle then have dinner. The next morning it was like a challenge to see who could get up the earliest. We weren't allowed to open any presents until everyone was awake, but we could always get in our stockings. Another of my favorite traditions is the movie "White Christmas". I love that movie and still watch it every year. My children aren't quite old enough to enjoy it yet, but I'm hoping some day they will.

I'm hoping this year was the beginning of a new tradition. My family never really went to Christmas Eve service. (at least not that I remember) This year I packed up the kids and took them to Christmas Eve service. It was something I remembered doing as a teenager and loved. I'm hoping to keep this as a tradition and repeat it year after year.


What are some of your favorite traditions? Whether new or old family traditions.