Springtime

Springtime means changing times everyone, but for the farmer it means crazy schedules, praying for the rain to stop, and rushing in between the downpours to do everything that needs done RIGHT NOW! For the farmer's wife, it means packing lunches to take out to the farmer on the tractor, starting chores earlier since we are normally a little short handed, and having a very flexible schedule to deal with the spur-of-the-moment changes of plans.
This spring has been pretty difficult for farmers in our area- the rain seems as though it will never stop-- and when it does for awhile, it doesn't get dry enough to take the tractors into the fields. It has allowed some time to get the crucial repairs done before we get moving on field work. However, when the corn needs planting and the hay needs mowed and chopped, it is frustrating.
Chores for me have looked a little different over the past week or so-- my brother-in-law Brian broke his finger and is fairly limited as to what he's allowed to do in the barn, so I have been going out early every afternoon to help Mitchell with heifer chores. It makes for a longer evening, but it's manageable. My work schedule at the vet's office has also looked a little different over the last month or so. One of my co-workers had surgery, so I have been picking up extra shifts throughout the weeks.  The combination of those two jobs has made for a tiring few weeks, but a fulfilling couple of weeks.
Farming while pregnant has not changed my routine very much up to this point.  I still go out every morning and evening that I am not working at the vet's office. I have agreed to stop lugging around most 50 lb. bags of feed and go a little easier on how much I carry. I have the mindset that if I can keep up with my regular rigor and schedule, I will only be stronger for giving birth and dealing with exhaustion after the baby is born.  I want to keep my physical, mental, and emotion sides as strong as possible to become the best possible Mommy to my little boy.  I have taken to walking up to the barn if our truck or 4 wheeler is not at the house (in an attempt to keep our other car as "non-barn" smelling as possible :) ). This time has been refreshing for my soul. The things God teaches me in those short 1/2 mile walks have been huge in my growth with Him.  He certainly has placed me in a beautiful bit of land.

Other random things from the past few months:
>I got 12 new chickens in February. They have been a joy and they follow me around their coop as though I am their mama hen :)

>A few weeks ago I was inspecting a bit of udder rot on a cow's udder and she decided that my inspection was too personal and kicked me right in the left eye. It left a pretty good shiner that turned to a bloody eye. The best part was we were traveling to Florida and back to pick up the truck we bought and so I had lots of encounters, questions, and strange looks :) Thankfully I never had trouble with my vision and have no lasting damage.

>We were blessed to be able to buy a 2003 Dodge Dakota from Florida (Grandpa Mast went and checked it out for us). We were blessed so much that our tax return check was almost enough to cover the entire cost! The truck has been a welcomed addition as a farm vehicle for us. It's nice having hay and spilled milk in the bed of a truck instead of in our SUV.

God has certainly been faithful throughout the last few months and I continue to pray I will learn better how to rely on his strength and hope in my life. He has blessed us beyond imagine.

Preparing for Winter

Fall means all sorts of things-- pretty leaves, combines running, the weather getting cooler, hot drinks becoming popular, sweaters, and more.  One main activity that comes for me on the farm is preparation... preparation for the coming winter.

I was raised in a family where the summers and falls were for gardening, canning, freezing, and many other forms of preserving food. As a newlywed, I have tried my best to keep up with that tradition, but have fallen far short of what my mother always did.

Lately, the juices have been running.  By that I mean we put up apple cider and I made grape juice! The apple cider was done together with my in-laws, so that was shared work. On the property that Mitchell and I live on, we have 15-20 apple trees. The trees were absolutely loaded this year.  I already made a bunch of apple sauce earlier on this summer, and a few weeks ago, it was cider pressing time.  We loaded up apples from our trees onto the back of a pickup truck and a few cars.  We had Mitchell shake a few of the trees to get more of the apples off.  The apples were then trucked to a local cider press and once finished, the cider was placed in 35 gallon drums. We had taken 3 drums... and had too much! Thus we had to buy some jugs and bottle them out there.  Once we got them home, we ran the cider through a filter that we use at the maple syrup camp so that the cider wouldn't have sediment that would settle.  We then bottled it out into all the jugs we could round up. After all was said and done, we estimated around 110 gallons of cider was processed. And boy was it good!

The project I started after the cider (actually I made it just this last week) was grape juice. I have a small grape arbor that was planted by a man who had previously owned the house Mitchell and I are staying in. It is small and has been severely neglected for the past few... well... years at least, but it seemed to have a decent crop this year.  I decided to try out the grape juice. What was there to lose? I borrowed a steamer from my mother-in-law, Marla. Let me tell ya-- that is one nifty invention! I picked and washed the grapes and all I had to do was fill the water part and put the grapes in! Wonderful! I was able to do all sorts of other tasks in the kitchen while it drained into a pitcher.  I ended up with 2 1/2 gallons of concentrated juice, which I was pretty impressed with considering my skill level (little to none).  I will definitely try to take care of my grapes this year and make juice again!

 ^ These were all my grapes-- Not many for the amount of juice I got!




< This was my steaming operation



 The finished product! Yum! >






It has been an exhausting couple of weeks-- but once again, the Lord provides. He takes care of me. He is always faithful.

The Mast Menagerie

Cows, cows, cows... that's everyone's first thought, animal-wise, when our farm comes to mind.  Little do they know that we actually have a menagerie of other animals, small and large :) Our family likes diversity, so our animals range from turkeys and chickens to cats and dogs... and others too!

Recently, Mitchell and I brought home two puppies (currently the cutest additions to our farm).  They are both females and are a Black Lab, Great Pyrenees mix (or Pyradors if you like that better!)  They are 9 weeks old today.  The blacker one is Mitchell's and her name is Nisha- Hindi for night.  The one with more white is mine and I named her Nabina- Nepali for "to make new".  I'd like to say that I picked my name first, from my experience in Nepal and then Mitchell happened to also have a similar name with a similar origin :)

These cuties are learning quickly and bringing all sorts of joy into our lives!

I have always loved chickens. I have almost always had chickens. And then I moved. Several times. It was hard, let me tell ya :) But when I moved to my new home, my husband promised me I could get some chickens. And we did. They're delightful.  We currently have six chickens.  Three are white leghorns and three are light brahmas.  Five are hens and one is a rooster.  I also decided to set a dozen eggs to see if I can hatch them so hopefully in a week and a half or so I'll have 12 more :) I named the Brahmas just cause those are the only ones that I can tell apart :)

The cats are also prevalent in, around, near, close to, ect., the barn. By prevalent, I actually mean far-more-than plentiful :) My brother-in-law has a certain affection for them, so they stay. My favorite is a little gray tabby that I named Stuart. Mitchell rescued him from the heifer barn where he was being protected by a cow! He's better trained then my puppies are at this point :)

Several times a year our family gets several piglets to raise out for meat- some for ourselves and some for others.  The roasted hog that we had for our wedding was home-grown. It's the best tasting pig meat you'll ever find! I love being able to experiment with all the different cuts of pork and boy is it tasty! The bacon is a big plus too... :) This is our last piggy we grew out...

And last but not least to be featured is a group of animals that just got sent to the butcher's yesterday... The turkey's! They were my father-in-law, Wayne's, favorites though they were quite dumb.  They liked being entirely too noisy in the morning and they had a particular taste for Wayne's coffee ;) Their favorite pastime was to make a barricade across the driveway so that no one could drive through without having to stop and shoo them out of the way. No amount of honking and yelling would convince them to move :)

 

That is the end of my animal showcase for the day! If you ever need to visit a funny farm filled with odd animals, come on over! :)

A Time to Harvest

The days are getting shorter and cooler. The gardens are full of produce. Even the leaves are beginning to change into the beautiful array of colors. The beauty of the Earth is in it's fullest.

It's also the busiest time of year for many people.  But especially so for the farmers! Not only do we have our normal, everyday chores, but we also have all of the crops to harvest.  Harvest time is a wonderful time-- a time of appreciating how God has blessed our hard work.  It's busy, though, let me tell ya!

For me, it's less corn silage-chopping, hay-bailing, and barley-combining.  Instead, it's peach-freezing, apple sauce-cooking, and corn-cutting.  It's wonderful to see my freezer fill up so quickly and know that I will have food to prepare all through the winter.

I think my favorite part of the harvest season, however, has nothing to do with the physical side of harvest.  I am reminded of last year and a conversation I had with my now father-in-law.  We were discussing the harvest and how God has given farmers a special way of understanding humanity's need for a Savior.  We were reminded of Luke 10:2, "He told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" I think that no other group of people understand that urgency of the harvest that Jesus spoke of better than the farmers.  They hold a special realization that if the harvest is not collected quickly, the time will run out.  

The provision of our needs reminds me of God's goodness and his love.  His promise endures forever. And I am forever grateful. 

Beginning to Adjust

For those who have never been truly exposed to the dairy farming world, there is probably a lack of understanding as to why dairy farmers are always tired.  Before I married Mitchell, I had a very small view of what dairy farming was like-- my dad had been a dairy farmer, my best friend through childhood lived on a dairy farm, and I visited Mitchell plenty during our dating days to get a taste of the farm life.

Nonetheless, I was in for a big surprise about how life would really be.

I am tired.

This is a statement used unnecessarily by way too many people. I'll grant that probably many mothers have faced true exhaustion, but many have no clue how it feels. Getting up at 4:30am morning after morning? That's tiring. Working (physically) harder than some people ever do? That's tiring. Trying to get everything else that needs done in the 6 hour period between chore times? That's tiring. Coming in from the barn at 8:00-9:00pm, showering, and still having to make supper? That's tiring.  Knowing that the cycle will start all over again tomorrow? That's tiring.

But we can't complain. God has blessed us very much.

Why would a person subject themselves to a lifestyle such as this? Because we love the animals-- we love the feeling of falling asleep tired because we worked hard-- we love the rewards of eating food grown in our own fields, gardens, or barns-- we love that God continues to give us strength to face each new day with JOY!

Somedays, especially during this adjustment period for me, it's hard to see all those reasons of why we do what we do.  But God never fails to give me just enough strength to get through today. I rest in that promise that he may give me more than I can handle, but that's alright! He will show His power through my weaknesses in this time and forever.

Oh, and one more reason it's an awesome life? A view like this one...