Water

Yes, we are farmers.  Farming is not just what we, but who we are.  If you even want to start a conversation with a farmer/rancher and aren't sure where to start go to weather.  I guarantee it is too dry/wet, cold/hot, windy, something!

This summer I'm following the ETHAN Project online.  A new challenge for every summer week for life with kids.  This week is water.  What this challenge means to me (daughter of a dryland farmer married to an irrigated farmer/cowman) is probably a little different than most following ETHAN project.

This summer for agriculture and now even non-farmers (in some locations) water is of the utmost importance.  California and most of the west is DRY.  Dryland crops don't look good, some irrigated farmers never got water or are loosing water earlier than normal.  Other areas are drowning.  Good 'ole Facebook shows me pics of corn dying of excess "dihydrogen monoxide" in the same feed as dry pastures and fields.  We have a friend fighting fire in Alaska and fire is of huge concern in our state and its not even July.

We are spoiled and blessed to be in the Columbia Basin Reclamation Project.  Thanks to the Columbia River we are still getting irrigation water as planned.  And with temps in the triple digits we've got lots of water on - except on the hay fields that are now officially in second cutting.

Needless to say our world revolves around water.  The first and last project for Jeff every day is changing/checking/fixing water.  Our kids get to spend time with dad in their irrigation boots and our yard certainly enjoys the benefits of multi-horse pumps.

Jeff sent me a video of tadpoles in a shrinking puddle (in a draw of an alfalfa field that was cut today).  The little guys' house was quickly disappearing.  So we headed over to play in the mud and try to move some tadpoles to the overflow pond at our house.  Hey - I'll take some muddy kids in favor of the hopes of a few less bugs and being serenaded at night.

Nia was the funniest.  She kept telling us every time she saw one.  She even caught a few.

Life's pretty good when you are a kid chasing tadpoles in the alfalfa field!!

Cooking--

Beware, my attempts at a food blog entry (& I might be drinking some wine, Washington vintage of course)!
I love to cook.  I rarely give myself enough time to actually make dinner though.  My kids are known to say something about it tastes better than it looks.  When our hired man eats with us pretty sure he expects an "experiment" or "refrigerator clean-out".  I spend way too much time looking at Pinterest.  I don't pin that much, but basically guaranteed if you see something remotely crafty or cute from me I got the idea from Pinterest (we won't talk about the execution of someone else's cool idea!).   

We also live far enough from town I don't just run in when I am missing a key ingredient or two (or six) so I improvise.  More than once I've told Jeff how I altered the "new recipe" and just don't think the experiment in question is a "keeper" recipe.  At which point Jeff says something about can I really blame the recipe because I may have made some pretty major alterations.  OK, point taken!

Apparently it is summer now (low seventies earlier in the week, expecting 100 Monday).  We are starting to harvest stuff out of our garden.  I feel salads coming on; lots of lettuce and hot weather.  For some reason the kids eat their veggies so much better when they come out of our garden.  Another blessing of farm life is lots of space to plant edible goodies.  If half the stuff in our garden grows this summer we can run our own fresh food pantry!

Another part of our farm life is freezers brimming with meat we raised.  This often means plenty of ground beef.  Nothing against chicken but I rarely buy it and most main dish salads (need meat in our main dish) include chicken not beef.  Thus begins my improvising. 

Lettuce and ground beef in hand I head to pinterest and find The Country Cook.  An Italian Chopped Salad with Grilled Chicken.  Looks nummy and I have "most" of the ingredients.  Some didn't make it out of the pantry before the starving natives NEEDED dinner.  But we did enjoy a few green items out of the garden, ground beef out of the freezer and other items I had in the fridge or pantry.  Added some Italian Dressing spice mix/base to the beef and I cheated with bottled Italian dressing.  I liked it and 1/2 the kids ate it (I left the ingredients in separate bowls because I have a olive and tomato (unless they come from our garden) hater.  The other 1/2 used part of ingredients to make tacos (used tortilla shells - we're not that loyal to food nationalities).

So goes another dinner at our house.  Jeff may or may not eat the same thing - hours later than the kids and I.  We have dinner in rounds here pretty much whenever water is on (March - October).  You name the hour and pretty sure I'm getting ready to feed somebody, something - and there's still wine left.

Happy cooking (& improvising)!

Weigh & Measure

When we had our first child I was a little surprised how often the Dr. wanted to see our little bundle of joy (she's not little any more by the way - she's going to be looking me in the eye WAY to soon!).

I shouldn't have been surprised.  We have "well calf checks" pretty often as well!

The last couple of weeks we've had all the fall pairs through the corral and chute for their pre-weaning vaccinations.  Yes, we vaccinate cattle (& pigs) just like we vaccinate our kids.  Vaccinations are for specific diseases that we hope they aren't exposed to, but if they are the results can be deadly.  Besides vaccinations, all the calves also get weighed, measured for hip height and given a disposition score.  Just like kids & for basically the same reasons.  We want to make sure the calves are growing as expected and have an idea of how tall they will be when mature.  Think of disposition as the Autism checklist I've filled out at the last two visits for our youngest.  We are looking for signs of cattle that may be hard to manage.  At our place if a calf (or cow) has multiple incidents of bad behavior/disposition they will not be asked to remain in our pastures.  Disposition is passed from parent to calf at a very predictable rate. 

As for the cows they also get weighed, measured, disposition noted and a body condition score given (think BMI) in addition to vaccinations (boosters).  After everyone has their time across the scale we "kick" (no boots or feet involved, just a little farm lingo) the pairs (cow & calf) back out on pasture.  This allows the vaccinations to be more effective since the calves are under very minimal stress when they are still nursing mom.  At weaning the calves will get vaccination boosters and whenever possible we fenceline wean - meaning the cows and calves share a common fence.  This procedure minimizes the stress for both cow and calf.  With fenceline weaning we rarely see a decrease in eating and minimal bawling - both signs of distress in calves. 

Nothing like taking cattle to a new, green pasture and watching them all get to eating.  This is one of our non-irrigated pastures.

With some very unpredictable weather in Eastern WA & OR the last couple weeks we've had some pretty awesome colors/clouds in our sky's at night.  Our view while finishing up chores last night. 

Passions

Courtesy of "Raspberry Essence" blog

When you start the day off headed to somewhere that the best directions are GPS coordinates you know it will an interesting day.  I didn't take any pictures but did learn about range improvement and how local ranchers are working with a specific plant that devastated many of them 20 years ago.  Information that a select handful can truly use.

Most of the attendees were "neighbors" - a term used more loosely in some {neighborhoods} than others.  The names on people's name badges matched those on the crossroads in the area.  Men and women; young and older all wanting to learn, share and improve their lands.  Many ranchers will tell you they are first grass farmers.  If we take care of our grasses than we can properly care for the animals we have the privilege of raising.

These folks have passion for what they do; raise grass, cattle & farm.  They don't think twice about sharing their knowledge to help better themselves and their neighbors.  Grown men (many of them grandpas) wander around plots looking for a specific plant like a scavenger hunt.  There are USDA and University Extension folks who are sharing their knowledge and listening to the locals who have more experience in this specific area.  Yes, some government employees that are here to help and to also learn and respect the knowledge gathered in  pastures in Adams Co.!

Now that summer has "officially" arrived when you drive through the range lands that fill the American west know that a group of passionate, dedicated folks are constantly working and learning to improve the lands that we are entrusted.
  

Loosing it - -

You never know what you will find in the bathtubs at our house - ok maybe there is ALWAYS dirt! 

Something you may not know about cows is that they loose their teeth.  Just like us, baby teeth are replaced by adult teeth.  In cows the adult teeth fall out naturally and we can {generally} age cows by how many teeth they have (or don't have!).  As cows get older they need extra care - partially because of missing teeth and/or teeth that are worn enough they may not be able to eat as proficiently as their younger herdmates.  

Cleaning out water troughs and moving them along with cows this spring resulted in a treasure (2 actually).  Yep, that's a cow tooth that took a bath with some silly kid(s) and 'normal' bath toys.  Jeff said he didn't recall actually finding any teeth before.  Guess it was just our lucky day!!

With an early spring all the cows have been grazing on their own for awhile now.  One group will still make their way through the coral as part of our breeding schedule, but otherwise everyone is feeding themselves and putting their teeth & tongues to work!

Measure up!

After attending an AgChat conference and teaching a "Sustainable World Food Systems" class, I'm reminded of the importance of telling folks what we do. No matter how 'just part of the day' to us, those who aren't out here with us would like to have a glimpse of farm life.  At our conference we heard how important it is to be ourselves while telling our story. My posts won't measure up to the great story tellers or photographers you may follow. But, this is us and what we might be chasing around our little part of the world.

In the last two years we have updated from wheel & handlines to center pivot irrigation at our home place.  The pivots save water, power, labor and allow us to grow a wider variety of crops.  While there is technology available to measure every drop coming out of a pivot, in agriculture we also have to consider economics. We are using the old fashioned water measuring technique.  Jeff equally spaced rain gauges under the pivot and the kids and I headed out to record how much 'rain' was in each gauge.  Its important to equate an amount of water put on with a specific speed of the pivot.  We can also check for potential problems if there is a huge difference in the amount of water applied as you move along the pivot.
 
This field is a freshly {hand} planted seed crop.  Watching the labor crew and talking to the growers about labor is another post(s) in itself!

Cows graze in the background on another portion of the field that will be turned into no-till beans.  Small red beans, that is, no soybeans in our neighborhood!

Hope everyone is enjoying spring and here's to a commitment from me to give you a quick glimpse of something we're up to.

  

Fall!

Onions (& potatoes) on the roadside.
    Onions (& potatoes) on the ditch.

Corn trucks on the move & we are putting hay equipment away!

That's how we know it is fall in the Basin!

This is the time of the year I really appreciate what a special place we live in.  It is not the prettiest - but if you are interested in feeding the world it is the place to be!  Thanks to the irrigation project and Columbia River water we can turn fertile sand into land that can grow just about anything that our growing season will allow.  When it comes to "local" and fresh fruits and veggies not many places can compete with the quality and variety our local fields and orchards offer!

 

The guys finished hay (took 5 cuttings on one field, other alfalfa fields were 3 or 4) on Sunday night.  Unless something changes, fall field work was finished this morning.

We are also 1/2 done with fall calving.  The second group of ET calves are starting to come now!  Calves look great and for some reason rather than being really long bull calves we are 2 heifers:1 bull.  Who knows - must have been the moon during breeding?!? 

Fall bull calves are started on feed in Othello.  Looking big & good!!  Spring bull calves will be weaned this week.  Some pretty impressive Resource calves in that group.

At home 3 of the kids have put in a month at school.  Molly showed a pig at the Spokane fair and did good.  She still was the age for PeeWee but choose to show up with the Juniors and was at the top of the blues in her class.  Looking forward (or maybe just mom is?) to her first 4-H meeting.  Such great memories and skills gained over my years!

We are {sort of} moved into our new house and everyone is enjoying the SPACE!!  Collecting everything to get our UGS in and lawn planted this week.  

Matt is halter breaking heifers for the Evergreen Exclusive and I'm getting ready to put together the catalog for the Black FRIDAY Sale at the JR Ranch in November.  

Like usual we aren't letting any grass grow under us (although I'd really like to see some grow around us!!).

Just can't keep up....

Apparently it has been 5, yes five, months since I managed to write a post.  There are a few blogs I read once in awhile and am always impressed by anyone who can come up with something interesting to write AND actually sit down and write it on a regular basis!  Maybe me, someday, in another life.

Occasionally, I think "wow, this has been a fun/crazy/note worthy day I should write a blog post" unfortunately by the time what has to be done is done I'm more than ready to call it a day.  Apologies to anyone who has insomnia; let's just say we can't feel your pain.

So a few kid pictures since September.  For some reason the majority of pictures on my computer are  of bulls and cows.  For anyone who is already checking out our sale catalogs I will spare you looking at the same cattle again.  Although Jeff has become quite the photographer - taking pretty much all of the pictures of the Sackmann & JR Ranch bulls you will see in publication.  He even has some pictures in a big time semen catalog this spring!

The one staged picture I have managed to get for 8 years now is at the Sunny Farms pumpkin patch.  Truth be told, I made it to Othello the day after the regular pumpkin patch closed so this was actually taken in the field next to where the fall bulls spend the winter.  We checked their ration while we were there; promise.

And Miss Nia; this was taken mid-January.  She may walk if she decides to stop giggling while upright under her own power.  Her birthday is a week from today; it has been a really fast and long (at the same time) year!  She is silly, fun, crazy and promising to keep us on our toes.  Every kid is certainly different but our sweet number four has already chosen to do many things none before her has done.  For some reason trying to get "the bigs" to play nicer with her doesn't go very far when she seems to always laugh.  A bit of a dare devil and totally momma's girl.  The morning she woke up to a calf and the dog (not normal) in the laundry room was much better than Christmas!

Had to slip a sausage making picture in.  Jeff's German heritage comes out at the (try to be) annual event of making german sausage and other homemade meat mixtures.  Gotta' love any opportunity to get a picture of three generations making sausage like so many before them.

The other big news at our house - is a house!  The crew is farther along than this picture (roof and windows are in on the outside) and working on HVAC & electrical on the inside.  Pretty exciting and the kids are LOVING the giant piles of dirt.  Over two hours of playing in the dirt for them today; did I mention we may be ready for spring.  Anyone who wants to help us choose colors - we are taking applications.

Of course we are three weeks away from the spring bull sale.  Jeff and I did all the catalog design and layout by ourselves this time around.  Big project and kinda cool to see it show up in the mail.

Spring calving is 2/3 done.  Fields are looking like they may want to wake up; making Jeff switch from winter mode to crazy need to do lots of things all at once spring mode.  Must be the end of February.  The flowers coming up in the yard say it may be spring soon.

Hope this finds everyone well.  And once again I promise we are keeping busy and continuing to chase kids, animals, water, machinery & whatever else crosses our path!

Still chasin'

Yes, we are still here!

I am only one kid and a ton of other farm stuff behind on my posts.  I read other people's blogs and so admire their writing & photography.  Let's just say writing & photography don't make the top of my talents list - so here goes.  Or at least the really short version of the last 7 (are you sure?) months!

  We shall start with our Miss Nia.  She joined us on March 1st; weighing in at 9 lbs. 5 oz.  She hasn't slowed down on the growth curve or desire to keep up the the three crazies ahead of her.  Jeff & I have an over under bet as to if she walks (takes two steps on her own) in 2013 or 2014.  She is a sweetie that takes life as number 4 in stride.  Now if she would only sleep through the night!
  Many of you met her at her first cattle sale - you know when she was 15 days old. 

 Miss Molly is a 2nd grader!  She is off and running at school once again.  Here she is with her pig at the Spokane Interstate Fair.  Molly was the Grand Champion Pee-Wee Showman.  Slightly proud parents.  A testament to perseverance; she outlasted the pig's desire to run and managed to keep track of the judge as well or better than the other 5-8 year olds.




Trevor & Lila are on the go 4 year olds.  Trevor is a little cowboy who is more than happy to go with Jeff at any time.  Even if to catch a nap in the swather.  Poor guy can't make it a single pass!  Lila is our animal & sports lover.  Always tracking down the cats, jumping in the pig pens, brushing the bottle calves and dribbling a basketball.  Not many dull moments on the home front!

Of course September means fall calves!  Jeff is letting Nia grab one.  I think the calf was more bothered by Nia's two-handed grab than getting weighed & tagged!  So far so good on calving, we do have two bottle calves (one twin & one from a not-so-good first calf heifer).  Jeff has had to put on his CPS (calf protective services) hat.  But those cows have had a date with Mr. Schaffer at Cows-R-Us!  Sure is nice to see spunky black calves enjoying the green grass of fall! 

 

On the farming side, haying has been going pretty well.  Weather has been pretty good, prices are hanging in there and most everything is spoken for if not gone.  Nothing to interesting to report until one week ago!

We Northwesterner's aren't used to crazy weather that included warnings of tornadoes!  The top picture is just a sampling of the tree limbs down in our yard.  Luckily only minor damage to our garage roof.  Getting down all the broken pieces resulted in just as much tree pieces on our lawn.  The bottom pictures are the field that fared the worst.  The orchard grass probably would have been raked Monday morning (after the storm).  Notice most of the field looks raked, baled & stacked.  Not so much - how about blown into the neighbor's yard, onto the circle, into the next neighbor's yard - everywhere but where it should be!  Sid & Matt have had the pleasure of trying to deal with the huge knotted, piles of hay.  There may have been more alcohol consumed her this week than normal.

Of course we weren't the only one to loose crops.  20 hours without power sure makes you appreciate it.  It is also absolutely crazy how one messed up day leads to a entire messed up week.  I think those of us at home managed to eat lunch at the average of about 1:30 this week.  The 4 year olds are great troopers!

As Fall arrives we are trying to finish hay (more rain today :( ).  More calves are on the way, we are preparing for the Evergreen Sale and the Red, White & Black FRIDAY Sale and just trying to stay ahead of everything. 

Hope this finds you well & ready to enjoy a beautiful fall!

Out of the mouth of (not so anymore) babes

Molly keeps making us laugh with her frank comments and observations!

(Self portrait in pick-up on Montana trip in December)

 Yesterday Jeff moved the pairs away from our house.  Molly's cow kicked Jeff while he was loading her.  When Jeff picked up Molly at the bus stop to let her help with some tagging and evening chores he told Molly that her cow wasn't very nice.  Molly's reply "Well Dad you were the one who bought her."

True Miss Molly, true.  

Later in the afternoon Molly got kicked by a little calf they were working on.  First time for everything, and given how well (NOT) she handles the slightest owie, Jeff said no tears or anything.  Think she'll live! 

And earlier in the week when we were all stuffed into the front of a regular cab pick-up feeding cows, Trevor was fussing about something.  Molly told him "that someday he'll be married too and have stuff to worry about just like Dad".  Jeff couldn't stop laughing.

At least there are few dull moments around here!