This winter has been one for the books. Record snow, record cold, and some days of complete frost bitten misery. You are looking at fewer hours of daylight with lots of extra hours of work. Feeding more, because that's what keeps the Mommas (and all the others) warm. Unrolling hay bales so they have somewhere to lay that doesn't freeze those necessary body parts (teats) off. Nothing worse that frost bitten udders. Can you imagine the fun of that...ouch! You gotta pre-dip teats before milking (to help clean them), post-dip teats (to coat and protect after milking), we can't scrape the holding pen because an ice rink of frozen poop isn't appealing to anyone. And then comes the melting. The joys of losing a leaky boot in shin deep you know what. There's no better Kodak moment than standing on one foot while sinking deeper and try to figure out how to turn and beg the earth to release your shoe. The earth isn't very forgiving. And if you do manage to keep from quick sand like trauma, you flop the mess all up the back of your head with that over dramatic steps your using to keep from being swallowed. It's quite a workout.
Winter also brings the black birds. The plague like curse at our house is overwhelming. They are everywhere. Chirping and pooping on everything. They hang around because....apparently this is as south as they go for winter and lookey, lookey...the Milkman buys corn and hominy just to winter the winged parasites. We've tried shooting, clapping, screaming, the predator bird recordings and nothing works. They stay and poop. Ick. I hate birds.
In the winter the Milkman usually milks in the mornings. The day begins at 2am with blaring alarms and not a "good morning" to be found. It carries on with a few inside breaks to thaw out, and back out until well after dark. It's long, cold hours for the Milkman and all our help.
I usually just leave a few towels by the door so the house doesn't flood when he comes in. Mopping is useless. Sweeping by the door isn't very effective either. The Milkmaids can work a broom after winter comes and goes!! Needless to say we have been wishing this winter away for a couple months now. But when it's over....
SPRING! Finally. Thank the Good Lord above. It is warming up! The first part is cleaning up winters ugly messes. And the waiting...is last fall's seed going to show up green? If it does, will that last pain in the butt show of winter kill it? Timing fertilizer with the rain and spraying without the wind. Watching the weather and gambling daily. Faith, faith, and more faith.
Spring brings the first silage season of the year. Oh! The good times to be had!! Mowing, chopping, packing, and bagging. It is some dirty work. You can expect hours of equipment repair, grease on everything, lots of water and Gatorade, days of lunches for a crew of 4-8 guys, a washer and dryer full of cut grass, and anywhere pants come off (by the door or in the bathroom) there will also be piles of the fresh cut wet grass. Sometimes it's like living in a dirt/grass floor home. It's a really good thing the Milkmaids learned to use those brooms.
It's good for the allergies (insert sarcasm). We do lots of Claritin, Zyrtec, nasonex, and Kleenexes. It's worth it. We work really hard to produce as much of our own forage as we can. There is pride that comes with not only raising our animals, most from birth on, but also working the ground God gave us. Putting a seed in the ground, nurturing it as much as possible, praying for the rain and sun, and watching it grow. It can be as devastating to lose a crop as it is to lose an animal.
Every farm is different. There are crop farms without animals, farms that raise only animals, and farms like ours with both. There are large acreage farms, small acreage farms, and hobby farms that produce in all different manners, but one thing is the same on them all, we all farm on faith. We all stake our livelihoods, our well being, and the future of our passions on prayers, faith, and putting our blood, sweat, and tears into whatever we raise. What we put in directly affects the outcome. We make our money doing something we love and we feed our families what we produce. It's more than a job. It is our lives, our loves, a part of our families that words can't describe. We may wish away part of a season, but we know without each one we can't do what we live to do.
Eventually I'll write a part 2 of this and talk about summer and fall. Lots of good times and misery comes in those seasons too. I know y'all can't wait!!
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