Crossing The Finish Line

Well, we are finished. 

What a wonderful feeling. 

We have all our seeds in the ground and were blessed with rain to help nourish the crop. 

I got my farmer back as a result. 

Well, let me rephrase. We had a normal conversation at 7 PM, instead of 1 AM like the last few weeks have been. 

It is pretty exciting. 

Now, on to summer. 

Which sometimes equals more late nights, days filled with endless projects that are reserved just for the summer, and days filled with heat. 

Depending on what type of farmer you are you may be busier during certain times of year and less busy during others. Since we raise beef cattle and also crops we tend to have years where there just isn't enough time in the day. If we were to only raise crops, we may have a little bit more flexibility. 

The more diversified you are the more busy you can get. 

This planting season seems to be rolling smoothly for most farmers. There have been a few days of rain- but nothing to get too worried about yet. There is such a thing as "too much rain". Crops get washed out and have to be replanted..which is never, ever a good feeling. 

I was able to catch a few photos of the last days of planting. I went to the fields a million times it felt like and I never seemed to remember to take a picture!

Field Cultivating- Tilling up the field.

Quick break to fuel up the tractor.

Watching Daddy leave.

Loading the planter with soybeans.

Planting just after dusk.

Wordless Wednesday

Picking rocks and running parts to the field. I don't know whose happier- Daddy or Ellie!

Mommy Mondays- Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms in the world! 

But, an extra special Happy Mother's Day to all the women involved in farming. Yesterday in South Dakota I am guessing that most farm wives spent their day hauling meals to the field, moving equipment, giving rides, and in some cases working in the fields. All while cooking three meals, taking care of the kids, taking care of livestock, and doing it all with a smile on her face!

I never used to think twice about being a farm wife. I love agriculture, I love my husband- seems pretty perfect. But I realize more and more everyday that it takes a special woman to marry a farmer. One that understands feeding cattle on Sundays, missing Christmas mornings because of chores, working all hours of the day and night for 2 months every Fall, going to work before 7 and coming home long after 5.

As a mom and a farmwife you pretty much have to know that being a single parent for a few months come Fall is a real possibility. Christmas morning can be replicated at 6 PM. Livestock always, always come before us.

And sometimes it means spending Mother's Day doing work. But, that's okay...because honestly my husband makes me feel so special for being a Mom nearly every day. 

I love my role as farm wife, but nothing could be more special than playing Mommy to this little cutie. So instead of having a relaxing day all to myself, my husband planted corn, and I spent the day chasing her around the yard! But, before he put in a hard day's work he did make me breakfast. :) 

Farming Friday

This week has flown by!

I had a mix of field meals and dinner table meals. And I had good intentions of getting some pictures of everything I cooked for those of you looking for meals in the field. And I completely, literally forgot. Just forgot.

We are farming away, and hoping to get most of corn planted before the end of the week. Yay for that!

My garden is still not quite planted. Potatoes are in the ground and have been for a few weeks now. I have everything bought, my seeds dug out, and my rough draft drawn of how I want it all to look, it just seems I haven't quite gotten to it yet!

We are still finishing up a few projects around the inside of the house and I am hoping by early next week we will have them all done. Mainly two projects really. Making a sunroom into a play room and a laundry room re do! Both are pretty exciting and I will share as soon as we get them completed!

Mother's Day is just around the corner. And I can't help but think back to last years Mother's Day when Elliette was so, so tiny. This year she can actually hammer out a "MaMa" if she really, really wants to! This year we will be in the fields on Mother's Day, but I am guessing my husband will still have planned something sweet that day, even if he can't be around. I love him for that.

To honor my farmer today, and all the farmers that are working around the clock to get their crops planted I thought I would share this info graphic I came across last week.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=619272528102806&set=a.393575227339205.106069.391586644204730&type=1&theater

We Are In The Fields!

Finally!

We have entered Planting 2013. If you are following on twitter #plant13 is finally starting to take over my news feeds. What a wonderful feeling!

We had a pretty steady drizzle yesterday so we tore out some trees, vaccinated my cows to get them ready for next breeding season, and spent most of the day cuddling up with our Ella girl. She hasn't been this cuddly since she was a tiny baby. I know she must be feeling terrible if she stretches out her "MaMaaa" and just wants to sit on the couch and watch TV. She never wants to sit down, ever, and she absolutely is not into the television- at all. Not even a little bit.

It is my week to cook, which means two meals a day in the field. I did my baking on Sunday night, my meals are all planned. Veggies and fruits are all bagged and in the fridge in a basket. Now, with a sick little one I am so happy I have a slight over planning problem. It definitely makes things easier.

This last Winter I really focused a lot on my meal planning and my recipe binder. I have been compiling all the recipes I use a lot into one binder and have been slowly going through my cookbooks and adding those recipes to the binder. My goal is to have just binders of all my go to recipes, instead of a bunch of cookbooks I have to flip through all the time.

I have also been really trying to be more consistent about writing down exactly what I make for meals when I cook for our guys. Amazing as it may sound I do have days, and sometimes entire weeks, where I don't plan anything out. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. I also find myself planning more for our noon meals than I do for our evening meals. So, I am hoping by compiling my completed meals in my planner at the end of the year I will have an assortment of meals that I can choose from. Hopefully eliminating the "What's for supper?" question I seem to have most nights.

My long-term goal is to have a better "eating" system down before Elliette reaches kindergarten! Ha! Before her I was fine to skip breakfast and lunch and make only one meal. Now, I have really been super focused on getting her her "colors of the rainbow" at every meal. And, we typically do really well. Which is really making me more scheduled about meal times.

I love my weeks to cook because it forces me to plan and stick to the schedule. Tonight I delivered supper to the field and shot this picture of my husband cultivating a field. Field cultivating loosens up the soil and gets it ready for planting. Remember when I talked about how are fields are like a big garden? Well, this is our big garden tiller.

Wordless Wednesday

We may not be able to get started with planting full force, but we aren't wasting daylight hours around here.

Long nights have started, giving rides to Daddy have started and We Love It!

Late Planting...What Does It Mean Exactly?

In South Dakota in case you haven't been around the last few months or so we have had some pretty interesting weather.

No joke, one day it was snowy, rainy, snowy, sunny all within an afternoon. Crazy right?

Last year I remember being in the hospital in labor and we were over half way done with planting. That was around April 14.

I don't know if any farmer would really call planting this week "late" planting. But, it is planting out of the "norm" for the last few years.

What does it mean if we plant April 14 or May 14?

Think of all our fields as one giant garden. For all you gardeners out there, if you are like me you may time some of your planting.

For example, I know that I prefer to have most of my garden done before we start chopping silage or harvesting crops in September. So, I tend to plant on the side of early.

Every seed has a "growing season" or how long it takes before that seed reaches maturity and can be eaten. Green Beans are about 45 to 75 days, depending on the variety. I like to plant these early and finish my preserving before we start getting into our busy season. Plus, we like to enjoy them as much as we can through the summer.

Fields are a lot like gardens. Farmers tend to plant different types of seeds with various "growing seasons". A farmer can have one seed he plants or he could have a different type for every field he plants, if he wishes.

It can take anywhere from 90 to 120 "growing degree days (GDD)" before a corn plant reaches maturity. This number can vary depending on many factors- soil temperature, planting depth, residue that is on the topsoil, the type of tillage system that was used.

I can't tell you exactly how my husband and his brothers pick their seed every year. But, I can tell you that a lot of factors go into play. Seed companies come out with all sorts of new seed products every year. Pioneer alone has over 300 different seed types.

Farmers spend a significant amount of time comparing seeds to be used the following year. And sometimes you play the guessing game.

If last year we chose a seed corn that reaches maturity at 110 days and we plant on May 10th this year. We may be looking at it reaching maturity at the very end of August, beginning of September. But even that could be varied depending on the weather. So many factors go into play.

I wanted to give a little insight for those that are interested because we are going to be getting into the fields quite a bit later this year, due to that 12 inches of snow we got here a few weeks ago.

I am certainly no expert when it comes to planting a field. And most of this knowledge comes from my brain, from a college class that I was required to take. That now I am so glad I took because I ended up marrying a farmer! But, when in doubt just picture our fields as giant gardens and remember that each seed we put in the ground has a growing season just like your green beans.