Finishing Hay, Star Gazing
Another busy week. Everything in its season. This is the season for running wide open. And still running behind. We know slower seasons are around the corner, but we’ll run hard til we get there.
With ORVF beef and pork being delivered to the farm on Wednesday, along with more chickens going into the freezer from on farm harvest, Amy and I spent much of Monday sorting beef, pork, and chicken. Trying to get a grasp on our current inventory before additional inventory gets added. Freezer space and organization again becoming an issue. We already have an extended wish list, but additional freezer space is becoming more high priority on the list.
On Tuesday I mowed about 20 acres of hay. Amy sharped knives for processing day. Amy’s brother and three nephews came up to the farm to help with chickens. They helped catch chicks in the brooder to take to the field and then helped catch mature chickens in the field to go to harvest. Tuesday night Alex and the kids slept out in the yard under the stars, awakening to a heavy due and a long day’s work.
Early Wednesday morning while setting up for chicken killing, our processor arrived to the farm delivering our beef and pork. About 100 boxes in the freezers. Then moving chickens before the processing begins. Over 250 more pastured birds in the freezer, 150ish cut up for parts. A long but good day with lots of good help. After clean up, re-watering the chickens. Then back to the hay field to mow the last few acres of this year’s first cutting. While I went back to the field, Amy went back to the barn to strain and jar broth. And get a new batch started.
Yesterday was our monthly delivery to Bristol and Kingsport. Usually Amy and I try to make this trip together and make it a monthly date night afterwards. However, this time Amy made the delivery solo while I stayed back raking and rolling hay. I owe her a date. Actually a few. Net wrap frustrations prevented me from getting along as good as I hoped. After an hour and a half of messing with it, it finally started working like it should. I wish I could say I finally figured out the problem and got it fixed, but in all honesty, I don’t know why it wasn’t working. And I don’t know what it was that made it start working, but I’m sure glad it did. My next move was to grab the hammer and just start banging. Ha.
A busy start to today. A load of non-GMO feed delivered. A load of hay delivered. Pigs fed. Now to the hay field. If I get along good today, it’ll put a bow on this year’s first cutting of hay. Then coolers and orders to be filled for herd share deliveries tomorrow to Marion and the Abingdon Farmers Market.
Even with the hay we’ve been making ourselves, this week we purchased almost 600 rolls of hay from neighboring farms. About 30K for hay. 10K for processing bill. 10K for non-GMO feed for chickens and pigs. It’s been an expensive week. Why is meat so costly? Because it costs a lot to produce it. We’re still on the hunt for another 300-400 rolls of hay to get our cow herds through this coming winter. With the dry spell this spring, hay is getting hard to find.
Mowing hay I finished listening to THIS IS HAPPINESS by Niall Williams. I love the way the author writes, and even since the book’s completion, I’ve thought more about our own happiness.
The happiest part of this week, and arguably one of the happiest parts of my life, was Wednesday night about 9:00. We probably should’ve already had all the kids showered, but at least two were still smelling like farm. And we certainly should’ve at least had them fed. Matter of fact, we were so tired that we almost forewent dinner and resorted to a popcorn meal. Nevertheless, I put some ORVF beef stir fry on the Blackstone while Amy put okra, squash, and zucchini from the farmers market in the oven along with ORVF chicken broth rice on the stovetop.
We ate dinner out on the porch. The sun that made a 90 degree day had set, leaving us… relieved and calm and quiet. Maybe not quiet. The crickets and kids were chirping, but it was peaceful and good. Rest for the body. Being filled with good food produced by the miraculous combination of hard work and God’s provision. Tired as the kids were, they further exhausted themselves with countless races to the mailbox and back. Tired as Amy and I were, we were both aware we were sharing in some of the best moments we’ll ever have in this life. This is happiness to me. Simple as it may sound.
Here’s a few more quotes from Williams:
“That was one of the things about him. He walked this line between the comic and poignant, between the certainly doomed and the hopelessly hopeful. In time I came to think of it, the common ground of all humanity.”
“It seems an obvious point now, but I hadn’t lived long enough to know that there’s an infinity of ways to tell the same story, that human failure is a history without end, but so too human endeavor, and that between both lies the lot of the living.”
“A story grows in the gaps where the facts fall short, and maybe in extravagant weather, grows faster.”
“Do I exaggerate? Of course I do. The truth doesn’t care. Here’s the thing life teaches you: sometimes the truth can only be reached by exaggeration.”
“… that idiocy has its place, that there are cogs and levers in the smallest happenstance, that our wrong turns are compensated for by our Creator, who not only forgives them but who put them there in the first place, and by which, not to call it logic, all plots turnout right in the end.”
“He smiled, quoting himself, ‘This is happiness.’ It was a condensed explanation, but I came to understand him to mean, you could stop at, not all, but most of the moments of your life, stop for one heartbeat, and no matter what the state of your head or heart, say, ‘This is happiness’ because of the simple truth that you are alive to say it.”
Have a good week.
Will