Unrolling

Round hay bales are rolled up in late springtime like dry grass cinnamon rolls. That is, 1200# grass flavored cinnamon rolls.

To feed out I unroll the hay for the cattle during the winter season.

There are several advantages to unrolling hay vs. putting it in a hay ring or barn feeding, etc.

It is good because you can run any class or size of animal all together. This way the bigger bully animals won't hog all the feedstuff.

One hay bale stretches out to about the length of a football field.

There is very little waste.

I can monitor exactly how much hay I am feeding.

I unroll in different sections of the paddock every day and it acts as a secondary fertility program for the soil.

It reduces pugging (see summertime pug wash).

The animals line up and I can do a thorough daily inspection of body condition/health/pregnancy development.

Digging Deep

Can you dig deep? How often do you find yourself digging deep?

Is it a nervous feeling? numbness? bleary eyes? rock-n-roll? fight or flight? Never give up?

Does it kinda hurt? Do you like it anyways?

Is it psychological or physical? or both? usually both.

Now here is a lip-smackin', reflective thinkin', near-do-weller, close to honest as I can get observation.

Trying to farm and trying to make art creates opportunities where you gotta dig deep.

It's not saying, "well, that's good enough".

When you feel like quitting, just crank down and max it out.

I get excited when I see someone maxing it out.

Art, Craft, and Cattle

summertime pug wash

The herd is doing well.

When summer fully sets in the grass and the ground hardens a little so you can graze smaller pastures.

In springtime when you have a lot of young, soft plants you don't want to graze them very hard so you move the cows around in considerably larger pastures being careful not to overgraze. The ground is also softer and if you get a big gully washer flood you get a lot of 'pugging' where these 1000# beasts compact the soil.

Pugging is a bad thing for the grazier, and a necessity for the potter.

The potter must pug or wedge his clay to make it uniform, remove air pockets, and compress it. The grazier wants to avoid pugging because quality soil needs to be more open to grow more forage.

Eggs & Legs

It is difficult to decide the most enjoyable part of a chicken.

Sometimes I'm an eggs guy, but most of the time I am more of a legs guy.