Betsy Freese is the editor-in-chief of Living the Country Life and executive editor of Successful Farming. She grew up on a fruit farm in Maryland (see www.strawberryfarm.com) and moved to the Midwest to get an agricultural journalism degree from Iowa State University. She and her husband, Bob, a veterinarian, have three children and own a farm where they raise sheep, hay, corn, and soybeans.
The staff of Living the Country Life is hard at work…finding morel mushrooms. After four years of trying, Tracey Kelley (below), with the help of Jodi Henke, found her first morel. Think of Ralphie when he spies his Red Ryder BB gun at Christmas.
Meanwhile, Diana Weesner has no trouble finding bushels of the delicious mushrooms, shown below:
Our family said goodbye to Bob’s uncle Glenn Damman yesterday. He died at age 81 after farming his whole life near Melbourne, Iowa. His wife, Lois, and son, Charlie, remain on the family farm.
Bob spent many summer days there making hay with Charlie and Glenn. It’s where he acquired his passion for baling and stacking hay, and it is a skill he passed from Uncle Glenn to our kids (whether they like it or not).
Glenn was a quiet, honest, and modest man who enjoyed collecting Minneapolis-Moline tractors.He loved flowers, and tulips were his favorite. It is fitting that we are enjoying an early spring this year and tulips are in full bloom at the time of his death.
It is also fitting that when we arrived home from the funeral the first of our ewes gave birth to a nice set of twins. The busy lambing season has arrived.
Here is Glenn many years ago with his lambs.
The goats were vaccinated (screamed like babies) and sent to pasture. All that green grass to enjoy and what do they do all day? Jump on and off of the metal huts.
These are lovely days in the country. Our trees and lilac bushes are bursting with blooms. Recent rains have turned the grass brilliant green.
I’m trying to ignore news of frost potential for next week. Won’t happen!
Your odds of having quads unassisted and keeping them alive by nursing alone, no bottle feeding — slim. The odds of a goat doing that — better, but still unlikely. Our goats beat the odds this year. The quads are thriving, as well as the triplets, and the twins.
Speaking of odds — I went out at noon and bought two lottery tickets for the Mega jackpot of $640 million. I think gambling ruins lives, but for that amount I’m willing to risk it.
The track season has started and both Caroline and Michelle are running. The Iowa High School Athletic Association does not allow jewelry in competition. So before her first meet, Michelle had to remove the permanent stud she had in the cartilage of her ear. Bob did the job with a pair of side cutters from the shop. Caroline took this photo, and it looks like he’s ear-tagging Michelle. Bob joked that all foreign exchange students need a scrapie tag before they return home.
I doubt Michelle is laughing. We all think it is a silly rule. Hoops or dangling earrings are a problem, but studs don’t interfere with anything.
Run, girls, run!
I walked around my acreage and inspected our trees. Some of the walnut trees are 100 years old. Other trees are just babies. My ornamental pear has a chunk of bark stripped off from deer. One evergreen I planted four years ago is dead. I need to find out why. An older tree in the grove, a spindly one that leaned, broke and fell into the branches of another tree (below). If they both come down, they will destroy my nice vinyl fence. Another old tree in the pasture lane (bottom) is hollow and needs to be cut down before it falls on the sheep. When you can see through the trunk of a tree it’s time to remove it!
Have you checked your trees?
Even down to the white socks.
The girls and I walked to the pond on Sunday. I have never seen our 22-acre pasture in better condition. The pond is still recovering from a winter kill two years ago, but looks good. The grass carp I stocked are now a foot long.
A goose made a nest right by the water’s edge next to where Caroline is standing, below. Our foxes will love that.
We saw dozens of snapping turtles enjoying the sun.
Michelle learned a valuable lesson — always wear boots to the pond. The first photo shows Caroline washing the mud off her legs at the old well. My peach tree is in full bloom.
Enjoy the week!
My backyard blog serves as a gardening journal, and it’s a fairly accurate way to track how the seasons compare from year to year. For example, my forsythia is blooming this week. Last year — a typical spring — it started blooming on April 12. My ornamental pear tree (below) is flowering now. Last year it flowered around April 15. We are a good three weeks ahead of schedule. Our alfalfa fields are so green they hurt the eyes. They will be blooming in a few weeks. We will either have an extra early first cutting, or frost will kill it (more likely).
Weeds have sprouted all over my empty garden plot and in my flower beds. The lawn needs mowed. Time to get to work!
