It's Go Time...

The skies have cleared up for a couple days In a row and we started harvest at well, slow speed. After working out a few kinks corn is coming out with good test weights and moisture. With corn fields coming out that means corn stalk bales can be made. After getting a rake and bailing for hay last year we made the switch to making our own corn stalk bales. Last year worked out perfect as I was still on maternity leave and riding in the tractor put Lyndin asleep. This year lyndin and I are on bale duty again as will is busy in the field. Lyndin and I managed to get stalks chopped after work a couple nights. Thankfully they are talking a couple more clear days before chances of rain she I am going to take advantage of it. I am hoping to rake stalks tomorrow and Saturday morning and start bailing Saturday afternoon and Sunday. I will be much happier when the bales are made and wrap and home, but right now I will take being made and sitting in the field. In the winter months we rely on corn stalk bales for bedding and food supplement and with the bad winter they are predicting they will be heavily relied on this year.

So here is to harvest 2016. Ready or not here we come.

Happy Anniversary

Will and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary yesterday and honestly it was just another day. Will bailed hay and after work I stained our deck while my mom spent some time with Lyndin and we wouldn't have wanted the day any other way. When we were planning our wedding, both Will and I agreed that it wasn't going to be "the happiest day of our lives" as we knew there were so many more momentous moments in our future and we both quickly agreed that the day our children were born would be the happiest days of our lives. Planning a wedding you quickly overlook what the actual day is about. It isn't about the party or the piece of paper you sign, it is about the commitment you make to each other. Will and I wrote our own vows to each other as a way to truly say what we promise to do for each other. Although some days are harder than others to honor those vows, as bills get tight or tensions grow high, but through it all, we truly LOVE EACH OTHER. So to us, a wedding anniversary should be everyday not just honoring the day you got married. We decided to unite ourselves as a team with the help of God, long before we ever "got married". So cheers to celebrating our commitment to each other today and everyday!

Another week has come and gone...

I can't believe that we are in the middle of September and still flooding. We received more rain this week in what seems like a never ending cycle. We were fortunate enough to have our chopping done on Labor Day but many neighbors and friends are struggling to get through the fields. We have heard of farmers pulling the forage wagons through the field with 2 tractors and burying the chopper up to its axles just to try to fill a bag before the corn gets to dry. It hard to image what combining will be like. Could you image burying a combine in a wet field?

This week has been a trying week for me. I have been fighting a terrible headache for over a week. I have heard there was a virus going around that is mimicking allergies, so maybe that is what I have. My headache turned into a full blown migraine and resulted in a day home to rest. My migraine has lessened back down to a headache with the help of the chiropractor and pills but still not being able to hold food down and worse yet, Will is now showing the same symptoms. Mom and dad sick and lyndin still as active as ever is not a good combination.   I pray Will recovers faster than I am as he has hay cut with another field to do and then needs to rake and bale before they start combining. Will it ever get easier?

Life on the farm will get really hectic really soon so I am enjoying the nights of having nothing to do before the nights of having too much to do come.

What a great weekend....

Well we survived the Bierle/Stange wedding in fine form. Tired and wore out but we survived. I don't think they could have ask for a better day. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees, the sun was shining and love was in the air. We had the opportunity to welcome a lot of new people into our "family" and I think will and the brides brother will become good friends.

This weekend definitely brought back a lot of memories to two years ago on September 20, 2014. The day Will and I became a family, at least legally anyway. We both walked down the same aisle 2 years ago as we did on Saturday and listened to the same pastor pronounce them husband and wife. A lot of the guest were the same as at our wedding and the love that I experienced between the bride and the groom was just as strong as will and my love. I can honestly say that being married is one of the hardest but most rewarding things I have ever experienced. Marriage that they show on TV is a joke as it is not all roses, night outs and moon light conversations. It is a lot of disagreements, cleaning house, dates are when you need to go to Waterloo and when you have a night alone all you want to do is sleep. Will and I were blessed to get pregnant just a few short months after getting married so we never really had the honeymoon phase, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Before we got married we were already "playing house" and had our everyday routine down so I guess that was our honeymoon phase.

It was great to kind of reminisce back this weekend as we both stood beside our good friends as they continue on their journey called life.

Where is the boat?

As if flooding once this year wasn't bad enough, we are flooding again. We have experienced one of the wettest summers that I can ever remember. We are usually begging for rain in July and August and this year school was canceled in August due to flooding. We are one of the few around that has silage chopped and the field we chopped was under water today. Our cows are luckily on higher ground and are avoiding the flooding but not everyone is that lucky. Houses that were starting to clean up the mess of a few weeks ago and now filling up again. Farmers are starting to wonder if we will be able to get the corn and beans out of the field and doing another cutting of hay seems impossible now. The next few weeks and months will prove to be interesting.

On a happy note...Tomorrow, will and I have the honor of standing next to our good friends as they become husband and wife. After finding a new hait stylist to do my hair for the wedding tomorrow as mine is currently flooded i am ready for it.
The weather is suppose to be perfect at 68 degrees and no chance for rain. We are not going to let this flooding slow us down even if we have to detour a few washed out roads to keep the party going.

Why....is everything so hard.

When something brakes down or cattle get out or in tonight's case sheep. When late nights and early mornings get to us or we just don't have enough money to pay a bill I often wonder why we I still love the cattle. Will has always dreamed of having his own cattle herd and being his loving wife I want to do everything possible to keep that dream a reality, but some days when the bills pile up and money is going out more than coming in I often start to question it. Being a farmers wife is hard work, but add on being a full time employee and full time mother, being a farmers wife seems impossible. I often struggle with balance in my life as I want to help Will but also have 2 other major obligations to attend to and not only is he a full time farmer he is also a full time employee so our marriage easily gets lost.

My role at the farm has changed since having Lyndin. Before Lyndin I was right beside Will mending fence, sorting cattle and making sure everything is working. Now I take a back seat and manage the herd on paper and rely on Will and the help of neighbors and family to keep everything operational. We have both had to make changes in how we do things. Instead of me seeing the calves grow first hand, I see them grow through pictures and reports from Will and Will has had to learn to keep track of cows and calves on paper to report back to me what needs to be done. It has been an adjustment but we are both managing.

With a break in the heat on Sunday we as a family got to spend some time at the pastures. Being over there makes me realize that all the struggles are worth it. The calves look awesome and we are fortunate enough to own a lot of beautiful acres. The reason we endure all the struggles is so Lyndin and our future children can have a love for cattle like we do.

Labor of love weekend.

We had a 3 day weekend due to Labor Day. While most people use it for one last hurrah before summer is over, we used the time to pull in a tile line, fix cattle fence and chop silage. We did take some time to go over to the pastures and spend some time with Wills cousins getting their input on our cattle while catching up on life's happening. Monday we celebrated my dad's birthday with a BBQ at my sisters house. The cousins love spending time together.

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to an end and after the weather we had on Sunday, fall is quickly approaching. I'm sure Will is going to be heading to the fields within a couple weeks to start harvest but not before the last cutting of hay. Cows will be coming home soon and in a few months we will be getting rid of this year's calf crop and starting on next year's.

Bills will be due and tensions are usually high trying to get the most money for the calves so we don't have to spend much out of pocket. My farming dream is to someday have the cows self sustain themselves but that isn't quite a reality yet.

So here is to another summer gone. Bonyoage.

WOW! Where has time gone!

Wow. It is hard to believe that today is September 1st. It seems like I was just starting this blog and had big plans of sharing our everyday lives with you, the readers, but time has seemed to escape me.

Calving season seems to go off without a hitch. I few bumps every now and then, but that is to be expected on a farm. Cows and calves were moved to green grass on a rainy day off from field work and are almost ready to come home. With all the rain we had this year, grass was not a problem. The problem was all the RAIN. Our Boyd pasture FLOODED. It is a 40 acre pasture that runs along a river and only around 5 acres was above water. Needless to say we had to pull the pairs out and some came to the home farm while other went to West Union pastures. They all adjusted well to their new homes, at least for the time being.

We added some dorper sheep to the farm and Lyndin LOVES them. We have 5 ewes and 1 ram. They are considered hair sheep so we don't need to sheer them. They have been doing a great job eating the weeds in the unused cattle pens which were a sight for sore eyes. The goats and sheep have finally leaned to co-mingle. We will have to see how the sheep and cattle get along along with figuring out how to feed them separately as the sheep can not have the cattle mineral.

We went and watched a few open cattle shows this summer and Will really go the itch to be back showing. Lyndin definitely loves the calves and is now starting to walk so I would say next year she will be in the show ring. Will already has is plan of attack for next years show string.

Lyndin turned one on August 11. Where has the time gone? She is walking/running. Loves doing chicken chores as she has learned to feed them grass out of her hand and enjoys everything outside. She has picked up a new habit of stomping her feet and throwing a fit when we have to go inside. I guess it could be worse, she could hate outside. She loves going to check cows and getting cow licks. She is pretty brave with the cattle as long as one of us is holding her.

The show calves we sold last year had a very successful year. We have heard from quite a few families that they won their classes and a few one the whole show. It is nice that they let us know as many of them go miles away. We were fortunate to have a family in Decorah, Iowa buy some calves for their competitive rate of gain class and we are happy to say that they took the show with a 5.49lb daily rate a gain and won their class. Pretty impressive when a steer that big can still work, but we are use to that.

We are starting to market this years calves and I can honestly say that these are our best calves to date. Each year the quality improves making it easier to sell calves. We still have a few show steers and heifers left, if anyone is interested. We are hoping to expand our market and sell to even more families, so they all can enjoy V56 cattle.

Well, I better say farewell for now. Hopefully I will do better at keeping up with this. If you are every interested in what we are up to, check out our website. www.v56cows.com or on facebook!