Handmade for the Holidays Did you give or receive something handmade for the holidays? According to The New York Times, as the stock market plunged this year, interest in buying or making handmade items shot through the roof, and doctors prescribed making things as a way to relieve stress. Those of you who’ve been knitting, […]
The Farmer has a Bad Day Last weekend was brutal here in MN. The high was -5, and the windchill was -30. And it was snowing and blowing and looking darned near like a blizzard all day long. The Farmer, still on the mend, was determined to plow the driveway. As is often the case, […]
What the Heck is This? Just to prove that I haven’t lost my sense of humor as I do chores day after day after day after day after sloggin’ day (how does the Farmer keep up her excitement for these chores?) here’s a photo of something on our farm that is a TOTAL oops. So, […]
A Knitting Question Here’s a hypothetical question for any knitters who happen to be passing by this blog. Say a sheep farmer in the Midwest fills her aunt and uncle’s car with bags of raw fleece, and they drive it back home to Montana and drop it off to be processed at a small fiber […]
Cold Hands, Warm….Feet As she recuperates, the Farmer has begun to climb the walls, even though she’s not supposed to strain herself! And I continue to put in two hours of outside work in the morning, and another hour at dusk, with lots of aching and moaning and not much writing in between. At least […]
Our First Guest Blogger As Melissa (aka The Farmer) recovers from surgery with her nose pressed against the front door, longingly gazing toward the barns and animals and work, and as I am outside slaving away (oops, I mean cheerfully tending the flock), I decided making her my guest blogger would be a good idea. […]
Hard at Work My readers are really funny people, and, as it turns out, a tad impatient… Here’s the email I received this morning from someone named Charlie: RRRGGGHHHH; gasp, choke, moan, No new Farm Tales… , , Okay, okay! Here I am, with another post. Moral of the story: Harassment works! I’ve not been […]
Important Advice: Don’t Drink and FarmThe Farmer was gone hunting a few weeks ago, so I was in charge, always a heady time because I get to wear so many hats. A few days into my solo farming career, I woke up and put on my Writing Hat, writing an hour before feeding myself and […]
Which Kind Are You? Our little calves, small enough when we brought them home that Melissa could carry each one in her arms, are now looking like this: I don’t know their weight…300? 400? We’re still too new to be able to guess accurately. Regardless, they’re good-sized boys at this point. Three are purebred Jerseys, […]
The Great Sheep Escape (Or, My Ten Minutes of Terror) I wrote in my memoir, Hit By a Farm, that when we started farming, it was clear I hadn’t inherited my grandmother’s shepherding genes. But yesterday, during ten minutes of pure terror in which I was driven by instinct alone, I think I might have […]