30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 12

Day 12-Crafting time on the farm

 

My little girl, since age 1, has always been a crafty girl.  She is a table-top activity kind of kid.  Give her a worksheet or 25 at age 2 and she was doing a happy dance! 

 

Several times in her life, we have made corn husk dolls.  I have linked up with a few corn husk doll related sites for you to look at.  Unfortunately, I’m not a keeper of things, so I don’t have one of our actual dolls to show you here. 

They are surprisingly easy to make and turn out so, so cute!

Even the rough and tumble son of mine has made corn husk “action figures” with us.  His usually end up drop kicking the other “action figures,” but hey, it’s quality time right?

 

Here are a few links to get you started. 

Luckily, we have an abundance of shucks to make our dolls.  This year is slipping by and we haven’t picked up our husks to make our dolls yet!  Hey kids, get the heck out there in the field with your flashlights and get us shucks!  It’s crafting time!

There’s always someone out there who shows us up…. show-offs!  These are some high level corn husk dolls here!  I’m betting even dear daughter crafter won’t want to tackle these.  They are adorable.  Pinterest is such a wonderful place!!

What are some of your favorite farm-friendly crafts? 

 

Want to start at the beginning? Day 1

Want to follow along and learn more about farming and food? Click on over to 30 Days on a Prairie Farm Series.

 

LiveJournal Tags: 30 days of thankful,corn,kids,crafts

30 Days of Thankfulness on the Family Farm-Day 2

Day 2-Abundance

“Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.” (Psalm 85:12)

As we are coming out of the harvest season here on our farm and I’m am sharing what I am thankful for, I just have to point out the obvious. I’m thankful for our abundant harvest. 

Year and year after year, farmers all over this world plant one little corn kernel that magically turns into 650-750 kernels. 

Let’s multiply for fun:

We plant roughly 36,000 kernels of corn per acre and we get 23,400,000-27,000,000 kernels of corn from harvesting that acre.

 

 

 

To me, though I’ve been a farmer’s wife now for 14 years and have seen 15 or 16 crops years come and go, I am still in awe of that blessing. 

Semi load after semi load of corn is hauled out of the fields at harvest time.    Even on a low-yielding year like this year, it is still astounding that this occurs. Though much care is taken to ensure that the crop has the best conditions we can offer and the best care and protection we can provide, it’s nothing short of a gift from God that we are blessed with such abundance. I for one, am grateful. 

Monsanto (save the sighs) has set forth a general goal for corn producers to produce a national average of 300 bushel of corn per acre by 2030.  This is an attempt to keep up with the pace of our growing world population.  We need to feed this population in some way and agriculturalists all over the world are striving to meet this goal.  Equipment manufacturers are doing their part to produce equipment that reduces compaction and does the job faster and more efficiently.  Seed companies are continually working on seeds that are more resistant to pests, weather and soil conditions and produce higher yields.  Chemical companies are doing their part to produce chemicals that will increase yields and farmers are doing their part by researching and implementing the best practices to be used on their properties’ unique conditions in order to increase yields. 

My Farmer Husband (not FORMER Husband) takes this very seriously.  He feels a real responsibility to do his part in the plight for Food, Fuel and Fiber.    With a passion like that paired with blessings unfolding each year in front of our eyes, how can we not feel thankful to live on a family farm?

 

Want to start at the beginning? Day 1

Want to follow along and learn more about farming and food? Click on over to 30 Days on a Prairie Farm Series.

LiveJournal Tags: 30 days of thankful,corn,harvest

Harvesting Corn 101

Harvest is full swing here in Central Illinois.  It's really pretty early for us to be almost done with harvest, but the seasons came pretty early this year due to the weather conditions this summer.  On some blogs you will read in-depth farming stuff.  Not here baby!  I like to keep it simple and light!

 

This is my brother-in-law in a combine.  That's his fall gig.  The combine is the first step in harvesting the corn and beans.  Here he has on a "corn head."  I love that name.  We also have a "bean head" when cutting the beans, we put that on the combine.  It's the doohicky in the front.  

 

As he goes through the corn, the combine throws the corn into the hopper. Here is the combine getting full.  That space on top there is called the "hopper."  The hopper only holds roughly 300 bushels of corn.  When the hopper gets full he's gotta dump!  (hehe) Call the auger wagon! 

 

Say hi to Aaron!  He is one heckuva auger wagon operator.  That's what he is pulling, not what he is driving!  That big wagon is an auger wagon…get it, a wagon with an auger on it, pulled by a tractor.  I love it when things are called what they are.  The combine dumps into the auger wagon.  The number one goal on our farm is DO NOT MAKE THE COMBINE STOP.  Not for anything, not for anybody. I'm guessing maybe Cory stops to potty though. Hmmm…? Think if I was the combine operator (which will never happen just for the record,) I'd have to have ALOT of gum, a smart phone, some nail polish, a Rubix Cube or SOMETHING, to sit in that seat for all the hours that these guys do!  They are monitoring a lot of stuff from that cab though, which must keep them going hour after hour, day after extremely long 15 hour day. 

 

The combine dumps into the auger wagon "on the go!" Meaning, driving side by side.  Here is another job I never want to do with my husband.  Can you imagine the "coaching"  that would go on on that farm radio? ugh "Too fast," "Slow down," "You're too close," "What are you thinking Monica!"  Ya, not going to volunteer for driving the auger wagon ever!  The job is safely yours Aaron.

 

This is the auger.  Looks like a dinosaur puppet to me.  Must be that 15 years as a speech therapist coming out in me.  The guys would say, it looks like an auger.  The auger dumps into the semi that is usually parked along the road or in the field.

 

I wish you could hear this.  The coolest sound.  It's mesmerizing.  Something about moving grain that's hypnotic almost.  And LOUD!

 

 

 

Pretty neat huh?  If you ever get a chance to watch this process for just 15 minutes you absolutely should.  Climb up on that semi and take a peek.  Do it when the auger wagon is dumping on it.  You won't be sorry.

 

Now it's off to the drying facility or the elevator.  When this semi is full and takes off to dump his load (again, potty humor, really?) another semi that is empty pulls up for the auger wagon to dump into. Again and again and again.  Semi after semi load full. It would be fun to see how many cycles it takes for a 40 acre field.  Maybe I should ask the guys to tally this on a little notepad for 15 hours.  Ya, probably not!  

Happy Fall!

How to Entertain Kids In the Summer et al

Wow, it has been HOT HOT HOT!  I can't even tell you how many 90-100 degree days we have had here and how little rain we have actually had on our home farm.  We farm in several areas around our home farm and some of them have had more rain than others.  However, right here on the home farm it's almost a joke.  Home farm, home farm, home farm.  Ha. My 11 year old daughter said yesterday as she gazed at the dark blue sky to the north, then 30 minutes later, to the east "it's almost like it's trying NOT to rain on us on purpose!"  So true.  Thirteen miles away, my brother -in-law got over an inch on Saturday!  Here....just enough to wet the walk.  

I am sure the hubinizer knows just how much rain we have had here in the last month exactly.  I'm just going to say, it taint much! In the hot sun, in the heat of the day, the field corn will curl a little like in this picture. It's kind of like us squinting our eyes, it just reduces the bright sun's influence.  

I am so positive the farmers reading this would not choose to describe it like this, but hey, it's my blog!  Our corn has been doing a lot of squinting these days.  Sadly, it's been focusing it's efforts on squinting and wiping sweat from it's brow and not putting much energy into growing full, healthy cobs full of juicy kernels.  We shall see, but some of the crop looks a bit iffy to say the least.  

On another matter, no matter the weather, this 1972ish golf cart is our number one go to entertainment around here.  This belonged to my husband's grandparents who used it to tool around their yard and pond.  We inherited it many years ago and it is a staple.  

My advice:  if it's feasible.  BUY ONE OF THESE BABIES FOR YOUR KIDS!  It's fairly slow, you almost can't tear it up (though we have done some damage over the years) and it's cheap to run.  

Just do it.

You'll see a lot of this baby on my blog.  I should name her.