It’s 11pm. I should be in bed. I’m exhausted, stressed, and maybe a little bit cranky. The girls all went to bed by 9:30 but Special Dark just barely faded away. He had a late nap. Mr. Ferrero Rocher is out with his brothers baling three pivots of hay. It has to be done when […]
Make hay while the sun shines
How’s your summer break coming along? Ours has been interesting so far. See this? Those are rain clouds. Usually a very rare sight here in Nevada. Usually. We’ve had them everyday for the past two weeks. I love the rain. In Georgia I used to curl up with a good book, a big bag of […]
Wordfull Wednesday: Mothers
“Female Family History Month” was a unit we did about six years ago for school. The oldest girls were showing interest in their grandmothers and great-grandmothers. I called my mother for ideas, sent e-mails to Mr. Ferrero Rocher’s aunt who is the unofficial family historian on the Crook side (nice surname huh?), gathered pictures, typed […]
Off to spend the day with Mr. Ferrero Rocher here and also shopping for this and eating this. The next installment of teaching your children to cook will be posted tomorrow. © 2007-2013 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
Homemade Seed Tapes
Is it spring yet where you live? It seems like spring here but we know that won’t last. Our little valley has an average frost date of June 15th – which means we can’t really plant our garden until June! We actually cheat a little because we use the Square Foot Gardening method. It’s easy […]
M.I.A.
This week has been crazy busy. I haven’t had time to stop for more than a few minutes at a time. And with the time change I’m really feeling run down by the end of each day. It’s a good thing my brother’s coming to visit for the weekend. We could really do with some […]
County Fair and Schoolwork
This last weekend was extremely busy for our family. The months of practicing with, caring for, and learning all about chickens culminated with the 4H Poultry show at our county fair on Saturday. Preparations for the fair itself started on Thursday when all the chickens had to be washed and cleaned. (Thank goodness for a […]
My dear Avi
I’m going against my own plan this week to stay away from blogging because I just have to post this link to the obituary for my grandfather, Avi, who passed away Sunday morning. He was so special to all of us. I have sweet memories of living two houses down from his when I was […]
Meet Lucinda
Cousin E’s new lamb © 2007-2013 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
Hauling Hay
Most big bale farmers around here use bale wagons to pick up their bales in the fields. We do it differently, more efficiently (at least in my opinion). I realized after I watched this that I mumbled a lot so you can’t hear most of what I’m saying. You can hear the important parts though. […]
Big Bad Balers
The boys (I guess I should say men but I got into the habit of saying the boys) do the baling: Mr. Ferrero Rocher, his two brothers, and a brother-in-law. Baling is typically done 1 – 3 days after raking depending on the heat. For this first crop they’d start baling around 3am because of […]
Raking Hay
Alfalfa needs to dry properly in order to make good hay. If it’s left in a swath then only the top layer can cure. Depending on how hot it is the hay is raked 1 – 4 days after it is swathed. Ideally it is raked when there is the right amount of dew. If […]
Swathing Hay
I think my children’s favorite part of haying season is the swathing. They get to spend hours on end riding with dad in the mower just spending time talking to him. It’s also fun to watch the hay get mowed. The smell is is even better than freshly mowed grass. This first clip is of […]
Farm Week Begins!
I used to think farmers weren’t very smart. I even admitted this to Mr. Ferrero Rocher the first year we were married. I also acknowledged I was very wrong and naive. I had no idea all the things one needed to know to raise a good crop. Most of the things Mr. Ferrero Rocher, his […]
Coming up for air
I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a couple more hectic days left for the first cutting of the season. The girls have one more day of raking while the men have a few more days of baling left. I’ve taken some video of the whole operation and hope I […]