There’s No Place Like Home

[dominiquer60]

I am done with work for the night and I am all packed up and ready to catch a flight north. I am really looking forward to being home, although I will be dogless which is a good and bad thing, I know my landlady will take good care of him. I can’t wait to tackle the greenhouse tomorrow morning. Dale has spend days cleaning, disinfecting and organizing the mess we left from last year. I will be seeding leeks, shallots, onions, lettuce, chard, kale, early tomatoes and peppers at the very least. My calves await a few good workouts in the snow or at least go for a good long walk down the road. The only social plans are a visit to father’s house where he just received 50″, and Sunday night is popcorn night at home. To some it may sound funny but I think a lot of you may understand when I say this, I hope that this is may last winter in Florida, I just want to stay home and farm. I may make money here, but I aim to making a living at home.

Erika

[mother katherine]

welcome back north. I’m sure the calves will be glad to see you and get back to work.
oxnun

[dominiquer60]

Thanks oxnun,

I took the calves out sunday evening after turning them out in the barn yard for a bit of sparing with the other calves. I can’t believe how much they have grow in 7 weeks, I need to look into a piece of wood for a 6″ as soon as I return home for the spring for good. I may have to cheat and make a run to Berry Brook if I can’t find a dry enough piece of wood.

Anyway I got the calves out, watered, brushed and yoked. The steer was fast and the hiefer was rank. I didn’t hitch to anything but took them for a good long walk in the snow and was rather assertive with them. They came back to working mode in a little while,but still had a lot of energy. Yesterday I hitched to a good sized tire and they drug the drive way and road for a good while. their education came back to them and they really started to listen to my commands again. They still have some habits that bother me, but I blame them a lot on being older when I started working them and the way that they are kept with the beef herd in the barn has a bad influence on them as well. Considering the circumstances I am happy with what I have accomplished and with how they go. I will do things differently when these two are sold and I get a pair of dairy steers of my own.

I will take them out today after I get the greenhouse going and start a good 50 flats of onions, leeks, shallots and lettuce, what a great day to work out there.

Glad to be home if only for a few days,

Erika

[jen judkins]

Happy Birthday, Erika! Happy planting…nice thing to be doing this time of year!

[dominiquer60]

Thanks Jenn!

On 3/3 my co-worker called to tell me that there was not nearly enough work for 2 people to share for the coming weekend. Either I could extend my trip if the price was not too steep or fly back to FL and give her the weekend off, the choice was mine. Well for $125 I could stay home for an extra 5 nights and 4 days, the trip home was a gift anyway and there was only one choice as far as the gifter was concerned. So I just got back from home this morning, what a great trip home.

I worked the calves everyday and got them back to where I left them 7 seven weeks ago in a day or two. We did a little conditioning work even though they won’t do any more for the next month. In college we had the only school owned 1/2 mile harness training track, the conditioning battle cry drilled into my head was LSD, Long Slow Distances. So the calves and I would go for long walks down the dirt road with a big truck tire in tow. We did 2/3 to a mile everyday, then leave the tire by the barn and go back out for some fine tuning with commands. The steer especially just wants to go back to the barn so I always make sure that we go by the barn a couple extra times before we are done with our lessons, it is hard though because they are so herd bound with the others in the barn.

I managed to seed everything that I could in the greenhouse and of course they all pop up today now that I am not there to see, but I guess my germination rate looks good so I am happy to have not lost my touch.

Once I was certain that I had a few more days at home I tore apart my syracuse walking plow and cleaned and painted it. I know they were originally red, but I had blue and a little gold paint on hand so that is what color the plow is now. I finally found a handle source and may even be blessed with a spare point, fingers are crossed.

Erika

[Carl Russell]

Nice paint job. I know what you can do the next time you visit:D:D:D

Carl

[dominiquer60]

Thanks I really miss art class:) Really though, I just wanted to show of the details in the beautiful metal work. You don’t find such details in most anything these days, so I thought a little sunshine yellow would do it justice in this sense. Perhaps Bazel could help paint next time I visit, I can just picture the trouble we could get into with oil based enamel 😉

[Marshall]

I unterstand where you are coming from. To me there is more to life than money as long as the bills are paid. Unfortunatly I have to work evry other saturday. I would love to get out of it if I could but that won’t happen until I can farm and grow produce full time. Then I can work seven days a week and make less money. Then, I would be doing something I like.

[dominiquer60]

The Everglades are taking back the land that civilization stole from it. some of my neighbors here in FL had small ponds in their backyards, now they have homes in the middle of their big pond. All the rain that we have had, are currently receiving and will receive, has returned the land to swamp. It looked more like the camargue this morning at the horse show, with horses running on water. I plan on wearing sandals to wade to my truck, and then change into my shoes at work. There is so little high ground that even the dog had a hard time finding a place to do his business. At least the dirt roads are passable here in “rural south FL,” (a complete oxymoron).

Erika

[jac]

26/3/10… Just returned from a working trip to London.. What an eye opener that was.. Concrete jungle and so many people !!!! For a country dweller it was a culture shock. Driving to the hotel we passed endless fast food outlets..eg KFC or as I tell Caitlyn “Krappy Food Company”:D and in between them were small market traders selling fresh fruit and veg !!! nobody seemed to know anyone, then we rounded a corner and were met with the sight of 2 donkys in a small field:rolleyes: They had a 4 lane road on one side, a dissused industrial site on the other. Further on and a 10 acre field had been turned into small veg gardens by lots of people. That single sight made me smile.. It was like a ray of hope in all the madness.. Home now and Caitlyn and me are going sheep hunting tomorrow.
John

[Marshall]

I really like the “Krappy Food Company”. That says it all about their mushy mac and cheese.

[dominiquer60]

I changed my oil today, cleaned out the back of my truck and did a little packing. I have my last work week in Florida ahead of me. Although this state has been good to my savings account, I want to be where I belong next year, at home.

I am excited to make a stop in Virginia to see some friends and possibly learn some new skills while I am at it. I am not sure when I will leave VA, but it would be nice to be home by Sunday to relieve Dale of his farmers market so he can stay home and work on things that he would rather be doing on a Sunday.

I’ll be sure to listen to “Homeward Bound” when I leave early Monday morning.

[dominiquer60]

12 hours until my departure for Virginia and then on north to NY, just me, the dog, the truck and the open road. The 4 ant bites that I just received may take away from my remaining hours, so just in case I don’t get the time later. I wanted to wish you all a good rest of the year and hope we meet up at one of this years draft events some time. I enjoy my winter DAP days and wireless bliss, but hopefully this is it for my Florida work and chances are highly probable that I will spend next winter where the freezing winds blow and the cattle are friendly.

My best to you all,

Erika

[dominiquer60]

Sooooooo very nice to be home with my hands in the dirt and my head on my own pillow. I have been finding odd jobs for the calves, today Dale even came up with one. We hand sowed annual rye between rows of biodegradable film mulch, then the calves dragged a tire between the beds to work in the seed, Dale followed with hairy vetch in the Planet Jr. There was a bit of rubbernecking as we were working in the field next to the paved county road. They did well, but there are a few new holes poked in the film, nothing the deer won’t do soon if we don’t get a fence up ASAP.

I was riding with the lime truck driver yesterday and found out that the guys father has a pair of red milking shorthorn bull calves that he may be willing to part with, I hope it pans out.

Erika

[dominiquer60]

My poultry school event was a huge success with 98 attending, poultry husbandry is here to stay.

Dale actually came up with a chore for the calves, I think he has accepted the fact that they are getting integrated into the system. We sowed annual rye between rows of biotello film mulch and I used the calves to pull a tire and work in the seed. The results looked good with few holes in the mulch.

Thursday I was riding in the lime truck and discovered that an old classmate of Dale’s raises Milking Shorthorns, and that they happen to have 3 bull calves that have been born in the last 2 weeks. They keep all calves to raise on the farm. We are going to have a look on Wednesday morning, my fingers are crossed.

Erika

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