3:00 AM – The men go out and start baling hay but get “dewed out,” meaning too much dew comes in so they stop. Baling needs to be done with just the right amount of dew on the hay. Too much dew causes the bales to get “hot” while in the stack. This causes fires – yes, internal combustion! Not enough moisture and the leaves are too dry causing them to fall off the stems.
5:00 AM – The raking crew starts raking. They typically rake two pivots each day. Each pivot is about 120 acres.
It takes roughly 3 1/2 hours to rake both pivots.
The rakes are opened up in a ‘V’ and driven over two swaths of hay. The swaths are raked to the middle creating a windrow.
6:00 AM – Mr. Ferrero Rocher tries baling again. The dew is just right so the other guys will come to bale too.
8:09 AM – Morning chores are underway at home. Breakfast is placed in the oven to cook.
9:11 AM – I go pick up the raking crew who have moved the rakes to a different section for tomorrow’s work. Each section is a mile square (640 acres). 4 full pivots (120 acres each) and 1 small one can fit on a section.
Meet the raking crew! My girls are the ones still in their PJ’s. Leaves more time to sleep that way. 😀
We drive back to the pivots they just raked so the girls can get the trucks left there and drive home.
9:30 AM – We eat breakfast. The rakers go take showers.
10:13 AM – The boys start hauling hay before it gets too hot. They use loaders that have special fork attachments welded by Mr. Ferrero Rocher to spear the hay and load it onto semi’s.
The semi’s are driven to the stack yard and unloaded. Each pivot has its own stack. And each cutting has its own stack. We typically get four cuttings a years.
1:30 PM – Lunchtime! Only an hour late today. We usually have our family scripture study after lunch. Then it’s rest time for about 1/2 an hour.
2:21 PM – During morning chores I cleaned out under the laundry room sink. We had been given some old cola cans. I use the cola in the wash to help get the grease stains out of Mr. FR’s jeans. The cola has phosphoric acid which helps break up the grease. Wonder what it does to people’s stomachs?
We have way too many so we decide to use the extras for target practice.
Don’t mess with these girls! They are regular Annie Oakleys.
3:25 PM – Special Dark requests cookies. We love these Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies (using whole wheat flour instead of white, then we don’t feel as guilty eating them all)
4:43 PM – Children and cousins are on the hammock (playing like it’s a whaling ship) while I’m inside sewing.
7:05 PM – Dinner is fend for yourself around here. Then evening chores need to be done before 8.
7:45 PM – Bathtime!
8:24 PM – Everyone winds down by watching some of Mr. Ferrero Rocher’s favorite shows – “Hogan’s Heroes.”
9:00 PM – The littles are asleep. The older girls are preparing for bed. And Mr. FR is back out baling again.
© 2007-2010 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
I am exhausted just reading this!!
No kidding! Whew! What a day! So when do you blog?
This reminds me of “younger” days when we only had a couple of acres but I only had a roto tiller, front tined, to do a garden up to 1/2 acre. I also had chickens and goats, had to make my own cheese to not waste milk and my son couldn’t have cow’s cheese. My home canned food filled up about 70 feet of shelves, three quarts deep.
Oh, and I was usually pregnant (we talked about sending my hubby to Alaska to see if that would give me a breather, nothing else worked!)
I think back and wonder how I did it all. What a wimp now. there is a time and a season?
Now I just remodel a HUD house we bought with way more plans than stamina <:-O . . . . .I’d rather be farming again . . sigh . . .
It is real work. It reminds me of the commandment given to Adam and Eve to care for the earth. You are giving your children a very special and precious gift of knowing how to work and to know what work is. What a great blessing!
We want to move where we have little bit more land to have more chores…..
What a full day! Love the target practice pictures:)
And coke?! Someone once told me you could pour it on a spider and the spider would die and that coke can get stains out of concrete. I just looked at them with disbelief and asked, “You know that and you still put it in your stomach??” Yikes!
I live in the country surrounded by farms – and yet this was mostly new to me! Thanks for the lesson! 🙂 And what a talented set of kiddos you have!
PS – thanks for the coke trick – I’ve always wondered how to get grease out!
Oh would my husband love to be out there doing what your family does.:) He tells me on a regular basis that your girls have to be way stronger than our boys because you have shown them how to work. What great parents you are and I love the pictures.
I’m ready for that 1/2 hour rest…just reading this! My kids would like to come over to your place for target practice. Sound good?
What type of wheat do you use? Soft White Wheat? And do you substitute it 100% for the cookies. I only do 50% soft white wheat flour & 50% white flour in my cookies, my husband balks if I use more wheat flour than that. He can tell.
Deirdre, bring ’em over!
Amy, we use hard white wheat. We use 100% in most of our baking – bread, muffins, brownies, cookies, etc.
Thanks for this post. It is interesting for my kiddies to read as I tell them our life (when we get our farm) will be very similar.
I loved the pictures as well.
Oh, I make chocolate chip cookies (and whatever other baking I can get awayw with) with a white, hard red wheat, and bean flour combo. Tastes so good, and makes me feel not as bad feeding them stuff that is ALMOST good for them! 🙂
So fun to have a peak into your life on a “real” farm!
What beautiful scenery! I am very intrigued by your foothills! Would you mind if I asked you what mountain range that is? How blessed you are to live in such a beautiful place!
Annajean,
Some of the mountains you see are part of the Santa Rosa Mountain range in Northern Nevada.
I must say we live in an absolutely beautiful little valley!
Reading this made me feel SO lazy. I’m amazed at all you accomplish in a day. I need to step it up.