Tangle Tree Ranch

If you do not like the weather, just wait 20 minutes, and it will change. That is the saying for our weather here in North Dakota. It changes, fast and some what unpredictable. Yesterday morning, I got too hot while I was harvesting. Today I needed lots more clothes. I was cold while I cut flowers. We have frost warning for tomorrow night. We have baled, harvested, delivered CSA orders, moved some cows and made supper.

Our CSA orders today had the following products: bouquet of sunflowers or Bells of Ireland with zinnias, beans, tomatoes, summer squash, egg or eggplant. I just hope we can keep the frost off our produce. There are so many flowers on every plant, it is unbelievable. We have for the first time some really nice size melons, but I think they need a week or more before the are ripe.

Our days fly by fast, but I guess it does that when you are having fun.

A birthday girl in the house, so phone calls from near and fare to the little one. We will celebrate her next weekend. It just does not seam right to us, to celebrate her, when so many others are remembering their lost ones. Out of respect for those who lost their life to others hate.

Still 6 years ago the weather was nice, like today, maybe not so warm. Bob reminded me how hard I squeezed his hand during my labor pain. So his fingers where blue.

We harvested some of the vegetables for tomorrows deliveries. I got too warm as I picked beans, so I need help to get back in the house. Not funny, but it has happened to me before, so I should have listen to my body. But I just wanted to finish.

We have frost warning for Tuesday and Wednesday night, so we are making a game plan. Drizzle hay over ground plants, like beans, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and so on. Put frost blankets on flowers and rhubarb. Yes, our rhubarb is still nice and tender. If you harvest from the first shoots, and always take out the think ones, you will have rhubarb to enjoy all summer and fall. Never let is set flower bud, unless you plan to harvest seeds!!!

We baled hay again, picked 60 square bales up, and on a trailer, and have fun doing it. Not bad for a Sunday in the North.

It was not four in the morning, just 7:30am when we got up, so we kind of slept in. Breakfast for 2, no 3. Mathea woke up too. She likes to have her whole family together for the weekend meals. I still due both at home here and in Norway. 

Did you know that it takes forever to due short errands in Devils Lake???  It only took us 41/2 hours to due our errands. We needed a part for the oil splitter on the JD3010, so we stopped at 2 stores, and I alone hit the two last ones. But no luck. So the guys at JD in town found some "will work solution" for us. For once it was cheap, just $75, not bad. But Brad and Bob kept the old one on, and they can make it work, but I can not. So maybe I will continue this break from baling???? Brad came out with 2 of his children tonight, and baled for 2 to 3 hours. Mathea had friends to play with, while I cleaned our Quonset. This was so nice, both for her and me.

Our Quonset is like our  dumping ground, so all odds and ends, end up there. We collect used lumber and pallets from different businesses in Devils Lake. We use the crap lumber in our wood stoves, and the good stuff we save. I want to build a cord wood and straw building, by using just recycled lumber. Our neighbors do think we are a bit off plum, but we make them talk. So who do really worry about them and their farm practices???Actually we all should worry. First you spray with Round Up to kill weeds in wheat fields, they you spray Round Up to kill the wheat, so you can straight combine it. Just a lot of Rounding Up in some farmers lives. OR????????

Other than this we are just good old farmers, and we did chores, weeded, watered, baled hay, cut hay and fed hay. We kind of like to keep the circle full here, so we do it all.

Well, we are not kidding, no not having small goat babies', but joking. It was 4am when Bob and I was done with our chasing ....%*§ cows and ponies. Actually it was 4:30am. Bob went to bed at 5am, and was out of bed again at 9am. The sheriff's dept called about our.§#%&....ponies at 9.15am. Short night!!!!!! I am not so sure that our pony stud will stay a stallion for too long. He is becoming a problem child, this is due to the mares in his group is breed, and the big once are not. They will not be breed either. Not as long as I have a say!!!

So we called it a night at 9pm. Just an ordinary day, short, nothing to it. I have had the day off, due to United Tribes Pow Wow in Bismarck. But it seems that the days off are longer that the days at work. I never understood what my Dad meant, when he said after a short weekend at home on the farm, that it was going to be nice to get back to work. But now I understand, trust me!!! That is why this year is going to be my last at Four Wings High School. I am going to quit a job I like, to do what I love. I am very fortunate to enjoy my work, but it is time that our farm get first priority.

The lack of time at home here is, why the haying has drag out so bad. But this is the last year.  Bob is reading my Norwegian Country Living, so I have to translate, my brain is "fuzzed" confused, but it is nothing that SOS by ABBA can not fix. He is looking at receipt for our CSA, good man.

Brad came to help tonight. He is my husbands best friend, they go back 40 years, so they know each other. He baled for me, so I could go and work in the garden. The baler broke down, but still, it was nice to come and help us. He works for a big farmer, but right now he has a few days off.

Our cucumbers are blooming, lots of flowers, so we will get cucumbers. The garden is doing well, but we do not need any frost, yet. The long term forecast do not show any frost danger for the next 30 days. So there is hope.

There is always hope in a hanging fish line, and farming is kind of like fishing. You cast out, or seed, hope something bites on, grows, so you can harvest, or reel in the fish. Just as long as you are prepared for the harvest.

Our land comes out of CRP in 2012, so we are planing to seed grain crop in 2013. Organic of course. So we are planing to cast out a bit troller net. You know the big fishing boat net, that catches lots of fish. But there is many days between now and March of 2013. That is when we must make our selection of seed to grow in large scale.

Tomorrow is a new day, more things can break, and I got oil under my finger nails. Try to get rid of that!!!

We are still baling, and will be for a while. Like a fellow cattle farmer said, you are never done with baling, it just takes a brake during winter.I agree. We will be done with one field tomorrow, and then we will cut another.

You remember our man hunting bull, well I think he is out of his pen. I AM NOT using flash light to find him. I might see flashing stars if I did so. Since he wants to take us down. But he will taste soooooo good. Yes, on Tuesday he will be butchered. He is dangerous, and needs to go, before one of us, or  one of you gets hurt. A mean bull is NOT to fool around with. He would not back off, like the cow did when she took me down, he will continue until what he is charging at, is lifeless.  Many a man has met his maker this way. Bobs father had an BAD experience with bulls, so we will not take any chances.

Horses have got water, the dogs are turned loose, and I am ready for bed. Yes, we let our guard dogs roam at night, the coyotes will not move to close with them roaming. That is the whole idea with guard dogs.

Tomorrow is a new day, Finally Friday, and I hope we will have two Motors Running.  Not just one like the song has. Bob struggles to start Chads tractor, so there for 2 motors should run. One on my tractor and one on Bobs. I will let you know how thing went for us, probably around this time tomorrow night. No, I am not an night owl, it is just that we work while we have day light. So it is light until 9pm, that is when we head home from the field. 

Mathea saw fog develop as we drove home tonight, so she knows how fog is made. Not bad for a 6 year old!!!

PS cattle have been sold more than once, to bale people out of jail.

Catch you later.

Marte

Since I like cats, and we live on a farm, we have a few. Just 5 adults and 8 kittens. Some of the kittens are new born, and 3 of the is in the rascal stage. You know around 10 weeks, so they play and play.

My first cat here in the US was Tuffy. She is 10 years old, and the queen of the house. She is a calico, and has the personality to match. Her fur is long and well groomed. We got a "hand me down" neutered male this spring. He is orange, and Tuffy hates him. He could care less. So here they are, one on each side of me, Tuffy growling, spiting and tries her best to make him move. Well, he just lies there, grooms himself, and blocks the door way. Smart cat, or........

Chad and I baled hay, we might get done sometime???? I am not tired of it, just tired of old broke down tractors.  But I guess that is what we can afford, so I might as well just be happy we have one or two.  Let us hope this weather continues for another week.

We are planing a fencing party on the 17th, so if you would like to come and help build the fence, let me know. You can come for a few hours, or the whole day. We will start at 9am. Lunch, snacks, coffee and so on will be provided. This will be a fun event for the whole family. It do not matter if you never have done this type of work, we will show you how, and we will work together or in teams. Children can play, do small tasks, and look for animals, like deer, goats and so on. I got to go out and turn of the water hose for the horses. They are not on the automatic waters, but they will be soon.

When Mathea and I came home from school, we saw a dust cloud by our farm. The neighbors where com-binding. So we drow over to look. Several of the surrounding farmers have pulled together, so there was 6 threshing machines going at once. That is something to see. 

Our closest neighbors finished their wheat, it ran around 40 bushel an acre. Not good, nor bad.  Wind and rain during pollination might be the reason for such average yields. Just like with our corn, bad weather during pollination, and no crop, or low yields. 

We picked up the last of the square bales, and feed the horses. So we did not do to much after work today.

No, not that bad. It is just that I have a gazilion songs stored in my brain, and they do come out now and then. So since it is Monday, it seams right to use Manic Monday.

Bob and I were up before the sun, just to go shopping. For those of you who know me, this was the first time for this. We had an earned in  Grand Forks, and wanted to get it done, fast. So we were back here at 1pm. Not bad.

Mathea spent the weekend with our friends, and she had a good time, Thank you to everybody who make our girl part of their family.

We had deliveries today, not many came, but they will get more next Monday. Do not sweat the small stuff, life is to short for that.

Weather is good, but too cold at night. We still have not finished our endless haying, but we will. The tomatoes will not ripen when the temperature goes below 50F or above 80F. So we will have vine ripen tomatoes.

Life is good, and I can not pronounce west or vest correct. I have gotten used to this.

Both wine and vine is necessary on a farm.

Our once so nice and gentle bull, is no longer that. He is a BULL. His breed is know to get a bit though as they get older, and he became that. Bob has chased him by hollering and screaming, I have made him back up for 300 yards, and he tried to intimidate me. So we knew, we better not turn our back on him. An interesting way of life, but so is farming. But Bruno, as his name is, got out this morning. I was not going to chase him back in, nor was Bob. So we left for our doings in Devils Lake. Bruno was resting in the yard when we came back, good bull.

But now comes the fun, he needed to breed the cows, who calved a few weeks back, so either we moved them or Bruno. For some reason I felt like we had a two headed snake in our lap, so no mater what we would do, we could get hurt. But I, as a smart Norwegian woman, remembered that Bruno used to come when I called his name, and I shook a bucket of corn. I said let us move Bruno in with the cows. Bob looked at me, and, well I am not sure what he thought. But I reassured him that I would be safe. He explained to me, in great detail, how to hurtle a fence and get on the roof of the barn. So I felt safe. I got my bright yellow bucket, filled it with some corn, picked up a 2by2 piece of lumber, and off I went. Bruno, Bruno, kom her gutt, ( All our animals do understand Norwegian, so that is how I call him) and of course he came. Nice and slow, just like I hoped. I like it when a great plan comes together, don't you???

So Bruno follows me, as I am BACKING UP on the way to his new pen. He stops by Bob, so here comes the LOUD SCREAMING North Dakota man to his glory. The bull moves in to his new pen, we are unhurt, breathing normally and life on the farm is never laid back.

Other than this uneventful event, we have so far had a laid back Labor day weekend. Just rested, enjoyed life, weeded garden, made plans for next year, drawn out our new shop, planed a fencing party, eaten good food and done regular chores.

Do you remember: " Honey, Honey" By Abba???

Well, I grew up with it, and poor Bob got to listen to it tonight for the first time. But, I bet you wonder the connection between ABBA , our farm and honey. We have bees on our land, and we get honey as payment. There you are, it was simple. Now I WANT extra speakers on the trucks, so I can dance as I load bales, in cut off shorts and a sports bra. Quite the sight, it is a normal thing in Norway, so get with it, is my attitude. The neighbors do not slow down any more, so they have gotten used to it. The first years on the other hand, well, I bet it was the talk of the elevator.

Here comes "Dancing Queen" over the speakers, and I can see Mathea and I out in the fields, just having a blast. Who said farming have to be boring???

All our animals got hay tonight. Bob has the night off, due to Labor Day. You do know that the rest of the world celebrate this May 1st??? So I am used to working in the fields this day. You make hay while the sun shines!!!

Mama Mia, here we go again, with plans for haying. I am sure you are tiered to hear about it, but we have a few acres of this crop, and more we will have from 2013.  Sorry, but it is hard to write in English/ American, listen to Swedish music from my Norwegian child hood. It is fuzing.  So "Take A Chance On ME"

Thank you for your time.

Marte, with scribe Bob in the back ground.

Let us hope this day set the tune for how this fall will be, nice, windy and warm. Our tomato plants are full of green tomatoes. I have never seen any thing like this. So if we can harvest all of them, we will have a good crop of different tomatoes. 

The pepper on the other hand, well that is a sad chapter. Big nice plants and 1 small pepper per plant. Not so up lifting, but we can  not have it all. 

Beans are still blooming, so is the cucumbers. They are just full of flowers. I need to find one of our cameras, so I can show off some of this blooming.  Our scarlet runner beans are also still covered with red flower. I think I will grow some of them down by the road next year. We are thinking about tilling up along our fence to the road and plant giant sun flower and scarlet runner beans. This will we think, frame in the property, and might stop some of the spray drift.

Spray drift is one of our constant worries. It seams that our neighbors are using more and more chemicals in their farming operation. They do no longer look at the wind direction, or wind speed, so we are often concerned of this. We have tried to informed them of our organic status, but they do not seam too worried if we get some drift on our land. That is why we place the garden where it is, so it is protected against spray drifts. I know we have rights as organic farmers, and we have a lawyer assisting us with this spray issue. 

Mu husband grew up here, but he says the farming community have changed. Maybe 10,000 acres for one farm operation is too much????

I just know that bigger is not always better.

Tomorrow is a new day, with new challenges. What will break, which animals are trying to get their freedom and so on. Never a dull moment at our place.

PS, no animals got out today, so Bob got some rest. Well, except for 4 small, cute, friendly young goats, that have a smart way of getting out. We CAN NOT find out where, so they are left alone. 

6:38am, help I over slept, I forgot to turn the alarm clock on. Looking out the window, as I am getting out of bed, there is some of our horses on the wrong side of the fence. Hay, Bob the horses are out. 

He gets up, dressed in a hurry, he has all the clothes on that he needs, he run to the pick up and leaves. I am helping our child, as I am getting dressed, multy tasking, a moms specialty. Then I hear the horn on the pick up, I am running out, half dressed, and try to help. All the horses is running in front of the truck, straight to the gate. Bob gets out, opens the gate in they go. He has a smile on, normally he would be mad, but he smiles. "I got them trained", he says. As soon as the lead mare heard the pick up started in the yard, she headed home. She knew her freedom was limited, so she must have learned.

Then about 1 hour later Bob wakes up by our guard dogs barking like crazy. The horses are down by the fence, and he gets up, yes out of the chair where he was napping, and walks out.  He gets down there and out bull is out. Now Bob is MAD, he chases the bull, by screaming and waving his hands. The bull have tried to take us out, so this is not a smart thing to do, home alone, no cell phone. But it went fine. No more rest for Bob, just 3 hours of sleep. If any animals gets out tomorrow, well they are on their own. I do not think Bob will  have a smile on then. I can not blame him. But as he told me the story, he said: "Life on the farm is never laid back".

I do not need a pickup, I have my trusty old whit/mud colored mini van, and I haul hay, goats, sheep, produce, guard dogs, feed and more farm stuff.  But I am sure that any farmer with respect for her self would not think twice about using her fuel efficient mini van for all the farm hauling needs. 

HA; HA, good joke, but I use my van for alot of things, even dirty job, that most neighbors would use their fancy pickups for. Or maybe they would not??? As long as it is traffic safe, and I will not get stucked, why not. I have to use a log book to claim the miles driven for farm use, so I know where I have been.

Tonight I went out in the hayfield, and got some small balles for our renagade cow herd. The Hudinis of our farm, they will crawl, jump or stomp thru, down or under most types of fence. So that is why they are in the permant pen with cattle panel fence. They have not be able to get out of there, yet.....

Our peacocks have started to talk in the mornings. Our daughter and I enjoy their calls as we get ready for school. We are up before the sun, too early for a small child. But I guess it is life, but I do not enjoy waking her up at 6am.  I do belive this is my last year working 2 jobs. We are planing for me to stay at the farm full time from next summer. If we do not plan, well we can not see if we can make it work. Money and healt insurance are the only 2 opsticals. One of them more than the other. The price of healt insurance, well

PS the spell check is absent, so I am sorry for any spelling errors. I am a Norske, with dyslecsia, blond and a woman. So it is sometimes a good mix, well other time, not.

Take care, eat good food, grown in good soil, by good people.

Life is good when you get sunburned in late August. I picked beans, and the rest you know. I will learn, sometime......

Mathea did not feel good yesterday, so she did not help alot, but she sure likes the delivery day. I am not sure if it is the books we read, the pit stop at the park to play, or the chatting with our customers. But she looks forward to deliveries.

  Our butcher chickens are growing, and we need to stat to butcher. But the hay needs to get finished. The price of hay in the South right now, is out of this world. $150 for what we sell for $30. So if someone reads this and know some one..... email me.  I would not have any animals at that hay price. Well except for my trusted gelding, form Norway.

Leo, our Boer goat buck, he enjoys his freedom in the yard. He is my living yard ornament that mow the weeds for his keep. I can not keep him in, so I just ignore him. Hard to do when he wants to get petted.

We hauled our broke tractor to Ada, MN last night. They could fix it faster than around here. This is due to gaps in harvest times. So we might get it back in a week, after about $3,500 spent. It is just money, but we need it fixed.

Thank you to all of you who reads our blogg.

Marte

Well, what is normal when you have a child, goats, cats, dogs, sheep and so on.

Bob delivered some small square bales of hay, I picked some beans. Bob and Mathea over hauled the breaks on the pick up, put goats back in x3, that do get old after a while. But they are cute when they comes in the yeard.

I am still a bit marked by Thursday night trip to the ER. I easily catch a virus that attacks the sack around my lungs, and it hurts when it hits.  I can be fine, and the next minute I can not  breath and I am turning in agony by the pain. It is like somebody pushes a knife in under your shoulder blade and twist it. But a few shots, a good night sleep and lots of fluid usually helps on it. 

Our garden produce is enormous, but it just will not ripen. In about 20 days the first frost will hit. We better have a plan to save it. So we are preparing, straw bale for smoke screen, and frost blankets. We need to get some sand bags filled to weigh down the blankets, so I will add it to the list.

Our big tractor needs a major over haul, so we are going to haul it to Ada Minnesota. That is the nearest MF dealer, just fun and a price quote of $3,500.  Not bad........

Life on a small family farm in North Dakota.

PS our chickens are growing, so things are not all that bad, really, haying is coming along, we are well and tomorrow is Sunday.