sTuPiD cOwS

Good grief it's been a while. I think I was doing a better job at posting when we were in the corn field than I am now that we have all the corn planted.  I thought things would slow down once we got the corn planted, but to be honest we have been goin' like crazy working cattle.

And the days we aren't working cattle we have been going like crazy trying to catch up on everything else...

For me that means laundry and cleaning the house, which involved cleaning the spare bedroom / soon to be baby room so my parents would have a place to sleep. I soo meant to take a picture of it cause well it was a disaster you couldn't see the bed or the floor...

and the sad thing is no one sleeps in there now...yikes!

Throw in Easter with all the family get together's that go along with it and well lets just say its been crazy and I can only imagine what it will be like next year when there is a little one to throw in the mix.

Anyways enough about all that lets get back to why we are here...

sTUPID cOWS...

Yeah, we've got them.

Now we see this a lot...

You will get some crazy cow or calf that will shoot it's leg out the side of the shoot.

It's annoying, but they will usually get it back in without a problem.

This also will happen once or twice when we are working...

Some ol' pushy broad will get a little too excited about getting her yearly check up and will try to cut in line.

It usually doesn't work too well.

No one gets  hurt just the lady in front gets to lay down for a nap...

I'd join her if I could!

Now the next two sets are are ones that the title were really made for...

Yes this stupid girl some how managed to get herself caught like this...

We will get an occasional calf that will stick it's head through the fence but generally we don't get a dumb cow to do it...

and epically not one that's dumb enough to stick half her legs through it as well...

Luckily we were able to get her out and back up...

even if she is now headed the wrong way...

Oh well that's easily fixed!

And then there was this stupid guy...

Not Jeff, he's far from stupid...

I'm talking about that stupid calf.

I kinda feel sorry for her cause you know everyone is gonna be calling her fat cause she couldn't make it through and got stuck.

Options of how to get her out...

I think the first thing that came to mind was there's a tree so lets get the chainsaw...

ummm...

I think as soon as that idea came out it was realized how bad an idea that would be.

Crazy calf + loud chainsaw with a 16 in sharp blade = a lot of blood, a dead calf , and a seriously injured farmer....

hmmm...not a good idea

So...

Lets hook a chain to the tree and...

Ratchet it back away from the calf.

Much better idea.

*No cattle or farmers were injured in the taking of these pictures!

*Also that tree was removed before we worked any more cattle in that pen!

Well that's all I got one stupid cows for now, but I am off to work another group, so I am sure we will get a few today!

Lots of Love,

JP

Let's Talk Tatters - A Gardening Lesson

OK, to be honest, I was suppose to do this post about a month ago, but life happens and well I haven't really been at my computer all that much. We have been in the corn field and I have been outside trying to get things done. So when I am home and inside it usually means I am trying to catch up on all the house work that needs done and when I get some time where I don't have anything special to do I just want to sit down, relax and eat or sleep!!

Anyways, back to what I'm gonna talk to ya'll about today, potatoes...

or as we call them around here tatters.

Potatoes are probably one of the easiest things to grow in the garden in my opinion. I always helped my mom plant them in here garden growing up and I plant them in mine every year. 

Now it's said that you are suppose to plant potatoes on St. Patties Day, and if you look at your calender you will notice that was over a month ago, but don't worry cause there is still plenty of time to plant them. My Grandpa always says to plant them on Good Friday, because the moon is in the right phase for it and Good Friday is tomorrow so you still have time.

The first year I planted potatoes after Caleb and I got married I didn't get them planted till some time in May and they would have produced great if I hadn't gotten Brown Spot...but we will talk about that more later. Last year it was some time in April before I got my tatters in the ground and the they did amazing so really as long as you plant them sometime here in the spring they should do fine.

Ok now lets talk about what type of potatoes to plant....

Whatever you like.

There are all different types out there it really just has to do with what you want.

I am not a russet fan. They are ok when it comes to baked potatoes and fries but outside of that I just don't like their flavor and consistency, so I don't plant them. I do however love Red Potatoes so that is what my garden is full of.

These are the variety I planted last year and I loved them!! I also planted some yellow potatoes, but luckily not very many, cause their flavor was not near as good.

I ended up planting planting 12 or 15 lbs, I can't remember if I had 4 or 5 bags. This was enough for about 1 2/3 a row. and my rows are about 50 ft long or so.

I bought these at Wal-Mart, but seed potatoes can also be found at Farm and Home stores, as well as ACE, or a local green house, or any place that sells a lot of vegetable seeds. You can also buy them from online retailers.

Or, if you are like me you will sometimes get potatoes in your pantry that look like these guys you can use them, if you still have them in there come spring time. This makes less that you will need to buy. That's right I plant these nasty looking things and they will make yummy delicious potatoes.

To be honest, I am pretty sure that these guys are some of the ones that I dug up last year and we weren't able to get to them before they ended up getting all wrinkled and shriveled. So I just left them where they were and luckily they didn't rot. Instead they started to sprout and were more than ready to go in the ground!

Ok Lets get to planting. First I will till through the area I am going to plant my tatters and whatever else I am gonna plant on that day.

Then I will take hoe and dig a trench the length of the row.

Now lets plant some tatters. First you need to go through and slice your potatoes up. You want to make sure there is at least one eye or little sprout one each section you slice. I usually only cut the potato in half once unless there is a ton of sprouts all over the place, then I might cut it up a little more.

Now, I was watching a show about gardening that was talking about planting potatoes and it said not to cut them because you increase your chance of the potato rotting....

blah blah blah...

I have been helping my momma slice potatoes for planting since forever and we have never had a problem with the potato rotting and shoot my mom grows more potatoes than about anything. (She's married to a farmer and well that and meat is all my dad wants to eat!)

I do remember that my mom would usually slice the potatoes into their pars and then let them set for about 5 minutes or so, that way they could scab over a little and prevent them from rotting. So really you should cut your tatters before you dig your trench so they have some time to scab over. I always for get this until I am slicing the tatter so they usually don't get much time and this hasn't affected them at all. 

When you place them in the trench you will want to place the cut side down, cause this is the side where the root will come from.

Now when it came to planting these wrinkly things I just sat the whole potato in there cause they were all really small and i had a lot of them. 

If you notice, I don't have "auto-steer" on my hoe so my rows aren't very strait. Oh well strait rows don't make the food taste any better!

Once you have all your tatters stuck down in your trench just take you hoe and cover them up with all the dirt you removed to make the trench.

 

After I have gotten them covered I will take the back side of my hoe and pack the soil down tight on top of my tatter, so they have a firm bed to come up in and so I can tell where my row is.

Now you just have to watch them grow.

Now I mentioned that I had a problem with a fungus called Brown Spot...

I originally thought it was blight, but after doing some research, I found out other wise.

Here a couple of pics I found on the web of both brown spot and blight

Brown Spot



Blight

I have not had blight, so I don't know how easy it is to control but as for the Brown Spot that I have gotten it was very simple. I got a bottle of Bonide Fung-onil Multi-purpose Fungicide, and just mixed it according to what the label said and then sprayed according to the recommendations and it took care of it. This stuff also is suppose to work on blight as well. There are other fungicides out there this is just the brand I got.

I told you that I lost so tatters to this, well that was because I wasn't paying attention to them and I didn't get them sprayed until it was too late.

The problem will appear when you have wet or humid growing conditions. So I will have to keep a look out for it here over the next few weeks because it's suppose to be wet.

If you happen to get a bug problem just dust them with a little Sevin powder and that usually does the trick.

As you can see I am not a "All Natural" or "All Organic" person. I use products that have been around for a log time and I just them according to what the label says so I have no fear of them. Now I don't just throw different chemicals on my vegetables just for the fun of it I do it only when it is need. How do you know when it is need?? Get out there in the garden and look at your plants, they will tell you.

Here's what my tatters looked like after being in the ground for about three weeks. Two weeks after I planted the first row I planted a second row that was just starting to pop out of the ground when I took these pics.  It will usually take about a week before you will start seeing some break through the ground.

Alright that's what I know about tatters if you have any questions feel free to ask in the comments or shoot me an e-mail

jphillipsblog@hotmail.com

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Later Tatters,

Janet



A Change of Plans - It Happens All the Time on the Farm

So this morning I was working on a blog talking about how I had the morning at home and how I was getting all caught up on my house work...

Then I got the call...

"Can you come to the field and..."

This meant I was gone and wouldnt be returning home till who knows when.

So now I'm sitting at the field waiting for Calvin to empty the anhydrous tank he is pulling and I thought I would write a quick post from my phone.

If this works like it should there will be some pics on here too.

One of them is a picture of a mud hole I created. If you are friends with me on facebook or follow me on twitter you might have seen this pic already.

I was doing a little field work and Caleb failed to mention the places I should not drive. This meant that I almost got stuck three times in one field...not fun!!

I have also found some delicious morrel mushrooms...only two so far, but I hope there is more to come!!

And the only other pic I have on here is of this "cute" little guy I came across while looking for mushrooms. He was out for a nice little stroll in the sun. After he caught wind of me and took off he scared up another little snake as well as a little lizard. I usually run across all sorts of different critters when looking for mushrooms. So far I have seen 4 snakes, 2 deer, more squirrels and rabbits than I could count and almost steeped on one quail...

(Oh and a cooler with 8 16oz Bud Lites in it with a box that had 5 more 12 oz cans - 3 Bud Lites and 2 Natty Lites....some one's party must have gotten cut short...lol)

Well that's about it for the time being. I'm gonna see about getting the guys their supper for tonight. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to finish the post I started this morning. It has better pics than this one.

Lots of Love from the corn field,

Janet

Things on My Mind - A List

1. We are in the corn field, which means we will be having long crazy days.

You know the saying "Early to be and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."

Well here's what I feel like: "Early to rise and late to bed, makes a man feel like he's dead!"

2. I bought a huge bag of gummy bears at Orschlyns (a farm and home store for those that don't have one) and I just bit the head off a yellow bear and boy was it good!

3. I should have posted more last week but I was reading a book...

4. When I start reading a book I don't want to put it down and I don't get anything done. I'm also a very slow reader. Both are good reasons why I don't read that much!

5. Every time I go out side Jasper (the jack russell) thinks he needs to go and attack the skunk he killed last night. It makes him feel like a little stud!

6. The last time the dogs messed with a skunk they all smelled like it for well over a week, but luckily this time there wasn't much smell. Jasper must have killed it before it could spray much.

7. Currently Jasper is averaging killing one critter a week. This keeps me busy hauling the nasty dead things away.

8. I planted 5 rose bushes today. I would love to have bought more, but I thought I had better cut myself off.

9. Since we are in the field planting corn this also means I should be in my garden planting things. Everything I planted a few weeks ago has come up and I planted more potatoes and peas yesterday.

10. I am planning on doing a post about planting potatoes, but I need to be able to sit down for more than 10 minutes to do it.

11. I haven't had a chance to read all my favorite blogs in forever and it makes me sad.

12. Last night Caleb came in at 2 am. At 5:30 am I got up to go pee (this happens a lot now that I'm pregnant!) At 5:31 I fell into a toilet because my husband forgot to put the seat down...

Had he not gotten in so late and was going to get up early I would have yelled and yelled loud. As it was I was nice and let him get his rest and when I told him about it in the morning he laughed at me...next time I may not be so nice!

13. I haven't uploaded pictures in over a week and I probably have over 200 of them to up load....This is part of the reason there isn't any pictures on this post...and because I'm being lazy tonight, but lest not talk about that.

14. I need to mow the yard, it's kinda goin' crazy!

15. I love going out in the evenings and sitting and listening to the frogs croak.

16. Lilacs are blooming and oh how delicious they smell!! If only Caleb's nose agreed with me this world would be a much better place!

17. My baby bump is growing and I can no longer suck it in and make it dissapear....

Any time I have mentioned this to people the porceed to tell me that their gut is bigger....a point of which I don't care and it's not my fault, but I have a baby growing inside of me and I am finally able to see some proof on my body that the little one is growing, so pretend that you see my belly even if you don't.

18. With all that being said, I'm going to bed cause I'm tired and it's gonna be a long day tomorrow!

Night all,

Janet