Farm Friday, May 27th, 2022

A stinking pile of poop. And more!

My goal is to give you an occasional photo journal from our farm, which is an educational farm that is part of a Montessori school. We have 160 acres in northwest Wisconsin. Enjoy! All photos are from my phone.

Precious, with her people and dog friends around her.

Our llama, Precious, is having a hard time and is likely near the end of her life. She hasn’t been able to stand up unassisted since last Thursday. We have her in a pen by herself and we bring her food and water and treats. Three times a day we lift her up and let her legs stretch out. We spend a lot of time sitting with her, and the dogs like to join us. Pippa especially makes a nest in the hay and hunkers down. The vet came this week on Wednesday and he took some samples to help us understand the situation, but for a 25 year-old llama, there may not be much we can do.

Chili. She stomps the ground when she wants something.

Lucy. She is a BIG sheep!

The sheep were sheared last week and you can still see the lines from the shears. They like being petted under their chins and on their cheeks. The vet also took some samples from them, and they were not too happy about that.

Please eat grass! It is good for you and cheaper than hay.

The grass is nice and green and we are happy when the sheep can get out and graze. Without their llama to go with them, the sheep have been spending less time outside, so we were glad this week to see them eating grass. It also saves on hay.

Planting potatoes.

On Tuesday we had a group of students out to plant potatoes. We make a trench with the tractor and the students set a cut piece of potato in the trench every nine inches and then cover.

Cutting potatoes. These are fingerlings.

Rainbow in the sky!

When the students were getting ready to plant potatoes, they said “look!” and there was a random rainbow in the sky. We looked it up and this is a relatively rare phenomenon called a “circumhorizontal arc.” I don’t think I would have seen it unless it was pointed out by the children. I was too focused on planting potatoes.

The bee meadow

My friend, checking a nest box. This one has a chickadee nest.

We have two beehives that one of the teachers manages. He has many bee suits and can take a whole group of students out to learn about bees. We were working on the electric fence this week because we are worried about black bears in the area. Bears will do a lot of damage to hives, when they try to get honey and even eat bees. When humans switch to insect protein, we will be behind the bears in making the switch.

A steaming pile of compost. The steam means it is working. A hot compost pile will actually kill weed seeds.

The highlight of my week was using the front-end loader to turn the compost pile. I love that part of my job. I feel like a kid when I use the loader. This week the bonus was that clouds of steam came up from the compost pile every time I lifted the loader out of the pile. Woooooo! Nice special effects.

One of these chickens is named Theresa. I don’t know which one.

The chickens have been locked in because of the danger of avian flu. But this week on Tuesday after the potatoes were planted, some of the children accidently lift the gate open and a few chickens got out. So we let them all out for the afternoon. THEY WERE SO HAPPY. Pandemics are hard on everybody.

We harvested a lot of rhubarb this week. When chopped up and packed for the freezer, it was only three gallons. Looks like we might need more for the freezer!

P.S. I know this is out a day early. I have a big weekend ahead and decided to get a jump on it.