I love the seasons in Nebraska, but I always feel the most thankful for this change of seasons and especially when the grass starts to green up, babies start arriving, the bees have food again (we love dandelions), the fruit trees start blooming, and there’s a greater need to get outside more frequently. While this spring has been a little tougher to get through with lack of rain, consistent wind, some morning sickness and fatigue, and the loss of our beloved 30 something year old horse, there is still so much to be thankful for.  

We started this morning with chores, then breakfast and the normal routine of the morning. It was a little more rushed, because we were excited to get our cows and sheep onto the rye that we had planted last fall. Despite the lack of rain and the fact that we haven’t used any fertilizer, the rye has been growing by leaps and bounds. The timing of this move couldn’t have been better, because we are about out of hay. The whole family takes part in this more difficult move of taking them down our path, then through grandpa’s large pasture, down through a group of trees that are hard to run through, and finally two turns at the end. We always pray before this, and praise the Lord everything went very well. As we made our way to the rye, the cows were bucking with excitement and the sheep were a little slower because they are very fat and ready to lamb in a couple weeks.

Because of the growing demand for our clean, pastured pork, we recently bought another sow that had piglets recently on our farm. They are doing well, and after we know for sure about appointments for processing, our newsletter subscribers will be the first to hear about reservations. The pigs will be getting out to pasture in a couple weeks.

I shared last summer how we bought two bee hives from a natural beekeeper named Michael Bush. We had purchased them a little later in the season, and they went into winter with very little honey. We were sure they wouldn’t make it, but both of these hives made it through the winter and they are bringing in pollen. We were so excited because we haven’t had a hive survive the winter since we moved here over five years ago! Our other bees that weren’t the smaller, natural size, (most bees have been bred to be larger) thrived last summer. Despite the fact that they had plenty of honey through the winter, the larger bees died about the same time we often lose our bees. My lesson in this was that even though it was very inconvenient driving over 6 hours, it’s probably best to buy something that is already being raised the way you wish to go, rather than working to “make” them what you want. We are hoping to get more natural bees this year and praying for wisdom and health for them. We are planting over an acre of solid wild flowers in our pasture for food for the bees, along with an abundance of native plants, and hope that they will stay very busy on our farm and not leave. The acre of flowers will be by the road so others can enjoy them as they drive by (hopefully it won’t be a weedy mess). One of our customers recommended the wild flower mix after having a lot of success with her bees last summer so we are really looking forward to seeing the results.

Our first baby calf of the spring was born healthy this brisk morning. As we went to get the cows ready for moving, Cory noticed the new baby. We have never had a cow have problems with birthing, and don’t feel a need to keep really close records or check them through the night. We were all a little surprised because we thought it would be a couple more weeks until we had any lambs or calves. The little ones enjoyed petting and playing with the new calf.  This week we will work on preparing fence and getting the milk cows and this new mama and calf onto the rye behind our house. We do daily moves with our cows and sheep, and with moving two separate herds, we will be busy. We will also be planting potatoes, cutting in our ancient Hopi blue corn into the paddocks where the sheep and cows were over the winter, planting more vegetables, fruits, and herbs in the garden, and getting our chickens back out to the pasture. We will also be selling off some of the animals due to the dry conditions. As things get even busier, I’m reminded of some great wisdom that a friend shared with me several years ago that came from her grandma with a large family, “Just keep doing the next thing.”

What are you busy with this season? What are you thankful for this time of year? We love to hear from you!