My blog grows up!

I now have a self-hosted blog: http://foraging4aliving.com/  I am a little sad to leave this one, but hope many of you will follow me there.  I am pretty excited to be doing this and have been web designing like crazy!
http://www.michellesweeten.com/ will hopefully be following my career and path to be a stay at home mom.  I have also re-vamped the ancient http://www.sweetenhayfarm.com/ and will be making more updates to it soon. 

August is here.....

Indiana is still HOT HOT HOT!  Paul asks every 2-3 days if tomorrow is going to be cold.  Jeremy started early one day last week and was able to get the heifers worked (wormed, pregnancy checks, etc).  It was overdue, and we were planning to send several to auction or to become freezer beef.  However we only have one candidate!  The young bulls have been doing their jobs and the older one will be on his way to the auction instead. 

I have a waiting list for beef, so will have to see what we can come up with.  We are still out of hamburger ourselves, though I tried substituting sausage for hamburger in a few recipes.  So far no complaints.  We should have hamburger by the end of the month.  I am trying a new online meal planner.  I have done a paper one in the past and it really alleviated not only stress but saved us money as well.  I recieved the link for Say Mmm from Money Saving Mom.  The giveaway is over, but the free service is awesome as well!    Last week was VBS at church and the kids really enjoyed it.  I helped every evening, so now the house is a wreck.

Temple Grandin

We love movies at my house.  However it is harder to find ones we REALLY love.  Temple Grandin is one we love.  Jeremy and I both had the sensation of meeting Temple but cannot remember when.  Not only does this movie inform the public about autisim.  But it also shows how agriculturalists have worked to improve animal handling.  The movie is very realistic.  I highly recommend it.  She will inspire everyone!  I am so excited that I work in the same industry as Temple.  Her designs were in our animal science text books in college and high school. 

Hot Hot Hot

The corn is curling and I am worried about pollination.  We do not have any corn this year.  However many of our friends and neighbors do.  The beans seem to be surving well, even on the sandy soils.  Our beans are ~R3 which is pretty exciting to us.  The hay fields seem to be re-growing well.  We still need to take a first cutting on one grass field and second cutting on one alfalfa field.  The birdsfoot trefoil field is also on the to-do list since the fence hasn't been completed.  Once it is cut Jeremy will let it regrow and turn the heifers out on the field. 

 July seems to be disappearing faster than even June did.  Amy gets all over the room and is a wonderful delight.  We all attended the Wabash County Fair last week and were able to catch up with some friends.  The kids and I are spending a lot of time indoors and Jeremy is spending too much out of doors.  Paul and Ruth went with a dear friend, Barb, to the Peru Amateur Circus on Saturday.  Barb is moving back to Oregon and waited for this special weekend so she could take the kids.  We will really miss her. 

Jeremy is planning trips to Ohio for a shooting competition and also Tennessee with our church's disaster relief team and help clean up more trees.  They went right after the deadly storms in May.  We are hoping they get enough people to go and help.

Big week!

The hay barn before all the hay was unloaded.  Somehow we had REALLY great week, though I'm not sure how many more 18 hour days Jeremy can take.

The old '71 Autocar semi with a load of hay.  In addition to making 36 acres of our own hay into small square bales, Jeremy managed to mow over 500 acres for a dairy, roundbaled & wrapped 300 bales for them.  Mowed another 30 acres, small square baled ~5 acres and roundbaled an additional 10 acres.  I think.  I will have to get all the baler counts.  But he has been BUSY.  We're hoping for rain so he can catch up on sleep.  In 10 days we finished most of first cutting, and I made it half for second. 

Sweeten Bridge is Falling Down!

Yes it is true!  The small bridge at the end of our driveway is falling down.  Between the heavy rains and a groundhog the bridge is missing it's south foundation.  The county moved the bridge to the top of their repair list and are waiting for supplies.  Until then the neighbors have moved the sign to the side so everyone can get through.........

Where is June going so fast?

First cutting is nearly done.  This has by far been the rainiest spring I can remember.  Our soybeans look good, but will need another spray of roundup.  The beans are on sandy soil so the rain is good for them.  Just hard to get hay dry.  We should be mowing the 500 acres of custom work this week.  With the delay we are looking at possibly only 3 cuttings this year. 

We are learning a lot in our Financial Peace University course.  Trying to modify it to our farm business is going to be interesting.  I am starting the envelope system for groceries this week.  Hope it helps and I do not get many complaints.  We are out of hamburger.  Jeremy needs to get the vet out to check the heifers so we can send some to butcher. 

On Saturday I started Paul & Ruth on commission for doing some light chores around the house.  Ruth doesn't quite understand yet, but Paul is eating it up!  He gets a quarter for putting away the silverware, taking out garbage or picking up toys.  They designed their own "banks" with stickers and clear plastic containers out of the recycling. Paul is eager to earn more money so he can take it next week for children's church.  Amy is rolling all over the place and is still in the 90% percentile for height... 27 inches at 6 months.  Not sure why time is flying, but it is and we are just holding on for the ride!