This morning, after finishing my cup of coffee, I headed outside to begin my chores.  George (our faithful yellow lab) accompanied me as I made my way over to the milking barn, where I spotted this lovely Luna moth that you see in the photograph above.

The Luna moth was resting on the back door of the milking barn, and seemed to be completely oblivious to my presence.  He ended up spending most of the morning clinging to the door, perhaps taking advantage of the shade on that side of the building.

This is what the milking barn looked like when we first bought this property.  It was in pretty poor shape, and was being used to store mostly junk.  Step-by-step, we have been undertaking a renovation of this building. 

We are now converting the front room into a tack room ( a room where we will store saddles, pads, blankets, bridles, halters, leads, crops, carrot sticks, reins, bits, farrier tools, brushes and combs, fly spray, medications, and all the hundreds of other things you find are necessary to keep horses).

Here is the front of the milking barn as it looks today.  We call this the “milking barn” because it was built and used as dairy barn in the past.  This 36′ x 25’ building is constructed from cinder block, and is comprised of two equally sized 18′ x 25′ rooms.  The room toward the front of the building (with the full-length windows) formerly contained a stainless steel milk storage tank, and was thus called the “tank” room.  The milk was picked up every other day by a dairy wholesaler, who transported the product to a major milk processor.

This is the rear portion of the building, which is where the cows would be milked daily.  The room on this side of the barn was obviously called the “milking” room.  Inside the milking room were eight stalls arranged in a herring-bone pattern on either side of the room.  In the center of the room was a four foot deep milking pit, where the person doing the milking would stand to work, much like the pits that are used in an oil-change garage for the mechanic to position himself under the vehicle.  Grain was stored in hoppers located in the attic above the milking room, and a system of chutes would automatically supply strategically placed feed troughs with grain for the eight cows being milked.

We are in the process of converting this room into a workshop, so that I will have no excuse to not get my equipment maintenance and repairs done in a timely manner.

Excuse all the things laying around on the floor, but I just completed the painting of the inside of the new “shop” this morning.  In the picture above, you can see where the 4′ deep milking pit used to be located.  We have filled in the pit with tons of gravel, and topped it off with a 5″ reinforced concrete slab.  Now that the shop has been painted, I will install work benches and storage shelving.  After that, I will plan out and install conduit for 110v/220v electrical service to locations around the shop, where I will place my compressor, drill press, etc.

The shop is in a great location far from the house, so noise from power tools and equipment will not be a bother to residents in the house.  The horses, which I can keep an eye on through the many windows in the shop, may not like the noise, but they can always stroll over to another pasture if it is bothersome to them.

I can also keep an eye on the equipment barn, which is located out another of the shop windows.

The hen house (sorry, it’s still not repainted yet) is in view of the shop, so I can keep a watchful eye on things over there, as well.

And all the while, my trusty “helpers” can keep a keen eye out for me, too.  They certainly wouldn’t want to miss any of my foibles, as I run amok in my new shop!

With beef prices fluctuating around all time highs over the past several years, there has been an economic incentive for farmers to increase production, sometimes by pushing the grazing capacity of their pastures to the point that supplemental feed becomes a necessity.  This, along with drought conditions that persist in a number of beef producing states, and substantially increased fuel costs, has pushed the price of baled hay up dramatically in recent years.  Under these circumstances, you would think that it would be easy to find a local farmer who would jump at the chance to cut, bale, and haul away all the fescue and clover hay our hayfields have to offer, especially since I ask for nothing in return.  Alas, as of now my batting average stands at a mere .500.   Here is the breakdown (names disguised to protect the guilty!)-

2001 – Farmer A accepted offer.  He cut, baled, and removed the hay promptly.  He also gave us a side of corn-fed beef in exchange.

2002 – Farmer A passed away prior to harvest.  Farmer B cut, baled, and removed 1/2 the available hay, long after it had lost any nutrient value.  The rest went to waste.

2003 – Farmer B committed to cut and bale the hay, but never showed up.  The hay again went to waste.

2004 – Farmer C asked us for the hay.  He cut, baled and removed the hay promptly.  He also filled our barn with square bales of hay for our horses.

2005 – Farmer C asked us for the hay.  He cut, baled and removed 1/2 of the available hay, but due to equipment failure, 1/2 of the hay went to waste.

2006 – Farmer C again asked us for the hay, but when it came time to harvest, his health precluded his doing the work.  All of the hay went to waste.

You can see that in the past six seasons, we only had three complete harvests, which accounts for the .500 batting average.

2007 – Hey, that’s now!  And this is what some of the hay fields look like today-

The grass is tall and the seed is developed to the point that it is ready for harvest.  It has probably reached the peak of it’s nutrient value, and enough of the seed will be shed in the processing of the hay to allow for natural reseeding of the hayfield (for a previous look at this process, see Fescue to the Rescue).

The road that leads to our home runs along side the hay field pictured above, so there is no benefit to maintaining a trail through the grass.

In places that we want to maintain easy walking and riding trails, I will use the bush hog to create paths, like the one shown above.  This path leads from our catfish pond over to the barn and paddock areas.

For this 2007 season, however, I think that the hay situation is well taken care of.  Remember the cattle that breeched an old barbed wire fence, raided a hayfield and destroyed a game feeder, from a previous post entitled Invasion of the Corn Snatchers?  Well, it turns out that the rancher who owns those cattle was renting a pasture from my neighbor.  He and his son were out here daily, working on the fencing.  When it became apparent to him that the fences were not up to snuff, he voluntarily trailered his cattle back to their former pastures, and our problem disappeared.  He (I’ll call him Mr. Rancher) was very gentlemanly about the entire situation.

Mr. Rancher recently stopped by and inquired about the wonderful hayfields we have, and asked if we would like to make a deal with him to have the hay cut and baled.  I told him he was welcome to take all the hay he wanted, as I hated to see it go to waste.  He graciously accepted the offer, and I’m close to certain that he will actually harvest and bale our hay.  Why?  First, he’s a young man, so I doubt that health concerns will keep him from baling the hay.  Second, he happens to be the service manager for our local Ford dealership, so I suspect that he knows the value and necessity of keeping his machinery well maintained.

As an aside, it can never be a bad idea to give the service manager at your local Ford dealer free hay – especially if you happen to own two Ford vehicles!

You may wonder why I am only “close to certain” the hay will get baled?  Because, it seems that Mother Nature sometimes has a say in these matters, as well.

These are the skies we have been seeing on and off this past week.  When processing hay, it is necessary to have several dry days in a row so that the grasses have a chance to dry a bit.  If the grass is baled with too high a moisture content, then the heat that is generated within the bales as a result of the natural drying processes causes bad things to happen.  Such as reduced nutritional value, formation of molds and fungi, and in some cases, spontaneous combustion.  Barns have been known to burn to the ground as a result of storing bales of improperly cured hay.

So, Mr. Rancher and I both keep our watchful eyes looking toward the heavens above, waiting for that golden sun to shine down upon us with all it’s glory.  Or else how will I ever be able to write a blog post with pictures of hay baled from these fields?  Tell me, how will I?

American Sycamore

The trees that you can see on either side of this trail are semi-mature American Sycamores.  The American Sycamore is a massive hardwood tree native to portions of the eastern United States.   The sycamore has the largest trunk diameter of the American eastern hardwoods,  and reaches a height of 100 feet during a lifespan that may approach 500-600 years.

The American Sycamore has a reputation among some as being an undesirable tree, primarily due to the characteristics of the tree which make it somewhat unsuitable to the urban environment.   The massive root system tends to uplift sidewalks and roadbeds, and many decry the constant mess of twigs and leaves that surround the sycamore.  On the plus side of the equation, the sycamore is draught tolerant, flood tolerant, and can grow in a variety of soil conditions, including both alkaline and acidic, as well as compacted soils.  Additionally, the American Sycamore is a very rapidly growing species, which will be evident as you examine the photographs in this post.

There is a section of land on our property we call “the ridge.”   Formerly used to graze cattle, this area contains about 40 acres of what used to be exclusively forage grasses.  The ridge falls away to creek beds on either side, and because we do not raise cattle, the ridge has been a prime candidate for reforestation of some sort.

The district forester with the Arkansas Department of Forestry conducted a field survey for us in 2001, and prepared a  management plan which included the suggestion that we plant this ridge area with Loblolly Pine trees.  Naturally, I had other ideas.   It isn’t that I have anything against Loblolly Pines, it’s just that I have an aversion to shovels, watering cans, and building protective cages to protect the young trees from the marauding deer which inhabit the area.  But the ridge needed trees, so what’s a man to do?

The first year that we resided on this property, I noticed that the pastures of this ridge were inundated with young plants, which I was inclined to shred with the bush hog to promote lush grasslands.  On further examination, and with a little research, I determined that these small plants were tiny sycamores that were popping up in abundance on the ridge.  As long as the ridge needed reforestation, and being as these sycamore trees seemed intent on making the ridge their home, I decided to oblige them by sparing their lives and allowing them the opportunity to grow, unmolested by my tractor.

In the short time (6 years) that the sycamores have been allowed to grow on the ridge, they have thrived.  Each year I allow additional sycamore saplings to take a foothold on the ridge, and the trees that have been growing since 2001 are now in the 15-20 foot range, perhaps taller.   In the photographs above, you can see sycamore trees of various ages, and how they are gradually taking over the ridge that had previously contained nothing but grasses.  I have not taken the time to try and count the American Sycamores that now make the ridge their home, but I would guesstimate the number to be around 150-200 trees.

This is the third installment of Landscaping, My Way.  The first installment covered the Dwarf Sumac that I am encouraging to grow in selected clearings.  The second installment dealt with the Silver Poplar grove that is spreading within a portion of our woods.  In the first installment, I suggested that you might see a pattern develop regarding what I call “Landscaping, My Way.”  Do you see the pattern yet?