Parker Farmstead, a Family Farm since 1870

Spring like weather is upon us. It’s like medicine for the body and soul. It’s 34 degrees now, the skies are ocean blue, and the sun is glorious.

It’s a good time for winter farm babies to arrive. We calve year-round so those babies are a regular occurrence. We’ve been getting quite a few red and white calves recently. Of the 11 nursery calves, 6 are red and white. We’ll have to sell some soon, and it will be a hard decision!

Saturday evening our first lambs of the season arrived just after 9:30pm. I had guarded my hopes as the ewe had developed pregnancy toxemia about 10 days before. We’d been doctoring her daily and she had perked up well prior to labor starting. My sister and nephew shared in the joy and chaos. I was so excited; I could hardly think straight. The first to arrive was small, colored black and gray; a girl! I’ve dreamed of spinning those dark locks. The second, another (bigger) girl! She’s creamy white like her momma. They both appear healthy and are nursing well and becoming more active each day. We’ve named them Onee and Olea.

We’ve ordered most of our seed stock for the year. Each year it seems like playing chess trying to decide how much, where, and what to plant on each field. We are trying a different corn variety and a different blend for early legume silage.

We are running ahead of schedule with the big annual filing and paperwork projects. This week we need to finish our organic certification reporting. Pour me another cup of strong coffee.

We invested in a better chainsaw recently and the boys have been putting it to work. They cleared 9 trees Saturday in no time. They were ash trees dying from the emerald ash borer. Last summer and fall were so busy we didn’t have time to collect enough for winter, so they’ve been getting what we need in smaller harvests.

Time marches on. May the sun shine on you!