Schoonover Farm Blog

Exciting Farm Happenings

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Donna

So I made our annual Raspberry Lemon Cake this week. I do this every year when the raspberries are at their peak. It is really, really good.

We had some leftover buttermilk in the fridge from a biscuits and gravy recipe I made a couple of weeks ago. So I decided to find and make a buttermilk salad dressing recipe. Here it is with 4 days worth of lunch ready to go, using our lettuce.

Part of my pre-work routine is to clean the house while listen to Tom Morton’s Beatcroft Social. This week I listened to last Saturday’s recording which included a tribute to Peter Green. It started out with Oh Well Part 1 which sounded great on our speakers. There was also a tribute to Emmy Lou Harris, a song by Pink Floyd that I hadn’t heard before, and a version of I’ll Fly Away (this was the song that was in my head with a slight change of words while I was plying on the mountain) as well as other great songs. His show is a great accompaniment to house cleaning. I have learned that I do not tolerate mess well when I am tired so I clean before work to avoid this.

We have not had any further deaths on the farm. No more sheep have died from the heat (they and the other critters do have some shade). And no more of the “chicks” have died after I put up the colorful yarn streamers. In fact, I counted 20 “chicks” for several days but now we have 21. One of them must have been hiding somewhere. Here are some of them under the streamers.

Today a co-worker of mine was thrilled to obtain a horse that she had always wanted as part of her Breyer collection. I took the below photo for her to show her my “collection”. It pales in comparison to hers and, I have since learned, to other co-workers collations. I wonder how my horse and other farm toy fascinations as a child influenced my desire to become a farmer. Interestingly we have never had a horse. (My grandpa Showalter made this Iowa shelf for me.)

And today I think we took a big step to becoming “real” farmers. I found a sickle bar mower on CraigsList, and Tom drove all the way to Buckley to get it. It was over $1000 cheaper than anything we could find around here so worth the drive. And it appears to be in great condition.

So hopefully tomorrow we will finally start cutting our grass to make our own hay!!!

Posted in Farm, Recipes- farm | 4 Comments

A Bad Farming Day

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Donna

Warning: dead sheep photo ahead.

So today was forecast as a hot day. The plan was that I would do the animal chores, and Tom would cut the hay field.

But fairly quickly I found Moll dead. She had been having problems with breathing hard when she ran for a couple of years but otherwise was OK until in a recent heat wave. She was panting. I was considering treating her for pneumonia, but she recovered when the weather cooled so I didn’t.

I chose to go to bed yesterday morning rather than helping Tom with chores. It was rotating day. I was planning on moving the sheep to our near front field where there is shade, but Tom opted to move them to the near back field where there isn’t any shade. I feel like if I had done chores yesterday, I would have at least moved Moll to a field with shade. But instead this morning I found her like this.

I feel so awful about this. That I should have made sure she had shade and that I should have treated her for pneumonia or at least listened to her lungs.

So Tom had to hold off on cutting the hay field and use the tractor to move Moll. In that process the hydraulic hose to the loader broke, spewing oil all over Tom. Apparently it had been rubbing and finally busted. Here is a photo of it.

Tom went to the local tractor dealership and was able to get a new hose for $40. After lunch he was able to fix the tractor. I went to some medical appointments, and when I came back he said he was able to cut two rows and the cutter busted up again. So it does not look like we will be making hay this year, despite perfect grass and haying weather.

So a bad farm day, all around. Here is a retrospective of Moll. She was born in April 2008 at Everranch farm in Auburn and was 50% Gotland and 50% Finn. We bought her and her half-sister Tanya in August. Here they are the next month.

Moll and Tanya in September 2008

Moll February 2009

Moll August 2009

Tanya and Moll October 2009

In October 2009 we bred Moll with a Gotland cross ram that we borrowed, and then we tried to bred her to our Shetland ram in January 2010, but she did not become pregnant.

Moll March 2010

We were able to send her and Tanya’s 2010 fleeces to Stonehedge Spinning Mill, and they were processed into fingering weight yarn.

Moll and Tanya yarn cones June 2010

We began shearing her twice to year to prevent felting and sold those fleeces.

We bred her to Jocko (our Shetland ram) in December 2011, and in May she had triplets but two of them died. We were able to save little Magner, but she then got a bad case of mastitis.

Moll and Magner May 2012

We were able to continue to shear her and sell her fleeces, but we never bred her again.

Mona and Moll sheared March 2014

Moll January 2015

Starting in 2015 we only had her sheared once per year, and her fleeces were felted. But in 2017 I learned how to make felted fleece rugs with her wool. These were popular, and I was able to sell them at Fiber Days and Holiday Festivals. Here is the first rug I made from her fleece.

Moll felted rug 2017

Moll getting sheared March 2018

In October 2018 I first noticed her breathing fast only when she ran. We did try to treat her for pneumonia then, but it didn’t make any difference. She otherwise stayed in good condition and appeared healthy.

Moll November 2019

This summer she started breathing heavily when it was hot out, but it went away when it cooled. But this morning I found her dead, and I know she must have suffered yesterday in the heat. I feel horribly sad about it. I do still have her last fleece so may make a rug for myself with it. Plus we still have Tanya who continues to do well. Rest in peace, sweet Moll. I will miss you.

Posted in Farm | 9 Comments

Sickle Bar Mower

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Donna

So I was at work yesterday when the weather turned warm, and Tom tried to cut grass for hay with our sickle bar mower. I got a text that it “just self destructed”. I feared the worst. I had a rough night, but I when talked to him this morning it looked like our hay making plans were dashed. But I expressed my disappointment and went to bed while Tom had all of the chores to do. When I woke up at 5:00 there was some good news.

He had fixed the “reciprocating assembly” and the “keyway”. These are all new terms to me, but impressively Tom knew how to fix them. Here is a view of the back of the sickle bar.

We (as in he) will need to but in a tension cord for the pulley, but then we are hopefully back in action. Here is a view of the end of the sickle bar.

And a top view. The baler is currently stuck, but hopefully we can get it loosened up very soon for haying.

But this is the least of our struggles. My father is in the hospital with a bad hip fracture. And I am struggling with fatigue and shortness of breath trying to work while wearing a mask and face shield. And COVID-19 is killing people in our little country and throughout the world. PLEASE, PLEASE wear your masks and stay 6 feet apart. Any hope of a recovery depends on it.

On a nicer note, our garden is still growing despite my lack of weeding due to my illness.