Tag Archives: pasture management

In the Green Grass…the Daily Farm Adventures {87}

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This will be a busy week here at The Lowe Farm. We have Vacation Bible School at church and the kiddos will be in class while Mr. Fix-It and I will be teaching another class. So this weekend we prepped a week of meals, did a lot of laundry, and did a lot of camo painting to get ready. Have you been following us on Facebook or Instagram to see all the #vbsprep pictures? What we didn’t get done, was any mowing! It’s acceptable right now, but by the end of the … Continue Reading…

Chicken Hoop House Maintenance…the Daily Farm Adventures {88}

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For the 4th of July we went camping (and got rained out) and then spend the whole day Sunday on some farm upkeep (and catch up!). The WHOLE day. Meaning, I walked the dogs at 5:30 am, then went straight in to cook breakfast, we got dressed, and headed out. It was sopping wet, but we managed to get a lot done, before the clouds rolled in at 5:30 pm. (If you’re thinking about homesteading, might I recommend Muck Boots. There’s pretty much no other way to survive, trust me!) … Continue Reading…

Fixing Fence and Family Time…the Daily Farm Adventures {117}

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The weather around here is so wonky in the Fall/Winter. When school starts, it’s really still summer. About October, Fall hits and we’re all in sweatshirts for the morning, and long-sleeve tees in the afternoon. Then suddenly between Thanksgiving and Christmas we get a beautiful Indian Summer, and everyone’s back in tee-shirts for a few weeks. Our real “winter” doesn’t hit until January–and even then it’s usually broken up with some weeks of 50s and 60s. We normally have lamb harvest in September, then we hit the winter prep work hard while … Continue Reading…

Cattle Dogs, Sink Holes, and Sunny Weather…the Daily Farm Adventures {107}

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A cattle dog is like velcro to their owner. This is Coal’s favorite place to end the day, laying with me while I read a book in bed… The problem comes when he spends the whole afternoon before that like this… Turns out he’s a big fan of swimming in sink holes. And drainage ditches. And storm ponds. A sheep troughs. And if I complain that’s he’s stinkin’, wet, and dirty, he likes to clean up by rolling in…dirt. With the best of intentions, I’m sure. So I try to … Continue Reading…

Pasture Walking…the Daily Farm Adventures {113}

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Walking the dogs several times a day means I get to see the subtle changes that happen in the pasture as the seasons turn.While walking the dogs is part of the crew’s chore routine, I also walk them every day. Usually early in the morning (when I need to be alone to wake up nicely) and the evening right after work (to relax into our home life after the busy day). Coal also insists that I take him for a walk every evening after dinner. By insists, I mean that … Continue Reading…

How To Use Pallets as Small Bridges on the Homestead

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We’ve been knocking out several smaller projects around the homestead this summer, in between busy off-farm schedules and sports practices. It’s also been a really rainy summer around here. Normally we’re talking about droughts, but this year we’re talking about the never-ending rain. We haven’t had time to get big projects done between the raindrops! But we’ve finished several pallet projects with our scrap pile recently. Even little projects can make life easier or better on the homestead. It is very flat in our area. Very flat. And since water moves … Continue Reading…

Fixing Fences…and Other Daily Adventures

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Beautiful Fall weather is upon us–which means we have lots of homestead chores and farm maintenance just waiting for a little attention. It’s so much nicer to take on some of these outdoor projects when the sun is shining but it’s not 27,000 degrees plus 1400% humidity outside! And lamb harvest and having customers coming around on a regular basis again is also great motivation to do a little much-needed sprucing up! {smile} Saturday it was actually pretty warm around here for October. I even managed to get a little sunburned! … Continue Reading…

Green Grass and Gate Latches…the Daily Farm Adventures {40}

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Well, it happens every Spring…the grass in our backyard greens up first and the sheep just can’t get enough of it. Of course, them being in the backyard also involves eating our entire garden and stripping all our baby fruit trees as well, so we usually try to avoid it! {smile} The end of last week was spent with my little one fighting the stomach bug, so I was home on Friday at 2:30 when the sheep all started hollering. That’s kinda odd unless they think they are going to … Continue Reading…

The Grass is Late…the Daily Farm Adventures {41}

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I haven’t written much for farm updates lately. Winter is still hanging on around here. We got a couple hours of snow and freezing rain earlier this week. Yes, that’s right–it’s almost April, in Virginia, and we just got snow! I can’t explain it, and I’m pretty over it. {sigh} What does a long, hard winter mean for the farm?  Well, first off, it means there’s still no grass. Normally our pastures are all covered in new green-up by this point in the year–right now they are just starting to … Continue Reading…

How to Use Google Calendar for Farm and Home Maintenance Records

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So, in the crazy-busy season of summer holidays and all the end-of-school “festivities” (annual testing, awards ceremonies, field days, summer camp registrations, etc.) I’m reminded again how glad I am that we’ve worked out a maintenance record-keeping system that is quick, easy, and efficient when I don’t have the time (or inclination) to go through the piles of paperwork that need filing in our home office. We’ve developed a system for using Google Calendar to track certain important information and events in our farm management–backed up by paper and digital records–so … Continue Reading…

How to Build a Shade Shelter…Again

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I posted before about how our portable shade shelter blew apart in a recent storm and left us without shade, or shelter. Ok, that might be a little dramatic.  We have other shelter options, of course.  But this contraption represents a major part of our rotational infrastructure.  Field livestock are hardy (especially our heritage breeds) but they still need some basic protection from the elements. Mr. Fix-It’s design fits that bill for 3 of our 4 seasons, so having it up and running is a priority. However, there are some … Continue Reading…

In the Trenches

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Well, be careful what you pray for… We asked for rain, and God sent rain.  On Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday…we got a break on Saturday… …Then it rained on Sunday, and Monday…And we’re not just talking a sprinkle.  It rained. But the work goes on. Actually, it weather like this is quadruples. We’ve got muck, and mud, and crabby animals everywhere. Even moving the chicken tractor twice a day didn’t keep the chickens from being wet and soggy and just not happy at all! Our … Continue Reading…

The Lambs Are Growing

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Our oldest lambs are nearly 6 weeks old now. They’ve grown enough that the later ones are catching up to the early ones and the singles have really jumped ahead of the twins, size-wise. You can also start to see that the ram lambs (males) are starting to bulk up faster than the ewe lambs (females). The grass is just starting to haze the fields from brown to green. We’ve started weaning the adults off their grain supplement. Soon we’ll worm them and move them to the big pasture. Sheep … Continue Reading…

Spreading Seed…and Other Daily Adventures

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There’s two basic families of grass in the world. Warm Season (which means they grown when it’s HOT–June, July, August.) and Cool Season (which means they grown when it’s warm, but not hot–spring and fall.) Most lawn grass (like Fescue) is cool season, which is why you have to water it and baby it so much through the summer. Grasses like Bermuda and it’s close cousin crab-grass are warm season–they like it hot and dry. Which is why you have to fight them to the death every summer while nursing … Continue Reading…

I Spy Something…

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I’ve been a little under the weather lately. Probably because the weather’s been a little crazy lately. One day it barely gets up to 30 degrees all day and we’re having snow flurries at night, and two days later it’s 55 degrees.  I’ve been desperately fighting off a cold. (Or suffering from a cold that I won’t admit to–I’m not sure where you draw the line on that.) And now it’s raining. Not the pouring, stay-inside-and-sip-tea kinda rain. Oh no. It’s the gray, gloomy, misty, everything-just-stays-damp kinda rain. The smell … Continue Reading…