Farm Update: February 2021

Yesterday, I woke up to a balmy 2 degrees! The drastic change in temperature and beautiful, frosty branches outside window got me thinking about how thankful I am for the changes we've seen in the last year. What a perfect time for a farm update :)

It's been quiet here on the farm, but just as busy as ever! A few recaps from 2020:

- Our heifers started freshening in May 2020, and we officially started shipping milk with Farmer's Union in July. (The first time since December 2017!)

- Pappy (Troy) retired and spends his days plowing, discing, mowing, raking, rototilling... Basically anything in the tractor. Oh and playing with our kiddos (they adore their Pappy.)

- Out of 13 heifers (10 of which freshened in 1 month) we only had 3 semi-difficult births, all of which recovered fully. We lost one calf, and we are unsure what happened to him (stillborn, took too long to calve, mother accidentally laid or stepped on it, etc). It's hard to say, but we are very thankful and fortunate to have had a crazy but smooth calving season.

- We grew probably close to 3000 pumpkins last fall, and during the busy-ness of picking, Jesse went to part time at Erie Crawford and eventually quit to come home and farm full time once again. At first, I was very nervous about making this leap, but God has provided for us in ways that we never could have expected. It is apparent to us that, for now, we are supposed to be farming. And we are very happy to be working together once again.

- We purchased 2 more cows, one Holstein/Jersey cross, and 1 registered Brown Swiss cow, bringing our total to 15. If you've been in our barn, you know we milk in a tie stall with 14 stalls, with a pen in the back. So Jesse came up with a gate system to create a holding pen in the back, allowing us to switch cows and milk more than 14.

- Currently we only have 1 steer that we are raising for ourselves, and we just had our first pigs butchered. We would like to raise raise steers to butcher in the spring of 2023, and would like to get more piglets to butcher this fall, so watch for more info on that!

- We started officially homeschooling the end of August 2020, and we love it! We chose the ACE curriculum for this year, thanks to the input from a friend, and we love it. We do school with my mom and little sister too, because my sister is 6 months older than my daughter, which is pretty awesome ;)

My faith has grown so much this year, despite everything going on in the world. I know without a doubt, no matter what happens, God will provide all of our needs if we choose to seek and rely on him. Taking time to really just be thankful for what we have... It takes effort but it just comes naturally when you know where your blessings come from.

Thank you all that have supported us along the way. We look forward to all the new things to come in 2021 <3