HAY NOW! How goats and sheep help make organic square bale hay.

Community and Farming

As I write stories and adventures in Sweetwater Diaries, you will read a lot about Nate, Ollie and me. That is to be expected since I am journaling about our experiences farming and raising a toddler in today's time and culture. But the truth is, our successes and growth have not always been or will not always be done by the 2 1/2 of us alone. We have come this far because we have been very lucky to have each other, the support of our families and some really great neighbors.

Throughout the centuries farming has relied on community - from barn raisings, bartering, and getting in the field to help a neighbor harvest a crop before something threatens its success. Often the only reward being a good home cooked meal and the knowledge that the neighbor you are helping will be there to help you when you need it. Certainly, payment is still a standard part farm help, but most farmers are happy to pay good reliable help (within their means of course because small scale farming is a slow growth business).

Every hay season, I am reminded of how lucky we have been to find great neighbors, who are always ready to work for us and help us load and stack square bale hay. Let me be clear, this is HARD work. Lifting 400+ itchy square bales that weigh around 50 to 80 lb each out of the field and stacking it in the barns during 100+ heat is not easy, even for the strongest folks.  Although we have a Stackliner that helps pull bales out of the field, sometimes it needs maintenance or we are working against a pop up storm and have to get bales out of the field quickly. It is such hard work, that turnover in hay help is pretty common. This is where we have been lucky because we have two families that have always been ready and willing to help throughout the summer (if they are available). They know what to do, work hard and boy we sure appreciate it. (I'm looking at you "P. Family" and "M&M").

But it doesn't stop with just them, we have a great community of neighbors (including the ones mentioned above) that help each other.  Of course, Nate and I help where we can, whether it be providing small farm jobs to help during financial/job changes, equipment/auto/electrical suggestions, helping with fields when equipment is down, watching critters, providing supplies and water, just to name a few.  And they help us and each other finding lost or loose critters (or returning naughty goats who sneak out of fences), checking on each other during crazy weather, coming together to deal with dumped animals, trash and automobiles.  And even helping during times of personal need, like when we lost our pregnancy or when Ollie decided to make his arrival a month early.  It is a great community of neighbors that makes those curve balls that life throws a lot easier to handle.  Farming can be hard and extremely frustrating.  Some days you feel like every step forward and all the hard work you put in to a project or animal was all for nothing.  So having good support, not only in your partner, but your community and family is such a wonderful asset.

 

Ollie - One month early and cute as a 5 lb button.

I cannot end this post without mentioning our families.  It was a leap of faith on both Nate and my part to start our farm and we definitely have had days we wanted to throw in the towel and call it a day.  It's hard work and can be a lot of strain on anyone.  It is full of great moments and successes, but it is also full of a good many failures and disappointments.  We have faced things we never expected, wouldn't wish on anyone and losses we will carry always, and yet here we are still standing.  A good portion of the strength we needed to carry on we found in each other and our families.  Our families have been physical, emotional, financial and positive pillars ready to hold us steady when we looked like we needed it.  They have been there for us physically cutting down trees, painting, building, pouring concrete, helping with hay, building structures and caring for critters.  They have been there for us emotionally, providing advice, moral support, an ear to listen to problems, hugs and lots of laughs.  We are truly grateful for all their love and support.   Ollie is so lucky to be surrounded by so much love and support both near and far.

With each year we live here our community has widened and we have met so many wonderful and interesting people.  So thanks for being part of community, supporting and following us along this journey.

Always Nate, Lily, Little O, & Our Critter Crew

www.oursweetwaterfarm.com 

https://www.facebook.com/SWFarmerdiaries/
SweetWater Diaries 

(Ollie Pictures courtesy of "Sophie Ann Photography 2017")

Balancing Summer Time & Toddler Time On The Farm

 

For most people, Summer time is a time to relax and sneak in family trips and adventures during the nice weather.  Of course most people still work too, but the kids are off school and we all try to keep them entertained and enjoy the Summer weather as best as we can.  This year as Ollie approached two, I had grand plans of lots of play dates with his friends from his weekly class and adventures around the area.    I even grabbed a bunch of numbers at the beginning of the summer to set up those play dates, but alas I only was able to sneak in a few play dates this summer.  And although we had a bunch of adventures, I had to reevaluate the reality of Summer Farm Time and Toddler Time.

You see the reality is, summer is our busiest time on the farm.  We have to prep the fields, cut and bale fields, arrange/manage farm helpers for storing hay, be available on a moment’s notice to sell the hay and deliver the hay, and sell some of our goat and sheep herd to maintain healthy genetics and population control.  Plus most of the hay and field work is based on the weather, so we cannot plan designated hay days.  We have to look for a minimum of a 3 day dry weather window to cut/bale/store the hay.  We have to deliver the hay on dry days.  Usually this all occurs in 100+ heat.  So often our plans can shift on a moment’s notice in order to meet the demands of the farm.  Plus we cannot exclude, all the machine prep and maintenance that Nate must do in order to be ready when a weather window presents itself.  Making square bale hay is rough on equipment and it needs constant maintenance to create quality organic hay.

So this means plans with Ollie for play dates and scheduled events can be challenging.  Of course we spend A LOT of time outside playing and exploring the farm and we LOVE to do this every day.  BUT, on 100+ temperature days with humidity, we have to limit how long we can be outside.  So we have been finding ways to make inside play fun too when we are stuck on the farm for the day.  I'm not ashamed to admit, we watch our fair share of PBS kids, Signing Times, & Peppa Pig, but all of us, including Ollie, can only take so much before we feel brain numb.  So I follow some cool kids groups on facebook and try some of the ideas they suggest and show  (Fun with shaving cream in the bathtub, texture play with foods, blocks, puzzles, lots of books and songs...oh and dancing...we love to dance).  Recently, grandma sent us a cool dinosaur egg that we spent four days observing and helping the egg hatch and grow.  It was so much fun, and Ollie loved checking on the egg every day.  He was able to observe how an object can change in water and practice patience.  It has been over a week since we did this project, but he still talks about the Dino Egg all the time.  Plus it was a fun way to help expand his very active and growing lexicon of words.  You can check out the video below to see this cool little science project and Ollie's reactions.

So this is one fun activity we have found to do during the summer when we are housebound and it is just too hot to be outside for a very long time. I hope you enjoyed this video and please be sure to subscribe and like our Youtube videos and channel, Sweetwater Diaries.  I plan on posting some fun and interesting videos about goats & hay.  Plus we have a lot of projects happening on the farm that I am recording and hope to post on our Youtube channel soon. If you have anything you might be interested learning more about the farm, please send me a comment or a message.  Maybe I can turn it into and interesting video.   Until then, the three of us will keep finding a balance between farm, family and fun.

Always Nate, Lily, Little O, & Our Critter Crew

www.oursweetwaterfarm.com

https://www.facebook.com/SWFarmerdiaries/

SweetWater Diaries

5 Years Later...Lots of Updates

Hello Folks!  We're back with lots of updates.

Now we are three with little Ollie!  (Nate is still silly as ever)

I cannot believe it has been five years since my last post!  A LOT has changed in those 5 years:

• We bought our own 80 acre farm across from the old family farm.
• The family farm was sold.
• Nate and I got married on our farm! Yay!
• We met and lost our 1st baby (Thomas) at 20 weeks.
• We had our second baby successfully (well he did do it on his own schedule) a year later. We love our sweet, smart, silly Ollie more than words.  
• Nate started his own successful electrical business.
• Over the 5 years since we moved on the new farm, 
• We have redone 40 out of 80 acres of 15 year old fencing. Goat proof chain link.
• Made major improvements on a very unfinished 5 bay garage/workshop- Now a dream workshop with guesthouse.  
• Currently renovating the old farmhouse.
• Planning for our future house on the hill.
• Continue to produce and sell high quality organic mixed grass hay and have established an amazing clientele. (Plus a big shout out to our regular hay crew...best crew around!)
• Continue to raise goats (and now sheep).  We have a herd of a hundred goats and sheep who help manicure our hay fields - weeding and fertilizing during the off season to help produce quality organic hay.  
• Lots of dirt work and cleaning up of our farm which was unlived in for 15 years and just used for cattle before we purchased it from a lovely neighbor couple.
• Happily been added to the modern times with fiber internet this past year thanks to our neighboring county and Nate digging a very long trench to our house.  Boy, you don't know how good you have it - being forced to live on satellite internet is ridiculous - no bandwith, slow speed, and high price.  
• Plus lots and lots of other things I know I am forgetting...but it has been 5 years worth of stuff.

In upcoming posts, I hope to provide more detail and pictures as I did in my old posts.  Just wanted to get you up to speed here and say welcome back to Our Sweetwater farm. Be sure to checkout our new Youtube channel: Sweetwater Diaries for video updates.

Always Nate, Lily, Little O, & Our Critter Crew

www.oursweetwaterfarm.com 

https://www.facebook.com/SWFarmerdiaries/SweetWater Diaries 

Totes Ma Goats! Has It Been A Year Already?

Back in the 1950's, Bob & Sue Palmer purchased a beautiful piece of land located in the heart of the Mozarks - now better known as SweetWater Farm.  The Palmer family settled in at the homestead and paved the way for future generations to appreciate & nurture the vision of Bob & Sue Palmer.  Today, we are ever so grateful to Grandpa & Grandma Palmer and the whole Palmer family for giving us the opportunity to bring life back to the farm in hopes to revitalize Bob & Sue Palmer's vision of creating a home for future generations to come.

My 1st visit to SweetWater - Love at first sight (Nathan & SweetWater)

 So after one full year on the farm, let's see how Nate & I have done at becoming farmers & setting up new foundations for the future.    It is often easy to overlook how much we have accomplished when we have an ever growing list of things we still need to do. Now that I stop and look at our 1st year learning the ins & outs of farming, I have to say I am pretty proud of us!  It hasn't always been easy, but it has been worth every bump & bruise along the way. Of course there have been plenty of laughter and fun adventures too!

Can you guess which one is the farm fresh egg?

Well, truth be told, it all started with 13 chickens.  Most of which turned out to be roosters! Those silly chickens sure did teach us a lot in a short amount of time. I remember the first time we lost a baby bird, I was devastated.  I was adjusting to being part of a world where I was no longer so removed from life & death.  As our chicken population has grown (oh and how it has grown) I have been able accept the nature of life and loss on a farm.  Nate & I have been able to take comfort in the idea that we are now aware of the value of the food we eat.  It took a while to butcher our first set of roosters and it will never be an easy thing to do, but I know they had one heck of a life - Spoiled and loved. Each of the animals of this farm is appreciated for the role they play in helping it grow into a thriving homestead.  We never take lightly a loss; whether it be planned or unplanned.

We are grateful for each little life that crosses our paths.  (Of course you probably figured that out by the ridiculous number of animal pictures I have posted over the year).

Gratuitous Animal Photos For Your Viewing Pleasure

Well if you have 13 chickens, you most likely need a tractor. Huh, say what?  Actually a chicken tractor comes in handy, but forgive me I just had a "Give a Mouse a Cookie" moment.  Anyway, it became apparent to us early on that we needed to invest in hay equipment sooner than we had planned.  So thanks to Nate's many talents, we were able to find cheap used equipment.  Honestly,  I still marvel at how talented Nate is when it comes to bringing life back into those old rusty machines.  Anyone who knows him knows what I am talking about when I say he is one smart cookie!  Nate pulled apart each machine piece by piece and rebuilt them better than before.  I honestly think we could sell our $800.00 tractor back for almost 3 to 4 times as much after he fixed and improved it.  I think probably one of the coolest things I have noticed when we have visitors is how much we both have learned.  Both our farming lexicons have grown exponentially.  We can tell you more than you ever wanted to know about chickens, goats, ducks, gardening, different types of grass, hay equipment and so on.  Most of it we learned as we went, but neither of us is afraid to do a little homework on a topic, read up or ask someone with experience.

Lots of  "new" (used) equipment being prepped for this upcoming year.

So after one successful trial run in hay cutting this last fall, we are prepping the grounds for our first full fledged cutting.  Nate cut back the dead grass and it is now growing back healthy & strong.  We are excited to spend this hay season putting extra time & love into the fields.  We hope to till, aerate, and seed the land where needed in order to help it produce quality organic hay.  We understand that it will take a lot of work and may limit our production this year, but establishing a good foundation in the beginning will lead to many years of top quality hay to come.

In fact, as I write this Nate is out checking & greasing up all the equipment.  Every little extra preparation step you take on the farm not only can save you money, but make or break your success for the season.  So as the weather begins to warm, we are out prepping machines, soil, plants, shelters and so on in order to keep our busy season manageable and successful.  Of course, I make sure we still find time for fun!

Being Silly Billies

Mental Note - Need to remember to get pictures of all our visitors.

Speaking of fun, we have been so lucky to have lots of visitors this past year.  We love how supportive and interested our friends and family have been in what we have done so far.  It really motivates us to keep pushing along in order to make this a place for family and friends to visit.  We know there is still a lot of work to do, but we have learned to take it one project at a time.  Of course we love all the compliments and smiles we have received from our family & visitors, but we love to hear their ideas, suggestions, and questions too!  So thanks to the family and friends who visited us so far (Even those who could only visit via this blog). Plus Nate & I are excited about more visitors coming this year.  It is going to be great! (The chickens promise to keep the ticks away from the house if you don't mind wearing your muck boots).

Meet the Welcome Wagon!

Oh my, I barely touched the surface of what we accomplished this last year.  We built a 60 foot greenhouse, patched fences, cleared out dead trees, hatched our own chickens, improved our water system, started preparing our hydroponic/fish tanks for watering the greenhouse, fixed the ponds, haying & equipment of course, found great deals on equipment for the farm, started prepping for the sea crate house and equipment garage, improved temporary housing for various animals, & of course assisted in the birth of baby goats.

 How much did I miss on that list?  Probably more than I realize, but now it is time for the future.

We have lots of ambitious goals this year and I bet we will surprise ourselves at how much we get done.  So once we sit and plan some of this with the family, expect to hear about a pole barn for the hay/equipment, plans for a barn for our critters, the sea crate house and work space, plans for a family lodge, abundance of vegetables from our greenhouse & outside garden (hopefully we can grow our own feed for the animals), more trees and bushes planted along the creek, in the orchard and various places where they are needed, incorporating solar & wind energy onto the farm, running a waterline to the house, fun projects like goat milk soap, goat cheese, homemade toothpaste & deodorant (already did one of those)...

whoa..I get excited and a little overwhelmed thinking about it all...but we are a good team so I have faith we will do a pretty decent job this year too!

So far we are off to a great start.  The first warm day, we did a dance of joy for having survived the winter. Then we got back to work. Having started seeds indoors from our Heirloom seed collection, we were ready to start prepping the garden and greenhouse.  Nate tilled the garden area and I let the chickens do the tilling, aerating and fertilizing of the greenhouse.  Once I finally kicked the chickens out, I started planting.  I have half of the plants in the greenhouse planted and should be done in the next day or two.  Nate has one more tilling of the garden area and we have a rock throwing date in our future.  Then we string some electric fence through the old fence. We need to keep those naughty goats out of the garden. I expect there will be a few unwelcome breaches in the future, but every win for the goats and chickens is a learning experience for us.  (I am pretty sure Nate will groan and possibly cuss when he reads that line - haha).  Once the fence is ready, we have some planting to do.  Oh and my smart Nathan already has the irrigation lines set up and watering system more or less ready to go.  Plus we just might be cutting hay in the next month! Woohoo!  I cannot wait to try out the new hay wagon.  As you can see, we are already on the ground and running for this year. It feels good to be outside and getting our hands dirty again.

I cannot end this post without talking about how lucky we have been to start developing great relationships with our neighbors.  As we finally settled in and got our footing, we were able to start turning our gaze away from the farm for a bit.  We are so happy to report how supportive our neighbors have been.  I cannot tell you how helpful it is to have a good local support system when living on a farm.  We have been able to share ideas, equipment, our time, animals, and produce in order to help each other out.  We have been able to sneak away from our daily chores and have fun playing games, discussing ideas, plans, life beyond the farm. So many thanks to our wonderful neighbors.

I am starting to get funny stares from the SweetWater locals...so I better wrap up this post. Apparently, I have been reminded I have chores I need to be taking care of this evening.

SweetWater locals settling in for the night.

Having heard many wonderful stories about Grandpa & Grandma Palmer, I think they would be and are pretty happy with SweetWater today. When I think about Grandpa "Bob" Palmer looking down on SweetWater, I think about my own dad, who I lost 2 years ago yesterday.  I am pretty sure they are both up there smiling at our hard work and dedication this past year.  I know they would have their sleeves rolled up and helping us if they could.  We are pretty lucky to have such supportive grandparents, moms, dads, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, and friends.  Thanks for joining us so far on this journey.  We hope that you continue to follow our adventures in this next coming year.

 Thanks for visiting us on the farm! 

Always Nate, Lily & Our Critter Crewwww.oursweetwaterfarm.com 
SweetWater Diaries 

GoFundMe - Solar Kit

Our Backs Thank You...Now Could You Bring A Little Sunshine Our Way

This post is dedicated to all of you!!!  

Nate & I want to thank you for all your support.  

Our New "Used" Hay Stack Liner Purchased With Your Help - Many Thanks!

We are happy to report our first GoFundMe campaign for bail baskets was a success!  Thanks to Nate's ever vigilant research skills we were able to find a used Stack Liner for $2000.00.  This is 1/4 the cost of our GoFundMe goal request which means that even though we did not reach our original goal we were able to find a better deal and use the donations toward a little more than 1/4 the cost of the Stack Liner.  That is AMAZING!!!  Thanks to you, Nate and I will not have to haul by hand over 2000 bales of hay this next hay cutting.  We are very excited because the Stack Liner saves us even more work than the bale baskets because it collects, stacks and neatly places the hay.  I will be adding lots of pictures of it in action once the hay season begins.


With one success to share with you, we are on to our next goal and we would love and appreciate your help! One of our earliest plans for the farm was to incorporate alternative energy resources - solar panels & wind turbines. Now that we have successfully prepared for the upcoming hay season and have a field full of equipment eagerly waiting to begin cutting, we can focus our energies back to energy! That being said, we have set up a new GoFundMe Page in hopes that we will be able to purchase a Solar Power Kit and help make SweetWater Farm just a little bit greener!  


Please visit our new GoFundMe page (http://www.gofundme.com/6v4a0g)to read more about our plan, goal, and find out how you can donate.  We have even added a little incentive for those of you who are interested in donating.  

Please remember any donation is a big help to us. The donations we received for our last GoFundMe request helped contribute to a large portion of the costs. Please feel free to share our page with friends and family. We love sharing our experiences on the farm with friends, family, and even your friends & family too!

Speaking of friends & family, we have been fortunate to have many visit this past year and all of them have been amazed at all the hard work and progress we have made. Many of them are planning their next trip back to the farm because they loved their time enjoying the natural beauty of Sweetwater and escaping the hustle & bustle of the cooperate world. Hopefully, this solar project will help enhance their next visit by providing them with those ever needed creature comforts, but without all those pesky "footprints" we leave behind. 

Not only will your donations help support our goal of creating a sustainable farm, but it will help make a little impact on conserving and protecting the world around us.

Thanks for your support & no matter the donation amount you can give, we appreciate it.

Always Nate, Lily & Our Critter Crew
www.oursweetwaterfarm.com 
SweetWater Diaries 
GoFundMe - Solar Kit

Arctic Blast vs. SweetWater Farm

As Nate and I have settled into farm life we have begun to establish our routines, chores, and projects to be completed for the coming year.  Fortunately, Nate and I are pretty organized and like to lay our plans out before we get started.  Funny thing about “planning” on a farm is it is better to call it a “wish list” and sometimes just “a wishful thinking” list.  Soon your list is full of different tasks that need to be completed and if you are lucky you can pick which one you would like to focus on for the day.  Realistically, you do what needs to be done as dictated by the weather, animals, broken equipment, or whatever else heaven & nature throws at you at the moment.

…Which brings me to this “Arctic Blast” business we have been having recently.   Upcoming plans of building the sea crate house, pole barn for hay, & barn for animals have been blasted a few notches down on the list.  Instead, I have been running around winterizing & re-winterizing chicken coops, lugging hot water to frozen over buckets, scooping up eggs before they freeze, tending to frost bit chicken combs, chilled animals and making sure pregnant goatie mommas have enough to eat.  Nate has been at war with frozen pipes, heat tape, broken water pumps, fixing a fussy Ford truck, getting firewood, keeping the fire stoked, building a birthing shed for our very pregnant goats and installing heat lights in the coops.  We have had a few lucky warm days and have been able to sneak in some of our planned items on our to-do lists, but we are coming to terms with the fact that during the winter our list should be written in pencil. 

OR

We go with “Nate’s Plan” for next winter…

Sailing to Mexico!

Are there any takers on babysitting some goats & chickens next winter?

Thanks for visiting us on the farm! Be sure to check out our next blog about gifts, visiting, & the dreaded butchering day.

Nathan, Lily & Our Critter Crew

www.oursweetwaterfarm.com

www.gofundme.com/4jyjj4