The big things and the little

Do mind-changing books actually change your mind?

The librarian listserv is doing “mind-changing books” right now. Since I’m not technically subscribed to it, so can’t add my thoughts there, I thought I’d muse a little bit on it here.

First of all, doesn’t a mind changing book have to actually change your mind? In other words, if you already agreed with the book’s premise before you read it, is it still mind-changing?

I have to say, the book that had the greatest impact on my thinking was probably The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon. I’ve always been a country girl, and I’ve always been contrary too. But reading that book was like a nearsighted person finally getting a pair of glasses. It was that book that got me thinking about homesteading and farming and gardening in the first place–and this was before we got our land.

So obviously, yes, it changed my mind. Not in the sense of doing a 180 in my thinking. But it was like flipping a switch in an unused room and suddenly there’s light there.

Who needs a gym membership?

Remember that hay I said I got on Friday? Well, it was raining that day and some of the hay got wet. (How hard would it be to throw a tarp over the load when you take it to the hay auction, huh?)

Anyhow, I had to stack all this hay on the ground floor because the old man couldn’t throw it into the loft. I can’t complain too much, because I couldn’t either, but it sure is easier to throw straight from the truck into the loft instead of having to throw it all the way up from the floor. But oh well.

So I stacked a ton and a half of hay on the floor, trying to keep all the wet ones together so I could identify them later. The other day I unstacked that section and laid all the damp bales out so they could dry (I hope.) Then I stacked up bales in a stair-steps fashion and crawled into the loft. From there, I winched the topmost bale off my pile into the loft. Climb back down, carry another bale up the the top of the “stairs,” climb back up to the loft, repeat. So far I’ve gotten 12 bales into the loft.

I have to laugh at myself, stacking & unstacking this ton of hay. Sort of like WPA hole-digging work.

Posted

I’m so excited…my new fence is actually going up! Dad came out and we worked on it Saturday and Sunday. The discouraging part is that with all the work we did, we only set the corner posts and the gate. Only one post is completely braced. And the ground is hard as a rock! The auger on the tractor just sat there, spinning and spinning and going nowhere. There’s a lot of sandstone down there, and sandy soil, and not much topsoil. No wonder my pasture is nothin’ but weeds.

I got a load of hay on Friday and stacked it in the barn. A ton and a half. Then I worked on the fence all weekend. My muscles are SORE.

Trees and fields

We have 15 acres total at the farm, and right now it is underutilized. The neighbor borrowed a little strip off the back to add to his corn field this year. Some of it is horse pasture, but they can’t use it much because of their issues (never mind the sad, sad state of the fence.) We have a bunch of pine trees that the former owner planted; they are now quite overgrown. I’m hoping to offer them for bargain Christmas trees since they are unkempt and sort of scrawny for that purpose. They are also getting too tall even for that–some of the tallest ones are probably 10 feet tall.

I’m thinking radical thoughts. I’m thinking of planting a woods back in the open fields. I haven’t done any research yet, but it seems to me that woods would be the cheapest, easiest crop to grow. Of course there wouldn’t be much return for quite a few years, but it’s an investment for the future.

I’m envisioning a mix of hardwood and pines, and maybe some fruit trees, with winding paths cut between them for riding. I love woods!

Of course it would be rather awkward if I were to plant a bunch of acorns and ten years down the road decide to plant crops instead. Imagine trying to plow that field…”*&%#^@ saplings!”