Protection.

 This weekend was uneventful, and for that I am very thankful. The weathermen were predicting really bad storms. Some of Oklahoma did get hit pretty bad but we were spared the worst and it was truly an answer to prayer. 

Now, you are probably saying, "well everyone is thankful when they don't get hit by a tornado!" Well, duh! But you have to understand that we are farmers and our livelihood depends on the weather. Therefore, we have to have a lot of faith that God is going to provide for us. And let me tell you, my faith has been put to the test in the past year or so. Last summer was so incredibly hot and dry! Not conducive conditions for things to grow.

This year on the other hand has been a great year for wheat. We have gotten rain when we need it and the wheat is looking really good. If we would have gotten bad weather this weekend it would have been pretty devastating. If the wheat gets hailed on, it knocks kernels onto the ground (can't be harvested) and knocks the whole plant over which makes it harder to harvest. (I'm sure my dad could add to this, but that's the gist)

When we heard there was bad weather we all started praying and hoping for the best. Friday night we got a little rain but the storms went just north of us. Saturday night there was a storm that I was sure was going to hit us, but we just got rain. I watched the weather all Saturday evening while I studied (I know, what an exciting Saturday night. ha) and watched the storm pop up and go around us. God takes care of us! 

Friday afternoon, after picking asparagus in the rain, I ran around and took some pictures of everything in case it stormed. Luke has some really pretty veggies in the garden right now, the wheat is gorgeous, and there are flowers everywhere. There is something about this spring that the flowers are really loving! I think God is showing us that He is still around after such a hard summer last year. 

Wheat is heading out.

Lots of lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and other veggies! All with weird names that I'm not even going to try to remember. ha

Tomatoes already! 

Radishes sprouting. 

A lot of tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma and Kansas that destroyed a lot of homes and took lives but we are so thankful for God's protective hand! 

P.S. I have about a bazillion tests in the next two and a half weeks! So happy to be finishing things up though! 

Asparagus.

Hopefully after this post you will understand my absence. This past weekend was packed with asparagus. My cousin Luke does organic gardening and that is where you will find me most of the time during the summer. Spring came pretty early this year and so things are really growing. Asparagus usually starts the season off and boy did it start with a bang! 

We had, and still have, sooooo much asparagus! Friday afternoon we picked for 4 and a half hours and got the most asparagus we have ever gotten. I'm not even going to guess how many pounds it was. Saturday night we picked for 5 hours. We got finished at a little after 1 am Sunday. And yes, my positive attitude had left by then. I was cold, tired, every part of my body ached and it had been so long since I ate supper that I was hungry. ha But it needed to be picked! Sunday was another day full of asparagus. There were lots of helpers around though so I mowed the yard and studied most of the day. I only helped for a few hours. 

To give you a little idea of what we do...

On the left is where the asparagus is.

There is about 5 acres of it I believe.

It grows like this... 

We have purple and green.

This machine was pretty much handmade and it is how we pick. 

 This way we can pick three rows at a time. Luke, or whoever is in the middle, drives with there feet so that they can pick at the same time. We just bend over and pick between our legs. This is the biggest problem for me. I can never quite decide where to put my legs. We just snap the asparagus off as close to the ground as possible. So, pretty much, you are digging your knuckles into the ground the whole time.

Picking in the dark... with headlamps... and a face covered in bugs attracted to your headlamp...

It really isn't that bad, and I don't actually mind picking most of the time. Unless it is waayyy past my bedtime, then I will be cranky no matter what I'm doin'! There was just so much this weekend it was really hard to keep up. It was like a wall of asparagus coming at you and my hands only go so fast. I would just be throwing it into the crate sometimes. It did not always look like this... 

Nice and neat and easy to sort later on.

 After it is picked, it's sorted and sold! 

This weekend was full of other farming as well. We transplanted some sweet corn...

Sorry it's so far away... the corn is to the left. You can kind of see the rows and tiny plants.

 My dad finished spreading manure and started planting field corn like a madman. He planted pretty late into the night on Monday. It was supposed to rain Tuesday and he wanted to get as much seed in the ground before that happened as he could. It didn't actually end up raining very much but every little bit helps. 

I have spent the last few days just catching up on school and eating asparagus! 

As you can tell it has been busy around here! But busy is good!! :)

Workin' Cows.

So, before we get to the "meat" (pun intended) of this post I have something to get off my chest and that I did not miss over spring break, so here goes. The guy that sits beside me in class has the worst breath ever!! I'm literally nauseous by the end of the morning. Seriously people, it is bad!!! What gets me is that he has a girlfriend and is sitting with his friends. I actually thought he was gay until I found out he had a girlfriend. Why do none of these people help him out?!? Today he kept coughing and I was about ready to just get up and leave. Our classroom is full with no were better to move to. It's a real predicament... 

Well I feel better now that I have shared that with the world. 

Now to the fun stuff! Fun is maybe a relative term. I think it's fun! :)

I helped my cousins work cows last Friday. We work cows every Thanksgiving {check out pictures from this past year here} but there are always fall calves that need to castrated, so we do a few in the spring.

Things look a little different in the spring and it isn't quite as wild. Seriously, go look at those pictures.

The sky was blue and the grass is green.

The cows were rounded up with there calves. Kenny dewormed all the cows. It is a spray that is sprayed on there backs and really helps prevent other parasites as well.

The cows were sorted out and we split the babies off into a separate pen to be worked.

In the fall (Thanksgiving) we vaccinate all the mama cows as well as the babies. This takes a lot longer. This time we just had to work with the calves.
Each calf gets a shot and there ear notched so that they can be told apart from neighbors cows. Everyone puts there notch in a different place on the ear.

The males all get castrated as well as a shot and ear notch. Some people don't really understand why we have to castrate the males so I'm hear to fill you in. In order to get good meat from them, they must be castrated. Meat from a bull is very tough because of all the testosterone. So we take away the testosterone. I'm actually vegetarian but this is what I have learned in all my classes.

I know, I need to work on not making weird faces. 

 I gave vaccines, Kenny castrated and Luke and Elisa tackled. I guess we all got in on a little of the tackling though.

Luke would twist the head and then expect Elisa or me to grab the flailing back legs. I think we are going to switch things up next time. He had the better end of the deal and didn't understand why we were all the sudden afraid of calves.

Proof that I got kicked. It is actually looking better than it did this weekend. I have got my arm smashed so bad I thought it was broken but it never bruised or anything, just really sore. Nobody every believed me. I don't even remember getting kicked and I get this.

There were a few calves that must have got missed this fall that gave us a bit of trouble. (they were big boys) Other than that, it went pretty quick, even though we had about half as many people.

Questions?? Please ask! I like talking about cows. :)