farming and husbandry
Grazing Winter Wheat and Purple Top
The wheat and turnips are very popular.
Bonus photo: 6 V tractor light
Cover Crops and Forage
Field planted to peas and radishes as a cover crop and winter forage for livestock, and a few other photos from around the place.
Prairie Clover and a Sawmill
Round-headed prairie-clover (left) and White prairie-clover from northwest pasture – good forage
Custom-built sawmill bought at an action last month
Another view of the saw
Good label
New lean-to built on the west side of the shop
Scribed rough sawn walnut panel for a chest
Harvest
wheat shocks
Wheat, from the field to bread, cabbage into sauerkraut, carrots, wild sand-plums and blackberries, a rigging axe harvested from a field, chicks cleaning an alfalfa patch
To Build A Haystack
Below is my process of making a haystack. A good example of the transfer of energy.
Mowing the haw with a scythe.
The scythe efficiently cuts and gathers in one motion. Good technology.
Tidy windrows left by the scythe.
Upset this fellow, 3″ with legs.
The hay rack, beginnings of the stack.
Nearly half-way. (Three legged dog shown for scale)
All done. The other half of the picture is the good scent of cured hay.
Paddock Shed
I repurposed my first moveable paddock shed on sleds, so I built a new one. This one has open walls for breeze and more shade area for the sheep. The goats don’t use them much, unless it rains. The sheep don’t mind the rain, but like to have some shade. Simple and low cost, using mostly salvaged lumber and metal.
Ripping timbers on the bandsaw. The timbers were roughed out with the chainsaw 2 years ago from some salvaged cypress logs.
Traditional clamp.
Cypress and 2×4’s
Pulled behind the tractor from paddock to paddock.
Life to the Brim
To reflect the holistic nature of living and studying in the School of the Transfer of Energy, I will begin posting some images of my labors in husbandry and garden farming in addition to the woodwork, painting and printmaking which has been the primary subject of this blog. There is an abundance of new life on our place, called New Boaz by some: lambs, kids, ducklings, chicks, kittens, and plenty of vegetation in a land reviving from drought.
The School of the Transfer of Energy 