Heirloom Flowers, Family Traditions

I come from a long line of green thumbs.  Both of my grandmothers were gardeners, each specializing in their own specific flowers and my mother is also an avid gardener, both with flowers and vegetables.  I developed my love of flowers as a young 4-Her.  I had quickly learned that I had an eye for floral design both in arrangements and in the garden and I loved to grow my flowers.  I rose to the challenge of flower gardening through the 4-H project and that project evolved into my own personal garden which mom let me design and plant.  Every where I have lived and farmed since those early years, I took my flowers with me.

My Grandma S had the most beautiful peonies and roses on my home farm.  Those roses could withstand the harshest of Minnesota winters and the peonies would make Grandma S smile every time that she visited the farm in the late spring.  I took some transplants of those roses with me when I got married and moved to our farm, I wanted that piece of Grandma S with me and now that she is gone I smiled with a tear in my eye, every summer when they bloom.  I know that is Grandma S smiling down on me. 

Grandma D had these glorious irises that she planted all over her home site.  Those beautiful flowers came in pretty colors of purple, rust, yellow, pink, peach and white.  I also took a transplant of these flowers with me when I moved, first from Grandma D's garden and then from Mom's garden.  Grandma D also had a long fence line down her driveway.  There she planted these beautiful dahlias and gladioli!  These flowers quickly became my favorite flowers to grow for 4-H county fair shows.

Mom had lilies in her gardens.  Gorgeous, dramatic lilies in reds, oranges, yellows and whites.  She taught me to transplant bulbs.  In the spring she had these beautiful tulips of red and yellow in the front of her house.  I believe her love of tulips inspired me to plant tulips at every place that I have ever lived.  I have tried so many colors but my favorites will always be Mom's.

Mom trusted me enough to let me have my own garden. I started my garden with Grandma S's roses and Grandma D's irises.  My inspiration from both grandmothers and mom led me to plant hollyhocks along my dad's pasture fence.  For several years we had beautiful hollyhocks along the whole length of fence by the highway and several sales reps made comments on how pretty it looked.  It took a little weeding to keep the fence line clean and later when I wasn't at the farm anymore, my brother mowed them down.  Mom saved a few seeds and replanted them by the garage.  Some day I hope to plant another fence line of holly hocks on my own dairy.  In the meantime I am in awe of their beauty at my parents' farm and I am thankful for my genetic green thumb and heirloom flowers!

Hollyhocks at my parents' dairy, a legacy from my 4-H years at the farm.

Been Busy Lately!

Holy smokes! I can't believe that it's Sunday night/Monday morning and I haven't actually blogged in awhile! It's been a really busy week at Orange Patch Dairy. Even though I did take the time to get our hay video out and a few pictures of the farm, I have been running in circles.


June Dairy Month: As county princess coordinator I am BUSY organizing the month's events! We have the girls visiting everything from grocery stores to day cares. We plan on making a number of visits with consumers as well as some fun parades. In combination we will be celebrating our county princess program/s 50th Anniversary! I will be focusing my time and efforts in June on our new blog http://cowsncrowns.blogspot.com/. Feel free to check it out, starting June 1st, as we will be featuring dairy stories from the past 50 years. I have some great pictures and stories to share!~Thanks to all of the princesses that shared information with us.

Drying off Cows: We dried off cows this week. Yep, its that time when we give the girls a well deserved vacation. We dry them off about 45-60 days before their due date to insure that they have plenty of time to relax and grow their calves. We know that calves grow the most in the last weeks of gestation/pregnancy, so its important that we feed these cows well, offer them exercise in their yard and provide a clean, dry and comfortable environment. We have about 10 cows due to calve in July, and these cows were all dried off these past few weeks.

DHIA Testing: We DHIA tested this week. It was a great test! The cows produced an amazing 92 pounds of milk per cow per day! We DHIA test every month to check each individual cow. We collect samples from each cow to be tested for protein, fat, and Somatic Cell Count (SCC-measure of milk quality). We are able to manage our cows on an individual basis with this information. DHIA also helps us keep track of when cows were bred, had calves, and need to be dried off....it is a great organization system for our farm, allowing us to have more time to take better care of our cows.

Landscaping: I finally was able to steal a few hours each day to attend to our landscaping around our barn. While it's not perfect or done, we finally made some progress. I was able to plant some flower beds, move some perennials, and do some major weeding. The best part about living on a dairy farm is that I have nutrient rich fertilizer readily available whenever I need it. I am able to grow some amazing vegetables, fruits, and flowers with the help of my cows ;)

And I forgot to mention the best part of this past week....it was HOT!!! Ok, maybe it wasn't the best part, it was the most challenging part. We are able to cool our cows with sprinklers and fans, but honestly, for the humans working on our farm its not that cool. We were unseasonably warm (90's and humid) this week and I was definitely thinking about joining the cows under the sprinklers. Hot weather just makes for a long day at the farm and a great appreciation for the AC. Thankfully rain is in the forecast for this week (we are getting dry here) and cooler temperatures!~I know the cows are looking forward to this as their comfort zone is about 55 degrees. Anything over that temp and they are uncomfortable...so here's to cooler weather!

Dear March

Dear March:

I was wondering if you could bring back a couple of my favorite things these coming days. Please bring back sunshine-we miss its warm rays to melt the snow. Please bring back mud, yes I said mud, because at least I don't have to move mud on a daily basis if the wind blows. Please bring back the rain-I love how it smells, snow doesn't really smell, and rain doesn't need to be moved. Please bring back dirt....I forgot how wonderful it smells after a warm rain and once its freshly tilled. Please bring back temperatures over 35 degrees, I forgot how freeing it can be to walk around without our almost 10 layers of clothing on, every day. I yearn to wear only a light sweatshirt and jeans once again.

You can kindly take back the 2 feet of snow that still blankets the ground, we don't need it anymore, Christmas was done months ago. You can take back the wind chills, we got it, it's cold in Canada...they can keep it. You can send back the clouds, unless they bring warm rains, since we really need the sun to dry out the ground.

We are looking forward to flowers (please see the picture attached below for reference), spring tillage, planting peas, and watching the alfalfa start to grow. And yes I am even looking forward to hay season.

If you could kindly meet my requests, I would greatly appreciate it,
Thanks,

One VERY Tired Dairy Farmer in Minnesota

Family Comes First

So sorry that I haven't been blogging much lately. I have been dealing with some family issues. My mother had surgery this week, nothing major, but she needed some help with dinners and household chores and then we have a close relative that is ill. So our minds and our hearts are with those that we love that are hopefully healing and getting better.

Other than that, it is business as usual at the farm. We only have one cow due to calve this week, so it's a breath of fresh air. We have blowing and drifting snow, which is getting old FAST! I am so tired of shoveling out calf huts, all I can think about is spring, flowers, and hay season. I can't wait for corn to be planted and alfalfa to be sprouting...so I am leaving with some positive thoughts and a great picture of things to come =)

Pictures from the farm...

I decided to lighten up the blog with some pictures from my hobby, the thing that I do to de-stress during the day--gardening! Oh how I love my flowers! So check it out!

Pretty pansies in the garden looking into the yard at the heifer facilities.

Bubble bees often pay us a visit at the farm. I am trying to capture a picture of my butterflies, but they move so much faster :)

I waited 2 years to see this Tiger Lilly bloom, and let me tell you, it was worth it! So gorgeous!

Heifers at sunset at the farm...the orange sky was so awesome in person!

My landscaping project with my flowers at early July. The steel tanks are the milk tanks that we store our milk in and cool it. I will update with more pictures as the flowers fill in the garden!