Coffee anyone ?

[promiseacres]

Slept in... the hay is done and put up. 205 more bales. So should have enough. Need to clean bunny cages, prep for school and clean up and get hay equipment put away.

 

[Mini Horses]

Hay in the barn is always THE BEST feeling!!

@Baymule I find playing solitaire helps me. Reading, I just forget what I read. The older we get the more sleep patterns seem to change....like naps, late up, sleep in, only sleep in short cycles....makes it hard to plan. at least here that's true.

Late night & late morning here. It's ok because I had a heavy work week. Need to get out & not really interested. Waking slow....sore leg muscles....Absorbine working slow too . Feeding done, little else. Temps good out there but, grass still wet. Maybe I will find a way to rake a field.

 

[Baymule]

Waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning sucks. It doesn't matter how tired i am, I will wake up and usually can't go back to sleep. Then because I am so tired, if I sit down in the afternoon, I fall asleep. I need to get myself back on track.

 

[thistlebloom]

I need to get myself back on track.

Please let me know if you figure that out. Dh is an insomniac but now and then I beat him to waking me up, then we both toss and turn for hours.
Last night I was dreaming about - of all the weird things in the world to dream about - Hillary Clinton I know! It was a nightmare, haha.
Neither of us got any sleep after that and got up at 5.
I sure can fall asleep at night when we're watching a movie though. My husband always has to tell me what happened.

 

[Mini Horses]

Well I did get out there and looked over those fields. Then, set one on fire. Yep. there were rows of dead grass -- ground was wet...green grass was, too. Hose right there, nothings like a building or trees around -- got my propane torch and started. Maybe 2mph breeze, Burned off a bottom area first, that wind was blowing into, then started top areas....years ago, that's how they cleared fields, burning. Went really well! Just little flames running along on the dried grass. Well behaved.

Small 1.5 acre....about an hour. Lot of dirt showing in places. Threw some clover & chicory seed out on that. Then bushhogged it all down short. Looks like light mulch. Supposed to rain some Mon night & into Tues afternoon. Maybe I can get the field next to it tomorrow. It's about 2 acres. Ran the hog around it before coming in to clear about 8' to all green the entire edge of field. Ready to roll. if no winds. Will see how much time I have, there is a 3rd I'd like to do...similar size. Won't need to cut last 2, just burn off. Rain will wash the char into the ground...good for it actually. & free.

Tall when I cut it and the bushhog left rows of cut, so the fields are striped....green, brown/dead. I'm burning the dead! Then the stripes will be green and black. It will grow back better.

 

[promiseacres]

Coffee is on.
Rain today. High is 60. School and not sure what else. Probably some housework. Might pick tomatoes and peppers to can or freeze. Maybe do a grocery run. Posted a picture of the newest member of our family last night on my journal.

 

[Baymule]

@Mini Horses that's how it used to be done. Farmers/ranchers would burn the fields and let the grass renew itself or burn off the underbrush from forest lands. I remember a fence post on my grandfathers farm, it was charred. No telling how old that fence post was, it was rich pine, preserved by the crystalized sap, irregularly shaped by the sloughing off of rotted wood to the "nature preserved" rich pine beneath. It was probably the late 1960's, that post was a special post, a corner post a few feet from a "witness tree". The witness tree had a large X hacked into it's trunk, a "witness" to the corner, marking the property line. That post had probably been set in the 1930's, it was charred from the late winter burning of the fields to renew the fields and give way to new spring growth of grass. I can still see that post in my mind and hear my grandfather's explanation of the witness tree. Thank you for tickling my memory and bringing up burning of the fields. I had forgotten all about that old charred post.

 

[rachels.haven]

They still burn the pastures and highway sides in Iowa and some of the other plains states. Best way. Grass grows deep, weeds grow shallow. Burn time comes every year. It looks bad, but it comes back nicer looking and better for livestock and on the roadside I guess the visibility and visual appeal is improved. Less brush. Less work. No spray.

 

[thistlebloom]

The bluegrass seed farmers used to burn their feilds every fall up here. Then the population got bigger and people complained so they had to stop. I didn't think it was bad, and only for a few days, but then I don't have asthma I guess. Now they bale it after the seed harvest, but the burning is what renewed the fields, so now they have to reseed and the fields aren't as productive.

 

[Mini Horses]

Got one more burned off. Will need to cut over about 1/2. Some areas will be gifted some seed first. Rains tonight will make it all good! I've burned before and the grass does come back nicer! Still time for it to surge back this year in my area. Won't get gangbusters tall but will be ok and in Spring, better fields.

you can see the stripes........lol.