One of my favorite sights

Ah ... for the first time this year, the cows are out in the pasture.  There are the 'dry' cows - meaning the cows that we aren't milking because they're two months or closer to having calves.

We planted alfalfa last Tuesday - and thanks to some lovely rain, it's already up!  (One week and one day, which seems amazing.)  My sister Tracy was telling me how excited she was that her grass she planted in her lawn poked up; this is the same excitement farmers feel EVERY YEAR when their crops emerge from the ground.

Can you see them?

We hauled a lot of manure.  We have a lagoon of manure and we need to use it to fertilize our fields. We also take manure samples and send it to a lab where they analyze the nutrients.  Then we can tell how much supplemental fertilizer we need to put on our fields.

This looks like a job for Captain America

Gloves seem like a good idea

Every day is take your kid to work day

I also did an event with CommonGround, the volunteer organization that communicates with people about farming.  (Check out their site if you have any questions - it's great.)  Tera Havard, Barbara Siemen and I talked to Michigan dietitians and nutritionists about farming and food.  People asked about GMOs, local issues, raw milk - but mostly how they get the real information to their patients and clients.  We also had a lot of tour requests from schools, so that was great!

                                     

Kris is headed to our co-op's advisory board meeting tomorrow, we have a community action group meeting for Farm Bureau ... and then we'll start planting corn next week.  The calving will begin, and we'll start the busy season all over again.

And the whole time we'll enjoy the beautiful view of our cows on pasture.  The boys are a nice addition, too.

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