Farm and Ranch Living

This morning I woke up and looked out over Coal Creek Farm and saw nothing. This isn’t true; I saw a beautiful expanse of whitish gray. At the top of the mountain where my farmhouse is, we were totally enveloped in the clouds. It’s amazing to go from being able to see the Smokie Mountains 40 miles across the TN River Valley to barely seeing 30 feet away. The forecast is to remain overcast and cloudy, and we expect to potentially get an inch of rain today. It looks like to the North and West of us they have already received an inch and a half of rain. My fields will be grateful for every drop. When it rains, all outdoor work stops as driving machinery across wetland leads to long term muddy tire tracks… 

I took advantage of this wet weather to focus on some of my indoor projects. Inevitably we get in a hurry and our tools accumulate in convenient corners instead of returning to where they belong. I spent a couple hours getting the barn reorganized; this will speed us up in the future when we have less time to waste searching for tools. I also took the time to review some of the notes and videos I took at Bridgestone/Firestones where Dr. Dwayne Estes gave me some hints about Coal Creek’s native grass fields. 

I inventoried our grass seed, our animal feed and our vet supplies. I don’t want to have too much on hand as it may go bad, but with the increasing costs and scarcity in the stores this is a chore that I need to stay on top of throughout the year. We gathered some old cattle panels and some other equipment and bring it to town where it has been sold to another farmer. We are selling odds and ends and accumulating enough money to upgrade our Hay bailing equipment which is starting to fail.