Paradigm Farms State of the Nation Report

(post by Jason) This is the time of the year when farmers tend to look anxiously at the inventory in their hay sheds and begin to make predictions as to whether or not they have enough forage to make it to green grass time. Thankfully we bought quite a bit of forage before the worst of last summer's drought.  Our limiting factor with hay is storage.  We have two large hay barns and between the two of them we can store about 25 semi loads of hay. In an ideal world we would have enough hay storage to store a year's worth of hay.  Having too much forage on hand is never viewed as a problem on working farms. There is no such thing as too much forage.

So far this winter we have emptied out one of our hay barns completely and are about halfway through the other one.  We are in the process of refilling the empty hay barn and have already unloaded a few semi loads of hay into it in the last couple of weeks. Since predicting the arrival, departure and extent of dry spells is about as accurate as predicting anything to do with the weather, it is always wise to have at least half as much again as you could possibly use laying in reserve in your hay barns.

While I won't make any predictions about spring's arrival in this area I can say that so far this winter has been a lot more spring like than would be normal even at this low latitude. Our coldest morning arrived two months early on the day after Halloween. Many of our early spring shrubs and flowers have begun to bloom with some of the earliest daffodils and shrubs making blooms on or before February 1st. Normally daffodils make an appearance in mid February and the earliest shrubs start to blossom late in the month. Our cool season grasses are more green than not but they have not yet started making any growth. Last year we stopped feeding hay in mid March and if the exceptionally mild weather continues we may best that by a few days. We can get significant cold snaps and even snow well into March so we are not out of the woods by a good stretch yet.

As you can see from my State of the Nation Report at Paradigm Farms we are highly concerned with the weather, with ample hay supplies, and the state of our pastures !

the daffodils on February 5th

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Cuffie and Norman

Darby, B-Rad and Alex

George, Gus and Asterik

Romeo and Asterik being playful

Baby

Fabrizzio and Walden

Photobomb!  I was all set to take a fabulous picture of Lighty galloping in full stride, instead I ended up with Sam's head!

Toledo

Murphy and Dutch

Big Trucks

As you know from my previous blog we've already had our share of up-close encounters with bad drivers this week.  The very next day I had encounter number two of the week with a bad driver. I am happy to report that neither myself, my child, nor the vehicle I was driving at the time were harmed during this encounter - a win for me already!

The other evening I pulled into a parking space at Whole Foods. I had Carter with me so I needed to go around to the passenger side and get him out of his car seat.  As I was getting out of the car a truck pulled into the parking spot next to me on Carter's side of the car. I waited a moment so they could get out and not have to wait while I extracted Carter from the car seat. However instead of putting their vehicle in park they proceeded to back out of the spot and pull in again. Then they backed out of the spot and pulled in for a third time. The driver of the truck then repeated this procedure for a fourth time. 

After four attempts at parking their truck the driver decided he was satisfied with his efforts, puts the truck in park, and exited the vehicle. As I moved past him to (finally) get Carter out of my vehicle he said to me "It isn't easy to park these big trucks."  I'm sure my expression was an, how shall I say this - interesting - one at best. 

He was driving a Toyota Tundra. No, I'm not joking, a Toyota Tundra. It took the guy four attempts to park his Toyota Tundra (that didn't even have an extended or crew cab) in the generously sized parking spots in a very easy to navigate parking lot. Maybe I just have my judgey pants on but it would have never occurred to me that a Toyota Tundra A) qualified as a large truck or B) would be difficult to park in the Whole Foods parking lot. 

My brother-in-law summed it up best saying that his man card needed to be revoked, and additionally I should have offered to help him park his large truck if for no other reason than to speed up the process.  The ironic apart is despite his continued maneuvering of his truck he still managed to park right on the line next to my car. Carter and I got to do some creative shimmying in order to remove him from his car seat. The only thing that would have made the whole experience more entertaining and less annoying would have been if Jason had also been along for the ride. I can only imagine what his expression would have been!

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Lightening and Lucky

Africa, Wiz and Sam

Faune, Asterik, Lotus and Winston

Lighty and Murphy

Calimba

Silky

Cuffie and Maisie

Grand

Largo

The Last 48 Hours = FAIL

Things have not gone according to plan at all in the last two days. It started yesterday with a truck that didn't really want to start. It finally did start, however all of the electronic displays on the dash were blinking on and off indicating a lack of power. We unloaded the ton of feed that was in the bed of the truck and it thankfully managed to limp its way to the repair shop before giving up the ghost in the parking lot.  Given that the truck is a fairly new, low mileage diesel we were less than thrilled to be replacing the alternator but such is life. 

We were all three in the car and on the way to pick up the truck this afternoon when a car decided to pull out of a parking lot, apparently skip the step about looking in each direction before you pull out, drive all the way across the road to another parking lot, and slam into us. Of course they were accelerating when they hit us.  Thankfully the three of us were unhurt, as were the two teenagers in the other car. On the other hand our car is probably destined for the giant graveyard in the sky. It has a lot of damage.

The good news in this scenario: we were only a block away from where we needed to be to pick up our truck. As we waited for the police to arrive Jason sprinted the block down the street to pick up our truck so we at least had a vehicle with a car seat in order to drive home.  

There wasn't a lot amusing about the whole thing, but I did have a few chuckles as Jason started removing everything from our car and transferring it to the truck. Jason does not travel light in his vehicles. It drives me insane as I cannot stand clutter but it was kind of funny watching Jason excavate the interior of the car and the trunk. A partial list of what Jason removed from the car included:

- a couple of of Carhartt coats (by the way our weather has been glorious this week, no coats required!)

- three sweatshirts

- a set of wrenches

- a box cutter knife for cutting strings on hay bales

- his rain coat

- his muck boots

- an unloaded .30-.30 rifle 

To say that we looked like redneck central while Jason excavated the car would be an understatement.  As I watched the transfer I had the thought that Jason just needed to pull up with a Bobcat and start scooping his crap out of the car. An hour later the accident report was done, our smashed up car was being towed away, and we headed home in the truck.  Jason and I have both downed some Advil as the aches and pains are starting to set in, but we are managing to see some of the humor in the situation.  That being said, I do hope that the black cloud following me around moves on really soon. I won't miss it, promise.

   

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Elfin and Thomas napping in old hay with Homer hanging out

Murphy and Africa

George, Asterik and Romeo

Baby

Johnny and Tiny

Lucky and O'Reilly

this picture of Cuffie and Norman almost looks like spring

Kennedy, Oskar and Bergie with Tiny hiding behind Oskar

NatGeo

Jason and I are pretty boring people for the most part. We are even boring when it comes to watching television. We rarely turn on our TV and it is not uncommon for us to 4 to 6 weeks at a time without ever turning our TV on a single time. Quite frankly we simply don't have time to sit and watch television. However on the rare occasion when we do watch TV we continue our boring streak. We usually watch National Geographic, Discovery, History Channel, or Animal Planet. Yes, I know, everyone wants to party at our house now!

This weekend we actually turned on the television and watched some TV. Somehow we ended up watching a documentary about Honey Badgers. I kind of knew what Honey Badgers were in a vague sort of way.  I knew they were supposed to be really bad ass creatures that you didn't want to mess with but beyond that I knew nothing.  

So Jason and I are watching this documentary and it starts off with this honey badger climbing a tree, casually plucking a cobra (!!!!) out of the tree, and eating it. No big deal; climb tree, grab cobra, eat cobra. I could see why these creatures are considered fearsome.  Next we saw another honey badger flushing mice and rats out of ground holes and eating them.  

I happened to glance over at Jason and I could see the wheels turning in his head.  I immediately said "No, we are not going to have a honey badger." Jason gave me a sour look. It really irritates him when I read his mind like that and answer his question before he has even asked it.  

We settle back in to watching the honey badgers. Next up was a badger named Little Man. Little Man proceeded to chase down what the narrator claimed was one of the most venomous snakes in the world, I think a Puffer snake.  Little Man wrestles with the Puffer snake, wins, and proceeds to start eating it. Midway through his meal his side begins to swell. The snake had bitten him in the battle. He then passed out for two hours and everyone thought Little Man was going to die. Suddenly Little Man began to revive, and he got up, finished eating the snake, and moved on. 

To say Jason was impressed was an understatement. He rambled on and on about these amazing honey badgers that went after snakes and rodents.  I understood why Jason was enamored.  We are both terrified of snakes. We've only had two snake sightings in the last eight years and they were both "good" snakes (and after seeing this Puffer snake I am confident I will never live in a place where they live!). However as far as either of us is concerned there is no such thing as a good snake. I may scream like a girl when I see a snake but, well, Jason does too. Jason also hates, loathes, despises mice and rats. Apparently there was an incident when he was a kid where he was sent to clean out a grain bin, it was full of rodents, and one got in the leg of his pants. He is permanently and irrevocably scarred by this incident.  I would be as well.

Importing a honey badger was looking better and better to Jason with every minute we watched of the documentary. A kind of cute-in-a-fierce-way weasel looking thing that would roam the farm and take care of any snakes and rats? From Jason's perspective this was looking like manna from heaven.  I pointed out that although the possibility always exists, we basically never see snakes and don't see too many mice and rats. "How would we train it to stay on the farm? Would it go after the horses? Us? What about the girls?" (whenever we say "the girls" we are referring to the fainting goats, Mina, Jo and Miss Lyle).  Jason's momentary dreams of a honey badger withered and died on the vine.  It was a nice thought while it lasted. 

If you ever happen to see a documentary about honey badgers, undoubtedly you will now always think of us, and especially Jason. At least for now you can be confident that your horse will not encounter a honey badger on our farm.

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From left to right the little dots are George and Gus, Faune and Asterik, Titan, Silver and Winston ...

... a closer look at George and Gus ...

... Faune and Asterik ...

... Titan, Silver and Winston

Lighty and Johnny were being goofy together

Merlin and Slinky

Tony and Apollo

three dirty horses; Johnny, Bergie and Rocky

Toledo

Chance

Sebastian and Chili

Clayton and Stormy

B-Rad

Small World

I found myself experiencing a bit of a role reversal this past week.  My mom is currently laid up after having major surgery a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately her dad, who is 95 and has enjoyed amazing health both mentally and physically until now, found himself being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance last weekend.  My sister and I found ourselves in charge of making major decisions for our grandfather since my mom is still immobile.

On Tuesday afternoon my task was visiting nursing home/rehab facilities to evaluate them for my granddad. He was going to be ready for discharge from the hospital later in the week but definitely nowhere close to being ready go home and being on his own.  I was extremely uncomfortable with this task.  Not only is this a huge decision that will directly impact my granddad's daily life and care, I felt like a fish out of water. What do I know about picking a nursing home?  I started googling and reading the state evaluations on homes in the area. That allowed me to rule out several right away. I found two that had stellar state evaluations, and after quizzing his doctors and nurses about their reputations and receiving good answers I set off to go see them in person. 

I was fortunate to be given a tour and overview of the first facility by the Executive Director. We were talking as she showed me around their very impressive facility. I made the comment that I felt out of my depth in picking a facility like this for my granddad even though I kind of did the same thing for a living, only with horses and not people.  She paused when I made that comment and said "you told me you are from the Nashville area right?"  I said yes (I was in Memphis at the time). She told me that her daughter-in-law had retired her horse to a wonderful farm in that area, and that her own daughter had leased the horse and ridden him for a few years, and he had been a family member. I asked the horse's name and she said Fuzzy Punch.  

Well, it really is an incredibly small world sometimes isn't it? I felt so much more at ease after that.  I'd had a good feeling about the facility and the people I had met there from the moment I walked in.  At that point I felt like I had been given a sign from above that everything was going to be ok and it would work out.  As it turned out they were going to have an opening available at just the right time for us.  I could have cried from relief at that point. I called Jason and relayed my experience to him and ended the conversation with "God Bless Fuzzy Punch, he really made me feel ok about all of this."  Then I called my mom and told her the whole story, and that they were even going to have a bed available for us. Fuzzy Punch was a favorite of everyone so she knew exactly who he was, and the fact that The Fuzz played a role in our family's journey last week instantly made her feel better as well.

I am happy to report that my granddad got settled into his new digs at the end of the week and he is quite pleased with everything so far.   I had a sense of peace about everything before his arrival so I am not at all surprised that he is happy.  I emailed him a picture of Fuzzy Punch so he could know exactly who his guardian angel had been through the last week (yes, my granddad is 95 and he does email).  I've always said that the horses at our farm and the people associated with them are special, but sometimes even I don't realize just how special all of them are. I was reminded of that this week, and I am thankful to have all of them in my life.

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Apollo is one happy horse, coated with dirt and parked in front of unlimited hay

Lily and Maisie grooming

Murphy and Dutch napping, Renny hanging out, Lighty, Sam and Johnny grazing

Tiny

MyLight

something had Silver and Romeo's attention ...

... maybe the same thing that Africa, Lighty and Johnny were staring at

the horses can hang out in the woods endlessly; Clayton and Bergie perfecting their technique

Darby, Alex and B-Rad

O'Reilly, Merlin, Walden and Thor