Life on the Farm: My barn has Wi-Fi!
It has been a few years since we have done a CSA and I had forgotten how much work is involved. I am still at the barn and just finished bagging up the CSA shares around midnight.
I am not complaining; working a 12-14 hour day for yourself is better than working 8 hours for someone else.
Plus, I got my barn and greenhouse wired with wi-fi so I can carry my laptop 75 yards from the house and have access to email, weather and listen to podcasts on permaculture and sustainable agriculture as I work. My current favorite is the Survival Podcast
Burying a black angus
I picked Ellie up at school at noon Monday, after her exam. We get back to the farm and there are buzzards everywhere. My dad shows up to check his cows and I see him walking across the pasture.
Somehow, a cow had got her head stuck under a wire fence and died. On Sunday, she was a $2,000 cow. On Monday, she was worth less than $1 because we had to bury her and that took a few hours of labor and diesel fuel.
The cow was black, the bull was black, but the calf was red. My dad jokingly said the cow was so embarrassed by having a red calf she committed suicide. He can say whatever he wants, he is 78.
Dean Mullis writes from Laughing Owl Farm in Richfield.
This story was originally published May 12, 2015 at 2:39 PM with the headline "Life on the Farm: My barn has Wi-Fi!."