Discing the wheat fields

I spent most of the day on tractor. I got most of the 1.5 acres disced at least once. I think have another 2 days on the tractor to finish up. We are scrambling to try and find a cheap old grain drill that works. We plan to plant this 3 acres to spring wheat to provide grain to the pigs and chickens this year. We have planted up to an acre in the past by hand broadcasting and the results were spotty. We need a drill to make sure we get a thick crop.

We will harvest the grain either by hand hand or with a sickle bar mower. We have done both in the past. We will then store it in the loft and thresh it out during the rainy fall/winter days. This will be too much grain to thresh by hand so we will either build or buy a treadle thresher to use. We will winnow it some, but because it will be soaked and sprouted before use most of the schaff will float off.

We also are planning a 1/2 acre of corn mostly for the milk cow. The corn is dried by hanging the corn in the barn along ropes in the loft. Then in the winter we shell the corn and grind it by hand for the animals.

This should greatly reduce our animal feed purchases on the farm and leave only hay for us to find. We are working on arranging to hay at several friends places. This would mean we don't have to pay for the hay but we will need our own hay equipment and a way to transport it.

The kids got a few more things planted in the greenhouse. During the days on the tractor I have been praying for the Lord to show me how to feed my family better from the farm. One thing we need to do is to plant something every day. Yesterday we started tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. They also transplanted some lettuce in the hoop house and planted a few zucchini plants. I am hoping the early start of the zucchini will help us have some fresh veggies before the main garden is producing.

Queso Fresco cheese got made as well as some survival bars. We had homemade noodles and chicken for dinner along with green beans and apple cheese biscuits.