This photo is worth a 1000 words. Look at how shallow the soil is and all the limestone rock the tree roots are growing through. Heavy winds knocked down this living tree early last summer.
I posted the paragraphs below and photo back in 2023:
We live and Farm in the driftless region of Southwest Wisconsin, which means in the last Ice Age the glaciers split and went around us, resulting in a geologically different area than the surrounding land.
Underlying the relatively shallow soils is limestone and is referred to as Karst geology. I don’t fully understand the reason why, but the resulting grass which grows here is incredibly rich and perfect for grass fed cattle. There are a few other areas in the world similar to here, Kentucky , an area in France, probably others I’m not aware of.
We installed a Nature’s Comfort outdoor wood boiler in 2010 and have used it every winter with little upkeep. It’s starting to show some age, springing a leak last year. But we really enjoy a wam house in winter. And I like cutting wood. So I don’t see us changing our heating any time soon.
What I will tell anyone is these outdoor wood boilers, at least this one, use a lot of wood. I don’t mind, as the old way of having a fire inside your house, while more efficient, is much more dangerous, with chimney fires always a risk. The pallets in the above photo, filled with firewood to a height of five feet in the fall, give a rough estimate of how much wood we have already burnt this winter, plus a few pallets still frozen to the ground, and wood I cut and used without stacking. A lotta wood!
It wasn’t until 2021 before I actually had any wood left over in the spring. I always cut as I needed it. But I did pull dead trees out of the woods in the fall, which helped immensely, versus trying to go into the woods when the snow is deep.
I had some pallets lying around and got the notion to stack the wood on pallets to keep it off the ground, as any wood on the ground slowly but surely picks up moisture and turns to dirt. With my new protocol, I felt confident adding to my pile. As my pile grew, I felt rich in wood, and the pressure of cutting every week relaxed.
As so often happens when one is relaxed, I didn’t slow up my wood cutting at all. I focused on reopening paths through our woods and cleaning up trees which fell on fences. We have a lot of fence to maintain on our farm and Mom’s.
And I realized I had a new problem. After a time of drying, wood stored outside begins to age and actually starts to lose some of its heating power. I guess after drying, moisture will return to the wood and decay begins. A person could combat this by putting dry wood in a shed or under cover.
So I’m rotating this year. I’ve focused on burning my old pile while making a new pile to season for next year. It’s a challenge to site the piles close enough to carry, yet far enough away.
Daybreak revealed my upper lot fence resting on its side. There was a little wind, but mostly it just got tired. I remember when Dad and I built this fence.
Dad always pointed out how wooden fence posts rot off at ground level. The wood above the ground is fine and the wood below the ground is fine, but right at ground level and slightly below is where the biological activity is highest.
This is why I try to always used treated or creosote posts for my fencing, but don’t use treated wood for the horizontal boards. If the wood is off the ground and nothing is chewing on it, it will outlast the posts holding it up.
In our family, Santa was Mom. She always made sure there were presents under the tree Christmas morning and our stockings were filled with chocolate, candy canes, and small toys that fit in the stocking.
But sometimes we could tell that Dad got in on the gift giving. “Some assembly required” usually involved Dad. One of my fondest Christmas memories is the basketball court Dad built for me.
A wooden backboard with metal rim mounted on the inside wall of the barn with six sheets of plywood screwed to the floor to make a good surface to dribble on. I received a basketball under the tree and then was told to go to the barn to do chores. There I discovered my court.
Because its out of the weather, its aged remarkably well. The only thing I’ve replaced is the net. I don’t keep the court swept clean like I used to, but now I’m shooting hoops with Romeo, just like Dad and I did.
Our friend Derek gave us some Black Currant plants at market Saturday, November 8th. Even though I was tired after market, I got them in the ground, because the weather was expected to change. And change it did, with falling temps, wind, and snow. Feels like winter.
Our fall litters are off to a good start. The white sow farrowed 15 and still has 14 live, snug in the straw.
We practice long lactations at Curiousfarmer. This sow was bred by our dark red boar, 9 weeks after farrowing, while still lactating.
This is highly unusual for today’s swine, but typical for the beef cow. Sometimes we have to look at other species to help us think outside the box. I’m often filled with wonder as I continue this journey away from conventional agriculture.
Above is the #75 cow who we’ve been following in this blog since she was a calf. She’s always photogenic.
Below is a well put together 1st calf heifer. I love her small udder. You need small udders that will outlast the cow.
The calves continue to grow, but I’m not sure they will be bigger than last year’s calves, which is counterintuitive, as last year was dry and this year was wet. On a farm with adequate forage, cattle will do better on a dry year, as every bite of forage contains more nutrients compared to forage on a wet year. When you’re consuming dozens of pounds of forage per day, the amount of moisture in the forage makes a big difference.
We’re having a wet, hot, Wisconsin summer. With several multi-inch rain events and less pigs this year, my pig pasture is getting away on me. So I gave it a quick rotation with the cattle.
I’m super happy with Teddy, my South Poll bull. He’s in the photo below, after six weeks of breeding. He gained weight during the breeding season.
Teddy’s super chill, yet attentive to his heifers. Look at how much slicker his hair coat is compared to the heifers in the top photo. I’m planning to keep daughters out of Teddy and hoping they have his good attributes.
My youngest sister caught this photo of sunset overlooking our hay field. All three sisters and most of their kids made it home for the fourth and we had a nice family gathering. Below is some of the family in front of Vicente’s corn for our traditional fourth of July corn photo.
After a dry winter/spring, the sky spigot turned on and we are green! Nothing ruins a drought like rain.
We turned out the big bulls June 27th and the yearling bulls July 3rd. Below is a photo of two of the big bulls following a cow and a few calves. This pasture was rested eight weeks and rebounded nicely after spring grazing.
She’s a great example of the logic only humans bring to the table, as out of our herd of over 100 Red Angus cows, she’s the only one who’s registered Red Angus.
We continue to open up a little space on our farm for interesting persons to garden. Besides Isabel, three other families are gardening in our good soil.
Malcom Gladwell says, “If you find an interesting person, it means they are part of an interesting group.”
It’s been a dry spring and unseasonably warm. We welcomed over an inch of rain last night though, and cooler temperatures.
We’re wrapping up calving, which has gone well, and planning to make some 1st cutting hay on acres we didn’t graze.
Posted by Curiousfarmer 
Curiousfarmer 