Proving the conventional wisdom
wrong yet again, it appears April both came in and is going
out like a lion. Fortunately inbetween there was some outstanding
weather, along with a bit of everything else, as I recall.
For a change we have a ton of photos this month, and I know,
I'm supposed
to post these daily and then Twitter about them, but I'm still
stuck on this monthly model. "Free" time and all,
but today we've been all snowed in (although it's disappearing
now), and it's a good day for photo editing among other things.
So more or less in sequence...
April Fools Day was bookwork and business, although got some
good stuff done that day, which is also proceeding well since.
Actually got out a little this month though also, including
going skiing on Bridger Bowl's last day of the season back
on the sixth.
It didn't feel like springtime at all!! In fact it was a
fairly epic
powder day, undoubtedly because it was the last day of
operation for the Bridger lift, to be replaced by what's becoming
the more normal high-speed quads these days. Still, that old
Bridger lift is all but a shrine to many of us, so it was
more than fitting its final day was off the scale! Conditions
easily could have been January. and I heard no complaints
whatsoever.


And then, later that week, took what passes
for a "business trip" around here, actually a very
interesting one. Made our annual seed/supply run to the north
country, picking up a wide variety of stuff. Camelina, clover,
peas (a couple different varieties), flax but couldn't get
mustard (have since), plow shovels and let's see, barley and
more clover for a buddy and... that might be about it.

This was back on the 8th & 9th, when the
wind was SCREAMING up in that country.

Actually made quite the tour in spite of the
wind. Hit the old haunts around Shelby and Kevin, but then
veered off east, first north across the Teton river and then
east and south almost into the Breaks, northeast of Geraldine.
Where Leonard Stone farms, quite possibly the
best camelina farmer in Montana. He's been doing it a year
or two longer than we have, even, and has tried every combination
of seeding methods, rates, timing, etc. Somewhat contrary
to the "conventional wisdom", Len's taken with seeding
it in the fall, the earlier the better (within reason).

Look at that stuff!! It's a good three inches
tall, in early April! Seeded early October. Len is convinced
scratching it into furrows (versus broadcasting/harrowing)
is the ticket.

So I'm looking forward to seeding camelina in
the fall myself. Luckily I got it in on time this spring,
but I'm thinking fall could be way better. For that
matter right now I have some volunteering back in fields from
last year, and it's about three inches high (we're a thousand
feet higher than Len). And a couple of years ago I had similar
volunteer stuff that withstood temps in the teens. Horses
love it, and it's tough stuff...
Except for when the oil is pressed & bottled!
Made it back in time for the Farmer's Market that Saturday.

I hope you'll bear with a photography tangent
for a moment, because this point marks a (LONG-overdue)
transition here in the Telegraph.
Go ahead and laugh, but we've finally gone digital.
Scored a bargain on a digital SLR, and you can compare forthwith.
This next photo was at the 4/24 market, the last Winter
Farmer's Market of the season.

This is in the Emerson
Cultural Center, a wonderful facility but alas, the lighting
in the Ballroom absolutely sucks for photography! So in a
way I'm kind of amazed with the upper photo, taken with the
antique Canon film SLR. At a preposterously slow shutter speed,
with yours truly leaning against a pole for steadiness. Using
200 ASA film, in a camera that has been horribly abused for
a long time now. The farmer's camera! Not to mention horse
packer and hunter, among other things that take a toll on
tech devices.
So with that said, I'm actually kind of fond
of that first photo. The digital version, the second photo,
I had the ASA cranked up to 1600, and still a fairly slow
shutter speed, but it lacks that glow. Gotta practice...
And then, Mother Nature fairly purred for a
while, and handed us something over a week's worth of fantastic,
beautiful farming weather. Well, the wind might have blown
a bit during that period too, but Hi-Liners would laugh...

As they would at my machinery! But hey, I still
have my old air seeder, not too shabby in size, and a decent
and bigger Versatile than we used to have back in the
day to pull it with.
Which we used for a quick pre-plant plowing,
and then the wind blew so the vast majority of weeds croaked.
But oddly enough, I've been seeding with the relics, the heirloom
'67 Massey, and the even older possibly 40's John Deere/Van
Brunt disc drill.
Except that drill is really a pretty amazing
device. Long as you don't have to seed several thousand acres!
And I could (and will, at some point) tweak my air seeder
to do the same things, more or less, but for the moment...
We've seeded a fairly wide variety of stuff
so far. In fact amazingly enough our winter wheat came through
in good shape, especially considering things went sub-zero
about a week after I seeded it! But first up this spring I
seeded some camelina (two different varieties), then quinoa,
peas (a new variety they say gets tall enough to cut in rocks!),
mustard, flax, and barley. All interseeded with red clover,
except the peas.

Those old disc drills... John Deere/Van Brunt
were smarter than they get credit for! You can literally set
them to seed pretty much anything imaginable, not to mention
combinations of things, with some at one depth, and another
sprinkled on the surface.
Plus, they're tough!! That old drill gets hammered
through the rocks with nary a problem for years now, although
I will slow down slightly if they're real bad.
Farmers are always looking over the fence, you
know, and as usual I was struck by the contrast over on the
neighboring Running Elk Ranch.
One day when things were getting rolling good
they had four big tandem trucks, plus a fertilizer truck coming
& going. Plus three tractors, but I used three tractors
that day myself, so...
I haven't even fired up our grain truck yet,
although I might now that I'm seeding wheat & barley.
So far, though, I was getting by nicely with the assortment
of antiques, although my pickup is the newest thing out there,
mid-90's! And instead of a fleet of big trucks, I have a few
bags or at most a tote bag of seed. Plus a few buckets and
a garbage can to mix the clover and innoculant with the seed.


But luckily we got all that done without problems,
now it's gotten a nice soaking and it's snowing again at the
moment in fact.

In spite of that, spring is definitely here!
In fact the plant growth is taking off like mad. I'm glad
we've made it to green grass once again, and I was more than
happy to use that congratulation to a couple of my ancient
horses, ~35 year olds. That's getting to be a milestone for
them, making it to green grass again, but they're doing fine.
In fact they're totally full of it! Just before
my wife got the above photo, I'd caught them all & wormed
them. Even 35 year old Bo, eventually. He's not in the above
photo, trailing behind and expressing independence. On the
first, (or actually second) try catching him, though, just
at the moment of truth with my arms around his neck
but the lead rope not quite making the loop yet, he charged
off. A first, I must say. Which resulted in me actually doing
a summersault more or less underfoot, and winding up on his
"off" side, miraculously without broken bones or
even hoofprints!
But after catching all the others, I eventually
persevered in this mental matter, and got him caught. And
wormed him. Maybe not as gently as normal. But at least yesterday
I took mercy and got them all home again, and out of the wind
and snow. Even Bo was grateful, although scornful of capture,
and if I had caught him & tried to ride him bareback (unlikely
in a blizzard) he'd have no doubt bucked me off.
Oddly enough, somehow that's almost OK at this
point. Cody rode him a while back, so it can be done, apparently,
and I'm just glad the old boy made it to green grass again.
Not to mention the rest of us!
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