Dry Out!

It's a beautiful day outside- so nice after all the rain we have gotten in the past week!  Dad said that we ended up getting over 5 inches all together between the two systems that came through.  The Rapidan River goes through the bottom edge of our property, and down on the river bottom the river had gotten out when we went down on Friday morning and looked.  When I was down yesterday, the river had gone back down a little bit so there wasn't all that water in the field.  There is still water standing in the low spots in the fields where we planted our barley and wheat, but that should be gone in the next few days.  With these warm temperatures and those five inches of rain, the barley and wheat and all the rest of the grass is going to jump up!  It's so nice to see the pastures be green again after being brown all winter.
We have been on a major "spring cleaning" event in some of our barns- just getting everything all cleaned up and walls washed and after our woodstove has been burning all winter.  It's so nice to see it after it gets cleaned- looks like an entirely different place!
Last week Dad, Matt, and I started building a pen in the field next to our house to catch our herd of cows here.  We were able to get most of the posts dug- Dad used old electric poles from the electric company that are cut up after they came through and replaced electric poles a few years ago.  Then he uses old guardrail as the sides of the pens.  We have two other lots that are already made like that- they work GREAT.  We don't have to worry about boards rotting or getting broken like we do in our pens that are made out of wood!  I had to empty out the holes after we dug them to get all the loose dirt out, and then I had to "tamp" the dirt down- pack it in really tightly around the post so that they don't move.  My arms and shoulders hurt really badly the next day- great upper arm workout!
We sold the first of our beef at the Farmer's Market in Spotsylvania  yesterday, and were really pleasantly surprised by the response of all of our customers that came by.  We are really hoping that everyone enjoys it, and keeps coming back for more.  We had barbeque made out of a chuck roast on Friday night, hamburgers yesterday for lunch, and then Mom, Dad, and Matt had steaks last night.  I was really upset I missed the steaks- Dad said they were excellent.   I did have some of the hamburger patties yesterday at lunch time with bacon, they were DELICIOUS.  I love hamburgers, but I think these were some of the best I have ever eaten!
I already have been talking to Quail Cove Farms about getting them some beef to sell, but with the way that it is selling right now, it might be a while before we have any extra!  We have already gone through so much of it that Dad is already getting ready to schedule a time to take another animal over so that we can get some more beef back!