Springtime in farms 11

The farms life in spring time

Springtime in the farms

In early spring all trees start to flower, the birds are happily singing, everything seems so nice, and the farmers are all waiting happily for the future harvest of whatever they have been planting during winter. 





In spring the fields are very green, we all look for sign for a good harvest.  






Welcome to our hub, springtime in the farms
From the farmers’ point of view, one could say that the farm life is usually the same even in spring time, because first and foremost you have to look after the farm animal, since the farm animals could be said that are (or were) the backbone in farming; you see, up to the time when I was young everything was done by using these animals strength to plough the fields, to carry heavy weights around, and to pull the cart, because, when I was young there were not that many tractor around yet, they were coming out but they were too expensive to buy, so we had still to rely on the farm animals to do the job, in the small farms of those days. You see since then several farm machineries have come out and have helped farming a lot in every way.
Here, we would like to show our readers the great difference in farming, between those by gone days and these days; and also the great benefit that we the community receive form this modern way of wheat farming. Here a link to one of our own hubs where we compare this difference; Farming today compared to the old way
Now, since we are talking about the farm life in spring of those days, I don’t want to winch too much here, because spring is a much better season than winter, you know that from what I have already written in our previous hubs. However we still need to explain how we look after the farm animals in spring, if we want to inform our readers how life was in the farms then.
So now, let me describe the changes that spring time brings in the country of the town that I came from, above all let us see what changes it brings to the farmers and the farms animals, you see in the temperate zone, there are big changes in temperature, every season brings a new way of life and spring brings its big changes as well. As we have said, we were hand feeding all farm animals during the winter, which was a very boring job, now spring is very welcome. I am saying this because, in springtime the way of looking after the farm’s animals changes a lot, because in spring time it will reach a stage when most of the farm’s animals will be feeding on grass, and most of them will be grazing in the paddock during daytime, at night most of us small farmers would still bring them inside the farm stables for security reasons, so let us describe how generally this was done. 
For a start, during the winter and perhaps most of the year, the large farm animals have been hand fed in the stable with straws, oats and hay, but now gradually they will be let loose to graze in the paddocks. So as soon as the grass in the paddock grows enough in early spring, the cows are let loose in the paddock for a few hours each day to begin with, and then as the grass starts growing faster they will graze in the paddocks all day long. The next on line to graze in the paddocks are the pregnant mares, followed by the rest of the animals: So that in mid spring all animals that are grass eater will be feeding only on grass; that is during the day in the paddocks and at night with fresh harvested grass, which has been purposely grown and cut from the farmers.
As you can see the farmers are still busy to look after the farm animals, but now it is not as hard as in winter times and the weather is usually fine, and every day that go past it becomes warmer, so a more relaxed way of life can be enjoyed, we have to say more about the farm animals later on, because now I would like to change on a more happy subject, for the time being just to try to find some happiness, in the middle of so much boring life.
-----------------------------------------
So what relief could spring bring?
So, let us see what relief or happy things spring could bring; apart from what we have said in our last hub and how dreadful life was in the farms in winter times, spring puts an end to those dreadful times; so, here we are going to talk about springtime in the farms, and we believe that just thinking about springtime in the farmers’ world, it would brings a smile to the farmers faces, because this new season brings hope to everyone, but that is not all, because we are sure that just about everyone of us human likes springtime, and if you are in the farm this feeling is felt even more, it is our nature and because the farmers are closer to Mother Nature they can feel this perhaps more than somebody else.
Here we have to say also that all other living animals love springtime, because spring seems to bring a new beginning to everything, it brings new hope and it brings new life and we humans are all waiting for the good things that will come during the year, you see spring is completely different from what we have been talking about in one of our last hubs, where we have been telling you beside other things what we did in the farm in a winter day and it was very boring, as we had to do all those repetitive chores day in day out, here is the link if you want to check it out what we said there, My farm life continues, therefore now, we have better news to tell you, because we are going to talk about spring time in the farms.
The very first thing that one notice in spring is that everything around you is nice and green; wherever you turn you can see this happening right in front of your eyes, and that is a wonderful thing to see all these plants and grasses growing. 
So, dear readers, we hope that this article will make you forgive us for telling you all that boring farm stuff in our previous hubs, as we have been talking to you and telling you what happens in the farm during the year, we know that farm life is boring but it is a life that some of us happen to have lived, and if we want to be true to ourselves we have to tell it just the way that we have lived it. But even in the farm sometimes life brings good things to say about, so let us hope that you would enjoy this present article a bit more than the last one.   
We can surely say that the only time that one can say that living in the farm for a short period could be better that living in town was and is at spring time, because those things that make life interesting in the farm happen, you see one can observe Mother Nature wonders as they occur at very close range; and springtime is the time when most of those wonders occur one after another. Therefore, life in the farm becomes more interesting and wonderful after a cold winter when finally spring comes, for a start the warm sun makes just everybody feel happy to be alive, after those cold winter days that never seemed to end.
For us farmers early in spring when the weather is fine it is nice and warm to stay outside doing odd jobs, like preparing the soil in the kitchen garden and planting some seeds that will soon grow, while we would be doing that we would just imagine how these new plants will grow and bear fruit in summer; you see in the temperate zone as the days grow longer and the temperature rises the plants start growing very quickly, this fact of life even by itself seems to bring some joy after the cold winter days, not only because we could see the new plants growing quickly, but also because we would be thinking what the good season would bring to us, when the time would come to harvest whatever we had planted or we would plant now in early spring, I know that this seems like dreaming good things, but anyhow let us see what other good things spring brings with it. .

------------------------------------------
spring is very colourful 







Some flowers are so pretty and alive






Wonderful spring is here
Wonderful spring is here
During early spring it would be wonderful, if one could be able to forget all worries in the world, and look at the work of Mother Nature at its best. You see, today you look at one tree and you wonder whether it is alive or dead, because its twigs seem really lifeless; but in a few days, when you look at that same tree again you can see a few flowers and some small leaves on its twigs, and in a few more days the whole tree will be in flower, and also its leaves will be growing on its twigs very rapidly, all the trees start flowering and growing quickly at springtime after winter, also all grass and seedlings grow faster and everything is greener and full of life, also the birds that throughout the winter seemed timid and sad, now start to sing and they sound very happy. In the country there is a change in the air in springtime and everything and everybody feels happy in spring, there are lots of sunny and mild days in spring, so the sunshine and the mild days tell you that the dreadful winter is past, so better times are ahead for the farm people and for the farm animals as well and this brings a sort of happiness to everybody and everything. 
Of course we in the farm would be still busy to look after the farm animals, but now it seems not as hard as in winter times and the weather is usually fine, in spring times every day that go past the weather becomes warmer, so a more relaxed way of life can be enjoyed and there are also other happy happenings, you see, spring is the season of hope and in spring we start to harvest many things, there are plenty of vegetables in spring as everything grows pretty fast, also in the fields things grow fast, there are plenty of fresh peas, green beans, broad beans just to name a few, the farmers go around with great hope in their hearts, they hope to harvest plenty of everything, when they are ready to be harvested.
But even in this happy season so to speak there could be problems; so, the farmers while dreaming about the good harvest that he may see coming, at the same time the farmers always look at the sky, as they fear bad weather that can ruin their crops. This fact of nature could really be a real problem when stormy weather approaches, as all the work that the framers have done during the year can be ruined or destroyed in a few minutes. So hope and heartbreak go hand in hand in the farms and they are there ever present, so even in this better season it is not an easy life being a farmer, I can tell you that because I have been there. Here I have to say that this was one of the reasons why I left farming and migrated to Australia when I was still young, hoping for a better and easier life in Australia which I did. But now let us go back to talk about the farm animals, as they are a very important part of farming all year around, therefore what happens during spring is interesting to know.
----------------------------------------------
The farm animals
Let us talk about the farm animals and what happens in spring
Dear readers, this article here is the way of life that we are forced to live, so I am warning you that a part of this article could sound happy, but there is another part that would sound dreadful, but let us see. First of all, if we look at what is happening and we think about it, we have to admit that the ways that Mother Nature has set up for the reproduction of the species is incredible, and the way of how most natural things happen in the animals world is almost faultless, for a start most of the farm animals give birth to their offspring when there is plenty of food to go around, and when mild and fine weather is usually expected, it is for this reason that in springtime most of the animals offspring are born, starting from the cows that usually calf once every year and they make plenty of milk especially when there is plenty of green food for them to eat, also other animals have their offspring in spring, the sheep have their lambs, the mares have their foals, and other animals have also their young’s whatever it is according to their specie.
By observing what we have just said above, we have reasons to believe that the farm animals are born usually early in spring so that they can grow big and strong during the spring and summer, so that when the cold weather comes back they would be able to cope with it easily, this is really how Mother Nature wants it to be, you see everything is set in a way that all living things would get the most benefit that they can get, while they can in the good season, so that is a very good thing to happen.
Now here comes the sorry part that I have warned you about at the beginning of this article; this is happening because we are forced by necessity to do it. So don’t get upset and don’t be angry towards the farmers; because, we the people sometimes do things that go against Mother Nature, as we want to control everything around us for our own benefit. Sometimes we do very cruel things also, and one of those cruel things that come to my mind is that we take away the veal from mother cow, we sell the veal to the butcher who will kill the veal and sell the meat to the people to eat it, by doing this not only we get some money from the butcher, but then we can happily milk the cow, so the poor cow cops it both ways.
You see we take plenty of milk from the cows after selling their veal, and what we did with most of the milk that we took from the cows and other farm animals of the farms? We make cheese of course; one of these reasons for making cheese was that in those times when I was young there wasn’t a real milk market that you could sell the milk to, so we had to do something with the milk. You see farming is mostly based in waste not want not, so nothing should go to waste, therefore we made our own cheese from the milk. So in my next hub I will be talking about, how we made cheese the old way when I was young. Of course there is not much to learn there, because things have changed a lot since then, but nevertheless it was a way of life that we used to live, so let us tell it as it was then.
See you soon in our hub, Cheese making

-------------------------------------------------

No comments: