When your mower breaks down on a farm....

What happens when your house yard is a large acreage on a farm and your second hand ride on mower breaks down??? Read this and you will get the answer.

I am not sure if this happens to anyone else but this is what always happens to us!

Every time we have a mower break down it is usually the week or two before Christmas when everyone is flat out on the farm and trying to keep up with family and friend commitments  as well as all the usual Christmas preparation stuff we all do. It is ALWAYS the years that there is plenty of grass to mow and rain falls in copious amounts on a regular basis. It is not that the mowers are not maintained - they just wear out, are old and beyond repair. This has happened at least 3 times that I can think of.

These pictures show part of our front yard.

Mowing is one of my chores on the farm of which I am happy to do. I push mow the backyard for exercise and fitness but use a ride on to do the front and side yards near the house. I physically cannot mow all that area with a push mower especially when the grass grows at the rate it is at the moment.
My solution when the ride on breaks down is to now let DH Farmer know that I cannot and will not push mow the front and side yards. I stated that we needed a new ride on as the old one was beyond repair. So after DH Farmer push mowed those areas three times from before Christmas until about two weeks ago he came to the conclusion that we did in fact need a new ride on mower!!! Yay I thought!!!!  DH Farmer said  - " leave it to me - I will organise it".  I was glad that he had not resorted to putting the slasher on the tractor to mow the lawns. ( And yes - this has been known to happen as well!!)

Now as you know we like to buy local. So DH Farmer visited the places in town that sell ride on mowers and decided that he would purchase from the dealership that also services the mower in town and is not sent away. Good idea. I will add that this dealership is the place we always purchase our tractors for the farm from.

He ordered the mower with my approval. He went to pick it up in the back of our truck. He returned home without the mower. " Where is the mower?" I asked. The reply was -  " It is too big for the back of the truck."

 "WHAT???"

He went to town with our eldest son and his larger truck and returned home with the mower. When I saw it I thought -  " OMG he has bought another tractor!!" On the front cover of the handbook it is in fact called a "Mower Tractor" -  so I was not far from the truth.

After some lessons I must say that the tractor (Oops!!!) mower is lovely to use and does a great job! I am happy if not still a little scared (read as terrified!!!) of it but I am sure that we will become great friends as time goes on. I am most grateful that we no longer push mow all our yard and that DH Farmer did indeed take care of getting a new tractor (Oops!! Mower).

Trevor the tractor (mower) and it is red because it goes fast!!!!
I takes up about 2/3 of a car bay in the garage!!!!

Until next time....
Carol

Dairy farming - how can you do it everyday???

One thing that has remained a constant ever since I married a dairy farmer over 35 years ago, is the reaction some people have when you tell them that you are dairy farmers. A lot of people say - "Oh, I don't know how you can do that everyday of the year!' True, it is a life that is a real commitment for 365 days of the year, milking twice a day with few days off and even fewer holidays. Dairy farming these days is a business BUT it is still very much a lifestyle. True , there are times when we are out socially and know we have to head home early to do the milking or other farm chores and wish that we didn't have to. But mostly we accept that this is our life and we have happily chosen to live our life this way.

There are huge advantages for being a dairy farmer, especially if you own your own farm. It is a business and you are your own boss. What you put into your farm reflects very much what you get out of it.We are very much reliant on the weather, especially since our farm is a dry farm with no irrigation. There are times when no matter how hard you work, a dry spell or a major drought controls much of what you can and cannot achieve on your farm. At the moment ,with all the rain we have had and the growth of pastures and feed, farming is probably the easiest we have experienced for many, many years. Plentiful water and pasture grass, healthy cattle, plenty of milk being produced at low cost and most importantly happy farmers makes dairy and beef farming a real pleasure. Sale cattle prices are historically at a record high and milk prices with our processor are solid so farm income is healthy. This, however, is not always the case with farming.  Like everything in life there are highs and lows in all aspects of farming.

Dairy farming is a great place to rear a family. Everyone in the family gets to spend a lot of time together. Children reared on farms are very self reliant, responsible and possess a great skills and knowledge base that their city cousins rarely or perhaps never acquire or encounter. Our farm is a generational farm, so our children spent a lot of time with grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins as they grew up. There was always family around when the children were younger and even now when they come home to visit. Our children learnt to ride horses, drive tractors and utes, entertain themselves and much, much more from fairly early ages. Chores were part of their everyday life and were expected to be done and done properly. 

On a dairy and beef farm one of the great advantages you have is that you eat a lot of food that you have produced and grown yourself. Milk is plentiful, beef is home grown, fresh eggs, fruit and vegetables. You know what you are consuming and have a real appreciation of what it takes to put food on the table. I remember when I was teaching a Year 4 class (at a large town school) about farming and the production of milk in particular. I asked the question - "Where does milk come from?" Unsurprisingly the answer I received back was "the shop"!  By the end of the lesson these children had had a reality check and had a small appreciation of where food really came from.

So whilst there are odd times when I wish we weren't so committed, overall I would not change our life for anything. We have reared 4 great kids on the farm who have become great adults with their own lives and families; have a farm we have worked hard to own (yes - we did have to buy into the farm initially - not all farms are handed on without cost to the next generation); produce excellent quality milk and beef to help feed our country; and live in a rural community that more and more people wish they could move to and experience.

I wonder how many dairy farmers there will be in the future? The average age of dairy farmers is now late 50's - early 60's........

Until next time...

Carol