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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Family Farm, Late Summer 2010

The family farm was a treat this Labor Day weekend, as the weather was perfect, with sunshine and white, puffy clouds buffeted by a pleasant breeze.
Grass has begun to grow in what had been a muddy cow lot only a year before. Ongoing efforts to regrade and clean up junk have been largely completed, leaving the barns in more idyllic, accurate historically settings.The corn is about ready to be harvested, and should be ready in the next couple of weeks. The stalks, already drying out, are rustling in the wind.I like how this ear of corn is peaking out from the row. This is field corn, meant for animal consumption, not human.Below is the last of five cottonwood trees, planted approximately one hundred years ago, still clinging to life. We were sure it was a goner.Everything is green, and the whole area is lush despite a dry August. Off in the distance, you can spot a neighbor's barn and house.This huge granite boulder was moved by my great-grandfather and a hired hand with horses; there were no bulldozers available one hundred years ago. It was deposited millenia ago by glaciers, and was deposited here to get it out of a field.Wild grapes have begun to return to rural areas of Illinois, after being decimated by Roundup. Hopefully next year they will bear fruit.A cow has just given birth to a calf in the last week, and we were delighted to see it prancing around its mother's side while we were looking at a pasture.See earlier posts about the farm here.

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