Connecticut Harvest a Corn Story

Corn Harvest in Connecticut is  a story of 2011 rain and mud. For every day spent out trying to chop corn into much needed corn silage there is three days of rain. In the spring we had so much rain we couldn't plant all the fields some had standing water in them.

                                        Ruts in the fields, these are  minor compared to some

Corn likes it hot and sunny. This year we had mostly a cool rainy summer. The corn is shorter and the ears are smaller.

Fall comes and it is time to begin harvest but the rains just keep coming. Some days it takes a tractor or bulldozer to pull the truck to catch the corn, and a duo of vehicles to chop as well. Then repairs to the rutted fields have to be made when they dry.  When good weather comes the crew is working steady to get that  corn home to the silage stack.

                                                                            

Everyone will be happy when the stack is full and covered and we know we have enough feed for our dairy cows for the next year.

                                                                          
 The tarp covers the old corn we are feeding out still. The new corn is pushed and packed by the bulldozer. The tight packing into the cement lined pit completed, the plastic cover is laid over it and weighted by tires to protect from wind damage. Then the stack of freshly chopped corn ferments. This is the basis of our dairy cows diet.

                                                                    

A milk producing cow will eat approximately 40 pounds of corn silage a day. So it is important we get all our corn home and undercover. The frost begins to sap its nutrients so time is of the essence.

Our family came to this farm in 1772. The first 100 years here they were subsistence farmers. In 1871 they incorporated the dairy business. www.mountaindairy.com Since then the rhythm of the farm has stayed in tune with the seasons. The crops coming and going on the land are the basis for maintaining the dairy cows. The days of horse drawn milk delivery are gone and the glass bottles are only a Christmas Season novelty.The work of milking has gone from hand to machine, what is consistent is the Stearns family being stewards to the land and animals. 

This is our family story, of working the land and the land nurturing the generations.

For more of my farm and agriculture related blogs look at:
www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com/2011_08_01_archive.html

Keith Munslow NO Token NO Milk

It was a perfect summer day,sunshine, blue sky, breeze and  a Library Summer Reading Program  sponsored by Richmond Library and held in Marlborough Senior Center, Marlborough Connecticut.
Just down the road a little way is the turn we have taken so many times for the 4-H Horse camp at Marlborough, I know the way like I was going home.

  I had been looking forward to this performance by Providence's storyteller /entertainer Keith Munslow www.keithmunslow.com Keith performed at this past spring's Connecticut Storytelling Festival to rave reviews, mine included! www.connstorycenter.org  

                                                                         
  This was a children's program that delighted the parents and grandparents in the room as well. Keith mixed his trio of talents, drawing, music and storytelling to bring the Marlborough audience a great blend of his original material. There were pirates in the room and the school lunch lady, feats of daring on the trampoline and the sadness of having no token to get milk at a school lunch time.

                                                                     

Little did Keith know how the song that day pertained to me!  Everytime he came back to the rythmic No Token No Milk line, I smiled. Around our house its No Cows- No Milk,  Now Cows- No Milk!  After the show I told Keith about our family business is dairy,  at some point when I see him again I will just have to bring some of the world's best chocolate milk - Mountain Dairy Chocolate Milk! www.mountaindairy.com  In the mean time you might catch me humming  No token, No milk!  Get yourself to a performance by Keith Munslow but  let me warn you,  when its over you are going to need some Oreo's and milk!

                                               
    My roots are in agriculture, my heart in storytelling, www.carolynstearnsstoryteller.com  I like bringing you a diverse blog of agriculture, story, horses, cowboys, history and reviews. Follow me here or on Face Book and Twitter to see my most recent post and where I  am travelling and the fun things I bring back to share with you.