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What would the old Indian say?
Posted 8/15/2011 9:27am by Brian Schlatter.
This came to me the about a week ago when we were still dealing with days that were reaching over 100 degrees. "What would the old Indian say to us today?" This came about from "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, seventh chapter, titled Indian Warning. With more than 20 days over 100 this year and then a seemingly early cool, what would an old Indian say to us about the coming winter. In the book it tells how there was a group of men at the store purchasing, playing checkers, etc and an old Indian walked in. The men quickly stopped talking to look at the Indian to see what he wanted. "Heap big snow come" said the Indian. He then proceeded to make gestures about it. Pa asked how long and the Indian replied many moons. The Indian then held up four fingers then three to signal seven total moons of blizzard. He was an old Indian and had seen "Heap big snow" before and was warning the settlers about what was coming. If you read through the book his prediction was right, there was "heap big snow" and for many moons.
So if I could go back in time, ask an old Indian, "what is the winter going to be like for us?" I would like to know. I've yet to live enough to see what will happen. The last time we had heat like this past summer I was in grade school and could have cared less. But the weather patterns seem fast this year. Today it is nice, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, slightly muggy but not so much. It reminds me of a September day, not one in the middle of August. I've turned the AC off in my room and have the windows open again. This morning I woke up because I was cold, something I rarely do in August.
This weather pattern this year created additional challenges for us here on the farm. First with a wet spring, things were looking good for us with the grass but when the weather turned from spring to summer in a matter of hours the grass matured too quickly and stopped growing. Add on a lack of adequate rain fall and we're almost out of grass. Cows do not produce milk on mature grass like they do on spring grass. It's like sustaining yourself on bread with butter vrs, bread. The more mature the grass the less the cows produce. In a normal year we have plenty of milk in May, June, and the beginning of July. Once the heat hits in July the production starts to decrease. This year it started at the beginning of June which has hurt inventory. We are going to be short on some of the cheeses in the fall of this year. We have gotten rain the past few days and the clover is responding to the cooler weather by growing again which has made the cows come up in production but not enough. We will continue to have our basic cheeses but we are starting to eliminate a few of the varieties. One of the many experiences from Ireland I learned, was that fewer products you make, the better you are at them.
Thankful for every drop of rain we have got,
B
So if I could go back in time, ask an old Indian, "what is the winter going to be like for us?" I would like to know. I've yet to live enough to see what will happen. The last time we had heat like this past summer I was in grade school and could have cared less. But the weather patterns seem fast this year. Today it is nice, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, slightly muggy but not so much. It reminds me of a September day, not one in the middle of August. I've turned the AC off in my room and have the windows open again. This morning I woke up because I was cold, something I rarely do in August.
This weather pattern this year created additional challenges for us here on the farm. First with a wet spring, things were looking good for us with the grass but when the weather turned from spring to summer in a matter of hours the grass matured too quickly and stopped growing. Add on a lack of adequate rain fall and we're almost out of grass. Cows do not produce milk on mature grass like they do on spring grass. It's like sustaining yourself on bread with butter vrs, bread. The more mature the grass the less the cows produce. In a normal year we have plenty of milk in May, June, and the beginning of July. Once the heat hits in July the production starts to decrease. This year it started at the beginning of June which has hurt inventory. We are going to be short on some of the cheeses in the fall of this year. We have gotten rain the past few days and the clover is responding to the cooler weather by growing again which has made the cows come up in production but not enough. We will continue to have our basic cheeses but we are starting to eliminate a few of the varieties. One of the many experiences from Ireland I learned, was that fewer products you make, the better you are at them.
Thankful for every drop of rain we have got,
B