Maggie's Farm

As you know, Bird Dog, in Vermont it is now Mud Season. They call it Spring down south. But we're just getting into a world of ---ing brown mud, and will be for a couple of months.�Gotta be careful where I park my precious Fairlane - could be sucked under the mud�by morning, unless there's a good frost. Got my shiny new black Wallmart wellies on every day, and about 50 times a day the mud tries to suck them off. Or does. My old pair had so much duct tape holding them together they looked like silver dancing shoes when I hosed em off, so I finally splurged on new. $19.99. Made in Thailand. But if I turn into a shopper, please shoot me. Well, too muddy to plow anything this early of course, still got standing water, but we got the�equipment mostly tuned up and greased and ready to go. That Ford machine is burning oil like a -----, but life ain't never perfect, is it? When it burns as much oil as gas, I will worry. We'll do #1, #2, and #3 and #5 in�silage corn as usual, but as I said we'll do #4 in red clover this year and give it a rest and fatten my venison and my turkeys. Plus the hay fields which I think are fairly good for this year, seeing as we redid a couple of them last year with timothy and they are beginning to green up nice. And no, those are not two�fat bucks�hanging in the dark corner of the barn - those are sheep - lamb. Somebody give em to me, I forget who. But�no bear. Bad luck. Coulda had a few turkeys but who wants a body-shot turkey? Nobody. �And I think I see a bit of a rain leak in one of the silos. We may have to call Art the silo man down in Rutland. Seth says he can fix it. I doubt he can.

(note from Bird Dog - silage is the corn (maize to non-Americans) - stalks and all, that sort-of ferments in the solo and provides winter food for dairy cattle.)