Our Farm

My work led me from Iowa to Wisconsin in 1972.  That same year I bought an acerage.  In 1973 I purchase 45 acres and my parents purchased 120 acres directly across the road from mine.  After my parents passed away the two parcels were joined.

Our farm is a small livestock and grain operation consisting of 165 acres and located 25 miles north of Madison, WI. We have about 60 acres of pasture, 90 acres of crops and about 15 acres of land used exclusively for buildings or driving trails.

Inhabitants include 4 horses (Scooter, a Morgan driving horse, Ashes, a Welsh pony who rides and drives, Ed, a Morab who is the youngest and rides, and Quizzy, an Arab who is Ed’s mother and also rides), 20 cows (mostly Angus), 1 bull (Ted an Angus who is destined to improve the herd), Tinker Bell (a border collie who keeps the above in order), several cats (Lilly a male that appears to be a Norwegian Forest Cat and Mounty a male cat that my middle daughter, Michelle,  picked up in Jackson Hole, WY in 1996)

As is typical in a part time operation, the equipment is old and many of my frustrations come from breakdowns.  Occasionally I may vent my feelings, I hope you don’t mind, but at this stage in our life Marguerite’s response is less than satisfactory.

Our soils are sandy loam and the glaciers deposited a large number of rocks which vary in size from small stone to Volkswagen size.  I’ve had many adventures trying to rid my cultivated fields of the larger of these rocks.  It is interesting that I actually have two fields, totaling about 20 acres with virtually no rock.  They are low and right in the middle (north to south) of my acerage.  How did the glacier deposit stone on both sides but not in the middle?  A mystery to me.  I suspect there are rocks under the upper soil level but I’m not going to dig down to prove or disprove that theory.

Because of the high sand content the soil does not hold moisture well.  Crops are excellent as long as we get at least a 1/2 inch of rain each week during the growing season.  Unfortunately this virtually never happens and our crops normally experience stress from lack of water with the resulting loss of yield. 

This characteristic is a blessing for my driving passion.  Even after a hard rain my trails, which total about 6 miles and surround my fields, are firm and useable.

This is not a high profit operations, but it is fulfilling to see the results of my own labor and I would miss farming very much.