I am reflecting on the blessings of rain this morning. We have had two days of rain, on and off. It is a real blessing, as things seemed pretty dry around here in Southern Iowa. We knew the rain was coming as the forecast predicted a nearly 100% chance of rain. With that knowledge, we had to get busy. We had a couple projects in process that would be halted by the rain.

One project was hauling dirt to our expanded garden plot. This area used to have a building over it, so it is short on topsoil. We have some good black dirt south of our barn. My whole family has been hauling and spreading this dirt, one pickup load at a time. It’s good work, that has its’ own reward. Seeing the black dirt waiting for seeds is one reward. Harvesting from that garden will be another!

The other project was over-seeding two of our pastures. The northwest pasture got oats and our own special pasture mix. (We sowed this by hand while walking the pasture.) The northeast pasture got alfalfa, timothy, and some other stuff.  (We sowed this by hand while riding in the pickup.) Both got the addition of chicory, to add some deep-rooted plants that will bring up minerals from the subsoil. We wanted to get both pastures sowed before the rain came, and we did!

Here’s what was sown in each pasture:

Northeast Pasture

• Oats – cover crop and grazing (perhaps silage)
• Orchard grass – 5# / acre
• Creeping alfalfa – 7# / acre
• Birdsfoot treefoil – 2# / acre
• Timothy – 2# / acre
• Red clover – 2# / acre
• Alsike clover – 2# / acre
• Oasis forage chicory – 1# / acre

Northwest Pasture

• Orchard grass – 1.5# / acre
• Alfalfa – 11# / acre
• Birdsfoot treefoil – 1.5# / acre
• Timothy – 4# / acre
• Alsike clover – 3.5# / acre
• Oasis forage chicory – 1# / acre

We bought our seed from Welter Seed and Honey.  They are very knowledgeable and great to work with!

One last note.  This is a fun job for children.  They like seeing the different kinds of seed and love mixing the seed.  It will also be a lot of fun when the seed comes up.