I’ve been walking the field paths each day to exercise me and the dogs. Â Our view is gradually changing as fall comes our way.
Remember all the silage that went into the bunker a week or so ago…it was made by cutting this corn down and chopping it.
While we walk, every once in a while a find a little gold….corn.
The first time I saw it I didn’t pay any attention to it…then the next day I was out walking and I decided to pick the corn up. Â I could feed it to the chickens….and so I have. Â Free food for the chickens always makes me smile.
Each day I grab two pails and walk the field until the bucks and full. Â Then I finish my walk. Â Gracie loves walks without leashes.
Our farm dog Pepper likes to come too. Â She is great at finding corn for me.
Once my walk is about done I am back to the pails and have to carry them all the way home.
I do silly little lifts and curls with the buckets…they get heavy after a bit. Â Then it’s time to cross the creek. Â It isn’t big or deep…actually very shallow and a little too wide.
I tried to cross at a new spot thinking it looked a little more promising….NOT!!
My shoes where COVERED and the mud even soaked into my socks! Â Well I won’t be crossing there tomorrow.
I carried the pails up to the chicken house and added the corn to yesterday’s collection.
I love this walk. Â It’s refreshing and rewarding gathering food for the animals.
For those of you who will ask, the farmer take the chopper across the field.  The chopper cuts the corn off and occasionally ears of corn get past the machine and fall to the ground.  It is not efficient for a farmer to go back and pick up those  ears of corn.  Technically in the business world it isn’t efficient for me to pick up the corn but I thankfully don’t live in the business world.  I live in my world and in my world…it’s good not to waste.  It’s good to appreciate the bounty no matter how it comes.
Today I am hooking up with Dandelion House for Farm Girl Friday and Homestead Revival.
I enjoy picking up the corn too, but have NO chickens and sure don’t want to encourage the squirrels here. So I leave it, but am bothered by the waste…
Did you get the mud out?
Lucky chickens!
Makes me think of the Story of Ruth
excellent! I’d do the same thing too! :-)
That corn makes good “corn bags” too. Fill a cloth bag with the corn, heat it in the microwave and use it as a heat pad! I love putting it on my feet in the winter!
About the corn…do you have to crush it or grind it a little for the chickens?
Or do the gizzards do all the work?
I miss living on a farm so much. Good for you to live in your world and not wanting to waste!
Oh yes – I remember doing that as a kid after the fields were cleared. We’d get quite a bit. Your chickens will love you!
Hey Jo – to make the carrying easier on the hands you’ll need one of those oldfashioned yoke things with buckets that milkmaids carried the milk in ! Or train Gracie to pull a sled. Just joking. But how about a rucksack /backpack? Properly seated on your back they are wonderful for posture too !
I love reading your stories about your farm and all the goodies you canned over the summer. I married a farm guy….we didn’t have a farm but my MIL did and my husband worked on the farm until she passed away. you bring back wonderful memories and great pictures with all your stories. Thanks for sharing your wonderul life with us.
i have a lot of squirrels in my neighborhood and i really do like them. they aren’t nuisance animals here because there is so much for them to do outside and plenty of trees to live in that they don’t become a problem. anyway, i pick up corn when walking near fields also, but it seems that the modern equipment really does an efficient job of getting the majority of the corn. years ago, there was always a lot more on the ground, it seemed. now, it’s mostly at the corners, where the farmers make the turns!
I like that yoke idea! No, really I do-if you had to carry things w/o a truck or 4-wheeler. It worked in the past!
I received my first home loans when I was not very old and that supported my business a lot. Nevertheless, I need the financial loan once again.
When I had corn last year, after it was picked, I turned the cows out. They ate off of it all winter! That’s a much more efficient way to do it.