The Bovine Bugle

On the farm, it's Christmas in May

After chores this morning I went out to finish cleaning the freestall barn and stacking the manure. We had lunch and then the boys and I loaded the wagon with some tools and headed over to the Christmas trees to do some shearing. We have over a thousand balsam fir and blue spruce trees growing on a couple of acres behind my brother's house. Normally we shear or prune the trees in the fall but we are a little behind this year. We use shearing knives, a long handled knife with an 18-inch blade, and hand clippers to trim and shape the trees. We need to get the trees sheared now before the buds break and the new growth starts.

--Jonathan, Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont