Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Once they get some size, the turkeys are not a worry with any hawks... once I get the perimeter fence.....done....
DS has a friend helping him some... the guy is good at things but goes off on "benders".... drugs maybe??? just does not apply himself and cannot be found for weeks on end... then works like a s.o.b and is REAL good and fast at carpentry and such... so he is taking advantage of his help some, while he is around again.... I am going to tell him that I will help pay for some of his time if DS wants, so that some of my stuff can get done too. With the reduced income now that DS is getting, I know he is watching his money... Plus the rental house is empty, they finally moved everything out... and he has to find someone new... but is being careful because he has had some real A**holes before he got the last ones... and they were super... Don't blame them, for moving to the house the father in law had them fix up and then gave them (?)... but DS lost a real good renter... so he has that mortgage to deal with until he gets a renter in the house...
Always something...
Gotten quite windy out there... no burning again today.... going to go up to the pasture and check the heifers and calves, feed some in the trough as DS probably is not going to want to move any today....unless he lets me know differently here soon.... and then go get another 5 gal bucket of chicken feed from the bin... come home and mix it with the fresher 22 % bought feed. Fill the feeders.
Went out to the buff leghorns and took them water... the hens are totally NUTS..... GRRRRI do not have hours to spend with them... and if they keep this up, might get some chicks and then sell the adults and see if the chicks will grow up quieter with the NH chicks and such like that... the langshans do not take off for the far corner of the pen and the NH are quite easy going and not overly excited at my moving around out there... Leghorns are by nature more flighty... but REALLY ????? These are by far the worst I have ever worked around... and I had SC light brown leghorns for years. Most get used to you and are not "lap pets" but quiet enough to work around... these are just NOT.

Haven't heard back from DS on getting or not getting the heifers and calves in, so going to go get the chicken feed at the feed bin down the road and come back and fill the feeders etc... then I will go up to the pasture and just feed if he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Oh, he just texted, it is too wet... which I thought maybe. So I will go feed them and then go get the feed for the chickens/turkeys.

 

[drstratton]

Once they get some size, the turkeys are not a worry with any hawks... once I get the perimeter fence.....done....
DS has a friend helping him some... the guy is good at things but goes off on "benders".... drugs maybe??? just does not apply himself and cannot be found for weeks on end... then works like a s.o.b and is REAL good and fast at carpentry and such... so he is taking advantage of his help some, while he is around again.... I am going to tell him that I will help pay for some of his time if DS wants, so that some of my stuff can get done too. With the reduced income now that DS is getting, I know he is watching his money... Plus the rental house is empty, they finally moved everything out... and he has to find someone new... but is being careful because he has had some real A**holes before he got the last ones... and they were super... Don't blame them, for moving to the house the father in law had them fix up and then gave them (?)... but DS lost a real good renter... so he has that mortgage to deal with until he gets a renter in the house...
Always something...
Gotten quite windy out there... no burning again today.... going to go up to the pasture and check the heifers and calves, feed some in the trough as DS probably is not going to want to move any today....unless he lets me know differently here soon.... and then go get another 5 gal bucket of chicken feed from the bin... come home and mix it with the fresher 22 % bought feed. Fill the feeders.
Went out to the buff leghorns and took them water... the hens are totally NUTS..... GRRRRI do not have hours to spend with them... and if they keep this up, might get some chicks and then sell the adults and see if the chicks will grow up quieter with the NH chicks and such like that... the langshans do not take off for the far corner of the pen and the NH are quite easy going and not overly excited at my moving around out there... Leghorns are by nature more flighty... but REALLY ????? These are by far the worst I have ever worked around... and I had SC light brown leghorns for years. Most get used to you and are not "lap pets" but quiet enough to work around... these are just NOT.

Haven't heard back from DS on getting or not getting the heifers and calves in, so going to go get the chicken feed at the feed bin down the road and come back and fill the feeders etc... then I will go up to the pasture and just feed if he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

Oh, he just texted, it is too wet... which I thought maybe. So I will go feed them and then go get the feed for the chickens/turkeys.

I don't like flighty birds either, or any spooky animals in general. Bunch of Ninny's!

 

[fuzzi]

Sorry you lost that pullet.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry you lost that pullet.

YEAH, me too... walked all through the taller grass and around and NOTHING....
Heard an owl this evening, but this was in the broad daylight so really don't think it was an owl.

Went to the dumpster and tossed several bags of trash. Went to the pasture and fed the group of mostly all the her x heifers away from the barn on the other side of the pasture where they were "grazing"... then went and fed in the 2 feed troughs right near the barn/catch pen... fed feed inside the barn for the calves... several were in... I told DS they needed hay, so he was going to take it in there this evening... by tomorrow afternoon, they ought to be filled up enough that they will come back to the barn for more grain... if he fed in the morning, they might not want to come for the grain in the afternoon.

Went down and got 2.....5 gal buckets of chicken feed.... mixed one and filled the turkey's feeder... the others had some feed so will get then situated tomorrow afternoon sometime. It is supposed to rain/showers on Tues into Wed so want to not have to do feeders then.

The wind had laid down so I finally went out and got the papers/junk cardboard pieces and all that burned. I will go back out in a little bit and recheck... having the barrel is nice so I don't have to sit there after it gets burned way down.... it is contained so UNLIKELY to spread like with an open pile..... The ground is still damp too... One more thing done for now... At least now I will burn papers more frequently that I have the barrel to do so.

I sat and did some paperwork for the dairy from last week... there is a problem with some numbers assigned to the calves, and trying to get this straightened up for this farmer... his milker that does all this, unfortunately is getting things wrong sometimes... I think she is getting forgetful and messing up... but this has to get straightened out or he may as well throw all his records in the garbage.... because he is going to sell out in a few years... and the way things are now... there are heifers that have a sire and dam listed that are not their sire and dam... someone got the wrong ID number assigned to the wrong calf... and it got out of hand... Looks like it happened the last fill in tester they had...couple years ago, before I went back in there... skipped calving dates... all sorts of stuff... and then she transposes numbers sometimes, so I have to ask about some of it... and then when they tag the calves, sometimes they use the wrong button on a calf and it has been assigned to a different calf... I told the owner that these calves need to be tagged as soon as they are put in the calf barn... not go do them once a week... doesn't matter if they are put in hutches according to calving dates.. they should be tagged AS SOON AS they come to the barn....
GRRRRR. One reason I am doing all this... is because when I need a calf or something, I will have a "favor owed to me"... and will nudge him a little if I need to... I don't expect something for nothing... but I fixed your records, you help me out with a calf reasonably priced in exchange.....

So, I am in and going to put away the dishes I did earlier and do the gallon glass jars that are waiting to get done... couple other dishes and will be caught up with them...

DS called and said he fed the hay and that it would be good if I can get some of the heifers and their calves in tomorrow... they have to go to the barn to get banded and shots and then he will bring them back to the pasture that is "behind my house" ; across the dirt road there... with the bull. He has to go get that bull from another pasture... he has been out there on vacation since there was grass there... after all the cows "presumably" got bred... they will get checked soon... but leaving them there as long as there is grass... they are fat as hogs and their calves look good. The calves will get weaned when they are brought out of the pasture, cows preg checked and calves kept at barn so they can get on silage and then as soon as he gets all the other ones back here, he will have another group to sell in Feb...

A different guy is coming to look at the 22+/- steers in the barn tomorrow. The first guy that said he wanted them, offered a real low ball price... this other guy we saw at the stockyard Friday; he has bought our calves in the past also... and said he would pay what he was paying for some on Friday... which is more than the other guy... at .10 / lb...difference, that is another $50 per 500 lb calf... it was less than what DS had been thinking, but prices have dropped the past 2 weeks again... so if the guy tomorrow likes them... he can have them.... $50 per calf adds up... 20 calves that is another $1000..... will see how tomorrow goes...

Saw where there was a mouse on the counter... so set the trap... cats do NOT get up on the counters... caught it, so I reset it in case there are more... do NOT have the problem I had in the past before I got the cats and they started coming in the house at least part of the time... Thank you Silkie and Socks. Great deterrents and mouse catchers...