CLSranch a journal to compensate my lack of memory.

[Mini Horses]

If it wasn't for bad luck.....there you are!

Really can't do much work on it until home. That's a mess, like you don't already know!

 

[Baymule]

Who knew a blow out could do all that damage??

 

[CLSranch]

I finished in IA last week and finished in NE friday. I head back to IA 4 hrs away from here for 3 days then back to NE office for a couple of days then back to where I'm at, or 30 miles south. I'll leave the camper here for either job. I hope next week's IA job goes smoothly.

I maybe be able to go home next weekend since I'll be a little closer to home, less than 500 miles anyway.

 

[Ridgetop]

Had a couple blowouts on our 5th wheel but never blew out the floor! We did do a lot of damage to the wheel well one time. Blowouts suck - not only the $$$, the damage, but the time lost as you wait for assistance to change the tire on the rig, then the time lost in the nearest town to buy another tire (or 2).

 

[CLSranch]

I still have a crushed truck bed (not the whole side) from a blowout becuase I don't want to take the down time to get it fixed. I also had to cut the exhaust tip off because it was crushed as well.

All with tires that still had plenty of tread.

 

[CLSranch]

@CLSranch ... hi to you too... hope you have a safe trip home.... How long will you be between jobs?

I hope everyone is having a blessed Memorial day. I got to come home for the weekend. Head out in the morning for a weld test 3hrs south of the house. The job is 6 1/2 hours in the other direction but closer to home than the last one, and the company has the job that is just starting only 1 1/2 hours from home, that would be nice.

 

[farmerjan]

I hope everyone is having a blessed Memorial day. I got to come home for the weekend. Head out in the morning for a weld test 3hrs south of the house. The job is 6 1/2 hours in the other direction but closer to home than the last one, and the company has the job that is just starting only 1 1/2 hours from home, that would be nice.

Best of luck with the test and safe travels. Hoping this gets you in the door for the job closer to home....

 

[Baymule]

What farmerjan said!

 

[CLSranch]

Been home for a week and finally got a few things done. Weed eated? the garden, some of which was looking perfect for a hay field, replanted most of it. Got the 9n to stay running. Had to take a good battery out of the "good" truck put 1 in the 01' and put that battery in the 9n. I guess the alternator wasn't keeping up after a jump start. I really needed to put out some fertilizer months ago but finally got it done now on the west side.

Was going to give the yard side 2 weeks to grow, switch the animals over, then bush hog and spray the east pasture while the animals spent a week on this side. The heifer is starting to bag up well so I split the cattle off and put them in the yard side and left the horses on the east side. The west side is still mostly dirt from the winter.

I keep reading about all the rain. We got .25" in the last 2 storms combined. After replanting I put the sprinkler on the garden for 2 hours and you couldn't tell the next morning. Last week the one storm had almost 1" on each side of us. It split, went around us and we got less than .10. After it and running the sprinkler in the yard by the rain gauge for 3 hours we got 3/8". That's how last year was but we have a better chance this weekend.

I've been letting the hose run or the sprinkler in a few places and going to the fire barn and getting 200gal at a time on the truck and dumping it in the really dry spots. Last July I ran the water bill up to $500 trying to get it to stay alive. Hoping to be ahead of it this year and getting the roots down a little deeper before this July. Where the grass is to short to provide shade on the ground the grass was dying. That .18" yesterday was great even if we needed 1.18" 2 weeks ago.

Had way to many thistle to dig up when I got home, so before I got the 9n going I took the lawn mower out to the pasture and ran them over where I could. Alot of that grass turned brown the next day.

 

[farmerjan]

Glad to hear you are getting a few things caught up at home. Being away so much has got to be real problem some times.
Any news on the job front? The welding test?

We got 1.3 inches one night, over 10 days ago... after only .6 all month in May when our normal rainfall is 3.5-4 inches in May... Most places near here got .6 to 1 inch if they were lucky and a few other places south got so much there was some flooding. It has been crazy. We are behind for the year about 4 inches on average... and our grasses here are not accustomed to drier conditions like your area.... we do not have normal "dryland" type conditions so any shortage of rain really affects our "native species"...

Hay has been average to less than average... the wheat/rye winter covercrop did real good and we got it all made as dry hay so it will really help. Lost 2 places for hay, sold, and one place we are not going back to after the way they did not do what they said and we got screwed out of the second cutting there.... But we are running fewer cow/calf pairs this year too... have cut back mostly through attrition; non-breeders, a few PITA ones that wouldn't stay in and we got tired of it.... we are carrying over the silage from last year... fed out the previous years bag of silage since the animals were tearing up the plastic... and the silage in the bunk we built last year has been untouched. So we have enough feed if it continues to get drier... but we need to make 2nd cutting sq bales of the orchard grass for the hay customers we have. Been alot of "chance of showers" that don't amount to more than a "get the road wet" type of rain.... but no accumulation. It barely washes off the dust. I was very thankful for the rain last Monday night since we had only had .2 inch up til that over 3 days and some of the places south of here got some down pours, others got nothing. Very spotty.