Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Vertical? What brands? I saw on HD's website that they had one but out of stock. Now it says they don't carry it anymore.

I will check when I go in there again in the next couple of days. Need to do a little shopping next trip out so I will check on them. I

 

[farmerjan]

I have seen a couple on Walmart's web site.... 6.5 and 7 cu foot... one I think was an RCA and another was an Artic King or something like that. I don't remember if they were in store ones or order and delivery... seems like some were delivery only.
I got a Midea that is convertible from a fridge to a freezer... 21 cu foot they just offered.... used to be only a 13 cu ft or a 17 cu ft.... from Lowes, free delivery and no finance for 12 months on my Lowes card... as long as I pay it off before the end of the 12 months... have to make a minimum payment on my charge card anyway if I charge anything else... so I pay off the charges every month, and a small amount on the freezer.... and it is listed separately on the bill so I know exactly what I owe on the deferred finance amount and the regular amount. I will pay off the bulk of it closer to when it is due... use their money for awhile. Pretty easy to do...
It is made in Thailand, better than China, but ..... I needed one for the beef I am going to get done; and the 85 chickens that are in the freezer at the fairgrounds that I have to move here....so... I invested. One of mine is real old and I always worry about what if one goes bad... so I hope that I will be in good shape now, so if something happens, I can juggle things around in an emergency. Plus take advantage of any opportunities to buy something in bulk. A friend had one go bad last year and scrambled to find one, so he didn't lose everything.

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday.... long day, sore from the PT because it is so easy to overdo it in the pool because of lack of gravity... everything moves more so you "push it"....
Left house at about 8:30... tired last night. Got truck and trailer, went to PT.... got a shower after the pool to wash off the chlorine from the pool, left and went to farm and got my cow. Haven't seen her in over a year... she has gotten BIG... and her udder is getting lower... more "saggy"... not many lactations left in her I am afraid. In very good flesh. Due to calve within the next 2 weeks. She is Holstein/Guernsey cross... going to ask them to breed her back guernsey after she calves and all hoping I can get at least one more heifer out of her. She is bred holstein now .....
Took her to the farm where my 6 cows are milking. It is 1 1/2 hrs away from this farm. Stopped and got a subway sandwich for lunch. Got up there about 2:30 or so. Got her unloaded and got 4 of the 6 calves loaded then went to their other farm down the road and got the other 2 calves. They look really good.... bulls not banded yet. DS has a guy interested in them... he is going to call him and if he is interested they need to get them now. Otherwise, the bulls will go to the stockyards while prices are high.
They probably weigh 275 -350.... most born in Nov and the one born about dec 10th? .....2 heifers are a little smaller( normal) and one bull calf is a little smaller but he is a month younger... DS and I talked about price, and I said at least 1.25-1.50 lb.... told him that the farmer said his neighbor sold some (holstein/angus x) last week and got 1.95 /lb. .... they were about 300 lbs..... totally ridiculously high.... I think that we mostly agreed on 450/head for the bulls. Not worrying about weighing them if they get sold right out of the barn in a couple days.... Not really pushing to sell the heifers, but they could go.... and if this guy isn't interested.... they will go this coming saturday while they still look this good. He has a couple of sheep that need to be sold too, so I could take them too. I almost want to take them to the sale... but would lose most of the day to take them and wait on them to be sold and all. Hoping this guy takes them just to make it easy... them I will keep the heifers with a few others that are there....

So got back about 5. They left a message, and said the truck was done... had the oil changed and greased and all....just left the truck and got the car last evening....told them I would be by maybe this evening if I got a ride and to leave the keys in it and then I would come by and pay for it tomorrow....
Hung the load of clothes out that I did and forgot to hang out .... talked to Deb as we were going out to eat around 7 and said that I could go any time if she didn't want to wait til 7... so she said she could come up in 15-20 min or so. Gave me enough time to hang the clothes, change shirt, comb my hair... so good. We went to pick up the truck after eating and got back here about 8 or so.
Good Day.
Tomorrow I will be working at the stone house and try to load some stuff and bring up in the car since there is a chance of showers off and on. If the clothes get wet, it is supposed to be sunny on Thursday so they will get rain water rinsed, then dried.... Going to wash out the 2 freezers so they will be ready to be moved whenever.... then put some boxes in the car to come up.

Have tentatively decided to put the furniture that I want to sell/yard sale in the carport.... I have a couple of the panels of T-111 type siding that I got to close part of the back of the carport and hadn't gotten them up yet.... get them up and then can put the stuff in there and tarp it so it doesn't get wet.... until I can get to do a yard sale in a month or two... Gravel on the ground so no wet dirt or anything.... Save me from renting a storage space since I can't find a "rental" type of pod or conex locally.... and all the other boxes will go up in the attic storage I guess.
Got one more place to try tomorrow.... Would rather have them in a totally enclosed "box" of some sort....
Haven't gotten the couple more plastic totes to put winter clothes in either. Did not want to stop with the truck and trailer and cattle in it....

Sunny and nice today... T-shirt comfortable....
Time to call it a day....

 

[Baymule]

You have had a busy day. Get some rest.

 

[farmerjan]

Wed, after noontime. Got up late, and as expected ache. Oh well, fact of life anymore. Cleaned/washed down the one freezer and then took some out of the other one to put in this one and plugged it back in. There is a whole section of frozen ice/frost stuff in the other one and some stuff even stuck in it still. Some time the door did not get shut or got jarred open, and it frosted/froze up. I had found it and pushed it shut but didn't realize it had frosted up so much. So, I got out all that I could and left it open to thaw. I should be able to get it cleaned out this evening.
Loaded some boxes on the truck and several bags of garbage. Dropped them at the dumpster and came up to the house. Got the few boxes off the truck, and then went and brought in the clothes off the line because it has been partly sunny and clouds, so they were dry.

Sat down to eat some late lunch... eating the baked potato I brought home last night and the shrimp I didn't eat. I usually eat about half of what I get and then I get another meal at home. No sense in stuffing myself and then being miserable.
Now I am going to go out and see if I can get the lawn/tractor mower tire off and take it down and drop it off to see if it can get fixed... it has a tube so might need a new tube. But there is no jack here so I am going to see if I can just use a 2x4 to just pry the front of the mower up and slide something up under it so I can get it off. I had a small jack that somehow jim ruined that I used to keep it in the truck. I don't know what he did, but it is stuck in an up position, can't get the thing turned so it will let down.... and then he left it in the back of the truck where it got rained on and all rusted up. I was so P.O.ed.... so it is not useable and I don't know if I will be able to get it loosened up or working. It was not a real expensive one and I probably should just go buy a new one. The warmer than normal weather has made the grass really grow. Supposed to get more rain/showers this afternoon and evening, so it will just get it growing more.

Had to sit to eat and take a knee break. Going to see if I can get some more done outside.

 

[Ridgetop]

I had a small jack that somehow jim ruined

Good ol' Jim There is always a Jim! Glad he is not doing anything for you anymore, You can only fix so much of his "repairs"! LOL

Too bad you don't have good fencing. DS could bring over a couple of his sheep to do the cutting for you. LOL Never asked - what kind does he have?

 

[farmerjan]

@Ridgetop , he has White Texas Dall sheep... "smaller sized Bighorn type sheep" more or less. They are at his house now... he is down to only 6 or 7 ewes right now... lost some to the coyotes last year... I think they have all lambed and all had singles this year I think. He sells the rams to a hunting preserve in PA that has hunts there.... and anything that is culled for their heads, or anything else goes to the local stockyard... The rams are usually at least 3-5 yrs old to get enough horns for sale. They have to be measured and all that. They are just a hobby now with him...with the GF he has really gotten away from his sheep and even his chickens.

Fencing is on the list for prices etc.... DS could do it but I might wait forever for that; and he starts things and doesn't get them done. I'm tired of that kind of life. It would be nice to have some fencing though for a few of the sheep to be able to be rotated up here.... BETTER YET.... a few of my calves here for a little while... OH WELL....

Going to see if I can find someone to do some of the weed eating because I cannot stand for very long to do much. And I want the rest of the work done that the tree guy didn't do...

Took the wheel off the tractor/mower.... down to the co-op. He said he would get to it tomorrow and I said that was fine. He did give me the name of a guy that does lawn mowing... I am going to talk to him and see if he is interested.... and explain that I mostly need the weed eating done, some mowing when I am too busy... like maybe every other or every 3rd week.... and see if he does any other "yard work".... All these wood chips to start getting spread out under the trees and such.

Watered the peach trees again today. We are getting a little rain, had a pretty good steady rain for a bit.. but they are saying only about 1/4 inch or so total expected. One of the trees is getting some nice green leaves... the other 2 had more of the blossoms and they are not opening much. Which is probably for the best. Hoping they will fall off and then the leaves will come out so the tree will get some new roots growing.

Had a calf out again next door. Been a problem the last several days. Fixed a few spots... but it turns out it is going down on it's knees to reach out to get grass under the fence, then pushing his way out. Whoever was so STUPID to build this fence... they did hi-tensile... NOT ELECTRIFIED.... which makes hi-tensile totally useless in my opinion. Then someone added a couple of strands of barbed wire in the middle ... but the bottom 2 strands are still hi-tensile... he is stretching it and getting out. Right on the busy road side.... GRRRR....

DS called the friend, priced the calves at $425 each if he takes all 4..... said he wants them... hopefully they will be gone by the weekend. MAYBE not as much as I could get at the stockyard.... but that is always an "IF" and he is going to cut them himself.... So no work in them at all, no hauling to the sale, no commission to pay which would be about 20-30 a head... just a couple days feed, I hope. Fair for what prices are bringing in general.
Now this is where I would like to bring the 2 small heifers to graze the grass at the house.... If I had a fence even down the one side, I would maybe try some electric netting.... to make an area to graze.... I would like to get the line between me and the Christmas tree farm fenced as they have a "nursery section" where they have real small trees started.... and I certainly do not want ANYTHING to get over there to mess it up. Good fences make good neighbors and all that....I am going to put in a gate though.... never know if I could get another acre or something in the future... or who knows.... so will put in a gate just in case....I think I will use sheep and goat wire... 4x4 fencing instead of the normal cattle field fencing.... might put a hog pen in the very back area and it would be sturdier for that... plus help to keep the chickens in up here. Have to get out the plat and get an idea of the length....

Those calves would pay for a good section, because I know that DS won't get to it.....he has to put up a carport for her, then the hay barn he wants to put in at the farm if the purchase goes through... if not for some reason, then he said he would put it up at his barn up the road... But it looks like it is going to happen for doug's farm... and then there are the culverts that washed out so bad, fencing there to replace/rebuild/fix.... and a well to put in....

Do you know that the treated wood fence posts here have gone from $7 to $12???? ... he nearly had a fit. Had to buy some for some repair at another field.... The cotton picking steel fence posts are way up too.....plus wire is higher....

Okay, ate some crab cakes out of the freezer... going down the hill to get the rest of the stuff out of the one freezer and into the other... so I can wash it down in the morning... and maybe sort through some more stuff. Lots to do... just take my pick.

Left the key on, on the car, when I went to put the windows up, yesterday evening, so the battery was dead today. Put the charger on it, so will take the truck down the hill tonight....

 

[Baymule]

Oh the joys of fencing. I’m glad we used the non climb horse wire. But all the mistakes we made are showing up now and I need to redo, stretch some sections. The first horse pasture in particular is pretty crappy. But our neighbor volunteered to put it up, I was working on the house and we were under a crunch. It was a blessing so I’m not complaining.

 

[Ridgetop]

Definitely check into the nylon netting. The fences are expensive but they work. You have to use heavier posts on the corners, and buy extra posts. We used a solar charger and electric webbing for DS3's replacement calves and even once they were about 12 months old they respected it. Just make sure you get a heavy enough charger. We made our posts out of rebar that we pushed into the ground. We cut 1" PVC pipe cut to go over them. Then we glued PVC TEEs on top to run the wire through. You could probably use 3/4" or maybe even 1/2" PVC to save money on the connectors. If you go this way, buy the contractor packs of TEEs. Much cheaper. We have hard clay and shale here so putting the support posts in was difficult but once the posts were in we just led the calf/cow out to the electric wire corral and let her graze. This was back when we had good grass coming up on the field during the years of good rainfall. At night DS3 put her back in her small corral and fed her some hay and grain. The fence was easy up and easy down.

 

[farmerjan]

Just a few thoughts. Spent yesterday just sorting through things at the house. Had a headache and it had rained Wed eve and Thurs morning....so just spent the time getting things done in the house. Spent some more time this morning, took some stuff to the dumpster and brought a few smaller boxes up here.
Going back down to do some more after I go get the tractor tire at the co-op.
Also need to take a pointed shovel. Landlord went and cut off the roses at the ground.... STUPID IDIOT. So I am going to dig the climbing one that was outside the window and the 2 in the front of the house. He just.......... . Whatever.
Guess he thinks that he can be around the house and all even when I am there still.

So other than just working more dilligently......not alot new. Haven't had a lot of time to spend on the computer, trying to keep up with some of the threads; but things will get better in about 2 weeks. But then there will gardening, and haying.....
We had .65 inch of rain in the rain gauge.... so a good rain. Temps are cooler, may hit 60 today but it has been cooler and breezy the last 2 days since the rain stopped. Sunny out and it is nice to see spring.