Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

I think they need to call this the 500 YEAR rain. It is 39 and raining. Has been raining all night. Heard it steady on the roof. It looks to be a sopping mess out there. Will go out in a little bit to check the rain gauge. Luckily I got up to the calves and nurse cows yesterday so they will be okay today. They had hay out in the field too. The chickens probably have plenty of water in the bucket too, but I will check that when I go out.

BUT...... Drum roll...... the next 7 DAYS after tomorrow.... they are showing mostly SUNNY SKIES. PLEASE say it is true...

 

[Rammy]

I bet they have. Im just wondering if with all this rain, we get a dry summer. Dont remember the year but we got no rain from like March til November. Was really hard to find hay that year. After that I bought double just in case.

 

[farmerjan]

Yeah, @Mike CHS that is the thing. I also worry that it might "rain it's self out" and then be nothing over the summer. We will be making all the hay we can as soon as we can. The # of people wanting sq bales just keeps going up. Going to maybe do a little more culling this year too.
We will have some hay left going into the season again. And hoping that it will be wet enough as a hold over to get some of the sorghum/sudan up and growing as it gets alot of growth fast and makes a good hay. We are thinking that we will be able to do a better job of making sq bales here, by not having to go so far to a couple of places we have lost, that we only made mediocre hay on. And if there is any hay to be bought, we usually will get some as an insurance policy against a dry year. It has helped that when we pick up some hay, that we have had people call looking for some and we can usually make a few dollars on it.
I think that there are going to be a few people selling out too as the prices are not great and they get tired of fighting it. Plus the age of some just saying enough is enough. We'll see. But having enough for at least 1 &1/2 years is a good thing. I'd like to have a place to store round bales inside so that we could store at least 3 months worth inside, and feed from the outside storage first. We would have less "waste" that way, and that would make the hay go further too. Granted the "waste" really helps the ground putting back organic matter and the added "fertility" that went into growing the hay, but in a dry year, less "waste" translates into more available for the animals to digest.

 

[Bruce]

If we get more than one day without rain we need to bring the sheep in trim hooves.

And if you don't get that one more day? How many days of dry do you need before you can trim hooves?

Worst part is our entrance road...a thin film of mud on it and I bet I've got 300lbs of dried or wet mud being carried around under my truck.

Sounds like it is time to break out the pressure washer.

Will go out in a little bit to check the rain gauge.

Don't bother, it will read "WAY too much".

 

[Mike CHS]

And if you don't get that one more day? How many days of dry do you need before you can trim hooves?

I can do hooves without any dry days but it's a Mike comfort factor where I like to be able to take a good look at their glands without them being covered in mud.

 

[farmerjan]

It is about 6:30 Sunday eve. Most have seen the post about @Latestarter . I did not know him personally, but had gotten to know him here. I am still in shock and those who knew him better than me must be reeling. His good humor, and calm easy going way will be very missed. I am so sorry that he didn't have many long years with the goats, when he worked so hard to get moved and established with. I also feel for his dogs, especially Mel, as they will not be able to understand what has happened.

I can only feel even deeper hurt for his family. I could tell he loved his son coming and helping, and the daughter he was so protective of.

Life here continues, although it feels like we are about to be blown away. The rain stopped, the grey clouds parted and we have had a mostly sunny day. We had 1.6 inches of rain over the 2 day period of Fri and Sat. It seemed like more. The wind came up quickly, it had actually seemed warm for a little bit. But it has been blowing like all get out. It is drying the surface of the ground a little. Tomorrow will be much better where the wet doesn't lay. There is still water running everywhere, down the fields, down across the road where I don't every remember seeing it before. Hopefully we will get mostly sun all week, before another possible front comes through.
There is talk that our weather pattern is changing to a "la nina"..... WHAT.... that means a wet spring???? Like we haven't had enough WET EVERYTHING??????

Condolences to @Devonviolet and @Baymule 's families especially for I know they are feeling the loss.

 

[Baymule]

Thank You Farmerjan.

I hope you get sunshine and wind. The wind will help dry up the pastures.

 

[Mike CHS]

You have more wind coming your way based on what we had today but at least the sun was shining.

 

[Devonviolet]

Yes! Thank you @farmerjan!

We had wind yesterday, and rain two days in a row. Although it only amounted to 1/4”. Today, the sun was shining and the wind was minimal.

 

[RollingAcres]

High wind here last night and today. It rained early morning Sunday and everything turned into ice. Driveway was like an ice skating rink, not fun! Animals had to wait yesterday morning, had to get the driveway salted first(DH did it) before I can even walk down to the cow barn or walk up to the chicken coop.