Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Baymule]

Sounds like a good day!

 

[farmerjan]

Been busy today and getting too late to post as I need to be back in the barn to test at 5:30 a.m.; so will have to wait til I have a bit of time to post. Maybe tomorrow but a herd let me know today that they want Wed afternoon, so I will be busy with this herd and then the other one later on.
Hope everyone is staying safe from the fires on one end and the tornadoes and rain on the other end. Has anyone heard from @Jesusfreak101? Not sure which part she is in.

 

[Baymule]

You are busy, busy, busy this week! I just sent @Jesusfreak101 a text, asking her to check in on the coffee thread.

 

[Ridgetop]

I will go check that thread.

 

[farmerjan]

Been a long day. 46 this morning... Started raining while in the barn testing around 6:30 or 7 a.m. Rain pretty much all day.. Got up to 55 but this afternoon it got chillier feeling. There looks to be about an inch in the rain gauge but I didn't get real close or dump it. Rain is supposed to taper off tonight, tomorrow is supposed to be warmer then temps down in the 50's for a few days and nights back into the low 30's or maybe colder....
It is squishy out there to walk this evening. Locked in the chickens and they were in the crate already.
Tested this morning, got done with the computer stuff at the house, got the meters off the milk line after finishing the cycles. Went to get milk at the farm I get it and got his info on the cows since I was going to the farm to test where we run his registered cows through for info. Came home, put milk in glass jars in fridge... Packed the samples from this morning's farm and got bottles etc in trays and had to leave. Dropped off samples for UPS and went to the other farm. Had to change all the brackets for this farm of course...
We tested and I was getting tired and legs sore. Came home and it was still raining.

Carried the samples in the house, and I ate some leftovers DS dropped off. GF didn't care for it... it was a pork chop with sweet potatoes and biscuits on top.... layered I guess you could say. Not bad. DS said the friend of hers made it for them, and of course GF won't eat left overs and DS said he has eaten it for 3 nights... thought I might like to try it as he has had enough... Heated it up and it was okay... Not something I would probably make for myself... but still not bad. Very filling. I am not fussy...

Going in to take a shower and wash my hair and go to bed. Got to get the samples packed sometime so they can go out tomorrow. I have a PT appt at 9 a.m. so will have to get up and get going. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice out. Think I will just go to PT and come straight home. Nothing pressing I have to go do. Am debating on going to the exotic animal sale tomorrow night... will see how much I am hurting tomorrow. Too tired to make an intelligent decision tonight. The ground will be too wet to do much outside...

Maybe by tomorrow I will fill in around the edges of what else I may have forgotten to post...

 

[Baymule]

Exotic animals sale sounds like fun!

 

[farmerjan]

Well, here I am. After I got off the computer, I went in and decided to get a shower. WTH.... no hot water. REALLY... yep... no hot water. It is like 10 pm.... okay, went in and heated some water on the stove to wash up and went to bed. I am tired and sore after working 2 herds yesterday... sure, had a break inbetween, but still over 7 hours on concrete on my feet testing. Got up this morning and checked on the breaker box. It didn't seem like it had kicked it out, but I flipped it off then back on. Plenty of cold water.... got dressed to be at PT at 9. Went out and opened up chickens, and it was pretty foggy. Sometimes it is foggy here on the ridge and not so much down the hill. But left for PT and it was like a cream soup.... fog that was pretty thick and very dense. Like that all the way to PT and the girl there said it was like that when she got to work at 8.
Did PT and they used heat on the right knee/ham string/tendons etc. It seemed to really help so I am going to have to start using more heat on it and doing more exercises daily I guess.

Left there and had a call from my farmer from yesterday looking for info on a test on milk for selling cows. They are having "help" problems and may be cutting the milking numbers... had to make phone calls, leave messages... all that. Just now got a call back and then called the farmer... all takes time.

Just made an egg salad sandwich for lunch and ate. I checked the water and I have hot water... SOOO..... It will need to be looked into if it does it again, because it means something is tripping the breaker... maybe it was just from the rain... we had some thunder... something in the electric even though we did not lose the power...But for now, I am going to do the dishes and all. Hope that it was just a "blip" but suspect there will be more problems down the road. My life doesn't go that easy.

So, going in to do the dishes, and get some stuff moved out into the cupboard. Then I can actually have some space to move around. I need to get some things just picked up and put away and straightened out.
Yesterday, I had put out the flats that I had put the seed starting soil in, to get watered by the rain, and the flat with those flat peat "pellets" so they would swell and then I can plant some seeds. Brought them in the house earlier and will try to get some work done on them, later on.
Got to go in and pack the milk samples, so I can get them shipped out today.
I thought the sun would finally come out and burn off this for but it hasn't. The forecast was for 70 today... NOT at this rate... Might clear off later but I am not holding my breath. So, the ground is squishy so I will be staying in and working inside today. No sun to dry it out . We had 9 tenths inch in the rain gauge this morning... so it was a good rain yesterday without all the problems some other areas had.

Lunch break if over...

 

[Bruce]

What types of animals do they sell at the exotic sale?

 

[farmerjan]

Hey. Got home from testing a bout 8:30... it was a long afternoon. Knee ligaments, tendons, muscles, and ham string are not happy. I left here at 11:30 to get gas and all before work; set up and 5 hrs in the parlor... then "paperwork" (computer) that the owners didn't get done ... which is his job since he is on that program, as well as punching in milk weights and all...
Not enough adjectives ... but I did it and he is good to go for another 5-6 weeks. Supposed to call the first of May....

I will address the different breeds/animals that were at the sale tomorrow @Bruce ... Didn't want you to think I was ignoring you. I did go after all, and it was interesting and tiring... got home Thurs night about midnight....
One of the elements in the hot water heater must have quit as I have some hot water but it doesn't last as long and then it is more lukewarm...so it will have to be looked at. At least that is a reason why it probably kicked the breaker and it wasn't tripped so far that I noticed it, when I flipped it off then back on. Need to get it figured out before the other element dies. Maybe DS can get in there and at least tell me what I need or if the water heater is in decent enough shape to warrant replacing the element.... and if so, might do both at the same time so no one has to crawl down in/under there anytime soon again.... I will mention it tomorrow.

I'm done for the night. It is already after 11. Ate an egg salad sandwich and a glass of milk and I am headed in for a shower and bed.

 

[farmerjan]

Okay. It is too cold with the wind this morning to do much outside. So, I am in.

The exotic animal sale was not really all "exotic" but it was mostly for all the stuff that 'backyard" farmers and such like and have... as well as stuff that just doesn't have any other "sale" that they would appeal to people that like the "odd ball stuff" and that the regular stockyard sales the stuff goes for pennies because it is the wrong type of buyers.
They had some horse tack, there were a bunch of rabbits, there were some "sugar gliders", guinea pigs. Then they had baby kids and baby lambs... that brought in the 35 to 125 range... all depending who was interested. I am talking bottle baby little ones. Bunches of goats. A lot of nigerians and just "brush goats", a few La Manchas.... see what you all taught me about different breeds. The weirdest thing is that I never saw a lamancha with horns and they look terrible like that. I knew people always talked about dehorning goats... somehow I thought lamanchas were polled.... they are UGLY with the horns and no ears. I am not a fan of no ears anyway... but that was just weird. There were a few Nubians or crosses. Most were sold as singles and were sold by the head. I would say in the 30/hd for some small ones to as much as 300/hd for bigger fleshier animals. Several different buyers.
Same for the sheep. Most of the babies brought in the 50-150 range a few less but I can remember farmers giving away lambs years ago so they didn't have to bottle feed. With the price of milk replacer, there is no way these bottle babies come out on the black side of the ledger..... LOTS of ram lambs and buck goat kids... females brought more.
Then they go into the baby calves... Mini zebu cattle... the calves were in the 300-1,000 range. I thought it was totally outrageous but then I am a farmer for a living type of person and not a "specialty/novelty" farmer. No offense... but I think they are so ugly they are cute. There were probably 15 of them.... didn't know we had so many people with them. I cannot for the life of me understand why you would take a calf off the mother except that people want to bottle raise them... or unless the cows don't do a good job???? Y'all don't have to ever worry about me branching off into that type of cattle. People went nuts over them.
There was one heifer... pretty much full grown... that was a true GYR ... that is a type that is somewhat like a Brahma... but it is a milk breed that I think was from India originally. They have the LONGEST narrow faces and LONG LONG DANGLING ears... She brought over 3,000. She would have made an interesting contrast to my longhorn in the pasture.... quite the "lawn ornament"... and NO, I did not buy her..... but she was rather pretty in a homely way.

They had quite a few scottish highland cattle, some miniature herefords, some dexters and some crosses; some brought high prices in my opinion... but then I do not know the mini cattle market; a belted galloway heifer that brought 750 that was a nice one... and then mules, donkeys and some horses...
Then they got into the larger "oddities" of cattle; some devons that were not near as meaty as the ones I was accustomed to from up north where they are a "dual purpose breed" but many are used for draft animals. Also some longhorns and Watusi which have big thick horns and some full size zebu cattle and such. A few lineback and white park cattle too.
Normally they have chickens/poultry and geese/ducks too, that get sold early, but with the outbreak of the avian flu in flocks, chickens were not accepted.
The place was packed. One of the guys on a dairy I test was there and he had saved 2 chairs... one for a friend and an extra in case... so I got a great seat.
I did not take the trailer. If I had, I would have gotten 2 cows each with a calf by its side... that were supposed to be crosses of montbeliarde and holstein...or something like that.... they went cheap. They looked like a small b&w dairy cow but were terribly thin... calves looked like jerseys...They would have been good to breed back to angus and would have made a little money if they put on some weight. I would say they needed 3-400 lbs each... to get them looking decent. Kinda sorry I didn't get them... but oh well....
Now I have a feel for it. The friend that I wound up sitting with, said that they don't normally have this many lambs and kids... but it is that time of year when everyone is having babies, and the easter season and all.

So, I came home with my hands, and my money, in my pockets...

There is sun and clouds out and the wind gusts are rattling the tin on the house and the carport. The samples are in the house to pack and sometime I have to go out and put the rest of the meters in the car and the rest of the hoses I will need for monday. We tested over 240 yesterday and monday will be 250 or so... but their parlor is twice as big... a double 12 as opposed to a double 6 yesterday... and we should be done in about 3 hours or so. I have to stay on my "toes" to keep up there.

Time to get something accomplished here.