Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Oh, Sam likes to bow hunt so I told him that it will WONDERFUL for him to come hunt on my property where all the deer come across.... I ought to be able to get some venison that way and he sure won't have to go far....

 

[Baymule]

That is super fantastic that Sam tilled the garden! Ready to plant! Giving them the meat in addition to the money was very thoughtful on your part.

 

[farmerjan]

Sat and things aren't going along so great. Farm called and canceled because we did not get the rain so they are going to be planting corn and soybeans... yeah I get it... but it is getting hot so it would have been just as good for me to be in the parlor as here in the heat.

801 was being a bit cranky this morning... she is not taking the calves as well as she did last time... but I think she had her calf for over 24 hours before I got them in so she doesn't think she needs to have more than hers.... . Not that she is being mean, but just not the same all accepting cow she has been in the past. She does not mother them like the last ones. Not looking like they will be able to be turned out loose with her... so twice a day trip across the road....maybe when they get some more size on them and she just gets more tired of fighting them and they continue to get more aggressive.

Got another heifer I think is going to calve, found her down off by herself this morning, but not in any distress... just walked off down along the edge of the trees... nothing but a little discharge... don't want her to go down in the real thick stuff so didn't bother her... nothing to do really except keep an eye on her.

It has gone from 67 at dawn to 85 already at noon and the humidity is up. I did drag the 2 16ft cow panels down to the garden and now have to find some t-posts... DS has some at the barn I am sure.... and a sledge to get them in the garden. Maybe later when it cools off a bit. I need to get a couple of sticks and a string to lay out some rows too. I do really want to get these falling over tomato plants in... they will get buried in trenches some to take advantage of the long stems at this point.

Going to take the mower, cut the grass again around it so I can put up the electric netting to keep the chickens out at this point. And the deer.... going to mow along the 3 peach trees on the other side of the house and the well casing so DS can mow what he wants/can for the hay.
Was looking at the fence line along the side of the christmas tree lot. I want to put a gate in it somewhere... got to measure off the 330 ft and see where it comes to. That would be as good a place as any to have a gate. This fall/winter have got to trim back the huge white pine tree branches so I can get a straight shot from the road down the line... it is straight.
I have been looking at the fencing and thinking I should just go on and get some now... @Mini Horses mentioned that TSC had it, on sale, for about 90 less a roll than somewhere else but I cannot find the sale here... Have to talk to her about it... With my TSC card I can get 12 months no finance charge... won't get the 5% off... but sometimes the trade off is worth it.. have to do some figuring.
It would make it easier on the payment end... at least until I get the title straightened out on the explorer and sell it. Got 2 people interested and one of my farmers says he knows someone looking for one... I may just put it up for "auction".... see how much anyone is willing to pay for it. I had decided that I was going to put a 20,000 asking price on it... the JD Power paper the guy gave me at the ford place says 19,750 for private sale... in good condition... so asking 20,000 doesn't seem out of line. Especially if they will give me 17,000 at the lot for it... Yes, I will make money on it... but really, I don't want to make payments for 4 years and pay the huge personal prop taxes, on top of not getting 20 mpg..... If I liked it alot I would keep it but I don't. Why not make something on it and get out from under. Not my style vehicle.
That profit would buy A LOT of fencing.....

I took the allergy pill this morning and have had a dull headache all day so far. I do hate the way they make me feel some days. But the alternative of rubbing my eyes and watering and sneezing and blowing my nose every 3 minutes .......NOPE...

I'm bummed to not get this testing done today.
I also arranged to pick up feed from the feed store, that I like to feed my milking cows, and now will have to make a special trip into town to get it since they left it out for me as they are closed on weekends. I was going to swing by and pick it up on the way to test... Think I will make the trip now while I am not in the mood to do anything else. Got to go find some string to make my row markers too... Think there is some baling twine off some of the BIG sq bales...get it from one of my dairies to use for various things... they throw it out once cut off a bale... it is heavy plastic twine....it will make a good marker string to plant by... maybe get into some of that this afternoon since I can't test.

 

[farmerjan]

Got the baling twine, made a row marker and cut up the potatoes that I had in the house that were sprouting. It ought to give me a row. I ordered some others but they were all sold out so won't be growing too many other kinds. Oh well, that's not the end of the world. NEXT year I will be able to do more and different.
Got to go to the farm and get some t-posts so I can put up the one cow panel I have and see if I can find a pair of cutters to cut off part of another one that got mangled... I think I can save about half of it. I would like to get the tomatoes in before we get the rain. I will get on the mower in awhile and get the grass cut down real low so I can get the netting around the garden to keep the chickens out. I want to get green beans in too.

Deb is supposed to come by this morning, she has about 6 or so asparagus roots that someone gave her and she doesn't have a dedicated garden space at her house because of all the trees. She is trying to decide where she wants a garden and then take down a few of the scaty eight million walnut trees she has... of course then the soil will have to get "weathered" out because walnuts put out a "toxin" for other plants and nothing grows within a certain area around them. Only sunny places are the hayfields. So I said we could plant them here, in the L part where I am planning to have mine next year, that I had partly tilled... I want to take out the 2 rose o sharon bushes/trees and another bush and put the permanent bed for the asparagus and strawberries on the "house side" of the dogwood tree. Don't think I will disturb it at this point. It is not too big and since it has been there for 20 + years, think it must be a dwarf type? Not real big or tall. The sun comes in on the other side so it won't be shading much of the garden area anyway. The way the sun comes around, it might put a little shade on either side for a couple hours at most on either side. so I will leave it. "Not hurtin' anything"....

 

[farmerjan]

Deb got busy and didn't call me back right away. I went and did cow with calves, left her in eating and went to barn and got some t-posts... DS was there and gave me the post driver and a pair of bolt cutters to salvage the fence. Then I came back and let cow out and came home. Left Deb a message.
She finally called me back, she got side tracked doing stuff. so said she would come by with the asparagus roots... and did I want to go to lunch? So she came and we went to the place down the road.
The asparagus roots are the kind you get on the racks in Lowes or Walmart... I thought they were growing ones from a friend of hers. No big deal. I am soaking them in water as they look a little dried out... hope they will sprout. 3 purple and 3 mary washington. I plan to put in like 25 or 50 next year.... but this is fine. I will stick them in the L part along the outside edge there, and see if they come up. I will watch for some of the sales to start after memorial day... sometimes you can get them for next to nothing... so could add that way too.

Loaded the box of 2 rolls of electric netting on the truck, a v hoe and the cut up potatoes on the truck plus some cardboard that was just hanging around. Plus the t-posts and all. It is getting hot out there so it will wait for later this afternoon to go out and do much of anything. I am going to go through the box of seeds here, and see what there is... and hope to get some stuff planted this evening.

Of course now, the tractor just cranks and won't start...
maybe I flooded it... I did just refill the nearly empty tank. I will go out and try it in a little bit. I am just not a mechanic and really don't want to be either... but at times it would be nice to at least have an idea of what else to try....

Also when I went to town yesterday and got the feed, I took the explorer by 2 places... the one place was nice but they wouldn't even give me 11,000 for it and had no "suggestions" on what it would be worth on the open market... not very helpful to say the least. The other place....Chevy dealer actually.... talked to a pretty nice guy... he took it out for a quick drive... looked it up... and gave me some options. He said that they could offer me about 14,000 if the title was clear... I had explained the mileage thing... and the air conditioner is not working so if that was fixed 15,00., maybe... He said that the red flag is that it came from up north where they use alot of salt and chemicals on the roads, and there are little signs of rust underneath. He said that he would suggest that I advertise it privately, that 17 to 20,000 would be a good price for someone looking for a low mileage vehicle in very nice interior shape... and were not overly concerned about any little bit of rust. So, that is close to what the guy at the ford place said. I had decided to put 20,000 on it... but think I will do 19,000... once the title is fixed... and I stopped at the mechanic's and he said to come by one afternoon this week, and they will check out to see if the AC just needs recharging... and tell DS's GF's friend, and her sister... and they can let the 2 decide amongst themselves who wants it worst... tell them both that if they want to look at it and put in a bid, over th 19, then I will consider it...
Now if they will just do the title in a TIMELY manner....

It is getting hotter out...nearly 90..... have to water the plants on the porch table... hope to be able to get them planted later today. Really need to get the mower started and mow the grass down so I can get the fence up....

 

[farmerjan]

Well, am in for the night. It is still 70 but has cooled down some.
I watered the plants then decided to put them on the truck also so that I could get started planting. Hopefully the chickens will leave them alone. I got the one full 16 ft panel up, and planted tomatoes all along it. Cut the other one so all the bent up stuff is off... but I need another 16 ft panel more tomatoes... I have too many plants... hope that they do good and I can sell some here. Anyway, I was getting them organized so I could plant certain varieties together.. and making a garden plan on paper; got the pepper plants all ready to go in and went to go to the other end of the garden to pull the twine tight and the phone dings.... DS sent a text and said he got a bunch of the cows in so could I come help get them sorted and worked and he could take more out to pasture.
That ended my gardening for the evening. I went down to doug's barn, and we got in a whole bunch of the calves and some cows... sorted them and gave blackleg shots to the heifer calves and got the bull calves in, banded, and gave blackleg shots to them too.
Then got a few more down into the alley over there so he brought them in and we got a few more worked. Wound up with 7 cow/calf pairs with heifer calves that are going to one place, and 11 pair with bull calves. Plus there is one cow that he is sure has a heifer calf but she was screaming for the bull calves and he has seen her feeding at least 2 calves... so she is going to the pasture with "her heifer calf" with the rest of the bull calves because we want to make sure they are all getting fed okay. None of them look thin...and I wonder if he got the calves mixed up when they tagged them as babies in the field... but sometimes a cow will just want to take care of more... At least this way, they all stopped hollering when we put her and her heifer in with the bull calf group. There is only room for 3-4 more cows and heifer calves at the one place, so not a big deal. The place we are putting primarily bull calves, will just have a mixed group there. We will put all the ones with bull calves there, and then any others with heifer calves that are left over will go there too.
There are some nice muscular chunky calves we worked so I have to look up and see what bulls they are out of.
We also had a cow to calve out at a pasture later last year, she was checked open but was obviously bred... Her calf is pretty good sized and before putting her out to pasture with that bigger calf, we decided I ought to check and see if she had gotten bred back with that surprise calf on her... which would be okay... and she is pregnant... I felt legs/bones moving so she did not go out with the ones to get bred. The vet will have to check her and say how far along but I said she ought to be at least 5+ months. So she will be a fall calving cow this year if I am right. Just glad she didn't get put out and then have a new baby with the older one still nursing her.
Of course I got a whole stream of nice green grass cow manure all over my shirt and old jeans. They are now in the wash soaking with the other dirty jeans I had put in there last night.

The lady that "had to have the fields hayed off" by the first weekend in june, for the dog & sheep field trials, now says she is going to do the field trials in the pastures they are currently grazing on BECAUSE the hay is short and not very thick so it wouldn't be good to push cutting it yet.... GEE WIZ... we don't know what we are talking about... when we tried to tell her that there wouldn't be that much growth there... she seems to think that there is going to be tons and tons of hay.... oh it made XYZ last year blah,blah, blah....

So any way that was my day. I have that conference call thing tomorrow for work... I will have to go up and do the nurse cow and calves early and be home to get on the computer around 9 or so... I think it starts at 9:30 and runs til 1....
I really wanted to get in the garden... especially if there are going to be some rain/showers tomorrow... . Work is getting in the way of my life.....I have garden to plant and things to do....

 

[Mini Horses]

really wanted to get in the garden... especially if there are going to be some rain/showers tomorrow... . Work is getting in the way of my life.....I have garden to plant and things to do....

Oh, I'm so, so, so on this one with you!!! If you got a plant out. Further than me. Work?? Not today for me, moving the work to do tomorrow while it rains all day!

Late day and night rains didn't happen. So hitting it again today....planting something! It's cool and overcast, that's good for transplant. Rains tonight.

We both need to quit and emotionally can't. maybe "next" yr. or next one..

 

[Bruce]

he and his wife have sold the farm and moved further west, closer to family and away from the wetter area he had lived in for 20 or more years.

He was talking about that when he was still on here. With all the big rain storms lately I can only imagine what his old place will look like in the future. He had heart issues back then as well, just bulled his way through. Sounds like he's had time to make peace with not being on the land anymore.

If you chat with him again wish him well from me please.

One thing they haven't thought of... they get ag use taxes with us having the cattle there

You could mention it but they probably don't care. They could get automatic gates but I guess having to wait for them to open would be just too painful.

spends money like it was going out of style.... has had 2 bouts with cancer... she's nice but ditzy...

Maybe she figures her days are numbered, might as well enjoy it while she can.

 

[farmerjan]

Monday... afternoon. It started out at 61, cloudy and cooler than it has been. Kinda nice actually. Did the nurse cow and there was only 1 calf in due to the cooler conditions but I put the feed in the bunk... and he went right to eating some so I know they are starting to like it. Got back to the house at about 10 of 9 so I got the string and stretched it across the garden and got all the pepper plants in that I had. About 2/3 across. Then I had to come in for the call.
Got done with that and it had only sprinkled a little so I put on a long sleeved t-shirt and went back out to the garden. Got the potatoes in, there was 2 rows worth. Surprised me that there were that many pieces with eyes/sprouts. But then it started to "sprinkle" a little more seriously so I just got the string stretched for a new row and gave up. Maybe tomorrow? Have to see how much water we get. Forecast is 1-2 inches...
I really wanted to get the rest of the tomatoes in... but have to get another cow panel to do that. Found some old bean seed so am going to soak it and see if it sprouts at all. No sense in wasting my time planting it if it isn't going to sprout.
I also found some seed from last year so am sure it will mostly grow. Summer yellow squash and some zucchini...
Forgot about the asparagus so it will have to wait for after the rain.
Past time for some lunch. I will do dishes when I am in there then see about running the clothes through and then rewashing... the water looked pretty "dirty" from the soaking. May as well let them resoak in some cleaner water.
So, priorities are another cow panel and t-posts put in... then the rest of the tomatoes put in... then planting some more rows.... Then I have to go gather up some of the old hay left around at the hay piles and cart it home and mulch it all...

 

[farmerjan]

@Bruce, yeah they would not want to wait for automatic gates to open... besides that would use electricity... HEAVEN FORBID they run the bill up while they are not here. I had to use DC lights run off the truck battery when I was milking the cows there... and we can't use the water from the well... it will run up the electric bill... they turn off the well when they leave everytime...
She has always spent money like it was going out of style... her daughter complains how much stuff she buys that still sits in her closet with the price tags on it....
And yes, I get that why not enjoy it while you are alive.... but then why not redo the fence to make the whole place more "family friendly for them and not have to open and close gates between the house and the front "play/picnic yard... and the gates into the back area where she has all the flowers and a veg garden that the groundhog eats up. It is mean to kill them... but they will live trap them and then expect me or DS to kill them....
The husband is a RE agent... you would think that being current and up on the RE tax stuff would be important to them... Just a case of more money than common sense. Sad really.

I will mention to greybeard that I let everyone know his change of address and all and that everyone wishes him the best in the future. Yes, he has been just "soldiering through" the health issues over the years. Losing his twin really hit him and then he just got to the point after the last flooding and feeding the cows some hay a couple of times by BOAT, so they didn't starve until the water went down, that they had had enough. He really talked about getting a place with some land and having some cattle again... but he/they decided to go this route... can't blame him although it was a hard decision I am sure.