Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Bruce]

Weather forecast is calling for 40-60% chance every day until next monday.

You would think that the 40%-60% of NO rain might win out once in a while!
I don't think I could get up and to anyone's barn, including my own, by 2 or 3 AM.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss @farmerjan,

I am with Miss @Baymule -- I look forward to the time when you can retire. Maybe after all of your surgeries get done you then be able enjoy life without suffering any pain. That thought makes me smile for you.

 

[Baymule]

Miss @farmerjan,

I am with Miss @Baymule -- I look forward to the time when you can retire. Maybe after all of your surgeries get done you then be able enjoy life without suffering any pain. That thought makes me smile for you.

After my husband retired at age 70, I hauled him to the doctor. Open heart surgery, knee replacement, shoulder replacement, prostrate surgery and oral surgery later, he feels darn good and is a new man! He oughta be good for another couple hundred thousand miles.

Farmerjan, after you retire and get "all fixed up" you will be amazed at how good you feel. Life is good when every step does not cause stabbing pain.

 

[farmerjan]

Hey everyone. Yes, I am looking forward to the "after" ; life without constant pain in the walking joints. I am not looking forward to the surgery as I know I am an impatient type with healing. When I had my bad car wreck in 1989, I was pushing the limits of my 3x a week therapy trying to get my hand functional. But I also know I have slowed down a bit so maybe it won't be so bad.

I was up at 2:15 and left @ 2:30. In the barn and we were milking @ 3:40. Things went pretty smooth and I was done and out of there about 9:30 - 10:00 a.m. Stopped in town to pick up a part that my son had ordered. The guy at the equipment co. is a friend and we have been dealing with them for over 35 years. So he put it out in one of the vehicles there for me to pickup. When Michael gets it on the tractor .... it's the water pump for the big allis chalmers 7040 (?) it's the big older tractor that we use; we will take the old one back for the core charge and he'll pay for it. They don't get too worried about us not paying them. It is heavy as a battleship, but can control about any piece of equipment on some of the hills we make hay on; so it is worth it to us. It was one we had an opportunity to buy off a farmer that wasn't using it much and had done alot of different things to ti. Realize this tractor is probably at least 50 years old, but it has a cab so we have done alot of baling with the round baler on the couple of places that have some steep hills. It is like driving a tank, although it does handle pretty well. It started leaking water and it turned out the water pump was shot.

Then I came home, dropped it off, got water, and went and did the meat birds. The area where they are now is very overgrown, and the pen doesn't have much room for moving it. I am tramping down the weeds and such but there is brushy growth too. I am going to start letting them out in a few more days and let them forage in the undergrowth during the day on days I will be able to go back and get them locked in, in the evening. Gotta fix something up to keep them from following the "path of least resistance, and heading for the road; where I have enough room to be able to pull into the property, like a short driveway. . Haven't seen any predators, I'm sure there are possums and coons, but maybe they will only be a nightime concern. It is a "dog kennel" type of pen I got on sale at TSC a couple of years ago and pretty sturdy. 2x4 welded wire and is 5x10 maybe? I was letting the birds out here and they would just go back in in the evening. Maybe these will get with the program. For now I am using shavings to keep it from getting too yucky. @Baymule can attest that they do alot of poop.

I ate a couple sandwiches as I didn't eat at the farm and then laid down for a bit. Then, the thunder crack woke me up and we got some rain/showers. Got a couple of rains. Not a lot but still enough to get everything wet. We had had .35 on Tuesday, then just a whisper yesterday. Forecast for more like today for the next couple of days. I think my son is talking maybe cutting some on Sunday as then we are supposed to have 2-3 days of less chance of rain. We'll see.

Heard all the fireworks but I didn't go see any. I get headaches if I am too close to all that noise so I no longer go to watch. Our local fire dept is having a "4th" neighborhood celebration on Sat eve. H'burgs, hot dogs, just like a community get together. The local bank supplies ice cream and then they will do fireworks. One place where we cut hay, the owner plays in a local band and they will be there for a couple hours. I may go for a little bit.... shoot, I just remembered I am testing. Well, it isn't a late herd so might stop on my way home. The food isn't free, another way for the fire dept to raise more money, as it is volunteer, but the ice cream is the banks contribution to the community "party". But you don't mind kicking in a little for the h'burgs and such as it is the community spirit thing.

Have the 550 cow herd to test Friday aft...tomorrow. My son will be helping.
I went from not having any farms on the calendar early this past week, to having 5 want to get tested by early next week, plus the 2 that I have to drive 125 miles to in Winchester to test next Thursday. I really liked not having to test this past week, even though it was hot out there in the hay field. Oh well.... "the end of regularly working is slowly getting here".

I'm still tired, probably as much the heat and humidity as the getting out of bed in the middle of the night!!!! Going to quit and go to bed.

 

[CntryBoy777]

You deserve Rest, cause I'm exhausted just thinking about it.........hope ya rest well and take advantage of the opportunities that are given.....

 

[Mini Horses]

He oughta be good for another couple hundred thousand miles.

YEP... totally rebuilt!!

FarnerJan I think you will be a bit more inclined to take it just a tiny bit slower for recovery … since your '89 wreck … been a couple years back. We must admit that we DO slow down some, not voluntarily but, it's somewhat mandatory. The anticipation of the recovery down time is annoying for you. We just all hope the results are fantastic. Hey, most heartily it will be better than now. The constant pain has got to be a bummer!

I am so thankful for the good health I have enjoyed all these years. Oh, I have some aches after an especially hard day but, generally some stretching at wake up and an Aleve does the trick I had a couple of days when my get up & go had gotten up and gone....about a month ago. Mainly it was from the extremely heavy work schedule of the prior 3 months. That feast or famine thing. But 2 days off and I rested up. Made a difference! Sometimes we push too hard, too long. Generally it's short term & "gotta do". But part of our "gotta do" has to be "gotta rest", or we are asking for trouble.

 

[Baymule]

Yup, CCX are poop machines. I bedded mine with spent hay gathered around the round bale, the stemmy stuff the sheep didn't want. I moved the tractor every other day and they left a pile behind them. I figured the combination of grass seeds and chicken poop will get me some more grasses going come fall/spring. LOL

Rest when you can, grab the work when it comes in. That seems to be the way it goes. Hang in there.

 

[Baymule]

Friends cut the field across the road from us, he was rolling it yesterday. It was late and he still had another field behind that one to roll. I don't know if he turned the lights on and rolled last night or not, but it looks clear today. It's a good day for making hay.

 

[farmerjan]

Have gotten all the farms that were pushing to test, done. Will be off tues and wed and head to winchester to test the 2 a.m. one on thurs morning then go to the smaller herd at about 7 a.m. I was worn out yesterday (sun) for some reason. Think it is just the heat and humidity getting to me. I did go to the barn and "arm" 4 cows. Palpate for a preg check. We wanted to get them moved out of the way as the last big group will be coming home from pasture this coming weekend. 3 were "very preg" and one was open. She will be leaving with a couple other cows this coming weekend when a friend is taking some of his down to a buyer. They get "sold on the rail" as opposed to being sold live weight. Prices have come up for cull cows so it is time to ship them. Instead of them going through the ring at the stock yard, they will be killed and we will be paid on hanging weight. Sometimes it is better, and right now seems to be bringing a little better price. We'll see. Trying to be a little better about not letting non-producers have a free ride, no matter what family they are out of.
The farm today is having computer problems, so I used my program to test. Usually I don't have to record all the monthly stuff, like calving and dry off and breedings etc. at farms that have their own computer and are on what we call PCDart producer. But I did it all today after we got done milking. Nice thing is I don't have to set up meters there as they have their own electronic meters in the barn and samplers that attach so I can get the milk sample.
It was foggy this morning again. Nights have been in the low 70's for the past week. No break from the humidity. It was sunny, but some clouds. Then it got cloudy, and it rained quite hard at about 2-3 p.m. Then some partial clouds, sun, but is cloudy again. Supposed to go through tonight and 2 days of sun? Not enough time to cut and get hay dry if we get the forecast rain again on Thurs.
I'm going up to do the meat birds, and check cows at the one place, and turn out the bottle calf that is officially weaned. The other one I had been feeding never was right. Some days would drink 1/2 bottle, and spit out the milk, almost like throwing up. Went up the other morning and she was laid out flat dead. I wasn't totally surprised, although by this time I was hoping she might be able to get along when weaned. Have no idea who she belonged to. Son found her up in one pasture by herself and no cow ever claimed her. Thought maybe a twin..... and maybe the cow that I just checked open. So the other one is by himself, and I think he will do better if able to get out with the other calves too. He will be able to come in the barn, is eating hay and grain. He might even learn to steal off a cow there that has a calf his size. I will be able to check on him but think the exercise, and interaction with the other calves will be better. Might wait to turn him out until tomorrow, in case we get some hard rain this eve. He has a pen to go outside where he is, so is able to be out if it rains, but can go in the barn too. If he gets running with the other calves, might not know to come to the barn if it rains. No sense to kick him out with a good chance of more rain tonight. Break him in with a decent day or 2 of nicer drier weather.

I took a pkg of hot dogs that I had made up from some of my beef a couple years ago, with cheese in them, out of the freezer. Had 2 for lunch, pretty darn good. Nice to eat your own food. Guess I need to get a chicken roasted and start eating more salads with chicken on it. And some chicken sandwiches. Got 45 in there to eat.....
I'm hitting the bed early tonight and "god bless" anyone who calls me early in the morning....I am NOT setting any alarms. I left this morning at 3:50 to go test. Got there at 5:10 and we were milking at 5:30. Want to get a big load or 2 of laundry done tomorrow. I hang all my laundry out to dry. Don't even have the dryer here, it is in storage. And I am running out of socks.....plus going through more clothes with this humid sticky weather.

 

[Bruce]

Too dang busy!