Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Yes, orchard grass is what gets my allergies for first cutting. But not planting more corn... too expensive, too much work with the harvesting end... and it is a one year crop... My allergies do not dictate the crop that is best for the overall farm production and income. It is also part of the rotation... OG for 6-8 years, when it gets more weeds or johnson grass in it, then into corn or sorghum-sudan for a year or 2, then back into OG. Sometimes he will rotate sorghum-sudan and then corn... we planted that wheat and then when we couldn't get it combined on time, the johnson grass and weeds got too much and it was a lost crop except for getting it rolled and fed out. It is getting the same with the corn, getting it planted then getting it chopped is a real problem... and NO, there is no way we are going to buy all that equipment for just 10-20 acres use once a year.

Chilly, clouds and some sun this afternoon. DS and I took tractor and rake to field, might go rake some since it is so dry... going to check radar and see... otherwise, I will just go rake in the morning.

 

[farmerjan]

Off the tractor from raking, heading to work. Nice day out with a small threat of a shower this afternoon, bigger possibility tomorrow... didn't rake all he had down but most of it as some was a little green still.

 

[Bruce]

Besides, some animals, like alpacas, like orchard grass Definitely shouldn’t be fed alfalfa, too high in protein.

 

[farmerjan]

Got home from testing and DS had taken the rake up and raked the little I hadn't done on the field he had only cut part of.... and it was all baled... said it was dry enough... got all the rest baled and then took the baler to Deb's to put in the covered arena, and thenI took him back to the truck and he was going to take the other baler to the other shed he stores it in...
All the hay on the ground is baled... he said that they upped the chance of showers to 60% tomorrow... so that is why he decided to rake the rest, and bale all the hay down. Now that he baled it all, it won't rain.....
It has to rain... it is the local fireman's carnival... it rains EVERY year when the carnival is on.....
Dry for the Father's day weekend.... then rain in forecast for Mon-Tues-Wed..... SURE HOPE we get some. The farm I tested and all that area is drier than we are.... it is turning brown in the cut hayfields up there with no rain to get it to start regrowing...

Had traffic up the wazoo on the way to work... but got there in time...

Found a set of male/female hose ends and got the big hose ends fixed... now got to get the soaker hoses put together... and some more cut to length for some rows...

I finished planting all the petunias this evening after I locked up the chickens and carried DS back to his truck.... watered them good, and just have some gladiolus bulbs to stick in.... and the 2 black hollyhocks I want to plant, that I treated myself to at the nursery last week... they will come up every year...

Going to bed...

 

[SageHill]

Got home from testing and DS had taken the rake up and raked the little I hadn't done on the field he had only cut part of.... and it was all baled... said it was dry enough... got all the rest baled and then took the baler to Deb's to put in the covered arena, and thenI took him back to the truck and he was going to take the other baler to the other shed he stores it in...
All the hay on the ground is baled... he said that they upped the chance of showers to 60% tomorrow... so that is why he decided to rake the rest, and bale all the hay down. Now that he baled it all, it won't rain.....
It has to rain... it is the local fireman's carnival... it rains EVERY year when the carnival is on.....
Dry for the Father's day weekend.... then rain in forecast for Mon-Tues-Wed..... SURE HOPE we get some. The farm I tested and all that area is drier than we are.... it is turning brown in the cut hayfields up there with no rain to get it to start regrowing...

Had traffic up the wazoo on the way to work... but got there in time...

Found a set of male/female hose ends and got the big hose ends fixed... now got to get the soaker hoses put together... and some more cut to length for some rows...

I finished planting all the petunias this evening after I locked up the chickens and carried DS back to his truck.... watered them good, and just have some gladiolus bulbs to stick in.... and the 2 black hollyhocks I want to plant, that I treated myself to at the nursery last week... they will come up every year...

Going to bed...

Now that sounds like a good day all around!

 

[Ridgetop]

He seems to be concentrating on the farming more. Hopefully that horrible viper doesn't come around coaxing him back. He is too good for her to mess with his head like she does.

Hope you get some rain. It has been raining up around Yantis and Cody said he can't get the hay cut. Might as well not cut it if it just has to lay in more rain. Learned that from you Jan. The grass that was high when we were there in May was mostly winter rye, according to the 2 guys that raise hay, and the good hay - Bahia - had not yet started growing much. Hopefully they will have a good crop this year and can get it baled. Cody said in a good year he could get 3 cuttings and I think 60 round bales per cutting. Either drought or flood it seems.

 

[Baymule]

All those storms are staying north of me. No rain. But I have the heat advisory, 110 heat index today for Trinity county.

 

[Mini Horses]

There's 75-80 rolls in field across street. More to cut.

 

[farmerjan]

Friday evening. It was a bit sunny early and temps went from58 to 80... then the clouds rolled in and temps dropped 15 degrees and it got windy and we got the upper edge of a thunderstorm that came through. South of here they got hit with hard winds and some damage and hail... no hail here and unfortunately we only got .1 of an inch of rain. Glad we did not get the hail though. It stayed very breezy all afternoon and the sun mostly came out.
Calling for more hazy smoke in the upper atmosphere and air quality is in the poor to moderate category the next 2-3 days... Hope if we get the rain it will take alot of it out of the air.

Got 2 good soaker hoses out in the garden.... I thought... but, one has a bad spot in it, one is good... I will cut the other one as soon as I get some male and female ends that I found and ordered. NONE of the stores... even the one really good hardware store, has any connectors or repair ends or anything for the 1/2 inch ones. I had asked at Lowes and TSC when I came through from the farm testing... Home Depot is out of the way unless I am going to Sharp Shopper and over to the east and north of here. I put a bucket under the part that was leaking and let it fill the 5 gal bucket and then I watered some plants by hand with the watering can.... at least all the peppers got watered.

Will run the one soaker tomorrow on the onions as they are looking pretty sad... and take the watering can and do the short rows of purple/wax and green beans. Also the butternut squash and a couple of summer squash seeds came through... so I will soak them tomorrow. The potatoes are on their own... ground is too hard to even try to hill so I am planning to just start mulching them real heavy so they will have some protection from the sun and to retain any moisture we do get. As soon as I get the other ends I will fix the couple that have the cuts and get them in the garden if we don't have much/any rain. The one good one is 50 ft long and just does the length of the rows in the beginning of the garden... that's how long the potato rows are too... the beans are shorter, like 6-8 ft. I did not remember to take the measuring tape with me... maybe tomorrow. I am fixing the ones at the cut regardless of how long each piece is ... then I will decide what I want to do with the other one I bought. Thinking I am taking it back and getting another 50 ft one with ends already on it. I can always cut it into a couple of sections and just put more ends on...if I want to use it in the shorter rows... and then it can get screwed back together if I need it longer. Or just loop it around 3 or 4 rows or more... Hoping that maybe we will get the rain this week... there is a chance 50-60% every day next week.
Also found another bad spot in the regular hose so cut it and will put ends on as soon as I get some... Always something.

Don't know if he is going to cut the rest of that hay in the morning and rake Sunday morning and bale it Sunday night... wish he had finished that one field up before he raked the little bit I left, since I left it to make mowing and turning better so he didn't have to run over the raked hay on the outside. OH WELL....

Cool 63 out there and the breeze makes it feel chillier. Supposed to get back into the 50's tonight. Warming coming next week. Do you realize that the longest day of the year is next week and then we are on the downhill side again of days getting shorter ????

The fence was leaning in on one side and I am thinking there might have been a deer over it in the garden... beans are all okay... Going to take and spray with the blood meal liquid repellent tomorrow. It will have 2 days to dry and all, then won't wash off in the rain... They never touched anything after I sprayed the peppers and stuff before I put the netting up. Believe me, if I catch any in there, they are dead.....TIRED of all of them eating everything up when there are hundreds of acres of pastures and fields and woods and all their NATURAL FORAGE out there. Stay the HE// away, and out of, my 50 x 80(???) garden.....or whatever size it is...
The sunflowers are coming up all through the garden as I planted like 2 seeds at the end of each kind of potato variety and stuff like that... Going to make sure I spray all them tomorrow too.... BAS TURDS....

Also have a mole/vole or something in there. Has anyone ever used the "sonic reppeller" type thing? Sticks down in the ground on a fat spike... Found one on sale in Wal-mart and picked it up last year.... end of season type stuff... going to try it...

There are a bunch of volunteer marigolds that came up so some went to seed last year. Been waiting for some rain to transplant them out of the aisles/walkways.... hope next week to do it. Also had put some pepper seeds and other old marigold seeds in to start awhile ago, and a few came up so they will hopefully go in the garden next week. Spotty germination, but they were $.10 sale packages so one or 2 plants is still a bargain... The tomatoes were looking really droopy on one end of the cattle panel so that is why I wanted to get the soaker hose on them. That is the one that is leaking so I will probably take and use the watering can and soak them when I am out there and the soaker hose is running on them too. The one that is good is on the onion plants and I am going to leave it and run it on them good tomorrow... there are quite a few that did not survive all the dry... one kind did real good (I think the yellows), the reds did okay, the other ones, I think the white ones, are very spotty. Might see if co-op has any left over and do some fill in.. otherwise I will tuck some of the extra peppers in between them.

I am going in to get a shower and go to bed...

 

[SageHill]

Also have a mole/vole or something in there. Has anyone ever used the "sonic reppeller" type thing? Sticks down in the ground on a fat spike...

Ages ago I tried one of those for gophers - package claimed it was the best thing to keep them away. I powered it up, stuck it in the ground —— and the next morning …….. there was a gopher mount right next to it. Works - ha ha ha NO WAY. Don’t know about moles and voles but I’d guess a similar outcome.
The only thing I’ve found that works is Gopher Gasser. This works consistently for me. You have to be on top of it for a week or so and then you’re good for a long time. Problem with the traps people say are great is you only get one at a time IF they run into the trap. The gassers fill their tunnel and kill everything in the tunnel.
I would think it’d work for moles and voles but who knows!