Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Yeah, there are just a few that can be plain Jerks..... Hoping they turn up somewhere.... That's alot of money to just disappear...

It was down to 39 overnight here. Cold, but no frost.

Had a farm text me about testing early this week, so just texted them back. I am pretty sure DS cut that one field of OG so will have to rake... probably on Wed for him to bale... slight chance of showers this aft but says "spotty and isolated"... Radar does show a band of "green" meaning rain, coming from the west after 2-3 p.m. so might get some. I figure that even if we don't get any, with it being cloudy later the hay won't dry very fast anyway. If we get some, the hay is very light/short, so it won't hurt it much after being just mowed... although it is pretty dry already... Hay raking will most likely be on Wed. so I texted back the farmer and said today or tomorrow... I expect they will take tomorrow. Got one more that needs to be done and have to call the 500 cow herd in a bit.

 

[farmerjan]

Farm just texted back and they want today... so have to get stuff together for it..... oh well, better than not getting tested and better than conflict with hay....

 

[farmerjan]

Meter brackets changed for this farm and meters and hoses loaded. Bottles in the trays and in car. Chickens out, ready to go in a few minutes. It has been sun and clouds but still calling for some rain after 3 or so. Breezy, and a cool 57 so far.
Potatoes are all at the house and covered with a tarp if it rains.... might get to weighing them tomorrow since I have to go to work.

 

[murphysranch]

I'd sure like to see a photo of all your pretty potatoes!! When you get a chance, please.

 

[farmerjan]

@murphysranch ... in case you didn't know the "secret"... I am very electronically CHALLENGED... have no idea on how to post pictures and my computer is old so don't even know if it would be able to do it... ask @Mini Horses about my lack of "smart phone" savvy... Really... Give me a cow, or a chicken, or a hog, or a piece of farm equipment and I figure most things out... hand me this smart phone that I only got because I could not find a flip phone that was as small as my old one, that was only 3G and was going to be cut off...and I am totally useless... and the thing is I DO NOT ENJOY "playing with it" like they kept telling me to do to learn things about it. He//... I even managed to erase the icon for getting my voice mail and had to go back to the Verizon place to get them to get it put back on the screen... and it took 3 of them before one of them figured it out...

Who else do you know would have a vehicle that needed to have the computer "coded" just to change out the battery ????? Or else it shuts down the communication between the computer and the screen in the dash that has the back up camera and all the things like showing the radio and the the "climate control" temps and all that stuff... I still haven't gotten the explorer back... and I want to sell it sooooo bad now.....TOO Complicated and fancy for me...

You might be "murphys ranch" But I am walking Murphy's Law... if it can go wrong... it will..... with me....

 

[farmerjan]

Went to work, got done and it went pretty good. Saw the new baby the farmer had a little over a month ago... Got the stuff loaded and came by Walmart on the way to see about getting the little rubber slip on tips to go on the end of the cane seat I use in the barns...
What a disaster... they are redoing the Walmarts and making them look more "high end" type of stores and totally rearranging everything and I TOTALLY HATE IT.... cannot find anything and moving stuff to the front and center isles that you have to walk through to get to the stuff you need... all the things like soap powder and stuff are just stuck into the short rows near the back wall and all the dog/cat food and stuff is tucked way back there... and cutting down on things to put other stuff in that is un-necessary to every day life... appealing to the "consumer".... in other words, trying to get you to spend more and more money for stuff you just don't need...

A nice guy, employee, got out his smart phone and was looking it up for me... and said there are supposed to be 13 cards of these chair leg tips, but he said who knows where they are as they are rearranging the whole store so much... he was nice, apologized... and I said, I am not mad at you, but this is ridiculous...
Our local Ace Hardware store has them, I will pick up 2 cards with 4 on each, and then have them for awhile... next time I am up that way...

It did rain here at the house sometime late this afternoon; we got about 10 drops at the dairy I tested... I didn't even look in the rain gauge.. don't think it was much but the roads were wet and I saw some puddles in some driveways... It is supposed to be moved out by now and mostly sun for the next few days...
I will be raking hay Wed if all goes well...
I should know tomorrow if we are testing the 500 cow herd on Wed morning... we will be home before noon... I told Lindsay that if it will help her get off the morning from work instead of all day. She had to talk to the store mgr... haven't heard back from her.

Got a lead on a source of NH bantams out of show stock. It was after 9 when I got home and I don't like to call people that late that I don't know... so will try calling them tomorrow...

Since it was such short notice, after this morning's milking when they decided to test, I will go pick up milk from the farm I get my milk from, in the morning, and get his milk samples from his 4 cows so they can get run through with the farm I tested... he gave me all the pertinent info to put into their computer, so the cows can process... I will ship the samples out after I get his samples packed in with them... and get milk for me too... Normally I would have done it on the way to test but he didn't have any samples since I didn't know about testing until after this morning's milking....

Going to bed here shortly...

 

[Mini Horses]

I knew pics were out, which is why I used the laugh emoji --- as Jan knew so I'll help her out.
These are some she shared with me to test sample

They do still have a little dirt on them...you don't wash if you want them to keep. I wash just before cooking. Still more in those bags

 

[farmerjan]

Thank you @Mini Horses .... that's all I can say...

42 temp this morning. Sun trying to come up across hill. Days are supposed to get up to 70's the next few with warmer on Thursday to mid 70's then some more rain and temps down into the upper 30's and days only into upper 50's and low 60's.... might not get much of an "Indian summer" as we normally do.

Thinking something warm for breakfast... maybe some eggs... Then head to get the milk samples and my milk. If the sun is out nice I will put a gallon of tea out to steep today. I don't drink near as much tea when it is cooler out.

The feral cat is around some... Have seen it twice. It actually snuck in the front entry on a day I had the door open for the kittens to go out, and was eating some cat food. So I am now leaving some outside for it when I am shutting the door. I close the doors to the rooms when it is not too cold out and let the kittens come in and out of the entry hall but with this colder weather, they do not have access to the outside at night at all. Kittens are not "kittens" anymore... they are really getting grown up. The one has gotten himself tangled in the elec netting twice... they go out to the garden when I do and were "helping me" dig the potatoes.... playing with the rounder smaller ones and batting them around when I was trying to put them in piles along the rows... ......and he would go up to the "gate way" and get tangled in it and then just wait for me to get him untangled... never fought it or me, just had several of the squares of the netting all around his head and legs... how he ever got so tangled I will never know... just sat there as I poked and prodded and moved his legs to get them undone... then ran off to find something else to play with... At least now I am leaving it open so the chickens can go in and clean up and they all know where the gateway is and that's it... don't try to go through the netting, just go around and in the open walkway.

Time to eat and get things going.

 

[SageHill]

What a disaster... they are redoing the Walmarts and making them look more "high end" type of stores

Oh lordy - I sure hope not. That's the path JC Penneys went down - it was the beginning of the end for them. Maybe the head honcho moved from Penney's to Walmart and is trying the same stunt.

 

[farmerjan]

Got the samples and my milk and put them in with the others from the farm and dropped them off at the vineyard on the way home... it was nice enough but very breezy today...High on the thermometer was 69...
@SageHill , that was a quote from that nice guy employee... they are trying to make them have a nicer appeal he said. More like the Target idea.... They now have a "polished marble looking" floor... all these little short rows and cross rows and stuff... I really do not like it at all...
Just like TSC has gone all "country chic" in their stuff for the weekend country estate home owner... and then move all the stuff around in the equipment so that the real farmers cannot go in and get what they need and get out because we don't walk around all moon eyed and find stuff to spend money on that we don't need....
But then, I guess there are not as many of us real farmers out there...

You want to appeal to the weekend country estate owner fine, just don't keep moving and changing around the stuff that they don't care about and won't buy anyhow... leave the working farmer's stuff alone, and don't ask them to wade through all the other unnecessary frills and "decor" stuff... that most of us aren't going to buy either...
I like the Rural King for that because they have all that decor stuff, and lots of clothes and all sorts of stuff, but it is more like a dept store with areas for stuff and they remember that they have a lot of working farmers for customers too...

We had about .2 inch of rain here at the house last night. I still plan on raking the hay tomorrow... it is going to be partly cloudy with some clouds from a storm in the south working it's way east.. but then Thursday is going to be mostly sunny and supposed to be in the mid-upper 70's so it ought to dry good. and he can bale it late afternoon...
Can't get things worked out with Lindsay to test the 500 cow herd this week; they are short handed at the co-op and she can't get off... and DS is too busy with this hay and getting the litter spread on the fields .... so no help there.

I have now gotten 11 varieties of the potatoes weighed and sorted through for any nicks or anything "damaged" so to speak... got 11 more varieties to go and they are the most prolific ones left to weigh... A few I am not impressed with, but there were a couple that were grown on the side nearer the pines, and the soil is not as good, so might retry a few next year... some of the fingerlings were soooo prolific that I might skip a few of them and try others. I am putting all the little ones, quarter or smaller, together for putting into soup or stews... just wash em off and stick in the pot skins and all... might think about canning them.... the pinto fingerlings and the Masquerade "big" potatoes had a lot of real little ones... I expected it in the fingerlings... hey, they are supposed to be smaller...
Going to make up a pan of mashed potatoes of one kind or another and see if I can taste any difference, or if they are smooth or grainy or anything... One variety has really nice even sized ones that is a russet for baking so am looking forward to baking one and see how it tastes..

Took a ham steak out of the freezer so going in to put it in the oven to bake a bit... I think I will make mashed potatoes and it ought to be enough for tomorrow night too, as there will be plenty of ham left over...

Trying to do a @Mini Horses and eat from what is here, and start doing more cooking now that it is not so hot outside either.

Well, supper is in oven, and smelling good... and I did do a pan of potatoes that will be ready to mash in just a little bit. Working on the cattle lists... getting a list of all the calves and going to put it in numerical order and then put the dam next to it to see who had what and maybe make some culling decisions on the cows too... I hope he is thinking of shipping some soon...