Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Billy Boil]

Been unseasonably warm up in these parts. Little rain, and lots of hovering around 0 (C). Good smoking weather, and bringing in some extra wood. Left side, middle, North of the 37th is a good place to be though. I'm ready for the winter to come. Might need to wait a bit longer though. Stay dry out there, and leave your muddy boots on the porch!
I took this photo of Darth Vader surveying the far side of the moon. I think he's looking for my goats. Sometimes it feels like we are all alone in a galaxy far far away, so glad to discover this BYH site. It's like a hidden base on the moon of Endor. Please excuse the Star Wars references, sometimes I just can't help myself. Blue skies everyone!

 

[farmerjan]

Poultry show is the 18th... Sat before Thanksgiving... YEP... definitely planning on going...

Heading out to do cow and such.... gotta get off here and get something done !!!!

 

[farmerjan]

@Billy Boil welcome to the forum. Please go to your name right top, click down to account details and to location and put something in so we have an idea of your area... . You can see in most of our avatars that we give a general location.. Nice to compare weather, things like that and helps when someone asks for advice as some things are more area specific... even types of grasses vary from area to area.

 

[SageHill]

Please excuse the Star Wars references, sometimes I just can't help myself. Blue skies everyone!

We don't mind . .........
My Obi Wan (who is in a lot of my pics)

 

[Baymule]

@Billy Boil this forum is a lifeline for many of us. Some of us are the weirdos of the family, or have nobody around with like interests. I’m in cattle country and I raise sheep. Small livestock is catching on, many people have small acreage and it’s not enough to keep cows on. Have at it with the Star Wars!

 

[Ridgetop]

one across the end and it touches the plastic cover so I put a piece of cardboard so it won't wear through the plastic...

Can you get those foam tubes for putting on water pipe in winter? They usually have a slit in the sie and a hole through the middle to slide on pipes. If you can get some of those to put over the shelf pipes it may protect the plastic.

but might see if I can get it moved by myself... you know... a foot or 2 at a time.. then move the other side, and go back and do more ,... go back and forth... to get it spun around 90 degrees to be facing the other direction....

Tarctor?

I moved the boxes with the "cinnamon pickles" and counted and have 2 dozen or so jars... some 12 oz quilted crystal jelly jars and pints and a couple qts... still have one container in the fridge... the jar bottom "popped" when I put it in the canner... luckily I was able to empty the water out of the canner and grab the top with a pot holder and turn the whole canner upside down holding the qt jar , and only lost some of the juice out of it... and had extra from them... so could reprocess them in a couple other jars and put the extra in the fridge... That was 3 qt jars that I had the bottoms " pop" and come off .... and they were all canning jars, 2 Ball and 1 Kerr... none of the "odd ball jars" had any problem...

 

[farmerjan]

@Ridgetop ... already have those foam pipe insulation things to use on the metal tubing on the greenhouse/shelter frame... helped with the wear and tear... so already thought of them for the edge of the shelf unit.... thanks....I just did not have them handy at that minute... but will cut one the 8 inches or so that will be needed to cover the end...

Nice day out today again. 33 overnight and up to 63 today. Sun and very little breeze.

Went up to the nurse cow and put her in and waited and then let her back out after eating her grain... Came back to the house and finally let the chickens out and that is when I was out there working on the spider plants and watching... but never did see them go anywhere special that I found a nest... anyway...

Brought all the soaker hoses to the carport and put together "like lengths" (used some things I got from Harbor Freight to cinch them together... like it).... for next year...
Then took the clippers and cut off all the peonies dead stalks and trimmed the roses along the porch. The snowball bushes are next but didn't do them. I took and changed the brackets on all the meters and got the rest into the car and all the hoses I will need for tomorrow.

Well..... I really screwed up.... I FORGOT to put the big pots of the spider plants back in when I got all the smaller ones in the tubs into the house the last freeze we had... It totally did a number on them. So, I contemplated just tossing them... but decided to try something. I took a scissor and totally cut off the leaves down to just above the crown of each plant... and put them in the greenhouse on the porch. Took some time... and found a few healthy looking leaves that were covered over by the limp, ruined leaves... so I carefully tried to save them when I was cutting... We will see what happens... Worse case is they do not come back... best is they come back and grow from the roots.
I then took and trimmed all dead stuff out of the smaller pots and got them all hung in the greenhouse also. then I got the heater out and then took a break for a late lunch... 2:30 or so. Was drinking some tea and DS calls... he went and did the bush hogging at the one field that was alot of weeds next to the steep one I raked. Then did some stuff at the farm...thought he should just catch me up....(???) and was going to move the cows out of another pasture as the grass is short and they are going to start building the fence between the pasture we rent and the smart mouthed neighbor that threatened to sell the cows if they got over there again.... the nice to your face and stab you in the back guy... so rather than any problems with the gates being opened between fields... we just needed to get them out.
That is the place where DS had wanted me to go check on calves back awhile ago because there were 2 missing when he got them back through the fence from that neighbor and we moved them down to the next section and he couldn't find the 2... hoping they got closed into the other field.... but they were missing... he found the carcass of one.... the other he is going to check the other neighbor whose bull kept getting in with ours and our bull and some cows got over in with his...not a problem with him except that we need to go and make sure that calf did not get over there, and stayed over there... but I doubt it... it was not one of the older calves so no reason to not follow the cow back when he got those guys back... big tree took fence down.... between the 2 places... but his cows will walk the fence when they are in heat and he always puts his cows in there against our fence in that section before he puts his bulls in so they are always walking the fence and our bull is always tempted to go visiting...

So he asked if I wanted to go and I said I could... so we went there and he had already set up the panels... we use the "bottle neck" in the driveway between some of the stupid CREP fencing to keep the cattle out of the creeks and all that... which we lost several acres of pasture and cannot even get into some of the areas to bush hog and now they are growing up into trash/brush and totally ridiculous... anyway... it works good to get them in there since they are used to walking this section of the driveway to get out to the rest of the pasture on the other side of these fenced off areas... He got them in, I helped sort and load and then stayed there as there are 2 that are high headed... cows HE bought so can't blame it on my cows... he left. He took them to another pasture where there is a fair amount of grass left...met up with the sister and got Colt for a little bit to ride to go help "move cows", then came back and got the 4 cows and 1 calf that he wanted to take to doug's farm... and then loaded the rest of the calves on the back section and we took them down to go out with their mothers... brought the 3 with no calves, and 1 with a calf that has no milk... second time around... and they are at the farm for when/if he decides to sell them. They have been exposed to the bull(s); the high headed one he is going to sell regardless(calf carcass he found)... the other one who's calf is missing and one that didn't have a calf when she got turned out will probably get preg checked... and the one that ]just does not have hardly any milk will get sold also... but they are at doug's so can be gotten in much easier to load and sell... By this time it is dark, and he said that they( sister & kids) were going to the little restaurant just down the road for some supper if I wanted to come I was welcome (no GF) ... but I said I had to go do my nurse cow... and that I had just eaten a little bit before he called...he apologized for me having to do them in the dark... I use the headlights outside the pen so not that bad except when I tripped on that rock and got all bruised up... and I said it was not that big a deal... so he said maybe next time and I said OKAY... and came up the hill to do the nurse cow. I decided to put her in with them tonight... leave her in and put hay in for her to eat after her grain... then I will let her out after feeding grain before I go test.. and will not go by there on the way home from testing since it will be late and I will be tired. The calves will be hungry Tuesday morning, but they will be okay... then I can get back into a better routine for a few days....
And yes, I moved the couple of rocks in the pen that I don't even know where they came from.... out of the walk way in the pen into the barn.

I went out and plugged in the heater... and will turn it down a little more yet... takes a day or 2 to get it where I want it. It gets hot in there, during the day, with only one door on one end... so tomorrow it will have to be left open when I leave to go to work... and it will be chilly when I get home... but that's the way it is. I can open it during the day and close it in the afternoons to help keep in a little of the warmth when I am here... I will be home before it gets too terrible cold tomorrow evening... and they won't get frozen or anything... but I don't want to "cook them" during the day. Maybe I will leave it half open and it will get real warm in there but won't get so cold before I get home.
Another reason to have a "real greenhouse" or a sunroom type of room that the house temp can help to regulate it...

DS was off work on Friday and never even mentioned it... I didn't realize that they took off the "day before" for a Federal Holiday now... Gheesh.... every time you turn around they are off for something.

All I have left to do for tomorrow is get the sample bottles in the trays... I will do that before I go to bed I think. Time for a shower and quit for the night.

It's down to 36 already... forecast is saying 29 tonight... BRRRRR

 

[Baymule]

It’s cold there! It gets cold here, but it doesn’t last long. It may dip into the 20’s for a week, or a few days, then it’s done.

 

[farmerjan]

29 this morning, greenhouse recording thermometer says 55.... YAY.... got it set about right. I will unplug it and open the zippered door before I go to work...
Had quite a good frost, ground was white with it this morning. SOOOOO glad that I am not going out at 3 and 4 a.m. to scrape windshields to go to work mornings....
Sun coming across the hill and already up to 45.... Going to be a nice day . Too bad I am going to spend it in a barn... but tomorrow is going to be nice too... Got 2 more farms I would like to get done this week or early next week...
Guess I need to get my butt in gear and get out there and get things done so I can leave early to do the errands I want and drop the reports off at the other farm on the way.

 

[Ridgetop]

between the pasture we rent and the smart mouthed neighbor that threatened to sell the cows if they got over there again....

Did he threaten to sell YOUR cows?