Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Baymule]

I am hoping that I can plant some daffodil and tulip bulbs here in Texas. The winters are not cold enough in California for them to come up and bloom. They need a certain amount of winter chill. There are some sort of bulb plants in the barn yard that I want to dig out next year and replant in flowerbeds. There are some in the back yard too, but the gardener mows over them. LOL

YES! Plant all the bulbs you want, leave in the ground and they will come back. Let the leaves die back as that is next years blooms. Tulips are a waste of time and money, they bloom once and they are gone.

 

[farmerjan]

Tulips here come up every year and the bulbs multiply. They don't last long but they are pretty. Since they come back yearly, it is worth the effort to get them in the ground. Flowers last about as long as the daffodils...They are in the lawn here and the daffodil bunches are getting bigger. They bloom, I mow around them and then when the leaves start to turn yellow, just mow them off and then next year they come back...
There are some hyacinth's that have come up every year I have been here, so must be over 10 yrs old since the house was empty for 8 yrs and I've been here over 2 yrs already.... DS gave me a pot with 3 in it that I will plant here when I plant the daffodils.

 

[farmerjan]

Cloudy, warmer than yesterday.... 53 to start, 72 on recording thermometer as high.

Fed calves early, put grain in bunk feeder for a few calves in there... holstein heifer twins down the hill so will have to take more grain when I go do the bottles later.
Did the computer stuff, printed reports. Packed the samples and changed and went to the dentist appt. Everything still looking fine. Dropped off samples at UPS, went to the farm to drop off papers. Stopped at Goodwill on the way since I was right there, but nothing special except a couple paperbacks. Finally came on home.
Temps been warm, but we are not getting the showers/rain that have been forecast. We could use a good slow steady rain again.

Need to go out and do something constructive.

 

[CLSranch]

Put it here for you Jan. I just ran across it. You know too much truth on a main thread would get somebody's knickers in a wad.

 

[farmerjan]

Thursday eve.... Temps were 60 overnight and up to 66 today... light sprinkles... little bits of wet but not much... nothing like what they were predicting. It has gotten very windy, really gusty blow you over windy. The bird feeder I treated myself to back awhile ago, that was on special... in the shape of a barn, is swinging in the wind like a loose sail on the ocean... High wind warning through midnight. But it is a warm wind, so I guess there's that...

Went to chiropractor, and came home and then met DS at 3 to go to look at the bull... It was a done deal pretty much, and he is a nice bull... a little short... but this farmer feeds grass and hay... and they stay fat...he is nice... 2 yrs old... no papers but we have his pedigree... and only 3800... which I really expected more since the cattle prices and all, that are so high right now... We visited for a bit since we don't see them that often.. they run 60-80 cows and since they no longer raise purebred registered bulls for sale, we don't run into them as often. Their son is an extension agent now and see him at many of the cattle meetings and such...

So, brought him home and put out in the bull field... he was semen tested so should be good to go...

Came home and went up to feed calves... most of the other ones came in to eat grain... including the twin holstein heifers... so that was good. Did not have to go after them, they came up the hill and came in... fed the bottle calves, they are doing okay. Last night one didn't want to eat very good, but today they are doing okay.

DS and I talked about shipping the couple of cull cows; the 2 of mine at the nurse cow field with the 2 calves that are not growing, and the one at the barn that had the dead calf... plus the biggest holstein bull calf, at least...... but he did not commit to when... We did talk about maybe trying to buy 5-10 heifers off this farmer to raise up for cows since they are "grass genetics" to the nth degree... they do not even feed any silage, or even much grain to anyone... mostly when they first wean them to get them bunk broke and such. They would be some nice ones... get them at 8+ month weaning... breed the following year and calve out at 24 months since their growth rate is so good. Replace some of the mediocre older cows we have... some already sold, some that need to go... They would be worth about 1500/head more or less...at today's prices.... but they would be good ones to raise up... DS even said maybe we could buy a few of their "cull cows" , get one or 2 more calves out of them.... because they would still be pretty good ones... improve the quality of calves we are getting. Get those "grass genetics" bred into our cattle more...

So, I am done, in the house... Dreading looking out there tomorrow to see what is blown where...Gusts are really really bad....

 

[farmerjan]

The feather edged tulips are a darker orange/red with orange edging... pretty... the yellow ones have opened and close up at night again... still look good after a couple days... want to get them planted in the next few days..

 

[Baymule]

Wow! That’s a great deal on the bull. And really good idea on buying heifers and cull cows from them too.

 

[Mini Horses]

Agree, good bull buy. Price wise a good one, with what's going on in the market. Hope he doesn't get to liking y'all's silage too much. He'd be spoiled.

Winds here are steady 25, gusting 40ish. Not heavy rain yet but, coming. This wind won't let me sleep! Annoying. Who knows what'll blow in from wherever it'll be a clean up day tomorrow.

 

[farmerjan]

Good thing @Mini Horses , the bulls are not getting silage... and there is about 1 week left of it anyway... DS said about 2 more feedings to 3 places if that... 400 tons gone... some of this at the end has some spoilage, so alot of it will get put in the manure spreader and spread out on the field with the barn cleanout... he wanted to get it emptied this spring... and it is working out right with the steers he kept through the winter and all that... all steers being sold and heifers getting ready to go to WV and a couple other places...

Wind is soo bad, gusting so bad... not alot of rain yet...
I lit a couple candles and have the flashlight here close..... lights have flickered twice... will take the flashlight in the bedroom. Not going to try to take a shower, since I didn't do much to get "dirty" today, and do not want to be in there and the power to go out.
This just reinforces my wanting a rigid greenhouse for next year... hoping the smaller one on the deck will still be there and be standing tomorrow... have it tied down and some concrete blocks also... but it is not made to hold up to these horrendous wind gusts...

 

[Baymule]

It’s been real windy here. The storm a few nights ago went to southeast Texas and dumped 17 inches of rain on Kirbyville. It flooded the auction barn there. Luckily there were only a few horses, the Grandpa who started the family business, went to the auction barn in his boat and swam the horses out.