Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Weldman]

Seems all professions that work in the elements are going this way. Even mechanics are hard to find and it's getting harder. Over regulation is killing things too. You need to go to college now to drive a semi, no driving on your parents farm/ranch and going to get a CDL when you turn of age to help around. Yes there is companies that will send you to school for a CDL, but guess what, you are now a modern day slave and you won't have freedom for 2 years or more as you work to pay off your debt to the company at slave wages/hours.
Was like this before mandatory college, but you had a choice that is no longer there. How does this correlate with mechanics, simple, diesel mechanic employers require one with a Class A CDL at minimum.
Think going to college makes one a better driver, just look up Swift driver videos on YouTube or other companies as such.

 

[Baymule]

Young people have to go to college to learn what they should have learned in High School.

 

[Weldman]

Young people have to go to college to learn what they should have learned in High School.

Oh you can learn all you want and know all you want from high school, but you need a piece of paper to prove it is the problem. That's where college comes in, if you can prove you remembered how they wanted you to answer the test you win. Online college is worse and I speak from experience.

 

[SageHill]

Young people have to go to college to learn what they should have learned in High School.

Yeah, but they aren’t learning it in college either any more. Where I went to school is “dead to me”. They are all about DEI and not education. They went way woke - in the friggin middle of Iowa.

 

[Finnie]

. I need to take some pictures... I have sunflowers that are at least 10 ft tall or more...

Yes! Take pictures and have @Mini Horses post them!

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday. Cool this morning, 52 and up to 75 but it was a little breezy so not very warm. I wore a long sleeved T-shirt all day and was perfectly comfortable. Sun and clouds all day. Supposed to be like this the next 2-3 days with some warming and some rain/showers over the Fri-Sat time frame. Warmer days and no precip next week..

Had to go to the farm earlier... DS said the bin was out of feed and he had ordered it on Friday... they said Tues or Wed... He needed me to go put the new slide in the bottom as the old one catches and is hard to use... it is a smidgeon thicker so does not slide in the slot as well. He wanted me to go change the slide, and clean it out.... well, there was alot more feed in there than he thought... might have been some stuck up along the side, although I did not get much junky chunks out... he said he had banged on the sides and that it was empty... but it wasn't. I wound up getting 17 / 5 gal buckets out of it... Which was a problem since I only had 5 buckets there... so I got out 5, fed out 2 to the ones in the barn... locked the calves we have been treating in so I could run them through the chute again... then filled the 2 buckets back and there was still more. So, then I went back home, got 6 more buckets, went back and filled them, found another there and then filled a 50 lb feed sack before I got it emptied... A 15-20 minute job turned into nearly 2 hours with having to go get buckets etc,,,, Then I moved the truck and cattle trailer so the guy could get in to the feed bin to run the feed in it from the top.

Got it all done, then got the samples packed and took to UPS since I was too late to take to the vineyard... and then came home.
Earlier, I had gone out to get in the forester, and had left the key on when I put up the windows the other day when it was supposed to rain... Dummy.... so I got the battery charger hooked up so it can charge it. But it was not charged and I wanted to go to the barn to do the calves... Had left them in for a few hours....
Stopped by DS's and took him a couple movies to watch... talked for a bit and went to the barn around 4:30... the guy had just gotten there... so I helped pull the rope to open the top.. the spring thing that helps to keep it shut is bent and the top cover is a little out of round so it is hard to get it to open... and tied the rope off so the top would stay open and he guided the long arm over top and put the feed in the bin. He had to climb the ladder up the side to get it open, and tried to bend the frame part of where the spring thing is, to hopefully get it straightened out so it will be easier to pull open... anyway. He got it filled, and then we got the top cover shut and after he left, I moved the truck and trailer back down to the normal place we keep it, and put the buckets of feed in the trailer so the #@X% groundhog can't get into them and turn them over and waste all the feed. I will have to go up and feed up there every other day... Jim and DS got into it over the weekend and he left again... he has been threatening to leave on days inbetween the feel sorry for himself days, inbetween the being soo terrible sick days....and the work like a crazy person days... we suspect he is back on "something" again... as the sleep for several days then a day or 2 of going like a hurricane ..... then being sick and can't work and sleeping for 20 hrs a couple days in a row. Plus he won't take care of himself as far as his diabetes, or eat properly, and drinks sodas and stuff... and you get tired of the stupidness... he's a grown man ..... act like it.... then he gets all maudlin about how he doesn't have anything because of his last wife, and all this crap... I don't want to listen to it, DS has put up with it and I told him I wouldn't.... he is decent help when he does work some, but he goes off on these "benders" and it is not alcohol.... he's been known to do drugs in the past... I have little or no sympathy.....

So DS is by himself again, and he misses the company with being home, but Jim hasn't been home there when he has been awake much, lately either. He was going down and doing the feeding in the barn bunk and up back for the calves .... so I will be doing it for the next week or 2 at least til DS goes to the dr this Friday and sees how things look. He said it still is sore and is trying to stay off it some as it swells alot if he is up on it alot.

So, I got the calves in the chute and re-treated 2 that needed it. The others look okay and the cow is still in there... I need to just go fix it where I can run her across the driveway up there with the others that are due to calve. Maybe I will try to get her separated out the next time I feed in there... Thursday I guess.
I was going to go to another pasture and check cows but the forester battery was still dead, so, I will go do that tomorrow... Need to take feed to the one pasture and feed those cows back down at the catch pen area again, so they will keep coming down so that I can get them in when needed so we can move them back to the farm to calve.

I did get out in the garden for a little bit last evening... there is some summer squash coming through so they may/may not manage... if night temps don't get too cold they ought to come on... we get through this cool off and get back to some warmer temps... we'll see. Broccoli and lettuce seeds not germinating...at this point I may not even try to replant them.
Need to take a basket and pick some tomatoes and a few peppers are turning red... couple of cukes to pick that I didn't pick... just have not had the push to do the canning like I used to do.... But the tomatoes are going to start coming in so need to get some since I haven't done any.

So, I'm in for the night... Need to go to nurse cow pasture tomorrow and check the water, and feed them. I will take a couple buckets of feed for the bigger cows/heifers that don't come in the creep gate. Told DS when the bull comes out want to take out the couple of heifers and a bull calf, that needs banding, and put them with the weaned ones at the barn... plus band the younger ones.... plus we will be doing some preg checks soon too. He says he wants to take the 2 or 3 nut case heifers and a big Charolais steer to the stockyard; get rid of the idiot heifers and the steer won't match anything we have and prices are okay still ... just need to get them sold.

Got to get with a couple farms yet to get some testing done...
Getting chilly out there tonight... already down to 57 at 9 pm....

 

[farmerjan]

Maybe try to remember to take the sunflower pics tomorrow...

 

[Baymule]

17 buckets of feed from the empty bin! Oh well, at least you got it cleaned out and it is full now.

 

[farmerjan]

Friday evening. It was a cool morning, 52, and up to 82. Sun and nice out overall.

Took DS to Dr this morning... says everything looks good... He should use 1 crutch for a bit on any kind of uneven ground or where he feels unsteady, to exercise it as much as he can without it getting too swollen. Elevate inbetween and let it rest when not actually on it.. increase activity as he feels up to it... in the next week or so then he should go back to normal activity but to be careful of it. 4 weeks for a final check up.
Rain chances have dropped to 20% for tomorrow, so he is going to mow some hay... Wants to get his lot mowed that they have a contract on now... before they do a perk test and run all through the hay, and ruin it. Closing is set for about a month, they are closing on their house Sept 30th I think.

We went by his father's house on the way home... he needed to do something for him with the pool filter, and wound up staying for lunch. After all these years I just take him with a grain of salt. He has mellowed a little but he still has that abrasive sarcastic attitude and humor, very short and curt Yankee brashness, that I have just never much liked... He had made some homemade beef stew that was more soup consistency but it wasn't bad. DS did some stuff with the pool filter, and we finally left there and went to the stockyard to look at what was there, and check out prices. They are still running about $.25-.50 / lb less than what we got about 2-3 months ago... and heifer prices are near what steers are bringing.... We saw some 10 month old 700 lb heifers sell for $1750+.... NOT BRED....so over $2.50/lb... more than I would pay that is for sure. Trailer load lots, so they would probably be going out further west for going on wheat pastures... maybe going to be bred...They sell these specially consigned load lots usually at 3 p.m.....
We watched steers and bulls (which sell first, then they sell heifers and cull cows later) up to the 700 lb weights and they were still pretty high considering how dry it still really is. The new drought monitor came out and we are right along the edge of the moderate drought, and the severe drought... D1/ D2 and there are parts of WV and Ohio that are in the Extreme drought category of D3.... Kentucky and Tenn are also very dry.... so prices were still really good considering the pasture conditions.

I look for prices to come off a bit more, and some bargains to be found in another month... there will be little more hay made... 2nd cutting stuff but there is not enough moisture for much more growth and days are getting cooler and shorter. We will start the 2nd cutting and have all our 2nd cutting to make yet... and alot of it is going to be rolled by the looks of it... DS is not going to be able to stack hay on the wagons near as well/fast as he did last year... so he will make what he can bale and get in the barns on the wagons... and the rest will get rolled. That will be good for feeding to some of the heifers, especially the ones we will be weaning late this fall. I will try to commandeer a couple of rolls to put in the one end of the barn at the nurse cow pasture for any smaller calves there that come in to eat; for winter feeding. If he makes a couple of them 4x5 or 4x6, they should go in the one end for the "hay storage section" ... and can maybe push them in with the loader tractor with the spear on the front of it...

The holstein bull calf is finally hanging out with the other calves... and he will come in the barn to eat when I put some grain outside in the 2 troughs for the bigger calves... to keep them out there busy, and he can eat inside in peace for a little bit. He still leaves the bunk when they come in the barn, but he has had a chance to get a fair amount of grain before they come in... so it is not perfect, but is working for now.

The water trough was full down the hill, so may be the last couple of times I had gone down to check it after feeding, they had been down and drank it down. It is running slow, but it is running in it.

Fed at 3 places yesterday afternoon.... the 3 different groups at the barn, then went to the one pasture where we had the 3 cow/calf pairs that the calves were getting out... then the calves that were getting out and after fixing the non-electric high tensile wire, found another place where they were getting around the big old tree that came down several years ago, and they are now staying in. We put 7 heifers and 1 steer up there and couldn't find the steer for nearly 2 weeks. Figured he had gone up in the woods and died. He has a limp, probably damaged ligs/tendons/etc and we had bought him cheap... thinking it was only a bad bruising when he was hauled to the stockyard with a group... but it has not gotten better... he just walks slow and limps some on it. He will be a beef eventually. Anyway, we thought he would be better off up there off the concrete in the barn, so took him with the heifers. Then we couldn't find him... But he was staying up the hollow along the creek area and DS saw him just before he had the surgery... well, he was out with the heifers in the field and came down for the grain when I called them. So that was good. Not "lost money" like we were afraid of.
Went to another place and put a salt block in the feeder and checked them over... there are 4 large calves there on the cows that were open and the bull went in with them in June. We pulled most of the calves off and sold the steers, and just left the smaller calves there. Cows will get preg checked and any that are not preg will get sold since it is their 2nd chance... calves will get weaned off anyway, and go with the rest of the weaned calves.
Then went to the big pasture where I had seen the 2 bears when I was bush hogging... they look good and I put another salt block in their salt feeder... they are going to have to be moved out of pasture 3, into 2 then in a week let into pasture 1.... where we cut some for hay earlier this year. Mostly I wanted to check for pinkeye, and make sure they had grass and salt...

I would have gone to 2 other places this evening, but we got back late from the sale. So, I will go tomorrow and check them, take salt, and feed at the one place, down in the catch area, so we can get them out of there, and back to the barn to calve next month or so... I don't think there are any calves there still, we pulled them off so the cows could get their 2 month rest.... I am pretty sure, because we had 1 calf still there and we got her and her mother in and that is the cow still in the barn at doug's farm.

Anyway, not much got done today at home. Tomorrow will be another day. I will get to the other places to check on cows, plus feed the grain at the barn. DS is going to try to cut some hay, so I will try to be around here after 12 or so, to take him back to the barn and he can leave the tractor at the field instead of driving it up and down the road back and forth.... Don't know how much he is going to cut, one or 2 fields maybe. See how the knee holds up.... and there is a 10 day forecast of possible rain the end of next week. So only enough to get his field cut that they are going to do perk holes...and maybe the field in front of my house... so we can get it raked and baled before any precip.

I am going to bed here in just a little bit.

 

[farmerjan]

Going to see if I can remember the darn pictures of the sunflowers tomorrow. Have to unload the feed from the explorer to the forester tomorrow and maybe see about trying to mow the lawn that has grown quite a bit.