Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Sunday eve. Been another hot one. Mostly sun, but had a dark cloud come over and got a quick downpour for a couple minutes. I was tedding hay and got a little wet, but it went by pretty quick, then got a little breeze and it got even hotter.... went from 20% chance to 60% for that hour or so, then back to 10%..... Of course we were in the area it decided to rain on, just glad it wasn't more.... I finished tedding that field as it wasn't wet enough to make a difference.
Raking tomorrow after I do PT in the morning. He will try to get as much baled as possible. There's another 20% chance, but you have to just take the odds.... it could rain a hundred feet up the road and not on the hay, or do like today, and just a few minute shower that didn't amount to much at all.... 50% for Tuesday afternoon.
There is over 50 acres on the ground. The 8-10 that he mowed Friday aft that got the rain Friday eve is the first that I tedded out. Nothing got mowed Sat but then he did about 25-30 acres at one place and the rest at another. The first place is in 2 fields and one field was much thicker than the other but I tedded them both out. The other place he said was quite a bit thinner as they did not fertilize it. So I didn't tedd it and will just go rake it. Hope it will be dry enough but son said it wasn't worth the extra time, travel to it, fuel etc to tedd and then go back and rake. Not thick enough.
So I will rake all of it tomorrow... it will be a long day and it is supposed to be hot. I will use the wheel rake, so not near as long as the single side delivery rake.... I will make sure I take plenty of water and drinks and a few snacks..... Hopefully all the tedded will be dry enough with raking that he can get it rolled and that the other will also be dry.... if he has to he may take off tues and bale it in the morning if need be so that it won't get wet.... and if he runs out of time on Mon at the other fields.
The first field of 8 + acres is for us, the other 2 places are custom work. It is aggravating when the one didn't fertilize as it makes it practically not worth it to do.... we run over the same amount of land/fields.... for alot less hay.... and I can't remember if we get paid by the bale there. Maybe not, I think ha went to actual cost per acre for each trip of the mower and the tedder and to rake.... then cost per bale to roll as it will depend on the amount of wrap we use. We use the baler with the net wrap for these 2 custom places, and he will do the field for us with it since it is right near.... not going to change balers for one field when we are right there. The bales are smaller, but more practical to do it all while right near there.

OKAY.... coon number #5 this morning. A couple of places where I see he/they whomever, tried to scratch out the dirt and the hog panels I laid down prevented them from getting under the "frames" of the kennel panels to get at the chickens. Probably the one that got a couple Fri night and that is why there weren't any in the trap sat morning.
Naturally, I set it again.....
Son got a possum at his house...
I think all the varmints have moved to the northern Rockbridge County town of Raphine.......

Getting dark and I am tired so going to get a shower and hit the sack. Tomorrow will be a long and looks like HOT day.....

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday morning. LONGGGGGGGG day yesterday but overall good. Of course first thing there was a possum in the trap at the chickens. Went to PT and with all the stretching, then bending and downright painful working of the tight tendons and ligaments to try to free up movement of the knees.... to get all of the knee ligaments and tendons to flex more, that plain hurts, they then used a "machine" that is like a vibrating massager, on it. It was a "hurt....so good" type of feeling. And I was much more mobile and comfortable through out most of the day.... considering the stint I put in on the tractor raking hay. So I am going to ask about it again next PT session. Maybe this is the break through I needed and no one ever thought about it. I cannot fully straighten the knees, which I never realized. You should be able to straighten your knees to the point of actually hyperextension. Not to hurt it, but it frees up the kneecap to move freely. I have about a 10-15% angle of the knee (right knee) where it doesn't fully straighten which I have never noticed. Has come gradually over time just by not wanting it to hurt, then everything tightens up and next thing you know it won't "straighten".
Been working on that, and the exercises are good as pre-op exercises for knee replacement also. But I had jokingly said that I needed a masseuse to loosen me up so I could get going in the morning. Never in a million years thought that there was this massager thing that they use. I could bend the knee more easily, and with less pain than ever before.

It was a good test too, as I was up and down on the tractor with the rake several times, since I had to go from one place to another - road travel, so you have to raise the rake wheels up, and then slide a large hitch pin in the hole to lock the wheels up; safely traveling , then again pull them when you get to the next place. That is on and off the tractor to go around to the back of the rake. Not that I jumped off and on like I was 30, but not as painful to get on and off. It was a real nice feeling of not dreading getting off and on like I have. SOOOOO maybe this is the breakthough treatment.... at least it did help.

So got on the tractor at 11, got off for the last time at 5:30. Finished raking..... and he got it all baled by 8:30 and back at the barn.

I had gotten all the group of cattle in that he needed, then he went through and sorted to deliver that load of "odd balls" that the guy had to have last night. Always when you are busy in the hayfield.... but they are gone. We won't make any money on them as they were supposed to go 6 weeks ago and the guy kept putting him off. We won't do any more buying for this deal as it is too inconsistent with when he wants them. We did okay with the first 2 groups, some of ours and some bought.... then he got slow to pay.... then he didn't need any for awhile... so we "sat on" this bunch and they have been eating grass we could have been better utilizing. So it is done and there are 10 more head gone that we don't need to feed. There were 2 total crazy ones that never calmed down and they made the rest nutty. Glad they are gone. Sold a belted heifer that I had bought for the guy at the one place, that was going to do all this fencing, and he had a bet with some other friend about cows that looked like oreo cookies.... so I bought 2, one a partial belt on one side and nearly complete on the other side, and this one that had a decent belt but was not much of a heifer.... got more out of her than I paid but she ate it all up by being here so long since that landowner has never done any more about fencing the property or anything. Another absentee landowner with all these grandiose ideas and then doesn't follow through. I am keeping the other partial belted heifer, she is going with the bull to get bred. Sold 2 heifers that weren't anything special that I had originally raised on the nurse cows... never grew like they should have.... glad they are gone and more money in my pocket.
We will move the bred dry cows to pasture for the rest of the summer, with the others that are already out, to calve this fall. Move the few heifers to get bred, they ought to breed right off as they are in good shape....

So today, I am getting ready to go do a few errands, do the cow on the way, and get some of this laundry done. We have 50/50 chance of some showers later, and it is nearly 80 already so things will dry quick.

Haven't heard about a closing yet....

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

This is great news regarding your knees! I hope the massager will help you deal with your pain until you can have them both replaced! It's about time you were able to enjoy life and not be in any pain.

 

[Mini Horses]

These people were older.... like older than me....mid-70's plus...

so I wonder if they aren't just nosy old biddys that are trying to con info about the tower.

Just watch your mouth now! You're getting there....

Dang......all that coon & possum, freezer fill! Actually, do you really expect them to go hunt during these HOT times when yours is just there waiting?????

We got NO rain. Just more 98+ days. can't get into even low 70 nights.

 

[farmerjan]

OOPS I put my foot in it that time.... I wasn't thinking about you in that "age frame", I don't think of myself as a senior or old.... except when I can get a discount . Just that they seemed so much older than me.

Hot again today 69 to 91 but the humidity has been brutal. So glad that all the hay is done for right now. Have 2 more places to cut, they are always the last... then 2nd cutting of the orchard grass....

We got another downpour here this afternoon.... not at the house but up at the nursecow pasture and east.... poured down for a few minutes.... I had gone to get feed and just getting the last 2 bags into the building up there when it came down. Didn't get enough to get the dust settled here at the house if they even got a sprinkle. Rain/storms forecast for the next week. Looked like it was getting pretty wet in your direction.... not sure exactly but I know you are near the coast...

Had some cows out and have no idea where they got out... they went up to the gate and the guy put them in. I went up at nearly dark when my son called, and accounted for each and everyone by number on the list. Will have to check fences in the morning... but I am wondering if they didn't get out the gate because the owners are at the house tonight. They weren't there when I let the nurse cow out.... they are usually pretty anal about shutting the gate everytime they go in and out.... but if they both came up and one got there first, they might have left the gate open for the next one and a couple might have been close enough to slip out and go across the road into the yard and you could easily miss them???? I will check fences in the morning and make sure there aren't any trees down or anything like that.

Found an email from the bank people from last Thursday.... didn't have reliable internet most of the weekend and of course we were gone on Sat and I was busy in the hayfields on Sun and nearly all day yesterday after PT..... needed a couple more pay stubs.... including the most recent.... which was pretty pitiful due to only a couple farms testing... I got some service this morning and sent them off.... and told them again that the paychecks are not a regular amount.... depends on who tests and doesn't and that they OFTEN skip in the hot weather months of July and Aug..... that they needed to worry about the yearly income not the bi-weekly paycheck. It was mentioned that if they had that info by friday (last week) ; email was sent out Thursday afternoon.... that we could maybe close this thursday.... Guess not now. I sent a reply email and said that I had explained that the internet was spotty and that although I didn't often have much cell service, I could get texts and did check it often as I was in and out of service area and that no one had sent me any text about it....

People just don't listen.....so I am guessing that it might be next week now..... D@#M anyway.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Sorry ya missed the email, but if it would've closed this thurs, then things are Ready and just procedures had to be taken care of....

 

[Mini Horses]

OOPS I put my foot in it that time.... I wasn't thinking about you in that "age frame", I don't think of myself as a senior or old.... except when I can get a discount . Just that they seemed so much older than me.

Just joking with ya!! Hey, I don't feel as old as YOU, until I look into a mirror. Then, I wonder who is looking back! It's mental. Somewhere, someone didn't tell your mind you aged -- surely beyond what you THINK you can still do in those grand plans we think up. I loved the "old biddys" part. Haven't heard that in a while.

have no idea where they got out

OMG -- sounds like life with my goats. They come back when called or when "it's time"...ya know, feed bucket rattled or nap time in their shed. The benefit of their learning "home". There are times when I don't actually look -- they are out and will run back in the same way if food is being tossed in the bunker. A "show me" technique. Goats are a LOT smaller than cows!

that they needed to worry about the yearly income not the bi-weekly paycheck

This is generally just the last minute check to show you are still working, not so much annual income confirmation. Annoying but ---

 

[farmerjan]

@Mini Horses yeah I know the feeling.... who is that white haired person.... and where did this sore achy stiff body come from.

The cows were out right along the road.... had to look and seriously as they fly down that road. So, this morning I found a place where there weren't any staples in a post and they had bent the top 2 strands/sections of the woven wire down. Reaching for grass and weeds.... and I think they went over kinda by accident... it was not a planned "break out" but an opportunistic kind of get out over the wire? Fixed it and used the half dozen staples I keep in the truck....Will get some more staples to reinforce a few more spots but think/hope I got it. Oh well.... it happens.

Then went to PT and we did more of the "hurtful" stretching/pushing on/working through the tendons down the legs/knees and then did some of the vibrating massager. I felt decent when I came out and have felt some more "relief" from it during the day. I plan to see how I feel after I do the exercises/stretches this evening. I mean when he uses his thumbs on those certain spots of the tendons, I like to come off the "table" but it does seem to have benefits after... Like a "hurt so good" after you stop.....
Then went and did laundry, then went to a farm to do a jump drive exchange that didn't work, had to reset something so it read it off my computer. He is alot more savvy with them, and I know it, and he figured out what to do and then we could make the back up on the jump drive so he can put it in his computer. He has robotic milkers at the home farm, but I still test the other smaller farm he has cows at.... Kind of a know it all jerk sometimes, but for some reason he has always liked me.... and I readily acknowledge his computer smarts compared to mine.
Then went to the farm I tested last Friday (the "smaller farm) so I could drop off reports for that farmer/manager/milker after I had to can my old printer and install my other one I use occasionally at home. Something in the other one went kafluey and it was not expensive and not worth worrying with since I have been using it for years. Home printer is identical, so I will use it but had to "install" it's own drivers.... why the same models/makes/models can't all be universal like the old days I will never know.

I want to get a "newer" computer for the "new house" as my old desk top is an XP.... yep ancient. And the printers I have/had are not compatible with anything newer than windows 7 so will need something different for a windows 10 computer anyway. So "use this one up" with the win7 on the laptop for work since it is compatible....

Then I went and picked up the hams and bacons that were cured.... he sliced all the hams and I thought I would be getting some "hams" from the ends to cook... oh well, I probably didn't state it well. I was surprised that they weren't frozen though.... maybe I didn't tell him to freeze them. The bacons look good and I got ponhoss (scrapple) and a couple of packages of lard so am not going to complain. Will make a note for next hog.... GF isn"t a big cook so the slices will work better for him to take some down there.

Opps, time to get up the hill to do the nurse cow....

 

[farmerjan]

Well, we have a problem child and unfortunately, she will be someone else's problem tomorrow. The heifer was out again this afternoon and neighbors put her in the field across from where she was supposed to be staying. (Seems that there was only one out yesterday.... but 3 times someone put her back in and the one time that my son went up said it was #14 white tag.) Son called and I went up. She is walking the fences, looking for a way out. I had some chicken feed in a bucket, so got her to follow into the catch pen in this pasture and shut the gate. She is eating the feed then stops and starts walking the catch pen fence. Really being a jerk. So I went, got the truck and trailer, came back, and back up to the pen. She is acting like she is going to go over the boards, then puts her head between the bars of the gate and tries pushing it. Really making me mad at this point. I get the trailer door open and she is shoving the gate, it opened in, and I get it open and she walks right up on the trailer. Then turns like she is coming back off and I got the trailer gate shut. I was going to put her in the catch pen at the nurse cow barn, but was afraid she would go over that board fence or over the gate and bend it all up. There is no spot that I can find where she got out, except a section of woven wire that the top wire is bent over like one section. She is jumping it I am sure as the other cows are all contentedly grazing in another part of the field.
So, that's it. She is the same one that was out twice yesterday, same number.....
This field has the very best fences, we always put "problem children " here because no one gets out.
So I don't know what her problem is, she sure wasn't acting like she was hungry for the grass.... the pasture they had put her in this afternoon, is above my knees... it is a winter pasture.... She didn't go off and calve as she is due in Oct or so and is as big as a house and not much udder developing so can't blame it on her "looking for a baby"....
So she wrote her ticket out of here and she will go to the stockyard tomorrow. She is residing in the cattle trailer tonight because she cannot get out of it.... roof and all on it.....
Why she just decided that she was going to go gallavanting all over I have no idea. She will eat grass out of the little girls hand when they are there at the farm.... in fact they just came back for 2 weeks as they closed on their house in Tn and cannot close on the one in Pa until like the 12-15 th of Aug. But I cannot deal with this, if she gets hit by a vehicle we could have one he// of a lawsuit...... can't put her at the "big farm" since it backs up to the interstate and is right up the road from the Pilot Truck stop.... and it has the same type fences as are at snyders. Thing is she is in with the heifers she was raised with, so not like I took her out and put her in somewhere unfamiliar....
Not going to deal with it. Will sell her as a bred heifer, take my licks as I am not going to be responsible for her causing an accident or someone getting hurt or killed by her stupidity.
If there was a hole in the fence, anything that I could "excuse" this getting out.... but to go over the fence is just not acceptable. And now that she knows she can do it, she will be a chronic problem. There are just n o "holes" trees down, low spots, stretched out wire, NOTHING. And since she is right there along the road, and the one spot just bent over a bit... it has to be where she is getting out. If there was a down tree on the wire or anything in the back, then someone would be going with her and there would be tracks.... no tracks anywhere along the outside of the fence down in the back or anything. There is a driveway that runs along one side of the pasture to a house down in the back, and I went over that whole thing just to be sure there was nothing down. Nope, and no tracks so she didn't come up the driveway there, which is close to the corner where they put her in the other pasture.

 

[farmerjan]

It was sunny and got hot, hit 90 but then the clouds rolled in and we got a rain for a little bit about 3 or so, then just clouds, then another light softer rain for a little while around 7-8 or so I guess. I managed to get cow loaded with only a few sprinkles but then it started to rain more after I got back to the house.

Got the clothes in just as it started to rain the first time....

Had to go to the bank and make the deposit in a newly opened checking account so that the money will be there for the closing. Have decided that I will make the mortgage payments from that account too.... I will move money in there every month a few days before the mtg payment is due and then have it made automatically/directly. They don't pay any interest on the checking so even though "my bank" wouldn't give me a mtg.... I will continue to keep the bulk of my money in the checking that will pay me interest. They haven't told me a definite date but closing will be next week.

Then I came home and hauled a load of water for the nurse cow pen and put her in for the calves.

They better make a decision about the closing as I already have 2 farms that want to test, and the dr appt with the woman dr on Wednesday. Plus another that I need to call to test too.

Rain is very welcome, and needed. Especially if it continues as they are saying a front will stall and we will be getting precip for several days. Then that trop storm is supposed to head up the coast.... all according to the path as to whether we get much/any over this far from the coast.

Gotta get going.