Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Margali]

@farmerjan For sneakers, I would check the insoles and try replacing them first. I have super high arches and only surgery on right foot. I end up replacing left boot insoles for twice as often as the right but it lets me keep boots going till I wear through outer sole.

 

[Ridgetop]

is making my left foot, (replaced ankle) with the area of numbness that has been there since the replacement; actually painful now across the bottom of the foot. Like I am walking on something thin and hard, and hurting it badly.

If foot was numb and now is starting to hurt, it is possible that the nerves are starting to regrow and the pain is from that. Use Margali's suggestion and try new gel insoles in the shoes. Hopefully that may help.

 

[Baymule]

I find that some boots and tennis shoes make my feet get numb. Aggravating when they are fine in the store but can only wear for a couple of hours when I wear them on the farm.

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks for the suggestion on gel insoles. I have custom orthotics that I put in whatever I am wearing... but will try the gel insole on top of it... It is mostly just this one style sneaker.... so I think that it is just something in the way it is constructed and it hits the wrong spot on the bottom of my foot .... and with the replacement, it is "shaped differently" than it was before the surgery.
Of course the style sneaker I like is no longer made.... GRRRR but I did find some on Ebay back awhile ago and bought 5 pr at the time... Sadly, getting down to the last pair of them. If I find something like that, that works/fits/feels good... I have been known to buy 5 or 10 pair so that I don't have to bother with all the BS of trying on shoes and stuff... and then like @Baymule said, after a little bit at home, they are not as comfortable as they seemed to be when in the store.

 

[farmerjan]

Well, had a good day. Got up, went and met DS and all, and turns out Fred's sons were visiting, so they got "roped into" coming out to help... so lots of people and the cows just decided that going in the gate to the little catch pen was better than "can I run out between those people " because normally there are fewer people, so bigger gap in space to get through... It went good... got all the cows in the barn, then let all the cows out through the one barn door as DS used the pour on ivermectin on them... Had all the calves in the little barn lot... and the one cow that keeps getting out that I was going to preg check... Backed the trailer up, got some gates situated... loaded all the calves and the cow and on to the barn. Got them in our barn, run them down the chute a couple at a time, in the head catch... banded bulls, vacc for blackleg and injectible wormer on the calves... flytags in their ears... Kept the 2 biggest bull calves; born later last fall so now in the 500 lb size... banded them with the "big bander"... Callicrate one not the little "cheerio type bands" and kept one big heifer there at the barn... and I "armed" the cow and feel nothing(preg) in her... so the 3 calves and the cow stayed there. There was another bigger heifer, but she has pinkeye, so she got treated, a patch on her eye, and went back to Fred's with the smaller calves... she can get sold in the fall when these calves get sold... hopefully the eye will heal up with little or no spot in it... heifer would get "hurt" , price wise, if he were to sell her now with the pinkeye... The cow and the 3 calves will get sold ... probably next week... we will run the calves through the chute again, the sacks should be cold and can be cut off so they will be "steers", and the cow will get put in the cull pen...

DS didn't really want to keep them there for a couple weeks... and we won't have everyone of ours there to sell next week... so he will take these 4 of Fred's to the sale, next Friday... got to feed them for a week.... and then ours will go the following week or 2 after...., or as soon as we get the rest of the bigger calves to the barn. DS said we are also going to look over the group of cows that were open, that we put back with the bull with their big calves... and where we are going to pull the calves off since it is getting so dry.... and see if any of them have "eh- just so-so " calves... they will only be 1-2 months bred back... and if some of them did not raise that great a calf... they might get culled too...
The drought conditions have really got DS spooked.... he called about some other hay for sale too....going to go look at it I guess... or maybe go buy a trailer load and them decide if he likes it enough to commit to the rest of it.. We may be feeding some hay here soon if we don't get some rain....

The spring is doing okay at the nurse cow pasture but the grass is very short... there are more animals there than we normally keep, but they are getting bred. May have to supplement with some hay if we do not get any rain.....

He did get the last hay baled... called me and it made more than he thought it might... about normal amount... but it had poultry litter put on it... so more yield... which was good... so we are ahead there...

PRAYING that the called for storms and such do come tomorrow.... wouldn't get too upset even if we get some hail since our corn is short still so it would be minimal leaf damage.... they are saying possible severe winds... if it brings moisture we will deal with it.

After I got back, I wound up going to the store since I badly wanted to get some more of these frozen Iced Coffee flavored sherbet popsicles.... I got a box to try, the other day when I went by there, and they are FANTASTIC.... so I went back and they had only 8 boxes left and I got them all... stuck in the freezer... also got a choc covered banana and a strawberry one to try... They are distributed by "Klein's Real Kosher Ice Cream" out of Brooklyn NY... Made in Israel... by Israel-American Food & Ice Cream Co.... THEY ARE REALLY REALLY GOOD.... will try the other flavors... but these coffee flavored ones are just soooooo good...
And I don't drink coffee... but love coffee flavored ice cream and "mocha" flavored stuff...

Got some discounted "potato buns" and a couple other things... came home... Got that all in the freezer...

Got the clothes out on the line to dry too... the breeze is really blowing and they were half dry by the time I got the last of the stuff hung...

Too hot to work in the garden... so came in, finally made an egg salad sandwich on a bun for lunch. Sat down and am working on the samples and stuff from yesterday... Taking a break to go on here, checking the forecast for the "possible storms" tomorrow...
Got to get the stuff in the car for tomorrow... I am going to take the explorer since all the meters are in the outback for Friday's testing. Not going to unload all that to fit all the boxes of bottles... I will get what I need in the explorer later this afternoon...
Hope I can get in the garden later.... put down some more of the newspapers and hay on top to stop the weeds before they start.
Going to haul a couple of 15 gal barrels of water to the calves later too... haven't gotten the hol bull calves moved here to the house yet... maybe get that done this weekend...

Well, back to the testing stuff.....

 

[Ridgetop]

The drought conditions have really got DS spooked....

After going through a drought and having to buy hay to keep cows fed, a lot of ranchers I know are spooked. Better to have too much hay than not enough. And he can always sell what you don't want.

 

[Baymule]

I fed hay all last summer and dry lotted my sheep. My advice is get all the hay you can get your hands on! Take to auction every one you are going to sell as soon as possible.

 

[farmerjan]

Too warm 71 overnight. Sun and much more humid... It is getting "hazy" now but the weather radar shows the "pop up's" staying to the north again... hitting about 50 miles north... so we will see. Hoping they are wrong and it drops a pouring down rain on us...

It is just sticky out there...

Left at 3:15 for the farm; DS drove his dually and we left it at the "park and ride" part way to the farm, so that he could take it to a friend's of his place, to get the AC worked on... he does it on the side and came to the farm a week or 2 ago and did several of the vehicles... but this truck's compressor or something is not working right.. so anyway... going to his place was closer up that way so no point in coming all the way back and making a special trip since we were in that direction... Got there, set up their samplers' , tested and got done about 9:15... DS went down to the owner sampler farm down the road and picked up their samples and the "paperwork" and I will drop the completed stuff back there tomorrow when I go test at the other farm I do, close to them.... I finished up the computer work and we left... came back by and got his truck, went out to his friend's place and dropped it off.. and came home. Explorer is parked under the tree for shade and I will eventually get the 500+ samples in and get them packed... as well as work on the stuff for the other farm.

Everyone is hurting, we looked at pastures and corn fields and all that are really stressed from the drought.
Checked the Drought monitor that comes out on Thursday... They have extended the "Severe Drought" designation area to include basically the whole I-81 corridor and extending to the east for 1/3 of the state... The rest of the state is Moderate drought..... We are basically at "level 3"... abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought, exceptional drought...
Not good....

Going in to take a shower and wash my hair as I just feel sticky.... I will go out and bring the laundry in... if it starts to rain... trying to tempt it to rain down here in any way I can....

I need to make something to eat too... guess I will as soon as I get the cow "washed off"....

 

[Baymule]

Hurricane Beryl will probably throw some rain at my area. It’s needed. As soon as people could get in the hay fields, the hay making began. Now it’s hot and dry. I think there will be a second cutting but if it doesn’t rain, there might not be a third.

 

[farmerjan]

Got a shower and washed hair and feel human...
It started getting darker outside... I finally went out and closed windows in the explorer, then the outback, then the little ranger... then went out to the clothes line and got the clothes... It was thundering... and then I carried an armload of newspapers out to the garden area, so they could get wet if it rained... and it started to sprinkle a few drops as I came back to house. It will be easier to get them spread out in the rows and get mulch on them if they are wet/limp....

We are finally getting a shower, a nice straight down rain... let's hope it lasts for a bit. Radar is showing that it is staying a little further south than predicted earlier...so catching us with some of the rain; and it is as black as can be to the west... SO...... asking..... PLEASE keep coming directly east and soak us good....
Radar looks more promising for an hour or 2, then a break, but it is showing some SERIOUS yellows and oranges over this area after 5-6 pm. I sure hope they are right in that. Plus it looks to extend quite a bit both north and south in a line, so hopefully we will get it...
Temps have dropped from 90 earlier to 78 on the recording thermometer.... WONDERFUL....