How about you just get out the heavy duty fan and blow those rain clouds over to the west, with enough UMPH to get them over the Blue Ridge Mtns and into the Shenandoah Valley
@Mini Horses ....
The radar shows it all sticking over by you along the coast. Nothing here today, and just hoping that the front will push west enough, that is stalling out over the coastal areas, tomorrow, so that we get some showers from it. Possible also for Sat morning... then the temps rise and we are looking at the potential for temps to hit 100 Mon and Tuesday....
Had a good morning. Didn't get out as soon as I wanted but... got more hay down in the garden between the potato rows... about 2/3 to 3/4 done so getting closer to the end. Then took the weed eater and scalped the ground in places I didn't get close enough with the mower... and got the butternut squash and cantaloupe section mulched out a bit further around the plants... so they can spread. They are starting to put out runners now.
This is where I want to plant the asparagus next year, and make a permanent bed for them. I had run the mower down along the patch of tiger lily plants that the previous owners' mom used to like to look at. I want to cut them all off... and eventually get all the "pretty" , different lily plants I have, planted in there. These "tiger lily" plants are the kind that grow wild every where and they bloom for a day or 2 and that is it. Problem is that they are getting "played out" and maybe a quarter of them had blooms this year...lots of weeds coming up in the patch too. The "bed" needs regenerating... and I may keep a couple on one end, but I want them cleaned out and some more "ornamental" type plants in there. I can intersperse with irises that I have also...maybe planting them along the edge on one side.....some of the irises are "rebloomers" so will get some more blooms this fall. Maybe put some of the peonies in there and just make a nice spring blooming garden there... Then the 2 "beds" will be next to each other and it might make taking care of them easier... will leave at least a mower's width, plus a little, between them, so I can make 2 passes down and keep the grass cut between them.
Mulched between the green beans I planted the other day also. Then got the weed eating around the dogwood tree and all along the garden near the rose-a-sharon tree all weed eated. Came up along the deck and did some there until I ran the batteries down. Unfortunately, I had not put the other 2 batteries on charge so all 4 are dead. Put 2 on the chargers, and will swap them out later today.
The batteries on the mower were also run out...late yesterday; so put 4 on charge yesterday, and put the 2 - 6 amp ones in the mower to pull the cart around and get all the stuff I wanted in the cart to bring to the house so I can load it in the truck to go to the dumpster. Charged the last 2 last night, so they are all ready to go back in the mower and then will top off the 2 other ones again.
Didn't take the phone out with me, and of course DS had been trying to get me... seems he decided to go get the one bull, and switch them out like we are trying to do...rotate them to different pastures so that if one should not be doing his job, those cows do not wind up open.... and the cows got out and went down the driveway out at that pasture and he had a he// of a time... they got in the hayfield and down out on the road... it was a circus I guess... But he hadn't said anything about doing it this morning, and I get tired of taking the phone out in my pocket at the garden... this pair of jeans has crappy "shallow" pockets and everything falls out of them... not the brand I prefer, but one of the cheap pairs that I got to wear around for crappy work.
So then he got the 3 cows and the "new bull" to go out to this pasture, in at the barn, and didn't have any blackleg to give the calves shots. One is a wild little witch; all 3 calves are heifers... He had put the bull in there the other day in anticipation of moving them, then they didn't come down in the alley, so left them. They came down and were right near the gate so he got them across the driveway.
On top of that , he went to the pasture with the open cows that we put out with their big calves, and got the biggest calves off them, and got that bull out also. So... he moved the bull from "augusta co" to Wimpy's (where the big calves were..), had the bull in at wimpys before he turned out the other one... brought the calves and the "Black Powder" bull (that was his name on his ear tag... we got him through a farm dispersal 7-8 years ago I guess).... back to doug's farm. Black Powder gets a rest, he has some age on him now.... Put the 16 calves in the barn lot, because he had already gotten the 3 cows and the "Limi" bull in the barn. Got the 3 calves in the chute, and then the calves he just brought back, in one side of the barn, playing musical "chairs" to move them from one pen and one side to the other... gave blackleg shots to the calves... which is what the last phone call was about at 10, because he needed to know if I had any black leg at the house for shots...He was out at the barn.... So I took it to the barn and heard all about his morning..... then we loaded the 3 cows/calves and the bull, and ran another cow that has not calved yet, back across the driveway to the field with the rest of the close to calving pregnant cows (and the 2 surprise calves that he saw the other day)..... I went down the long alley that leads up to the other gate, and let that cow up in there... she will find the other 5-6 cows that are in there.... and then DS took the 3 cows/calves and the bull to the "augusta county" pasture so there is a "new/different bull " in there.
He did say that the 3 cow/calf pairs at the other pasture, that were out the other day, and there were all the trees down along the fence line... are being a pain. The calves are out nearly everyday... so he is going to move the panels up there, and they are coming out. They are "to sell" cows, and I think they just need to go. There is the one heifer I would like to keep off my one cow,,, the other one has a crappy calf, and his cow is old and it is a steer calf so they will both get sold too. All 3 are open, and with the way prices are, they need to leave. Don't know if he is going to wean off his calf and see if it will match something else here... My one steer calf is just nothing special and needs to just go.
If the calves are that much of a problem, no sense of dealing with them. Once they find a way out, they will keep on doing it. They will walk right through the high tensile wire with no electric on it... it becomes a game to them and they are out in the road constantly.
We might take some other heifers there since there is still quite a bit of grass... we usually keep 4-6 cows and their calves there, so the 3 have not hurt the grass even with the dry conditions. But I want those couple of my cows gone... the one I would have kept and put back with a bull, but she can be a pita to keep in also... and I am DONE with pita cows. ESPECIALLY with the cull cow prices right now...
So, I am in the house for some late lunch. Temp staying right around 88-89... a nice relief from the past few days... No humidity either, so other than it is hot out in the direct sun, it is actually nice out for July.
One load of laundry hung and another load in the washer... will try to get that hung later on... it is jeans so they are soaking from all the testing.... cow manure/iodine/ smells/stains.... plus my sweaty self.... I need to get one more load of socks done also. I have been "culling out" some socks... getting some holes and such... guess it is time to go buy some more....
Tomorrow DS is taking the cow and 3 feeder calves of Fred's to the sale in the morning...and maybe our one bull if he has gotten him up to the barn.... and then we have to go to his milogram test.....
Stomach is revolting.. need to eat...
deer
. So maybe you'll get some there 
. Who knows.
Hope it rains there ALL DAY!! It did here yesterday, more at night. Overcast now. You have mountains that break things up. But I have ocean that attract hurricanes
