Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Sadly, there is no rain west of the Blue Ridge Mtns. All of it is, Charlottesville and east, and south is getting it... nothing here in the valley. There are flooding concerns down along the VA/NC border counties and east to the ocean.

Hurricane Beryl , downgraded to tropical storm and all that, is causing FLOODING and a mess in VT and now in Prince Edward Island in Canada... But we can't get a couple inches.
Hey @Bruce , how are you making out up there????

Oh well... do what you can... We have been mostly cloudy here, so has kept temps down. 80 today.... but the forecast is for 99 on Monday and Tuesday..... all saying possible triple digits... It is rough.

This morning, I brought the clothes in off the line that were dry, did not hang the jeans yet, they are in the machine. Doing a 2nd wash since they were pretty dirty. Will hang them tomorrow...
Put the mower in the carport and covered with the tarp in case it rained and blew in there. Guess I should have left it out and tempted the rain.... closed the car windows too...

Trip down to Hospital for DS was quiet... alot of traffic. They inject the dye and he now has a horrific headache which they told him to expect... took about an hour... I drove both ways. Just left him off and he was going home to take something and lay down for a bit. He fed hay and grain to the calves/barn lots so nothing he has to do this evening.

I took another sq bale to the 2 hols bull calves..this morning....fed a couple sections in the bunk; they are just not doing like they should be. Tomorrow I plan to move them here to the house if I can get them on the back of the ranger... they are going backwards...I will bring the hay since I put the strings back around it after taking out the sections... the other calves can eat it if I open up the barn to them all..... so they need to be here and getting "babied".... need to get them turned around and then sold I think. They just have not done anything like what the heifer twins did....the heat is not helping them I am sure... but they have had water and all in front of them....

I am going to go out and try to pull some more of the spiney weeds. I am going to put the soaker hoses on the garden. I am about ready to pick the first yellow squash... and I see alot more coming along. I want the green beans to produce... so I am going to put the soaker on the wax beans and the green beans I just planted since they could use a good start... then I guess I will put a soaker down between the potato rows I have recently planted... get them soaked at least once; once I get them mulched to the end so it will not bake the top of the soil the next few days.

So, I am headed out the door for awhile.

 

[farmerjan]

Done and in for the night.
I CONQUERED the spiney weed patch.... it is done. Need to work on getting the hay down the rest of the garden. Have a couple of areas around the edge facing the road, that I need to work on... but not a huge amount. Might weed eat it down and then smother with some sections of hay.... alot of grass.

I put 3 soakers down between rows..... when I started. I will leave them on until I go to bed... then tomorrow will move them to another set of rows and put them on again. Got them on the 3 rows of wax beans that are just up, and the 2 short rows of the green beans I just planted. Got them looped around with one soaker, the other 2 are straight down the main garden rows... so that one can go on another section of the potatoes.

The gourd seeds have never come up... guess they were too old. So will try a different cucumber on the panel... might go with the white ones.. They get rather big and "fat" and would be good for the "cinnamon" pickles from @Ridgetop 's recipe..... The eaten off cucumbers will hopefully come back... they mostly only got the top leaves. I will put in another couple of short rows of beans... need to look and see what else what I have and then make plans for some broccoli for the fall.

Nothing in the trap yet. Have not seen the deer in the field next door since the other night...but I am sure they have been around...

Ordered another electric netting fence..... not enough to do the expanded size of the garden. Will be able to use it along one side for the calves too... I will put them in the calf hutch and the small area with the hog panels for a little bit, then be able to let them out into a bigger area.

I am all wet, and the clothes will go in the wash... these jeans will fit in the load for the 2nd washing so that's good.

OH ... I picked my first 3 yellow crookneck "squashes"..... Going to make them for supper... that'll work..... Not real big, but plenty big enough to eat and make probably 2 meals.

Have to soak all the potted plants tomorrow morning. Had hoped they would get a good rain soaking.

Maybe next week we will get some rain.... after we get "baked" for a couple days.

 

[Baymule]

I hope you get some rain soon.

 

[farmerjan]

I texted DS after I got the weeding done, last evening, and was sitting on the little stool at the garden for a few minutes to see how he was feeling. DS texted back later, after I had gone to bed, that he had been feeling pretty rough but got up late afternoon and went and moved the panels. The 3 calves were out and came back up the road when he couldn't find them.
But, he texted this morning after I saw his text and said to just get the calves if the cows wouldn't come in the pen.... and he said he got them all in, and they are at the barn. He said if he gets the bull across and into the lot just below the barn, he is taking Fred's and ours to the sale today. I offered to help so might be leaving for that. It will be good to get them gone... then we could move something else there that will appreciate the grass, and have not found their way out, from the trees down on the fence in the beginning.... and then keep doing it.
It was down to 67 so good sleeping. Sun is out, and temp will climb but not quite as humid. Yesterday didn't have the oppressive humidity even with the clouds.
Looks like @Mini Horses got all the rain and might even still get some more...

Oh well, going out to move the soaker hoses and then water the potted plants here at the house.

 

[Mini Horses]

Looks like @Mini Horses got all the rain and might even still get some more.

Yes...my share & a couple others more today, which is predicted to be light. Have gotten over 4.6" over past 3 days. Pounded yesterday for a while, 3+ inches.

Now, it's being suggested we may get Wed thru Sun. Shame the heat & rain events have to be so dramatic, sporadic and unevenly distributed.

 

[Mini Horses]

These 4" deep tubs were emptied & used to feed about 10am yesterday. Just now, 24 hrs later....full. to NW & SE are storm clouds. Grass is plentiful and soooo wet! Goats heading to barns as it's starting to rain as I was taking pics. Yeah, I'm covered with rain!! Know you'd love it there....I'd love it for you.

 

[rachels.haven]

Holy moly, that's a lot of rain! I wonder if it will get you out of the drought club. We got a little last night, but it was no where near that.

 

[Mini Horses]

@farmerjan is in drought, I'm coastal....near VaBeach/Norfolk, etc. we were very dry....south in NC they were drought.

So farmers were happy if they even had crops still alive -- in some areas. At my farm, wasn't into crunchy yet but close. Some scattereds had hit me & helped. Sunny now, so hoping it dries the grasses some -- you know goats hate rain!

 

[murphysranch]

Thirteenth thru 23rd of July for America.

 

[farmerjan]

Hot and dry here again. 67 to start... recording thermometer says 94 was the high. It is currently 89 at 6 p.m.

Watered the potted plants here and had the soakers going. DS wanted help sorting cattle. He had gone out with the truck and trailer and got the bull to load in the trailer with grain. So had that backed up to the chute there at the barn.
Went up, got Fred's 2 big steers we had banded, in the head catch and cut the sacks off them below the band/clamp. They were starting to "die off" and smelled not too great but they were good to go with the bands having done the job of cutting the circulation off to the testicles, and so we cut them off instead of waiting for them to fall off... which was in the plan anyway. Then sorted off the cows that were going and kept 2 of the 3 calves at the barn... they will be weaned... the one heifer I was wanting to keep, and the steer off his cull cow, because he might match some one else and was eating good anyway... the small steer on my cow looked 1000% better than he did when we turned them out to that pasture... he was eating some and she might have been making a little more milk... he was still small and looked the best he probably would look. Also loaded a calf that had been on 1 of 2 cows of DS's.... lost the eartag and one calf was missing and we never did see this calf suck anyone.. Not that great a calf... and decided he would not match much of anything else, so time to get him off the feed bill...
So, we took Fred's cull cow, 2 big steers and 1 wild acting heifer... then 3 cull cows of ours (from that pasture) 1 calf from there and 1 calf from the barn and the bull with the limp....
It was a HUGE line... we waited for right about 3 hours total.... When we first got there we SERIOUSLY debated about coming back home...I wanted to actually... but DS was hoping it would go faster... so we stayed. He talked to several guys in line when we first got there and figured out where we should be because it wound around in 2 full circles in the lot on the other side of the sale barn/ring.... Most all were saying that they were cutting out the "surplus" stuff with it getting so dry... a couple guys were hauling for other people and said that people they had stuff on there for were cutting back while prices were so good since it was so dry and who knew what the weather was bringing... hay is in short supply up there too.

Then he went in to "work" and help out, and I stayed with the truck....
A LOT of sheep and goats there too...

Heading up to the nurse cow pasture... too hot to move the calves now... will take water and see how the one is looking... plus their grain... not going to do too much else this evening... just put soaker hoses back on... did not want to leave them on so they were only on for about an hour or less earlier... Will leave them on for about 4 hours this evening.
Got some black clouds but never materialized into anything liquid.