Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[canesisters]

FJ: I'm now a certified Master Canner. I took the 10 week course via one of WA extension depts. 18 page final. Passed with 89 out of 100. (it was hard!!).

Anyhoo, the rubber on canning lids is far less thick than the older days. They no longer recommend putting them in warm or hot water. It doesn't plump the rubber anymore, just adds to failure rate.

I like my Tattler lids. Most extensions don't like them. But I do. I take good care of those rubber rings...

The class taught me to not use canning lids that were more than a year old. But I still do, and am careful with testing and leaving on counter for a week before storing away.

Back to canning - there are so many new varieties of bacteria, virus, and molds, that what we used to do is scarily wrong nowadays. My mother (now 94) taught me and since I'll be 70 in 5 days, I've had alot to "unlearn".

Sorry to derail your journal.

When are you going down to stay with friends to look around??

Wow that's fantastic! I bet that's a fascinating class.

 

[Baymule]

My mom used paraffin on top of jelly jars too. I got to lick the paraffin top when she opened a jar. That’s the only thing she canned. We moved to Houston when I was 8 years old and she went to work.
I reuse lids, but only for dry storage, never reuse them for canning anything.

 

[farmerjan]

Thursday evening... Been a fairly long and somewhat surprising day.
50 overnight, some sun early and then they were saying possible showers today...
I got the samples packed and ready for UPS. Got all the bottles in the trays for the 200 cow herd.. Got dressed and headed for the chiropractor appt.. Dropped off the samples at UPS on the way... Had the adjustment, and am going back in a week... trying to get this neck "staightened out" to get rid of the tingley feeling in the hand... Agree that it might need some more frequent work to get it back in line...

DS calls... what am I up to... said I was on the way to the chiropractor... he says oh... well, he came back to the house, had the elbow for the water line, got it on. Turned on the well pump and the water pressure seemed low in the house... so he went back down and took something apart with a plastic screen filter (?) and it had alot of junk on it, and put it back... and that the water pressure seemed pretty good. So I would have to see when I got home... He also looked at the poultry run, agreed with my ideas of "re-inforcing" the sides/length and putting something on the bottom to help with preventing it from getting rotted out... he was going to measure it... I said I thought it was 16 ft... but turns out it is only 12 ft... which is fine...I had never measured it with a tape measure.. He said he would help me put the top pieces on it also...and could probably make the one end board that was ruined by the termites.... and I am going to get the other boxes opened up to see what I have... And since it was 12 ft long, he can haul the 4x4 pressure treated boards on the r&w truck with the hydrabed (hay bed for the round bales).... instead of needing a flat bed trailer or something..

SOOOO... kinda like @Mini Horses ... with her son unloading the feed... what prompted this whole thing with DS actually "doing" for me ????? I could have had water a long time ago if he had only just taken the time to see it was a fairly quick and inexpensive fix.... Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth, too closely... also mentioned that he thought he might have left the light on, that he was going to stop and see if there were any other leaks, and I mentioned the heater that could just get put down there, on the lowest setting (like 40-45 degrees) and just left to it could kick on and off.... he said he would look to see if there were any places to plug it in...

Got home from the adjustment, changed to barn clothesgot a bottle and went to do the calf, and went to work... it was laying in a pile of hay... 4 cows around there... and one was 1305.... so I just fed it the bottle and left...let him stick around with the cow there... maybe she is taking better care of it... he drank but was not "starving acting".... the rest were down in the field, I wasn't going to try to rush them, calling them up, then putting them in for grain...I was on a limited time frame... they can skip a day... it was 60 out there and I was in a long sleeve t-shirt so quite comfortable. There was still a full roll they had barely touched...

Went to test and it went fine. Not bad to set up in decent temps..... 196 went through the parlor, they are still milking really really good... 100.4 lbs AVERAGE... last test they were 100.3 and the test before that they were 99 lbs.... Got done and pulled the meters and finally got home about 7:30 or so... It was pretty much dark....

Samples are in the house, I will pack in the morning. Will take my 2wd ranger, tomorrow, and get some of the protein tubs I want to put up there at snyder's nurse cow pasture.... it has been really muddy around the barn area, with the snow melting and rain, and I would rather not have the cows all up around the barn close all the time... seeing if they can get fed... hopefully will make it easier to get the 1305 black cow in, with the rest not all there making it hard to have "space" for her to come in and not all of them trying to come in the gate.... I have been lucky on the days I have been getting her in so far...Plus give the smaller calves something to work on also. Some of the hay is fairly low protein, so they could use a little boost... especially these just bred growing heifers. Plans were to go get a couple this week or next... and there extended forecast is for some more serious rain next week... so better to get them in there now... and who knows what will be going on next week... Gotta call and check to see if they still have any .. It might have to wait til next week...

So, I am going in early to take a nice hot soaking shower and not have to get dressed again, to come home, like from DS's house all the time.... YAY.....

 

[Baymule]

You are right, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Just smile, say thank you I really appreciate it and wonder if he got struck by lightning. LOL Glad you have water! How was that hot shower?

 

[Mini Horses]

Yep....I sure did exactly that!!!! Even texted a thank you after I got home last night @ 7:30 & found a trailer of hay covered. I worked yesterday until 3. Came home for late "lunch" with hay on truck. He un loaded while I was inside. I went on & hayed, fed, checked water, etc. debated on going on for a small job at close store, so glad I did that feeding!
Told self to get that job done & left about 5:30, not thinking rain! Rain came & I worried about hay, last hr there but came home to it tarped

Some days they're perfect, like the child you raised! Others you want to disown them

 

[farmerjan]

Friday morning... 35 overnight, sun is out so the couple of showers are done and gone...Didn't get any rain at the farm yesterday but it rained here at the house... Very spotty.... we were down to a 20% chance and like @Mini Horses , we got precip that really wasn't expected.
Yeah, the consideration hits you .... like how come I can't get a little of that as matter of course, without begging or threatening.... Oh well, will take what I got with a smile,.... and I also said thank you again....
He even came by, turned off the light down there... there is no plug so said he will have to see about getting one put in...

Then he called a little bit ago.,.. was feeding some hay at the pasture where the preg cows and those 8 heifers are... and there are 2 new calves in there... like I said, they could start anywhere after Feb 23rd.... Those are the ones we just pulled the calves off that most were all 6-7 months plus... THANK GOD I got a little pushy about getting the calves pulled off and them out a couple weeks ago...

So spring calving has started... with the ones actually planned for the spring calving... Going to be pretty busy, hope most all have them sooner rather than later... He said he fed hay on the hill with the other group due to calve, down near the gate so he can get them to come down and then we will bring them down that long alley into what we call the calving field...

Heading up to the pasture to check on the calf and maybe see if I can get 1305 in the barn, with the jersey calf, and Betsy to eat their grain... and feed the calves their grain in the other side of the barn, like usual. Then I will come back and get the samples packed to drop off at UPS and get a couple of the protein tubs when I'm in town.

Might see about going out to work on the chicken run, if it warms up a bit later.....getting the other boxes opened up and see what is what so it is too hard to read much off the cardboard on the sides to know what is all there....

 

[Baymule]

Both of you had nice son surprises. I hope it keeps up!

 

[Ridgetop]

Good boys! Mama will give you cookies and milk. LOL Such a nice surprise for you both!

 

[farmerjan]

Hold on to your hats.... DS came by this morning... and was working on the 4x4 ranger that has not run for over a year after I got it back...he had taken the battery to the barn to recharge the other day....because I could not keep a charge on the battery and kept telling DS that the battery cut off switch was not working and it never really cut off... and he kept telling me I wasn't doing something right... WEEEEEELLLLLLLL ... guess what... when mechanics did the work on it 2 yrs ago... when DS was still working and didn't have time... seems they added a ground wire... from the battery cable to the frame... so even though the cut off switch was off... it was STILL grounded and so wasn't really ever "cut off" so it kept losing the charge...and I didn't know to look for that... and he didn't look either, until he kept telling me that the light on the battery tester should not be coming on when "he" turned off the cut off switch inside... so he got to pulling on wires and went inside and had me jiggle one wire to make sure what was hooked up and what wasn't...and then came out and got to checking wires and found the one that they had added... which grounded the battery.... so the cut off switch inside was useless.... he took the wire off, and WAH LAH... the cut off switch worked just fine !!!!!!!!
He tried it at least a half dozen times, hooking up the battery, using the testing light... starting and running the truck, turning it off, using the cut off switch... and it worked...
SO, it wasn't "ME" ... I was right, the switch wasn't working because of them putting the stupid ground wire on .......that had never been a problem when it originally hooked up correctly... they screwed it up... so I was RIGHT when I said it would not cut off with the cut off switch....
Why can't he just take what I say at face value and believe me when I said that it was not working right?????

So he also checked and it needed some fluids and such; I said I would do them, so we left the hood up... and he went on to replace a gate at one pasture that a tree had come down on and totally destroyed the gate there... I added the antifreeze, power steering fluid and the oil... have to get a can of gas, and will put in some of the "stablizer" stuff, to help with the fact that it is old gas in there, and to "clean it up" some and run it... and will run non-ethanol gas in it to help clean out any of the gunk that the regular ethanol gas causes.... use some gas additive a couple times... and now I can run that truck back and forth to the pastures when it is muddy and stuff and not have to take the car. I have several cans for the grain in the "hay section" of the barn now so don't have to deal with the cows "reaching in the back of the truck" like I did with the 2wd ranger, hence taking the car so the buckets were inside the car to keep the cows out of it....

It is soooo nice when you can just do what you should be able to do without a whole bunch of aggravation and making do all the time... and it will save on "cow wear and tear" on the body of the car... sometimes they just want to rub on it and all that... and then a fender gets a dent and stuff like that.

Because of the complexity of trying to find a short in a wire on the forester, we are just going to put a cut off switch on it... because the headlight switch is NOT bad on it... it will not turn off the parking lights... replaced that switch about 2 years ago, and suddenly it is not turning off the parking lights again...tried a brand new headlight switch and it didn't solve it.... so there is a bare wire somewhere that is shorting/touching that is probably from the da#@ed mice chewing on something... so for now a cut off switch will solve that problem... someday, I might not be able to turn on/off any lights, and at that point then a complete rewiring might be in order... but for awhile this will keep anything from drawing down the battery... and not having to open the hood and hook up and unhook the battery cable on the battery everytime.... because it does drain the battery fast, when the parking lights stay on...

So, got the sample bottles in the trays... going to the pasture to do the calf and head to work. The wind is blowing like a wind storm out there... they said gusty winds this afternoon... total burn ban from yesterday through tomorrow due to high winds... and the ground is rather dry on top because the winds have dried off the surfaces. High fire hazard with this wind.

Slowly things are getting done... AND he has said he is considering the best way to put a frame/skids on this run so that it can be moved... might go with 2x6's 16ft long so that they are wider than the 4x4 and more like "skids" underneath it to be able to pull it to move it if necessary... and then can have the reinforcing 1x4 boards on the top and bottom to give it more rigidity to the frame...

Did some ALIENS come and switch out this person???? Or maybe it is a fluke of some AI experiment?????

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad he's helping out! I'm sure it's a welcome surprise!