Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[Bruce]

Now for our new hay equipment....it all worked great!

 

[misfitmorgan]

We got half of the field baled and put away now. Probly sitting at 400+ bales after losing the heads.

A friend of ours stopped by last night and put in an order for 700 bales.... I don't want to do any more square bales. DH told him yes we would do it. So we are discussing having the rest of that field round baled then doing squares on the other 30. Problem is we are running out of time and the weather is not cooperating. Rained thursday, rained tuesday we got our hay off between that gap, then it rained today, suppose to rain tomorrow, and saturday then possible rain tuesday next week.

We ended up buying a parts baler that matches our and swap the feed arms onto our machines, then went and bought bran new clutch discs for $140....painful. The wheel on the haybine needs a new bearing which we have not even looked at yet. DH hit a big rut in the field and bend a guard bar on the rake. So fix haybine wheel, fix rake, and buy more twine before we can do more hay atm.

DH called me a couple of hours ago to tell me he just got word at work that they are going from doing 4 day 40 to 12hrs a day 5 days a week, he is very not thrilled as that is going to make it extremely hard to get the hay or anything else done.

We know have a duty phone at my job, we are on a rotating schedule everyone takes it for 1 full week 24/7 every 3 months. So only 4 times a year but not really something I needed added to my plate. My first week to take it is 8/23-8/30.

Ivy's red daughter had boy girl twin kids 2 days ago and they seem to be doing well. She is being a good mom to them even though they seem very small. No spots either but a bit of white. We will be keeping the girls to put in with the new herd buck which includes Jupiter. Atm the new herd split is going to be ivy's white daughters female kid, ivy's red daughter female kid, phoebe's daughter, and Jupiter along with any other female kids that are born. Ivy looks very prego btw, so we are expecting at least one more set of twins.

Two days ago I went out and fed the calves, everyone looked pretty good though peanut seems slightly depressed. Ate her bottle with vigor though, that evening DH went out to bottle feed and peanut was dead. We have absolutely no idea why. Ginny doesnt seem to be doing so great, this morning she had scours and didnt want her bottle. When I get off work I will be going to buy some electrolytes and she will get probios, electrolytes and a raw eggs to stop things up. We are also likely going to be doing a round of Pen G as she sounds very wet and it has been very wet and humid here as well she she aspirates her milk pretty regularly. Hopefully Ginny gets over whatever is getting her down. The current plan is to buy a heifer calf if/when Ginny gets older to be her buddy.

We got a call to schedule our TB testing so we will be doing that soon.

We found a young man named Hunter who has agreed to be our farmhand/labor. He has a decent attitude, works well and sounds happy to do any of the things we have mentioned we need done. Thankfully we have that at least as DH is doing that 60hrs a week now.

The garden is doing pretty well, I picked a load of snow peas last night and we have gotten 1 zucchini and a purple bell pepper. My sungold tomatoes in my herb garden are ready to harvest a few and pretty much all of my herbs are ready to start drying or freezing some for winter. Bout the only things I saw not ready yet were sage and cilantro. The cilantro is really struggling this year the weather is so crazy. Like today it is 58F, monday it was 87F and I just dont think that plants are sure what to do. My strawberries are growing nicely, they will spend the winter in the garage and then get planted in a bed next spring....I hope.

I think you guys are all caught up now.

 

[Baymule]

That’s a lot of square bales to make when working those many hours. Does that include y’all delivering and putting them in his barn?

 

[farmerjan]

I feel for you with the "hay woes".... we go through stuff like that every year. And we have the option of round baling, most of ours. It is just a real crap shoot most years to get it made...
And we have at least 2-3,000 in equipment repairs this year; and we have not even started our sq baling.... and we will do some even if it is short as we have contracts also.... people we have been supplying hay to for years....
Used to do it like you with both of us working all kinds of hours... it is hard if not impossible to get things done... and there are things that get "a lick and a promise" and half a$$ed done, when you have to assign priorities.... It really is hard. Now at least I am off more days than not.....and off during the day when I can get things ready for son to do after he gets off work... but when I was testing AND waitressing... it was really really hard....

We have 2 old sq balers for parts that will work for our good one. We have 3 round balers now.... AND a parts one that we have been cannibalizing for alot of parts the last 2 years. We cannot afford to buy a new round baler and then go and tear it up on some rocks/ledge. DS put in over 8 hours the other night to repair the one round baler because it is the only one that net wraps.... and we had to do the one place in net wrap...for the place we do custom and we had some sold that wanted the 4x5 net wrapped rolls..... You buy the extra when you can find one at a sale, even when you can't really afford it, because you KNOW that a couple of parts will be worth the cost...but if we didn't have extras, we would have had hay get wet because of it needing to get baled NOW..... The strippers alone that are between the pickup tines are like 40 each... there are 20 or so in the baler.... so a 2,000 used baler has more than 1,000 just in the tines and strippers.... not counting the other parts of the pickup. You know all about that. The sq balers are also dealing with knotters and things that cost... and you really have to get them timed right in order for it to tie.
We had a bale of baler twine get a wet spot just like you,,,, and it kept breaking.... and the twine is getting more and more expensive... I get it.....

Glad that the kids are doing okay. I am so sorry that you lost a calf. It is really hard to raise bottle calves anymore. They don't seem to have the resistance that they used to have.... and sometimes it doesn't take much to just throw them off kilter. The heat here has been tough on our cattle. I really am glad to not be raising calves on bottles much anymore.... nurse cows are a pain, but they are a much better option for me.... and we are lucky to get calves directly off a farm that I KNOW how they start the calves off... and their "bugs" and ours are compatible. By the time you treat and fool with bottle calves, it turns out to almost always be better to put out more money up front for weaned calves. Been there, done that many many years...

Hope the weather will work better for you and you can get the hay made, dry, soon....

 

[misfitmorgan]

That’s a lot of square bales to make when working those many hours. Does that include y’all delivering and putting them in his barn?

No! His hired guy is also our new hired guy, so hired guy for us will help load our wagons, then take them to friends house and unload then bring back wagons. So we only have to load in the field, the rest is out of the friends pocket/time.

I feel for you with the "hay woes".... we go through stuff like that every year. And we have the option of round baling, most of ours. It is just a real crap shoot most years to get it made...
And we have at least 2-3,000 in equipment repairs this year; and we have not even started our sq baling.... and we will do some even if it is short as we have contracts also.... people we have been supplying hay to for years....
Used to do it like you with both of us working all kinds of hours... it is hard if not impossible to get things done... and there are things that get "a lick and a promise" and half a$$ed done, when you have to assign priorities.... It really is hard. Now at least I am off more days than not.....and off during the day when I can get things ready for son to do after he gets off work... but when I was testing AND waitressing... it was really really hard....

We have 2 old sq balers for parts that will work for our good one. We have 3 round balers now.... AND a parts one that we have been cannibalizing for alot of parts the last 2 years. We cannot afford to buy a new round baler and then go and tear it up on some rocks/ledge. DS put in over 8 hours the other night to repair the one round baler because it is the only one that net wraps.... and we had to do the one place in net wrap...for the place we do custom and we had some sold that wanted the 4x5 net wrapped rolls..... You buy the extra when you can find one at a sale, even when you can't really afford it, because you KNOW that a couple of parts will be worth the cost...but if we didn't have extras, we would have had hay get wet because of it needing to get baled NOW..... The strippers alone that are between the pickup tines are like 40 each... there are 20 or so in the baler.... so a 2,000 used baler has more than 1,000 just in the tines and strippers.... not counting the other parts of the pickup. You know all about that. The sq balers are also dealing with knotters and things that cost... and you really have to get them timed right in order for it to tie.
We had a bale of baler twine get a wet spot just like you,,,, and it kept breaking.... and the twine is getting more and more expensive... I get it.....

Glad that the kids are doing okay. I am so sorry that you lost a calf. It is really hard to raise bottle calves anymore. They don't seem to have the resistance that they used to have.... and sometimes it doesn't take much to just throw them off kilter. The heat here has been tough on our cattle. I really am glad to not be raising calves on bottles much anymore.... nurse cows are a pain, but they are a much better option for me.... and we are lucky to get calves directly off a farm that I KNOW how they start the calves off... and their "bugs" and ours are compatible. By the time you treat and fool with bottle calves, it turns out to almost always be better to put out more money up front for weaned calves. Been there, done that many many years...

Hope the weather will work better for you and you can get the hay made, dry, soon....

Definitely difficult to get it all done while working the full time jobs, and weather isnt helping of course. Round bales are not so bad and at least they can sit in the field for a few days, the small squares have to be done with a 3 days rain free window minimum, longer if possible. The parts baler was $200 and no we couldnt really afford it but as you say it is worth it and needed. The feed arm carriage/arms I dont even want to guess a price on. Definately know about parts, thats like most "good deals" on rakes, you might get it for $500 but it then needs $300 in tines at least ours was only missing 2 tines. Knotters are a nightmare if timing gets off on them, we spend many many many hours trying to fix a set of knotters off-timed a few years ago which was compounded with worn out bill-hooks.

Yeah we are leaning that way at least for heifers but peanut was free and you can't say no to a free angus heifer calf out of excellent stock. Angus heifer calves out of worse stock or crossbred up here are $500+ if you can even find them and those might still be just off bottles.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Ginny seems to be recovering from her pnemonia, we ended up getting/using tylan 200 as the Pen G was not doing it. She is sickly skinny looking but eating lots of hay/grain and sucking down her bottles faster then the Holstein who is 4.5 weeks older. Hopefully she makes a full recovery.

Ivy had a set of twin kids on Saturday morning. One boy and one girl. They seem to be doing good and Ivy is being her usual awesome mom. Ivy's light daughter's twins are doing well despite being tiny, but their mom has a pretty small bag.

I believe we have decided to breed Mr. Goat to Ivy and her 2019 daughters, breed our new buck to 3 twin girls when they are old enough, then breed Ivy's new son to Espresso, Phoebe's daughter and Jupiter when he is old enough. So the adults will be bred in November, and the 2021 kids will be breed when they are big enough probly Feb/march or we will hold them and breed them November 2022.

The funny thing is the coloring......
Ivy had twin girls 2019 they were one light white/cream color and one red color.
Ivy's red daughter had twins, one light white/cream color and one red color. red is boy, white is girl.
Ivy's white daughter had twins, one light white/cream color and one red color. red is a boy, white is a girl.
Ivy had twins, one is light white/cream and one is red, Red is a boy, white is a girl
Phoebe's Daughter had twin girls, one white/cream and one red(Jupiter)
Ivy's red daughter's 2020 kid was a red boy.

Ivy looks like a toggenburg, Mr goat is red, Phoebe was red paint, Phoebe's daughter is a tri color(white,black,brown), our old buck Big Boy was a solid red/golden. If Espresso our black head boer pops out with twins the same color I am going to be really shocked.

In other news, most of Mr. Goats kids are not showing the spots or very few spots other then Jupiter and her sister we lost. So we will be doing some breeding back I'm pretty sure at some point.

I got hail damage on my car and submitted the estimate to the insurance company, they totaled my car. Luckily I got a good deal when I bought it and I am getting 3k back cash after they pay off my loan. So I shall be driving/buying my sisters 2008 trailbazer that has been sitting at my house for a couple months. It's a hard pill to swallow going from a fully loaded 2014 to a base model 2008 but it is an suv and I am not buying a car right now. Prices in my area are maxed out to KBB prices or above! I could drive down state and find something cheaper but that is a pain and they dont really have anything I'm a huge fan of atm. Plus side is between the cheaper insurance and not having a car payment I am paying $250 less a month in bills.

I also ripped out the carpeting in our stairwell over the weekend. I just couldnt handle it anymore, it was nasty as it is where we enter and exit the house as well as how you get to the basement. I was surprised to find real hardwood floor on the landing and and nice tread boards as well as my kitchen laminate floor was finished and had a threshold strip under the carpeting. So I am repainting the entire entry white. it was a cream color and now painted well, then refinishing the landing and treads in a transparent grey wash stain and triple thick poly.

Nothing else much new around our place atm.

 

[farmerjan]

If it was only hail damage to the car, was it not economical to just buy it off the insurance company? I am not sure of why it was totaled from hail damage? Maybe there was other damage? I hit a deer with my jeep years ago, and they totaled it and I I bought it back and drove it for another year or so until the transmission went out of it and I sold it for parts. But, it may have been the best deal for you....
All used vehicles are high.... the difficulty of getting the electronics for the new vehicles is ridiculous.... and not everyone wants new stuff so the demand for used is higher.
Yes it is a plus in the money savings....Hope that you will get good enough mileage on the blazer.....

Seems like the color gene is sex-linked in your animals. Thinking of that, it will be an interesting experiment with my longhorn cow.... she had a black bull calf last year... sold good. She had a mostly white-lightly speckled- heifer calf this year. The cow is mostly white with black "points", nose, ears, etc.... Sire of both calves is the same black angus bull .... using a different black angus bull this year. So will see what next year brings....

 

[misfitmorgan]

If it was only hail damage to the car, was it not economical to just buy it off the insurance company? I am not sure of why it was totaled from hail damage? Maybe there was other damage? I hit a deer with my jeep years ago, and they totaled it and I I bought it back and drove it for another year or so until the transmission went out of it and I sold it for parts. But, it may have been the best deal for you....
All used vehicles are high.... the difficulty of getting the electronics for the new vehicles is ridiculous.... and not everyone wants new stuff so the demand for used is higher.
Yes it is a plus in the money savings....Hope that you will get good enough mileage on the blazer.....

Seems like the color gene is sex-linked in your animals. Thinking of that, it will be an interesting experiment with my longhorn cow.... she had a black bull calf last year... sold good. She had a mostly white-lightly speckled- heifer calf this year. The cow is mostly white with black "points", nose, ears, etc.... Sire of both calves is the same black angus bull .... using a different black angus bull this year. So will see what next year brings....

It was just hail damage. According to my insurance company my car is worth $7,006, my loan payoff is $3,908, my deductible is $500, the buy back was $2,700, they also pay me for registration, taxes and title trasnfer so if I went that route I would have got about $200 cash and been able to keep my car. I would not be able to fix my car as the estimate for fixing the hail damage was $7,200some, without my car being fixed I can only get PLPD insurance and my car would carry a salvage title noting the hail damage status. With the number of deer right by where we live and my long drive to and from work there is no way I am doing PLPD without any possibility for collision or comp. I have been down that road with my trailblazer and ended up putting $1,400 in parts out of my pocket on it with the first deer it hit. The one deer I hit with my current car was about $5,500 the insurance company paid to fix.

The other option is the insurance company payoffs my $3,908 loan and I get almost $3,000 back in cash. I also get to save about $250/month in bills. The money I save on the bills should offset the higher fuel costs. My car was not doing great, something is wrong with the engine but no one can tell me what, beyond that it needs a new rear caliper and something under the hood started making a whining noise probly a water pump or something but the shop wasnt sure. We have other vehicles I can drive so that route seems to make the most sense. Then when prices come down to pre-pandemic I can shop for a vehicle I want.

Yeah that is sort of what I was thinking but that's really odd and I have never herd of such a thing in goats. I mean Ivy's line and Phoebe's line are completely unrelated and the single buck kid was from a different sire then this batch. Guess I will see if the pattern keeps repeating itself hopefully not with the new tri-color buck. We brought in the black head and picked the tri-color to try to get black on our goats so really hope we get some. Espresso the black head looks prego so we shall see.

 

[Baymule]

That is quite the coincidental on the goat colors! What are the chances of that happening? Cool

Yay on ripping up carpeting

 

[misfitmorgan]

That is quite the coincidental on the goat colors! What are the chances of that happening? Cool

Yay on ripping up carpeting

Yeah crazy, shall see if it is actually sex linked. Only ones that broke the pattern were the first wins who were both girls.