A Nerve Racking Expierence

I was traveling home with a load of wood today when, quite frankly, I ran off the road. The details of this little ditch clearing episode are, basically, a result of laziness. Before leaving Long Island Lumber I noticed my tailgate was not shut properly. I decided I would drive nice and slow and everything would probably be fine. And, I was right, for about two miles. I was in a nice long straight stretch of road when life became somewhat more exciting. I heard a noise and, like all good drivers, I used my mirror to see what was going on. However, when I did this I dropped my right wheels off the rd. I was not going extremely fast up until this point. At this point in time it felt like I was going 100 instead of 35. Some more pertinent facts. At this point in the rd. there really is no ditch just a drop off of approximately 3 feet. I really didn't want to navigate this terrain so I tried to ease the truck back on the rd. My ears then told me that the rear tires where under duress and the truck was really feeling like it was going to turn over. Also, the board fence was getting much closer to the truck then I liked. I decided maybe navigating the dropping terrain would be a better approach to life. Thankfully, there was a truck width of grass between the rd and the board fence. I managed to ease the truck into this grassy expanse without turning over. I got out of the truck threw the wood out of the rd. Shut the tailgate properly. Went home. Got my pickup and retrieved the wood. What a shaky afternoon...

June 11

Sat. I was on my home from the vet when I couldn't hardly get stopped at a routine traffic check. This caused some fear in the heart of the officers. So the interview that followed was off to a rough start before we ever got stopped. I had the trailer, I thought, listed as farm use. However, the tag was still on it. Only it was bent in such a way that they couldn't see it. This caused them to believe I was being sneaky. I didn't intend to be...
Anyway, they wondered why I had trouble stopping. Well the trailer brakes weren't working...
After I said that I knew I was in for some trouble. There were some other minor issues but this license thing was the biggy. He wrote me up for wreckless driving or bad brakes. I wonder what that means...
I was told that if I had not had the tag on the trailer I would have been exempt from the inspection violations...
I distinctly remember trying to return them to my DMV office and was told "why turn them in? they are permanent tags you may want it sometime" I said "ok" But I failed to remove them from the trailer. What a dummy I am... So, now I get the privilege of meeting Your Honor on June 11 in Bedford...
Part of me wants to be mad the other part thinks I probably deserve whatever they decide to do....
If I don't show up at court they will literally throw me in the slammer...

Pit-Y-Full

Sunday night I was getting the cows in when I heard this splash. I knew, right away, what it was and I wasn't happy. An animal had gone for a swim in the manure pit. So, I get this board and poke her and she lunges around. She finally gets out of my reach. So I toss my board out on top of the manure and walk out on the board. I poke her some more. During one of my pokes I lost my balance and fell in the manure. Once again I wasn't happy....
About that time she decided she had had enough of this swimming lesson and I was able to direct her attention to the open gate.
Now, I wasn't covered from head to toe but I was covered from toe to waist or so.... What a mess...

DOA

Last night I had one of the nastiest jobs I have ever had. I had a cow with a dead calf. This is nothing new except for one small detail. This calf had been dead for quite sometime. In fact, it wasn't in one piece when I was finished removing the calf from the cow. Talk about disgusting...
You know, it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't smell. I tried hard to breathe through my mouth which helped immensely...
Another cow had twins one lived and one died. They were both bulls.
I had another cow fall in the holding pen while I was milking last night. I was sure she was never going to get up again. Tonight she was up and we milked her. Answer to prayer...
Whew, I am tired...
Till next time

3 X Milking

After struggling to pay the bills last week I decided it was high time to bite the ole bullet and start milking 3x a day. Our current schedule is 10 at night, 6 in the morning, and 2 in the afternoon. Nobody is overly fond of the night milking so I told the guys I would do this milking. It is taking right at 3 hrs to milk. This puts me back in the house about 1:30 or so. I like it for some strange reason. I think my body is slowly adjusting. I usually sleep till 8:30 in the morning and then I try to take a nap between 4 and 6 in the evening. I would rather do it this way then get up at 3 in the morning. So, for you local yocals, if you can't sleep for some silly reason feel free to stop in and chat with me about life. Come on in and I can put you to work and listen to you ramble at the same time....
All right enough rambling....

Life

I have, after much agony, decided to go to 3x milking. Milk price is dropping which means less cash flow. So, we will try the 3x here for several months and see what happens. Hopefully this will make a lot of difference and we will live happily ever after....
I will be singing at another wedding today....
Need to pick up a heifer at Dr. Gardner's...
Need to feed this eve.
It's 0 this morning...

Dusty Job

I had the daunting task of bedding stalls today. (A stall is what the cows lay down in to rest. At least they are suppose to.) We have been getting loads of sawdust by the semi-load from different furniture plants. The last load to come in looked like powder. I also noticed rain doesn't make it very wet. Or, it has the ability to soak up lots of water/moisture. This load looked like sawdust from a belt sander. Very fine and powdery. This means it is very dusty...
I bed 80 stalls and the bed-pack barn, carrying this powder with the Bobcat. Needless to say I was a dusty mess by the time I finished. The cows seem to like it. It looks very comfortable.

Mile Stone

The other day Sierra was riding with me on the Bobcat and I let her drive. I didn't help her but I was sitting on the seat. After she did this several times I asked her if I could drive the tractor while she drives the bobcat. No, she didn't think so. I suddenly had this brilliant fatherly idea. I told her to let me get out. She did. I got out and sat on the bobcat bucket while she started driving. She wondered if this is what she would be doing while I was on the tractor? I said yes. She said ok. So, I asked her if I could go get the tractor? She said yes. I went...
Today, she drove the bobcat every time I needed her to. It was great.... I am proud of her...

More Phony Issues

I was trying desperately to update this blog last night and my internet connection was awful I finally quit trying. This morning it was worse. The phone had this rediculous noise on it. Finally I went to the barn and used my hairdryer to dry out the external box. Now it works... This boxis located directly beneath the deck at the front of the parlour. There is a big door in the front of the parlour also. I think when we wash the parour floor down water is going through the bottom of the door and running down on the box. I need to find a good solution to this problem. Think think think... I feel like pooh bear....

Clean Up

So far this week Fred and I have been diligently trying to find the floor in milkhouse. For some reason, I didn't realize it had disappeared. Reality set in when the milk inspector showed up. Reality always sets in when he shows up. It was really bad. I have put Fred in charge of keeping it looking respectable. However, it looked it a bit daunting, cleaning up all the residue, so I decided I needed to help him clean up the mess he didn't make. It will be looking good by this evening I think...

Land Clearing Gone Wrong, Sorta...

We have been clearing some land. By this I mean we had roughly 100 acres clear cut twenty -five years ago that never was grubbed and put into farming production. So now we have 100 acres of junk. After waiting on a logger for a year and a half he came in and is chipping everything. There are no logs in this timber it is all junk. So I have been very pleased with his work. The problem came when I had a guy come in and grind the stumps. It would probably be fine if we were going to graze it off but we are not into grazing. Fortunately we only did about 20 acres. We spent a pile of money on something that still is in poor farming condition. I had another gentleman stop by today and look at it. He thought he could have done a much better job for less money. So, now he is going to smooth out the humps, bury the rocks and grub out an acre or two the other guys missed. Hopefuly he can do this in two to three days. We won't be grinding any more stumps in the future. It cost way too much for the amount of acres covered...

Work

The cows milked a little over 5000 lbs this morning. That is the best they have done yet. Hopefully they milk another 4500 tonight we shall see. We are about ready to start preparing some new ground land. I really need to get it sowed here in the next several weeks. We had a company come in and grind the stumps. This worked decently but not as well as I was hoping. It is fairly rocky also. So, we will need to pick up some rocks and some sticks. I don't look forward to this tedious task. Hopefully the hunt club guys will be up to helping with some of it...

Work

We wrapped up the fall work yesterday. After, it seems, many moons of agonizing and struggle we have finally finished the fall work. What a relief. We have about 20 acres of new ground to work on here in Nov. but that shouldn't be too stressful.
On a different note, topic, or discussion. Did you go trick-or-treating tonight?

Work

Well, well, well. Thanks to Sonny we got some hay baled today. Thanks to the folks renting our house we picked two-thirds of it up and on the trailer. We didn't unload it though. I managed to cover roughly 20 acres of ground with manure...
Lots to go yet and I am wore out...
Till next time...

Dairy Do List

Here is what is going on today....
First, I need to meet with Shannon Wisecarver. He is chipping some new ground land and I need to discuss some driveway options with him.
Second, I need to go to Rustburg and pick up Delvin's manure pump.
Third, I need to locate a tractor that will run the manure pump.
Fourth, I need to work on the manure pump.
Fifth, I need to fix some tires on the manure truck.
Sixth, I need to milk this evening.
Seventh, Finish up some feeding for Sonny.
Whew, I didn't realize there were that many things to do today...
I wish now I hadn't made the list...
Oh well....

Chopping

I said i would post a picture and here it is, finally. Unfortunately this is not my truck or chopper...

Feed

We finished chopping my corn today. I have more feed on hand than I have ever had. The trench is piled way up, probably 10-12 feet over the top of the ground. Meaning the face from the floor will be pushing 20 feet tall. The new trench is full. I have, roughly, 250 tons of triticale piled on the ground. I have a 40 by 100 bunker silo full of triticale. I am feeling very blessed. I can't believe it. We just started feeding the corn silage we cut the end of August. I am anxiously awaiting the cows response. Hopefully they decide it is time to stop playing about making milk and start making some. I would love to see them run the tank over....
Time will tell.... By the way, we cut 106 acres of corn in 13.25 hrs...

Rain

It started sprinkling yesterday afternoon. It started raining sometime during the night and by 2:30 this afternoon we had received 2.5 inches. It is still raining.... We needed it in the worst sort of way...
So, now we wait for things to dry out and then we will get back in the saddle. Of course I will be gone next week so I won't be doing much saddling as far as work goes.

Good Feeling

We started in again yesterday morning about 9:00 and we finished about 5:00. We had some truck trouble which slowed us down. So in 9.5 hours we cut roughly 980 tons. We finished covering the trench about 7 or 7:30. Man I slept so good last night. I have never had so much fun chopping. Very stress free way to harvest. I am contemplating doing something in the spring with my small grain. We shall see. It will be about two weeks till the rest of the corn is ready.

Let The Games Begin

We started chopping at 4:00 last evening. We quit about 7:45. In that period of time we cut close 50 loads and covered 25 acres. I love it. We are just a rolling with Joe Motley's machine. I will post pictures in the very near future....