Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Well DS called a little bit ago. I saw him go across the road and get some hay. He went just down the road, into the nurse cow field and got down the hill too far, hit some mud/soft ground and buried the truck Called me and I met him at the road... he walked up through the field, and I took him down to the barn and we got the big tractor. Rode up the road with him, got in the truck and he put a chain to the tractor and we finally got it out. The tractor had started to slide sideways on the hill.... but then he got it going and luckily the chain came loose as he went sideways, so I managed to keep the truck going and got up on the flat. Then he unloaded the bale there and said he was going to roll some of it out and take the rest to his sheep with the tractor, so I just brought the truck back to the barn and got my car and came on home. Reminds me of so many other times when we only had a 2 wd tractor and the truck and had to use both to get in and out of some of the places we rented.

He has to go back in tonight. Said he was exhausted this morning and just went home to sleep so he could get up and come do some feeding this afternoon. That was fine except that he got behind a bit when he got stuck & we had to do all that. Oh well, part of it.
The road here at the house is still pretty snowy/icy from the wind blowing and the drifting across the road. He said with this wind there are alot of roads with drifting snow again....
I was supposed to go in for a PT session in the pool tomorrow, but I cancelled. I don't want to go out in the cold with the wind and all, and go in the pool and go back out into the cold and maybe catch a cold or something. No sense in tempting it. I have a regular session on Thursday....
So I am going to go in and wash my hair so it will have time to dry before I go to bed.... Ate the small second steak in the package I thawed and a small bowl of baked beans.

The temps are down to 26, wind is still blowing but not quite as bad as earlier. Hoping it will die down tonight and be a little more comfortable tomorrow.

 

[Mini Horses]

Wind here was killer all day! With temps and wind chill it was a real problem. Today, better they say -- low 40s and only 5-10mph. Would be great!!! I can feed the hay, not wear it.🙄. Since it was fed in barn, more waste, fights, and then Into bedding! Hated bedding with good, expensive hay but also glad they had deeper to lay on. 😊🤷. Bite the bullet!! Toss in extra!! 🤣

 

[Baymule]

Y’all are sure having a miserable time of it. Hopefully it won’t last too much longer and it will warm up. Jan what about taking the trim off the windows and foam insulating around them? It might fix the draft problem.

 

[farmerjan]

Morning... a "balmy" 23 to start... compared to the 13 the other day I'll take it. Sun is coming over the hill across from me, supposed to get into the upper 30's and tomorrow into the 40's. The best part is the wind has let up and only a breeze right now and should die down during the day.

@Baymule yeah, this spring/summer I will get to exploring the problems with the window on that side of the house. So far the temp taping and the blanket has changed it inside so that I don't feel the awful draft and can keep the room temps up and the ice in the water on the floor is all thawed. It can stay the way it is until warm weather. There is siding on the house they had done for the mother years ago so don't know what sort of a project it will be.

I'm going to go out to the chickens before the snow gets too "wet" and thawing as it will be easier to walk now while it is firm. Take water out and get them situated for the day. It will warm up comfortably in there for them. Might even thaw the one waterer some between today and tomorrow. Glad I have 2 so that I could use the empty one when it was so cold.

Going to get the samples all packed; since there was no UPS pickup yesterday I didn't even worry with them. I wouldn't have made the trip to take them down to the place I drop them off at in that cold weather... had no plans to go out in , except for helping with the stuck truck . They aren't life or death to get out. I am so glad to have gotten those 2 big farms done before it turned so cold.

Nothing on the agenda for work this week. Not going to schedule anything either. Most of the farms have enough to do just to make sure the cows are getting fed and taken care of and don't need me in there being a pain... plus I have no intention of going into any of the barns and freezing either.

I don't envy you @Mini Horses having to put in a full week this week now... yeah it is nicer and nicer to NOT have to go into work. I am torn about making a decision to retire..... but I hate having to go out in the cold anymore for work... it is different to do my own stuff... I know you "get it"....

Just ate some more of my chipped beef on toast. As soon as the sun comes up over the crest of the hill and hits the greenhouse and warms it up a little I will go out to the chickens.
Then the snow will start to soften and melt. Got LOTS to do here in the house still... I have been a little lax the last couple of days in the house... haven't gotten done near as much as I planned to do... Those blowing cold dark grey days just makes you want to hunker down and hibernate. I did do a fair amount of reading.... and some cooking.... now need to get motivated to get back to the clothes folding and straightening up and working on the cabinets in the kitchen.

 

[Bruce]

Jan what about taking the trim off the windows and foam insulating around them? It might fix the draft problem.

Excellent idea. And @Ridgetop can put it back up with the brad nailer.

 

[Ridgetop]

Yay - another road trip!

 

[Ridgetop]

Jan what about taking the trim off the windows and foam insulating around them? It might fix the draft problem.

At my aunt's house in Yelm her windows leaked like a sieve. They were the original windows designed to lift out in the summer months and put in screens. MJ had nailed them shut years ago after a series of burglaries. When I checked them, you could see through between the frame and window to the outdoors! As a quick measure before we returned to do the rebuild on her house, I got exterior caulking and caulked around them on the outside. This worked to stop the wind blowing into the house. I had planned to replace all the windows with dual pane ones but when we ran out of time when we did the rebuild. We were going to replace them the following year but that was when we found out the city had incorporated the property and no more livestock. Then she died, it wasn't worth doing for a rental.

If you go around the outside of the frames on the exterior and recaulk it might help, and would be easier than pulling the trim for now. Later, you can pull the trim and fill the gaps on the inside, then replace the trim. By the way, when pulling off trim use a sharp utility knife to cut through the paint layers between the wall and the trim. This will keep the old paint from pulling off the walls which will require patching and repainting.

 

[Ridgetop]

This will keep the old paint from pulling off the walls which will require patching and repainting.

Found that out the hard way!

 

[farmerjan]

Tuesday early evening. Been an okay day. Got the samples packed and took down to the place I leave them for UPS pickup. Stopped at the local bank that I opened an account at, because I cannot seem to get on the website so I can do my banking over the internet... problems with the password and them saying it was invalid then locking me out because of too many tries the last 2 days. . I switched my SS direct deposit to this account and wanted to make sure that it went through before I authorized some payments and to find out that it hadn't gone through....so they got it cancelled out and now I can go in and start over and go from there. It was right at closing time... I hadn't paid attention to the time... and said I could come back in the morning... but they did that and she said if I had any more problems to come in in the morning, and they would help me get it fixed but that I should be able to do it now. We will see in a little bit.

It was mostly sunny today... got up to 40 but there was still a light breeze so not really warm... I see some signs of some melting, hopefully it will melt more tomorrow if it gets up into the upper 40's.... It started at 23 up to 40 for a little while, down to 27 already at 5:30 p.m.

Talked to DS a little bit ago. He was headed down to her house with the skid loader to clean out some of the driveway because it is very shaded and does not melt well. He has to go back in tonight and he said he opted to stay on the night shift this week because they were going to not work tonight then go back on nights, if we get the weather change on Wed night/Thurs morning. He said that he would rather stay on the night all week now. They are going to go in at midnight, and they are going to do repairs on several plow trucks....

So anyway, he said that yesterday after we got the truck pulled out and he did the feeding with the tractor and all... he put the bucket on the tractor and cleared out a couple of swipes with it and then rolled out a partial bale there at the farm for the animals since the snow stopped. He said that the new cow I bought, with that unexpected new little tiny baby, had moved the baby to the hay he had rolled out and that it seemed to be doing okay... I honestly expected for it to not make it through that horrible snow/wind/sleet weather on Sunday. She is quite a good momma. She is "short-mouthed" meaning short teeth... older cow... but her "stock" went way up with me that she is sticking with the calf so good and taking such good care of it... The good thing is the calf will be 5 months old before the cow goes with a bull to get bred in May/June... so ought to be in good shape to breed back. She definitely will be getting another shot at getting bred and to stay around for a few more years.... I don't know if the calf is a bull or heifer... hoping it is a heifer so I can maybe keep it.... hoping for genetics to carry down and for the calf to also be a good mother (if it is a heifer calf)....

He said he hasn't seen any cows or calves with problems... none of the small babies lost that he can tell.... that is a big plus. There is a new calf at another place that he wasn't expecting to be there.... again, should've been moved before now to the barn and preg checked.... He did say he was going to go get the panels and get them moved to that place, to get those cows/calves out of there. Plus, he is going to move some of the heifers we are keeping, out into a lot out back where there are just a couple of calves that went across the concrete feed bunks... so that he can make more room in the barn. I meant to ask if he had moved the bred cows out yet, but I doubt it. Maybe he is going to move the heifers out back and then the cows out to the back field on the other side of the farm with the other bred cows. Got to get stuff out of the barn to more efficiently be able to check the cows coming back to the barn.... and to separate off their calves.

So, I am going in to make some supper... And work on something here. Ankle has been swelling alot.. but I have been doing alot of sitting. So need to get out of the chair at the desk and get it up a little bit. And more exercising it to get the fluid to flush back into the blood stream and get moved out of the leg/ankle.

 

[Mini Horses]

Don't know about your area but, we are getting TWO possible/probable snow hits! Thur and Sat. Don't know why we're a target this year, maybe because none for so long! 🤫. Thur seems most probable to be none to an inch. However, Sat one mode says poss 6" and other says 12". 😳😳🙄🤫😢😱. Noooooo!! As always, timing and wind currents could blow either to good or bad.

I just know that hay will be in the close trailer by Thur night -- when they suggest it arrives -- and that my work will be done then, also! Next week is 1/2 day at my leisure. 😁. So no problem! If things get tight for some reason, 1/2 day of this week's jobs are ok to schedule for next week. I'm good with it. Besides the jobs are moving fast for me, after I convinced myself it was happening. 🤣🤣 Just did 12 hr of jobs in 6.

Today I got a call to see if I'd go back to working the food demos. I'm hesitant and need to consider which job I'd rather do. Both is too much in Spring. Would have done some Nov & Dec...where was he then?? They are basically weekends! Plus, they've made some changes and not sure I'd like them; no flex time either....set time start, stop, date, etc. Knowing I want to cut back, might be a good time to actually resign there. Decisions!! I'm not beholding to anyone and like it. 😊 I feel a "NO" coming on.