Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

First off.... @Ridgetop ... I am VERY IMPRESSED with all the emoji's.... you make me sound like someone who has their sh!t together.... great for my ego... I guess I will continue to let people think I am something special.... no sense in tarnishing that "aura".... .

Yep, outside is the next - first - thing on the list for here. Fences and getting the fruit trees moved and get some more chickens... The chickens part may very well get accomplished in a month or so when the fall poultry swap happens down near Richmond that @Mini Horses and I meet up at. Going to make a big announcement on here also and see if some of the other Va members want to get together... a "meet and greet" kind of thing for maybe that early afternoon.

Naturally I didn't get as much done as I wanted, before the sale. Did not even fool with the mower... tomorrow will be soon enough.
Went by the P.O. and of course NOTHING from DMV for the title...
.
Talked to the guy there, he is transferring to another P.O. ... can't blame him it is a "step up".... better pay, benefits, you name it... EXCEPT he will be driving 10 miles further. No one to take over the position he has now... SAME OLD SAME OLD... they can't find anyone to work either... signs on the doors and everything....

Supposedly employment is back to "pre-pandemic" levels... double the number of jobs "created" last month than they anticipated... yet how was it that things were so much better then and people were working and we were actually getting a little ahead?????
It is getting to where it is beyond me anymore to understand....and there are an awful lot of young people that don't seem to be working when I am looking.... maybe HALF of the previous workforce just retired....and there aren't enough younger ones to take up the slack????

Ran one errand then DS called and he said that he talked to them at the sale and they were going to start on time which is 2 p.m..... so I said I would just go there then. He was going to come as soon as he could get out of work.... He wound up getting there a few minutes before they started. There were only about 500 head and we both were thinking that might not be a good sign.
But it was as good a day to sell as most we have had in the past.
The lighter pen of 412 lb steers brought 2.04.... pretty DA#@ED GOOD !!!!!! the others brought about 1,85 or so, the charolais and red brought in the low 1.60's.... ... the 3 big steers brought like 1.75 or so...I don't have the sheet in front of me... but they did better than we expected overall... so very satisfied. Some of the guys there are talking that it is going to get cheaper.... we will see. There is a cow sale there next Tues night... 50 head of fall calving cows, like the ones we just pulled our calves off of....and some bred heifers and some cows with calves. All one farm consigned for this special sale. I think DS is going.... I plan to even if he is not.... then I want to take some of mine up to the Bred cow sale the next night.... they get alot of buyers up there and there are also cull cows sold there....it is more of a "regular sale" type of deal for that.....lot more diversity and there are more dairy farms up that way and they get more of the dairy/beef cross cows up there and there is a better market for them... that stupid cow of mine that sucks, is a dairy/beef cross and she shows the holstein (dairy) part. She will do better up there as will that stupid acting heifer...
Plus, going to the sale on Tuesday eve will dictate more of how prices are looking for Wed... I have heard that replacement breds are higher than they have been.....so Tuesday night will be a good test....If they are high we won't be buying anything....but never know, doesn't hurt to go look.

So, I left there and went by Walmart to look at available frames for glasses. They did put a new nose piece on my old ones so at least it is not digging in the side of my nose... they were really busy so I said I would be back to look the first of the week. Did a little looking - got a few groceries... boy have things really crept up.... I have been looking closer and cannot believe how much "staples" in general have gone up. Glad I did a lot of stocking up when I first moved in here and before the knee replacements...
Maybe with the cost of fuel dropping, we might see a little bit of prices coming down... but really I doubt it... just see the gas costing less we put in our tank and people will be dumb enough to think that is some big deal...and not look at the bigger picture and compare to "pre-pandemic" costs.
And the thing I notice is even Walmart does not have full to the brim shelves even now... in any department....
Saw an endcap with canning jars... they were $17 for a dozen qts.... did not even go to look and see if there were other canning supplies in stock... very thankful I have more than I can use....
Tomorrow I am going to check the peaches on the trees next to DS house... the ones here are almost ripe. Going to pick mine this weekend and can some. NOT letting the deer beat me to them... Hope that there will be some there on the other trees too.

I am tired and am going to bed. I do ache a little, tonight, so am going to take a couple tylenol or something. Of course it was hot and muggy and some sun early that changed to clouds. Then it started to rain after 5-6 p.m. and we have gotten a fair amount. Temps hit 90 again before it rained... hope this rain cools it off a bit... but I just looked at the extended forecast... 40-70% chance for the next 7 days... WOW . You don't want to complain about rain but I think we are in pretty good shape and I would be more than glad to share some with some of the less fortunate areas....
I also am going to start moving some round bales as GF is "too busy" to do any right now.... Just "banking" time towards any future "discussions" as to how many head of cattle I have or anything like that... to make sure I do enough to "pay for their upkeep" for the year.... another reason to cut back a little bit too... and "do more than my fair share" of work. It is costing in the neighborhood of $600/ yr to pay for a cow to be on the farm... nearly $2.00 per day... that is getting expensive. Even with the increased return on the calves... selling a 450 lb calf at say 1.90... that is about $850 return... so only $250 or so for a whole "years work".... takes 100 to make 25,000 year... that's not alot of "pay".... I know that DS is looking at how many he needs to make the farm payment at "doug's farm".... not counting all the other things there are.... So, it is better if he has more of the cattle than me at this point... lot of things to take into consideration... and with GF in the picture, better that I slide off into the shadows a bit more...

I'm done and NOT setting an alarm for the morning...

 

[Bruce]

Gas has come down here to 3.63

We are down to $4.39 at some stations. You are lucky!

 

[farmerjan]

Yes, @Bruce we are fortunate that things are finally getting a little bit better....actually saw gas at 3.59 last evening and diesel has come down to 4.89 at one place. BUT is that part of this "tax relief" thing? Is it in anticipation of the up coming elections???? Don't know.

It is cloudy and damp and dreary this morning. To be expected with the forecast. "Heavy thunderstorms" expected this afternoon...
We had .8 inch rain yesterday aft/eve. Everything is pretty wet out there. I took down my big pots of hanging spider plants and laid them over on their side. Seems that a few of the pots do not have any holes or "saucers" for the water overflow and they were a bit waterlogged. I will leave them down and laid over for the next day or 2. All the little hanging pots I planted are looking good... but they had holes that I covered and/or saucers attached for overflow water. Some of the long planters that I have on the deck with the begonias in, do not have holes in the bottoms either and I am going to take a nail and put a couple of small holes in each. I have managed to lay them over and let the excess drain off. Will leave them over for the next day or two while we get this excessive amount of rain, or until I get the holes in them.

Slept til after 7... been goofing off since then. Time to get in and do dishes and maybe move some things around in the kitchen and get this new spray-on odor killer/disinfect done in the cabinets and see if it helps. Probably won't dry very fast due to the humidity and dampness in the air. Hardly ever see it this wet this time of year for this length of time, without a hurricane causing it. The corn is staying green with all this water. But DS isn't getting much done with the area he is cleaning out and leveling for the concrete pad for the future silage bunk.

@Ridgetop .... the thing about the kitchen cabinets. They were custom made and are not in "cabinet sections"... they are all one piece, there are no shelves in the bottom ones... the doors are all different sizes to "fit the space". Once the formica countertops get taken off, and I decide which of the windows I want to look out more, and sink to be facing so it is in there square and flat, not in the V of the corner, there will be some serious cutting since it is not like pulling out a "base unit" for the sink or something like that. It is one continuous piece across the whole front and the corners are built into it... hard to explain but picture a 10 ft long wall with a solid sheet of "plywood" 30 inches high, across the whole length, on the front... then cutting out all the doors and drawers to suit someone's thoughts of "I want this one to be here and be wider and then we can fit a smaller door here, and there's 10 inches here so we will put in another door there and make the drawer to match above it"...I don't think there are 2 doors and drawers above them, that are the same size (width) in the whole thing.
Yes, I do want to keep the sink in the same spot more or less... so no plumbing to change... Just hate that it is stuck right in the V of the corner... literally.
Maybe if I get a smart phone. But, I am just not seeing the way I want it yet in my mind so not going to rush into it. Even though I hate the way it is... Still going through different possibilities in my mind....
Time to get productive I guess.

 

[Mini Horses]

Get out your battery drill for those flower pot holes. Less mess than hammer and nail. Faster. Easier on plants, dirt movement and pot material.

 

[Ridgetop]

Actually, once you take off the counter tops you can see inside the cabinets and in the spot where there are no drawers just cabinets you can plan for the sink. Might need a bit of beefing up, but not a problem. If there is a drawer/drawers over the cabinet door(s) you simply remove the drawer front and attach it onto the open drawer area to form the sink front of the cabinet. Easy peasy even with solid front cabinets. Remember you are not cutting holes in the cabinet FRONTS, the sink will go in on top (or undermounted) on the counter top. The existing cabinet doors will be the doors under the sink.

But no rush. Yuo have a lot of stuf to do first. NOTE: another emoji!

 

[Baymule]

Driving through West Texas yesterday made me sad. The only green was the prickly pear cactus and mesquite. EVERYTHING is brown. Dry creek beds. Ponds a mere puddle or dry. Very few cattle in fields that normally are full of cows and calves. I had to look hard to see the few that I saw. I’ve never seen it so dry. I prayed for the ranchers and livestock as I drove. I prayed for rain for them. I prayed for rain to replenish the earth.

I saw new neighborhoods carved out of what used to be sprawling ranches. New neighborhoods going up, a few acres of “ranchettes” and it made me sad to see the lands misused by people who are innocent and ignorant of what they are really getting. Well, they are finding out. As long as water comes out when they turn on the tap, they will be happy. One day, there may not be enough to go around. And we know who wins that, and it’s not the farmers and ranchers who raise our food.

West Texas has always been the bastion of the tough, hardy ranchers who carved out a living in a hard land. Now it is covered with ranchettes of people who love “the view”. I’ve seen it transform over my lifetime. Land once considered worthless except for cattle and rattlesnakes is now home to million dollar estates. They know not what they do.

I was glad to get back to East Texas where there are patches of green. Even my own place is brown and dry, but has patches of green. The 2 ponds are real low but have released water in the surrounding soil to have some green grass. The smaller pond is about dry. It’s a green puddle. We’ve gotten 2 pop up showers in recent weeks that has helped. Not much, but every drop of rain is appreciated.

The neighborhoods are going up in east Texas at breakneck speed but at least we have more water. Ranches and farms are being carved up here too.

I could better wrap my brain around it if people grew a garden, had a few chickens, goats or sheep. But the majority do nothing with their piece of land, just look at it as they leave for work.

Rant over. Gheesh people! If you are going to buy your piece of the land at least do SOMETHING with it to feed yourselves.

 

[farmerjan]

Oh @Baymule , you are so right. AT LEAST do something to feed yourself BESIDES the green grass that you have to mow at least once weekly... then complain about the diversity of some weeds interspersed in that grass, and put all sorts of chemical fertilizers to make it grow more and herbicides to get rid of the "weeds" and the insecticides that kill off all the bugs... good and bad...
I have not the experience with the dryness of west Tx... but have many contacts in the cattle world and it amazes me that they get the production out of the cattle they do with little or no moisture. I cannot imagine that type of dryness. We have on average over 40 inches of rain a year in Va. That is between 3 and 4 inches a month and USUALLY spread out fairly evenly over each month... Not like @Ridgetop with their "rainy season and dry season" different times of the year. Our vegetation has developed to suit our climate and rainfall. The vegetation in Texas has developed to suit that climate... east being different than west. When they start building these huge houses and start splitting the land up into small parcels and putting the demand on for more water that is just not there in any abundance, there is going to be some serious consequences down the road.
Yes, it is sad. And going to be a big come-uppence to so many people that come from other places and do not adapt to their environment. Seems that so many try to impose their requirements on the environment instead of adapting to what is...
As you said, they are happy as long as water comes out the tap... and the farmers are the ones that pay the price when it gets rationed.
Does anyone remember back only 10-15 years ago when they cut all that irrigation water and the almond tree farms did not get water for irrigation and there were ACRES of trees that died??? Can anyone on here wrap their mind around putting in ACRES of almond trees, 20 ft apart, waiting 3 years for the first crop. and hoping for a good 20-25 years of production??? Now, after say 10 years, when the trees are hitting their peak production... someone decides that water is more necessary for the city "downstream" and cuts the water for irrigation for the trees in half or cuts it off altogether???? If you have fields of trees which ones do you try to save? The older better producing ones... the younger up and coming ones....the seedling trees you just spent $50 each and planted 100-150 per acre.... and won't produce for at least 3-5 years....and will produce for 25 years ...Or the trees producing now for another 10-15 years... ????
So, you make a decision to allocate your alloted water and watch perfectly healthy, producing trees stand and wither under the sun until their roots have no more water to draw out of the soil and they die...
Many farmers here in this area that irrigate their corn and some even their soybean crops because they HAVE to get the maximum production EVERY YEAR out of their crops to maintain the numbers of dairy cattle they have. Everyone is carrying the max number of animals they can, and need the max amount of crops produced to feed these animals. This spreads the cost out over the numbers so that they can manage to pay their bills and be able to continue on their farming venture.
Everytime a son or daughter wants to return to the farm, the parent must figure out a way to pay that addition to their farming venture... you have to make a living wage... so either you buy more acreage and incur more debt, but you will get more income to service that debt and pay the person doing the work... or you add to what you have, stretch your resources to make more money on what you have....
We have pushed the farmers to their limits by this country wanting and needing more and more food and at the "CHEAPEST" price that it can be gotten. Farmers have gotten as efficient as they can, to spread the costs out over more land or better yields... there will be a limit to this in the very near future. With the limiting of fertilizers... and the cost being a big factor, production will decrease, and there will be shortages. With the limiting of water, all the fertilizer in the world WILL NOT help produce a crop. There is a segment of our population that is waking up to this... like minded people that are on here and other sites that will be able to adapt some and become more self sufficient and produce more for their own needs. But the growing masses that want everything handed to them, or the ones that want their "lifestyles" to be maintained at levels that never were sustainable... are in for a very rude awakening.

Money, for the most part, CANNOT BUY water or the rain.... if it could, all the oil "barons" would be paying a monthly payment for XX amount of rain.... and be happy to do it...

My heart goes out to the ones in the drought stricken areas... Especially since the climate and evolution has geared these plants and animals and even the people on the land, to endure the dryness and still manage to be productive. But when the water dries up... they can do nothing but try to survive. The added demands of people on an arid region will just push this to happen sooner.

We don't have less water on this planet... it is just changing in the distribution... and the intensity of how/when it is being distributed. This whole green new deal garbage is going to push the limits of crop and food production, in areas that should be picking up the slack from the areas that cannot produce as much anymore...and limit the very areas that might be able to "up their game" even a little bit.. with unwieldy rules and regulations that will curb or prohibit the needed food production.

There may be some validation in "climate change or global warming".... but it has gone on, on this planet several times over the tens of thousands of years.... and it will go on again. We are not going to change it any more than the dinosaurs could change it... but there is nothing wrong with trying to take a little better care of the planet along the way... and working WITH mother nature to do so.

 

[murphysranch]

Don't get me started on Almond and Walnut tree plantings that exploded 10 - 15 years ago in the Central Valley of Calif. They planted grazing fields, alfalfa fields, hay fields to be able to "cash in" on the popularity of Almonds and Walnut. Crazy it was..............

 

[Ridgetop]

When they start building these huge houses and start splitting the land up into small parcels and putting the demand on for more water that is just not there in any abundance, there is going to be some serious consequences down the road.

Here in So CA some small towns tried to prevent builders from putting in mega neighborhoods due to lack of water and sewer facilities. The builders sued the cities and won! They were allowed to jam in as many homes as possible and the farm wells dried up.

And going to be a big come-uppence to so many people that come from other places and do not adapt to their environment. Seems that so many try to impose their requirements on the environment instead of adapting to what is...

People that buy into these communities are not knowledgeable about the long term weather patterns and all they see is the huge houses with automatic sprinklers on their shrubbery and lawns. Then they are angry when the city runs out of water and rations it. Of course, water is never rationed to people like Pelosi, she just arranges to take it from the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley which used to feed half the US!

Farmerjan you are right on target with your post!

 

[Bruce]

actually saw gas at 3.59 last evening and diesel has come down to 4.89 at one place. BUT is that part of this "tax relief" thing?

I don't think the federal "gas tax holiday" thing ever got traction.

West Texas has always been the bastion of the tough, hardy ranchers who carved out a living in a hard land.

Do you suppose there is a reason the stocking rate there is calculated as "many acres per animal unit" rather than the other way around?

Keep putting houses on that and after a while nothing will come out of their taps. Bet they want lush green lawns too.

Crazy it was..............

Yep and now they have no water to give the water loving trees.