Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[farmerjan]

Back in for a sandwich. Went up to the farm and spent about 1 1/2 hrs... putting staples in posts... Did most of the line of fence they had gotten up along the bull alley ....maybe 20 or so posts..... except for about 5-6 posts where DS had mentioned he wanted to cut one "hump" of dirt down and spread to a low spot. So did not do those posts there so the wire can move up or down a bit. He will staple the bottom wire and one along the middle/top when he gets it where he wants it... then I can do fill in... Right side of my right hand got pretty numb, so it was time to quit, anyway. So a little more done. It was mostly cloudy.... high clouds just blocking the sun, so very comfortable.
Stopped and got a 5 gal bucket of chicken feed from the bin to bring home. Checked the 2 calves, and they were out in the field and were nursing the cow, so they are up and going. Should be completely numb now so that is good. When I go feed some grain in the barn for all the ones that come in, later this aft/eve... I will look at them to make sure there is no swelling... They should be "cold" to the touch with no blood flow within 24-48 hours... and then just start to dry up. But it was good to see them up and nursing.

Put a bag of the collected grass/leaves from last fall when I used the lawn sweeper; in with the chickens since the pen cannot be moved since the treated 2x6's are not on the bottom yet... with all the rain, it got a little muddy, but the chickens have pretty much eaten all the grass that was in there. Something new for them to scratch around through. @fuzzi 's birds love her giving them fresh... I figure this is better than not giving it to them, and will just collect more for this coming winter....Glad I have it to give to them.

Sun is out more than it was before, but I am going back out to see about doing the rest of those planters/tubs. Got the truck backed up and everything ready to start filling them with soil and all that....

Got a tick off my ear... that makes 5 so far this year. Sorry SOB's.... They are gross... HATE TICKS..... Going to have to wash my hair again to make sure there aren't anymore lurking...

Ready to go outside for a bit again.

 

[fuzzi]

Back in for a sandwich. Went up to the farm and spent about 1 1/2 hrs... putting staples in posts... Did most of the line of fence they had gotten up along the bull alley ....maybe 20 or so posts..... except for about 5-6 posts where DS had mentioned he wanted to cut one "hump" of dirt down and spread to a low spot. So did not do those posts there so the wire can move up or down a bit. He will staple the bottom wire and one along the middle/top when he gets it where he wants it... then I can do fill in... Right side of my right hand got pretty numb, so it was time to quit, anyway. So a little more done. It was mostly cloudy.... high clouds just blocking the sun, so very comfortable.
Stopped and got a 5 gal bucket of chicken feed from the bin to bring home. Checked the 2 calves, and they were out in the field and were nursing the cow, so they are up and going. Should be completely numb now so that is good. When I go feed some grain in the barn for all the ones that come in, later this aft/eve... I will look at them to make sure there is no swelling... They should be "cold" to the touch with no blood flow within 24-48 hours... and then just start to dry up. But it was good to see them up and nursing.

Put a bag of the collected grass/leaves from last fall when I used the lawn sweeper; in with the chickens since the pen cannot be moved since the treated 2x6's are not on the bottom yet... with all the rain, it got a little muddy, but the chickens have pretty much eaten all the grass that was in there. Something new for them to scratch around through. @fuzzi 's birds love her giving them fresh... I figure this is better than not giving it to them, and will just collect more for this coming winter....Glad I have it to give to them.

Sun is out more than it was before, but I am going back out to see about doing the rest of those planters/tubs. Got the truck backed up and everything ready to start filling them with soil and all that....

Got a tick off my ear... that makes 5 so far this year. Sorry SOB's.... They are gross... HATE TICKS..... Going to have to wash my hair again to make sure there aren't anymore lurking...

Ready to go outside for a bit again.

My chickens love last year's leaves, too. Fun!

 

[farmerjan]

Monday.... 55 last night, more like normal temps for here. Sun is out, warming up.

Something dug up the dahlia plant I put in the big planter last night... thinking skunk, coon, maybe possum... neighborhood dog? Trap is getting set tonight. I managed to replant it and water it in good... broke off a few leaves and one flower... BUT... just P.O. about it.
I got most of everything planted yesterday afternoon/eve... got a few more things to get settled in. Some of the pots are not as big as I wanted, but getting the "reduced" berry and grape plants into dirt was better than not... will replant down the road in the ground... but need to be able to have them moveable for now... I am going to try to finish up the last couple of planters today...
The obedient plant from @fuzzi is getting potted for now... trying to decide on a permanent place...
It is supposed to rain again tonight into tomorrow, so want to have things planted to get "watered in"..... then we might get a week of dry.... We had 5 inches last week total... what a game changer...

Hay is all heading out, ready/past ready to make... we are behind already with all this fence building... just trying to get things done as we can... EVERYTHING is going to be behind this year I am afraid. But... once this fence project gets done... it will not have to be done again in my lifetime... except for replacing some perimeter fence as normal wear and tear... this fencing project at the farm(s) is all interior/cross fencing that is covered by this grant program... except for having them pound posts also where we needed to replace some "exterior" fences that will not qualify but desperately needed replacing... broken posts and all that. My house is not covered under this... I am paying for it myself... and the owner of the pasture "behind" my house is paying for the post driving and we will get the wire up after haying... no cows will go back in there once we move out the cow/calf pairs next week. That pasture is always left fallow for the summer and we move them back in the fall, where we winter cows with new fall calves.

I went and set up at the farm I am going to test this afternoon. Farmer was there so had to talk to him a few minutes...
Then went back to the co-op about the tire... They got another one... and it is not any better... We even discussed the possibility of the rim being bent but pretty close scrutiny it doesn't appear to be. Plus the fact that I didn't have this tremor/shimmy in it with the old tires at all... The guys have said they have had some other problems/concerns, just recently, about Cooper tires since they have completely "rebranded" their tires... So, I am waiting to see what will happen. I told the guys that if I had to live with it, put it on the back and I will just deal with it... I don't blame them... but they weren't happy with the way that they had to use weights to get this one to "balance"... so they were going to discuss it with the "higher ups".... found out they have 2 other tire issues that need to be resolved... one is with Cooper tires again. The last ones I had were Falcon... and they had gone up to $189/ per tire so I went with these at $145.... I will go back to the Falcon tires next time around and pay the "premium" price...

Made some lunch... Going to get the bottles in the tray for this afternoon's test... I have to go this afternoon and back in the morning... I will take the samples tonight this month to get it out of the way.

I am going back out to see if I can get the last few things into pots before I go to work. I was going to see about mowing again... but it will just grow faster with another rain in the next 2 days... so will wait.

The chickens spread out all the grass/leaves I had in the bag and it looks much better and drier. I need to make some sort of roost pole for them to use... Have a plastic crate that they roost on at night... The other pen is basically done except for the piece that Deb is making for the top edge where we changed the way the "top panels" sit on it with shortening the length... But the top is on that one... so can be used now. I need to put something on the sides in the back corner to keep any blowing rain off... the roof does not cover as big an area since it is single roof panels instead of 2 side by side... so just needs a corner "wind/weather" break...

 

[fuzzi]

Monday.... 55 last night, more like normal temps for here. Sun is out, warming up.

Something dug up the dahlia plant I put in the big planter last night... thinking skunk, coon, maybe possum... neighborhood dog? Trap is getting set tonight. I managed to replant it and water it in good... broke off a few leaves and one flower... BUT... just P.O. about it.
I got most of everything planted yesterday afternoon/eve... got a few more things to get settled in. Some of the pots are not as big as I wanted, but getting the "reduced" berry and grape plants into dirt was better than not... will replant down the road in the ground... but need to be able to have them moveable for now... I am going to try to finish up the last couple of planters today...
The obedient plant from @fuzzi is getting potted for now... trying to decide on a permanent place...
It is supposed to rain again tonight into tomorrow, so want to have things planted to get "watered in"..... then we might get a week of dry.... We had 5 inches last week total... what a game changer...

Hay is all heading out, ready/past ready to make... we are behind already with all this fence building... just trying to get things done as we can... EVERYTHING is going to be behind this year I am afraid. But... once this fence project gets done... it will not have to be done again in my lifetime... except for replacing some perimeter fence as normal wear and tear... this fencing project at the farm(s) is all interior/cross fencing that is covered by this grant program... except for having them pound posts also where we needed to replace some "exterior" fences that will not qualify but desperately needed replacing... broken posts and all that. My house is not covered under this... I am paying for it myself... and the owner of the pasture "behind" my house is paying for the post driving and we will get the wire up after haying... no cows will go back in there once we move out the cow/calf pairs next week. That pasture is always left fallow for the summer and we move them back in the fall, where we winter cows with new fall calves.

I went and set up at the farm I am going to test this afternoon. Farmer was there so had to talk to him a few minutes...
Then went back to the co-op about the tire... They got another one... and it is not any better... We even discussed the possibility of the rim being bent but pretty close scrutiny it doesn't appear to be. Plus the fact that I didn't have this tremor/shimmy in it with the old tires at all... The guys have said they have had some other problems/concerns, just recently, about Cooper tires since they have completely "rebranded" their tires... So, I am waiting to see what will happen. I told the guys that if I had to live with it, put it on the back and I will just deal with it... I don't blame them... but they weren't happy with the way that they had to use weights to get this one to "balance"... so they were going to discuss it with the "higher ups".... found out they have 2 other tire issues that need to be resolved... one is with Cooper tires again. The last ones I had were Falcon... and they had gone up to $189/ per tire so I went with these at $145.... I will go back to the Falcon tires next time around and pay the "premium" price...

Made some lunch... Going to get the bottles in the tray for this afternoon's test... I have to go this afternoon and back in the morning... I will take the samples tonight this month to get it out of the way.

I am going back out to see if I can get the last few things into pots before I go to work. I was going to see about mowing again... but it will just grow faster with another rain in the next 2 days... so will wait.

The chickens spread out all the grass/leaves I had in the bag and it looks much better and drier. I need to make some sort of roost pole for them to use... Have a plastic crate that they roost on at night... The other pen is basically done except for the piece that Deb is making for the top edge where we changed the way the "top panels" sit on it with shortening the length... But the top is on that one... so can be used now. I need to put something on the sides in the back corner to keep any blowing rain off... the roof does not cover as big an area since it is single roof panels instead of 2 side by side... so just needs a corner "wind/weather" break...

Some people use an old wooden ladder for roosting, I use a 2x4. In the winter they sit on their feet.