Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Bruce]

If you go farther north, and maybe in Vt but definitely into Canada, red cattle seem to do better.

Black seems to be popular here. I've not spent time driving around looking at beef cattle but I know the ground beef we get from Perry and Janet is Black Angus and there are a lot of mostly black animals on the road I take to the interstate.

The BLACK Angus people have done a spectacular marketing job. More than spectacular, maybe super fantabulous! The entire country has been conditioned to look for the Certified Angus label on the meat packages and it is ALWAYS more expensive. You can't fix stupid, but you sure can laugh at it.

Yep, it is all about the advertizing. That is why Wisconsin cheddar is that gross orange color. Ad men differentiating the product. I'm sure there are tons of people that think cheddar is naturally orange and non orange cheddar is inferior. If any cow put out milk that color I sure wouldn't use it for anything! Can't be a healthy animal.

to my way of thinking he is all talk and no action.

Or "All hat and no cattle".

 

[farmerjan]

I can agree with the color thing to a point. Problem with that is that my guernseys will produce a real creamy yellow colored milk with the green grass and that color is off putting to people. The butter I would make from it was very yellow as opposed to some made from the jersey milk. The Beta-carotine in their milk makes it more yellow. But I do agree that the orange is exaggerated. However, butter will be yellow from perfectly white milk; as the fat globules stick together, it gets more color to it and the milk is very white to start with. It is only the guernsey breed that the beta-carotine color shows up in the actual milk. Still, I get what you are saying about the marketing thing. Do you remember when margarine was first introduced? It came in 2 packets, and you had to squish them together to get the color because it was just white. The "2nd" packet was coloring to give it the yellow color so it looked like butter? Of course that is when they touted it to be better for you than butter...... It is nothing more than "glorified penzoil" actually derived from petroleum products.

That guy who is all talk and no action is as far from "all hat and no cattle" as they come. Supposedly has alot of money, owns several places, talks alot and has no real idea about any animals.... just has these ideas that he has these places and they are rented as "weekend retreats" and such.... fancy rental properties is all they are. Of course, haven't seen any of the other ones, and if he was so worried about this place being a rental, I would have thought he would have made a little more effort to get it to be productive, producing rent for him. Maybe he just has too much on his plate. But my son did some work there, built a fancy TALL fence around the garden area that the renters would be able to "stroll through" and experience being able to pick some of their own dinner, all that kind of crap..... and it took nearly a year for him to get paid. He also had a friend that is a professional fence builder go up and looked at, and took time to draw up an estimate, and made a spot in his VERY busy schedule to fit in doing this fence building..... this owner wouldn't commit, and would not answer my son's phone calls, and finally when he did he said that he was tied up with other business and that he wasn't sure he was going to get to it right now. Luckily my son had told this fence builder friend to go on and do whatever fencing projects he had lined up and not to worry about this one. We have not heard from him in a year or more. Honestly, don't care much if he ever calls again. We didn't even make the hay there this year on the fields that were hayfields when we had it before. They are getting grown up with wild blackberry bushes and brushy growth. It would have been crappy hay that we were going to just get off the field so the grass would be able to start to come back. Why waste our time. This guy came to us, he was so gung ho about getting the place back to pictures he had seen when we used to rent it..... and we honestly worked with him for nearly a year trying to get it going; but you get tired of people that want all these things and then don't follow up on their own end. I think that there have been people in and out of the house. He had a lawn/gardening service taking care of the grounds immediately around the house but I haven't been up there in over a year.

 

[farmerjan]

Started out cold again this morning. down to 21 last night but it is already up to 41 and the sun is out. No breeze so it is supposed to be a nice day. Starting a warming trend that is supposed to be in the upper 50's to low 60's most of next week for the Christmas week. No snow in the forecast here. We will be able to get some more cattle moved home from pasture, and get some more pregnancy checks done; calves weaned off them too. That will be really good.

Son has x-rays again today and dr appt to check on the progress of the hip. Hope that they will be starting therapy and working the muscles and getting some weight bearing going. He is thinking that he will be off the whole month of January too. His leg is very weak, and he is in for some painful rehab to get some strength back. He said he woke up the other night, went to get up to go to the bathroom, and forgot about the crutches, and when he got out of bed, went right to his knees because the leg wouldn't support him. Said he didn't fall or anything, just as he went to step, it "wasn't there"... and he caught himself. So he is going to have some real muscle strengthening to do. But I think that they will give him the go ahead for the rehab and all. He has been very diligent about not doing anything to mess this up.

Going to have to go up to his house and do all the chickens waterers again. I can get by with feeding and watering them every other day normally. But not when it freezes like the last 2 nights. I will be able to fill my 3 gal waterer here for mine and not have to worry about it for a couple of days. They are on an automatic feeder that I can fill about every 3 days. I see them everyday because they are right next to the driveway in the garden area, but it is nice to not have to carry water and feed everyday. One good thing about not having too many right now.

Have been researching the knee crutch. I think I am going to try it. The nice thing is that it is "hands free" , not like crutches or even the knee scooter. Plus, it doesn't take up all the room of the knee scooter. And with the step up and down for the different levels here, the scooter would be a pain. I will have both crutches and the knee crutch, to use to get around with. I am going to get it and try it while I still have both legs functional to see if I can get the hang of it. It looks to be move maneuverable once you get the hang of it. You have to be careful because your leg does "stick out" behind you while "kneeling on the crutch" so to speak. But a friend said her friend used one and liked it for getting around with the ability to use her hands and not have to use the normal crutches.

I feel for @misfitmorgan and those of you in the colder north. I am sure glad that I don't have to deal with all that this next week.

 

[Bruce]

You need a knee peg leg !

It is nothing more than "glorified penzoil" actually derived from petroleum products.

The guy sounds like someone who has one more thing going on than he can pay for and is keeping up appearances.

 

[farmerjan]

Yeah, @Bruce , I think you are right on the guy who owns that place.... too many irons in the fire and maybe not enough money to pay for things.....

The knee crutch is basically a "knee peg leg". It is touted for people who also have had amputations below the knee to get around with instead of using regular crutches because it does allow them to use their hands; for before when they get their prothesis.

 

[Bruce]

Sounds like a good thing to have! Nice to have both hands/arms free.

 

[farmerjan]

Today was a beautiful day. Sunny, temps got up to the low 60's in the sun. only needed a sweatshirt over my long sleeved t-shirt and jeans.
Of course, all couldn't go smooth....but it could have been worse. Got a call that a cow was out in the yard next to a pasture. My son was on his way to the dr appt. So of course, mom got to go up there. I love my kid, but sometimes he really gets under my skin. The fence here at this pasture, around this house, is pretty bad. He finally got the posts driven along it, this past year; we had moved all the cattle out for the summer. Okay, good. BUT, he never got around to getting the new fence up. So the cows were in the "catch lot" where this fence is so bad, with all the new posts, and they were reaching over the fence and one just went across it. So, I got all the rest out of the lot, then by the grace of God and a little luck, and having some very good tame cows, she followed me with the bucket (that was empty) along the fence, and around the corner, and back in through a gate into the field. I put back up the gates that keep the cows out of this catch lot, and got it all situated. Drove around it and found another gate in a different corner that had been pushed open, and got it all closed and done. BUT, I wasn't paying enough attention to exactly where I was and started to turn the truck, and caught one of the stumps that the owner had cut too high and got it up under the frame of the truck. Stuck right there. So I texted him and said that he needed to come to the pasture when he got done at the dr office. He called and I told him what I did and he came with the chain and with the arms on the bale bed, lifted the front end of the truck as I slowly backed up, with him also moving, and we got it off the stump. He was afraid I may have bent the tie rod but it was sitting directly on the frame and not the tie rod..... so luckily all is well. But it was very aggravating. There is alot of grass/and low growth in there and I just didn't see it. I thought it was closer to the fence.... I knew it was there but not "exactly" there.... Could have been worse.... but aggravating just the same.

The dr said another 2 weeks of no real weight bearing. It is doing good, but he is afraid that my son will push his limit too soon. Then 50 % weight while still using the crutches, around the 1st week of Jan., for 2 weeks, then switch to a cane. Has another appt the first of Feb... guess just before my surgery on Feb 6th....
He has been having the headaches again, don't know if it is because he still isn't getting to do the therapy appts that he was going to twice a month from that accident when he rolled the "roller", 2 yrs ago. He can't lay on the hip for them to work on the spine/neck I guess. I wish to he// that he would go back to my chiropractor, but he is being thick headed about it. Says that these other drs. that they referred him to are helping him yet I don't see it. It may also be that he can't rock the boat with the workman's comp.... but what the he// if it isn't really helping all that much. And sometimes I think that it is because he doesn't want to admit that mom is right..... He's too old for me to lay down the law.... but I really think that a few good adjustments would do him a world of good. He's been fooling with this crap for all this time..... but you can't tell them anything. I would have expected more progress after all this time.

Had my chiropractor appt on Thurs (?) after I tested the farm and will go back once more in late Jan before I go to Duke in Feb. Didn't have a very big adjustment so that was good. If only there was an adjustment to kick in weight loss......

 

[Baymule]

I hate lousy fences. There is a large lease pasture near us that always had calves or cows out on the road. Finally whoever leases the land put up cow panels along a stretch of fence and the cows stopped getting out.

High centered on a stump-bummer.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss Farmerjan,

Have you thought about putting a T-post next to the stump so you won't run over it again?

 

[farmerjan]

Problem with putting in a t-post is that then you have to go around it with the bush hog and there isn't enough room to get the tractor and bush hog between it and the fence. The bush hog is set high enough to clear it. I just need to be a little more careful.... and now I will be twice as careful because of getting caught up on it. Plus, it is starting to rot so maybe will be able to get it out of there . It certainly wasn't the end of the world, just a PITA for me.