Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Mini Horses]

So I did, and found a set of "off market" wheels that can be put on the shaft of a hand held to make it one that is "wheeled"...

That sounds interesting. Not same as the big wheeled but would take the weight of carrying it all over much nicer. 😁. I have a real nice cub cadet gas one but after a lot of fence line or ditch bank, it gets heavy! The battery ones, not as heavy -- shorter use time and not as strong on really rough cuts. 🤷

Glad you got rain. We have been having some showers, lighter but welcome. Yeah, more poss here.

 

[farmerjan]

Thursday night. Had a decent day. Knees ached this morning and took some tylenol to try to get the edge off. It was only down to 71 last night and muggy so didn't sleep as well as I could have. Slow start... we had some sprinkles this morning, looked like it was going to get serious and then it cleared out some. Went up to pasture about 1 to do some bush hogging. Spent about 4 hours and got the one field done... about 10 acres I guess. This is about 1/2 or a little more next to where he made the hay last week. There are some rocks/ledge that I had to be careful of. The cows had not been in here yet, so it was thick and hard to see the ground and ledge. Luckily, not too much in this field. Knees were aching from all the sitting so I quit with this field.
Filled the hydraulic fluid and it is ready to take into the next field where the cows are grazing now. That one will be easier to do just because you can see the ground better from them grazing. DS is going to move them into the one I just did as soon as he gets the hay bales moved out. I am planning to try to do some tomorrow morning if possible for an hour or so before I have to go to work.
Got the meters and hoses in the car ready for tomorrow. Need to get the sample bottles in the tray to take.

Sun came out by late this afternoon. I went to the farm and got milk, and then came home and stuck it in the fridge and went out to the garden. Finished the small area around the cantaloupe vines, and managed to get the hay down and the vines spread back out and then it was dark. Maybe tomorrow or Sat I will start working on the spaces between the hills so that I can get it all mulched out. Then I can find the stuff to harvest at least.
Didn't try the mower since the grass was wet early and then I was at the pasture. Maybe Saturday... the chance of rain is down to about 30%... ground is really wet; and the grass I did this eve was very "green" wet.... Not going to complain about the rain, but it would be better to cut if it dries out a little.

I never made the corn and stuff for supper yesterday, just had a sandwich. So, I put the water on a little bit ago for the corn, and decided to do the squash another night... Might make a sandwich to go along with the corn... will see how hungry I am.
Brought the gallon of tea I put out earlier, in, and took the lemonade out of freezer to add... soon as it is thawed enough to dump into tea, it will go in fridge. I had 1 glass left in the gallon that was in there.

Time to eat while the corn is hot.

 

[farmerjan]

Friday night and I got home around 9 from the dairy I tested. Long day and I will probably comment tomorrow... but I was sitting here reading some posts on several of the forums I frequent... and all of a sudden heard this pretty loud sound. Looked out and it is raining... again, a straight down just open up the skies downpour.

No wind, nothing. It has done this several times in the last few days.

It was sprinkling then rained a short downpour shower when I went to bush hog this morning.... got a call and had a couple of heifers out that have been across at a horse farm... they got stupid, wouldn't come for the grain and wound up heading up the hill in heavy brush... going into a gap that was not a nice open gate, and going right past the open gateway into the yard at the house there next to the pasture....so they are out loose again and eventually will wind up in someone's field... we know all the people out that way so not a huge deal... the other 4 are very content where they are IN THE PASTURE WHERE THEY WERE PUT..... these 2 will get sold whenever we get them caught up....if they can't stay put, they can be someone elses headache...
So got very little bush hogging done since I had to go to work...
Just as I got to the farm the skies opened up and I sat in the car for nearly 10 minutes until it let up some...
DS texted that it had poured down like that here at home....
And now again tonight... and it was not on the radar to do this....

Funny thing is it didn't rain about 8 miles south of the farm today... which is heading towards my direction...
REALLY SPOTTY RAIN....
I will look at the rain gauge in the morning as I forgot tonight and I am not going out there now....

 

[farmerjan]

Getting ready to head to the pasture to get on the tractor and bush hog more.
It is partly cloudy out there. Got down to a more comfortable 65 last night but already up to nearly 80.
Checked the rain gauge and we got another .25 inches over the course of yesterday/last night. That brings it to a total of 3.65 inches in 6 days. That is a bit more than our total rainfall for the month under more normal conditions. That is not counting the .9 we had 10 days ago, and 1.2 inches early in the month. WOW that's alot of rain for us.

However, it is nothing compared to what the poor folks down in eastern KY and even into sw Va have seen. Another friend down along the TN KY VA border areas had over 7 inches and it was pouring rain there 2 days ago... and the ones in KY that got devastated with the torrential rain and the flooding and all the deaths because it was just so much, so fast...
Sun is trying to come out a bit and the forecast is for few if any precip today...

 

[murphysranch]

While in the meantime, we are burning up in the West. I'm monitoring the McKinney fire near Yreka CA, cus DD and family are driving home via I5 northbound. The fire which is at about 35K acres, might close this all important north south interstate.
At my old home in So. OR, our neighborhood was on a Level One evac notice. Luckily it was cancelled at 10 p.m.

 

[farmerjan]

With the cattle being so important to us, I have been monitoring the drought conditions and such out in the west and southwest... even up into places like Missouri and Arkansas and Kansas.... I cannot imagine the dry conditions.
On top of that, the heat... our heat is nothing like that of Texas and other places... although ours is more humid...
I feel very bad for all that are suffering from the extreme heat.... but my heart goes out to those devastated by the horrible flooding that came on so fast and the mudslides and damages it has caused besides the loss of life.

 

[farmerjan]

Got the bush hogging finished in the middle pasture, texted DS and asked if he was going to do around the sink holes and such in the 3rd one, and did the tractor need fuel? I said I was coming home to work on the meters. He sent me back a message and said he was going to bring some fuel and do some in the other field. Earlier, GF was moving round bales off the field and DS had the truck and flat bed trailer there loading them to take back to the main farm since we do not leave cattle at this place during the winter as it is too hard to get in and out of if we get much snow...

Our annual meter calibration for work is on Monday. I am supposed to take them all apart and all O rings and such checked and cleaned... no matter how well the pipeline washer runs, there are places that get a build up and they are supposed to check for that and replace anything that is not working correctly and all that. The newer style that we are transitioning to has a whole bunch of unnecessary o-rings and such... the old style was much simpler and much easier to take apart and clean. I hate the newer ones. BUT, not much to do about it. Another reason I was hoping to retire... ; to quit all this PITA stuff. So, what do I do but take on another farm ... it replaces the big one that quit in March....

Got about 12 or 13 of the 25 I have, done, and in the car. Will get the rest done tomorrow. I can do about 4 an hour. Hate it. Luckily it is only once a year... I will get a chance to talk to a couple of the other testers there even though we have appt times.. I will go early to talk to a couple of them. Since we don't have the yearly meeting in person anymore, you just don't have much interaction with the other testers anymore.
Deb finally came out this weekend and I took supper to her house... a couple of steaks out of the freezer, new potatoes, some yellow squash, a couple of cucumbers and a few peppers. She is staying through Monday eve... going to work remote on Monday then has to go back. She said she will not be coming out next weekend... but hopes to be out the following weekend and work remote for a week. Sometimes I think she really wants to come out here permanently; other times I get the feeling she is not as interested in making this her permanent place.... things might be changing after her husband died a few years ago and maybe her priorities are changing... That's not a terrible thing if that is the case. She is about 10-15 years younger than me so 50's.... she is entitled to maybe change her goals in life since he is no longer here... maybe even find someone new.....

Bottles are in the rack, ready for tomorrow... have to test in the morning... then priorities are bush hogging to finish the one place, and getting the rest of the meters done. Then make sure all the samples are packed and ready to drop off in the morning when I leave to go do meters.

 

[Baymule]

Send me a bucket of all that rain you are getting! I’ll pour it out in a field and I just KNOW it will call for all its cousins to come join the party! LOL

We finished the fence on the pasture in front of the house yesterday morning. No, not all fenced in, the front fence row is all grown up and will have to be cleared before I can put up sheep fence and no fence on the property line between me and the sellers. The new wire runs down the driveway and across the front yard, Bennet can graze his cattle on it. I can’t use it, with this drought, no point in being selfish when his cattle can use it. My new place is divided into 3 fields, I’ll be using the middle one. Told him he can use the other field after we get sheep wire up on the T-posts where we took down the barb wire and he was pleased with that. There is method to my madness. I’m getting help on fence! The other 3 sides on the middle field is in field fence.

 

[Mini Horses]

Ahhh...life has stressors. We plan days at work, days at farm. Weather screws up the farm work, then we juggle what we must. aint fair. Older I get, the less I like it! . But life would be boring without it all.

Three years ago I thought I'd be retired now. Then the world got covid, now shortages and terrible weather issues, add recession, money and job confusion. More juggling and not of my own doing.

It's a time of concern with what steps to take. I'm so much better off than many but, not exactly where I want to be. That's why we trudge along for a while longer. I see farmers selling herds that took years to build. Sad. I see years needed to get to recovery....and too much big ag grabbing. Huge recalls of food from contaminants, with a lowly farmer restricted from selling his wholesome offerings. I feel blessed to be able to milk a goat and pick my own green beans -- small accomplishments that keep me healthy and sane. We struggle to make any sense of it all.

 

[Baymule]

Well said.