I am sick. I have the plague and as this is much worse than a “man cold” I am truly on my proverbial death bed. So as I lay on the couch this morning eating my cottage cheese and fruit I spotted what I believed to be a coyote sitting on a small ridge about 75 yards from the house. I tried to convince myself it was just a deer but the profile was a little off. I then decided it maybe was a coyote but I was trying to decide how to dispose of it. I contemplated all the benefits and detractors for various calibers of rifle (stall tactic for not getting off the couch). Then I contemplated how I was going to fire a rifle without my head exploding from the noise. I continued to chew my grape and nectarine cottage cheese while deciding if it was really a coyote. I had almost convinced myself it was a deer when it stood up and went into the dry creek bed. It was a coyote. I finished my breakfast and watched the sheep through the front window. I figured if the sheep didn’t panic all was good. Annmarie came home 15 minutes later and I sent her out to patrol the property. No coyote, he lives another day. 

Barn eggs

It is time to bring in the hay.  This is an annual ritual, one that is not always welcomed with open arms.  I did not buy the hay elevator last year so it is going to be another stairway out of bales to the top of the hay stack.  Unfortunately, I had to cover the night shift at work so Annmarie and two young men had to start moving the hay into the barn.  

Before they could even start they had to clean out all the eggs from the barn. I have one hen that is now living in the barn and laying only in the barn. There were 71 eggs in one nest. They got tossed out into the barn lot. I can just imagine what my egg customers would say about getting one of those. 

They started very early on a Saturday and by 2 hours later one of them was dry heaving nonstop and starting to get diarrhea.  He thought he had drank some bad milk the night before.

Unfortunately for the rest of us it was not food poisoning. It was a nasty virus and I have become its latest victim. Annmarie got it next then Sarah now me. I do illness with the grace of a house cat getting a bath. It’s not pretty. All communication with me should probably be done only in the written form to  protect all involved parties. They got 55 bales loaded into the barn out of 295 it’s a start, 16+% complete!!

Now that the old house has been adjusted and supported again the latch I installed years ago to keep the door shut is off by 1/2 inch. I am going to have to move it to make it usable again. Between the night shift and my illness I have not managed to finish the skirting on the old house.  I need to get it done so I can get over to Ruby’s and level that house. I am going to get a bundle of cedar shakes to use as shims when I do her house. 

Lock now 1/2 inch off As you can see we are in the middle of an eastern Oregon summer!  It is hot and dry. One can see why no fireworks and smoking will be happening out at our house.

Farm dead center of the picture

It happened, the wheat fields got harvested last week. I always love to see them working the fields. I had just gotten off the night shift and drove up alongside the fields so I could watch. There is a dusty magnificence about that much food being readied for edible end products. I was told we had a heat spurt that hurt the wheat pretty badly and the yield was low.  Farming is a tough business. Mother Nature is fickle and the weather patterns are not as predictable in our region. 

I found a Kickstarter weather station that gives updates on the Internet to a network of like stations. Some states have entire networks set up for agricultural weather reporting and logging of trends. This helps capture microclimates.  I just need to convince Annmarie it’s worth $250.