farm life

Only a little Gimpy

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On Tuesday I did a walk around the house with the contractor. He wanted to return the overhead lift so he spent a couple of days finishing up the caulking on the upper part of the house. It is looking good. They just have to fix a corner of the front gutters, replace a screen in a window and finish caulking the lower part of the house. They got the yard all cleaned up and we are going to start putting some water on it to cut down on all of the dry weeds the dogs keep bringing into the house.

Mr Rainman came out to mow the fields and has missed coyotes two mornings in a row. Gingerman and I went out Thursday evening and Friday morning and did not see a single coyote. So maybe he managed to scare it off, no body, no credit.

On Wednesday, we had another big event, the dreaded lightning strike fire. We had a storm pass over Pilot Rock and lightning started four fires in a very short amount of time. A couple of the fires got controlled fairly quickly but the wind picked up and started to really spread the flames. The lightning continued to start more fires as it moved. Our area ended up with several big fires. Four days later and there is a state disaster team, agencies and assets from all over the state fighting fires around us. Highway 395 is closed down 39 miles outside of town and we are surrounded by smoke. The fires are continuing to grow. Luckily for us the fire never jumped the highway before town so we were safe and the wheat crop next to the houses is intact and ready to be harvested, not everyone was as lucky. I spent a couple of hours driving around looking for our Border Collie, Chance. She got out of the yard during the storm. She came back to the house as I was headed down the driveway. Annmarie called me to let me know she just showed up at the front gate ready to be let inside the yard. Milo is doing great, he is going to the vet to get neutered next week. He doesn’t know it yet.

Well I am officially out of the boot and able to bear weight on my healing foot as long as I wear a stiff soled shoe. I heard this on Monday so I started walking around with the boot as I did not have any shoes for the right broken foot. It hurt, pins and needles and stinging when I bore weight on it. After only six weeks no weight bearing I expected to just jump right back into the hard manual labor and, per the wife, I did not listen again. I didn’t want to listen, I don’t want to rehab, I don’t want to take it easy! But after having to sleep 10-12 hours each night after bearing weight I would say it is a lot harder than I expected. First thing in the morning when I put my foot down the whole thing has pins and needles. I am walking with a slight limp that progresses if I push it too much. So I am trying to take it easy for me.

Mr Rainman came out on Saturday and we went out and wormed the sheep. Most of the sheep look great but some of the ewes are pretty skinny so we worm when that happens especially since they are out and about on the farm. I was able to use the drencher device and it is so much faster than filling syringes. It still took us a couple of hours to go through the herd. He jumped in with the sheep in the chute and held them so I could dose them. You always get your feet stepped on when you are in the chute and I do not need that yet. One ewe had an abscess on her chin that I lanced. They get them from the cheat grass. We have been mowing and spraying the cheat grass but this year it is winning. We are planning on spraying Rejuvra on the fields this fall to help us control the cheat grass. This time in the barn pointed out that we still need to dig out the barn and the chicken coop. They are on the list. Mr Rainman wants to put the heavy panels in the hay room so he doesn’t have to carry them as far. Normally we take them outside the barn. This is a valid strategy he employed today to get the barn opened up today so he is ready to start digging it out with the manure forks on the John Deere 2520 tractor. The smaller tractor is the only one that will fit into the barn.

The plan was to hook up the small sickle bar mower to the John Deere tractor but Mr Rainman had to move equipment around in the machine shed first. I put away my auction winnings that the progeny, Gingerman and I picked up on Friday. The tools were brand new and looked unused, I should have bid on more tools. I did not win the large toolbox I wanted. I am looking to create a metric toolbox and a standard so that I can easily find the correct tool. I am filling up the big tool box and cannot fit any more open end wrenches or sockets in it. We wrestled the mower onto the tractor then spent an hour getting it greased up and the teeth oiled. I needed to mow the orchard and for it to be feasible we needed the smaller tractor and the smaller sickle bar. This was not the offending sickle bar that I broke my foot on. Except we were not sure that this sickle bar was in working condition. After doing everything possible to make it work I cut the orchard with it. It was brutal as the grass was too high. I also managed to hit one of the metal horse panels encircling a tree. Luckily, the mower belts started to slip and I quickly turned off the pto, usually I pop off a bar tooth when this happens. I was able to pry it off and get back to cutting. The plan was to just pick up the downed grass and toss it over the fence for the animals. The sheep and eater cows can get to it.

After all that I was whooped and needed a shower and some rest. I took a nap!

On Sunday, I cleaned house and moved upstairs back into our bedroom. I have been sleeping downstairs so I did not have to try and maneuver the stairs with a bum foot. So the puppy and I are now back in the master bedroom. Things are starting to get back to normal.

Calves tagged and banded

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Mr Rainman brought out a friend (Mr Interested) who was interested in seeing us tag and band calves, one of our nephews came out and the Gingerman offered to help. I was dead weight but was able to provide directions. Annmarie had spotted a ewe last night that had an abscess on her neck so the sheep got locked in so we could deal with it after the cows. We had to push the cows down to the corral and of course they were at the farthest field. They actually went in fairly well. They only back tracked once which is amazing as this late into summer all of the animals are crazy. They get fairly wild since they don’t have to rely on humans for food. We ignore them as long as there are no issues also. There is quite a bit of green grass up in field two. It snapped back nicely after we cut hay. All of the fields need mowed to knock down the cheat grass, but now that Mr Rainman is off of vacation he will have that done in a few days.

Once the cows all got pushed into the corral the mommas were sorted off and only the seven calves were left in the corral. I forgot to have the dogs moved inside so they were right at the corral trying to help. This was not keeping the calves calm at all so they had to be removed. Chance ended up on the run hollering at us and whining as she wanted to help. We had the calf table all set up but the small calves don’t lend themselves to the table at all and since there were four grown men it was decided they could man handle the calves. Yeah, it went as well as you expected. This is something that you really have to know how to do to tip a calf fast and easily. If you do not do it correctly the first time a fight will ensue in which a lot of effort must be exerted and a few bruises obtained to get the job done. I sat behind the corral fence hollering instructions. The calves all got tagged and banded. The wrong numbers and colors were used but the job got done! They only had to cut off one set of bands and redo it as there was only one testicle in the first attempt. Everyone was pretty dirty by the time it was done. The Gingerman just started to finally tackle and bear hug them which resulted in a lot of cow poop and dirt everywhere.

The sheep got chased into the barn, for this Chance did get to help on her lead rope. Gingerman ran her, but the sheep are so tame that they will just ignore humans. Once in the barn we proceeded to catch every black sheep and could not find any with an abscess. We did catch and sort off the one with a limp but there was no abscess. So I did not have to lance and treat an abscess.

All in all a successful venture with the cows and we are done for another year, there were 5 male and 2 female calves. We had three calves die for unknown reasons. We have had two momma cows die and most likely it is due to old age. We have not been rotating off the older adult cows. So we may have to start doing that every 3-5 years now.

Four weeks left on the broken foot.

Cows can be painful

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The cows are painful sometimes. The teenagers are by far and away the worst! They jumped the fence on the back hillside on both sides and got out into the unfenced area on the back hillside. They have been there for about 2.5 weeks as they just run roughshod over the fence so it is useless to push them back. They want to hang out near the momma and baby cows so this was working. I say was because when I came home Friday the five cows were out in the wheat field down by our cattle guard. We have no clue how they got there. I think they walked all the way down the length of the farm and got out onto the gravel road then came back into the wheat field and walked down to the barn lot. I opened the gate into our house area in the hopes that they would come into it, nope, they walked past the open gate and headed back down the length of the property.

I discovered that I can indeed drive the Kubota tractor with a broken foot. I can use the hand lever on the left to set the speed and the tractor slows down well enough on its own that I don’t need to use the brakes. So I drove out around the field on the pavement and came in from the top and went back on the road alongside the wheat field. Annmarie came out and opened up more gates so we could get them behind a fence. We got them into the car area then pushed them out into a fenced field down by Mother-in-Law’s house. This meant that Mr Rainman and I were going to have to fix fence on the back hillside even though we have other things to do. Since I can drive the tractor I would do that so we can carry all of the fencing supplies. I can also do the splices in the fence.

Mr Rainman sprayed some Roundup in a few places around our back elevated garden beds. The gravel needs to not be full of weeds. Then we got ready to go fencing. We filled up the area behind the bucket with wooden stays but we can only carry about 15 stays that way. If we need a bunch of stays we will dump off fencing stuff then use the tractor forks to pick up a couple of hundred stays. As we were crossing the back creek we spotted another pile of wooden stays from a previous fencing job (common issue, as fencing extra stuff tends to stay close to an old job). This was noted in case we needed more we would not have to go to the machine shed. Mr Rainman was able to slap on fence tighteners and crank them down, cut the fence and then it was ready for me. I was able to park close to the site, hop off the tractor and put on my peg leg. The peg leg sounds cool, it is cool, as it allows me to use both hands unobstructed but it takes a ton of energy and effort. So I spliced the fence back together and Mr Rainman installed wooden stays and replaced any missing stay staples and T-post clips. The cows had a path through the fence down by the creek so it got extra wooden stays. The outer hillside fence is nice and tight!

We started to drive across the top of the field and realized that I had never installed stays along all of the top fence. So he started installing them when the Gingerman showed up with cold Gatorade and assistance. Him and I went and snagged all of the extra wooden stays from the bottom of the hill. We drove back up the hill and they started to install them into the fence separating out the CRP. They got all the way across the top except we were 8 fence stays short to make it to the gate.

The inner hillside fence was in shambles. They had torn off the top three rows of smooth fence. So Mr Rainman again slapped the tighteners on it and I jumped down and spliced it together. Honestly, fencing takes practice and after all the years on the farm I know how to fence. While I did that they worked on T-post clips and Mr Rainman pulled wire for us to add a higher wire to the upper 2/3 of the fence. It’s the flat section of the fence and the spot where the cows and sheep like to jump over the fence. The fence is over 50” now and very tight so I am hopeful the cows cannot jump it, or it at least appears to be an actual barrier. I ended up walking downhill halfway putting on clips. This was a huge mistake! I had to peg leg it up half the hill and thought I was going to die by the time I got to the tractor. My good leg and hip were killing me and I had to keep stopping to take a rest.

Mr Rainman had been using the DeWalt Fence stapler the whole time. I had expected him to trade off with the Gingerman occasionally but he was not having it. The machine is amazing. They stapled 30 posts in under 30 minutes. It is a definite time saver, but it beats you up! It has a kick, it’s heavy and awkward. He kept using it until his hand cramped up and he could not move his fingers! The Gingerman got to finish up with the stapler.

By the time we got down to the house I parked as close as I could to the gate, got off the tractor, installed the peg leg on and came into the house. I sat down in the kitchen, polished off the chips and dip from the 4th (we only make chips and dip on the major federal holidays and the Super Bowl). I showered and then crawled into bed for an hour and a half nap. I was exhausted. Milo has learned to take naps with me since I have been home so he sacked out with me for that time.

Siding continues

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The siding is really starting to come together. We can see how good it is going to look by the time they are done. I figure another 3-4 weeks before they will be finished. It will be nice to have everything done and to not worry about letting Milo out into the yard. Once that is done we can think about putting gravel around the base of the foundation.

The next big project to happen will be the Gazebo. The new throttle part for the compactor came, so once it is installed and all of the hay is inside, that will be the next project.

The mice are making us crazy this year. This is the worst year for mice in 17 years. We have them in the house and it has been very hard to get rid of them. Today, I put poison in the subfloor of the second story and down near our animal food storage bins. We have already killed four mice but we hear them in the ceiling every night while we are watching television. It’s annoying. The cats are not doing their jobs. Neither are the chickens or the dogs. Everyone should be killing mice at every chance they have.

It has rained a couple of times but not a whole lot. Just enough to make some spectacular rainbows but not enough to soak the hay bales on the ground.

The wife was gone last night, she has a convention to attend, so I was able to make a BTT sandwich for dinner, Bacon, Tomato, Toast. I even added pepper to the bacon! It was very good and as a secondary benefit I used up the last of the bacon, the last of the bread and an old tomato from the fridge. I didn’t want to dirty a dish so I used the cutting board dirtied when I cut up the tomatoes as a plate.

I have graduated to using a Peg Leg for getting around without crutches at home. I get tired of using the crutches and it’s hard to do any chores around the house with crutches under your arms. I can do the dishes, fold and rotate laundry and cook dinner with the peg leg. I have only fallen once so far and it was on the crutches trying to take the dogs outside for bedtime potty after a long day. I was too tired and lost my balance and fell back on the stairs. I did not injure anything other than my pride. I am still sleeping downstairs in a boot, propped up on pillows every night. By the end of the day my foot is still pretty swollen. Sleeping with it propped up is not ideal but first thing in the morning there is not swelling! I will be glad when the swelling stops. My foot is a nice, purple, yellow green color.

Haying is progressing with a little help from my friends

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The big obstacle after breaking my foot was going to be getting the rest of the hay baled and then put up in the barn. The day after I broke my foot the baler broke, it is skipping a drive chain due to all the wear on the gears, the gears need replaced, adjusting the chain length and tension is no longer working. That same afternoon the John Deere tractor blew out seal and quit moving due to a malfunction in the front right steering mechanism. Turns out this is a common issue and a design defect that eventually rears its ugly head. The tractor is over ten years old and has been used hard, It has over 2000 hours on it. Due to it not being able to move they had to come out and pull off the assembly. This took about a week to fix but the cost went from $2000 to $4100. This is a lot cheaper than a new tractor but not pleasant. Especially, when you consider I had to order parts for the baler.

The baler is an Abbriata, made in Italy and really only one dealer carries parts in the United States. When I called to order parts the first time I learned that the company no longer sells this brand small round baler. Abbriata was sold recently and the prices jumped almost 50%. So my $13k baler is now $20k. This made it easy to order replacement parts. I got roller gears and chain ordered then the next day remembered that we forgot to order the small gears. I called back and got the same service representative and those got ordered, I now have $2k worth of spare parts coming for the baler. On the plus side, I will be able to sit in a chair and help direct the baler repair. I am getting used to working on it even if I don’t like it.

The Go Getter, Mr Rainman and the former Gimp, now called the Mermaid volunteered to help me bring in bales. (The Gimp made an argument for a name change. Normally, I don’t do name changes for the blog but she was compelling and she stated that a Gimp could not pickup hay and that currently I was the Gimp. It made sense in a convoluted way and she was correct as I was wearing the walking boot not her.) This made me the designated driver but since we were starting first thing in the morning and I could only use one foot to operate the gas and brake simultaneously the first trip was a little jerky jerky and I killed it about ten times before the engine warmed up and I did not have to keep my foot on the gas 100% of the time. We managed to pickup four loads (by we, I mean that the puppy, Milo, and I watched while everyone else did the hard work). It was a Friday so he had to come with me so the siding guy could use the boom without fear of driving over the puppy.

Luckily, the Gingerman offered to come down the next weekend and rake and bale the hay we had down. It took a solid day but he was able to bale around 150 square bales equivalent to 6 tons of grass hay.

Mr Rainman, the Go Getter and Mr Second Career came over during the week and picked up more bales in an attempt to get them out of the fields. Mr Second Career had borrowed the Kubota to mow down weeds and volunteered to help pickup hay. The Go Getter just feels sorry for me and volunteered to bale me out. They got most of the hay into the barn or lamb shed. The square bales are a lot heavier so they went into the lamb shed as they are easier to load and don’t get stacked as high.

The Gingerman tells me there are about 70 round bales in field one still to pickup. He thinks he can do it on Monday. Once that is done we will only have the orchard to mow and rake. I think we will just pick it up loose and feed the alpaca. The last bit down by the school house is about 25-35 bales only. But we have to have the round baler working and the small sickle bar mower working. Both spaces are very small and tight and need the small equipment to be able to fit. This won’t happen until after Fourth of July. I am unable to help with this issue.