hay

Hay is the gift that keeps on giving

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After the dry summer and having to feed for 6 weeks we needed more hay. I found another 10 ton local and started to pick it up on Wednesday. This is not as easy as it sounds as we had to load it manually and unload it again by hand. The bales weigh 100# each on average and those heavy ones are twice as heavy as the rest. Luckily I had help from the Hay Man. He came over and unloaded with me. He stacked the stack higher with the old bales as they were lighter then we stacked the new ones into the machine shed. The stack is high enough now I can throw some plywood on top of it and fix the broken beam. I have the new beam now and it needs to go up this week so that it doesn’t warp.

Hay Man and I then went and looked at the upper fields and discussed the grass and hay plans. I had no idea that you needed to bales the hay with dew on the row. Plus you have to have the moisture content of the bale correct or they rot or catch on fire! This is going to further complicate things. I had to call a halt so that I did not die from moving the hay. We will do another four ton and then I will unload the last two ton myself. The days of being able to do ten ton in a single day are over. Now if the hay elevator worked we probably could have done 10 ton but it needs to be welded first. I have begun the welding class at the college but it is going to take all quarter for me to learn how to do it passably. I spent 2.5 hours last week one night and still could not do four simple welds. So now I am behind and need to play catchup.

My mother-in-law and wife conspired against me this week to get me to feed the cows again. I believe the cows are fine, I do know that there is zero green in the pasture below and it looks like they could be starving but its not winter yet. This is my go to line when we talk about feeding before it gets cold. I never win and end up feeding the animals but I feel like I should always voice my issue. It doesn’t change anything in the long run but I like to take a stance, even if it is futile. So I pushed down another large bale of grain hay. No one came running, not the cows or the sheep who were 100 feet away. They had already eaten down the first bale to nothing so they must not be starving. Most starving animals will mob me when I bring out hay or at least run over when they hear the tractor. Not this time, I did notice that the next day they are all camped out around the easy meal.

It was opening deer season this Saturday and I expected to spend my normal two hours hunting for a little buck. No joy at all, I have spent almost 7 hours this weekend and have not fired a single shot yet. There is a little tiny spike buck that keeps showing up in the wheat field but he is super spooked and when I get out of the vehicle he starts running away full out. I had a nice shot this morning but there was a doe standing directly on the other side of him so I had to wait for either one of them to move and then it was too late. Luckily, I have vacation this week, a nice happy accident, and I will work on getting some venison on the table later in the week. These hawks are all over the place and I managed to follow this one until I got a nice shot of it flying, not too shabby considering I was using my cell phone camera.

There are a lot of pheasants this year, but the odd part is they normally jump when you are wishing 50-75 yards of them so you can never get a shot off. This year they are holding tight and they are everywhere. We counted 25 in one morning but had 15 other times and that is without beating the bushes. Some pheasant hunters are going to be pleased.

Ready I think

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I am focused on getting the upper fields ready for planting. I finished the discing yesterday. I now have to get an expert opinion out to look at the fields and tell me what to do next. I want to get the alfalfa fields planted this month. After they are planted then we will start working on getting financing arranged to buy our haying equipment.

I ordered the wood to fix the roof in the machine shed. I broke a couple of boards last year when I was trying to move the large bales in and out. So I should be able to fix the damage soon. I want to bolt the new beam in place so the upper wall cannot pull apart. I may even bolt the upper beams at the front and back of the opening so it is done in three places. We will need to line the walls with plywood or use 2×4 fir strips every 12 inches so the new small bales don’t push on the outside boards covering the buildings.

Mouse was being a good boy and listening. We were waiting for Annmarie to push the sheep past us. We were in place to keep them from circling around the barn lot instead of going out the gate and out onto the upper hillside. Once the sheep spotted Mouse they turned and went out the gate, without him they would have just ran right by me.

I always wear a hat when I am outside but sitting on the tractor can make for a dusty experience. I don’t like the dust masks so don’t use them much. It seems like every time I look at myself I have less hair on top of my head! I am not sure why my mother says I need a haircut every 2-3 weeks. It may be time for a beard trim though… I asked Annmarie if I would look younger if my beard was all brown. She told me to just dye it. I cannot bring myself to do it. I would rather have custom done coffee beans before spending a dime on personal appearance grooming things. I could get a free haircut every 2-3 weeks and still manage to hold off 2-3 months before getting one. I guess I am just not very stylish. I asked the puppy his opinion and he didn’t care one way or another. So I guess I will keep it this way.

Internet dreams do come true

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Last week a five year dream came true, we now have actual high speed internet! On Monday they hooked up our unlimited fiberoptic cable driven internet. Our double modem wireless network is running at 50MBS. Our TV and computer are hardwired directly into the modems and running at 700MBS+. I was able to upload pictures for the blog in under three seconds. If it was possible before it would take 5-10 minutes and it was glorious.

We were able to watch TV and did not have to go around the house and put all our devices into airplane mode. I did not even realize that when you surf the Netflix choices that the movies actually play a small preview, at our house these were always static and never moved. The picture is super clear and not pixelated, this takes TV watching to a whole new level for me.

We got our first green egg from the baby chickens late last week. I fully expect more green eggs to show up now. The eggs will be smaller for about a month before they become normal sized. We need more eggs so they can start paying their way. The last of our hay from the upper hay field was brought down to the house. We now have 24 bales to feed this winter. Next year we will have only alfalfa that we will have bailed. We went on vacation to visit friends on the coast. Sarah watched our house over the weekend. She called one night because the dogs were trying to tear out of their kennels. We told her to let them loose out into the yard to get whatever it was that was upsetting them. They tore out into the yard and eventually came back to the house. The pup slept on the foot of her bed and our older dog slept across the doorway. We didn’t figure she would have many problems with them around.

Field prep area

Steve Hardin3 Comments

I was unable to get out and work on the farm on Friday as I ended up covering at work but I had high hopes for Saturday! The bull corral is usable, so in Steve speak this means I am about 90% complete and have moved onto a new project. I still need to put up four rails, attach about 8 upright sandwich boards to get the woven wire locked into place on the wooden boards and I need to put away a few more tools. I also need to move all the lumber out of weather and into the barn. That moving job is going to be a bigger deal. I may end up moving most of the lumber to the old chicken coop, so functionally done.

I need to get the two upper fields ready for alfalfa which means knocking down weeds again. I have the new disc set I just needed tot get it working. I figured this would be an easy endeavor on a Saturday morning. It took me almost two hours to get the discs working correctly. There is no instruction manual and the seller was in and out in under 10 minutes after he delivered them. There is a handle missing that controls a release arm to let tension off of the locking mechanism to get the back set of discs to swing out. I tried pushing on the discs. I tried backing up and jerking them forward to get them loose. I had to use an old dog leash to hold the arm locking mechanism open. I figured that part out early. After hooking onto the back set of discs with a chain and pulling and jerking from various angles I gave it some more attention and started to figure out every single little mechanism and discovered the locking arm was missing its handle but I could turn the pipe manually. Once I had that disengaged I got the arm to pop loose with WD40 and more tractor manipulation. Then I had to drag it around in circles to figure out how to adjust it and where it needed to be to get me maximum effect without bogging down the tractor. I also had to gas up the tractor and blow out the radiator so dirt and weeds didn’t cause me to overheat her.

So two hours later I was able to start discing the upper prime field. This is very monotonous. Around and around and around you go. It is a must that you wear your seatbelt as tight as you can get it across your thighs. The tractor is constantly jumping around due to ruts and bumps and dirt clots and it starts to wear on your back and shoulders. After 8 hours with a seatbelt my back was starting to holler at me for doing it so long.

I refused to come in for lunch and just kept after it. There are deer absolutely every where in the upper fields and harvested wheat field. There must be at least 50 living on the property now. The amazing part is even with no rain and 100+ degree temperatures I was able to find dark brown moist soil in several areas of the field. This is very good news for our dryland alfalfa experiment we are doing next year.

My chickens hate the heat and are only laying 3-4 eggs a day now. The babies have not started to lay yet with any consistency.

My practice area below, I am going to toss out some dryland grass seed and hope it takes in the spring. The big win was I managed to even out the small area. It had a bunch of different holes and has been needing some attention.

We have killed one badger so far and no coyotes.

Last of purchased hay

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Saturday was a good day. I had Bubba helping me and we went and picked up the last load of purchased hay first thing. I was a about 30 minutes late picking him up and just told his mother I was on farmer time! This is a real thing! Serious! There are times you just need to get a job done and are sure it will only take another 15 minutes to complete so you tell the wife you are headed in. 90 minutes later, two phone calls and you only give up to come inside because it is getting dark. I would like to say this doesn’t happen very often but that would be a lie. I can easily get sucked into something and just want to get it done! It is immaterial that the project will take three weeks to complete. I have set a goal for work to be completed at this time and must finish.

So Bubba and I hand loaded the last 2.5 tons onto the trailer and came home and unloaded it into the barn. It was a lot easier to put onto the trailer than it was to stack it up on top of the hay pile. The easy portion of unloading is the bottom three levels of bales, after that it is all work. Hay elevator next year! As I was explaining to Bubba how next year we would be storing round bales it occurred to me that I need to put some rails on the inside of the barn so the bales don’t push on the siding and I may even need to put a cable tightener at the top of the barn to keep it from spreading out from the pressure of all that hay. One more thing to do in the Spring of next year. This came to me as an epiphany while waving my hands in the air and talking. This is good, I can plan ahead and have things ready.

After we stacked it all Bubba took a lunch. I drank water and thought about the next task we were going to do. In all reality, I was resting in the shade, but saying you are planning sounds better. You cannot let them sense weakness, teenagers will exploit it.

Before I could show Bubba how to pick up rocks we needed to empty out the rest of the tractor bucket. We set two more posts for the Bull enclosure and then I had him drive the mistress. I walked alongside giving him pointers. Most of the rocks are going to come from the back hillside. I only have about three buckets worth laying around the barn lot. So Bubba needs to know how to safely pick rocks from the hillside. There is a technique to this as the tractor is small and can easily get over balanced. He is to go straight up and back down the hillside once loaded. This allows you to keep the bucket low to the ground and drop it on the ground if tractor tires start lifting off the ground. He must always wear the seatbelt. He is good at this already. It is a must and something that I harp on everyone about. I wear it faithfully. He can loosen the rocks out of the ground with the front bucket but he has to hand load each and every rock. I don’t think he expected it. I suspect he thought he could scoop them up like gravel from the pile. So he hopped off the mistress and we started to load the bucket. Next thing I know he is screaming “snake!” He landed five feet away with a panicked expression on his face. I asked where and started to dig around in the grass to see it. I pointed out that he was getting rocks from a rocky hot hillside and he was going to find lots of snakes. If he doesn’t bother them, they won’t bother him. We got back to work. He managed to back down and got stuck in the dry creek bed. He had popped the mistress out of four wheel drive. When you have that much weight in the bucket you need four wheel drive and positrack to get over slippery surfaces. He was able to drop the rock load into the first rock crib and then I turned him loose. There are five rock cribs to fill currently and each one will take a minimum of two hours each.

After getting cleaned up Annmarie and I headed into town to get me new work boots. One of the local stores has a one day sale and clothing and shoes are 20% off so I try and buy foot wear on this day. I had spotted an add for an estate sale on facebook during Bubba’s lunch time and it was on the way to town so I asked the wife if she was interested in stopping. She was game, we like to do these but most of them are not true estate sales, just glorified yard sales. We like to yard sale but usually on days where we can visit 10+ sales in a single day. I had seen the signs for this sale on Friday while doing the supply run but had not stopped. Big mistake! It was a true liquidation of everything from a man over 90 years old. There was still a lot of stuff left and we went on day three. We found a few odds and ends but the real find was a DOG TAG MACHINE from World War 2! The thing is a beast and weighs around 250#. I just kept coming back to it and finally made the best offer of the day for it. A couple of people were holding out and hoping that no one would want it. I spotted one of these years ago and coveted it then but it was really expensive. They go for $500-1000 depending on how old they are. Most of the ones I have seen are not this old. Once I get it into the house and onto the breeze porch I will start cleaning it up. The thing is sold metal and just has surface rust. Its a light coating from being stored outside in a shed. I will get that cleaned off and lube the machine up with some WD-40 and I will be set! Annmarie asked me what I was going to do with it. I am gonna make tags! I have no idea what for but I am gonna make some. I hunted around and finally found blank tags for 18 cents a piece if I buy 1000. It seems like a nice round number. I figure it will take me 50-100 tags just to get it right and see how many lines I can put on the dog tag. I need to create a postcard with information on the machine and process so I can include it with any tags made. I am pretty stoked about this find! Now I just need two more hardy souls to help me unload it and carry it upstairs and onto the breezeporch. I have it wrapped in a tarp in the the back of our pickup now. I also need to print up the instruction manual.

As an added bonus I spotted this internal gear stacked over against some discarded stuff when we went back to pickup our Graphotype. I was gonna trade it with a couple of buddies. One does metal work and the other does woodwork custom tables. I figured that surely one could use this unique item. Well after talking to Annmarie on the way home we are going to use it! We have been talking about getting a custom metal sign for the farm and we can have someone cut us a pattern using their CNC machine and I could weld it after taking the class this fall. But today as I was staring at the picture it dawned on me that we could just have the CNC machine cut the shape to just barely under the circumference of the gear and I could just drill holes through it and bolt it to the ring! No welding necessary therefore no waiting needed. Annmarie just needs to design it and I need to get two metal posts from the scrap yard. Once I have those posts I can set them in concrete and we will be ready! I really like this idea. Annmarie can do all the design work and just have the CNC machine do its duty. I want to make it out of 1/4″ or 3/16″ plate steel, with the price of steel currently I will probably go for the 3/16″. If we use steel then I can create the rust patina on the new piece easily with a chemical spray.

I did get some new leather boots and some slip on leather shoes!