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I have a new (to me) combine this year, and we have worked through most of the learning curve on the couple hundred acres of small grains (wheat/barley) that we did in the summer, but I also got a new (to me) header for it, and we didn’t get it until the last field of grain.  It worked fine once we got the reel speed calibrated so that it speeds up and slows down as the combine does, but because we were cutting off the grain fairly high we didn’t get a chance to try out the auto-header height control.

So when I’m trying to set everything for soybeans, I was trying to get the auto-header height figured out, and I just couldn’t seem to make it do what it should.  Now my old combine head didn’t have that function, so I didn’t have any previous experience, but it seemed like everything should work, it just didn’t.

Rookie mistake.. there are plates you bolt on the bottom so that it doesn’t flex and flop around when you are doing  grain.   The dealership had put them on for me and I didn’t realize they needed to come off so the head would flex for following the ground closely for soybeans.  No flex, no movement for the auto-header to detect to tell it to move.

Hopefully, we will watch it work perfectly today!!

So the other day, Dad noticed a couple of furry shapes in our Barley hopper above the feed mill.  At first he thought they were rats, but they didn’t scurry at all.  Turns out we had 2 very small raccoons!  By the time I went to check them out later in the day, there was only one, and we have no idea what happened to it as it was gone the next day.  We did get some cute pics though.  I had no idea they were born with their eyes closed like cats…

It’s been 3 weeks since we got the first bit of planting done, and we haven’t had a single day that we could get out on the fields since.  I think that is a record, certainly in my memory. 

The sun is shining today, and yesterday it only spit a few times, so I will go try our driest field this afternoon.  Maybe it will actually stay sunny for more than one day, and we can actually plant something!

I had a nice lull in the lambing schedule (not planned, but I’ll take it)  that I was thinking would coincide perfectly with getting things planted,  but there are a bunch due in May, so we may end up doubly busy yet!

We’ve gotten quite a few multiples born out of the Rideau Arcott breed, but they are supposed to do that.  Our Dorset-Sulfolk crossbred ewes’ on the other hand are more likely to have nice big singles or twins.  So with most of them having lambed, and, on average, every other one having twins, we’ve been pretty happy with how they have done as well!

Last nite however, when Dad went back to check the barn after supper, he found one of them had triplets!  I honestly don’t think I’ve heard of that breed ever having more than twins!  And the bonus (on the cuteness factor) is that one of them is black.  The mother ewe is blackish, but the little guy is really black!

Not the best picture, but I took it on my phone, and it still show off some of their cuteness!

It’s Friday, one week since the first set of more-than-twins were born, and the multiples keep coming!?

We now have 4 sets of quadruplets, and 4 sets of triplets.  And so far we’ve only had one little guy who didn’t make it.

Makes you wonder what was in the water 145 days ago!?

Most mornings, when we are feeding the sheep, they all line up at the feeder to try and get the best feed.  This leaves an area completely big-mom free and apparently the little lambs think this makes a great opportunity to run!

Trying to catch them on film has been a bit of a challenge, as they always seem to stop when I pull out the camera, but I finally got a half decent shot of it.  (although it’s still better first hand!)

the running of the lambs video