Well, it has been 4 days of filling silo with haylage, and we finally got the first field done! We usually get about a load to the acre, but we were almost getting 2. I have never driven so slow in my life! (or had so much trouble staying awake!) The next field is only half the size, but it shouldn’t even take a quarter of the time,(tomorrow should do it) and then the silo will be full! Will have to leave the last field for the baler, and pile up some bales next to the ones left over from last year. Maybe next year will be a drought and we will be happy to have extra? (we said that last year!)
Sunshine and Heat!
Looks like it will be a hot and sunny week. Maybe we will be convinced that summer is actually here! Started cutting hay for our silo this week, and trying to finish up any spraying before the corn and soybeans start to really jump up and grow. That “knee high by July” thing is going to be tight this year for the corn (usually it is a shoe in) but it will likely be close given the heat we are supposed to get in the next week. We’ll see!
Name that Kitten
Here we have pictures of all the kittens and their names, according to our resident kitten expert, Jenna.
The case of the mysterious un-unloading wagon
So we started haylage at Bob’s on Wed. It is not drying too fast, so it was a little bit wetter than we’d like. The first load broke a shearbolt on the old New Holland wagon. So we just didn’t load it to full for a few loads. But then I put an extra short row on, and it broke the shearbolt again, and again, and they couldn’t get the load off without Bob forking off the back half of the load first. Then it worked fine! They checked out everything and couldn’t find anything wrong! So then next day, we put half a load on it, no problem, full load next, and Bob was forking again! So now we are looking for divine intervention, ’cause we are kinda stumped. (and Bob is a little reluctant to fork off the rest of the loads?!)
Offical count – 10 Kittens
So now that the kittens are being fed on a regular basis, they are becoming a little more friendly. Jenna has managed to name them all.(And tell them all apart) so we now know there are 10 of them. There are a few who come and greet you right off, and then there are the ones that kind of wait to see if you brought anything good, (milk’s good!) and then there are still a couple who may or may not come out to sneak a drink. They can hide back inbetween the round bales, and then come out around the other side and sneak up on you from behind!
Dad’s Back
So Dad was back in the barn on Friday nite, and back to doing his normal chores by Sunday. The wrist is healing well, and he feels pretty good! Guess they did a good job!
Into the big city
Dad is off to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto today to get an angiogram. (dye in the arteries around the heart to look for constrictions) I think the whole getting there/getting home is a bigger deal than the procedure! Mom is going with them, and Dr. Deckert is meeting them there, so he’ll be in good hands.
More Kittens found
Looked up yesterday and saw a kitten hiking across the yard with a mother cat. I stopped the tractor and picked it up to take back into the barn, when it hissed at me. It is pretty funny to see this litte 1/4 pound kitten hissing away at the guy who is carrying it in one hand! Turns out this was not one of the 3 kittens that we have been checking on all along, but one of the other set. It looked almost identical!
Turns out all the kittens are now together in the same spot. There was 6 total when I put this one with them, but another 3 trickled in over the day. So there is now 9 total! They are drinking milk that we brought them.(they were pretty hungry) I’m thinking the mother cat wasn’t able to keep up nursing all 6 and that’s why they got hungry and started wandering. It’s amazing how far those little legs can take them!
So now Jenna feeds them after school, and Grandma feeds them in the morning.
I’m sure there will be more pictures to post soon. Maybe we will have a contest to see who can tell them all apart! Several are very similar!
Anybody need a kitten!!
Finally, that last field is planted
It took over a week to be able to get back to the last field of Soybeans and plant them. Still had to go around a small pond on one side of the field, but the rest was in good shape.
Now I’ve got to get a bit of spraying done before I get the harvester out so we can start haylage the first of the week!
Van hijinks
Our old van is still useful to have around, especially when the car goes in for oil change etc. Last nite when we came to a stop sign, all of a sudden the dash lights kind of went dim. On closer inspection, the dash lights still worked, just dimmer, however, the radio was blank, the digital odometer was off, the ABS light was on, as was the air bag light. The windshield wipers didn’t work, and the fan didn’t either. The signals, and headlights wouldn’t come on, but the daytime running lights were on. Needless to say, we drove straight home. (luckily it seemed to drive fine!) When we shut off the engine and removed the key, nothing changed! The engine was off, but the running lights and dash lights were still on, and the chime was “dinging” to let me know the key was still in (it wasn’t)
At this point I disconnected the battery!
The next morning we boosted it, at let it charge for a little bit, and everything worked as usual. But since Karen didn’t want to drive to work and have it die when she got there, I drove her. Sure enough, on the way there, everything went screwy again one by one. I made it home in the rain with no wipers! Hopefully it is something simple like the generator or something.
Have to see if we can get it to the garage in one piece.