Happenings of Life on The Farm
Thunderstorm just blew through. Not much rain, but some pretty big hail stones.
Thankfully we are doing haylage, where a little rain doesn’t slow us down too much like it would if we were trying to make dry hay. It has rained a little bit every night this week! But the days are sunny and the silo is filling up!
It was just starting to rain as I finished up our last field. I don’t ever remember planting into June before! Glad we got it done though, ’cause Monday we start hay…
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…
I was just walking back to the yard the other day, when I saw these two cats perched on either side of the tractor. They were in identical poses, until I pulled out the phone to take a picture.. and then one moved!
Still, it was cute!
The first corn we planted is starting to poke through the ground. Now if only we could get our soybeans planted… a week and a half and we haven’t been able to do a thing in the fields…
The day started off with a cow in the feeder. By the time she was out, welding and new bolts were needed before chores could start. This left us a little late getting into the fields.
After lunch, I managed to get stuck in the one little wet spot in the whole field. I did, however, have a very nice visit with the retired couple who live there while I waited for Dad to come give me a pull.
Then, just a few rounds later, the front wheel of the tractor fell off! The bearing had gone, and I had to go pick the whole wheel up from behind the tractor. This time it was Kevin and Alex who came to give me a ride back to the dealership to get another bearing. (luckily they were still open!) The truck they gave me a ride in was running terrible as well, and we were wondering what was wrong. (and what else could go wrong..)
A quick look under the hood of the truck, and a disconnected spark plug wire was the simple answer. The day was finally looking up! With the truck running fine again, back down to the tractor I went, and the new bearing went on without any trouble.
Every once in a while you need a day that doesn’t go perfectly, just so you appreciate the ones that do. As long as it is just every once in a while!
So we did have to wait until Saturday to get some corn planted, one last shower Friday afternoon just to spite us.. but we’ve had nothing but sun since and it looks like a few more good days are yet to come!
I had some plot trials to plant today, and managed to get most of the next field in too.
Considering this is the 9th of May, the corn planting here is not really behind at all. Cousin Bob, on the other hand, is still planting barley, and with another 3 good days to go, that is what is really late this year. That and the manure we don’t have spread yet, and the fertilizer we haven’t been able to get on ahead of time…
I’m just glad we are finally getting some heat and sunshine!!
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!
A week ago, it was still frozen every nite, and muddy every day. The snow cover all winter means there was very little frost in the ground though, so when it warmed up, the fields dried up very quickly! Thursday saw cousin Bob get some barley planted over on his ‘gravel’ farm, which is always early to plant, and Friday stayed dry enough for us to get a few acres of spring wheat in ahead of the rain this weekend.
Definitely feels good to get out on the land! Especially early!
Death is rarely pretty, and living and growing up on a farm is a constant reminder that nothing lives forever, but that doesn’t mean death gets any easier to take.
We have been bottle feeding a little lamb for 3 weeks, and he has been doing great, ’till Sat. morning when he was bloated up and dead when we got to the barn. Bloat is actually a deadly concern when bottle feeding lambs, but we still didn’t really expect it from him when he was doing so well.
Then Sun. morning, I picked up one of our orange cats from the side of the road on the way to the barn. ‘Carmella’ as he was called, was always glad to see you, and will be missed..
Hopefully there won’t be to many more mornings like the last two any time soon!