Cows are sleeping in the barn nights now...they let us know when they are ready. Much easier to milk and feed, but the stable now must be cleaned more often. No new calves this week, but Neon Moon is on any day now status.
Still a few loads of hay out there, but the rain just keeps coming. If it rains two or three days every single week the fields are a morass and you can't drive in them. Would sure like to have the boss chop up the last of the sorghum too. What's left is too mature to make good feed, but it packs in nice as bedding. Can't get that either for the same reason.
Wood is being cut and collected. And a deal being made to have a man bring a bull dozer in to pull trees up out of the woods. A lot easier on the tractor, which was never made for that job. Alan is thinking of getting to work on the big dump truck and using that to haul wood...if he ever has time.
Bookkeeping goes on apace and I am sick of that I can tell you. Swore I would NEVER keep books. Now I have to enter stuff on two checkbooks and chart accounts and tear my hair. That is what I did all day yesterday. At least it is warm indoors.
Elvis is fattening up and looking like himself again. During his sojourn on the loose he lost about twelve pounds. I would say he has gained back nine or ten. He and Simon are not friends yet, which is interesting.... to put a happy spin on the situation.
And Nick, indoors for the winter, reminds me daily of why I like border collies. He is a grand old dog, and I would love him if he did nothing but hoover up all the scraps that fall.....but he does much more.
And there you have it...all the news that's fit to print.
Have a good one.
Oh, and here's a headline for you. Fonterra Hopes to Pay Dairy Farmers More to Cover Input Costs. Doesn't that sound grand?
Too bad they are talking about farmers in New Zealand.
I have been writing about it less, because it is a pretty discouraging refrain, but farms are going out at an awful rate. A big show herd that has been around about forever sold their cows and is selling the machinery this weekend. Not people that would quit if they could make a living, but.......
Book work, yuck! It sure is getting closer to that time of year! Have a good one!
ReplyDeleteI thought those were persimmons when I first glanced. I bet persimmons are all on the ground by now up north. Cows are lookin' for hay here!
ReplyDeleteLisa, I just hate it! And I have to work at it at least a couple of days a week.....arrggghhhh
ReplyDeletePaul, would you believe I have never seen a persimmon? I guess we are too far north. Our cows decided that they wanted to stay in the barn now a couple of days ago.
It sure has been a wet year, for you and for us. And WIND my heavens have we had the wind. AND I'm a person who like a nice breeze.
ReplyDeleteWe aren't doing corn yet. Another big storm heading our way...our worry now is hoping the corn doesn't mold.
What a year.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
You just had to go and remind me of how far behind my book are didn't you!
ReplyDeleteLinda, we were talking about your corn situation last night when we were setting up to milk. I so hope things dry down so you can get it in the best way possible. Opening day of deer here and I heard guns going off at three AM, danged outlaws anyhow.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I know. I'm sorry. I have to clean my house so my dear bookkeeper friend can come down and look over most of a year's worth of inexpert work...and it is so bad the dust bunnies are running around in broad daylight and there is about a half a ton of assorted bagged feed in the kitchen.,
That's a great picture.
ReplyDeleteLordy, I understand what you mean about doing books. TC, if something happens to my husband...shoot me.
Books, bills, paper work, taxes. Oh my.
Always I come away from your posts with awe at the way your life moves with the rhythms and hinges on the whims of mother nature.
It is gloriously perilous.
That's why you can write the way you do.
That's why we armchair city-dwelling, milk-swilling folks are more secure, but vastly more impoverished.
Cathy, thanks! When the boss and I went down to vote, the flowering crabapple trees in town were covered with amazing orange apples. He was kind enough to pull over and let me get out and shoot them.
ReplyDeleteAs to living with the seasons and the natural rhythms of things..it fits me. I feel so terrible uncomfortable locked up in a town. I have been there and done that and hated it a lot. Swore I would never do it again when I was about thirty, then was stuck in town for fifteen years. It is frustrating and hard sometimes to live so close to the real, but I wouldn't exchange for anything.....and, please, please, keep swilling that milk. We love our customers, near and far. lol