Fog 'n' Deers

A cheerful dairy farmer contemplating his machinery

Liz and the BF hit a deer on the way home last night. Jumped right up out of the bushes and tall grass at the edge of the road up by the old dump. They heard from the police officer who answered their call that there have been a lot of them hit by cars up in that area lately.

Maybe the state should break out the state of the art mowers they bought with our tax bucks and mow the roadside so drivers have a chance to actually SEE the deer before they hit them...oh, wait, the state is broke and they want us to know it. Sorry I said anything.

Anyhow they are all right, thankfully, but the truck will need some fixing.

Haven't heard how the deer fared. There are rumors that there are a lot of them running hard into the road because certain folks are hunting them at night, in summer, in total disregard of the game laws. (Now who would ignore game laws, I wonder....). Could certainly be true, but I can't prove it so I won't come right out and say it.

Lots of break downs on the dairy farming front. Bent rod in the chopper. Something snarky with the hydraulics in the John Deere 4430. Case 930 coughed up its cookies yet again. If it ain't something it's another something I guess. Crop reporting appointment for the boss today. Not much to report yet. Just getting dry enough to plant now.

We have been fighting a persistent case of hardware in Liz's good show heifer, Gypsy. We figure it came in in some hay we bought as the Jersey right across from her had a case too. She recovered quickly though with a magnet and some pink pills and probiotics.

Poor Gypsy. I hope she will find her way through it. She is so good about being doctored on...she gets pills and shots and all the green chop she can eat.

Oh, and it is very foggy this morning, first time in a long time. Kinda pretty in a way.

Not content with breaking my headlight and crumpling my fender

The deer are now coming right into the driveway after my car (photos by Alan...out the living room window at three in the afternoon! The white spots are those infamous bullet holes.)

Crazy

Photo by Becky

Is not exactly my favorite song, but it describes my life quite well. Up in the morning and out to the barn. Pulsator malfunctioned on two of my cows. Made us late for the tanker. Dale is nice about it, but we try real hard to be done milking by eight so he doesn't have to wait. Didn't make it.

Did make Farm Side deadline. Wrote about car deer collisions (amazing huh). You might be shocked how much damage is done by them annually. I certainly was.

By the time that was done, Liz was back from taking Beck to school (her "day off", meaning she works here instead of there). We hurried off for a serious grocery shopping trip. Cupboards were bare and have been, but last week's power failure made it impossible to shop then. Came home and did some high speed house cleaning. (About as effective as dipping out the Atlantic with a spoon during mud season, but you have to try.)

Then back to school to pick up Beck. I really hustled as her class gets over at seven and I have yet to get the headlight that the deer broke fixed. On the way home we saw these (and many, many other) deer. It is no wonder I hit one. There must be hundreds of them out feeding all hours of the day now.

Also by Becky

Then we spotted these little ducks in a small roadside pond. They looked so unusual to me that I turned around (to heck with the headlights) and drove down to take hurried pictures out the car window (no pull offs). I believe they are buffleheads (mon@rch, am I right?). If so they are only the second ones I have ever seen.



Home to find the rest of the crew still milking and our wonderful and highly regarded feed rep visiting to tweak the ration. He brought pizza and some neat things, including little mugs made out of corn plastic, which I will photograph later when time permits. He is a great guy; helped Liz figure out how to best handle a total rearrangement of our feeding as we have run out of both haylage and corn silage and are feeding straight dry hay, grain, corn meal and soy bean meal. (She has been doing a good job with it btw.) By the time all was done it was well after eight. Alan had some pizza, but we saved the rest for breakfast (LOVE cold pizza for breakfast) as Liz had made marinated chicken breasts over rice with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms and her pasta salad with lots of raw vegetables, which is always great. I am reading a really good book by Faye Kellerman, but I didn't get through two pages before my eyes started closing on their own and I gave up for the night. I sure will be glad when the internship is done and Liz is back home all the time.

As close as the kid got