Round baling hay

Friday 4/24/15

Friday had three main jobs: spreading fertilizer, spraying the wheat, and taking the bull out of the pasture.

First he went to the co-op to get the fertilizer spreader.  They spent some time getting the settings just right and hitching on.

Then we all went over to the barn where all the cattle were shut in the lot after eating their silage.  The bull was happy to follow a bucket with feed right into the trailer almost!  It went very smoothly!  The cows and calves were let out into the pasture, while the bull was taken to his stable in the barn until his job is needed again.

Once the bull was in his place it was time to spread fertilizer.  That got done about lunchtime and they got the sprayer ready to go with herbicide to kill the winter wheat that had been used as a cover crop to keep erosion at bay.

After the kids and I brought the guys a snack, grandpa and grandma took the kids to pick up recently cut firewood from a tree that had fallen over the fence.

You never know what will happen in a day on the farm you can have good plans but sometimes the unexpected happens!

Cattle moving day 4/23/15

The vet came out and did the vaccinations today.  After that it was time to haul the calves out of the barn and turn them loose in the pasture.

Just back up through the gate and they all go out frolicking and happy and bucking like a rodeo.

After the hauling it's time to put the gates back, and park everything.  Daddy had a helper to move that gate.

After the last years calves were moved it was time to move some of the cow/calf pairs to the next field with better grass. First we checked the fence, and then the guys walked up to the trailer where they open the gate.

The momma cows have been doing this for years -- going back-and-forth to the field -- and they know where to go.  It's  the baby calves that we have to watch!  But they are little enough that they wanted to stay right by momma the whole time.

Here they come!  We always have spotters on either side of the road to block traffic if necessary but this doesn't take more than two minutes hardly for them to come down the road - often we never see a vehicle the entire time from fence check, people set-up, cattle drive, and even by the time we have everything back in the barn lot.  Our road is a pretty quiet rural road unless the river is out then we get quite a bit of traffic.

Here they are enjoying the knee-high grass!

Wednesday

Tuesday

The cows are brought their silage breakfast in the wagons every day, until the grass is ready for the impact of all their hooves and grazing.

Is it just me or are there a couple of monkeys in that tree?

The nest from the post a couple days ago has two birds now.

Monday

Gathering data for the chick weight chart.    The production reds as a group were much calmer about being caught than the brown leghorns and even the australorps.

The coop with the custom door and window.  The chicks get fresh water twice a day, and 24/7 access to feed.

It rained and blew cold wind most of today.  But finally later in the evening the setting sun broke the clouds.  What a beautiful glow but it sure felt cold even so.

Sunday

The old timers used to say (so I've been told) that a large lilac bloom means a large corn harvest that year.  The bush is dripping with blossoms!

And I don't put a lot of stock in old sayings or luck....but I've been finding a lot of these lately as well!

Nighttime after the rain

I took these between 8:30 and 9pm.

Maybe they won't show up well on your screen but for me they look pretty neat.  Capture the mood of walking out to the barn and back quietly in the night.

Today

Before:

After:

The pasture fence was needing to be replaced, but with all the brushy growth and trees the best thing was to hire heavy equipment to clear the way to rebuild the fence.  It will make things go much smoother building fence.

Yesterday

Looking for tadpoles -there were so many!

Spring Beauties

The red buds have begun to bloom - but this one has a secret.

Can you see her?

One bird, one egg!  Yesterday I was told there were two eggs so maybe the other bird might still hatch!

How can you not smile back?

So I missed photographing the main work of the day:  spreading fertilizer on pastures and working on machinery prep.   But those activities were sandwiched in between feeding cattle morning and afternoon and checking for new calves.

Blogging

Well it looks like I'm caught up on my photo posting now!  Which is a great relief because we are now getting to a point in the year where there is going to be a lot of farm activity happening.

I'm going to try to post photos regularly each week, and while my personal goal is to post 3 farm photos each day I think some days will likely end up with more and some with no posts - because life happens!

Thanks for reading and following along on our days! 

The family pets on Monday

Sunday4/12/2015

This Easter lily was in the window at church that morning.

There's something nestled in the budding lilac bush.  Can you see it?

Now, can you see the tiny feather?

Friday, April 10, 2015

She only thought she was wild and free!

Do you like butter, do you?

More calves being born all the time.