Yesterday we attended a funeral for a lady who used to live just a few miles (through the hills) from us. We farmed their place for them for a few years until they sold it to our new friends and neighbors, John and Holly, and we still farm it for them. We've lost so many of the older folks in our neighborhood, and it's always sad to lose that history.
While at the luncheon afterward, I ran into an old friend from college. We lived across the hall from each other in the dorm when we were freshmen. She grew up between Scobey and Wolf Point and gets back once in awhile to visit her parents so I've seen her a few times in the years since college. Her brother is married to the daughter of the lady who had passed away. Yes, small world sometimes. Anyway, we had a good visit comparing our lives, discussing empty nesting and raising boys (she has 3). It is so fun to reconnect with someone from the past and find out about their life now. And, best of all, she told me I hadn't aged a bit. I think she lies....
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Feels Like Winter
So much for our unseasonably warm and dry winter. Yesterday we had all the makings of a winter day--cold temps, snow and wind. It was about -10 when we went to feed yesterday. I made sure I was bundled up and it wasn't so bad. Just my toes got a little cold. M had his weekly night out to play darts last night and it was -15 when he got home....but -24 when we got up this morning. Brrrrrrr!!!
He had forgotten to plug in his bale pickup when he got home last night ( I distracted him with taking the grand-dog out to potty) so plugged it in first thing this morning and let it warm up for an hour or so. And the temp warmed up to about -20 by the time we headed out. We worked quickly and could mostly stay in the pickup except to cut the net wrap so it wasn't so bad. Thankfully, there was no wind.
M hasn't left the house since we got back from feeding so I'm making him do some paperwork and clean out some files. I've got to take advantage whenever I can pin him down.
J and K picked a good time to be in the Bahamas. It's always more fun to be somewhere tropical when you know the weather is crappy at home. Their little Piper, a Morkie puppy, is staying with us while they are gone. Poor thing doesn't know what to do in the cold weather. She's shivering so hard when she goes outside that she can't even begin to think about peeing, and even Pete, who doesn't like being indoors that much, is thinking the house is a good place to hang out.
He had forgotten to plug in his bale pickup when he got home last night ( I distracted him with taking the grand-dog out to potty) so plugged it in first thing this morning and let it warm up for an hour or so. And the temp warmed up to about -20 by the time we headed out. We worked quickly and could mostly stay in the pickup except to cut the net wrap so it wasn't so bad. Thankfully, there was no wind.
M hasn't left the house since we got back from feeding so I'm making him do some paperwork and clean out some files. I've got to take advantage whenever I can pin him down.
J and K picked a good time to be in the Bahamas. It's always more fun to be somewhere tropical when you know the weather is crappy at home. Their little Piper, a Morkie puppy, is staying with us while they are gone. Poor thing doesn't know what to do in the cold weather. She's shivering so hard when she goes outside that she can't even begin to think about peeing, and even Pete, who doesn't like being indoors that much, is thinking the house is a good place to hang out.
 | |
| Pete and Piper soaking up some sun |
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Feeding Frenzy
M has been trying to convince me for weeks that I can do the feeding by myself. I was pretty sure I could but gave him my skeptical look. My theory has always been that it's never wise to know too much or be able to do too much or you're going to be stuck doing it forever. K has already picked up on that and our mantra is "play dumb". In my case, it never seems to work. It finally just gets to the point where M gives me no choice and throws me into the deep end. Probably a wise move on his part.
So, he informed me that I needed to feed while he took a load of grain to Wolf Point, came back to Richland, switched trucks, and headed to Glasgow to pick up a load of cows for a neighbor. Okay, so he was a lot busier than I was. He said I only needed to feed a couple of bales and we'd do the rest when he got back since he would need to start the tractor anyway to put a bale in the pen for our heifer calves. No problem.
Pete and I headed out and I grabbed up two big round bales with the bale pickup with no problem. I dropped the first one and rolled it out easily. Then I tried to take the second one off and it somehow got crooked and ended up almost sideways on the bed. I tried to grab it again but it was blocking the arm on one side and then the other side wouldn't catch it--and I tried multiple times. I tried to bounce across the frozen cow turds to maybe bounce it off or at least move it to a better position. No luck. I headed up a hill hoping it would roll off. Nope, that didn't work either. Then I thought that maybe if I picked up another bale it would push that one into position so off I went to the stack to grab another bale. That plan did not work either--the bale did not budge. Next plan, cut the wrap and see if it falls apart since that sometimes happens. Unsuccessful. I was beginning to think the only solution was to start the tractor and use it to pick the bale off the bed of the pickup, but I was determined that I wasn't going to leave it that way for M to find. So, I climbed on the bed and start throwing off chunks of hay. In the meantime, the cows were looking at me with that "what the hell?" look in their eyes, thinking they were never going to get fed. I would throw hay off and then move the pickup and throw more hay off. I was thinking I needed to go to the barn and get a pitchfork when I tried one more time to pick it up. I had moved enough hay that the arms were able to come down enough to finally pick it up and get it to the ground. Thank goodness, because by that time was I pooped.
I then had to take buckets of feed to the pens and feed the cats, my regular chores. By that time it had started to snow, and I was ready to go home. Of course, as I told M my predicament he just laughed and said, "that happens sometimes". But, he brought me Jerry's Special pizza from town as a reward so it's all good.
So, he informed me that I needed to feed while he took a load of grain to Wolf Point, came back to Richland, switched trucks, and headed to Glasgow to pick up a load of cows for a neighbor. Okay, so he was a lot busier than I was. He said I only needed to feed a couple of bales and we'd do the rest when he got back since he would need to start the tractor anyway to put a bale in the pen for our heifer calves. No problem.
Pete and I headed out and I grabbed up two big round bales with the bale pickup with no problem. I dropped the first one and rolled it out easily. Then I tried to take the second one off and it somehow got crooked and ended up almost sideways on the bed. I tried to grab it again but it was blocking the arm on one side and then the other side wouldn't catch it--and I tried multiple times. I tried to bounce across the frozen cow turds to maybe bounce it off or at least move it to a better position. No luck. I headed up a hill hoping it would roll off. Nope, that didn't work either. Then I thought that maybe if I picked up another bale it would push that one into position so off I went to the stack to grab another bale. That plan did not work either--the bale did not budge. Next plan, cut the wrap and see if it falls apart since that sometimes happens. Unsuccessful. I was beginning to think the only solution was to start the tractor and use it to pick the bale off the bed of the pickup, but I was determined that I wasn't going to leave it that way for M to find. So, I climbed on the bed and start throwing off chunks of hay. In the meantime, the cows were looking at me with that "what the hell?" look in their eyes, thinking they were never going to get fed. I would throw hay off and then move the pickup and throw more hay off. I was thinking I needed to go to the barn and get a pitchfork when I tried one more time to pick it up. I had moved enough hay that the arms were able to come down enough to finally pick it up and get it to the ground. Thank goodness, because by that time was I pooped.
I then had to take buckets of feed to the pens and feed the cats, my regular chores. By that time it had started to snow, and I was ready to go home. Of course, as I told M my predicament he just laughed and said, "that happens sometimes". But, he brought me Jerry's Special pizza from town as a reward so it's all good.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
This is January?!?
My mom informed me that I'd been slacking on my blogging so here I am again (she didn't really use those words, but I got the drift). Nothing terribly fun or exciting has been happening here. R has gone back to school (sad face) and we are just back to the grind. We have our routine of cow chores in the morning. M, J and C have been hauling grain but it's very hit and miss when the elevator can take it. They were closed for several weeks due to railroad track repairs, then the holidays, so the guys are trying to get as much hauled in as they can before they get shut down again while the elevator is loading a train.
M made a road trip to Conrad and back on Friday (700 miles roundtrip) to pick up a header he had bought months ago online. He thought he'd better go get it while the roads and weather were good. I think he spends too much time at online equipment sites because he and J also purchased a telehandler. I'll post pictures when that arrives. J has been wanting one for years and finally convinced his dad it would be a good thing.
All anyone can talk about around here is the unusual January weather. We had temps in the 40's several days and last week the temperature hit 50 degrees. It felt like spring, and we had water running like crazy. It cooled off a bit the next day, though. so now we have lots of ice. Not good for the cows...or me. I'm constantly afraid that I'm going to fall and bust my butt! Not sure that would help my back problem. Our relatives in Florida are wanting their weather back and think that they got ours. It was actually colder there than it was here last week.
We have a busy week ahead. They are still trying to haul grain and M has to take two cows to the butcher tomorrow--one is R's open heifer that we are selling to friends and one is a cow that was open last year, got a reprieve and was open again. You can imagine that she is nice and fat and should keep us in hamburger for quite awhile. Then on Tuesday we head to Billings for an appointment with my back doctor. Really hoping I won't have to have surgery again, but I'm betting that I will. C sees the doctor on Thursday to schedule surgery on his shoulder, and J and K head to the Bahamas for a two-week honeymoon. Sounds like it's going to be hard to get any work out of anyone for awhile.
M made a road trip to Conrad and back on Friday (700 miles roundtrip) to pick up a header he had bought months ago online. He thought he'd better go get it while the roads and weather were good. I think he spends too much time at online equipment sites because he and J also purchased a telehandler. I'll post pictures when that arrives. J has been wanting one for years and finally convinced his dad it would be a good thing.
All anyone can talk about around here is the unusual January weather. We had temps in the 40's several days and last week the temperature hit 50 degrees. It felt like spring, and we had water running like crazy. It cooled off a bit the next day, though. so now we have lots of ice. Not good for the cows...or me. I'm constantly afraid that I'm going to fall and bust my butt! Not sure that would help my back problem. Our relatives in Florida are wanting their weather back and think that they got ours. It was actually colder there than it was here last week.
 |
| Water running in January |
 |
| M's new trailer--he's never had a new one before so he deserved it |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)