COWch Dog?

The puppy has been trying my patience lately.  His newest thing is jumping on the couch and snuggling in and getting comfy.  He's not supposed to be on the couch so I told M that maybe he misunderstood and thinks he's a "couch" dog instead of a "cow" dog.  He hasn't shown too much interest in the cows to this point, but he's been getting a little braver.  I have tried to explain to him that he owns those cows and will be the boss of them someday.

But I'm comfy here.....

Our harvest was delayed by rain again so M decided we needed to move the heifers.  R was busy hauling grain so it was just M and I and Junior.  The heifers are kind of like pets since they were bucket fed all winter.  They were all in a bunch so there wasn't much rounding up to do, and they are a bit hard to chase because they are like pets.  We let Junior out and once he figured out that he could bark and make them move he thought it was kind of fun.  His herding instincts were evident, but we need to work on his listening skills!  M has been a bit afraid that he wasn't going to have any interest, but I kept telling him that it's too early to expect much and dangerous to get him into a situation he can't handle.  He's feeling a bit better now, though, that maybe there's some hope.

Junior has been showing his "puppy-ness" lately.  First, he and Kobe (R's puppy, a border collie/lab mix) got into a mud hole.  I'm sure Kobe pushed him in since he's a bully and Junior definitely got the worst of it.  I couldn't see any white on him at all and then had to figure out how I was going to get him home like that.  Thank goodness they then found a clean waterhole to wash themselves off a bit.  I still had to give two puppies baths when I got them home.

A Muddy Mess!!

A few days later M and R were putting a new propane tank at our house and Kobe and Junior were outside playing and found the sewer outlet.  Again, Junior got the worst of it.  Bath #2 for the week.  Today I was so happy that he was playing well by himself outside.....until he came to the house after finding the sewer outlet again.  Bath #3 for the week. 

Kobe and Junior........trouble times two

We need harvest to be over so he can start going with M and doing fun things outside.  It'll be good for him.....and good for me!

Harvest Update

I was pressed into service on the grain cart  last week.  We were at as place we call the hell hole because it's a long, rough trail for the trucks.  Its also some of our best land so there's usualy a lot of wheat to haul out of there.  We had three trucks and three drivers and just barely kept up.to the combines.  There was rain in the forecast for the weekend so the goal was to get finished and moved out of there on Friday, and we achieved our goal and moved about 4:00.  They cut a field near our house and then made a couple of short moves in the dark and cut late to get as much done as possible before the rain.

And rain it did!  We woke up rain Saturday morning and had two inches in two hours with a total through the weekend of 2.5 inches.  North of here there was up to 5 inches.  The coulee to our west looked like a river and our neighbor's yard looked like a lake.  The rain came so fast that there was water over roads.  We were so glad we got out of the hell hole.

We had four days off from cutting and started back up yesterday afternoon.  In the downtime the guys hauled a lot of grain to the elevator to make room in the air bins.  The aeration allows us to cut grain that is a little wetter.

Today seemed to be a day of bad decisions.  This morning M said that they'd be finishing up around Richland and moving up to our neighbor's.  I asked why he'd do that since it is hail damaged and not a good crop.  When I took lunch out everyone thought it was a bad plan to go cut that when we have good wheat still standing that we should cut first.  M had his mind made up so off we went up the hill.  I was giving C a ride back to get another truck when he got the call that J was stuck.  He made the bad decision to try to cross a coulee.  That didn't take long!  We went to get a tow rope while R unhooked the tractor from the grain cart.  After several unsuccessful attempts to pull the combine out from several different angles, J decided to go get the big tractor and another tow rope.  On the first try  all 12 tires on the tractor were spinning.  Ugly sight.  R moved over and tried again and finally had success.  There are quite the craters left behind.  By that time M had made a round with the other combine and determined it was too green, and we were moving out again.  That met with frustrated groans from the crew.  We only wasted a couple of hours and now are headed west again.  Hopefully, M and J will make better decisions from here on out.

Holy Lentils!

The guys finished up the lentils Friday afternoon (except for a wet patch that won't be ready for quite awhile) and we made the big move back home.  There's always a bit of a sigh of relief when they switch over to wheat since it's easier to cut, but M was wishing they had another thousand acres of lentils to cut the way they were running.  They averaged over 40 bushels/acre across the board.  The cool, damp July was just what they needed.

I hate to say very loudly that I have had a pretty easy harvest so far.  They must have been listening when I said I was retiring from my grain cart duties because I haven't been called into service yet.  Thank goodness R is back and taking over there.  There's a new tractor hooked up to the gran cart, and they keep tellimg me how nice it is.  I'm hard to impress, though, and would have to learn how to run it.  J had made a deal with a friend over the winter (I think there was a snowmobile involved) to help so we've had him in a truck this week. He has a lot of irons in the fire, though, so he might not be consistent help.  M woke up with the stomach flu on Friday so I was prepared to take my turn on the grain cart so R could run the combine.  M threw up and felt better so we headed to the field.  R got his 20 minutes in the combine, but that was it.  He told his girlfriend that his dad would rather poop himself in the combine than let someone else run it. He also said lentils aren't that fun to cut, so he wasn't too disappointed.

 I haven't even had to do lunches for the past four days.  My mother-in-law has been out staying in the camper and making lunch.  She wants to be involved which is great.  I missed the big move west since I was at my job that day.  K was wishing she had a picture of the pickup on the way home with five adults, one baby and three dogs.  The baby is 3 months old already and has had her first ride in the combine.  Never too young to start, I guess.  She's going to have to get used to it if she ever wants to see her daddy!

I'm not really feeling too guilty about my lack of participation so far.  I gave birth to and raised the work force so I think that should give me a pass for life.