Heifers and Harvest

We are plugging along with harvest.  It's been kind of depressing since everything they've been cutting has been damaged by hail and/or laid over by wind.  They have finished with all the lentils and are cutting wheat now.  M and R swathed some of the wheat and baled it up to use for straw.

We've had a few weather delays during which we took time to do some cow stuff and some cleaning.  We had some painters coming to paint the fire-damaged grain bin.  There was a lot of fencing supplies stacked around it so all that needed to be moved.  R had taken our Polaris Ranger to Miles City to get it worked on so he missed out on all the fun.  It was a hot, humid day after some rain and it wore us out.  When we finished that project we decided we'd better move the heifers since we didn't know when we'd get another chance.  That actually went a lot more smoothly than we thought it might although the stupid things seem to have a hard time going through a gate once they get to one.

We also needed to move our two big bunches of cows and pull the bulls off.  It was super hot last week so we were up at 5 to try to beat the heat.  There is a small holding pen that can be accessed from two pastures.  The day before, M and R set up panels to make an alleyway to run the bulls up and into the trailer.  They had also brought my 4-wheeler up the day before so while M took me to get it R started rounding up the first group of cows.  They were headed toward the gate when we had a breakaway of about 6 pairs--all were cows we were pasturing for our neighbor.  M and I and Junior got them rounded up and back to the gate.  Before we started, M had told me that I needed to be inside the gate so that they didn't head up the coulee when they got through the gate.  However, I was there too late and just inside the gate there's a drop off so that I couldn't get around in front to head them off.  At least not without breaking my neck!  Finally R got there to help me and we got them turned before they got too far and sent them to the holding pen.  Junior helped get the breakaway pairs headed back in the right direction and then I didn't see him again.  I thought he was with M, but he wasn't.  I was concerned that he had gotten kicked and was hurt lying in the pasture somewhere, but no, he was laying under the pickup at the holding pen.  Sometimes he gets confused as to who he should listen to or help when M and I are both out riding so we wondered if he just gave up and found some shade.  I also wondered if he was not feeling well since he had thrown up a little before we headed out.

 

M and R sorting out the bulls

 The bulls in their pasture.  I had to take a photo because it's greener than it's been all summer.  

Odd for August.

They had the bulls sorted off in no time and the cows and calves kicked out in to the pasture by 7:30.  Their panel set up worked really well and R said it was almost too easy.  I was hoping that statement wouldn't come back to haunt him.  M took off with the trailer to haul the bulls to a different pasture and R and I and Junior went to round up the next bunch.  Junior was very helpful this time in getting the cows away from the water since he could go where we couldn't get to with the 4-wheelers.  He got a bit sidetracked, though, and had to lay in the water a few times.  We had that group of cows in by 8:30 and R headed home to get to the field while M and I took those bulls to their pasture.  We also had to move salt and mineral tubs and the oilers and check some gates.  He had been telling me about a rock formation that the neighbors carved their initials in when they were kids and we were finally in the area so he showed it to me.  The carvings look pretty good for being there for 85 years!

M loves being out on the prairie with his cows and I had the distinct impression that he was dragging his feet and didn't want to go back to his combine.  He finally did, though.

I don't mind working with our cows, but I get a little miffed when I have to chase someone else's.  One Saturday I had been out in the field all afternoon helping the guys get moved from one place to another.  I was hot and tired and wanted to have a shower, a glass of wine and put my feet up.  When I got close to home I noticed cows heading up the drive toward my yard.  I was not happy!  As soon as I got to the yard I started honking my horn and chasing them and they headed south.  Our neighbor is renting some of his pasture to a friend who had had a fire on some of his land and needed a place for his cows.  Our neighbor assured him that they would check the fence so he didn't have to worry about it.  Ha!  They never check their fences.  The neighbors were at a wedding so R got in touch with the owner and he came (from quite a distance) and got them back in just before dark.  I was happy that I had gotten home before dark and gotten them out of my yard!  M said he was hoping they would have broken a flower pot and gotten me really fired up.  I did leave the neighbor a voice mail as I was chasing cows down our wheat field in my Jeep.  Funny, he never did call me back.  I did notice that someone was up fencing the next morning, and I haven't see a strange cow near my place lately.

I don't seem to get much done around home these days between making lunches, hauling lunches, cleaning up from making lunches and being on call whenever someone needs a ride or a part or fuel.  (It's taken me three sessions to get this blog post done)  At least I don't have to be out there for hours and hours day after day.  I really don't know how they do it, especially on a year like this one where they are just cutting crap. 

I was really happy to have some time with the grandkids.  They make me smile every day.

 

 

And M is always happy to get a hug at the end of the day.

Holy Water!

Wow, a lot has happened since I blogged last.  My mom always lets me know when I've been slacking!

We completed our AI process which went really well, put bulls out, moved cows several times, and finished our haying.  There was not much hay to be had due to the cold spring and dry summer.  We didn't even cut a couple of our usual hay fields.  M kept telling me to plan a trip because haying wasn't going to last long, but I knew better.  The CRP opened up for emergency haying and R had a friend who bought a few cows and has no equipment to hay with so we did the haying for him for half the hay.  Win-win.  By the time that was finished it was time to think about harvest.

We had one good day of cutting peas, 400+ acres, on Sunday, and C started desiccating lentils.  The lentil plant will keep growing even as the seeds are dry and ready to harvest so they spray to kill the plant and dry it out to make it easier to cut and keep the moisture down.  They didn't get too carried away because of the weather forecast for rain on Monday and Tuesday.

I went to work on Monday and when I left work it felt so hot and sultry--one of those days when you can feel a storm coming.  I got groceries, went for my weekly visit with my granddaughter and made a stop to see the in-laws.  As I drove out of town heading west I noticed the sky was very ominous, enough that I was afraid of what I was driving into.  I tried to call R to see if he had put his pickup inside in case we had some hail but didn't get him so I ran into Richland to check.  J and Jared were still there so we put a few more vehicles inside along with our pontoon boat.  They were predicting 60 mph winds, and I didn't think the boat would do very well in that!  Then J had to hurry home to get some of his stuff put in.

M was home when I arrived and I suggested we put the Jeep in our shed and he moved one of our pickups behind some grain bins.  Then I moved all my flower pots into the house as the wind started to really howl.  We weren't in the house long before all hell broke loose and it started to rain....hard, like an inch and half in 20 minutes hard....and then the hail began to fall.  That's such a horrible sound to a farmer....and a farmer's wife.  We were eating supper and M couldn't finish because he was sick to his stomach.  There weren't too many hailstones really but they got bigger and bigger to about marble size or slightly larger.  Thankfully, the wind kind of quit when the hail was falling which probably saved our west windows.  We had a neighbor who lost theirs.  I'm so thankful I made it home before it hit.  Our neighbor to the north said she had an amphibious vehicle because the water was over the road when she was heading home.  The rain came so hard and so fast that we couldn't see a thing out our windows.

We continued to have rain through the night and most of the next day along with high winds.  We heard reports of trees uprooted and grain bins laid over.  M and I didn't leave the house the whole day.  Just before dark the skies cleared a bit, the winds let up, and we saw a bit of sunshine.

Yesterday was a day of damage assessment.  M was worried about the cows while C and J did crop assessment.  We have land spread out 35 miles from east to west and most of it was hit.  Only the acres near Opheim appear to be unscathed thus far.  Some is a total loss, and some we're not sure about yet.  Is it worth the expense of trying to combine it or maybe hay it?  Then there's the problem of getting it cleaned up and ready for next year if it's not worth running the combine over it.  Hail makes a mess of this year's crop and can impact the following year's crop.

Then the company we rent a combine from called to see if we still wanted it.  That was kind of hard call, too.  We've paid half of the fee already and they would maybe forgive the other half due to an act of God, but he decided to take it so it arrived today.  J had ordered three hopper bins that we may not need now, and they could be here any day and we have to take them.  Another expense we probably don't need right now.  M made a decision to take hail insurance on some of the better crop, but that's not the stuff that got hailed.  He's really feeling the weight of his decisions and wonders how many more years he has left in him.  When I hear him talking about a job at Walmart I know he's depressed!  I was proud of J this morning when we were all together and he said, "we have to make a plan, we can't just quit".  He's not usually a cheerleader, but he is a man of action.

We have our heifers in a pasture just to the north of our house so M went to check on them.  There's a coulee through the pasture and the fence was broken on the west end and there were four heifers out in the ditch.  Nice of them to wait until it was a nicer day to get out.  He got them in and made a temporary fix until he could get some more supplies, and we spent our day fencing.  That was just a small hole.  The big one was on the east end of the coulee.  Kade and I had some fun catching frogs while R and M were doing most of the work, and the dogs had fun in the water.

From there we went north to the pasture we need to move the heifers to next and found this...

M commented on how fun it is to see your wheat crop hung up in the fence.  Ugh!  Just over the hill it was washed out in another spot going the other way.  We just put this fence in a couple of summers ago but had to pull the posts out since most were bent one way or the other and pound in new ones and restring the wire.  We weren't done for the day, either.  There were a couple more spots although not as large.

This is what we found at R's.  Good thing we don't need to use those gates right now.

This is what my flower bed looked like on Monday....

And this is what it looked like on Tuesday.  So sad.

R had been working on the river crossings down by Richland in preparation for moving cows this week and was afraid his work would be undone.  We headed there this morning anticipating some work, but that all held up.  The river is high, but we were able to move the cows.

Every now and then we have one cow that won't cross the highway, and we had one of those today.  They see the white line and freak, I guess.  After several attempts to get her across to no avail M and R were able to get her into a corral at our neighbors.  R went to get the stock trailer and we loaded her and drove her across the highway and dropped her off again.  We won't have that option when we try to get them out of that pasture so I hope she gets over it.

J and his uncle-in-law (?) went to the combines this afternoon to see if they could cut some lentils; however, they made a round and barely got enough lentils to fill the moisture tester.....which is a cup or two.  So, they moved out of there to try another spot.  It's not going to be a fun harvest, but it looks like it could be a short one!  We'll keep our heads up and keep trucking along.  After all, this is "next year country".

Bulls and Eagles

We had been patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the vet to come test our bulls.  When he could finally come we were going to be in Billings for an Eagles concert (you know, the best band of all time).  So, we left the bull testing in R's capable hands.  Funny how he doesn't do much right when we're here (just seems that was because his dad is a control freak) but takes care of things pretty well when we're gone.  Also funny how he likes it when we're gone and he can do things his way.  He had our hired man to help him which was only fair since we're pasturing three of his bulls at the moment.  I'm always happy when I don't have to deal with bulls so I wasn't sad to miss it.  Everything went fine, but we did have one bull test bad.  It seems to never be the one you'd like to get rid of.  That kind of puts a kink in the plan of the bull turnout, but we'll figure it out.  Just hoping we don't have to buy another one.  Six new bulls this year but a crimp in the budget.  When R was looking for his share of the last calves we sold I had to remind him that we spent it on bulls.  Stupid things have the life--screw like crazy for a couple of months and then lay around and eat for ten.

Our trip to Billings was pretty quick--we were actually in town for exactly 24 hours.  That's usually enough and we can spend a lot of money in a short time.  We had to buy a lot of fencing stuff and a 4-wheeler ramp to replace that lost in the fire.  My priorities were a couple of wedding gifts, some plants and a bench for the patio that I finally finished.

The Eagles concert was awesome and they played for over 3 hours.  Not bad for a bunch of old guys.  We went to St. Paul, Minnesota to see them in 2003, but I'd have to say this concert was better.  They haven't lost a beat even though they've been at it for 40+ years.  The tour was called "The History of the Eagles", and they talked about some of their history (not the controversial parts or the break up).  I also got a running commentary from M on the history so I should be well informed now!

The day after we came home we branded the six new bulls and sent them back out to pasture until it's time for them to go to work.  M's sister was here visiting so she came out to help.  She owns a few cows so feels like she has to help out when she can.  It's always so fun to have her here.

We moved one group of cows and calves a couple of days ago.  It was a short move and it went smoothly other than a bunch of calves not mothering up and trying to go back to where they came from.  We had to chase them back several times before they found their mamas.  Then we had to bring the heifers home.  They are too domesticated so that makes it difficult to chase them, and they made it harder than it had to be. We got them home and had to run them through the chute to give them shots to start the artificial insemination process.  That was harder than it had to be, too, but we got it done.  Now we have a bunch of agitated females and should start breeding tonight. 

In the meantime, the guys are putting in a new fence on the far eastern edge of the new pasture we bought a couple of years ago.  It's rough country so it's been a challenge.  M comes home pretty tired and sore after building braces and pounding in hundreds of posts.  He's one of those crazy people that enjoy the challenge.  I'll get my turn when we have to start putting the wires up.  I've been able to work in my yard and plant my flower pots.  It's been so cold until the last week or two that I've had a hard time getting into summer mode. 

Off to check on those hormone-crazed heifers!

Moooving Day

Tis the season to be getting the cows to greener pastures.  We had a group of first-calf mamas and calves at my mom's and with my nephews wedding coming up and extra people around we thought it best to get them moved out to their summer pasture.  We hauled them out and that went pretty smoothly.  R would haul a load to the pasture while M and I sorted out another load.  There was another group near Richland that just had to move across the road.  The river runs through the pasture and washes out some fence every year so that required some fence repair first, but they are at home there now.

We had two groups at home, and I actually missed out on the initial moving of both of them.  The first group moved when we were ready to move them.  The second group decided on their own it was time to go and broke out a gate at the water corral.  The guys fought them for a couple of days, but then decided it wasn't worth the fight and sent them on their way east.  The bad thing was that they were then in adjacent pastures and we didn't want them to be in that situation for too long.  M was kind of dragging his feet because he wanted to get a generator backup for the solar well in the pasture they needed to go to, and our generator burned up in the fire.  R was really pushing to get them moved up there anyway so on a nice day we decided to do it.

Kade rode his little 4-wheeler up to the pasture to help us out.  What should have taken a half hour took all afternoon after we discovered some broken wires and calves on the opposite side of the fence as their mothers.  Since we weren't sure what was what and who was who we pushed a group into a holding pen between pastures and kicked them out into the new pasture by pairs, 100+ pairs so it took awhile.  Poor Kade at 11:00 was asking when was lunch.  I had to run home and get sorting paddles, etc. so I loaded up a cooler of drinks and grabbed some snacks (pretty slim pickings in that department at my house).  At least Kade wouldn't completely starve before we got him back home.

The sorting didn't go too bad except that the aging eyes made reading tags a bit of a challenge.  In the end, we had five cows without calves, not a bad percentage in my opinion.  We knew where the calf of one of those was, three found theirs on their own and we remembered that the last missing calf had died earlier.  Success!

Just as we were finishing up the wind came up, the clouds rolled in and it started to rain.  I thought Kade and I should head for home before it got nasty so we took off, he on his little 4-wheeler and me on mine.  We were just about to the gate when there was a big flash of lightning and a clap of thunder.  Scared the crap out of me and when I stopped to open the gate I saw that Kade was bawling as it scared him, too.  He said he didn't like thunder and I assured him that I didn't like it either.  I urged him on since it seemed a better idea to keep moving than to sit there in the rain.  M caught up with us when we were about halfway home and shortly after that the skies cleared and the rain stopped.  Kade and I went to the house for dry clothes and a sandwich, and he was feeling a lot better about life by the time R arrived at home.

Next on the agenda is our AI process and putting bulls out.  Then we can ignore them for a little while and hope they stay put.

Vacay in May? No Way!

Seeding progressed rapidly this year thanks to favorable weather, a second bigger drill and our hired man.  We had about a week left when M's sister messaged me about going to a race in Kansas.  She has a friend who has a camping space in the infield, and he was unable to go and wondered if she wanted to take it.  She was hesitant to even mention it, but M's mom and his brother both told her she should, that there was a chance we could go.  I'm thinking, it's May, there is no way.  We had about a week of seeding left, and I jokingly told her she had to clear it with J.  She did, M agreed, and then the scramble was on to get ready.  We really should have cleared it with R first, because he's the one that took on the extra duties.  Oops!  He agreed that his dad could use a break.

J was confident that they should finish by the weekend but said "Dad better get up in the mornings".  It meant a lot of early mornings and late nights for M trying to get as many acres covered as he could.

I had a busy week, too, with work on Monday.  We had bulls out that day.  R's girlfriend was home and got them back in and R came home to fix the fence.  Kade has tee-ball on Mondays so I wait for him and bring him home after work.  When I dropped him off his mom was telling me about the bulls being out and getting them back in.  I hadn't been home very long when R called and said the bulls were out again and could I go help get them in which I did.  At that time his girlfriend mentioned there was some smoldering old hay that had flared up again, and she had gotten it put out.

On Tuesday morning I went back to kindergarten for Grandparent's Day with Kade with M's mom.  He was so excited we were there. 

After that I ran around to do some errands and get Mother's Day gifts since I was going to miss Mother's Day at home.  R wanted me to go to his place and check on the spot that had flared up the night before so I did that.  He had spread it out some and put more water on it.

I just got back and was going to have some lunch when M called and said C went to spray and said our replacement heifers were out in the fields.  I ran up there with the Jeep and he and I tried to get them back in, but it wasn’t happening.  He needed a ride to Richland and had better things to do so I took him to town and grabbed a 4-wheeler on the way back and tried again.  M said if I put buckets with a little ground feed in the box of the Ranger they would follow me right in.  I thought that would be the case, too, but no!  They did come to see what I was doing and I eventually got them to a gate, but I opened it and not one would step through it.  They went in circles.  Even the dog couldn't believe that he couldn't get them to go.  I was so over it by then so I went home and arrived just before Kade got home from school.

I had a list of things to do and hadn't completed many.  Kade helped me do a little packing and was good with me not having time to play.  After he went home I ran to Richland to get our pickup that we had left at the station for service that morning.  I also needed to read meters and blow the dirt out of the back of the pickup.  I went to fuel it up and someone had left the nozzle on so when I turned on the pump it sprayed out all over the side of the pickup before I could get it shut off.  Lovely.  Really wanted to travel in a pickup smelling like diesel, and we had to load up the back with camping gear.

I went to see Sawyer and she was sick with a fever.  I rocked and cuddled her and wanted to stay but I had to get home to meet R and go get the heifers in.  Third time was the charm.  Helped to have two people and to have them out of the boggy coulee.

I decided to spray down the pickup before it got dark and see if I could get some of the diesel off.  That helped quite a bit.  We had to haul C’s motorcycle to SD because he’s selling it so we wouldn't be able to go thru a car wash on the way.  Then I looked at the forecast for Kansas City and it showed a 70% chance of rain and severe thunderstorms with hail and tornadoes all weekend.  Great.  I was getting the feeling that we shouldn’t be going.

M called just before dark and said he wasn't going to go too late so we could get all packed up.  Then as he was going to quit the tractor went into its burn-off and you're not supposed to shut it off when it's doing that so he worked a half hour longer.  Then his service truck ran out of propane just as he was getting to Richland.  He managed to get it started again and limped it to the tank to refuel.  He finally got home about 10 and had to have a haircut since his last one was before we went to Daytona in February!  So after that and packing and something to eat we got to bed about 12:30 and were up at 5 am to head out.  We had to go to the snowmobile trailer to find folding chairs and then stop and load C's motorcycle.

Finally we were on the road.  I didn't know that the plan was to pick his sister and husband up in Rapid City and head on the Sioux City that night until we got to their house.  It was raining while we unloaded the motorcycle and loaded up the camping supplies, and we ran into heavy rain in spots on the way to Sioux City.  We arrived there about 1:00 am.  We thought the motel bed was the best one we'd every slept on.  Not sure if it was that good or we were that tired.

Our brother-in-law had rented a motorhome for the weekend so once we arrived in Kansas City we had to go pick it up. He said the rental place was 16 miles from the track.  Well, by the time we got there, made numerous wrong turns and got to the track we'd put on about 80 miles!  We felt a bit out of place with our little rental motorhome, but it worked just fine for us.  We were all too tired to go find food elsewhere so we grilled some brauts and called it good.  There was cold beer so M and his sister were okay.  Her husband is a great cook, and we felt pretty special to have our own personal chef along.

Friday morning we were awakened by the sound of the Air Titans drying the racetrack for practice since there had been rain during the night...a first for us.  We watched the truck race that night from the top of the motorhome which was pretty cool.

Saturday morning M went out to the bathroom and came back and said there must have been a tornado in the campground, but it only struck around the party buses.  Someone had a really good time!  We were tired and in bed early and didn't hear a thing.  We tried out some Kansas City barbecue before the race which was pretty yummy.  M wasn't going to take a chance on not being able to see the race good so we had seats for the Saturday night Sprint Cup race.  Once again, I picked great seats, and the race was good except for the rain delay.  We got back to our camper about 1:00 am.

M getting into vacation mode

M and his sister on top of our camper ready for the truck race

Watching practice from the top of the camper

The chef, sister, and hubby

M's sister, me and M

We were still up fairly early on Sunday morning so we could pack up and get the camper back to the rental place by 11.  There had been so much rain during the weekend that we were happy to have the little motorhome that drove right out of our parking spot while the big, fancy coaches were waiting for a tow out of the mud.

It was a long drive home through rain and snow.  South Dakota had had a foot of snow and the interstate had been closed, but it was open again when we got there.  We did see a lot of vehicles in the ditch on the way and were fortunate to miss a tornado (or have it miss us).  We made it to Rapid City about 9 Sunday night.

The trip home was a bit slow as we were skidsteer shopping along the way.  We need to replace the one that burned up in our shop fire.

The boys finished up seeding on Saturday--in 29 days which is a record for us.  R worked hard to get his cow stuff done and then head to the field to seed.  He hauled some open cows and a couple of bulls to market and got our replacement heifers moved home so we can start them on the synchronization process.  On Sunday he had J and our hired man pour bulls.  We were surprised that J helped him.  His response was, "he kind of owed me".  It's nice to know they can work together and get things done without us.  Maybe there are more vacations in our future!

Despite our exhaustion, we had a great time.  M and his sister always have so much fun together.  Now we know what race camping is like and know what we need to do and bring next time.  Yes, hopefully, there will be a next time.  I have my doubts about getting to do it in May ever again.  This year was a bit exceptional.

Holy Smokes

Life on the farm got too exciting for us this week.  Tuesday morning I went to help R get a cow and calf into the barn.  The calf was small and slow, and we were afraid it wasn’t eating.  I tried to give it a bottle, but it couldn’t quite figure out how to suck so I was going to try again later.  When I left R was getting the net wrap out of the bale processor and was going to go fencing and then to his roller over by Glentana.

I got home just in time to run a lunch to J and had just gotten back home when M called and said “what’s wrong?” and I didn’t know what he was talking about.  He said J said there was a fire at the farm.  I ran out and saw thick black smoke over that way so I headed over.  R had been out fencing when our hired man called him and asked what was burning.  He didn’t know there was a fire and by the time he got home the shop was pretty much gone.  He was trying to get hoses hooked up, and I ran to get another hose off of a pump behind the house.  I couldn't get it off so I ran back to the front to handle the hose we had while R went to get the hose off the pump.  Our goal was to keep the fire out of the grass and trees between the shop and the house.  I'm trying to spray water but nothing was happening.  We had no water because there was no power at the house.  The fire melted the line between the quonset and the shop and shorted out the line to the house.  Talk about a helpless feeling.  I was worried about the fire getting to a propane tank and didn't think about the gas tank and diesel tanks beside the shop. We were trying to beat and stamp the fire out and keep it from getting in to the trees when R said he thought the gas tank was going to go and we should back up.  Soon there was an explosion and a huge fireball.  It was probably the most awesome and scary thing I've ever seen.  J was seeding by the highway near Glentana and must have seen it blow from there because he called and said “did the gas tank just blow up?”  A neighbor to the north was out checking his cows and saw it from his place, too, and headed our way.  We've heard that it was visible at Opheim....30 miles away!  At that point I thought the trees were going to be gone.  I didn't think about where the tank might have gone.  Later I noticed the front part of the tank near the trees, and we eventually found the major part of the tank up in the bull pasture.  Thank God it went west instead of east or it would probably have ended up in R living room or hitting us.   The fire trucks arrived shortly after and tried to get the diesel tanks cooled down.  The fire was in the grass heading up the hill to the north and I pretty much beat that all out by myself.  One of the diesel tanks coughed out some flames but didn't blow.

From the back side of the shop.  The skid steer was in the shop.

Diesel tanks and the stand where the gas tank used to be.

The front of the shop

It was just so weird how some stuff that was right in the path of the fire was fine.  It burnt the pile of net wrap and went all the way around the quonset and back to the shop.  There was a payloader sitting there with a burned area underneath and no damage to the payloader.  It melted a tire on our grader and damaged tires on our two stock trailers and burned out the wooden floor in one of them.   The skid steer was in the shop so it’s toast….literally.  There was lots of old hay that smoldered for awhile, but thank God there were no hay bales.  Usually we have a huge stack there.  It burned some posts but didn’t get to the big wood pile and the junk pile.  I think every day about how it really could have been so much worse.  We’re really lucky.  Thank goodness R was close to home and I wasn’t the only one there.  He should have been on his tractor 20 miles away but got hung up fencing.  Thankfully someone saw the smoke and made a call.  And thank God for the great neighbors and volunteer firefighters who came to help. 

We had to call the power company to get the power back on at the house.  That pump feeds the waterer for the cows also.  We had no power to the quonset and barn until someone could get that wired back up.  That was a bit of a problem since we still have heifers to calve, but nothing happened there during the night.

M wasn't there to fight the fire, and that's probably just as well.  It would have taken him 30 minutes just to get to a pickup with his tractor and and another 20 minutes to get home.  He didn't even go check the damage until the next day when he and C got the power back on.  J didn't make it to the fire either but called and gave us orders.  It was comforting that he was thinking more straight than we were while in the thick of things.

The next day was a bit too exciting, too.  I was exhausted and wanted to sleep in a bit but I had to make lunch for M, and he had some crop insurance stuff to look up that I had to find for him.  R was going to take M's service truck to him and I had to go bring him home.  So I quickly made a taco salad for J's and our hired man's lunches in case I wouldn’t have time later.  Good thing I did.

When I took R home it looked like there were cows in a pasture they weren’t supposed to be in so we grabbed the 4-wheeler and went to check.  Sure enough they had broken down a gate and went south.  There was a broken wire on the gate into another pasture that we don’t want them in yet so we had to fix that and run 3 cows out of there.  We were going to move them south in a couple of days so it wasn’t a big deal really.  R decided to feed and try to lure the rest so I went to give them a little nudge in the right direction.  The majority of them went, but we didn’t want to push them too hard so that they took off without their babies.  By the time we got done with that it was after 1:00 and I still had to make sandwiches and throw the lunches together.  J didn’t get his lunch until after 2, but it worked out because he needed me to help him move a truck.

I was just eating my lunch at 3 when J called and asked where the smoke was this time.  I panicked thinking something had started up at the farm again, but I looked out the window and couldn’t see anything so I told J I’d drive up the road and investigate and found some grass and brush on fire at the neighbor’s field.  When I got there they were just headed to their yard to get their water truck.  I talked to J again and he said R was coming with the fire truck that had been left at the farm in case something flared during the night.  R had just taken the fire truck back to town when J called him.  He had a sickening feeling also when he saw smoke again but quickly realized it wasn't at his place this time.  I was stomping fire out with my feet as much as I could until R got there.  He just about got stuck because the ground is really boggy.  The neighbors got back and promptly got their water truck stuck.  There was fire heading up the field so they made a round around it with their tractor to stop that.  Another fire truck was there shortly after and the fire worked itself to water so it wasn’t long before it was under control.  It was stupid of them to not have their water truck there if they were going to start a fire.

It’s funny because someone commented yesterday that they never show up to help with a fire.  There are two brothers and aren’t very neighborly except when they want to borrow something from us.  I beat out a lot of fire today and they watched me more than they helped.  I was a little fired up after I got home.  Not how I want to spend my afternoons.

So, now we are dealing with insurance adjusters and trying to determine what was lost.  M and I have started a list, and we're up to three pages so far including a lot of fencing supplies, generators, air compressors, chain saws, a welder, innumerable parts and tools.  Our hired man came back into the yard with our water truck and got stuck and that's when we realized all of our chains were in the shop.  Seems like every day we need something and realize it's gone.

We did not, however, lose anything that can't be replaced, and it could have been so much worse.  I just don't want that excitement ever again!