Friday, January 09, 2015
no more calamities today…except in the mornings excitement I neglected to pick up my phone….found myself standing in the barnyard holding Star Baby and Julie was an uncharacteristic fifteen minute overdue….put Star Baby back in the barn and went to find my phone….sure enough she had called earlier…so I turned the horses out and we rescheduled…Went to cutting wood….cut three nice trees and got some good wood….where I am cutting is near a fence and getting near the power line….I definitely want to control where the trees fall….I normally throw a line over a limb and pull a cable up in the tree and use the tractor to influence the fall….the trees I cut today the lowest limb was just outside my throwing range to get a line over a limb….took a good while to get that third one down….got it down where I wanted it but not yet cut up….supposed to be cold again tonight…was mid forties this afternoon but the wind was sharp and biting…..

Saturday, January 10, 2015
Why must every day have a mini tragedy? I can only assume it is so I will have some continued relevance….This morning while I was fixing my breakfast the little wood stove…the one we have had for 28 years….decided all of a sudden that it was required to fill the house with smoke….This is a catalytic stove and is supposed to be more environmentally friendly but you have to have a phd in smokeology to operate the damned thing…and it stops up the chimney much worse than a regular stove….Chimney cleaning at least once per year is mandatory….This year it had it twice as Marvin brushed it out when he lined the other chimney last month…..I suspect that a second new stove is in our future….we really like the new Ponderosa we got from Northern…well now to go out and tackle the day….
had a good day overall…nothing spectacular …grocery store and feed store and dump and the afternoon was fairly nice, but toward the end of the day it got cold again and I let my hands get cold and the left hand started aching like I had hit it with a sledge hammer….the only way I could sleep was with it wrapped in a heating pad on low….checked with Court and looked at cows…none of the marked AI cows seem to have been in heat since being put with Slim Shady…good sign…

Sunday, January 11, 2015
another cold one…outside thermometer showed 9 degrees…but winds are calm …..so far no calamities and it is supposed to get in the forties but cloudy this afternoon …..left hand still hurts but less than last night….going to let it warm up a little outside and then begin moving wood to the house….I have a lot of wood cut and am cutting for next year now….but I like to have several weeks worth right at the house in case of bad weather where I might have difficulty getting to the piles…did buy a new saw sharpening guide yesterday and a new file…had to break down and sharpen the new chain as it quit throwing flakes and started throwing dust…side note…this fall I have been using a new Stihl synthetic oil additive for the 2 cycle saw and I think it really helps saw performance and starting…bought another six pack of it yesterday….

Thursday, January 01, 2015 cut wood in the front…clearing a new strip…took down a maple nearly sixty feet tall..several smaller trees….cut til noon…lunch,,,replaced toilet seat,,,cleaned ashes from the new stove,,,moved and seeded behind chicken tractor,,,worked on new wheels for chicken tractor,,,low of 20…high 47 but raw and windy all day….when the goats were out they ate the leaves off of my azaleas at the stable….topped off the newest compost barrel as it had settled some,,, still not heating…mixed some high diversity seed with some late seed and a cup of red clover seed to use behind chicken tractor…idea,,,instead of mulch in the upper part of the tractor I am going to start using dry horse manure…

Friday, January 02, 2015 whew…I am whipped…put the last two heifers in with the herd and slim shady…of course when I opened the gate the whole damned herd came into the big back field…took me fifteen minutes to get them back out…then went back to cutting wood….took down two tall maples…no low limbs…real chore getting a cable on one of them to control the fall and keep it off of fences and power lines….finally got both down in the right place and dragged out and cut up…brought a load of older wood to the house…went to feed store in Montpelier…chores…supper…start a fire in the small stove that had let go out during the day…do this..bath and then crash in front of tv.

Saturday, January 03, 2015 do little day…still wore out from yesterday….went to grocery store and left 147 bucks plus change…big new years hunt going on so I had to keep the dogs close and in the house most of the day…did see a small doe come across Jacks front field and thru my front and into the cutover next to me….heard a shot over there a few minutes later…at least it was only one shot…not the usually assault at Normandy….put some bigger wheels on the back of the chicken tractor to make it a little easier to move….picked up a load of wood in the loader and parked it in the barn to keep dry….dreary day but did not rain much…tried putting the dry horse manure in the floor of the chicken roost…they had scratched and picked thru it a good bit more that the mulch….maybe need to put the mulch in the horse stalls first….before composting …..got my new pitchfork today…came in the mail….six tine short handle…had to order it as no stores stock them….easier to carry in the van or trailer and six tines pick cleaner….looks like a good quality tool….should see me thru…have an old five tine short handle but one tine is and has been badly bent for years….need to remember to ask Julie to heat and straighten it the next time she fires her forge….Star Baby limping…looks like an abscess brewing…cleaned and applied some hoof goo…

Sunday, January 04, 2015 Left hand is throbbing this morning…must have aggravated it with the contortions I was doing working on the chicken tractor….put together supper in the crock pot…at least the entree…barbecue chicken breasts…Marie will fix some mac and cheese and a salad…checked the cows AIed animals are still wearing chalk. Yvette and ASHOW are 22 days today…piddled around at the barn and dug out another old mineral barrel for a compost/planter….beautiful day…wind is blowing the clouds away and it is warm….only four weeks til ground hog day and then only six weeks til spring…looking thru seed catalogs and thinking about the garden….back to work tomorrow with the rush of things undone and now urgent…and the winter meeting season…at least we have the cover crop seed samples made up and labeled and ready to go to NRCS and the district samples in from Green Cover….I am still putting seed down behind the chicken tractor every time I move it….about a cup full of mostly mixed seed…sometimes just barley and a legume.

Sunday, August 24, 2014 picked up the young bull from Gasser’s….clean out trailer….put trailer back together for horse use… cut front yard… worm and fly pour on on the young bull back from Gassers….good news and bad news…the bad news is he showed his butt and wanted to rassle with me and tear up stuff…..good news is we have something now to put in the freezer…..going to grain him sixty days and make an appointment for him at Silver Ridge….bulls with bad attitudes should not show their ass to hungry people…..especially hungry people whose diet does not include any carbs…..meat dairy and veggie is what I live on now….I made a real good crock pot meat loaf today….Marie told me that one was eligible for a repeat….need to write down what I put in it….

As always…click on any photo to make it larger….click twice to make it big….use your browser back button to return to the blog….enjoy….

A few photo from around the farm this past weekend….

It was rainy the first part of the weekend and then hot and STICKY humid after the rain stopped….

Thursday evening when I got home my cow neighbor called and had an unexpected birth….having lost the last calf a few weeks ago to an unknown predator, as the cows are in an isolated field way back beyond my house: he was duly worried. We decided to get the cow and calf to my place for the night and he would move them the next day. All went well until the calf ducked into the summer cover crop strip that was six feet tall….We looked and looked….neighbor was concerned…finally I turned his mama cow and my three into the strip along with the goats….they eventually found the calf….

From the photos it does not look like the cover was six feet tall…but the photo was Saturday after they had been in there since Thursday night….this was the first time tht I had seen the goats out in the field with the cows….the goats had been intimidated by them previously….

Cows and goats in the summer cover crop

Of course my assistants kept a steady eye on all the goings on from their favorite spot under the cedar tree…

Dee Dee’s Favorite spot outside is under that cedar tree

Glad to see the goats finally with the cows

This field is broken up into five strips and all have the summer cover on them….well not any more…on Sunday I reseed this first strip with fall cover crops and moved the cows and goats to the next two strips down….then I bush hogged this strip….I broadcast and mowed three paddocks all together over the weekend…

Since I have a couple of my cows back home from the neighbors field….the heifer will calve in a month and the cow a month after her and the heifer calf is being developed for a brood cow….I have one other cow who is still with the neighbors herd…

Anyhow back when I just had a few cows I used to have neck chains on them and they were all halter broke…these are not halter broke….but I love the sound of the cow bells grazing….so I put chains on them and the cow bells and put some fly tags on the chains as I did a while back with the horses….still seems to be helping on the equines. The little donkey, Jonah, has learned how to flip his chain over one ear so that the fly tag lays on his forehead….I used to think it was accidental but now he does it so often that I am sure it is by design….

I love the bells

New Chains bells and fly tags

The Enforcer and The Watchdog

The Enforcer

THESE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN BY JIM TATE AT THE 7/9/2014 VFGC FORAGE EVENT IN RAPHINE VA.

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THE PHOTOS ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER AND I HAVE NOT HAD TIME TO CAPTION THEM YET.

Photos….click on any photo to see it larger….click a second time to see it really large….use your browers back button to return to the blog….

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chainer summer cover 2

mystery grass 1

mystery grass 2

mystery grass 3

mystery grass 4 with clip board

mystery grass in the shade of a holly tree

mystery grass in unimproved pasture

mystery grass spreads by rhizomes

some of the tobin herd

The Bull of the Woods

Tobin and his Cows

Tobin future pasture 1

Tobing future pasture 2

tobin pasture 1

Tobin Pasture 2

Tobins good pond

what is this legume?