8 July 2024

The Aftermath

According to the radar we were on the edge of the storm. It looked like the ‘bad stuff’ was to the north of us. Right over our pasture and the bigger wheat fields. I was worried sick about my cows. My husband was mourning the loss of his wheat fields. Looking good this year and almost read for harvest.

We couldn’t get over to look until the next day, the storm came at dusk and it as dark by the time it finished.

Then my husband was busy with other work and couldn’t come at all. The kids and I headed over. By the time we got to the end of our neighbors field of corn, right next door, we had gotten out of the hail. The south end of the field was destroyed. The north end was untouched. I knew there had been hail by the pasture. I had seen video of it. But maybe not as awful as we had feared?

After a strip undamaged I came to another swath where everything had been destroyed. It was like mother nature had raked her finger nails across the earth. Strips that hadn’t been touched mixed with lines of destruction.

The cows fell in the untouched part and a couple small wheat fields.

Then bad again at the big wheat field. How bad? It’s hard to say. The wheat is still standing but the hard brittle stems, so painfully close to being ready to harvest had let loose their fruit. The ground is scattered with wheat broken loose and lost. Only the yield at harvest will let us know just how much was lost.

We were lucky though. The corn is battered, but still there. It might be early enough in the season that it can regrow? The garden looks rough. But all in all is doing alright.

Just a little farther east of us the storm got even worse. We had gotten much larger hail here on the south end of the storm and it kept getting bigger as it went. Our neighbors a mile east has trees down. Another couple miles on friends had entire fields stripped bare. Nothing left of corn or beans. Gardens beat down to bare dirt. We got lucky and are thankful for it.

My husband mourns the hard work, heart and soul, and effort that went into the crops. The money lost. The death of the crop and the love that went into it.

I mourn our swimming pool. The kids and I had spent the whole day just a couple days before this getting the spot ready and the pool set up and filled. Waiting for it to warm, we hadn’t even swam in it. The ping pong sized hail hurled at the ground had poked hole all the way around the inflatable top. We tried filling it with pool noodles. A hopeless but slightly entertaining attempt at salvaging our beloved pool. But they did nothing to stop the water from spilling over the edges. I forced the kids out to try to swim in it this weekend, resulting in the pool emptying half the water.

Oh well. We’ll need to empty it anyway.

We’ll miss that pool, it’s been a good one.

 

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3 July 2024

Oh Hail

We had gotten lucky up until now. Bad storms everywhere around us, but we stayed between them. No rain, but no hail either.
Didn’t get so lucky this time. And we were towards the edge.
Hate to think what things are going to look like when we go out to look tomorrow. The pasture, my cows, was right in the middle of it.

 

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1 July 2024

Baling Ahead Of The Storm

We were rushing home from checking cows, trying to beat the storm. When we saw our neighbors out trying to get their hay in ahead of the storm. This is my version of their work.

 

No rain drops yet.The clouds were getting darker to the west. Starting our white, fluffy towers in the distance they changed to grey, then purple.  Having been able to hear the thunder for some time now, the lighting was starting to hit the ground not around us, but getting closer.

The hay lay in neat windrows across the field. A good cutting for a year that was starting to turn dry. It had made it through the wind of the last couple of days. Heavy enough not to get tossed in the breeze. Now the rain was coming. It was earlier than expected. Even great and terrible storms have routines. They blow up during the hot afternoons and strike towards evening. It was barely afternoon and here it was already.

The hot sun was blotted out by roiling dark purple clouds. The orange of it still shown through the other side in a few places, striped by lines of rain. The wind turned cool and crisp. Quickly turning arms that had been damp from sweat to arms spotted by goosebumps. The movement of the open tractor cooled her further. The breeze chased her with chaff as she raked along with it. Just because the chaff and dirt was no longer sticking to sweat didn’t make the job any less filthy.

If the rain would hold off a bit longer they could almost get the field finished. The could just almost get the hay in without it being rained on.

It was a delicate balance between saving the hay, having good food for the cows all winter, and the lightening that was touching down closer and closer. It was still just far enough away. She could surely get a few more rounds raked. He dad was behind her in a tractor, one with a cab lucky guy, baling the hay. Between tractor problems, wind, and storms, this cutting had been a battle to get in from the beginning. She would fight out this last round. That made her laugh a little to herself as she turned to make one more round around the field. The lighting was just far enough off, it wasn’t chasing her off her tractor seat yet. After all, there were no rain drops yet.

 

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3 October 2023

School Visitor

As far as I’m concerned there are nothing but advantages to a small rural school. Small classes, individual attention, and the focus on the agricultural community are great benefits to offer the children. A lot of the kids are from town but even those get their fair share of farming knowledge. Whether they want it or not.

I recently read that no matter how you raise your children, the environment you chose to raise them in will have a stronger effect on them than what you do. It made me happy to be raising ours where we are.

Yesterday my husband called, excited to tell me about a visitor to the school. Our local John Deere dealer, and by local I mean regional, had called the school asking if they could bring their educational trailer around and talk to the kids. By trailer I mean one pulled behind a large pickup, not an intro to a movie. The school had given permission to bring it that day and it was impressive. John Deere has their flaws and are down right evil when it comes to proprietary software and right to repair. But, even a stopped clock is right twice a day and they got this one right big time.

All the classes from fifth grade up got to go spend one class period outside on a beautiful fall day learning about STEM. The guy talked about GPS, how it works and why we use it with a GPS driven lawn mower that gave a lucky few rides around the lawn. Drones, again how and why, with each child getting to watch through the camera on the drone through a headset as it flew crazily about the school yard. Inside, the trailer was equipped with all sorts of gadgets and toys, all interactive for the kids to get their hands into and really see what was going on.

The guy talked about job opportunities and gave examples of the end results, uses, of the things they were learning in school.

That seeing reason for what they are being taught is such an important thing. I often look at my child’s homework and think how stupid and completely pointless the lessons are. I have never in my life had to know the difference between a line and a line segment. Much less how to name them. It seems so pointless fighting to make sure homework gets done when there is no conceivable point to the home work. Although I will remain convinced that 99.9 % of the people in the word will never need to know those things, it is great to have examples like this of cool, real world applications of so many of the things that seem so abstract and pointless to many of the children.

The thought of our die hard farmer son missing out on this broke my heart. I thought he would be devastated to hear about it afterwards and have missed out. So, we snuck him out of class and brought him to join in with one of the older classes as they went through. As usual with this school, the kids welcomed him. His friends int he much older group talked to him and hung out with him. He loved it as much as the older kids did. Maybe more. He did have to stay after school to make up the work he missed, but he said it was well worth it.

All lessons are learned more easily and quickly through the use of play. This great playday for the older kids made it fun and will stick with them longer than any boring classroom lecture.

A huge shout out to 21st Century equipment. Loved their educational trailer and sincerely hope the school will have them back again. Maybe for some more in depth lessons next time. The guy doing the talking said they had barely begun to scratch the surface of what could be offered.

Category: 8, Farming | LEAVE A COMMENT
2 October 2023

First Day Of October

I had things I wanted to get done. It’s October! Time to decorate everything with Pumpkins and corn. These things should have been done already.

We spent the first part of the weekend hauling hay and getting some posts set so they’ll be ready when I fix fence next spring. Today was going to be the day I cut corn stalks and covered our house.

But first there were a few things that needed done.

We forced the kids to come with. They had spent too much time sitting at the computers while their father and I worked at jobs that would have meant them sitting around if we had made them come with. Might as well let them have fun instead.

Today there were things they could participate in. First, to secure the cables on out internet tower. The wind over the last couple of years had been hard on the straps. We’d like to keep getting internet. So some preventive maintenance was called for. And the bucket of the payloader. The wind was blowing but was supposed to get worse. My husband wanted to get to it before that happened.

The four of us loaded up and went to work. Son and husband in the bucket. I got to drive. I gave our daughter my phone and told her to take pictures.

I lifted the boys up. Fortunately the ladder wasn’t needed. They strapped the cables back down securely. The pole was waving in the wind. Watching it sway back and forth made me happy they weren’t up in the bucket truck and that we didn’t wait until the wind got worse.

Then it was off to fix the pivot.

It was a major repair, or attempted repair. We all got to lend a hand. The kids climbed, the tower, and the 4wheelers. They laughed and played, and worked. Then they conspired. Grabbing him by the hood of his sweatshirt, I heard my sweet daughter tell her brother that “this would be a lot more enjoyable if you cooperate.” Then she whispered in his ear. They giggled, looked at us, and ran away. Apparently it had occurred to her that they could escape this dreaded work we were forcing on them if they left. Home was a little under a mile away.

They thought they were being devious. I thought they were being darling. They had done their work. No reason they couldn’t get the exercise that walking home would give them, then go do their own thing.

The work part is what they’ll remember. How they got to climb the pivot tower and ride up high in the bucket of the payloader. How we did things together. How they outsmarted us by running home.

It was a good day. Much better than decorating for Halloween even. Sometimes it’s the things you don’t plan on that are the best.

 

Category: 8, Farming, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
31 July 2023

Crop Dusting

They’re flying, spraying the corn today. Corn root worm beetles are eating the silks. The spraying isn’t done lightly or often. It’s expensive. I hate to see it. No one ‘wants’ to do it.
I also can’t stand to stay in the house while they’re flying.
It’s part terror. I grew up watching La Bamba. I’m always sure a plan is going to crash on my head, or my house. I have to know where they are, so I can run away.
And partially fascination. Those guys are crazy. He’s going UNDER the power lines! It’s amazing to watch that skill level. Going under or over, he misses the lines by a foot or two.
Sometimes they don’t miss. I have good reason to be afraid as they fly over our house.

 

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5 May 2023

Hail Like Snow

My dad has been here visiting for the last few days. It’s been great.

But I’m glad he left. Or at least glad he left when he did.

Mid afternoon clouds began to build. Thunder rumbled in the distance. It started sprinkling lightly. No big deal. I went out and played with horses. The laundry even finished drying.

Then the lightning started for real. We sat outside and watched. The lightening was coming to the ground, it looked like just over the hill. Then it started to rain for real. The kids blew bubbles and chased them in the rain. Giggling and wet. Then they shrieked with joy as a few hail stones pelted them.

The joy occasionally turned to pain as large stones hurt!

Eventually the fun wore out. It had been hailing for a long time. Some of the stones were big! And still it hailed. It would come in sheets, heavy and hard. Luckily there was no wind even though the clouds circled and swirled overhead. I stood and watched, texting friends, taking pictures. Fascinated by the storm. Then I realized my feet were getting wet. The water rushing down the road like a river was also filling our door step. Hail stones splashed in the river that was our road.

The sprayer kept fertilizing. He had been going all day. The fertilizer needed watered in anyway. In the beginning we hoped the rain would be enough to soak it in we now hoped wouldn’t wash it away. He came flying through the yard once. I thought he was giving up. But no. He was just moving on to the next field. A little hail wasn’t going to slow him down. Not until he finished the job.

Once the rain and hail stopped for a few minutes 8 and I went out to explore. We looked at the cows, then saw white hills in the distance. They were white, looked like they were covered in snow. We saw the water flooding through the corrals, coming down from the white hills in the distance. We drove over to see the snow. Needed 4wheel drive to get through the inches of hail covering the road. Stopped to look at the waterfall of water rushing over the road.

We had been lucky to miss the worst of the hail. As bad as it had been at home I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like so close but so much worse than we got. Our first real rain of the year and what a rain it was. Outside it’s still coming down. At least it isn’t hailing any more.

 

Category: Family, Farming | 1 Comment on Hail Like Snow
25 December 2022

Merry Christmas

We got the best present this morning. It was thirty five degrees when we went out to feed! Snow was melting on windshields and everything started right up without even being plugged in.

We did open our presents first. The cattle and horses have plenty of feed, they aren’t waiting anxiously. No reason to rush.

Bones, black kitty, is back outside where she belongs. Our daughter was holding her the other day and said a bug crawled off the cat onto her. She killed the bug, but there wont be very much cuddling until we can get to town for flea control!

Grey and white kitty quieted down amazingly through the snow. Once he discovered other kitties were getting fed, and the food wasn’t so bad he warmed right up. He is a strange kitty. I was trying to show him where I had left food. He attacked my hand, full on with claws and teeth. Then started violently rubbing against my arm. He may be crazy, but that’s my kind of crazy. Especially when I am fully dressed for winter and safe from his aggressive displays of affection.

The horses got carrots, my pet cows got cake. The rest of the cows got a cows favorite present, lots of food. We are cutting them back to normal rations, but it’s still exciting to get food.

We bought ourselves a flour mill for Christmas. I walked through the garden yesterday, looking for the sweetcorn we had left behind. We’ve always thought it would be fun to grind our sweet corn into corn meal. Two stalks still held ears of ornamental corn. The rest was picked bare. Deer had been sheltering behind the lilacs. Rabbit tracks covered the ground. Far better to feed the hungry animals with the remains of the garden. Who needed corn meal anyway. The sunflowers are picked clean too. Their heads barely above snow level. Now, barely into the bleak midwinter, what will they eat for the rest of the cold? I hate to have the easy pickings gone already.

Squirrels have been everywhere. We see them constantly on the snow drifts. They’re venturing far from the safety of the trees to gather kernels of corn left from the feeding of the cows. Pheasants are everywhere as always. A grouse wasn’t quick enough to evade the hawks. They feasted on her alongside our driveway. Hawks need to eat too. Bald eagles sit in the trees of the windbreak. The cats better be careful.

One calf died the first night of the blizzard.So far that seems to be the only loss. There were a couple of days we just could not get to the bulls to break the ice in their tank. They had feed and shelter. Just not water except for the snow. After the wind stopped and we could see enough to dig to them my husband took a chainsaw to the ice in their tank. He cut out thick blocks. Ten inches of solid ice in those two days. One bull is not going to be ok. He got frost bite in the most unfortunate of places. Poor guy. That would make two losses from the blizzard. Death isn’t the only way to lose cattle.

Christmas is good. Work still needs done. It is the work I want to be doing. The posts about thanking the farmer for not taking any days off, working on holidays and bad weather, always seem odd to me. What else would I want to do? This is the life we chose. This is what is good. Coming back in and sitting a bit is good to, but what would one do with a full day off anyway?

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23 December 2022

Icebox

Nothing would start this morning. I thought for sure with these tropical temperatures we have this morning everything would start right up 😉
The wind isn’t blowing! That makes everything seem so much nicer. I made the children come out to feed with us, with it being so nice out. They complained but then made a beeline for the big drifts and were off playing. So nice after days inside.
After getting the payloader started yesterday afternoon my husband put LOTS of hay out for the cows. They had plenty of hay left over this morning so feeding them more isn’t an emergency.
With the payloader started yesterday my husband also dug a path to the barn! It was tough digging. The wind was at it’s worst. I had brought the kids along, but up to that point being along with us had meant sitting in the suburban while we watched the gate while cows got fed and driving back and forth.
Now they were both given shovels and told where to dig. The wind whipped the powdery snow around behind the relative shelter of the barn. Their faces were quickly coated in ice. I sent them back to the house. With some worry they wouldn’t be able to find their way in the white out conditions.
They did find their way. I watched to make sure, then went back to digging.
With a path cleared I went for Popcorn. She lead easily from the shelter of the windbreak where they were standing. The wind was whipping around it too, coating them in powder. I had been going to go back for the others after I had her in, but they all followed happily. Even the extra calf we have acquired through this storm. One of my father in law’s who went wandering early in the blizzard. He hasn’t asked once to go back to his mom. Life must be pretty good with the milk cows.
With them all tucked into one side of the barn, so the body heat would be condensed, I went for the horses.
Walking out to the gate I called. Maybe going with the wind my voice would be able to be heard out there? No heads popped up so apparently not. Walking farther out into their pen I called again. This time ears appeared. I called again and Rusty started to come. I turned back towards the barn.
The horses came thundering up behind me and followed through the gate. Then Rusty passed me and went for the barn on his own. All the horses went in. The usual separations wouldn’t work, having to share it with the cows. Maybe if I tied Rusty the other two would be alright in there together. But Lady was scared to come in. She wanted to stay in the door. Helly was feeling spooky and hot, so was Rusty. They bounced around. Skittered across the cement floor. Chased each other and spooked. They were feeling good, and energetic. I got the call, my husband needed help. They were not going to be ok in the barn. I took off the halter I had briefly gotten on Rusty and they were gone, out the door.
I left the gate open so they could eat the cows alfalfa bale.
This morning when I let the cows out of the barn they looked warm, happy, and rested. The horses were reluctant to leave the alfalfa, but they are fat and were plenty warm. Back out to their grass bale they needed to go!
The big herd of cows was spread out in the warm weather and sunshine. Resting and melting. The steam was rising from their backs, black hide soaking up what warmth it could. Icicles dripped down their sides from where the bunch had been pressed close together and the combined body heat melted the snow. The two old girls I would have bet on losing through that were up and looking good.
The snow cover on their backs must itch. Ghost and Dandelion both begged for more and more scratches as I gave them brisk rub downs removing what I could.
The black kitty, Bones, and the big grey and white one have been enjoying being fed in the straw bales. Bones was sitting outside the barn door yowling for her breakfast. Grey and white kitty didn’t leave even as I came close enough to put feed in their hiding spot.
Most things seem to have come through nicely. We should hopefully be on the other side of this storm and things getting better!
Category: Cows, Family, Farming, Horses | LEAVE A COMMENT
22 December 2022

Not Fun Anymore

This officially isn’t fun anymore.
The sun is shining, but without warmth or kindness. It lights the sky so we can see, but no more than that.
The wind is howling, whipping up the powder dry snow that falls when it is too cold for real snow containing moisture. The snow bites at any exposed skin, leaving it just damp enough to freeze quickly under a layer of ice.
My pickup gave up yesterday. One vehicle would start this morning. It has been running ever since. Walking to and from the quanset trying to get things running and cattle fed would be a death march.
Actual temps right now are 17 below zero, farenheight. Did you know that 40 below is the same farenheight or celcious? The windchill is 45 below.
It’s a wonder any of the animals made the night. I have doubts about Popcorn having made it this far without her blanket. She had ice frozen to her chin like a goatee and was moving slow when I grained them this morning. The calves were shivering. Hunched against the cold.
The beef herd is huddled in their windbreak, hungry and waiting for us to feed them. The feed truck started, eventually. It died a couple of times but I made it to the bunks. Cows came running looking for their breakfast. They were willing to brave the wind for alfalfa and corn.
Then the truck died.
The guilt I felt feeling the hopeful eyes of the cows on me as I walked away. So close to getting them food, but so far.
The payloader wouldn’t even try. My husband is out there working on it now.
The children haven’t been out of pajamas for a couple of days now. I keep thinking I should make them get dressed. But why? They don’t need to go out into this. Nothing should have to.
My hindquarters are beginning to thaw. It’s time to get dressed again. My husband has been out there awhile. Need to make sure he hasn’t froze solid. I want to try to dig a path through one of the drifts so I can get things into the barn. it’s not warmer in there but maybe with all the milk cows and calved huddled together they could raise the temp a bit and get a break from the wind.
We are lucky. I’m not complaining. We have neighbors who have lots power. Others with family snowed in far from home, or at home. Or cows have hay left over from yesterday and are well sheltered. The horses have plenty of hay. We are all here together. Life is still good.
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