Farming is fun?
Almost 3 full days of full on farm work and I am wiped out. It's a good thing that I'm retired! I will take it easy today and lick my wounds. The worst of it is that I stabbed my left index finger making typing a challenge.
On Monday it was all about trying to keep the g d d m cows out of my field. It culminated in the evening with all of them pouring into my soft fresh pasture making a river of mud like lava as they went. I managed to get them into a field that has been grazed (by goats, though) so the footing was a little firmer, and called for help.
T showed up and we managed to get them to the gate, but not through it. Finally K and the boys came and with about another 20 minutes of pushing, they reluctantly left.
And I worked on the fence. at least getting it hot so I saw one of the bitches get her nose zapped.
On Tuesday K came to help me with the lambs. That all went well, 12 lambs banded and I gave a dinky black ewe to Kathy as it didn't look like her mom was giving enough milk for the twins she had.
(video on Vimeo)
Thw cows had stayed out all morning, but by the afternoon, when I arrived, just in time to see them once again streaming into my field. I had Abby with me, and it took us about 1/2 hour to finally get them back out. Then I faced the problem of leaving sentry watch keeping the cows out in order to work on my fence.
Poor Abby had run her little tail off working to get those fckrs out of the field, then she stood sentry on them while I worked. Those cows patrolled the fence line looking for a way in past Abby.
After working on that fence for hours, I still couldn't get it hot and could not figure out why. I called T to come and see if he could figure out, and bring a spare charger I had at home. Just as he arrived at sunset, I found the culprit; a section of fence was grounding the whole thing out. I pulled it free and the fence was hot!
2 days later, still no cows in the field.
Yesterday was a long long farmy long day. I had planned to go up to J's and help them trim feet; M set it all up and said he wanted to get 100 does done. That was a lot, as 5 does is a lot for me to do at once.
I got my chores done, seeing Snakely was thinking about kidding, hooked up the flatbed trailer and headed out, with a pounding headache in my right eye.
On my way up there, R finally called saying that he was going to get hay today, did I want to also? So after I was done at J's I would call him and go do that.
I called J ahead and asked for some Ibuprofen and a cup of coffee, which she had all ready for me. Fortunately,( after 3 days of it) my headache soon left.
We soon got set up in the barn; M snapped 4 does to the fence and J and I went along the line. As we finished a doe, we'd let her go and M would get another and snap her in place.
The shadow of the barn crept across the yard, I talked M into bringing a radio out and we trimmed to the oldies. After about 2 hours my blisters had blisters and I had to stop. I figure we got between 30 and 40 does done; that was pretty good.
Then M paid me in scrap metal, the real score being the old original line of headlocks for their dairy.
Heading back with my trailer load of booty, I called and told R I would meet him at the barn where the hay was. Then we proceeded to load almost 3 tons of hay into the 2 trucks. I was filthy dirty, tired, sweaty; I was a mess, and at that point, did I care?
Back to the barn and Snakely had had a beautiful huge set of twins; buck and doe.
My car battery was dead, jumped it and drove home.
What a day.
On Monday it was all about trying to keep the g d d m cows out of my field. It culminated in the evening with all of them pouring into my soft fresh pasture making a river of mud like lava as they went. I managed to get them into a field that has been grazed (by goats, though) so the footing was a little firmer, and called for help.
T showed up and we managed to get them to the gate, but not through it. Finally K and the boys came and with about another 20 minutes of pushing, they reluctantly left.
And I worked on the fence. at least getting it hot so I saw one of the bitches get her nose zapped.
On Tuesday K came to help me with the lambs. That all went well, 12 lambs banded and I gave a dinky black ewe to Kathy as it didn't look like her mom was giving enough milk for the twins she had.
(video on Vimeo)
Thw cows had stayed out all morning, but by the afternoon, when I arrived, just in time to see them once again streaming into my field. I had Abby with me, and it took us about 1/2 hour to finally get them back out. Then I faced the problem of leaving sentry watch keeping the cows out in order to work on my fence.
Poor Abby had run her little tail off working to get those fckrs out of the field, then she stood sentry on them while I worked. Those cows patrolled the fence line looking for a way in past Abby.
After working on that fence for hours, I still couldn't get it hot and could not figure out why. I called T to come and see if he could figure out, and bring a spare charger I had at home. Just as he arrived at sunset, I found the culprit; a section of fence was grounding the whole thing out. I pulled it free and the fence was hot!
2 days later, still no cows in the field.
Yesterday was a long long farmy long day. I had planned to go up to J's and help them trim feet; M set it all up and said he wanted to get 100 does done. That was a lot, as 5 does is a lot for me to do at once.
I got my chores done, seeing Snakely was thinking about kidding, hooked up the flatbed trailer and headed out, with a pounding headache in my right eye.
On my way up there, R finally called saying that he was going to get hay today, did I want to also? So after I was done at J's I would call him and go do that.
I called J ahead and asked for some Ibuprofen and a cup of coffee, which she had all ready for me. Fortunately,( after 3 days of it) my headache soon left.
We soon got set up in the barn; M snapped 4 does to the fence and J and I went along the line. As we finished a doe, we'd let her go and M would get another and snap her in place.
The shadow of the barn crept across the yard, I talked M into bringing a radio out and we trimmed to the oldies. After about 2 hours my blisters had blisters and I had to stop. I figure we got between 30 and 40 does done; that was pretty good.
Then M paid me in scrap metal, the real score being the old original line of headlocks for their dairy.
Heading back with my trailer load of booty, I called and told R I would meet him at the barn where the hay was. Then we proceeded to load almost 3 tons of hay into the 2 trucks. I was filthy dirty, tired, sweaty; I was a mess, and at that point, did I care?
Back to the barn and Snakely had had a beautiful huge set of twins; buck and doe.
My car battery was dead, jumped it and drove home.
What a day.
posted by sarah at 10:13 AM
1 Comments:
Least you get the hay.. we'vebeen calling daily and STILL not friggin' papers on that car!
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