Ok, so it's the third day of the month again and I'm just getting a new thread up. In my defense, I've been busy writing and shopping for groceries and, and,
ok I am just late yet again.

It is warm and cloudy, but not heavy. There were breaks of blue between the clouds earlier, now they are just clumped together.

Stan had to tear the milker pump apart yesterday morning so the tech guy could go and replace the bearings, all before milking of course. The last two days have pretty much been just those sort of days. Best forgotten as soon as possible.

Glad I do not have to deal with that on a daily basis anymore.

Yesterday was "one of those days" here: first an old sow somehow sprung the latch on her gate and wandered into the barnyard. The dogs saw her at the same time that I did, and a Great Dane latched onto her ear and would NOT let go. I had been trimming shrubs so I was thumping him on the head with my only tool - the clippers - but no results. Meanwhile the sow shrieked and dragged me and the dog all over the yard with other dogs rushing in for a bite from time to time. Finally it occurred to me to stuff the clippers in the dog's mouth and managed to break his grip. The belatedly wise sow toddled back home as I skied along behind dragged by the still ambitious dog. There was blood everywhere but somehow no one was really injured. Next I stuck my truck in the mud in the south pasture - I guess the summer's drought made me forget about mud. I couldn't pull it out with the little tractor as it was sitting on a jack waiting for the "Liquid Wrench" to do its job so that I could remove the flat tire for repair. The truck did wallow out with the help of about a half bag of lime and a good deal of strong language.
And finally, I hope, the other truck suddenly lost reverse gear...(?)

Today has been much better; I love my farm again.

I am going to go into the pie baking business..........my caramel/apple pie brought $400.00 at the scholarship auction last night. Our county pork producers president bought a mixed berry pie for $400.00. Tasted pretty good.

What a great fund-raiser!

There were a couple of pies that brought $700.00 But that was a bidding war, I think, because of WHO made the pie. There are some groups that will buy a certain person's pie, no matter what the cost. One group had to pay $1400.00 one year. LOL

Maybe you can become one of those "got-to-have" pie bakers.

Would be nice.

Anna, Happy Birthday. Did you know that you share your birthday with John Deere, the man?

- So near to fame...

Happy Birthday!

Well, that is a better one than sharing it with Gaggy Garth Brooks, which I also do. Yuck!!!!!

Thanks. Went to our local pizzaria, Vince's Pizza for lunch. No, not on the eating plan, but it IS my b'day.

Right, live it up!

News flash! My cows are developing a taste for oranges.

(You guessed it - not much interesting going on around here.)

It's February, I don't think there's much going on anywhere in the northern hemisphere, unless you buy into the whole political thing and there lies madness, so it all comes to the same thing.
You can buy citrus pulp as a topdressing for dairy animals. We used to add cotton seed, but not recently - more expensive that corn.

We used to feed cottonseed too. Amazing how they ate that, but I bet it made their mouths dry. LOL

My cows love cottonseed. It always makes me think of eating pillow stuffing or something. I have never heard of citrus pulp as a supplement; is it a dry powder or meal?

The last couple of years we fed it we were able to get it mixed in with the protein mix and mineral so it was just one feed supplement instead of several that SU had to mix in the TMR.

We've had a cold, wintery weekend. Yesterday, it was in the teens all day with blowing snow, but there is so little snow on the ground that people didn't seem to notice - the road was really busy all day. Stan said that we've averaged around 40 inches of snow in the county according to the paper, but the Findley Lake sign said they'd had 72 inches so far (probably around 78 or 80 now) and our snow fall is usually in line with theirs. The temperatures have been an average 6 degrees above normal, and I don't doubt that at all.

It is quiet this morning, except for the cardinal. She has been bashing both the diningroom windows and the one basement window. When I came out to go online, she backed off. There are blue jays here today. They only come when the weather is bad, though it is quite calm right now.

Doing chores (no milking) for a guy about 5 miles away; went there this morning to get the scoop on it. Will be Wed-Fri. He's going to the L'ville Farm Show.

Guy called last night about 10; they were on the way back, tho he didn't say how far from home they were. Wanted to know how things went, I told him fine, no problems.

DS#2 that works at a welding shop had to come down and get our engine hoist to lift this piece of motor innards. He said nothing at the welding shop would lift it (and I suppose it would have been overkill to get the 100 ton crane out???? LOL). He said just the innards weighed about 2000 pounds; the whole motor about 3500. It's used on some machine that bends metal. I-Beams???? He had to turn down the shaft, I guess. He said it's about 150 hp.