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The thread "Farming and First Frost October 2017" in Farming forum


Ah.......drab November. It is the only month I find truly depressing...........come to think, it is tied with January. Jan is cold, usually. November is drab and letting us know that the worst is yet to come. *sigh*............

The Spousal Unit is gone all day and into the evening helping with corn harvest for the neighbor. He's driving the catch cart and loading the semis when they get there. The 2nd combine is in for repairs as is one of the heads. The combine's problem was the unloading auger that wouldn't "stay put"........the corn head needs repair because the operator (NOT my DS#1, it was the other driver) ran into a stump. He wouldn't have run into the stump had he been following the rows like they were planted and not wandering willy-nilly over the field. I think they're hoping that it's all in working order today.

I start a milking job today till the 7th. I will be dead by the time my week is up. I have no help; would be nice if I had a little to scrape and haul bedding after I get done milking. Oh, well...........I'll just plug along and I eventually DO get it all done. 75 cows, 13 calves to feed, and the possibility of a fresh cow before they get back. This is the one with the "unconventional" milking times...3 am-3pm. It's the 3 am one that about kills me.

I still have Equity on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. It won't interfere too much today, but I told the gal I would probably be late on Monday as that is usually the day where we have more calves. She said it wasn't a problem. It will all work out and we will have campground fee $$ for next year. I'm afraid we're done for the year............haven't been RVing since mid-August. I am sad.

Glad to see there is no snow on the ground yet. My Minnesota brother said it was snowing in the southern part of the state the other night.

Ah.......drab November. It is the only month I find truly depressing...........come to think, it is tied with January. Jan is cold, usually. November is drab and letting us know that the worst is yet to come. *sigh*............

I'll agree ~ and everything between November and January! Always hated February up north as it was cold, dreary and the snow was dirty by then. Kristi ~ who is already looking forward to spring.

I am very glad I am no longer involved in any type of crop farming! I have enough equipment that breaks just dealing with animals. Of course there are advantages either way. Corn does not destroy fences and run loose through the neighborhood.

Everything is still green and summer-like here. 84 today. We did have one light frost the other night, but it didn't frost-bite the grass. The chickens, however, were puffed up twice normal size and all the lame and ancient pensioned horses were running around like idiots - their kind of weather at last! The cows are now too fat to frolic, but they had their new winter coats all fluffed up.

I took advantage of yesterday's rain to replace a few rotting fence posts - much easier digging. Next I ought to deal with the weeds in the vegetable garden ... sooner or later...

We are still adjusting to our move from zone 5 to zone 9....can't believe I can plant still.

We had some hard rain in October that turned half our acre into a moat - the previous owner "forgot" to mention that. There is a loquat tree in that area (in addition to oaks and Louisiana iris) that stood in water for a day but it seems ok. The grass there is weird looking too.

I had hoped to get a small flock of hens - some backyard chickens - since there's an old play house that would make a perfect coop but the high water extended to that area. I'll wait and see and maybe it was a one time event.

Sure miss our farmstead but temps there are in the 40's for daily highs and the there have been flurries. Suspect it may be a tough winter. High 70s here and rain....and humidity is back up

Tonight's milking will put me at the halfway point in the milking job. It actually hasn't been too bed, but tonight it will be wet cows. I HATE MILKING WET COWS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will decide tonight if I will let the big group of cows in the loafing shed; group 2 is in another shed and they wont' be too bad, unless some of them decide that the only place to lay down is out in the lot. Cows are SO dumb, some probably will.

One cow did freshen and I noticed this morning just as the calf was taking the last of the bottle that she is kind of scouring. So I suppose mid-morning I'll go back over and give her a bottle of electrolytes. You have to wait at least 2 hours after a milk feeding before giving the electrolyte.

I moved all 5 of our outside cats up to the greenhouse. 2 days ago I had to go and rescue the 2 kittens off of the road TWICE........I've spent $25.00 each for the 2 kittens and the mom's distemper shots and I don't need "pizza kitties". They seem to like their new digs; comes complete with cat beds of old pillows, old towels, and a genuine sheepskin car seat cover........all in baskets.

Sounds great for the cats!!

Soooo........at the milking job tonight..........got all the outside beasts fed that i needed to, got both groups of cows up and penned in their respective "holding areas". Ran in the first 12, milked them, opened the door to let them out and the 2nd bunch of 12 in..................ummmm..............there is ONE cow in the holding area..............the gate is open .............38 cows are loose.........in the yard, crapping in the feed in front of one of the cow sheds...........down by the heifer shed............in the machine shed noshing on the pile of ground feed, eating calf feed from a torn bag, and romping though a hay pile. I called the SU and said "I need help". DS#1 and his wife came too. Lucky she is only about 3 miles from home (the farm where I'm milking). Oh, and I almost forgot............there was a sheep out.............tried to get the damn stupid thing back in; opened the gate, the damn stupid sheep went in but 2 stupider ones ran out.................aieeeeee............Didn't take too long to get them back where they belonged. Enough excitement for one day.

You need to write a book about the funny things that can happen to a farmer, Anna!

I was not laughing.............

No, but you have to admit it makes a funny story!

It becomes funny after the fact usually. It makes a funny story and if there had been cameras present it would have made some great pictures!

Don't know how you have the energy to get this all done and deal with un co operative animals!!

The energy level is waning.............and I still have 2 full days after tonight. This morning "we" bedded calves in the hutches. Ungrateful little wretches.

I found a pleasant surprise yesterday. We were gone for 3 days earlier in the month and on our return my remaining 2 hens were gone. We'd had problems with a red tailed hawk picking them off one by one and I figured the hawk had simply finished them off. Yesterday, I went out to the coop to clean it all out and let it air out over the winter, turn off the automatic hen door, and wait until spring to start fresh. When I opened the nest box, lo and behold one of my hens was staring back at me! I then went into the coop itself and the other hen was up on the roost. I have no idea where they have been hiding out, and definitely have not seen them out in the chicken yard at all for at least 2 weeks. They still had water and feed, so I wasn't too terribly neglectful! As planned, I cleaned out the entire coop, freshened up their provisions and turned on their lights (I keep a bulb under the water so it doesn't freeze and a string of lights on timer inside the coop just to brighten it up a bit on our gray days). How strange was that... The only thing I can figure is they must have been huddled up somewhere in hiding, made a break for the coop, and have been stayed holed up in there. The hawk remains ever vigilant in a big leaf maple close by.

Deb! Maybe the hawk had them scared and hiding. I'm so glad they're fine. When we had them hawks and weasels got them all.

I've gone from 12 chicks down to 2 hens in 4 years. It was actually OK to lose these hens as we will likely be on an extended road trip sometime this winter and I thought it would just be easiest to start over again in the spring. But if these biddies are intent on living, I'll keep feeding them. They are just finishing up their moult and usually slow way down on eggs over winter. This is fine with us as we are gone for long periods so that is less 'chicken care' we have to arrange for. I do feel bad that they haven't had their daily scratch (chicken candy) but will start up again. I'm tossing it under their coop as they are pretty leery of venturing out into the chicken yard itself.

The two left are probably the smartest ones. They've learned from watching the others get picked off.

They are bosom buddies - I call them the sister wives because they jointly sat on a clutch of eggs a few summers ago and hatched/raised the 4 chicks as a team. Here's a photo when they were first hatching.

Aw that must have been so cute! I like that they raised the chicks together.

I've spent the better part of a couple days driving to CO and back to IL on I-80 (round trip in 3 days to pick up a dog). Lots of cornfields and cattle! I have a question, I noticed in some of the what I am assuming had been cornfields, as there was still some stubble visible in rows, there were big round bales, like the big round bales of hay, but it looked like corn stalks. What do they use that for? Feed? Bedding? Just curious, I'd never seen that before.

Deb