Catching Up- Wednesday to Sunday

Wednesday-We had a day of unexpected rain.  Not enough to set us back very much but enough that it would have made the soils sticky and plugged up the grain drill.  The guy who bought our plow came so there was loading of that along with plenty of conversation.  Bruce got the front tie rod back on the tractor so it was again ready to go when the weather cooperated.  All of the animals got fed or were moved on pasture so their feed needs were taken care of for Thursday.  Jim arrived before bedtime so now we have 3 guests/helpers!

Thursday-the day of no farming.  I guess thats a matter of speaking when you have dairy cows.  Bruce had the morning feed in the mixer the night before so the morning farming took exactly 3 hours from walking out of the house and back in.  Bruce's grandma died last fall at the age of 99 and it was the day for her estate auction.  The evening chores were about 3.5 hours with the mixing of feed.  While we were gone Ed dug all of our seeding (alfalfa) ground with the field cultivator since it had already been chisel plowed in fall. That evening Jen, Jim's girlfriend joined us for the weekend.  Total of 4 guests/helpers!!

Friday was nothing short of crazy!  We had company coming for dinner to visit our company already here  and there was rain in the forecast for days coming up.   Bruce and Jim got the dual wheels on the tractor we use to plant with and they hooked up the grain drill and packer and filled the planter with alfalfa and also the peas and triticale mix.  By 11:30 the drill was ready to go so Jim went digging so Ed could eat dinner.  Bruce went out with the drill and made one round on each of the newly marked strips so Ed would know where the edges were.  When Ed got done eating he started planting. Bruce and Jim came home to eat.  When they got done eating it was time to fill the drill again and then Bruce continued field cultivating. Our first round of company was here so Jim took the time to catch one of the baby goats for the kids to see.  It is always fun to see the reactions of the kids to life on the farm. 

Noah thought he could hear better this way : )

 It was a short visit with our company but we needed to continue planting.  Jim spent that afternoon running seed and filling the planter as it needed it.  The seed all comes in bags so with both him and Ed filling it went faster and the equipment could keep moving.  Supper time was basically a repeat of dinner.  Bruce dug while Jim ate then Bruce planted and Jim dug while Ed ate.   When Jim stopped for supper we had another round of company so once again he caught a goat kid for the kids to see.  Eventually Ed continued planting, Jim continued digging and Bruce fed and milked.  Our skid steer came back so Bruce hooked the bucket on that had haylage in it.  When he got to the mixer he went to dump it and the bucket fell off into the mixer!  They had delivered the skid steer with the bucket latches locked and in the chaos of everything going on Bruce hooked onto the bucket looked at the latches and assumed he had locked the bucket on.  We were lucky in the fact that Jim was home and runs skid steers at work all the time so they could easily work together and get it attached again with no extra damages done.  Whew!  About 10:30 Bruce got a call that they would run out of the peas and triticale mix so we switched to barley to finish planting.  Everyone left the field at midnight, feeling like we hit a home run with 42 acres planted and expecting rain by morning.

Field cultivator and tractor with duals to minimize soil compaction

Saturday-We woke up to a clear day with no rain.  I started mowing lawn.  The bags from the seed got gathered and burned.  Everyone on pasture moved to a new break.  We had a bit of rain in the early afternoon, too much for fieldwork but not enough to create problems. 

Sunday-We woke up again to no rain.  I finished mowing the lawn that I hadn't gotten done the day before.  Bruce hooked the tractor to the chisel plow to give Jason some field work experience.  We had him dig a strip for us to plant corn on so for this growing season we will refer to this strip as "Jason's field" . 

We dug plants for the kids to take with them and planted the plants we had dug at grandma's house.  We had more company to visit our company.  The guys cleaned out the grain drill since we are now done with it for the season.  We have found that the easiest way to do this is by just vacuming the left over seed out with a shop vac.  At milking time we had serious storm warnings with potential hail, high winds and tornado's.  Bruce went and got the cows home and they got their first rain storm bath, although this storm too blew through without much rain here.  North of us they got inches of rain, large hail etc so we feel very blessed.  Once the storm passed Jim and Jen headed home.  We had a crazy and busy week but we also had help in every direction!  We managed to get everyone entertained and fed along with planting and a new computer totally set up and ready to go.  I even have a selection of pictures to use, compliments to everyone trying out my new camera.