When I got to the barn this morning Bruce happily announced "I have been a very busy boy this morning". He had the feed for the cows this morning in the mixer last night so he fed and then proceeded to call the Harvestore people to fix our unloader. They will not be able to come for a few days, and since corn is vital, Bruce then called the feed mill to deliver a ton of corn in bags for now. He also called to sell 6 fed steers, ordered the steel for the back of the chopper box and ordered fertilizer for corn planting since we use a small amount of starter. The feed mill delivery came just as we finished milking. We got the 2 smaller steers in the barn and started letting cows out. Just as we got done the trucker came for the steers. Bruce then made a new water tank for the cows (half a barrell with a float) and got the cows taken care of and ate breakfast. He barely got the last bite in and the fertilizer was here. Perfect timing! We really do think the cell phone is one of the newest and most helpful pieces of equipment we have acquired in a long time! One of the last calls for the day was to the local ag dealer to see what it would cost to have them put the augers in Ed's silo. With the weather being so uncooperative this spring everything is getting backed into a smaller time frame so we have to change some plans. Hiring someone to fix something that Bruce could do himself is not something Bruce does very easily. Besides the costs to have someone else do things, Bruce really does enjoy the challenges of building and fixing things so he is also giving up a bit of fun.
Ed spent the day field cultivating the rest of his corn ground and then continued on some of ours that had been chisel plowed last fall. Bruce had a few adjustments to make on the corn planter for no till and he started planting. Sometime in the afternoon the Harvestore people showed up after all and diagnosed the noise as bearings going out. They got the unloader taken apart as much as needed and are planning on returning with the needed parts to get us going again. Bruce used the corn out of gunny sacks to feed tonight by pushing the regular corn cart up to the landing where the sacks were. He then just had to drag them over and dump them and when the cart was full he just rolled it over to the auger and filled the mixer as usual. A bit more work than normal but it would be much worse. Tonight Joe came to help so he and I milked. Bruce planted corn. Ed cleaned the pen where the steers were. The new plan is to feed the 2, not quite big enough to sell, steers with the wheelbarrow in the barn and put the 16 that are still having their diet adjusted up to full finishing feed out where Bruce can use the feed cart. Eventually they will be in a group together. Tonight Bruce planted until dark when the monitor went off signaling a problem with the planter. A seed tube had plugged because 3 bolts had come loose and fell out of a bracket. He was lucky in the fact that the bracket fell and caught on the frame so new bolts and he is back to planting in the morning.
Tonight I suddenly have a very sick calf that seems to have pneumonia. Given the fact that the trucker this morning pointed out that last Tuesday he had frost on his roof and yesterday it was 92 it's surprising that more animals don't get sick.
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