Just Another Day In Paradise

Another beautiful day.  The weather forecasters missed in our favor for a change.  We started out our day with another calf in the pasture, and again, it was a bull.  That means our June calvings are done but probably not for long since our first July calf is due 7/4. 

We were able to chop again this afternoon.  I have done all the chopping for years and I like doing it.  I am glad "my" tractor is back and I was flying around the field at a whopping 4.5 mph.  LOL I was about half done with what we had down for today when I looked back and saw the chopper blowing green stuff straight out the back. Once again we have broken something, a fan drive shaft with an initial parts quote of $680.  Bruce says he welded that a couple years ago so I guess we were chopping on borrowed time. The only bright side is Bruce has had this chopper apart and has rebuilt nearly all of it so he knows it like an old jigsaw puzzle.  No shop rates to pay on this one.  Our life is so out of control this year that we can't even believe we are a participant.  We are beyond incredulous!  We called a neighbor who is done with his hay and his son would come and chop the 3-4 loads we had left to do after he got done with work.  Maybe we are contageous since his truck broke down a half mile from here.  Bruce pulled his truck to our lawn and he took our truck home to get the tractor and chopper.  Ethan chopped and Ed unloaded.  On the first load Ed plugged the auger in the blower.  That happens sometimes when you unload faster than the blower can handle it.  He got that unplugged but when he tried to start the blower back up a couple of shear pins broke!  Ed wasn't having the best of days either!  What turned out to be 7 loads later they were done.  Looks like we could be renting a chopper to finish this round.

I finally did the official cropping map for this year.  We only have 44 acres of first crop to make and it is hard to believe we are already into mid June.  Rediculous.  We have 45 acres of new seeding (alfalfa, peas, triticale) and 87 acres of corn.