Sun

Something happened today that hasn't happened in awhile.  We had sun!  Actually it was sun alternating with clouds but that is more than we have had in a week.  It is funny how much better everything seems when the sun shines.  We are still in waiting mode on the hay.  So far the hay we had cut is OK for heifer feed.  It was helpful that it was still very green when it got rained on and has stayed damp and relatively cool all this time.  What really spoils hay in a hurry is having it get dry and then rained on and then having it get hot.  It takes only a matter of a couple days for it to start stinking and rotting.  In the past we have had to chop as much as 40 acres back on the ground.  It does not happen very often, but it does happen.  Just like so many other things we do, timing is everything. The forecast says we will get a couple nice days finally so maybe there is hope.  As soon as we get the hay in the silo we will cut the pasture that the cows and heifers aren't keeping up with.  We have a bagger here to store that in.  It will also be heifer feed. 

By late afternoon I could mow lawn.  Bruce replaced the fuel filter, idea #2 for why the mower won't run decently.  That wasn't the magic answer either so he called a mechanic and proceeded to trace the wiring  to disconnect the safety switches so as to rule out a bad switch.  Nothing found there so the next idea is either fuel pump or fuel cut off switch.  The good news is Bruce got a bunch of our lawn mowed while he tinkered with it.

The animal adventures today were pretty basic.  The goats decided that they didn't have to stay in the pasture they were in and were wandering around.  Bruce came out of the barn just in time to see them going into the pasture by the barn with the suggestion of Mike.  We had a heifer on the wrong side of the fence which, of course, is just another cool adventure for the dog.  One group of heifers managed to tip their water tank over and wreck the hose and there was a water leak in one of the water lines so Bruce got to do the farmer version of plumbing.   Bruce feeds grain to the heifers and steers on pasture and yesterday he had a steer that got silly and ran, turned and kicked and managed to connect with Bruce in the leg.  The steer seems to have a better understanding about keeping his distance today.
The cows are now on the first piece of pasture that Ed mowed so the quality of grass should be much better.  This means Bruce can again remove some protein and haylage from their mix and hopefully the cows will thank us by putting more milk in the tank. 

I spent part of the day paying bills.  The milk check doesn't come until Monday but I have it spent already.  On the bright side, unless we break something big again, we are over the most expensive part of our year and are still upright.  Given the last couple months, upright is darned exciting : )