A Day On Our Dairy Farm...

June is dairy month.  Did you know that?  I'm joining today with a group of dairy farmers to give you a glimpse into a day in our lives. Click on the links at the end of this post to read their posts.


Which day do I choose?  Hmmm...they're all so different!

Yesterday was a crazy day, and today is much more laid back, but both are typical days on the farm.

I guess I'll chronicle Monday for you.  It went something like this...

5:30 am...I hit the snooze again, and struggle to wake up.  Jim's already been up for a while, so I drag myself out of bed and head downstairs.  I am not a morning person, can you tell?  I can hear the cows starting to walk into the barn, stalls rattling as they find their places.

6:00 am...cows are ready for milking and Jim starts milking the first two rows. (we have four rows of cows in our barn)  I hop in the car and drive over to the other farm where we keep our bred heifers and dry cows. There's a springer (a cow about to calve) that needs to be checked.  She's fine, so I head home again and go in to pack Eric's lunch.  Our neighbor Daniel pulls in just after 6:00 and starts the feeding.  He helps us three mornings a week before his other job, and our kids help the other mornings before they leave for work. We are switching a few extra cows around right now, so I milk the extra cows and switch them into box pens so that when Jim brings the other three milkers over to the 3rd and 4th rows, we can keep right on milking.

7:30 am...Daniel heads for his other job, and Jim does the daily run with the manure spreader.  I start the pipeline washer and head to the hutches to feed the calves before breakfast.  They're eagerly waiting for their food...

The one closest to the camera is eight weeks old, ready for weaning off milk, and she's not happy about it!  Notice her mouth is wide open?  If there were sound here, you'd hear her protesting loudly.  She's doing fine...just misses her milk.

There are two fields of second cutting hay laying. It's been a good drying weekend, but rain is forecast for this afternoon, so Jim heads out after breakfast to rake the hay into windrows.  Jenna heads to the barn to do "the morning work"...bedding up with sawdust, feeding the heifers hay, getting balage down in the cart for the noon feeding, and general barn cleanup.  While she's doing that, I wash up dishes and run a couple of errands.  Oh...and work on that huge Monday morning laundry pile. At least when I wash dishes I can enjoy the view from my kitchen window...

Late morning..Jim starts baling, and Jenna and I bring empty wagons over from the other farm and drop them in a corner of the meadow where he can easily hook up to them with the baler when he's ready.

Noon'ish - 1:00'ish...We left the cows in the barn today with the fans running, so Jenna and I give them their noon time feeding of balage and corn. Jim is almost finished baling, and he calls me from the field.  The sky is looking pretty threatening, so Jenna hooks me up to the full wagons and I take them over to the other farm where they can be backed into the barn if it rains.  Just as Jim finishes filling the last wagon, the rain drops begin to fall!  He gets the wagons under cover and feeds the heifers and dry cows while he's over at the other farm.

Meanwhile, Jenna has been browning beef for the co-op meal I'm making tonight.  I finish it up and deliver the meals.  Luckily I had chosen a simple recipe for today. Sloppy joes are super quick and easy to make!

4:00 pm or so...Eric gets home from work, soaking wet from working outside in the rain.  We get a short break before evening milking.  Eric feeds, Jim and I milk, and an Amish neighbor boy takes care of calves and other chores.  Jenna warms up supper so that after milking the guys can eat before unloading hay.

7:00 pm...Jim, Eric and my cousin Steve unload two of the four wagons full of hay. Since there's no more hay ready to bale right away, there's no hurry to empty all the wagons tonight. I think they're planning to unload the others tomorrow evening.

 The mow is getting fuller!  Sometimes we fight with the weather all summer and have trouble getting nice dry hay, which we prefer to feed...but this year the weather has cooperated a little more and we're thankful to see the mow slowly filling up.

7:30 pm..Jenna and I put the cows out into the meadow for the night and clean up the barn.  One cow is in heat, and goes a little crazy as she leaves the barn.  She finally gets to the meadow and settles down a bit.  Jim has me call the breeder for early morning service tomorrow.

8:00 pm...After the hay is unloaded, Jim goes to check out the springer at the other farm once more before bed, and finds her with a little heifer calf.  We like to have them home before they calve, but sometimes they go early like this one. He heads over with the cow trailer and tractor, and since it's almost dark, I follow him in the car with the flashers on to bring the cow and calf home.

It's finally time to relax before bedtime.  Somehow after a day like this one, relaxing quickly turns to sleep for all of us!

Not nearly all days on the farm are like this one, thankfully!  It gets a little crazy sometimes, but I find that the busier I am, the more I get accomplished!  The next few days will be a little more relaxed...at least for me...and I would imagine you'll find me much less motivated and easily distracted!

Farm life is not boring, that's for sure!

Here are the other links! Thanks to Sadie from Dairygoodlife.com for pulling it all together!

Eat Farm Love

New Day Dairy

Guernsey Dairy Mama

Dairy Good Life

SC Farm Wife

Finishing Up Second Cutting...

It's all baled...finally!

It was a good drying weekend, but rain was forecast for this afternoon.  So Jim headed to the field right after breakfast this morning and raked up the last two fields of second cutting alfalfa.  He began baling late morning, and finished up with four big loads, just as the drizzling started.  There were a few bales that wouldn't fit on the last wagon, so he dropped them on the ground. Jenna and my cousin picked them up, stacked them on a neighbor's empty wagon, and unloaded them at the other farm.

All the full wagons were backed into the barn to stay dry until after milking tonight.  Jim, Eric and my cousin unloaded two of them...

The mow is getting full!  Some years we can hardly get dry hay, so we're glad for every load that is put in the mow!  Balage is nice, but dry hay is the best!

Tomorrow the other two loads will get unloaded, and next Jim will bale the spring seeding.

It never ends!

Friday's Hunt...#26!...

When I decided to join with Teresa at Eden Hills for Friday's Hunt each week, I didn't expect the time to go by so fast...here we are at week 26 already!  I missed two weeks, but tried to catch up with at least a photo for the letter from the week when I did my next post.

Here we go with "the letter Z"...

This is the inside of one of the big doors upstairs in the barn. Can you see the Z? You can see that some repairs have been done to the door, and only the outside's been painted...

"Week's favorite"...

My purple cone flowers opened this week!  I moved them to the bed close to the house last summer when I got rid of my big perennial bed, and they have grown in leaps and bounds!  They're probably three feet high, and look so much healthier and happier than they did ever before.  Maybe it's that compost I added to the soil?  I have a lot of favorite flowers, and this is definitely one of them...

"Today"...

This prompt is wide open!

This is looking west over the fields here at home today, from up on the barn hill.  The corn and beans were planted on May 26th and 27th.  They came up quickly, and with the rains we've had lately, they should continue growing well. There's a line of white ag bags out along the water way on the left side of the picture.  Some are first cutting alfalfa and some are rye grass...

I also tried something new today...

Home made pesto, with basil from the garden...

I've been wanting to try it, and finally got around to it.  I usually plant basil in pots on the porch, but this time I had an extra plant that I put in the garden. Apparently it's happier there, and has grown huge in a short amount of time...much bigger than the ones on my porch!

I hope you've enjoyed the Friday's Hunt posts.  It's been fun to participate!

Unusual Sky...

Last night, this happened...

It was unusual enough that I just had to show you!

Last night after milking, I was outside when I began to hear rain coming across the fields.  I looked up to see blue sky above the barn, beautiful clouds just to the south of it, and rain in the garden, only a few hundred feet away.

Unusual, and too pretty not to share!

Friday's Hunt...

This week for Friday's Hunt, the prompts are...

Starts with "Y"...

Last night I found this yellow sunflower blooming in my garden...the first of the summer...

Next is "in my shoes"...

In my shoes, are tired, achy feet.  I feel like an old lady...but maybe if I keep my toenails painted they'll feel young again.  ??  I bought a pair of Oofos...highly recommend sandals with great arch support, and they do help. Staying off my feet would also help.  Hmmmm....

Last is "Week's favorite"...

I chose a series of pictures of Peanut, our cat matriarch.  She's responsible for every cat on the farm, and she's proud of it!  Last evening at dusk she was sitting at the edge of the garden.  She has such an intent look on her face...

She didn't sit still for long when she saw me...

...and then she had to show off a bit...

Have a great weekend!

Baling Barley Straw 2016...

Well...now that's done!

After the barley was combined on Monday evening, Jim had the task ahead of baling all that straw.

Here's the field the morning after harvest. The combine left long windrows of straw, which I think make a beautiful picture!

The grain was dry, but the straw still had a little green tint to it and was a little too damp for baling, so just after morning milking, Jim spread out the windrows with a tedder and let the strong breeze and sunshine do it's work...

Just after lunchtime...(oh the drying power of a strong breeze!)...the straw was fit and ready to bale.  He raked it back up into windrows and started filling wagons...

Eric took off work early and came home to help with the unloading, and we were able to round up some other guys as well.  While Jenna and I milked, Jim baled and the guys kept the wagons emptied.

This morning, Jenna and my nephew swept the "crumbs" off the empty wagons back into the field, and Jim finished up baling.  I think the total was just over ten loads.  The barn is full and an Amish neighbor bought part of a load.  (here's an interesting tidbit of information...the Amish don't grow barley or wheat, which is where straw comes from, because it's harvested using combines, which they don't have!)  It makes a great bedding for their horses.

It feels so good to have that job finished!  Now it's time to spread manure on the empty field before planting with soybeans and late corn.

It Must Be June...

Another week has started with a bang.

Second cutting of hay is under way already.  Jim mowed on Saturday and baled this evening.  Yesterday was windy (so windy in fact, that when we came home from Church, the 2000 piece puzzle that I had half finished had blown off the table and onto the floor!!) and today was beautiful...low humidity, sunny and breezy.  Perfect hay drying weather.

See the leaves on this hay bale?  That's beautiful hay...

The cows are eagerly awaiting the "crumbs" from the wagon after it's unloaded.  Jenna swept them into the hay rack in the meadow.  It was getting close to dark, and I like how the cows' eyes are glowing...

Some of them just couldn't wait, and snuck around to the back side of the wagon.  I couldn't get a picture without their heads getting blurry.  They just wouldn't hold still!

After the hay was unloaded, we got a call that the combine was on it's way to the barley field.  The combine outlined against the western sky was truly beautiful. If only I had the right kind of camera.  As it goes, you get to see the edge of the field and the specks of light in the center of the picture just above the barley are the lights from the combine...

I parked along the edge of the road and tried to get a few pictures as he came past...

This is in the field behind him...you can see the straw being spit out the back of the combine into two windrows...

The next step will be baling straw.  Maybe tomorrow?  It should make lots of bales!

(The grain yield was great...roughly 100 bushels per acre!)

As for those kids who wanted to party in the barley field last Saturday night...we found their whiskey bottle.  But no...wait...they hadn't been in the field!!

Friday's Hunt...

What a week it's been!

We've had some of the most beautiful weather of the summer this week...several days of temps in the 70's with very low humidity and a nice breeze all day long!  So very unusual for this area this time of year, and I wish I could have captured it to save for later.  Today felt much more like typical June weather...hot and muggy, with threatening thunderstorms.

I'm linking up again with Teresa at Eden Hills, for Friday's Hunt.

This week's prompts are...

"Week's favorite"...

Do you remember this bird's nest that was in my hanging baskets? Now the eggs have hatched in both baskets, and we have nine baby House Finches!  I hear the parents outside my kitchen window all day long.  The dads perch on the chains to the hanging baskets, keeping watch for any movement near the porch door.  As soon as they see us, off they fly...

"Starts with X"...

I chose the uneXpected this week.

We have a strip of stones beside our porch, and the weeds have to be kept after.  This spring, however, I saw something growing that looked suspiciously like Petunias. I left them grow, and a few days ago this opened! I haven't planted white petunias in years, so it's a mystery to me where they came from!

Another uneXpected surprise was this, when I walked into the house tonight...

Caught in the middle of a big yawn...Murphy does NOT belong in the house. The kids had some fun with her on this very hot, muggy day, so we took a few pictures and sent her back outside where she's I'm MUCH happier.

The last prompt is "Wet...or Water"...

It's been a dry week, so I don't have any rain pictures to show you...and the storms that are predicted for tonight haven't come yet...so I'll show you what happens when you turn on the hose and wash down the walls of the house with water...which is what I spent an hour or so doing yesterday morning...

Everything feels so fresh and clean again!  This part of the house faces west and south, and when the wind blows, the dust collects on the siding, and after while it gets...just yucky. I took the hose and a scrub brush with soapy water, and cleaned it thoroughly.  What a good feeling it is.  It might only stay this clean for a short time, but...

I hope you have a great rest of your weekend!

The Progression of a Barley Field...

Just for fun, I've taken a picture weekly for the past few weeks, of our barley field.  It's fascinating to watch how it's turning from green...

May 22, 2016

...to a little less green...

May 30, 2016

...to almost golden...in just a few short weeks!

June 6, 2016

We'll soon be baling straw!

I have to tell you a story about something that happened to this barley field over the weekend...

It was Saturday evening, and we had just finished up the barn work and were getting ready for supper, when a neighbor pulled in our driveway. He lives next to this barley field that we rent.  He told us that there were several cars pulled off the road next to the field, and people were tromping through the field, stomping down the barley, taking videos and setting up lawn chairs.  What?!!  When confronted, the young people said that the police had already been there, and that they had permission to be in the field.  What?!!  When someone told them that they shouldn't be in the field...that they would damage the grain, they replied "there's so much there that it won't matter!"  What?!!

Of course when we got there, they were back along the road, with their big expensive looking camera and denied that they'd ever been in the field. What?!!  By now, several neighboring families were out in their driveways watching things unfold, and the young folks hopped in their cars and left. What were they thinking?!!  I know I should give them grace...and they did leave without doing any more damage, but I'm still shaking my head in disbelief, trying to understand.

We have wonderful neighbors, and it's reassuring to know that we look out for each other!

Friday's Hunt...

"Starts with W"...

Waging War against Woodchucks...otherwise known as groundhogs to most of us around here.  Destructive varmints...farm equipment damaging varmints (think about what happens if a tractor wheel drops into a hole)  ...crop eating varmints.  You get the picture.  Here's an active hole that I found this afternoon.  You can tell it's active by the claw marks on the side of the hole, where they've been going in and out today...

They've already been eating at the soybeans that were planted last Thursday!!  Click on the picture and you'll see where they've eaten the tops off the tiny plants.  Unfortunately, they won't grow back...

Hopefully woodchucks  like watermelon and spinach.  I set four traps, and hopefully this time they'll take the bait.  For some reason this spring we haven't caught anything other than two possums and a cat...

Week's favorite...

I had a lot to choose from this week, but ended up with this one of the rows of corn, tall enough to be seen easily as we drive by.  This corn was planted exactly one week ago today!  I can hardly believe that it's this high already! The weather has been perfect for growing this week...

The last prompt is "rough"...

This fellow had a rough day today...

I passed it on the road not far from home, but didn't know if it was dead or alive.  When I backed up to get a closer look, he/she started moving.  I got a crowbar out of the truck toolbox...because I didn't have anything else with a long enough handle (!!!) and tried to move it off the road into the grass. There was a drain pipe running under the road with some water in it, and I figured that's where he/she must have come from.  I wouldn't expect to see a snapper too far from water.  He/she was definitely not happy with me, but finally I got it off the road.  There was quite a bit of traffic, and I'm sure some of those people wondered what in the world I was doing.  Those jaws were mighty strong!  I'm glad I didn't make the mistake of trying to pick it up to move it, or I'd be minus some fingers!

That was the last thing I expected to see today!

I'm joining with Teresa for Friday's Hunt again this week.  Have a great weekend!