Reminiscing...and Counting Fodder Bales...

What do reminiscing and counting fodder bales have in common?

Absolutely nothing!

That being said, this picture had me reminiscing this morning, when it showed up on my face book feed ...

Apparently I posted it four years ago today, and it popped up again.  This is Tigger, and it was taken on a Sunday morning in the barn.  Jim was reading something in the newspaper while the last few milkers finished up, and Tigger decided to play.

As for counting fodder bales...

The final count for 2015 is twenty five wagon loads, plus a few pickup loads of bales that Jim dropped onto the ground once the wagons were full.  You can barely see them laying in the field...

If my math is correct, that's well over 3200 bales of corn fodder!  Twenty one wagons unloaded, and four wagons full, backed into the barn.  The weather these past few weeks has been amazing!  Long stretches of dry weather have farmers all around the neighborhood flailing, raking, baling and unloading load after load of fodder. We'll use the fodder off the wagons first...just so they're empty by spring when it's time to think about baling hay again.  Oi.

What's next?  After the baler and rake are put away of course...

Probably cleaning out heifer pens again, now that the fields are bare.  Maybe a day or so of "not so busy-ness?" can be found in there somewhere too.

That would be nice!

Baling Corn Fodder 2015...

This is how Jim has spent a lot of time the past week or so...

We'll have LOTS of good bedding for the cows and heifers for the next year!

Finishing Up...

I think I can safely say that we are now officially finished baling corn fodder for this year!   The good weather stuck around and cooperated quite nicely. The rain and snow that we were supposed to get last week never materialized...yay...and Jim baled all the fodder that he wanted.

I didn't keep track of how many wagon loads he baled, but it's somewhere right around a dozen.  The last four, he didn't unload, but just backed them into the barn at the other farm, full.  Since we don't need those wagons empty until next spring, why not?  It takes some maneuvering to get those wagons into place...it's a tight fit, and I sure couldn't do it, but he makes it looks pretty easy.

After school today, I drove the truck while Jim and Eric picked up the last few bales that didn't fit on the last wagon...

...and we got to see this as we were finishing up...

All around us today, neighbors were baling fodder, baling and wrapping hay and rye, trying to finish up all that they could before they ran out of daylight and nice weather.

As I write, the wind has picked up and the temps have begun to drop.  It's to begin raining over night tonight, and I think our mild weather will be history. I'm bummed about that...I'm a fair weather fan, and there are still flower beds to clean up, and lots and lots of leaves to rake.

I guess I'll have to pull out the coveralls and get to work!


Linking to Clever Chicks Blog Hop

Baling Corn Fodder 2012

Well...we finally saw some beautiful blue sky today.  It was partially covered with high clouds, but there was some blue showing through...and some sun...and it felt a little warmer...yeah!

Jim started baling corn fodder this afternoon.  Yesterday the corn stalks that were left after the combine went through were flailed (chopped) and this morning he raked them into windrows.  I caught up with him this afternoon, filling the first wagon...

He was happy with how well the baler worked.  Corn fodder is notoriously hard on a baler, but things went well today.  It's close to thirty years old, and hardly missed a bale!

During milking, and before it got too dark to see, Jim, Eric and some friends unloaded two big loads into the mow above the outside pen.  The young ones had some battles with dusty corn fodder.  All I can say is that I'm glad I was milking and not involved in that itchiness!

We'll use this for bedding up the heifer pens.  It makes a great, absorbent bedding.  They unloaded the rest at the other farm, where they had plenty of light in the barn to see what they were doing.

Hopefully tomorrow, Jim will be able to bale a few more loads before the rain comes.  After that, he'll have to wait until the fodder dries out to bale more.

It's a great feeling to get the fodder baled...it's the last harvest related thing that we need to do before winter comes!