3rd Cutting...

The weather, the weather...it's all about the weather! 

We've had such a unique summer, weather wise.  A cool, wet spring got the corn and beans in late...1st cutting of hay was a little later than usual...and now we've gone about three weeks without any measurable rain.   Earlier this week we had less than 1/10th of an inch while folks almost within sight had at least 1/2" or more.  The crops are getting a little bit stressed, but the forecast is calling for rain over the next week.  We sure hope they're right!

One thing positive about having no rain, is that Jim was able to get some dry hay baled this week.  He mowed a couple of fields on Tuesday evening, and baled it this afternoon...

I never seem to time my pictures right, so that the bales are in the air between the baler and the wagon.  Oh well...

I had the easiest job...

We're very thankful for several loads of nice, dry small square bales of hay.  Yes, balage is easier and faster to bale, especially when the window of nice weather is short...but no one likes to feed it...and we liken dry hay to gold.  There's not much better than dry hay to keep a cow's rumen happy!

Now it can rain.  Please?!

Hay, Straw and a Heat Wave...

Jim says that the week that the barley is combined is always the hottest week of the summer, and this year is no exception!

But first, there was hay to unload.  Jim's in the middle of 2nd cutting of hay this week, and with no rain in sight for several days, he was able to get several wagon loads of dry hay.  We pulled a small crew together and they got it unloaded this morning.  Oh boy, was it ever hot! I think the temperatures were close to 100% today.  Yuck.

Just a few short weeks ago, this mow was completely empty, and housed a puppy kennel for the chilly nights (which are but a distant memory)...

We'll see how full this mow gets this summer.  It's not quite at the half way mark yet.  I climbed up the elevator for a different perspective.

The crumbs left in the wagon got shoveled into the hay racks in the meadow, for an evening snack for the cows.  That's the first place they go when they're left out of the barn for the night...and if there's nothing in the racks for them, do we ever hear about it!

Then it was time to head over to the barley field.  Those windrows of straw are what was left behind by the combine...

Jim started baling around lunch time, but the straw was still a little tough, so he stopped and waited a few hours to try again. It was nicer (drier) by then, but still not as nice as he would have liked, so he left the rest lay for another day.

I'm glad today is almost over, and right now, I'm thankful for a shower, clean clothes, and for the cool breeze blowing in the window beside me.

5th Cutting Is Finished...

It's hard to believe we're finally at this end of the summer!

Jim started mowing and baling hay in May...and five cutting later, here we are at the end of September.  He finished up with baling the last two contours here at home this afternoon.  Perhaps just in time, because the weather forecast is now calling for rain over the next few days.

We've finally said goodbye good riddance to the horrible humid heat wave that was summer...and have begun enjoying blue jeans and flannel shirt weather the past two days.  Yeah!  Can you tell I'm happy about that?

Anway...

This load got backed into the barn to be unloaded another day...

Peanut has a "thing" for hay wagons, and promptly found a cozy hole to curl up in.  She's raised several litters of kittens in hay wagons over the years, but there will be NO MORE Peanut babies...

I still don't think she's forgiven us for that, but...

Now we move on to other things...like the West Lampeter Fair.  The hubbub begins tomorrow (for me) as the baked good will be entered for Wednesday's judging, tasting (!!) and bake sale.

Hope to see you there!

4th Cutting...Already...

The summer has just been flying by...but yet the horrible heat and humidity have made it feel like it's dragging on forever!  We don't remember long stretches of weather like this for a while.  The last two days, however, have been a little better, with a breeze and lower humidity.  :) :)

Jim finished up baling fourth cutting alfalfa yesterday afternoon, stopped to help milk, and then finished wrapping around 9 pm.  I never thought about the view from this field before, but it's the highest field on our farm,and you can see for miles in all directions. The moon was gorgeous...but of course the picture doesn't do it justice...

Jim's mode of transportation to and from the field...the trusty 100...

I got to do something new last evening.  It's been so horribly hot, and we like to get the cows out of the barn in the evening as soon as possible.  Jim or Eric have been taking round bales to the meadow for the cows to munch on in the late evening and overnight.  Neither one of them was available to do it last night, so I got the honors.  I've run the skid loader before, but never moved a round bale.  Piece of cake!  I dropped it in place and removed the plastic and netting.  When Jim came by with the wrapper to wrap the hay bales, he stopped and flipped the rack over the bale and it was ready to go...

The cows know just where the rack is when they head out of the barn for the night...

They can't all fit around the rack at once, so the stragglers have to find something else to eat for a while until it's their turn.  There's always plenty, as it lasts for several days.  They come into the barn so much more content in the mornings when they've had a bale put out for them...

We're ready for the fall like weather to come any day now...the heat and humidity have taken their toll...on us and on the cows.  The milk truck driver told us this morning that milk pounds are way down this week.  All the trucks are about 4000-5000 lb down from their normal loads.  The cows hung in there for so long, but finally said "enough".

How's the weather where you are?  Is the summer flying by or dragging on?

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!

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!!

4th Cutting Begins...

Look!  It's a new style of lawn ornament...

This used to be a regular occurrence, but this year we haven't had much luck with baling dry hay because of the weather.

Finally this week, we got a forecast (that actually held true!) for a long stretch of dry weather which just so happened to coincide with when the spring seeded alfalfa was ready to be mowed.  Jim mowed on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and last night was able to get it baled dry.  They finished unloading around 10:30 last night.

You can easily tell which is the newly baled hay, by the color difference.  The brown hay has been cured for about a month, maybe longer...

More empty wagons sitting around this morning...

Jenna and I took the truck (with the dogs, of course) up to the fields and she picked up the bales that missed the wagon last night.  Then she threw them into the hay racks for the cows' bedtime snack tonight...

Of course the dogs found the best possible spot for "helping".  Any time Jenna takes the truck anywhere, the dogs hop in the back for a ride, and as soon as they stop and the door opens...in they jump.  Murphy called shotgun.

What a life.  Follow their girl anywhere and they're happy!

Jim is now mowing 4th cutting at the other farm, hoping for more dry hay at the beginning of the week.  It sure is nice to see the mow getting filled up.

Everyone around our house likes to feed dry hay better than balage, and there's nothing quite like it for keeping a cow's rumen in good working order!

A Busy Memorial Day Weekend...

It was a beautiful weekend here!  We couldn't have asked for better weather...for those who were picnicking with family and friends, or for those who had outside work to do.

As is usually the case, there is a lot to do this time of year on the farm.  Our corn is usually planted the first week of May, but with the late spring this year, everyone is running behind. On Tuesday of last week, the planter made it to our place.

Mark has just filled up the boxes on his planter with seed and starter fertilizer, and is making some adjustments to the planter...

He didn't get very far in the first field before there was a glitch.  He's trying to take off a hose clamp to find the problem, while our Amish neighbor Jake looks on...

Found the problem...a clump of starter fertilizer was plugging up a hose...

...and he's ready to go again.   Do you know what that disc sticking out to the left of the planter is for?

It's a marker.  When he gets to the end of the field and turns around, he will line up the hood ornament on his tractor's hood with the mark it makes. That ensures that rows of corn will all line up properly.  It's important that they be evenly spaced for the harvester this fall.  He got a couple of fields planted, and then the rains came and he finished up towards the end of the week.

On Friday morning, looking ahead at the weather forecast, Jim mowed hay here at home, hoping to bale some dry hay on Monday...Memorial Day.

Our respite was on Sunday afternoon when we spent some time with friends at the Holtwood Pinnacle, overlooking the Susquehanna River.  We've had a lot of rains lately, and the river was high, and very muddy, but still beautiful...

When Monday morning rolled around, the day looked like it was going to be pretty busy...and it was!

The soybean planter arrived, and the stack of bags up in the barn were soon emptied.  This is just a few of them...

It's hard to believe, with all the rain we've had lately, how dry the ground was!  The weather this weekend was hot and breezy, quickly drying things out, making the dust fly...

Mid afternoon, Jim began baling, and soon the hay wagons were filled.  Eric and some neighbors did the unloading...

I know it's not the greatest picture, but at this time of day there wasn't any great place to get a picture with good lighting.  You get the idea...two on the wagon...two in the mow, stacking bales...

This mow started out completely empty, but was soon beginning to fill up with stacked, dry hay...

Jenna helped me with some mowing, fed calves, and others pitched in with feeding the cows while I did the evening milking.  Jim finished baling just in time to milk a first calf heifer that freshened in the morning.

It felt overwhelming in the morning, looking at all that had to be accomplished during the day, but the weather cooperated, the equipment worked great, the kids and the neighbors were great help, and we finally reached this place...

Evening...with cooler temps and contented cows out in the meadow for the night.  It felt good to fall into bed tired, but with a sense of accomplishment with all that got done, and thankfulness for good help, good weather, and equipment that worked like it was supposed to!

As I write, on Tuesday afternoon, we're just beginning to see the first shoots of corn peeping through the ground!  All the corn and beans have now been planted, (except for the corn that will be planted after barley) and now we need to be patient and watch it grow!

Waterway Hay...

What is waterway hay, you say?

Well...we have several grass waterways on our farm, which are part of a conservation plan to prevent erosion, and to direct excess water to the proper place after heavy rains.  Several times during the summer, while he has his hay equipment out, Jim mows and bales the grass hay in the waterways for the heifers.

As you can see here, the waterways are long and narrow, and there's not room to turn around with a tractor, baler, and hay wagon...so Jim bales the hay and lets it drop on the ground.  I'm not even sure how he turns just the tractor and baler around...but that's why he does it...and not me!

The kids and I went down to pick up the bales after milking tonight...

I got the easy job...driving the truck.  Jenna picked the bales up and tossed them onto the truck...

...and Eric stacked them up so they all fit on the back...just so...

Then we unloaded them in the barn.  They'll be used for feeding the heifers.

I took a couple of bales down to the hay racks in the meadow for the cows to snack on this evening, and these two supervisors came along.  They love riding in the truck, whenever they can!

Fourth cutting is almost over!  There's one more field to bale...hopefully Jim will be able to get it baled dry on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend...I hope it's as beautiful where you are as it is here!