All In a Day's Work...

For your entertainment...

Here's what happens when you walk behind a coughing cow...

Sometimes you just have to say "oh crap", and laugh at yourself. 

Oh...and do some laundry!

Murphy's Law...

You've probably heard of Murphy's Law...you know...if anything can go wrong,  it will.

Well, today being Saturday,  it would have to be the day that the barn cleaner broke.  The barn cleaner is one of the most crucial pieces of equipment in the barn. It's the only way to get the manure out of the barn, and we use it 365 days a year.

As Jim was cleaning out the east side of the barn, this piece...the one that holds the chain in place...broke...

What do you do on a Saturday morning, when most businesses are closed? It's not something that could just be fixed at home.  Jim got the piece off the elevator and eventually found an Amish business close by that could repair it. They had to do some cutting,  grinding and welding, and after about 1 1/2 hours, we were good to go again.

The bill? $13.00.

It wasn't an easy 1 1/2 hours...its never fun to be covered in manure ( Jim), and I was trying to be helpful while fighting the flu. A friend from church had just texted me to see how I was feeling, and I asked her to pray for my attitude and that Jim would be able to fix the problem. I'm very grateful to say that what looked like a day where Murphy's Law would win, it lost big time.

Fresh Country Air...

Smell that fresh. country. air.

All that manure that was stored all summer is now being spread on the bare fields for fertilizer.

Even if I couldn't see it, my nose would tell me the corn fields are bare!

Doing the Mundane...Among Other Things...

I've had folks ask already..."what needs to be done in the barn in the morning besides milking and feeding?"

Well...it used to be what I often did...but now the truth would be..."what does Jim (or Daniel) do in the barn in the morning and what do you sometimes help with?"

After milking (which I do help with) and feeding, the mundane morning work must be done.  Cows poop.  A lot.  Anywhere.  And everywhere.  So...the manure must be cleaned out of the gutters every morning,  Dry corn fodder or straw is then put into the gutters to help reduce splashing and to help provide bulk that carries the manure up the elevators and into the spreader.

You can also see the white barn dri that has been spread on the entryways behind the cows.  It makes a nice, non slip surface to walk on and helps to keep the barn clean...

Fresh sawdust is tossed under the cows to help keep them clean and dry. The sawdust is stored upstairs on the barn floor, and shoveled down through a hole in the floor into a cart, which is then pushed through the barn to wherever it is needed.

On a side note, a little fyi.  If you look closely, you'll see an orange tag above the cow on the right.  She came into the barn in heat this morning, and that sign indicates to the breeder which cow needs to be serviced...

We were hoping that the heat and humidity were about gone, but it's really sticky outside this morning.  So the cows are staying inside today with all the fans running.  We have five of these 48" fans, along with some smaller hanging fans that help to keep the cows comfortable...

After the routine morning work is finished, the heifers and dry cows at the other farm need to be fed.  Then after lunch, who knows what might need to be done?  There are a bunch of cows that are ready for their vaccinations. Maybe that's one thing we'll do today.  There's always something!

Looking back on the past couple of weeks, which have been super busy...

The silos are full...

Fifth cutting hay is finished...

Rye grass has been seeded in the fields where corn silage came off...

Some of the pens are cleaned out, now that there are some bare fields to spread the manure on...

The West Lampeter Fair has come and gone for another year...

Now we wait for the beans and the remainder of the standing corn to dry and be harvested...hopefully in another few short weeks.  Then there will be corn fodder to bale and more pens to be cleaned out.

I've always said that I think fall is the busiest time of year here...and I think I'll stick to my story!

You Know It's Spring When...

You know it's spring when...

There are lots of ways to finish that sentence, but one way you know it's spring here is that the pens at the other farm get cleaned out.

I'm a few weeks late with this post, but here are a few pictures anyway.

It happens every spring and fall, but there's nothing quite like a barn that's been completely cleaned out of pen pack manure.  Load after load of manure has been spread on the fields, and now bales of corn fodder are tossed from the mow, down through the hole onto the floor below...

(the windows are open now, letting more fresh air in the barn)

Fresh dry fodder has been spread all over the floor of the pens and the skid loader sits idle out in the barn yard...

The cows (with the bull, of course leading the way) are left back into the barn after spending the day outside...

They suspiciously explore their freshly bedded pens...

...and get right back to work at messing them up for the fall clean up!  That one won't take as long, because the animals will all be spending a lot of time out in the meadow before too long!

How do you know it's spring in your neck of the woods?

A "Winter" Project is Underway...

I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself...it's still fall, officially for another month yet.  But it sure feels like winter out there this week, and the "fall" work is finished.  Harvest...baling fodder...cleaning out heifer pens...winterizing the barn...all those things are finished, so we're considering projects for the winter.

Here's one that has been a long time coming.

The barn cleaner on the east side of the barn is in sad shape.  Can you see how it's bending in the middle? It also has holes in it where the liquidy manure trickles down through.  Manure does that...it's corrosive, and time and the elements have taken their toll...

I've done several posts where we've replaced the barn cleaner chain here and here.  This time, we're replacing the whole elevator.

Jim ordered a new one from the manufacturer, and it came in two pieces. He picked it up this week...and next week when the weather is to be warmer :)...he's planning to put it in place...

I'll be taking pictures, I'm sure, and will do a post to show you what's involved.  It will be a day long project.  The chain will have to be completely removed....the old elevator removed, saving the motor...the new one put into place...the motor attached...and the chain replaced.

The last time we replaced an elevator (on the other side) was in March of 2009.  It was my Dad's 80th birthday weekend, and the whole family had been together on Saturday.  Sunday morning came, and in typical Murphy's Law fashion while Jim was cleaning out the gutters before Church, the chain caught on something and twisted the whole elevator, causing it to collapse. He scooped manure from behind the cows by hand for several weeks before a new elevator could be ordered and delivered.  That was a mess.  So...that's why he planned ahead for this one.  Hopefully all will go well!

Another New Barn Cleaner Chain...

Every so many years, it's necessary to order a new barn cleaner chain.  Time and manure take their toll, and the chain wears thin, slipping off the sprocket at the top of the elevator...usually on a Sunday morning of course!

A few weeks ago Jim ordered a new chain for the west side of the barn. (We replaced the one on the east side of the barn a few years ago)  He picked it up a few days ago. We're between 2nd and 3rd hay cuttings, so it was the perfect time to replace it.  After the cows were milked and fed this morning, the 3rd and 4th rows went out to the meadow for a few hours while Jim and his helpers replaced the chain.

First things first...there's always some discussion that needs to happen before the work starts. Harold has been ordering parts and helping with barn cleaner issues for years, and today he came again to supervise and lend a hand...

There's the new chain!  I asked Harold how much that box of chain probably weighed. He said it weighs 6.5 lbs. per foot, so if the chain is 148 ft long, that's close to 1000 lbs...

The first thing Jim did was to find the link that connected the two ends of the old chain together.  He removed it, and hooked the new chain to the old one...

Eric works away in the mornings, and our neighbor Daniel was helping this morning, so he got the honors of standing on the back of the pickup, keeping tension on the old chain as it came around the sprocket at the top of the elevator.  Harold helped by pulling the new chain out of the box and Jim made sure it was untangled, feeding it through the proper channel and into the barn...

My job was to run the barn cleaner switch.  A few feet at a time, the new chain was pulled around the barn...

...and there you have it...the new barn cleaner chain is in place...

Looking at these pictures will be the only time we see this chain clean, ever again...

They also had to replace the sprocket at the top of the elevator.  You start with the smallest size sprocket, and as the chain wears thin, you replace it with a larger one...

Here's the old chain.  It's moved tons of manure in it's life time!  I think Daniel might need to throw those jeans in the laundry, huh?

So there you have it...this was our project for this hot July day!  All in all, Jim said it went really smoothly. We like when that happens!

Update:  someone asked what we do with the old chain?  There's a place nearby that recycles such things, and Jim took it there this afternoon...hosed off, of course!

Housecleaning For the Chickens...

Oh happy day!

It's been a long time coming, and today, finally (!!) I was able to get the chicken shed cleaned out.  I last did it in the fall, and then the snow came.  I have to fork or shovel it out by hand into wheel barrows, and just couldn't get to it until the snow melted.  I lost track, but there were at least ten wheel barrow loads full.

It looks so much better...and smells much better too!  They had to scratch around in the fresh straw a little, just in case there were any seeds in the straw, or any goodies hiding underneath it, and then they headed outside again...

The last thing I cleaned out was the nesting boxes.  One chicken was frantically running around, looking for somewhere to lay her egg, I guess! She crawled into a box before I was finished, and was rather restless.  I carefully put some straw underneath her, and this is what she left me in return...

They spent most of the day outside in the warm sunshine.  (It's been a while since we've had weather like this!)  As you can see, the pen is rather barren looking.  I'm really hoping the grass will grow back in time...

To help save the grass in their pen...and to keep them happy...I left the chickens out this afternoon for a while.  They made a beeline for the compost pile to hunt for treasure...

They will scratch to their hearts' content until I feed the calves tonight.  Then, I'll have to find something to lure them back into their pen.  Maybe some spilled calf feed will do the trick.  For now, they're pretty cooperative, but once they get used to being outside, it gets a little tougher to lure them back inside.  That's when I need the kids to help me round them up.

So...this is how I spent my Monday.  How about you?

Random Five Friday...

It's been almost a week since I've posted, and I feel like I'm finally catching up with laundry...redding up...cleaning...and with life in general.  There's always something to do, and here is a sampling of what's happening here. I'm joining up with Nancy, at Random Five Friday today.

1. Even though most things in the garden are dying...or almost dead...the zinnias are still blooming their heads off.  I brought this bouquet in yesterday, and played around on Picasa with the picture this morning...

Zinnias are such cheery flowers, and so easy to grow!

2.  Our nephew has been doing some painting here this week.  With an old house, there's always somewhere that paint is peeling, and he did a great job.  He painted the pillars out front...painted the white wooden siding on the front porch...and here he's finishing up on the balcony ceiling!  It's amazing what some scraping and painting will do to make things look fresh and clean!

3.  Some of the harvesting is finished, but there's still more left to do.  In this picture looking to the west from the barn, you can see three fields.  The corn field on the left is late corn...planted after the last cutting of rye grass...and will be chopped for silage and put into an ag bag.  That will hopefully happen on Monday.  The corn field on the right, and the soybean field in the middle are drying down and will be combined sometime in the coming weeks...

4.  This was one of Jim's projects this morning...forking out a box pen...by hand...

5.  I think the hydrangeas are especially pretty this time of year.  I have several bushes, and they all bloom different colors in the summer, but this time of year as they are drying, I think they are at their most beautiful!

I could probably do a "random ten" or so, but I'll save the rest for another day!

Enjoy your day!

Spring Work Has Begun...

It might not be feeling too much like spring around here right now, but the spring work has begun!

Yesterday Jim spent all afternoon cleaning out the "outside pen".  This is the pen where we keep the oldest heifers...the animals that are closing in on one year old...up to fifteen months old, when they are bred and taken to the other farm.

Today he took down the plywood barriers that helped to keep the cold winter winds out of the west side of the barn.

I was working in the house today, and I would hear the skid loader starting up...and then the Farmall M coming out from behind the barn and down the road, over and over again.  He spent most of the afternoon back and forth between the two...spreading load after load of pen pack manure on the fields.  By milking time, the "wooden pen" was cleaned out as well...

The young heifers had to share some tight quarters for a few hours this afternoon while Jim was working, but finally they were separated back into their respective pens.  They're always so excited to run around in the fresh bedding (corn fodder), and always curious to see what looks different.  The wooden barriers were covering that gate all winter long until this morning, so they're enjoying the "view".  I'm in their way, but behind me they can see the outside pen heifers...lounging outside in their own little "meadow".  All in good time...they'll be out there by mid summer...

As I was looking at the pictures I took, I realized that there was an observer that I had missed...

Peanut, the new mama of three-day-old kitties, was either hoping to catch a mouse, or hoping I'd offer her some special treats.  Probably the latter!

It always feels and smells so fresh when the outside and wooden pens are cleaned out, and the barriers are removed in the springtime.  Now if only the temperatures would rise just a little...and the March winds would die down...

Wouldn't that be nice?!!

This Morning...

I've heard this question on numerous occasions..."What do you do all day?"  So...here goes...


Dark thirty am...the alarm rings.  We hit snooze.  Or rather, Jim does...I don't even hear it.

Repeat...

I am not a morning person, typically.  Not at all...just ask Jim!  But this morning, it's working for me.

Maybe, because I actually went to bed at a reasonable hour, I'm awake and able to head downstairs in good time.  Jim's already had his coffee, and is getting ready to head out to the barn.

Maybe because I feel guilty that there's no breakfast food in the house, I head downstairs and put some baked oatmeal in the oven.  The kids leave early for school, and need something wholesome to eat before they start their day!

I throw a load of towels in the washer so they will be ready to hang out when I'm done in the barn.  I used to try to have my wash hanging out before the Amish neighbors, (why??) but gave up on that a long time ago.  Although... I did notice that hers were not hanging out very early this morning!  :)

When I wander into the barn, Jim is already halfway finished milking down the first two rows...

As is our normal routine, he milks while I start feeding.  I put the feed cart underneath the hay hole, and throw balage down for the heifers first, then the cows.  They dig in...

They're much more cooperative when they've had some food.  Kind of like some people with their morning coffee!

The cats hang out next to the heifer pen every morning...

After the cows are fed balage, I feed corn, then help move the last few milkers.  As we are finishing up, and hang the milkers up on the end of the pipeline, the cats begin to head towards the milk house.  Fritz loudly lets me know that he wants some fresh, warm milk from the jar...

After milking, Jim feeds silage, and I take care of the calves.  We have two new ones on bottles.  We'll keep the heifer, and the bull will go to market later this morning.  Their bottles are warming...

The calves in the hutches get their buckets of milk.  Miss greedy over there on the left, inhales her milk and tries to eat the bucket.  She has feed, hay and water, but her favorite is milk.  She won't like it when she's weaned in a week or two...

It's a beautiful day, so the towels will dry quickly.  I love to watch wash flapping in the breeze...

After breakfast, I pick up our neighbor, Daniel, who helps us a couple of mornings a week.  Usually when he's here, I stay in the house and get other things done, but this morning, Jim wants to fork out some box pens, so I help Daniel with the morning work. We put the cows out in the barn yard, and I watch for heats and keep them from getting into trouble take recess duty while Daniel gives them fresh bedding in their stalls. Then we head over to the other farm to feed the heifers and dry cows.

Jim forks out two heifer pens, and beds them up with fresh straw when he's finished...

This is the second load that he forked out by hand this morning...

It's late morning by the time we're all finished, but there are still a few more things that happen before lunch.  The cattle truck comes for the little bull calf...

The milk truck comes...

We discover a crack in the tank washer hose, and temporarily repair it using black tape...whatever would we do without black tape and duct tape?!

A load of sawdust is delivered...

Now we'll be set for a while with fresh bedding for the cows, and a warm, soft place for the dogs to sleep!

So...this is what we did this morning!

Mornings are usually busy year round...it's the afternoons this time of year that are a little less busy, and we sometimes have some free time to do things that we want.

One thing is for certain, however...not too many days are alike.  There's always something to do, and we will never be bored!