Happy Anniversary!

On a beautiful sunny October day...exactly twenty years ago today...

Jim and I got married!

Here's how some of our anniversary was spent...

Jim and Daniel (our neighbor helper) buried the end of the ag bag permanently. They dug a trench about twelve inches deep and buried the end of the bag, covering it with dirt to give it a tight seal...

I only got back out with my camera after milking tonight, so it's a little hard to see here, but Jim packed the dirt by driving back and forth with the truck. If it's not packed tightly, the end can pop out...

As the silage ferments, it creates gas.  Stinky, potent gas.  I made the mistake one year of putting my nose to the slit and sniffing.  Bad. Idea. !!

The slit in the bag allows the gas to escape...

It was pretty much a normal day.  That's how it is this time of year...there's always something to do, no matter if it's a birthday, anniversary, or holiday...but it was a good day!

And this is how the day is ending...with a beautiful sunset!

I love October!

Done...

Finally...corn silage is done for the year!

This morning around 8:00, the guys rolled in with the harvester, tractors, wagons and the bagger, to chop our last field of corn silage.  Rather than refilling the silos now, we chose to put out a 150' ag bag.  Later this winter when the ground is frozen, we'll transfer it to the much emptier silos.

It was a rush to beat the rain.

Setting up the bagger, with the field to be chopped in the back ground...

The bag, which comes all folded up in a box, has to be positioned on the bagger and clamped into place...

Taking a look inside the bagger...

Once it's in place, the end is securely tied shut.  This end will be tucked underneath the bag as it fills...

The bagger is powered by a tractor, which is put into neutral.  As the bag fills, it gradually pushes the tractor forwards.  I sat in the tractor for a while to make sure it was going in a straight line.  It's a unique perspective, looking out the back window...  (pardon the dirt!)

The guys driving the forage wagons have to watch carefully as they are unloading, pulling forward bit by bit as the bagger inches forward.  It gets a bit monotonous sometimes for them as you can see here...

Well under way.  The far end of the bag is braced against some plywood boards and a pick up truck, to hold it in place as they get started...

Almost done!  Here they're counting the folds left in the bag, to see if all of the silage will fit inside.  You need to have some extra plastic left at the end, to seal the bag properly...

The bagger has just been pulled away, and you can see some silage spilling out the end of the bag...(there are rain drops on my camera lens!)

Here, Jim's forking the silage that spilled out back into the bag as far as he can, getting ready to seal up the bag...

All finished for today!  They temporarily closed the bag...rolling the end of it shut around a piece of wood, and securing it with cement blocks.  You can see the bag already beginning to puff up with gas...

It's raining now, but in the next day or so, Jim will use the skid loader to bury the end of the bag more securely.  It's critical that it remains air tight, so the silage cures properly and doesn't spoil.

It's so good to have this job finished for the year!

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!

It's Been a Long, Busy Week...

It's been a long, busy week here.  I've been neglecting the blog...and many other things, like laundry, dishes and sleep.  So, since it's Saturday...and the fair is over...I can actually sit and do a little catching up!

Here are just a few random thoughts from the past week or so...

1.  I'm ready for the week to be over.  I've had a headache and felt a little crummy since Monday, and it can't last much longer...can it?

2.  This was West Lampeter Fair week.  It's been very busy...seemingly more so than other years.  Why?  I'm not sure, but we are all exhausted!  Last night we said good bye to Jenna's goats.  This morning was clean up, and it was so quiet and empty there without all the animals.

3.  Last week Jim and Eric went to a Philadelphia Eagles game with our brother in law and nephew who are big Kansas City Chiefs fans.  Two of them came home happy, and two came home a little disappointed, but they had fun...

4.  We're still enjoying beautiful fall weather.  It just doesn't get much better than this.  I've actually seen a few leaves starting to turn, and if what I've seen so far is any indication of the beauty to come...it's gonna be a gorgeous show this year!

5. The harvest is in full swing.  Chopping corn is almost finished, except for the ag bag which will go out hopefully at the beginning of next week.  The rest of the corn, and the beans are getting dry.  I saw this view of the west side of our barn on my way home from an errand this morning, and just had to grab my camera and drive back to snap the picture...

Now it's on to face the day.  There's a mountain of laundry to do...a ton of redding up to do...and a whole lot of weeds that need to be pulled out of my flower beds.  If the caffeine kicks in soon, I just might get some of it done!

How To Change a Waterbowl Valve...

Just because you might need to know this some day...

A few days ago, we found a small flood in the barn.  One of the old cast iron water bowls had rusted, had an irreparable leak in it, and needed to be replaced.  Jim replaced it with a lighter weight, plastic bowl, and we were good to go.  This morning, however, we noticed that the water bowl was full to the brim, and the floor was wet. Hmmm... (yes, that's a bit of rye in the water bowl.  The cows should have better table manners!)

Sometimes when working with old pipes, bits of rust come loose and clog the screen on the water bowl valve, resulting in a leak.  It's a simple fix, really...

First of all you turn off the water source to the bowl.  We have valves on the main water line that we can easily close when needed.

Then...find the correct wrench, and turn out the valve.  Lefty loosey...

See the rust and debris that is stuck to the screen?

Clean it off and put the screen back in place on the end of the valve...

Then, before putting the valve back in...or replacing it if necessary...flush out the line.  You turn on the water line just long enough to flush out any more pieces of rust or debris that might be in there...

...put some thread tape on the threads to help make a tight fit...

...and put the valve back in.  Righty tighty...

Now the cows are happy...

Just in case you ever wondered!  It's just part of life in the barn.

More Chicken Antics...

Leave it to the chickens to amuse me, when the routine of life becomes, well...very routine.

The chickens can't see the house from their pen, because of the row of shrubs along the garden.  It's easy to sneak up on them...

It doesn't take much.  Maybe they hear me...or see a shadow...but as soon as they sense that someone is coming, they race for the gate.  Maybe they'll get a treat...who knows?

Ah...yes!  Peach peelings!  Their anticipation was not in vain...

Silly chickens!

Filling the Last Silo...

What a beautiful day we had today!  The weather has turned from hot and humid...to cooler (upper 70's) with a nice breeze and low humidity.  Yes!!

The past few days were drying days, as far as the corn was concerned.  The field that was just a little too green to chop on Friday was begging to be chopped today.

Here is a short video of the first load going into the empty silo...

All afternoon as I was peeling peaches, I listened to the drone of the chopper out in the field, and the tractor and blower at the silo, as load after load was emptied into the last silo.  It's a good feeling to have that last silo full.  Around the end of September, we will top off all three silos with our late corn, and that will be the end of silage for this year.

Tomorrow, Jim will level the silage, and we'll spend a chunk of time setting up the unloaders, so he doesn't have to climb up and fork silage down into the cart each time he feeds.

Fall is definitely here!