Slinky... (story from a "guest blogger")

Slinky

The other week we got a new cat named Dolly. It wasn’t my first choice of names, but now that this cat was ours we could rename it.

            Dolly is black on her back and legs and tail, but has little boots and white on her chest. She is sweet and sleek, very used to people. Her eyes are elephant sized, and have dark, dark pupils. When she arrived, we took her up into the upper part of the barn and she seemed to really enjoy the prickly texture of the hay on the wagon and made herself at home between two bales. She was very curious and of course managed to find her way to a rafter-high up from the ground-and sat there to stare down at us.  She would fit right in with the other cats that were enjoying life on the farm.

            One day over the weekend a friend came over to play. When we couldn’t find anything to do we found ourselves venturing up into the barn to see the cat. The friend petted Dolly and smiled as it rubbed against her legs and purred. “Dolly, we need to change your name,” she thought.  “How about Slinky? You just sort of slink around and slide out of my arms when I pick you up.” I liked it and so that became the new Tuxedo cat’s name.

            Slinky despises the dogs named Snickers and Murphy. As soon as she saw them when she got here, she clung to Kevin’s shirt. (Kevin is the previous owner) Whenever we go up in the barn, so do the dogs and that is where the cat is. She hisses and spits and runs to the best hiding spots and uses the best strategies to get rid of the dogs and to annoy them. Her hiding spots are: the top of the hay wagon where the dogs can’t touch her, on a flap under the elevator, or on the wagon, crouched  between three bales that provide a little house and a very comfortable sleeping area. The last spot is with her only cat friend on the top layer of the highest haymow. Her strategies are…ignore!  That’s it… and it drives the dogs BANANAS! Hopefully the dogs will learn to ignore Slinky more as they realize that they can’t get her …she’s WAY too good for them.

            Only a few days ago Dad was getting hay down from a 25-30 foot hay mow and after carefully looking where he was throwing, dropped one bale down to the floor of the barn. As the bale was midway through its journey down to the floor Slinky came TEARING out of nowhere and into the path of the falling bale.  The bale hit the ground-and Slinky too; now she was covered by this bale of hay! Soon dad was on the ground and releasing the cat from its dangerous predicament. When the pressure was released, Slinky ran from the bale and went to her perch on top of the wagon wheel. Fifteen minutes later, the previous owners pulled in the driveway in search of some straw. After telling the news of the cat, Kevin and Anna made their way to the barn to comfort Slinky.  She seemed to be doing fine. Kevin and Anna left with their straw, and everything returned back to normal.

            Slinky  is finding her way around the farm better now.  She is coming down from the upstairs of the barn and enjoys hanging out on the milkhouse roof and on top of the compressor.  She is my new favorite kitty.

                                                THE END

                                    By Jenna Denlinger

Harvesting corn...

Once again this week, the fall corn harvest was interrupted by rain, but finally, we are well on our way to finishing up!

During the big rain storm that we had about two weeks ago, some of the corn that Jim hadn't chopped for silage went down due to the heavy rain and high winds.  This can present difficulty in combining or picking the dry corn. 

The combine has "snouts" on the front (my layman's term!) that go between the rows of standing corn and strip the ears of corn from the stalk, sending them into the combine for shelling. In a similar fashion, the corn picker removes the ear and sends it up an elevator into the wagon behind.  When the corn is "down", it is very difficult to harvest, and a lot of corn can be left laying in the field, wasted.

We had a full day of rain on Thursday.  The forecast was calling for more high winds, with gusts up to 35 miles per hour.  This could have been disastrous for the standing corn, but thankfully no more damage was done, and the combining went relatively smoothly.

On Friday evening, the combining began, and they finished up on Saturday morning. 

Here are a few pictures of the combine running through the fields...

On the picture to the left, you can see the reel at the front of the combine.  This is put on when the corn has gone down.  It rotates, pulling the corn up and into the combine, eliminating waste.

The shelled corn is transferred from the combine into this grain cart (below) and then dumped into the grain truck for transport. 



Most of our corn is sent to a local company that dries and toasts the corn, and stores it for us in a "grain bank".  Then throughout the year, they deliver it back to the farm as we need it to fill our bins and feed the cows. 

The rest of the corn is left for picking.  The whole ear is picked and stored in a corn crib, where it dries, and is ground into "cob chop", which we feed to our dry cows and bred heifers. 

 Jim picking corn on Saturday afternoon

Jim and Jenna unloading a bin wagon onto the elevator on Saturday evening

This is one part that the kids love...as the wagon gets empty, someone needs to stand inside and push the corn down to the opening

There it goes, up the elevator into the corn crib.  The crib won't be full this year; Jim chose to shell more and pick less, but we'll still have some to grind as we need it.

The yields this year weren't fantastic, due to the dry summer we had, but we have plenty for what we need.

It's such a satisfying feeling to see the harvest well under way.    There's still lots to do, but the end is in sight. The soybeans will be combined next; there is still some corn to pick, and then lots of corn fodder to bale.  That could go well into November.   I'll keep you posted!

And her name is...

I know, it's been a while since I asked for a name for our latest heifer calf.  I got lots of suggestions via facebook, and made the executive decision to name her...

Nicole!

She was born the night before we had "the big rain" which was due (in part) to tropical storm Nicole.  Since we won't quickly forget that storm, she has "earned" her name.  She's doing well...an aggressive young heifer who is well on her way to making her mark in the world!

If...

If all I had to do all day was this...

And all I had to worry about ...

was staying away from this...



How different life would be!

Waiting...

It seems like in the past week, we've done alot of WAITING...

Last Thursday we WAITED for the (much needed!) rain to stop.  By evening, we assumed that it was finished;  the rain measured 4 1/2" by supper time.  It was more than we had expected, but less than disastrous.  Jim was WAITING to chop our late corn; hoping that it wasn't already too dry for the silo.  Too much rain would make it impossible to get into the fields any time soon.

We went to bed, WAITING for morning to come,along with the sunshine!  However, the next morning, it was still raining!  I had forgotten to empty the rain gauge, so we aren't certain how much we got, but people around us had measurements of up to 8 1/2" total.  Wow!

We WAITED some more, and finally the sun came out, and we had a beautiful drying day on Friday.

Saturday arrived, and this is what we did...

We still can't quite believe that the chopper was able to get into the fields after 8+" of rain, without making any ruts, and no mud on the driveway!!

We chopped a few loads of silage to refill the one silo, but needed to WAITuntil Monday to do the silage ag bag. (Several peoples' schedules have to mesh in order to get this done!)

Monday arrived, along with more rain.  So, we WAITED some more...

What do we do while we're WAITING?

We had a little time in the afternoons to do some reading...

I did some baking...made my first apple pie from scratch in ages!  (Sorry, no picture...it didn't last long enough! :)  

I made a wreath for my front door with some ladies from Church...

We WAITED to see if our best milking cow would recover from what we think might be "hardware".  (see Dairy Farming 101 - part 1)  The jury is still out on her fate...

We watched a cross country meet on a muddy course...

We enjoyed supper with our Life Group...

And as we WAITED out was seems now to be the last evening of (three consecutive days and another 1 1/2") rain, we were given a beautiful gift...this rainbow!  I think it might've been  the most beautiful, complete, double rainbow that I've ever seen!  Thanks God!

And now...after all the WAITING we've done this week, the sun is once again shining beautifully, a strong breeze is blowing, drying things out, and we hope to finish up chopping corn tomorrow!



I guess we'll WAIT and see!

From drought to deluge...

Oh. My. Goodness!

When it rains, it pours.  Literally!

Wasn't it just a few days ago that we so desperately needed rain?  We had a nice 1.7", and were so grateful.  Now today, we're beginning to wonder if we'll ever see the sun again!

Almost 5" of rain and four changes of clothes later, it's STILL raining.  And blowing.  And raining some more. 

Just about an hour or so ago, I decided to take my camera for a walk.  The rain had slowed to a slow drizzle, and I walked outside, looking for the perfect picture to capture the day.  I was out behind the barn when the heavens let loose again.  I ran for the house...or tried to anyway.  The big barn doors were blowing wildly in the wind, and I was bombarded with pieces of hay in my eyes.  Several large branches blew down in the yard, and the rain was literally blowing sideways.  Jim ran out and we closed the barn doors, propping them shut with the pickup.  Schools even dismissed early due to the weather...I don't ever remember that happening before, other than for snow of course.

I am now temporarily clean and dry, and looking forward to seeing the sun, hopefully tomorrow.

And...I never did get that perfect picture, so I guess you'll just have to use your imagination!

It's a girl! And she needs a name...

The population on the farm grew in number by one yesterday.

Last evening during milking time, we got to witness the birth of a new heifer calf.  It was so nice that it happened like this; in view of the barn, with no complications, and before midnight!

I really wanted to get a picture of the actual birth, but I was milking and couldn't get my camera in time. Jim was feeding and Eric was replacing a hoe blade, so Jenna ran for my camera and had the honor of taking most of these pictures.

Calving isn't especially pretty, so if you don't like to see "messy", don't bother looking any further!


Newborn...

5 minutes old...

10 minutes old...

About 30 minutes old and trying to stand.  Can you imagine if our kids did this?!

Only 40-45 minutes after birth!!  A bit wobbly, but she did it!!  Mama is proud...

She's a big, strong heifer calf with a good set of lungs, and a healthy sucking reflex.  She downed her two quarts of Mama's milk in no time this morning. 

Now, all she needs is a name.  Any suggestions?