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Catching up

May 5th, 2008 at 06:10 am

Lots to catch up here...

We sold the cull cows last Monday. Two of them were very old and skinny, but both had calves. One of them got out all the time and had a calf. Another got out all the time and was due any minute (I was joking that when it went through the sale ring, it would have the calf's legs sticking out the back). 7 others either lost their calves or weren't pregnant this year. DH has been feeding them grain morning and night to bulk them up, and they really started to look good. The two that got out tempted us to keep them because in the past they have had good calves, but troublemakers have no place on our farm! Smile We got a good price for all of them; both DH and I were happy with the check! Lowest was $.46 per pound, highest was $.5775 per pound, except for the pairs, went for $710 per pair. After paying the sale barn their cut, we brought home $7126.89. We were only expecting $5500 - $6000! And, I only paid $850 a piece for them 6 years ago, and all of them have had calves each year, plus I got to depreciate them on my taxes! That was a good investment.

We got the cows and bulls out to pasture on Friday. We have 43 pairs and 3 bulls now. DH had been feeding them twice a day, too, and having to haul water about every other day, and it was really wearing on him. He feels so relieved to not have to worry about that anymore! They are happily munching on new green grass, in the valleys, but nothing is growing on the hillsides yet. Hope that comes on before they run out of valley grass! It hasn't been warm enough to make the grass grow very fast, which is strange for around here. Most of the time the grass is ready by May 1. Where's that global warming when you need it, huh?

The wheat is coming along fine...it grew a LOT in the past week. We are going to have to get it sprayed for weeds in the next few weeks, and it is too far along for a truck to do it, so we are going to have to have a flying service do it. DH called them Saturday and he has to go give them a map on Monday. It has been so windy they are way behind, so hopefully it will get done pretty soon.

We moved the swather home the other day. (I did mention on a previous post that we had bought the swather, right?) It is driven by hydrolics, which means that if you turn the steering wheel to the right more hydrolic oil goes to the left tire so that tire will go faster, and vice versa (vs. the tires moving left or right). He said it is like a tank, but I've never driven a tank either, so that's no help. I am just learning how to run it, and DH had me get in and try to back out last night so I could get a feel for it, and he hadn't told me it steered a little funny compared to what I was used to. I started backing out, and couldn't get it to stop (did I mention that it doesn't have any brakes? You are supposed to use the hydrostat to go from forward to neutral to backing up)! I was backing right towards the tractor and couldn't stop. He lunged across me and got it stopped, and THEN told me how the steering worked. Thanks a lot! I about had a heart attack Smile

We sprayed for musk thistle (a noxious weed that you have to control or you could get fined) today in one of the new pastures. There is a LOT there. DH let me use the 4 wheeler and sprayer, and he had a hand sprayer and just walked. We did that for about 5 hours this afternoon, and it was pretty nice out. Not too hot, not too cold, and the wind wasn't blowing too hard. We will for sure have to go back.

Haven't heard anything on the house yet. We dropped the price $3000 and someone went to look at it Friday, but I haven't heard anything since. I offered it to the guy I bought it from for what I bought it from him if he would pay half the RE agent commission, but haven't heard anything from my agent about that either. I think she sucks. Not following up very well, that is for sure.

Applied for another job today. Here's hoping!

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