Cold, wet, and dreary here.

This morning's excitement was the escape (again) of about a dozen Shelties from the neighbor's into our pasture and ultimately down the road to other neighbors'. All the barking rivaled last night's war-zone fireworks.

Thanks to better than average recent rains, our pastures are still quite green, and the rye I planted in the paddocks is up. I hope freezing temperatures hold off as long as possible.

Happy New Year!

What a cute ornament!

I am glad that there are rarely loose dogs roaming around here. We do have strict leash laws.

Sunny but chilly here on New Years Day. I walked with my little dog Lily for an hour and a half so we both got our exercise for today.

I woke up to thunder. Now I'm looking for some suspenders for the rain pants. Early chores will be less fun than usual.

Oh dear!

Two little sayings from England

When you've got livestock you've got dead stock
and
Sheep were put on this earth to find 101 ways in which to die - and if they can find the 102nd they will!

Happy New Year to you all and may all your animals stay healthy

May I make a request that whoever starts the "new" month please put a link and post in the old thread so it shows up for those that are watching. I think I did that the last time I started one. I didn't know this was here till I looked specifically for it. Muchas gracias.

The milking job was not without its problems, but we managed to get through it in pretty decent shape. The milking was ok, it was the outside feed mixing and subsequent problems the SU had with his portion of the job. A slat broke on the discharge conveyer of the mixer wagon; thought it was fixed but, noooooo.........next day it jumped the sprocket and came off because there was no slat there to hold things where they should be. So he found an old one, cut it to size, and welded it in. The guy needs a new chain for that discharge part, but he kind of blanched when the SU told him it cost $1600.00 when he replaced the one on ours a couple of years ago. His mixer also has 2 big "screws" in it for chewing up hay bales and I guess those are getting bad. They told him it would be $10.000.00 to replace them. The SU told him he'd be better off replacing the mixer..........it is old and not big enough for the amount of feed that needs to be mixed for the milking herd. We'll see what happens on that. LOL

The guy's hired boy was a piece of work; your typical 15 year old male that thinks he is indispensable and knows EVERYTHING around the farm. Well, he's not, and he doesn't. On Monday night............colder than all Billy Pergatory, he decides that the 6 foot long cattle waterers in the free stall building needed to be drained and cleaned out. Imbecile.................he managed to get only half of them before the SU told him DO NOT EVEN THINK OF DRAINING THE REST OF THEM. What a mess. Oh, there was more, but it gives me a headache to think of it.

Zero on the temp scale here, but at least the sun is shining and the sunroom will be fit to go bask in a little later. Had some snow, and wind, of course, to relocate the snow to all the inappropriate areas, making it necessary for the SU to go and re-relocate it. LOL

Anna, I know exactly what you mean about re-relocating the snow. And I can see what a problem draining water tanks in freezing weather would cause. That ice will take a long time to go away. No doubt your SU is duly impressed with the boys knowledge and timing. I hope the owner replaces the mixer before you have to be milking there again.

We have freezing fog. While making driving challenging and treacherous at times, it does produce a beauty all it's own with the hoarfrost making every bush, tree, fence and everything look quite fuzzy. When the sun comes out, all of that will sparkle!

Just made out the bill for the guy we milked/chored for from the 1-6th...$837.50 plus another $50.00 for the 2 nights the SU had to dink around and fix the busted web on the discharge of his mixer wagon. Had to bring some old parts of ours to get the job done. Almost enough to get one of us to Mexico. LOL We're going back there for 8 days next month, so our next trip should be pretty well taken care of. Have 4 days for another guy in May, he's got about 120 cows, but there will be help. I cannot milk there myself, as one side of his barn is too tall for me to plug in the milkers. Nice to know that we'll have another winter get-away in another 11 months. :>)

He's got 104 cows: I only charged him for 50 as I had help. Couldn't really keep track of who milked who, so charging for the 50 seemed like a fair way to do it. I charge $1.50 per cow per day, and the SU got $10/hr for all the feed mixing and scraping alleys and feeding the heifers. This place isn't too bad, but there is one place we go that I told him he wasn't working for $10/hr...........I was charging $15/hr since everything was such a PITA, and not even any decent shovels or 5 gallon pails with handles.

Sounds like bargain rates to me.

Well, *I* know what it's like trying to get someone responsible to take over your beasts and the accompanying feeding, cleaning out, etc. And I also know what we could or could not afford to pay, so we try not to give it to them in the shorts.

I think the services you provide are such a great idea! I know there are times when I wish there was someone who could come and feed out chickens and goats and put them away at night/let them out in the mornings. And I'm not even the one doing it!

One of the gals in on my farmwife group list told me when I said we were going to sell our cows and then do some relief milking..........."Boy, I wish I could hire you to come and milk my cows when we go on vacation." I told her "pay my way and I will". She does. I live in Wisconsin, she lives in New York..........pays my airfare out. Usually the SU drives out, takes in a NASCAR race, then comes to the farm and we drive back. She pays me in cash! Lovely, unreportable cash!!!!!! I also house-sit, as I stay in her house, and I bake for her. I bake LOTS. Last time I was out there I had the SU bring my Kitchenaid mixer, as all she has is a little Sunbeam. I was so glad I had him bring it, I had a wonderful time. I think I used about 20 pounds of flour, at least........probably 12 pounds of butter, 10 pounds of brown sugar...............It was so fun. I made her quite a few batches of cookie dough. Mixed it up, wrapped it up good, and put the baking directions on the container. Then when she wanted fresh cookies, all she had to do was thaw the dough.

I also made 6 dozen cinnamon rolls. Let the dough make its first rise, then formed the rolls and cut them. Then I wrapped each roll individually in double saran wrap and put 6 rolls into a ziplock bag. All she had to do was the last rise along with the thaw and bake. I'd travel just to bake for someone.

I remember you posting going there and about all that baking! It's a win-win situation.

I agree on the Kitchenaid mixer too. If you're gonna bake you've gotta have one. My family used to make fun of me because I have a small crock on the counter that holds all my spatulas, like 20! I hate to stop and wash them as I'm working, plus I usually have several things going at one time.

That's nice that SU will drive out there. Does he ever stop in Dover? I think they do some NASCAR races there.

When I am in NY, it is usually during the race time at Watkins Glen, so that's the one he attends. He's been there twice. A couple of years ago, it worked out that they came back from their vacation in time for us to drive to the next race in Bristol, TN. Gads, we were gone almost 3 weeks. It's like I don't even HAVE an August when I go out there, because half my month is just "gone".

I didn't go to NY this past August because they only went for a week and she feels that she can leave the hired "cowboys" alone that long. It's when they go for 12-14 days that she wants me there. I'm not going this year either, as they are only going for a week and it will be the end of June.

Your baking would be incentive enough for me to go for longer than a week!

It's snowing here; not heavy, but snow is snow as far as I'm concerned. Quite a bit of the previous had melted, so I guess it's time for some more.

The SU and I are headed to the Wisconsin Corn/Soy/Pork expo on Thursday as we both help with the Taste of Elegance program. 8 chefs make their original pork entrée and it is judged by 4 judges. I usually carry the judged plates back to the kitchen.........and we nosh on what's left on the trip back to the kitchen.

Anna, I wish I could go. Have fun, but don't blow your diet!

Winter here isn't turning out to be much. Warmish days are melting our snow, lots of bare patches showing up now. Nights are down to the teens and 20's, and the weather map shows very weak storms with breaks between them. It looks like a good time to go help our daughter and husband with preparations for moving. Hubby will be doing some carpentry, I will probably help with sorting and packing, and we will have a good time. Of course the trip is weather permitting, as mountain passes are involved, but as of now it looks like a go.

Mary, the guy at the weigh-in on Friday told us "treat it like a plateau day...........eat and enjoy that expensive piece of pie". Our county's pork producers president can spend up to $500.00 for a pie. The SU said if we get a pie, I am NOT going to sit there and watch everyone else eat it. LOL So, we'll nosh a bit and back at it on Friday. I'm sure it won't hurt us much, if at all.

New month, new home.................go here.........


The thread "Fickle February 2015" in Farming forum