Here it is, a new month and only 31 days left in the year. We had over a foot of snow a little over a week ago, but thankfully we had rain last week that melted it all away. Well, all except for some in the north-facing ditches. Since the ground wasn't frozen, I do believe that the vast majority of the water soaked in. That is good.

We have only 22 heifers here of the neighbors' to feed, but I did hear some rumblings that he might bring some more that would be housed in our heifer barn. We don't have any up at the other farm, and have told him that we don't want any till spring. It makes it much easier for the SU to not have to worry about pushing snow up there and keeping another automatic waterer unfrozen, etc, etc, etc.

My yard is still green, and if the mower wasn't "winterized" I might even consider mowing one area that is pretty lush. Oh, well............guess I will just have to mow early in the spring before it starts looking like a hayfield.

DS#1 is doing the feeding last week and some of this week till the SU is cleared for going out and doing "light labor". He had hernia surgery last Monday and is doing good. It was last Sat. till he was pretty sure he was going to live, tho, as it was really painful for him, even with his Percocet. He's much better now, said he hasn't taken any pain medication since Saturday. His post-op check is tomorrow. He said he was really glad that we weren't "farming" like before because he knows he probably would have gone out and done too much too soon. What a surprise there.

Glad that he is feeling better and glad to see we have a new thread for December.

We didn't even have one for November.

Sometimes this forum gets really quite. I like to follow the posts here but since I don't live on a Farm I don't often have anything to post.

I don't have a lot to say either. It's been raining nonstop for about a week, and the ground is so muddy that it's not fun to be walking around. It was quite cold this morning, but has warmed up nicely.

I don't really want a farm but I sure do wish we were allowed to keep chickens here were I live. I really want some and would have some for sure. But not legal and so many neighbors that I know someone report me if I tried so I just follow the law and don't have them.

I love chickens, and I often wish that everyone could keep at least a few in their backyard. Just think about how much less trash there would be if everyone would just feed leftovers to the chickens instead of throwing it away. A side bonus would be the free eggs of course.

Katie said:I love chickens, and I often wish that everyone could keep at least a few in their backyard. Just think about how much less trash there would be if everyone would just feed leftovers to the chickens instead of throwing it away. A side bonus would be the free eggs of course.

Sounds good to me. Yup, fresh eggs, so yummy!

I love farm fresh eggs. I am currently growing Araucanas , which lay green and blue eggs. Have you ever heard of those?

Katie said:I love farm fresh eggs. I am currently growing Araucanas , which lay green and blue eggs. Have you ever heard of those?

Oh yes. I would have some if I could. I sure do love the idea of the colored eggs. I know it doesn't make them taste better but they sure do look pretty.

I agree. The Araucanas also produce more eggs than the Buff Orpington, and they eat less feed.

I don't have Araucanas but I do have Ameraucanas and I find the same is true for them. Do you know whether the two breeds are related?

The Ameraucana is the Americanized version of the Araucana. The Araucana are from China originally.

I had to read a semi-riot act to DS#1 who is mixing feed for the beasts while the SU convalesces from his surgery. He mixed up enough for at least 4 days. Now, if it is about 10 below zero you can get by with that. It is in the 30's-40's...........he is mixing rye silage and corn silage. Once it gets taken out of the silo bag and exposed to air, it starts to heat. After 4 days, it is not looking OR smelling good. He said "You wanna start mixing feed?" I said "no, I do not, and you KNOW you can't do that much ahead when it isn't really cold out. It turns to crap". Luckily I didn't have but about 3 good shovelfuls to pitch out tonight. There was some left in the mixer last night, he said about 400 pounds (sposed to feed about 1200 or so). I could tell when that came out of the mixer as it was first out. Yuck. Hope it got mixed up enough that they won't figure it out and will eat most of it till tomorrow night. Kids..............just because he is 42 doesn't mean he DOES know it all............

Had some snow last night and till mid-day today. It's not really all that cold out and some has melted already, leaving us with mud. Looks like they're saying mid-40's for the weekend. I will take that. Also uses lots less LP in the g'house!

AnnaZ said: ... He mixed up enough for at least 4 days. Now, if it is about 10 below zero you can get by with that. It is in the 30's-40's...........he is mixing rye silage and corn silage. Once it gets taken out of the silo bag and exposed to air, it starts to heat. After 4 days, it is not looking OR smelling good. ... Kids..............just because he is 42 doesn't mean he DOES know it all............

I think it's probably that Giant Male Brain at work.

The GMB has super-powers that let it ignore inconvenient facts and deny the obvious if it advances our primary missions: laziness, beer and ... more beer.

The SU is back doing all he did before the surgery, so I guess he is pretty well "back to normal"........whatever THAT is around this place.

This morning we're going to sort out some of the smaller heifers in the group and put them over in the heifer barn. They started looking a little "behind" since it got cold. I told the SU yesterday morning there was about 8 or so that needed to be sorted out and given grain and it had better be done SOON! Since it is such a nice, rainy day I guess it will happen shortly. He just went out, so in a few I'll have to go out and we'll have to set up gates and park the mixer wagon and loader tractor to make a solid wall so we can do this 3 or 4 person job ourselves. Perish the thought that we wait till at least DS#1 is here...........nooooooo......................Where would be the sport in that???

Equity today, I''m hoping that it will be a short calf day, but you never know. With it being before a holiday maybe the calf feeders want to unload all they can. We had 200 on Monday, which is a pretty good run. Oh, well, I will go, sharpen my pencil, write numbers, put my little earpiece in for the radio so I can relay info, and do my job.

You always have a full plate of so much to do.

It was a short numbers day all around at Equity. Only 85 calves and 191 total head for the day. Usually it is around 800-900 total on sale day. It will be really lots the first week in January. That's when the farmers unload all the stuff they hung onto in December because they didn't want the income in 2015.

Holy Moses............it's thundering, lightning, and raining like crazy right now. This is 2 days before Christmas and we are getting RAIN??? I am SO glad the SU fixed up the sump pump in the basement so it is automatic instead of flooding my whole basement. Wish we had done that years ago. Too soon old and too late smart, I guess.

Got the heifers sorted and moved during the worst rain, and it quit when we got done. Par for the course. Now, if they only had enough brains to put their heads THROUGH the headlock stalls and eat their feed. LOL Where they are now in the heifer barn they have sand-bedded free stalls to lay in. I think they will probably like that better, unless they employ their massive brains and back into the stalls, crap in them and then lay down. Bovines are so ignorant. But, pigs are the worst. Jeez, noting stupider than hogs and whoever said they are the Einsteins of the barnyard has obviously NOT had to work with them. I think 35 years of dealing with them gives me a pretty good insight..............

I'm glad to hear that about pigs. I've always heard how smart they are and it's kind of a drag since I love bacon and don't want to think much about eating smart things. So good, dumb is good... and tasty.

I've always said that the only good pig is a dead pig on my grill.