If The thread "Farming September , 2018 till................" in Farming forum
If anyone cares to revisit our "old home" we were here

Harvest is, for the most part, winding down here. The guy the SU helps will be done with beans in 3 days or so *IF* the weather holds and the really ginormous *IF*............nothing breaks. We all know how God and the universe laugh at those comments.

We had a little snow last week, not much more than a dusting but it was enough to bring the salt crews out and put half the salt amount in the Dead Sea on the roads. Again, the SU is not amused.............this means that we will have to drive the truck and RV on *gasp* salted roads on our trek to Texas in a couple weeks.

Last week we got a letter from the county zoning committee informing us that "during their driving around the county they noticed that we had storage units on our property and ........bad, bad us............there was not a permit applied for said units. First off, it took them a freeking YEAR AND A HALF to notice they were there???? They are down in the pasture and along a fenceline. There are 8 of them. Technically, they are not ours, they belong to the fireworks business our son works for and they are magazine storage for fireworks and related parphanalia for said fireworks use. They are NOT permanant structures. As our son said "They are sitting on $4,000.00 worth of breaker rock, but they are NOT permanant. They could, technically, be moved at any time, but the ATF would NOT be happy about it since each mag has a GPS tracker on it". Son is meeting with someone from zoning this morning at 10. He called me yesterday and wants me there too..........for support, and as the legal landowner that they are setting on. Before Son did this he talked to our township chairman and was told that if they are not permanant structures he has no problem with them. So, it all comes down to one thing..............the Almighty $$$$$$. I don't know if I will be able to keep my mouth shut, but it's better I go than the SU. He would probably end up in jail, for either insubordination or murder.

Neighbor came and got all his heifers from our pastures about 3 weeks ago........all 118 of them. We have no adequate shelter for them in the winter, the SU ran out of corn silage, and we haven't had any hay silage for about 2 months. The neighbor had been bringing some over for hubby to mix every day. It worked. Other than that, we just don't want any animals here during the winter any more. Since we will be spending the winter elsewhere this year, it wouldn't have worked anyway.

I shoved Himself out the door about 7:30 to go to the field with his lunch. With any luck he won't be back till about 7 tonight. I don't have the whole day to myself, as I have Equity at 1 this afternoon, but that will only be a couple of hours. I'll still have lots of time to bake when I get home. There is an indoor Farmers Market on Sunday that I need to rustle up some goodies for.

Sooooo.............what's everyone else up to??

Well this week we changed from temperatures in the upper 80s and daily rain to 30s and high winds. There was a thin skin of ice on the water troughs this morning, but the sun is finally out so I will spend a good part of the day freeze-proofing everything - at least a month earlier than usual. There are still pastures that need to be shredded to improve grazing, but everything is still too soggy. The deer keep me busy repairing the fences where they jump through them and pop the hot wire out of the insulators causing it to ground out the system. And all the boggy ground has caused some of the racetrack pensioners to develop hoof abscesses so there are horses recovering in the barn adding stall cleaning chores. But at least the sun id shining!

There's not much excitement around here. Ranchers have moved cattle around to use up the last of the pasture and many have begun to feed them hay. More and more of the ranches have two calving seasons now, something that nobody was doing just a few years ago. It evens out production and takes advantage of better prices. Also if the market is down they don't take such a big hit all at once.

Here on our place the garlic is all planted and mulched. I was planting garlic with near freezing hands because that last day there was frost in the ground. There was still some I could have planted but it will be sold instead because right after that the temperatures went down into the teens at night. We haven't had snow yet. The mountains around us have white coats and we can usually expect snow by the end of November. Our days have been mostly sunny except for a couple of days when smoke from the California wildfires became quite thick. The whole west coast needs rain!

The neighbor the SU helps got done with harvest on Wednesday. They are very happy. We got snow last night that would have stopped them for a few days till it melts.

Around here much of the cotton never got picked; the incessant rains kept the fields too wet. By law it should all be plowed under by now, but the wet fields have prevented that too. I'm sure there are lots of very unhappy farmers who wish they could share their rain with the west!

I hope they had crop insurance.

I suspect that anyone growing rowcrops in this area would be foolish not to

First time to address this forum, But in my area El Paso County, Tx. Back in my childhood this whole valley was 98% Cotton. My Mother was the bookkeeper for the largest one in the valley for 40-50 years. Back then there were over 15 cotton gins, and 4 cotton oil mills. Now there is still cotton but about 20%, the rest is all Pecans. I was raised part time on my Grandparents farm, weekends and school vacations. One gin in the whole valley and no cotton oil mills as of to date. At present they are still picking cotton in this area crops come in latter than your part of the state. If I remember stalks don't have to be cut till march 1 could be wrong. I know the last year my Mother worked they ginned 19,000 bails of cotton. Times have changed. I know a lot of farmers till this day, an most of them chance it with the crop insurance until around June 1st. The danger in this area is hail damage. Not so much the rain. Everyone enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Nice to hear from you, James.

I grew up in Arizona next to cotton fields. The thing I remember most is the crop dusting. We'd hear the planes, and have to run around closing all of the windows because the smell was so obnoxious. I'm sure it wasn't good for us either! Cotton used to be a huge crop there, but it's not grown much now at all. The former cotton fields all are housing developments now. I'm glad it's still being grown. In AZ we still see a lot of cotton being grown in the smaller towns.

Karen, a fella by the name Bill Michaels, lived in San Saba, AZ. a very good friend. He was a cotton farmer there and also owned the only cotton gin in the area. As you said not much cotton grown in the area any more. As for the crop dusting it is still is the same way with the few 10000 acres of cotton in this
area. The small airport in my little town is where the crop dusters take off not a mile and half from my house. The worst part of it is the flight pattern is right over my house. Let me tell you what a roar most mornings at 5 am, and even leaking spray can be quite over powering.

Interesting that very little cotton is grown in AZ and the USDA cotton grade classing office is still located there. I haven't driven I-10 to Phoenix, in 15 years. And my understanding a lot of that farming area in now pecan and pistachio. I know you all still drive back and forth so maybe you would know better than me.

We see a lot of pecans, but the only cotton seems to be around Safford and Globe. Phx has a little bit left, but it's nothing like it used to be. I'm surprised that crop dusting is still allowed. It has to be toxic to humans and animals. I can still remember the smell very well.

The cotton dusters fly right over our farm too, but fortunately the prevailing winds carry any drift away from us. I actually love watching the ag-pilots.

They were fun to watch, Pork. I couldn't believe how low they would get, without crashing.

Some crop dusting still goes on in this area. They are fun to watch. The main crops are alfalfa, and potatoes. Last year I saw a field of sugar beets which were most likely under contract to Simplot which has some warehouses in the area. Ore-Ida has a potato and onion processing plant at Ontario, Oregon (think tater tots) and about 30 miles farther down I-84 there is a sugar processing plant to handle sugar beets. I could close my eyes when passing either of those and tell you by the smell where I am.

We have a messy mix of rain and snow today, with wind and the temperature at 33. Sloppy! On the other hand, I saw one of those day counter things on facebook that told me it was only 113 days until spring. I think I will focus on that.

I think we would all like to focus on spring and it's not even officially winter yet. Sure does feel like winter this month of November as November has been much too cold.

We are facing our first snow next Friday or Saturday. I'm not ready for it.

I am not EVER ready for snow. I just hate the stuff!!

But snow is so pretty - other people's snow.

porkpal said:But snow is so pretty - other people's snow.

Other peoples snow is right!!!