Up too early & ramblings

[Kay/NC]

Came back Sunday evening after supper. Mike had a small trailer to haul, and really wanted to get ready to move cows this week, so he stayed at Jenna's, I came south, arriving about dark.

He had been kind of wound up about getting the cows across the lane to fresh grass, so we can bale the pasture they were on. Had to secure a couple of the old barnyard gates on the destination pasture with chains and locks...hate to do that, but with house tenants and not being there constantly, we feel it is wise.

Not thirty minutes out, I got a voice text saying the cows were moved. Then, that they were standing at the gate asking to go, so he didn't even bother to set panels across the lane. Good thing they are well trained to rotate, I guess, or he would've put himself in a real pickle.

Maybe it is fairer to say they have him trained. When they start standing at the gate, he knows they want to go to fresh grass. Do you feel your animals have you trained, too?

Tucked myself in after a couple of hours, and slept maybe until 415...I usually stir about then, but his being asleep helps me settle back down. No sleep germs to catch here these wee hours. The cats have tried to get me to give in, but the brain is churning.

I am still ticked off about the mailbox thing in Va. Still have the rest of the store shelves and a few containers to move, thus Mike staying over so he could haul the empty trailer back in daylight. Some electrical, some plumbing stuff to fix on the store before mid-June.

Got to call those repair guys, but don't know exactly when I will be where, until,the hay is made. Still hay to bale here and there, and rain in the forecast...maybe not until Thursday. We could use it by then.

Have spent the last two days on an open tractor, our old IH 756. It was the first one we bought, in 1975. Do any of your still run stuff that old? Have you held onto any of your original equipment? This tractor is and probably always will be my favorite...it feels a lot like " my" tractor from teenaged years of cultivating, hauling tobacco sleighs. That was a Farmall 504. I grew up in that seat.

I let myself get a pretty good sunburn on my thighs yesterday...I know better, but I hate to be a fish-belly. Southern girls just gotta have that tan! Do you try to get brown, or slather with sunscreen?

We got as far as the hay was ready yesterday. All picked up and in the big barn there. Mike finally got the bugs out of the netwrap in the baler...our first couple of bales went comically wrong last week! He is very good at getting his settings right, thank goodness...something about voltage to the actuator.

Yes, I actually know what that is and where it is, thanks to being the manual reader, and using some instructional videos off of YouTube in the field last week. Amazing to be able to do that. A five-second search and minute-long video saves scads of trying to find something in the operator's manual. Do you guys use your smartphones for equipment troubleshooting?

This final fix required a call to the serviceman at the dealership. Every dealer seems to have "THE guy" in the shop, don't they?

Oh, well, time to get it in gear for my little buddy. PaPa should be back shortly. He's promised to load the trailer, around baling for daughter this afternoon. Then, we haul back either late today, or early tomorrow. Maybe not, if our hay here willgo by then...who knows?

Hope all are safe, with so much extreme weather lately.

[SLC]

Sounds like you are having a busy weekend too..      

Our cows have us trained or vice versa..  Depends on the season of the year..   they will get very restless in the fall when its time to come off pasture and very restless in the spring when its time to go to pasture again.  They know the rotation of the summer pastures and about when we will move them.  They know when its time to rotate on the stock fields in the winter and when its time to move into the calving area. The old show heifers will always run towards a bucket..  even 10 years later.   

Old equipment..  seems like we hang on to some things forever.. my all time favorite tractor is the old 1979 1086..    not that we use it much anymore but I still like it.     DH uses an old Farmall M out to lay out electric fence and roll it back up.   It belonged to his grandfather and he restored it in HS.  

Sounds like you have a crabby postal worker ..  hope they get over themselves and the solution works to everyone's satisfaction.  

Dont' really use the phones for equipment troubleshooting but it would sure work.  I have looked up antibiotic and such on it ..  

We got even more rain last night and again this afternoon..   severe weather is supposed to roll in sometime this afternoon..  hope they are wrong about that.   Right now, its so extremely muddy its awful.  I know I shouldn't complain because we'll be wanting moisture in a few weeks.. but enough!   We slept in a little this morning.    Up too early the last two days.. had to leave at 6am Saturday to take DD to a dog show.... and drove home in the worst rain ..