Hay and pigs

 Well I got the hay raked today. I was hoping to start baling this afternoon, but it's just too humid. 93 degrees today. Soon as the dew is off in the morning I'll have to rake it again to fluff it up and then bale it.

 I put a bale in the feeder today. We have been hand feeding twice a day since last September when Ingrid foundered. We tape weighed them yesterday and they are both down a hundred pounds from what we got them down to last winter. We think Ingrid's weight is good, but Aksel is a little light. She always pushes him off the hay in the barn. We're going to let them free feed for awhile and check their weight after a couple of bales and see how that goes.

 I put more water out for the boys cause it's so hot and it's the only way they can cool themselves. Here's Pinky getting cool.

Here's Perky doing his submarine imitation.

He likes to stick his whole head underwater. No matter how I tried I wasn't fast enough to catch him all the way under. Goofy pig.

Horses, Le Beef and hay

 It's been real interesting watching the horses react to the steer. Whenever he gets close to the paddock, they walk over and watch him. When the west pasture gets a little longer we'll move him over and let them out there with him. Should be interesting.

 Here they are wondering when it's going to stop raining.

 In other news it's hay time again.

Yesterday I mowed all the fields. First time I got it all done in one day and that included getting a flat tire on the haybine. Luckily the wheels from the hay rake fit right on, so I could keep going with just a short delay. Tomorrow I should be able to rake and Friday start baling. This is the tallest, thickest crop so far. I didn't cut any off the FD's property this year, so we'll see how many bales we'll be short. Last year I got 75 bales but it's much thicker this year, so who knows. I'll keep ya posted.

Farm additions

 Here is the latest piece of machinery to come here. It's an IH sickle mower, made for a Farmall.

It took a bit of figuring and re-engineering, but I got it to fit my tractor and got it working yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately it was raining this morning so I'll have to wait till it dries out to use it again. We got this to mow the pastures to help keep them growing good and keep the weeds down. Also since I'm only planning on one hay harvest I will be able to cut the hayfields when they start to grow back. This will help keep the weeds down and put nutrients back into the soil instead of taking them all out, sort of like self-fertilizing. It's like mulch mowing your lawn. I also went to the FD"s yesterday and brought home this.

 This is the first head of beef in the soon to be vast Berg Acres Cattle Empire, which we expect may number in the two's, three's or four's.

He is a Semmental-Angus cross and maybe some other too, I can't remember. Most important he is Beef. I told Gramma I was going to call him T-Bone and she said, she was going to call him Burger Boy. That's a better name, but then this morning we came up with the perfect name. We recently watched the new True Grit movie. Now if you are not familiar with either of these movies this may not mean anything to you, but it does to us, so we named him Monsieur Le Beef. Doesn't he look delicious? In about a year, when he's two, we will take him to the butcher.

Roosters

You remember Antoine? 

And after his comb froze he became Butch, terror of the barn, frightener of farmer's wives, attacker of farmers.

See him now? No, he's gone.When he flew up at my face that was the last straw. Now Gramma can go down to the barn without the stick and without being scared.

 This is Jack. We expect him to be our new guy.

I've been going in there at least once a day and making sure he knows that I'm the head rooster. I hope it works. We will see.

 Well here they are attached to the boat lift. I pushed out into the lake and did a "Shot In Goal" arm raise when it floated.

Here it is in place. The winch is really heavy so when it comes out the tube on that side will need more air, but it actually works. We are happy.

Chickens, chicks and contraptions

 Kinda hard to tell in this pic, but there are chickens in the garden taking dust baths. It's one of their favorite things. Lucky for us we haven't planted anything.

 Yesterday afternoon we moved the chicks out to the barn. They seem to be adjusting ok.

 I put a light in there for warmth just in case, but I don't think they need it, cause it's 88 degrees right now.

Well, this is my latest contraption. I made two. Any guesses as to what it is? C'mon, all you kids in the Peanut Gallery, guess. The FD already knows so she doesn't get a guess. I'll let you know if they work.

Peep update

The peeps keep growing. We have been putting them outside on the grass lately to help acclimate them to the outside world.

 They seem to enjoy it.

This is the rooster we will probably keep. He has nice feathered feet and the right color. There were two other roosters. One that we think was a cross of Maran and Welsummer and another Maran. Yesterday I saw the cross go into the "Attack Rooster" mode and go after a couple of hens. It's too early for them to be that aggressive, so he went away. We'll see how the other two grow and then decide for sure which one to keep. The good news is we have six new hens. We are happy. In other news, "Governor Gramma" has given the piggie boys a reprieve and they now will get to stay and live to old age. We do however plan to raise some pigs to eat, but they will be named Bacon and Sausage and Porkchop and not raised on the dining room table and bathed in the kitchen sink. I MEAN IT! Next week we'll be getting the steer from the FD and start our cattle operation. I don't know when I'll get to fish. Oh well.