Hay

 Hay is baled! Yaaaah!

 It was a heck of a day yesterday. 98 degrees and humid. Fog in the morning, so it took awhile for the dew to go. One of the hydraulic lines for the baler wouldn't connect. I messed around with it for over an hour. I moved the tractor and baler into the shed, out of the sun and then moved it again into the hay shed because it was more open and still out of the sun. I came in the house two times to rest and cool off, cause I was afraid of heat stroke. Finally got it hooked up and went in the field to bale. That's when I discovered that the PTO wasn't right. There is a lever to to put it in gear and a lever to engage it. When I tried to put it in gear all it did was grind. When I checked the lever to engage I could tell something wasn't right because it just moved freely. I thought I might have to borrow or rent a tractor. Well I couldn't put it in gear by hand, so I tried the next best thing......I kicked it. Went right in and I was in business. Now you always disengage from time to time for various reasons, like when making a tight turn or backing up. I didn't. Anyway I baled the two small fields by the house and then came in cause I was feeling kind of wobbly due to the heat. Stayed inside about two hours putting cold washcloths on my head and neck. I checked my pulse rate and it was 120. Normally it's about 60. Well I started to feel better and went back out to do the east field. The wind picked up and it got cloudy, so it was a bit better. Then the storm clouds came and it started to thunder and lightning. Well Gramma drove over to the field to tell me to get my butt back to the house just as I was making the last bale. Beat the rain by about 20 minutes. I was so relieved. Bales will shed water fairly well, but hay on the ground in windrows will not.When it's on the ground in the rain it's a lot more time and work to get it dry and you lose some quality too. Now I just got to get it in the shed and stacked up by the shed. Buying a hay tarp on Wednesday to cover what won't fit in the shed. We are keeping it all this time because we're getting six more cows in the next week or so and two of them are pregnant.

 Here's some of the logs I cut to put under the bales in the hay shed to keep them off the ground. I hate having to throw away bad hay from them sitting on the ground.

On another front, we opened up the little coop tonight, so all the chickens will be together. Hopefully no one gets beat up too bad. Later.

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.