It has been a hectic few days around the ranch, we have been going pretty hard trying to get squared away so that we could take a few days off and head up to the black hills of South Dakota to attend the wedding of a young neighbor of ours. In the past week I have finished my day a three thirty in the morning once and started it there twice, Three thirty is a much better starting point than a finishing point, but it is sure great to have all of the hay baled. My son Caleb got more done on the racking while Beth, Hannah and I finished up working the last group of calves and testing bulls than I expected him to. The sixty eight year old Ferguson tractor paired with the fifty year old new Holland rake held together long enough to finish the last thirty five acres of first/second cutting hay that we had down. I probably would have stopped him at the half way point if I had been freed up from my other job, but I wasn’t, and since he had it all done and it was very heavy hay, which would have taken forever to have dried out if had gotten wet, I was fortunate enough to have my bailer hold together long enough to finish it up. The Lighting and light sprinkles early in the evening were pretty good motivation to keep at the job. I had the privilege of speaking for the Nebraska Ag Youth Institute group in Lincoln on Monday evening; it was exciting to speak to two hundred of Nebraska’s future Ag leaders, high school juniors and seniors from across the state. I started my day early on Tuesday morning, mostly because I had forgotten to turn on the air conditioning in my motel room, and it had gotten pretty toasty in their by the three thirty in the morning. I needed to get headed back early any way because we were bringing the cows back from the north pasture to set them up for AI season, this involved driving them six miles home, sorting off the old cows that I did not plan to breed, and running the rest of them through the chute to give them a shot and a pour on. We did not get quite as early a start as we might have if I had started my day off at home, and the conversation with the neighbors as I served as a pilot horse driver taking them through the cowherd that was taking up more than our share of the county road, seemed to focus on the possibility that it was mighty hot to be doing anything with cows. I was not real chatty since most of my voice energy was being exerted trying to keep the cows, and part of the time my crew, moving the right direction. We got the job done in time for Beth and Hannah to get the lambs hauled to market and Caleb and I to finish out our day in the dark getting cows where they belong and putting up some more electric fence. I am looking forward to next week when all we have to do is breed a few cows and spend our free time getting ready for county fair in two weeks, I am sure that it will all go real well, since we are so rested up from our vacation.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 10:10:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015