An Andy Update (Weeks 25, 26 & 27)

YAAAAHH!!  We have passed the half way mark with the 52 week project.  Andy has been in quite a few photos already.  I have missed a few opportunities  (like the farm centennial celebration).  AND, I will need to keep coming up with new ideas as there are still 25 weeks left to do!!  Oh well, I signed on to this project because I thought it would be fun!

So, I have not posted all of my "entries" on the blog.  Here are the last three submissions:

25/52: Andy took time to smell the Lilacs 

26/52:  Andy seeing the challenges of operating a tractor and all of the controls that his farmer has to manage in order to plant the crop.

27/52:  This week Andy went on a little road trip with me.  We had to take a different route as there is water over so many roads in our area.  I (we) popped over a hill in the middle of nowhere (on a gravel road) and there was a stop light!!  The road construction crew must not have been able to hire anyone to flag for them so they are using this.  It made me laugh!  There is a US Air Force Security vehicle in front of me. 

June 2 and everything is WET

Last evening a neighbor called sharing concern about the township roads.  Mark is on the township board so he is one to call.  Anyway, we visited a little and he told me that some of the roads in nearby townships have water going over them.   Well, it has been wet and just Thursday and Friday we did get 3.5 inches of rain so I went for a drive after mowing the lawns this afternoon.

About 1/2 mile south of us the water is just starting to go over the road.

 

The two puddles on the edge of the road are where the water is starting to go over the road.  Something very interesting to me in this photo are the objects that are white and look like flowing gauze.  They are actually spider webs!  They are all the way along the road/water here.  I have never seen such a thing before.  They did just flow in the breeze and were quite large.  The spiders were pretty small.

 

 

Here is a closer look at the webs (as they are wrapped around a twig):

 

 

Back to the water...  This is at the neighbors looking toward the Wilcox trees.  This is the third time this year that this trail has flooded.  We were able to use it (with 4X4 only) to get to our field west here; however, no machinery could have used it.  Now, it is flooded again.  UGH!

 

 

 

Then I went to some of our land that we call the Hammond Place.  (I think all farmers have names for their land - usually named after prior owners.)  I found more water over the road.  I parked my vehicle and walked toward it.  I did not know if a jet was flying over or if the water was roaring.  It was indeed the water!   The water was coming through the culvert so fast that it was foaming!  You can see it was not a long fall for the water but it sure had the sound of an awesome waterfall.

 

For some of the family:  this is the big slough in the SW corner of the former CRP  (looking toward David Schwede's former place). 

 

 

It has run over and joined up with all of the other Hammond Sloughs'.  (The only way I'd get a photo of that is if I was in a plane.)  Here is where it is coming to the road.  It goes over the road just to the right of the photo.

 

 

(This is especially for you Ken!)

 

 

Planting came to a halt for us early Thursday morning.  The rain started and did not stop until Friday afternoon totalling about 3.5 inches.  We are about 2/3 done with getting our crop in.  Sadly, there is a very good chance of rain for Monday-Thursday this week.  We will see what happens but it could mean that we will not get any more seeded.

 

 

Spring finally Sprung! (and Week 18: Andy)

I am happy to report that we finally have spring.  We thought we might have slept through it!  We had about 5 good days in the field and boy were we busy!  Mark got all of our peas planted.  This is our first year of raising field peas.  We have about 200 acres of them. 

Yellow Field Pea Seed

After we finished the peas, we started planting canola.  Mark & Brett have taken turns running the air seeder.  There is plenty else to do.  Brett has a sprayer that needs to be fixed and gotten ready so he has spent quite a bit of time doing that.  I shared a little about seeding last year.

Once we started planting canola, I got more involved in the spring planting season.  It is my job to pull Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3) tanks to town to get them filled and return them to the field.  NH3 is used to add nitrogen to the soil. 

Andy waiting for the NH3 tank to be filled.

Christopher just finished breeding about 50 heifers using Artificial Insemination (AI).  He goes through about a three step process to get them all to cycle (come in heat) at the same time.  I helped him get the cattle in to work them but he had to do the inseminating.  I understand he wants to breed some of the cows too.  I don't think I've ever written about this so I should follow him around with a camera next time.  He will not like that! We artificially breed the heifers (female cows who have never had a calf) to better control the birth weight of their calves.  We AI our registered (purebred) Polled Hereford cows to help improve the genetics in our herd.

Our seeding came to a halt on Saturday due to fog and mist.  By Sunday morning we had a full fledged rain.  Since about 10:30 Sunday morning until this afternoon (Monday) we have had nearly three inches of rain.  It has been a beautiful rain for our pasture grasses.  We must now be patient for the soil to dry so we can finish seeding.

Done

Just wanted to post a quick note to let you know that the crop is all planted.  This year the crops are:  canola, barley, Hard Red Spring Wheat, Corn (probably all silage corn) and sweet clover (which we won't be able to hay until next year). 

The alfalfa is getting close to blooming so it will be time to get the haying equipment ready.  Most of the cattle are out to pasture, but we still have to work the calves (brand and vaccinate them).

There is always plenty to do.  Today, Mark & I are off on a road trip to deliver some recycled plastic fence posts to Kulm, ND.  We will be back home tonight.  In the meantime, the "boys" will take care of the livestock!   It is supposed to rain for a few days now so I hope that we can all get a little rest!

Rural North Dakota sights

Lately I have been doing lots of driving around.  I am the "go-fer" for our farm.  I go for parts. I go for Anhydrous Ammonia.  You get the idea.  So, I have started to take my camera along.  If I have a little extra time I will stop to take photos.  They are usually taken of water birds in sloughs along the roads that I travel.

I thought I would share a few of the birds I have seen.

American Coot preening

Canada Goose family

Red Heads

Northern Shovelers

Top:  American Coot

2 on left:  Wilson's Phalarope

pair on right:  Blue-winged Teals

I have seen a few other water birds such as Mallards, Grebes, SeaGulls and more.  If I get more photographed I might even share them with you!

We have 2-3 days left of planting so I will have many more miles to drive!!  Always a breakdown, meal to haul or someone getting stuck so we will see what it all brings.

Be sure to share a comment so I know someone actually stops by to see what is going on at NoDak Herefords.

Another day, another rain

As stated in my last post, not much seeding is getting done thanks to the rain.  Since the last rain (last post), Brett covered the tillable acres on one quarter.  It was planted to Hard Red Spring Wheat (HRSW or just "wheat").  Now, early Sunday morning we got another 1.1 inches of rain.  Mark wonders if the rain gauge drain hole is just above the 1.1 inch mark since that is the amount of the last two rains!

The rain has allowed us the time needed to tend to the cattle.  The A.I.ing (Artificially Inseminating) is done for this season.  Christopher must have artificially bred nearly 100 head.  This process takes working with each female three times.  We do a lot of our breeding this way to help improve the genetics of our herd.  It is much cheaper than buying expensive bulls to do the same job, but is labor intensive compared to letting the bull just do his own business.  We hope to see many healthy AI calves next spring.

Spring seeding

We are at the half way mark with seeding/planting here.  Brett does the seeding.  He has all of our canola and barley done.  He started the wheat today.  He has also fertilized the corn ground.  We still have all of our wheat (& possibly flax) to seed.  Also, we have corn to plant.

Here the guys are filling the air seeder cart with barley seed (one is watching the grain cart and one is on the ground to shut things down when it is full).  The semi has the barley seed which is augered up into the cart (yellow thing).  This cart has two compartments - one for seed and one for dry fertilizer.  The white tank here has Anhydrous Ammonia (NH3).  NH3 is nitrogen (fertilizer) for the soil .  I take these tanks into town to have them filled many times a season!  The John Deere (green) tractor runs the jump auger.  We use the jump auger to move the grain from the semi trailer to the auger that fills the grain cart. 

Brett is turning on the NH3 (Anhydrous Ammonia) tank as he prepares to start seeding.

Here he goes!  The implement in front of the grain cart is the part that actually puts the seed and fertilizer into the ground.  There are many hoses and tubes used to move the seed & fert to their proper locations in the soil.  We have had our soil tested so we know how much dry fertilizer and NH3 to add to it so it should be able to produce the best crop yield possible.

The above photos were taken a few days ago.  I just have not had time to post until this evening.  Here is why I now have time:

This evening around 6 pm the rain started.  Around 6:30 it started to hail.  Here is a sampling of what we got.  There is a teaspoon there to help see the size of the hail.  This could wreck havoc with the crops that  have started to grow.  We don't think it will hurt any of our crops, but our neighbors have some really nice winter wheat that could be damaged.   We also received a little over 1 inch of rain in about 1 hour.  So, we will not be in the field for a few days.  However, our neighbors who live about 2 miles south of us only got .25 inch of rain.  So, we hope we can seed our land near their place quicker than the stuff here at home.

Linking to Farm Photo Friday

it's been awhile

It has been quite a while since I have posted.  Part of my trouble is that I think I should always have a photo to share, since that was my original reason to start a blog!  I have been bad about taking photos lately - lack of subject ideas, rainy weather, and so on. 

SO, you get an update on the ranch.  We still have a few cows left to calve.  No seeding has been done yet as the men are still working on that machine AND it is still too wet in the fields.  They tested the seeder today so can fine tune it now!  Today we started the process to A.I. (artificial insemination) some of our cattle. 

The forecast sounds rainy for the next few days so perhaps there will be some time for my guys to rest.

Along with 11 other ladies, I was in a "reader's theatre" production this past Sunday.  We performed, "The Other Twelve Disciples".  It was interesting to hear about some of the events in Jesus' life through the eyes of women.  Quite a nice little show, if I say so myself!

Well, til next time, enjoy your spring.