Yea, it fits.... barely!

Going to go rake the filed i'm renting so I can bale later today.  It is about a twenty minute drive in just the truck.  Road running tractor is not an option!

More first cutting.

I am now renting some more hay ground near work.  It is about five acres of very good hay.   Should make a good bit of hay.  Mowed it and a field at the shop.  Now it may rain tonight which will quite upset me.  But hey, what can I do about it!?

Also, I previously posted a pic of large boulders on a lowboy truck.  Those were the rocks I had delivered to the jobsite.  I posted another pic of one on edge of pond.   Also put up a pic of a rainbow right in front of me yesterday when I was mowing hay. 

Lastly I attached a pic taken from inside barn looking into pig pens.  I tore down the wall yesterday prepping for building the boar's pen.   We also weaned the piglets this week.  So far everyone is doing great!

Kenneth Merrick
330-353-2768
kmerrick@growinggood.com

1st cutting is in the books!!!

Well, I got all the first cuttig baled yesterday and wrapped today!  29 bales total. 

Very tired and falling asleep trying to type this.  More tomorrow!

Kenny

Hay season 2011!!!

Yea come on!!!!!!

Pig lots are done!

Finally got pig lots built this weekend as well as roof on barn.  The boys next door and my brother helped go get it all done.  Pigs are loving it!  Cows got out.  Spent an hour in the dark repairing flood damage to keep them in.

Man I hope it let's up on the rain for a couple weeks.  This makes me very depressed!

Also, hay is ready to be mowed if I ever get three dry days in a row to do so!

Rain, Barn Work, more Rain, and even more Rain!

Ok, we just wrapped up the wettest April in history two weeks ago.  May started out the same way.  Rain every day.  After three beautiful days of sunshine this week I thought maybe things were changing back to a more normal weather pattern.  Boy was I wrong.  I got the entire roof torn off of the barn starting Monday and finishing up Wednesday night.  My help finally showed up Thursday night just in time to sit on the porch and watch it rain 2" in twenty minutes.  So, we ate dinner and cut the metal to length and called it a night.  Friday, I spent all day running equipment at work with periodic sunshine watching storms pass by.  I got home just in time to get a call saying my help wasn't gonna make it again.  Didn't matter though cause before I got out of truck it started down pouring.  Before I got to the house I was completely soaked.  We got 3.5" of rain in less than 35 minutes.  Everything instantly flooded.  We totaled almost 7" of rain yesterday.  We just got another 3 this evening.  During the break in the rain today the cows decided to cross the creek, which was down just low enough for them to swim across, and now they are stuck over there because they didn't come back before the bottom flooded entirely again.  And I have no way to go check them as I would need to cross the creek as well and cannot do that when it is flooded!

Ok, some pics!  One of the storms rolling in last weekend.

 My wife and son visiting the job site last weekend.  We had to pry him off the machine! 

 A picture of the smaller pond I installed this week on the project. 

The same pond after yesterdays rain.  It is five feet deep and 50' across.  Was pouring over the fall rocks when I got there and it has been raining ever since. 

 

 Picture of the barn in progress of taking off slate.  Notice the beautiful green grass and the wonderful sunshine!

 Almost ready for metal.

Metal on.  Still need to trim laths down on ends and put on fascia board.  Also found out in tonight's rain that the flashing between the two roofs never got silicone on the splices.  So I get to climb back up again tomorrow and take it apart and caulk the splices. 

I am going to post pics of the new pig lots tomorrow.  We got the posts in today.  Went pretty quick.  I am running all the wires tomorrow.  I have to get them on and fencers hooked up so I can get electric in something.  If I manage to get cows to barn tomorrow I will put them in the new pig lots till this rain lets up enough to fix the fence.  I don't need the herd wondering off because the fence is gone. 

I want to show you a quick video.  This is inside the pig shed when the heavy rain hit tonight.  This should give you an idea of the last couple of days.

lets hope the weather straightens out soon, the hay is ready to cut but I need a couple of dry days to do it!

Kenny

Morel mushrooms the word!!

 Well, due to the rain I have been limited on what I can accomplish here on the farm.  So some of my time has been devoted to my extreme mushroom cravings!  I spent many evening the last week and a half trekking through my woods looking for these little fellas and have been finding them from time to time.  

Sunday my daughter and I headed down to Guernsey county to visit a long time friend of mine from my days in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir.  His name is Richard and he is a fellow mushroomer and has some pretty good spots to find them.  We spent the entire day in the woods and found just shy of 300.  

 Lisa did a great job and is actually very good at finding mushrooms for only being four years old.  She helped all day long and even stayed awake long enough to make it to McDonald's in the next town over for supper before going to sleep for the ride home!

 Most everything we found in the morning and early afternoon were smaller ones.  However, as you can see above, we got into some larger ones at the end of the day.  The largest we found was about six inches tall and three inches in diameter.  I shared some with my parents and gave some of the nicest ones to my grandpa.  He is no longer able to go out to find them himself and he used to pick them every year.  He was quite happy!

Below you can see them cut in half, washed, and drying off to be put in fridge till we can eat them.  They do not store long so we only have a few day before they will start going soft.  For long term storage they can be frozen or dried but are always best fresh!

 Yesterday, while my wife was preparing dinner, my kids and I went out in yard to pick up sticks and stuff and see what all was blooming.  This is the coral burst crab apple on the corner of the house.  It is starting to open up today. 

 This is the kids fighting over who is gonna get what mushrooms!  They didn't last very long, good thing I had more to cook!

 One last pic of a group I found.  Usually you find one per spot.  Sometimes if you are lucky there are two from one spot.  This was my first time to find three large ones from one sprout point!

As for the barn.  Progress is slow.  I am hoping for some nice weather to get out and get some more work done and get some good updated pics.

Will keep you posted.

Updates:
Steers go to butcher shop on June 23.  I will be contacting those getting beef this summer soon.  Next steer should be ready around January and then one more near June of next year.

I had to push back the butcher date for the four pigs that were to be done in June.  They are not going to make weight by that date so I got a later date of August 9th.  This will allow them to finish out to the correct weight.

Also, I am currently taking orders for Fall/winter pork.  The piglets will be getting weaned off in a month and I will only be keeping what we have sold to fatten out.  Everything else will be sold as feeders at that time.  I am expecting them to be ready between December and January.  If you or someone you know would like to reserve a pig please contact me soon so can mark one down for you.  I am asking that you put a $25 deposit to hold the reservation as I have buyers for any pigs I do not need for freezer meat sales.  I will take this off the bill upon delivery of the meat when they are ready.  I currently have five of the twenty three sold.  Once they are gone the next batch will not be ready till next summer so get them now or you will have to beg someone for some of their bacon! 

You can contact me directly at  (ken.r.merrick@gmail.com).  I will give you my phone number at that time so you can contact me that way. 

Lastly, we will be having baby calve born starting at the end of June and ending in September.  We will be having a total of seven babies this year!!  I can't wait!

Have a great day!! 

Kenny