First cutting, new wrapper, Mario takes a vacation and other fun things!

Well, I want to start off this post with Mario.  I am working on doing all my first cutting hay last week and this week and I was wrapping bales.  During this process I needed to access the pasture.  Due to the fact that I just opened the six acre field across the creek up to the cattle they have not bothered to come back to the barn at all so the only one around was Mario.  Well, he didn't bother anything or anyone the entire time I was wrapping.  However, when I finished I forgot to put the gates back up.  Soooo, during the night he decided to take a walk and see where it lead.  It wasn't till I got a call from my brother who was talking to a neighbor boy on the school bus that I found out he was missing.  The neighbor found him by the barn when they headed out to milk and put him in a pen till my brother got home from school and went and picked him up in the trailer.  

The picture above was taken upon his arrival home.  He gleefully trotted back into the pasture and went on about his business realizing that the grass isn't really any greener on the other side of the fence!

Now, on to first cutting.  Dad purchased a bale wrapper the same week I started mowing.  He and I have both wanted one for many many years and finally this year it became a reality.  It is an Anderson NWX-660 with the bale Extractor.  It is fully self propelled so it can be moved around the area you are wrapping in to start new rows without the use of a tractor.  It has hydraulic steering and brakes and everything.  It is so awesome!!

Here is a pic of it in action.  Everything is levers and hydraulics.  There are no electrical switches to go bad or pushers to bend.  Just pure wrapping bliss.  

Once you get it lined up you set the steer wheels straight and just start feeding it.   I have never had rows this straight before.   Last year it took pretty much all my space to house 120 bales.  This year I should be able to put 150 in the same area for a couple of reasons.  First, straight rows. Second, there is a hydraulic braking system on it that forces the bales tighter together so the rows are tight and less space used.  Also, the plastic stretchers stretch the plastic 65% so instead of the 35 bales/roll that I got with my cousins wrapper I get 55-65 from one roll of plastic with this one.  That is huge!

The best feature this machine has, hands down, is the bale extractor!!!  When you finish a row with an H&S machine you have to pull some pins and swing some arms down and you can push the bales on through the hoop but they are still on the ramp.  So what happens frequently is you tear one of the seams at the end of the row trying to pull the wrapper out from under the row.  The Anderson wrapper has a new feature that actually pushes the bales out with a hydraulic pusher rod!  You just pull a lever and the pusher shoves the bales completely, yes completely, off the wrapper including the tailgate.  So when you drive it away from the row there are no tears of any kind!

 Picture of the pusher as full extension.

Another sweet option is the hydraulic jack.  It also tows from the back allowing it to tow on just the two wheels allowing you to move quicker from farm to farm!

 The boss recently put up a set of poles at the end of his drive and he would like to get it landscaped and finished up for the summer for entertaining guests.  So we went to our favorite place to pick out rocks and got some good ones.

Here is one.  We painted little rocks and laid on top to mark for the guys loading and hauling.

Here is a pic of an awesome one we picked out.  The weight of the rocks ranged from 3 tons to 11 tons each.  The one above and one below are 10-11 tons.

This rock is probably about 9.5-10 tons.  We stood it up and thought it looked awesome so we put it in that way.  

 Here is a pic we took at lunch of the boulders around the entrance.  The large posts in center will eventually hold a gate.  Many people think the drive is a road and this should change that perception. 

Unfortunately the Boss didn't like the one we stood up on the left and wanted us to change it.  Upon doing so it broke in half so it only exists in my photos now but at least I will have them.

I am still waiting on calves, they are all way past when the vet said they were due, but that is the way it goes sometimes.  Piggies are coming this week.  We are rushing to get everything ready for the customer party and I can't wait to see everyone.  Should be a great time!

Some pics from work and new piggies!

I as I have stated before I have a full time job as a project manager at Enviroscapes in Louisville, Ohio.  I have been working on a small project at Lake Mohawk for the last few weeks and wanted to share a couple of pics.  

It has been a while since I have done much brick work on a job.  Mostly I do bluestone an other cut or natural stone that is mortared on.  This customer preferred a brick patio so we followed some similar steps with pouring a mud pad to lay the brick on but instead of mortar we screed sand on top of the concrete to lay the brick on.

With every project I do I try to come up with something unique and different that sets it apart from any other project anywhere.  My best specialty is top rock and natural stone.  It has earned me the title "Rock Master" at work.  The patio we installed is on a small house and is almost 1000 sq.ft..  I wanted to add something to the area on the front of the house between the patio and the house to break it up the wall of windows without taking away the view of the lake.  It is also on a steep hillside so there is no room to pull patio back from house.  So I decided to put a rock in the patio.  My helper suggested adding another smaller rock to it to give the effect of bedrock being exposed.  The end product turned out pretty sweet.

 Here is  a shot from near the edge of the patio.  The homeowner loved it and it is pretty unique.  I have done this before but every time it is a little different and no two rocks are the same. 

Here is a picture of the fire pit area with the field laid out.  These are the pieces that do not need cut.  Everywhere you see missing brick is one that needs cut.  It took as long to cut all the pieces into the pit area as it did the entire patio up top.  The end result however is phenomenal!  I will get more pics when we finish the project this week.

The weather this weekend was absolutely awesome.  I spent most of my day yesterday doing some misc. items and helping dad with some stuff at his house.  Hay season started this week, two weeks earlier than normal, so I decided to take it easy and enjoy the day with the kids as I will not have another weekend like this for a while.  We started out going to check on Mallory who I penned up yesterday to have her piglets.  She had six by the time we headed out so we left her alone to see if she had any more and headed across the pasture to see if we have any new calves.

On the way we were treated to a rare sight.  A family of Killdeer birds were running around the pasture.  While it is common to see Killdeer it is not common to see the babies.  When they hatch they are literally  the size of your thumb and leave the nest almost immediately.  The parents will play injured to lure predators away from the little ones so you never see them.  But today we saw all four.  You will have to look at the picture in large size to see the little one.  It is standing just up the bank from its parent!

This is a pic from yesterday.  Pearl was laying behind the steer that is staring at Lisa and Lisa wanted to pet her.  Well, on the way to her she got in a staring contest with one of the steers.  Lisa won!

This morning Legacy and Pearl were both hanging out together, as they have been since she was born, with Pearl's momma Precious. 

The pigs also found the pasture this week and have been enjoying the green grass.  I went from feeding them 150 lbs. of feed a day in the barn to 50 lbs. since turning them back out on the big pastures with the cows.   They are growing gaining weight quicker already and look way much happier.  I didn't like having them on the pig lots as long as I did but I needed to get fences completed and thing needed to dry out.  The wet year last year destroyed the pasture and it needed time to recoup before letting them out again.

Here we have Mallory in the barn.  Instead of penning her up in the pen I decided to try something different and give her the entire half of the barn.  With all the others out on the pasture this was easy to do.  

She is just deciding where to put her nest.  She doesn't look as big in this pic till you realize that the pen she is in is 8.5ft. long and 6.5ft. wide.  When she lays down in it she fills most of the pen up.  This leads to the problems with the piglets being laid on right after birth.   Having more space should completely eliminate that problem!

The six she had were all of them.  I was hoping for a litter like her first, she had ten live ones, but she only had six.   On a good note all six look very healthy and really cute!

The kids wanted to pet them and with more space and still laying down Mallory didn't care.  Her first litter she was really protective but this time she seams to have calmed down a little.

Then, our piglet midwife daisy had to step in and check everyone out and clean them all up!

She does so well with the pigs it is amazing.  I just have to be careful which ones she gets in with and when because some don't care at all and others will think she is trying to hurt them.  

Well, I am off to bed to start the work week.  Doing all my first cutting this week as well as finishing up the project at the lake for work.  I picked up some more ground this year so I am excited to see how it all goes.  Going to try to plan it out better this year so that I don't run so ragged.  Also going to try to everything all at the same time so I am not constantly having to switch equipment and run around.  It is still going to be a lot to get done but the reward should be some great hay and hopefully plenty to sell at the end of the year!

Hope everyone has a great week!  I will be posting pics of the new calves when ever they arrive.  I can't wait and they are past the estimated due date so I am really getting impatient!

Kenny

Spring is under way!!!

Spring is definitely here!  We pulled the pigs back off the garden a couple of weeks ago and this weekend we mulched it to get ready for planting.  All I had to do was rake the ridges down along the edges from where they rooted to the fence and we were ready to go!

 The kids wanted to help so after I got done with the rakes they decided to rake for a while.

 

We ran just a little short on the last bale so my wife was stretching it out a little bit to cover the last little bit.  If you look closely you will notice that we used two different types of material to mulch with.  I normally use the end bales of our silage hay tubes as they are not good enough to feed.  However, we are switching over to a Styrofoam plug which will save me about 15-20 bales of hay a year so we will not have any more after this year.  So, I decided to try a bale of corn stubble.  I bale corn stubble bedding for the neighbor and I get some in exchange for bedding the pigs and cows.  I was awesome to spread.  So much easier than the rotted hay that was all stuck together.  Just have to wait and see how well it does for holding down the weeds.

 As soon as we got done Lisa helped mommy plant the lettuce and her own little section of the garden.  She even fenced it in with string and put a sign up for her little portion!

I was finally able to let the cows loose in their new pasture ground.  I let them out Friday night and they haven't came back across the creek or even looked at the barn since!  They are so happy over there and enjoying it a lot and it makes me happy to see them having fun.  

 Below is Sally, on the left, and her son Big Red from last summer to her right.  He will be one year old at the end of the month and is already nearly as big as our two year old charlais x angus bull.

Here is a pic of Thunder, our charolais x angus bull. 

Thunder our Charolais x angus bull

 This is Precious and her first calf Pearl.  She is also the Thunder's first calf as well!

It didn't take the piggies long to find the new field either.  This is Daisy Pig.  She was laying in the shade without a care in the world!

Her is Lady.  She is the Berkshire guilt I picked up at Christmas time.  She absolutely loves to have her tummy scratched.  She comes running to us whenever we are in the pasture and if you scratch her belly she will flop down and roll over like a puppy to get some good scratchin!

Another project I have needed to complete is a new hanger system for my pig barn gates.  If we mount the gates low enough to keep the babies in the pens with the mommas then they are too low to swing over the deep straw bedding we have in the pens.  The only way to then swing the gates is to disassemble them and that is a major pain in the butt, not to mention that they are useless when not on the hinges.

The idea I came up with was a bar system to hang the gates on that would allow them to slide up and spin when needed but still be locked down when I want them to stay put.  I also needed to be able to easily remove the gates from the barn when not needed, for cleaning, and for replacement if damaged.  I used thread all that I got at the store and welded 4' sections to the bottom hanger for each gate.  I then cut the threaded end of each hanger to the needed length and welded the small pieces I cut off to the top hanger for each gate.  I then added a thread coupler and a couple of nuts and a washer. 

If you look at this pic you will see there is a nut and washer spun down to hold gate to bedding.  The top nut locks the coupler in place connecting the two sections.  If I need to remove a gate I simply loosen the lock nut, thread the coupler up, rotate the bottom section slightly and spin the retainer nut and washer off, and then slide gate up and off the bar. 

Above is one of the gates sitting on a tub to show it raised and below is a pic of it sitting on the ground.   My plan is to separate each pen with a gate.  This will allow me to remove the door to each pen that I use to keep the sows in with a day or two after birth to give them more space but still keep them isolated from the pasture.  In summer I may not even use the pen doors as they mainly will be needed to create a warmer, draft free pen for birthing in the winter.  This will also allow the piglets and sows to get to know everyone else before they can actually run together helping lower stress levels when I release everyone.

I also was able to finally finish the rubber flaps on the bottom of the doors.  Steven and Josh did a quick fix to put them on during the only cold spell we had this winter and just screwed them to the inside of the doors.

I pulled them back off and added a 2"x2" along the bottom of the doors and then cut flaps to the length needed and then screwed them to the board I added.  This allows them to hang under the door out of the way so the water sheds off and they do not rub the walls when sliding open and shut!

I also got tired of having to move my hose for the temp water to the pens every time we wanted in the barn.  So I ran it through the new rafters of the barn and snuck it out under the roof and down the corner of the barn right by the hydrant I hook it up to.  When I finish the cow shed and concrete all of the pens and the barn this year I plan to install underground water lines to fully eliminate the need for this hose.  However, for now, this is a much better system than I had with it just laying on the ground.

I also had help from two of my customers with prepping for the customer party this month.  We did a full spring clean up and mulching in early April!

I wasn't able to do this last year and everything got out of hand.  It is so nice to have everything neat and clean again and looking good!

These are a few shots of the alleyway between what is now the two new pastures for the cows and pigs.  This used to be a constant battle for me to keep cleaned up. 

Now the cows are eating right down to the edge of the spring stream and keeping the weeds down.  No work required!

This is the southern most end of the alleyway.  There is a gate to the left and the right.  Once they finish the three acres on the right I will open the gate to the six acres on the left and vise versa.  Once I am sure this will stay pasture I will split the six acre side into two 3 acres sections to make it better for rotational grazing.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.  I am looking forward to an awesome year and I can't wait to make first cutting!  It is coming up in two weeks!!!

I am also anxiously waiting for the arrival of Frosty's first calf.  She is due any day now and I can't wait much longer!

Kenny