Farm Science Review, cow pics, and hay news.

So the farm science review was last week put on by The Ohio State University.  Was fun and educational and I was able to take the entire family this year.  This was my sons first time going and he ran all day long!  The best part of the day was getting to see the next tractor that I want to have for the farm.  

 The kids both liked it because it has two seats!  I like it because of the push button shifting, auto shift computer controlled speed settings, much larger cab, swivel seat, and, amongst many other great things, more power!!!  However, if any of the designers for the interior layout of the Kubota tractors reads this....please call me.  I have some very good input that would help you blow away the competition.  The rest of the platform is premium but the interior is definitely not structured to compete for the typical American farmer.  I still love the tractor and if I had the money would own several more in a heart beat!

It is definitely autumn.  The horse mushrooms are popping up already.  The pinks were last month after a couple of heavy rains, now we are seeing the start of these.  They get much much larger, sometimes up to 10 inches across when fully open.  They a little different in flavor from the pinks but still good to eat.

Next I am posting some pics of my son, Mr. Smooth, showing off for the women.  His sister had a friend over to play with for the day and he put on his shades and was standing on the tire swing showing off his moves. 

Posing for the camera!

I was off from work today due to illness but was starting to feel better this afternoon so after feeding the pigs and cows I walked out into the pasture to see how everyone was doing.  I was delighted to see Candy Apple's little boy hanging out with Princess and Fifty. 

This is Princess, Fifty's little girl born this year.

To show you how small Candy Apple's little man is...but soooooo cute!

Here is Fifty's second daughter Precious feeding her first daughter Pearl. 

Picture of Mother and Daughter together.   Princess was born the end of July.

Pearl by herself after eating, she was born the end of April and is getting quite big already, probably around 500 + lbs.

As for hay, got almost all my third cutting done and fourth cutting here at the house.  Only two small fields left to bale and third will be complete.  Unfortunately it has been very light on the harvest due to the extensive drought.  Prices of hay are starting to skyrocket already and we haven't even gotten a good start on fall yet.  Don't even want to think about what things will be like come February. 

Have a great day everyone.

Kenny

New calf, RAIN!!!, and making hay!!!

Well, our last calf of 2012 is officially here.  It is a bull.  That gives us two heifers and 6 bulls for the year, the exact opposite of last year when we had 5 heifers and 2 bulls.  He was approximately 30 minutes old when I saw him from the barn.  My daughter and I hurried down to see him and this was as close as momma would let us get!

Luckily for me a few days later he came up to the barn with momma and everyone else when they came up to eat some hay.  I was able to get a quick pic of him before momma shuffled him away back out to the pasture.

I wanted to include a couple of pics of a project I am working on right now.  These are a set of grand steps to a pool deck from the back of the house.  I cut natural faced top rock to face the steps with.  Once the bull nosed bluestone treads are installed for the tops it will look as though the steps were carved into solid rock.  I cannot wait to see it complete.  We are waiting for the steps to be custom cut.  Once they arrive I will be cutting them to fit over and around the rocks on the sides to give it as close to a natural look as possible.  I will definitely post pictures when complete.  Going to be one of a kind!!

On the other side of the pool deck we installed Forever Lawn.  This is right on the edge of the pool coping and the large rock on the left is actually a dive rock.  I positioned it so it overhangs the edge of the pool and the rock next to it is the step.  I ran the turf between the rocks to give it a very natural look.  I am very much a plant person having several degrees from The Ohio State University in plant science and related fields and I didn't like the idea of artificial turf.  However, after installing on a couple of projects I love it.  It is a terrific option in areas where natural turf is not an option.  For instance, right next to a pool where mowing would create a mess.  It looks very natural and until you stand on it and look closely you will not recognize that it is artificial.  

Here is a shot of most of the project before seeding.  I will get completed pics after steps are done.  

We had some great rains over the last two weeks.  The grass is growing again, I have mowed my lawn twice this month, and the hay fields are coming back to life. 

I had a full week of beautiful hay making weather during which I mowed a large portion of my third cutting and my field of fourth cutting here at home.  My business partner and his brother square baled my fourth cutting to put in the barn filling it to the brim!!!! 

Looking in the front door!

I baled all the rest of my hay, third cutting, into dry round bales.  I have been dying to use my new baler and it was even better than I dreamed!!  The baler is a BR740A Silage Special.  It is designed to handle the wet hay crops as well as dry.  Everything I made this round was dry hay and man was it beautiful.  It makes me wanna be a cow for a day just to see what it is like to eat this stuff!

 This baler also has net wrap.  Now, I grew up on twine like everyone else.  I thought I would never switch.  However, the net wrap is only $.50/bale more for the product but saves 30 seconds per bale in time.  When you put the pencil to it I actually save quite a bit of fuel with the net wrap and over the course of 500 bales I will save a days worth of time!!   Plus, the bales look so good and I don't ever have to worry about busted twine and loose bales.

Now for some giggles and laughs.  Daisy was outside for a while this morning and during this time my wife made coffee and got out some sweets for breakfast.  We were eating when daisy came to the door to be let in.  I opened the door and she saw the food immediately and sat down and put on her cutest "give me some" face!  She sat like this the entire time my wife ate till she finally gave her some.

Next up....ever wonder what you get when you give four rednecks two cases of beer, all the supplies to do an oil change on their truck, and the unsupervised use of your garage for the night?


A MESS!!

I gave them a short 4 gallon bucket to catch the oil in from Steven's truck.  In their alcohol induced state they didn't understand the concept of removing the lid......so they tried to hit the little spout hole that you dump out of and missed.....entirely missed.  The whole 4 gallons on the garage floor.

I didn't know this at first.  I came out to get something out of my truck this morning and saw they closed everything up and I was happy.  Then I noticed oil tracks in the driveway.  Then I noticed saw dust laying outside the garage door.  So, I decided to not look in the garage and headed back in the house.  About twenty minutes later I hear a four wheeler putter by and shut off.  I look out and see it is Steven's and it is sitting by the garage, all the doors still shut.  So I go out to say hi and open the door to see him trying to clean this up. 

Apparently he doesn't remember changing the oil but he did remember he made a mess doing so.


Next time they will be supervised! 

Have a great day everyone

Kenny

Had a breach of security this morning!!

We had some really awesome much needed rain last night as the remnants of Hurricane Isaac started moving through.  Since we have been so busy lately, and I had nothing scheduled this morning, I decided to sleep in for the first time in many many weeks.  At about 8am I am awoken by my phone ringing.  It was the neighbor calling me to tell me that I had cows out.

So I through on some clothes and look out the door to see Mario leading Fifty and Legacy down the driveway back to the pasture.  When I get down there to see how they got out I see Legacy and Mario walk over to the gate and step over the wire and into the pasture.  Fifty just stands there and waits to be let in.  She is such a proper lady!!  Anyway, I put the bale feeder back yesterday and was preparing the pad area for upcoming barn construction.  When done I took kids out and checked all the fences.  When we finished I put the wire gate back up at the barn.  However, I didn't notice that it was crisscrossed and that the one end had slid down the post and it was really low now due to me raising the grade of the area with gravel. 

After putting the gates back up I made a quick circle around the fence on this side of the creek to make sure there was nothing wrong.  Short of a loose wire and a piece of metal laying on the fence it was good to go.  The creek is slightly flooded so I didn't go across to check the rest. 

I will try to take some pictures of everything tomorrow.  We are delivering some more meat today and visiting a customer's party at the same time!

Should be a fun day!

Kenny