Life on the Farm

[bjrogg]

Monday morning started the fat cattle show. These animals are ready for market. They weigh around 1,600 pounds and outweigh their handlers by about  10 to tweety times.

Didn’t have any major awards or issues. Just watched the show.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Wednesday I actually got out my hoe and cleaned up some areas that the weeds were taking over. It was hot and humid. I got rained out a couple times, but I did make those areas look a lot better.

The grandkids had the feeder cattle show. My wife and I decided not to go as it would be a very long day and she doesn’t handle the heat well anymore.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Yesterday was my wife’s birthday and the goat show at the fair.

My grandson placed first in showmanship. He is a very hard worker and loves his animals. I’m pretty lucky to have the grandkids I have. I enjoy every moment with them.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

After the show my wife and I went to her sisters house for a little birthday party with her sisters. It was pretty relaxing and everyone had a good time. My wife laughed a lot and if any of you have heard my wife really laugh, well you know everyone else was laughing too.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Today is sale day at the fair.

Tomorrow is a surprise birthday party for my aunt. Sunday is last day at fair and clean up.

Sorry I didn’t get to Elm Hall . Miss you all. Hope you had a great time and took lots of pictures

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Been busy. Got straw off and stored away. Lots of work in shop. We had to do some serious rebuilding of our track frames on our carts. I didn’t get pictures. My hands were to greasy to touch my phone most of the time. It’s was a big job but it’s almost done now.

The first edible  beans we planted are starting to turn yellow. Beans are developing in pods. Some white mold. Hopefully it doesn’t get out of control. Nothing I can do about it now.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

My son was on a much deserved vacation and I took care of his cattle.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

The weather has been very comfortable here this summer. I have been taking as many opportunities to spend time at our beach as possible.

My cousin started steps with a couple pieces of firewood he partially buried. They worked pretty good and I got the bug to modify them after he left.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Much easier than climbing the sugary sand.

I call it my retirement plan. Gotta make it work for us old farts.

I doubt it last many years with the way the lake is always changing. It’s all just natural materials collected on site. Some firewood and pee stone. If the lake washes it away it would be pretty easy to rebuild

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

My pickup and picnic tables are on what was once the original Old Shore Road. When I was a kid in high school I remember still being able to drive some abandoned sections of the old road. Some sections are still maintained. The new road is a little further away from the lake leaving me a nice little spot. It connects with sections of the old road in several places.

Here’s my cousin and myself’s combined efforts at making life easier for us old farts

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Wild snapdragons

[chamookman]

Two Thumbs up on the improvement at the Lake ! What a spot  Bob.

[Pappy]

Beautiful place for sure BJ. Love the walk way.
 Pappy

[bjrogg]

Thanks Pappy and Bob. Love to spend some time with you guys there sometime.

I haven’t been able to spend much time there lately. We started early dig sugar beets Monday and Tuesday. We can’t store beets yet the weather is to warm for permanent piles. Our yields are going to be huge again. These new varieties just really are amazing. Unfortunately our board members responsible for determining how many acres to plant still haven’t seemed to figure that out. We cut acres 10% this year but they really need to cut about 25% . Or figure out how to process them all before the second week of April next spring. I’m sure we will be disposing of beets again and probably not allowed to harvest all our acres besides.

We dug beets Aug 25& 26th . That’s very early. These beets will be processed immediately after being delivered. We are hoping to get 25% of the crop processed before permanent pile storage which typically starts around October 20.

The beets we dug already yielded 32.7 tons per acre and 14.01% sugar content. Very impressive numbers for this time of year. We don’t need more tons. We need good sugar content. The varieties we planted are supposed to be very good sugar content varieties. We need a good year processing beets. Marketing the sugar isn’t a problem. Processing the beets before they rot is.

These beets should be going through the factory as I type, or hopefully already be made into sugar.

We pile them on the end of the field and then the Maus crew comes and picks them up and delivers them to the factory. Everything is scheduled so we have to dig when they tell us and not before that. Weather conditions can be a problem, but we lucked out this time. Everything went really good.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Wednesday the Maus crew came and picked up our beets. They delivered them directly to the factory “pad” where they will be processed as soon as possible. Hopefully the same day. The next day they will get fresh beets from someone else. That way we can avoid spoilage and process tons that would otherwise be disposed of.

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

Our edible beans are really coming along. I’m thinking about a week and we should be harvesting our Pinto beans and the first of our black beans.

Always have mixed feelings about harvest. I love the harvest but sometimes I miss the crops in the fields and know that before I’m ready for it the snow will be here. Guess I’ll just enjoy it while I can.

Bjrogg

PS at least I will have the cover crops to keep things green