Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

Well, I am completely done, done, done, as my son says, baling first cutting hay. A thunderstorm Saturday night kept me from finishing the last little bit Sunday but I managed to get it yesterday. I got around 1350 tons of hay off around 750 acres. Pretty good for dryland hay. I left a little over 200 acres go to seed because the amount of hay I got was almost enough for two winters instead of one so enough is enough.

I won't say I am done haying yet though. The haying isn't done until the bales are stacked which hasn't quite happened yet. Earlier I had talked to the guy that stacked the bales last year and he said he would come stack them this year. I called him a few days ago to tell him we were ready and he informed me he sold his machines and isn't custom stacking anymore. Damn that left me in a lurch. I finally found someone to do it. They will be here by the end of the week to stack the bales.

We didn't get enough rain around here after taking the first cutting off to really make a good second cutting. There was enough moisture in the ground that the alfalfa is growing back good but mostly it will only make good grazing down the road. I am going to go over some of it for hay since having a few small square bales of second cutting is nice, but it won't be a major thing since it didn't come back well.

All I know is it's nice to be done. That damn tractor I was using for baling did a number on my back and I am half crippled up. I need to go see the Chiropractor when I get a chance. I hate spending the money on him but i guess he needs to make a living to.

Let's get it done. Let's get it done right. Natalie Wood

The tractor and baler. This is only my second season using this big baler and I am still getting used to it. It's quite the outfit. Taken 7/2/2007.

I finished baling the last of the alfalfa on the Sarpy side yesterday. Fifteen hundred and thirty four bales of hay. Just over 2 ton to the acre. I'm very happy about that. You can't really see it all well but there are bales all scattered through this picture as far as you can see. The Hired hand started cutting the grass hay yesterday. If anything it is heavier than any of the alfalfa was. Forge ahead. Taken 7/3/2007.

It's one of those damn things that nothing works out the way you want. All the rain this spring was great, nut the thing I feared is coming true. It is turning hot and dry and the fire danger is going up very fast around here. I know I am still haying but a rainstorm would sure be nice to wet things down. Nothing in the forecast though. Just more hot, dry weather to make things worse. [sarcasm]How lucky I am.[/sarcasm]

Speaking of haying, things are going good on that front. All the alfalfa is down now and I am trying to get it baled up. Should be done with that by Monday afternoon or Tuesday. The fields on the Tullock side went about 1 and a third tons to the acre and the Sarpy fields are going about 2 tons to the acre. Pretty good yield for me. We are going to start cutting some grass hay this next week. We have about 250 acres that I plan to cut and another 200 acres I might cut if I feel we need the hay. If we don't need it for hay it will make good grazing for the cattle and I will leave it alone. That's the nice thing about these grass stands, they give me some options, as long as it doesn't burn up in a fire.

I was looking at the sales receipt for the drys I sold a week ago or so and got a real surprise. One bunch of 4 cows sold together that really surprised me. The sale yard will sort the cows for age and condition so that they can get the maximum price for a bunch of cattle. Hell, they get a commission on it so they want to see the highest price they can for cattle that go through the ring. Anyway, I recognized these 4 cows and couldn't figure out why they sold together,. There was a two year old and two three year olds cows together, which makes sense, and then of all damn things, a twelve year old cow. Now why in tarnation they mixed a twelve year old cow with these nice young cows is beyond me. The real surprising thing about this, the whole bunch brought .72 cents a pound. They brought more per pound than anything else I sold. A twelve year old dry cow bringing 72 cents a pound is unbelievable. She was in good shape, but not that good of shape. Somebody screwed up here but I won't complain. More money in my pocket.

I opened it up so the cows could move into a new pasture here a few days ago. They were chewing the grass down where they were and there was lots of grass in the nest pasture so it was time. Boy they found the gate and were really enjoying the fresh grass. It works out good too because I will start grazing that grass off and reducing the fire danger in that pasture. Less grass, less chance of a fire. Gotta be thinking ahead all the time.

I payed attention to the debate this last week over the immigration bill but never really commented on it here. I just wanted to say a couple of things about it. If people come across the border illegally, they are criminals and need to be shipped home, not given amnesty. Rewarding such behavior is not in the best interests of this country. The Government at all levels, fed, state and local should enforce the existing laws on illegal aliens and deport them. Now we need to address the question of why there are so many of these types of people here. That's simple, there are jobs here that pay better than the jobs where they come from. So we either need to raise the wages where they come from or offer a safe, easy, legal way for them to come here and work temporarily before they go back home. How to do this I don't know but that is what we need. We need more legal immigration and less illegal immigration. This country was founded and built by legal immigrants and legal ones aren't going to hurt us now. This illegal shit needs to stop though.

One of my regular readers, Genevieve, has bestowed upon me a 'Thinking Blogger Award.' Wow, thanks Genevieve, I appreciate it. I really don't do memes so I will just thank Genevieve for the honor and say that most blogs I read make me think and would honor all if I could but that's not the way things work.

The Fourth of July is coming up with all the fireworks and fun to be had by all. Remember it is getting dry out there so be careful with the fireworks. Don't want any problems, let's be safe and sane out there.

I would really like WildBlue Internet service explain to me how my bandwidth usage could be going up with my internet shut off. I have complained about this frequently and all they tell me is that it isn't there problem. I wish I had another option for Internet other than Satellite. I've heard Starband has gotten worse than they were before I dropped them for WildBlue so they no longer are an option. What a pain it is. Be glad if you live in a more populated area and have options. When your stuck like this to a certain service they can screw you coming and going.

Bounced around enough today. I know I haven't been posting much lately but I've been busy and not much has been catching my eye so thats the way it is.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. Epicurus

Can you say, "not haying weather?" That's definitely the case here. Cloudy, cool, and high humidity. I haven't been having much luck putting up hay. I think I am going to have to start using the diesel to turn the windrows to get them to dry. I am not looking forward to it but you have to do what is necessary to get things done. Taken 6/26/2007.

It's kind of fun haying this year. I am getting enough hay that I don't mind doing it. This field is going about 1 1/3 ton to the acre. It is my poorest field so it will only get better after this. Pretty good for dry land hay. I am baling some small bales for now to have a few thousand on hand then I will start up the big baler and really get to putting some hay up. No snowballs for the cows this winter. Taken 6/19/2007.

We finally dried up enough to get some hay chopped down the other day. It's really nice to get the haying started. We were lucky over the weekend and didn't get some of the wicked weather, hail, that was just north of us. Now if it will just warm up enough to dry the hay out we will get rolling. Sixty acres down, over 800 more to go. Taken 6/16/2007.

Wave of wetness improves state's outlook

With floodwaters still receding across southeastern Montana, it's time to talk about drought - or the lack of it.

The agricultural drought - the one that produced sparse and spindly crops and withered range grasses during many of the past eight years - has subsided.

"The agriculture drought is over, and that's huge news," said Jess Aber, a staff member of the Governor's Drought Advisory Committee and a water resource planner at the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. "Crops should be excellent, and it's a great market."

There's plenty to be happy about across Eastern Montana, where for the first time since the state started listing counties by drought status about four years ago, a large block of counties from the Canadian border to the Wyoming line are classified as "moist." In Eastern Montana, only Sweet Grass and Stillwater counties are listed as even slightly dry.

I do have to wonder about the figures they show with the story. My county is not one of the ones listed as moist but I guarantee you, it is. The ground is so saturated that it can't take up any more moisture so how could it be other than moist?

The story does mention the fact that the snow pack is low so we are still dealing with some impacts of what is called hydrologic drought but the agricultural drought is broken for the moment. There is parts of the state where it wouldn't take long to bet in trouble though so we are always on the look for more moisture, I guess.

It would be nice to get some haying done. I was visiting with the new hired hand and he was asking how many acres of hay we had to do, "300 acres or so," he asked? I told him close to 1000 acres and his jaws dropped open in amazement. He commented then that he hopes the weather gets better so we can get going because we had a lot to do. He didn't realize it was such a big haying operation here. Hell, I've had to because of the continued problems with drought. Cut more acres to put up enough hay to feed the cattle. It shouldn't be a big problem to put up enough this year but I want to put up a big surplus and store it in stacks. That will help mitigate problems of drought in another year because we all know that is going to happen.

Hay in the stack is like money in the bank. My Dad