Coyote Ridge FarmsWelcome To Our Rural Blog

The forecast suggested it would be a windy day today – perfect for drying hay.  As soon as the dew left the downed hay, I began to rake some of the road side windrows.  After an hour or so, the breeze that was available, disappeared.  It became calm.  Not wanting to ruin my hay by having it rained on.  I ceased my raking.  Hours later, I checked the hay that I had turned over.  The hay was still damp.  Without a drying wind, I knew it would not be dry enough to bale on Sunday… it’s suppose to rain on Monday (40%).  I’m glad I didn’t rake all of it.

If I can’t bale, I might as well do some fencing.  A couple days ago I started a small fencing project, allowing the cattle to access the Ritchie brand automatic waterer on the other side of the fence.  What I had done so far was create an eight foot opening in an already established fence line.  I had installed two 6″ cedar posts on each side of the waterer.  The problem was that when I stretched the barbed wire back onto the posts, the posts pulled in the direction of the wire.  If I wanted the fence to last, the newly installed posts needed to be supported with a brace.  Since discovering the New Zealand style support post design, I use it whenever I can.

This is the waterer I installed last year. The New Zealand style post assembly on each side was completed today.

After installing the posts, I took a 16′ cattle panel and “wrapped” it around the waterer and it’s 4′x5′ cement pad.  It fit perfectly and the farm’s Highlanders have not had a problem using it… even with their long horns.

The reason for doing this little project was simple.  The cattle [somehow] kept shutting off the hydrant that filled their stock tank… and I was getting tired of it.  Last night, when I mentioned to Farmer Mike what I was working on and why I was doing it, he asked me why I didn’t simply remove the handle f the hydrant.  I really didn’t have a reply… but I was thinking, “Duh!”

WOW!  Last night it looks like we got some more crazy strong winds.  According to our personal weather station, we received winds in excess of 67 mph at around 3:15 am. 

As with most of the summer, we have had plenty of rain.   In the last 2 days we’ve received approx. 4 inches of precipitation… enough is enough already.  And with the heavy dew of each morning, it’s getting tough to do things around here.  I was able to get a few miles of the road ditches mowed, but that was about it.  Usually, I am able to mow the entire ditch, but nowadays, the bottoms remain.  Most of the ditches either have water in them or they are so soft with mud only a fool would attempt to cut it.

It looked as if some of the forecasted rain was going to miss us last night, but Carol mentioned that we got some heavy showers last night.  As things we drying of toady, it rained again for 45 minutes or so.  Wonderful.  No mowing hay today.

Tomorrow it is suppose to be windy and sunny.  I’m hoping the wet downed hay will dry a little so I can rake and bale it during the next day or two.  I’d like to get some of our hay field cut as well.  Anticipating the chance to do some baling this week, Carol picked up some baling twine… so we’re ready.

It was nearly too hot to relax.  With a temp of 94°+F, there was not much more to do than work.  I chose work I could on the tractor… of course.  We still had straw bales sitting in the field that needed to be brought in.  For approx. 4 hrs I was hauling round bales out of the field.  I think I could have gotten done tonight, but with the Vikings playing at 7:00pm CST I called it quits at 6:45.

For a Sunday, I am happy to say I got a little work done that needed to get done.

It was a pretty nice day for baling.  Although we had some light rain last night, by noon things were drying up nicely.  After lunch I did some raking, hoping to speed the drying process for the straw.  After a couple of hours, Austin got to sit in the driver’s seat while did some baling.  He looked a little anxious as he had never done this type of work before.  He’s a townie and darn proud of it.  Secretly, I think he likes doing the farm thing when nothing goes wrong.

Austin raking straw with the Farmall H

Austin raked about 15 acres of straw.  It was a big help.

Or is it?

After baling for Farmer Mike on some rented land he controls, it was time to do a little baling here on this farm. We have about 3 straw bales remaining for the goats and then we’re out… completely.  The straw we have been using for bedding has been from the stockpile we set aside 2 years ago (2008).  It’s a wonder it’s lasted this long.

A few days ago, Farmer Mike offered his John Deere, small square baler for us to use.  Well, I thought we should take him up on his kind offer.  We have approx. 300+ bales to bale and rain has been in the forecast for days now.  Normally, I would use the the neighbor’s JD 24T baler, but with time being a luxury we did not have, I needed to get our season straw baling done ASAP.

After driving the tractor to Mike’s, I hooked up to his baler, with hay basket behind that.  The drive, on a tractor, takes some time.  All the while I was thinking I should just use the neighbor’s baler… it would have be quicker.  Well, well, well, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Mike’s baler is a little bigger than the neighbor’s and has more teeth on the pickup.  I was able to bale in 2nd gear, with no problems.  Before picking the baler up I had raked 2 windrows straw into one larger on.  Needless to say. I was glad I went the extra mile for this more modern baler.  And with the hay basket catching the bales as I bale, was a true time saver.  This device is wonderful.  One can easily bale about 70-75 bales and haul them with you.  There is no going back to get the bales, putting them on rack and bringing them back to the place.

Here I am using a bale basket while baling our wheat straw.

The first day, we had nearly all the straw bales baled.  Not put away, but baled.  The bales we did get put away, Madison helped with.  The next day, we put most of the baled oats straw in the loft. When Carol was busy with Chas, Madison would be in the loft, helping me pile bales until I could get in the loft to stack them.  We had a few issues with the bale conveyor,  but after some minor repairs, we were back in business.  Later, I went out to the field and made a few rounds in the wheat field for 70-80 bales of wheat straw.  It was smooth going. I really liked Mike’s baler.  Gotta get me one of those.

As I was finishing up with the baling of the wheat straw, it started to drizzle.  No biggy, I was headed home anyway.  Oh crap! We need to put this stuff away.  After pulling into the yard, I helped Carol stack the rest of the load of oat straw (on the ground) into the barn.  When we got done with those bales, we still had the hay basket still full of bales.  I was quick to drop the load off near the barn – that’s when the work really started. Austin (just back from work), Carol and myself high-tailed the wheat straw into the barn.  We already had some straw in the loft, but we like putting bales along the outer walls of the barn.  By doing this it helps hold the heat of the animals during the cold winter months.  It makes a huge difference.

The last couple of days reminded me of when I was growing up, helping my dad and grandpa do the baling, in the 1970′s.  It seemed we always baled straw on some of the hottest, most miserably days of the year.  It was just the way it was done back then I guess.  Today, we started the day with temps in the 90′s°F with high humidity.  Later in the day, Carol mentioned to me that our weather station alarm went off – I had it set to sound off at 95°F.

Again, using Farmer Mike’s baling equipment was a Godsend.  I’m sure grateful for his help and so glad I never p*ssed him off when was younger.  I don’t think we could be doing nearly as well as we are without his help and guidance.

Small grain harvest is upon us, no doubt.  The other day I helped Farmer Mike with the swathing of his field of organic peas and barley, and today I planned on cutting our oats and wheat.  The problem is that it rained last night.  Not much, but enough (2/10th).  When I checked on the small grains in the morning, they were still on the damp side.  Why cut when it is wet, right?  The grains dry quicker when they are standing.

Since I was not able to head to the fields right away, I figured I would do a little work in the farm’s wine vineyard.  After 4 years, we finally have some grape vines that look like they may produce a few berries this year.  To help support these heavier, producing vines, a series of wires must be strung along each row.  Our rows of vines are 400+ ft long so 12.5 ga. high-tensile wire is necessary for the main support wire.  I was able to put wire up on four rows before lunch time.  The vines look so much better running along the wire.  Almost like a real vineyard… lol

After a quick bite to eat, I set out to swath the 12 acres of oats.  When that was completed, I was quick to start swathing the wheat cutting.  Our wheat field is 38 acres large.  I was not expecting to finish the swathing… and I did not get it done.  Of the 38 acres, I would guess I have a good 12-15 acres still standing.  I hope to complete that task in the early afternoon hours of tomorrow.

I keep watching the weather reports and the grain reports.  One looks better than the other.  When our part of the country seems to get rain [at least] once every 3 days, it’s the markets that seem most positive at this time.  In the last month, wheat prices have climbed nearly $1.50.  So that’s encouraging.  Last year, the prices hovered around $8, but $6.50 is better than $5.

The wildlife out here is prolific.  I chased hundreds of pheasants out of the oats and wheat – a true experience.  The best part of the evening was at around 7PM.  I was able to watch a lone deer stroll along the fields, nibbling on some of the freshly cut oats.  You don’t see this kind of the stuff in the city.  This solo doe didn’t seem to mind the noise of the swather… she was in no hurry.

After the storms last night, the downed hay was too wet to rake. What to do, what to do? In the morning, I went out to the field of freshly baled hay. If I can’t rake or bale I might as well roll the bales on their side. If one rolls the bales so the twine stings are not facing the ground, the mice can’t chew on them. The bales were too damp to stack. Like the hay that was down in windrows, the bales also need to dry.

I then put the bale spear on the loader in front of the IH 560 and then hooked the 3 pt bale forks on the back. The small square bales may be too damp to put-up, but the 600lbs round bales of ditch hay were not. I was able to collect 15-20 grass/mix bales that I got baled on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll get another cutting from the ditches this year. Typically, we get two cuttings but this year it looks like we may easily get 3. What a difference a year with rain makes.

Out of the woods on my grandparent’s old farm, AND after cutting down some trees that seemingly impale anything that sets undisturbed for too long, I was able to recover an old, homemade, 30ft, hay elevator that my dad must have purchased years before his death, in 2005. After getting it back to the farm here, Madison and I squirted every chain link with penetrating oil… then she tapped each link with a hammer to break the rust. My initial fear was that if/when I put power to the elevator the chain would break, but it didn’t. Wouldn’t you know it but the old thing ran like a charm. It’s safe to say this year we will have an elevator to use for putting hay in the hayloft. No more throwing the hay up into the loft, no, no, no…. no!

BTW: According to the data recorded on our home weather station, last night we had wind gusts topping 66mph and sustained winds of 55-58mph. The winds were so strong that it took the hood of the pickup and tossed it nearly 25 ft. east.

… and inspected.

For the most part, I had the fencing project [north of the creek] done yesterday.  But today I added the finishing touches by installing temporary gates to the paddock entrances.   Just before that, I called my local Natural Resource and Conservation Service (NRCS) official and asked him if we could schedule an inspection time/date.  He said, “How about 1:00 PM today?”  My response was, “Um, OK.”  That’s when I put the temp. gates in place and connected the fencer unit.  And right on time, the NRCS guy pulled into the drive.

On an aerial map, I showed him what fences I built/completed and how to get out to the newly installed paddocks.  Roughly a half an hour later, he and his assistant were gone.  I’m hoping everything met government specifications.  That’s how I built the stuff.  I even built it better than what was called for.  While I was fixing the fencing for the goats and sheep (on the south side of the creek) I could see that the inspectors were photographing my fencing – and admiring it, I’m sure.  Once they were gone, the rains came… again.   So far this month, we have had 13 days with precipitation and only 2 day without.  What a change from last year.

Here’s hoping the fencing passed inspection.  Whatever the case, the Scottish Highlander cattle are in some tall grass now.  In some areas of the paddocks, I could only see horns and tail.  I’m assuming all the other parts, in between, are there as well.

The day was cool and rainy, but that didn’t stop our visitors from coming out from St Cloud, MN.  Visitors?  I should say new farm customers.  Three younger fellows searched the Internet for goat meat and our farm came up in the search engines.  We were the closest.

These gentleman were transplants from Kenya, they said… two of them going to school at St Cloud State Univ. and the other at Mankato, MN – all cousins.  They wanted a nice goat or two for a BBQ.  It seems their grandparents would be visiting the United States for the very first time and the boys wanted to make it extra special for them.  These guys were as polite as could be and seemed very appreciative for letting them buy some of our animals for butchering.  Along with 2 goats, they also purchased 3 chickens and 8 dozen eggs.  All three guys mentioned how much better true, farm-raised food tasted, compared to the stuff one normally finds in the super-markets.  The one cousin mentioned he loved our farm, with the variety of animals.  He said it reminded him of the farm he grew-up, 10 years earlier.  He smiled as he said, “I feel at home here.”  He, too, had chickens that were allowed to free-range about the farm.  He expressed to me that he was looking forward to eating one of the chickens as soon as possible.  “The birds in the grocery store are soggy,” he said.  He also commented that farm birds have so much more flavor than the chicken found in the stores and even the eggs taste better.

When they guys were done butchering the goats and chickens, they cleaned-up their mess.  In fact, it was hard to tell they had even been here – not even a feather from the chicken could be found.  They were super neat.  It was a joy to speak with them while they were here.

I sure hope nobody comes out looking for eggs today – we’re sold out.

After helping the neighbors with chores this morning, I was in the mood to do a little fencing… why not!?  I’m awake already and it looked as though rain was on its way.  “Gitter-done.”

I quick loaded 4 cattle panels onto an old hay-rack.   Recently, I have been using this type of cattle panel as semi-permanent gates.  Today would be no exception.  Once loaded and hooked up to the pick-up, I headed to the new pasture area, north of the creek.  Within 45 minutes, all 4 gates were in place and the new 10 acre pasture was now secure and could be used for grazing.

With only a few odds-n-ends to take care of, the Highlanders will be able to cross the creek to enjoy the waiting pasture grasses in an hour or two.  The main task to take care of was the transitioning of the old fence with the new and to make sure the fence wires that crossed the creek were still intact.  The time it took to do this was much less than I thought – easy-shmeezy.  It was now time to let the cattle out (or in, depending on your perspective)… or at least let them know they were able to access the crossing area of the creek.

Once I located most of the cattle, it was time to call them.  Within seconds I have a half dozen, long-horned, cows and heifers running and bucking in my direction.  They know that when I call them it is time to move to new grass… and they were more than a little excited.  Horns were flailing and mud was flying.  Once they got to me, they settled down a little, but when I heard the pounding of hooves, I was quick to turn around to see if they were gunning for me or not.

The cattle waited for me to walk though the gate opening near the crossing before approaching the creek bank themselves.  As they started to eat the grass, I could hear a faint “moooo.”  I looked to the east but couldn’t see anything in the old pasture… then I heard another call.  It was LaVerne and she was running towards me like a big red locomotive.  Apparently, she saw the others eating the grass and she wanted some of that action as well.  Within seconds, she approached the crossing and was ripping the tall dark green grass from the bank, with her mouth.

As the highlander cows and heifers devoured the grassy bank, it started to rain.  I had hoped the girls would cross the creek while I was standing there.  Instead, I simply got wet.  It seemed they were quite content where they were.  Hopefully, they will find their way across the waterway before too long… and w/o incident.  Once out on the north side of the creek, I feel confident they will stay there… it’s the crossing area that concerns me.  Winter was not kind to this portion of the fence line and it was/is a bit entangled and full of duck weed and old cat-tails.   Soaking wet, I headed to the house with fingers crossed.

Although not much will be gotten done today, we are enjoying the sounds of the much needed rain.  It is so appreciated.

It was a long, hot day. The first of many, I’m sure.

Shortly after 7:00AM, I set out with the hay rake in tow. Although we didn’t really have a dewy overnight, I still wanted to rake or turn over the hay windrows while the hay had some night-time moisture. When the hay gets too brittle, it loses too much of the drying foliage of the clover, alfalfa and/or grass.  The moisture helps toughen the hay, keeping the leaves attached to the stem. With the windrows being so thick, the hay on the underside was still ‘green’, while the top ¾ was nearly dry.  I thought if I turned the hay over in the morning it would be ready to be baled in a couple of short hours.  I was right.  It was surprising how quick this cutting dried.  I had cut it only 36 hrs beforehand.

It didn’t take too terribly long to get the 10 acres of hay raked.  I knew I would be able to come back to the farm-site, unhook the rake, uncover and hitch onto the baler.. then head out after going over it with the grease gun.  Before being able to do so, I received a call from Farmer Mike.  He was at a farm a few miles away and he needed a little help getting a repair done on his corn planter.  Since I was heading back to the farm anyway, I told him I’d be there in a few minutes.  I jumped on my cycle and helped him out.  About 15 minutes later I was heading home again.  It was a quick fix.

After the detour, I baled and baled… then baled some more  It was hot and dirty.  Traveling down the field one way was quite pleasant – I was heading into the wind.  Going the other way was hell.  The dust and chaff, blew right on me.  For hours I was subjected to this.  It sucked.  By evening, I was so hot and tired.  And it seems when you aren’t feeling great, things start to go wrong.  It seems the grass hay was getting very dry and slippery to bale correctly… it was not loading into the baler correctly.  Instead of going into the baler (up and over the pick-up), the baler pick-up assembly was rolling the grass in-front of it, then becoming clogged. I thought I was dirty and miserable before, but when I crawled under the baler to pull the jammed grass out from the baler’s pick-up, I was shoulder deep in fine dust, chopped up hay and dirty chaff.

I decided to call it a day around 8:00PM – 13 hours of haying was enough for one day.  I guess I’ll have hay that gets rained on… we have a forecast of rain and thunderstorms for the overnight and tomorrow morning.  Oh well, I guess I’ll deal with that if/when it comes.  What I need now is a long, cool shower.  A couple of cold ones sound good as well … but they can wait until after the shower.

I think it was our first hot day of the summer.

Knowing it was going to be a tad-bit warm today, I headed to the pasture early, to do some more fencing… I really wanted to get this first long run, north of the creek, done.  I realize it was a Sunday – the day of rest, but I like fencing and haying on Sundays.  It’s so relaxing… usually.  Today was a little like work, but I enjoyed it none-the-less.

Earlier this spring, I tore out some of last year’s temporary, pasture fencing to make way for permanent, high-tensile fencing.  I had all the posts and the bottom wire in place, so running 3 more wires was about all I needed to do yet… that and add a few more insulators on one end.  I did so w/o problem.  By noon, all the posts had the needed insulators and I had another wire in place.  The temp was already in the 80′sF.  When I arrived at the house, I was so thirsty.  I… needed… something… cool… to… drink.  With hydration the only thing on my mind, I barely noticed how warm it was in the house.  Once I recovered my senses, looked at the thermostat on the wall… HUH?  87°F.  And Carol was standing in the thick of it, creating even more heat – she was canning chicken and chicken broth… while doing dishes.  I could also see clothes n the line outside.  Sheesh!

I drank some more Kool-Aid and grabbed a snack before heading back out to the pastures.  I finally finished for the day around 4PM.  I would have finished earlier, but along the creek, 30% of my posts are 4″ wooded posts.   Each wood posts receives 2 staples… so that took awhile.

Why wood posts?  The soil along the creek is much softer than the soil farther in.  I guess I feel the 8′ wood posts, being longer and wider than an average T-post, holds better.  I realize that the untreated, cedar posts will eventually rot, but the security of knowing they won’t be easily moved has some value.  And… not all of the wood posts will fail at the same time, so replacing on or two each year, after 20 years, won’t be such a big deal.

Anyway, that run of fencing is done.  Approx. 2400 ft of 4 strand, high-tensile, fencing was completed and another 2800 ft to go.  I was hot and exhausted… my T-shirt was soaked with sweat… and I had about 3 dozen wood-tics crawling on me and another dozen or so chewing on my flesh.  It was time for a nice cool shower… and some more Kool-Aid.  Carol was still chugging away with her canning, dishes, laundry and now… cheese making.  It seems she also found time to make a strawberry pie (with home-made pie crust).  By this time, the house was hitting 90°+F… It was hot.

As Carol started her last batch of chicken broth, we had some farm visitors.  A local gal and her husband were looking to purchase a few chickens.  I think the wanted them more for aesthetics, but thought a few fresh eggs would be good too.  It turns out, they are raw milk drinkers as well.  They asked if we would be willing to supply them with milk.  Carol let them know that we would be more than willing to do so.  It seems they travel more than 50 miles for their goat milk and would like to buy from a farm nearer to them – we would be about 30 miles closer.

All-in-all, it was a very HOT and productive day.  I’m glad it’s over.

Planting the farm’s corn field was not an easy task.  We started planting on Tuesday afternoon, May 04.  That’s when the problems started.  I had planted only about 5-6 acres when the transmission or clutch or something went out on the Oliver tractor – the tractor I was using to pull the $100, IH #56 corn planter.  Carol and I got the tractor and planter pulled back to the farm-site the next morning.  And then, the rains came.

It wasn’t until Sunday that I was able to start planting again… this time with the 560 Farmall.  Sunday didn’t go any smoother.  After a round or two of planting, I noticed the shafts on the planter boxes would pause at time.  A short time later, the shafts (that turned the planter plates to dump the corn kernels for planting) stopped moving completely.  Out of desperation, I removed the planter boxes at the garage and drove the tractor, with planter in tow, to the neighbor’s place (the previous owner of the planter) to see if they had any ideas that could get me back in the field.  They did and even helped get it working again.

I headed back, but before I could get to the end of the field, the planter stopped working again.  About that time, the neighbors drove up.  They wanted to make sure the planter was working for me.  I felt kind of bad – not allowing them the satisfaction of helping a guy back into the field.

With rain in the forecast, I really wanted/needed to get this corn field planted.  The forecast showed that we were to get rain for the next week.  I was worried.  So…. I called Farmer Mike, explaining I was having troubles with the planter and it looked like mechanical clutch problems.  I also wondered if he was home and if he could help me.  As it was, Mike and his family were not home.  They were on their way back home from a weekend holiday.  The good news was that Mike thought he might have the part that was giving me problems – his family once used IH planters and had a couple in the grove.

Well, until Farmer Mike was back home, I thought I’d try to figure out this clutch mechanism.  About 45 minutes later, I had the planter drive clutch in pieces before me and I could now see why things didn’t work.  The clutch was so worn it just slipped… yet, it looked simple enough to be repaired.  I grabbed my little angle grinder and started to remove material.  With about 15 minute of grinding, I had two parts that looked like they fit together… as they should.  I quick slapped the planter clutch and drive assembly back together.  For the rest of the night I planted corn.

On my last round I discovered the planter plate shafts weren’t turning… again.  When I climbed off the tractor to take a closer look, I could see that the drive chain was missing.  By this time it was quite dark and I could not located the chain.  I had no idea how long I had been planting… or maybe I should say, “not planting.”  If I could have found the chain, I could tell how far I got with the corn.

The next morning (May 10), we still had not received the forecasted rain.  This is good.  I quick got dressed and walked the field to see if I could find the chain.  I waked back and forth… up and down the rows… nothing.  I gave up after about an hour of looking.  I then called Farmer Mike.  I wanted to know where I should go to buy a new chain.  He mentioned that he may be able to make me a chain at his shop.  He needed to know what size and how long of a chain I needed.  I couldn’t tell him.  I explained the chain was somewhere out in the field and I couldn’t find it.  He asked me a couple of question about how I planted.  I told him and he suggested I look for corn kernels at the end-rows.  Where I could find corn kernels, was where the planter was still working… where there were none, was after the point of where the chain came off of the planter.  Armed with that info, I set out again to located the chain.  Within 5 minutes I had the chain in hand.  It looked repairable.

I went into the house and grabbed a paper clip to use in place of a cotter-pin and installed the drive chain.  Long-story-short, I finished the corn planing for the season.  I was sure to call my more than helpful neighbors and Farmer Mike to thank them for their input and their help.  Without them, I would not have been able to get the field finished before the rains.

5 hours after I got the field planted, it started to rain… and is suppose to continue for the next 4 days.