A fresh start

After a year of not having any big animals around we brought home a cute calf today. Her name is KoKo and she's a Holstein/Swiss cross. We picked her up from a local farm where Tammy's friend is the herds person. We built her a nice pen with a calf hutch in it to stay out of any drafts. She should be a dandy.

Got the combine home. The auctioneer said it had been run out of gas when it was driven off the truck so we cleaned the filter bowl and drained out the old gas and replaced it with new. It fired right up and drove home without a problem.
Slow though, it took 3 hours to get it home. Here are a few pics.

Not a bad little machine, I hope to put it to good use next year.

September is here, summer is almost played out. It has tried to make a comeback the last couple of days though. Chris and I spent Saturday at a local machinery consignment auction and it was pretty hot. I had to find a shady spot a couple of times and we left before it was over because we just couldn't stand it anymore.
Friends of ours dropped off a rooster last night because all they wanted were nice spot free eggs from their hens. I hear him exercising his crowing apparatus just now at 5am. I think he will go along with the rest of the birds when it is time to get processed. We found a place that will do it for $2.55 a bird and since Tammy wants them with the skin on this year that's what we will be doing.
Tammy has been busy around the place, she had me cut down a few of the arbor vitae trees along the driveway so the pond would have more room and that looks nice. She made a batch of plum jelly yesterday and it is divine as was her applesauce. Tomatoes are coming on and salsa and spaghetti sauce are in the works.
Bought a combine at the auction yesterday. Hope to get it home today, should be an adventure...
The second crop hay turned out a bit nicer than the first crop but there wasn't a whole lot of it. Here are a couple of pics of the baling.

Doing a little shuffling around and decided to upgrade from the old Allis WD to a Case 611B. It needs a little attention here and there, but overall it's a nice little tractor and I've always been partial to Case stuff.

Garden is getting along nicely. Found a Simplicity with a deck and tiller so if I can figure out how to attach the thing, next year Tammy can till in style. Also picked up a smaller tiller in a pile of stuff for 125 bucks. It didn't work but Tammy changed the primer bulb and it took right off. So we made out well on that deal.
Yellow transparent tree is loaded and they should be ready to eat and make jelly pretty soon.

summertime is here

Summer has finally arrived. Been a pretty crappy spring. Missed the chance to plant our field corn due to some mechanical difficulties with the tractor and an overaboundance of rain. Since we need ripe cob corn it had to be in early and we missed it. Oh well, there's always next year. Sold last years corn for 170 a ton and have used that money to get a few things for around the place. Tammu got a nice used lawn mower and I got a nice used tractor. The only animals around the place this year are the 2 dogs and 25 chickens. The chicks arrived Jun 6 and are all ready moved from the brooder into the coop and I think I'll let them access the outside this week. Made 1 acre of hay so far and of course it got rained on. Weatherman said good to go for 4 days and it poured on the 3rd day.... Did get it dried out and baled but it isn't the greatest. 2nd crop should be beter I hope. So here is some of the garden

Here is the lawn mower

Here are the chicks.

And here is the new tractor

After many years we have come to a sad day here on the homestead. This will be the first month without any sort of livestock around. Our pretty Fireball went down and the vet had no idea why. Unable to find a remedy for her and now she's gone.
So now we have some time to retool and refine the place but we are up in the air as to which way we should head. Goats or cows, enough to sell or just enough to keep the family supplied.....lots of things to work through. This might be the only bright side to this long winter.
The snow will just not let go. Temps are very low compared to average. We have some plants started but I'm afraid they'll get pretty large before we'll be able to transplant.
Lots of field work to do once we can get out. Will be ripping the fences out on some of the feedlots and trying to make it into 2 2 acre fields or maybe even 1 big 4 acre patch. I am hoping to run 2 acres in corn and 2 in hay. If I can get the old Cat running I may be able to do some more renovation and free up a bit more ground on the west end of the patches.
Hope to try a bit of John Seymours rotation plan for an acre involving 8 plots on the back acre and will be moving the garden area and doing some tillage and cover cropping on the old garden plot. All in all a very ambitious plan and with Chris scheduled to be gone to various camps this summer it may not all happen but we can hope for the best.
Changed jobs in Jan. Still working 3rd shift and will have to drive a bit further to work but the pay should end up being a whole lot better once I get up to rate.
Tammy has been busy, one of the boys that is out on his own will become a father sometime in May/June so she is making a couple of really nice crib quilts for the new arrival plus helping out with a lot of the seed starting.
We are in the middle of re-doing the laundry room. It's a project we've started on a while ago but are finally getting stuff done. Nice that the new job pays a bit more so we can finally get material together.