June 9, 2016
Started the day with the norm: irrigation. Finished up on Gayle’s, it won’t need water for another week or so. Have to let it dry out a bit. There is such thing as too much water. The last pipe to irrigate on Gayle’s doesn’t have much control or finesse to it:
Water bubbles out of the bottom pipe on the top field and runs down the marks on Gayle’s.
I left it bubbling while I went and did the rest of the fields. Cox’s restarted on the short runs below the Rat Shack that go east, toward Gail Frank’s place. Water needs to read better, I had to add a lot of dirt around the sign and still couldn’t get it to stop going down the ditch as much as I would prefer.
How we dam water on Cox’s for the parts we still have to flood irrigate.
The kids went and played in the pond while I was on Cox’s. They came tromping through the field with boots in hand. Except Rosie, who of course had stripped naked and was carrying her boots and clothes. Was going to get a picture (with Rosie half-hidden….have to be careful about naked pictures on the Internet), but got a phone call and kids were in the van before I could get a picture.
When I was at Carl’s I snapped this picture of George (black gelding) and Hope (bay mare) in their new pasture. They are content.
Went to Winchesters, where Jer had moved water down to the triangle in the southwest corner. Seven irrigates made it, but they were farther up. I cranked open the gates on the south end. Field was dry and water doesn’t want to move.
Back to Gayle’s and shut off the water going to the lower field, turned it to go up the pipe to flush it. Didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Jer and I will have to work on it this weekend. The pipe hadn’t been flushed for 2 or 3 years, is 1/2 full of dirt; makes 8″ pipe that much heavier. Turned the t-valve off to turn water off as well as I could.
Flushing the upper pipe on Gayle’s
Hauled the remaining two loads of hay off Cox’s, with Jer getting there in the middle of the process. He started putting together pipe.
I had an appointment at 3:00, so took the last load from Cox’s to the house. Nick unloaded.
We got in the van. We were roasting by then…
104 according to the van, but it had been sitting at the corrals. By the time I got the kids to the pool, it was down to 98…it didn’t go down after that.
Dropped Nick and Charlie at the swimming pool, went to my appointment. Home to grab the truck and trailer again. Dropped Jer off at Cox’s to get the tractor, and we headed for Carl’s.
Waiting for Jer to get there with the tractor, Marion and Rosie were happy when Hunting, Fishing, and Loving Everyday by Luke Bryan came on the radio. They can sing it better without it being on the radio. Will try to get a better version at some point. All four of the kids can sing it.
The 3x3s we were getting were stacked end-wise in a small shed, Jer had to pull them out. Got video of part of the first bale extraction.
After taking the three bales to the house, we hooked up the stock trailer and moved the fullblood girls–minus Precious because she had stashed Gummy and he wasn’t cooperating with going into the corrals–up to Carl’s. They were real cows and immediately went to check the fence.
Heading up the south fence to the top of the field.
Top corner of the field (southwest corner), no escape.
While we were there, I irrigated and snapped this cool picture of the pollen. Good thing I don’t have allergies! It’s *everywhere*!
Cool picture of pollen.
It sticks to *everything*.
Sticks to my scrubs. No stickers! One of the spots on my right leg is actually a mosquito. Violent little buggers.
Tramping up and down Carl’s field, I also like to see that there is a variety of species. The cows will love it that there is both medium red and sweet clover both!
Medium Red and Sweet Clover in the same field. A cow’s dream.
The cows had found no escape, so they headed back down to where they came from.
Cows ended up where they started.
Went home, unhooked the stock trailer. Jer went to go irrigate Winchester’s and haul water for the bulls (he’d packed some in buckets from other tubs to the bulls while I was sorting cows to go to Carl’s). Finally got to feed kids after 9:00. We made it to bed around 10:30.
