The Busted Knuckle Garage

Two more videos of cattle and that is all.

2012-01-30T19:05:00.002-06:00

I needed to give booster shots, de-worm, and growth implants. Implants are basically a very mild steroid that triggers the cattle's own hormone production. It should give a little bit better growth, and better meat quality. It is amazing, the implants are 32 milligrams. So they are .000000014% of the animal's weight! Amazing they would have any effect at all.

Daniel actually helped me by prodding the cattle to go into the chute. He was a good little helper! I could not have done it by myself. I had a big workshop table there for him to stand on that was just the right height for him. In a couple years he will really be a big help.

One video we had a little bit of a traffic jam and I couldn't get the gate open. The other was pretty much as perfect as it goes. Had to do this 39 times. It took us about 2 hrs

A new video

2012-01-27T14:28:00.001-06:00

Well, ignoring the advice I asked for, I declined on the job offer I had. For several reasons, I just did not think I needed to be doing that right now.

Here is a little video I put together on moving cattle with my 4 wheeler. I strapped the camera to the front of my ATV and the video is pretty much self explanatory.

A little dilemma

2012-01-22T13:51:00.003-06:00

A funny thing happened today. I was visiting with a guy that is a new administrator for a facility in the area. He asked me what I did, and I told him, he then started quizzing me if I would like to work for them part-time doing basic maintenance stuff. Basic plumbing, painting, etc. He said their full time maintenance guy needed some help, but it would only be for maybe a couple months. He thought like 20 hrs a week, with a pretty flexible schedule. I am not terribly busy right now, and won't be for a while, other than taking care of a few calves (more on that later).

Here is the dilemma: I don't really need the job. If I took the job would I be depriving somebody else of a job they really did need? Surely they have been looking around and there has to be a lot of guys that need the work? The extra $ of course is nice, and maybe I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. I told him I would stop in this week and visit about it. I know some folks there, and they kinda know me, so it probably would be easy to get started with them. What to do?

The only thing I have going on is I bought about 40 calves a couple weeks ago. They made the maiden voyage through the new pens and working facilities. We have just enough wheat here at the house to graze it a little and since it is still pretty dry, I want to get what grazing I can, while I can.

Isn't this just the cutest guy you have ever seen?

My projects between diaper changes

2012-01-06T08:45:00.004-06:00

Rachel, Amanda, and my mom got me a little video camera for Christmas. It is really fun to use. I plan on documenting more really exciting things like engines running, plows folding, and Fenton making bubbles out of his mouth, etc. Stand by for frequent updates! BTW the corral project is pretty much done. If we ever get cattle in there look for videos of that.

My project right now since I have time at the house (farming is slow and Amanda needs me to hang around to change diapers) I have decided to use my handy dandy camera and transfer our old home movies to DVD! The only problem is the old projector had transmission problems. It seemed to be slipping it's clutch. So what does ol' Brandon do? Tear into it of course. It has some little beveled roller wheels and the rubber on them is all cracked and falling off. I decided first I would try making some out of metal on our lathe in the barn instead of trying to find some to buy. It took some trial and error and about 6 hrs putting the projector together and taking it apart and putting it together, but I did get it where it would play the old movies.

The second hard part is transferring the huge files to the computer, converting them to a different format, using windows movie maker, and putting them all together. I am about 90% satisfied with the result, I just wish the finished project was a little better quality. Here is a video of me making wheels, and a short example of the finished home movie project. The home movie is not quite as good as the finished ones, as it was early work. I have improved it some.

Giving Fenton a ride in the MOBY

2012-01-03T18:55:00.001-06:00

Here is a little video I took this afternoon. Amanda really likes the wrap, thanks!

And another video just for fun, Mikali getting home from her first day back after Christmas break.

Pearls of wisdom from Daniel

2011-11-17T12:39:00.002-06:00

(prayer at lunch time)

Oh Lord, thank you for our food, thank you I'll have a good time at Friday school tomorrow, and thank you Miklali have a good time at school, Jesus name, Amen.

Other tidbits you may not know:

I told him I needed to fix a screw on his bunk bed so he wouldn't bump his head on it.

He said, "yeah it would make a hole"

Me: "and all your brains would run out. You would have to visit the wizard of OZ to get more braines."

D: "No, I could go to the Dr. to get more brains. That is what I would do, go to the Dr. cuz that is what you do, go to the Dr. to get more brains.

On cooking animals:

"When turkeys get fat we eat them! Just like when cows get fat we eat them! When they get fat we put them in the trailer, and cut off their legs and put them in the pan and cook them!"

.....hope you learned something today.

Not looking back and looking forward

2011-11-08T18:28:00.005-06:00

Working on a lesson, thoughts? B.E.

Dealing with the past is a big part of what being a Christian is about. Repentance is knowing what your past was and making the conscious effort to not be that way anymore. Changing our past behaviors and attitudes.

(Mark 7:20-21 “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”)

Or even ending unhealthy relationships that are not beneficial to our Christian progress. Making the conscious effort to be forgiving, that means forgetting the past. Forgetting mistakes people have made. Being patient means we don't worry how many times we have to deal with the same issue over and over.

This lesson revolves around the words of Jesus in Luke 9 where he compares the Christian to a person putting their hand to the plow. Lets read the whole context here verses 57-62. We always have to think about the context so we can think logically about scripture, not just emotionally how we “feel” about it.

57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him,“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (emphasis mine)

What do we see here? We see individuals that were probably very honest and sincere disciples of Christ, but were NOT FULLY COMMITTED. We could say they wanted to be Christians, but couldn't let go of their "baggage" first.

When He found out they were not fully committed, why did Jesus use the illustration of the plowman? What is the sin of looking back? Often times we say that the person that is looking back is looking wistfully at their sinful past they enjoyed. We always mention Lot's wife and speculate that she was sorry to leave Soddom and Gomorrah, That could be the case.

When my Granddad was teaching me how to run a cultivator years ago, we set up the equipment where the cultivator would run very straight with the tractor. We took all the slack out of the linkage and hitch, and even put in little spacers to keep it really tight. That way, where you drove the tractor you had confidence the cultivator would track right where you expected it would. We did that so we didn't have to look back so often to check where the cultivator was tracking. Once we had the cultivator set, and all the slop and sway taken out I would put a piece of black tape on the hood of the tractor I could line up with a row of crop. All I had to do was concentrate on keeping that mark lined up. If I got to looking around at the neighbors, or watching traffic, or LOOKING BACK I would bobble and knock the crop down. It would cause a blank spot called “cultivator blight.”

Isn't that the illustration Jesus was using? Again I ask what is the sin of looking back to the past? I'll say it in my plain way of saying things. Almost like Yogi Berra, IF YOU ARE LOOKING BACK YOU AREN”T LOOKING FORWARD! You can't do both at the same time.

Let's think about a couple examples contrasted in the Bible of one person that looked forward, and one that looked back, and how they are portrayed.

Joseph.

Joseph had a pretty good life. He was his Father's favorite. He was spoiled, and got special gifts. He didn't have to go and shepherd the flock, but he had the fun of being the “informant”. He was sent to check on his brothers, and tattle on them when they were misbehaving. Don't you think he had a pretty good life before his brothers turned against him?

We know how it all came crashing down, and he went from the top of his family's little world to the point of almost being murdered. Can you imagine the hate and disgusting things his brothers said to him? He even had to do a couple stints in the Egyptian prison. He was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. He was forgotten by the cup-bearer. Along the way he had a choice to make. He could either hold a grudge against his brothers because of all the evil things that happened to him and decide to live just for himself, or he could forgive and try to save them with the power he had.

Do you think it was an easy decision? Do you think it took some effort? I can't imagine him being like a friendly Australian, “Eh, no worries mate.” He had many years (20+) to let it fester and grow in his mind. But what did he do? He had a "mind to work" and realized he could do better looking ahead. God would not have forced him to do the things he did, he had to make that conscious determined effort to leave the past behind. Especially when his brothers came to him for help. He could have come up with all kinds of vicious revenge, and even have them tortured and killed. He showed his brothers that multiple times with the tricks he played on them. Thankfully we have the wonderful account of forgiving and forgetting, and the lineage of Israel was preserved because of the good character Joseph had.

The Older Brother in the account of the Prodigal son.

I think this is one of the most deep and educational parables Jesus told. It covers so many different lessons about human nature. And illustrates human behavior vividly. It shows how poor stewardship leads to hardship. It shows how jealousy and envy affects a persons character. It shows what a truely repentant heart looks. And it shows how God's forgiveness works, and how it should be reflected through us and our relationships.

When the younger son came back, what was the Older Brother only concerned with? His own “good deeds”. He never neglected his father, and had been faithful serving him. He was looking back at all the good things he had done, upset he had been “cheated” out of a reward he thought he deserved, and couldn't turn his head around and be glad his younger brother had been “saved”.

The lesson here is when we are concentrating looking forward in our Christian walk, we won't have the time or energy to dwell in the past. Just like driving that tractor cultivating, if I fully concentrated on the task at hand, and my goal -keeping the tractor on the “mark” I did a better job and reached my goal of getting the crop cultivated while minimizing collateral damage.

What did Paul say about looking ahead? Something like, “more than that, I count all wrongs to keep track, in view of the surpassing value of my deeds, knowing my Lord Jesus Christ, for whom I have suffered greatly, and count them valuable that I may look better than my neighbor before Christ.”

Wait a minute!!!, those are my words. That is what we want to say, to make ourselves feel better about keeping a tally of the wrongs committed against us. Let's read GODS WORD: Philippians 3:8 and following:

8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him ...........But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let those of us who are mature think this way,

If we keep our eyes affixed on our goal, Christ Jesus, we won't drag down our brothers with us in our pit of the past. Press on to the goal and DON'T LOOK BACK.

Look what blew in from the Land of OZ.

2011-10-30T15:01:00.002-05:00

Of course just like in the movie, Daniel kept loosing part of his straw over THERE, and a piece over THERE, oh it was horrible!.

We did our trick or treat early this year. A church over in Clovis had a "Trunk or Treat" on Saturday night. They had a soup supper, and a few activities for the kids, then they got to go around the parking lot and get candy. Boy did they get the candy! Mikali's little Dorthy basket was completely full when we put Daniel's with it. It worked out so much better than staying out late on Monday and having to get up early to get Mikali off to school.

We had SNOW on Thursday. I actually got a taste of the white stuff Wednesday morning in Colorado up there trucking. I guess it followed me home. About 2-3 inches of heavy sloppy snow. We showed .60-.75" of much needed moisture. It ought to really help the wheat out. We need that about every week for 3 months to build up some subsoil moisture.

I love being right, but not about this.

2011-10-19T13:00:00.002-05:00

Couple blog posts back I mentioned something about another 1930s drought. We had a little preview the other day, my mom took some pictures as a "duster" came through. It is only going to get worse as the winter and spring winds come in.

Still working at it

2011-10-11T07:54:00.004-05:00

I have not abandoned the corral project. But between wheat sowing, and harvests, and the hot weather earlier, the progress has been pretty slow. Besides the fact it looks like we are not going to have any cattle on wheat this winter. So I'm not terribly motivated to finish it.

We did get some showers last week that are going to help with the wheat coming up. Most of the wheat is up and looking good. The last couple fields I planted the moisture was marginal, and the rain did help.

Sowing and harvesting

2011-10-04T07:13:00.006-05:00

About 3 weeks ago we got a good rain and I decided to go ahead and plant wheat. I don't know how it is going to do because it is only wet on the top foot or so, and dry all the rest of the way to China. Anyway, since we did not have any summer crop everything got sowed to wheat. I was a crazy wheat sowing monkey for about a week straight.

Then I immediately started in helping my neighbor with corn harvest. So these have been my rides every day for a week:

Pretty nice trucks...... The only complaint is they are Kenworths, and apparently they have an ape on the engineering staff. For a good 20 years they have designed them where all your important switches are a good 12" out of reach! Very annoying.

I can't believe with all the emphasis on ergonomics they are still designing them that way. Anyway rant over. Nice trucks, like I said. As much of a slave driver as Pat is, good thing I have a team driver to take over when I get tired.

By the way he had a birthday the other day.

Everything is fueled up, greased up, and warmed up, ready to go!

Shelling that corn. Yields are really disappointing. Too hot and windy all summer.

Giving Brandon a job now. Thank goodness corn is not as itchy as milo.

Here I am waiting on two other trucks, the only time so far this season. It is like a ghost town at the elevator due to the short crop.

Usually it is a circus and you may spend an hour at the elevator unloading. Not this time. Just pull right in and dump that gold.

Has to go down before it can go up?

Ahh, the best part of the day. Here comes the chuck wagon!

Another 1930s style drought?

2011-09-11T15:15:00.005-05:00

It probably wasn't a good idea, but I read the book "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. It is a book about the folks that lived through the Dustbowl and some of the reasons it happened. So I got on a kick wanting to know more about it, and we rented a couple DVDs from Netflix about the Dustbowl, and now I am worried. Texas also went through a very similar drought in the 1950s too, but the economy was much stronger so it wasn't quite so epic. Either way I am starting to believe we are about 18 months or so into another very similar dry period. We have had hotter and drier weather than any other period since we have been keeping records for this part of the world. If we don't get significant moisture before the end of this calendar year, it is very unlikely we will get 'caught up' for a long time. We just don't get much moisture in the winter, so it will be NEXT spring before we have a better chance of getting back to 'normal'.

Lake Meridith north of Amarillo is the same as completely dry. (.01% of capacity)

We have only had 2-3" of rain in the last 12 months.

All time record high temps have been set all over the plains.

Most consecutive, most total days records set for +100 temps.

Trees that have been around for 60 years are dying, in spite of being watered.

Not ONE acre of dryland cotton will be harvested on the High Plains. And very very little in the costal bend region. (If any, not sure)

On another note, I wanted to remind or tell everybody that I am going to try to do a better job posting audio of Bill's lessons on our church podcast website. A couple of you mentioned that you thought Bill did a good job, and you can download mp3 files of his lessons on Podbean Might be good to listen to on the way to work or whatever.

I apologize for the terrible audio quality, but I am going to try to tap into our PA system and get a more dynamic recording. And I am really bad about remembering to shuffle the digital recorder back and forth each week, upload on the computer, edit, then post, but I pinky swear to be more consistent. Let me know if you are listening too.

Bible Camp (recap)

2011-07-26T16:03:00.009-05:00

This was our 4th year to help at Black Mesa Bible Camp. It is in Kenton, OK. Waaay up in the NW corner of Oklahoma. Over at the end of that sticky out part they call the Panhandle, or "No Man's Land." Not in the humid part. Not over East. Not in the forest. Not where it rains a lot. I just explained this because nobody knows where Kenton is. They always start off saying something like, "oh, it must be really humid there." NO it is a desert! Even before I heard about BMBC, I knew where Black Mesa was. And from that I could make a pretty good guess what the weather was like. I'm not going to go into much details about the camp because my huge readership already has heard me talk about it. I just thought I would share some photos.

View Larger Map

Friendly helpful staff and counselors. The guy on the left looks a lot like Dawson. Did double takes all week. Tall guy in the middle is a clown. Always cracking jokes. You can see by his expression he has something funny planned. Guy on right knows how to cook meat like nobody's business. Very good cook.

This is the "Mesa Monster" most years some counselors get the kids all worked up telling them stories about the Mesa Monster. They have others go around the cabins and make noises and scratch around on the walls, etc. This is at night, and this year we (other staff) were standing out there acting like we were looking at and talking about something in the trees. One guy drove his car over and turned the lights on like he was trying to spotlight. You would be surprised how many of these kids fall for it. Any way, I took this picture of the monster and was showing it to the kids the next day. It is fun, but we have to be pretty careful, because like I said some of them really are gullible. And do get really scared. It is a hoot none the less.

Mess hall and chapel.

Kid's "Cabins" They do have a little air conditioner, but are still pretty stuffy.

Our "cabin" on the left. Thanks Papaw. Pulled by the big white "goat". I had my class there on the right in the folding chairs. It was in the shade in the mornings when we had class.

Real Man's Grill! 8 burners, two tanks. About 1,049,45,684,783,473,763,739,568 BTU when you get thirty burgers on there dripping grease.

This is a few miles away from camp actually across the line in Colorado. Can you figure out why they call it "Indian Rock"?

The rest of these photos are just some random pictures around camp.

Making slow progress, Corrals Part 3

2011-07-07T11:02:00.005-05:00

It is still very hot, so I have been working on the corral project a little most mornings then doing other stuff in the afternoons. Since there has been no rain, I suppose there is no hurry about getting the pens ready. I won't be buying cattle for a few more months I think.

The trusty ol' Lincoln portable welder, yes that is hand crank. You start it like a model T Ford. Believe it or not, being a 1940s model, it actually starts pretty easy and runs good as long as you have fresh gas in it. Very good welder. A person new to welding would learn quickly using this particular style. It is DC instead of AC so the arc is much more stable and easy to start/hold. These old welders bring good money. I have seen a few on Craigslist that are in good shape bring $4000. This one might be worth half that, but I bet it didn't cost $500 new 60 years ago.

The "war wagon". It is handy to have all the welding supplies in a trailer and I can leave it at the house and not have to haul it around in my pickup. (I did not paint the wheels red)

I hope it looks like I have done a lot, it feels like I should have more done. Slow tedious work for sure. I'm glad my wages are cheap.

I weld these premade clips on the posts to hold the cable. We use cable for cattle pens because you can buy used cable out of the oil patch for el cheapo. Not as good a pen as all pipe would be, but about 10% the cost. Most smaller cattle respect it, and will stay in if you keep it tight. I wouldn't want to keep bison or bulls in with it. Crazy cows would probably go right through too.

The main event. I found a nice used squeeze chute. It needs paint, but other than that it is in perfect working condition. New this particular model would cost roughly $2500.

Mikali is ready for her shots and branding.

We are going up to Black Mesa Bible Camp next week. I think it is supposed to cool off some next week. And I think they have had some showers up there so I am expecting it to be nice.

Corrals, part 2

2011-06-17T19:39:00.003-05:00

I have been making slow progress on the corrals. The post-hole digger I was using digs a 9" hole, which requires lots of cement to fill it back in. Two bags of quickcrete at least, at $4 a bag. $8 a post. With something like 80 posts to set that would be.....um..........carry the one.........borrow 10............ uh... A LOT of concrete. I knew this before I started so I ordered a 3" auger that would be almost the same size as the posts. I had to make an adapter to fit it to the old digger, and it works great. Now the hole is about 1/2" bigger than the post, and I use masonry mix to set the post. I can probably set a dozen posts with one bag of masonry mix.

Once I get the hole dug, I have to vacuum out the loose dry dirt.

Drop the post in, a little cement mix, add some water.

Done.

Yes these posts are angled. This is the working chute "lead up" and the sloped sides help keep the cattle from turning back. Cattle generally put their heads down when they turn and keeping the sides tight against their sides helps prevent that.

Do it yourself corrals, some assembly required....

2011-06-11T19:16:00.007-05:00

...batteries not included, plus T,T, and L, may be closer than it appears, professional stunt persons do not attempt this at home.

I am building a small set of corrals to work cattle. Two pens, a crowding tub, a load out and squeeze chute. I have been designing it on paper for several weeks now, and have finally decided on the plan. Now to the hard hot part. I will build it out of pipe and cables and I think "C" purlins. I will try to update as I get more done so you can see what I am talking about. I hope it is something I get to use and build onto through the years. Right now as dry as it is I may not get to do all the welding right away. I do have water nearby, so I may spray the ground all around where it will be wet to help not set the world on fire. I hope to have it done by the middle of July, working mostly in the mornings when it is cool.

The four wheeler is sitting where the "crowding tub" will be. A crowding tub is basically a 1/4 of a circle, where the gate can sweep and crowd the cattle towards the working chute. The gate should have some sort of automatic holding mechanism where they can't push it back open and escape. And you can keep it up tight against them where they have no other choice but to go through the chute. The small rebar posts in the picture are to mark where all the pipe will go, so I can see how it is laid out.

I managed to get 3 posts set in concrete this afternoon in the 100 degree heat.

The best, post-hole, digger, EVER! If you have ever used PTO diggers, and have never used a Continental brand digger like this you have never experienced Posthole Digger Bliss. This thing is pretty old, but I wouldn't take $5000 to trade to a Tractor Supply Company cheapy digger. These dig straight, right through the hardest ground, and automatically stop at a preset depth. Sadly the company doesn't make them anymore, so if you have one you take care of it and don't let the neighbors borrow it.

Nice and straight, can't straighten it after the concrete is set.

35- 30' joints of 2 3/8 "drill stem". When the oil industry wears it out and they don't feel it is safe to use anymore, the cattle industry turns it into corrals. The shorter pieces are 8' sections of 2 7/8 and it is heavy, about 10# per foot.

It is still very hot and dry. I have no summer crops planted due to no rain. We have about 2-3 weeks left to plant milo, but I am thinking we are going to miss that. I will plan to plant some haygrazer later in the summer, but otherwise it may all go to wheat next fall.

BEEP BEEP BEEP, I stand corrected, you can still get a newer much fancier digger made by the same company.

http://www.belltec.net/post_hole.html

Feeding our little garbage disposals, um, I mean kids

2011-05-24T16:28:00.002-05:00

As most of you know our kids have got to be the least picky kids in the world. We have not found anything they will not eat. It is very rare for them to leave food on their plates. I think it is funny and lots of fun to experiment sometimes. As I have mentioned before, after thousands of years of civilization child raising is still a big experiment anyway.

After a round of mayonaise and mustard spread on crackers the other day, I asked Mikali if she would like mustard on her oatmeal in the morning. Of course she said yes. The next morning, no problem, didn't even blink when she ate it. Of course Me Too ate some too without reservations.

Today it was peanut butter on crackers with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on. Bubba even tried Parmesan on a banana. No problem.

Anybody have anything you want me to try to feed them?

Finishing up it seems like Mikali finally decided she did not like raw chopped onions. It took her two or three tries before she was sure. I bet if you gave her some with ranch dressing to dip them in she would eat them though.

I've somehow managed to build a website.

2011-04-28T17:55:00.004-05:00

I have put together a simple website for our church. It isn't much, but it does have a little about us and what we have going on. Believe me it took hours and hours to figure it out, and I still don't know how to do some things.

We are going to try a Saturday children's program this summer. The first one is May 7th. I also set up a church directory that is secured with a username and password. The members have the password, but I doubt they ever go to look at it. You have to think about the average age of our congregation. Check it out and let me know how to improve it.

www.farwellchurchofchrist.com

No wheat harvest this year

2011-03-28T20:01:00.001-05:00

No rain since August. Warm dry, then frigid dry, then more warm dry does this to wheat:

The crop insurance company has already appraised and condemned the wheat. I have already plowed up about 300 acres. This is about the worst I have ever seen wheat look in March. Usually you can maintain some growth up through heading, but this just flat died.We have one patch of wheat that is still green, so I am going to lease it to my neighbor and finish grazing it off. Maybe salvage what we can.

On a lighter note, we had a good time in Dallas two weeks ago. Yikes, I have been goofing around not posting about it. Amanda really enjoyed the Quilt show, and we all really really enjoyed spending time with Aunt Rachel and Holly, Maddy, and Tam. These are a few of the better pictures I have.

Estelle said she got a weird email from my blogger account? Anybody else getting weird emails from me?

The 15 minute clean-up challenge

2011-02-04T16:07:00.000-06:00

One thing I don't like about parenting is after 10,000 years of civilization, it is still a big experiment. Nobody has an exact answer for a common problem. You can read books until you go nuts, and you won't know anything more definite than when you started.

Ever since the kids have been here it is our routine they clean up their toys and their room before supper, or at least before bedtime. After 18 months we were still having to nag them constantly to keep them on task at clean up time. They are both old enough to follow directions and stay on task when they want to. It doesn't help they have so many toys and books, and they think they have to drag every one out before the end of the day.

I finally came up with a "genius" idea; give them 15 minutes to clean up, and anything not put away would be taken away.

Day one, 50% of their possessions did not get put away. Removed.
Day two, 50% of what was out did not get put up. Removed.
Day three, 50% of what few things they had left did not get put away. Removed.

Now before you think I am cruel, you have to remember kids can play with anything. And it is my belief the less they have the more creative they are besides. They certainly are not wandering around the house dejected, bored, and looking for entertainment. They spent most of the morning playing tug of war with a blanket off their bed, and carrying a baseball in a frisbe pretending it was food, for instance.

I digress.

Problem is they have so few things to put away now, I am not sure they are getting the message. I am thinking if they had it all back, they would be right back where they started. Messing around not cleaning up. Not so sure this experiment was such a good idea. No harm, no foul, but quite a wasted effort I think.

Picture of frost on the framework around our back door. We did get down to -7 Thursday morning.

Ahh, the dog days of......winter?

2011-01-31T22:33:00.000-06:00

What a nasty day. We have been spoiled the past couple days, but we are paying for it now. It started out pretty nice, warmed up to about 50 then the blue norther came in. Cold, cold wind and a few spits of snow. I had a graveside memorial service to go to, and Amanda decided to stock up on a few groceries before the storm so we went to Clovis after lunch. Apparently everybody else in town had the same idea. She said the grocery was packed. Just had to stand in line forever looking at Albertson's sign promising they will never have more than three in a checkout line. HA HA HA HA........ I put out extra hay for cattle while she was having fun with that. So we are pretty even I guess. Supposed to be down below 0 temps Wednesday morning.

We shipped our cattle the end of last week. (put out hay for the pasture lease cattle today) Ours were on a January contract so we waited until the very end of the month, and they still were a little light for their target of 800 lbs. Still made some good $ on them, but sure would have been better if it hadn't been so dry and they would have been a little bigger. I will certainly do it again next year, taking into consideration the markets and available pasture.

I'm sorry I haven't been posting anything. I just cannot get motivated to write anything. We have been busy off and on, but that is no excuse. Seems like after all the rush of the holidays, nothing very interesting is going on.

Thinking about:

Trying to haul cow feed products instead of cattle with the truck???

Going on a short trip for 2-4 days sometime soon??? (Dallas?, San Antone?, Santa Fe? OK?)

Renting a roll off dumpster for all the kid's toys???

Grazing Wheats

2010-11-06T14:42:00.001-05:00

Mikali generally says the cattle are eating wheats. And eating hay bales all the time.

For those of you enjoying my lectures on how to make money in farming here is the third lesson in the series.

In the cattle raising industry, calves are weaned from their mothers when they get to a certain age. Usually at about 7 months of age. At that time they are still too small to put into 'finishing' feed yards. They need to grow several months more. The question becomes how do you grow them cheaply and efficiently? Some places grow them in 'grower' or 'backgrounding' yards where they feed them cheaper low grain, lower carbohydrate, high protein feed that enhances their frame and size. When cattle finally go into a finishing yard you want most of their height, length and breadth established so they will mostly gain weight and muscle. (beef steak)

Another method is putting the weaned calves out to graze for the growing period. That is what we are doing. We buy calves that need to grow, get used to being weaned, and hopefully be ready to go to the feed yard next spring. It works really good because wheat pasture is an excellent high protein feed that calves can utilize, cheaply filling in the gap between weaning and finishing. Native grass is also good, but not really available in the winter when most calves are needing to be grown. Some calves are grown on native grass in the summer, much the same as wheat in the winter.

Cattle growth timeline:

A calf is born in winter or early spring. Stays with his mamma until weaning around 7 months.

Weaned in the late summer or fall. At weaning say they average 550lbs.

Goes to either a backgrounding, grow-yard (more common in northern US) or on wheat, rye, oat pasture in the winter. Grows from 550lbs to 850lbs or more.

Put in a finishing feed yard where he gets to lay around and eat high carb fattening food for some months. When he is big enough (1300 lbs) he gets to go to cattle Disney Land, that is what they tell them anyway. (dumm, da-dummmm)

It is entirely possible one person could own the same animal all the way through from birth to slaughter. Not at all unusual. But a lot of people do not want to take the risk of owning them that long, with the risk of volatile markets, high feed costs, etc.

For example

Ranchers out west can sell the calves at weaning and get their money, and go on to raising more calves for the next year.
I can't raise mamma cows and calves, so I buy them and grow them cheaply on my wheat in the winter. I don't want the risk of feeding them, so I...
sell them to some old cattle feeder man and he feeds them out to slaughter. (think old man with rusty money and a big gray Stetson)

The amount of beef raised and eaten in this country is unbelievable. It takes many, many small, medium, and large ranches, stockers, and feeders to meet that demand. I know of one man that raises calves, and grazes them on his corn "harvesting it", and sells them direct for freezer beef on a really small scale. Not more than about 30 head a year. And then you have big, huge conglomerates like Cargill that own hundred of thousands of feeder cattle, and also several slaughter plants. Not to mention all the grain and feed handling facilities they run. Makes me feel like a very small wheel in a big machine sometimes.

In the cattle business neck deep

2010-10-25T16:35:00.000-05:00

We had such a good year last year with leasing the wheat pasture, I decided to try cutting out the middle man and have more of my own calves this winter. I will still lease out the wheat in NM, but on the TX farms I will just have mine. It is amazing how fast you can spend a gob of money buying those critters. I can get pretty nervous about it if I get to thinking about it too much.

I already have one group of 92 calves put out a couple weeks ago. We had quite a time getting them settled in, as I am starting them on milo stalks. The rattling rustling stalks kept them worked up and they would not stay in all afternoon. I chased them around and put them back in for 3 hours. Wow what a mess. About dark they settled down. I kept counting and seemed to be one or two head short. It was hard to get a good count because they keep moving and lay down in the stalks. Well, I figured if I was one short either he was dead somewhere, or he would turn up later. He turned up last night. I had a neighbor that was looking for one of his that was missing, found somebody else's, and when he was returning that one, lo and behold mine was at that other guys place! Funny deal all around. Good to have neighbors you can trust.

I have 75 more that I will go get later this week. Here I just finished the fun task of making ear tags for them. I could get a stamp made, and have them printed, but for the few I have I don't want to spend the $ on the stamp right now.

Wheat cropping systems 101

2010-09-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

This is a little class on how wheat is used in our area. This is mostly for Aaron because we were talking about it last weekend. There are basically 3 or 4 different ways we can raise and utilize wheat in our area.

1: Wheat raised for grain only

Plant the wheat mid-fall (October) when the temperature cools off. But before really cold weather. Planting a little later helps conserve soil moisture that would otherwise be wasted by planting too early. You want the wheat to just grow a little and build "tillers" before it goes into dormancy in the winter. Tillers are the beginnings of stalks for the heads in the spring. Harvest the grain in June if it makes any. I'm guessing about 1/3 to 1/2 of our acres are raised for grain only. For different reasons. Farmers that raise wheat for grain only do not like running and taking care of cattle, or have had bad experiences in the past, or do not believe the revenue is worth the extra time and attention. All valid reasons in certain situations.

2: Wheat raised for grazing only

Plant wheat as early as possible (Late August early Sept) to maximize fall growth. Planting

two months before cold weather will allow the wheat to grow big and lush and build up a forage

reserve going into the winter. If moisture is favorable in the spring, plan to keep cattle on the

wheat all way up to maturity in May. It is a hard balance in the spring getting the right number

of cattle

on to efficiently utilize the forage without running short if the weather turns dry. In this system

all of the revenue comes from the growth of cattle. Buy little ones and sell big ones basically. I

would guess maybe a 1/4 of the acreage in our area is "grazed out" It is a good hedge against

low wheat prices or low yields to graze out wheat. About 90% of the years you can get good

forage, but less than 50% of the years you have above average yields.

3: Wheat raised for grain and gain

A very large percent of the wheat raised in our part of the world is used for pasture and grain.

Plant early again to maximize fall growth. You do lose valuable soil moisture planting early, it is

a trade-off for more forage. Stock the wheat just heavy enough to graze off the excess forage, and

remove the cattle before the heads start forming in the spring. This point is called 'first hollow stem'

in the wheat growth cycle. It usually occurs in late Feb. or early Mar. and studies have shown

very little yield lost if the cattle are removed before that time. Depending on how a producer is

set up and how much the gain is worth, it can be a very good way to add value to a crop with

not much expense. If it is a favorable spring you can still harvest a decent wheat crop in June.

4:Wheat for forage, but not just grazing

Wheat can also be raised for forage crops like silage and hay. A lot of the dairies do this.

Plant a wheat or other winter small grain crop, and either cut it for silage when it is still green,

or bale it for hay. Sometimes producers also graze the wheat then cut it for hay.

I plan to graze all our wheat and graze out some depending on the weather, and how much the

pasture is worth. You may have to click and open it, but that picture shows some of my wheat

coming up. Very warm and breezy here now. I think there is a chance of starting on some milo

harvest next week. That is pretty early.

Finished sowing wheat

2010-09-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

I think I am through anyway. You never really know until it is all up and growing. Just a few pictures, and even a video!

Changing underwear, Daniel style.

2010-08-22T22:02:00.000-05:00

Do not be alarmed there will not be any photos or illustrations. Hopefully a funny narrative.

"Daniel, go put your pajamas on."

(He knows the routine, and mom digs out the pajamas and clean underwear and puts them on the floor. Wait a few minutes to let him do it. Go check on the progress. I check and see he has his pajama shirt on right, pants on inside out an backwards. Oh, well that is good enough. Oh wait, where are the dirty underwear?)

"Daniel, did you put on clean underwear?"

"Uh-huh!" (I'm not stupid, Dad -tone)

"You put the clean underwear on?"

"Yes"

"Where are the dirty underwear?"

"Uh,..."

(he's looking around for them. I'm thinking, "You only took them off 2 minutes ago Bubba." Wait a minute his pants look funny. Amanda says, "check to see if he has two pairs of underwear.)

"Daniel! take your dirty underwear off before you put the clean on!"

"OH!" (now you tell me! -tone)

Well, maybe one photo just for good measure.

Corn is tassled

2010-07-01T10:51:00.000-05:00

We will have sweet corn to eat in 2 1/2 to 3 weeks. Yay! The weather has really cooled off from what it was a few weeks ago.

Last weekend was quite a whirlwind with the wedding in Abilene and all. Amanda went to the Panhandle Professional Writer's conference in Amarillo on Friday. The kids and I spent that afternoon going to the zoo and playing at parks. We also got to see the Crum grandparents and had ice cream. They got so spoiled that day. Saturday morning Amanda went back to the conference for the morning programs while we went and ran around town again. (Mostly getting a flat fixed on the car and strolling around Lowes looking at stuff) Amanda had entered a novel she has been working on in the conference contest and got 2nd place in her category! You send them the first 10 pages and a synopsis months beforehand and have to wait to hear how you do. Since there were more than 10 entries in her category she will get a cash prize to boot.

Wheat harvest, planting milo, spraying, rotary hoe, etc.

2010-06-16T08:31:00.000-05:00

It has been a busy few weeks. I fertilized and planted my milo, and a quarter for my neighbor. We have had a bunch of heavy rains and some hail, so it has needed rotary hoeing to keep it from blowing. Those of you familiar with our farming out here know what I am talking about. We have been cutting wheat in fits and starts the past week and a half. We keep having rain and damp mornings so we can't seem to get rolling really good. Between the hoeing and cutting I have been fixing air conditioners on equipment and working on other mechanical issues. I have actually had a couple days now to get caught up and take it easy. The weeds around our house are going like gang busters and I need to get them mowed. Except out in the goat pen, the little lawnmowers out there are keeping it ate off really well.

Random thoughts on a passing scene

2010-05-10T12:26:00.000-05:00

"I'm your uncle, not your mommy and daddy."

It has been over a month since I last blogged. Go ahead and whip me with a wet noodle if you wish.

There has not been a whole lot worth writing about around here, the kids are doing ok. No sickness or serious behavior issues. D. got potty trained the past few weeks. He has only had two accidents in the past couple weeks I think. M. still says doog for good. We didn't really make much of a deal over it since we figure when she goes to kindergarten the other kids will make fun of her and she will probably say it right then.

Cattle are still growing and eating wheat. The season is about over as the wheat is getting pretty short and dry. They will all be gone here in a couple weeks. I have had two die since I bought my bunch. One the first day or two when we had a mini blizzard, it got one. Then a while back one came down with pneumonia and I didn't get her medicine quick enough, if that would have even helped. One is not too bad to lose, but 2 out of 45 head is too much. Still glad I did buy some.

The wheat is looking pretty rough with the hot dry winds we have had. Much better than last year, but all the moisture we had last winter is GONE! Looks like we will get to harvest it all barring any hail storms. Wind today is terrible!

I have been trucking some, and helping a neighbor swath wheat down to bale it. Yesterday and today have been the first in a couple weeks I have had time to work on a few things on my own farm and rest a little.

Since I am just bouncing around topics, I sure have been cynical and depressed about the future of our country lately. I'm needing something good to hear about. Everything from Uncle Sam spending like there is no tomorrow, screwing up our health care system, our education system a mess, more and more entitlements for everybody, the E.U. going broke and riots breaking out, it all paints a pretty bleak future. Did you hear about the kids that wore the t-shirts with the US flags on Cinco de Mayo out in California? That whole deal turned into a mess. And really brings to front and center how much of a mess our immigration problem is.

Seems like us Conservatives are like a man waving the red flag to try to stop the train barreling down the track about to crash at the bridge that is washed out. Meanwhile our Engineer in Chief just pushes the throttle wide open!*

*Disclaimer. Our previous Engineer in Chiefs and their cronies have had plenty of political clout and time to pull back on the throttle, and have not.

News Flash, we're having triplets!!!!!!!!!!

2010-04-01T16:16:00.000-05:00

You did know I was talking about goats, right? If not- April Fools! We have had three sets of triplets so far and only one death so far. 3 nannies and 3 sets of triplets. Wow. In one set one was pretty slow to get up, but she is fine now. And today I had to help this nanny by pulling kid #2. Kid #3 was in a hurry and they were both trying to come at the same time. So far they look good.

Amanda has been quite the prankster today. Last night she made Jello in our cups for breakfast so it looked like juice. I didn't even notice until I was trying to take a drink. Really tricked the kids too. Froze their cereal to their bowels too. And she sewed a sleeve shut on my flannel shirt I wear around the house, and put a sticky note on the bottom of our mouse. I did manage to get her to put salt in her coffee after a couple tries. He, he, he. And the day isn't over yet.......

Learning to say "good"

Ever since M has been here she says doog for good. I was just trying to work with her to say it right. Say Goo, Goo, Goop, Goop, Goop, Goop, Goober, Goober, Goop, Goop, Good, Doog. Arrrrgh!

Our herd

2010-03-15T17:12:00.000-05:00

I did get some calves bought Saturday at Muleshoe. I only bought 28 heifers. I was wanting at least 40, but that is how it goes sometimes. I brought them to the house today, and it is a yucky day. Cold drizzly, rainy. I have them coralled in the goat pen for now training them to a hot fence. I will try to turn them out on the wheat in the morning.If you would permit a short visual explanation why I seem to have gone cattle crazy this winter here is why. The first chart is what wheat prices have done the past few months, wheat has lost more than $1 a bushel or about 20%, and cattle have gone up roughly 15%. Coulda, shoulda, woulda made a killing if I had bought my own last fall when they were cheaper, but hey, if I was that good at guessing the market I would be a millionaire.

Mmmmm, the smell of money.

2010-03-12T20:37:00.000-06:00

They are both green, both don't smell very good, both have value, you don't want it in your mouth. But you keep money it in your pocket. Sloppy wheat pasture manure, no. Today I hauled 3 loads of wheat pasture cattle and it was so messy and sloppy and stinky. I had it all over my coveralls, on my face and in my hair. When I got done it was so soupy and sloppy in the trailer I just pushed it all out with a broom. I wish I had a video of that to show you guys. Not to gain sympathy, but because I find it a little humorous. And for the great yuck factor.

I wasn't done getting dirty after all that. I decided since I was filthy, and my tractor hydraulic parts came in I would go ahead and fix that. That wasn't stinky, just greasy and oily. Working above my head so the oil tended to run down my arms into my armpits. I did get that done too. It was a busy day.

Gonna go to the cattle auction in Muleshoe tomorrow to take a goat to the sale, and maybe buy a bunch of cattle to put on some wheat and "graze it out". Cattle prices are zooming up, and wheat prices are going down. We'll see if it works out.

Random thoughts from a java junkie

2010-03-01T16:08:00.000-06:00

I am addicted to coffee. Not caffeinated coffee, just coffee. I don't know if it is all the cold damp weather we have been having or what. Seems like I want a cup ALL the time. Usually make a pot of decaf in the morning, and a lot of the afternoons do it again if I am home. And I have been home a lot in the afternoons.

We are wet again. We had some light showers last night, so everything is kinda sticky and messy again. 99% of the snow is melted. Only a few little spots from the big drifts are left. When they are gone we will have had snow on the ground somewhere since before Christmas. Unusual for us no doubt.

Why are some habits so easy for children to break, and others are so hard? Couple weeks ago I was getting tired of wiping the milk off D's chin when he was drinking. I told him a couple times to drink more careful, and he did. And kept it up, and does a pretty good job of drinking carefully. The other day we switched M. to the other side of the table for our meals and she adapted after only a couple meals, meanwhile Amanda and myself keep setting the table with her plate on the wrong side. But when it comes to bad habits we wish they would break, like asking the same stupid questions and getting the same response from us (silence) for months they just can't stop.

Interesting story: We were in Vega, TX Sunday eating at Dairy Queen, and we ran into M and D's grandmother! The one M. remembers and mentions from time to time. This grandmother was coming to the visits with bio-mom last summer until rights were terminated. Thankfully the grandma used discretion and did not jump out and make contact with the kids. She got my attention and visited with me a moment and said she realized she couldn't be the kids "grandma" anymore but would like to have some pictures or something. She also said she was glad the kids got to stay with us. (huh?) We talked it over and decided it would be alright if the kids could say hi to her right then. Anyway it was a very strange situation in a way. We had talked about trying to make contact with her anyway to just keep her updated on the kids, so we got her email and will send her pictures and stuff. Amanda is going to set them up a private facebook account so their bio-mom can see pictures too. (we know she has an account)

D. acted very strange around this grandmother, like he was kinda mad at her. I don't know how he could hardly remember her, but he wouldn't hardly look at her for a while. Very different behavior for him.

I know everybody is tired of hearing about it............
I am thinking my bargain Steiger tractor may be like my old Ford pickup. Fix Or Repair Daily will be it's motto. I have been having fits trying to fix a problem with the hydraulic system. It is getting air in the system and I am not sure where. I have changed some hose couplers, changed the oil and filter, and now I am working on the hydraulic pump itself. I have a $190 seal kit ordered for it, hope that will be it! I really think after I get all these little problems fixed it will be a good tractor. Oh and I think it needs engine injectors too! I think I will see if I can get a year put on it first as that could be couple thousand dollars for that repair job. So far it has had:

4 new tires $$$

Shop fixed:
new turbocharger
valves set
exhaust manifold fixed(after they messed it up)

And I have worked on:
new fuel gauge and sender
new hour-meter
new a/c hoses and charged up system
put in used radio
hydraulic valves overhauled
windows tinted to help cut down on heat, not for style! (But it does look cool!)
started working on brakes
put in autosteer kit

Chores I don't like doing

2010-02-18T13:13:00.000-06:00

Since things are a little slow right now, I have to make myself do jobs around I have been putting off. When I am busy it is so easy to say, "oh, I'll do that later when I have time." Things like cleaning out outbuildings, picking up trash and junk around the place, and picking up rocks. Up on one place I farm there was an old barn or something in one corner years ago. Now there is just old scraps of metal and lots of big chunks of concrete. I have been going by and looking at those rocks all winter thinking I needed to gather them up. Today I did, and you know what?, it probably didn't take an hour.

I have been going around and around in my mind, trying to decide if I want to keep trucking. I haven't hauled diddly the past 6 m0nths, and I'm not sure what the next year will bring. I kinda need to decide pretty quick because my insurance and registration is coming due the end of the month, and it is expensive. I don't want to pay it if I decide later it just isn't going to be profitable. I asked Amanda's dad what he thought it would be like this year, and he said he thought it was still going to be pretty slow and cheap for a while. Right now I feel like I will probably go ahead and 'sign up' for another year and see how it develops. My insurance quote was a little cheaper than I was expecting so maybe I won't have to do much hauling to come out on top. Worst case scenario would be to pay the insurance and registration then have the truck seriously break down on me.

Showers, snow, then slop.

2010-02-08T13:16:00.000-06:00

Just some pictures of what things look like around here.

I wanted to share a typical conversation with Miss M.

M: "What are you doing Daddy?"

Me: "Reading a magazine."

M: "That mag-zeene has letters on it! ♫ A-B-C-D-E-F-GRee.♫ A is for Amanda. I like my Amanda, he nice. Do you like my Amanda?"

Me: "yes"

M: "Me too. She wears big girl underwear. I wear big girl underwear. Grandma wears big girl underwear, do you wear big girl underwear?"

Me: "no"

M: "Cows don't wear big girl underwear, cows are stinky, they need bath. Do you want to give the cows a bath? They need a bath. They can't go way up in the air. [raising hands up in the air] Cows ride in the big ole truck, they don't want to be in the truck. That's too bad. I like riding in the big old truck. Dan___ likes riding in the big ole truck. It goes, Rrrrrrrrrrr. It noisy. You need to wash your big ole truck. It's dirty. ♫Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are ♫, mama called the Dr. and the Dr. said, ewww that's yucky! Two little monkeys jumping on the bed, bumper-bumper Dr. said, no more monkys jumping on the bed. I don't jump on the bed that is a no-no! Are we going to church?"

"No, it is Monday, we just went yesterday."

M:"Yesterday??, I like my Sherry. Do you like my Sherry?"

Me:"Yes, who is Sherry?"

M: [pause, with contemplation] "Your mama."

Me: "That is right, she is my mama."

M: "And Dan__'s momma, and mama's (amanda's) mama, and....."

Me: [exasperated] "No, just my mama."

M: "He my grammy Sherry."

"Right"

M: "....and Dan___'s grammy Sherry, and Connor's grammy Sherry...."

[more exasperated] "No, she is just yours and Dan__'s grammy Sherry."

M: "I like my Sherry[no pause]Where'd the cows go?! There isn't any cows in my room. They can't come in here. They stinky. They make poops. They need diapers." [actually was discussed] I don't need diapers, I'm a big girl. Dan__ isn't a big girl. He a big boy. Where your phone go!? I have a phone. You want to talk on my phone? [hands me a wood block]

"No"

M:"I'll call Aly. [case worker] Hello? Hello? OK. I... OK Hello? OK. 4..5...4... OK, Where are you? OK. OK.. Hello?.....Hello?......OK....Bye. That Aly. Do you want to talk to Aly? He coming here. ♫E-F-G-H-I-J-K.......squishing up a baby bumble bee ♫....

Me:"OK you need to go play in your room now............[sigh]"

2010-02-04T17:29:00.000-06:00

I have been more aware of the incredible technology all around us here lately. If you get to really thinking about it we kinda take it all for granted nowadays. Little things that seem so simple now, just a few years ago would have been dreams. Not only are they so convenient they are affordable to most of the population. Things like:

Amanda's little laptop. With it's wireless mouse, and wireless internet. We can surf the net all over the house and even outside. Or hit a hot spot in town. About 5 years ago I didn't even have dial-up at my house.

The internet in general. With Google, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Amazon, we have more information at our fingertips than ever. I have access to parts books for my tractors and combine, free. Even John Deere you can check to see if parts are in inventory at your local dealer. (Parts diagram for my hydraulic repair job at the top of the page)

Internet banking, retirement accounts, and the like. I set up a new Roth IRA account, and didn't hardly have to leave the couch to do it! I can check our bank balances at the drop of a hat, transfer funds out and into the accounts all at my leisure.

Netflix. 50,000 movies just a short wait away. Streaming movies right in your home.

Along that line Clearplay DVD player. You buy their player, pay a small subscription fee and you get filters for a lot of different movies. It skips over or mutes the bad parts. Opens up more possibilities for us to watch.

EFT with checks. More and more places are doing this and it is almost as convenient as using a credit card. Really more convenient in a way because you don't get the bill later. You don't even have to fill the check out. Just hand them a blank one and zap! the money is out of your account. Don't even have to use ID most places. I like it! (I do have to wonder about the security if somebody steals your checkbook.)

GPS in farm equipment. It has become so common and affordable you can't hardly afford to not use it. When I started farming this was portrayed as a coming thing, but nobody dreamed it would catch on as fast as it did. My big Steiger was built in 1977. Imagine what the engineers would have thought if you told them someday it would steer itself! And now it can. I put my autosteer system in it and calibrated it the other day. Amazing!

Electronic sprayer controllers. They use a flow meter and a speed sensor to match your application rate with your ground speed. Much more accurate. Once you get them calibrated right you can finish a field and never have any waste or run out too quick. (I know everybody knows just what I am talking about....but I really appreciate it)

Cell phones. Love 'em or hate 'em, there is hardly anywhere we go you can't be in touch. Affordable to boot. Our plans are $19.99 and the phones free. Also free long distance calls on most plans. Does anybody still use the old fashioned long distance anymore? I get market updates via text three times a day, free!

Scanners and printers, email. The other day the CPS office was needing some papers. I just scanned them, attached them to an email and sent them up there. Took about a minute, and again I didn't even have to make a trip to the mailbox.

Dropbox.com. Very cool application. If you have more than one computer or share lots of files this is the thing to use. It adds a folder to your computer that is linked with an online storage account. Whatever you put in that folder is accessible on any other computer you set up, or log in with. Say I am working on a novel (like somebody I know). I start it on the laptop, and save it in my dropbox folder. Later when I have a quick inspiration, I go to the desktop computer and open my dropbox folder and there is my novel! Great for backup too. I save our important stuff on there so it is always safe and accessible. Oh did I mention the first 2gb are free?!

And to top it off I am well aware of the fact there is much more out there that I am not in contact with every day. Things like Ipods, Blackberries, gaming systems, medical equipment, I could go on and on.

What do you really appreciate now days?

Thanks El Nino

2010-02-03T15:55:00.000-06:00

It started out today raining, then it snowed a while, then it rained, right now it is snowing again. The orange blob on the radar has been sitting over us all day. Our road is so sloppy we can't hardly get down it. Thinking we should have bought an extended cab 4wd now, instead of the one we got. Oh, well it's a good reason to stay home.

We are really needing to get some cattle off the wheat, but there is no way we can get trucks in until it either freezes hard or drys out. (the cattle guy doesn't want them to get too big) This wheat is going to boom though when we do get some warm weather! Seems like if we ever get some rain early in the spring it will yield pretty good.

Cabin fever, ice, and getting stuck!

2010-01-28T11:45:00.000-06:00

You wouldn't believe how nice the weather has been the past week. Other than some windy days, it has been warm and nice. Yesterday I was working on the big ole Steiger in my short sleeves! Today look:Typical, typical TX weather. I always get cabin fever when the weather is like this. Knowing I can't go out and do much makes it worse. I took a bale of hay out for the cattle this morning and nearly got stuck several times. We got about 1/4 inch of ice first last night that coated everything, then sleet, then snow. So under the snow it is really slick. It looks like you guys in Dallas maybe in the bull's eye after we are done. We are lucky, apparently there are a lot of people without power this morning, including my Mom and Dad. Our electricity has blinked all morning but is still on. When I went up to check on the cattle I saw a power pole that was about broke off. I don't want to call the power co. this morning because I am sure they are deluged with calls. I will call them maybe tomorrow if the weather is a little better.

I guess everybody knows by now about the adoption news. I'm glad we went ahead and postponed the hearing till Monday. Safe thing to do.

I haven't been blogging much (obviously) since my 2 or 3 blog readers are pretty well updated with our news otherwise. Maybe I will take some pictures of my hydraulic valve block repair job I am doing on the tractor. Oughta impress everybody to pieces.

Burp, now that is how we celebrate a holiday.

2009-12-01T14:10:00.000-06:00

Nothing says Thanksgiving like overindulgence. We had no less than 4 holiday meals in the course of a little more than a week. In a way I feel a little guilty spending so much time stuffing my face. Is that all holidays are for anymore? That and buying lots of junk we don't need?

We started out a week early with a community meal at the Pleasant Hill fire station. I enjoyed it except for the fact me and the kids picked up a cold while we were there. Somehow Amanda managed to not get it to the same degree I did.

Thanksgiving day we made a quick stop at my Dad's parents in the morning to see them and the Fletchers and Ecksteins. A very brief visit sadly. "Places to go, things to eat..." Had a dinner with my parents and mom's parents. On to Texline for supper with that part of the family. And one last dinner on Friday at Dumas with my mother-in-laws family. We had a great visit with everybody. And back to the original topic, I couldn't help feeling very thankful for all the family we have, and especially thankful our kids will become part of our family.

What is the deal with Facebook? It is interesting looking at all the connections everybody has and where everybody has gone. But it isn't really a blog, and not as customizable as myspace. Just wondering what the attraction is?

Cold here and we have had a little snow on Sunday. Supposed to be cold and unsettled the rest of the week. I'm pretty much all caught up farming, I will hang around the house more and bug Amanda.

Balloon Fiesta in Qwerky

2009-10-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

We left Thursday afternoon to go to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta. We enjoyed it a lot. We tried to get the kids to bed by about 8pm so we could get up at 5:45am to go to the morning session. After a quick breakfast at a close by Waffle House, we headed up to Coronado mall to catch a bus to go out to the Fiesta. That is the best way to go by far. We didn't have to wait but 10 min or so to board the bus and the ride was pretty short to the grounds.

At the Fiesta grounds it was still dark when we got there, but there were thousands of people already there. It is set up really well with lots of picnic tables and large grassy areas to sit down. It was really cold, but not unbearable since the wind was calm. I would guess about 40 degrees or so. The kids didn't seem to mind too much, and if you walked around it was ok. As the sky started lightening up the balloonists started filling their balloons. That was lots of fun to watch, it is amazing how big they are. When they start shooting the hot air in it feels good if you are close enough, and you can get just about as close as you want.

At 7am local time they launch the Fiesta balloon with the flag while somebody sings the national anthem over the P.A. system. Then it is a flurry of activity as the rest of the balloons start launching, starting at one end of the field and working to the other. After the mass ascension as it is called, they have a ballooning event where the balloonists try to maneuver their craft over targets and drop a flag. It is amazing when the wind is so light and variable they can change their direction by changing their altitude. They also have prize envelopes on top of PVC pipes stuck up in the air they try to grab as they go by. It was lots of fun to watch.

We headed back to our hotel room for naps and the kids were sure ready for one. Later that afternoon we headed back once more to the mall to catch our bus again. This time there were a lot more people, which should have been a sign of things to come. Wow, there were even more people there for the evening 'Glowdeo' as it is called. Also there was a long fireworks show. It was neat, but not quite as fantastic as we had hoped for. If we missed it next time it wouldn't hurt, since the crowds were so bad. I was so tired of hauling that big bag of bricks --->Mr. "D" around. There was a much longer wait to board the bus to leave.

The weather was really nice and sunny the whole time we were there, it was a shock to come home today. COLD, cloudy, drizzly.

What to pray for?

2009-10-04T14:50:00.000-05:00

Things are pretty stagnant with the kids and knowing their future. We have heard absolutely nothing in a several weeks. They are still waiting for a home study on the great-aunt where they are likely to go. Once that is completed, I am thinking the process will go pretty quick.

I have had quite a bit of a conflict in my mind about what to pray about. We are trained to seek the reunification with family at all cost. Maybe not at all cost, but it is supposed to be our highest priority. As most of you know that is not something we would be happy with. Amanda and I have had some discussion on what we would really like and if we should be praying very specifically for that. Of course what we all would like is for us to be able to adopt them. Basically we would be asking God for a miracle. Asking Him to influence the judge to go against precedent and not grant the Aunt the adoption rights. Is it presumptuous to assume we could make a better home than this Aunt? Is that too much to ask? I have been thinking about James ch. 1 and how we should pray and ask without doubting, because if we doubt we are "double minded". Wishy washy. Unreliable. Weak. Not serious. You get the picture.

On the other hand I have to wonder what is God's will in all of this? Does He want these kids to go to a home that seems (to us) unstable and immoral? Who knows? I have always tried hard to accept things that happen no matter how good or bad as part of God's eternal plan. Even when bad things happen aside from the dangers of the world we live in, it is often a bad decision on our part that causes heartache. God cannot always stop the natural consequences of the bad decisions we all make. Is this drama we are forced to be a part of the playing out of natural consequences? i.e. M and D's grandparents have not laid the foundation for a stable family, so naturally their mom has never had a stable life, and now the kids have not had a stable life.

IN CONCLUSION
We have decided there is nothing wrong with praying for this cycle to stop. I have no doubt it is within God's power to do so. And we would hope getting the kids this early in their lives, and raising them in a Christian home would stop this vicious cycle.

Now if you will turn in your Hymnals to.....

*************************************************************************************

Funny story: Amanda said the cordless phone started ringing the other day and as usual we couldn't find it. D was announcing, "Phone! Phone!" While she was looking for it D said, "over here!" and was pointing at it. It is good to have extra help around.

I have been working a lot getting ready for wheat pasture later this month. Me and my granddad did a lot of trenching and putting in waterlines for stock tanks. We are almost done, but wouldn't you know it my neighbor is needing help with corn harvest now. That will go on for a couple weeks. I also will need to build lots of electric fence. Need to be ready to turn out cattle about the end of the month.

We are going to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta the end of this week also. Bad timing, but we really want to go. And figure the kids will really have a blast. Expect some pictures and a blog about it soon.

Blogger seems to be a little buggy today. I can't seem to put in new page items. I have also noticed some other silly things. This kind of stuff is why I quit Yahoo 360

My latest welding project

2009-08-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

Quite a while back I mashed the bed on my pickup. I'm not going to go into details other than the estimate to fix it was $2300. We have a $1000 deductible, and I had been thinking about a flatbed. Everybody that has one says they like them so I built one. I have been working on it off and on the past week or so. Finally got it mostly finished today. I still want to put some pinstripes down the sides and I am going to put a paint-on bed protector stuff on the deck. It was a fairly easy project, it just took a lot of time. These are cell phone pictures so the quality is so-so. We had a little rain shower this afternoon.

Hitting the trail

2009-08-09T14:29:00.000-05:00

We made a quick trip to the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico again. We hadn't been up there since 3 years ago. (picture at top of blog) We were not in the same area this time. We were completely on the other side, South side this time. And I think I like the North side better. It is too crowded and the trails are too busy down there. It really doesn't matter because it is still a beautiful place all over. You don't realize how much country and scenery there is up there that you just can't get to. Unless you hike or take horses. A athletic hiker could spend days up there traipsing around and never see it all.

We went on Friday morning, rode a trail Saturday while Amanda's mom kept the kids at camp, and came home Saturday. The rest of the group were going to pack in Saturday and stay a few more days. I really wish we could too but it is dangerous for kids.

Well, this is the week the kids are supposed to have some kind of final decision on their situation. They have a court date Thursday, and the judge will decide if they are going to go back home or not. I don't know how soon they would leave after Thursday if that is the decision, but I suppose it would be pretty soon. I really dread sending them off, but that is how it works, and what we trained for. They have been a blessing for us while they were here, and I hope they will remember us. I would think M. would be old enough to remember. Maybe the trip to ride the horses will be in her mind. I remember trips we took when I was 3-4 years old. I'll keep all updated as news breaks.

Corn Harvest

2009-08-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

We have been munching on corn out of the garden for a couple weeks now. There wasn't a huge crop this year. It was too hot back earlier and the ears are a little small, and some didn't pollinate very well. I picked the last of it today and fixed it all in bags. That works better for us since we don't have much freezer space. Also it is easy to just whip a bag out and microwave it. We have more than we can use so I will give some away at church tomorrow. I hope they appreciate the work cutting it off. It is really yummy sweet corn. Almost like candy. "M" was watching me fix it and I would let her have some to eat now and then. I said, "Yum, this is almost like candy." She promptly said, "That's candy? I want some candy."

Lazy blogger

2009-07-24T07:43:00.000-05:00

I haven't been blogging very good lately. It seems like we don't have much to report on. You would think with two kids I could find something to write about.

We went to Black Mesa Bible Camp for the third year in a row last week. We took my granddad Donald's RV so we would be able to take the kids with us. That worked out great, lots of room and quiet, a little bath tub, etc. I think they enjoyed it, except for the fact most of the other camping kids were older. Mostly 8-13 year olds. I taught class and Amanda helped with laundry and various other run around tasks. She normally is a cabin counselor but couldn't do that this year of course. I enjoyed my students this year. I was very impressed how hard those 9 year old boys worked, considering it was a summer camp. One thing about BMBC, they are going to really emphasize learning the Bible. That is the only reason I feel like helping there every year. It was extremely hot the first part of the week, but cooled off later on.

We have been finally getting some good rains. It is actually sort of wet right now, it is supposed to dry out and warm up later this week. It was so cool Wednesday I needed a light jacket to ride the 4 wheeler.

The only update I have on the kids is they are doing great. We got D. a haircut and that was a screaming fit, but he looks a lot better. No more panic attacks over bugs or flies now since they like running the fly swatter. M. is doing better on the potty training, she has actually gotten out of bed several mornings in a row now and went to the bathroom without us telling her too. That was a huge breakthrough. Getting to watch the Elmo video helped on that. We can't really say how long they will be with us, but it looks like it will be at least past the month of August, so anybody coming to visit then should be able to see them.

Modeling good behavior

2009-07-05T16:10:00.000-05:00

I get so tickled watching the kids imitate us. I never really realized how perceptive they are, and how they pick up on the littlest things. This afternoon I was sitting at my desk paying bills and of course Miss M. was there watching and asking 100s of questions. So I let her help, which they love to do. By helping I mean she could stick the stamps on and the like. I told her she could write on the old envelopes while I was writing checks. The funny thing was after I would use the calculator to figure the bank balance she would imitate me. She would tap on the calculator for a few seconds, write on the envelope, tap, tap, tap, write. It was funny. Then she pretended to lick the envelope and set it in the stack of paid bills. If I could just get her trained to really pay bills....

For the holiday we went to Amarillo to celebrate with the Crum Klan. It was hot and muggy in town, with no wind. Mr. C cooked hamburgers in an old truck brake drum, and in the Crum tradition we didn't eat lunch until after 3pm. The kids had lots of fun playing with their cousin Connor and we also went to the zoo. The zoo apparently puts up the monkeys for the night early, so they missed that. Otherwise they saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my. They ate lots of junk food and watermelon, it was heaven for them. We didn't see any fireworks, because we wanted to get home and put the kids to bed. And by then we were shot too.

Not doing lots of trucking or farming at the moment. Pretty slow, and we haven't had enough rain for a big milo crop. The only summer crops I have is about 140 acres forage sorghum, and 50 acres milo. I plan to put in lots of wheat this fall, for grazing this winter, and with 2 bad years in a row, this next year will be a bumper. Mark my words!

We're finally parents!

2009-06-03T15:59:00.000-05:00

Wow! It has been a long time since I posted. Too much goofing off, and not much to write about until now. I think really since I have seen about 95% of my blog audience in the past couple months it seemed pointless to write. Also I have been updating through email on our foster kids.

We got our 3 year old girl (M.) and 18 month old boy (D.) on Tuesday. They are lots of fun right now. We lucked out in some ways because at these ages this is right when they are the funnest. M. is really cute, and she wants to know what everything is, "what's that?, what you doing?, where you going?" We finally have to just ignore all the questions to keep from going crazy. D. is starting to talk a little he says things like, "I eat" "puppy!" "shoose" (shoes). They love meal times and snack times. So far we haven't had any trouble with bed time.

They are scheduled to go back home in August, but that is if nothing really drastic changes.

Meanwhile back on the farm, looks like I will have to cut most of my sorry wheat. It probably isn't going to make more than 5 bu., but has to be harvested so the insurance company will know how much to pay. We have had a little rain, and I planted some haygrazer last week. That is a sorghum/sudan hybrid that I plan to have baled, if it makes anything this summer.

Orthopedics, a new skill learned.

2009-04-23T18:19:00.000-05:00

We had our goats over at my folks house, and one got her hoof hung in an old tree stump. It broke her leg close to the bottom. We splinted it the best we could, and if it doesn't get infected probably will be OK. This particular goat is still pregnant and should have her kid(s) soon. Not a good time to be breaking bones.

Got a little rain, hauling um...fertilizer

2009-04-12T16:39:00.000-05:00

We got a little rain this weekend. All last week I have been hauling manure for my neighbors. Good work, but boy is it stinky. Tuesday and then Friday I am supposed to haul some cattle down to the Decatur/Ft. Worth area. One of those days we are going to try to slip over to Carrollton to see our new little cousin! That is the plan anyway.

Our wheat crop looks terrible. It was so drought stressed, then we had a blizzard a couple weeks ago that did a lot of damage. Too cold too late in the season. Only time will tell how it will come out.

We have 9 baby goats now, with a couple young nannies that are a little late. We are not sure when they will kid out.

Finally posted a new audio file: 'On the road again' Fits pretty well huh?

Time for baby goat pictures.

2009-03-21T15:23:00.000-05:00

We are starting to have baby goats. It has been going pretty good so far, except the first nanny had triplets and one died. After all the stress of having three big babies she was not too interested in letting the other two nurse it seems. The first couple days we had to hold her while the kids nursed. She has finally started letting them eat now. We had two more sets of twins today. They were uneventful births. One more nanny is showing signs of "nest making" so we may have another set today. (twins I hope)

It is amazing to me how God puts so much instinct in those little creatures. Today the weather was perfect for birthing goats and not 15 minutes after they take their first breath they are wobbling around, getting on their feet and trying to nurse. I was just out there right now and 3 hours after they are born they are butting and kinda trying to play with their siblings. Amazing.

Auto-steer, cool technology

2009-03-10T20:47:00.000-05:00

In the past several years GPS technology in agriculture has really caught on. Like most new technology the price has dropped considerably from it's introduction. Now I have jumped on the bandwagon with auto-steer. For about 7-8 years I have been using a GPS unit that only "guided" me through the field with lights helping me do a better job spraying or plowing. Now I bought another different (used) system that will actually steer the vehicle for me. They have several brackets that will fit different applications, but I had to build a bracket for my sprayer pickup.

Once it is installed, you go to the field and lay off a pass. Everything after that is in the system and all you have to do is turn your equipment around at the end. Once you are going pretty straight on the next pass, just turn it on and let it do all the work!

In this video I am spraying wheat. If I could I would like to show a whole video of me turning around, getting lined up, and turning the auto-steer on. But I can't do all that and hold a camera at the same time.

Y'all come on in for breakfast

2009-03-07T20:49:00.000-06:00

I don't have any idea how many miles I drove last week but I was on the truck every day.

I just wanted to tell an interesting story from Friday. We were supposed to load cattle for some folks down at Portales, NM. It turned out to be a family I had played music with years and years ago when Dawson and I were first learning how to play. Talking with them they remembered Dawson much better because he was so young and could really pick good. They have gone on to perform more on a professional level and they are GOOD! They do festivals and fairs all summer now. www.triplelband.com

Also when we were waiting and waiting for the NM brand inspector to come, they had the whole roundup crew and all the truck drivers come in for breakfast. It was quite a spread, biscits, bacon, sasuage, gravy, O.J., coffee, etc. Pretty cool family.

Now to Practice

2009-02-26T12:07:00.000-06:00

If we don't flunk the CPR and first aid training Saturday, we will be fully trained parents. It has been a long two months, with all the trips to Amarillo. Jonathan and Samantha (Amanda's sis and b-i-l)have been generous enough to let us stay with them some and even eat with them. This weekend they are going to let us take their son and practice being parents! Saturday evening we plan to go to a EMS fundraiser and go up to Texline for the weekend to see Amanda's folks and let our nephew Conner see his grandparents.

The roofing project got put on the back burner due to windy weather, a head cold, cow hauling, and general laziness. I finished last night at dark. Now to just clean up the mess. It was actually hot yesterday with no wind and temps in the low 80s. We had to open windows in the house to cool it off last night. I am NOT going to run the a/c in FEBRUARY! (Bill from Michigan will probably marvel at the thought of our weather right now!)

Is it just me or has Blogger been a little buggy lately? Slow loads, trouble leaving comments, or today my blog posts didn't want to show up for a minute.

Half started or half finished?

2009-02-13T14:06:00.000-06:00

I have one side torn of and the new steel put on. It looks pretty good IMHO. It is a lot harder putting it on than I was expecting because of the pitch. I can't stand on the new roof because it is too slick, even with rubber soled boots. I had to lay a ladder down on the roof and anchor it with a rope so I could work on it. Very awkward. Now I have to get myself all psyched up for the other side.

The foster care teacher lady came by the house yesterday and gave us a thumbs up for our initial home inspection. Good to have that out of the way.

Our foster care classes

2009-02-05T18:22:00.000-06:00

I have had several folks here locally ask how the classes are going, or even asking if we have started yet. So I realized that maybe I needed to update the folks on my little blogosphere.

We are gaining about 1/2 inch per week. That is 1/2 inch of paper work and training material every week. Georgia Pacific has to be very pleased with the Dept of Family and Protective Services. We had a class Tuesday and Wednesday, so we stayed in Amarillo overnight. I feel like I am learning a lot, and there is a lot about the foster care system I had never realized. Most of what we have learned up to this point has been about the emotional and relationship aspects of being foster parents. How to deal or not to deal with birth parents, behavior problems to expect, developmental delays to expect, your foster care team, etc.

Next week we have another Tuesday-Wednesday class and it will be discipline. Tueday: what you can't do, Wednesday: what you can do. Later this month we will do all our first aid and CPR training.

We have done our fingerprints, and fire inspection, and we have most of our paperwork turned in. (birth certificates, licenses and such) Our trainer is coming to look at our place next Thursday, and we are supposed to have all our stuff like locks, and safety stuff ready. We need to buy a crib and some basic baby stuff soon because we are supposed to have that ready also.

Feb 28th is the last class, and after that they will transfer us to the Hereford office and hopefully there won't be so many trips to Amarillo after that. I'm not sure what will happen after that because we will get our own "home developer" and that will be who we work with. I really think that will be about all the training, and we will have to wait until April until we are certified Foster Parents.

This Old Barnhouse Phase 1

2009-02-02T17:48:00.000-06:00

I finally bit the bullet and decided to put a new roof on the old barn. The weather has been nice and I haven't moved the truck in a week. So today I called the metal place and got a quote and ordered the new roof. It is going to be the same color and style as our house. By the way steel prices have come down I am guessing about 20% since we did our roof last summer.

We are not really sure if we are still going to do the barn to house conversion, but one way or another if we are going to save the old thing it needed a new roof. When it did rain it would get awfully wet inside. It will be a good investment in the long run I hope. My back is already sore from just the little bit I have done in the picture. A couple of rotten places in the decking will have to be replaced, but mostly it will be a simple tear off and replace.

Typical Sears.....

2009-01-26T20:13:00.000-06:00

Years ago after many upsetting and frustrating episodes with Sears appliances and their service, my family fell out with Sears. Then through the years I have slowly worked my way back to the dark side, and started thinking they were mostly, OK. My change of attitude had more to do with Craftsman tools than anything else. You break one, take it back and they give you another one free. No questions asked. (hand tools only, power tools are another hassle) I love Craftsman tools!

About 18 months ago Amanda came over to the dark side with me and bought a Kenmore sewing machine. She bought the extended service plan because it included two free cleaning/adjustments. One per year. Well, we missed the first year, and after all her Christmas sewing the last couple of months, she decided it was time to cash in on the free tune-up on her machine. We dropped it off and all the associate asked us was:

Associate: "What is your last name?"

Us: "Embry, is that all the info you need?"

Assocate: "Yep" and like a flash he was gone.

After stopping at the store last week to check on it, and finding it wasn't back yet, we started calling this weekend. After Amanda put in about 20 frustrating minutes on the phone talking to their stupid service department headquarters in-who-knows-where probably Egypt or India or China or Omaha, I decided to call the local store again. I decided to trick the phone system into letting me talk to a sales associate in Clovis. "AH-HA gotcha! Let me talk to your manager!"

Come to find out they had sent her machine off and they sent it back because they DIN'T HAVE ANY INFO ON IT! Go figure! 3 weeks and nothing to show for it.

Typical SEARS!!!

Wish I could sign a couple of executive orders

2009-01-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

Aaron and Holly for months now have been agonizing over their unborn child. Doing everything possible to make sure she makes it into this world healthy and alive. She even has a name already. For an agonizing 6 months they have been seeing numerous doctors and praying constantly for their strength. The whole family is looking forward to bringing a new child into this world, and all the opportunity she will get to experience.

It took less than a week for our new President to sign an executive order freeing up federal money that will undoubtedly be used to pay for abortions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090124/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_abortion_ban

This is the change we have all been looking for I guess.

How to get from Point A to Point B, Murphy's Law part Deux

2009-01-10T18:30:00.000-06:00

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Not only did we have to deal with Murphy on Tuesday, he rode with me down to New Orleans on a milk run. First it is about 9,000,000 miles to New Orleans, or something like that. Before I left I looked up the milk plant on Google maps, and even checked out the street level views, which by the way is REALLY cool. I thought I had it all figured out and there wouldn't be any trouble finding this plant. Turns out I missed it on my first shot into town by 1 block. Then I messed around 45 minuts being lost. See map for a somewhat accurate portrayal of my tour of downtown N.O.

Well, when I finally got to the plant and put in my normal 2 hr wait, the plant employee said, "Where is yo' scale ticket?"

"My what?"

"I's can't unload yo' without a scale ticket. Gotsta go to the pilut out of town."
(Pilot truck stop for you non Cajun speakers)

Rrrrrrr after talking to another driver I find out I have to go 30 MILES out of town to get weighed and come back! (Stop and go traffic both ways) I can't believe this, but have learned that is the way it is in the milk hauling business. Everybody is supposed to know everything, but nobody knows anything. So my grand scheme of getting there about 9 am and leaving by lunch turned into an all day ordeal, and leaving town about 4 pm. What a mess. NO more milk hauling for me.

Remember, be safe this New Year!

2009-01-01T09:26:00.000-06:00

My question is this, do you think they had to add the warning after some bad feedback?

I'll have a blue Christmas...

2008-12-25T21:02:00.000-06:00

It seems like this week is going by pretty slow without Amanda around. Yet I have still enjoyed the holiday. We spent quite a bit of time over at my Clark grandparents today, and had a good meal. Amanda is supposed to be back from Ohio Sunday night.

I have decided to break a little news flash. Some of my small blog audience may already know, but Amanda and myself have decided to get into the foster care program. More specifically the foster to adopt program. Supposedly when you are in the foster/adopt program, they try to match you with children that are more likely to stay with you permanently.

We have decided to do this for a few different reasons. First, neither one of us is that set on having our "own" children. I am not sure why that feeling is not really there, but it isn't. We have both been somewhat inclined towards adoption through the years, and since we both agree it was an easy decision really. It has been a little difficult to decide when to start. We have been researching about it for several months, and now it looks like we are ready. It will be pretty intense because you have a class every week for 8 weeks or so. And they really don't like you to miss any. (I think that is to weed out those that aren't really committed) Oh, and the classes are in Amarillo every Tuesday night at 6:30, yuck.

We will have to be CPR and first aid certified, back ground checked, drug tested, and of course all the home studies, with fire and health inspections. We will request children from about 1 year to 4 years old, and right now probably any races. Now the kicker is this, we can't actually start fostering until we have been married 2 years, which will be in April. So, hopefully we will get all set up just in time. Classes start January 8th I think.

I know five couples, all fairly closely that have had pregnancy/birth difficulties of some sort, and that really concerns me, and makes me feel more assured about the direction we are taking. Also Amanda and myself want to do something that we can feel like we are really helping out in our society.

I waste more time!

2008-12-20T09:52:00.000-06:00

I waste more time fixing, and cleaning up messes that the wind makes. Last spring was the windiest nastiest season I can remember as far as wind goes. It looks like we are heading that way again. About a week ago the wind turned over our chicken house. Thankfully no chickens were killed in the incident. And the other day the wind turned over our goat shed again! That is the second time for that. I spent yesterday afternoon anchoring the shed down where maybe it won't happen again. And we have stuff scattered all over the farm that the wind has blown around. I am so sick of it.

Amanda is going to Ohio for Christmas with her family. I am not going because it would be hard for me to be gone a whole week. And it will be a little crowded riding up. We are having a little pre-Christmas get together Monday in Amarillo before they go. Also at the Embry grandparents Sunday night. Amanda has a gift for them. (I think she has blogged about it)

This Week

2008-12-06T09:43:00.000-06:00

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Everybody is probably tired of hearing about trukin'. But I ain't got nothing else to talk about. It has been good busy week. No real disasters, no falling into lagoon water, no unloading at the wrong places.

And you think your problems are big

2008-11-23T08:47:00.000-06:00

I haven't felt much like blogging lately, because it seems like my stuff is pretty small potatoes compared to what others in my family are dealing with. Sometimes it feels pretty narcissistic writing all about yourself on the internet for all the world to see.

Anyhoo, we finished up milo harvest about 2 weeks ago. I am glad to be done with that mess. It sure didn't turn out very good (yield). Thank goodness for high commodity prices. "High commodity prices can cover a multitude of farming sins." 1 Aggie 2:5 After that I hauled some cattle and it has gone pretty well. I think I am going to keep trying the cattle deal. I have done all the things wrong you can do wrong so now I am all ready to be a professional. First I:

Was 5 hours late getting the cattle to the feed yard, result: everybody mad.

Then when we got there, I had mis-counted by 2, result: everybody mad.

I have had a cow get down and not be able to get up in the trailer, result: had to drag her out at the Crum ranch, but she is up and walking so we will probably take her back where she came from. The cow's owner is good natured thank goodness.

I started unloading the cattle at the wrong feedyard last week, result: lots of embarrassment for me. No lasting problems other than in the cattle trucking industry I will be known as 'Wrong Ramp Embry'

I fell into Mr. Crum's trailer washout lagoon. Went completely up to my knees and elbows in green, fragrant water. Filled my rubber boots up with the juice also. Result: a good story to tell, and really smelly feet and hands.

The other night I didn't close the gate when we unloaded, result: got a chewing by the min-wage nightwatch person.

So as you can see there isn't much left I can do wrong other than turning the trailer over. Right now Dawson took the trailer and hauled one load with Mr. C. and they are going to take it to Amarillo tomorrow to have the slick floor worked on. So I have a few days off. I could call the milk company but I just don't feel like hauling milk.

You see with the milk hauling, you get paid the same per mile no matter how many miles you run. About $2.60 per loaded mile. A 100 mile load will pay about $260. 200 miles = $520, etc. Where as a cow load like I did last week from Nara Visa, NM to Clayton, NM which is about 65 miles paid $490! With cattle hauling you get paid for the time it takes to do the work, not just miles. The shorter the haul the more per mile. At about 200 miles it will change to a straight per mile rate, which is about $3 right now or a little less.

For Thanksgiving day we are probably going to have a meal at my folks with Amanda's family also. Mr. and Mrs., Jonathan and Samantha and Conner, and maybe Ty. I suppose Rachel and maybe Dawson, but I am not sure if Dawson wants T-giving dinner with his boss.

Imagine this:

2008-10-25T16:17:00.000-05:00

65, 8 year old girls are having a sleepover at your house. They have been drinking coffee, redbull, and straight high fructose corn syrup all evening. Also they are locked in a small aluminum walled room with lots of heavy and breakable things like bowling balls, piles of dishes, accordions, and banjos. Now imagine the inside of this room is covered in a super slippery grease, and the room moves down the road. They all hate each other, so they start a contest to see who can slip and slide and kick the walls the most. They never seem to tire of this game. When it finally gets late, you decide to catch a few winks. Lucky you, you get to bed down 6 ft. from the wall they have all decided is the most fun to kick! That was last night coming home with a load of cattle.

Aftermath of the sleepover. Yes that is 3/4" of soupy fertilizer.

I am not going to haul cattle for a week or two or three, I am thinking, for the simple fact I think next week we may start on milo harvest.

Hotshot, check. Rubber boots, check. Scent in a can, check.

2008-10-21T18:08:00.000-05:00

The new ride, uuuuummmm, smells like money!

Phil and his young girlfriend watching the sun come up.

Looks like I am all ready to haul cattle. Ok, so the milk hauling has been frustratingly slow lately. And the company we haul for has not been really helpful with the situation, so I have decided to take a different direction with the trucking. I am borrowing a trailer from my father-in-law and will haul cattle when I can. Of course there is still corn and milo harvest, with wheat re-sowing sprinkled in so I don't know when I will really get into it. I did haul one load of cattle Monday, but that is all so far. It went really well for a greenhorn like me. Part of the job description is you show up real early, wait around till it is your turn, then load your own truck. Then when you get to the feedyard you stomp around in the trailer in all the, um, fertilizer and unload your truck. BUT it does pay more than milk. About 30% more. We will see how it will go.

We had about 4 inches of rain last week, then another 1/4 " or so last night. It is really wet right now.

Amanda's grandma has been in and out of the hospital, and they have decided to put in a pacemaker tomorrow. We are hoping it will perk her up where she will have more energy. Also they are giving her marijuana to give her the munchies. You thought California was progressive, just come to Amarillo. Well, really they are pills derived from marijuana that increase your appitite. They do seem to help.

Done with the Sewing Shack

2008-10-15T15:28:00.000-05:00

I finished up on the shed today. Except for a couple of little things that may or may not get done right away. Whew, I am tired of working on it. Since it rained 4", and all the cows have gone on strike, I didn't have any excuses to not finish it. I will build a work bench sometime, but for now I think Amanda can use the same table she is using already. I would have built it this afternoon but all my wood is pretty wet from the rain so I will let it dry and see how much it will warp. (thanks to my eternal pessimism I left the wood sitting out thinking it wouldn't rain that much)

Aaron asked about the milo crop. It varies like always. Some isn't hardly going to be worth cutting and some of it will be pretty good. It is not going to mature enough, so the grain will be light. (<50 lbs. per bushel compared to 58-60 lbs.) My average is about 2000 lbs per acre, or 35 bu. per acre. Some will probably be more like 3000 lbs., I hope. And some will be more like 500 lbs. And the elevator will give a pretty sharp discount depending on how light the grain is.

I heard some guys say they had frost on their cars this morning. And Clovis reported a low of 34.

This, that, and his brother the Other.

2008-10-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

Inside of La Casita de Coser

Mud puddles

This is really nothing more than a typical boring update on our goings on.

This last week:
I have been helping my neighbor haul corn with my truck. We are working on a trade. He uses my truck and I will use his grain hauling trailer during my milo harvest in a few weeks.

Yesterday:
We had our first coat giving out day at the church building. It went pretty well. We didn't have as big a turn out as we were hoping, but we estimate we gave out about 90 coats and jackets. We will have another give out day next Saturday. Maybe the word will get out.

Yesterday and today:
Very rainy and wet. 1.5" so far. It rained off and on all day yesterday and last night and today. Yay! Some of my wheat did not come up very good. I think it was because of low quality seed, too much hot dry wind, and GRASSHOPPERS! So now I will have to replant some when the weather clears out. About 150 acres or so.

Amanda's sewing shack is kinda on hold right now, but with the rain and slow milk hauling, maybe I can finish up on it the next few days.

Amanda is going to go up to Texline this week to stay at her folk's house and stay with her grandma. No we are not having marriage problems. They are trying to figure out the best thing for grandma right now.

The picture of Phil is to just show how much he enjoys rainy days. He likes getting really muddy and wet.

No picture, what's up with that?

2008-10-02T21:18:00.000-05:00

I wanted to mention we went to a movie this afternoon and it was pretty good. Called "Fireproof". It was one of the better movies I had seen lately. It was written and made from a 'Christian' perspective so it does get a little preachy in a few places. The first 15 minutes or so kind of made me go, "eehh, I don't know about this....." but it redeemed itself as it went along. For what it is, it is very well made. If you want to see it you better hurry because it probably won't be out long.

I AM NOT going to Clovis again until they get Prince street fixed. They have blocked lots of intersections and it is down to one lane, it is a MESS! It made us late to our movie because I couldn't figure out how to get there from where we were.

There is a great place in Clovis that refills printer cartridges. A new cartridge for our laser printer is about $100 I think, but they can refill and refurbish it for $40. Cool.

This Old Sewing Shack (Phase 2)

2008-09-25T21:15:00.000-05:00

*** Nothing new, I just added a picture of my sewing shack project. Wall and door install***

I don't know how I manage to get so many irons in the fire. We have decided to remodel our garden shack and turn it into Amanda's sewing shack. That will get all her oodles of sewing stuff out of our spare bedroom and she can have a little private place to do her creative stuff. We had to move all the junk out of that shed to the grain bin/storage shed and clean it out. Now I can sympathize with B and E with their move. Except this probably wasn't 1% of that job. It took us about 2 hours I guess.

Basically the job will entail ripping out the end wall and putting in a different door, insulating and drywalling, and some electrical work. Redo the floor. Not too much really. Nothing will be really fancy, just snug as a bug in a rug.

Sowing chickens, and hiking up milk mountains

2008-09-16T19:12:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty busy now, but wanted to report in on our little trip up to Ruidoso. It was very enjoyable, the campground was really nice. Saw a bear while hiking, and the elk kept us awake at night calling back and forth. Amanda did some shopping in town Wednesday before we came home. We would like to take her folk's horses up sometime and pack into the wilderness area they have up there. Ahhh, that will be plans for next year.

Dawson is hauling milk for my father in law now. Supposed to be more full time. We will see how well he likes it after a few weeks. They have a nicer newer truck and I think that will help the over all appeal to the job. He went down to a place near New Orleans yesterday and will come back tomorrow. I think it went pretty good. I imagine he will be shot when he gets back though.

I am sowing wheat this week. It should take most of the week to get it all done. I will plant 415 acres of wheat. It will make 50 bu. per acre and I will get $11 per bu. for it. That comes out to $228,250. Of course my land lords get 25% of that so my share will only be $171,187.

Our chicks are all grown up now. We gave a few roosters to Amanda's mom, gave a few hens to my Dad, and we still have about 12 left. (I think) No eggs yet. We got the "leftovers" mix so we have lots of weird chickens. Some have naked necks, and some have tufts on their heads. Some are pretty normal looking though.

Ahhh, Sunday afternoon

2008-09-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

Our cat, Spud, has been sleeping on this same step all afternoon. We have been coming in and out and he just watches us step over him and doesn't hardly move a muscle. Lazy bum.

We are going to make a quick trip up to Ruidoso for a couple of days tomorrow. Camping for a couple of nights then stay in town somewhere maybe one night. We haven't really had a "vacation" this summer. We have been everywhere though. Dallas, Denver, Shreveport. The gremlins came back in the truck and I put it back in the shop Saturday. They think there are some bad wires that need to be changed. That is what has been causing some problems off and on. So we have a couple of days to goof off. Really, we have a lot going on right now, but if we don't go to the mountains soon it will be too cold.

Our church is doing a used coat collection this month. We are collecting good used coats to give out in October. Amanda and myself are the ones kinda heading it up so we have a lot to do now with that. I have been whipping out the electric cattle prod to get folks in the congregation to "volunteer" for this project. The only problem I can see is I hope we can get plenty to show up on the distribution days. Oct 11th and 18th. I am not sure if the word will get out well enough. If we do have lots of coats left they will still be given to other charities.

Red, red, and more red.

2008-08-20T17:53:00.001-05:00

I finally got around to painting our shutters. Now our roofing/repairing job is all done! Well, except I still have a bunch of scrap and leftover roof material I need to get rid of. Or put away somewhere. Oh, and I still need to use some of it to fix our chicken house roof. No rest for the weary. (hmm, that reminds me I need to post a current picture of Amanda's chickens....)

This afternoon I thought I would try to spray the field here behind the house with my handy-dandy pickup sprayer. I knew it was a little iffy on being too wet, but I thought I would try it. Got it stuck right off. All I will do now is wait for it to dry and maybe I can try it again tomorrow.

Changing topics, Firefox browser is the greatest! I have been using it for a year or so now and it is really cool. What I like the best is the ad blocker. I have been so disgusted with Yahoo's trashy singles ads, I finally found a "plug in" thingy that will block all the banner ads on there! NO MORE ADS!!!! BuuuuHAhahahaaaa!!! Take that Yahoo! Also it was getting pretty creepy because I was getting ads that were advertising Pioneer seed. I think it might have been because in my account I had that I was a farmer. Changed that to where all they know about me is my name.

Hope Brian and Estelle get the house. I am really tickled about that. It will feel good after all these years. Even though ours is a cheapy it is nice knowing it is all ours.

Off, ON, off, ON

2008-08-17T16:52:00.000-05:00

That is how our rain works around here. We haven't had a rain since back when I took those pictures two blogs back. And now in a couple of days we have had 3" plus. And looks like more to come. I don't know what to expect on the milo, because so much of it literally died and won't come back now. What is still green will probably shoot some more little heads out and make a little. It will be interesting to see what it comes to.

Ever since I spent the big bucks on the truck repair, they did not have some things fixed completely. So I fussed at them and they fixed it Monday afternoon last week. (no charge) Now on the last trip to Kansas it started something new. Sorta missing and cutting out at certain speeds. AURGH!!! When this truck hit 1,000,000 miles it decided to be lots of trouble. Anyway we are really busy running up to KS every day it seems, and going to the Cheese plant in Clovis. I like SW Cheese much better than the place in Portales because they are much faster. 2 hrs max there. 2-3+ hrs at portales.

Amanda is going with her mom to visit some family tomorrow. She is going to interview one of her great uncles that was in WWII for the "Veterans History Project". It is a project where they are trying to interview as many vets as they can because we are losing something like 1000 per day. We will probably try to interview my g-dad sometime also. They want it on audio tapes to store.

Last of this year's sweet corn

2008-08-08T16:10:00.000-05:00

I don't have much to write about so I am blogging about my sweet corn. (Yawn) I decided to go out today and see what was left and pick it. And since it was getting pretty hard, I cut it off the ears and will freeze it. My grandmother and mom also picked a lot out of that small patch, so we have all had lots of good corn lately.

I would post some pictures of the crops, but I don't want to start anybody to crying and feeling sorry for me. It is a totally different picture from last month about this time. The great dryland corn experiment is dead. Literally. And the milo is in pretty sad shape. 3 weeks of 95 degree temps and wind has really zapped things.

The milk hauling is picking up a little, and Dawson is driving some this weekend. So I will get a couple of days off I hope.

Amazing what rain can do

2008-07-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

We got a good rain about 2 weeks ago, then another one last week while we were gone to Black Mesa Bible Camp, and wow how things grow!!!! (third pic. is the Great Dryland Corn Experiment, and the others are my milo)

The morning we were leaving for BMBC it started raining about 3 am. I had my granddad's RV camper and his pickup at the house because I was going to take it to stay in. So I got up right then and drove it to the highway and went to bed in the camper until 6:30 or so. Anyway it was a good thing I got it to the highway because it was pretty muddy that morning. I was a teacher and Amanda was a counselor. That week they had 9-13 year old kids. Lots of good singing and surprisingly good food.

They start with flag raising, before breakfast, then right to a bible class about 9 am. Then 10 am worship service, and another class from 11 am to noon. Lunch, rest period, testing over the morning's lessons at 2 pm, then team games and other activities at 3 pm. Supper at 6, another worship at 7:30, then snacks at 9 and bed at 10. So a pretty busy day all the way around.

The truck repairs ended up being pretty envolved and expensive. But I think it is fixed, and several related problems are fixed now. Now I need to get busy and get back on the road.

The roof on the house is done, need to do the garden shed now.

My Granddad Clark is doing very well after his surgery. He will go in for a check up Wednesday and they are hoping he will get the go-ahead to do more strenuous work. (He is supposed to do lots of resting but can't make himself do it.)

High as an elephant's eye by the 4th of July

2008-07-05T19:13:00.000-05:00

That is how big corn is supposed to be by this time of the year. My sweet corn is about chest high and tasseled all ready. Should have some fresh corn in a couple of weeks. I still can't remember at the right time to take a picture of the milo. It is looking really awesome with the showers we had the last couple of weeks. AND the price for fall contracted milo is $13 per 100 lbs. WOW!! That is 3 times what it was about 2 years ago. I am not sure the showers we had were enough to help my dryland corn experiment or not. We shall see. I am glad I only have 5 acres of that.

Amanda's Dad and Mom and Sister and Husband and Conner came down for a visit on the 4th. In the usual Lewis Crum tradition we cooked over an open fire. The food was good and we had a good time with all. We went and watched the Clovis fireworks display and it was really spectacular for a "mid size" town display. The Crum clan all commented that they thought it was better than the Amarillo show they watched last year.

Um, trucking, not much is going on except Dawson got a job at a cabinet shop, and the truck is going in the shop for a day or so for some repair work. Hope they get it fixed quick. In a nut shell it is getting fuel in the water. = injector leaking

Roof, been so busy with trucking and farming haven't worked on it in about a week. But it is half done. The second side will go a little quicker I think.

We are going to Black Mesa Bible camp the 14th - 19th.

My granddad Clark had heart surgery the 3rd to fix his irregular heartbeat problem. He is doing better but it is a slow recovery for the first few days.

Red Roof Inn?

2008-06-27T13:35:00.000-05:00

We started on our roof this morning. Before it got too hot. We actually got more done than is shown in the picture. I may work on some trim this afternoon. We are planning on painting our shutters to compliment the roof in some way. It is sort of a weird combination of colors right now.

Dawson came down to get the truck as he his going to pick up a load of cream in Amarillo and take it to Stepenville, TX. That is something new, and he will get to be the guinea pig on it. I made a hectic run from Dumas to Little Rock, then to Brownfield to Portales and home in two days the other day. Shhhh, but I was way over on my log book allowable hours of service. I don't plan on doing that again. I had some trouble with paperwork and trouble with the truck, so that made me get behind.

Nothing much happening on the farm right now. Still hot and dry.

Tough times, we sold the kids.

2008-06-22T09:11:00.000-05:00

I thought I ought to blog about something since it had been a couple weeks. It has been so dry and hot we didn't have enough pasture for all our goats. So we sold the kids a little early and of course the next morning it rained. Now we are still very grateful for the rain, and I don't suppose it hurt anything to get rid of the little goats anyway. We would have sold them in a couple of months.

Nothing new to report with the leche hauling. Except Dawson has been looking for something else to do. HA! I finally burned him out. He is still sorta on call, but might be getting a new job this week. I told him if he wanted to do something else, he didn't have to feel like he had to stay with the trucking. (I need to work on my sentence structure a little) I think the trip across Oklahoma without the a/c a couple of weeks ago turned him off a little. I have been running all short Hereford-Portales or Brownfield-Portales or Roswell-Portales loads this week. That is good in that I can be home at night most of the time. But not enough miles to suit me really. And I am really tired of hanging around at that plant in Portales. Portales isn't as bad as hanging out 14 hours at the plant in Winnsboro, TX!! That was the pits.

We finally got our insurance check for our roof. After much over the phone chewing by me. It will pay about 2/3 of the cost of the new metal roof. (Not including installation, sweat equity) We are planning to pick up the materials this week, and hopefully get it put on soon. Looking forward to everybody coming to visit later this week!

Heat, wind, and bills.

2008-06-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

My dad had a little bit of wheat that he wanted me to cut. We jumped right in there and knocked it out right quick. It made right around 20 bushels per acre or a little less. About 2/3 of his average yield. And that was 20 times better than my wheat. HA

When we went down to visit Aaron and Holly I went with them to their small group Sunday night, and the topic was how to take a day and make it a "sabbath day" once a week. Since most folks have Sunday off from work, it is a good time for us to rest. And we should. We talked about the things that distract us on those days and I said paper work and bills keep me from resting. Well, right now I am planning on spending all afternoon doing that very thing. Looks like I need to work on this resting thing a little more.

Things I need to work on:

Pay bills.

Except the ones that are messed up, and will have to be straightened out this week.

Do mileage reports for the trucking. And get them ready to send in this week. ( we have to keep track of every mile we drive and what roads we use.)

Pay payroll taxes.

Fax a request for more coverage to my truck insurance company. (the milk company added about $20,000 to the level of coverage they require us to have.)

Put the last 3 loads we hauled in my computer.

Write down my chemical application records for this last round of spraying.

And we still haven't gotten paid on our roof damage yet. That sorry insurance company is going to be turned into the Texas Department of Insurance tomorrow.

AAAAckkkkk!!!!! I need a secretary!

Sniff! They grow up so fast...

2008-05-26T12:30:00.000-05:00

I didn't really have much to write about, and I took a picture of our kid crop this morning. They all looked nice and clean. It is hard to believe how fast they grow. Just a couple of months ago they were little wriggly things that couldn't stand up. We were vaccinating them Friday when we brought them back from my folks, and wow they are chunky boogers.

Nothing new on the milk hauling to speak of. It is still kinda slow right now. Dawson is off duty for a few days and we will likely switch out by the end of the week. It looks like we are planning on going part of the way to Denver Friday afternoon, and also coming part of the way back Saturday night. "Part way" has yet to be determined but will probably be Trinidad. We are planning on going to church and having lunch in Texline because it is Amanda and her Mom's birthday. (both June 1) I don't know what Dawson's plans are.

Started mowing the lawn today

2008-05-21T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well, it isn't much of a lawn, mostly weeds right now. I staked our big herd out on short leads and put them to good use around here. It is really a pretty good pasture for them because it is a mixture of different grasses and weeds. Yum! The smaller goat is the bottle baby that is off the bottle now. The other is our billy goat. The rest of them are still over at my folks house. I think we will load up a few that we are wanting to sell and take them to the auction Friday. (weather and trucking and farming permitting)

I finished planting all my milo, and it all looks pretty good so far. Expect photos throughout the summer. I also planted about 24 rows (3 acres) of dryland corn. Yes, dryland corn! I have heard of some guys trying it around and having decent results. The theory is on a good year it will make quite a bit more grain than milo, and the price is about 15% greater than milo, so that is a double bonus. The only downside is on a really dry year it is apt to not make anything, where milo will make a little most years. Also we cannot get insurance on dryland corn for obvious reasons. I wanted to experiment a little with it.

Vintage Amanda

2008-05-18T16:39:00.000-05:00

I thought Amanda looked sorta retro "50s" or something with her apron fixing dinner today. So I snapped a picture.

We can't seem to decide what we want to do about coming up for Cindy's wedding. We would like to maybe come part of the way on Friday, then come the rest of the way on Saturday morning. We might all (Folks and me and A.) stop in Texline Friday night, and come from there, as that would save 3 hours, and save a hotel bill. But I am thinking right now I don't know if 3 hours would be worth saving or not. It is still something like 7 hours from Texline to Denver. Oh well, we will do it somehow.

I had a good run planting and did about 500 acres, and we got another .5 inch of rain. It was a real nice gentle rain. It will help moisten up the dry spots you always have when you plant. I have about 80 acres left and I will be done planting. (I hope)

One of those days

2008-05-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was one of those days where at the end you just say, "whew, I am glad today is done." It wasn't really all that bad but it sure could have been better.

It started about 11:00 when the tractor I was using sprung a hydraulic leak. Of course that kind of thing always happens at 11:00am on Saturday. Most farm supply places close at noon. So I had to rush to Friona to get them to fix me up with a part. "Cha-ching" $100 right there.

Got that fire put out.....

Well, I have been planting milo and in the field I was on, I was struggling all day to get the planter to work right in the conditions I had. Plus a wheel fell of the planter. Not a major wheel, just one on one row.

Keep going without it. Tractor is almost out of fuel, not going to make it to the end of the day.

So I have to go run over to my granddad's to get some fuel. Oh, and before I do that I have to wrestle the tank up into the trailer.

"Grunt" strain "mumble, mumble, stinking price of fuel......"

Go get fuel, and while I am doing that I get a spare wheel to fix that problem. Tractor fueled up, wheel back on, all systems go. Put more seed in.

"Ring-ring" Dawson: "Hey! I am in Texico sitting in the road trying to get turned on the Amarillo high way and the clutch isn't working on the truck!!!! What do I do? I can't get it in gear! Can I start it in gear to get it off the road?"
Me: "Yes!"
Dawson: "It won't start! I need somebody to come and pull me out off the highway!"
Me: "Well, turn your flashers on and I will head that way. It'll be 20 minutes."

Man I hope he gets it out of the road before I get there....

Long story short, he calls saying he got it started and can make it out to the house. Turns out a bolt fell out of the clutch linkage and we fixed it in about 2 minutes. Whew! That was about how my day went Saturday. And besides all that Amanda went to Texline to visit her folks and aunts so it has been a really weird weekend all around.

Who wants to help put a roof on?

2008-05-05T18:20:00.000-05:00

The insurance adjuster said we would get a new roof, and turned it in to the company. Now we are anxiously waiting on the check. We are looking pretty seriously at metal. The main reason being durability and we can install it ourselves. I am thinking it would be a good project to do when everybody comes out to visit the next time. (hint, wink, wink, hint) I will need lots of help cutting and trimming. I faxed some measurements and drawings to Mueller to get a quote this afternoon. Any suggestions on colors? We are thinking a red roof and maybe painting the shutters a complimentary color of some kind.

I like the acrylic stuff my folks and grandparents have, but I don't think I want to put that on myself. And there are some insurance issues with it. They don't want to insure it, whereas if you do metal you get an insurance discount. Weird.

Dawson is going to deliver some milk to Little Rock, AR tomorrow. Wow, our little brothers are growing up fast huh? I would be worried about him, except I have been there myself and it is an easy plant to get to. It is all interstate all the way. I expect he will leave early tomorrow and come back on Wednesday.

We don't have enough baby animals around here I guess. We are getting some chickens later this month. Expect more pictures. OK, everybody chime in: "Old Mac Brandon had a farm......"

Finally! Rain! And how!

2008-04-23T17:23:00.000-05:00

We had a pretty terrific thunderstorm this afternoon. Lots of marble to quarter size hail. Busted a hole in our one and only sky-light. I think for now I will depend on the good old fashioned redneck rescue tool, duck-tape to patch it. Looks like it will be a pain to fix it. Cheapo plastic. Rrrrrrrr.

The hard rain let me see how the terraces will work out. Looks pretty good except on the one that looks the most full. The near end may be a little low and will let it run out there. I thought building those terraces I had jinxed the rain for years and years. ;-)

We're through having kids

2008-04-19T14:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I would try to post a couple of videos of the baby goats. It is mostly for Holly because she said baby goats were so cute. The video of the black goat was the last of the nannies to have kids. Those two were just about 30 minutes old when I took that video. Yes, she has just one horn. We think somebody tried to dehorn her and it didn't take on one side. She is a fun goat to have around.
(wow, it is a lot of trouble to put a video on here...)

From one "Big D" to another "Big D"

2008-04-15T19:47:00.000-05:00

Big Dirtstorm that is. Last Thursday was about the worst windy dirtstorm I can ever remember. There were some reported gusts of 70mph in the area. And I believe it. It was horrible. It lifted our goat shed on end and flipped it over. This shed is 32 ft. long and it picked up one end and flipped it over on it's top. And tragically killed one of our baby goats. :-( I spent most of the middle of the day plowing to stop the dirt from blowing and missed lunch, just had enough time to come home and set the goat shed up, take a shower and leave for Dallas.

We had a nice stay in Dallas with everybody. We went to Rachel's school Friday, then stayed over at Aaron's and Holly's. And stayed with Rachel one night. We also went to the arboretum, Aaron's place of work, and the flight museum among several other things. Oh, and we played Rachel's Nintendo Wii a lot too. That thing is really cool. I don't think I will buy one though.

Dallas is a fun place to visit, but there is NO WAY I would ever live there. I thought the group picture turned out really cool, considering my arm was the tripod.

No place like home.

2008-04-06T16:14:00.000-05:00

I suppose everybody is getting tired of hearing about goats and trucking, but since it is NEVER GOING TO RAIN AGAIN, that is all I have to talk about. Maybe after we visit the Dallas relatives, I will have some stories to tell. Brian was wondering what we had in the truck so I took a couple of pictures while it was at the house. Try to ignore the huge stash of snacks in the second picture. Amanda does keep me from getting too much junk food. I have cereal and crackers and juice and apples. The plug in cooler is really nice, except it freezes your stuff sometimes at night when it gets cool.

I am not sure what we are going to do about an a/c for the sleeper this summer. We have an inverter that will run stuff like the tv, but I don't know if it has enough juice, and if the batteries will last long enough with an a/c. It does have an a/c that runs when the motor is running, but we can't afford to let the truck idle all night burning $4 diesel. We will figure something out. Luckily we don't stay in the truck more than one or two nights a week.

Nothing really new

2008-04-04T19:57:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to put up a couple of pictures. Wow those are pretty small. I don't know if we could ever get all the kids together for one picture or not, without penning them all up. And I finally got my #s and stuff for the truck. Maybe you can kinda make out what is on the door. Oh, well I am still figuring out this new site.

All the babies so far are doing ok. I hope we can get all the kinks worked out before next weekend. 12 kids. And we still have 2 mamas to go!

Goats coming out our ears.

2008-04-03T12:58:00.000-05:00

I never expected to have so many twins born. Every nanny goat (except one) has had twins, with one having triplets. So we are up to 12 kids so far, with two mommas left. Now we are having some problems with the kids. One old nanny was in pretty poor shape, and we are not sure if she is giving any milk yet. We took one of her twins and hopefully "grafted" it onto the nanny that had one kid. She is a good strong one and should be able to handle the extra if she will accept it. Also one of the triplets is still a little slow learning how to nurse, but I think he will get it in another day or so. I will be glad when they are all nursing somewhere and they won't require so much attention. I will get some pictures up sometime when the wind isn't blowing so much and they all are looking good and clean.

Dawson is finishing his two loads for the week today, so I better write him another paycheck! He is doing a good job. It is working really well for us to trade out. The only problem is he has to stay down here once in a while and you know how it is trying to sleep in a different place every day.

Here I am!

2008-04-01T16:02:00.000-05:00

OK, as soon as I said I didn't have enough time to mess with blogging, I had some time this afternoon to set up a new blog site. And say, I am liking blogger so far. I think I have a way to link to other blogs where it will update when they add to their blog. Here is the convoluted way I found to do it. First everybody has to allow blog feeds on their own blog for this to work. You can do that through Settings, Site Feed, Allow Blog Feeds. That is the default setting unless you have turned it off.

Go to the blog you want to link to, and scroll all the way to the bottom. And RIGHT click the "subscribe to:" link. Click "copy link location"

Then in your own blog layout screen, click "add page element" and find "feed" add to blog. Do a "paste" and save your settings. Ta-Da! It will show a link to that blog that will update whenever they update. Not quite as good as 360 but maybe it will work.

Oh, I don't know how to link to other blogs besides blogger yet, but I will work on it.

Edit:
OK it is very similar, on a yahoo 360 blog, go to the bottom of the blog you want to link to and right click the orange "RSS" button and click "Copy Link Location" and paste it like I mentioned before. BUT, if the yahoo account doesn't allow this feature the orange button at the bottom will not be there. Ahem, Holly I can't link to your 360 account because of this. Also you may have to do it twice because of yahoo's glitchyness.