Whether weather

I spent the last week in New Mexico, attending my cousin's wedding and visiting my brother Gage.  My dad flew there from here.  After he retired from farming, he took flight lessons, bought a plane, and flies around the country.

He and my brother had a very eventful flight from one city to another in New Mexico.  There were thunderstorms, dust storms, and huge gusts of wind out of nowhere. 

They were telling us about it, and my dad said it was sort of fun.  He said that flying with obstacles -going around the storms and trying to avoid the wind - made it interesting.

Gage said, "Isn't that funny, dad?  You went from a job that depends on the weather ... to a hobby that depends on the weather."

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We tried magic milk flavoring straws that I blogged about earlier.  My niece, sons, and I thought they were great.  They're straws that have filters on either end and are filled with chocolate powdery-crystals that dissolve as you drink.  So by the time the milk is in your mouth, it tastes like chocolate.  It's such a great idea. 

When things are better than good, I often say, "That's awfully good."  My son apparently wanted to express just HOW much he liked it, but didn't get it quite right. 

To give you an idea of just how great it tasted, my son said, "It's horribly, awfully good."

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It has been dry, dry, dry and hot, hot, hot.  No rain and in the 90s for over a week.  The cows don't like it, the corn is all withery-looking, and the irrigation system runs all the time on the pastures. 

Last night, out of nowhere, we had a storm.  At 3:00 a.m. - lightning!  Thunder!  Wind!  The power went out and Kris left the house (before it came back on) to go and start the generator in order to be able to milk.  So we didn't need to use it.  Later in the day, our employee had to borrow it to milk his cows, because his power wasn't back on yet! 

This also happened last night:

     

If you're having trouble identifying what you're seeing, try and spot ...

- a patio chair
- an umbrella (CLOSED, but didn't seem to matter)
- a table that was seemingly pushed six feet by the wind
- glass shards that used to be the tabletop covering the cement and pool bottom
- a mouse using a diaper as a lifeboat - after all it'd been through, I saved it.  It'd had a rough night, obviously.  (My brother suggested that it actually pushed the table in.  I wished I'd have thought of that before I let it run off.)

But!  The good news is that it rained.  We got 3/4 of an inch.  Forget rain dancing - I guess the sacrificial glass table is what works.

Past

The weather has changed, and it feels like it's for good! (Note - I'll be taking back these words soon, now that I've written that.)

There were only four calves born today. Kris said tomorrow looks like it's going to be a big day, since a lot of them look ready.

The boys got to see Kris pull a calf today ... I'm still on zero for the year. That's right - they so far have had 56 heifers and 48 bulls, and I've seen NO births. It's just not the best year. Between keeping kids from touching the electric fence and having another kid who can't yet walk, it's not the easiest to witness these births. I strongly encourage all the calving mothers to have them near the road - in between my children's naps - but so far, no luck.

Last year I was lucky enough to assist, and to have my friend take a picture:



Judging from the picture, "assist" seems strong, but I really did pull enough to realize that I wasn't strong enough to do it by myself.

Here's to a banner calving day tomorrow! And increased arm strength for all!

Timing

When you think about farmers planting crops, what do you picture?

It's a studied process. There's the technology of the seeds, the equipment, the fertilizer. But what hasn't changed? Dependence on the weather.

Last year was perfect, weather-wise, since we had all of our corn planted before calving started.

This year was a lot wetter, which seems more normal to me, and a lot more stressful for Kris. It just got dry enough to get into the fields. What does that mean? Before you plant you often have to work up the ground. (There are a variety of tools you pull behind a tractor that do different things to it. The basic goal is to turn the dirt over to get it best-prepared to grow seeds.)

So now that it's dry enough Kris and the employees have to prepare the ground (once or twice over) and plant. All while doing the regular feeding, plus calving and taking care of calves.

It always seems like a race. The weather is only dry enough for a certain amount of days. You have a specific amount of acres to plant. You have limited time. Every farmer in the community is in the fields as much as the moisture and the daylight allows (longer for the ones that have lights on their planters.)

So far 17 heifers and 17 bulls have been born, including nine yesterday. So it's action-packed around here! I'd say it's fun, but I'll wait until every field is planted until Kris breathes a sigh of relief. After that, it's the race to cut, rake, and chop the alfalfa ...

Farming has depended on the weather since the beginning of time! There aren't any more hours in the day, no matter the technology. But it is nice to have tractors with air conditioning.

Hello, new year

Kris and I spent a few days in Chicago to celebrate the new year. On New Year's Eve it was 55 degrees, the next day 15 degrees, with a wind chill of 0!

Driving back, Kris commented on how this weather was really nice for farmers. All the snow melted, but it's freezing, so everything isn't sloppy and messy. Everything stays cleaner - equipment as well as cattle.

It made me think about how your attitudes about weather change. A friend told me this summer, "I was depressed it was raining, but then I thought - Carla said her crops needed rain. So then I was happy for you, anyway! I never thought about it that way before."

When we were walking to dinner one night, two girls stopped us to ask where a certain hotel was. We didn't know that one, and Kris added, "We don't live here." "Oh! Okay!" she said. You never want to look like a tourist, so we were glad we blended in. (The Carhartt label on Kris' winter hat was very small.)

So as you look out over your frozen, snowless view (check local listings), remember that it's making some farmers very happy. Even farmers in the big city.