2009 at Orrson Custom Farming Ltd.
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Friday, 27 November 2009
Happy Thankgiving!

GRRRRR.   I had a long post typed and the computer troll ate it.     I will try again.

I hope that all of our U S friends/family had a great Thanksgiving, surrounded by people you love.

We had a good day in at Granny's "party room" again this year.   

It was a happy day, partly because they got finished harvesting corn on Wednesday afternoon.    That is always a great feeling.    The last of the corn is, even as I type, going through the dryer and into the bins.     Many of the local elevators are no longer taking corn, as they are full.   Because we had enough trucks, we were able to take loads to elevators further away..but even they were saying "no more".    So we got finished just in time to miss that. 

We had a lot to be thankful for this year.   First...we are thankful for all the good employees who helped make this a safe year.    There were a few "oops" moments..but nothing that won't heal/be repaired...no permanent damages.   That is a constant worry to me here at home...with so many people, vehicles, and machinery on the road...it only takes a split second for something to happen.   We are glad that they all made it back to their homes safely...I am sure their families were happy to have them home again.  

We are also thankful to our customers/friends.   This has been a rough year for many of you,  with the lower mik prices.   Believe me...we can honestly say to you..."been there/done that".    Seems that every year we would say "next year has to be better".    Thank you for allowing us to work for you.

The first few years we ran this business, I thought when this time of year came..."now they will be able to rest".    That is clearly not the case.   They just switch into a different work mode.    Lots of equipment to be gone over and pencil pushing and computer work.    They will be able to spend time with the kids...and will be attending a lot of sporting events.    That is something else for which we are thankful.   What would life be like without these wonderful children who fill our lives with love and activity.   We are blessed! 

So..unless something major happens that I want to share with you, this will be my final blog for the 2009 season.    I will be back next season...and hopefully will do a better job of keeping it up to date.   

In the meantime.....I wish you all a great holiday season full of love and laughter.

           Suzy Orr

 


Posted by suzyorr at 12:09 PM EST
Updated: Friday, 27 November 2009 12:15 PM EST
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Friday, 20 November 2009
Too little time

I was afraid I would not do a good job of keeping up with this blog, but I never thought I would be so bad at it!!

Lots of things have gone on in the last 6 weeks....many that I should have blogged about but did not.

Both crews went up to Michigan in October to do corn silage, the last job of the 2009 silage harvesting season.    What an amazing operation that must be up there...I hope someday I can go up and visit and see the farms where they work.  

I try to always look up where they are working on both Google Earth and Bing.com.    Really neat the way you can zoom down and see the farmsteads and fields.    Jim would call and tell me exactly how to find the field where he was working.    Too bad it isn't in live time, isn't it.   Hmmm..perhaps "invastion of privacy" would be a factor?    The whole thing seems very like "big brother is watching" to me. 

They came back home and spent a couple days washing everything up and re-configured the truck tailgates so that they are now used to haul grain instead of silage.      They also had to work on the combine..which has had continuing "issues".    The Cat mechanic came and went over it...and has finally found the solution.   

They got the soybeans off and the yields were the best ever harvested on our farm.   

Then Jim and Jon headed to Germany for 10 days to attend "Agriteckna"...the worlds' largest Farm Show that is held every other year.     They went with a group of men from various states and met up with our friends from England and Scotland for a day.   While there they also toured the Krone and Claas plants.

They had gone to this show 2 years ago also.  One big plus this year was that the Lamb's (from California..but we don't hold that against them) had an employee who is from Germany, so they had someone who could personally translate for them.  

The show sounds like quite a huge event.   While they enjoyed many "sights"...the one that they seemed to remember the most was the booth that was body painting two nude ladies with farm scenes.    Seems that Jim's "bad knee" gave out on him right about there, so he was forced to sit and rest for a while.    He says...and sure, I believe him.....that it was more fun watching men come by and do a double/triple take when they realized what was going on.   Jon sent me a picture, but I am afraid the porn patrol will take my blog down if I put it here.  

 Another thing to keep in mind is that if you book "double rooms" in Germany, it doesn't mean two beds like it does in the US, but instead it means a double (not even queen or king) sized bed.   LOL.   Jim says he hasn't shared a bed with Jon since Jon was 3 months old.   

They got back last week and immediately hit the corn fields.   Jon is operating the combine, Missy runs the tractor and grain cart, and Jim drives a truck hauling to the elevator.   This is proving to be a challenge, as they keep shutting down or turning away loads..and then our caravan of trucks have to go elsewhere.

Jim sent this picture yesterday from the elevator in Mansfield with our 8 trucks lined up waiting to dump.  They would like to get done by Thanksgiving, but that will be contingent on whether they can find places for the corn to go.


Posted by suzyorr at 1:47 PM EST
Updated: Friday, 20 November 2009 9:45 PM EST
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Thursday, 1 October 2009
Frost

I woke up to see a white world this morning.    Seems early but this has been such a strange year, guess it's shouldn't surprise me.

 Jim sent me this picture saying "good morning!" 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 He is finishing up at a farm in Indiana.    It was a good crop and they only got rained out a couple of times.    Jon and Missy and crew were there for awhile and then headed up to Michigan yesterday.  Jim reports they are hard at work up there.   

Jim and his crew wll come home and do a local customer the next couple of days and then will head up to Michigan with the second chopper.   

The days are really getting shorter, aren't they!   Last night I wished I had my camera (my cell phone takes sucky pictures) as the sunset was really glorious.   

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 1:55 PM EDT
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Sunday, 27 September 2009
finally...a post

Sorry..seems the days disappear and I haven't posted.   Sometimes when I sit down to write, I can't get on the site.   They have been doing some "improvements"...which, unfortunately, usually means major pain in the ass for everyone.  

Since the last post, we had our county Fair.   That was a hectic week, particularly now that kids are involved in sports.    

The crews are now into corn silage...both working on the same farm in Indiana.    The weather, as always, plays a major role.   Today they have gotten rained out.    They were waiting for the weather yesterday when Jon sent this picture which he titled "blue skies"

                                                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 He also sent this picture...and didn't put a title on it so I have no clue why Jim and Jr. are looking at this big rock.   I hope someone didn't hit it.   Since they are both smiling, I figure not. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The picture he sent this morning is more self-evident....trucks and mud.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week Jon took some pictures of our amish neighbor filling silo.  Surely different than how we do it.   Takes them days to do a field that would take us no time at all.   The picture isn't very clear...but as you can see, we have considerably more horse power too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of our guys standing beside the chopper and blower they use to put it up in the silo and the wagon they haul it from the field in.   What a contrast from our chopper and trucks.   


Posted by suzyorr at 10:17 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 27 September 2009 10:48 AM EDT
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Wednesday, 9 September 2009
Wednesday

Yesterday they got rained out of the corn field, so Jon, Missy, Jim, and Romeo drove home to watch Megan's soccer game.  Unfortunately, a storm blew through about game time, so after an hour delay, they postponed the game for another day.    They all headed back to W. Ohio...long drive to be disappointed.

Today they were able to be in the field again.   However, I just got some "interesting" pictures from Jon...seems there is a combine demolitain derby going on very near to them, so they are, as I type, enjoying watching it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 9:17 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 27 September 2009 10:30 AM EDT
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Tuesday, 8 September 2009
Corn silage season has begun

I am so frustrated with computers and sites.   First of all..thanks to Jon's kids, I have a kitten at my house.  Kittens are a major pain in the ass!    It keeps going back behind my computer and disconnecting wires and turning things off.    It also seems to think when  I am typing, my fingers are doing that just for it to attack.  His big trick is to reach up and hit cap locks, so suddenly everything is caps.    Grr.    In the spirit of full disclosure....he is sitting here beside me purring loudly and I really do like him.  

 I posted a log blog last night that doesn't appear to have made it through the internet to this site.    Double GRRR! (I put the caps on there, not Swiper).

 As I told you last night, the crew left bright and early yesterday morning and headed for W. Ohio to begin corn silage.   They got 60 acres done until the rains hit and they had to stop.    The weather forecast for this week doesn't look real promising.  

The other crew was still hauling manure and has run into a small, but active group of idiots who are trying to stop them.    The other day one man spent his day driving the roads at 5 miles an hour so that the tractors and tankers had to go that speed too.    He must be a lazy bastard who doesn't have the brains or gumption to get a job so has nothing better to do with his time.   Another man deliberately ran one of them off the road, putting a tractor and tanker into the ditch.   Last week a man with a big John Deere sprayer stopped dead in the road in front of one of our drivers and came back and proceeded to give him a lecture.      Now....why doesn't the blooming idiot realize that if this group of people get their way and shut down the manure hauling, next they might decide to go after the person spreading "deadly chemicals" so close to their houses?    

This is one of the major problems in the farm community....that farmers seems so jealous of other farmers that they don't realise that we have to form a united front.    

I am so tired of these town people (and yes, I was a town people 41 years ago) come out to the county, buy up a small acreage, build their mansions and then decide they are entitled to no smells, dust, or noise from farms nearby.      But it is a hundred time worse when a man who also makes his living from farmers has to act this way.  

 


Posted by suzyorr at 7:33 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 8 September 2009 7:50 AM EDT
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Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Last Wednesday in August


As I told you the other day, our pond has a nice layer of diesel fuel floating on the top.   On Monday morning a nice EPA guy named Reggie showed up and investigated it and told the guy who caused it what must be done to clean it up.    Every morning a sucker truck ...I think that the official name might be something to do with a vacuum tank...shows up and sucks up what it can.    Yesterday a crew from the amish shop came and worked most of the day...some of them drug a "pig" trying to force the fuel toward the suction hose.  A couple of other guys put a row boat into the pond, and using yard rakes as oars paddled around, cleaning up the fuel soaked algae.     Tonight the inlet pipe was still running a lot of diesel, so the clean up is going to take awhile. 

I took some pictures of the clean up, and will try to figure how to resize them to fit this page.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon is out in W. Ohio harvesting fourth crop of hay at the Peter's Farm.  He sent this picture of a cake they had to celebrate that 7 years ago today they started milking cows at this farm.    Congratulations to them and we wish them many more years.


Posted by suzyorr at 9:53 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 27 August 2009 3:17 PM EDT
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Sunday, 23 August 2009
Something besides fish in the pond

Today Jon and kids went up to the pond and found a layer of diesel fuel floating on the top of the water.   The local fire department came and put up "pigs" ..which are super absorbant baffles that  collect the pollutant.     They were able to trace the souce to an amish business just north of us that had a spill on Friday.   If only they had called immediately, the "pigs" could have prevented the oil from entering the creek and pond.   Now we have a clean up and a lot of dead fish.

Here are pictures Jon sent:

There are the "pigs"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the water/diesel fuel coming in the inlet pipe.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 10:16 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 23 August 2009 11:01 PM EDT
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Sunday, 16 August 2009
A very busy weekend is over

We had a very busy, very emotional weekend.

My mother, who is known to everyone as Granny, was 90 years old today.    Our entire family worked hard to make it very special.    My older brother, Larry, lives in Seattle and we have not had much contact with him over the years.   He has two children and a granddaughter whom I had never met.    But, I am so happy to say that I have now met them and really liked them.     Their entire family..7 of them...flew in on Thursday afternoon.      

We had asked Granny what she wanted to do to celebrate and she gave us a couple of ideas of things she likes to do.    At her request we went to the Cleveland Zoo, had a weiner roast, ate at a Japanese Steak house, and rented 2 pontoon boats on a lake near by.  

My father died 45 years ago...and she has said she never dreamed she would live to be this old.    We all feel lucky to have her in our lives.   Her body is getting frail, but her mind is very sharp still.   She works those horrible crossword puzzles that I can only get a couple of words right..and she works them in ink.    She watches Jeopardy and she knows all the answers.    

 I had a very hard time when my brother bent down to give her a kiss as he left, as I fear this will be last time he sees her.  

Here is a picture of her taken at her party.    Each of us brought 90 of some item for her....Jon brought 90 ounces of dirt, since he said she was older than dirt.....others brought 90 marbles, rubber bands, paper clips, bandaids, rolls of toilet paper, etc etc.    It is a long standing tradition that at all of our parties, when the kids open gifts, they stick their bows on Granny.    One of my nephews had the clever idea of giving her 90 bows...and they all pitched in and stuck them on her...even the nephew and nieces who had never gotten to do this before.  

If you are, like us, lucky enough to still have your grandmother, make an effort to go see her soon.     


Posted by suzyorr at 11:50 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, 17 August 2009 12:13 AM EDT
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Saturday, 8 August 2009
Saturday

Jon had a good visit at the Mason Dixon Farms.   If you have never heard of them, visit their site at www.masondixonfarms.blogspot.com

Looks like a very nice place.    Here is a picture he sent us of their Claas on tracks.                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He also sent this picture of a farm they drove past.   Amazing to see so many Harvestore silos!   I remember many years ago when Harvestore put on a full press campaign to get us to build silos and manure storage.   The salesman was VERY high pressure salesman.  I had told him that we were going to be going on a trip to the ocean and he came right before we left with a bunch of tapes and a tape player (that dates this story as it was before cars had them built in..at least our cars) and told us to listen to them on the drive.   We never gave in.    So we only have 5 cement monuments standing out by the barn without any blue ones.   Sure is a pretty farmstead though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jim is recuperating quite well and is going stir crazy.    I don't have to worry about him becoming a drag queen...he is really not liking having to wear those stockings.  LOL. 


Posted by suzyorr at 8:37 PM EDT
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Friday, 7 August 2009
Friday

Well, the tires...FINALLY...got to the Peter's Farm the afternoon.  What a fiasco this whole thing was.   Why did it take so long for them to go from point A to point B and point C?    And one of the 8 tires arrived damaged.   Is anyone surprised by that?   Here is a picture of the scuff marks and hole in the tire.    Kudos to the employees who checked them out and found this.   (that is a penny to show the size of the hole).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning Jim had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee.   We were supposed to be there at 10:30 for noon surgery but at 6:45 we got a call and they asked us to come right away.   Seems the person who was supposed to be operated on at 7 confessed he had a cup of coffee before he came...so his surgery was cancelled.   It was nice to have it out of the way earlier..this way he could eat at noon.   He is hoping that by having this now he can put off having the knee replaced until off season.    

 Jon and our former emplyee Will left this afternoon to go out and visit the Mason Dixon Farm.   His two boys came in and kept Pops company.  


Posted by suzyorr at 9:25 PM EDT
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Thursday, 6 August 2009
A watched pot never boils

....and the UPS delivery that was due earlier this week, never arrives.

 Jon left for W. Ohio on Monday at 6 AM so that he could be there when the tires they have ordered for the manure spreaders arrived.  The dealer in Tennesee said he had shipped them on Friday.    Well, when I checked the UPS tracking, I found that it was not shipped until Tuesday night...arriving in Bowling Green KY at 18:52.   Kind of hard to be in Ohio on Monday when it wasn't even shipped until Tuesday.   I now see that is arrived in Indianpolis IN at 1:54 this morning...so I highly doubt it will be delivered yet today.   Very frustrating for all involved.  Jon came home again last night and will go back out when the tires really are there.

 Why do dealers do this?   How smart is it to say they shipped something on Friday when it is so easy to look it up on the UPS site and see when it was picked up from them.    

Our manure hauling crew continues to haul manure.   They did have a weather induced break last weekend and came back here for a couple of days.   

In the meantime those still here have been busy getting corn heads and machines ready.  

 


Posted by suzyorr at 10:17 AM EDT
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Thursday, 30 July 2009
Last day of July


Jon talked to Grafton and he said that he got his hard body brace and they were on the way home to Georgia.  He told Jon that he thought they might stop to sightsee on the way home...and his mother, however, corrected that idea.  LOL.  Guess he must have some good pain meds in him.  

We have a very old barn on one of the farms we own that we no longer have any need for.   Many years ago we used it for heifers, but for at least 20 years it has sat empty, just gathering "valuable" items.    Last week they cleaned out the upper section, and today they worked at cleaning out the bottom.   Lots of "stuff" to go to the scrap iron yard.   Jim had thought we might just burn it down, but now he is thinking that if we can find someone who is willing to tear it down we would let them do that.   I am glad, as I hated to see it burned down.   However...it is silly for us to have to pay property taxes and insurance any longer.   Last year the roof was damaged in a storm, and earlier this year one side wall fell in when that tornado went through.   I have a friend who was aghast that we weren't going to restore it but we just can't see that would benefit us in any way.   

This evening I heard Missy mowing her lawn..but when I looked out..this is what I saw.   Hmmm...is there some saying about the family that mows together?  


Posted by suzyorr at 8:05 PM EDT
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Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Scary Event Yesterday!

Jon, Missy, and crew made haylage at Nico's in Indiana yesterday.  Jim was not able to go along, as he is having some problems with his right knee and had an MRI scheduled that he could not miss.

Mid afternoon he got one of those calls that make you go weak in the knees....one of our employees had gotten hurt and was on his way to the hospital via a Squad.    The young man, Grafton, hit a tile blowout hole in the field.   Grafton is a nephew of Rusty Fowler from Krone USA and was up "north" working for a couple weeks with us to get some hands on field experience.    He is a great young man.  

He had a cut above his elbow that needed stitching (see picture below) and also a broken vertebrae in his back.    The VERY scary thing to us is that when the EMT's came, 6 of them  just grabbed him and put him on a stretcher with no back board, neck collar..nothing to immobilize him on the ride out of the field and to the hospital.   Unbelievable!!   Then at the hospital they had him stand upright to be xrayed!!!    WTF!!!! were they thinking!!!!!     Here Jon was sitting in the field holding him down and keeping him as steady as he could...and they just pick him up and take off.    They all went to see him last night and he was in a lot of pain. 

His mother and stepfather had headed out from their home  in Georgia to come be with him.  Jim and I went out and packed up all of his gear he'd left here and took it out to him (off topic...but I want to state here that his mother surely did a great job of raising him...his clothes were all hung up very neatly!)   When we all visited him this morning, he seemed in good spirits...as long as they kept the pain pills coming.  

While we were there the ortho surgeon's PA came in and said that they would be fitting him with a hard brace but it didn't look like he would need surgery.   He was glad to hear that.   Based on the treatment he received, I sure hope, however, that they take him to a specialist when they get him back home to get a second opinion.   As you can tell..I am aghast at the way he was treated and am very glad it seems to have not harmed him any.   The PA said that because it was a vertebrae he wasn't in any danger of being paralized.   Well...how did any of them know that is was "only" a vertebrae?   

All of our best thoughts are with you Grafton.  


Posted by suzyorr at 7:03 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 29 July 2009 7:35 PM EDT
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Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Dry dry dry here in Apple Creek

It has been a frustrating day for Jim as he has watched  several storms on his cell phone, only to have them miss us.    That 1/2 inch we got the other day was not enough. 

Today he filled up the water tank on the spray trailer and Justin and Jason watered the sweet corn patch.    Now if we could only keep the coons out of it!      Jon took these pictures  of the two of them working together (that in itself is worth a picture).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon got the necessary parts and got the JCB back up and working this afternoon so that all five tankers are back at work hauling manure. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 7:33 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, 21 July 2009 7:49 PM EDT
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Monday, 20 July 2009
Monday

I see that the hot hot temps continue in California.  I thought about you guys as I sat huddling under a blanket watching Megan's soccer game tonight! (fyi..this was their final game and they finished the session 7-1..with the only loss coming when Megan and several other girls were gone for camps/vacations)  

One of the JCB's broke down yesterday so Jon and Grafton (a young man who is visiting this week to get a feel for Krone choppers) left this morning to go down to below Columbus after parts then up to Napoleon to fix the tractor.   Surprise..it turns out they were given the wrong parts.   So they had to spend the night out there and will get the right parts tomorrow.   

Have you seen this site?  http://www.allaboardharvest.com/    Jenna is the daughter of Tracey, who serves on the board of the USCHI group with Jon   http://www.uschi.com/index.php .   Jenna had another blog last year and then this group contacted her and are paying her to blog for them this year.  Good for her!   It is fun to read about this aspect of harvesting.   Jim's one regret in life is that he didn't have a chance to spend a summer working on a combine crew like these.    One year we went on vacation out west..and hooked up with a young man who had worked for us on our dairy farm and was working on a combine crew.   They spent the day with those guys while the girls and I sat in a very hot camper.    I think they found the day a lot more fun than we did.  LOL. 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 10:21 PM EDT
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Sunday, 19 July 2009
Another weekend gone

On Saturday Jon, Missy, and kids went to Cedar Point with their 4-H Club. FYI...their club, Apple Creek Wide-A-Wake, is the same club that Jim belonged to when he was a kid (which was not yesterday) so our grands represent the the 3rd generation in that club.    I am sure they had a good time.

Remember my little soap box rant the other day about a few dairy farmers who make it hard on good dairy farmers?   On Thursday this happened at a farm up near Toledo Ohio when many gallons of manure ended up in the ditchbanks along a county road.  Here is a tv report of the problem.

 http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/local&id=6921015  

Yikes and YUK 

We noticed a little bit ago that it was 111 degrees in Bakersfield California.  Whew.  Sure hope you can get some relief sometime soon.    

Have you tried the new www.Bing.com search engine?   It seems to do a good job...we really liked www.Bing.com/maps  to look at our farm and other places....go to the birdseye tab at top of page.    Our nephew enjoyed checking out THE Ohio State football field.  

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 8:58 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, 19 July 2009 9:24 PM EDT
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Friday, 17 July 2009
Another Friday

I am happy to report that we got some much needed rain this afternoon when a storm blew through.   It dropped 1/2 inch but it came too quickly so that some ran off instead of soaking in, but it was better than nothing.

The manure crew couldn't run because they had rain last night and the fields needed to dry out.   I suspect they spent their day off doing their laundry and catching up.  

Jon and Justin took Justin's 4-H heifer "Blueberry" down to Ohio State Vet School to have an operation on it's infected navel.  Justin got to stand at the end of the table and watch the whole thing.  Jon has video of the operation on his cell phone if you want to see it.  I "watched" it with my eyes closed...YUK!   They took a 2 pound pocket of pus out of the poor little gal.    We went out to see her when they came home and she looked very spry...she was really happy to be allowed to eat after being on a restricted diet before the surgery.   Here is what Jon sent me from the operating room. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon also sent these two pictures from "up on the hill"...the first if the "hay barn" that they cleaned out and turned into machinery/truck storage.  The second is our former counterslope heifer barn that they made into truck/machinery storage last year.    When Jim and I built this barn to house heifers, we drove down to Virginia Poly Tech Institute to see it.  I always hated it...Jim said it grew great heifers...I hated how dirty they always were.   Great to see that it has found a new life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 7:47 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, 17 July 2009 7:50 PM EDT
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Thursday, 16 July 2009
July is half over...already!!!

I am not very good at putting things on this blog.  Seems the days come and go and I forget.  Sorry.

The manure hauling crew is still hard at work.  Bet there are some unhappy neighbors.   When we first started working at some of the "Dutch" dairies, we encountered some problems from area people, but as time has gone by and it's obvious that these are good, honest, hard working people, I think most of the neighbors have calmed down.   A lot of the friction was caused by people who don't even live near...troublemakers who seem to exist just to go around causing problems.   Not sure why...what's in it for them?     But, as I said, as their dire predicitons are proven wrong, most neighbors have come to accept and welcome the dairies.     There will always be a few who continue to try to stir up trouble.   

Sadly, there have been a couple of the dairies who have experienced some problems.   Those problems get blown out of proportion and used as a example of what will happen...even though that is not the case. 

Okay...off my soap box.  

Yesterday they worked cleaning all the hay and straw out of the "hay barn" and it will become a machinery shed.   We built that barn 30 years ago after we had a fire that destroyed our big old bank barn.  We had just finished filling the mow with hay...and it was determined that the fire was caused by an electrical spark.   When we built the new hay barn, we built it away from all other buildings and also did not run any electric to it.   For a while it was used to house heifers.  Now it will be used for machinery.   

Jon's kids finished up their welding projects and will take them to still judging tonight.    Here is a picture of Megan's project.  I thnk it will come in handy.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Jason's project.  First...I have to correct what I told you he was making.  I misunderstood what it is.   It is brackets to hold the welder cables in the back of the service truck.  The bottom picture is sideways and my brain seems unable to make it turn the other way...so tilt your head or if you are viewing on a laptop, tip the computer.  Laughing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by suzyorr at 11:27 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, 16 July 2009 6:32 PM EDT
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Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Manure hauling

Jon just sent this picture of the five tractors and tanks hauling manure in W. Ohio. 


Posted by suzyorr at 11:48 AM EDT
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