Well, I like that

First snow fell yesterday, ugh. I don't even want to think about the next six months of misery coming our way weather wise.

Some interesting developments around here this month. Got a call from Rbts nephew, Rbts brother has just been diagnosed with Renal cancer. It is advanced and untreatable, so they have put him on morphine and give him only weeks to live. The man looks like he's dead already, totally emaciated.  Fluid on his lungs from lung cancer, it is hard to believe he only just decided he needed to see a doctor two weeks ago. We haven't seen him since last Christmas, but you would think someone should have raised some hell a bit sooner. Perhaps they were all waiting for his loving wife to sound the alarm. Dead head that she is, she probably didn't notice anything wrong. The fact that he quit eating should have been a red flag. But since she gets her calories from a bottle she just honestly never noticed his not eating food. Her vow to bow out and leave the boys to handle their dads care and estate business without her interference lasted about as long as her last stretch on the wagon. How long can you hold your breath ? That's about how long she kept her word. Now she has brow beat and manipulated Tom into signing her as his soul decision maker about his health and care. God help him,  he's going to need it with her in charge. She has proclaimed her dower rights to Toms home and land. So much for Toms last days being, quiet and peaceful. The boys have got a lawyer and will fight her right to getting their mothers legacy to them. The land has been in their mothers "Wedman" family for 120 years. Long enough for them to have mineral Rights to the property. No small thing in that area with oil and gas exploration. In her will their mother left them the land trusting Tom to make sure they got it,no one could have foreseen Toms meeting this other woman or his latching on to her like a drowning man to a life raft. Stormy days ahead. Meanwhile we have made an effort to bury the hatchet(preferably in Sues head) and went to visit Tom in hospital
, it was strained at best, thank god I took my iPad and could break the ice showing him my furniture and paintings. We haven't made it back for a second visit, Rbt is procrastinating.

Soon there won't be anymore excuses, it is just so sad that things have gotten this weird between brothers because of one loony toons woman that no one other than Tom can stand.

Whawawa

Up early this am. The mobile butcher is coming today to process three animals, then we will zip into town for our annual flu shot.  I Know some of you would warn me not to get the shot but after actually having the H1N1 flu three years ago now, I am a big promoter of the shot.

After the trip to town I plan to work on this nightmare picture frame. Unless some little thing pops up to prevent me......please,please, please...any little thing.

A Little Bit Crazy

I am no longer a little bit crazy, I am just plain crazy. A lady I a custom building a picture frame for is sending me over the edge. She first contacted me because. A kijiji ad I placed to sell my barnwood wardrobe. Oh I lve the barn wood look, would you make me a frame out of barn wood. I thought, easy money sure thing. Biggest mistake I've made for a long time. Turns out she didn't really want it to look like barn wood, she wants it painted and distressed. She wants the four picture openings in a square, no now she wants them in a row and then she wants it stained rather than painted.

I wish I'd never taken her call.

Good news though, we finished harvest.

Bad news, Rbts brother has just been told he has multiple terminal cancer. He can't breath well for the fluid in his lungs. Big drama unfolding there with us having to associate with his gold digging,psychotic fruit loop of a wife.  Time is short.

Whine and Snibble

I am about to whine and Snibble. I may have mentioned in previous years that I hate harvest time. I am the official swather around here and I have finished that job, thank god.  There are some hills in our fields that some countries would call mountains and I have to swath them. And if that's not frightening enough, I then have to go over them again to bale the straw.  There is one hill so steep that hang gliders use it to jump from. Going down that on the swather makes me nearly wet myself, really !

This year I was unlucky enough to have the cutting table hit a rock and raise up in the air causing the back wheels of the swather to rise up from the ground and the front to nose dive. Did I mention that there is no cab on this swather, nothing to hold me on other than my death grip on the steering wheel and my stiff legged pose with my feet braced on the upper rail in front of the steering column. There is another side hill in the same field that is even worse believe it or not. Right where I have to turn and head in another direction, it's small in comparison to the other but could be treacherous if you don't pay attention. It is so steep that any piece of equipment I. Ave ever taken on I t slides downwards. I can't keep it up where it should be, the wheels just slide in the loose dirt and I miss cutting that same patch of crop every year.

You might ask why we even bother trying to farm it if its so steep,  believe me I ask Robt that question every year. He shrugs and says ill do it then, but when I get to that part of the field he no where to be found, and not answering his phone, weird huh ?

Oh well, I'll soldier on.

Ah Hell

It's going to freeze here tonight. Had to cover the tomato plants,

Rbt spent the day getting the swather ready for me to swath grain tomorrow, while I worked at building my latest wood project. I will have photos soon, but I am excited about this one. It's small and I've wanted one for ages.

Lived through the whole horrendous preparations for a colonoscopy. Got a gold star from the surgeon
No Polyps, nothing at all, a very clean colon I was told., yay me. All that fibre pays off.

After Effects

Well weaning is done for another year. As we thought, the second day was full of glitches. The wrist being that when we had finished cutting the calves away from their mothers., we took a head count of them and there were only 28 calves ( there should have been29) and there were only 27 cows instead of 29.  I took the second trailer load home while Robt. rode the pasture looking for them, he found one cow lame and barely able to walk, with a broken hip and another cow dead. Half eaten, looks like maybe wolves or she died of illness and they found her after the fact.  Her calve, oddly enough was laying 300 feet away in the heavy spruce woods lame on two legs but alive. Robt. walked him over to the corral and he lame cow made it there on her own but did require help getting in the trailer. Robt gave her his shoulder on her ass and half lifted her into the back while I used a post to push her bad leg into the trailer.

At home, a 15 yr old cow ( that's old for cow) is enjoying her last days on earth sadly, she has been an awesome cow but has such bad arthritis that she can only shuffle her back legs to walk, she has lost condition and we have decided to have her put down.

That Time of the year

That time of the year again, dry dusty roads and the smell of grin dust in the air. The farm neighbours scrambling around to get the feed in the yard and the field work done. Things are a bit delayed this year due to the annoying little showers we had nearly every day. Never enough rain to do any good but enough to keep the hay from being baled. But we prevailed and have first and second cut hay in the yard green feed is ready to bale and we weaned the large group of calves yesterday, surprisingly without a hitch. That makes me worried about today's job, weaning the second group, all heifer calves we pastured separately with no bull. But I will remain optimistic that things will go well.

We trailered the calves home after sorting them from their mothers. Once they are all here then we run them over a Scale to get a weight. 69 steer calves averaged 697 lb. not bad over all. That includes the twin calves and April/may calves too.  The heaviest calf weaned 826 lb. and the lightest was 497.

The weight was down a bit from last year but we had less, beneficial rain this year and less grass. We started calving two weeks later as well so the calves are a bit younger, all in all we are Happy, now we just need the price to stay up.