The summer of 2006 is coming to an end, and I for one, have no desire to slow down the time machine. The heat of summer is not something I enjoy and this summer has been hotter than usual. And so dry - we had an inch of rain last Friday night, the first real rain since June.
The trees are still green, but everything else is brittle and brown. Harvest is in full swing - probably two weeks ahead of schedule - because the crops just cooked in their tracks this summer. I haven't heard a lot of talk on the yeilds people are getting; that's probably pretty telling on its own - people brag when the news is good.
We have very little to combine - Mitchell was out swathing the barley today and then moved over to forty acres of oats which he'll finish tomorrow. Both crops were grown for cattle feed. We also tried about 80 acres of field peas this year. Glen started swathing them about 10 days ago but chickened out after about five rounds - he was scared that if the wind ever came up the swaths would just roll up into huge banks and it would be impossible to do anything with them. He knew what he was talking about - the storm we had last weekend had some wild winds with it and we have a significant mess where the peas all rolled up in banks too big to feed through a combine. Thank goodness he stopped when he did. He tells me that plan "B" is for him to swath the rest right in front of Mitchell running the combine. The wind isn't going to get a second chance.
Our problem with the dry conditions is the state of our pastures; basically they are done. The older cows have been let out onto a section of the oat crop for extra grazing, but the younger herd has nowhere they can go. As soon as we can get the crop between them and home harvested, we will be bringing them home. Glen is not too crazy about having to start feeding them in September, but there is nothing left for them to eat, and the water holes are better described as mud baths at the moment.
It's not just the feed situation either. When we checked the cows the other night, one of the younger cows was limping really bad - probably she has stepped on a dry stick and drove it up into her foot where it has caused infection. Not only is her health affected, but she has a calf who will suffer if the mother is sick and not able to get to food and water, so tonight we borrowed my brother-in-law's stock trailer, loaded up a bunch of corral pannels, and drove up to 21 where we build a temporary corral to catch her, and her calf, and load them up in the trailer to take home so we could treat her. We all went thinking this might be quite the rodeo by the time we were done, but her being lame made her a lot easier to deal with - and once we had her, the calf followed without too much trouble.
I spent today trying to catch up on a whole summer's housework. This is the second weekend I've been home all summer (hence the really spotty blog entries - I plan to be much more on top of things from now on!). This buying a house for the students of the family got to be quite the oddessy by the time we were done! We moved them in last weekend and have one more trip to Winnipeg for a nephew's wedding on the long weekend and then I'm not leaving here again for very long time! Heck, I've even decided I'm going to find the time to read a book - just for the pleasure of it all!
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