Some days it don't pay to get out of bed

[dd]

My farm is located about 4 miles SW of our town. This morning was a decent morning weather wise with a breeze out of the NE so I decided to move some calves around. I have them in 2 groups, one on the south side of the barn and one on the north side. The hardest part was going to be to get the ones from the south side over to the northside without having to chase them around the lot. What I've done in the past and decided to do again was open everything up, bait it with some hay and let their own natural curiosity lead them over. I opened the gates up and it was going unbelievably well, all but just a few practically ran through. I was watching the last few out of the corner of my eye when the local town did their first Tues of the month tornado drill. With the wind like it was the tornado siren might as well have been on the barn roof. Heads and tails shot up and in the legnth of time it took me to through my arms up and say be nice they were all at the far end of the south lot. Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow. Sometimes though I think my last name should have been Murphy.
dd

 

[dun]

That's the price you pay for living practically down town. You sure that siren wasn't in Chicago?

dun

 

[sidney411]

I have never heard a tornado siren, it must be LOUD!

 

[dd]

I have never heard a tornado siren, it must be LOUD!
If the wind is right it sounds like they're right on top of you. However, since most of our severe weather comes out of the SW I never hear when it counts.

 

[jw]

I think I would have traded days with you Saturday - I went to put out 6 rolls of hay. I had just recharged my battery, but it still wouldn't spin the engine fast enough to start. I went into town and bought a new one, put it on and then the starter button and cable to the starter burned out (literally) so I got to go back to town and buy and repair those. Then the tractor started and while I was on the second roll of hay the tractor just quit-after messing with it for a few minutes I checked the battery and found the battery cable had come off the battery post. Fixed that, put out that roll and two more. On the fifth roll one of the cast iron brackets that hold my hydralic cylinders on broke, so my hay fork wouldn't lift. No problem, I'll just use my long rope and a chain. Well the rope broke about 2 feet from the end, but no problem - I just put a knot in it and hooked my chain behind the knot. Rope then broke in the middle, so I got my other chain and through the old rope in the burn barrell. So the last two rolls were drug out to the pasture.

Only took me five hours to do an hour's job.

The good part - it was 41 degrees with NO rain or high winds.

 

[TheBullLady]

:lol: I had to laugh JW.. that was great! I'm sorry, I'm sure it wasn't funny when it happened, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one that has days like that! It's been absolutely HORRIBLE here with the additional 3 inches of rain we've had in the past three days. It's a sea of mud, and filling the hay rings here takes a miracle or two.. I have to pick up the bale and go like HE!! to get up the slope to the back pasture. When I was down in the hay trap the cotter key came out of one of the arms, so the hay forks flopped down when I was backing up.. getting all twisted up. When I finally got the spike off the ground, it dropped down right on the middle of my foot.

I know I'll regret this thought in August... but I sure wish it would quit RAINING!

Hope your week goes better!

 

[susan]

dd, the once a month test of the tornado sirens ? They don't do that on the same day each month? :lol: Sorry, I couldn't resist. Consider yourself lucky. Where I live, they don't test the tornado sirens cause the town doesn't have any.

 

[dd]

Susan, here in IL they do the test on the first Tues of the month at 10:00 am Feb through Nov, but only if its a nice day. I had forgot that it was even Feb let alone the first Tues. ;-)

 

[jw]

Bull Lady,

That's the reason I was trying to get the hay out-I am northeast of Dallas and I was preparing for these rainy days we just finished. Did you get any of the snow? Fornuately it just rained here, and rained and rained...

Thanks for the good wishes-

Joe

 

[TheBullLady]

JW.. no.. thank GOD. When I went out to feed my bottle calf about 8:00 last night it was sleeting a little. Luckily it was gone by morning.

Are you wet up there too?? We got almost 3 inches since last Friday.
I think we'll finally get to see some sun tomorrow! :cboy:

 

[jw]

I had to drive out in the pasture today, Thursday, to jump start my new battery, but thankfully the pasture was not toooooo wet. Water was standing in some areas, but between the gate and the barn was dry enough. Guess we didn't get as much as you did.

Hope your foot is O.K., Might think about steel-toed boots!