Willow Creek Bales

Remember the Willow Creek winter wheat from my previous post, the crazy tall forage? This post is mostly for Joe Kaufman (hope I spelled your name right).  I wanted you to see how many bales we got off that field. And, because this blog isn't just for farm kids, there are some artsy black and white pictures to make you go "huh?"....

And some snake skin pictures for Dykstras. You'll have to scroll way down the page for those. (Happy Birthday, Andrew!)

This will mean nothing to most of you, but it made 6 bales to the acre, Joe.

Each bale weighs approximately 1300 pounds.

The wavy furrows are so entrancing...

One stalk left standing, to my father-in-law's great embarrassment. And here it is, being looked at by tens of people. (I love that saying, from Don Smith! When his wife signs one of her illustrated calendars, he says, "Now it's worth TENS of dollars.")

When I was walking through these rows of stubble, my legs were getting wet from the moisture the stalks were spraying up! Keep in mind that today was about 97 degrees F...my theory is that they're still sucking up moisture from the ground, because any moisture from the rain earlier in the week surely would've evaporated.  The wheat was cut more than 6 days ago.

I made this bigger so you could see the detail of the bales, Joe.

This was baled with our old baler, the John Deere 535, so it has fraggled ends.  The net-wrap bales are crisp and neat, but you can't see the actual hay as well.

This is obviously not Willow Creek. 

It's a stalk of crested wheat grass, but I loved the light and form.

These are the ingredients that make up a lot of our hay...alfalfa and crested wheat grass.

And, at long last.....

snake skin, for my Dykstra boys!

Wayland and Maggie found this when we were moving cows a couple weeks ago, just 100 yards from the house.  It's a bull snake shed, so don't panic.

This is the skin, starting at the tail end.  I put my size 8 shoes down so you'd have a frame of reference. It keeps going....

...just ahead of the front shoe....

....and just ahead of that.

The snake must've been nearly 5 feet long, but the skin is a bit shorter because it's shrunken.

It's sort of pretty, with all the patterns and shapes.

A close up of the head. See the eyes?

To calm you down, after that little reptilian photo blog...

A nice little cedar fence post!

Spooked a buck....

And the Wicked Witch of the West.

Forget Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig....

Marry a rancher, instead.

Here's a little sample of the Farmer's Wife Weight Loss Program.
*Disclaimer: Effects not typical, but the experience IS. Do not participate in this program if you regularly get manicures, need to reapply lipstick periodically to remain secure or tend to hyperventilate when your hair isn't just so.

Stagger from the house to start the day at 5:00 a.m. to take a walk, because you recently read in your mother-in-law's hand-me-down Ladies Home Journal that 30 minutes of regular aerobic exercise will have you looking 10 years younger in three weeks. (Calories burned: 0; you just started, girl! Get used to that number...)

Prior to taking the walk, spend 15-40 minutes clearing livestock from the yard, shutting off the overflowing water in the tank on the back of the farm truck, feeding dogs and cats so they won't follow you. (Calories burned: 100, depending on how amiable the livestock was. Bonus calories if you had to chase them around the tree row.)

Walk 15 minutes and remember the bills you were going to pay last night but put off until this morning. (Calories burned: 72)

Jog back, filled with guilt. (Calories burned: 200, weight from guilt burns more.)

Children greet you at the door, holding their bulging, starved bellies, yowling about needing breakfast, so you push through them and make coffee AND breakfast. (Calories burned: 90, Calories consumed: None yet, sister.  You just MADE the breakfast, you haven't eaten it.)

As family eats breakfast, you check your email and drink coffee, while paying the most urgent of bills....Y Cross Feeds, Mastercard and MidRivers Communications. Occasionally jumping up to fetch condiments and beverages for the diners. (Calories burned: 30, Calories consumed: 0, unless you take Half and Half in your coffee. Add 10 for that.)

Phone rings as you head to get your toast. It's your father-in-law, arranging the morning fun...moving bulls and roguing grain....and you're 20 minutes late, seeings as how he didn't decide until 10 minutes ago that this was the plan. No time for toast! Throw the kids in mismatched, not-too-dirty clothes and drive like the wind to the meeting place, stopping at the mailbox with the three bills. (Calories burned: 50, Calories consumed: 0)

No stamps. Forgot to feed the bums. Return to the house in a cloud of dust and take care of that business, THEN leave, once again, heart racing because you're REALLY late. (Calories burned: 148, because you ran in the house and to the calf pen.)

Mount 4 wheeler at the main house and head out with the guys to pull the bulls out of the heifers. Please note that the two types of bovines you are going to be dealing with this morning are the two most challenging...yearling heifers and bulls. This little detail will come into play very soon. (Calories burned: maybe 10)

Find four of the five bulls immediately, in the corner near the gate.  The heifers bolt, along with two of the bulls.  You try stopping them but apparently are doing it wrong.  Husband commences yelling at you, you yell back, heifers turn, bulls turn, husband turns and leaves you with 20 idiot heifers and 4 idiot bulls, taking the father-in-law with him to retrieve bull number five. (Calories burned: 2960, mostly in anger and thoughts of retaliatory comments that you WISH you'd thought of when someone was there to hear them.)

Get bulls and heifers in the corral and commence to sorting heifers off the bulls. Remember, they are all idiots. And now you believe your husband is, too. He's thinking the same thing, so it evens out.  Finally, with your father-in-law's help, the heifers get sorted off without incident. (Calories burned: a strong 560, because tangling with the bulls raises your heart rate.)

Go to the house to get a drink of water and make sure the kids haven't cornered their grandmother. Pass on the cookies because your stomach is still lurching from being yelled at. (Calories burned: trace, Calories consumed: 0)

Rogue grain with husband and father-in-law for 30 minutes in 89 degrees. Find old bag of trail mix in the 4 wheeler saddlebag and pick out 12 M&Ms that miraculously didn't melt or become powder. (Calories burned: 1205, Calories consumed: 20)

Load kids, husband and father-in-law in trailblazer to haul everyone to balers, tractors and yard.  Unload 10 lbs of assorted junk from the car. Get kids a snack. Look at the dry, cold toast and pass.  Besides, it's almost lunch and you need to get the dishes done so you can get lunch on the table. (Calories burned: maybe 80, Calories consumed: 0)

As you're clearing the table, you notice an article in the Ladies Home Journal that intimates stress causes the body to create fat stores.  And an article on how to disguise unsightly bulges with vertical striped skirts that cost $500.  You can't get that at Murdoch's Ranch and Home and besides it doesn't look like it would hold up to a typical ranch morning, so you toss the magazine and go looking for that hidden box of Raisinets in the vegetable cupboard.

*You may lose up to 10 pounds in the summer on this regimine, but you'll gain fat stores from the stress. Skip the walk, next time.  

Beauty Tips

"For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone. People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed; never throw out anyone. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others."

-Audrey Hepburn

I have better things to do, but I'm not doing 'em

On Monday, Angus and I poked around the yard; looking at plants, talking to the bums, examining interesting rocks, concocting wild stories about the cats.  It was very peaceful and quiet...puttering at its best.  (Really, we were terribly lonesome for Maggie, who is always lining us out on projects. We didn't know what to do with ourselves.)

Now, for your viewing pleasure, a whole pile of photos. 
Some of these will be interesting only to garden geeks, some will be wonderful for those who love cows, (can't think right off the top of my head who that might be) and some will be for grandparents.
Also...
They seem to be in random order, but they're posted in the order I took them, which may indicate a little of how we roam.

Scarlet runner beans....they're Painted Lady, which I find humorous...what tarts!

Baby tomatos...

Scheepers lettuce mix. I think lettuce is just pretty, and sometimes I plant it as an ornamental.

Pea tendrils are beautiful, aren't they?

Here is Angus' pea shrub.  You can't see very well, but they are all growing out of the same hole.

Amazingly enough, they're producing some peas, too! But they're not happy being in this close proximity to each other.

Babies, coming to see if I have a bottle for them.

See Cosmo's tongue sticking out in anticipation?

They are not supposed to still be getting bottles, and I'm sort of ashamed to still be doing it, but I love it.

The other day, Vern was coming with the swather to cut hay around our house and I was trying to sneak my calves their bottle, so he wouldn't know that I'm still doing it.  After I ran back to the house, it occurred to me that they're my calves and I can do whatever the heck I want, but I didn't want him to think I was a poor manager. Of two bum calves. Pathetic.

Here's Linnie....with her dorky ear. Poor little thing! At least she's not tortured with flies. She's still pretty though.

And Cosmo, who doesn't care a smidge how silly he looks, as long as he gets food.

We'll see more of these two later....

Angus, examining the herbs.

Chamomile! It's really a very naughty re-seeder, but it charms me every year because....

....it looks like tiny little daisies and smells like fresh cut apples. Mmmmm!

My son has the most beautiful profile.

Grubby feet in the gravel and Captain America underpants...

They gave up and went to grazing, but Linnie spied me and is ready to rough me up for some grub.

For some reason, this is the funniest picture to me! It tells a story all by itself...

Yum! Crumbles! I put a couple squirts of NutraLix Plus on it, to give them a nutritional boost. 

Yes. I AM silly about my bums. 

Here's Frazzle...one of the spring kittens.  He needs a home. Call me.

Loving up Cordelia the Cat.  It's horrible and wonderful, all at once...

Through the front gate...

I shouldn't like dandelions, I know, but they are miracles and a little bit magical. All those little parachute seeds, that sparkle in the sun.

This is the view to the north east, from my herb/tomato bed. I never get tired of it.

View to the south east from the same bed.  You're looking at our burn barrels and the landscaping we did in front of it. About 8 years ago, when my yard was in its infancy, it was on a little county garden tour.  Everyone was interested in the burn barrel bed, which was amusing, because instead of hiding the barrels, we incorporated them into the landscape. I'm sure that's all most of the folks remember from my yard.

He takes this job very seriously.

Our concrete hen. Vern says he's going to get us chickens, every year, which I actually really would love, but he's just messing with us.  Last fall, he got us this concrete hen and three concrete chicks when he was on vacation.  We love them.  The hen is the coolest.

So now you know I live in a trailer, have pink flamingos at the mailbox and concrete lawn ornaments.

Quintessential redneck....

The smartest dog in the world and the prettiest dog in the world.

And Twilla.

(I just did that for The Farmer's benefit...)

French tarragon...an herb that adores Montana, so I adore it. That, and it smells like licorice.

View from my deck....

This is for Alice...

Come have tea, dear friend. The flip-flops are off!

Thanks for wandering with us! Join us if you are ever passing through Cohagen.

(Because as you know, it's on the way to everywhere...)