We had a Birthday Party

Saturday July 18Th the love of my life had a birthday. We had a big party for Megan, inviting all of our new friends here in New Mexico. I cooked 6 slabs of pork ribs, we also had potato salad, cheese grits, baked beans, a tomato salad (because I can't remember the name of it.) and a big cake. Of course we did not have any fly's until the food hit the table, so out came the electric fly swatters and boy was there a lot of people having fun. We also got to ride in our neighbors new 1930 Ford coupe, which was exiting as we came to a stop sign and no brakes, lucky for us no cars were coming. It was a lot of fun. As the party was ending we were treated to a big wind;lighting and some rain so we had to scramble taking in food, putting the umbrellas down and rescuing flying paper ware. Here are some pictures from the party and ride sorry I did not get any of the storm as it was a terrific lighting show.

Another Stinky Job

It all started about eight o’clock on a warm morning. I was getting ready to set irrigation pipe on my new crop of hay. As I lifted a section of pipe in the air to put on my shoulder to carry to the other end of the set up, a bunch of junk came out of the end. Also with the junk a tail appeared, this alarmed me so I stood the pipe straight up in the air. With one hand balancing the pipe I called Megan’s cell phone, no answer so I called the house and her Mother answered, I asked her to wake Megan up as I needed her help in a big way. Megan got on the phone and I told her to bring me the 410 shotgun and a box of shells once she was dressed as I had a skunk trapped in the pipe. She came out as quickly as she could, I gave Megan the pipe and I loaded the gun. I told her to gently lay the pipe down and I would shoot the skunk when it came out. It all went as planned except more skunks kept coming out. I started shooting and reloading as the 410 is a single shot. There were 5 little skunks. I thought I was done so as I was laying the pipe down I noticed it was still heavy, so I peered in the end and there was another, I propped the pipe on the fence and against a post and a skunk jumped out. I hurriedly loaded another round in and shot the big mother. A total of six skunks were living in the pipe. Not much spraying went on if any at all but after ten minutes you could smell them. Now I am waiting to hear from the county animal control as what to do with them. Moral of the story, look inside the pipe before lifting to make sure it is clear.

Hay in the Barn

Well we beat the weather only one scary day. But we got all the hay in the barn. We did not reach our 3000 bale goal but came close with 2752 bales or 86 tons. Now we are selling it out of the barn with the help of my friend Chris who cut and baled it for me. We have already sold 5 tons, and there are people coming to pick up some more. This is my first attempt at farming and I enjoyed all the pain and suffering long nights and days irrigating, taking care of it just like a baby. Praying for rain when it was growing and praying for it not to rain when we were cutting and baling. They tell me that is farming. Here are some final pictures of the hay in the barn. Need any hay come on down and get some.

Farming begins. Cutting of the oats

Well today is the day we started to cut the oats. Boy what a stand we have. I road in the cutter with Chris Seinkwidch for a couple of passes. We also had a end welded on the hay barn so we could use the hay stacker to stack the hay instead of Megan her brother and I did the last time. We just are not as young as we use to be. Can't seem to throw them 60 lb bails over 5 high. The stacker will stack 160 bales at a time 14 ft. tall 8 ft. wide. We hope to have about 3000 bales when all done. There is a good market for oat hay here in New Mexico so I hope to sell most of it only keeping enough for myself to feed my beef. I have enlcosed some pictures of the start and will get some more and post them as we get farther into it. The weather is suppose to be great all week in the uper 80's to high 90's. Before we started to cut. Chris on the first pass From inside the Cutter Starting inside the borders The new end of the hay barn.

Catching Up

Well it’s been awhile since I gave any thoughts as to writing to this blog. It just seems we got tied up in so many things. Our most important one was of course Eli and his battle with E-coli. He was in the hospital in Spokane for about 3 weeks, seemed like a year. We were deep in prayer and had many of you who follow us through our face books and this blog or Lewy and Jessica’s praying for Eli also. Megan even had a good friend who was traveling in Italy light a candle for him at a Cathedral there. It is a miracle what prayer can do. I know it has brought us closer together in our lives. Megan’s mom was sick for about 2 weeks but she was more worried about her great grandson than herself. She is getting better every day also. Megan was busy doing a hundred different projects as we all know she does, so she was keeping her mind occupied that way and less stress over Eli. I farmed and continue to do so, now that I have kind of a routine everyday it does not take me long to get things done. I still don’t have a tractor that I can use for any real work. I did buy a chain harrow to pull behind the 4 wheeler to break up the manure in the pasture and spread the gravel around on the drive way. We have a new boarder her name is BB she is a race horse long legs and going to foal in January. She is black in color and pretty and very friendly. Of course we have T bone and the other three horses, Mac and the five cats. They all are doing well. The trees are budding out and our Pecan trees got frosted once but are blooming again so maybe we will have a crop this year. The oats are heading out and will be cut in the first part of May. So I’m irrigating them again to get them taller. Megan went to Phoenix for a pottery conference; she will meet up with her friends Marci and Sandi from Texas and Montana. Then she is off to Columbia Falls for a couple of weeks to help with Eli. I’m kind of jealous about her seeing Eli with out me. But Eli calls me and we talk he in his language and me in mine and we have a grand old time, plus we have web cams so we can talk and see everybody. Modern times are great some times. My bowling season ends in a couple of weeks and then I can start golfing around my farming. I have gone out once and had fun, I will never make the tour but if you want to laugh and have a good time I’m your golfing buddy. Megan and I will be going to Las Vegas for the National Bowling tournament and I will get to see my buddies from there that I bowled with so that will be great. I have to go for now and get some things done, Megan left me with a honey do list so I had better get after it. Later my friends and family.

Well the skunks are back, Megan’s mom got up around 1:30 am one morning and looked out her door and there was a skunk eating the left over cat food. Seems it likes the brand we buy. The neighbors still has our trap and caught and disposed of one more. That I believe makes 7 skunks gone since December. Now it is March 24th about 9:30 at night, Megan and I come home from our weekly get together with friends at the Pig Farm. We watch survivor and American Idol etc... show's on the big screens. This place the Pig Farm started years ago by our neighbor as a club house for the guys. It has been remodeled into a very nice I would say 20 X 25 foot club house with a kitchen net at the back end with a bathroom. Anyhow we do a lot of things there mainly watch the reality shows and play cards. This particular night I told Bill (who owns the Pig Farm) that I needed my trap back as we had spotted a skunk eating the cat food. I told him I would get it tomorrow as it was dark and I did not want to find it then. So Megan and I head home. Well at the farm we have an old garage that holds the gas lawnmowers and gardening tools. This has become Fred our 20 lb cat’s home since we moved down and every night we lock him in there so he won’t wander off or get hit on the road. As we pull in where we park the pickup I let Megan out first so she does not have to worry about tripping over the tractor which is parked next to the pickup. As she is getting a sack out of the back seat of the truck I see a skunk come running out of the garage where Fred sleeps. I hollered at Megan so she could see the skunk. I park the truck, run another sack from the back of the truck to the house grab the only two 410 shotgun shells I could find,the 410 shotgun and my spot light as I had an idea the skunk ran into my irrigation pipe. I cautiously looked in one end of the pipe and could see Pep Pee La Pew at the other. I had two pieces of pipe stuck together so I pulled them apart to make it easier to get at this guy. I picked the pipe up on my end so the skunk would have to slide out of the pipe on the other end. If you have ever tried to hold a pipe 25 ft long high enough in the air in one hand a shotgun in the other and hope you could see with the spot light laying on the ground, this is very cumbersome to say the least. I can hear the skunk clawing up to my end of the pipe so I hoist it almost vertical in the air from my end but did not see the skunk. So I set down the shot gun and pick up the spot light bring the pipe down so I can shine it in the end, yep the skunk is still in there, so I pick up the shot gun rest the pipe on my shoulder and shine the light at his end. I drop the pipe so it bounces on the ground hoping to bounce the skunk out. It did not work so then I see that I have put his end next to a valve and he can’t get out of it. I thought of just point the barrel down the pipe and shooting it, but this is old PVC pipe and it would probably not be good for irrigating anymore. I pick the pipe up as high as I can and drop it again in the dirt. I shine my light down the pipe and I can see the spray heading my direction so I quickly put it down. When the fog cleared, I was fortunate not to have the stench on me; I looked again and he was gone. I searched the field but could not see the little stinker again. At least not to night, tomorrow I will get the trap and we will see if it comes back and I can entice it into the trap to be disposed of someplace away from the house. Some day I am going to be a great trapper, like Jim Bridger, Liver Eating Johnson and the rest. I watched one of the survival shows and they caught a skunk in a snare, then they had the courage to eat it. I don’t think I will do that; I can eat a lot of strange things but skunks defiantly not going to be one. Stay tuned for more adventures of Life on the Farm.

Wild Animals on the farm

Did I tell you we are into skunk hunting down here on the farm? Well it is pretty exciting you know. I knew there were dangers in skunk hunting so I take ever precaution when perusing those stinking little varmints. We have captured and disposed of 5 skunks since I have been here, 4 at the neighbors where we have them on video tape coming out from under a house and going into the trap. It is kind of neat, but getting them out of the trap can be a problem. In comes the Calvary, the county has a lady that all she does is dispose of skunks in peoples traps. She does not haul them off anywhere she just disposes of them right where the trap is next to his house. Boy is that a delightful aroma for a few days. There is no special way to dispose of them no matter what technique you use something is going to stink. I prefer to catch mine out in the field way behind the house for disposing. The other night I was irrigating and went to check on the water, now I should have known to take the 410 shotgun with me but did not think about it. as I am traveling down a boarder checking on the progress of the water I noticed eye shinning in my head lights. I sped up to see what it was and low and behold three skunks were running away from me. The adrenalin started to pump the gas started to flow into the carburetor on my four wheeler and the chase was on for about 10 yards when I remember I did not have the 410 with me only a shovel and I could not swing it as I am right handed and the gas is on the right hand side so I was doomed to be sprayed if I were to actually catch the slowest of the three so I backed off and watched them fat little bodies run. I went back out later and took the 410 with me but of course I did not see any skunks again. Now I have to get my trap back from the neighbor as they are all on our farm now and trap here. Did you know that the skunks down here like Louisiana Hot Sauce covered Sardine’s? That seems to be the bait of choice. We tried everything else but the like the hot sauce. I will keep you all posted on my hunting adventures of the skunks as I get better at it. Stay tuned for more Skunk Hunting on the Farm.