To Market To Market….

Today on this cold, cold morning the cattle truck pulled into our yard to pick up our yearling calves to haul to the sale barn.  The temperature was –2 with a light wind so it was bitterly cold outside. 



The trucker backs up to the alleyway where the calves will get into the truck   - this truck called a “Pot” has two levels to carry the calves.  In house terms it has an upstairs and a downstairs!  We are selling the calves tomorrow at a sale barn a couple of hours away from here and we hire a truck and driver to take them to the sale barn since we don’t have anything large enough.  The sale barn likes to have as many of the cattle they will sell there on sale day early so that is why we had them hauled today.  The calves will be unloaded in pens and fed and watered today and in the morning so they are well treated.

We are selling 85 calves and they will all be hauled in this one truck.  (We are keeping 12 heifers to become cows – John picked out ones with good “cow” qualities.)  This sale barn will auction our calves along with over 6000 others tomorrow.  If you would like to watch a live cattle auction check out the following web page.  CattleUSA.com  Just register to view, there is no charge to register but just an id and password.  After logging in you can find an auction on Wed. (tomorrow) and click to view the sale.  This web page has lots of livestock auctions across the USA that are held on different days of the week. 

If you had approval to purchase you could actually buy online.  I don’t know how that works but know you have to have personal financial verification to purchase.  If you have never viewed a live cattle auction you might find it interesting.

It always amazes me how fast the auctioneer talks and how fast each pen of cattle are sold.  John is going out to watch them sell but I plan to stay home and watch online.  He will call when they are ready to come in the ring so I don’t have to sit all day looking at the computer screen.  We will both be glad when they are sold and we know what price we get for them.  It has taken a whole year from the time they were born to raise them to this point where we can sell them and hopefully make a profit. 

 

The truck is loaded and heading out of the yard and down the highway.  This afternoon we had some soft snow fall but it should not accumulate according to the weather website.

Lynn

Windy, Windy Day……

Yesterday we had wind and more wind plus a little snow.  The wind was blowing 30 to 40 mph for 24 hours so the snow that fell blew into drifts.  We ended up with only 1-2” of snow but it was hard to tell as some areas were swept clean by the winds and others drifted tall.  This drift behind our house is a little taller this morning than this photo I took yesterday about 4:00 pm.  It is now taller than the top rail of the small back deck which is a little over 5 feet.

This drift can just sit until it melts but there is a 3 foot drift on the deck to our south door that has to be scooped off.  Since I can’t  do any scooping John has had to clean it off by himself, plus clean the drift away from the garage door.  These drifts are very solid and hard so are not easy to scoop.  The sidewalks are pretty clean  as the wind blew them clear so that job won’t have to be done today anyway.  He will have to get the tractor and loader to clean a drift that is blocking our driveway but again there are not too many for him do. 

We woke to the sound of quiet  and sunshine this morning and it was so nice after that horrible wind blowing for over 24 hours.  There is something about the sound of wind that could very easily drive me crazy.  I often think of the pioneer women that did go crazy after days and days of the wind here on the prairie.   I am thinking I would be one of them.  They didn’t have the distractions of the computer, TV or phone like we do.  I sometimes get out my ear plugs and wear them when I sleep at night when we have strong winds just to block out that sound!

Besides the wind we have really cold temperatures here in Nebraska.  This morning at 8 am it was –4F ( –20 C)and yesterday it was cold plus the wind so the wind chill temperatures were dangerous.  John did not spend a lot of time outside but had to take care of the animals morning and night though.

The photos below were taken from my kitchen window about 4 pm yesterday.  I have a Climantis  vine just north of that window and the leaves stay on all winter so it offers some protection for the birds that want to find shelter there.  I had to use my step stool to see them and get the photo – was really careful not to fall or lose my balance though.  The photo is a little out of focus looking because of two reasons….one being the snow was blowing when I shot it and they other was that I took the photos through the window and screen. 

 

The red arrows point to 3 of the sparrows that were hunkered down out of the wind.  At times I could see 7 or 8 from my perch leaning over the sink to see them.  They were so amusing to watch as when a new bird would fly in and try to sit next to another one there would be a fight of sorts and the new arrival would have to pick a new spot as I guess they didn’t want to share or snuggle.  I would have thought that if they huddled up they would have stayed warmer but obviously they didn’t feel that way.

Here’s to warmer weather again….

Lynn

Winter Storm

This is what we woke up to this morning.  The fir trees have a light coating of ice that luckily didn’t get thicker as the day progressed.  The snow started in the morning and was fine but continuous all day with strong winds.  So far we don’t have drifting yet anyway.  The snow has gotten heavier during the afternoon so wonder what it will be like tomorrow.  The weather people say snow and strong winds with a high temperature of 4 so they are telling us that the wind chill temperatures may be down to -40 F.  Now that is COLD!

John opened up the barn and have places for all the horses and calves to get out of the wind.  The cows are over in an area that has a very protected area that is out of the wind so they will be ok too.  You never know how the storm will finally play out but need to be prepared for the worst.   The large snow blower is on the tractor so now it is a waiting game.

The wind is from the north so the ice is only on the north side of the trees.  So glad we didn’t get more of the ice as that can do lots of damage in a hurry.  I didn’t do too much walking around out there this morning as the wind was too, too cold.

I canceled my PT appointment this morning as it would have not been a smart choice to drive the 45 miles up and back when the weather was marginal at best.  I tried to do my exercises an extra time today to make up for it and hopefully when I go on Thursday the weather will have calmed down by then.    The only time I went out was to take these photos and that was long enough for me. 

Lynn

Purple Dishcloth

 A little over half of a purple dishcloth knitted on the new knitting needles.  Again, Sugar N Cream yarn purchased at Wallmart.

Ta Da, the dishcloth is done.  The final corner (upper right corner) always looks a little funny.  Any ideas out there on how how to make it look like the starting corner on the lower left?  I know it is a dish cloth but but wouldn't mind improving my skills.  I do need to work on keeping my tension the same throughout as some rows are a little farther apart because I am knitting looser.  Maybe if I keep knitting and knitting these skills will come.

On another note - Physical Therapy is helping little by little to increase my range of motion on my right shoulder.  It does get time consuming to do the exercises several times a day but can see the results starting to happen.

Lynn