Grrrrr.....(Alfalfa Field Part 3)

I don't have any pictures for this post because it seems I'm chasing cows every time they are doing something to the hay. The hay that was cut on the first day has been raked. When they rake the hay, they roll two of the windrows that come out of the swather into one. It didn't get very dry with all of the rain that it had on it so today they had to flip over what they had raked. They flipped it with the intention of getting it dry enough to bale tomorrow morning. But.....it's raining AGAIN! Please someone remind the weather man that we live in the desert!

The hay that was swathed on the second day is getting its first good washing....definitely not ideal. Thankfully it hasn't been raked yet. This makes the situation a little less bleak. Pretty much everyone has started cutting their alfalfa and we are all in the same boat. We all have hay that isn't going to be good for much other than cow feed which translates into not much money. When I set out to chronicle the journey of what happens on our alfalfa field, I never expected it to be so atypical. I promised to not do this again but I might have to, just to show what it's supposed to be like.

On the brighter side we haven't had to water the garden much and the lawn is growing like crazy! Cows are cheap right now too. Maybe we'll have to buy some cheap cows to feed our cheap hay to, with the hopes that when they have a baby it will be worth something! As long as medical experts don't name the next illness that comes along "Cow Flu" we might get lucky.

Sisterly Love

Alfalfa Field Part 2

Here's a picture of the alfalfa field before I moved the wheel line and they started cutting. These rows of hay that you are seeing are the windrows. Normally they bleach out in the sun to some degree but not usually this bad. This is what happens when it has been "washed" about three times by rain. We were a little concerned that the other half of the field would be a mess to cut with all the rain that we've had. It was a little bit wet but other than that it was OK. Other fields in the area have begun to rot into a slimy mess under the canopy of the plants. Some people are turning it into silage and others are hoping it will dry out enough to cut. Thankfully ours is green and healthy still! Ideally this half of the field would have been cut the day after the first half. Things often don't go as planned so we just have to roll with the punches.

Tomorrow's project-One of the cows that we took to pasture about 15 miles from the house jumped the fence three times today. I guess I'll hook up the trailer that I just unhooked today, and go get her tomorrow. She's our only red cow and I guess she has a wild redhead attitude!

Alfalfa Field Update

Well, the hay has been rained on nearly every day since my post about it being cut. We are hoping and praying that it is done raining for awhile. Only half of the field was cut on Tuesday and we are hoping they will be able to cut the other half tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates! Too bad we can't control mother nature and predict the weather, but I guess if we could we wouldn't have to farm.

Just a Glimpse of Today

The Girls Tonight

Hannah wearing Papa Randy's glasses at dinner.


I can't get enough of this little face! Sorry it's blurry. It's hard to take a picture of her when she's on my lap. :)

Need a Dinner Idea?

We had these chicken strips last night. They were delicious and easy too. I think it's my new favorite chicken strip recipe. We had them with Homemade Rice a Roni and salad fixin's from the garden. I like to add a little more chicken flavor to the rice a roni with some bullion and a little parsley for color.

Hmmm...now that I read the chicken strips recipe again I discovered that it calls for 2-3 teaspoons of season salt and I used 2-3 TABLESPOONS! I thought they were a little salty. Ben thought they were good so I guess if you hit the middle somewhere they will be great.

Alfalfa Field Part 1

I thought I would do a little recap and then a play by play of what happens on our alfalfa field each summer. I'm only going to do this for one cutting. We expect to get three cuttings. Four cuttings are ideal but the weather and growing season dictate that. During the other cuttings I may post some pictures of interest but I won't go into as much detail.

We have an agreement with a local hay grower to put up our hay. We own the field and the irrigation equipment. He owns the hay machinery that you will see (with the exception of the hay squeeze) and he and his crew puts up the hay. We have worked for him off and on for many years but I probably won't be much help this year.

On May 13th we started irrigating the alfalfa field. It takes five and a half days to irrigate the whole field with two wheel lines each half a mile long. We move (aka change) the wheel lines twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. Sometimes the girls went with me, sometimes they stayed in the pickup with Daddy, and sometimes they stayed in the house with Daddy or a grandparent.

Here's a picture of the girls and I in the pickup after changing the wheel lines one morning. Helena is bundled in the pink next to my chin. She rides in the front pack and Hannah walks with me. Sometimes I have to carry her but try to avoid it. Sorry about the cruddy picture. I took it of us with my cell phone.

After we were done with our irrigation it was time to roll the wheel lines back to their starting positions. I do this so that they are ready to go if we decide we have to irrigate again, and otherwise they are in the right place to start the water again when they hay has been taken off of the field. This time of year it's not uncommon for a thunderstorm to kick up and for it to pack a punch with it's gusty winds. A half a mile of aluminum pipe with wheels on it that can act like sails will take off in a heart beat. We have lost ours twice, I think. Once to a very deep drain ditch and once to the neighbors field. It isn't any fun or cheap to take pipe to town to be repaired/replaced and then reassemble the whole half mile.

In an effort to keep them in one place, we have stakes that we pound into the ground attached to a rope tied around the pipe (pictures below later in the post). I was able to drive down one wheel line and pound in the six sets of stakes. Daddy checked his fields with the girls while I walked down the other wheel line and pounded in the other six sets of stakes.

Boy were we ever glad that we staked the wheel lines down really well. We are easily a week behind, if not two, on getting hay cut around here. We had several storms come through. There were times when I looked out the window to see the wheel lines roll a bit in the wind and then slam against end of the rope. It made my heart skip a beat and I prayed that they would hang together through the wind. Here's an example of one of the high desert torrential down pours coupled with gusting winds.

Today is cutting day. Before the swathers got the field I needed to go unstake the wheel line, and take some sections off so that they could get around the end of the field. Here's the rope tied to the wheel line. I had pounded one stake in on the east and one on the west.

Here it is after I pulled the stakes. I'm sure to hang them back on the rope. If hit, they do ugly things to hay equipment.

Hannah waiting patiently in the pick up.

Helena waiting patiently in the pickup. She slept most of the time that we were out there.

This guy was spraying the field right next to us this morning. Please ignore the side mirror in the bottom corner. I wasn't trying to win a photo contest here. I checked with the spotter on the ground to be sure we could go into our field and we got the OK. Our field actually had to be sprayed twice this year. Once for weeds and a second time for insects. It is sprayed for weeds because "clean" (weed free) hay sells for more than weedy hay. The cost of the spraying pays off when you consider the premium for the hay. It was sprayed for insects because they were going to eat us out of house and home. It they get out of control they can eat so much it damages the yield. The amount of hay in tons that you save from the insects, also generally makes the spray jobs worth the expense.

They are cutting the field right now as I type. It has already been rained on while they were cutting it and I'm sure it's liable to happen again. It's not ideal to have the hay get rained on after it has been cut. It is better to get rain right after it has been cut and is still green rather than after it is cured (dry) and ready to bale.

The swathers complete several operations when they go through the field. They have a bar in the front with blades on it called a sickle bar. The sickle bar cuts they hay and then it is fed through the conditioner. The conditioner breaks the stems in several places so the moisture can escape causing it to dry faster. The hay sails through the conditioner and then hits the shields underneath the swather. These shields are adjusted to the preference of the farmer to make a wide or narrow windrow of hay. There will be pictures of windrows in the days to come. When the two swathers meet in the middle they are done. So that's all for today. It's up to mother nature to do the rest for the next few days.

Hannah "riding" her bike. Her shirt says it all. :)

Interesting Reading

She likes to have Daddy read out loud whatever he's reading. Tonight she said, "Read the Classifieds." So they did. I don't think they found any good deals though. I wonder where a fascination with the classifieds at two years old will take her in the future.

Memorial Weekend Recap

Hanging out with sweet Emma

Playing in the water with her cousin

Getting a sled ride from a super cool uncle

Visiting Crater Lake National Park

Feeding fish at the Klamath Fish Hatchery