the blade

Well since putting in the hay bin for the cows, we have come to realize how much they poop in the same spot where they eat. I mean we knew they did, but three cows eating and pooping in the same spot while they happily munch on hay, makes for a lot of manure in one spot! Since they are in the area near the barn it needs to be cleaned out. Regularly. Like a free stall it's wet and soupy. We also realized we don't want a free stall. So my husband has been using the bucket of the tractor to clean out the manure. We don't have  cement pad in front of the barn, only a gravel pad the bucket has been digging up the gravel every time my husband scrapes it down. Or all the manure doesn't get scraped up because we need that gravel there.  And that is just a mess. Gravel isn't cheap, and it's not being delivered any more until spring time. So what to do? We've made the bucket work but we started to look around for a blade. Meanwhile I had no idea what he was talking about when he said we needed a blade. So he told me it was something that would scrape down an area and do just what it was made to do. And showed me a picture. Oh. Now I know.
 They had some at a supply store, but the quality wasn't what we were looking for. We tried the tractor store where we have bought equipment, and they didn't have any in. So online we went. He found some of the brand he was looking for. Woods is the brand he wanted. They have a good reputation and hold up.
Well he found one. About 21/2 hours away from where we live! That's a haul. So the other day, off he went to get it. I was unable to go due to a previous engagement.
Well when I got home that night he had hitched it onto the tractor, with the help from our son and used it! What a fabulous thing the blade is! Yay!

Here it is. 7 feet long! Scrapping the poop time!

Liquid manure. Before.  About 4 inches worth. Plus we've had rain. So that only adds to it...

My handsome hubby :)Ya, I think his tractors sexy ;)

Well here it is. Mmmm hope your not eating breakfast with a weak stomach ;) Haha But really this is wonderful. It's scraping the gravel pad clean and not digging it up! All the manure is being pushed away!

Here is a picture from the next morning after scraping. The girls slept in the barn due to the bad weather...See we have some snow. Yuck. I've been enjoining the mild winter and no snow to be honest. The girls are out and standing on a cleared gravel pad. Eating their hay!

 Here is another picture. Happy cows. Happy life.

Have a great day ya'll!

makin sweet hay

It was late in the haying season when we were finally able to get the last of the hay done. We ended up having to hire getting some of it done. We don't have a round baler or a wrapper. Two things that we have talked about needing in the future. We've come to the conclusion that we will be feeding sweet hay to the cows. So we will be getting the equipment to do that. It's hard to depend on others, their schedules,  and the weather as well. But we are thankful that we were finally able to get it done.
The day that it was baled and wrapped started out to be a nice day. Thankfully. Nice and warm and partly sunny. Because, come to find out, to make the wrap stick to itself the temperature needs to be warm. I have never wrapped hay before so I had no idea. But it makes sense. So my husband and the guy who was baling the hay were out in the field. Another guy was at the house with me to load the bale onto the wrapper, I was the wrapper. He showed me how it was done, and then got in his tractor and loaded a bale. I ended up having one of the kiddos bring out some ear plugs for me. It was kinda loud. We had the kiddos stay in the house, because we didn't want the guy driving the tractor, or me, to worry about where they were while he was moving bales around the yard.

 Well, here I am. Unloading a bale from the wrapper. As you can see by the picture I have on some layers. The weather cooled off later in the day and we even got some sprinkles of rain ... I was afraid I was gonna get soaked! But I'm pleased to say we did not get any rain! Phew. And the temperature kept warm enough to keep the wrap to stick to itself. But just standing there not moving around a whole lot I got chilly.

Here is the guy and his tractor loading up some hay. Both tractors and wrapper are his.  He wasn't too worried about it if it rained...haha
Well needless to say we got the hay home and wrapped and it's here at our farm. The cows love it, and we are pleased with the outcome.
Oh have no fear a post about the empty stanchions is coming.  :)
Have a great weekend all!

shes here..

Allis got a big sister today!

Allis is the 6140 bucket tractor. 40HP

Meet Kate!! She's a 185. 74HP She's huge! We bought her the day before my birthday, so my husband said he bought a tractor for me. :)
 She came from Ohio and was dropped off at a local dealership, and then was delivered to our farm today.
  We've had our eyes peeled for a bigger tractor for a while and this one caught our eye. She's in great condition too.
This will hopefully make our haying season run a little faster and be more efficient for the mower and baler.  The 40HP is not quite strong enough for them.
While I take Allis around with the rake, my husband can come along behind and start baling.
As you can see we have some snow...a lot of snow really. I should show you the snow banks down the road from our house...We are looking forward to it being gone and started our 2015 farming in full swing!