Coffee's Ready, Come and Sit on the Porch

[FarmerJamie]

Our group finished up all of our prep work for Toys for Tots a day early! Get an unexpected night off today before tomorrow's distribution.

Final count is 240 families, I don't have the final kids or total toys counts yet.

Many of the requests had special needs requests or specific toys types. So proud of these kids I work with - one of my tasks was to double check the order before it was approved as complete. I randomly asked the kids why they chose a specific toy or decided to go off script (for example, only kids 5 years old and under were to get a stuffed animal). One kid came up with toys for a request that stated that although the recipient was 10, they had issues and functioned equivalent to a 4 year old. There was a stuffed animal in the box.

So, when you hear negative stories about the issues with the school age youth, please be assured there still remain pockets of good and respectful youngins out there. This week, they took their responsibility very seriously.

240 families, 661 kids, 3000+ toys addressed

30 families never bothered to show up without notice. Despite texts through the week and phone calls. Sad

 

[CrealCritter]

T-Bone and Ribeye made it through the wicked storms last night, very thankful \o/

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Lilbitsnpieces]

View attachment 17384 going to go get more coffee, I need to visit BYC's a bit, later, we are taking a bit of a worrisome drive to the new house.
View attachment 17385

We have that older diesel ford box truck that we star up every month, but it has sat for 9 years. We put new tires on it in 2012 when we bought it from our neighbor. We drove it 9 hours from down in Oregon to here. Its a good truck. I has been a great storage unit hahaha .
DH has had it checked out. A friend that works on trucks came over and actually drove it fully loaded (brave man) down our 16degree/ hill and back up, the engine smoked a bit from dust build up. He said the breaks were fine, he crawled all underneath it.
DH, he steamed the engine to clean off all the dirt and crud, filled the break fluid etc...
We spent 3+ hours yesterday trying to get temp insurance on it so we could legally drive it for 2 hours
So , we finally got the truck covered by State Farm, but we had to pay for 6mo's,, oh well
About 8am, my time, Please pray for us as DH drives this thing up hills, DOWN steep hills, to the new house. We are going to unload it into the empty 1/2 of the garage and the owner of the new house is going to buy the truck.

yes, I am a bit freaked out - if I have cell reception I get on via cell and let you know we got there safe

No worries! I too have an older Ford diesel box truck..i love mine! I do most of the work myself on her..shes a beast! Always there if i need storage or to make a few bucks helping friends...You are smart to start it every month..i start mine at least once a week in winter, letting it run til air builds..then i drive her uo the drive and back to keep brakes from rusting and stickin. This keeps the seals lubed and tight. Lucas is added to oil..Seafoam to the feul...I also scatter peppermint in the cab ( behind&under seats, and hang bags of it tied under the hood by the fuse boxes ) to help repel rodents. Clove oil on cotton scraps too.

 

[The Porch]

I don't think I even mentioned the knee replacements on here since I spend much more time on BYH. I am working on the PT and exercises as I INTEND to be back better than they were for the last 2 years. I had a nearly 2 week stint in a rehab that was the most awful experience there was and I felt like I would have rather died a couple of times. Benign neglect as well as inedible food... partly from the worker shortage and it affects everyone and everywhere. It was not where I was supposed to go originally, but I was doing "too good" after the surgery to go in what they called acute rehab... no one here to take care of me with my son trying to do his job, the farm, a GF who had just found out she has breast cancer and his father having a bout with covid... so I stayed in the rehab until I could get around on the walker by myself and then came home and started from scratch with "getting better"..
So, you do what you have to.
Stiff and sore, but getting more use daily. Having trouble with the right ham string and muscles and tendons since they had to do more work to straighten the right leg more than the left with the replacements. It's been tough. I can walk without the crutches or cane but still use the cane for balance some.
Back to testing the easier dairy farms for my job too. Should be back to full work by the first of the year.

Thanks everyone for the well wishes...

wow, what a time you have had, I am so sorry

 

[The Porch]

No worries! I too have an older Ford diesel box truck..i love mine! I do most of the work myself on her..shes a beast! Always there if i need storage or to make a few bucks helping friends...You are smart to start it every month..i start mine at least once a week in winter, letting it run til air builds..then i drive her uo the drive and back to keep brakes from rusting and stickin. This keeps the seals lubed and tight. Lucas is added to oil..Seafoam to the feul...I also scatter peppermint in the cab ( behind&under seats, and hang bags of it tied under the hood by the fuse boxes ) to help repel rodents. Clove oil on cotton scraps too.

yep, us too, it is a beast to drive, we did sell it to the young man who's home we bought, and will be canceling the ins we just bought.

 

[The Porch]

240 families, 661 kids, 3000+ toys addressed

30 families never bothered to show up without notice. Despite texts through the week and phone calls. Sad

661 very happy kids!!!
and wow, great job 240 families

 

[The Porch]

Thank you for your prayers!
when we safely got home I made lunch / supper, a pot of decaf and built a fire. the Temp are dropping a bit tonight,
I am so happy I got to see 5 of our grandkids. the boys were thrilled at how much the rain filled the ponds, hahaha, you all have a good night, sleep well, I am over and out.

 

[farmerjan]

@CrealCritter ; just got home from testing cows and it went well so I guess I am getting back to "normal".. I will think a bit on the steers as we do mostly grass fed with a little grain the last 60 days... or silage and some extra grain. My first thoughts are some 12-14% feed in general so they GROW frame and muscle through the winter... mostly corn finish the last 60-90 days. I would have them on about 5-10 lbs each a day now of a more complete type feed... a 50 lb bag is generally about 2, 5 gallon buckets of feed... so a half a bucket once a day to both of them ..... we have 12 % steer fattener, and an all purpose type 14 % "calf feed" that I feed to my dairy cows when milking... not too high a protein but gives them more than most hay that will come in about 8-12% protein... pasture is good but quality will be down this time of year. The thing about the grain... you want them to be friendly enough to be used to you and to come to you when you call.... better than chasing them.... do you have a small pen in/around the barn where you will be getting them in to then load next year? Feed them in some sort of a contained area so they do not think it is a big deal... makes handling/catching them so much easier....if you need to do any kind of doctoring or anything, you want some place to be able to get them in......

 

[CrealCritter]

@CrealCritter ; just got home from testing cows and it went well so I guess I am getting back to "normal".. I will think a bit on the steers as we do mostly grass fed with a little grain the last 60 days... or silage and some extra grain. My first thoughts are some 12-14% feed in general so they GROW frame and muscle through the winter... mostly corn finish the last 60-90 days. I would have them on about 5-10 lbs each a day now of a more complete type feed... a 50 lb bag is generally about 2, 5 gallon buckets of feed... so a half a bucket once a day to both of them ..... we have 12 % steer fattener, and an all purpose type 14 % "calf feed" that I feed to my dairy cows when milking... not too high a protein but gives them more than most hay that will come in about 8-12% protein... pasture is good but quality will be down this time of year. The thing about the grain... you want them to be friendly enough to be used to you and to come to you when you call.... better than chasing them.... do you have a small pen in/around the barn where you will be getting them in to then load next year? Feed them in some sort of a contained area so they do not think it is a big deal... makes handling/catching them so much easier....if you need to do any kind of doctoring or anything, you want some place to be able to get them in......

Thank You @farmerjan I just setup a round bale feeder this evening. I have 8 1/2 huge round bales of first cutting hay. I also set out a 37% Range Cattle Block and my wife insisted on me tosing a bag of sweet feed and a hanging bucket in the cart. So she can try and spoil them by giving them treats. and slowly work them get up to the barn where there is shelter, hay and 150 gallon tub of water. They like the sound of her voice.

The pasture is still green because the weather has been weird. They start grazing about dusk and continue on until dawn then the lay down periodically and sleep during the day. Seems to me, they got their days/nights mixed up. The night before last, I shined my flashlight out in the pasture and lit up 3 pair of eyes. I'm like what in the world? But as I moved in closer, It was a buck grazing right along with them.

I know once the pasture turns white, with that nasty 4 letter word, they will take to the hay and I can supplement with some cattle feed. But for now, it seems they like to graze the pasture at night. They also seem to have a favorite grazing spot on the south side of the pasture.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[The Porch]