June 28th already. It has been a pretty soggy last few weeks. We are one of the very few that got our first cutting hay in and that's only because we have a bale wrapper. We now have lots of baleage for next winter but very little dry hay.

The cows are on pasture but even with the wet weather they are getting ahead of the pasture. I am going to build some more fence. I have a nice hayfield that I'm going to fence in. I will still take the first cutting off it and then let the cattle in for the rest of the year. That should stretch out my pasture time.We do strip grazing and that helps a lot.

We are now at the breeding time of year. We have just put a bull in with the belties and he seems to know why he's there. We will be putting a bull in with the lowlines soon. In the past we have just used artificial insemination. We are beginning to see our market change with a steady demand for grass fed animals rather than pedigree.

We are AI'ing our two red belties to a red lowline. I think that cross will make an excellent grassfed animal and a very attractive one at that.

Our soybeans have been sort of spindly and wimpy due to all the moisture. There is an old saying that a "wet year will scare you to death and a dry year will starve you to death." All in all I'll take wet.

It is almost time to begin second cutting hay and the forecast for the end of the week through early next week looks very promising.

Jim is away in Wisconsin this week at his company's headquarters. He is shadowing various engineers to get a feel for what they do. Eileen is with the BMW in St. Louis soon to head for Indianapolis. She always has good observations. Last night she texted that Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, was having a seminar at her hotel.

Things are pretty slow with the diner crowd. Unfortunately, others have targeted the diner. Last night they were burglarized. It is hard to believe that there are those sort of people right here in proximity. I hope they get caught soon.

My friend in Florida is still unable to get back here due to health issues. I wonder if we borrowed an RV if we could get him back.

Well here it is June 12 already. It's been a long time since I last blogged on May 2. During that time we have finished planting our field crops and first cutting hay. Now I have time to sit down and write. It is never a good idea to plan on doing much other than farming in May and early June.

Planting and haying are long hours in the tractor days. This year we switched a hay field to soybeans. The field is up in the village and it was just too time consuming to hay it by the time we moved the mower and baler and hay wagons etc. both ways.

We barely finished planting before the previously outstandingly good weather deteriorated into some pretty bleak days. There were a few consecutive good days which enabled us to take off some square bale hay for our horse hay customers before Memorial Day. We loaded the last of our 2009 hay on a truck for Florida the same day we baled our first 2010. That was cutting it too close.

We were able to put up 275 wrapped round baleage bales. We call this one day hay. You can cut it in the morning, let it wilt for a while then wrap and bale it. Dry hay takes usually three consecutive sunny and dry days.

The cows have been on easy street with good pasture. We bought two bred beltie heifers this Spring and one calved. It was a huge bull calf weighing 85 pounds. We had to help the mother by pulling the calf. She's a good mother but the calf was a little dense at first. He managed to get out of the fence and we found him sleeping among the round bales. He has now caught on to the fence and is growing fast.

Both Jim and Eileen have interesting summer jobs. Jim is working as an intern for a French company Kuhn. They are the world's largest manufacturer of farm equipment that is pulled by a tractor. They make everything but the tractor. His job is about an hour away but he gets to travel various farm shows out of state. He also gets to work in the Parts Department, go out to help setup equipment on farms and otherwise do whatever might be asked.

Eileen has a very unique job. She is driving a brand new deluxe edition BMW car throughout the Midwest for two months. She is part of an eight person team that has five BMW's; two Mercedes and an Audi. They go to BMW dealers and give test drives and point out the sales features. Then they stay in a nice hotel and continue the cycle. She is just completing two weeks in the Chicago area. Then it's off to Minneapolis followed by Kansas City and beyond.

I have written before about some of our recent cattle delivery sagas. Today was quite a bit different. Last year, we delivered two Belted Galloway heifers to a farm in the Southern Tier. The farmer was setting up an operation to feature strictly heritage animals.

Earlier this Spring he called to get some additional stock. We agreed to sell him a mature dun cow with heifer calf and a bred black and white cow and Lucky the half Lowline, half beltie bull. Jim and I and my other traveling buddy took them down today. It was quite a pleasure to release the cattle into a well fenced pasture with everything cattle look for in a pasture: grass; shade and water and lots of room.

He has also added Dorper sheep and Tamroc pigs; all of which are heritage breeds. When we went last year, he was just getting into Buckeye chickens. These are also heritage and renowned for being the survivalists of the chicken world. We had lots of room in our empty trailer so two Buckeyes joined us.

When we got home, they walked off the trailer and started surveying their new home. They went into the barn and checked out our straw bales. When we did evening chores, one was out picking and the other roosting on the drawbar of a hay wagon. It will be interesting to see how they get on.

Our next project is to make more fenced pasture. I haven't had much of an opportunity to go to the diner lately so I don't have much to report there.

I have been waiting for my college roommate to return from Florida.He has had some health issues which have delayed his return. We hope he gets them behind him soon and can join us on Cross Lake.

We sold our jet ski this week. As noted above, our two main jet skiers are otherwise occupied. A man came to look it over and we agreed to let him take a test cruise on the lake. We became a bit concerned when he hadn't returned in almost an hour. We had gassed the jet up so we knew that wasn't the problem. When he returned he told us he just enjoyed our lake and got interested in watching a big bird. He was surprised when we told him that it was probably our resident eagle. He liked the unit and bought it and we liked that.

It's hard to believe that today is May 2nd. The weather has continued dry. Yesterday and today were mid 80's which is rare for here this early.

We had a new lowline heifer calf this week. She has the same dam and sire as the one that won in Denver this year. We hope she has a great future.

We also have what appears to be the world's longest imminently freshening Belted Galloway. This cow was preg checked a month ago and the thought was soon. She's bagged up good and shows a big calf on her side. Talk about how a watched pot never boils. All this waiting hasn't hurt her appetite.

We have heard from the new owners of our last two cattle deliveries. They both report that the cattle are staying home and doing well. That is certainly good news.


I have started Spring tillage. I also bought a used chisel plow at an auction yesterday. It will double our speed in plowing. The auctioneer and the auction host are good friends of mine. They have had a spring equipment auction for five or six years. It's a great opportunity to visit with friends and see all kinds of farm equipment bought and sold. It is definitely part of Norman Rockwell's America. Nothing plastic or artificial here.


Mary got back safely from France and Spain and had a wonderful trip. She walked 102 miles in 7 days along the Camino del Santiago pilgrim's path. That's like walking from here to Binghamton in a week. Then she visited with Eileen in Aix en Provence for a few days and enjoyed the south of France.

Eileen flew off to Dublin for the weekend on Ryanair. As I have mentioned before, Europe is pretty small by jet plane. She toured Jameson's Irish whisky distillery which should have made a memorable 21st birthday. I went to Wanda's bar down the hill from college on foot when I was 18 which was the legal age then.

Jim has his exams this week and we'll meet up next Saturday in Omaha and head home.

I finally have the upper hand on my cold. I truly didn't think I was ever going to shake it. A lot of folks around town have had similar symptoms. None of us can remember such a severe or long lasting Spring cold.

Things are pretty quiet around town. We haven't had a chance to dissect the oil spill at the diner. It sounds like the government is working hard to solve this problem. I hope they know more about oil wells than most other problems that they tackle. The fire department has been quite busy. We were saddened today to hear of the death of a former across the street farm neighbor.

Today was pancake breakfast Sunday at the American Legion. They have really good food and real, not chemical, maple syrup. They have already attracted their first election candidate for the year. A woman running for national office stopped by. As I said, the food is really good which must be why these politicians come by. It can't be to meet the locals since they scrupulously avoid any contact of that type.

The closest we ever got to conversation with these folks was a few years ago. A fellow running for State Assembly sat next to us. All we ever got out of him was " pass the syrup" not even please pass the syrup. We notice he has gotten elected and gone on to greater thongs in Albany where he joined with the rest of his colleagues in being unable to agree on a budget.

It is really hard to understand how all these candidates are going to be champions of the people when they don't even talk to the people. It must just be that their handlers tell them there is good food at the Legion and show up but do not under any circumstances talk to the locals..

Time really flies. Here it is the 25th of April already. As usual, we've been busy and time has just slipped by.

The weather continues to be way ahead of schedule. It is quite dry and cool . We could be planting but I think the soil is still too cold.

We have delivered a few animals the last few weekends. I now have decided that I am not going to unload animals into people's pastures or any place other than a secure barn. We have had two opportunity to chase animals that went through unsecured areas at their new homes. Fortunately, in both cases we were able to get them back and caught for the new owners.

No new calves lately but we have two cows that we expect to freshen shortly. We are still feeding hay while we wait for the pastures to grow out. The dryness and cool temperatures are not making grass grow rapidly. Still, we are two or three weeks ahead of when we would normally return to pasture.

Mary left for France and Spain just before the volcano. While waiting to meet up with Eileen, she walked 102 miles across Spain. Eileen was in Morocco with her school group. Mary and Eileen met up yesterday and will have a chance to relax together for the next several days. Mary is due home Thursday, volcano willing.

Jim is off for his last two lacrosse games. He'll be headed home on May 8th. He has a summer internship with a French manufacturer of farming equipment. They are a several hundred year old company and the largest manufacturer of plowing and hay making equipment. They have their US distribution center about an hour east of us and that's where Jim will be working. His duties will include working in the warehouse, dealing with customers and going to outdoor farm equipment shows and setting up the displays. It all fits in perfectly with his Agricultural Engineering major.

The French connection is interesting. Mary and Eileen are both able to converse easily in French. The highlight of Jim's French to date is when he said excusez-moi to the waiter when he sneezed in a Paris restaurant at age 10.

I have had a bad Spring cold for the last several weeks. It is finally going away. I have stayed away from the diner so I don't have a report on news from the four corners. I did make it to Bull and Heifer Auction. I am also glad to report that I have finished my on-line Agronomy course. It was challenging to say the least. Now comes the wait to see what grade I got.

Our early Spring continues. Today was another record breaking day. A storm is brewing and the temperature dropped almost 30 degrees in an hour earlier this evening. The forecast for Saturday morning is cold with possible snow flurries.

We have had a busy week with the Lowlines. We've had three calves; two heifers and a bull. All were delivered without any assistance and are excellent calves. We are preparing to send some of our bulls to sales. This requires giving them a hair cut and getting them all spiffed up as much as possible.

We are continuing to move our equipment out of storage and get it prepared for planting. We sold a load of hay last weekend and this has freed up some space in the barn.

Things are pretty quiet at the diner. No earthshaking developments now that health care and basketball have been decided.

I have a bull calf to deliver out to the western part of the state. A farmer out there has a Beltie herd and wants to develop a new herd sire. Our calf has excellent genetics and is unrelated to his herd so that makes him a good fit.

Mary is getting ready to go off nexr=t week to visit Eileen. It should be a great trip. Jim is getting close to the end of the school year and will be home in less than a month. Time really flies. As you farm, you certainly realize that the whole year is a series of cycles; all of which revolve around the weather and people.

Monday night was a long night. One of the belties went into labor around supper time. Since she is an older cow we expected no difficulties. When she hadn't yet calved later in the evening, we thought it was time to intervene. After getting her where she couldn't move around, we did a pelvic exam and found she had a small upside down calf. We pulled the calf and it clearly had been dead for several days. Because it was quite small, we were concerned that there might be another. We probed as far as we could reach and found nothing else. She is a large cow and apparently we couldn't reach far enough. I went to check her later and she had delivered another dead calf. They were both bull calves and lacked any of the typical beltie hair that is present at birth. We believe that they had been deceased for quite some time before she aborted.

Everything else went well and we left for our visit with Jim on Thursday. We drove his new to him Dodge diesel. Due to some airline fare quirk, we found it would be $300 cheaper to fly back to Erie, Pennsylvania rather than Syracuse. Erie is about 4 hours along the way to Iowa. Mary found a hotel near the airport that had shuttle bus service. We stayed at the hotel and saved the parking which was considerable.

You can imagine our surprise when we pulled into the hotel and saw that the eating/ drinking establishment next door shared its name with my college roommate and lakeside neighbor. We went over and watched some NCAA basketball and got some photos for him.

We made it to Iowa in time to take Jim out for dinner. On both Saturday and Sunday, we watched him in his lacrosse games. Somewhere along the line, I came down with what must be strep throat or something similar. I am just getting over it now and Mary and Jim have it as well. Apparently lots of folks around home have it. I'm glad to be getting rid of it. Every time I go to Iowa, I am impressed with how industrious the college students are. It would take a lot to convince me that their farm background hasn't been a real positive force in their lives.

With Spring, we have had lots of people calling inquiring about cattle. We are lining up farm visits for prospective cattle buyers. I firmly believe that if you are interested in our cattle that it is well worth your while to drove here and see our animals. I don't want to sell animals to anonymous buyers. I feel that it is important to know that the buyers can care for the cattle.

It has been damp and 40ish since we returned. Starting tomorrow, it is supposed to be in the 70's and sunny though the weekend. I checked my peas today and saw nothing. Maybe the upcoming warm weather will get them out of the ground. I am also about ready to plant some onion sets.

I have also arranged to buy two feeder pigs. We have an ideal location to raise them and it will be interesting. I'll bring them home in a few weeks when we can depend on the weather.

It is also time to start preparing our planting and tillage equipment. It won't be long before we are out on the land. The cattle have access to a small winter pasture and they already are finding some new grazing. This is the beginning of our busy season. We also expect several of the lowlines to begin calving. We hope for eighteen more calves this year.

As part of her semester in France and tour of contiguous Europe, Eileen is off to Sardinia for Easter. It is amazing how places you can fly cheaply to around Europe on Ryanair which is an Irish absolutely no frills airline.

I spoke to her today and mentioned that I had read about an underwater volcano between Sardinia and Italy, Mount Marsili. It is apparently poised to have an underwater Mount St. Helen's type eruption. This could lead to a massive tsunami in that area. I recommended that she be alert. Sometimes, you can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hopefully the volcano will remain dormant and she'll have a great weekend.

We picked up Mary at the airport early Monday morning. She had a great ski trip to Utah. The combination of a two hour time change going east in conjunction with the arrival of Daylight Savings Time gave her some jet lag.

We have had an amazing weather week. Every day has been blue sky and warm always at least mid fifties and a couple approaching seventy. With Jim's help, we got a real head start on spring work. We were able to clear a hedgerow between two pastures giving us a great spot for the cattle to get shade. All we did was clear the low brush leaving the trees etc. We also found an old abandoned barbed wire fence. Obviously our pasture was pasture once before. It is important not to have an old fence where the cattle are since they could easily get tangled or cut.

No new calves this week. The ones we have are doing very well. The red belties have been moved in with some black belties. They certainly are eye catchers.

We planted some garden peas today. I had always heard that it will bring good luck to plant them on St. Patrick's Day. I thought it was a little wet then but the conditions appeared perfect today. I have a friend who planted some on St. Patrick's Day a few years ago. He says that they really did bring him luck. They didn't come up and he thought that it was lucky since he doesn't like peas.

Things are pretty quiet at the diner. The big topic at the moment is the NCAA basketball. The marina restaurant has made it through their first winter and it looks like they will have a busy spring.

The ice went bout on the lake this week. The paper says that we had the driest winter ever. So I guess that explains how a few warm days did in the mud season at least for the moment.

Tonight, Mary and I went to a neighboring Fire Department Awards Banquet. It is always a pleasure to share this dinners and recognize the good works of our neighbors.

Jim goes back to school tomorrow by plane. When he was about eight years old, he always spoke about getting a Dodge, diesel engine , extended cab pick up. This week he got one. A 2001 just exactly like he always wanted. Mary and I are going to drive it to Iowa at the end of this week. He has three lacrosse home games next weekend that we look forward to watching. Then we will fly home. He'll have the truck at school for a month or so and then he'll be home.

He is very excited to have made it into the second round of interviews for a internship this summer with a major farm equipment manufacturer. They have sent him technical questions such as what would you do if this part failed etc. He has to get them the answers and they use them in their final evaluation.

Eileen is continuing to do well in France when she is in France. She has also been to Spain and Italy. She will also get to Tunisia, Ireland and Greece before returning home. In my junior year of college, I did get to see an away basketball game in Canton, New York.