Logs

I had to run into town this morning. Nothing new there, I go to town (probably) too often....at least according to my wife. I usually come home with something to make the trip worthwhile, though.

This morning, I was in buying gas when a friend told me about some "Straw Logs" that had served their purpose, and were being thrown away. He had heard that I had an area that the cows had started a little bit of erosion, and figured these would come in handy.



Actually, OUR cows didn't start it - the "renter cows" we had in the area a few years ago, did. There was a semi-permanent-temporary fence corner there (which has since been removed....), and the cows just got used to beating a trail around it. After that, nature took over.

God has things like that happen, just to keep us on our toes!

At any rate, I need to come up with some stone "rip-rap" and a little dirt. With these logs, It will be a pretty easy thing to get the erosion stopped. I came home with 8 of them - each about 16" in diameter, and 8' long. I'll stick them somewhere out of the weather for a bit, until I can get time to work with them.

This week has been fairly busy -

Training the cow to let down her milk...
Feeding the Monster Goat Orfinks...
Finding the new calf so he will lead mom into the stanchion...
Training a goat to keep her &%$#@& head out of a fence (she is walking around now, with a PVC pipe taped to her horns to help remind her that her head belongs on the same side of the fence as her body...)...
Rounding up pieces for a milk machine....
and general "stuff" around the farm.

On Tuesday, I decided to go to an old dairy close to here, and ask a few questions. One of the amazing things is - in 1950, there were 147 dairies in THIS COUNTY alone.

By 2000, there were ZERO.

Today, there are few people who even have there own milk cow. THANKFULLY, this trend is now reversing, and people have begun to understand the importance of farm fresh foods, and how they differ from the "food" at the store.

This particular dairy had shut down several years ago, but still raises cattle - even some dairy. They were MORE than happy to answer any questions I had, and even gave me some spare parts for a DeLaval milker. I asked them if they happened to know where I could get a vacuum pump, and they took me to one in their barn. We managed to get it down from it's perch, and $10 later, I had it on the way home.



It turned out to be a DeLaval number 73 pump. It looks/sounds to be in working order, I just need to clean it up, and get a motor.

It's amazing how some folks are. These gentlemen knew me from when I was in the 2nd grade, and started telling me stories about my Grandpa, Dad, and older brothers.

They told me to "Come on back, if you have any other questions!"

I'm PRETTY sure I'll be in contact in the near future!

We even have had another friend GIVE us most of a milking machine! It will need some new hoses and such, but it is mostly complete. Last night, I had a neighbor call and want a couple of holes for posts dug. So this afternoon, I'll head over to his place (about 2 1/2 miles away) and sling some dirt for him.

In return, he's giving me some scrap metal and other stuff. One of those things is a nice 4 wheel cart that will come in handy to mount the milk machine on.

Amazing how things come together, isn't it?