Finally Started – Thoughts From The Middle of Nowhere

<center><a href='http://www.sarpysam.net/gallery/Cow-Pixs/feed12062005?full=1'><img width='250' height='188' border='0' hspace='5' src='http://www.sarpysam.net/gallery/albums/Cow-Pixs/feed12062005.thumb.jpg' alt='' /></a></center> n nI finally started feeding the cows yesterday morning. We got quite a shot of snow overnight and with the cold temperatures it was time. I wanted to start feeding the big square bales I bought which I had left over from last year but that required plowing the road to the cows. I started the tractor I used for plowing and it died right away. Why? The fuel gelled up. It turned cold winter too soon on me and I didn't get cut diesel in the tank yet. Damn the bad luck. n nIf that tractor wouldn't run I doubted the loader tractor to load the bales will run either so we feel back to the tried and true method. We fed the little square bales by hand. Loaded and fed 5 ton worth by hand. I do have it set up when the loader tractor is working to load the little square bales with it but worse comes to worse I can always load and feed by hand. That is the beauty of little square bales. I don't need a tractor to feed them and that is why I have stuck with that method all these years while other people have went to big bales of some kind. n nI did finally decide to go to big bales though. I signed a contract for a New Holland BB940A big square baler at the end of November before the special interest rates disappeared. n n<center><img width='400' height='320' border='0' hspace='5' src='http://www.sarpysam.com/sarpysam/uploads/BB-A_main.jpg' alt='' /></center> n nNow I'm not getting rid of my little square baler, I'm keeping it for its advantages, just upgrading to a bigger bale system too. The 960A is pictured which is the 3X4 model and I bought the 940A which is the 3X3 model so it makes a little smaller bale than the one that is pictured. It's kind of a scary machine and will be interesting to get to figure out how to run it but that is the nature of the world, change. Things change and you have to learn to cope with it. n nI'm hoping it will warm up by about Friday so we can get the tractors running to start automating the feeding process. Until then feeding will be a lot of sweat. That's good for the body and soul so no big deal. n nManual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it's own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one's thoughts. Mary Ellen Chase