Glenn's Underground Cabin Update

[ben2go]

Gleen & Sassy,looks like you two are getting a work out.If I was around,I'd gladly lend a hand where needed.I got no issues wearing two piece safety gear on a jobsite  or swinging a weed whipper 

[glenn kangiser]

Dagnabit, Ben.... you git yerself out here and I'll buy you a matching set of Hot Pink Safety gear and we can both go struttin our stuff at the jobsite.... We'll be the Super Safety Men team.....

I decided I had my fill of the big city today and after the days work we all split for home.  Four weeks without making it to the homestead was a bit much.  Some of the crisis at the job is dying down but still far from over.

Detailer thought it would be nice if they built the room big enough to fit his stairs, but the GC had other ideas.... so error after error... Our Midas Touch comes through again... every piece we pick up turns to crap on this job..... not gold crap either.



We had to rip both sections of this stair down and narrow it 3 1/4 inches to get a firewall in between the sections.  About 30 feet of stairs (counting rise and run - otherwise about 20 feet) to cut with the hot saw.  I took a 14" Black and Decker hot saw apart and made a metal skillsaw out of it years ago.  Noisy but effective.  They guys finished with the cutting disc on the grinder.  They were busting a$$ on this one - two days to fix it and hang it.



Not the way we like to do it but on this job we are doing whatever it takes to try to beat it.....

Here ... all hanging pretty today.



I got home this evening and Sassy had the cows up at the corral getting their snacks.  I had to go fool around with them for a bit just for the fun of it





Long time ...no see......

[ben2go]

  Super safety team men.I like it. 

Good to hear you're back home.There is no place like home.So peaceful and quite.

[glenn kangiser]

OK, Ben... I clicked my heels together and chanted ... there's no place like home... there's no place like home.... and dagnabit..... I'm being whisked off to the bay area again.... at about 4 AM. Only one day home.....

Must be a wardrobe malfunction ... my ruby slippers are on the fritz.....

We went by the feed store and got the cows a molasses lick supplement for when they are on the dry grass forage.  They were at the house when we got home.  Alfalfa hay is $19.95 a bale now....

Good thing we still have pasture.

[rick91351]

Alfalfa hay is $19.95 a bale now.... 

You might think kill, cut and wrap before they start drawing social security.  You have the oldest bunch of feeder cattle I know of in the nation right now!

[glenn kangiser]

I know you are right, Rick but I haven't been home enough to get it done, let alone eat any of it.  Today is my first day home in a month and I'm not sure if I will get another in the next few weeks or not.  Depends on the job.

The good thing is that every mouthful of grass they eat or smash is one less that can burn if we have another fire.

I haven't actually bought any of the expensive hay as I just checked the price when I was in the feed store today.

We still have the other 25 acres or so fenced that they haven't eaten much on so I think we are good for feed.  They are eating the poison oak too.  First animals we have had that did that.  The goat and sheep just thought they should eat things we didn't want them to and go where we didn't want them to go.  [ouch]

[Ernest T. Bass]

Alfalfa hay is $19.95 a bale now....

Is that a small square bale or round?

[glenn kangiser]

Small square bale - maybe 150 lbs I guess.  I think I could get it a bit cheaper in the valley, but the cows are doing well - not skinny at all.  They loved the supplement lick... Bossy was trying to bite it and she is the one I want to be sure gets plenty of nourishment.

I put a float in the tub tonight for the cows --- not a lot of safety precautions but at worst they will break it and Sassy will lose her water and have to shut it off....




but I think they will get over their curiosity and leave it alone being just happy to have water.....




I needed a street el for the hose hookup.  Screwing onto the plastic was not secure and kept popping off. I remembered I had some swivel street els for hydraulics from the late 80's so grabbed one and got it together.


Trying to think like a cow has it's challenges, but mostly they seem to think with their stomach.... I'm Hungry.... feed me....    


I'm thirsty.... I wanna  drink....  

[rick91351]

Cows will mess with stuff a little, their attention span is not really great.  New gets old real quick.  They rub stuff down but all in all they are usually pretty docile.  A little hay and or grass to munch, water to drink and a salt block to lick, a little shade to lay under and crew their cud.  Life is good or happy cow.  Horses on the other hand can be just plan destructive when they get bored.   

[glenn kangiser]

That seems to agree with my observations, Rick ...and horses and I don't get along well...... They try to think and they don't always agree with me. 

I am just getting ready to leave for work now.... sewer line plugged up tighter than a bulls bum in fly time.....

I was snakin' at midnight last night - had to call in late for today.  Dug up the line that only I know where it goes - didn't want to pay a plumber for that or deal with it over the phone.  The line settled down just before the septic tank which is on rock.  

Just finished digging and playing in the crap.... but the worst day playing in raw sewage in Mariposa is better than the best day in Burlingame on the job from hell.


Here's how it is..... Sassy wouldn't have been able to take a dump until I got back in a few weeks and I don't even want to think about how mean she would be by then.......

[Sassy]

 

The truth is, the last time he was home, the master bath toilet plugged up & this time he came home the main toilet plugged up 

Now whose fault do you think that was     

[Redoverfarm]

As they say Glenn "been there and done that" last week at my parents.   Oh the fun of it all.  Had about 300 feet downhill backed up.  Can you just imagine what kind of a fountain I had when I cut the pipe.  

[glenn kangiser]

I only had a 60' fountain one way and about 40 feet the other way at about 8 feet of head.

Sassy said the corn was mine..... 

That sucker has been plugged a long time.....

[ben2go]

150lbs square bale is $25 here.The drought we are in has killed all the hay.

[Ernest T. Bass]

That's insane... We pay less than that for a 600lb round bale! (Yet we still complain... )

[Redoverfarm]

150# is a pretty hefty square bale.  Here the square bales are 50-80# and sell around the neighborhood of $3 per bale.  7' round bale is about $30.

[glenn kangiser]

I think they are a bit less than 150 lbs - might depend on who you buy them from too... [ouch]

They are many times very tightly packed and very heavy 3 poly string twine bales.  Probably about 16 x 22 x 44 or so.

In the valley, Sassy is finding some grass/alfalfa hay for $8 cheapest if we pick it up.  She has been on it today.

I'm sure freight up the hill adds to it as well as middle men.

I want to get some to keep Bossy up at the house until she has her calf as she gets closer.  There is a big pack of coyotes down the hill.  I heard them in the day time when I was home.

[rick91351]

150# is a pretty hefty square bale.  Here the square bales are 50-80# and sell around the neighborhood of $3 per bale.  7' round bale is about $30.

Very interesting, around here here this year alfalfa grass mix you can find for $130 a ton if you shop around.  But most are asking $150 a ton.  It has never been this high here before.
 
For stock cows and horses here, most everyone here now is using double string in line-balers and crank them down to make 100 to 120 pound bales.  You can find some light weight bales 50 to 80 pounds but they are getting rarer all the time.  (I think there would be a good market for them.)  Also they do not use round balers here at all.  Over in Oregon I see they use them a lot on those ranchs with a lot of grass hay.

If Glenn is talking about those tripple string tied bales they are indeed about 150 pounds on up to around 250.  No you don't just grab them and flip them up on the old hay wagon or rack.   

Also here good straight alfalfa dairy hay with no rain, harvested and handled as they require will be in the $250 a ton range - on up.  (There is some very strict rules required when contracting with some of them.)  Also here with the huge dairies we have now around here they mostly have went to ton bales.  They chop most of that.  There are these portable tub choppers that come in and chop several hundred ton in to a pile and they transfer into mixer trucks along with corn ensilage.

         

[Ernest T. Bass]

I don't really understand the point of a 200lb bale.. Seems the advantage of square bales is that they are more easily handled. If you need equipment to move the stuff around than why not just make round bales? Less waste in a big bale, too, especially if they are stored outside for any length of time.

[rick91351]

I don't really understand the point of a 200lb bale.. Seems the advantage of square bales is that they are more easily handled. If you need equipment to move the stuff around than why not just make round bales? Less waste in a big bale, too, especially if they are stored outside for any length of time.

Andrew that is one thing I love about this forum.  I find out a lot how things are done in places I have never visited.     

As far as those 200 lbs bales most of the feeding we do with those is manger feeding.  Not to be confused with the rustic type in the bible.  Nor a what we call a feed bunk.  Usually about four foot wide and sixteen long cattle can stand on all sides and eat.   The manger I speak of a long usually out of cement or timbers.  You feed from one side and the cattle eat from the other.  Those bales are usually brought in with a stack retriever.  From that point they are pretty well right there as you can imagine.  You force one off the stack.  Open it up and use a pitch fork to put in the manger.  Or some feed lots here now have a simple feeding apron.  If feeding with a wagon or truck most people just load with a fork or grapple on a front end loader on a tractor.  Problem with field feeding at least here is waste.  Cattle walk it in to the ground.

My dad and I ran about 150 head of cattle.  We fed both ways in the field and mangers as well.  He bought some triple wire tie bales from down in Nevada one time.  I was less than smiles when I saw those.  They went about 500 lbs.  We were not set up for the at all.  I was glad to see them disappear one nightmare at a time       

Here because of our seasons and the way we get moisture square bales are by far the best option here.  Also they can be tarped.  All our serious hay stacking is done with stack wagons picking it up in the field, self stacking it and transporting it to the stack yard.       

[Sassy]

Just ordered a "cube?"  Anyway, that is considered 84 bales @ 110# ea of a combination of field grass, rye, oat & alfalfa & some weeds.  The farmer is certified organic & he does not use any chemicals on the hay - just broadcasts the seeds & harvests what comes up, which, of course includes weeds.  He says it is excellent feed for cows, not so much for horses.  There is no mildew/mold.  The cost is $8 bale & he has a friend who has a small trucking company who will deliver it for $135 - so I don't think we can do any better than that.  I was especially pleased that there are no chemicals, etc used in the fields. 

He also has alfalfa # $13 bale - they are heavier due to being harvested green so you have more moisture content which also brings the risk of mildew/mold if not used quickly.

Anyway, I think I got a good deal & the delivery is very reasonable for a round trip of 60+ miles & they will unload & stack...  not something I'd want to tackle 

[rick91351]

For your kind of cows that is great!  If you were milking them, and selling illegal milk and making illegal cheese the alfalfa might be the best choice.

   

[Ernest T. Bass]

Andrew that is one thing I love about this forum.  I find out a lot how things are done in places I have never visited.     

As far as those 200 lbs bales most of the feeding we do with those is manger feeding.  Not to be confused with the rustic type in the bible.  Nor a what we call a feed bunk.  Usually about four foot wide and sixteen long cattle can stand on all sides and eat.   The manger I speak of a long usually out of cement or timbers.  You feed from one side and the cattle eat from the other.  Those bales are usually brought in with a stack retriever.  From that point they are pretty well right there as you can imagine.  You force one off the stack.  Open it up and use a pitch fork to put in the manger.  Or some feed lots here now have a simple feeding apron.  If feeding with a wagon or truck most people just load with a fork or grapple on a front end loader on a tractor.  Problem with field feeding at least here is waste.  Cattle walk it in to the ground.

My dad and I ran about 150 head of cattle.  We fed both ways in the field and mangers as well.  He bought some triple wire tie bales from down in Nevada one time.  I was less than smiles when I saw those.  They went about 500 lbs.  We were not set up for the at all.  I was glad to see them disappear one nightmare at a time       

Here because of our seasons and the way we get moisture square bales are by far the best option here.  Also they can be tarped.  All our serious hay stacking is done with stack wagons picking it up in the field, self stacking it and transporting it to the stack yard.       

Interesting.. Around here they either stack the round bales indoors or shrink wrap them in long tubes out in the field. The farmers spike them with the tractor and throw about 3 at a time in those big round feeders. We get the fun of rolling them through the snow and mud..

[rick91351]

Interesting.. Around here they either stack the round bales indoors or shrink wrap them in long tubes out in the field. The farmers spike them with the tractor and throw about 3 at a time in those big round feeders. We get the fun of rolling them through the snow and mud..

One of the cutest calf things I have ever seem was this about five hundred pound calf standing in the middle of a round bale feeder.  The tractor operator had stopped the tractor with the round bale over the feeder.  He had dismounted and was walking over to get the calf out or it would be squished of course when he dropped it.  The calf was just standing there looking up, with its tongue stuck out like.  "Come on drop the hay man; I'm hungry!"   

[Ernest T. Bass]

That's funny! I was gonna say 500 lbs is a huge calf, but sounds like he had the right attitude for it.