Been Busy

[herfrds]

Things have just been crazy around here. Miss coming on BYC.

DH decided he had to burn some of our stubble strips that were full of cheat grass. Picked a poor day last week. It was over 90 degrees and we ended up with some fire whirls. Sorry I didn't have my camera. Would have gotten some really cool pictures.
Scared the fire chief who showed up with the second fire truck, I was in the first one. We quit after just 2 strips.
DH got the small tractor out and cut a better fire line.
Finished the burning this weekend.

DS has been running the tractors getting a bunch of the field work done and he and the cousins boys got the small square bales picked and stacked in the barn.
I started picking the round bales until the truck broke. Got that fixed finally.

After my fall from a ladder at the first of the month we hired a crew to come out and media blast that peeling stain off of the house. They started last Thursday and got finished yesterday. I was trying to think how I was going to wash all that grit off of the house and one of the guys suggested using the fire truck we still had here.
So I washed the logs using a 2" booster hose and running at about 125psi. no grit left on the logs. Ordered some new stain today. It should be in on Friday.

DS just came in a decided to add to all the work we are already doing by telling me we need to get ready to harvest the winter wheat. I don't think so. I just checked some the day the truck broke and it is still too soft.

Here is how the house is looking right now took these yesterday.

Northside media blasted clean

Westside

Southside

 

[theoldchick]

Mercy! You are busy!

 

[fuzziebutt]

Beautiful house! I'm not allowed to burn ANYTHING anymore, since I burned the barn down. With the tractor in it. And the boat. And homemade wine that hubbo was aging. And 2 of my fav chickens. Hubbo used the tractor to pull the burning boat out. The tractor was fine (if not, I wouldn't be around to tell this). Burned the finish off the boat, the astroturf melted, and a nice spot on the side NEXT TO the gas tank. Yeah, I'm off the leaf burning detail.

 

[Katy]

We've been done with our wheat harvest since mid June! It was earlier than normal this year due to the hot dry conditions. Always a good feeling when it's over. We're in a dought and still haven't even worked all our wheat stubble yet. Good luck with your harvest!

 

[herfrds]

fuzziebutt that is one of our neighbors too. She burned down the chicken house, roof on the barn and most of their corrals.
Worse part is she had borrowed the fire truck just in case and forgot how to run it.

Thanks Katy. Going to be an interesting year. Lots of wheat rust in our area this year. Luckily no saw fly for once, so far.
We are fighting cheat grass and wild rye this year too.

 

[Katy]

Quote:
That was one advantage of it being so dry.....no rust or other disease this year....not even much cheat or rye! Guess it was too dry even for them. What are saw flys? Must be a pest for you guys further north of us.

 

[herfrds]

A saw fly is a nasty insect that we have been combating up here for years. It lives in the ground and will climb the stem of the wheat and about half way up chew through the stem and lay it's eggs in the stalk of wheat. The head will then drop to the ground and the combine cannot pick it up.
Our area got hit hard core a couple years ago. Had a neighbors field get hit and they lost 99% of their field.

There is nothing that we do that will kill this pest. It has only 1 thing that will kill them and I cannot remember the name, but it is a wasp.

The Montana Ag Research has been doing tons of work at developing a solid stem wheat. They are just coming out with a new variety that I would love to try. I guess it also has to do with the fact it was named after our County Extension Agent that passed away suddenly a couple years.
it is suppose to replace the wheat we are currently growing. Genouo wheat is what we are raising now.

DH is hopping mad. His cousin sprayed roundup and some wind drift went into our field across the road. Told him to pull several plants and take them in to the agent and let them look at them before going off the deep end. Covering our backsides.

 

[Jferlisi]

Looks nice what you are doing. Dont get half of what you said( even tho i dont get alot - Im blond).

 

[Katy]

Quote:
I don't think we've got that pest here yet....keep them up there will you?

I wonder if it's the same little parasitic wasp that we've got here that gets green bugs. We've been growing Sante Fe, Post Rock and Overly the last couple of years.

What did the drift get on?

I don't like burning stubble but my kids always liked helping with it so I took these with my cell phone to send to our daughter who is stuck working inside everyday in an office and hates it!

 

[herfrds]

Half a strip of winter wheat got sprayed.
Almost as bad over 10 years ago the neighbors spray guy who could not read a map and sprayed our alfafa field. Then the next idiot he hired did the same thing, right down the middle. talk about hopping mad.

Jferlisi just ask and we would gladly explain. Just remember the only stupid question is the one not asked.