Farming #1: Grinding Feed

Okay I know. I missed my last weekly post. I promise I won't do that this week. I felt really bad that I missed that post, so yesterday I braved the snow and the cold to take some photos while doing chores so I can show you guys how we take kernels of corn and turn them into usable feed.

The corn on the left is what it looks like right after combining. The corn on the right is what we actually feed the cattle.

It really isn't too complicated. You use a grinder to grind the corn up until it is easy for the cows to eat. When you are grinding it you can also add protein and just grind it up in the feed.

That red thing to the right is the grinder. John is on the left, and Rex is in the middle. He always thinks he is gonna get a mouse that will come running out of the grinder. Silly dog.

The grinder is hooked up to our John Deere 4020 tractor and then backed up to the grain bin. You can see the gray pipe that helps guide the corn from the bin into the grinder. Don't worry, I'll do another post later about how grain bins work.

The grinder grinds 2 tons of corn at a time, which believe me, doesn't really look like it is 2 tons when it is all ground. Part of that two tons of feed is 300 lbs. of protein.

The grinder has these little windows on the side, and you know the grinder is full when the corn falls down. It is hard to explain, but through the window it will look like the corn has reached the top of the grinder bin, and then suddenly it will just.... drop. Then it looks like the corn is only about halfway up the window, but the grinder is actually full.

I know. Weird.

Here we are, backed up to the silo house. The grinder has an arm on the side that swings out and around and goes through the window of the silo house where we dump the grain.
And then in the bottom left corner there is Sly. He is Rex's brother, and he is just as much of a goofus.

So once we get the grain all ground up we then dump it in this bin in the silo house. When this bin is full the grain reaches almost all the way up to the top of that white wall.

John fills up the 5 gallon buckets that we use to feed grain out to the cattle. The amount varies depending on how many cattle are in the lot and what the weather is like.

This is number 8. She is my favorite. The picture doesn't show it very well, but she is actually cinnamon colored, not red. You can see the corn is dumped from the bucket to the concrete bunk, then the cows stick their heads over and eat.

So that is it. That is how we turn field corn into feed for our cows.

Questions? Leave them in the comments below!

Happy 200th Birthday Pride and Prejudice!

I hope you received my little parcel by J. Bond on Wednesday evening, my dear Cassandra, and that you will be ready to hear from me again on Sunday, for I feel that I must write to you today. [...] I want to tell you that I have got my own darling child from London.

--Jane Austen, in a letter to her sister Cassandra

Chawton, Friday, January 29 (1813)

200 years ago tomorrow Jane Austen penned those words to her sister. But what does the unmarried Austen mean by her, "own darling child"? She means, of course, one of the very first copies of her second novel Pride & Prejudice.

This is believed to be a painting of Jane Austen. Although there is no proof to back it up.
One of the most FRUSTRATING aspects of being a 'Janeite' is that we have no real idea of what she looked like.

Her first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was published two years previous in 1811, but no one knew who the author was. The title page merely said, By a Lady. The title page of Pride and Prejudice was no more clear, By the author of Sense and Sensibility.

Jane had begun working on Pride and Prejudice when she was still quite young. The first draft of the original story, then known as First Impressions, was finished sometime in 1799, according to janeausten.org.

She was amused, poor soul! That she could not help, you know, with two such people to lead the way, but she really does seem to admire Elizabeth. I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like her at least I do not know. 

--Jane in a letter to her sister Cassandra, regarding a friends opinion of her characters.

Chawton, Friday, January 29 (1813)

I love Jane Austen. I was only 10 or 11 when I was prowling around my Grandma's house looking for new books to read, and stumbled upon a very old copy of Pride and Prejudice. It was a little 'thick' for me then, but I have since read it many times. I love all of her books. I've read almost all of them. (I haven't gotten to her short story Love and Friendship just yet.) Persuasion is by far my favorite, but that 200th anniversary won't come for a while yet.

I also know that I'm not the only one who loves Jane's works. Her real fans don't refer to her as Austen. It seems almost too formal for someone who seems like a close friend.

Ah. There I've hit the nail on the head. Jane is my friend. She has been dead for 196 years, and yet somehow I have connected with her. How extraordinary is that? 200 years after her "darling child" was published, I am still reading, still connecting, and still falling in love with her work, and I'm not the only one. It amazes me every time I start to seriously think about her works.

If I was, would there be so many adaptations sill being produced today? Would her books still be in print? I don't think so. What an achievement. After all, who else can expect their children to celebrate a 200th birthday?

Oh!  If you would like to know where I got all these quotes from, you can visit this website.

http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/auslet22.html

And if you would like to learn more about Jane, her life, and her books, visit http://www.janeausten.org/

This site is full of great information, and has links to Jane Austen Museums.

Awesome stuff I find at work #1

Every once in a while I read some of the most awesome (well, at least I think it is awesome) stuff at work. I don't see any reason not to share it with everyone here, for great words deserve to be read I think.

Read in the Sunday, January 20, 2013 Rockford Register Star

The answer is in a higher power than guns

By Bernard Reese

Totally missing in this dispute over gun control, is the truth that we are created by God and are subject to his moral laws as set forth in the Declaration of Independence. 

The other absolute truth with which each of us are confronted is that we are all on a walkway hurtling toward a door marked death through which we will step into the eternal judgment of our choice. Those truths were taught in our schools and recognized in our celebration of Christmas and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ that reminds us of eternity and our choice.

In the 1960s American astronauts on their homeward journey, being the first to go around the dark side of the moon, saw Earth rise over the horizon of the moon garlanded by the glistening light of the sun against the black void of space. From tens of thousands of miles away we on Earth heard them express that awesome experience, “In the Beginning God.” That message was heard in our schools and in the halls of Congress and across this nation.

Today 60 years later amidst escalating violence, of which the tragic event in Connecticut is a part, we sit among the moral wreckage that we are making of this great nation. By degrees we become subject to arbitrary power. Gun control is arbitrary and in violation of the Constitution. It will not create moral restraint on our society. Only by a return to the recognition of God and his moral laws is there a possible chance of our stabilizing this out-of-control culture. 

Beginning in 1947 the court has banned prayer in schools, reading of the Bible in public schools, display of God’s 10 Commandments stating that “students might read, meditate upon, respect, and obey them.” Oh, really? That would be tragic wouldn’t it?

Instead, our children are now taught Darwin’s atheistic evolution adopted by Karl Marx who said, “In our evolutionary concept of the universe, there is absolutely no room for either God or his rules.” The ultimate result of a society without God is graphically illustrated in the record of the Nuremberg trials. Have guns been responsible for the moral collapse of this society or has the eviction of God been responsible?

As President Reagan said in 1984: “Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone forever.” Having excluded God, is the evidence of our current culture demonstrative of that truth? 

Bernard Reese of the law firm Reese & Reese is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society.

What do you think of this? Do you agree with Mr. Reese's statement about guns? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. I love reading comments.

Week of January 13 -- 19

January 13
Ah. The last day of Winter Break. What am I doing? Working. Oh well. :)

January 14
First day
 of the Spring Semester. Craziness EVERYWHERE!!!! Rarely is Kish so busy as on the first day of a new semester. We have new MASSIVE parking lots. I got to school at 10:00 A.M. and had to park in the last row! Then you get inside the building and there are so many people all running here and there and everywhere! Lucky for me I could hide in the Kaleidoscope office and avoid all the crazy people. I guess there was a fight in one of the Student Services offices! Two girls went at each other over some guy. Why do people think they need to act like that? I couldn't tell you.

January 15
So Mondays and Wednesdays I only have one class. Tuesdays and Thursdays? A whole different story. I have FOUR classes. I get to school at 9:30 and I'm not done until 4:45. I know that my day could be longer, but when you only have one thirty minute break... well. The day becomes very long. Then when you add in all the driving that I have to do? Well. It is a long day. At least I have some interesting sounding classes. I know Art History 2 will be interesting. I have the same instructor that I had for Art History 1. He cracks me up.

After class Austin and I went to Mt. Morris. We stopped and saw my Grandma (who is doing quite well thank you!) and then stopped and saw my Mom. Quite a nice evening.

January 16
Finished brainstorming the first issue of the Kaleidoscope. If everything goes the way it is supposed to it is going to be a very good issue! I'm really excited.

January 17
More classes. I feel so weird. I'm not in any kind of rhythm with this semester. I would lose my head if it wasn't firmly attached to my shoulders. I'll get into a pattern sooner or later.

January 18
Busy day at work! Working on Newspapers is always a challenge, and no day is quite like another. It is very important to be flexible.

Oh! There is another new calf! We are up to four now this year! I'll try to get a picture of all of them together. They are all girls, and they are all red with white faces. The mamma cow had a really hard time with this calf. John had to go out and help her. Everything seems to have turned out fine though. The calf has been up running around. Always a good sign.

January 19
Went to breakfast with Austin and some of his family. Always enjoyable, but then of course I become really tired at work later. Then I went home and worked on homework. It is so hard to stay focused on homework. I'm determined to do well this semester though. Especially with Math. I'm going to do well in Math this semester!

TWIN CALVES!

We've been expecting some January calves. About a week ago the first calf the year arrived. A little red heifer with a white face.

The first calf of the year with her mother.

A big deal, but not as big a deal as what arrived yesterday!

TWIN CALVES!

Number 2! (The little one)

I didn't get a picture of the first one (the bigger one). She was hiding way back in the shed behind the first calf. But she looks just like Number 2. All red with a white face. Actually for that matter she looks just like the first calf of the year. All three of the calves are girls, so eventually they will get a tag in their  ears with a number on it. That is how we keep track of the boys and girls here.

From what Austin and his dad tell me this doesn't happen very often. The last time it happened was a couple years ago. The big one is eating fine and is up and around without a problem. We aren't sure if the little one has eaten or not yet, but we did see her up and around. She seems alert and her ears are up, which Austin tell me is a good sign.

How exciting! Twins!

New Years Day a.k.a. complete insanity.

January 1st:

Well. Christmas is finally over, and the new year beginning. 2012 was a pretty good year. Let's see if I can remember back..... Austin got a new quad, raced it all summer, and after a few minor set backs at the beginning of the racing season he managed to break his "third place curse" and got second place. 

YAY AUSTIN!

Austin showing off.... what a silly boy.

In the middle of his racing season I got a pretty sweet job working on newspapers. It can be hard and frustrating sometimes, but I love every minute of it. Then I became Editor-in-Chief of the Kaleidoscope, and had a great semester with some of the best staff members EVER. I joined the Student Government Association, or SGA. So basically I have awesome friends at school now, and I actually look forward to going to Kish.

Kscope Fall 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is just the short version of what happened in 2012. Really too much happened to tell you all about.  2013 is going to be different though. Every week I'm going to check in and let you know what is happening. That is my resolution anyway. If I'm lucky I'll get really good at this blogging thing and I'll post more than once a week. My goal is to become a blog of note. Let's see if we can make this happen.

On another note!

I got a new MacBook Pro! Well it isn't new.... I bought it used. But it is new to me! I really rather like it so far. I don't understand though why when I stick my SD card in it doesn't just show up on the desktop like it would on all the other Macs I've used. Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong anyone?

I had to drive to Bloomington to buy it, which is only about 2 1/2 hours from here, which isn't too bad. I took my sister and we were having some fun. Bought the computer, ate some delicious food at the Cracker Barrel, stopped at the Wal-Mart to get Austin some cold meds (poor boy) and then started home.

Which is when all the fun happened.

I'm driving along and then suddenly my front passenger side tire blows. The funny thing was that I could feel it coming. Good thing though, otherwise we could have ended up in a really nasty mess. As it was my sister and I were sitting on the side of the interstate quite a ways from home, waiting to be rescued. We managed to keep ourselves pretty entertained until our help arrived. However, I gotta tell ya, it is terrifying being about a foot off the interstate with semi's going about 80 right outside your window. Not to mention that it was insanely cold.

Anyway, we finally made it home safe at about Midnight, thanks to my faithful donut tire. Austin gave me a big hug, told me he was glad I was finally home safe, and then grabbed the meds I brought him out of my hands and chugged some down. Then both of us passed out until his alarm went off this morning.

What a crazy day. Woke up planning to not get out of my jammies for the whole day, and ended up buying a computer and blowing a tire. Yeah. That is what I do on my lazy days. What about you?

Happy New Year!!!!

So. I has only taken me a year, but I've finally figured out what I can share with the world through my blog.
I always thought that I knew and understood farming. The little town that I grew up in is surrounded by cornfields and farms. I went to school with farm kids, and the crops growing in the fields were the ever changing, yet steady almost rhythmic, backdrop to my life.
I thought I knew how farming worked. It never seemed too complicated. In the spring you plant, over the summer the crops grow, and in the fall you harvest. What more could there be to it?
Then I met Austin.
Austin was raised on a farm, and since I've met him he has taught me that there is more to farming than knowing how to drive a tractor. It is a way of life. He has taught me things about farming that I never realized before.
Which got me thinking. I grew up in a community where farming was a big deal. The state of the local crops was local conversation. If it turns out that I really didn't know much about farming, then how could someone who didn't grow up or live in rural community like mine know? Probably not a whole lot.
That was the train of thought that lead me here. My new year's resolution is to post a blog each week about our farm. What we do on a week by week basis to help explain what farming is and how it works. I've learned a lot in the almost two years that Austin and I have been together. But there is still so much yet to learn. Through my blog, I can share what I learn with everyone, and maybe even learn a little bit more in the process.