Week of 12/8/24

This week started out great, weather-wise. It was warm and sunny at 32 degrees at sunrise on Monday morning and 48 by midafternoon. I then cleaned out the calf barn Monday starting at 8 in the morning and was done by noon. I always am amazed at how efficient a skid steer loader is you can get twice as much done with one of them as you can with a wheel steer and they are fun to operate, they are like the zero-turn lawnmowers. That must be why the women have taken over that job! Then Monday afternoon I cut a mule load of white oak wood. Which is another job I like to do and white oak is so nice to work with. The trees are tall and straight with few branches.

The good weather didn’t last too long. On Tuesday it was cloudy and cooler with a low of 25 and a high of 31. I took round bales of hay to the beef cows on the ridge then split the wood I had cut earlier and put in the barn, which was 2 Gator loads.

By Wednesday winter was coming back the high in the morning was at 26. After chores I went to the woods and cut a mule load of wood and got it split and put away by noon. By then it was getting very windy with the temps dropping. After noon I then took a nap and after that I bedded the Calf barn. I was then done for the day, a short one.

By Thursday morning winter was back in full force with a low of 0 and with a high of 9. I went shopping with Ruth in the morning. In the afternoon I put a couple gator loads of wood by the maple syrup cook shed. I also got a call from a company in California that wanted to promote my book and make me rich. They were going to call me back at noon with a plan but they didn’t. So I guess I won’t get rich.

Friday morning started out clear and cold. It was down to -1. I took hay to the cows on the ridge. I then went to the woods and cut down a dead ash tree. I couldn’t get to it with the tractor so I skidded it out of the woods and took the logs down to the splitter with the tractor where I then cut them up and split the wood and put it in the barn. I had a really nice Christmas syrup order Friday evening.

By Saturday the weather had changed again, it was a cloudy gray day with a low of 26 and a high of 36. I got a mule load of wood split out in the barn. Just in time before the freezing rain started. At mid-morning we had a quarter inch in the rain gauge Sunday morning. Sunday was a cloudy, foggy day. After chores and bedding the calves I had a day of rest.

Visit with you next week.

-Helmuth Krause