And speaking of expenditures..............

Sat. evening Jeff calls from the barn................Dad, you wanna come up here and see if you can figure out why the barn cleaner motor wont start?

Checked power source........................checked for bare wires.....................had the capacitors checked...............................and still no go. Jeff put out the word to his buddies. Anybody got a barn cleaner motor you aren't using right now? Word came back, yeah I got one on a unit outside. "Ran when parked". You want it, it's yours. All you gotta do is come get it. Sooooo Sunday morning we retrieved the thing. It was an old brush type motor (probably older then me) and it ran the wrong way. Took it to the local electrician and got it figured out and running the right way. Got it mounted on the unit about 1 pm. Had to shovel a bunch of manure out of the gutter, and the starting mode in the motor is weak, but it started the load and we didn't break the barn cleaner chain. It's a temporary fix. The motor isn't 100% but it got him going. Next step is to get the sick motor to the electrician and see if it is worth fixing. If not there's another $400-$500 down the tubes. Oh, and as I mentioned below, milk is supposed to take a $2 drop for Oct milk. Yippee-Skippee. Some things never change.

Sounds like me when I already knew I was gonna sell the cows and quit milking. The bulk tank had problems on a holiday to the tune of about $800.

Barn cleaners are great, when they are new . Sadly mine is not new any more. Think we are going to pull it down , and clean out with a skid steer. Should be a bunch of those motors sitting around .

You could be in my shoes, I have three cats that are waiting to go to the doctor. One needs her upper left fang taken out to the tune of about eight hundred and fifty dollars, one need his left eye taken out due to a tumor in it to the tune of around eight hundred and fifty to nine hundred dollars, and just got a new female cat that needs spayed to the tune of about three hundred dollars. Thankfully I am still healthy.

Been there, done that. One week before the cows were scheduled to go, the bulk tank compressor died. Nine hundred bucks down the drain.

Don't mean to sound harsh, but what is the cost of three .22 shells? There is no shortage of cats.

Did I just fall into the twilight zone. last cat i got spayed was sixty dollars.

Ya speaking of cost, sold my bull a month ago and started getting the AI technician here again, man alive I must have some over heated cows or the bull really whispered sweet nothins in there ears cause I have had the technicians here 3 out of 4 weeks. Getting costly, I am looking for a bull again, but the new technician, she sure is pretty Nice thing about AI is though I am sure mixing it up with breeds, between Swiss, Jersey, Guernsey, and Shorthorn. Trying to get a herd that is good for grazing.

Barn cleaners are getting very scarce around here Bruce. Almost everything is free stall barns and parlors. Patz, Berg, Clay and Badger were the big sellers around here in their day. The only one around here anymore is Berg. The Patz dealer died a few years back. He was almost 100. His son was in his 70's and he decided it was time to fold the tent.

Ha! Jeff is his own AI technician.............................and he ain't that purdy................Lol!


He has a jersey bull out with his heifers right now, too.

Ya that is probably in the future, a semen tank cut cost and get what I want, keeping my eye out at sales.

How many years ago was that?

Well, if I was to buy a box from Cabela's right now for four dollars and ninety nine cents without tax, it would cost about thirty cents for three rounds. But, I happen to love cats.

When the animal shelters get too many cats, they run a special. You can get female cats already spayed for a small adoption fee ($20-$30) - sometimes it's even free.