its been a long winter. pics from today

It seems like the longest winter in memory. We had snow that stayed on the ground and we had to deal with for months, the worst ice storm in memory, the coldest weather in 20 years, a power outage when it was 12 below zero one night after it had been off for 36 hours earlier in the week and now a snow storm at the end of march. We had 6 inches of snow last night according to the weather service and what a mess. Some places the ground was nearly bare others the snow was really piled up. It started raining noon on saturday and then turned to snow and that tapered off about daylight. So this morning we had wet sloppy snow drifts on top of mud.

The first thing was to clean out the dog kennels. This is the most snow I have ever seen in them. The wind must have been very strong and out of a unusual direction last night. It was a good thing I had help or I would have been a hour scooping around the kennels and in the shed. The snow was very very heavy and wanted to stick to the shovel. It was like scooping wet sand.


After everything was squared away at home wrigley and I went to the Higgs farm. I waited till later to go than normal but there was still no sign of the snow plows. No problems getting there really. There was one set of tracks on the road and it looked like they didnt have 4 wheel drive and they had some problems. First thing I open the door and look into the cow lot and of course bunks full of snow.


So after I scoop that out I open the door and look into the lot with the calves and you guessed it. More snow in the feed bunks. The bad part was if you walked off of the concrete you werent only standing in knee deep snow but you were in 6 inches of mud under that.


I think these guys are tired of winter too.


I took this picture one day last week doing morning chores. It was warm the grass was greening up and the ground was drying out finally.


Things looked a little different this morning.


With both snowblowers unhooked and the tractors that run them set up to do other jobs I had to use plan b to move snow. I sure did miss a nice warm cab.


The snow didnt help my little field of unharvested corn any either.


By dark this evening most of the snow was gone. It warmed up into the lower 40's and actually the snow was melting first thing this morning. When the sun came out it really sped it up this afternoon. The ditches are full and the creeks are out of there banks again. I hope this is winters last effort to hang around because I think we all are ready for spring!
bill

Good pictures,,, but I like the picture of
"One last week" taken. My kind of weather!
You could build you a little roor over them feed bunks. Might help some... lol have a nice day are whats left of it.

Yep had the same here this morning and all winter long in here in Iowa.

Why did you not harvest that corn earlier?

Gary

Looks like that corn done went and forgot to call the combine at 1-800-pick-corn.

Now that is a long story. In the corner of one farm there is field we try to do it just like the old days. Spring plow, plant in 40 inch rows, cultivate, pick on the ear, put it in the crib and grind it for cow feed. Here are a couple pics.











So what happened was last spring with the wet weather was that we didnt have time to do anything with this field untill the rest of the crops were in, which in turn delayed the planting date to late june. I really wasnt concerned. We harvest this corn with the ear pickers so if it is still 20 percent moisture at thanksgiving that is fine with me. Unfortunately we got a good killing frost about a week before the corn was mature. I checked and checked the moisture and in january it was still near 30 percent moisture. Since then we have had horrible conditions and havent been able to attempt any harvesting. Two weeks ago today we had a wind storm after we had about 4 inches of rain and as you can see it really leaned the corn over. Just pulled the roots loose from the soggy soil.



A week ago last saturday I took the 55 combine and started to open the field up. It was muddy to start with and the next morning it rained again and we havent had a chance to do anything since. The corn is now dry but it is lodged so bad I dont know if the ear picker will work. If it ever dries up a little we will find out. So that is why I still have about 12 acres of corn to harvest.
We are usually one of the first to start and first to finish picking corn in the fall and the neighbors sure have been giving me a hard time about this mess. We all have a good laugh.
bill

Love your pictures. Keep them coming.

I really enjoy seeing your pictures. I used to farm 3 miles east of Abingdon, till 1986, lost everything when interest rates jumped to 20%.Thanks again for all the pictures. Loren W.