Western Kansas "Smog"

In western Kansas you don't have much of the big city hassles. One of those hassles would be "smog." We don't have smog, but we have our own version. Due to the drought, our highways out here have been closed down more often from blowing dirt and poor visibility than from bad weather such as snow or ice.

Here are some pictures from the drive home.

 Above: You should be able to see the tall hills past this wheat field...but it's too dusty.

 

Above: I know this might not seem like much to some people, but if you are used to the visibility of western Kansas, than you know that you should be able to see farther than this when you are on top of a high hill.

 

This is what our ditch looks like...yes, they are tumbleweeds.

 

Poor guy just wants some grass to roll around in...which there used to be plenty of in this location.

Deulling...wait...what?

It is a good thing I'm a farmgirl/farm wife. It's the only reason I understood my husband's response through texting today after I asked him what he was up to. His response was "deulling."

After my initial reaction of picturing him having a sword fight with someone, I figured out it probably meant "drilling" and his phone had mixed up letters. And I was right!

So in the interest of letting you know what "drilling" is, here are some photos. Right now we are drilling oats. We "drill" them into the ground with a no-till set of drills. This way we can get the seeds as deep as possible to try to get them into more moisture. And we use no-till because it lets us drill the seeds without having to work the soil and get rid of the ground cover (grass, etc.) on the ground that helps preserve the moisture in the soil.

 

Above: The oats are unloaded from the truck into an auger that will transport them to the drills.

 

Above: My dad directs the oats into different compartments on the drills.

 

Above: Here are some of the compartments in the drills.

We use oats for a variety of ways, but the main use is for feed for our cattle. Sometimes they are ground up into grain, or perhaps they are swathed and then baled. One of my younger cousins usually gets to help us load the square bales because he has a lot of strength and makes quick work of it. But, the oats also come with a drawback...they, and the dust from them, are very itchy. So after throwing bales around all day, you are bound to get some in places you don't want them. As my cousin says, "I have oats in my britches and it really, really, itches."

So...even though I know that planting these oats might result in me lifting hundreds of them by hand in 100 degree weather, it is still something I know is vitally important to the farm. And we still manage to have fun along the way ;-)

 

Do It Yourself Improvements

The good thing about most farmers/ranchers is that they can pretty much figure out how to do anything. We need a separate room in our barn for our saddles because they get covered with dirt when the horses are stomping around in the barn fighting flies in the summer and it doesn't keep the saddles in very good condition. Here are some pictures of the progress.

This is where we keep the saddles currently. You can see they aren't in the best shape. The door has just been added so we now have an entrance to the addition.

 

These are the framed walls for the room from the backside.

And even though farmers/ranchers know how to do a lot of things, it is still never comforting to see the image above while the image below is laying right next to where they are working.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Getting rid of tumbleweeds...western Kansas style.

Spring Break Projects

Every year we try to get a jump on the pile of projects we accumulate through the year. This year is no different.

This shed is getting the roof repaired after years of being torn apart by the western Kansas wind.

Dad and I fixed fence that was torn apart by tumbleweeds. First we burned the weeds and then replaced posts and stretched the wire. I know this picture is mostly of the sky...and that's exactly what I meant for it to be. Love that open sky!

It is really hard to find good help these days. This guy can make himself comfortable pretty much anywhere.

I know it is hard to see, but this made me giggle. It is a calendar in the farm feed truck. You can tell we stay pretty up to date with things. After all, we did manage to actually change one month after putting this in the cab of the truck. In case you can't tell, it is on February....2007. Yikes.

Lessons from baby calves

It amazes me every time I see a calf take its wobbly first steps and then see them running around the very next day. It makes me giggle a little bit, too ;-) Makes you understand that persistence does pay off.

Food for Thought

So, just did a bit more reading about the whole Chipotle issue. I find it somewhat ironic that they hired actors, screen writers and professionals from the film industry to make a satirical "comedy" series about "industrial" agriculture. Each of their episodes cost around $250, 000 to produce. Yikes!

I find it weird that they spend that much money to produce something that they have openly admitted is not really meant to be based on facts. Hmmm....my little video showing the exact conditions on our farm cost $0.

Just some food for thought.

"Factory" farm

In our industry (or in any profession, for that matter) you come to understand that there are always bad seeds. My frustration comes when all of us are grouped in that same category just because we do things a certain way on our farm. The restaurant Chipotle has decided to wage war on any farmer/rancher who chooses to do business in a manner different than what they have deemed "correct." It is really frustrating to watch. So here is my response.

And yes, I realize I left a word out in one of the messages in the video. But by the time I noticed, it was already uploaded and I didn't want to start all over since it takes about 5 hours to upload with our internet. So, please forgive my typo.

You might be a farm kid if....

You use these two items in a school assignment to describe the horrible smell of something: Old silage and buzzard vomit.

True story. Just had a student read her assignment for another class to me and those were two of the things she had in it. She definitely understands her audience and knows that they will be as grossed out as I was when they hear those descriptions ;-)

Kevin Cole from Pacific Coast, USA (en:User:Kevinlcole)

Farmgirl tough

This is why you don't mess with farmgirls ;-) Make sure you watch the video all the way through.

Post by Tracy Shelton Seman.