Wordless Wednesday -- Snow

The foothills

Pictures from the foothills where we raise our beef cattle.

Finishing Touches

The Storm was rolling in so we all teamed up to get the trim painted

We were so cold our hands could barely hold the paint brushes, but we kept at it working in the dark until it was done.
We are so excited to
 have it finished!!!
It started pouring the next morning
and hasn't stopped since.

Finally some paint

it was hard to draw a line at what boards we replaced and which ones we left. We could have spent a lot more time repairing but had to draw a reasonable line somewhere. After most of the damaged wood was removed we power washed the front of the barn. I like how it almost looks like the shadow is doing the washing. Then finished adding some of the missing trim pieces.





There was a rain storm that set us back for at least a week but after the wood dried back out we got a coat of primer on.


Then we painted a couple of boards to help us decide what color to paint the trim. The barn has always been straight white as far as I know but it was just too much white and needed a little contrast

More photos from repairing the barn

This picture shows a lot of what was in need of repair on the front of the barn.


The metal roof is in very rough shape in spots. It needs to be replaced soon because of the amount of water that makes it through is causing the wood and nails below to deteriorate, especially the floor of the hay loft. The remaining vent on top of the barn needs to be secured before it blows off.


It is over 41 feet from the ground to the ridge. I had avoided working above ground until this point. There are few reasons why I would have ever do anything above about 10 feet.




The siding was replaced with matching boards that were removed from an old caboose many years ago. We are lucky someone stashed them between the floor joist of the old barn until now. They are much smoother than the old weathered wood on the face of the barn.


We replaced the boards the main door rails were attached to and remounted the rails a little higher to keep the door from dragging on the ground. Most of the siding, soffit, and facia are repaired at this point but there is still a lot of work to be done before painting.

Preserving the Old Milk Barn

High Valley - On the Combine

Good song, love the scenery in the video!

Check them out here. You can watch them clean out a bin of canola.

Third Crop Hay

This photo was taken on 09/22/10. As of 09/28/10 we finished baling hay for the year. We had a late start on hay this spring and are still behind. With the days getting shorter and the nights extremely cooler third crop hay can be hard to get dried down to below 20% moisture needed to bale high quality hay. Usually when baling larger bales it is important to keep the moisture below 16% but we purchased a preservative unit a few years ago that sprays a buffered acid on the hay and allows us to bale with more moisture. We purchase at least one 270 gallon tote every year at the ever increasing price of $2300.

Irrigation mainline repair.

We had a major leak that removed a bunch of dirt around the pipe. There were many complications to the repair that resulted in more time, more digging, and more fittings than a normal repair.  

Baling straw

We spent the day baling and hauling straw.  It will be used as bedding for our cattle in the colder months.

Harvest time is finally here.

Barley ready to harvest

While checking where the ground was wet to prevent a stuck combine, I looked up to see a deer watching me.  We don't usually see deer in our fields.

Barley July 27th

Still quite a bit of green out in the field.

Barley July 18th

It's starting to change color getting closer to harvest.

Barley June 20th

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Rob Hull" <hull.milk@gmail.com>
Date: Jul 24, 2010 4:53 PM
Subject: Barley June 20th
To: "go@blogger.com" <go@blogger.com>

First crop hay half way done

Started cutting hay today despite the chance of rain tomorrow. The field we are working on is very heavy, starting to lay down, and has many wet gopher mounds so we hope to get it cut before it gets any worse. The drier the hay gets before it rains the more damage is done so usually a little rain the day after cutting won't hurt too much.


I followed my dad around and cleaned the dirt out of the swather with a scraper every 5-10 minutes for 1-2 hours. Some of the dirt stuck a lot worse than what the picture shows. Luckily it gradually got better as the ground dried and we got away from the outside of the field.

Quality Milk

Superior Quality Milk Award  I was very excited to learn that we have been able to meet the qualifications for 5 consecutive years!! This is a result of many things including, cow health, cow comfort, cow nutrition, cow and equipment cleanliness, good genetics, awesome help, proper milking procedures, quick and proper cooling of milk to 38 degrees, and I am sure there are other things I have overlooked. Even for only 90 cows it requires a team effort to be successful.

Mike Rowe on the challenges faced by farmers

Here is a link to Mike Rowe's blog post where he discusses the need to support agriculture now and in the future. Mike is doing his part to help educate others that well funded special interest groups have gained too much power with their money. And that there is a huge disconnect between the general population and the farmers (2% of the population) that feed our nation and others also.

http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2010/05/the-future-of-farming/

"On Dirty Jobs, I’m no expert, and I’m even less of one here. But I have a theory, and it goes like this – all jobs rely on one of two industries – mining and agriculture. Every tangible thing our society needs is either pulled from the ground, or grown from the ground. Without these fundamental industries there would be no jobs of any kind. There would be no economy. Civilization begins with miners and farmers, and polite society is only possible when skilled workers transform those raw materials into something useful or edible."

Checking The Barley

A couple of pics taken just after the snow melted off the fields. Wish all the of our barley was up like this field!

First official Cub Scout Farm Tour.

We use army helmets to feed our calves with. The boys grabbed the helmets and conquered the straw stack!


"I am not putting my finger in there!"



"I am not putting my finger in there EITHER!"