I think we now have spring! It鈥檚 hard to tell. Sometimes the Big Guy sends some cold wet weather and then he relents and nice weather appears. I have waited all winter for spring and I am glad it鈥檚 here.
As far as the weather goes, some fields are almost dry enough to seed. Let me tell you a secret. We will not get to seed before having the fifth crow snow. I am sure Da Devil will wait until the fellows have their seed all loaded up in trucks and in the field and then will come the dirty. It is going to rain. It is going to snow. Everybody will be stopped. That is the way it will work. If nothing comes there will be a dirty drought. And that is what I know of it. Keep your powder dry guys, don鈥檛 get impatient.
On the home front, son Ron has about half his cows calved out and it is the same with everybody鈥檚 herd. The first half of the herd come quick and on time. The last half is ho hum, do dah. They will calve on their time, not yours.
Son-in-law Roland has about half his calf crop also. He had a set of twin bull calves. Double, trouble. The cow wanted only one calf. He was tube feeding the rejected one. He went out one morning and the calf was dead. He thinks the cow may have laid on it. There is a saying amongst farmers, 鈥淚f you have livestock, no matter how you try, at some point you will have dead stock.鈥�
Just to make sure Roland wasn鈥檛 short of troubles his herd had two more sets of twins. Same thing again, cows wanted only one. Roland thought he would be smarter this time so he bought a Holstein nurse cow. The nurse cow was not impressed with the arrangements and did not want anything to do with those little teat suckers. Now the arrangement is he puts a pail of grain on the ground and while the Holstein nurse cow is eating the grain, the two little guys sneak in and suck. Not the ideal situation,but Roland says the little guys are doing well. Bonus!
On the positive side, Roland has had a great production sale with the high selling female at $12,500. I sent my wife to buy a heifer or two. I was still in the hospital at the time, but I sent my wife to the sale with instructions of how much to bid. She came home empty handed, skunked, nothing, zippo. We didn鈥檛 buy any, but we are happy for Roland and his family for the great sale he had.
Son-in-law Jose is jumping at the bit to get seeding. To describe the situation he is like a dog on a chain pegged to the middle of the yard waiting to get loose. He can go round and round but can鈥檛 get anywhere. One day he went out and good, gosh, golly, decided to change all of the seeder points on the airseeder. They probably didn鈥檛 need changing, but he changed them anyway! Patience, patience Jose, you like everyone else will get on the land as soon as it is dry.
On a personal note I spent ten days in St. Paul Hospital with lung infection. I had blood tests every day. My old buddy the intravenous line and pole had to go with me everywhere. I had the tube up my privates and I had my butt washed by a nurse. I suffered a few indignities, but I managed to get over all of them. One learns quickly there is no modesty in a hospital. I am glad to be out of lock up. Thank you to all the people who phoned, sent cards and came to visit. I will conclude that I owe my life to Monique Parker, as she saved me once again. I would also like to thank my family for compiling the View last week. I doled out the job to the ones that came to visit on the Wednesday. I think they did an awesome job.
Joke of the week: A salesman came to the door and he was invited in. Little Suzie, three, who was a cute-as-a-button blondie came to see him. She grabbed onto his leg. She said, 鈥淚 got a new bicycle.鈥� The salesman said, 鈥淭hat is nice.鈥� Suzie said, 鈥淒o you want to see it?鈥� The salesman agreed and Suzie led him through the house and to the back yard. There they found the brand new shiny red bicycle just Suzie鈥檚 size. The salesman said, 鈥淭hat is a very nice bicycle, do you ride it a lot?鈥� Suzie put her hands on her hips and a pout on her face and said, 鈥淣o!鈥� The salesman said, 鈥淲hy not?鈥� Suzie in her pouty voice replied, 鈥淚t鈥檚 broken.鈥� The salesman said, 鈥淚t looks brand new, what can be broken?鈥� Suzie said, 鈥淓very time I go to ride it, the thing tips over!鈥�
