Renovating a Barn

Several years ago we milked cows under a pipeline system. Let me tell you, while that is much better than hand milking and even what was once referred to as a step-saver system, it is still hard on the body. You have to squat between cows and attach the milkers to the cow's teats. This allowed for the cows to kick you if they wanted to, sometimes right in the head. A series of circumstances, including growing children who did not want to farm caused us to stop milking.

We opted to raise beef and dairy heifers which required bottle feeding powdered milk replacer and training them to eat feed and hay and drink water, just like we did with the dairy cows' calves. We also planted crops for sale.

Now we have decided to renovate that old barn and where was once a calf-raising room into a milking parlor. We had changed to using the milking cow's stalls and abandoned that section of the barn long ago. In the parlor we are building there is a central pit between two rows of cows where four cows can be milked on each side at the same time. More importantly, there is no getting kicked in the head or squatting under a cow. That is better on the knees and the old brain bucket!

In the years of non-use the milk house had been ruined from hard winters of heaving frozen ground that broke the concrete. We later discovered that someone had no only built it without a proper foundation, but on sand! This means the building will be razed, the original foundation broken the rest of the way and hauled away and all new concrete poured and a new building. Fun!

                                          Trying to pull up broken concrete pad outside the milk house.

                                           A large slab moved just to discover another one underneath.

                                                              The building coming down.

                                     It's gone! Now to demo the rest of that concrete and start over.
I rented a jack hammer this weekend. The guys at the rental center laughed asking if I was going to run it. Guess what! Yes, I did, and I broke a lot of concrete. Hopefully, weather permitting, we get the new foundation next week. Wish us luck.

                                                   Our ever present helper supervisor.

Making Assumptions

At work the other day I asked for a scoop shovel. You see, the different work stations generate a lot of saw dust and shavings only it is made of vinyl, not wood. I operate a corner cleaner, or rather, cleaners. I run two at a time, and someone else runs one behind the ones I run, so together we made a lot of saw dust. At the end of the day we clean our work area before the next shift takes over. Unfortunately, the other machinist blows all her dust to my side and then leaves it for me. The welder, which is the process right before the corner cleaners gets some dust because the actual saws which cut their parts leave a lot of the dust on the parts and it falls off when they weld it, so they too have some to add to the mess. Several people on my side work to clean up the dust and shavings from the other side, but my section is the worst with yards several inches deep. You can see why I might want a scoop shovel rather than a large dust pan.

The problem I had was not requesting the shovel, it was the smart Alec comment from one of the hardware guys. He used to work at a saw mill and admittedly knows about working with a scoop shovel all day, and he knows I come from a farm so should not be surprised that I too know how to use one. He actually had the nerve to say I didn't know how hard it was to use a scoop shovel. The shavings and dust from the vinyl isn't actually heavy; there's just a lot of it and it takes a long time so he should have just kept his mouth shut.

I stood there ready to pound him for such a foolish comment, but the welder operator also heard him and jumped on him so I wouldn't have to. He used to work on a farm so he knew what he was talking about. "Never assume that just because she is a woman she doesn't know about hard work or how to work hard with a shovel. She could probably work circles around you!"

I thanked him, but it got me to thinking about just how much I have done with a scoop shovel. This is not exclusive to me of course, farmers, male and female, young and old, know about this dreaded tool, or as my husband calls it, a s--t spoon.

When my eldest son was only three he knew how to use one of these shovels, even though he didn't take a lot at a time, after all, he was three, but he was 'helping mom' empty a one ton pick up truck with high side panels of hog feed. We had to shovel the feed off the truck into the feeders that were taller than the truck, even with the sides on.We sometimes emptied a couple a day to get the feeders filled. After I became pregnant with our second son and got a few months along, I told my husband he was just going to have to pony up the cash and have the feed company bring their truck out to fill the feeders. He drove a truck and wasn't often home to do the job himself or he would have been doing all that shoveling.

We also had an old hay wagon someone had put 8-foot sides on to use with a combine. We planted grain sorghum and combined it into that wagon and my son and I emptied it out by hand into 55 gallon drums, filled them with water to soak the grain and a few days later used it to slop the hogs. They love soured sorghum, by the way.

We unloaded sawdust from a sawmill for the garden and liter from a turkey farm for fertilizer for garden as well.

In Wisconsin, the scoop shovel was used for cleaning behind cows, the aisle and gutter when the clean out chain refused to work, as it sometimes did (and still does), and we had one for cleaning the feed aisle of silage that had gone uneaten in order to feed it to the outside young stock and feed the fresh to the inside milking stock. I have shoveled out hog pens as well. It is all heavy work and takes quite a while, sometimes several hours. We have to clean out silos also, sometimes using a large pitch fork (another invaluable tool) and sometimes that shovel.

All of this is taken care of by all members of a farm family, regardless of age or gender as long as they are physically able. So please, never make the assumption a woman does not know how to work hard or that a child does not know how to work hard or hasn't. If we come from a farm or small family business where labor is involved, we know.

Gardening Time Means Bugs

I love to garden so this is truly my favorite time of year. I really hate it when I go to get my gardening implements and tools are missing. I have been spending my weekends preparing my garden, even enlarging it by quite a bit, to get my veggies in. Yesterday I was going to work the garden before it got too hot and then mow the lawn, which grows as I watch it sometimes (I’d still rather the grass than snow). I ended up having to wait on a telephone call that was to be before noon but didn’t come in until three. Bummer. It was supposed to rain by Saturday night and not stop for a few days. My day was shot. I got my seeds and seed potatoes, tiller and then looked for the hoe that was supposed to be hanging on the wall of our shed next to a garden rake that is the same size. No hoe. After an exhaustive search I gave up. I lost even more time and ended up using the rake to plant. That is not easy either. I got roughly a third of the garden done.

I noticed around five o’clock gnats started swarming and by five thirty I was so overtaken by them I had to quit. I kid you not, I have welts all over my neck, face, ears, even one on one of my vertebrae on the back of my neck. They are swollen like bee stings, itch and feel bruised to the touch. The one on the back of my neck actually created a huge lump that distorted the shape of my neck and the other ones on my neck and face are so concentrated that they have affected the lymph nodes causing painful swelling all the way to my ears.  I’ve gone through about a half tube of the highest percentage hydrocortisone cream I can get and still ended up taking Benadryl last night, which only succeeded in helping me sleep; not stopping the itch.

This morning I made a drawing salve I have generally used for infected mosquito bites (it really works too). It helped the itch within minutes. They are still really red and swollen and painful though. I don’t know what to do with that. Maybe some hydrocortisone with lidocaine or aloe with lidocaine will help with the pain. I’ll have to try that next. See in the picture some of the bites. Just so you know – it’s really hard to take pictures of bites like these by oneself. Trust me; they’re huge.

                                                      Welts from bites of gnats on my neck. 

Recipe for Salve:

In a small cup (I use a 3-oz. bathroom cup) combine 1 tablespoon non-iodized salt and 1 tablespoon petroleum jelly. Mix well with something like a tongue depressor. Place a hot washcloth on affected area (to help bring venom or yucky infected stuff closer to the surface) for about a minute. Spread salve on the wound/bites fairly thick. Do not cover. As the petroleum jelly soaks into the skin the salt will start to fall off, so you will have to clean it off within about a half hour. You will see the salt change colors where the wound is. Infected wounds will turn yellow!

Clean area with a warm damp cloth. If treating an infected bite, apply an antibiotic ointment and cover with a bandage. If it is just an itchy bite, don’t cover it. Re-apply if the itching starts up again. Mine has lasted several hours so far keeping the itch at bay. The one on the back of my neck looked like a huge lump and has gone down to normal. 

Homemade Corned Beef (A recipe and directions)

Corned Beef

When we got our last steer butchered my husband asked, as usual, what I wanted done with it. Since he used to be a butcher I usually just tell him to decide. Then he gets the brisket ground into hamburger because he doesn't like the brisket. In the store that is usually the cheaper cut and is not tender like the rest of the cuts, which is why it usually goes into hamburger or corned beef. Ever buy corned beef? I love corned beef; him, not so much. Too bad this time. I told him I wanted the brisket saved. It came in two very large slabs, so I had to cut them into smaller, more manageable pieces. I finally had the time to make it this past weekend so I went to work and thawed them out, and wouldn’t you know it, when he got a look at the smaller slabs, he decided he wanted to make bacon out of a couple of them. He said if it was raining, he’d smoke it and if not he’d be planting corn or plowing fields. It isn’t raining and I do not mess with his smoker. At any rate, after he tasted my corned beef, even he had to admit it wasn’t bad. Below is my process and recipe for corned beef.

Cut brisket into small slabs if they are cut very large. Otherwise they won’t fit into any freezer bags for marinating and I don’t have a pan or a large enough oven for them full sized.

You Will Need:

Gallon Sized Zip-Type Freezer Bags

Morton Tender Quick (gives the meat its red color and salty taste- also used to make bacon and ham)

Cooking Oil or Light Olive Oil

Water

Vinegar (Cider is best but white works just fine too)

Pickling Spice

Whole Dried Cayenne Pepper or Crushed Red Pepper (hot)

Whole Pepper Corns

Whole Bay Leaves

Whole Mustard Seed

Onion Slices

Course Canning Salt or Non-Iodized Salt

Directions:

 Rub each slab of brisket with 1/3 cup of the Tender Quick on all sides and ends/edges. Place one slab of brisket (two if they are really small) into each gallon sized zip-type freezer bag. Place one whole dried cayenne pepper or 1 teaspoon of the crushed pepper, 1 whole bay leaf, 1 teaspoon each of whole pepper corns and whole mustard seed and 1 tablespoon of the pickling spice and several large slices of onion to each bag. Add ¼ cup oil, 1 cup vinegar and 2 cups water and getting as much air as possible out of the bag, zip it shut so that nothing can leak out. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, drain the bags and remove the slabs of meat – do not rinse the slabs- and place them into a large roasting pan along with the onion slices. Pour in just enough water to barely cover the meat (it makes its own juice as it cooks). Add 1/8 cup canning salt or non-iodized salt, cover the pan and bake at 325° F. oven for about five hours. Remove from oven and drain well. Place the cooked meat (without the onions) into a smaller pan and cover with foil, sealing well, and cool in refrigerator several hours or overnight until well cooled. Any remaining broth will congeal. Place each cooled slab (getting as much of the congealed broth as possible off the meat) into vacuum seal bags and seal. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, then use regular freezer bags but remove as much air as possible. Freeze until ready to use or keep some in the fridge for immediate eating.

                                                        Cooked and ready to cool down

                                                       Vacuum sealed for the freezer

Please be aware that corned beef is traditionally high is sodium. You can reduce it in the cooking time if you wish, but it won’t taste quite the same.

For corned beef like you find in a can, run some of the corned beef through a food processor and freeze or refrigerate until set in a well packed freezer bowl. Just dip the bowl in some hot water and it should slide right out of the container. If frozen, thaw in refrigerator before slicing. 

Deciding to Keep the Smaller Tractor

I did some serious thinking about that tractor that tried to turn over with me. It occurred to me that it is actually mine, as in no payments, and I have quite a few implements that will not fit on anything else that is bigger (bucket, plow, disc harrow, brush cutter –commonly known by the name brand Brush Hog, a lot like a tissue is called a Kleenex- and a sprayer). The sprayer is actually made for a 4-wheeler (which we do not have) but we attached it to a pallet and stick on the rear hay forks (another implement along with the bale spear for the front). We hook the sprayer to the battery and spray away the weeds and grass from the fence rows. Bigger tractors won’t clear the stumps or trees that are next to the fence in places. I suppose I’ll have to keep it and bale smaller bales. Hopefully we won’t have to deal with the knee deep mud again, but this is Wisconsin and mud is a part of the farm, especially in the rainy season.  

                                      Lots of uses for my little tractor - guess I'll keep it after all.

I decided to make my garden bigger this year to accommodate planting potatoes since I used part of it for asparagus last year and you don’t plow that up if you want to keep it growing. I needed that disc. After several trips lengthwise, I went the short way (that was fun dodging trees at the ends of the rows!) several more times just to break it up and then this weekend (a week later) I used the tiller on it. I have a Craftsman rear-tined tiller that has worked without fail for more than ten years. I love it. It will, however, work you half to death if your garden is very large, like mine is. Most people use the implements I have for deer forage plots- nothing like attracting the deer so all you have to do is sit and wait during hunting season. I don’t do that, by the way; they go after our corn and soybeans planted either for cash crops or to feed the cows so I don’t need forage plots. I could get a garden type tiller made to fit that tractor, but once the plants are up, the tractor won’t be able to go down the rows anyway.

I do have future plans for this equipment, and that includes the eventual purchasing of a tiller for it and a planter. This is way off of course, but when we lived in Florida we had what is called a truck crop farming operation. That is when you grow an acre or so of different vegetables and sell them either at farmers markets or vegetable auctions (we sold to an auction when we were in Florida). Some of our bell peppers and butternut squash and yellow squash went to grocery stores all over the country. We sold zipper peas (a variety of field peas) locally by the bushel basket. My only problem with this plan of course is that all of our land is currently allocated either to pasture or feed crops/cash crops for the animals. Hmmm, I’m going to have some figuring to do!

Safety Equipment on Tractors can Save Lives

Are you in the habit of ignoring the safety devices installed on your farm equipment. They are there for a reason, just as are the warning signs about not sticking your hands into moving parts. We have a small Case IH DX 40 tractor. I love this tractor in that it has a hydrostatic transmission so I don't have to change gears and mess with a clutch. Yeah, I'm THAT kind of tractor driver. It has a loader on it that makes it easy to use a bucket to clean snow in the winter (even without a cab- brrr) and scrape manure out of pens and load the spreader, it also has a bale spear attachment for the front and a set of hay forks for the back, it is small and light compared to other tractors and gets into small places. Handy it is; safe for heavy work- not so much. We use it to haul round bales out of the fields in the summer, which it does fairly well because it is counterbalanced with a bale on the back. What I have found is that when it comes time to actually feeding those bales, one tends to only have a bale on the front and it bounces with the weight. Why do I bring this up in an article about safety equipment? Here's why. This tractor has a roll bar that can be folded down for getting into low places, such as our heifer shed, which my husband does, only he has a habit of not putting it back up and he also won't wear the seat belt. "If it tips, I want to be able to get out the way." Well, chances are high that if it tips and you jump, you will be caught in the rollover and squashed; not thrown out of the way. That roll over bar was installed to keep the tractor from landing on the driver and the belt to keep them in place.

The other day it snowed a great deal and with the spring thaw in progress it made it hard to find the soft spots in the cow yard. I wasn't able to drive to work (the roads were treacherous) so I stayed home. My husband asked it I would feed the cows but warned me 'it likes to tip a little, so be careful'. Holy mud pies! Was that an understatement. I dutifully changed out the bucket for the bale spear and commenced to pick up the hay bale he had it stuck into thinking that was the first bale he wanted fed. Then I noticed the rollover bar was down. I shook my head and put it back into place and then hooked the seat belt again. (I always use the seat belt). The first thing that happened was that as I backed out of the shed it tried to tip - a few times-  before I found some way to back out that it didn't. Thank goodness for the seat belt. It would have tossed me right off into the steering wheel. Then I got the gates open and went in to feed the cows. Since I couldn't see where the solid places were I fell right into the softest place by the gate and the front tire sank to the hub. The rest of the tractor tipped precariously. Why yes, my heart like to have pounded right out of my chest. I immediately put the bale down to put the tractor back on at least three wheels because at that point it was only on two, both on the same side and one of those was buried in mud. Again, the seat belt kept me from being thrown off and it wouldn't have been into the steering wheel; it would have been right where the tractor was going to roll. After several tries and more scary moments, I knew I was not going to get that tractor righted. I held onto the high side of the tractor and unhooked the seat belt and jumped off that side hoping it wouldn't roll and take me with it. I was sure if I went off the low side it would. I got a look at it once I was on the ground (mud) and that back tire was a good four feet off the ground. I had to tell the cows to stop eating my anchor, but I guess it kept them in the pen while I went to the house to call my nephew for help. He drove up in a vehicle and I told him I thought he'd bring a tractor and he said he probably should have once he got a look at the situation. He climbed on and did some maneuvering (apparently having done it before himself) and got it put back right, but it tipped several times with him too. I declined to deliver another bale. My husband said I got the heaviest bale in the barn.

Now, had that tractor rolled, that seat belt would have held me in place so as not to be in the path of the rollover and that roll bar would have kept it from smashing on top of me.

Farmers, in spite of old jokes to the contrary, are not dumb; they just do things like everyone else when they see a problem. Case in point: Several years ago a relative was trying to figure out why his forage chopper was not cutting properly. The only way to do this was to lift the cover and actually watch the blades spinning. "Oh, that's the problem!" he said and without thinking reached for it. He lost several fingers. Most farmers after such an incident will say "*&$#! That hurt!" Followed by, "Well, that was stupid." There are guards and covers with warnings for a reason. The graphics may look funny, but if one pays attention to the actual gruesomeness they portray, they would realize just how serious they are. Keep covers in good shape on things such as cutting bars and PTO shafts. An arm or leg caught in a PTO shaft can result in one severing an artery and bleeding to death; and not just mangling the limb. If your shirt gets caught in a shaft that is spinning; getting to a shut off switch is impossible and it will pull you into it.

The bottom line is seat belts, rollover bars, and guards save lives. Use them and maintain them.

My next assignment, find a bigger tractor and trade off my little one!

Want to Save Some Money? Have I got a Few Websites for You!

Many of us want to be able to live frugally and be self-sustaining rather than depending on the store for everything we use. I know to most people that is a foreign concept - I've heard horror stories of people going to a school to chat with students about where their food comes from and they will argue with the presenter that it comes from the store; not the farm. How ridiculous is that? One of my 'things' is being able to make as much as I can for myself, but I am not all-knowing, so I rely on websites of those who know what they are talking about for a little assistance. Here are a few that can help you out too.

Budget101.com
Actually, Liss Burnell, Budget 101's founder used to live in the same town I do and I got to know her. She helped me get my website moved to a different host company. She's way more tech-savvy than I am. She is also very good at budgeting and making things one would think they could only BUY at a store. I have been looking for a way to make laundry detergent, for instance, and low and behold she posted one on her website, and it uses an ingredient I already keep on hand- Fels Naptha. Another recipe I have used over the years is for that coffee creamer we like to get in the store. Now, I must admit it is less expensive to buy this, but if you run out and are not able to get to that store (I live a long way from the store) this recipe uses ingredients already on hand, at least at my house, and it works well in a pinch.

Liss has recipes for all sorts of products we usually buy from household cleaning products to quick mixes for dinner and everything in between. She has great homemade gift ideas too. You just have to check out her website to see what all you can find as they are too many to list here. http://www.budget101.com 

There is a Facebook page called Homemade Living Frugally. People can ask questions and Suzanne will do her best to get them an answer from other readers. She also has in lieu of a website (or as a website) a forum board, http://homemadeliving.freeforums.net/ where you can ask questions and find answers, or give the answers if you have them to others' questions. Great concept!

There are a number of blogs out there too if you want to cook really great food or for farming (small and large) that I like to visit. 
http://sweetteaandcornbread.blogspot.com,
http://jimmycrackedcorn.wordpress.com,
 http://adventuresinthegoodland.blogspot.com

Of course, you can use a search engine for frugal living sites on your own and find a plethora of ideas. That is how I usually find them.Some ideas I get from actually talking to people who have done it so don't be afraid to go up to that farmer and ask them how they get that particular plant to grow so well or where they came up with the idea for something. I recently subscribed to Farm Show Magazine. It has ideas on how to make things (or remake things) useful for farmers that either are not available in the stores or may be too expensive to buy. Some people just look at and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" I do.

You can also find a number of books and e-books on the subjects you seek. They can be found at retailers such as Amazon.com ( I have a handy page you can use too!).

*No one in this article has asked me to recommend their websites or blogs. I was not paid for any recommendations either. For Amazon.com, if you use my link I make a small amount of money, but it does not cost you anymore and they do not tell me who bought anything (or what they bought) or who may have used my link.