Yahoooo!!

Camera and computer are back 'talking' to each other.  Computer is working.  And whatever problems I have been having with my internet connection has been resolved!

I am back.

Time to play catch up!!

Oops

As you may or may not have noticed, Farming Friday post is late.  Due to camera being uncooperative.  Hope to have it up soon.  Thanks!

Hello

It's Thursday night, and I am partaking in The Rockin' Rural Women Twitter Chat tonight.  Though I have followed Rockin' Rural Women on Facebook and Twitter for  awhile this is only the second chat I have participated in.  I do believe I will keep with it.  It's fun, and in a way it's like a night out with the girls for some conversation and good times without leaving home.

Tomorrow is Farming Friday.  I hope to have pictures of our new (to us) combine.  Or maybe some other pictures.  *Oh the suspense!*

Checking on the Horses

We caught a glimpse of the horses the other day and headed on over to the corral to give a look over and a scratch on the head.  All of our horses, besides ol' Fred, are kicked out to pasture during the winter to take care of themselves.  If the snow is deep, or weather is bad we will take pity and go roll out a bale of hay for them.  They do have to come all the way into the corrals at home to water which makes it easy to keep tabs on them.  

TC is all smiles as Fred says hello.

It was a nice day right after the first of the year, and T had been out enjoying a ride on Fred.  We had TC in the stroller just messing around in the yard when the herd came in. TC was all laughs as the horses were being curious and sticking their noses into her stroller checking her out.  I ran back into the house to snap a few pics of the girls with their dad and our horse herd.

Preacher was very interested in the stroller and TC.

Preacher is kind of a camera hog/poser!  

Just a little bit closer.

Dusty, my good ol horse who is in retirement.  Man I love that horse.

Squirt and 6pack (brother and sister) were quite curious of the stroller also!

Fort Peck 2011

*This is another post I found in my draft folder from May 2011 that did not publish*

This winter and spring have been crazy with moisture.  We had record snowfall, and there was snow on the ground for 9 straight months!! And now this spring it's raining.  And raining.  Between the record snowfall and amazing amount of rain we are experiencing a quite a bit of flooding on the Missouri River.

A good portion of our farm ground is on the river bottom.  A good portion of that is flooded, totally underwater.  A neighbor pivot is close to falling into the river.  The river is cutting new channels through our fields.  The Big Missouri has no friends right now.  

Alone the Missouri would have been out of its banks this spring.  That we could have handled.  But we live down stream from Fort Peck Dam.  And they have the spillway opened wide letting water out of the dam to keep from flooding there. It's kind of a bad situation.  

One day last week we took a little road trip to check out the river and see for ourselves how crazy Fort Peck Dam was.  

On our way to Fort Peck, we had to stop and take a picture at the Flowing Wells sign.  This is where my dad grew up.

A view of the water coming out of the gates.

Looking down onto the gates.  The noise was incredible!

The water hitting the Missouri River.  You could just feel the force

Grandma and Daddy with the girls checking out the water. 

Looking straight down to the gates.

Water coming out of the gates and into the channel.  

Random Fact #3

There are three grades of meat that are sold to restaurants and to retail customers.

Can You Name Them?

Farming Friday

One of my goals for 2011 and for this little old blog is to be a better blogger.  With that in mind, I now dub Fridays as 'Farming Fridays', meaning on Fridays I will be blogging and sharing anything to do with our farming operation, farming follies, and anything to do with farming in general.  So, that be decided, I am going to get started!

The first step is to defoliate the beets.  

Defoliating means to chop the tops off of the beets.

 I am a rookie when it comes to everything sugar beet but I am slowly learning the process, procedure and everything else there that goes along with beets.  I grew up knowing about beet harvesting and all it entails because of where my mother grew up and where all my family lived (which is where I live now) was a big deal. This past fall marks the second year we have grown and harvested sugar beets on our operation. 2 years ago we made the initial decision to give beets a try, and partnered with a neighbor to share equipment and work together.  Things went pretty well, so we jumped in feet first for another year.

Digging Beets on the river bottom.

To fill the trucks, they drive along side the digger in the field.

The 2011 beet harvest went well, except for the fact it was delayed by about 8 days due to rain and weather.  Unlike combining corn or wheat, harvesting beets is very dependent on the weather temperature.  The sugar beet factory  will only accept beets during a certain period of time, and will only open the beets dumps when special criteria is met.  If it's too hot out, no harvesting.  If it's too cold, no harvesting.  Rain makes for delays also.  The sugar beet is a pretty picky plant and all these factors along with ground temperature play a big part in the beet 'setting' its sugar.  The days of beet harvest can be quite stressful on everyone if Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, but we made it through and have decided to give beets another try in 2012.

Waiting on a semi to fill.

We have had two diggers running at once.

Its quite the musical of semis, tractors, diggers and defoliators. 

Random Fact #2

'I Heart Beef' Month Random Fact #2

*In this month of romance, beef is the preferred choice of Americans (62 percent) because nothing says love like a great steak dinner for Valentine’s Day.  *courtesy of beefboard.org*

No Need For Coveralls

Is it really February out there?  Because I know for a fact that T was outside splashing in mud puddles and playing in the mud.  In February, in Montana!  It's crazy.

This years heifers, taking a month ago.  No Snow.  Just Dirt.

I can honestly say I haven't even pulled on the ol' Carhartt coveralls at all this winter.  Or last fall.  The only other winter that I can remember not wearing any coveralls by this time of year was last year.  And I that was because I was really pregnant and there was noway I was going to fit my coveralls.

After last years harsh cold winter, with its record breaking snowfall, this mild winter is nice.  But maybe a little too nice.  We need moisture.  Bad.  We got dust flying everywhere.  It would be nice to have a little snowfall to settle the dust out there and clean things up.

Out helping do chores.

February

February equals Valentines Day.  Check.

But did you know that February also is 'I Heart Beef' Month also?

So in honor of 'I Heart Beef' month I think I will throw out random facts about Beef through out the month of February.  I am a proud Beef Raiser, and do what I can to promote Beef.  And what better place to do a little promoting than in my own blog!

So here's our first random fact of the month:

*Americans associate steak as a “best match” for love (44 percent), romance (42 percent) and passion (41 percent)—more so than other high-end proteins. *courtesy of beefboard.org*