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*

Pinterest anyone??

I am always the last to know.  About anything.  My mother lives almost 200 miles from me, and she calls me why I haven't told her about so and so and yaddayadda yadda.  I live under a mushroom.  And for the most part I am ok with it.

BUT seriously I just recently discovered Pinterest!  How did I ever survive without Pinterest???  I Heart Pinterest.  I love Pinterest.  Pinterest was invented for people like me.

I guess I should be thankful that finally someone slipped up and told me about Pinterest.    I like how it gathers all those fun little blogs, or crafts or recipes that I tried to keep written down on an good old yellow notepad, in one place.  I mean all that info is right there on my finger tips.  No more yelling at they hubby or kid for stealing my little yellow notepad of off my desk.  No more trying to guess what I had jotted down that is now covered in crayon scribble.

Pinterest.  How did I survive without you??