Day of disappointment

Today I got the check and final weight number for my cattle as I didn't get up early Sunday morning for their weighing. The cattle's weight and check amount were less than I expected.

Most every year my cattle gain about 200 lbs over the summer. One year the total was 185 lbs but that was because I had them a few weeks less and it was a very hot and dry summer. This year the average weight gain was 130 pounds. What?! This year has not been hot, I had the cattle longer, the cattle had plenty of grass and access to the hayfield and alfalfa longer than cattle in prior years. The cattle all looked bigger and like they were gaining plenty of weight. It is a mystery. I wonder if the scales used when I bought them and sold them were accurate?

Well, not much I can do about it. The result is that this year I lost money on the cattle. Yup. A first for me. In the past I didn't make much but I always made money on the cattle.

If the cattle gained weight how could one lose money on them? It comes down to the prices were higher in the Spring, the price per pound decreases the heavier cattle are, the dairy buyout this Summer put downward pressure on the cattle market, the drought in parts of the U.S. also put downward pressure on the market, and lastly the economy has people buying less meat which also put a downward pressure on cattle prices.

So... I am disappointed and pretty bummed out.

To add to my day my car needs brake job. The brakes started grinding metal on metal on my drive back from Spokane yesterday. Lots of mountains and winding roads and braking between here and there. I believe the kicker came to be at the stop at the bottom of the long hill near Hot Springs. When I drove my car this afternoon the brakes grind even when stopping at 10 mph. My mechanic is busy and couldn't get to my car until a week from today. But he said if I left my car there he would try to get to it earlier if he has time. So tomorrow I will do so.

Last night the weather forecast was for an overnight low of 32 degrees. So I covered some of my garden. My thermometer had my low as 34 degrees while the official low at the weather station down the road was 30 degrees. I saw no sign of frost this morning nor frost damage to my garden. Deer damage is another story!

Because of the threat of freezing I had brought my paint and herbicides into the house overnight. This morning as I was taking them back outside I dropped the bottle with the herbicide's sticker agent. The cover cracked and came off and I had sticker solution on my porch. It was a major pain to clean up.

Even though I don't have cattle now I still pick up some of my neighbor's apples as I plan to make an apple pie or two. Some of the bad or small apples I toss in my hayfield. This afternoon as I was getting and tossing the apples I didn't notice the wasp. The back of my right hand is now swollen. Odd that one's hand can feel numb and itch like mad at the same time.

Last week I had left a phone message with Wyatt that his sister's "field of Canadian Thistle weeds" were now going to seed and her "field" was quite white. Today Wyatt was out there plowing it under. The problem was the breeze blew all the dust and loose seeds onto my property as he plowed.

Last night, as the cattle are now gone, I had closed the gate between my north pasture and my north neighbor's pasture. He has weeds that have gone to seed. Using my shovel I spent a half hour knocking a good number of them down.

Weeds. Weeds. *argh*

I decided to spray one tank of weeds before getting to painting. I made the mistake of first going around the hayfield. I had sprayed the field several times this year, the past time after the hay was baled. So I expected little in the way of weeds. Nope. The thistle - which I have sprayed multiple times each year - was alive. Usually the thistle does go away after repeated applications. Unfortunately the thistle in my hayfield is in the best and densest part of the hayfield and the thistle's root system there is strong enough to recover and send up new plants.

The new weeds since the last spray job, combined with the scattered and large area, made a job that takes a little over an hour to go through a tank of herbicide last almost two and half hours. By the time I was done spraying it was getting dark and cool.

No painting got done. Tammy is gonna kill me. At least I bought a can of spray paint for my small windmill, a new can of primer, and painter's tape for tomorrow's painting.