The weather forecast had snow starting at noon, and sure enough it did. I thought the forecast was for 1 to 2 inches of snow during the day, then at night when the wind picked up we would get another 2 to 4 inches. We got more than 2 inches by sundown. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 4 inches of snow already. It sounds like the wind is picking up speed now.
In the morning I tried to get things out away before the snow fell. I parked the stock trailer. No chance to clean it out until next week, whenever the temperature get back above freezing.
Since the snow started falling slowly I rode a few miles on my bicycle. In the beginning of the 13 mile ride the snow melted when it reached the roadway. By the end of the ride the snow was starting to stick on the road. I had ice on my bicycle that I chipped off when I got home.
Late afternoon I saw that vehicles on the road were slowing down near my driveway. I looked out the window and saw a car in the ditch near my NE pasture fence. By the time I reached the car the neighbor and his son driving his pickup were pulling the car out of the ditch. A short straight section of road, but if you aren't driving smartly, one can slip off a slippery road. The ditch is deep so the car came to a stop against the other side of the ditch, and did not reach my fence.
With all this snow this week I have had to put out a bale of hay for the cattle for the times when the snow covered the grass. Because the cattle like to over eat, the first evening I filled the pickup box with hay to last the night. The hay was the oat hay from Donna's field. The oat hay was very dry and getting to the edge of being more straw than hay. The cattle weren't too pleased with the oat hay. They complained and would work extra hard to eat some grass on the ground. The oat hay lasted a day, not a half day like normally.
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| From when I put some oat hay into the pickup. |
When I got back from the livestock auction Wednesday night I put the rest of the bale out into a metal feeder in the north pasture. No worries about the cattle over eating the oat hay.
Today I got the wooden feeder ready in the corral. I had plans to work the area where the feeder sits so that come Spring when the ground gets muddy and soft the feeder won't sink a bit. Well, with our early Winter and snow, that didn't happen. So I moved the feeder back to its location and put the floor back in it. Before dark I put a couple small hay bales in this feeder and the barn wooden feeder, and let the cattle into the corral. When the wind picks up tonight the cattle can stay in the loafing shed out of the wind and snow.
Earlier I had cleaned the loafing shed, and the shed where the calves sleep, of manure. I thought there would be more oat hay left and planned on putting some of it in the calves area for dry bedding. But I found most of the oat hay had been eaten. The cattle had picked up on eating that hay today. I could only put a couple of pitchforks of the oat hay in the calves' area. Tomorrow I'll have to put out another bale of hay for the cows.
Today I got the newsletter from the livestock auction. They usually list the cattle sold, leaving out the ones that sold at lower prices. Usually all, or all but a few, of my cattle make the list. This year I had only one small heifer make the list. And the prices on the list were less than last week, which are already less than the prices from last year. It doesn't look good for what prices my cattle sold for this Fall. I'll find out when I receive my check.
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