June has arrived and I still have most of May’s jobs to do. Sure, hope this means we will get extra time this fall. Though I had a bit of rain both Saturday and Sunday – it really has started to dry up. I am certainly hoping we don’t get what they are predicting for the rest of this week. We are in greater need of sunshine and a light breeze (not wind gusts.)
Today Tori and I were able to get some canola planted. I kept thinking about it being about one month later than it should be – one month is a lot. The planting was quick, but it was all individual fertilizer amounts, so it took some time to spread out that on after planting. After the fertilizer was on, I then had some backpack spraying with a product that is expected to increase yields. A farmer would cover a lot more ground that we do in a day!
I made it back from my quick trip to Alberta. I flew into Calgary, but our meeting was in Lethbridge. The first day we had a great tour of the Lethbridge Ag Canada Research Station. They have both cattle and forages. Their facilities needed some updating but they had some young, very enthusiastic researchers. The wind was blowing so hard and loud that it was difficult to stand in one spot never mind hear! In that area that had some spring rains and the ranchers I was with were happy with the moisture. Some were telling me that this is the first time they have cut lawn in three years. A couple of them told me that they had to buy a lawnmower because they sold what they had because they hadn’t used it for such a long time. I wanted to complain about our moisture but decided I better not.
Going away is always hard I find but coming back is harder. It takes be so long to get back on track and with this late spring I am not seeing the catch up anytime soon. I need a night to get the small animals vaccinated before sheep shearing on Saturday. I will get one group of cattle out on pasture Friday or Saturday and once the sheep are sheared, we will wean our bottle lambs and get all those small animals on grass. I will keep a couple groups of calves on hay until the bulls are pulled but this will still mean less chores and feeding. I don’t have my flowers all planted, nor my pumpkin patch and I am so disappointed with my garlic as my cats have been in there. I am thinking I may need to put up some small electric fence to deter them. I have a list of painting and my deck needs to be stained. I have my two new ducklings still living in the house, but I am thinking as they splash water up the wall and have shavings all over the floor they may need to move outside soon as well.
Wishing everyone a great June! Hope we get some summer weather this month.
