One of those days. ?ÿHoly Cow how in the world do you do cattle crops and survey. I am a small operator and have a small registered herd of beef cattle i have been building and selecting a specific type for. I do small bales square bales. Then i am back surveying full time vs part time. ?ÿI can??t keep fences up i have a area where i am putting in a complete new paddock. I can??t get that done. I would not give any of it up. Especially the farming. Nothing in this world is better than watching your children grow and the whole family working together. I pride myself in getting things done but this summer has humbled me so much. Back went out. Then covid. As you know the farm and care for animals and crops doesn??t stop. Its so hot and HUMID i have to cut my way through the air. As i set here under the shade tree after bush hogging i was thinking how in the world do you do what you do. You need to write a book. I will buy the first copy. Now off to move chickens and then run that nasty weed whacker around the fences. My biggest issue is logistics. All my lease land is scattered about so cows on one side of county hay fields and such on another. Time to buy a big chunk of land and build on it I think. ?ÿ
Any others out there working multiple jobs or farming as well as surveying.?ÿ
Jack of all trades, master of only one. Enjoy doing what I do or I would not do it. The days of spending multiple nights each week attending the kid's activity are long behind me and the grandkids aren't close enough to attend things regularly. The main thing is to keep busy throughout your life. It's not about being able to have the most expensive funeral. It's about doing what you enjoy for as long as possible.
Earlier today I was chatting at the grocery store with the clerk who had no one else to check out at the time. He just graduated high school and intends to attend the local community college for a couple of years. Besides offering him encouragement to find out what his life's work goal should be, I explained a bit to him about the various choices that we make in life based on what is going on in our personal lives at the moment. Make one decision, this might happen. Make a different decision, a completely different life may be the result. Good or bad, who knows, until it is too late. I proveded an example of such a moment in my own life where taking the other fork in the road might have produced $4 million in higher income over the past 48 years. But, I went on to explain that everything else in my life would have been different and I might be dead by now. I might have had one child or I might have had a dozen with six different women. Etc., etc.
@holy-cow So true. Oh but today was one that just gut punched me. However after a hard day then cranking up the smoker watching the kids play in the dirt and family just hanging out makes it all worth while. I always tell people making money is actually easy. Saving it is the hard part. Do what you love and most things work out. It has taken me years to learn that. Now i am trying to get the balance of darm and surveying working. Of course i have 2 still at home so i am doing all that running around to camps and activities. But i would not change anything for no amount of money. The last 6 months have been busy and trying to juggle all this has me making some of those choices we gave up several small fields totaling about 150 acres of hay. We are keeping some others even the wife said she wanted to do some just so the girls can help. We were discussing and she said she actually loved watching them galloping through the fields as well. Me I could listen to that rhythm of a square baler all day. I can remember hearing and listening to it as a kid riding on my grandpa’s lap. He had a old ford 5000. I reckon i will get reorganized and find that balance again. I been looking for a few years now trying to find a JD 41 flex i need to make a good 4 row planter for sweet corn and peas lol. Everyone i find has been so rusted out it would not work. Have a good one. And hope the rain hits those beans. Just right.
Turn off the AC at home.
@holy-cow we run fans a lot. Old box fans and such. Yes ac and working outside do not mix well. I been down with sinus and such so the humidity doesn’t help. I never had a issue with humidity until i moved to colorado and worked a year and a half without returning to MS right outside of Memphis TN. My mom was injured and i flew home. I remember getting off the plane on the tarmac and feeling that humidity in august. When you are use to it not a big deal you don’t know anything else. I left Djibouti Africa and we had 130 degree days i saw birds literally fall out of the sky. I drank water all day and froze all night. Here we usually have milder weather in my opinion but this weekend has been tough. I have turned into a big wimp. All those years working in a room made me soft. Even the dog doesn’t want to go outside lol. He ran around on the farm and it took him about 10 minutes before we found him sitting in the pond.
Once I get through this whole licensing thing I been eyeing some breed-stock throughout kansas I want to bring into my herd. South east area and north west area and south west. Maybe i will be able to meet you one day. I am hoping i will have more acreage by then. A breeder out there I really want some of his genetics. A lot have had issues as you probably understand bringing those genetics east but I will try and get them much younger and hope to get them adapted before breeding. I have some New Zealand and Australian genetics so far and just keep playing around with different combinations. I need to get some show bloodlines in because the girls are wanting to do that. So far I have concentrated on genetics that work not show. Have a good one. Happy Farming. I imagine you could teach me farming and surveying for sure.
I agree. The man (Holy Cow) is a legend!!
It's the lead.
@jitterboogie How are you coming along? Still studying and preparing. Whereabouts are you working these days?
Here's the guy you want.
The video in the upper left shows the owner of the business. A West Point graduate with years spent in Army Intelligence. Left the Army to get his DVM degree then worked for the Army doing vet work. In addition to the services mentioned, he has cloned calves. His father was on Omaha Beach on the big day and survived, obviously.
still in Colorado
busting time in the office and the field, and getting ready for the PS just to get it over with.
still need classes for the statutory process and the money to pay for them.
how you doing
I always tell people making money is actually easy. Saving it is the hard part.
A~men
Ole Man River, I can relate. Working full time, with a couple part time gigs, one kid still at home, and remodeling an old house. Had horses growing up, so remember good times getting up hay. My sinuses can't do hay anymore, but I miss the horses, even the work that goes with them.
@jitterboogie I am doing the same. Studying every chance i get and trying to teach myself civil 3d along with keeping things going with 3 crews. Then the farm and wrangling the kids around. I will be honest. If it were not for my wife i would have lost it a long time ago. She keeps me organized on all the camps and competitions and such the kids are doing. I woke up Friday started working from home and had a note by coffee pot. Don’t forget to get the x child to her horse show by 1200. Oh i would have totally forgot lol. It was on my calendar for work to be off by 11. I was spit shining her boots by 1130 lol. Well teaching her how to. Oldest daughter was braiding her hair and i was trying to get a last minute project out the door. You know the kind its a emergency project lol . Only emergency i was considering was if i don’t get my daughter to her show i would need emergency medical care lol.
@holy-cow oh wow. I will check this out. I went to a seminar a couple years back to learn epd’s. So i have been tracking my herd. The association does it as well but they are in the beginning of that so not as accurate from my limited understanding. I was raised around cattle my grandfather and uncle both had commercial cattle. Grandfather mostly flipped cows uncle was one who cattle buyers would say this is what we want to try to get to in. Body type etc. I remember watching a big big fancy limousine drive up when i was around 16 years old we were working cattle. This fellow got out in a suite and cowboy hat and walked up to my uncle and said mr Anderson we want you to develop something like this. My uncle said it will take 3 to 4 years but i am telling you are going to big and the cow calf operators will lose trying to keep that going. He had a old 83 f250 gas engine and we went to several auctions and brought back the new stock. As I drove as you probably know I wanted to drive. But he kept me in check at 45 mph hauling in that old truck. He had brangus angus cross adopt 70 30 and 80 20. The next cycle we added charlottes. Geezers those things can eat. Now i am trying to learn more through all the epd tracking and such. I am hoping by the time i kick the bucket i will have a nice herd developed for all the kids to have a start. I am still feeling out this breed. It works great for now very docile for the young girls. Easy maintenance. But i have a lot to learn for sure. I might cross them at some point with herford and the. To angus but who knows.
