I struggled to move the 2 bales of hay I picked up from Mike on Wednesday. The tractor wheels couldn't get traction so I couldn't spear the bales with the bale spear. Eventually had a brain wave. Use the 2 hay hooks, attach the webbing strap on the buggy to the top edge of the bale, lifted it the foot the tractor could lift on the other side, set the brake, hop off, onto the buggy, engage 4WD and pulled those babies over :)). Then pushed the first bale into the 2nd one so got it on the spear, and rammed the 2nd bale into the shed so that I could lift it. Wasn't so lucky in trying to tip it back over in the lower barn enclosure for the milk girls. Kept getting stuck. So abandoned it on it's side, removing a few inches of netting and plastic wrap from both sides. The girls could eat without turning the good, 2nd or 3rd cutting hay into bedding. It's too cold to work outside without gloves on, so I haven't put the 2nd bale feeder back together yet after picking up more large washers earlier this week. So there is no feeder ring around this bale :(. But after the night with 4 cows and 1 calf eating, the mess was minimal. Also struggled to lift the feeder ring yesterday, used the buggy to pull it over the bale before Gabriel flattened the whole thing. Then gave a new, plastic wrapped good bale to the girls today too. It went much better than yesterday :). Got it placed and tipped so I could remove the netting and plastic, and put the ring around it with a bit of effort, but nothing like yesterday.
After milking Daisy May and Eleanor this morning while Dolly and Seasaidh munched soaked beet pulp with molasses in the lower barn (puts on weight but doesn't increase milk production, need the high protein of grain for that), I separated the boys and girls again. Gabriel spent the night with the 2 bull calves, Taxes and IRS, and then this morning I called Oliver out from the Scottish Highland girls and moved him into the veggie garden with the other boys. My cows are all so good :). I didn't even have the grain bucket !! Then shoo'ed Dolly, Daisy May, Seasaidh and Saffron into the original pasture with Little Red and Taylor, and Immanuelle and Coco, while allowing Eleanor to go feed IRS in with the boys. About an hour later transferred her to the main pasture with the other girls. Taxes and Dolly have been bellowing most of the day, I'll let him nurse tomorrow, then not again until Monday. He's being weaned. Neither mama or boy-calf are happy, but she's too thin and needs to stop milk production, while he's already 7-months old, so it's time. She only has 1 viable teat so I haven't been milking her. Won't wean IRS yet as it means I don't have to milk Eleanor every day, just let him have it. JuneBug still nurses from Daisy May for the same reason, but due to her rough start with me having to tube her for the first 3 weeks of her life and then getting ill, I'm happy to let her nurse longer, and I don't need all the extra milk.
Surprised Herbie with a Bluetooth speaker for his phone for his birthday earlier this week - he thinks it's awesome :). Then baked him a Brown Sugar Bourbon Bundt cake with duck eggs as I found a fresh nest and haven't found any chicken eggs the past few days.
Was Pizza Friday on the farm. My half was olive oil, garlic, parsley and sea salt, with parmesan cheese once it was out of the oven, while Herbies half was more traditional, tomato base, onions and green pepper, mozzarella and sweet Italian sausage nuggets. Found a bag of oxtail in the freezer while fetching the sweet Italian sausage, so put it in the pressure cooker with onions, carrots, celery, garlic and red wine. Tomorrow I'll remove the solidified fat layer on top, add seasoning, cook rice - looking forward to it as I haven't made oxtail in yonks. Good cold weather comfort food :)
With the weather being so bad, Herbie postponed taking the truck into the body shop to have the side that the deer made the hole in fixed, but the front brakes have gone out on the truck :(. He heard something when he went to fetch a ton of salt, but didn't know what it was. Then I drove down and back up the driveway while he scooped salt out, but when I parked it the brake pedal was mushy and went all the way to the floor. After bagging the salt, we went to get the water trough, and the brakes weren't working and a new set of lights came on on the dashboard. He got me to look up in the service manual what was wrong, oy vey, need new brakes. We had them done earlier this year, so not sure why they're out already. I then took the truck to Mikes' to get hay, drove under 25 mph the whole way there and back, giving myself lots of time to stop at all the stop streets. Herbie said today it was the front brakes, so he'll take it to Jackies guy on the road behind us as it's not safe to drive. I'm stuck on the farm, will re-license and insure the van so that I have transport as Herbie doesn't want me driving Noddy in the snow, but it's transmission leaks so I don't have gears and it needs a new battery before I can move it. We have 5 cars / trucks (excluding the tractors and buggy) and none of them are really driveable :(. Sings - 'Money, money, money, in a rich mans' world'.