My Yahoo Group for Dairy Farm Wives

My Husband with all three children coming back from chopping a few loads of hay. 

Are you the wife of a farmer?  I am the wife of a dairy farmer and I felt the need to create a place for wives of all the types of agricultural production to connect with other women who understand the trials and tribulations and the immmense rewards that this way of life can either bring to your family as a hardship or a blessing or a strange combination of both.  Feel free to join and perhaps as time helps me to grow and blossom this group, it can expand into other social medias such as Facebook.  Please follow the link below and join to make it your own. 


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dairyfarmwives/

Never-Ending Repairs

 It is unbelievably amazing at how much needs to be constantly tweaked, replaced, rebuilt or cleverly repaired on a farm. Tires go flat, bearings gears and seals need replaced, knives need sharpening, changing oils, greasing the moving parts, all in the name of maintenance and repair. It can keep a man or two busy, just trying to keep everything running and moving.
We had finally ordered new knives and baffles for the forage chopper, they were LONG overdue and when they finally came UPS, there was a little more than usual free time to get it put back together.
Working on getting the hay cut was on hold because of a little mishap trying to get some horse/dry cow hay cut.  Being small in an area of bigger farms who will pay so much more than we can afford for rental land causes us to basically take what is left for land and they are usually small parcels.  So we planned on working to get the baling hay out of the way while the forage chopper was out of commission waiting for replacement knives. 
So Don, set out with James and went to cut the hay and a round or so later the disc mower conditioner started to make a horrible racket, and meanwhile Don turned to look back to see what was happening, never stopped and ran over a small plow hidden in the tall hay.  Beet juice sprayed all over signaling a blown large rear tractor tire. 

BIG GIGANTIC CRAP O LA.

$1,860 dollars later the tire is fixed and now it will be the same amount for discbine parts, no labor costs included as the guys do the work themselves. 
Don ended up buying back the old haybine he bought new in 1974.  Ugly as sin, but the hay is getting cut. 

On a good note.....the chopper is running amazing.