pics from today

This is home. Just outside Farmington IL. My great great grandfather bought this first farm in 1894. All the old buildings are gone. They milked brown swiss cows here into the 1960's.


Well I got all the animals here at home fed this morning and climbed up to throw down a couple of bales of straw for the calves and ended up hitting my knee on a post in the shed as I fell off the pile of straw for the second time in a week. A little sore but no worse for the wear. On to do chores at the other farm.


This is the Higgs farm.




Its been in their family since 1836 I believe. It was the home to a herd of registerd simmentals. The Higgs and Plumer families worked together for something like 60 years raising cattle. They retired from the cattle business and turned it over to me this past December first and they have really enjoyed not doing chores this winter. On with my day.


Anyone care to guess what is behind this door?


If you guessed 11 impatient cows you were right.


I guess I just cant fill the buckets fast enough. This one had to look in and see what the hold up was.


Now these two have it figured out. While I dump one bucket I let the other sit on the end of this bunk so they just wait for me to walk away and they tip the bucket over.


All the while wrigley anxiously awaits my return quietly in the truck. Unless a cat walks past.





With chores done I spent most of the day here in the shop.
The 3010 developed a hydraulic problem. After talking with the service manager at the deere dealer it was diagnosed a steering issue so I started to tear into it.


There is something missing here I just cant put my finger on what it is.


After studying a few pages in the service manual I made the easy decision that this rebuild was best left to the professionals. Cliff and I took the steering unit to the deere dealer and spent a while shooting the bull with the guys in the shop before picking up some other parts and talking with the salesman about a recent land auction nearby.


What had started out as a bright sunny day turned cloudy and windy as evening approached.






Back home in time to do chores. Nick and I did chores and everyone seemed happy to see us. Another day closer to spring. I am getting very anxious to see better weather. Sure do feel for those folks with all the ice down south. I cant imagine how unhandy it would be to be without power for 10 days or more. Just goes to show we should be thankful for the weather we have cause it could be alot worse.
bill

Good pictures, thanks for taking the time to take them and to share. Wrigley is a real star.

Thanks for the day trip and history lesson.

Vito

Those pictures are great. Thanks for sharing.

Bill ,, Sure do appreciate the positive trip ,, kinda busted my back side today due to Ice ,, No big deal , Like you ,Tomorrow I will be rarin to Go ,, with the knowledge that WE ARE INDEED ONE DAY CLOSER TO SPRING ,.. Keep em Smilin ,, THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IT , Blessings Jim

Bill ,, Sure do appreciate the positive trip ,, kinda busted my back side today due to Ice ,, No big deal , Like you ,Tomorrow I will be rarin to Go ,, with the knowledge that WE ARE INDEED ONE DAY CLOSER TO SPRING ,.. Keep em Smilin ,, THIS COUNTRY NEEDS IT , Blessings Jim

Nice looking place and pictures. Thanks

Thank you for the great pix! Nice farms, nice animals - and your dog is terrific!

Really good sequence of photos. Tractor-related, too! Thank you.

Great pics. I thought about them, and how many of us just keep going when the weather gets nasty, while I was cutting firewood today in about a foot of snow. Got a fairly good grade to go up to get to the road and my old 1944 JD B has all it wants with about 2/3 of a trailer load. Good luck with the power steering, keep us posted.
Paul

Great pictures! My 2 4-legged helpers think Wrigley is the bomb!

Now I remember why I left NYS for the heat & humidity of S. Texas.

Great pics!! Pretty confident looking helper - looks like he's the supervisor!

Just came in from feeding the horses and decided to take a minute and surf the forum. Glad I did since there were a couple of posting with great pictures. Be sure and save that sign with your neighbors' names and the semmintal bull. It will be priceless someday if not already.

Your cows sure remind me of my cow herd in the late 80's purebred Simmentals,still have the cows but no papers and I've change their color by using some the nations best A.I. solid red Simmental and Red Angus bulls.We started using Simmental in 1969 ASA # 205. Thanks for the memories, keep the pic's comming.