Sunshine and Robin's

 The first Robin at our  house  I am glad maybe only 2 more weeks of winter.  And there is my 11 year old dog Spankie.     He can't hear or see very well but he finds his way to this dog pad that sits in front of my garage  it is very warm.  It is a beautiful day and we should all enjoy.    Have a great weekend until next time

PROTECT THE HARVEST

Protect the Harvest

Well as you read on my blog last week I was going to the Indiana Beef Cattle Asso. annual meeting.  Our speaker was Forrest Lucas who raises cattle in Mo. among other   This is his passion to work and speak up for Protect the Harvest he has also spent millions of dollars for this cause.  There are two groups that don't wants us to kill for food or clothing also tell us how to raise our animals.     They  buy their way into political arena  with money you give them when you support the HSUS and PETA.  They will run timely ads at prime time  so children feel sorry for those poor little animals and want you to send money.    Support your local Human Society of your county.   The HSUS only spends money on their  cause and it isn't taking care of any animals .     Go to the www.ProtectTheHarvest.com  read what they are doing.  Spread the word  we need your support for our cause as Farmers and Hunters.

 Farm report  we have a couple more calves.  Cleaning fence rows and cutting brush that invades the farm fields.  I can see the ground and some green will appear soon  my bulbs are about 1 inch out of the ground.  Suppose to freeze tonight  we need to get bales moved when the ground is frozen.  Moving grain to the elevator.   Take care and talk again soon

Birding again

Too big to be a bird but he helped himself to what was on the ground.  All of the animals are  hungry.  Driving down to Paragon the other day there were Raccoons walking through the snow looking for food.  

I am glad to see the weather break but all our side ditches are full of water.  One of these days the weather will change will we be ready??  Can't wait I am ready 

Farm report slow the elevator cancelled our loads for this week.   I think we had another calf pretty 

quiet.   Take care until we meet again.  

Red Finch   he is back

The cardinal is back at the window you can see it was snowing and cold

The bird  has a lot of feathers missing and it has been this way for 2 months all through the freeze maybe some one can tell what may have caused this  .Joni James my go to gal knows all things about birds

Red-Bellied Woodpecker  male

Cardinal and one Red Tulip

 This cardinal came to visit at my kitchen window on a sunny afternoon and I had to take his picture,    he is beautiful.  The bad news is I found one in the snow dead and a week before that I found 4 small birds dead at another feeding area  not sure why they died.  I have 3 areas where I feed the birds to cut down on the fighting. 

This was my birthday present from last year.  My daughter gave me a pot of tulips they were so pretty and smelled good.  After they died back I took them out of the pot and hung they in the basement to dry. 
Then in November  I repotted them and placed them in the refrigerator to chill for 6 weeks.  After that  brought them out to warm up and this one is the first of 4 that  will bloom.
Farm report:  we have 2 calves in the barn borne to heifers,  for those who don't know a heifer is a termed used to describe a female cow  who has not had a calf before.  I sure am hoping for no more sub zero  temperatures.   The sunshine is great if we could have some everyday it would be wonderful.  
  Take care, until we meet again be careful and be kind to each other.

Not finished yet

The person will be sucked into the grain

In my last blog I talked about a grant that the Community Foundation of Morgan County received from The Smithville Charitable Foundation to purchase ResQTubes and safety training.  Yesterday we brought in SATRE  Safety & Technical Rescue Association  George Lovell and Don  were the trainers for the day.  These pictures help explain what is going on with the fire fighters and rescue personal this is the part that is not finished.   The fellows are not certified to rescue anyone with these ResQTubes  by OSHA standards so they now need rope training and enclosed safety training    As you can see there are ropes and harnesses on each person who are around the grain.   

We will continue to raise money to get the training and  ropes and harness to get these fire fighters certified.  We are not the only occupation that uses rope rescue or confined space rescue.  Companies that do plastic injection molding  and company that handles flour or powders. 

If you know of someone that can help us get this training or your company does such training please contact us

All is well on the farm wanting the snow to melt as we will start calving soon  frozen ground  is better than snow.  We have been known to unroll corn stalks for bedding  just being a farmer and taking care of the animals.  Until we talk again take care and be safe

He is in up to his waist in corn

They are sliding the tube that comes in 4 parts around the person sucked into the grain

They  fasten the tube and start removing the grain from around his body

The grain bin that is used for this training This is the top of semi

Hydraulics  cylinder to raise the top frame as seen below

These instructors are fire fighters when not on the road  Nice rig

ResQTube

 This is just a few pictures of ResQTubes  Not all of you will know what these are and why I am putting this on my blog.  I am a farmers wife and we dry and store our grain in the fall  At some time we start moving it to our buyers in Indy or other towns.   These are used to rescue a person who may be pulled into the flow of grain.  Bill Harp of Safety and Technical Rescue Association  will bring a semi with a grain bin set-up  to show how fast and dangerous grain bin entrapment can be.  It can also happen in a grain wagon when the farmer unloads.  If you read this  blog and know a farmer or firemen tell them to please call me and we will put them on our list.  The training is Sat Feb 8th at the Morgan County Jail in Martinsville, Indiana  starts at 8:00 in the morning.  This is all possible from a grant  through The Smithville Charitable Foundation and  The Community Foundation of Morgan County.   We thank both Foundations.  
Hoping for no snow but I don't want ice either guess I will take what ever comes my way. Take care until next time.