Year-end stress, winter plans

Yesterday was a difficult day. I generally have the first hour or so of every day pretty much to myself. I try to ensure this time by getting to the office well ahead of anyone else. But yesterday, I got a call for help in the first few minutes after I signed onto my computer. It was 5:48 a.m. The day never let up from then. I was pretty tired when I got home from work. I was even more so when Mama and I got home from church.

The end of the year is always a crunch time for many of the projects we support, but this year there was a fairly large number of new projects added to my group and we are just now getting the feedback from the groups that have that information accumulated. We have to compile all the data and get it to the correct reporting agencies in time for their year-end reports. Several of my ladies are struggling to get the final bits of information so they can meet their deadlines.

It will all be over soon and we will enjoy our Thanksgiving holidays, but for the moment it is a little overwhelming to a couple of my staff. I only get involved when they get stonewalled or are treated so roughly that they call for help. Unfortunately, that has happened on a couple occasions. When I do get involved it usually turns out poorly for the offenders since each office tends to be very protective of the ladies that work for me.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the temperatures are supposed to be in the very high seventies by Saturday so I may have to remove the windows we put up on the chicken coop so we do not overheat the birds through the coming afternoons. I will have to see how hot it does get before I go to too much effort but I certainly do not want to stress out Mama’s little babies. By the way, we are up to six eggs per day on average.

We let the cattle into the big meadow so they could eat down the alfalfa before it went bad. There was not a huge stand of alfalfa but they found every leaf in the field before they started eating the winter wheat; which is growing very well in all the areas where Grandpa over-seeded it. Next fall we are planning on planting the winter wheat in the two front pastures also.

Looking ahead to winter, we are better prepared this year than last. There is enough hay to feed out our little herd – and then some. We will still have to buy the supplemental sweet stock feed they like so well but we will make it through. The fortunate part of living here is that there will be something for the cattle to eat from the fields through most all of the winter, perhaps not enough to fatten them up, but enough to keep them satisfied.

We will supplement with higher protein feeds to help them stay warm on the colder days. They also know all the places they can snuggle into when the cold winds blow. Grandpa has us set up really well for feeding the cattle with a station he built into the calf barn. I will seal the walls off over the next couple weeks so they can lounge in complete comfort.

Whatever else comes up, we will deal with it as needed.