Farm Life
Herding Cattle
Yesterday
the boys helped hubby herd the cattle up to the shed. Cotton, my donkey, had
rather red eyes, so they checked her to make sure that it was not pink eye--I
think it was the strong winds causing eye irritation. The breeder came, and the
best of our purebred Simmentals were artificially inseminated. It was a cold
day to be working outside!
...Until the Cows Come Home
Wednesday:
All afternoon the men folk worked to round up the cows with young calves in the pasture at the old farm, load them on the trailer, and drop them off in the pasture below the house on the home farm.
Thursday Evening:
My older son decided to do some hunting before the sun went down, drove over to the other pasture, and found two of the cows that had been brought over to the house standing outside the fence.
These cows had broken through the fence, hiked up our road, wandered down the county highway, and plodded through the snowy lane to get back to the other pasture.
The biggest surprise? They both left their calves in the home pasture!
So...all night long the babies have been moooooowing. Their voices are hoarse and they sound very sad.
Friday:
This morning we will have to get those two wayward cows back to the home pasture.
The problem? Someone has borrowed our cattle trailer.
This means the men folk may have to herd those two bovines back along the highway, down the road, and into the pasture on foot.
Believe me--the size of their heads has no correlation to the size of their functioning brains.
Something New on the Farm
Penelope: What is that?
?!?
Penelope: Run! Snort! Look ferocious! Maybe the scary thing will leave!
Cotton: Run? Snort? Oh-oh, something must be wrong. Quick! Run to be with the others!
Penelope: IT'S FOLLOWING ME! Hey, wait a minute...
Sniff, sniff. Sniff, Sniff.
Penelope: A donkey. I made a fool of myself, didn't I. Sigh.
Hiding
When a calf is born, it frequently goes into hiding. Mom will get it settled in tall grass or a small indentation in the hillside, and she will go off to eat with the herd, not returning until it is time to nurse. If the cow sees you looking for her calf, she may very well try to lead you in the wrong direction.
The calves seem to be born with the knowledge of their needing to stay where they are, not moving or even wiggling an ear when someone is looking for them. There are times we have almost stepped on a hidden calf. I have walked up and down hillsides looking for a little one, only to find that I had walked past it several times.
Hiding, however, does not work quite so well when the calf is black and is snuggled into a pile of light-colored hay--which even they must be able to see even though they are colorblind. It appears that it is only we humans who notice the incongruity of this.
The Raspberry Patch
The raspberry patch has come to summer's end. Since our plants are a variety that sets fruit on new canes, we can mow them off in the fall and still have berries the following year--most raspberries set fruit on 2-year canes.
The trees are just beginning to change color. If we get a hard frost soon, the colors will be more brilliant than if the frost comes late. The corn would benefit from a late frost, however, since it was planted late in the spring due to wet weather, and if it has time to finish maturing, there will be more bushels per acre when we harvest.
Today is a rainy, dreary day. I put the cat food inside a bucket, and tipped the bucket on its side to keep the food dry. The cats do not like this arrangement as much because they cannot all eat at the same time...and waiting in line when Orion is trying to hunt them is unnerving. Not everything in a cat's life is hunky dory!
Blessed Monday!
And the Cat Went Poof
I did not grab my camera fast enough and missed a great photo opportunity. When I looked out the window yesterday morning, Orion (the big, black, fluffy cat in the lower left) was heading out to hunt in the field across the stream when a calf (top right) spied him and decided it was worth a frolicking look at the intruder. Across the stream trotted the bovine; across the stream, in the opposite direction, fled the very large, poofy-tailed cat.
Today and tomorrow I do not have school, and the family is busy with other activities. I have two days to put my house in order and do a few necessary tasks. When those are done, I get to decide how to spend my time.
One activity will be to evaluate our food supplies for the winter. I have plenty of wheat berries, and I just purchased a 50 lb. bag of rolled oats. I need to sort through the canned goods and see what I need there. I pulled up my list from last year on my computer this morning, and I'm going to go through and make some changes and then figure out what I want to purchase.
I'd also like to find someone who sells non-hybridized seed so that I can go back to saving seed from my garden. Anyone have a suggestion for a good vendor?
Off and running! Have a great day!
Fencing
Step 1: The bull discovers he can walk through an electric fence to a pasture where the grass is greener. (Of course the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.)
Step 2: The bull discovers if he goes through another barbed wire fence, he can have a territory battle with the neighbor's bull (If you think any simple barbed wire fence can hold a 1700lb. bull, think again.)
Step 3: The neighbor's bull decides that defending his cows is too costly and leaves the scene. This gives the triumphant bull time to run around the neighbor's pasture, delightedly meeting all the new girls.
Step 4: The farmer finds his cattle and the neighbor's cattle all in the wrong places, and he attempts to chase them all back to their appropriate pastures. (This is related to bobbing for apples and wrestling greased pigs.)
Step 5: The farmer mends the fences and moves the bull farther away from the neighbor's bull.
Yesterday Was Friday
The sun is rising later now, and when I wake in the pre-dawn morning, I go to the window and look out upon the winter constellations rising in the east. I like to start the day by curling up in my big green chair with a blanket and a cat and a book to read--right now I'm reading Elisabeth Elliot's A Slow and Certain Light (a book one can read slowly and still take enough away each day to ponder) and Leviticus (certainly not the most action-packed book of the Bible). Yesterday India Ink did the honors.
After breakfast, I headed outside to talk to my turkeys. My son usually moves the cage for me so that they have fresh, clean grass each day. I feed them. The toms are finally looking seriously tom-ish.
As I walked back towards the house, I walked past the raspberry patch and realized I had not picked them the day before. I found an ice cream pail and waded through prickly vines.
I had plenty of help.
Although my clothes line is threatening to pull its cement moorings out of the ground (either that or fall apart from rust), I still hang out the towels and jeans as often as the weather allows. My clothes pin bag use to be my mom's. I don't know if she made this one or not, but she always made them just like this one--cute little-girl dresses.
The rest of the day I worked around the house, washing out kitchen cupboards and wiping them with Orange Glow--and tossing as many items as I thought I could live without. I worked on adding assignments to Homeschool Tracker--I'm running out of time to get this done since school starts on Tuesday! I ended the day with a trip to the grocery store, which made me decide that it is time go back to more home made cooking; the bill was nasty!
Today? More of the same--although I'm going to start by sorting the mail piles and paying bills. (Not so poetic as hanging out laundry and picking berries, though.)
Have a wonderful day!
Silly Donkey
Hm. She is calling me. Oh, I don't know. I went last time she called. Maybe I should ignore her this time. Certainly wouldn't want her to think I'm at her beck and call.
Is that a carrot?
`
I'll eat your shirt if you don't give me more.
Penny
My donkey is much more intelligent than our cows. Once she becomes acquainted with an electric fence, she will not go anywhere near it again.
My hubby placed an electric fence across Penelope's pasture to allow the grass at that end to grow. Now my son has dropped a portion of that fence to allow the cattle and the donkey access to the lush green grass, but Penny refuses to go anywhere near it--and I get the impression she is not going to let "her" cattle anywhere near it either.
Jacob went out with a bag of carrots to lead her across the fence line. She allowed him to lead her for a ways but refused to follow him once he got too close.
We will need to herd the cows up to the new pasture...and hope Penny will follow.
Over the Weekend
My hubby made hay this weekend. First he mowed it. After the hay had dried a while, he turned each row over with a rake to help the underside dry more quickly
In order to save time since he is now working full-time, he hired someone to make large round bales for him. Now he will have to move them off the field and stack them for the winter. It won't be long before the 2nd crop of hay will need to be made.
As I was setting up my camera by the hummingbird feeder, the little miss came swooping in to visit my flowers. I had not adjusted the settings on the camera, but I snapped anyway. Isn't she adorable?
And here she is, posing for me.
Today we are expecting a lot of thunderstorms and showers. I need to pick up some groceries--my son was a bit baffled about how to fill his lunch box this morning. Time to restock the frig! I'll also need to straighten and cook something nice for my sister and her family who will be visiting this afternoon.
Have a wonderful day!
