Farm life goes on in the face of uncertain times

Farm life goes on in the midst of a stressful and uncertain time. Checking cattle several times a day for babies and making sure they are all safe takes up a lot of our time. I’m still working from home and looks like that will last for a while I hope. I feel a lot more safe here on the farm. I only leave the farm to pick up groceries or scripts. Feels so weird to not stop anywhere. I did a drive by yesterday where my niece works just to wave at her. We talk everyday but I haven’t seen any family for several weeks now. I miss my ice cream dates with my little nephew when I pick him up from school on certain days. My husbands birthday was April 1st, we had a great dinner and I baked him a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. Normally we would have a family get together. I urge you to pray harder than ever before for the healing of our country. I hope you enjoy the pictures of a few of the cows and babies.

Not so normal right now

Good morning everyone, today is a new normal for me for a while. Working from home for my job and not going anywhere except to pick up occasional groceries and pharmacy and even then having someone bring it to your car, put it in for you and shut the back door of my SUV. This is also weird as I am very capable of taking care of myself but in light of what is happening we can’t be too careful. I hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of themselves as best as possible. We are in the middle of spring Calves right now so at least we have something cute to look at. We are up to about 30 right now with more coming. We have plenty of meat and food so we are lucky. I told my husband no one is coming through this gate except the cows. Please everyone pray for our country and for this horrible virus to dissipate into thin air. Heavenly Father please protect us. Amen.

We are in the middle of fall calving right now. Thought you might enjoy a picture of Lucky Girl's new baby. We raised Lucky on a bottle about 7 years ago and she is very tame, sometimes too tame. She doesn't know she is a big girl now and weighs a LOT so no you can't put your big head in my lap anymore and I have to get on a ladder to hug you Lucky. She sticks her head in the buggy when we are checking cattle to get a treat but all that is all right because we love her and she is still our little girl. She doesn't care if I hug her calf like some of the other girls. See the milk suds on her mouth, just had her first milk.

Single File

Did someone say get in single file and Baby O is in the lead. Oh Baby O you have have come a long way from being a preemie and having to be carried out of the field and helped along to having babies of your own and turning into a very good cow. You will never leave the farm

My Cow Farm Water Tub this year and other years!

My big water tub also know as the cows water tub is filling out quite nicely. Our cows are thirsty but I have pretty flowers. Not really! I mean not really they are thirsty. We take good care of our cows and they have lots of water.The middle picture is this year!

Spring and start of summer in the yard!

My flower beds have come to life, now I'm waiting for blooms!!

Yes I'm beautiful

Spring and new Babies

Spring is coming really soon and that means new faces on the farm and someone is always on the wrong side of the fence and needs a helping hand. I'm glad my husband is stronger than me. Not sure I could lift a 80 to 100 pound baby across the fence. 

Spring 2017

We are up to 45 new baby calf's running around the farm, here are a few cute faces. Its been a whirlwind. First one was born on Valentines's Day. Lots of playing, running, & jumping going on around here. I love this time of year and then we will have another round in the fall.

Sunsets and more.

I know I've been missing for a while but just been so busy and will try to get back on blogging track. This blog was inspired by the beautiful sunsets we have been seeing lately off the front porch.

Nature, beautiful but also sad!

We all love nature, but while beautiful it can also be very sad. We had a bird, a Killdeer Momma nesting almost on the road from the house to the barn. They always nest in the most vulnerable places it seems. I only got a picture with two eggs but she ended up with 4 beautiful eggs in her nest. My husband put up a post next to her nest so no one would run over it, every time he drove past he said something to her like "When are those babies going to hatch". or "You are a good Momma". We worried about her when it poured down rain or was a little cold at night. We went over to take pictures and she would get off the nest and act wounded flapping her wing like it was broken and make loud noises at us. That's what they do to try to detour harm from their nest. In essence she would give her life for the eggs. One day Richard, my husband got back from town just in time to save her eggs from a snapping turtle almost to the nest. A couple mornings later he came in from feeding the bottle calf and said all her eggs are gone and I don't see her. We figure either another Snapping Turtle, a Black Snake, or a Coyote got them, I don't know what happened to her although I'm sure she wouldn't hang around if her eggs were gone. Needless to say I cried and my husband with the big heart had tears in his eyes too. Yes we hunt, yes we raise beef cattle, and sometimes have to do things we don't like on this farm but we also take care of a little bird, at least we tried. And that my friends is the wonderful and cruel world of nature.

Bottle Calf Baby

It's been a while since my last blog. I have been really busy and now we have spring calving season upon us. Started last week with 12 babies in a week. On Wednesday we had a problem. During the night on Tuesday we had a cow have a pretty big calf and she had trouble. The next morning when my husband was checking babies they were laying down in the field but before long he realized the mom couldn't get up. Sometimes when they have a big calf or have trouble they can get a pinched nerve in their hips or legs. Sometimes they never come out of it but we were determined to save them both. This cow is the daughter of our Lucky Girl we raised on a bottle 5 years ago. We quickly ordered a contraption that would go on her hips and my husband could lift her with the tractor a few times a day for 30 minutes or so to hopefully get her legs working again. This would mean in addition to all his other work on a working cattle farm he would have to give her a lot of special attention like carry her feed and water along with trying to get her back up. We also were giving her steroid shots for four day and a muscle enhancer. Also we had to bring the calf to the barn to bottle feed. No way for her to get milk if Mom can't stand so here we are raising Lucky's granddaughter now on a bottle. She is now up and walking on her own. Still having a bit of trouble with one hoof turning under at the first joint but that is getting better too. Tomorrow the baby will get a bigger pen. It's 10:00pm and she just got her last bottle. She talks to us when she sees us coming. I guess for now we are Mom and Dad.