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Friday, November 20, 2009

The Joys of Workin' Cattle

So yeasterday morning started off like a normal day...nothing special. I was finishing up some laundary and Caleb was payin' some bills....ya know all the fun things! Well after we got that all done we were headed out to go get some of our cattle in so we could work and wein that calves.


Since it has been so wet I go to put on my mud boots and the insole was pulled out of one of them so as I go to put it back in I feel something fuzzy in the toe....needless to say my hand shot back out of there as fast as it could. I then proceed to turn it over and out fall a nice fat fluffy rat...but at least it was dead. All we can figure is that it had ate some rat poison and then crawled into my boot to get away from the cat. As anyone might say this made a great start to the day.

When working cattle any farmer would say that it is a rare thing to have everything work just the way you want it to. Well, Caleb and I load the truck up with feed and head over the Linabur farm to get our cattle that are over there in. Well of chorus we get there and all the cattle are over on the back side of the pasture...a long way from the lot....but that’s how it always goes. Well he head out to call them in and use my favorite cattle call....the truck horn. Well lucky for us we have cow that is by far the leader of the pack...this fat ol' black-white face cow who is just an ol' rip....but she loves to eat, so she come very easily, and if there is any cow in her way she will head butt it out of her way. (she makes me think of my mom old milk cow Rosie...only meaner!) Well we finally get up to the pen and all the cows go in....but almost none of the calves (and the calves are what we want to get in). Well we don't get the gate shut quick enough and one of the cows escape and her and her calf head for the back forty and a couple of the other calves head off with her....which means we have to go get Caleb's horses....the 4-wheelers. Since a lot of the calves were still there wanting their momma's Caleb and I go in and push the cattle back into the holding pen....I wire the gate and we open the gate to the catch pen thinking the little calves might come in to get closer to their mommas while we off getting the 4-wheelers. Well we pick up Calvin (Caleb's Dad) and the two 4-wheelers and head back to the pasture. When we get there we see a cow by the gate....and we're thinking the cow that escaped earlier was back with the calves....but...there's always a but....it really couldn't be that easy...but when we look at the holding pen we see that there is not a cow left in it....I know I wired it on the top and the bottom....but it wasn't good enough for the big bossy black-white faced cow and her posse....and they pushed the gat opened. Well we drive up to the pen and all that’s let in there is our grandma cow and a bunch of calves, who are eating on any feed and prairie hay that is left. We still have a little bit of corn left in sacks on the back of the truck so Calvin goes and un-hooks the cattle trailer and we start calling the cows back in....by mouth and with the horn. The bossy black-white faced I told you about may scare me more than any of the bulls we have....but one thing that I love about here is when she thinks there might be a slight chance she could get some feed she comes running and that's what she did here....and she brought half the heard with her....thank goodness!!!!!!!! Well we get what we can that way....then we go saddle the "horses" and head out to get the rest of them...and they all cooperated relatively well and went strait in. All of this happened before 12:30....jeepers what a morning. Well we head back to the house and grab something to eat and then head back to the pasture to sort off all the cows...which went relatively easy except for this crazy bull calf who tried to run over both Tim (the hired hand) and I....yea I was glad when we got the the vet and that crazy guy got castrated...haha....that's what he gets for tryin' to run us over. It may have been a long morning, but the rest of the day went relatively smooth.

Workin' cattle is the hardest for me to get pics of cause I am usually in the middle of it all.....but here are a few of what I have....


I'm not sure what they see in it...but evidently cracked corn and prairie hay are really great to eat

Caleb and Tim are pushing the calves back in to the trailer after they have been worked


This is a picture from last spring, but it's the best picture I have of my cattle callin' truck.
This is when Caleb got it stuck out in one of our pastures in a spot where it's always muddy....and he has always said "it's rock bottom....you won't ever get stuck here....I was soo glad I had my camera with me when this happened

Here's the big bossy black-white faced cow, that you don't want to mess with!

This is our "grandma cow" She is even greyer now then she was in this picture. This was one of Caleb's first cows. There's no reason to get rid of her just yet cause she still gives us a calf. If you look closely at her eyes you can see her grey eyelashes

Monday, November 16, 2009

What I do when we can't get into the field...

So I have a very short attention span sometimes, and when I'm not kept busy out side I have to be doing some thing....soo I make things.  I have been crocheting for a while now and love doing it.  I know how to knit too, but I'm not near as fast at it.  There are so many neat things to kintt that I am gonna have to work on getting better so I can make a lot more things. 

My newest crafy creation has been jewlery making.  I saw some different necklaces in magazines that I really liked, but didn't like the prices, then I thought hey I can make those a lot cheaper..... and thanks to ebay I did. Now I am hooked on it....to me it's fun and easy and allows me to be creative!

Here are some of the things I have been making....some were gifts, some I'm trying to sell and some I am keeping for myself!!







This is my K-State necklace....Go WILDCATS!!!






This necklace is the reason I started....it's my favorite by far!!



 Well since I enjoy doing all this stuff...but I don't need to keep everything I make I thought I would start selling it.  So I am now on ETSY with my own little shop chickencoopcreations.etsy.com 
You can go and check out what I have been making.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Beans, beans.....

Well now that we have finished corn....so it is now time to move on to beans. The beans are dry, but the the stalks aren't so it's still slow going....just like the this past growing season.


It all starts when we put the seed in the ground.....then well our part is done for the most part, we sit back and do a lot of praying cause if they make or not is not up us but it is up to God. Even though the beans were very slow growing it's still lookin' like we will have a pretty good year.
Here's a few pics of the stages the beans go through from the beginning to the end...


 
I love the way the dried out pods look when they are ready to harvest.



It took a little longer than usually to get to this point but we are glad to be getting them out!


So as I have said many times before....things never happen like you want them to. Since the stalks are still a little tough we have had to make frequent stops to unplug the combine...


The nice thing about being behind the lens....I don't have to help with the problems.....ok that only happens for a bit then after I have taken the pics I have to get back to work....yuck ;)

After getting all the junk pulled out and the combine freed up Pop gets back on and gets going again....they gotta keep the combines moving, cause we want to get as much as we can done, cause there was a chance of rain on Monday night.....



....and we would like to get finished before Thanksgiving!!


Even though we had a few hiccup's through out the day we did get the field finished....so we will be on to the next field as soon as we can!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Who doesn't love a PARTY!!!!

So last Saturday Caleb and I and his folks headed up to Lawerence, KS for a big ol' birthday party....our nephew Aidan turned 6 on Sat and his Mom Charity turned the big 3-0 a few days later. Caleb's little sis Melody decidedshe wanted to host the big event at her house. So we had some good food, so really good cake and pies and then they got to open all their presents.

One big breath and out it went!!!

Next it was Charity's turn...


Looks like Lexi enjoyed the cake more than most of us!!


Time for presents.....


he got a classical guitar from the Frey Grandparents....music to our ears.....ok maybe not yet but maybe someday.
Just what every 6 yr old wants for his birthday.......as you see the got tossed to the side so he could go back to his toys.
Aunt Mel showin Aidan how to use hi new Cars laptop...
and thats where he was for the rest of the afternoon!Next it was Charity's turn....I was soo glad she really liked the hat that Caleb and I gave her. When I was making the hat, it took a while for me to get it just right size, but it looks like it fits like a charm.
Next time we see Charity I am expecting a beautifully decorated cake since she has all the supplies now.
After finishing the cake and a half a bag of gummy bears Lexi headed back over to her buddy Grampa and tryed to wear some of that sugar high off.

Now it's time to head out to go trick-or-treating
Don't they look great