Only On Our Farm...

I love cattle and my husband....

Both for many reasons...

But the main reason I love them both is because with out them I would not have near as many fun stories to write.

So yesterday Caleb came home for dinner (lunch) and told me he needed my help this afternoon to work with the cattle.  Not only did we need to pull all the bulls off the cows...

We were doin' this so we don't have any Christmas babies, cause that makes the holidays a major headache.

Ok back to what I was tellin' ya we were gonna pull the bulls as well as we needed to get a calf in that had some wire wrapped around it's neck.

Originally it was just around it's legs, but then Caleb drove the truck onto the end of the wire and instead of it coming off the calf, the calf ended up twisting it around it's neck. 

Usually when things like this happen this means we are going to have one crazy time messin' with the cattle. 

So after dinner we head out to look at the group with the wired calf. After lookin' at the calf  and cutting off some of the wire that was draggin' behind the calf, Caleb decides he's gonna try to rope it to get the rest of the wire off.

So we get the rope out and Caleb gets on the back of the truck and decides he wants to do some practice throws before we start chasin' the calf around.

At this time I must tell you guys that the whole herd were hangin' around the truck and I told Caleb that he shouldn't do any practice throws with all the cattle that close cause he was liable to rope a cow that he didn't want to rope....

Yes I warned him, just you guys remember that!

So after a couple of practice throws we start to head towards the calf and Caleb then decides he needs to practice one more time...

it was then that I hear "OH NO, I JUST ROPED A COW!"

That's right my friends it only took about four tries for Caleb to rope a cow that he didn't want to rope....

Had it been something he wanted to rope it would have taken more than 30 tries, but that's how it goes...

Oh and I about peed my pants laughing at him when this happened...

So what do you do when you rope a 1,000 + pound cow in the middle of a huge pasture, you may ask?

You let go of the rope.

So there's the girl with her pretty rope necklace wrapped around her neck.

Well since we didn't have any feed with us we decided to wait to mess with this group till later.

So we went to all the other pastures and got all the other bulls in, sorted off and taken to their own special pasture. And the best part was we didn't have any problems getting them all in, and that never happens!

We decided we would wait and mess with the wire calf and the roped cow and the bull in that pasture till the next day cause we ran out of daylight.

So this morning we got up and headed over to the pasture and got all the cows in the lot without any problems. Well at least none for us. When callin' the cattle into the lot we will dump some feed on the back of the truck and lead them with it. Well that poor ol' roped cow would try and get up there to get some feed then all of a sudden another cow would step on the end of the rope and jerk her head back...

The poor cow....

It's all Caleb's fault ;)

Well we get them in and get them sorted and them get the rope off her neck and boy was she one happy cow.

Luckily the rope wasn't tore-up, but it did however get died a little. It once was white, and now is green with a strange odor.

What about the Calf you might ask? well amazingly enough the wire ended up coming off it head on it's own so we didn't have to mess with the little guy!

So Caleb roped the cow for no reason...

Wait he roped a cow anyways for no reason...

After we get the cow taken care of we drop thee last bull off in the bull pen....

All the other bulls had to come over and check him out.

They were wanting to fight with him, but he just ran away...

Smart bull!

 

The only problem we had through this entire two day process was a flat tire when we were taking the truck and trailer back over to Pop's house.

Things went rally smooth, well minus the wire around the calf's neck and the rope around the cows head, but those weren't my problems, so they don't count!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Catch ya later,

Janet

Helpers

So the other day I showed ya'll a picture of me and my helpers. Well it turns out they do more than just add a little weight to the bale....

Wait let me re-state that "They try and do more"....

Wait that's not quite right, "Hank tries to do more"....

 

If only he could get on the right side of the bale!

There, that's better....

Wait, I thought you were helping?

Hank: "It's too big for me to push, I need a break!"

There we go, he's back helpin' again, and look Kit is there "helping"....more getting in the way while practicing her log rolling skills.

Kit: "That's enough practice for today, now I'm gonna go stare down a cow."

I like it when Caleb gets some help, that means I don't have to help and I can take more pictures.

Caleb: "Thanks for all your help Hank, you're such a good dog!"

Hank: "Are you going to pet me or what?"

Jasper: "I think this looks like a good spot to go pee"

Wait what are you doing here Colby, you weren't helping?

Colby: "Where's my feed? I'm hungry!"

You're already fat enough, go eat your hay.

"Hank, Why are you way back there?"

Hank: "This work stuff is for the birds, I think I am going to go back to the house and take a nap."

Well at least we got some help out of him.

JP

Hay + Snow = A Lot More Work

So a week ago this past monday, we finally saw our first snow, and boy did it ever snow....

Ok it we didn't get near as much snow as we did a few time last year, but it sure did come down hard at times.

This was one of the first groups that we fed that morning and it was sure comin' down hard at this point.

I will say that all the pics in this post are a mixture of Monday though Friday pics....

and everyday was a little different.

I know there are people all around that get so excited about it when it snows cause....

A) They get to stay home from school

B) They get to stay home from work

C) It beautiful out side

D) They get to make a snowman

E) They get to make a snow angle

F) They get to go sledding

G) They are CRAZY

As you might have guessed I am not a huge fan of the snow. It just causes more work for use around here, and when you add the freezing temps it's even worse!!

Cattle chores take twice as long in the snow, cause we have a lot more that we need to get done.

Ya first must get the net wrap off the bales...

 

This takes some pulling and...

 

Some tugging but...

 

If you're not careful than you might get sprayed buy the snow....

I some times think he does this on purpose.

The easiest thing to do with that bale is drop it on the ground and throw a bale ring over it.

 

Sometimes it gets a little crowded around the hay bale and when there is all this snow on the ground we like to throw some hay on the ground to give the little calves something to eat and a good place to lay down.

 

Since we don't have a bale un-rolling bed on our truck we have to peel a little off at a time...

 

And by we I mean ME...

I pretty sure the only reason Caleb brings me a long is so I will get back there and do this and he can stay in the warm truck cab....

I know I have such a sweet husband, you don't have to tell me...

 

Actually it's not to terrible as long as the wind doesn't blow the hay back in my face.

 

Once we have I have gotten the bale down to a smaller size we will drop it off the back of the truck.

 

Usually I will lay on the bale to give it some extra weight and make sure it comes off. It can get kinda crazy back there when the bale doesn't want to budge...

 

but hey this is my cloest thing to a ride on a sled.

Some times it doesn't hurt to get some extra help.

 

Poor Jasper just not quite big enough to make it up there with us...

 

So with a little help from daddy he made it up there and we got to have our picture taken.

This was taken on Friday and as you can see from my lack of bibs It was a lot warmer!!

Once the bale is one the ground we get to use a big ol' muscels and roll it out the rest of the way by hand...

 

And we are usually followed closely by the Lady's.

When you get to the end of the bale it sometimes just eaiser to kick the bale rather and push it.

 

The Lady's love it when we un-roll the hay for them, it makes them feel special.

 

Now sometimes are job is a little eaiser...

 

Enter "Mr. George," he is one of our bulls.

 

George has a lot of pent-up anger which....

he likes to take it out on the bales...

This wouldn't be so bad if he would roll the bale the correct direction, but that's not the case here.

 

Now once he got it goin' the next day....

 

He did a lot better.

And when he was finished the bale was a lot smaller and a lot easier to handle.

Now if you want to talk about super easy....

Then just use the tractor and loader. This way you don't have to lift any of those heavy  hay rings.

So there ya have it that how it works around here when it snows, and since it snowed on us again the other night, you now know what our day yesterday was like only you must add in our chore truck breakin' down in the middle of choring and having to be pulled back to the shop.

Well I had better get back at it. I hope ya all have a great weekend.

Later,

JP

The Table

So as I promised last Thursday here are some pics of my new dining room table in our house. 

I love my new table, but it's kinda hard getting use to seeing it in here. 

I was soo very excited when I finally found it and it was just what I was wanting....and what Caleb was wanting.

I had looked at a few different tables that were this rustic looking type of table, but they were all very expensive and they didn't have leaves....

is that how it's said and spelled?!?!

I don't know why I asked that it's not as if I have ever cared how something was said or spelled before....

anyways back to the table, I wanted an 8" table that had leaves in it so I could shrink it down when we didn't need one that big.  My thought being that we are thinking about starting a family one of these days and I want a table that will fit our family plus anyone that comes to visit, so I wanted a table that could seat 8 people.

All Caleb wanted was padded chairs....

I wasn't to excited about that thought, cause all the padded chairs I would ever find were...in a word...

Nasty!!

So when I found this table I knew I had a winner, because it was just what I was lookin' for as well as it had the padded seats for Caleb.

So here it is....

It's not perfect, there are some scratches here and there, but for the price they sure don't bother me a bit....

they give it some extra character.

It also came with 6 armless chairs and 2 arm chairs.

The picture doesn't do the fabric on the chairs justice, it's a lot prettier in person...

Also the seat on the chairs is huge....I'm pretty sure Caleb and I could share one chair between both our booties!

Beside that chair is the chair that goes with our old table....huge difference.

Well there you have it there's my new table, I will say that it is no longer clean, I been unpacking boxes and there is now a huge mess all over the table as well as the floor.

Oh well I will get it all cleaned up soon.

* While I was writing this Hank (my lab) stared barking....he only barks if something is wrong. So I go out the front door and call all the dogs to see what is going on. Everybody, but Jasper (the Jack Russel) came. Usually this means he's chaisin' or attaching something, but this time I didn't hear him barkin'like crazy....which is what he normally does. I keep callin' him, and still he doesn't come.....then I finally hear him bark a little from the back side of the house. So I go back in put Caleb's boots on and grab a coat and a light and head out to see what he's messin' with.....I am still think that it's really odd that he's 1. not comming to me 2. since he's not coming to me he's also not barking. I make my way towards where I heard him earlier....over by my garden and the sheds....it's then that I see a little white nose stickin' out of the hole in the side of my garden shed. Ya see there is a hole that is just big enough for a cat....and evidently a Jack Russell...to crawl through, but the thing is, my cat can make it back out and my Jack Russel can't. So he was probably chasing the cat and made it into the shed, but he couldn't make it back out when he was done. I laughed pretty hard when I found him in there, and all he wanted was out! So ol' Hank was barkin' to let us know that his big brother was trapped and needed help getting out.

I just had to tell ya'll this while I had your attention....

Catch ya'll later,

Janet

Choppin' Ice

So last week there were a couple of days that were bitterly cold. Where we woke up to -2 and 0 degree mornings...

Needless to say I made a pot of coffee ever morning last week and boy did I need it.

But anyways back to the cold temps...

When you have cattle one thing you have to think about when it gets below freezing is how the are going to get water to drink...

And generally this means choppin' some ice...

And the best thing for chopin' ice is an ax...

If you don't have one you might as well head to the store and get one, cause you need it...

Especially when the temps get really low, cause that ice is thick! 

This spell was cold enough it froze almost every one of our creeks as well...

We had one that had a couple of spots that were running enough to stay open, but just barely...

Usually Caleb brags about not havin' to chop much ice in all our cattle pastures, because of all the running water, but this past week that didn't matter one bit.

We were choppin' ice, like crazy....

I use the term "we" loosely, cause well Caleb did most of the choppin', but I did always chop the ice for our beef calf, so that counts for something.

Generally he would cut a square / rectangle  in the ice....

And he would shove pieces out away from the hole, so we would have plenty of room for what we would be choppin' the next day.

Occasionally we would get someone who would patiently wait till he was done so she could go and get a drink.

This is how thick the ice was daily when we would go to chop the holes back open. Generally at least 3 inches thick or so...

The nice thing about this spot, was that it was deep enough...

Caleb could shoot the ice chunk underneath the ice layer and you didn't have to mess with tryin' to get those chunks out of the hole.

The temps have gone up some but the ponds still haven't melted fully....

It's gonna take a while to melt all that ice, but at least the holes aren't freezing back solid anymore.

Well I am off to get some house work done...

Later this week I will put up all the snow pics I got from last week as well as a pic of our new dining room table.

Laters,

JP