I heard the bull likes pretty blondes.

I'm ba-ack!

So, you've all heard of a 'fair weather friend'?  Well, I've decide that I must be a foul weather blogger.  It's just a lot easier to keep up with blog posts when the weather is foul and I'm stuck inside more.  I haven't posted since last JULY!  Just like everyone else, we got busy with the garden, the crops, the cattle, the kids...ya know, life in general.  Anyhow, after Quentin left for school this morning Maci and I looked out the kitchen window and saw all of the beautiful snow on the trees.  'Beautiful snow' is not exactly the phrase Ryan uses when referring to it, but we shared our hot chocolate with him so he sweetened up a little! 

 Maci and I decided to bundle up, get our cameras and head outside.

 We caught Ryan strolling by--he was working on his semi truck out in the driveway.  Hmmm, maybe that's why he's not so fond of the snow!

 So, off we went for our snowy day adventure.  Here's a few photos we took:

Hope everyone out in blogger-land is doing well!

Fixin' Fence

Fixin' Fence with the Slater's

1.  Load up your fencing supplies.

2. Load up your kids.

3. Pound in the posts.

4. Cut the wire.

5. Wire on the barbed wire strands.

6. Have a little fun with the kiddos!

There you have it!

Gully Washer

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  Maci and I had several things we wanted to get done, but Ryan had other plans for us.  So, we played taxi most of the morning.  Moving him to a different farm and running for parts.  We knew when Quentin got home we had to take him to town for practices, so we decided to do our cattle chores early.  Good thing we did!  Of course, the cattle weren't up at the bunks because it was earlier than normal feedin' time.  So, we had to drive back in the pasture and find them--gotta get a proper head count.  As we were driving back out we started seeing raindrops on the windshield.

Whew!  Just in time!  It started out with a few sprinkles, but it turned into a gully washer!  It came down fast.  Within a couple hours it stopped and I had this much water in the feed bucket that was in the back of my pickup...

We measured 4 1/2 inches!!!

We decided to go for a drive to check everything out.  The creek behind our house was running really high and you can see by the grass that it had been even higher.

The water in our neighbor's pond was coming out around the side of the dam.

The next picture is the bottom of the hill in our field (corn, this year).  It looks like half the farm washed down and covered the little corn plants out there.  Sure wish we wouldn't have had that early snow last fall,  so we would have been able to do the terrace work on this part of the farm.  That would have helped, but with this heavy of a rain it also could have blown out a new terrace pretty fast.

The cattle were okay and still in.  The fences will need a little work, but they were okay for the night.

All is well.  Now we just need a few days to dry up. 

BEEF...it's what's for dinner

We recently had one of our cows butchered. 

How much beef do you get from a cow?

That deep freeze is plum full too!  The only things that were there before were in that shallow basket on the left and a few packages of deer sausage & jerky on the bottom.

Even had to put some in the beer pop fridge in the basement!

So, at our house....

BEEF, it's what for dinner!

...and lunch...and breakfast...and midnight snack...

Creep Feeding our Calves

We have now moved most of our cows and their calves to pasture.  The calves need a little 'extra' since they are still nursing.  This is why we creep feed.  According to Iowa State University creep feeding is defined as follows:

Creep feeding is the practice of providing supplemental

feed to nursing calves, usually with the use of a creep
gate large enough for calves to enter the feeding area,
but too small to allow cows to pass.

Creep feed provides a high protein supplement for the growing calves.  There are many mixtures of creep feeds that can be used, depending on the calves, pasture conditions, etc.  We have our creep feed specially mixed at one of our local feed mills.  It is a mixture of distillers and soybean hulls.  For those of you who are not familiar, distillers is a corn by-product of the ethanol process.  It is an excellent, less expensive source of protein, energy, vitamins and minerals.  We have an ethanol plant in our town, so it is also readily available.  We also feed distillers to our cows, bulls and mix it in with our chicken feed. 

Okay, back to the topic at hand.  Creep feeding requires a special feeder called....a creep feeder.  Our creep feeder is old, but it was also free. Hey, can't beat that! This is how we do it:

1.  Load up everything and drive to the pasture in the Ranger (our favorite mode of transportation this time of year).

2.  Feed the mamas at the bunks first.

3.  Open the top of the creep feeder. 

4.  Fill 'er up!

5.  Pet the calves a little.  Notice the gate that the calves, but not the cows, can get in to eat.

 

6.  Supper time!

Have a great day everybody!

Moo-ving Day

Last weekend we moved our cattle from the pasture to the lot at our house.  It was time--the Little Rascals are continuing to get out and go on adventures around the farm.  Quentin took all of the pictures and came up with the name for this post.  Good job Quentin!

First, we ran them around the house, through the yard.  This is Quentin's favorite picture because he caught some of the cows jumping.

Then, across the driveway...

..and into the lot.  There's always a straggler or two that have to check things out along the way.

Check em over and make sure they're all here.

Then, line up for the buffet!

The kids love these bunks because they can get so close to the cattle.

Little Rascals

By now we have quite a few baby calves and they've formed quite a posse.  Today Maci and I were coming home and what did we see waiting for us at the end of the driveway?  All of the baby calves!  They are getting way too brave.  It started out that they would venture out under the electric fence, but never get too far away from mama.  In these pictures you can see that they are close to the yard.  The electric fence actually ends back where you see the mamas standing. 

That was all the further that they had ventured....until today.  Today they came into the back yard, around the house and down the driveway.  I honked the horn and they all went running back to their mamas.  Problem solved?

Nope, they ventured out again.  This is them wondering through our back yard.  They also went into the timber area and wondered around.   ...or, as Maci put it: "Mom, they're goin' into the prickers and thorns!"

Then, they wondered into the side yard.  That's where all the fun toys are! ...the playhouse, the soccer net, the swingset, the sandbox...

Then, Maci and I decided that we shouldn't let them get any farther so, we shooed them back to their moms.

Usually, when we're not home our trusty dog, Myles, makes sure these little runaways don't get too far.  It was raining today, though, so we left him in the basement while we went to town.  We did let him back out later...and forgot about him for a while.  What's a dog to do when it's cold and rainy and he's stuck outside?

Hang out by the dryer vent to keep warm!!