New Years Eve, 2011

Here I sit, at the computer. Tyler is playing Wii Football, Katie is in her room, and Garry is watering Aisa, who is in the back barn tonight, since it is snowing/raining. He is probably also helping Tom and Sunshine finish chores, since that is the kind of guy he is :)


Katie and I fed calves, and moved all the "off milk" calves to the newly emptied pen in my back barn. Yeah! That means tomorrow I have 22 less pails of water, and feed to carry!!


Chad, Tyler and Garry went ice fishing today, catching quite a few. Even two very large Northern. They cleaned them while Katie and I fed calves.




Looking back at 2011 I have to say it was a pretty good year! We had some down times, and plenty of controversy, but when you work so closely with another family you're bound to have some of that.

We had our dairy breakfast, a fantastic fair, and a super family vacation. We've spent time with great friends, and our wonderful families. Lots of ice fishing happened this year, and horseback riding. Hopefully even more of both for next year! Tyler and Garry both got to go bow hunting, Tyler got his first deer with the bow!

Here's to hoping that 2012 brings us lots of snow(for Tyler and that snowmobile), sunshine, and an adequate amount of rainfall! Lots of love, laughter, and time with family and friends!

As far as resolutions......... I have a few things that I am going to try to make more time for this year, and pay more attention to.

1. Create more! Hopefully everyday will have some creative time in it for me!

2. Move more! Try to be more active and more in shape.

3. Eat less! Been making a conscious effort to pay attention to what I'm eating.

4. Be more organized! Spend a little more time everyday trying to keep up with the day to day mess!

5. Spend more time with family and friends! Very important part of being a happy, healthy person!

Well, I think its off to bed for me, I'll see 2012 in the morning!

October 16th photo a day, nothing for the 15th :(

Its been an emotional couple of days here. I have a horse that is almost 30 years old, and her health has been failing since August. Then I brought Aisa, (shown above) in from pasture and found her to be blind. Alot of tears were shed, but the decision was made to have the vet out and put them both to sleep today.

However, in the days between then and now Aisa's eyesight has improved, so I was spared the double heartbreak, and only had to lose one of my best friends today. Tomorrows post will be about Betsy, whom we did have to have put down today. I will share her photo, that will be for the 17th, tomorrow also.

Todays photo wasn't taken by me, but by Katie. I wanted some last photos to show the relationship with Aisa. I have had Aisa since I was 15 or 16, and I just turned 38. Her health is good right now besides the eye trouble. We got ointment for her eyes to use for a few days, and they should be good again. I am happy to be able to have my friend around for a little while longer.

October 14th photo a day

Photo from the 14th, which was my birthday. Had 3 birthday presents waiting for me in the pasture, 2 heifers and a bull.

October 13th Photo a Day

Gorgeous sunset! Have to add the others I took too!

Follow up photos and eyeliner

This is yesterdays duct tape heifer, she is looking good this morning. I hurried up to check on her this morning and leave a chart with feeding directions for my sister in law. Shorty has an appointment this morning for a pain shot in his spine and I have to be his driver.

I took a couple of pictures of the calf from the 10th this morning to show you his cool eyes. Katie calls him the mad hatter, he looks like he is wearing a little hat on his head. He also looks like he has black eyeliner on. His eyelashes are white, except for a few in the middle on one side.

He sure is a cutie! I love my job!

Well, off to wake the kids and go look for new babies quick, then to the appointment.

Duct tape and the new calf....

We had a new calf born this morning! I know, we've had a new calf each morning for several days. This one is special because we bought her mom at auction and hoped she'd have a heifer right away. Nope, her first calf for us was a bull calf. He did get the distinction of being kept as a herd bull on our farm. After having her conceive again we hoped for a heifer. Then she was diagnosed with leukemia, and was given a bad prognosis. The vet suggested that we cut our losses and ship her right away. We decided to keep her and see how things went.

Yeah! We got our heifer! Shorty brought her in to my barn, but there's no room at the inn :(

So, she gets to be tied for a few hours till we can clean a pen for her. When I went to dip her navel I noticed a problem. She seemed to have the inside of her navel hanging outside of her.

After calling the vet it was suggested that we try to keep it clean, in case it needs to go back in. I don't think it needs to, I think they'll just trim it off, tie it off and sew the hole shut. But, we did want to keep it clean, in case. The vet suggested covering it with something, then duct taping the covering to her.

She also wanted nothing to do with our regular calf nipples. She is pretty small, and I remembered that when our premie was born I had bought a lamb nipple in case he couldn't use the regular nipples. She latched right on to that one, and drank a whole bottle of colostrum replacer.

I took a picture to show the difference in size of the nipples.

Well, off to check on baby! Will post after pictures later, and the vets diagnosis.

October 11th Photo a Day

This was the second calf of my day, both of them mostly white. At least this one is a keeper....she's a girl!

October 10th Photo a Day

I helped deliver this bull calf this morning! One of my favorite parts of my life and job! Got this nice picture of mom and baby before we took the baby to my barn.

October 9th Photo a Day

Sunrise this morning on my way to the barn...

October 8th Photo a Day

Had to go with 2 photos today. My niece Emily was here tonight and "helped" with chores. She supervised the barn cats eating while Katie and I took care of the calves. She insisted that one of the black kittens is hers, but her mom still wouldn't let her take it home!

October 7th Photo a Day

The river across the road from our house.

Oct. 6th Photo a Day

I know I used this scene once already, but I've been taking pics up here almost daily to watch the changes in the scenery. I think this one is gorgeous.

Oct. 5th Photo a Day

My girls in the "maternity ward" or the dry cow pen. Beautiful fall foliage.

Oct. 4th Photo a Day

Spent Tuesday in Madison for the World Dairy Expo with the Shell Lake FFA Dairy Judging Team. It was perfect because I had enough time to get to the boothes that I wanted to visit, bought what we needed, and still got home at a decent hour!

Oct. 3rd Photo a Day

I'm drawn to outside fall color pictures! This little lake is a mile and a half from our house, it finally has some water in it again after all the drought. We are off to the World Dairy Expo tomorrow, Shorty coaches the FFA dairy judging kids and their contest is tomorrow.

Oct. 2nd Photo a Day

This photo shows off some of the beauty that surrounds our farm in this little valley.

Oct 1st Photo a Day

Katie told me about a pretty area nearby that the bus goes by. So, off we went in search of a photo op.This pretty little spot is about 2 miles from home on Sand Road. My first photo for a Photo a Day in October. Practicing for next year when I want to do Project Life.

The October Stamp of the Month, Holiday Magic, is available during October, and can be purchased for just $5.00 with a $50.00 purchase. You can also buy it outright for 17.95. I love the sleigh and the stocking! I will be placing my order soon! If you are interested in this, or any other Close To My Heart products you can order from my website( at right), or by calling or e-mailing me!

Circle of Life

We have had a run of bad luck with our dry cows(cows due in the next 2 months) lately. We had one that was sick, the vet couldn't find what was wrong with her. She was dying right in front of us, and the vet was still there. She wasn't due for 4 weeks, and was having a calf that had outstanding bloodlines. We made the decision to have the vet try an emergency c-section in hopes that the calf's lungs would be developed enough to breathe. We had a very poor outcome from that one, the calf, a heifer, had already died inside mom, so we lost both of them.

2 weeks later we had another dry cow come up sick, also with 4 weeks till her due date. Got the vet out right away and were given the diagnosis that she was dying from a long term internal infection, the best we could hope for was to keep her alive long enough for the calf to develop.
Very sad news since we had lost her mother at the age of 13 1/2 this spring. The decision was made to wait as long as possible then give her a shot that would prepare the calf's lungs for birth. The shot would also put her into labor within 36 hours, so we needed to wait as long as possible. A week later the decision was made to give the shot , as she was declining rapidly.
When I went to check on her again, before we'd given the shot, I could tell she didn't have 36 hours. I would have been surprised if she lasted 3. Another call to the vet, only to find out that he was in the Twin Cities, and couldn't come out.
Having seen the last one done, my hubby decided to try it on our own. Our hired hand mercifully ended her life as my husband cut and went in after the calf. He was able to get him out and the little guy gasped for air. I toweled him dry and we put him in our calf warmer for the night.
He did take a couple days to be able to stand, and took a VERY long time to finish his bottle at first. He is the one that I am feeding in the above photo with my niece, Emily, and also in the other photo wearing his jacket.

Hoping to post more often.....

Sunshine

The sun is shining and its a beautiful day! My "aged" girls have had their calves, and both seem to be doing well. Unfortunately, only bull calves, three of them actually. 812 had her twin bull calves on May 1st, as predicted by me, (both the date and twins!). I was hoping they were twin heifers though. Theresa had her bull calf last night, he's very cute though!

They are all three gone already, went to Granzin's for boarding as we will have too many calves for my hutches in a very short time.

Still dealing with the loss of my Sputter cat. Its been very hard for me, as he was almost a constant companion in the house. I miss him so much. The other two don't fill the space he had in my life, he was very special. Always on my chest/shoulder if I was on the computer, always on my lap if I was watching tv and always on my pillow with me when I was in bed.

Above is a picture of Sputter with my dad. He didn't really care who was in the computer chair, he wanted to be on their chest/shoulder! Love and miss you Sputter!

Rain...

Woke up today thinking I could hear Burl barking and worried that the horses were out. Got up and dressed, let Heidi out to find that what I heard is rain hitting everything. Looks like all day rain today, forecast for just over an inch. The 15 day shows only 2 days with any sun. Hoping that alot of the other days have sun, just not all day. Actually hoping they are just wrong, and we have lots of sunshine :)

Saved a heifer calf yesterday. Momma was calving in a poopy area of the pasture so we brought her inside to pull baby. Baby was quite large, and stuck for awhile as momma's body didn't seem to want to let go. The guys all said she was brain dead, no blinking and tongue hanging out. But, she was breathing and I said she WOULD make it, just let me take care of her. Over the next ten minutes I was told at least 5 times that something was broke, she was brain dead, she wouldn't make it. I kept protesting, and after 15 minutes of toweling her and keeping her propped up and sternal she pulled in her tongue. A minute later her eyes blinked. YEAH!!!!! She ate her full bottle of colostrum an hour later and ate good last night. She is getting herself around her pen and in her hutch too.

Days like that I absolutely LOVE my job!

She is by Roy, one of the last few straws we have, and a granddaughter of 827, one of our best milkers. Her mommas daddy is Bolton, and her momma was my runaway calf from 2 years ago. Born in the south shed, in February, well below zero, and found in the middle of the night in the road in front of the barn. Quite a jaunt for a newborn!

Well, thats all for now, better get my morning started.

An update

I am going to try this again, try to be better about keeping this blog updated. It is spring break around here, so the kids are home and life is good.

Katie is working on getting Honey started under saddle, so far the under saddle is going ok, but we aren't going to try a rider yet! She has a little too much energy so far with the saddle. We'll wait till she can go around the round pen without bucking and crow hopping to try a rider.

Tyler is off doing field work, a job he is not really fond of. But, as long as the tractor has a radio and he can at least hear the Brewer games he is not too mad.

I have much spring cleaning that I would like to get done, but not alot of ambition to go with it!

Well, thats all for now. I'll be trying to keep up a little better!