Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May Day Kittens

Wow, its already May 1st! Where does the time go? The boys made it home from Madison on Friday night. No results on the web still, but the kids did get results yesterday in school. As a team they placed 19th out of approx. 60 teams, and Tyler placed 54th for individuals. A pretty good job for  our team of freshmen, they have 3 more years to work at it!

Saturday morning we had our weigh in for sheep and swine for Show-n-Sale. Here are a couple of pics.




On Saturday Tyler spent time chisel plowing, I took some pictures for his FFA projects. Our farm is in the background, this is one of a small number of our fields that are right at home. Most are 2-15 miles away.


Katie spent some time working with Honey, getting her used to new things and experiences. The bridge didn't faze her one bit.

Later Saturday I drove both kids to the other farm so they could weigh and lead their fair steers. Tyler is undecided yet between two of his, Katie has been decided since she saw hers. She has had a calf from the same cow at Beaver Brook Farm for 3 years now. Steve, Little Steve, and....well, Steve. I didn't get pics of Tyler's the one that he weighed was CRAZY! He was however, already over 1200 pounds! BIG! Great to see my kids work together to get them caught and weighed.



Monday we had concrete people here to tear out part of our freestall barn to make a new cleaning system. We had to chase the cows out of the barn, and around the end to the parlor. They were so excited, they ran and bucked and beat on each other. It was quite a process. This morning went better. Hopefully they get it done and fixed soon!


This morning I had help to do my chores, Emily came while Kylie and Maddi were at an appointment in Siren.


We also had babies overnight, Buttercup had 4 little ones, and in my barn where we can find them and have them tame and friendly for giving away.


Well, thats all for now. I'm off to take care of my babies!




Thursday, April 26, 2012

April 26th, 2012

Started today off with Katie staying home this morning to feed calves so that I could help get cows ready for classifying. The classifier showed up early, so we didn't get to have any "ready". I did ask him if dairies of our size, (100 cows), usually have them prepped and pretty, or if our set-up is normal. He said no one has time anymore to clip and prep the cows, ours was normal.

When I got home Katie was showering, to go to school. 30 minutes later she didn't look so good, said she was dizzy, and felt warm to my touch. Temp was only 99, but normal for her and myself, is 97.7. She ended up staying home and slept half the day away.

Photo of our ornamental apple tree outside the house. This is an "odd" year, and only the one branch has lots of blossoms. On even years the rest of the tree is covered and this branch has only a few. Weird!

I gave Shorty a ride to town, so he could meet up with the rest of the FFA Dairy and Livestock Judging Teams to go to Madison for the State Competition. Wishing them the best of luck tomorrow!

Katie and I fed calves, fed Aisa, and watered the horses, here are some random pics...

 Hunter is always ready for an escaping calf!

Katie feeding the baby that I assisted with yesterday.




The barn cats, hanging around waiting for some food and love!


A random photo of Snickers curled up in the straw. However, when I uploaded it PSE wanted to know who was the face....The end of the calf dryer!



 We have decided on Kraft Mac n Cheese for supper, then I think bed sounds good....I get the WHOLE thing to myself tonight!