Breakfast Buffet...

This is a typical scene during feeding time....
This is what happens when you're only 40 lbs and sharing a food tub with someone who's atleast 750lbs and hungrier...

Darn it....shoved out again....

Grow Your Own!

This is a link I recently found and when I can find some time, I plan to take part in it. It's not that hard to grow a little something. It can even be done in a pot on your kitchen windowsill!

I did a lesson for Enrichment (a monthly meeting for ladies at church) a couple of months ago on gardening large and small. I had the ladies planting tomatoes and peppers in pots. They loved it and I was surprised that many of the plants had been well tended and were producing for them!

Some of the things we love to eat grown on our place: marinated cucumbers, tomato sandwiches, egg sandwiches (both on homemade bread), smothered pork chops, pork roast with gravy, sausage gravy and homemade biscuits, omelets, french toast from homemade bread and our eggs, lamb stew, lamb curry, rosemary lamb chops, stuffed cabbage rolls, veggie soup sometimes with meats-many times without. Soon we'll be having ribs and steaks, hamburgers and roasts...all from our steer calf. Steve can't wait! Then it'll be time to put the fall garden in. YUM!

Some cuteness for today and farm stuff...

I've watched them play 'King of the hill/stool', but 'King of the hole'? That's a new one on me!
The chickens dug this hole from an old ant bed...chickens love to take dust baths to help keep the bugs off of them. This particular hole is a foot deep and atleast a foot wide. There is a whole next to it too. Often we'll catch the babies laying next to it and then when we look again, they've fallen in and are trying frantically to get themselves out...too funny!
I-Pod, the boer x buckling (his mother's name is Blackberry, LOL) seems to be wispering something into his ear, LOL.
What...we're not up to anything at all!
This is our bull calf...hopefully he'll be our steer calf soon. He loves this wooden spool. He rubs his head and sides on it and he rolls it all around the paddock out there. Goofy calf.
We did lose a little female sheep baby. We're not exactly sure what happened with her. We noticed this past month that she wasn't growing nearly as good as the others and was a bit smaller; she just seemed to keep loosing weight even though she was eating and nursing. She would also throw up when the kids picked her up they said...I never saw that though. We did all sorts of stuff for her, but a few days ago she laid up under the horse trailer (the babies favorite spot) and passed on...that stinks, but it happens unfortunately...

If only he knew...

If he knew he was going to be going to Freezer Camp in the near future, then he would not come anywhere near me! LOL...

Today was a bit of a breakthrough. The calf we got turned out to be one of the most standoffish of the bunch. Even the owner was surprised. I told them that it wouldn't take too long for him get used to someone messing with him though. Patience and food seems to always work! I started sitting on a bucket and letting him get used to eating near me, then I moved closer. Then I started trying to touch his forehead. I would leave once he let me touch it without moving away. I had to be sort of quick though since at first he would move away a lot...now I can actually sit there and after a few minutes, I can scratch his whole head, check his ears out and scratch all down his neck. I like to be able to handle or atleast get near and touch all my animals...even the soon to be food ones. I need to be able to keep a check on their weight, trim feet, check eyes/teeth, and tend wounds if needed. He has what looks to be some hair loss around his right ear. I think he's got some itchiness there and I'm going to have to spray something on it...another reason for him to get used to me handling his ears...I've been making a lot of spraying noises too as I sit near him. I would like to be able to use some citronella during the summer for a little fly control. I don't like using a lot of chemicals on my animals, especially the ones we are going to eat, but I hate for them to be tortured by the amount of bugs we have here.

We also are starting to get more pullet eggs! They are so little compared to our older hens' eggs. Little Man likes them for breakfast...call's them his miniature eggs. LOL.

A beautiful crisp day...

I know...kinda like seeing a kid pick their nose and eating it...still it was a funny shot that I didn't think I actually got!

There is no rain today. Hallelujah! I hope it stays gone until the start of summer!

One of our goats in is labor today. She has been up and down most of the morning. B keeps checking on her, watching her, keeping me up to date, minute by minute, of what she's doing-Mom, she's laying down. Mom, she has something hanging. Mom, she's up. Mom, she's walking around. Mom, she went into the shed. Mom, she's back down again.... LOL. That girl can be so obsessive when something interests her.

Our friends called us last night to say that our calf can be picked up. We headed over there when Steve got home and got him loaded up. He pretty much just went on in. That was so nice because he's a pretty big boy and no one wanted to have to fight him to get in! He did try and slip his big butt under the gate that we had blocking the way out of the barn; I was worried for a few seconds as we rushed forward to shoo him back. But I was mainly wondering about what we were going to do when we got home...we couldn't bring the trailer into the yard to the opening of the pen...still too wet-imagine that... I will give a huge thumbs up to my hubby though. He brought that trailer and truck in here, turned that thing around, avoiding the new fence, carport poles, basketball goal post and stayed on the cement for the most part. He got it put back just right after a few tries, without having to turn around in the yard like we normally have to do! Good job honey!

My friends will have to come back out to our house though and band the calf (a castration procedure). He is a big boy, already weighing in at over 600 lbs. We'll feed him out for the next 90 days and see how big he is then. He is a Hereford and is mooing like a maniac out there. He won't really let us near him, but that's ok...I don't like getting too friendly with something that we've 'named' Sirloin, LOL! (B likes to name everything even if it's destined to be food...sick child, LOL).

Here are our cutie little kids-the four legged kind that is. I need to get a video of them. They are a hoot to watch. As always...who needs TV when you have a farm full of animals?! They were playing chase here....

Ugh....More rain!

I was so glad this week. We'd had no rain for more than 5 days....a big too-daa here, and the mud was finally just dirt again...I was all set to go get my calf yesterday only to find out they were out of town. I was going to head out this evening to get him, but then came the rain. Now I can't get into the yard with the trailer. Of course if I could just learn to back the thing into the driveway and down the drive, it wouldn't be so bad, but well...I can be a bit goofy and I'm sure I'd end up with a not very pleasant bill from the wrecker company after having them tow me out of the deep ditch on either side of my driveway. Steve would be just thrilled with that especially since it'd be his truck in the mess! I'm quite sure that I don't need to start practicing now.

So I'll wait a few more days and see if it starts to dry up again.

On another note. B helped me clean up the carport and take all the horse stuff and feed cans out to the horse shed. I'm going to use it for storage now since we have the other shelter to feed under. Steve will be so glad to get all the stuff off the carport and we won't have to haul feed twice a day to the back and get attacked by the goats on the way in...those goats will knock you over for a smiggen of feed...bunch of pigs they are. Now we'll be able to make the buckers out there and feed everyone without getting mauled all the way to the troughs, LOL!

Got a pic of Hunter and the kids outside the other day. They were having a blast on the trampoline and Hunter thought he must have been missing something and popped right up there with them. Goofy dog!

Of course here's the videos of the three of them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw_EVkHUevY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19UkvYzEbdo

What a beautiful day...

So Thursday afternoon (when all the rain had finally stopped) we headed over to our friends farm and picked out our bull calf; too cute too! We'll pick him up when the ground dries up so we can get the trailer in the yard. I don't feel like wrangling a 500 lb calf across the backyard to the pen when I can just back the trailer into it instead!

We also got the dryer back...with no squeaking! May it last another 10 yrs!

I popped a letter off to the head of the Conn's company in Beaumont, TX. I had also recently filled out a 'rate your experience' card and had made a note that I was extremely unsatisfied with how things were being handle with my freezer. A lady called me about it yesterday (sort of a surprise really) and I told her what had been going on so far. She emailed it all to another office and stated that they would be calling me. I also told her that I would be writing a letter to their main office. So now we'll see what happens. By the way, the ice has built up so bad on the door that it's now touching the inside top and forming an ice patch there...the repair man just came on Tuesday and had cleaned the door off...so in less than 4 days a thick layer of ice has already formed. These people are nuts if they think that I should have to put up with all this for a new freezer!

We now have 3 goats that are bagging up and so we'll see who goes first. Most likely Blackberry, our black and white boer goat. I can't wait to see the babies!

At 2pm we are running over to the church building to clean. The kids are excited as they'll be able to use the humongous vacuum cleaner! They think that thing is fun. LOL. Wish they thought that about the one we have here at home!

Oh, good grief!

Why is it that my goofy little colt has to bite, taste, grab, and fiddle with every little thing around this place. I even bought the goofball a Jolly Ball in hopes he'd leave more things alone. He does play with it, quite a lot, but he plays with everything else too...the tin on the goat shed, the chicken's tail feathers as the poor dears walk by, a halter he might see on the fence, the water tub, the tarp on the shelter, and now the spigot on the water pipe. Unfortunately he has this fetish about it lately. Maybe I should have sprayed the thing with that bitter apple stuff! We had to wrap the pipe when the cold weather hit last week to keep it from freezing...I should have known he'd discover the newness the next morning! He played with the insulated wrap and then seemed to let it be for a few days. Yesterday he took a big hold of it and pulled...pulled the darn pipe sideways...it was set in concrete when it was put in...of course now it has a crack in the pipe and was spewing water. So I had to dig up the pipe and of course when things like that happen on a farm it's not discovered during the day when it's warmer and light out... There I was in the dark with my little funny headlamp on, digging out the area where the turn off valve was supposed to be, getting wet while water was going everywhere. Come to find out, the valve stem (which we knew had lost the turner last year ) was practically rusted down to nothing! I barely got the water turned off before it broke completely off. So on Steve's next day off we'll be digging up old pipe and concrete and setting a new system...no valves underground! No pipes accessible to horses! LOL!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to my friends house to pick out my calf. I won't be bringing him home yet. It rained too much and I can't get the trailer in the yard now.