New bottle calves

We've been busy with springtime activities around here. One nice thing about the snow is that it covered up all the junk we still have around here. So we've been doing some cleanup outside. The upside is we've taken a couple of loads of metal to the scrap yard, and they actually pay us money for it! We've got a long way to go, but there has been improvement.

Tim fell through the front deck the other day and scraped up his leg, so Sheryll thinks it's time to do something about that. That led to moving the fence by the driveway, since the only way to get up onto the deck and to the front door was to come inside the chain link fence. Laddie's a pretty big dog, so most folks would rather not do that. So we're moving the fence so that the deck will no longer be in the fenced in area, and you'll be able to walk from the driveway up onto the deck and to the front door.

We're moving the manure from the corral to the gardens so that we can start planting soon. We're already behind on potatoes and peas, but at least we're still ahead of last year. :-)

I've been wanting to get some bottle calves in order to to use some of our excess milk, but the first time we went to the auction they went for quite a bit more money than I expected. So I wanted to try again, but ended up working for UPS the day of the auction. So I came home on break and picked up Trevor, and we headed to the auction. I dropped him off with instructions on what we wanted and how much he could bid up to, and he ended up getting us two bottle calves! The lady at the front desk told him they were heifers, (they don't make that clear when they auction them off) but when we went to pick them up they were both bull calves. Trevor said, "She told me they were heifers!" The guy lifted their tails and said, "Well she may have said that, but she was wrong!" Oh well, we'll keep looking for our future moms for the herd. It was funny when we went to pick them up, because I was still in my UPS uniform. The guy said, "Are you here to deliver something?" I said, "No, I'm here to pick up a couple of bottle calves." He said, "You're kidding...in your truck?" and looks outside for the UPS truck. I said, "No, we're putting them in that back of that 15 passenger van."

Tanner wants me to blog about the leaves he raked up. When I moved the fence there were lots of last fall's leaves that had blown up against it. It was a big job to rake them all up and get them to the compost pile. The younger boys wanted to help, and they all started strong, but only Tanner stayed with the job until he got it all done. I was very proud of his diligence.

It was truly a pleasure yesterday when I watched Tyler and Trevor moving manure with the tractor bucket (they filled it with a pitchfork and shovel since the pile was too close to the feeder to pick it up with the bucket) while I repaired the electric fence paddock to get the cows to more grass today. It's such a blessing to have their help!

We have been meeting Sunday mornings with two other families for home church, and are really enjoying it. We still meet with the original larger group Saturday nights, but most of them are plugged into other churches on Sunday. So those of us that weren't attending a church are meeting together.

Tucker and I leave this Thursday for Minneapolis for the regional Junior Bible Quiz meet. That should be fun. We'll return either late Saturday night or Sunday afternoon.

Until next time...

Moose!

I let the kids sleep in this morning and headed out to do the chores alone. (More later on why that is now an option) It was a clear/still morning with the temp just above freezing. As I headed back to the house with the milk, it was not fully daylight and I saw movement in the trees about a hundred yards away. It took me a bit to figure out what it was, and then I quickly headed into the house for the camera. It was a moose and her calf walking right through our back yard just behind the fence. First time I'd ever seen moose around here, so it was an event for me!

The floor in the dining room and the entry way is now complete.

Since our last post, we sold Star. We started letting the cows outside during the day, and the second day we did that Sheryll said, "Uh, there's a cow in the front yard!" Not what you want to hear as you're climbing into the shower. By the time I got dressed and outside, she had herded Star out of the ditch by the highway and back into the yard. We got some grain and got her back in the barn. Granted, it was a weak/low spot in the fence that she jumped, but true to form she was the only one to jump the fence. We decided to advertise her for sale, and on the second day the ad ran, we sold her. We kept her calf and put it in with Daisy and her calf, and Daisy was kind enough to adopt her. So now we're not even milking Daisy, because the calves take all the milk! So we're back to just milking Bell, which really lowers the stress level at chore time.

Tucker and I just returned from the state JBQ competition yesterday, where his team took third place out of 11 teams. Courtney was too old to compete at state, and Tanner was in the "B" league and they don't compete at state. So just Tucker and I went. Now they have qualified for regionals in Minneapolis the end of this month. We're not sure how that is going to play out, yet.

Going to bed now!

68 degrees

It was 68 degrees today, and I was working outside in a t-shirt. The snow in the yard is all melted and the mud is drying out. Spring is here!

Since our last blog, we have added a calf to the farm. I was determined to try to catch the cow while calving, so when it looked like all the signs were there that she was ready, I started to check her in the middle of the night. The morning she calved, I had checked her at 3:30 am, and really expected her to be calving. But she was just laying there chewing her cud. When we went out to the barn to milk at 6, I was getting the milk room ready and Tyler went out into the barn to get the grain for milking. He came right back and said, "Uh, Dad? Daisy is calving right now." I went out and looked, and there was a portion of the water bag out that was about the size of a cantelope.

We kept on with milking/chores while keeping an eye on her. After about 15 minutes with no change, I called Don Ost. He said had to go to work and wouldn't be able to stop by. Expecting UPS to call at any moment, I wasn't sure what I was going to do if Daisy had trouble. However, all of a sudden things began to progress rapidly, and within 10 minutes the calf was out and Daisy was up licking it dry. Sure enough, UPS called and I had to leave for work, so I told the kids to rotate keeping watch on the calf so I would know if it sucked and got a good supply of colostrum by the time I got home. They say that it's critical for a calf to get mom's first milk within the first 6 hours of life.

By the time I got home around 1000, the calf had sucked several times so all was well. So we are now milking three cows and getting around 6 gallons of milk a day. That's a lot of milk! Fortunately, our customer base is growing. Today a lady stopped by for 5 gallons. Sure is nice when that happens!

Star is still the hyper cow. I call her the rodeo queen. I'll have to post a video of her at milking time. When we open her stall, she goes bucking and kicking at a run into the milk room to get the grain. Fortunately, she settles down pretty fast once she gets her nose in the grain bucket. She hasn't kicked anybody in a while, either.

We finally decided to go with laminate flooring in the dining room. It had some pretty nasty carpet in it, so that is now gone and I have most of the laminate down. It has been a family project, and when all of the children were outside enjoying the weather, Sheryll was helping me install the long runs. It definitely improves the looks of things!

Latest happenings

Well, it's looking a little like spring around here! At 9 pm tonight it was still above freezing, and there's quite a bit of melting going on.

We took Emily to the airport today and she headed back to Texas. Bummer! We miss her already. She sure was a blessing to us. Hard to believe she was here for almost two months.

The one Holstein we were going to "babysit" turned into two Holstein/Jersey mix cows that we bought. One has already had her calf. We came out to do chores this past Friday morning and there it lay, still a little wet but doing well. Not nearly as stressful as the last time, and he seems to be healthy. We started milking Mom, AKA "Star" yesterday. Now we realize what a calm, amiable, patient, longsuffering, kind-hearted, placid, etc. etc. cow that Bell is. Star is not. She drew blood on Trevor's hand when she kicked him while he was attempting to put the milk machine on her. Later we were trying to get her out of her stall, and Trevor was at least 3 feet away to her side. The calf was in front of her and he reached out to get the calf to move so we could get Star out, and...whack! She kicked him right in the knee. He expressed a desire to shoot her, but I talked him out of it. I was sure he was out of her reach, but we both now know how far a cow can kick to the side. She is a first-calf heifer, so I guess we have to cut her some slack. Wow, is Bell a good cow! The gentlemen we bought her from assures us that Star will be a great milk cow as well...she just needs training and we need patience. I sure hope he's right.

Is he cute, or what?

The calf on Mom at just a couple of hours old.

Now that's an icicle!

Tucker seems to be enjoying the task!

Sheryll gets in on the milking. We won't be taking any pictures like this with Star anytime soon!

Sheryll sledding/Callie's train

Thanks for the "kid's" sled, Poppy!

The interpretation is "It's a yellow chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo!"

What's new in February

The biggest news here is that Tyler got a job in Minot with his apprenticeship program, so he's living with us now. It's a lot of fun having him here. He has jumped right into farm life, helping with chores morning and evening. He goes back to Grand Forks on the weekends to check on his apartment, go to his part time job there at the movie theater and plays bass guitar at his church. He gave his 2 week notice to the theater this weekend, so I think he's going to make the trip every other week after that's finished.

I started working with UPS this past week. It's going well so far. Emily was supposed to go home yesterday, but wanted to extend her stay for a few weeks. We quickly took her up on that! She will go back to Texas on March 7th.

Sheryll made me Valentine pancakes. :-) Didn't think of taking the picture until I had already consumed one, though.

Looks like we wore Emily out!

Courtney loves animals!

We found a good deal on a 1994 Yamaha VMax 600 snowmobile. The children have been enjoying it...especially Trevor!

The UHaul isn't going anywhere soon!

Snowflake gets a bottle every day now. We leave Bell outside the stall all day until evening milking, so we give her a bottle in the afternoon to hold her over. We're offering calf starter to her, and as soon as she's eating it regularly we plan to wean her.

It is pretty up here!

Carrie keeps on growing!

Lots of pics

Well, we made it through another storm unscathed. Actually, the storm didn't develop like they forecast, and we got less than a foot of snow. We're headed into another cold snap this week, but the highs are still above zero.

Tyler is laid off again, but the good news is he's coming to spend a few days with us. He should be getting here soon as I type this.

I leave this next Sunday for a week of training with UPS in Fargo. We're glad it's happening while Emily is here to help Sheryll.

Here's Carrie with eyes!

Proud big brother Tanner.

Emily reading to the little ones. Callie's face cracks me up.

Emily has two brothers, both older, so she's not used to this "closeness" (smothering?) that she experiences around here. She's being a great sport about it, though.

This is the scene we often come home to after a date night. The older kids will play a game or watch a movie, and the little ones don't want to head to the basement by themselves so they pile in our bed.

Now this is going to bed prepared for anything!

New stall in the barn so we're prepared for the new cow we're going to be "cow sitting" for a time. It's a Holstein due to calve in February, so we'll have more milk soon.

And here is Snowflake, growing fast on Mom's milk. Our supply is dropping as she grows! Have to learn about weaning soon.

That's all for now...