Senseless Tragedy in America

Such a tragedy that took place last week as the young man gunned down innocent kids and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary.  My heartfelt condolences go out to all the parents who lost their kids that day, the brothers and sisters who lost each other and the families of all involved.

I just got done reading the mini bios of some of the children and teachers.  As tears rolled down my cheeks I could barely see by the end of the article.  I couldn't help but ask myself what kind of sick would make someone think they needed to do such a horrific thing?  No one in their right mind thinks it's ok to kill a bunch of kids.  I still am without an answer.

What I do know is that I cannot imagine the pain these people are going through.  To lose a child in this manner would be a nightmare.  We may never understand why he did it.  Were there warning signs that he was on the edge?  Even if there were, who would imagine that something like this would be the outcome?  What can we do to prevent anything like this from happening again?  Do we need to have armed guards at school entrances?

I have always thought that my kids are safe when I send them to school as they should be.  Not anymore.  The world is so full of tragedies these days that nowhere is truely safe.  I do hug my kids a little tighter these days, though.

That day a young man did something that caused a lot of people including young kids to see and hear things no one should ever have imagine.  I sometimes see things at my job that I hope my kids never have to deal with knowing or seeing, but never has it been something as horrific as this.

My last thought for today on this is that the longer kids stay innocent the better.  That day he took away the innocence of all the kids at that school.  Those kids who survived will be terrified to go back to school and that is a tragedy in itself.

Prayers to all the families for comfort and healing!

Winter Approaching Fast -Updates

While the last few weeks have been very busy for me with Thanksgiving coming and going and a family birthday this week, Christmas concerts and all of the holiday hustle and bustle, I have not gotten around to blog much. 

I have realized that as winter approaches, there is less work going on around here except for the feeding/caring for the animals and of course my husband is still working on cutting trees to clear the pasture for the next round of planting.  I do, however, have a couple of things to report on. 

The first is that we are pretty sure our 2 boer nannies are pregnant!  Yay!  I am so excited about having baby goats running around.  We also, right now, have 2 other goats that came to get bred by our fantastic looking boer billy.  There has started to be some boer babies for sale in our area again so we will start looking again for some more nannies to increase our herd.  Except from the occassional goat out of the fence, which really isn't a big deal since they stay in the yard, we really have had no problems with them this time around. 

The cows are out on the big pasture and have not had to be hay fed yet, but it is fast approaching.  Hopefully they are all bred, but there is at least one I am doubting.  Hopefully next year we can rent a bull or take them to a local bull.  I just feel more comfy with that plan than all the waiting, watching and waiting again for months.  It drives my anxiety level to max!  

The last thing for now is that even though the work slows (mainly due to I hate winter and being outside freezing my butt off!!!) in the cold, it never ends.  I do feel so priviledged to be able to live in such a wonderful place with a wonderful family on our own piece of heaven.  Even though at times all the work seems overwhelming, I wouldn't give it up for anything!  I only wish we had the resources to get all the work completed so we can enjoy the parts I truely love.

Parmak Solar Fencer



We have now had our Parmak Solar Pak 6 fencer installed for a few weeks and what a SUPER BUY!  We couldn't be happier with it.  Every day I check it and it's so easy to check with the charge gauge on the front.  All I have to do is look at it to know if there is a problem!

The installation was super easy too.  It took minutes to do it.  We did already have a ground rod in, but it would have only taken a few more minutes to put in a straight copper 6-8 foot ground rod with the fence pounder.  All we had to do was mount it and hook in the wires and turn it on.  Immediately the charge gauge went up to the green and a little beyond.  We even ran the fence about twice as far as we had planned due to the cows kept getting on another part of the fence in the pen they were in to eat lucious grass on the other side.  We figured this way any animal in there would stay off it.

The cows have been out pasture grazing once again (saving my hay for when its really needed) and staying away from that terrible south fence.  We used the electric tape with the fencer and that works great.  It is easily visible so the kids, or I, don't forget it's there.   Kudos to Parmak for making a fencer that works tremendously well, is easy to see if there is a problem and is pretty affordable!  Thank you also to jefferslivestock.com for selling it at a great price and shipping in a reasonable amount of time.  (I did see today that horse.com has it on sale right now for $157.)

Thanksgiving Thankfulness

In preparing for our Thanksgiving this week -thawing the turkey and ham and cleaning the house for all the guests, I have been thinking a lot about what we all should be thankful for.  In today's world full of crimes against neighbors, kids starving, homelessness and people hurting their own children and all the other things that should not be happening,  I am so very thankful that I have a wonderful life here in the country with a husband who puts up with all of my craziness and 3 amazing children -all of whom I love immensely.  We are sometimes sheltered here from the real crimes that take place elsewhere and I am thankful that my children don't see that on a daily basis. 

 I am thankful that we both have jobs and earn a decent living to take care of our family and finally don't have to struggle, but am also thankful that for a while we did struggle and that makes me even more appreciative of not having to now. 

I am thankful that my children are healthy and growing up with family values and good work ethic.  They understand that if you want something you have to work for it, even though sometimes they would rather just get it! 

Two years ago, 6 days before Thanksgiving my dad suddenly passed away at only 53.  He was a great father and grandpa to all my kids.  We always took for granted that since he was a young grandparent he would be around for years to watch the kids grow.  Each year since, Thanksgiving has been a little bittersweet for me.  I am always thankful, but this year I can finally say it without being so sad at the same time.  I miss him tremendously and wish he could be here all the time.  I know he is watching over my children all the time and at Thanksgiving wishing he could have the turkey legs. 

I am thankful, though, that I have the rest of my family to share Thanksgiving with!  Many of us have lots of things to be thankful for but don't always take the time to appreciate them.  There are so many less fortunate than us in one way or another, we all should be thankful every single day.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Pasture Disking

The pasture has finally been disked!  Since the fields have not been plowed up in at least 50 years it took three times over with the disk to break all the sod.  We also had giant ant hills in this pasture that got broken down with the disk.  This field looks really great now with no trees, no big clumps in it and all the junk grass dead!  This process took about 4 hours for roughly 10 acres.  The average price per acre in this area is $10-20 for disking. 

There is now only one process left for this section:  PLANTING THE SEED.  I will be extremely excited to get this part completed and be done worrying about it for the year.  Then in the spring I can begin worrying again about it coming up!  Our seed is ready at the seed dealer and we can plant anytime after November 15th and before the ground freezes -called frost seeding.  It will just be a matter of which day our guy can plant it and throw the fertilizer on.  He will broadcast seed it then pull the harrow over it so it goes in the soil.  This method is less time consuming and less costly than seed drilling due to the different sizes of seed and the need to plant them separately with the drill.

This has been a long and time consuming process and I'm not really looking forward to doing the larger field next year, but I am looking forward to a beautiful pasture that can sustain lots more animals than we currently have and give us our own hay for winter! I am sure my husband will want to purchase a hay baler next so we don't have to pay someone to do that!  

Anyway, progress is being made and soon it will be completed.  I have learned a lot of things while trying to get this first section completed and will already be aware of the in's and out's of the next section so it shouldn't be near as time consuming.  In the end it should make for some happy cows, horses and goats! 

Solar Fencers

After much time spent researching solar fencers I finally decided on one.  I didn't know much about them at all in the beginning.  Now, I feel a little better versed in solar fencers!  I had no idea when I began that there were so many brands and so many differences between them -it was a bit overwhelming.  I read tons of reviews and looked at the specs of many.  I do believe in knowing which item will give me the most for my $$$.  All the local guys told me Parmak was the best.  Only one of our local stores, however, carries Parmak.  I ended up ordering the Parmak Solar Pak 6 from www.jefferslivestock.com with a savings of nearly $40 even after shipping!  (I usually try to buy local but the savings was just too much to pass up this time)  I did buy all the fencing and stakes local, though.  This Parmak fencer says it will do 25 miles of fence.  There was only 1 bad review I came across when researching it, all the others were highly praising.  It really made the choice easy. 

The Parmak fencers seem to have a high range capability compared to some other brands.  This was a factor in our choice.  It also seems to be a quality built product that should last for years with minimal problems.  Some of the other brands I researched are Gallagher and Zareba.  I'm not at all saying these aren't good fencers, it just seemed to me that the Parmak would work better for us.

It took only a few days to get here and I was so excited to get it out there so the cows could go into the big pasture that still has much to eat and we could stop feeding hay so soon this season.  I unpacked it and saw a tag on the front "must charge outside 5 days in off position before using".  My excitement turned to "wish I would have known that" very quickly.  So, here I sit with the fencer outside charging and still feeding hay to the cows.

We will be able to put it up on Tuesday.  I also thought that we could get all the 1/2" electric fence tape up early so it would be ready to go, but got quashed on that idea as I was informed by my husband that the deer would probably tear it up jumping the fence and would make a mess of it.  I will be more than ready on Tuesday to get it all up and turn the thing on!  The cows will be so excited to go out there and eat like, well, like cows! 

Each day I have thrown around the idea that if we just put the cows out there they would have so much to eat that they wouldn't care about the almost non-existent fence at the south side of our property.  Then pictures of me chasing cows out of the neighbors corn field would fill my head and I just didn't want to risk it. 

When all of our pastures are reseeded and the south fence done this fencer will be used to run each of our paddocks.  Hopefully we chose wisely and it will work like a charm!

A Yearly Review

Every year when the cold starts to set in I begin my mental review of the past year.  Which things did I love doing, which ones did I try new and what did I hate doing?  Basically, what will I do different for the next year?  These questions go on through the winter until I have decided on a plan for next year.  It's also my time to research projects that I am interested in but have not had time to learn about. 

There is one thing I have decided so far for next year and that is what to do with my potato patch.  They did not do anywhere near amazing this year and I had no room for a pumpkin patch.  I really missed not having any pumpkins -1 year I even planted the baby pumpkins.  Next year I will be planting the pumpkins in the potato patch!

We definately want to grow our goat herd next year, too.  We had wanted to get a few more nannies this year, but we had trouble finding any at reasonable prices as the year went on.  We are more interested in the full bred/unregistered reasonably priced ones than the high dollar papered ones.

We also will have to take it easy on the cow herd growing until all the pastures are up and running (unless I see something that I love!).  Next year should be the last year this has to happen.  Hopefully after that we can sustain ourselves in the winter with hay too!!!

As the review begins for this year, I am always looking for new ideas to use on our farm.  I look for ideas that others are doing or not doing and why.  I like to find ideas that are at least cost efficient. 

Fences are My Nemesis!

Fences are my nemesis!  We have been battling old hedge post fences from day 1.  The fences weren't something we gave much consideration to when we bought this place since we had no animals at first, but we knew they weren't in top condition.  They have contained our animals for the most part for the past few years.  As the interior and property fences get worse, we have been replacing them as fast as we can afford but FENCES ARE EXPENSIVE!

Our dilemma now is that our whole south fence is pretty much barely a fence anymore.  The horses stay in there and we're not sure why.  They could easily walk right over it.  Our problem is that we have the cows in the small pasture that is almost out of vegetation for them and the large still lush pasture is the one with that awful fence and a corn field on the other side.  Much too inviting for the cows!!  It is roughly 1325 feet long so it will be an expensive venture.  The cows need to eat so we either will have to replace it quickly or buy electric fence. It is too far out to run electricity, though so we will have to use solar.

After pricing the solar electric fencer from Parmak, which I am told is the best, our decision is clear for now.  For about $350 we will have electric running the whole fence with maybe a day for installation.  The new fence would cost at least $2000 and take lots more time to install.  Eventually that will have to be done, but hopefully the electric will hold them until the pastures are reseeded.  

It always seems as though if it's not one thing, it's another around here.  Someday I am hoping that we will have all new fences that will last the rest of my lifetime!  Too bad I don't have a secret fence fund just to get them all done!  Lesson learned this time that maybe we should have looked into fence cost a little more closely when we bought this place and replaced them before we got any animals.  That would be my sound advice to anyone thinking of buying an old farm that needs updating.   



Update: Pasture Reseeding

 

The field has been sprayed.  It has taken a long time for it to die, probably due to the cooler weather we have had.  But it is dying.  We used a combo spray of roundup and 2-4-d to kill everything.  It didn't take long to spray the 10.5 acres we are doing this year.  It took longer to find a day that wasn't windy so they could do it without killing our yard or the corn field next door.  By the time we had a day the corn field was no longer an issue.

 

 

The next step was that we had lime spread on the whole field.  The big truck came and spread a ton of lime on each acre.  Not a real pricey event, but one more step completed. 

 

After conflicting recommendations on when to plant the field, I talked extensively with pretty much whoever I could get to give me an opinion on this.  We have decided to wait until it gets cold to plant it.  Hopefully this will give it a good start to come up in the spring. 

 

We also have waited a little while to disk it due to it's slow dying process and still no rain, which makes it very hard ground to work.  This pasture hasn't been worked in at least 50 years!  Well, last weekend we had 2 inches of rain here and a few sprinkles today.  That should make the ground a little more workable as soon as it dries a bit.  I am looking forward to getting that part done.  The only things left will be the seeding and fertilizing in November!

 

I have learned a lot this year about seeding and the whole process and what is recommended.  The NRCS office is very helpful as long as I know to ask the questions.  We have already started the tree clearing on the next section which is much larger than this one.  Next spring we will have the fields ready to be sprayed as soon as this one is grazable.  When it is all completed they have told us that we will be able to take at least a cutting of hay off of it and have plenty to graze all year.  The hay would save us a ton in the winter and maybe have enough to sell some?

 

This all has been a ton of work, especially the daily cutting of hedge trees for my husband as I am no chainsaw user.  I have covered all the phone calls, setting up the guys to come do the various stages and research into each step of the process.  It will all be worth it in the end and we will have beautiful pastures that sustain our small operation!

 

Fall Vet Visit to Preg Check Cows and Vaccinate

So, the vet came yesterday afternoon and first vaccinated and wormed the calves.  They were fairly easy to get into the chute since they had no idea what it was!  It always looks very medeival but doesn't hurt them.  Three calves down, two momma cows to go.

After the slightly unpleasant task of loading the first into the chute, which wasn't as hard as usual for any of them, the vet whips out this device, a probe hooked to glasses with a cord.  I asked what it was and he said "the ultrasound".  I had thought he was just going to palpate for the sac in the uterus.  Wrong!  I was so excited that he would actually see something.  After a couple of minutes he told us she was pregnant!!!  I made a "woo hoo" out loud and he chuckled at me.  He took off the video glasses and let me put them on.  Wow!  I could see it.  The next momma went exactly the same although he couldn't see the baby only the embryonic vessicle, which he said means she is pregnant!

So, for our first time trying artificial insemination we had 2 out of 3 take the first time.  That's not so bad.  This is also our first time using a hereford bull named Traditions from www.SelectSires.com -usually it's a angus bull from a local farmer. The 3rd heifer we probably won't have preg-checked.  If she is then she will calve about July 9, 2013 and if she isn't we will re-breed her at a later date.  I still haven't decided if we will AI next year or rent a bull.  There are pros and cons to each. 

A big thanks to such a wonderful vet that not only understands my excitement, but answers all my questions and offers tons of info and explanation to aid my learning.

Our little ones are about an inch long right now and hopefully they stay put!  We haven't ever had trouble maintaining a pregnancy, but he said it does happen.  At least we are out of the woods for super hot temps now.

Looking Forward- Cows and Babies

The anticipation of knowing whether or not my cows got bred is killing me!

We decided this year to AI the cows for the first time ever.  We accomplished this on August 23.  It has been a long 45+ days waiting til we could check them.  Tomorrow is finally the BIG DAY!  The vet will come in the afternoon and we will know within a couple minutes of loading each in the chute if they are pregnant or not.  If so, the calves will be due June 2, 2013.  We only have 2 to check as we had an unfortunate one that went back into heat a couple weeks ago. This was the first time heifer that we raised from a bottle calf.  She was re-bred on Sept. 29.  So hopefully that one takes for her.

I have tried to watch the cows like a hawk for signs of any heat in these two.  Unless I just missed it, they should be bred.  We will see how this goes tomorrow, but I am seriously thinking about renting a bull next year.  It has been a lot of waiting, watching and waiting again.  At least with a bull one can see the breeding happening! (Sounds wrong when I see it written, but yes, I like to watch!)

The vet will also be vaccinating/pouring this years' calves and the mommas. We have not been as diligent with vaccinating as we should be, but my goal is to improve from here forward.  

Calving is one of my favorite times of year.  The anticipation drives me even crazier then than now.  I am overly diligent with checking the cows multiple times daily when it gets close and my husband finds much humor in the fact that I know so much about what their rear ends look like in each stage!   

There it is!  I am super excited for tomorrow to get here and find out if we are pregnant or not!   

As always, HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Pork at a Discount

While I do love bacon, pork chops and sausage I do not love pigs.  As much as I love to walk around and interact with all of our animals, I did not love having a pig.  We raised a pig for butcher a few years ago and I don't know why, but I just couldn't like it.

It was kind of a costly endeavor by the time we bought all the feed and while we enjoyed having pork in the freezer for anytime we wanted and we knew exactly what it ate, it didn't really save us any money.  After that, we started buying a pig from a local farmer to take to the locker.  This wasn't much cheaper than store prices per pound, either, but we like to buy local and know what we are eating.  

Recently we have been wanting to purchase another, but hog prices are a little higher than the last time we got one.  I was enlightened one day to the fact that I could purchase a "belly rupture" hog for less than the price of a regular hog.  I, not knowing what that meant, said absolutely not at first.  I assumed there would be something wrong with the end product.  After doing some research on it I found that all a belly rupture hog is is one with a hernia.  Absolutely no impact on the meat unless it gets ruptured during butcher!  

We got our hog and it's at the butcher right now.  I am very excited that I will pay a grand total of a little over $1.50 per pound for the pork.  That is so much cheaper than grocery store prices!  

If you are in the market for pork check with your local hog farmers.  I was told that they cannot send the "problem pigs" out with the others for butcher.  They have to send them to another facility.  The farmer that we purchased ours from was more than happy to get rid of one to us.   

And as always -buy local and support the farmers in your area!!

The New School Lunch

Many have been hearing about the new school lunch program.  I think there are a few things that just need to be said about it.  While I have heard many complaints about it from the beginning, I do understand the need to try to control the obesity of America.  I told my children to give it a chance.  It is great that they added more fruits and veggies for the kids.  I am all for that and I am always working on ways to get my kids to eat healthier at home, which they do pretty well at, but could improve.

I didn't realize that by adding another fruit or veggie they are decreasing the portion size of the main entree, I guess in an effort to keep total calories within the limit?  This is leaving many of the kids hungry all afternoon!  This is happening every single day to a lot of the kids that are very active.  If there happens to be something they really don't like on the tray then they are starving!  This is happening to kids of all ages -elementary through high school on a regular basis!

It is costing me a fortune!  

Not only is my highschooler buying more extras than usual, but now even the elementary kids have to get extras so they aren't hungry!  I can't hardly tell them no -the first few weeks of school they didn't get extas and almost every day they came home complaining of "starving".  They told me they had been hungry since lunch! My kids are used to coming home after the 45 minute bus ride, grabbing an apple or pear and heading outside to play and do chores until supper time.  

The fact is that active kids need more calories per day than kids who go right home and sit all evening.  As I understand, the amount of calories allowed to 17 year olds who play sports is not much more than the 6th grade students who do just that -go home and sit.  Some of these kids have practice right after school until 6 or 6:30.  In the high school the kids are only being allowed what was described to me as 2 medicine cups of meat when they eat salad bar!  Really?  Kids need protein to grow and energy to be active!!!  I have actually heard some reports of football players almost passing out in practice due to not eating enough throughout the day.  This is just unacceptable!

These kids used to go get a small snack after school, now they are going for a big bag of chips instead! This doesn't seem to be the effect anyone was hoping for, but it is the reality!

The last thing I want to say is that, while none of my own children are obese in any way, there are many kids who are.  This is a huge problem and contributes to many health problems later in life for them if they don't learn to eat right now.  That being said, good nutrition starts at home!  If these kids are going home hungry like many kids are then they are probably eating snacks when they get there.  If they aren't choosing fruits and veggies regularly they are probably having that bag of chips, a brownie, doughnut or a candy bar.  If they are already more hungry than usual they will eat more of these things and the obesity problem will continue.

We cannot change the obesity problem in America until kids start eating right at home and being active!

Winter -The Inevitable

After being a little spoiled by last winter with little snow for the season and only a few days of unbelievable coldness, I am a little weary of what this winter may hold for us.  I have been watching the winter outlooks since mid-summer in hopes of knowing ahead of time what it will entail.  The outlooks, however, all vary in the degree of super cold and amount of snow.  I would like nothing more than to be able to skip winter altogether.  I only go out if I have to and if I could hibernate, I would!

I do, of course, go out every morning all bundled up with coat, hat and mittens to feed and water the animals.  As I trudge through the snow dreams and anticipation of spring fill my head.  My countdown til spring begins as soon as winter hits. Morning chores generally take me over twice as long since I have to get hay for everyone. The water tank heater has to be kept going so they can drink, so I fill it with wood and relight it if it went out overnight.   All the animals get a look over for any problems with them.  It usually ends up being quite the workout for me.  By the time I get to come in I am usually sweating in all my winter garb. 

I don't think the animals like it much either.  We do our best to keep them as comfortable as possible and make it through the winter without illness in the sometimes treacherous weather of the midwest .  They get so excited when we let them on the pasture when it starts to grow in the spring!   I think they are a lot like me when it comes to being in the cold.  They just would prefer not to! 

Winter is, however, inevitable! 

It will come, we will a survive it and eventually it will end.  Those of us who hate winter will once again feel the giddiness of spring when it returns.  The land will come alive once again, the flowers will bloom as always and birds will return home. 

An Adventure in Pasture Reseeding

As anyone can see, our pasture is greatly lacking in superbness.  It is covered with weeds that no animal will eat and spotted with millions of those nasty, thorny hedge trees.  It works for the amount of animals that we have now, but will not support the animals we hope to have someday.  We were told of a program with the USDA that would assist us to improve our pastures by reseeding them.  Our main goal when this all began was to have great pastures for the animals without costing us a fortune.

We are a very small farm with no "farm operating" account to do all of this out of, so some help with the cost would be greatly appreciated.  The USDA people came out to take a look at what we wanted to do and give their advice on what we should do.  There was, of course, an application to fill out and some other paperwork and then we waited.  After a few weeks, we were very excited when we were approved for the money to do all of this.  We, then, received our contract that told generally what was to be done and what they would pay for each item.  There are, however, certain stipulations in how you go about doing all of the work and exactly, I mean exactly, what has to be planted, what type of fertilizer to be used and how much of each. 

It has been very dry in Iowa this year and we have been putting off doing this until this fall hoping the rain would pick up.  It is no use spending all that money if the seed doesn't grow! 

As time has gotten a little bit away from us being busy with everything else going on in our lives, I am now trying to get everything lined up for this to happen.  The ladies at the USDA office are very nice and helpful; the problem is knowing the right questions to ask.  The lady at the seed store has been indispensable to me!  I have spent countless hours on this project trying to figure out who is going to do each part, how much it will cost and when can they do it.  I am also "dumb" at this since until now I had no idea what to expect with any of those questions!  I am learning, though, and hopefully within the next week we will have the first 10 acres planted.  At least with the next round in 2013 I will know what I am doing! 

Hopefully everything goes as expected and everyone shows up when they are supposed to.  For a day or so I was ready to give up and just deal with what we have after talking with some unpleasant folks, but that wouldn't do anyone any good.  I do have a newly gained appreciation for the people that have to deal with all of this all the time and the ones who were very pleasant on the phone with me after finding out I didn't know anything about this kind of stuff and took the time to explain it.  Also, there were a couple people that were not that pleasant that will not be gaining our business!

Snowflake -A New Calf Story

I love having cows and calves!

I always watch craigslist for any good deals to increase our herd.  Last week I found my deal, but it was over two hours away.  The big question was whether it would be worth paying for her and all that gas?  I have always wanted a charolais cow to contrast all of our black cows.  I love their color and build and wanted one badly and have looked for one for quite a while.  It didn't take long for me to make up my mind that yes she was worth it.  It couldn't have been a worse week for it to happen as we had had a death in the family.  I did, however, have my mind made up that I would have her.  My wonderful husband and son took off one evening with trailer in tow to go pick her up. 

After a round about trip due to his GPS following instead of my directions, they dealt with a very nice gentleman who purchases calves to resell.  He had not had her long and she was doing well.  She wouldn't drink off his nurse cow and did eat some grain he told us.  She was also just over 6 weeks old.

They arrived home at 1:30am that night with her.  We unloaded her into the barn and she was so frightened.  She ran when we got close at all.  I gave her some hay, grain and water.  We quarantine new calves for 10-14 days when we get them just in case something is wrong with them.  Through the last week we have put a halter on her -which she hated tremendously.  She has nibbled on hay and grain, but not eaten a bunch by any means.  We did find out about day 2 that she would eat grass pretty well so we give her some each day.  She had loose stools, but not watery, when she came to us, which I watched closely so I would know if that worsened or if it was just due to stress and change in feed.  I made calls to the feed store and the vet to get their opinions on her and if they thought she still needed to be bottle fed.  Their concensus was not if she is eating enough otherwise.  Usually we get bottle calves a little younger that do need bottle fed and they don't usually eat grain very well at first.  They also don't usually eat grass at first either.

 

One week later, she is starting to tame down.  We left the halter on her and she is getting more used to that.  Her bm's have thickened up a bit and look like normal now.  In the afternoons we walk her and let her eat grass outside which she does very well.  She has been eating more hay and a little more grain.  She even let my husband and I pet her in the pen last night for quite a while before she decided she didn't want that anymore.  We also, well my husband, thought of a good name for her too --Snowflake.  I love it!  This morning I was very excited when I walked in to give her her daily ration of grain -expecting to dump the old uneaten grain and put in the new-  and for the first time her grain tub was empty!  She also let me pet her some while she ate some grass.  I finally feel like now she will be just fine.

I am always such a nervous ninny when it comes to the calves.  I am a worrier until I know they are ok and doing well.  It's almost like I was with our children when they were born!  I love having calves and raising them up to be great mommas.  The kids love them, too, and love to show them at the county fair.  Each cow we have is special to me.  I am looking forward to the calves next year, already!

Grass Fed vs. Grain Fed

In all my years of loving to eat steak I had never given any thought to what it was fed until recently.  I am a lover of lean, tender meat with lots of tastiness.  Steak is by far my favorite food.  I would say that most cattle around here are grain fed.  Lots of them spend much of their time in a feed lot.  Our cows, on the other hand, wander the pasture as they please eating grass.  They sometimes get some grain -as a treat more or less.  They also get apples, melon and carrots as treats.  This, to me, makes my cows happy cows!  I am not, however, trying to make a living with them.

As I spoke with the very nice lady at the locker, who answers all my questions about the meat and processing without complaint when we take a steer or buy one from someone else, she mentioned that they could tell our cow was grass fed due to the color of the fat layer and thickness.  This amazed me as I had no idea that it really made any difference.  I began my research into the difference and here is what I came up with:

Grain fed cattle grow faster and to promote this are sometimes given a growth hormone implant.  The meat contains more marbling that promotes tastiness (which can be debated).  The fat is thicker and white in color.  This beef is much more abundant and cheaper to buy.

Grass fed cattle may take a year longer to finish than grain fed.  The fat is yellow in color and the meat has much less marbling.  This meat is higher in omega 3 fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins A & E and lower in calories.  It costs more and is much less abundant.  The quality of the meat can vary widely depending on the breed of cow.

This all being said, we raised our first grass fed cow and butchered him this year.  I was a little nervous that it wouldn't taste as good as the beef we purchased in the past, which was grain fed.  When we cooked our first steaks I was AMAZED!  This beef is exactly what I love to eat -tasty, lean and as tender as can be.  From what I have read we may have gotten lucky as to the cow, the breed or luck alone, but it tastes amazing.  We definately have no problems with raising our own grass fed beef again.  Also, I haven't crunched a bunch of numbers but it seems to me that it was cheaper for us to grass feed.  It took 2 years to grow him so we had to hay feed him through two winters.  We did not,however, have to buy grain for a year which seems like it would have been lots more expensive than letting him pasture eat.  The cost would be different, though, if we crop farmed and had our own grain so we wouldn't have to pay the higher prices of buying it. 

At the end of the day, we had a good experience and came out of it with a freezer full of great beef to eat that may be a little healthier than what we would have bought at the store and a lot less expensive! 

UPS AND DOWNS WITH CHICKENS


We have had our ups and downs with chickens over the past few years.  We have gone through a few periods with no chickens and periods with tons of chickens.  Right now we have a few bantams, a rhode island red rooster and a phoenix hen.  We did begin this spring, however, with all of last year's chicks that were all grown up and laying nicely and a buff orphington rooster that thought he ruled the roost.  My son was selling eggs to the neighbors and loving that.  There was a total of about 26 chickens.   

 We have a chicken house that has worked pretty well for us, minus a couple mishaps we had.  The building is about 14 x 24 or so.  We have roosting boxes on one end for them to lay in.  Just last week we put together an outdoor pen about 10 x 20 or so for them which they now love.  At first they wouldn't go outside for anything!  We put them in every night and it's nice they can get outside during the day.  They have, however, eaten some of the flowers I had planted there. 

The first year we had chickens we learned the hard way that you cannot let them outside at night.  We had a nice outdoor pen of chicken wire fence with a roof on it and thought through being purely farm naive that it would be ok.  Well, it didn't take the predators long to figure out how to get to all the tasty chickens!  Soon after the outdoor pen came down and remained gone til now.

This year we had a similar problem -chicken massacre!  Our chicken house is old and was in need of some repair but we haven't ever had a problem with it.  We believe it was a racoon that actually tore a board off the outside of the house and bam -in one night =half the chickens dead!  Some of them were just killed, some eaten and some dragged off into the night.  Our beautiful rhode island red rooster made it through but without his tail.  This all happened a few weeks before our county fair so he couldn't be shown and the kids had a lot less chickens to show.  Of course after the buffet he came back the very next night and found another spot to get in.  Since then we have sturdied the outside and put on a new metal roof.  No more predator problems.  After all of this I was looking for some new chickens for the kids to show and found this very nice gentleman who actually gave them the bantams we have.  They ended up showing a few of them and took a couple grand champions/reserve champion places with them! 

All of our chickens eat layer feed and occasionally scratch grains and fresh fruit.  In the past few years chicken feed has gotten a lot more expensive but it's still worth it.  We do keep a few of the show bantams in cages in the chicken house.  They have plenty of room along with layer feed and fresh water.  We also have 4 ducks that live with the chickens.  They may be a story of their own!  Through all of our chicken experiences I am still a little skiddish of the roosters with their intimidating size and fluffing up of the feathers they do.  I do, however, love to watch the chickens, hear the rooster crow and now I can watch them "play" outside.

Goat Research

With the rain off and on today and the slightly colder than I love weather I fed the animals and filled water tanks this morning as usual.  Much of the rest of my day has been about research.  I have been researching our new herd of goats in depth.  I believe that research is hugely important to any successful venture.  I have read everything from general care to vaccines to breeding to what body types do well in shows to everything else I could find. 

When we decided to start raising boer goats, I of course researched a few topics but the brunt of my learning has come after their purchase.  I do think it is important to learn everything you can about any animal species you want to raise in order for all to hopefully go well.  There is such a vast array of info on the internet that I am all too happy to take advantage of.  Thank you to all that post this info on their websites!  It also doesn't hurt to talk to your local vet for advice.  They can be a tremendous resource.

I have also been trying to find more goats to purchase, but am having some trouble with that.  I want more does, but everyone has bucks or wethers for sale.  I usually search craigslist for these inquiries.  There I get local results and can usually see a picture of any potential purchase. 

Well, back to a little research then some quality family time!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Raising Our Own Beef -Lesson Learned

This was the first year that we had our own beef butchered.  We bought a bottle calf two years ago, a steer, that was purchased for the sole purpose of being our first butcher calf.  He was also a 4H bottle calf for my son the first summer.  Everyone in our family knew that one day that is what would happen.  Well, this summer it finally did.  He was finally large enough to take to the locker -roughly 1000 lbs. 

There is something satisfying about raising your own animal that you will eventually eat.  We knew every single thing that he was fed -grass mostly.  We knew he didn't have any growth hormones or drugs.  When you purchase meat in the store there is a high likelyhood that it had at least a growth hormone implant as this is standard practice for many.  He was treated humanely -like a pet really.  It does take a little longer for a bottle calf who is grass fed to get to size but it would be worth the wait.  I was so tired of paying the high prices in the grocery store and the meat is just not as tasty as local farm raised beef. 

In the past we have purchased some grain fed beef from local farmers and had it processed at the local locker.  It is always better tasting than the beef at the store.  Not for sure why that is, but it is.  I do think it was somewhat cheaper to raise our own than to buy one from a local farmer.  Both ways is much cheaper than paying the high prices at the store for all those cuts of meat!  The great part about the expense from raising your own is that it is spread over time so it doesn't cost a huge chunk at once. 

I am a solid steak lover and while I was sure I could raise a calf from the bottle and then butcher it as I looked forward to all those tasty steaks, eating them is somewhat bittersweet.  I would suggest to anyone wanting to butcher their own meat - don't butcher a bottle calf.  I cannot stress that enough!  He was tame enough that if I yelled for him, he would come up from the pasture.  He was potentially dangerously tame at times, though.  The kids couldn't get in with him anymore unsupervised.  He was just too big to "play" with them anymore, but he didn't know that.  The day we took him to the locker I felt so bad for him.  It was hard on the kids too.  I kept telling them and myself that we all knew all along that this day would come and we have to eat.  I didn't know if I was even convincing myself, but it was the truth.  He was raised for this sole purpose.  Even now, a couple months later I still feel bad about the whole thing. 

All in all, we will be raising another calf to eat, but it will not be a bottle calf.  If we raise a bottle calf again I will be selling that one and either buying beef once again from a local farmer or purchasing a weened calf to raise and butcher.  I will chalk this up to a lesson learned well and won't make this mistake again. 

HAVE A GREAT DAY!   

Garden Pros and Woes -Part 2

Last year was the first time I tried bush beans.  I had tried green beans in the past and they always flopped.  These bush beans did amazing last year and I froze about 10 quarts in addition to the ones we ate fresh.  This was all off 2 rows.  This year I planted them again and once again they are doing amazing.  They did have a rocky start that I am still not quite sure what happened.  The seedlings sprouted and only about half of them came up.  The others died, I imagine, due to the extreme heat/dryness.  Almost all of them that came up had no leaves on them?  I haven't ever had this happen before.  I quickly replanted them and now have a bountiful harvest for the past couple months.  We all love to have garden green beans in the winter!

The potatoes were not so wonderful this year.  They had never done well in our garden so last year my husband tilled me a potato patch in a different area.  Last year we had tons of potatoes and nice sizes too.  This year I believe the weather got to them and the plants died very early.  The potatoes we did get were mainly tiny ones with a few that were nice sized.  No big ones like I like to use, though.  The potatoes are a lot of work to have the harvest so dissappointing!  Next year I am seriously thinking about turning the potato patch into a pumpkin patch. 

This year was my second year attempting broccoli after a wonderful first year.  Again this year we had plenty to freeze from our 4 plants.  I love broccoli plants -they are low maintenance and it tastes so much better than store bought broccoli.  I planted 4 more plants hoping to get even more into the freezer.

Another crop that excites me early each spring is our asparagus.  I never realized I liked it so well, but when we moved here we noticed there were patches everywhere!  It was in all the pastures -a patch here and a patch there.  Every spring I harvest as much as I can and either eat it or freeze it.  This year I planted some new plants up close to the house.  We will see how they end up doing.  Every time we go asparagus "hunting" it's a long hike to get it, which provides all of us our daily exercise.  

One of my favorite things about gardening and living in such a wide open place is that I can do just about whatever I want to with the garden.  I can plant anything I want to and wherever I want to.  The other great thing is that it gets the kids involved and teaches them about planting and growing your own healthy foods.  They love to help plant everything and watch it grow.  They also love to help pick everything and of course help eat everything!

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

 

Garden Pros and Woes- Part 1

One of the things I love in the summer is my garden.  In the spring I cannot wait until it's time to plant.  The anticipation just about drives me crazy.  I usually plant the same items every year.  Those items are: zucchini, tomatoes, bush beans, cucumbers, broccoli and green peppers.  I also have a separate potato patch where I always plant red potatoes and Yukon Gold potatoes.  I periodically try pumpkins and other veggies.

This year was no different.  I waited and waited with the unseasonably nice weather late last winter to plant my garden.  I did plant a little earlier than usual and all was going well.  This year I was persuaded to try another tomato variety besides my beloved beefsteak.  I was told if I tried an heirloom variety that I would never go back.  I planted some brandywine tomatoes along with a couple beefsteak plants (I had to in case the brandywine were horrible).  After a whole season picking, eating and canning, I have to say that I love both of them.  The beefsteak are medium to large tomatoes with dark red insides that taste amazing and work well for canning tomato juice.  The brandywine tomatoes got amazingly huge.  The color on the outside is a lighter/different color of red, but the insides were equally dark red and amazing to eat.  The brandywine also were a little sweeter.  They reminded me of the tomatoes from grandma's garden when I was a kid.  I used both for canning juice and what we have had so far has been great. Next year I may plant both again! 

In June we started having some very hot/dry weather.  My zucchini, cucumbers and melons started to turn brown after having a great start and looking amazing in the beginning.  I assumed it was the heat and lack of rain that was causing this.  There were some insects I noticed in the garden, so I applied the seven dust as usual when I have this problem. I started watering the garden more than usual and while all the other plants were doing great these continued to look worse and worse.  By mid-July all of them were dead.  I attributed it to the heat and thought "next year I will do better at watering".  Only recently did I begin to research this problem that has bothered me since my plants died.  I have never had a problem keeping the garden alive!  Especially the cukes and zucchini -usually I have more than I know what to do with. 

What I found in my research was that my bugs were squash bugs that can wreak holy havoc on young plants.  They have a hard shell and are gray and flat.  They are hard to kill and harder to get rid of completely.  They winter under plant debris and rocks.  Pesticides don't kill them very well. I have never had a problem with these before and hopefully can get rid of them before next spring. 

If anyone knows of a way to get rid of these things please comment to this post. 

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Nanny Goats

Nanny Boer Goats

As I said in my post about our Billy goat, I was not in love with the idea of having goats again.  However, I gave in and we purchased our billy.  About a month later we found some reasonably priced nannies that are not registered but are supposed to be 100% boer.  As we were picking them out I knew I wanted some that were the red head, white body for a good mix of color with our red billy.  They were all wild in the pen and crying like crazy.  First, I picked the one little goat that had a heart-shaped white patch on her forehead.  My daughter wanted the dairy goat, which if we weren't after meat goats only she probably would have had!  We were, though, wanting meat goats, so the other we picked was the medium sized little girl.  The smaller one was skinny and looked somewhat unhealthy and the biggest one had a mangy looking coat.  When we stopped for a snack on the way home they both bauled like someone was hurting them.  I felt like a "kidnapper".  I bet people there thought we were crazy. 

We have kept them in the smaller pen separate from the billy.  They are about 5 months old now and both look much healthier than when we picked them up.  We feed them pasture and some goat feed each day.  They were wild and crazy when they arrived, but have tamed down enough to come near us now.  They still don't like being touched but hopefully that will come.  We like our animals to be tame mainly so the kids can play with them and take them to the fair if they want to.  

At least our little girls don't get their heads stuck in the fence as Billy does.  They do however get out with the Billy from time to time.  Or Billy gets in with them.  It wouldn't matter if they were old enough to breed, but as of now they are only 5 months old.  We need them to wait until about October or 7 months old to get bred.  We are looking forward to the babies in March! 

Overall, our goat endeavors are going well so far, I have learned a lot in the short time we have had them and they have not been a huge investment.  So far I would suggest goats to anyone wanting small animals to eat down weeds in the pasture, for your kids to work with and possibly make a little money in the process.   I am looking forward to our goat herd growing this spring, if he doesn't talk me in to more yet this fall. 

Have a great day!

Buying a Fixer Upper

When we purchased our acreage about 7 years ago we knew it would be a lot of work, but we were a little naive to just how much work that included.  We knew we needed to start with getting rid of the brush that engulfed the house or houses.  Yes, there were two houses, on of which didn't even have running water!  That needed to come down, also.  And the house we were going to move our family into was less than updated.  In fact I don't think anything had ever been painted or updated in any way or cleaned for a very long time.  The barns needed work, the fences were terrible and there were only two of us with regular jobs, I was going to college and our funds were very limited. 

Before we moved in I painted every room of the 1 1/2 story old farmhouse with bright white paint after cleaning everything from floor to ceiling while my husband worked on the overgrown yard outside or what would eventually be a yard.  Also before we moved in we burnt the old house we wouldn't be using, which turned into a fiasco of it's own involving the fire department twice.  Many times thoughts of "what are we doing here" and "maybe we bit off more than we can chew" ran through both our minds, but never did either of us regret it.  We moved in on Halloween 2005. The house was slightly smaller than our house in town.  It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere.  My son in school would now have to ride the bus.  The boys shared a less than beautiful room (at first anyway) and everything seemed ancient. 

After countless hours of work a year and a half later, a decent yard and a few updates to the house, including a nice new bathroom (the old bathroom was a closet on the main floor with a toilet and a sink that was about 10inches wide with a slanted ceiling so you had to duck to sit on the toilet and a full bath upstairs with a tub but no shower) we were ready to remodel the house. 

  

We did everything ourselves including new plumbing, electric, drywall, a new garage and a large living room addition with walk out basement underneath. We did all the work with some help from my family except the cement.  We hired that done along with the new heating/cooling system.  It was a ton of work, but now we have a beautiful house to live in and we saved a bunch of money doing it ourselves.  The kids all have their own rooms.  There are a few minor things we still need to work on but it has all been worth it. 

We also in the middle of everything had the chance to purchase 30 more acres of land that was part of the original farmstead.  So now we have 40 acres.  Our attention for the past couple years besides taking a short break on the house due to being totally burned out on house remodeling, has been the rest of the property.  There was junk everywhere!  I'm not sure other owners ever threw anything away.  Everything from old feed bags to lumber to metal scraps to just plain junk!  We have made tons of trips to the junkyard and the dump.  Old buildings in need of repair or torn down and pastures that grow mainly weeds.  The fences are terrible so we have replaced a few but it's an expensive endeavor with funds still limited to what is left from our paychecks after bills are paid, so that is a slow ongoing process.  Often I wish I could win some lottery money just to get the place all the way done and have some time to enjoy it before retirement or before all our children are gone away to college!

My hope for the future after all the updates are made is that our farm animals and land can financially sustain itself. 

  

Billy the Boer Goat

Billy is our first Boer goat purchase.  He is supposed to be 100% boer but not registered.  I was a little hesitant in buying goats again as we had a few pigmy goats the year we moved here.  We weren't equipped for them at all.  We bought them at a sale barn which maybe was our first mistake.  They were wild, got out of the pen repeatedly, ate all my flowers and ended up getting mouth disease that killed most them.  We promptly ridded ourselves of the remaining goats with the conviction I would never buy goats again!

However, my husband has wanted more goats for a while now.  Not pigmy goats, but boer goats which he assured me over and over would go better than the others did.  I finally broke down this spring when we showed up to purchase a cow and they had goats for sale for a decent price.  He and the kids kept asking until I gave in. 

We have had him now for a few months and he is wonderful at eating the weeds that the cows don't eat.  He also herds with the cows.  At first they were not too fond of him and chased him a bit.  Maybe only because they had just calved.  Now they don't seem to mind having him close by.  The only bad thing about him is that he gets his head/horns stuck in the fence constantly.  The past few days he has not had it stuck so I'm crossing my fingers, but some days I have to go unstick him 3 or 4 times!  and in the same place sometimes! 

Anyway, he is a beautiful goat and the neighbors that have goats already want to use him to breed.  All things considered I am still ok with having a few goats and hopefully this spring we will have some cute little baby boer goats!

Lesson in Breeding

We started with 1 heifer on our tiny farm. She had been a bottle calf for my son.  When she was ready to breed we sent her to another farm to "meet" with their bull.  Everything went as expected and she had a beautiful baby girl.  That little girl became our 2nd cow and so on.  This year we had 3 cows to breed plus 2 calves at their sides.  Instead of shipping everyone over to the neighbors to breed we decided to AI them.  Next year we will have a total of 6 to breed so we figured this year was a good test year. 

Not knowing much about the process I turned to the internet.  I read articles and watched videos and I did my homework to find out exactly what was involved, or so I thought, and what the cost was compared to taking them somewhere.  Our wonderful vet was very patient with me and took the time to explain every aspect of the entire process.  As my husband and I looked at the prospective "fathers" online it struck me as a little odd to be doing just that.  We were looking to see who's sperm we wanted.  We were limited to a "calving ease" bull due to one of our cows being a 1st time heifer.  Then a couple weeks ago I called to order my first batch of semen.  That's something I have never done before and had to chuckle a little at myself when I got off the phone.

Ten days ago we began the process with an injection and a seeder.  One of the vets came out and loaded each in the chute (our cows are somewhat tame so it's difficult to get them to go in), gave them the shot and inserted the progesterone seeder.  Seven days later the vet came to give another injection and pull the seeder out.  He also put a sticker on their back that would turn green when they started "getting on" each other.  I have been out there checking that sticker every day two or three times in the hopes of seeing green.  Yesterday the heifer's tag was totally green and the others weren't green hardly at all, so after another phone call to the vet I felt at ease today's breeding appointment would work out.  He said the others probably weren't green due to they are the biggest and leaders of the herd and probably do not let others on them?  I hope so!

This morning we finally got to breed them.  Each went in the chute without extreme difficulty.  He inserted the semen and gave them an injection to make them ovulate and out they went.  He seemed sure that their cervix's were soft and open which he said was the perfect time to breed. Now we only have to wait and see if this whole process worked! 

I have been a bit of a nervous wreck during the whole process of waiting, watching and waiting some more.  My husband laughs at my nervousness about this whole thing and the vet said it's a lot to learn the 1st year but after that I will love it?  Not sure yet.  I guess we will see if it all works.  Hopefully in 20-ish days we don't see anyone mounting anyone else and if not then in 45 days they can be preg-checked.  I still have not dismissed the idea of buying or renting a bull for next year!

New To Blogging

My husband and I have learned so much about "country life" yet we have so much to learn.  We have poured our heart and soul and countless hours into making this the place we both dreamed about.  Thank heavens for good neighbors that are willing to give advice and answer lots of questions! 

My hope is to share some of these struggles, regrets, the things I love about our farm and a bunch of other fun farming things here for everyone to enjoy.