2 May 2022

Popcorn

We got a new cow!

I’m just slightly excited about it. If you can’t tell. I’ve been wanting a milk cow forever. Either or both to milk and to help feed the bottle calves. Who wouldn’t want a milk cow? Even the kids keep wanting to milk her for us. Not to drink, but to make caramel from. That’s good stuff, I can’t say I blame them.

We might do it. It will need to be a weekend morning.

She’s a busy girl. She isn’t feeding five calves, but she is supplementing their feed a bit. And they love her for it. They still get their normal feeding of dry milk replacer. Then they get set loose with her to finish filling their bellies.

She is busy getting her belly filled too. She’s on the skinny side. We are shoveling as much food at her as she can take. All the corn she’ll eat. Which isn’t a whole lot actually. She’s been on sweetfeed and let me know that she would like her grain with some molasses please. So I grabbed the bottle from the kitchen and poured molasses over her corn until I can get sweetfeed for her. Gotta keep the girl happy. We’ll get weight back on her. Even with those pesky calves.

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27 April 2022

Feeding Calves

Directions for Ava for feeding the calves while we go to the esports state finals.

We will be leaving about noon on Thursday and will be back as early on Friday as possible. It will still probably be late. If it gets too late, could you feed them one more time?

I will have everything ready to go. All you’ll need to do is add water. There will be 2 buckets with milk in them. One bucket for each feeding. All they need is water. 5 bottles of water, per bucket, one bucket for each feeding. Hot water, as hot as it runs. There is a wooden spoon and a whisk on the counter to mix them with.

Then dump them in the big grey feeder.

There is a trough out there with corn. If it doesn’t have corn in it there’s a lick tub with corn in it in the barn. Go in the door by the chute. It doesn’t matter how much they get. I’m just trying to convince them to eat.

We are feeding a calf of Ray’s. It is in the pen in front of the barn with it’s mom. It gets a bottle in the bottle holder. You can hold the bottle if you want but it’s easier to feed that calf then the other calves. He will usually finish his bottle while you mess with the others. The feeder is hanging on the gate. It has a wire on it that helps hold it onto the fence, loop it under and then around the feeder.

His mom takes it pretty well. Might watch out for her just because different people. He will usually come running over. Wont drink if you try to force him. You can leave the bottle if he wont drink.

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24 April 2022

April Blizzard

We got a bit of snow yesterday.

It started Friday. Not the snow but the weather.

There was fog, haze and moisture in the air first thing, even dew. We haven’t seen that for ages. It was so sticky hot and humid that stepping outside was miserable.

Then the wind came up. It howl and ripped through the yard, even harder than it has been. Which says a lot because it’s been blowing. That night one strong gust ripped down tree branches and scattered kids toys out through the yard. Then the lightning started. The fear of fire makes any sleeping hard. Especially when you know they are burning out of control not too far away.

Finally managing to get to sleep we woke to snow!

A wonderful thing to see. The forecast predicted an inch. Maybe two. We had that already. The radar showed the storm circling. It was melting as fast as it came down and water was running every where. It was a wonderful thing to see. And the snow was still coming down.

We checked cows, luckily no calves. Some were huddled in good sheltered places. Some stood in the worst possible. Ghost’s brand new calf was laid against a fence, as dry as he could get, out of the never ceasing wind. The bottle calves were hesitant to cone out of their shed. They had never seen the white stuff before. They ate quickly, hungerly than ran back to safety.

The children forced outside to play and use up energy climbed snowbanks that drifted well over the fences.

This morning the snow had stopped. Sunshine and blue sky teased us that it might be warm, but the wind is still howling. After feeding and making sure everything was safe and healthy we went out for a drive. We had heard stories of stranded travelers and people staying with the neighbors until they could get their cars out of the ditch. We wanted to see for our selves.

The highway was nearly deserted. Still closed we heard as we parked in the middle of the road to talk. People had taken it upon themselves to move the barricades so they could get through but the roads were supposed to be closed. A semi blocked half of the road, not tipped on its side only by the grace of God. Most of the wheels were off the ground. A pickup buried way off the road. The car of a pair of college professors who couldn’t get home on the usual road so instead of staying where they were decided to try taking the long way. Instead they ended up in a ditch, walking through the storm to the nearest house. Luckily for them they were taken in, given a warm place to stay, then pulled out this morning. Maybe they should teach classes in not doing stupid things at the college?

In town buildings were opened to take in more stranded travelers. I don’t remember ever hearing about that? Maybe I just didn’t know in the past? Maybe more people were caught unaware with the forecast for an inch of snow and nearly ninety degree weather the day before.

We are not complain about the snow. It was wonderful! The most moisture we’ve seen for the last year. That’s all together, not at once. With this snow we might just have a little bit of grass. If nothing else the dust might not be blowing as bad for a few days. Hopefully this will be the start and rain will come again.

Category: Cows, Family, It's a God thing | LEAVE A COMMENT
19 April 2022

Easter ’22

Another Easter come and gone.

The weather was alright. Cool but not cold, windy but not as bad as the wind has been recently. We got to spend it together, which is always nice.

The kids did the Easter egg hunt in town on Saturday. It was windy and really cold. They had fun though, for the whole five minutes it took them. Lots of kids, lots of candy. lots of eggs. I tried to get pictures but they disappeared into a sea of children so fast it was nearly impossible.

We declined to get up in time to make the six thirty sunrise service at church. Why do they make these things so early! Instead we stayed home and enjoyed breakfast.

After breakfast I hustled the kids out to get calves fed so I could start hiding eggs! Instead of hiding eggs around the yard we did a treasure hunt, with clues hidden all around. I sat down on Canva, the design program I use for work, and made up picture clues. Those got hidden in eggs wherever the clue led them. They had to get bikes and ride half way to the mailbox, go in and out of the house, get a 4wheeler and ride out to a certain pivot, figure out the directions to know which one. I think they had fun. I know we did following them around. Each clue egg had some candy eggs with it to reinforce their behavior, searching, and to encourage them to keep going!

In the middle of it all one clue was hidden in their bible. We had to fit some preaching into the middle of the whole pagan undertaking. It also gave them a chance to sit and rest from their running around so they could finish running.

Category: 8, Family, Goblin Child | 2 Comments on Easter ’22
15 April 2022

Doing It Myself, Or Not

Yes, it would be easier to do it myself Heaven knows it would be faster. The waiting is hard. Watching as expensive milk replacer gets sloshed around and spilled or nearly spilled has me gasping and holding my breath. I can’t stand to watch. Teeth clinched my husband and I both stand back and watch. Or better yet don’t watch, as the children prepare the milk to feed their bottle calves.

After helping and instructing on how and how much milk to mix, the preparation and most of the feeding is their responsibility. We watch them go slowly and struggle. If we didn’t it would never be replaced by smoothness and skill. Strength will be built in the difficulties, not in taking care of it for them.

We don’t over face them and are always there to help if really needed. They don’t usually want help. Pride in the ability to do the job and do it well is already setting in. That doesn’t mean they don’t need harried to get to get to work. They’re still children. Nothing wrong with that. They’ll grow up soon enough. I’ll enjoy their childishness while they’re children.

They aren’t strong enough to do everything themselves. They’re building strength though! It wont be long and those hard jobs will be easy for them.

Bottle calves are a perfect opportunity for training children!

Category: 8, Cows, Farming, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
10 April 2022

Bottle Calves

We went through a period of very quickly collecting bottle calves. I was worried about being able to get any. Then one showed up. By the next day, before I had the opportunity to spend much time worrying about him being alone, we ended up with a second. One more by the next weekend and two more before that week was over. Now we are at capacity and no more have turned up.

The kids are doing an amazing job at taking care of the feeding and go out regularly to play with them. 8 got to name the first three calves. All bull calves and soon to be steers. We have Sug, Elon, and Radio Active. The Goblin Child has claimed Sug as her own.

The Goblin Child named the last two, heifers. We have Iris, supposedly a Greek god of flowers and rainbows? And Athena. That god we know.

Category: 8, Cows, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT
21 March 2022

Grappling Hook

The weather was beautiful. Warm and not windy yet. We forced the kids away from tablets and computers. Without them the kids are really quite enjoyable.

Working with horses and doing chores around the place, we ended up out by the old school house barn. It is getting closer to falling down all the time and the kids are not allowed to play in or near it. They are very good about that. To the point that when I told 8 he could go in and look around while we were there together The Goblin Child said no, she was not going in there, and left.

Us two foolish people went in and explored. You’d think that after being explored for so many years it would no longer have secrets to give up. But still, we find more. As the children get bigger they can climb farther, see new things. 8 climbed an old stall divider and peered into the hay loft. He wanted my to have a look too. There were some ancient rotted hay bales and a tire. Mostly there is sunlight streaming through where a roof once was.

I was happy to oblige him and I climbed up and peered around too. There in the middle of the loft was a headstall. I could see a bit and some twisted leather remains. Right out in the middle where there was no way I was walking.

Climbing down I let 8 replace me. He spotted it and we spent some time locating it from below to see if there was a way to reach it that way. Quickly realizing the hopelessness of that we stopped to think about things.

A grappling hook! That was what we needed! Something we could throw out there, hook the bridle, and drag it back. But where would we find something like that? We headed back towards the house to search.

There we found The Goblin Child happily swinging. She may not be interested in going into the wreck of a barn just for fun, but the quest was more than she could resist. We all continued on together. Junk piles are a great resource. We scavenged through the trash and the scrap iron pile. Finally finding the perfect hunk of metal. Then to gather the rope that we use to tie cow legs back so calves can nurse. I wasn’t going to use my good rope for this! And back to the barn.
Each child got to take a turn climbing up and tossing the rope. I had visions of heads banged and teeth knocked out, but they each tried without causing injury. Then it was my turn, waiting had been hard 😉 I was able to hook the bridle and almost get it over. After a third or forth try it was there!

And the bit was broken 🙁

Oh well. It was still fascinating. Coming up with a back story for it has been so much fun. The leather is of course shot. But I am sending the buckle to a friend to see if she can remake the very basic headstall reusing the old buckle. We polished the bit up a bit and will put it in the house where we can admire it.  We had a grand adventure and learned about problem solving and resourcefulness.

Category: 8, Goblin Child, Uncategorized | LEAVE A COMMENT
7 March 2022

Happy Birthday 8!

8 always gets a little shorted on his party. It’s hard to find something to do in the middle of February. There’s no way a bunch of kids can fit in our house. This year I was determined that we were actually going to DO something. I thought the pool. We asked him. He wanted to have it at the school. SO we got permission to use the auditorium. But what were we going to DO?

We had decided on musical chairs. That would need music anyway. I cajoled my poor beleaguered husband into setting up a sound system. Just a little one. He decided to add in the screen. It ended up being a dance party!

With plenty of room to run the children used up plenty of energy dancing, chasing balloons, and running up and down the aisles playing hide and seek in the seats.

This was all proceeded by treats for his birthday as his class sang him happy birthday and a great box of presents from his grandma, grammie, and different papa for him to open. I think this counts as doing something for his birthday this year.

 

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14 February 2022

Oh Deer

If it’s not coyotes it’s deer. I’m always amazed when people think agriculture and wildlife somehow exist separately.
Coming home the other night I saw one of the big herds of deer running at us. I stopped and we watched them come at us. The car sitting there didn’t bother or slow them. It gave them a target if anything.
They ran in front of us and seemed to panic there, as we sat still. Right in front of us some stopped, some kept going, some went back and forth a few times then dove head first into the electric fence.
Groaning, knowing the damage they do and that the cows are in that field I sent my overly energetic son to survey the damage. He said the fence was gone. Hoping that just meant knocked out of the insulators we headed towards home.
Which is when the rest of the deer came back! I stopped, again. They ran at us in a panic and through the fence, again. In a different spot. One of them hung up a little. Got out a ways and did a flip. I’d have more sympathy if he had been running from something.
Knowing for sure the fence was gone there we hurried home. Trying to beat darkness, to gather supplies and get back out to repair the damage while we could still see a little.
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31 January 2022

The Fort

The kids spent their weekend, as much as they could of it, building another fort with their cousins. It occurs to me that they do this fairly often. I can think of two or three other forts they’ve labored over, then abandoned. Apparently building a fort is more fun than playing in a fort. I understand that.

We are not supposed to know about this one. Luckily our kids, especially 8, are really bad at not telling us things. He is catching a bit of heck for it, but we are doing our best to encourage it. It’s good that they aren’t as skilled at keeping secrets from us as their cousins appear to be. We hear C and A told us not to tell, but…   a lot. We are sworn not to tell their mom where the fort is and pretend not to know. Mostly I’m glad they’re having fun.

I went to check it out today after feeding cows. I wont tell them I’ve been there. The swing scares me half to death. Tomorrow when I feed I’ll take along another, better, hook to secure it with. Their ingenuity and the effort they’ve put in here is amazing. It’s a perfect place for a fort. I hope they stick with this one.

Category: 8, Goblin Child | LEAVE A COMMENT