Mallory's piglets left today

Just a quick note or two.

First off, Mallory's babies headed for a new home tonight.  She was not happy and neither were they.  She and her pen mate, Marshmallow, beat me up a little but I managed to separate them with little damage to me or the barn. 

Also, still waiting on Sally Shorthorn to have her calf. 

Very, very hot today.  Some people are saying it was close to 100 degrees.  I didn't think it was that hot but it could have been.  We need some rain badly.  Getting close to the drought of 1986.  Last year we couldn't get three days in a row without rain and this year we can't get a day of rain!

Oh well, that is how it goes!  Plan for the worst and hope for the best.  This year I planned for the worst and I am setting pretty good for feed for the winter with first cutting.  So, now I am just hoping for enough rain to make the hay I need to sell to cover feed costs for the piggies!.

Have a good one everyone!  Vacation next week.  Will be posting pics from the beach!  Much much needed time away!  Can't wait!

Kenny

My baby is growing up so fast!

I notice while mowing second cutting Tuesday night that the tractor was getting close to 1000 hrs.   Well, she rolled over on the way home at the end of the night!

Raising kids is not easy.

Well, all things considered we are quite blessed.  We have a home to live in.  We both have good jobs.  We have plenty of food to eat, and everything seams great.  However, you don't always realize how much time lost with your family really means to those who matter most, your children. 

Growing up on the farm my parents were always busy.  We never had money for frivolous things and if you needed clothes or wanted toys it had to wait till Christmas.   Now, being a father myself I am frequently reminded of my childhood and what I went through as a child.  I do not want my children to wait for things such as clothes and daily things they need.  I also want them to have some of the things they want from time to time.  I feel a lot of people, children and adults, are very spoiled and have lost touch with reality today.  I am trying to raise my children to realize that I will help them get what they need and help them earn what they want. 

To do this I thought that I needed to work all the time and never stop and make as much money as I can.  However, tonight I learned a valuable lesson.  I found out for the forth time this year that my daughter took something from school that was not hers.  Now, my wife's response was to get very angry and threaten her with all kinds of things and take stuff away etc..   I on the other hand thought back to my childhood. 

Back in fifth grade I attended a small school with only two classes of 18 students each per grade.  Everyone knew everyone.  To make it worse, my dad drove the school bus that I rode to school every day.  So, he knew about everything that went on before I even knew.  Well, we lived quite short on money back in those days.  We always had food because of the farm but not much else.  My parents did what they could to give use everything we needed and we never went without what we needed.  However, what we wanted was often left to what they could afford.  I did have my tractor and farm toys and some really cool things such as construx to play with as a kid.  Between those toys and working on the farm I learned way more as a kid than most anyone I went to school with.  However, even with what I had there was the occasional TV commercial on Saturday morning showing some little toy meant to appeal to little kids.  During my fifth grade year that "gotta have it" toy was the micro mini machine.  If you don't know what it is just Google it.  Well, one of the kids in my class came in one day with a bag full of them.  All I ever wanted at the time was one and he had a bag full.  I asked several times to at least play with one and they wouldn't even let me touch one. 

Now, I knew the difference between right and wrong and that what isn't mine was not mine to have.  However, I felt that because he had so many he wouldn't miss some because obviously he was wrong for not sharing and he had so many it wouldn't matter to him.  So, one day while no one was looking I took some.  I knew it was wrong but neither of my parents would listen when I talked about them let alone buy me one to see what they were like or have one at home to play with.  So again, I took some.  The next day he knew they were missing and I acted like I didn't know anything about it.  A few weeks later my dad found them hidden in my room.  After a long shouting match I admitted to what I did.  He immediately beat my rear end till I couldn't walk let alone sit down.  Then I had to take them back to the person I took them from.  I ended up hiding them at school and let person I took them from find them a few weeks later while cleaning up after recess. 


Now, I suppose you are wondering how this relates to what happened here tonight.  Well, I decided instead of going the route my dad went with me that I would try something different.  So, after getting my daughter to tell me what she did and bring me what she took, I got her to calm down and talk to me.  At work they always talk about the "five why's".  If you want to know the real reason for something just keep asking why five times and you will get to the real reason behind what is going on.  So I did this tonight.  When asked she kept coming back to " I took it so I could be on yellow".  (the preschool has a color system for how the children behave, Green, blue, yellow, and red, green is good red is really bad).  After some more questions and prying she told me that she wanted to be on yellow because she liked to talk and because she was on yellow she could be by herself to talk (think to herself) without anyone bothering her.  This struck a cord with me because I was the same way as a child.  My mind races all day.  While some people have one or two thoughts from time to time I have many in my head constantly.  I can never get into words everything I am thinking about.  So I pried a little deeper and through some more discussion she revealed that she really got to yellow because she knew that if she got to yellow she would be able to talk to me....

This broke my heart.  This entire time I have been busting my but to give them what I never had and missed the one thing I needed most, to just spend time with my dad. 

 I cannot go back and change what I have done wrong in my life.  I constantly think about those things and they still bother me today.  However, I can change what I do tomorrow.  Spending time with my children and my wife now has a new meaning to me.  I started the farm to teach my kids about life and I am finding it teaches me as much as it teaches them. 

Maybe that is what is wrong with the world today.  Maybe everyone needs to spend more time with their kids on the farm, the garage, somewhere!  Just stop and talk and see what they are thinking about. 

Goodnight.

Kenny

Sunset and baby boy!!

Well, I got home late again tonight so we ate dinner before heading out to see the cows.  This has become a nightly ritual to see if we have any babies and to spend some fun time with the kids.  

Tonight we were treated to two awesome sights, first was this sunset!!

   Second was a new little calf!!  Koyuki had her calf sometime today.  It is a little boy and was up and running very well which means he was probably born sometime in the morning.

Just like two of the others he is a tan/white color.  However he is more gray with black eyes.  Last year we had two bulls and five heifers, the first and last were bulls.  This year our first, excluding Legacy, was a heifer and the rest have been bulls.  We still have Sally, Prairie Fire, and Fifty yet to go!  I can't wait!

Kenny

Just a quick post

Soooooooo busy!!   I thought after first cutting it would slow down but it seams to be speeding up! 

We need rain badly now.  We had about an inch and a half two weeks ago.  Other than that we haven't had much in over a month.  Last year we could hardly get a three day stretch with no rain and sunlight now we can't seem to get any rain.  Oh well, that is the test we have to pass this year.  I managed to make enough hay from first cutting to fulfill all my feed needs for the cattle for a full year so everything is extra for sale and I will be fine for another year.

Still waiting on calves.  Everyone is way later than the vet said they would be but they are having beautiful calves and they are all healthy so far so I guess I will just have to wait.

Started a new project at work.  Things are going really well there and we are adding on.  Going to be a long term work site with phenomenal ideas and we are only limited by our imagination and ingenuity!   That is where I excel and have the most fun is doing things that no one else can figure out and taking them to a level that has never been reached before!  Pics to come once we are done doing some seeding.  To give you an idea we are working at an old farm that was purchased by a couple who want to keep the farm setting but turn it into an estate with a pond and such.  I am excited to work for someone who appreciates the need to preserve farm land yet has the vision to build something that has not been created before!

I will keep everyone posted.  I am going to try to post a little more frequently but have shorter posts more often with pics and stories on the weekend.  I have been getting lazy with the posts and I am going to try to be more diligent about posting. 

Have a great one everyone!

Kenny

New Piggies, new Calves, and a great big party!

Well I have been planning our customer party for almost two months now and I planned it around having baby piglets and calves for everyone to see.  As of Saturday morning I didn't have any new baby pigs or cows and I was starting to get depressed because I wanted to have them for the kids to see.  

So, Saturday I am busying myself with cleaning and preparing for the party and the neighbor stopped to get my trailer and my bale spear to gather the round bales I had baled for him on Friday night.  I go down to the barn area to finish picking up litter and help him load up and his youngest son comes over and asks how long has Marshmallow been having piglets.  I said she isn't yet.  He replies "Well she has a black piglet and a red piglet in with her"!  So I run in and sure enough she has started.  It took her only a couple of hours to have them all.

Daisy jumped right in as midwife again and cleaned them up and nuzzled them around to get them all going. 

Here is a pic of them when she was all done.  She had 13.  Unfortunately she lost 4 from laying/stepping on them and one was still born.  Out of the 8 left we sent one to a family who wanted a baby piglet to bottle feed because it was very tiny and would not have made it competing with all bigger ones from Mallory's litter.  

 So, after all the excitement of the new piglets waned off we continued preparing for the party.  We worked pretty late to get done what I could and then headed to bed.

Bright and early Sunday morning we got up and got breakfast and then the kids and I headed out to check the baby piglets and check the cows.  As we headed out to the pasture I noticed something was up because only three of the cows were across the creek in the new pasture and everyone else was up around the barn.  As we were going up the alleyway I saw Legacy, then Pearl, then another pearl ... wait, what!??  That is the exact moment that the new momma, Frosty,  realized I saw her new calf and came running.  So, the kids and I zipped along the stream and into the lot to see the new calf.  It is a bull!!  So, due to all the noise the rest of the heard comes on over and I see what is up.  He is maybe a couple of hours old cause he is all dried off and able to walk.

So I get a couple of good pics to show my wife and make sure he is ok.   As I am doing this I see Chilli walk by and she looks different. 

 So I start looking around where we are and she walks right past us and over to her new calf just a few feet from where we stopped.  It was all curled up and I didn't even see it in the tall grass as I was looking at Frosty's new calf.  So I rush over to check it out.  It is another bull!!!  It was maybe 20-30 minutes old because she had him licked clean but he was still wet and was able to stand but not walk yet.

It is really awesome that we had two bulls so far.  We will steer them and raise them for meat!!  I  hope we get two more so I do not have to buy any more bull calves to raise.  We are definitely on the right track this year!

 Here was a pic I snapped of everyone as I headed back to the house.   It is always fun to watch the herd welcome a new calf.  You can see 50 in the left of the picture on her way over to see the newcomers.  Notice she is not in a hurry.  She is a pro at this now and only gets excited about new feed!! 

 Now that I have all my babies for the party I headed to pick up the cake.  My wife had it made up special for the party.  You will notice she has the American version of the meat cuts for the beef and pork and also the Japanese cuts for the beef.  I took this picture as soon as I got it home. 

I didn't get any pictures during the party as I was quite busy.  So anyone who did please send them to me and I will post them!!  I especially want one of the cake before we cut it.  Just as my wife was explaining all the cuts to everyone my son walked up to the cake and stuck his finger right into the ham on the pig and sampled the icing!!  It drew a big laugh and then we all had some great cake!

After the party was over and everything was cleaned up thanks to some huge help from my buddy Keven, his girlfriend Kelly, and our friend Tim, we enjoyed the campfire for a while and then the last of everyone headed home.  We were all exhausted but it was an awesome time!!!  

For those who didn't make it let me give you what was on the menu.  My wife did all the cooking and still amazes me with how good she is!

Slow cooked Beef Brisket

Slow cooked Pork Shoulder Roast

My wife's special carrots

Green Beans with onions and almond slices

Macaroni and Cheese 

Salad

Jalapeno jelly, cream cheese, and crackers on all the tables for snacks.

Tea, pop, lemonade

Cake

Moving on.  I have been wanting to get a bigger mower for the farm for a while now.  We bought our first one in 2005 the year after we moved in and at the time it was all we could afford.  It was better than the push mower by leaps and bounds but was still a little small for the size lawn we have.  Recently, one of my friends, and customers, called asking about mowers and by the end of the conversation I offered mine to him.  He checked it out at the party and decided to get it for his house so he could quit push mowing and I we out Monday to get the one I have always wanted. 

It is a 50".  The old one was 42"  We have some slopes and some rough areas in the lawn and the bigger wheels and wider deck really make quick work of it.  My original time with my dads old rider and the push mower was 5.5 hours to mow.  The 42" took that time down to 1.5 hours.  The 50" took that time down to a respectable 50 minutes!!! 

Now, if you noticed in the picture above, the truck is hooked to the cattle trailer.  This is because I had to take two steers to the butcher on Monday.  I had just unloaded the mowers and hooked up when I took the picture.  In the morning before going to get the new mower I found all the cows in the barn.  So I gave them a treat and shut the gates to sort them out to load the two I needed.  While penning them up the bigger one of the two I sent to the butcher caught me off guard and kicked me square in the side of the knee.  I was lucky enough to see it coming and took the weight off my leg and it didn't break anything.  I did however experience some serious pain and have been limping all week.  My knee swelled up pretty bad and turned mostly black.  Now I will be even more careful when I am sorting and I am even more determined to get the new barn built to sort cows without this happening.

A couple of quick pics of the two new calves on Tuesday.

Yesterday we got some very much needed rain.  Last year I couldn't get three days in a row of sun to make good hay and this year we hadn't gotten rained out at work this year till yesterday.  So, since I had some good rain already in the soil and more on the way I hurried up and got the fertilizer and lime for the fields and got it applied just in time for the last of the rain to melt it into the soil.  It should make some great 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cutting!

The fertilizer place has several bulk spreaders and tarps for on top to keep the rain out.  Made easy work of it.  Cab was worth every penny I paid for it Friday as Daisy and I stayed perfectly dry and warm while fertilizing in the rain!

Lastly, we had a beautifully sunny, yet chilly day today.  I also had a very good college friend come up from Columbus for some more meat and to visit.  So I built a fire and we had dinner and had some great time catching up and making s'mores with the kids.  This pic was taken while I was waiting for him to arrive.  Notice daisy enjoying the sun and the fire at the same time.  It was just one of those days.  It is nice to have one once in a while where you don't really do much other than enjoy family and friends!