Some views from the hill and new Ear Tags!!

Since we are having such mild weather I decided to got for a 4-wheeler ride yesterday and took a couple pics from on top of the hill.  Everything looks so bare and open without leaves on the trees!

I do love the large oaks that are left at the top of the area that I cleared off.  It looks so much different now than when we moved in!

My last pic was looking down the hill from where we start when sled riding!  Quite a ways down there!

Lastly, my new tags for all the cattle came today!  I am so excited.  I have been able to tell them all apart till this year and now I am getting so many full black and full brown/white ones that I cannot tell them apart without seeing them with their mommas.  So we ordered custom tags for the farm.  The purple ones will be for all the Momma cows and the orange ones are for all the steers.

If you look closely we have our farm name right on the tags!!!  I can't wait to see them on the cows.  Will be so nice to have solid easily visible tags to know who I am looking at!

On another note.  It is a week before Christmas and we just had a weekend of 55 degree weather with light rains.  It is good to get caught up on our water that we didn't get over the summer.  As long as the ground isn't frozen it is soaking right in.  Furthermore, the manure that I have applied to the fields already is being taken into the soil by the rain and the grass is already greening up from it!  I am partial to a mild winter.  However, it would be nice to get a couple of big big snows that stick long enough for some awesome sledding.  We didn't get to do much at all last year so everyone is looking forward to it this year!

Also, next week is our annual herd check.  This is when we pregnancy check all the momma cows and vaccinate and De-worm everyone.  This is also when we castrate all the bulls that will be raised for meat.  This will hopefully be the last one we have to do in the old cow shed.  By this time next year I plan on having a fully functional concrete floored barn to feed in and care for the animals.  The current situation was nice when we had less than 15.   However, with almost 30 they don't all fit in the barn.  I am going to need to get some new heavy gates to add to the pen for this checkup.  Lets hope for 11 out of 11 bred!!!

Kenny