Thanksgiving dinner and some other pics

I have not had the time to post very much lately.  With the short days and cold weather I am constantly busy trying to get ahead and haven't had a chance to stop and relax yet.  I was out early this morning to check lots from the last snow event and as I type this I am watching the next oncoming snow storm on my other monitor. Hopefully my vacation at the end of the month for Christmas and New Years will include a day or two to stop and reflect on the year that has already passed.  It is going to be a long cold winter.

My thanksgiving week started with the largest snow storm of the year for us here.  We got up to 8" of snow depending on where you were at in this area.  I ended up putting in 70hours at work from Monday morning till Thursday afternoon right before dinner.  I also went in for a few hours on Friday to wrap up paperwork.

My reward waiting for me with dinner was my trusty friend Coors!  Had a couple with a long hot shower and the rest with dinner.  

This was our first family dinner at my parents house since they finished the new kitchen.  It is beautiful and it was awesome to have lots of space to have the whole family together for a meal.  I only got one picture of the food and festivities due to me falling asleep within minutes of finishing my meal.  We also got to eat a heritage breed turkey raised by one of my customers that buys piglets off of me.  It was delicious.  I can't wait till he raises another batch!  If anyone is interested let me know and I will have him raise more next time to sell.

Thanksgiving Dinner in my parents new kitchen

Even though there is no roof on the cow shed yet the cows and pigs are still enjoying the pad and the fact that when the weather is bad they have a firm place to get out of the mud!

Frosty and her calf.  She is an Angus x Shorthorn and the calf's father is Angus x Charolais

The star of this picture is Frosty, the black cow laying down, and her son standing to her left.  He is one good looking little dude!  They were chilling out by the barn after getting a belly full of hay.  The larger tan steer standing up and the one laying down are both this years beef crop.  I cannot wait to see how they produce.  These will be the first steers from Thunders genetics.  I know they are growing well just anxious to see what the meat looks like and how well they finish out.

Frosty and her calf.  She is an Angus x Shorthorn and the calf's father is Angus x Charolais

I recently found one of my dad's steers in the small pasture across the creek.  He is one that likes to jump the fences and I couldn't get him to go back home so I had to put him in with my cows and then used my new gate and chute system to catch him and take him back to where he belongs.

The built in cattle chute for the new cow shed.

 As you can see in the picture above there was no gate to keep the cows from just leaving the barn.  I had to finish the chute during my only break on Sunday afternoon so I could use it.  I had mounted the rail boards one day last weekend but hadn't had time to build any of the gates.  I managed to build the first of 4 wooden gates and got it mounted with just enough time to get him caught and take the kids to get the Christmas tree.  By the time I got back home and was able to get a picture it was dark so this is from inside the chute looking out of the shed.

The new wooden gate I built for the cow shed / chute.

While I was building the new gate I also had to install the new opening for the feeder pigs to get in and out of the one pen so I could separate them from the sows.  The sows are due to have babies at the end of the month and I still have one that is not fattening up enough.  If she doesn't put on enough weight before the babies are born she will thin out to quickly and will not be able to feed them milk as long as she needs to.

The new entrance/exit for the feeder pigs.

I kept all the boards that I trims off to make a door to put on it when I want it closed.  It is also sized so that just the feeder pigs can get through it.  The sows, boar, donkey, and calves are all too big to fit through the hole.  The feeder pigs will just barely be able to fit through it when they are finished and ready for the butcher.

Steven was back home for a couple of days this week.  Before he headed out again he helped me clean the pig barn and the cow shed.  They were both very messy and needed a cleaned and re-bedded.  Because of the new concrete pad I was able to save all the manure from the cows and pigs.  I only lost a little from all the extra water from the rain and snow.  I had 5 large loads in my neighbors tandem manure spreader.  That would be equivalent to about 8-9 loads in my dad's box spreader.  With the old gravel pad I might have had three or four loads in my dad's spreader.  I am planning on installing a buffer strip from where I store the round bales across the hill almost to the property line fence to capture any of the manure that washes off the pad.  I haven't figured it completely out but I want to utilize every ounce of this free fertilizer and not let any of it turn into runoff!

After all of the stuff was done last weekend we headed to our favorite spot to get a Christmas tree.  When I was a kid it seamed to take forever for everyone to decide what tree they wanted.  We are usually very quick to find the one we like.  It usually takes us longer to climb up the hill than it does to pick the one we want.  Even Daisy gets in on the action!

Everyone happy to have the Christmas Tree.

We had three days of very warm weather, in relation to the frigid cold and snow we have been having the last two weeks.  To utilize the break in the weather we hurried to finish what we could at work before the snow set in again.  

Below are a set of steps that I had cut for the pool project I was working on for the last half of the year.  These are cut from White Mountain slabs in Scranton PA.

White mountain step slabs.

They laid in almost perfect.  Just needed a slight adjustment of the patio stone on the top patio leading up to the steps.  I also needed to chisel off the tip of the one rock to the right.  Otherwise it was a very easy installation.

I hope everyone who celebrates thanksgiving had a wonderful one!  If you have never experienced one you should not pass up the experience if it ever presents itself.  It is always wonderful to get the entire family together and have a great meal and spend time with each other.  It doesn't happen as often as it should so you have to enjoy it when it does!