I mowed some hay down one night this week and parked the tractor in the lawn by the house. I went out to feed a calf and on my way back to the house noticed something on the hood of the tractor. It turned out to be Mistletoe! It was cool out and she found that the hood scoop vent for the muffler on the tractor was letting out a constant breeze of warm air. So she snuggled up against it for the evening to relax under the stars!
Another treat this week was received when checking on the baby piglets. I found them all snuggled up against a tree stump in the shade relaxing. There was a nice breeze blowing and they were as happy as could be. So damn cute at this age!
I haven't had a break till today to get some updates on a few of the calves from this year. I wanted to show you some photos of how they are doing so far.
The first pic is of one of the three bulls born this year. All have Legacy for their father. They are looking really good. Growing fast and look great and showing great traits!
A pic of two bulls on the left and heifers on the right. The second bull from front is a grandson of fifty. His mother is Precious. He is looking very very nice! The cows as a whole are looking very nice this year having good pastures to eat off of and having buttermilk to drink as well. The difference is amazing and I am super excited about seeing the long term results!
I wanted to attach a picture of the shorthorn heifer I got at Christmas time. Her name is Sugar and behind her is Spice. Spice is part shorthorn and mostly mixed breeds. Sugar is looking very very nice. The neighbor is talking about taking her to the fair. It would be exciting to see how she does at the show. If she goes I will definitely post the results.
Here is a picture of Frosty. She is Sally Shorthorns first calf and is the mother to Baby Girl. She was still pretty small in frame and stature last summer when Baby Girl was born with baby girl being her third calf. I am amazed to see such a change in her after not feeding a calf over the last 11 months. I think the break helped her a lot as she never really caught up after having her first calf and may have lead to part of why baby girl struggled last year after being born.
If you look in the background to the right is Butterscotch and her calf Brillo is to the right. I am not sure who is in the middle. Brillo was born with a condition where her front feet were not working correctly and she had problems walking. She was almost 3 months old before she would walk more than just a short distance at one time. Now she is much much better. Her stride has become much closer to normal and she doesn't walk hunched up like she did in the spring. Hopefully she continues to improve and provides us with another reliable great mother to add to the herd!
As I type this the full realization that another year is well past half over is setting in. I have mixed feelings on this as I want to continue to grow the farm and what we do here. However, the more I try to make things easier and less time consuming it seems that more things demand my time and the time is flying by very quickly. An even deeper realization is that my daughter is already half way to College age.....not cool!!!! I need to get some of the added projects buttoned up before fall and then set some solid goals for next year this winter. One of these will be to either find someone near full time help for the farm or alter what we do here to allow for some free time. I want to spend some more time with the family and less time by myself in the field and at work. I am also hoping that as the kids get older they will want to spend a little more time with me out in the field when I do have to work. However, I have a gut feeling that that will not happen how I would like it to!
I will leave everyone with this small piece of advice. Stop and smell the roses this week as many times as you can, for in a very short time, they will once again be dormant and covered in snow! Sometimes the memory of that rose will be all you have to get you through those very cold and dark nights!
Have a great week everyone.
Kenny
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