Spring is coming!!!

Hello everyone!!!  I am sorry for the long break since my last post.  Between a very large amount of things going on at work and a cold snowy winter, I haven't had much time to do any writing!  In addition to work, we have been busy in planning and updating things here on the farm so I have some things to share!

I will start off with the meat we picked up today to deliver to one of our long-time customers.  I have known this customer from my time in the All Ohio State Fair Youth Choir, which was many many years ago and we have stayed in touch ever since.  They decided to get a full steer this time and it was finished up yesterday so we picked it up and delivered it.  We are finally getting our breeding figured out and are getting an even better product and much better yields over the last couple of years for the pigs and the cows.  

For many years our typical hanging weight at 22 months for a steer was 625#.  Last year we averaged 730#/steer at 20 months and this year we are averaging 875#/steer at 18 months.   The pictures below are of a porterhouse steak from today's steer.  The hanging weight was 813 and he was 18 months old.  

I put one of my gloves next to the steak for size reference. 

We have made several adjustments over the years.  We have improved the hay that we are feeding by completely reseeding all of our hayfields into a solid performing alfalfa grass mix that we bale at the best times as silage hay.  The knowledge we have gained over the years is allowing us to produce a high quality highly nutritious that is easily digestible.   We also are using a lot more composted manure as fertilizer which adds to the quality of the hay crop produced.  

Another change to the feed has been to offer the cattle and pigs free choice of buttermilk.  This started as a supplemental feed source for the pigs from our local dairy.  It has since blossomed into a great relationship with the dairy and a constant feed supplement for the animals that is natural, low in fat, and high in protein. This change allowed us to move away from the commercial lick tubs as a supplement for the animals and the change has been tremendous as they have a much more balanced diet!

 Another major change has been to develop a three-way cross with better genetics.  When we were getting started we took whatever cattle we could get and bred them to whatever bull was available.   Once we had enough money we invested in a better bull, and then another, and we have now started doing Artificial Insemination with a leased bull for clean up.  Between the better genetics and the cross-breeding, we are seeing terrific results.  Our best producing cross so far has been Milking shorthorns bred to an Angus bull.  The milking shorthorns produce copious amounts of milk, sometimes enough for two calves, which gets the calves growing crazy fast from the start.  The calves also are taller giving them a better frame to grow on.   The Angus bull gives them the muscle!  The end result is a faster-growing animal that grows well on grass. 

As I mentioned above and have discussed before, part of the conservation project we did on the farm involved composting manure.  When we built everything I thought I had way more space than I needed to do this.  The picture below is proof that I was very wrong! 

This is the second pile of this size this year.  The first I spread right before Christmas.  Don't let the picture fool you as this pile is approx 20' wide, 20' tall, and 40' long.  My goal is to let it compost all summer and apply after forth cutting as a fall fertilization.  However, I will see how things go and I may put it down after second cutting.  Everything will depend on whether I can get the chicken manure I want to apply or not.  

Another project has been a fencing update for the farm.  For years now we have had a two-strand electric fence for the farm.  This has worked very well and for many years we had very little issues with the cattle getting loose or breaking the fence. However, two years ago that all changed.  We have at least one, and possibly several, cattle who do not respect the fence at all.  When I shut off a pasture they break the wire gate and go right back in.  The breaking point, literally the breaking point, was reached on Christmas Eve when I was cleaning the barnyard and had the cows on the holding lot.  They broke ALL of the fences between the creek and the barn and were running rampid all over the farm.  It took three of us an hour to get them all in and they have been locked in the barnyard since.

It was immediately decided that the time had come to upgrade the fences.  We contacted HP Fence, who did all the fencing for my parents, and they came to the rescue!  Last week they were finally able to install the first portion of our fencing.  The first section is the holding lot between the creek and the barn and we went with 5 strand Hi-Tensile fence. 

Above is our entrance to bring equipment into the pasture.  Eventually, we will have the property line remarked and install a line fence but for now, we are stopping here due to budget restraints and time. 

Below we are looking from the cattle crossing into the tunnel for the holding lot.  This turned out very well!  We squared up the corners of the buffer strip and expanded it a little bit.  The buffer strip is now one lot instead of two and with this secure fencing system it will be much easier to manage.



I let the cows off of the barnyard to stretch and get some exercise.  They were thrilled and ran around for probably 20 minutes.  Then they decided it was time to go across the creek.......till they found a solid gate and very hot very high fences.  This was an awesome sight to see knowing the chaos that ensued on Christmas Eve!

HP fence will be back out in a week or so to finish the balance of our fencing.  They will be installing some new fence, beefing up our old fences, changing everything over to 3 strand Hi-Tensil,  and installing some sweet metal gates so we can effectively control the pasture rotation!

 Due to the large numbers of Hay acreage I now have I need to produce more dry hay than Silage.  To do this I need to take every opportunity I can to dry the hay faster in the summer.  One of the best tools to do this with is a tedder.  Once the hay has reached the permanent wilting point, you run the tedder over the field and fluff it.  My old 4 basket Kuhn tedder did a decent job but was hard to open and close, as it was all by hand, and was too small to cover the acres I need to cover in a very short time.   

I spoke with Greg at Unkefer Equipment and he went on the search for a Kubota 6 basket, hydraulic fold tedder.  He found one at a tremendous price in PA and had it shipped in.  I cannot wait to use it.  It is hydraulic fold and after the initial setup for height, it shouldn't need to be messed with again short of switching it to a shorter tractor.  I demoed a 6 basket carry type tedder last summer and the production rate was astounding.  I didn't like the 3-point hitch version as it was too heavy, but, with the size, I was able to cover more ground in three hours than I could with the 4 basket in a day!

The last piece of equipment that I have been debating on upgrading was the baler.  As many of you probably already know I got this baler about 4.5 years ago.  It is a terrific baler and has served me very well.  It is in need of new belts and has 12,400 bales on it already, I bought it with 3300. 

The tipping point for the decision to upgrade came from feeding the extremely thick and tall first cutting we made last year.  Due to the length, we are seeing a lot of waste by the cows, even with our high-efficiency feeder.  To give you an idea of what is happening, imagine eating full-length spaghetti,  without a fork, while standing about 12 inches away from the kitchen table.  What happens is, as you take a bite and pull, a lot of spaghetti is pulled off of the plate with the bite you took and falls on the floor.  While you are chewing the extra that is hanging out of your mouth falls on the floor as well. Then you trample it because you are trying to eat from the same plate as 45 other people!  Now there is a solution!

Introducing the solution!  When I went to pick up my new tedder I found it parked right next to a "barely used" BR 7060 Crop Cutter round baler.  This is the baler I wanted when I got my BR 740 but couldn't afford the $45,000 price tag!   This unit, however, is only a couple of years old and has only made 3386 bales.  When I bought the  BR750 it had made 3393.  

The decision maker for me was that this one has been kept in the shed when not in use, like mine, and was very very well maintained and not damaged.  It also just had a brand new set of endless belts installed on it!  These belts, if properly used, should last 14000 bales!  To top it all off, this baler cost me 50% less than new but is basically brand new!

What makes this baler superior to my old one is the processor!  If you look closely at the picture below you can see the knives sticking up from the bottom and the fingers fo the feed roller that shoves the hay thru the knives into the bale chamber.  With all 15 knives installed you end up with a finished cut size of around 2.5-3' in length.  This should greatly reduce feed loss like we are experiencing now.  It will also improve digestibility of the hay due to its shorter length. 

Now, the only decision is which hat do I wear when spring finally gets here?!?!?!

I can say that I was heavily leaning towards a new Kubota baler with the processor on it.  But, my final decision was swayed by the price and the fact that I am familiar with the New Holland product and it has served me well.  Until there is a Kubota baler that I can demo and test before I buy it I cannot justify making that change. 

I hope everyone has made it thru winter without any major issues.   I am very much looking forward to spring and being able to shed the winter coat.....and my beard!  Our deadline for finishing the fence is mid march as calving season is very fast approaching and I need everyone on pasture for that.  We lost a lot of calves last year simply due to the mud and mess that they had to trudge thru every day.  with the new fences, the walkway repairs I made last year, and shifting calving to April instead of March, we should see much better results this year!  We are currently expecting 24 calves this spring/summer.  14 of them are due between the third week of April and the second week of May.  The other 10 are all due on or around my Birthday in July!

Let's hope for a quick and easy calving season and 100% success rate! 

Have a great day everyone!  It is forecasted to be sunny and almost 50 today so I plan to go out and have a fire in the fire pit and enjoy the day!

Kenny

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

WOW, what a year!  We saw highs and low throughout the year and changes that make us grateful for what we have and what is to come!  Heres a quick look at the last couple of months and then a review of the year that has passed and a look into the year to come!

2017 decided to close out with some bitter cold that started before Christmas and will continue for a few more weeks for sure.  We are not yet reaching the lows that we saw in 1994 or in 2014 & 2015 but we have been below zero several times already in December and the first day of 2018 we hit a low of -10 degrees.  

The picture below is of Dad's pasture next door and the little black dots are geese, hundreds of geese!  They stopped to enjoy the small amount of open water on the creek, which has now frozen over as well. 

It is cold enough that the kids and have what they call the heater vent club...which includes Zeus!  They cover up with a blanket and use their feet to hold it up around the heater vent and slowly cook themselves.  Zeus figured this out pretty quickly and joined the club shortly after it was formed. 

On the days when the kids are not around or are still in bed Zeus has a private heater vent club just for himself!  He is not spoiled right?

Zeus was also very excited during Thanksgiving break when two of my great friends, who just happen to be the guys I hunt mushrooms with, come to stay with us for a few days and enjoy some four wheeling, deer hunting, and a Thanksgiving dinner with another great friend of ours.  Zeus is not to proud to beg for attention, and, as you can see here, he is very good at getting it!

I was also finally able to upgrade the heaters in the shop and the garage to a vented forced air heater.  The ventless heaters I have been using work well but create a lot of water during operation which collects on the walls and windows leading to mold issues.  It took almost a week with the new heater running in place of the original to dry everything out like it should be.  

I stopped in at Unkefer Equipment the day after Christmas to order a small part and chatted with Greg Unkefer, the salesman I work with and also the son of Homer who started the dealership!  We decided to upgrade our tedder for the farm and it is due in any day now.  Greg asked me to wait for a second as he had a gift for me.  He knows that I am working towards converting all of my hay tools over to Kubota eventually and his present was a Kubota Hay Tools toy set.  This has now been added to my collection of Kubota toys....much to the dismay of my son who wanted to immediately open them up and play with them!

One of the guys I work with has a hobby farm that he raises his own steers and pigs to feed his family with.  He tries to be as self-sufficient as possible and raises his own corn, which, prior to this year he picked by hand.  He is a thrifty fellow and managed to find a Massey Harris one row corn picker for sale.  I dug the gravity wagon out of dads shed up home and took it down to Derek's to see if we could get this old picker running.  As you can see in the picture, after several hours of scraped knuckled and some choice words, we got it running!   We picked a years supply of corn in about 2 hours.  I thought this was a great picture showing a very very old piece of equipment being pulled by a very modern piece of equipment!

There ended up being about 11 rows left after he filled his corn crib so I picked it and brought it home with me.  Derek keeps telling me that he doesn't shell the corn to feed it, he just throws the whole ear corn into the pigs and they do the shelling for him, and he was spot on!  Each day I give the pigs approx. 45 lbs. of whole ear corn as well as another 40 lbs of the cracked corn & oats mix that I have for them.   As you can see in the picture below, they ignore the mixed feed and will eat the whole ear corn first. Whole ear corn is 1/4 the cost of the mixed feed and with them having access to the pasture in the summer and the milk we feed them this is all they really need currently for a balanced diet.  I have a supplier for whole ear corn and I am considering getting another load when this runs out!

My last major project for 2017 was cleaning the barn before the frigid cold set in.  Usually, this was a multi-day project consisting of 50-60 loads of manure with dads small box spreader.  At our visit to the Farm Science review this year I found a vertical beater manure spreader that I really liked but was far out of the realistic price range for purchasing right now.  However, thru talking with the local dealer I found out that they rent this spreader at an unbelievably reasonable price.  So, the plan was set and I picked it up right before Christmas. With my brothers help we cleaned my barn and dad's barn in a what totaled to be about 10 total hrs. and took 19 loads!!!!  This thing is a beast!!!!!!!

This thing spreads a beautifully consistent and even pattern that is 30' wide.  It took 13 loads to clean my barn 100% including the massive pile I had built up already. 

It chewed up every cornstalk, clump, wad of hay, everything, and it layed so beautifully across the fields.  If you look closely at the picture above you will see where I spread 6 loads with dad's spreader in this same field earlier this fall.  The black spots you see to the left of this spread pattern are the clumps that still remain months after it was spread....and 6 loads only covered the center of one pasture!  I was able to evenly cover 10 acres with this spreader and my pastures are now fertilized and ready for spring and there are no clumps!!!!  When we come out of the deep freeze I plan to clean the barns again but I will be covering my hay fields with the next round!!!

Now for a review of the year that has passed!  We started 2017 nervous about what was to come as my wife was still unemployed at the turn of the year and the farm was struggling to cover its own bills.  Through much hard work and proper management, the farm quickly was forced to be efficient, conservative, and we made needed changes to be sure it could cover its own payments.  March saw my wife find part-time work which gave her the opportunity to grow professionally again.  While this took her away from the farm it has allowed us the luxury of some extra money coming in.  Since the farm had already been forced to fend for itself, we are blessed to be able to use this money to finally have and maintain emergency savings and start knocking out some debt!  

Spring brought my wife an expanded version of her part-time job that morphed into a full-time position.  Spring also brought us a bumper hay crop which provided enough hay to feed all of my cattle for a full year, in just the first cutting!  There was actually so much hay that it secured a full year's worth of feed for Sam's cattle as well as enough for us to sell some if demand arises!  Spring also brought us a record-setting wet spring that was muddy far beyond what we expected.  This lead to us losing several calves to disease because of the mud and generally poor weather conditions.  

Summer brought us two more unbelievable cuttings of dry hay that turned out beautiful!!!   It also brought us a record number of sales for freezer pork and beef as well as a lot of custom work that was close to home!   Summer remained wet, which, while it was great for growing hay, it was horrible for timing of making the hay.  The summer also didn't dry up so we fought mud in the pastures all summer long and forced us to make changes to cattle paths across the bottom that needed to be done.  The installation of the driveway and cattle paths will pay off huge dividends as we move forward in allowing us to access the pastures even in the wettest of conditions without forcing the cattle to wade thru the mud.  This eliminates sickness in newborn calves and allows us to properly rotationally graze our pastures. 

Fall was crazy busy and we didn't let off the throttle!  Thru working with another friend at work we were able to secure bedding for the winter.  The weather cooperated perfectly and, with help from my brother, we were able to get it all home and wrapped before it rained so we have the best bedding we have ever made!  

While winter went from warm and wet to extremely cold and frozen, it is a blessing in disguise!  The last two years we have barely had enough hay to make it thru the winter and barely made it to green pastures each spring!  These mild winters came at just the right time to allow us to make it thru without purchasing feed or having to sell cattle to make it thru.  Cold weather like this benefits us in many ways.  Due to the cold, the feedlot stays drier and cleaner and the bedding works beautifully with less bedding.  When it is this cold the animals will eat almost twice as much hay each day as they would in mild temperatures.  We have plenty of hay so that is not a problem for us this year.  It also means that demand for hay will increase with each extremely cold day we have so our chances to sell out the bumper crop we made this year get better with every cold day we have!!!

That brings us to today.  The last two years were stressful and gave us little room for error in decision making.  It has also forced us to complete one of our primary goals, for the farm to pay for itself and begin to pay us back!  This one step has a tremendous effect on our future as a family and as a business.  These tests have forced us to be flexible and show a willingness to change quickly to keep up with the challenges of the day.  

We are gaining momentum as we continue to grow and with each new low comes an opportunity to learn, grow, and change!  With each new challenge, we have the opportunity to choose how we are going to respond!

E + R = O

Event + Response = Outcome!

You cannot change the event, it has happened and it is past.  However, you can change the outcome by how you respond to the event.  That is the beauty of life, you control every aspect of your life by how you choose to respond to each event you experience.  Some outcomes are immediate, others may take a lifetime to know the outcome.  The point is, we each have the complete control over our life and the world around us by how we choose to respond! With this in mind, we can look back at our response and know that while there have been struggles along the way, we responded in a positive way and the outcome is continuing to be more positive each day!   

So this year, as you look upon your pasture and take inventory of what you have, what you need, what you want, and what your goals are, you should do so knowing you are in complete control!  You have created your own destiny.  If what you see in your pasture is not what you want or need, you are not stuck with it forever.  You can change it starting now with how you respond to each challenge that comes to you! 

Remember, nothing lasts forever.  The bad times will pass and there will be good times and as such the good times will pass and there will be struggles.  So, be careful how you respond the next time you face a decision....because at that moment you are shaping your destiny!

Have a wonderful year everyone!  It will be everything you make it!

Kenny

Fall is quickly moving thru!

Well, as I stated in my last post, insanity!!!  I thought things would slow down some as we moved into October, and they did, for a day or two!  Then it picked right back up again.  

October brings with it two birthdays for the family.  My Brother Martin turned 21 on the 6th!  His present was he brought me a case of beer!!!!  It was everything I hoped it would be!  LOL  Then us, and several of his friends, took him out to dinner!

And we may have gotten him drunk, well, it was a mutual effort!

The second October birthday is my son Alex, who turned 8 this year!!!   I still am amazed at how quickly they are growing up and how much things have changed since he was born!   He is into K'nex and was getting ready to tear down his crane to do an entirely new build with two new sets he got for his birthday.

To properly dispose of excess milk and wash water from rinsing the milk storage tanks for the pigs I have used a sprayer that I created from a small nurse tank trailer purchased at an auction about 3 years ago.   It is really not a good fit and I wanted something more suited to what I am doing that was larger.  I finally came across what I was looking for on Tractorhouse.com last week and decided to go for it.  The idea was sparked from seeing a tank at the farm science review that was pretty sweet so I have been looking for one to upgrade. It came with just the tank and I switched over the spray boom and installed new hoses and a new pump.

The old one is 600 gallon and was made from the back half of a dump truck.  This one was built specifically for hauling water or other liquids from one place to another and is 1000 gallon.

I wasn't sure how the spray boom would work being much closer to the ground but it actually is perfect now.  it is just high enough to get the full spread but low enough that heavy winds do not blow the spray around during application!  It also tows much easier and has much better weight distribution with the tandem flotation tires instead of dual truck tires.  

I am not sure if I ever posted about the new garage door or not but I thought this was a good opportunity if I hadn't!  After all the repairs on the truck the last 4 years, which included new springs all the way around, it was quickly realized that the truck didn't fit in the old garage door any more!  So, while we were away on vacation this summer my good friend Andrew Hostetler took out the old garage door, increased the height of the opening, and got the new garage door installed as well as a new man door!  It is quite awesome to have my baby back inside out of the rain and the cold!

As many of you may already know, we are devout buckeye fans around here.  My grandfather, my father, my brother and one sister, and my wife and I all went to school at Ohio State.  This is where my wife and I met and in this stadium is where I took her to her first ever football game, and also where I think she started to fall for me!

My dad graduated in 1974 and was one of the last classes to be allowed to purchase season tickets.  Now to get them you have to join one of the high dollar donation clubs and then you have the option to purchase season tickets.  Dad wanted to go to the Penn State vs. Ohio State game but mom wasn't able to go, so he asked me if I wanted to go....that was an easy yes!!!

Watching the game wasn't that easy as it turned into an instant classic with a stunning last minute come back win and something I will remember the rest of my life.  My parents have been bringing my siblings and I to games since we were old enough to walk and we have been doing the same with our  kids.  Growing up on the farm, Alumni weekend was the only vacation we could afford and find someone to do the farm chores while we went away for one weekend.  Those game days were always special.  This was the first time Dad and I have gone to a game ourselves in many years and it was great to experience this stunner of a game with him like we did many years ago!

And also watch everyone rush the field and party.

Lastly I want to share an update on Zeus.  Apparently he is just a person in a dogs body because he is continually trying to do everything that we do.  He tries to sit on my lap in the car, he sits on a chair on the porch with me, he rides the tractor with me, and now........

He wants his own chair at the kitchen table!

The picture above was taken shortly after I put my chair aside and got another chair to sit in.  This was due to him constantly yipping and talking and trying to push me out of my chair.  As soon as he had a place to sit he got up and sat down.

Below was the next morning.  He was acting the same so I got him a chair and he got up and sat down.  You can see his treat on the table that he was patiently waiting for.  This was the quietest breakfast we had on a weekend in many weeks.  

The best part is he just looks at us as if to say "what are you looking at, this is normal isn't it?"

He has since not wanted back up on the chair as much but we haven't had time to spend at the table much lately either.  I am sure we will be trying this again this weekend!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.  We had some snow flakes in the air today so it won't be long and we will have it piling up on the ground!  Thanksgiving is coming up quickly and it will be nice to have a few days off to spend with family.  

Kenny

Full blown crazy busy!!!!! Fall is a comin up fast!!!

So, I have always been told that if you take a week off for vacation you will have to work twice as hard for two weeks after to catch up.  So, what happens when you take two weeks off for vacation...total insanity!!!   

We were home for about a day and a litter of pigs were born out in the barn yard, in the rain.  Had to fight two very upset mothers to move them into the barn, but, after there, everyone was good to go!

I had several customer requests for project proposals at work that literally took me 6 weeks to get caught up and ahead of.  I told everyone at work we were in full blown beast mode, and we are not letting off the throttle till the snow flies!!!!

Lisa and I had intensive fair prep/training for the few weeks leading up to the fair.  While the boys were halter broke and such before we left, they were definitely not ready to show after the break.  

I learned a valuable lesson with Linus this year.   When applying bands for castration it is absolutely necessary to take your time no matter how little of it you have, and count to 2!  I didn't, and I only got one of two.  My daughter brought this to my attention during the detailed baths to get them ready for the fair and the vet confirmed that he was still not a steer.  SO, Linus didn't go this year.  Instead he will be going next year as a Dairy Steer.

Lets play a little game of "Find Lisa in the ring"!   Showing a full grown steer will be exciting next year.  Hopefully he will be tall enough for her to look under his head as she cannot see over their heads now!   If you are looking for her that is her head in the center of the picture visible over the back of the steer in front of her!

A clear sign that hard work pays off.   Lisa studied and worked to learn all the stuff she didn't know last year and scored a 98.5% on her skillathon and took first place out of everyone in the Junior division for her project!  She received a certificate and a brand new show halter with an award plate showing the year won on it!

While we were away my good friend who owns an excavation company was able to deliver all the concrete slabs and recycled concrete material I needed to complete the driveway to the other side of the farm.  This has been needed for years and was a major issue this spring during the very wet weather we had.  

I used concrete slabs that were removed during a new parking lot installation as a base in all of the old stream beds where the mud was the worst in the spring. 

Above was a very large hole.  The picture doesn't show it but from bottom of the hole to top of finished grad was about three feet.  This is where I used the big chunks up.  The balance of the wet areas were installed as shown below.  In a 3D real world version of "Tetris" I fit the pieces together to create a driveway and then used the recycled material to cover them and fill in all the cracks.  

Here is the finished product.  The cows walked around it first but have realized that it is a pretty nice pathway and have started using it exclusively when going across the creek to the pastures.  I am excited to see how it holds up during the wet season this fall and in the spring!  

Upon coming back from vacation I also had to address putting the new deck on the trailer.  It took about 4~5 hrs to complete but turned out excellent!!  Very sturdy and looks like new!

It was immediately put to use the next day to make a hay delivery that was requested while we were away on vacation.  

The field that I share crop on that was baled while I was on vacation really grew well and was ready to go two weeks ago, we finally had a solid break in the rain and I dropped it all plus all but one of my other fields....totally around 70 acres.  I didn't have time to mess around so I borrowed another friends large tedder to get it done quickly as we had to get it dry fast!

I am in the process of figuring out how to get one of these for myself now that we have so much hay ground.  I love my silage bales but dry hay is much easier to market at any time of the year.  This thing also did a phenomenal job and the hay was ready just in time to beat hurricane Harvey!

To be clear, this is the third cutting!  This field is producing at an amazing rate!!!   From this 40 acres we had 327 bales of first cutting, 148 bales of second cutting, and for third cutting we got 114 round bales and another 450 squares.  If all in rounds that totals around 615 rounds. 

This field produced more high quality hay this year than it has in the previous two years combined by more than 100 round bales!  We haven't decided if we will make 4th cutting or if he will just graze it off.  We are leaning toward selling some of the first cutting he would feed and let the cows eat it off!

So, with everything going on I decided one night to have a fire to relax by for a while as it was just my son and I and the dog while my wife and daughter were at town.  I had chair by the fire and the Zeus just wouldn't leave me alone and kept climbing on my lap.  At around 80 lbs he isn't a small puppy anymore so it wasn't easy.  I got up at one point to add some wood to the fire and he took the opportunity to have my seat and wouldn't give it back!

About this time my son comes out to join us and tries to share the chair with Zeus.  Zeus wasn't really having any of that and proceeded to sit on top of Alex!  All in all it was a fun evening with some great laughs!

The kids are finally getting old enough to start doing some work!  So, I am teaching them how to mow the lawn.  Normally I would do most of it before turning Alex loose on the mower but I didn't have the time this day, so I just let him mow and gave him some pointers.  He actually did a very nice job and was even better than some grown up do their first day at work!  He will pick this up quickly!

Following the chaos that has been going on lately I got a call from a manager at another branch on Thursday night requesting straw for a job on Friday morning.........an hour away!   I was happy to have my wife and daughter to help do chores and load up before it got too late. 

This is Sugar (right) and her daughter Sugar Pie (on the left) a couple weeks ago in the pasture.  I am happy to have both of them and even happier to report that after yesterday's herd check they are both confirmed pregnant.  We had 16 confirmed bred and 12 open that we will be performing AI on in 9 days.  

This brings me to my last topic for today.  Last weekend was a very sad one for us here on the farm. Anyone who has been following my blog for a while will recognize the name Legacy and knows that he is the little orphaned bull that we raised by hand from shortly after he was born.  

  

His momma died a few days after he was born and we had to take him in the barn and bottle feed him.  He is named after his mother who's name was Erica, she was from the Erica bloodline from Summitcrest Farms.  His name is Erica's Legacy. 

Both kids helped and he was a big baby his entire life.

This picture was taken just before vacation.  He was doing well in his third year as our bull and has many of his children to show for it.  The first weekend in July we synchronized all the cattle so they would be bred to calve at the same time around the first of May so they would be born in nice weather next year.  Some time in the couple of weeks following this he got an infection in his rear foot but didn't show it until it was so bad that he couldn't walk on it.  By this time the infection was into the bone and we were told he most likely wouldn't walk again.   

The vet treated him and we put him up in the barn and he had the entire shed to himself and one of his daughters who's mother (Sally Shorthorn) was sold a earlier this summer due to complications with her Udder.  He was doing well for a couple of weeks and we thought he would pull thru this, however, the infection moved to his lungs and his other hind foot instead.  Within days he went from almost 2000 lbs to around 1200 and couldn't get up any more.  We decided to let him go and be out of the enormous amount of pain he was in and had the vet put him down.  

Of the 16 bred cattle 13 of them are carrying the last of his legacy and we are excited to great them in the spring.  He will be missed. 

Have a good week everyone, winter is coming quickly this year so don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today, you may not have tomorrow to do it!

Kenny