Good News

Lots of good news...  Brownie and her babies, Fred and Ethel, are doing nicely.  The twins have their own pace and move their day a little behind everyone else.  BUT they have made it, which was a question at the back of our minds.  They stick to each other like glue, so if you see one, the other is close by.

 Also Raquel decided she had gone long enough without giving birth.  Hershey, a boy, arrived yesterday morning.  He managed to elude the Vet's sonogram by hiding behind Raquel's bladder.  He is doing well.

You have to think Raquel has one heck of a large bladder!

Last years heifers are heading to auction on Friday for Saturday's sale.  WE are hopeful for lots of buyers, high bids, and much success!

The generator has been installed.  In theory we are ready for a disaster! 

The crops are in the ground and we are seeing tomatoes, green peppers, radishes, etc.  So far the raccoons are in just their planning meetings for their yearly corn harvest.  Peg, the optimist, is looking forward to her own harvest.

Peg has started picking wild blackberries.  If she can beat the deer, we might get a cobbler out of her work.  BUT, took this picture down at the tank yesterday and saw two other snakes latter in the afternoon.  I think all were rat snakes, but the "bad" ones are out there.  Peg needs to be wearing her snake boots!!!

Sorry to report I have no storm pictures as promised....

Tornadoes and Spring

Last week we had a tornado touch down about a mile from us.  It tore up trees, fences, barns, etc. but it no one was hurt or killed.  The Carlson's appeared to take the brunt of the damage.  In fact, for reasons only God understands, Mike's sister-in-law's house was leveled from the same storm at Granger Lake.  Again, no one was hurt or killed.

I have pictures but I can't get to them. 

Everything is budding out and the birds are singing!  The hummers, swifts, scissor tails, and Purple Martins have returned.  So far no Martins have chosen to take up residence in the Martin House.  The garden, as small as it is, is planted.  Peg's corn has come up indicating that the raccoons have decided to wait for cobs instead of going after the limited corn seeds. 

I will work on storm pictures so stay tuned!

Another Set Of Twins

 

Brownie gave birth and it was twins!!!  This is our second set this year!  Fred and Ethel were born on a terrible wintery day.  There was ice everywhere and we could not get Brownie out of the big pasture into the smaller one.  So we went with "giving it to nature."  Thankfully Brownie is a great mom and ten days later, both babies are doing well.  But even with the nice weather we're having now, they are a worry.  Brownie goes about her herd behaviors and it is up to the twins to keep up.  They've had a tough time doing that and we have had to go out, find the missing baby, and reunite the family.  I'm confident Brownie would do it herself, but we get worried when the family is not all together.  Yesterday we spent a total of 2+ hours looking for Ethel without any luck.  We gave up at dark and this morning Ethel was with her mama and Fred.  So much for being caretakers....

When we took these two pictures, Brownie kind of pushed both babies forward.  She wanted us to see her beautiful babies!  Moms are all alike!

Game Cam Visitors

Finally Peg went through the game cams to see what was going on.  With the new super charged batteries we found,  one cam had over 14,000 pictures.  I'll not bore you with all of those results!!!  But here are a few of the more interesting pictures...

Gray Fox

Bobcat

Skunk

Denton and Zeek

Zeek and Bo (after she was sprayed by the skunk and trying to clean off her face)

Fox?  OR  Coyote?

New Driver with teacher

Teacher with new driver

Coyote?  OR  Fox?

Two more of the grandkids turned 10 in 2021.  Now they can "legally" drive the Polaris. 

 A couple of pictures of the skunk Bo got sprayed by.  It's been awful for her and us.  Even today, if the wind is just right, she is wet in the right spots, and is at just the perfect distance from you, she still stinks.  

A picture of Denton, our new dog.  We are waiting on taking possession.  

We are still hoping to get the picture of the "big" cat!!!  The bobcat picture isn't bad...

Twins!

Sweetie had twins!  Our best and most protective mama now is busier than ever.  We separated mama and twins for a few days to make sure they all bonded well and the babies were a little bigger and stronger.  Now they are back together with the herd.  We named them after a friend of Peg's.  Joan and Maxine seem like they are cut from the same cloth by exhibiting their lust for life, bouncy nature, and overall happy spirits.

To date, we have seven cows who've produced eight babies.  We're waiting on the last five, 2-3 may not birth until at least March.

Correction PLUS

 

I got it wrong!  Big Mama had a little girl, not a boy.  So we named her, Tres, because she has three white spots on her forehead.  Tres is growing and healthy.  She's becoming more independent (she will run around her mama and away from her mama) yet she still stays close when she's suppose to.

On the PLUS side of things, Blanca had a little boy today.  We named him Rorschach, Ror for short.  As you can see below, he has quite the facial pattern.  It's like he's part of the Rorschach Test.  This little guy was up and about moments after his birth.  Mama Blanca and Ror are doing great!!

Big Mama Is First

 

Big Mama has the prize for birthing the first baby of the new birthing season.  This little boy will be called, Mama's Boy.  The reason for the name, is Big Mama has dropped all of her usual activities like grazing regularly, leading the herd, and being first at the feed troughs, to care for her baby.  She's very smitten with this calf.  Mama's Boy is healthy and made his appearance yesterday afternoon.  It appears that Big Mama got pregnant in February when we had to put all the cows in with the bull because of water issues during the winter storms.  The "window" for this happening was very tight, but Big Mama and Valentino made the "best" of a bad situation.  I predict there are others who took advantage of that short February "window."  For now, we are just celebrating our new baby!!!!