Spring Brings New Beginnings

After some challenges, we have settled back into routines.  Sweetie was sold, her baby, Stripe died, Valentino was sold because he was lame, the hay fields have been fertilized, and we bought a new bull, Sir Lancelot.  Red had her baby, Showers, and we are waiting on Raquel and Brownie to have their babies.  We had to put out our last good bale of hay after fertilizing because the grass was dying and the new summer grass was not here yet. The hummers have returned.  Peg's asparagus came up, the tomato and pepper plants have fruit, and we have lots of lettuce and spinach for salads.  Calfie's back feet have been trimmed so they no longer look like elf slippers (yes, we decided to keep her). An assessment of our tree losses from February's ice storm should be a happy one.  We lost four at last count, all baby trees which had great potential in our landscape.  We are still pulling broken branches from live trees and unfortunately their shapes have been compromised.  But living things that are rooted in purpose not only survive but flourish!  May everything flourish!!!

Our new bull, Lance for short, is only a year and 2-3 months old.  He is like an obnoxious teenager around the cows.  He is quite a bit smaller than they are but will grow.  Even at his tender young age, he must have had "the talk," as he knows what his job is.  

I've had a few recent wildlife sightings.  I have seen a beaver and a beautiful gray fox.  The bluebirds, scissortails, and painted buntings are back along with a variety of other song birds.  I may have mentioned that there was a sandhill crane down by the tank a month or so ago.  Of course, I hear the horned owls on cool clear evenings.  I had to relocate a giant box turtle that had somehow found itself trapped in the doggie containment area.  It was not happy to have been discovered by the dogs but relived to have been removed!! 

The best news is, so far in April, we've had about seven inches of rain.  The farmers are joyful and we have high hopes for a great hay crop.  Grass we thought was dead is coming back and the wildflowers are beautiful and plentiful.  Ah spring......

Just The News, Please...

Plans are in place for the remaining five heifers and one steer (all from 2022) to go to auction the middle of this month.  Also there are plans for Sweetie, The Terrible, and Calfie, elf slipper feet, to also be sold.  Both have calves tho one is about three months old and the other is barely two weeks old.  Very sad state of affairs!  

Sweetie's baby, Stripe, has had a tough time.  He has trouble nursing for unknown reasons.  We have mama and baby separated up by the barn so hopefully the little guy can learn to eat baby calf food.  He's doing a little better everyday.  His mom will be gone in a couple weeks so he really needs to learn fast.  Getting mom and baby up to the barn was a pretty scary experience.  Sweetie, The Terrible, snorted and chased everyone trying to get near the baby and near her.  Finally, we were successful and hopefully we can save Stripe.  

We are down to three big bales of hay.  The pastures are greening up some with spring grasses.  We've had a little rain to help but the farmers say we need a whole lot more.  We are just happy we made it through the winter as well as we have.  Peg probably bought 40-50 small bales over the winter to supplement the hay we had.  We use these bales to line the cow shacks, add to rings, etc..  

We have some one coming out to clean up all of the downed tree limbs from the ice storm from last month.  It's going to take a while to cut the limbs up, stack, and burn everything.  

Had a smoke detector chirping the other day.  What horrible torcher that is!!!! We managed to remove the battery and it stopped.  Peg and I changed out all of the batteries in all of the smoke detectors at the beginning of January so we know that detector  has died.  Since the house is ten years old, the old detectors are starting to fail.  We will be replacing all of them (8) in the next few months.     

Nothing else happening.  WE enjoy good health and a wonderful lifestyle!!

Ice Storm

Last week we experienced an ice storm.  The weather started getting bad on Monday afternoon and deteriorated until the temps finally got above freezing Thursday afternoon.  We lost electricity Wednesday about 11 AM and didn't have "real" electricity until Sunday at about 10 AM.  Thank goodness we had the generator!!!  This was the first time we have needed it and we were uncertain about how fast it would suck up the propane.  The good news is we had plenty of propane; the bad news is it makes an ungodly amount of noise as it produces electricity.  The stuff in the refrigerators was safe, sleeping with heat, and having hot water made for not too uncomfortable days.

WE have lots of branches down and some of the baby trees we planted over the years suffered the most.  It will be a while before we know the real extent of the damages to the trees.

Vivian had her baby during the height of the storm.  Little Vince is up and about!  

The groundhog didn't see his shadow so they're predicting another 6 weeks of winter.  At this point, I've had plenty!

Corrections, Etc.

 Imagine our surprise when the Vet informed us that Spot was a heifer!  We missed the sex on that one!  So Spot is a little girl and her correct name is Dot.  In theory, the heifers bring in more money, but we also have to keep them longer which of course costs us money.  

Big Mama stepped up and had a little girl just before Christmas.  Her name is Dawn.  She's a real dynamo and her poor mama is scrambling to keep up with her.  So now we have six with six more coming.  

The winter storm that came in just before Christmas was short lived but we still lost our hot water.  Peg called the plumber who told her to only run hot water through the faucets.  After about 8 hours, we had hot water and thankfully all is well with our pipes.

The wild critters in the neighborhood are loving the weather: cold nights and mild days.  There is a lot of digging, hooting and howling during the nights so the dogs are on alert and not interested in sleeping at bedtime.  Oh well, we'll take the nature that's all around us!!!

 

Babies And More

Rosie led the mamas off with the first birthing in this birthing season.  Little Billy (Billy Goat) is living up to his name and plays King of the Mountain whenever he's around a small hill of hay.  Scoop came next and is Allie's baby.  She was so named because of the three little white scoops that are on her forehead.  She is a lot like her mother and in everyone's business!  Blanca had a boy named Spot because he has one white spot on his face.  Calfie's little girl is Cheeky because of the two white spots on either cheek.  Tara finishes out the new moms with a little boy called Ryan because he shares human Ryan's birthday.  As is typical, each have their own personalities and cute antics, which are fun to watch as they follow their mamas around the pasture.  The Vet comes tomorrow morning to perform the three "brain surgeries" and help with ID ear tags.  By doing this first group, we are making the time working shorter and it'll be easier identifying the next group when they arrive.

The long awaited driveway repairs have been made.  Hopefully we'll have fewer potholes and less mud.  

Even though we purchased 30 additional bales of hay several months ago, we probably will not have enough to get us through the winter.  The debate has begun about what to do next.  If we have a mild winter and early spring those seasonal grasses may save us...

Hope your Holidays are wonderful!!!

Saying Goodbye and Hello

We said goodbye to Fred and Ethel last week.  It was tough!  They brought us a lot of smiles and worries while they were here.  

On a happy note, we said hello to two new babies!  Both are doing well and their mamas are doing a great job caring for them.  Rosie has the honor of being the first to give birth: Billy is a bull.  

Our weather has been a mess.  We went from 80 degree days to 40 degrees in a matter of minutes!  There was no slowing down for fall; we zipped right into winter!  The same thing happened earlier in the year when we went from winter directly into summer.  The good news is we are getting some rain, tho we are still in the drought.  At least things are wet enough so we're not so worried about fires. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!!!!

Into The Pantry

 Monday night we received notices on our phones that we were under a tornado warning.  It was about 9:00.  We grabbed the dogs, a couple chairs, the flashlight, and closed the door to the pantry (our storm shelter).  Thankfully the tornado pooped out west of us.  This is the third tornado that's been in our area since spring!  NO one was hurt with this storm but lots of trees down and roof damage.  Although we got a only a little over half an inch of rain, we are thankful for every bit of it.  We are expecting more storms tonight and tomorrow.  Our drought continues, so any rain we get, we're thankful for.  

With the cooler temperatures, we're seeing lots and lots of deer.  Bow season has started and regular hunting begins Nov 1st.  As much as I love the deer, we could use some harvesting to keep the population healthy.

Surprisingly the post oak trees have produced acorns this year.  This is the first time since we bought the place that they've produced.  They are rascals to grow but I'd like to have some success.  We lost quite a few trees from drought and construction.

Beginning to collect stuff for the holiday baking and meals.  Peg also plans to run up to Dallas to pick up items we just can't get here.  I suppose we could go to Austin to find what we are missing, but Dallas is "known" territory and there is no anxiety finding anything we need (we won't get lost).