Things I Learned This Summer

-It's a pretty good sign you are having a bad day when the bull runs through a three-wire electric fence to get away from you. I've been shocked by that fence he escaped through and it left a mark on my arm that tingled for two hours and lasted four days.

-Doing a blood draw on a cow means lots of bellowing, lots of stepping around, lots of 'oops', and LOTS of poops. *Sigh* The things you do to find out if a cow is prego or not...

-I never thought I would be happy to discuss breeding rates but they now rank up there with somatic cell counts, calf treatments, and causes of hoof rot. Now I am getting interested in field paperwork.

-I am perfectly capable of cleaning out a clogged drainage line even if it's my fourth time cleaning it out in one day. I might be pretty annoyed at that point, but I can still do it.

-I can't grow corn. Last year, I planted it too deep and harvested the few puny stalks WAY too late. I couldn't even freeze it because it was SO overripe! This year, I planted it too shallow and picked it too soon. Maybe next year I'll finally get it right...

-Puppies are cute but I am SO glad we don't have any anymore. (Thanks to everyone who took one!)

-Farming is becoming the only thing I can talk about. (Notice how most of my 'lessons' have to do with the farm...)

-I enjoy being a farmer's wife but I'll leave the tractor driving to my husband.

A New Twist

We tried making our favorite after-chores snack last night only to find out we didn't have one pretty necessary item. Have you ever tried to make Orange Julius without orange juice? The only frozen juice we had in the freezer was grape so I told Lanny (jokingly) that we could either have Grape Julius or no Julius. He took me seriously and before I could say anything, he was adding the grape juice concentrate. Surprisingly it turned out really good! It was smooth and grape-y and very yummy. One thing though-grape juice concentrate is pretty sweet compared to orange juice concentrate and the Grape Julius came out a bit more sweet than we would have preferred. Lanny recommends that we use less concentrate and a bit more liquid next time to balance it out.

Calving Time

Well, it's that time of year again...The cows are starting the Fall Freshening Season. So far, we've had eight heifer calves, seven bull calves, and one calf that didn't survive birth. We are about par for the course at this time of year. Calving season is always a hectic time of year and, while it's nice to see those cute calves, I do breathe a big sigh of relief when the season is over. (I also breathe a very big sigh of relief when the calves are all weaned and hauled to the calf barn.) Each season bring about the miracle of birth but it also brings about the need for ALOT of patience. No matter how many calves you have at one time, you will be guaranteed to have at least one that can escape any kind of pen you have it in, a few that get sick, a few that are too stubborn to learn how to drink properly from a bottle, and a fewer than you would like that do everything right. So far I've had a calf fall down a fox hole while trying to run to Momma out in the pasture, two calves who could wiggle out of the 12 inch opening in their hutches, and, currently, a stubborn bull calf who protested his being taken from Mom by refusing to drink his bottle. And this doesn't include the cows...We have several cows who regularly wander up to the barn to bellow for their babies who, being penned up, can't respond with anything other than a pitiful little bleat. We also discovered we have some pretty messed up breeding records because we have cows giving birth two to three months before they are scheduled to do so and, in a few cases, without us knowing they were even pregnant! It's frustrating, amazing, and funny all at once. Well, I guess that's just life on the farm.

Farmer's Almanac-Knows it all or a Bunch of Hooey?

We bought the 2010 Farmer's Almanac this year, kind of as a jokey thing, but it has alot more info in it than I originally thought it would. (It's got some great articles on stretching the grocery bill, going 'green', and ways to reuse common household items.) However, I was most interested in the weather predictions. A few weeks ago (this was before we bought the Almanac), I told Lanny that I thought we were in for a cold winter because of the unseasonably cool summer we had. I just had this feeling that we are in for some bitter days. Lanny told me that my prediction was funny because the Farmer's Almanac was predicting the same thing while meteorologists are predicting an unseasonably warm winter. I am sticking to my original idea of cold but not because the Almanac says so. It's because I just have this weird notion that I am right. I hope I am proven wrong as I am having a winter baby but we'll see who's right in the end.