Merry Christmas To All!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!!

Mighty Cold This Weekend!

I'm sure any of ya'll that lived around my neck of the wood were just as surprised as me to hear that snow was on the forecast , and even more surprised when it actually snowed.
I was at work and one of the officers called in and said there was actual snow falling, so I ran outside and sure enough there was snow!! Kinda strange to see that in December 4th, we usually don't even get the freeze warning until after mid January! But wait it gets even better, Friday evening after the snow cleared , which was just a lite dusting in my area, the temps plummeted for an overnight low of 23 degrees, can you believe that?? I'm still in shock hehehe.

Anyway here is photographic evidence of the whole affair .

Pasture Rotation: Moved 'em to the Winter Pasture.

Or, How not to adjust Electric Fence!

We spent most of Saturday morning setting up the electric fence so we could move the cows over to the winter pasture, it was a shocking experience, to say the least! We set T-Posts every 20 feet with a rebar post every 10 feet in between just to keep the line from sagging, this works out pretty good. Once the post were in we string the wire, mark with flags, make sure your not shorted out and then turn her on and Bingo, electric fence!
Then, for me at least, the fun began. I was to lazy to walk over and unplug the fence charger that was only 40 or so feet away,worse yet my mom was right next to it and asked me if I wanted to turn it off! So I start adjusting the height......zapppp!!! It got me , not to bad, just through my gloves that were wet with a little perspiration , so I shrugged that one off , rubbed some dirt on it and continued adjusting. At this point you might think a grown man of forty some odd years would smarten up a little and go unplug the fence charger, nope, that ain't the way it went down. That aforementioned fella kept on adjusting that fence, and getting buzzed a total of two more times before he asked for some help and had mom shut the power down on that infernal contraption, That last shock almost took my shoulder out of socket trying to turn loose of that damned wire!! It was a real fun time!!
So for all you would be electric fence builders, make sure you turn off the juice before you do any "on the fly" repairs...just fyi !!

p.s. photo's later , when my fingers get the feeling back in them!

Bull On the Back Porch

So I get home from work and what do I find?? A bull on my back porch! He's just standing there like he's waiting for a hand out from the kitchen or somethin'. Oh well , you live in the country and stuff like this is bound to happen. I'm just glad he wasn't one of the rodeo bulls that one of our distant neighbors raise, that coulda been ugly.

It turns out he was our neighbor's from down the end of the road, His name is Daddy-O he he followed him home like a lost dog, even broke into a trot once he got pointed in the right direction!

Oh the country life!!


Daddy-O

Good Day For A Fire

Our hay guy cleared our back pasture about two years ago, we just got around to burning the gigantic pile of debris that he stacked up. It sat out there so long due to the massive drought we have had for the last year or so, I was afraid to touch that pile off in case we set the whole county on fire.
After the rain we have had in the last few month I figured it would be safe, and so far so good!!
Its been burning a couple days , mind you this pile was about fifteen feet tall by 20 feet wide, so if it would have really gone up it would have been a mess. And of course I forgot the camera until the very end. But I did get a pic of the column of smoke... enjoy!! hehehe

Veterans Day 2009

In Memory of the 13 brave souls killed, at Ft, Hood Texas.
Thank you for your service!

To those injured and your families, we wish you speedy recovery,
and we thank you for your continued service.

To the rest of you Devil Dogs, G.I.'s, Fly Boys, Swabbies, and Coasties
serving now or who have ever served THANK YOU !!! From one vet to you all,
And from my family to yours, Come back safe!!!


Your Service is Not Forgotten

Goodbye Old Friend

R.I.P
Ben
10/21/2009

We'll Miss You Buddy

Farmlife Photo Tour

Howdy!,

Well Its been a little busy around here lately and I haven't posted anything in a while, and I was going thru some farm pixs , so I figured I'd post a few for your viewing pleasure, hope you like 'em!

This one is of Clemetine or mini donkey, she's so sweet, she lets the chickens ride around on here back!



Here are two of the many Alpine goat kids that we have had around here, they are always alot of fun.


I took this while playing around with the settings on the camera, this guy is now named Poindexter, He has since turned all black and is in the running to be the herd bull around here.





Again I was messin with the camera and got this nosey donkey, Its Darlin , she was born here on our place, she's also in the next picture as a newborn too.


And a shot of some of the many different colors of chickens around here, they make some good eggs!


So there you go , I hope to get back to some frequent posts here soon, Thanks for coming bye!

Lucille on the milker.

We have started share milking, that is taking some milk from Lucille while keeping the calf on her for his milk. Now before anyone starts to call the SPCA , Lucille wont give away more than she needs for the calf, she just wont do it! This cow has a built in faucet, that she can turn off at will, or at least she acts like she can. So anyway , Lil' Roller isn't hurting for milk that's for sure!

So without further delay, here for your picture viewing pleasure...the photos
Here is the star of the show, or at least he thinks so. He's gettin' brave anymore. That's Lucille hooked up to the milking machine, she's eating so don't bother her she's eating.




He is getting bigger by the day, and nosy too!



He can't wait for his turn!

Well that's all for now, we'll see ya nest time!

Lucille's New Calf

Lucille came to us at the beginning of our adventure out here, and she is still one of the better cows we have. It was touch and go with her at first, we didn't see eye to eye in the beginning, but she has really come around. She still has her stubborn moments, but overall we wouldn't trade her for the world.

She had a lovely heifer calf the last time around, this time its a bull ! Can't win em all!

Now on to the Pixs!

Well there ya go, the newest addition to the gang, check back tomorrow for the first steps video!

Pigs Are Getting Big! And so Are the Figs!

The pigs continue to grow like ...well pigs! I spent last week rigging up a better water system, or so I thought. After its been hooked up several days I went out to check on it and I cracked a fitting, ArGHHHH!!!!! I'm sure never going to be a plumber!! Well here is what it looks like before the damage!
It's really a minor fix, but that didn't make me feel any better about it!!
The good part is they were able to drink out of it!

The Figs Are Getting Big!


This is a fig tree we planted last year, its putting out a good crop for its size, since it almost froze to death during the late April freeze this year. Amazing what a little rain does!!

New Bull Calf Pictures

Well other than the gender and the color, I can't tell ya much more so I'll let the photos do the talking....worth a thousand words, right?
Like I said she is back in the back of the pasture still , just came up for water, so I snapped a few of him. He is a cutey!

New Calf, New Fence and Some New Rain!

Lot's of new stuff happening around here these last few weeks, sit down, have a cold drink and lemme tell ya about it.

First off I've been goat proofing a pasture so they will have some more area to hang out in, its probably about three acres though I haven't walked it off yet. I say I but the whole family has been in on the work, and its been in the hi 90's. We had some barbed wire up already, but anyone with goats knows...barbed wire doesn't cut it. So we used some 32 inch high field fence to cover the bottom half of the fence , and so far it seems to be working. So this will make three different pastures for the goats to use, pasture rotation is the way to go.

As for the rain, we have had about four days where it has rained a little bit, Not nearly as much as we need, but rain none the less. The temps also stay lower during the cloud cover , so that's a plus!

New Calf News:
We have a Dexter cow that has been on baby watch for a week now, and today was finally the day, I walked out back and saw her way across the pasture, looked like she had a little brown dog chasing her. I had to get the binoculars out to make sure, my eyes aint what they used to be! Sure enough, little brown calf! My lovely wife Cathy braved a little downpour that we had this afternoon to go out and see if she could get a gender check....she advised looked like a bull calf. That makes 2 for 3 bull calves fer that particular Dexter...keeps the freezer full anyway!

Sorry folks as of this posting we don't have pix of the new calf, check back tomorrow!

Pasture Rotation

Its been a few days since I've put up a new post, had to get computer access back, ours went kablooey. So sorry for the long stretch of silence, lol like there are millions of readers out there.
Anyway on to the news!

We did a little pasture rotation this weekend, we moved about six goats to a new pasture with the other goats. These last six were being milked and one had two kids on her so we kept them separated. The pasture that they came from will now just sit for a few months to allow it to rest and rebuild, it needs it. In the mean time, we will mend fence, or whatever need to happen in that field while the animals are away.

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July!!

105 Degrees!

105 Degrees, that's what my thermometer says, and that's in the shade!
I can't wait till August, this ought to be a fun summer! Hope we get some rain too!
Its awful !

I'm so hot that's all I can say for now, good luck with your weather, wherever you are!

Tanner In A Hole

Tanner In A Hole
Originally uploaded by loki1019

So I'm walking out back to check on hay cutting and what do I find? Tanner, our Great Pyrenees, is sacked out in a hole that both he and my nephew dug. Well my nephew started it and I guess tanner dug it out deep enough that he could lay down in it. Now this is no small feat, this is a large dog, about 120 pounds, I guess a dog will do anything to to stay cool in 98 degree heat.

I guess the fur coat doesn't help him to much either.

Lazy Barn Cat And Other Stuff

This is Fritter, one of our barn cats, she is takin it easy today , maybe because its 98 degrees outside. We are waiting for the rain too, we mowed out front and it looked like a dust storm was rolling thru.



This is one of our little bulls, he stands only three feet tall. He is a Dexter X Beefmaster cross, our neighbors fence just couldn't hold big daddy bull in. He's almost the spittin image of his daddy.



This is Lucille, one of our milkers, she's a Jersey X Guernsey cross, she puts out alot of milk and its loaded with cream. Lucille is due any day now, look at the size of that bag!




This is Clemetine, she was one of the first to come join us at the farm, she has a daughter here with us named Darlin, get it? Anyway I was messin with the camera settings and found the sepia setting, cool huh? hehehe


So there you go a few pics of the goings on around here, more to follow.

Pork Shack Update

Here's the finished shelter for the piggies, lovingly named The Pork Shack! This took my wife and I most of the day to make, and the best part, we had all the material already. So total cost for new material $0.00, Love it!!



We also ran pipe out to the pen from the garage, that one almost put Cathy, my Wife, in the hospital. So now the piggies have their own spigot, and I don't have to toe water to 'em.











So far they have been sleeping under it, mostly in the hottest part of the day.We haven't had any rain lately so I don't know how water tight it is yet, guess we'll find out as soon as the rainy season gets here,if that ever happens... hehehe.














Newest June Goats

So I'm walking thru the goat barn the other day and what do I see two white feed sacks all wadded up in the corner as I went to pick up the sacks they jumped up and ran off, It was two little alpine kids that we were expecting, just not right then.

They are both white with black markings one buckling and one doeling, the kids have named them Bonnie and Clyde because they have black eye markings that look like the typical bandit mask.


Here's a better view of the two of them

Pig Pen Update

We Finished the new pig pen for Pork and Beans and they just love it, room to roam!
We fenced off a section of the front pasture , it's about 30x60 feet, under a large shady tree. I think they like it better than being closed up in the old hen house, it was gettin a little stinky in there...whew!
So now they have some dirt to dig in and they can act like real pigs. So now we just need to finish the water pipe run that goes out to them, The pipe is already in, thanks to my wife. Poor girl, she dug about 50 feet of trench by hand and couldn't move the next day, but she did a real good job on it. So now I just have to hook up the last bit of plumbing and they should be ready for water.

Water Woes

I have had nothing but trouble with the plumbing around this joint this week. First off the hose to the water tank busted on monday, then the faucet coming out of the garage starts leaking. We those two issues were repaired fairly easily, The hose just needed to be cut and a new hose end affixed. The faucet was more involved, a pvc fitting split, no problem right? Wrong!!, I had to re-work a foot long section of the pipe behind the garage wall because there wasn't enough pipe to get one lowly nipple on to it.
Anyway cut to Thursday, I was mowing after work and I look back to the tank and what do I see? The hose has split again! I decided to work on it on Saturday when i had more time. Well as I continue my mowing duties I notice a large puddle in the grass near the back porch, You guessed it a busted underground pipe. I had to take friday off from work to get it fixed!! What a week we had around here. On a bright note we got part of the pig pen started.

Well we broke down and got a couple piglets for the freezer, they have a long way to go still.
They are both still a little skittish, they got out after we got them in the temporary pen, and were gone most of the day. They came trotting back around 4:30 pm looking a little rough around the edges, then trying to get them corralled was a sight to see. Don't ever let someone tell you that pigs cant move like lightning...because I'm her to tell you friend, they can!!

Anyway the pigs are back home safe and sound , the permanent pen us under construction and they will be happy and healthy..... until that day!

New Farm Pix

Lets see ,from the top we have A few muscovy ducklings, Hatched by the mama duck. Cute now but wait till you see them grown up, But thats for another post.

Second from the top we have Darlin and Clemetine, our two mini donkeys. They are just the nicest animals you can have...as long as your not a canine... they don't like the dogs!

Next comes two little goats that someone brought to us , they found them orphaned so we bottle fed them for several weeks... now you can't escape from them, they follow you everywhere.

And lastly one of our Dexters, smaller than your average cow they are. This one had a heifer this year, black just like mama!

More Baby Goats...AKA The Kids Are Loose

Well lookie here, another spring and another mess of goats. I was about to go to bed the other night and I thought I would go check on the Nubian nanny that was as big as a house, when i made it to the shed she was awful quiet. Sure enough she was in the corner and a head was already showing. Things moved pretty good and in about ten minutes three little doelings were out and lookin for grub.



But wait , there's more to this story, The next morning before work I went to check on the aforementioned kids and found not three but four, count 'em four kiddies .
And yes the Adult goat in the photos is not a nubian for you experts , that is an Alpine , she thinks those are her kids !!

And yes, I can't get all three in the same picture at the same time....yet!!!

Until Next time.