The fence keeps going and going...

Spent the day at the Thomas farm up near Leader. Between flat tires and tending to the "beaver" problem, the fencing progress was slower then what I wanted. Good thing Kevin and Jordan will be working on it tomorrow when I go back to the office. I have to get back to the regular work this week to pay for my farming habit! Going to call George Booth tonight to negotiate some more on the cattle. Are we taking on too much again? My conscience (my wife) thinks we can handle it, I trust her judgement. Neighbor Keith created some more work for me this week, he had to do a little excavating, which led to more and more. Now we have about 200 yards of gravel to haul over to help fill in the drive way. Between the two of us there is always a new project brewing, they are good neighbors to have. The fill came from the old barn that we recycled and turned into a hay shed. He removed the old concrete Friday. It was strange to see it go. We will be moving some cattle this week to summer pastures up in Pine River. Chris' parents do a great job of helping us out. We have more fencing to do up there this summer. A new power line was cut through, wow when you cut a 100' foot swath through the forest, it is quite a change. Time to turn in, getting up at 3:30 to get some things done before I have to leave at 6.

Day of Rest

Friday ended with Kevin and I getting a few more corner posts in at the Thomas place. Today, Saturday, Kevin and Jordan worked on getting the fence together. While they were busy getting caught up to us, I spent some time with the family. Funny, our time together today centered around the farm. We delivered some hay to the Chezk's down by Rice. They took us on a tour of their dairy operation of 800 milk cows, wow, what an operation. It is quite a bit of accomplishment for a such a young couple. Thanks to Brent and Callie for taking time to show us around. After we left there we went to visit George Booth. George has a herd of highlanders that he wants to sell down. We have been negotiating on a price for some time and today we moved one step closer. We try hard to make this a business, but when it comes to friends such as George it is tough to not let our friendship get into the way. I like the negotiation but to many it can be construed as being disrespectful. Tomorrow I am hoping to get up early and take the horses for a ride with my wife. After that I am going to go back to the Thomas place and get some more corner fence posts in. Whatever we get done he and Jordan can finish up tomorrow. Four thirty comes early, time to turn in.

More pasture

This past week has sent me to the "sticks". We are helping friends fence in their 40 acres near Leader, north on Hwy #1. It is near the foothills state forest. Brent, the landowner, is looking to retire one of these days and wants to get the place shaped up. With Highlander's in there, the place will really start to shape up. When it comes to grazing and clearing land, they do it best. It takes some getting used to, there is no cell service there, I cannot believe how much I have come to depend on my cell phone. From using it as a watch to checking the weather, it is my all purpose tool. Today is looking to be productive day, we are almost done brushing, wow, talk about a jungle. The alder and poplar trees were THICK. At times all I could see was trees. Fortunately I am able to take some time off of work. My co-workers, Deb, Gary and Brent all have my back when I am gone and do a great job of helping the customers out. The ability to have such freedom when needed is invaluable. After this week, my helpers should be able to finish most of it themselves. Once we start setting corner posts, it should really start to fly. Time to get going, as John Wayne would say, "We are burning daylight."

New Addition

One of our favorite cows had a heifer calf this week. The calf is from our new bull, Laird and is less than two days old in this picture. Mom and baby are both doing well.

Today we are going to finish spreading the manure that we had hauled in. We were trying to spread it ourselves with a 16 yard grain truck that the neighbors loaned us, thanks Kelley's! When you have 1000 yards to haul, 16 yards at a time is too SLOW. We hired Hennen Trucking of Pierz to haul for us, pros that can haul 50 yards with their side dump trucks. They are good, fast and safe. This is our first year spreading manure, we are looking forward to seeing what sort of return we are going to get on our investment.

The week ahead will be the start of a new fencing project up in Pine River at the Thomas farm. We are helping them get started as a grazier for us. They have a unique piece of property with LOTS of water here and there. It will be a challenging fence project.

Looking for the rain.

Welcome to Round Rock Farm

Welcome to our farm blog where we'll try to keep you abreast of our latest activities. If you haven't already, visit our website, http://www.roundrockfarm.com/ and you'll see we raise Scotch Highland Cattle. We began our operation in 2005 with 8 cows from Michigan and added a fold of 26 in 2006. We currently have about 40 cows, calves, steers, heifers and a bull. In 2008 we purchased 217 adjoining acres for a total of 250 acres. Our farm family also includes two Quarter horses, Karl and Wilbur, an Australian Shepherd, Daisy, and one cat apropriately named Kitty by our three year old son, Hunter. We welcomed our daughter, Holly, in July of 2008. Dave is part owner of an insurance firm and works to pay for his farming habit and I work about 30 hours a week doing accounting and marketing work. Visit often and we'll try to keep you posted on our latest projects.