Heat wave

Wow, what a change from last week, twenty one degrees and sunny. We sure had a blast last week with the below weather temperatures. When you look back 3 weeks ago and we had nearly 50 out and then last week we had -15 it sure gets tough to swallow. Now when it is 90 out this summer 21 will feel like then end of the world. Tomorrow I have got the get the fence fixed. The Southeast quarter is not working. Our new gate we installed needs to be crossed and the wiring hooked back up. Fortunately this fall we buried the wire, now all we have to do is hook it up. We have had one heifer calf who figured out that the fence is not working. She has since made the barn her home, roaming about freely. Good thing it is not summer for she would be busy mowing the bushes down. Won't it be a surprise tomorrow when that fence comes back on.

Mousing

Brought home 61 bales yesterday to get us through the winter. It is amazing when you start pulling apart the start that the ground underneath is still completely thawn. Imagine the surprise of those mice, all nice and snug in their beds and rudely awakened by us! My son Hunter was the first to see the mice, "look that mouse just crawled into that hole." Sure enough before we knew it that were dropping out everywhere. This continued even when we got home. Our oldest dog daisy was having a great time catching them and eating them. Disappointed, where was our cat? Maybe he is too well fed or too lazy! We were in a hurry yesterday so in front of the hay shed is one jumbled mess. Getting up early this morning to get it straightened out. Maybe Daisy will catch us a few more mice.

New Calf

Wow, it is really winter out now! It was 4 degrees yesterday and with the windshield we had 14 below. It won't seem cold in two months, but when it was 40 and 50 out two weeks ago it is tough to get used to. We had our last calf of the season on Monday. Our oldest cow, "old girl" had her calf. We try to calve in the spring and fall in order to have fresh beef available year round for our customers. She hung out there a little too long. Fortunately the calf was born before we got the snow this week. Once they hit the ground and dry off they can take most anything. What a cruel world. You are nice and warm in a pool of water at 101 degrees, sort of like a nice whirlpool bath, then you get dumped out into the snow at 4 degrees and now how to learn to walk within a matter of minutes! Amazing they can survive. We as humans, even as adults at times, can barely take care of ourselve. Here they are, 1 hr old and running around and taking care of themselves! A real testament to how hardy the Highlander Cattle are.

Artist

Had the inlaws over yesterday. As long as the Vikings are not playing they are usually over on Sunday's. Got the father in-law out there to help me tattoo a pure bred heifer calf. To tattoo a cow you take this mean looking pliers and insert the numbers and or letters into the unit. The ear is then cleaned out and a tattoo ink is applied. While trying to hold the calf down you grease up the ear real good with the ink and get ready with the pliers. The real trouble is that our association uses 6 letters and or numbers and my pliers only holds 5. This requires you to perform the procedure twice. Once you have the ear preped then you takes this mean and now pokey pliers and clamp down nice and hard on the ear. You do this all the while not trying to either tear the ear or poke through the ear. Once you make the holes you fill them up with ink and you should be good to go. That is easy to say! Try tattooing a squirming calf's 5 inch ear with 4 1/2 inches of tattoo. You have to be pretty good in your aim!

Sightings

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. We were seen at two events in the lakes area. The first was the showing of the movie "food incorporated." The movie is a documentary of how the growing of food and the processing of food has changed so much in this country in this past century. It was SCARY to say the least.
www.foodincmovie.com
It was an amazing testimony of how we DON'T grow our beef. From the feed lot to the factory our animals NEVER experience those sort of conditions. We prefer to offer you safe food that is NOT factory fresh. Rather it is farm fresh.

Our second event from these past weeks was serving hors samples at an annual fund raiser called "Taste of the Lakes". It is an annual event that raises money for Kinship Partners. A big brother, big sister mentoring program. www.kinshippartners.org
We handed out samples of ALL beef nitrate free wieners to the 350 or so gathered. The response was overwhelming. "This tastes so good and it is good for me?" "YES it is!" "Lower in fact and cholesterol than turkey or chicken."

It was great letting people know that there are still people out there who can provide fresh and SAFE food for you and your family.

Hand fed

We penned up one of our cows on Sunday. She is our best looking cow, all burly and black with a nice set of horns. She is on her third calf with us. The first one died a few weeks after birth, not sure why. It was as if it was stunted and just woudl not eat. We speculated that she had been accidentally bred by a sibling before we got her. Her second calf came out fine but then also did not grow. We still have the calf and think it could pass for a miniture. She has since had her third calf. A nice black heifer calf. We had been worried about it's growth and thought that maybe it was not getting enough milk. So we penned the two of them up in order to supplement bottle feed the calf. This was no easy task for she is one fierce momma. Last year when I attempted to inspect her calf she came after me. It was not a very funny sight. I used the calf as a shield between she and I but as soon as that calf wiggled free she came right after me. I did my best judo defense as she backed me into a corner with horns a shaking and snot a flying out of her nose. All I could do was throw my feet up between she and I. The only thing behind me was the water tank which she quickly pushed me into and through and over. When it was all said and done I ended up about six feet further back then when it started!

Well, we tried to feed the calf, with her trying to maime me the whole time. Luckiily for me we had an extra corral panel to protect me from her. For three days we tried force feeding the calf, the calf was having none of it. So much for it not getting enough milk. After a few chewed on fingers and most of the milk down my pant leg I am about ready to give up on the idea. Let's hope this one grows up otherwise we will have our start on a herd of mini's!