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!

It is a ringer.

Decided to haul a few bale rings out onto the field Monday. The one ring is really big, too big, 9 feet in diameter and hard to handle. I normally move it with the skidloader. I had just dropped a big round bale down and was carefully moving the bale ring into position. One last adjustment and we should be good... That was until the ring decided to drop backwards instead of forward. It dropped backwards completely encircling the loader. If we were playing horse shoes this would have been a ringer! How in the heck was I going to get this thing off of the loader? Not only had it encircled the loader it was wedged nice and tight against the tires. Maybe I should take it apart? A quick jaunt to the garage and I proceeded to take the thing apart. Of course, all of the bolts would not budge. What was next? Well, I was running out of daylight and decided that F it, I was going to get the adrenaline pumping and lift that thing off! After much effort and cussing, I did it! I had "freed" myself. Now not to do that again!

This is the end

16 degrees this morning. I am hoping for some thawing weather this week. The ruts up in the mud by the barn are horrible. I think that if my children were to walk in them they couldn't see over the top. It is amazing how the ground freezing changes everything. What was once a deep puddle is now a small pond. We are going to try and move a fence this weekend, let's hope the weather holds. Pounding fence posts in the frozen ground is not real fun.

Harvest Day

Tomorrow three more steers are going to be harvested. It has been a good fall. Even with the economy down people are still willing to take care of their health and support their local farmer. It is hard to believe it has already been two years since those steers were born. If we cheated and filled them full of steroids and growth hormones we could get it done in 14 months, but why? I don't want to eat a cow that is on roids, do you? That rare steak might go on a rage and take that knife after you. Not going there.

Harvest Time

What a great two weeks it has been, we harvested 7 steers. After 2 years of good grass and lots of water and minerals they were ready to go. We are not only excited for the return on our investment, but the fact that more families in our local area are getting the chance to experience truly wholesome food. Unlike "factory fresh" beef ours is not a culumination of 150 animals in a grinder. The burger you get is from ONE animal. With 25% of all livestock being lame before it is slaughtered, do you really know what you are eating? Add to this the nitrates that are pumped into the sausage and hot dogs that you and your kids eat and ick. It is just not right that they can keep meat un-refrigated on the store shelves for months. I guess if we all eat enough of it they will not have to use formaldahyde on me when I die.