That Day We Thought Spring Had Sprung

Last week we had a nice snow storm. By *nice* I mean there was a whopping 8 inches of snow and the kids had a grand time playing. We do not get many snows that amount to real snowman making conditions.
It is one of the many things I love about Georgia.

Of course, my kids didn't build snowmen. I am the first to admit my kids can be strange. They instead built a snow hay bale. I am not joking either.

We had so much fun milking the cows and feeding chickens and checking eggs in this stuff. The dogs absolutely loved finding a spot to do their business and the geese couldn't figure out where to lay an egg.

Of course the upside to all of this was that Devin had just gotten a new farm toy the day before. I put him to work scooping out mounds of hay and muck from the barn stalls. I can assure you that we will get tons of use from this new tractor!

Within 2 days we had plenty of rain and sun to melt everything. The temps have slowly gone up and we enjoyed a balmy74 today! The windows were opened, the kids dug out shorts, and the frogs came out in huge numbers to sing. It was a beautiful spring day! It is amazing to me how a day of nice weather can perk a gloomy mood!

Well, they always say that if you don't like the weather in the South, just wait a day. My window is still open and I can hear the wind blowing and a cold rain moving in. Tomorrow the temps will drop into the 20's and we are expecting an inch of snow. Winter weather just 3 days before we switch back to Daylight Savings Time.

The frogs are not losing hope though and neither will I. Here's to one more week of cold weather and the promise of spring.

Happy Hump Day Ya'll!

Farming Realities

Today is officially a snow day. We only got a light dusting, but it is enough to excite the children and increase the farm chores just a bit.

Food and water are the two major requirements to keep livestock warm, and we spent a good part of the morning handing hay bales out. Tomorrow is supposed to be frigid, and so we will be well prepared.

I unexpectedly received a call from my meat processor this morning that he was on his way over to get my steer. Like the gusty, cold winter air this phone call hit me smack in the face.

                                               ***The ducks on the frozen pond***

I knew this day would come soon. Yum-Yum, the steer, was our first calf to be born here. The last two and a half years we have fed him, cared for him and allowed him a chance to live on open pasture with lots of grass. We knew from the start what his fate would be, but it is still difficult.

This is the most difficult part of farming. When I first bought my dairy cow, I accepted the fact that there are only two fates for a bull calf.

1. Sell him as a baby and he will likely be living a less than humane life before being processed.
2. Keep him and allow him a nice, humane life before processing.

We opted for #2. As with all of the animals we raise, humane treatment is a top priority.


There is simply no other way.

                                          **Free ranging hens enjoy a treat of scratch grains to stay warm**

Today reality meets farm life. The full cycle of life continues to show itself, as it always does when you raise farm animals.

I am trying my best to not get emotional or attached. I am reminding myself why we chose this life. Our freezer will be full with clean, organic beef in a few weeks.

                                       **Zeb carries this block of ice around and pretends it is a big diamond!**

Some days are pure bliss and some days are just tough. Time to focus on the good. There is no sense is dwelling on the sad.

The cows were wasting too much hay because we have been placing the bales on the ground. Devin built a corner hay feeder over the weekend and it is working nicely.

We still have several weeks of winter and even longer before decent grass starts growing. This hay feeder should help us waste less hay, since we do have a limited amount to get us through until spring.

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe! Winter will surely be over soon and then we will have tornado weather:-) Of course that only lasts a little bit and then summer will here. I am ready for warm nights and cookouts with friends.

The meat chicks for pastured chicken will soon be ordered for an April delivery, and I really hope to get my raised garden beds back into shape!

Happy Hump Day Ya'll!

The Tale of Two Calves: My Crap Fest Week

The thing about winter is that I do quickly get sick and tired of the cold, the brown and dormant grass, the naked trees and the cold.
Winter for me is really a long, drawn out tortuous season. I really despise it all, and I am not even in a very wintery state!
 Before farming I could spend my weekend lounging around, reading books and baking fabulous desserts. Not now. Now I worry about freezing milk lines and insulated coveralls.
As much as I love the outdoors, I do not like being outside several times a day to remind myself that it is.....cold.

                                                 *House Lamb Flicka is still sweet as ever!*

One day I will grow up and appreciate the changing of the seasons, blah, blah, blah. Until then I will gripe and complain.

Let's add to this dreary winter 2 calves that went down. TWO!
These were not little, young baby cows either, but rather 10 month old, 300-400 lb calves.
The first calf went down and we figured he had pneumonia. We treated him as such, but he never really was able to get up on his own. After a few days he couldn't stand up at all, even though he was still eating and his rumen was working and he was alert.
The next cow went down a week later. Same symptoms, same story. By this point we figured it was a mineral deficiency. Selenium maybe or magnesium. We got injections from the vet and started treating them.
Unfortunately the first calf that went down died. His legs were so weak and atrophied that he could not get up or stay up at all.

                                      *Indiana thought Flicka needed a cow girl look*

The second calf to go down is able to get up with a little assistance. We walk him around and he can walk well and eats and drinks. We are keeping him in a large stall, though, because if he goes down again it would be difficult to get him to the stall. We are still treating him as if he has a mineral deficiency and hope he will make a full recovery.

                           *Down calf #2 is up and walking and I hope making a full recovery!*

In the meantime, I have distributed lots of high magnesium salt and salt with selenium to all of my livestock so they can lick it free choice. After one day the salt buckets were empty and I refilled them. Today they are still licking up salt, but not as vigorously.
Did this solve my problem? I hope.

                                *Molly is still my beefy heifer calf. At 6 months old, she is big!*

I was very happy that my calf was up and walking and acting like himself this afternoon. Very happy. In fact, despite my disgust for winter, today I was appreciative of the improved health of my calf and stayed outside longer than usual to snap pictures with the kids and the animals.

                      *Willow loves to wrestle and play with her steer calf Brownie!*

Here's hoping for a week that continues upward!

The Bummer

I will start by saying Mother Nature can be a real bitch sometimes. Pardon the curse word, but that is how I am feeling today.

We had 70 degree weather on Sunday. Monday it did not get out of the 30's. Last night we had to pile up lots of hay for the cows to stay warm, cows who have shed their winter coats.

The pasture meat chicks piled on top of each other so badly and frantically that three got smashed to death. I spent some time lowering their brood lights and piling warm, dry hay under them to keep them warmer. It worked too, because they were all happy and healthy this morning.
Usually I have them outside by this age (with a brood light), but this winter weather has caused them to spend one more week in the garage in brooders.

The piglets seem to handle the cold fine. We bought 2 more over the weekend, bringing our total up to 4. I gave them lots of hay to bed down inside their shelter. They were happy and healthy this morning when I brought to them a breakfast of warm, raw milk.

The real dilemma in all of these events is that Lila lambed early Friday morning. We have been keeping a close eye on her, but she decided to lamb in the wee hours of the morning. We found her when we went out to milk the cows. She had triplets, however two were dead, still covered in membrane. The surviving lamb was attempting to get up, but Lila was far off on the other side of the area, not interested at all in her lamb. We scooped the lamb up and brought her inside to dry her off and get her started on some colostrum. I realize that the real stuff from Lila would be best, but we wanted to make sure we got warm fluids down the baby. It was a cold, windy morning.

The lamb did well and we brought her back out to see if we could get her nursing. After a couple of days and numerous failed attempts, we now have a bummer lamb in the house with us.
She is cute, sweet and the girls named her Flicka.

She did fantastic for 2 days, and then she suddenly fell ill. She was lethargic, had a temp, and wouldn't eat. We called the vet and gave her a shot of antibiotic ourselves. By evening, she had severe labored breathing. I knew that she would likely die over night.

To my surprise, she was still alive by morning and still breathing quite rapidly. We decided that since we are all now attached to the little thing, that a vet visit was warranted. We took her in and the vet gave her fluids, an antibiotic, a fever reducer, and he tube fed her milk. We brought her home with more meds, but by afternoon she was more herself and would take her bottle once again.

I am very pleased to say that she woke up several times last night to eat and this morning she is a healthy, playful lamb.

The vet has no idea what infection she was suffering from, but the treatment was the same. Her lungs were clear, she had no scours, she had no joint inflammation. She simply did not get a good start in life by nursing and being with her mama.

It was quite stressful for me, having to deal with such a sweet critter who was sick. Lambs are quite fragile and we are not totally out of the woods with her yet, but it is looking positive.

Now, all I need is for the warm weather to show up and stay. A spring without tornados would be nice too.

So here is Flicka, the bummer lamb. Here's hoping the temp outside rises today. I hope you are warm where ever you are this morning, and that Mother Nature is being kind.

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!

Chores, Coffee, Bread, Winter

Oh what a beautiful day we had yesterday! I has some pictures on my phone but this morning my computer doesn't want to transfer photos. Hello Monday! Since we are experiencing yet another cold blast this week, I will post older pictures from days when the weather was warm and spring like.

I spent a good part of the morning yesterday cleaning out the garden beds and trimming the rosebushes. Yard work is a chore that I cannot bear to do unless the weather is mild. Zeb also helped me collect our cattle panels as we will soon need to construct a lambing/sheep area. Lambing season begins in February and we have quite a bit to do in preparation.
This morning my arms are pathetically sore as I have not done much labor this winter.

Today we are busy with school, and I am hoping to get a new sewing project finished. Sewing has been a difficult task lately, and I suspect it is the piles of cow feed and buckets situated behind my sewing table that are to blame. I really need a week to organize.
 In celebration of another cold week I have a crockpot steaming away with chili. Fresh bread has been baked and cookies are not far behind.

Every winter I get a craving for some fresh sour dough bread. Sour dough toast with a farm fresh fried egg is an amazing comfort food. If you want to make your own starter CLICK HERE.

It's a week long process but worth your time. I promise.

After I finish this post and my coffee we are headed to get some firewood. Usually we have plenty to get through our Southern winter but not this year. We will load up and be prepared to keep the stoves running all week, and then the mild temps will again return. So will the rain. Spring will be here soon, though. The rain will help make my corner of the world green and bright.

Have a great Monday! Stay warm!

The Polar Vortex

Say WHAT?

Tonight we will be getting some very cold weather. The weather man says it is a "polar vortex" and it is affecting many, many parts of the US.

It has been cold here already. Really cold for the South.

We are busting ice out of the water troughs and it is not melting. It just waits on the ground, and the boys bash it up with sticks and stones. Great fun. Cold fun.

We here in Georgia can expect to go about 60 hours without getting above freezing. It's a big deal ya'll. We have never worried too much about a lack of barn, etc because this is the South. We have mild winters....of course these next few days will be different.

Preparations have been under way the last two days.

The wind will be brutal and therefore we decided the best thing would be to build a wind block. We moved our huge canopy next to the calf stall and brought in a ton of hay to stack up.

It really is a cow dream come true. A house of hay!!!

This will give Lucy, Stella and Ivy a way to huddle close, eat lots of hay and stay out of the wind.  Lucy approves already!

The bottle calves will stay tucked into their stall with lots of hay bedding and a brood heat lamp, although they couldn't help but come out and munch on the house of hay!

This morning was an all hands on deck sort of morning. Devin even helped with the milking. She loves all of the grooming and brushing she gets from him.

 Lucy and Ivy had a great time licking and grooming each other.

So we will see what the night brings. We are hoping it's not too bad and that the milk pump doesn't freeze. I have a brood heat lamp to hang over the pump for warmth.
The horse has her blanket on and we put lots of hay out for the animals to eat.

Hmm.... Canada weather in Georgia. Whoever said there was global warming did not have a milk cow through the winter:-)

Everyone stay safe and warm!!!!

Life Out Here

It has been a whirl wind the last couple of weeks here. Initially I was a bit under the weather, not willing to push myself to my normal limits as far as house chores, cooking and blogging.
I suppose that is normal and the winter weather and dark days contribute to this melancholy.

                      ******Fender takes a break from hunting to be held.******

Then the past week showed itself with a nasty strep bug. Not everyone got the actual strep but everyone at least had the sniffles and a stuffy head. We spent the weekend relaxing, watching movies, eating soup and falling to sleep earlier than usual.

I woke up Monday with the sudden realization that Thanksgiving is knocking on the door and my house and farm show the signs of neglect due to a low energy farm manager. I am not ready for the holiday festivities at all! I have put my emergency "get it all in nice order" plan into action.

It all starts with a hot cup of coffee and the ability to prioritize the necessities of a well managed house and farm.

      ****Tiger Creek is a messy eater. I am glad we are not shearing soon!****

The very first order of the day was to make sure the animals had clean, dry hay. It rained all night and the temps will be dropping this evening. Winter is here. The winter in my part of Georgia means cold rain, and lots of it!

Lucy will be due to calve in about a week and a half. Her udder is starting to fill out and harden.  She is showing a few other signs that birth will soon be upon us. Devin is finishing maintenance on the milking machine pump, and I have been gathering all the other supplies we might need.
I dread milking in cold, wet weather but we are all ready for some fresh milk and cream.

                                    ****Shameless selfie with Lucy!****

We have spent the week studying the pilgrims and the reason for Thanksgiving. It has been a nice change to the normal school routine. The girls have also been bringing their pets down to play and snack while we read.

I realize that many people cringe at the thought of a pet rat, but really they are some of the best pets. This one seems to enjoy the week's spelling assignment with her cracker treat!

We are finally getting back into a normal and regular routine again, and I am working on a couple of projects that I will share once they are finalized.

                         ***Stella likes Indiana best. Nobody else can hug on her!***

I guess it is only normal for things to slow a bit during the cold months. The days are short and so naturally the list of the day's accomplishments should shorten as well.
Cold rainy days like today beg for a warm fire, a wholesome meal, and a good movie. The slow down gives us a season of rest after a very busy warm season of activity.

Yes, Thanksgiving is knocking on the door and we will answer and welcome it, even if we *think* we are not quite ready.

Life out here means we are always ready for family, food and a chance to rejuvenate.

Happy Thanksgiving!