Beautiful spring days...

What a beautiful spring weekend it was! Due to the Easter holiday as well as a coworker needing to switch shifts I was lucky enough to have the entire weekend to spend with my family. So what did we do? We spent a large part of the weekend at the barn of course.

My niece Christina and her boyfriend Nate were visiting and offered to help. I will NEVER turn down help when it comes to cleaning out the barn. So off we went.

With the car loaded down with straw, grain and people we headed to Charlestown. Aeryn is always excited to show off her animals and this was no exception. And because of the beautiful weather we were able to take the young ones out to walk.

We had a really good time with the little guys. Aeryn has learned through experience that the earlier that you can get your animal to respect the halter, the better you are going to be. This os one of the mistakes that she learned from when training her animals last year.

I love seeing how much my little girl has grown. The look on her face on Easter morning when Jay told her to walk to one of the other fields and drive the RTV back was priceless. I did however send Christina with her just so that she would not have to drive back alone. Not that Christina knew how to drive the  RTV anyway. Sure enough, Aeryn managed to get the vehicle safely from one place to the other. ( Like I had had any doubts. )

The four new calves are settling in well. They are even getting along with our four older girls even though contact between the two groups has been limited to interaction between fences. I am not quite ready to let the little ones have as much freedom as our massive girls. Call it a mother's paranoia. Lilly had an amazing idea however, to make it so that the boys managed to have a bit of outside time to "play".

Jay used the tractor to drag all of the round pen panels to the cow pasture next to the barn. Then we constructed a "playpen of sorts" by looping them from the doorway, back uo to the gate. This created a great area for them. They jumped and danced when they came outside to explore for the first time.

Their castrations have healed nicely and they are not suffering ill effects from having their rabies and tetanus shots. They are energetic and eating like fiends  There has been an increase in the feed bill that I am sure that I will notice more in the coming months. For the time being, due to their young age, we are giving them a combination of milk replacer and a calf starter grain with a 15% protein content.

This is a bit of a switch to what we have been feeding the girls. Since we have brought them home almost a year ago I have tried a few different combinations of feed rations. Currently they are getting an "all stock" feed with a 12% protein ration and cracked corn. This seems to be working out well for them. They are gaining weight at consistent levels, as well as maintaining the heat to make it through the winter and keeping up their energy levels. Our girls are not slackers in the slightest and there is no sluggishness to their movement. They are eager to socialize with their people and each other. There is no competition for food. All of these factors make for very happy cows. 

Let's hear it for the boys....

Aeryn and McKinley napping after the excitement of picking up our new babies. 

Spring time is such a wonderful time on the farm. Even early spring, where thanks to the random snowstorm a week ago, we still have snow on the ground. A year ago today a cow that Aeryn and I had been thinking about buying had her first calf, and her second. Within a month we became the owners of what we consider the four most wonderful heifers ever.

Now here it is March of 2013 and we have brought home yet another four animals. (We seem to enjoy doing everything in fours) After some negotiation with Jay, as well as a fairly local farm. Some may of heard of Echo Farm Pudding. The owners are old 4-H friends of mine and they happened to have some bulls that they were looking to get rid of.

So here is our experiment. We brought home four beautiful shorthorn bulls. Historically shorthorns were known as a duel purpose breed. Settlers often had them for milk, meat, and work. More recently they have been breed into a pretty much dairy breed. However, it is my estimation that their bulls are going to taste very nice when they are put into my freezer. I will let you know when they get big enough for that to happen.

So, by seven thirty this morning mom was dropping off Aeryn and I so that we could meet up with Jay and Lilly. We hopped into the big truck and drove the few towns over to Echo Farm. Our intention was to pick up three animals. However if you look very closely at the pictures, you will see that we ended up with four. What is one more animal right? The more the merrier.

Now, sitting here I can do nothing but smile. Our four boys are tucked away safely in their barn, along with our four ladies. On the way home we took a quick swing by the vets office for some shots and castration. (Surprisingly the calves were still very affectionate even after this ordeal) The real work will start tomorrow however as Aeryn needs to get all four of them halter broken without neglecting her other animals.


 One of the joys of the new babies is that we can do some things differently than we did before when we brought the heifers home. The first thing that we did when we brought the girls home was let them out into the pasture to run. Some of you may remember the time that we had catching them again. For the first couple of weeks the boys are going to be safely in a stall in the barn. This will enable them to get used to daily care and handling so that they will not be shy when Aeryn needs to halter them.

We also may try training a pair of them as working steers. This is something that Aeryn has been interested in trying. I will keep you posted on how this endeavor turns out.

And now, to introduce the new babies of Long View Farm.....

Goliath

Atlas

Hercules

Zeus

The Bleak Mid Winter.....

Wintertime is not very exciting in our land. Lots of cold days and long nights. We are not yet a family trying to survive by farming so there is not much that is a life or death situation.

Thanks to my amazing friends Jay and Lilly, we were able to tuck away enough hay to get our girls through the winter. We are also carefully planning the expansion of our herd. I have heard Jay mention the magic number at being 30. (It is far too big a number for me to think about right now) How ever negotiations are being made to purchase a couple more animals.

Aeryn is still loving being a farm kid. She has proven to me every day that this is not a faze for her. This is something that she is willing to dedicate her life to. As soon as we can find a house closer to the farm we will jump on the opportunity. Cutting down on the cost of gas will be a huge improvement.

Alex has turned into quite the farm kid himself. He loves to go to the farm with us. He carries his shovel and rake and "helps" as much as he can. Aeryn gets a little annoyed at her brother but you can tell that she loves it when he follows her around the field.

She will talk her your ear off about farming, the benefits of raising your own food, and low impact forestry. Anywhere she goes, whenever she can find someone to listen, she shimmers with the excitement that only her world can provide.

I say "her world" because that is truly what I feel it is. Everyday, as soon as we pull up in front of the barn it is like we have stepped into another world. One of hopes and dreams and a tranquility that I can not experience anywhere else. It is an amazing feeling. And as a mom, one of the most fulfilling.