Moooving

Seeding officially ended on Wednesday.  The goal is always to be done before June 1, and they went pretty hard the last week to make that happen.  We took the boys and families out for supper to celebrate on Tuesday night (M only had five rounds left so we weren't too premature).  Now we turn our attention to ranching again. 

Yesterday we played a game of musical pastures.  We needed to get the replacement heifers home so we can start the AI process next week and needed to get the cows with calves to their summer pasture.  The cow-calf pairs were roaming between two pastures so in the morning M and Junior pushed them all to the south pasture.  That gave us a buffer zone for when the replacement heifers came in.

Moving heifers is pretty easy.  Once you get them headed in the right direction (west), they're off and move pretty quickly.  It was about a two-mile jaunt, but it didn't take long.  Then we rounded up the cows and calves and headed east with them to the pasture adjacent to where the heifers had been. 

Moving pairs is always an adventure, and the more cows and calves you have the more difficult it can be.  Last year we had cows strung out for a mile and calves not keeping up and turning back looking for their mamas.  We tried a bit of a different tack this time and moved them a mile into the neighbor's water corral where they could rest and pair up (sort of) and then moved them the second mile.  Those on the 4-wheelers (M and R) were busy keeping the calves going in the right direction.  The cows knew where they were going and were happy to go.  We could have used another 4-wheeler, but one of ours is down at the moment.  We found two sick calves in the process.  One got a ride in the pickup and the other slowly made its way.  They received some medicine when we reached our destination.  I hope they're doing okay today.

M and R are busy getting the backhoe ready so they can try to repair the water line at the barn before we have heifers in there next weekend.

Still no progress on the bathroom project since our rain event turned out to be nothing but wind.  I only need an hour, but an hour is really hard to get sometimes.

Forgetting Something?

For a few days now I've been feeling like I've been forgetting something....oh, yeah, I haven't checked the cow cams.....because, there's nothing to check!  Our last heifer calved last week.  I was sure she would calve last Wednesday because M was seeding, R was rolling, and I was having a girl's day to celebrate Sawyer's first birthday so no one was around.  She didn't, but I kept telling R I thought she was close.  Before I headed out to help M the next morning I checked the camera and sure enough, she was in the process.  R had to admit that I am always right, haha!  He ended up pulling the calf but was very happy to be done with the heifers.  We still have three cows left, but they are on their own.  Maybe R can get back to a normal sleeping schedule.  R and I hauled the last four pairs to pasture so it's getting quiet around the barn.  That happened none too soon since we discovered a broken water line to the corral and had to shut the water off until we can get that fixed.  A top priority since we'll be bringing heifers in to AI in a little over a week.

We are on our last day of seeding, thank goodness!  J finished up yesterday and M is running around seeding spots that J left that were too wet or that he couldn't do with the big drill and the odd stuff like some oats.  They'll still have their CSP mixtures of turnips and radishes to put in a little later.

Everyone is tired and crabby so some time away from each other to rest and relax may be in order.  I'm hoping for a rainy day so we can finish the bathroom project from hell.  More on that later--hopefully with pictures of its completion.

"Pull It"

Say what?!

A couple of days ago we had a beautiful day and everyone was super busy.  M was at Opheim seeding, R was north of Glentana rolling, and in between running for the guys I was planting some flowers that my sister-in-law had given me.  It was getting close to 5:00 when it occurred to me that I hadn't checked the cow cams to take a look at the heifers.  I had been over there around noon making my daily check to make sure that we didn't have any more sick calves.

We only had three heifers left to calve, and we've all been so busy with farming that we had kind of lost interest.  I checked the cow cam and there were one, two.....where's the third one?  I panned over a bit and there she was on her side with feet out and not moving much.  In a panic, I jumped in the pickup to head over to see if she was alive.  On the way I tried to call R, no answer.  Then I tried to call M, no answer.  And I'm thinking what do I do, what CAN I do?  Who else can I call?

Just as I got to the corral I finally got R on the phone and told him I thought we had trouble.  When I got to her she jumped up.  Oh good, not dead!  She had been lying right by the gate into the shed, but she jumped up so fast that I wasn't able to get her in there.  I made a few attempts to get her in to no avail.  I didn't want to chase her around the corral too much and get her all worked up.  R told me to go to the house and let her settle down, watch her on the cow cam and hope that she had it without a problem.  He wasn't near his vehicle and didn't think I had time to drive the 20 miles to get him and get back.

M was working about 40 miles from here and when I finally got him on the phone and explained the situation he said, "you're going to have to pull it since we don't know how long she's had feet out".  I'm sure I got real quiet on the phone.  He assured me I could do it since I'd helped him many times and knew what to do.  J was on the tractor by my house so I called him and told him I needed help.  He got real quiet also when I told him what we needed to do.  He's not a fan of cows and isn't around them too much.  He's probably been around when we've pulled a calf, but it's definitely been awhile.

As we're driving over, J says to me "do you know what you're doing?"  I assured him that I did and just needed him to help me a little.  It took us a couple of tries to get her into the back pen and then she entered the barn at about 50 mph!  She was a little excitable, but we actually got her into the maternity pen and head gate with no trouble and went to work.  I went in and got the chains on and then we pulled.  I elected not to use the puller thinking that J was big and strong and shouldn't have much trouble.  In hindsight that probably wasn't the best decision because it was a pretty tough pull.  J had to put his whole self into it, and I would not have been able to do it by myself.  I'm happy to report that mother and baby are doing well and J and I are pretty proud of ourselves.

Lesson learned, and I have been keeping a better eye on the cow cams!  These last two heifers need to just hurry up and get it done.

"Your Heifers are a Pain in My Ass"

That's the call I got from R one morning.  He had had to pull a calf from one of my heifers around midnight and another one that morning.  I had to go to work and wasn't helping with chores, so M called to let me know one of my heifers was calving.  I watched them on the cow cam until I had to run out the door to get to work.  The next day I broke the news to R that the heifer had a twin sister still waiting to calve so he'd better keep a good eye on her.  She, however, had a good size calf unassisted on Sunday so I'm done.  It's their own fault for giving me the little girls.  We only have four heifers left to calve and a handful of cows.  This time of year everyone loses interest in the cows, but we've had cold, wet and windy weather so we have to continue to be vigilant.  M has found some sick ones out in the herd.  We need some sun and warm so we don't have a repeat of the problems we had last year.  The grass is being pretty slow to green up and grow.  It, too, needs some sun and warm!

Spring seeding is going along at a snail's pace because, well....because Spring is progressing at a snail's pace.  Last week I drove to work in a couple of inches of slush because we had snow and this week the ground was white again.  It's not unusual to have spring snows, but we'd rather have nice, warm rain.  I think J got in a day or two of seeding before it was too wet again.  We thought we'd have an early spring, but it's not looking like that will be the case.  They've continued to have problems with the new sprayer.......yes, BRAND-NEW sprayer.  The service guys get here in a hurry now when they're called and the salesman is nervous! 

K is pretty sure there is no hope of us being done and ready to celebrate Sawyer's birthday on her birthday (May 21).  What was she thinking, having a baby in May?!  Almost as bad as when I had one in August.  His birthday party almost always consists of pizza and beer in the combine.

Sawyer made her first foray into the field and played in the dirt.  She discovered sticks and rocks and leaves and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  She's walking like a champ and is a busy, busy girl!