Double Duty

We are officially in farming mode so M has been pulling double duty, checking cows first thing n the morning and getting to the field as soon as he can.  His heart hasn't really been in the farming yet, but he's getting there.  With the new(er) and bigger drills they are making good progress in their first week.

We've had some howling winds lately (a typical spring here) which make me want to stay indoors.  I am occasionally pulled out against my will, however.  One day it was too windy to even fill the drills so we did cow stuff instead.  The wind went down slightly in the afternoon so M made me help load cow-calf pairs to take to Opheim.  As we were headed to the pasture, R noted they were all on the barn-side of the bog and wondered if we could keep them there.  M and I both doubted it since they almost always head for the hill and we have to fight them to cross the bog.  Amazingly, they stayed on the right side of the bog and headed straight to the corrals.  We cut off 19 pairs and separated the cows from the calves.  The guys didn't have to throw all the calves in the trailer this time as the majority jumped in themselves, and the cows always load easily looking for their babies.  M was very happy (and amazed) with how smoothly that all went.

The next morning we moved our replacement heifers to pasture from the neighbor's where their fencer had been feeding them for us.  The nice thing about moving heifers is that it doesn't take long! After that we moved bulls to the pasture the pairs had been in so that we could eventually move some pairs to the pasture where the bulls had been. Sounds like work, but logistically it makes sense.  The we loaded up the last of the pairs and R took them to Opheim while M headed to the field.

R has been pulling a little double duty himself as he's the head go-fer, and the other day he ran M's drill in the morning and J's in the afternoon.  I helped him tag 8 calves in between.  We're down to the last 50 cows to calve so things are slowing down a bit in that department.

I have had a pretty easy week just running to the field as needed and checking the cows when everyone else is busy.  I was happy to ride the hills the other day and see all the crocuses on the hillsides.  I also got to hang out with Kade on a beautiful day and play some baseball.  Brought back memories of all the hours I played baseball with R.  I always wanted him to make the big leagues and say " I owe my success to my mom who played with me for hours and hours". 😉

I've actually had today to myself (after helping R with some tagging) so finally started working on Sawyer's birthday gift.  (My dog made the project a little more challenging after he chewed some holes in the fabric, ugh!). The day is not over yet, however, and now I'm on cow cam duty.