Time Off

I took Saturday off from the farm to clean the house for my daughters' Junior Prom.  She invited her friends over for a dish-to-pass dinner and then they were off to prom.  I am so blessed to have such wonderful children.  My only sorrow is that they grow up so fast.

I will hopefully find time to update everyone on all the changes on the farm, for now...have a great weekend!

Hectic, Hectic, Hectic!

So many changes and so little time.  For the winter we had to drop from milking over 60 cows back to the low 40's as we do not have enough space in the barn for everyone.  This was done by drying a few off and sending them to another facility to winter and selling a few.  Over the winter we had so many calves born that we had them everywhere.  I even put a few upstairs in the hay/straw mow.  We have now moved back all the dry cows and have three bred heifers left to bring back home.

Eric (our milker that took over for me) has decided to move on to a larger farm and we have had to find a replacement.  Our first replacement was just not for us and thankfully Eric gave us enough notice that I had time to try out another person.  Jason is our newest member, and so far a GREAT fit for us.  He has a great attitude and loves the farm!  We wish Eric all the best in his new endeavors.

Our favorite farm dog, Koda, has had some allergy issues and this spring has gotten to the point that I can no longer think that Benedryl is going to help.  I have taken him to the vet for a very expensive allergy test and am waiting for the results on pins an needles.  After his allergies are identified, they (a lab in Colorado) will develop a program of shots especially for him.  I hope this gives him the relief that he needs as this year he is putting holes in his skin.  Until all this is done, we have put him on an anti-biotic and steroids for quick relief.

Hubby is settling into his new position and I am still enjoying my job at the Co-Op.  It gets hectic with the jobs off the farm and then trying to catch up on the farm every chance you get.  The house seems to be the last on the list, oh well as my mother always says...the work will still be there when I get home.

Easter

May you, one and all, have a Blessed Easter!  I will try to come back and catch up soon...

Don't just count your blessings...share them!

Love and Peace to everyone,

Cava-Lanes Holsteins

Rambling, on and on, and on...

There has been so much going on...since my last post "Where's The Beef?".  The steer, Melinko, has gotten out 3 or 4 more times; today being one of those times.  We went to our first sale this season...the River Falls Dairy Club Sale.  Where we sold Diva, a calf by our Debra cow.  Diva found a new home and will be staying in Wisconsin.

We held another Dairy Farm Management Team Meeting and there is so much to do before the next meeting in April.  All this along with the new jobs and cleaning up for spring...whew!  How is your week going?

Where's the beef?

I was sitting at my computer in my living room trying to catch up on reading everyones blogs.  The dogs started barking like someone was in my driveway, so my youngest went to look out the door.  She starts yelling "the beefers are out!"  I look over and yep...both the show heifer and the show steer are looking into our front door windows.

I grab a coat, shoes and bolt outside.  They stand in my front yard just watching me as I run to the barn to grab halters and a bucket of grain.  As I approach them (shaking the bucket of grain), the just watch me and Melinko (the steer) starts to eat my little apple tree.  They let me get all the way up to them, I put some grain on the ground and walk up to Melinko...he takes one look a the halter and walks to the other side of Arianna.  She looks at the halter, puts her tail in the air and runs...oh C#%P!

I decide that if I stay with Melinko maybe Arianna will come back; and she does.  This time she snorts and runs past Melinko, circles back and heads down the driveway to the road.  Melinko takes this as his queue to run with her.

I run for the garage to get the truck; get my phone out and call my father-in-law.  Last time the steers ran on me he was a great help.  No answer there.  I call my Dad; he doesn't know much about large animals, but any help will do right?  Nope, he is out of the area.  The beefers headed west...I only have one neighbor to my west and I just saw them come home.  I call them...their line is busy.

Meanwhile...I get the truck stuck in the driveway AND it will not go into 4-wheel drive.  I jump out of the truck (grabbing the halters again) and run down the driveway hoping they hadn't gone onto the next road.

As I get out of my driveway I notice that they are in my neighbors ditch and turning back towards me.  I called to them and Arianna stareted towards me.

I started backing up, literally walking backwards with Arianna jogging towards me and Melinko following.  As they got to the driveway I walked forward forcing them up the driveway.  I had purposely left the door to the barn open with the thoughts that they might return to their comfort zone.  Which is, luckily for me, exactly what they did.  I followed them into the barn and put them into their stalls.  Believe it or not, they went to their own separate stalls with no help or issues.

I went out to check the fence.  They did not break it...the horses did.

My farrier was out on Monday night and told me that Ellie had a cut on her front left.  No suprise to me, I looked at the fence and it was still up.  Ellie is notorious for going through the electric wire.  Today, however, in the daylight I can see that at the corner by the gate, where the snow is almost over the fence, the top wire is down.  I go over and find that the fence is not only down, but stuck in the snow!  The horses could have walked out at any time over the last 4 days, but just didn't choose to.  They know where the hay is...the beefers, however, thought the grass might be greener on the other side of the fence.

I fixed the fence and all's well that end's well.

County Fair Weigh In

I have got to learn to carry my camera wherever I go!  Everyones blog is so filled with beautiful pictures; and my blog is usually picture free because I never seem to remember to grab it or it isn't ready.

Today was county fair weigh in's for the beef project.  My daughter has a beautiful black steer that she named the Great Melinko.  He is a Maine Anjou crossbred and weighed 940 pounds.  For us that means he is right on track and should weigh between 1400 and 1500 pounds for the show.

We usually raise a show steer with a freezer steer so they have each other as company.  This year due to our economic situation we decided to raise this years' show steer with the heifer that was shown last year.  The heifer was bred after fair and is due on June 24th.  We are very excited as we have always had steers...this means we will be having our first beef baby!  Is anyone else getting ready for the upcoming show season?

Last year's show steer on left; last year's show heifer on right.

Is it me...?

Is it me?  Lately, as I am responding to posts, I hit the submit button and ... nothing happens.  I wait and wait, then finally I get tired of waiting and hit the button again.  This time it works, great right?  Nope, now my comment is posted multiple times.  Very frustrating!  Any ideas (besides being patient)?

While I have your attention, I am also wondering what blogging etiquette is for comments.  I read so many great blogs, but by the time I get to them there are so many responses that anything I have to say is already said.  I truly want the author to know that I am reading (I read about 99% of all the blogs I follow), but don't want to sound like I am copying someone else or dumb.

I would love to hear if any of you have ideas on these subjects!  Are there etiquette rules for blogging?  Thank you for your responses! 

First Barrel Race

I was just reading A&MD Ranch's post about DD's race last year.  It totally brought back memories of my daughter's first barrel race.

I bought my mare (Tabby Bar Leo) as a six year old.  Her history was barrel horse from two until she was about four then she was sold to a farm for breeding purposes.  I found her there with a very pretty paint filly at her side.

A side note about me.  I was buying my second horse as I had made the common mistake of buying a green horse through someone who was going to help me "train" him.  Another story for another day.  Anyway, I love color breeds and while I was there to look at their paint selection, they suggested Tabby.  She was proven to throw color.  She was bred back to the same stud (next beginners mistake...which did turn out well).  I rode her and asked about her background.  They told me that a 14 year old girl had been using her as a barrel horse and that she was not fast enough for her.

Tabby is 16hh, which makes her a bit tall for me, but her disposition was just what I was looking for.  The breeding farm she was on, really wanted me to buy her with the filly at her side.  I knew I didn't know enough to handle the baby, but thought I would learn enough by the time Tabby foaled.  Again, another beginner mistake.  You cannot learn enough without help and living on the farm, which we did not.

Back to my daughters first ride.  We knew that Tabby was used to shows and arenas and both my kids wanted to show.  No problem!  We had a great 4-H leader, she took Tabby in for 30 days for reminder training and my kids went there for lessons.  They learned to set her up for halter classes, and walk, trot, lope, patterns for western pleasure.

Tabby was always level headed and very even tempered.  Where we boarded her, there were always people practicing their shooting with various guns and we were right off a busy highway with motorcycles and semis passing by.  Nothing ever seemed to bother her.

We get to the show and she is her usual self, until...my son, who has shown before but is still very green himself, takes Tabby (at halter) into the INDOOR ARENA.

Tabby gets about 4 steps into the arena and decides this just isn't for her.  She rears up, my son keeps hold of her.  Gets her back down, starts to move forward, she does it again.  This goes on about four times.  The judge has now backed way up and I am on pins and needles...what to do.  Well, after the fourth rear, my son shakes the halter (he may have said something, we couldn't hear) and she just walks forward.  Completes her class and places middle of the group.  Next up...my daughter.  She is 6 years younger than her brother and I am not sure what to do.  Well, she takes Tabby and walks right into the arena with no problem.  Does not place as well as her brother, but who cares...she is just learning.

Tabby did fine in all her under saddle classes, they were held outside.  The last day of fair are the speed and fun classes.  My daughter only entered in the walk, trot classes which meant she could only enter the walk, trot speed groups.  She signed herself up for the egg race and barrels.  None of us thought anything about it.  During the egg race she dropped the egg early and was out.  Getting a little down as she did not get a blue ribbon all week.  She got herself ready for the barrels by watching some of the others go first.  Then she mounted Tabby...

OMG!!!!  The mares ears went forward, she tensed completely up and I grabbed the 4-H leaders arm and said sh#$#.  The gate opened and the mare NEVER broke the trot.  My daughter won the trophy for best time in the walk, trot group.  We all went home happy.

I must say that moment when I realized that I just put an animal with competition experience and my daughter with no barrel experience in that situation I was paralyzed.  I was 5 months pregnant and trying to figure out how I was going to jump the fence and save my daughter.  We laugh now, but at the time...wow!

Sorry about the lack of pictures...my scanner went down today and these were taken over 8 years ago.  Before I had a digital camera.

Thanks to A&MD Ranch for taking me down memory lane!