The Calf With the Broken Leg...Part 1...

Once upon a time, there was a newborn calf...

She was born three weeks early, so we weren't expecting her so soon.  One of the other animals in the pen inadvertently stepped on her newborn leg...

and it broke...

This is the first time we've had this happen in twenty-two years of farming, and we weren't sure what her prognosis would be.  We thought we'd have to put her down, but when Jim talked to the vet this morning, the vet was optimistic, so we decided to go ahead and have her little leg put in a cast.

The back leg nearest to you in this picture is the one that is broken...

We put her into a pen that was heavily bed up with clean, dry straw.  She was then sedated, and the vet began casting the leg...

If I tried to explain exactly why each step happened, I'd only be guessing, but I'll give you a brief explanation.

First, her leg was generously powdered...

Next he put a long "sock" on her leg, from her hoof up to her "thigh"...

Next came the gauze, which helps protect the leg...

Then he wet the plaster...

Wrapped it and smoothed it...over and over again until it formed a thick cast...

The top and bottom of the "sock" were turned down and more plaster put over top...

Jim and I watched...and talked about the process and the prognosis...

All finished.  The plaster quickly hardened and dried...

She'll sleep for a while yet, and then the fun will begin, of teaching her to stand up with an awkward cast on her whole leg.  The break was in her lower leg, but the cast had to go the whole length of her leg in order to provide the stability necessary for healing.

Her cast will remain on for six weeks, and then hopefully she'll have healed completely.  Young, healthy calves typically heal well.

I'll keep you posted on her progress.  Hopefully it will have a happy ending!

Giving Vaccinations...

How many of you have a section in your refrigerator reserved for animal medications?

Not all medications require refrigeration, but some do.  One such thing is the vaccine that we give regularly to our cows.  This particular vaccine is given to prevent numerous types of viruses, some of which could cause spontaneous abortions in pregnant cows.

We have a book where we keep vaccination records, and we regularly check it to make sure no one is missed.  We go down through the barn, row by row, and I read off the cow's number/name, and Jim fills the syringe...

...and does the work...

Most times, the cows barely even flinch.  One thing we noticed though, is that in one cow who was really nervous (she knew what was coming!) she had tensed her muscles so tightly that the plunger was harder than usual to push!  The next cow was clueless...or didn't care...and it went in as easy as could be!

I guess the moral of the story is, to relax when the nurse comes with a needle!  The more nervous you are, the more it might hurt!

Christmas Is In the Air...Finally...

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, we wore shirt sleeves and short pants, inside and out!  (At least some of us did!)

Not any more!  It finally feels seasonal out there.  And in here.

The calves' water buckets had ice on them this morning, and I think I'd better keep after the eggs this morning, before they freeze!

It finally feels a little more like Christmas really is next week!  My friend Brenda and I made boxwood Christmas trees about two weeks ago.  I hadn't trimmed the boxwood by our house this summer, so there was plenty to trim off and design our trees.  I like to have a place to display my more delicate angel ornaments.  If I put them on the big tree, I'm worried that I'll miss one when cleaning it off, and they'll get lost in the process.  Several of them are pretty sentimental to me...

This angel ornament I bought at a Christmas shop in Heidelberg, Germany when I went to visit my sister and her family in 2006...

Although it's not an angel, this star ornament that was a gift from a good friend, is the perfect size for the top of this tiny tree...

The little red tree skirt was something I found on Christmas clearance at our local Ten Thousand Villages store.  If you ever have a chance to visit one of these stores, you're in for a treat.

There are others that have special stories behind them, but I won't bore you with all the details!  It's just fun to have a miniature tree, and was fun to make one with a friend!  This year it's in the kitchen, where we spend most of our time.

There's still a lot to do this week, but at least now it feels a lot more seasonal outside!

How are you spending your week before Christmas?

Feeding Time...

Feeding time happens every morning and every afternoon like clockwork for these babies.

Either Daniel or I usually feed the calves in the mornings, and Jenna often feeds them in the evenings and on weekends.

This is our newest heifer calf.  She's finally weaned from a bottle to a bucket. (hooray!)  Last night she practically climbed out through her hutch door after her milk...

The calf with the red bucket is the oldest one in the hutches.  She's finished with her milk and is looking for something else to eat.  She also gets calf starter (a feed made especially for young calves made of a combination of grains, minerals and molasses, which encourages them to try it.  Who wouldn't like something sweet?!) and dry hay to munch on...

Murphy usually hangs out with me when I feed.  She's looking a little sheepish here, because she just got scolded for jumping up on me like a puppy rather than the almost seven year old that she is...

This cute little guy was only here for part of a week before he went to market.  He was so sweet...wagging his little tail as he drank from his bottle. Yesterday morning when I fed him, he sucked so hard that the nipple came right off the bottle.  I'm sure it made a cat happy to clean up the mess...

And last but not least...

Peanut patiently waits on top of the lime bags for me to finish up and give her some leftover milk...

...and yes...the barn windows are all dusty again.

Already!

A Beautiful Sunset...

It's milking time here, and hard as it is to leave the comfortable sofa and put on my barn clothes, here's what greeted me as I stepped outside...

...it's our "most photographed" neighbor's farm to the west, once again bathed in the colors of a beautiful sunset.

Winter Open Houses...

What do eastern Lancaster County farmers do in December when the field work is finished?

For two weeks each December, several local farm stores hold an "Open House", where almost everything in the store is 10% discounted.  One of them also offers a free lunch each day to their customers...provided by one of the many vendors that they sell products for.

Today, Jim and I went to stock up on supplies, like paper towels, milk filters, inflations, calf buckets, etc.

Lots of other people did the same thing.  The buggy shed was full, and the grass was full of parked cars...

Oops...there's a smudge on my camera lens!

I really, really wanted to take a picture of the basement, where tables were set up for about 60 people. Most of the seats were full, but most of the customers were either plain Mennonite or Amish, and I just couldn't bring myself to be seen with my camera...they wouldn't have appreciated it at all. Instead, I took a picture of the delicious lunch we had.  Amazing pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, pickles, macaroni and potato salad, chocolate milk, ice cream, cookies and coffee.  As we were heading upstairs to make our purchases, the lunch line was still long, and the seats were filling back up again.

Next week we'll head to what we call "the Amish Walmart" for another open house.  They don't provide lunch, but coffee and homemade Amish donuts are worth it!

I guess it's a good way for these businesses to make you feel better about spending your money!  

Dreary Days...

Rain...drizzle...more rain...more drizzle...early darkness...

We've had several dreary days here, and I'm feeling the winter blues coming on, so...I'll think of some good things instead.

We spent time with Jim's family on Thanksgiving day.  After we all ate too much (!) the guys watched football (can we please forget how that Eagles game turned out?!) and the ladies and the dog took a walk at a nearby park. It was a gorgeous day!

My family got together on Friday.  We aren't usually all together on Thanksgiving, but my Virginia and Chicago sisters and their families made the trip this year.

We have been referred to already as "the quartet of milk maids"...

On Saturday morning, we made the trek to a  greenhouse near my parents, that has some of the most creative decorating I've ever seen.  My oldest niece had to work, so she's missing from the picture...

Time spent with both our families is a good thing!

I borrowed these pictures from my sister, who took them while on a walk early Friday morning...

I'm looking forward to the sunshine that is supposed to return tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving...

This morning in the barn, I had a song running through my head.  

It was written in 1890 by Amos Herr, a Lancaster County farmer and Mennonite pastor, who lived not far from where we live now.  He woke on a Sunday morning to find snow drifts too deep to get to Church with his family...even on horseback. He decided to focus on thankfulness, and wrote this song...

photo credit to my sister Peg

Here are the lyrics...

(imagine it sung acapella...beautiful four part harmony...that's the way I hear it!)

I Owe The Lord A Morning Song...by Amos Herr

I owe the Lord a morning song
Of gratitude and praise,
For the kind mercy He has shown
In length'ning out my days.

He kept me safe another night;
I see another day;
Now may His Spirit, as the light,
Direct me in His way.

Keep me from danger and from sin:
Help me Thy will to do,
So that my heart be pure within;
And I Thy goodness know.

Keep me till Thou wilt call me hence,
Where never night can be;
And save me, Lord, for Jesus' sake.
He shed His blood for me.

Amen

Here's a link to the song on youtube, if you'd like to hear it... 

The weather here today is not snowy...for which I am thankful! 

In fact, it's beautiful!  Sunny, still, temps in the mid 30's...the kids are both here...and we're planning to see lots of family today, and in the next few days that we don't often see.  We have much to be thankful for!

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Houdini...

I came home from some errands this morning to see a calf in the meadow.

Hmmm...there shouldn't have been a calf in the meadow, especially one with a yellow ear tag.  It looked suspiciously like a calf that was born on Sunday afternoon, that we had moved to the calf hutches yesterday morning!

Here's her hutch door.  Closed and latched shut...

Here's what was in the hutch...

...and here's where I found her!

That's not her mother hovering over her, but a concerned citizen...

Now she's safely back in her cozy hutch, filled with fresh clean straw, and sunshine to warm her little body...

If she's gone on such an adventure already in her short two-day-old life, I wonder what other kind of trouble she might get into over the course of her life?

It seems that we have a Houdini in our midst!

Fall Barn Cleaning...

What do you do when you have a free morning on a beautiful fall day?

And oh yes... you have a helper?

You wash the outside of the pipeline...

Although the milk never touches the outside of the pipeline, it helps with overall cleanliness in the barn.  Day after day of bedding up with sawdust, spreading fodder in the gutters, and cows swishing their tails (or coughing when they poop!), all the surfaces in the barn get dusty and dirty.  Daniel was helping this morning, and he got that fun job.  It's especially nice that he's tall, and can reach those places that I have to stretch for!

Look how nice it looks when it's finished!  The stainless steel shines...

I got the job of cleaning the barn windows.  Again...day after day of dust accumulates on the windows.  When we can start writing on them, we know it's past time to clean them!    Here's an embarrassing "before" picture...



First I hosed them down, inside and out...

Then I used a long handled brush with some soapy water to scrub them...

...and after a final rinse, the view is much better!  It makes the whole barn seem so much brighter when these two jobs are finished!

While cleaning is not something I enjoy, it's satisfying to see the difference when the job is finished!  Thanks to Daniel, both jobs were completed in one morning!

Growing Garlic...A New Project...

You're never too old to try something new, right?

Our family likes garlic...and some of the best I've found has been local, homegrown from our local "Amish Walmart".  The bulbs are huge, and the cloves aren't all dried up like some of the garlic you buy at the grocery store.  And the taste?  Mmmmm...

So...this year I decided to grow my own.  I have a couple of old pallets at the edge of the garden where I grow lettuce, red beets, and other things that are a nuisance to weed.  I plant between the slats, and have found that it works well.

I bought just one large bulb of garlic at a local seed supply store, and followed the simple directions that came with it...carefully break apart the bulb and separate it into cloves...plant them about 2" deep, point side up...cover with 6" of mulch, and wait...

That was about six weeks ago, and look what I have!  Green...when everything else is either dying or going dormant for the winter.  Maybe it's nothing huge to get excited about, but I can hardly wait until next summer when I can harvest my very own garlic!

A Little Sweetness...

Here's a little bit of sweetness to brighten your morning...

This little three week old calls for me every morning in the barn while we're milking.  As soon as she's had her breakfast, she curls up, contented to just be part of the action.  Of course whenever she sees someone, though, she has to be curious and suck on their fingers, or flannel shirt, just in case there's more food to be had.

Enjoy!

Fall Grazing...

The cows have been getting a little antsy.

The nights have been too cold for them to go out...and the last couple of days were either rainy or muddy, so they stayed inside.

The grass in the waterway has also been growing.

Solution?

This morning Jim put in fence posts along the waterway and across the corner of one of the hay fields, and a rye grass field...

Here he's dragging the wire that is attached to the tractor up across the fields to the furthermost fence posts, under those far away trees...

My camera just snapped this picture for fun.  Three lonely round bales, along with about a half dozen corn stalks that were left by the chopper.  It was kind of him to not hit the bags as he went by!  :)

The cows were watching from the meadow, and they knew something was up...

I got closer, and I knew exactly who I'd see on the other side of the wire. #314 didn't take her eyes off of us the entire time we were working on the fence.  She just knew there was something greener on the other side...

I love watching the cows get so excited when they're left out into a new area to graze!  They kick up their heels and run like little kids!

( Please excuse the shaky video.  I wasn't doing a very good job of standing still!  It was also pretty windy, and there's a lot of noise in the back ground )

Standing guard at the top of the water way, just in case anyone gets unruly...

Meanwhile, Murphy and Snickers stole an ear of corn out of the truck and entertained themselves.  What is it about ears of corn that dogs find so appealing?

Grazing cows...

We just brought the cows back into the barn, and their bellies are full of grass.  They'll be contented tonight!

Fall 2015...

My camera and I took a walk this afternoon...

My camera can't do the leaves justice...they're so much brighter than they look here.  I think the bright yellows (which I have no pictures of) and the bright red/oranges are my favorites.  And oh, don't forget the dark reds.

Last weekend my sister and I traveled to a cross country meet about one hour north of here, and the drive was spectacular!  I'm so glad to live where we see the change of seasons.  Every year, without fail, we see God's beauty!

Yesterday's rain, along with the wind that has continued today, has brought a lot of the leaves to the ground...

Jim no longer picks corn, so an Amish neighbor asked if he could use our corn crib for a few loads of his corn.  He'll sell it later out of the crib.  It's nice to see it in use again...

The barley that Jim seeded is growing nicely...

And last but not least, my shadow, Murphy, followed me everywhere this afternoon.  When I went to visit a neighbor, she patiently waited for me along the edge of the soybean field...

What a loyal friend!